It is not often I am inspired to begin a puzzle write-up with a musical link but 'tis the season. Chanukah (Hannukah or however you want to spell it in Roman letters) begins this year on Sunday at sundown and Christmas is next Wednesday. The world is loaded with HOLIDAYS and I hope you all enjoy yours. I don't want to forget Festivus or Kwanzaa.
On to our delightful puzzle from DAB. When I started blogging here more than a decade ago, the first thing I learned was to look at 17 Across for a hint to the theme. This week that is SAYCHEESE. If that is a themer then HAIRSALON also has to be part of the theme. That left me a BIGMESS. The second thing I learned from C.C. was "don't panic", so next is to look around the edges or at the Down fill. TA DAH! I found the rare Friday reveal: 26D. Disappointment ... and a hint to four puzzle answers: LET DOWN (7). So we need four fill with the trigram LET heading down from L-T. The rest was interesting mental pictures.
3D. That one curl that makes the whole hairdo work?: KEY RINGLET (10). A Key Ring...
9D. Perfectionist butcher's pride?: CUTLET CORNERS (13).
The meat man does not Cut Corners.
18D. Breakfast theater offering?: HAMLET AND EGGS (13). Our Shakespeare fill, Ham and Eggs.
30D. Hollywood's latest canine discovery?: DOG STARLET (10).
Dog Star following in Lassie's paw steps.
There was one serious Friday clue/fill difficulty - ALBEDO - I am looking at you
Across:
1. Work with dough: BAKE. We kneaded to start with a pun.
5. Cylindrical granary: SILO. Hmm, silo (n.) 1835, from Spanish silo, traditionally derived from Latin sirum (nominative sirus), from Greek siros "a pit to keep corn in." It sounds like some Asian influence.
9. City in Illinois' Little Egypt region: CAIRO. I did not know the current status of the Southernmost CITY in Illinois.
14. Blessing ender: AMEN.
15. Letter-shaped auto feature: T-TOP. I like it near 19A. Chophouse choice: T-BONE.
16. Stomach trouble: ULCER. Stomach ulcers, which are also known as gastric ulcers, are painful sores in the stomach lining. ... This allows the digestive acids to eat away at the tissues that line the stomach, causing an ulcer. Stomach ulcers may be easily cured, but they can become severe without proper treatment. I will not post pictures.
17. Words before snapping: SAY CHEESE. Pictures not tempers. It perhaps comes from former Ambassador Joseph E. Davies and is guaranteed to make you look pleasant no matter what you’re thinking. Mr. Davies disclosed the formula while having his own picture taken on the set of his “Mission to Moscow.” It’s simple. Just say “Cheese,” It’s an automatic smile. “I learned that from a politician,”
20. Estonia, once: Abbr.: SSR. Soviet Socialist Republic.
21. Inlet: ARM. Meh.
22. Eases up: RELENTS.
24. Self-conscious question: IS IT ME? Yes, it is!
26. Performed eye surgery on, maybe: LASED. A mini-CSO to me as I have had YAG Laser surgery - not the popular one.
27. Win-win: NO LOSE. A partial?
29. Not getting along: AT ODDS.
33. Troll's cousin: OGRE. Are they REALLY related?
34. Code of conduct: ETHIC.
36. "Wow!": OOH. It needs an "AAH" to make sense to me. It has a clecho - 39A. "Wow!": OH GEE.
37. Dark: UNLIT.
38. Stir: ADO.
41. Really dug, with "up": ATE.
42. Hard wear: ARMOR. Very funny clue.
44. Antarctic explorer James: ROSS.
This famous MAN.45. Spiral pasta: ROTINI.
47. Tree used for furniture and food: WALNUT. In case you want some nuts or syrup HOW TO RECOGNIZE a Black Walnut Tree.
49. Jingle-writing guy: ADMAN. Don Draper.
51. Render fizzy: AERATE. Like some others, I think of golf courses and greens.
54. Difficult and confusing situation: BIG MESS. I told you NO POLITICS!
57. Source of animal protection: FUR.
58. Sushi garnish: ROE. I am not caviar or other fish egg lover.
59. Script you can eat: ICING. We can't write in script here but Happy Birthday.
60. Permanent purveyor: HAIR SALON. Nice alliteration.
63. Obscure: BEFOG.
64. Magazine with a pronoun for a title: ELLE. A French pronoun.
65. Baseball team whose original full name is rarely used: METS. They were officially named the New York Metropolitans, after an 1883 short-lived team.
66. Outplays: BESTS. Like Dan Ackroyd and Eddie Murphy.
67. Speculator's panicky cry: SELL.
68. 53-Down synonym: ITSY. Teeny weeny? 53D. 68-Across synonym: EENSY.
Down:
1. Low voices: BASSI.
2. Gather: AMASS. Like Uncle Scrooge- a fortune.
4. Letter abbr.: ENClosure.
5. Man cave setup: STEREO. Surround sound?
6. Bag of chips at checkout, say: ITEM. Random.
7. __ Altