Theme: Countdown
Be careful what you wish for! Last week I said I'd like to leave the circles out of the puzzle and let us go theme-hunting on our own, this week was a Snark-hunting exercise of the highest order!
I was bothered when I'd completed the puzzle - I saw that the theme entries were clued with a similar structure, they were all game-related, but ... what was I missing? The theme entries ran north-south and not the customary west-east, and with no real need to do so - no above/below clues, no up/down, what was I missing? I went anagram-hunting, I looked at the placement of the theme entries, I read the entries upwards and downwards - what was it? What was I missing?
Then the penny dropped, and my blog title gives an additional clue.
I think this is Joseph's debut across all the major publications, so congratulations on that. Two first-timers in a row for LAT Thursdays, here's to many more if they bring puzzles of this quality.
Let's go look at the theme entries and the fill, and if you missed the hidden unifier, I'll "reveal" at the bottom.
6D ... in a board game: CLUE WEAPONS. "Clue" murders tend towards the gruesome blunt-force trauma end of the scale. You can be shot or stabbed, but then you get wrenched, candlesticked, lead piped or - blessfully - hanged. It's all very messy. Give me murdered by anyone, in the Library (reading a book) with the revolver. I'm not keen on being beaten to death with a wrench in the hall by the cook. It just seems very - unseemly.
10D. ... in a ball game: BOWLING PINS. Boomer gets this in a heartbeat. He's not doing so well right now, a Corner shout-out to him. We're rooting for you.
24D. ... on a game mat: TWISTER DOTS. Big dots. Can you name the colors?
25D. ... on a game card: BINGO SPACES. We played Bingo in Las Vegas a couple of years ago. What a fun game! We won $160 too, so nothing not to like! I've lost that in two minutes playing Craps on the Strip. Live and learn.
Still theme-challenged? Mull it over awhile while (!) we go and look at the fill.
Across:
1. Co. with brown trucks: U.P.S. My brother is a UPS driver in the UK, he'd be getting ready for the busy Christmas period but sadly is laid up post-surgery at home this year. Get well, Bruv!
4. Fearsome Tolkien beasts: ORCS
8. Run off at the mouth: BABBLE. Testing the waters with an unruly mob who can't keep quiet? Dabbling with a babbling rabble.
14. New Deal prog.: N.R.A.
15. Guthrie genre: FOLK
16. Unprincipled: AMORAL
17. Rapper __-Z: JAY
18. Fireplace outlet: FLUE
19. Accompany: GO WITH
20. Yellowfin tuna: AHI
21. Great quantity: SLEW
22. Highest-ranking elected woman in U.S. history: PELOSI. A name in the news, a couple of these topical entries today.
23. McConaughey of "True Detective": MATTHEW
25. Nickname for Israel's Netanyahu: BIBI. New to me, thank you, crosses.
26. Sported: WORE
27. Beach in a 1964 hit song: IPANEMA. We chatted about Ipanema Beach a couple of weeks ago. I'm not sure I'd get in the water there though. I've seen the outfalls.
31. Start of a Poitier film title: TO SIR, With Love. Sidney teaching at an inner-city comprehensive school in east London.
34. Author/aviator __ Morrow Lindbergh: ANNE
36. Film crew member: GRIP
37. V-formation flier: GOOSE
38. '90s game disc: POG
39. Pipe up: OPINE
40. __ the finish: IN AT
41. Snapchat's ghost, e.g.: LOGO. And here's a very famous logo ....
42. Shoes with swooshes: NIKES. There's currently an investigation by the "International Athletics something-or-other We're Here for your Benefit and our Fat Salaries Committee Federation" aimed at banning certain Nike shoes because they're "too good". Simple solution - everyone runs barefoot. There, I just saved us all millions. You're welcome.
43. Color from a bottle: FAKE TAN
45. British WWII gun: STEN. According to the people tasked with firing the weapon, more dangerous to the user than the intended target, they had a habit of blowing up. I hauled around a Bren gun as an army reservist for a while, then I got my sniper's badge and they gave me a much lighter deliverer of doom, which thankfully I never had to actually use in anger. On the range, it was pretty accurate - I think my best was an 8" grouping of six rounds at 300 yards. The range was in a rural setting in Cornwall with sheep grazing the adjacent fields. We were informed in no uncertain terms that picking off an unsuspecting future leg of lamb would NOT BE TOLERATED!
47. Magician Weasley and anchorman Burgundy: RONS. Hmmm, I think Ron Weasley might turn you into a toad or a Ford Anglia if you described him as a "magician". Harry Potter's chum is a wizard, there's a significant difference, I'd say.
48. Have: POSSESS
52. Like some wedding photos: CANDID. With the advent of camera phones, there are now many more candid photos than "official" ones.
55. Hook or Cook: Abbr.: CAPT.
56. Quid pro __: QUO. "In the news" phrase at the moment. I'm not sure why, it just rings a bell.
57. Maryland state bird, e.g.: ORIOLE
58. Dos cubed: OCHO
59. Lines at a checkout counter?: UPC, The bar code that you scan when you (increasingly) self-check your stuff.
60. Money maker: MINTER
61. Not nice at all: MEAN
62. Bother a great deal: IRK
63. Great times: BLASTS
64. Uruguay's Punta del __: ESTE. Home of the sculpture "La Mano".
65. __ de deux: PAS. A ballet term when two dancers perform identical steps together. What's the plural? The same as the singular. I'd have gone for "pas des deuxes" and lost all my money on "Jeopardy".
Down:
1. Clear, as a printer: UNJAM.
2. Czech Republic capital, to Czechs: PRAHA. "The City of a Hundred Spires". The much lesser-known name is the westernized "Prague". I'm not sure how many people have heard of Prague, though. The famous Athletic Club Sparta Praha play that well-known sport "Fotbal".
3. "Don't beat around the bush!": SAY IT! OK, I'll say it - "PRAHA"? Really? Worst fill of the day.
4. A bit out in the ocean: OFFSHORE
5. Painter's tool: ROLLER
7. Present in a biased way: SKEW
8. Reed instrument: BAGPIPE. Singular/plural conundrum for me. I always use the plural "a set of bagpipes" or "she plays the bagpipes". One bagpipe? "Bagpipe music". While we're on the subject, can I plead with any bagpipe band not to play "Scotland the Brave" on St. Patrick's Day? It's really annoying
9. Pond protozoan: AMOEBA. I'll give you this as I prefer it to "AMEBA", but really the OE is a dipthong, so one letter, not two.
11. Gusto: BRIO
12. Back muscles, briefly: LATS
13. K-12 appropriate: EL-HI
28. Actor Estrada: ERIK
29. "Dibs!": MINE!
30. Long-limbed beasts: APES
31. "So ready for the weekend!": TGIF!
32. Chaplin named for her grandmother: OONA
33. Relax in the hot tub: SOAK
35. Yuletide libation: NOG. Why do we (not me) only drink egg nog at Christmas? It's a pretty horrible idea in the first place, but to reserve it for an ostensibly happy period is clearly strange.
39. 14 British pounds: ONE STONE. No, 14 pounds in any country is a British stone. Unlike the fact that 16 oz is usually an imperial pint, except in Britain, where you get 20 oz to your pint. You've got to admire those pint-swilling Brits. And then they sell petrol in litres, the temperatures are now in centigrade, the weight measures are in grams, but the distances are still in miles. Someone needs to have a quiet word regarding "standardization" with that lot over there. And drive on the right, while you're about it. Honestly, some people.
41. Big name in advice: LANDERS
44. __ training: TOILET. Another jolly British word.
46. Tails partner: TOP HAT, along with a white tie.
49. Furnish with gear: EQUIP
50. Sporty Toyota until 2002: SUPRA
51. Laundry day casualties: SOCKS. I've got a singleton on my dresser right now. What is it with socks?
52. Rooster topper: COMB
53. Seed covering: ARIL
54. Jazz singer Simone: NINA. It's a little late for a music link, but no matter. Here's one of my favorites. Too good to waste.
55. Show up: COME
And now we come to the denouement.
So what is it with the theme? When bloggers quote the theme entries, the tradition is to add the "A" or "D" to the number to identify whether we're talking about the across or the down entry, as I did at the top of the page. Let's see what happens if we take the first theme entry, identify it by the number only and eliminate the ellipses:
"6 in a board game". Six Clue Weapons.
and the next:
"10 in a ball game". Ten Bowling Pins ...
... and so we go. The number of the theme entry in the grid describes the solution. There are 24 dots on a Twister mat, 25 spaces on a bingo card. Very neat!
The reason the theme entries are in the downs is because you can't cram them in the acrosses - you'd be four of them into the puzzle before you even got halfway-down the grid, and facing an impossible constructing task.
So here's the grid, hats off to Joseph, and I'll be on my way.
Steve
Be careful what you wish for! Last week I said I'd like to leave the circles out of the puzzle and let us go theme-hunting on our own, this week was a Snark-hunting exercise of the highest order!
"'But oh, beamish nephew, beware of the day,
If your Snark be a Boojum! For then
You will softly and suddenly vanish away,
And never be met with again!'"
I was bothered when I'd completed the puzzle - I saw that the theme entries were clued with a similar structure, they were all game-related, but ... what was I missing? The theme entries ran north-south and not the customary west-east, and with no real need to do so - no above/below clues, no up/down, what was I missing? I went anagram-hunting, I looked at the placement of the theme entries, I read the entries upwards and downwards - what was it? What was I missing?
Then the penny dropped, and my blog title gives an additional clue.
I think this is Joseph's debut across all the major publications, so congratulations on that. Two first-timers in a row for LAT Thursdays, here's to many more if they bring puzzles of this quality.
Let's go look at the theme entries and the fill, and if you missed the hidden unifier, I'll "reveal" at the bottom.
6D ... in a board game: CLUE WEAPONS. "Clue" murders tend towards the gruesome blunt-force trauma end of the scale. You can be shot or stabbed, but then you get wrenched, candlesticked, lead piped or - blessfully - hanged. It's all very messy. Give me murdered by anyone, in the Library (reading a book) with the revolver. I'm not keen on being beaten to death with a wrench in the hall by the cook. It just seems very - unseemly.
10D. ... in a ball game: BOWLING PINS. Boomer gets this in a heartbeat. He's not doing so well right now, a Corner shout-out to him. We're rooting for you.
24D. ... on a game mat: TWISTER DOTS. Big dots. Can you name the colors?
25D. ... on a game card: BINGO SPACES. We played Bingo in Las Vegas a couple of years ago. What a fun game! We won $160 too, so nothing not to like! I've lost that in two minutes playing Craps on the Strip. Live and learn.
Still theme-challenged? Mull it over awhile while (!) we go and look at the fill.
Across:
1. Co. with brown trucks: U.P.S. My brother is a UPS driver in the UK, he'd be getting ready for the busy Christmas period but sadly is laid up post-surgery at home this year. Get well, Bruv!
4. Fearsome Tolkien beasts: ORCS
8. Run off at the mouth: BABBLE. Testing the waters with an unruly mob who can't keep quiet? Dabbling with a babbling rabble.
14. New Deal prog.: N.R.A.
15. Guthrie genre: FOLK
16. Unprincipled: AMORAL
17. Rapper __-Z: JAY
18. Fireplace outlet: FLUE
19. Accompany: GO WITH
20. Yellowfin tuna: AHI
21. Great quantity: SLEW
22. Highest-ranking elected woman in U.S. history: PELOSI. A name in the news, a couple of these topical entries today.
23. McConaughey of "True Detective": MATTHEW
25. Nickname for Israel's Netanyahu: BIBI. New to me, thank you, crosses.
26. Sported: WORE
27. Beach in a 1964 hit song: IPANEMA. We chatted about Ipanema Beach a couple of weeks ago. I'm not sure I'd get in the water there though. I've seen the outfalls.
31. Start of a Poitier film title: TO SIR, With Love. Sidney teaching at an inner-city comprehensive school in east London.
34. Author/aviator __ Morrow Lindbergh: ANNE
36. Film crew member: GRIP
37. V-formation flier: GOOSE
38. '90s game disc: POG
39. Pipe up: OPINE
40. __ the finish: IN AT
41. Snapchat's ghost, e.g.: LOGO. And here's a very famous logo ....
42. Shoes with swooshes: NIKES. There's currently an investigation by the "International Athletics something-or-other We're Here for your Benefit and our Fat Salaries Committee Federation" aimed at banning certain Nike shoes because they're "too good". Simple solution - everyone runs barefoot. There, I just saved us all millions. You're welcome.
43. Color from a bottle: FAKE TAN
45. British WWII gun: STEN. According to the people tasked with firing the weapon, more dangerous to the user than the intended target, they had a habit of blowing up. I hauled around a Bren gun as an army reservist for a while, then I got my sniper's badge and they gave me a much lighter deliverer of doom, which thankfully I never had to actually use in anger. On the range, it was pretty accurate - I think my best was an 8" grouping of six rounds at 300 yards. The range was in a rural setting in Cornwall with sheep grazing the adjacent fields. We were informed in no uncertain terms that picking off an unsuspecting future leg of lamb would NOT BE TOLERATED!
47. Magician Weasley and anchorman Burgundy: RONS. Hmmm, I think Ron Weasley might turn you into a toad or a Ford Anglia if you described him as a "magician". Harry Potter's chum is a wizard, there's a significant difference, I'd say.
48. Have: POSSESS
52. Like some wedding photos: CANDID. With the advent of camera phones, there are now many more candid photos than "official" ones.
55. Hook or Cook: Abbr.: CAPT.
56. Quid pro __: QUO. "In the news" phrase at the moment. I'm not sure why, it just rings a bell.
57. Maryland state bird, e.g.: ORIOLE
58. Dos cubed: OCHO
59. Lines at a checkout counter?: UPC, The bar code that you scan when you (increasingly) self-check your stuff.
60. Money maker: MINTER
61. Not nice at all: MEAN
62. Bother a great deal: IRK
63. Great times: BLASTS
64. Uruguay's Punta del __: ESTE. Home of the sculpture "La Mano".
65. __ de deux: PAS. A ballet term when two dancers perform identical steps together. What's the plural? The same as the singular. I'd have gone for "pas des deuxes" and lost all my money on "Jeopardy".
Down:
1. Clear, as a printer: UNJAM.
2. Czech Republic capital, to Czechs: PRAHA. "The City of a Hundred Spires". The much lesser-known name is the westernized "Prague". I'm not sure how many people have heard of Prague, though. The famous Athletic Club Sparta Praha play that well-known sport "Fotbal".
3. "Don't beat around the bush!": SAY IT! OK, I'll say it - "PRAHA"? Really? Worst fill of the day.
4. A bit out in the ocean: OFFSHORE
5. Painter's tool: ROLLER
7. Present in a biased way: SKEW
8. Reed instrument: BAGPIPE. Singular/plural conundrum for me. I always use the plural "a set of bagpipes" or "she plays the bagpipes". One bagpipe? "Bagpipe music". While we're on the subject, can I plead with any bagpipe band not to play "Scotland the Brave" on St. Patrick's Day? It's really annoying
9. Pond protozoan: AMOEBA. I'll give you this as I prefer it to "AMEBA", but really the OE is a dipthong, so one letter, not two.
11. Gusto: BRIO
12. Back muscles, briefly: LATS
13. K-12 appropriate: EL-HI
28. Actor Estrada: ERIK
29. "Dibs!": MINE!
30. Long-limbed beasts: APES
31. "So ready for the weekend!": TGIF!
32. Chaplin named for her grandmother: OONA
33. Relax in the hot tub: SOAK
35. Yuletide libation: NOG. Why do we (not me) only drink egg nog at Christmas? It's a pretty horrible idea in the first place, but to reserve it for an ostensibly happy period is clearly strange.
39. 14 British pounds: ONE STONE. No, 14 pounds in any country is a British stone. Unlike the fact that 16 oz is usually an imperial pint, except in Britain, where you get 20 oz to your pint. You've got to admire those pint-swilling Brits. And then they sell petrol in litres, the temperatures are now in centigrade, the weight measures are in grams, but the distances are still in miles. Someone needs to have a quiet word regarding "standardization" with that lot over there. And drive on the right, while you're about it. Honestly, some people.
41. Big name in advice: LANDERS
44. __ training: TOILET. Another jolly British word.
46. Tails partner: TOP HAT, along with a white tie.
49. Furnish with gear: EQUIP
50. Sporty Toyota until 2002: SUPRA
51. Laundry day casualties: SOCKS. I've got a singleton on my dresser right now. What is it with socks?
52. Rooster topper: COMB
53. Seed covering: ARIL
54. Jazz singer Simone: NINA. It's a little late for a music link, but no matter. Here's one of my favorites. Too good to waste.
55. Show up: COME
And now we come to the denouement.
So what is it with the theme? When bloggers quote the theme entries, the tradition is to add the "A" or "D" to the number to identify whether we're talking about the across or the down entry, as I did at the top of the page. Let's see what happens if we take the first theme entry, identify it by the number only and eliminate the ellipses:
"6 in a board game". Six Clue Weapons.
and the next:
"10 in a ball game". Ten Bowling Pins ...
... and so we go. The number of the theme entry in the grid describes the solution. There are 24 dots on a Twister mat, 25 spaces on a bingo card. Very neat!
The reason the theme entries are in the downs is because you can't cram them in the acrosses - you'd be four of them into the puzzle before you even got halfway-down the grid, and facing an impossible constructing task.
So here's the grid, hats off to Joseph, and I'll be on my way.
Steve
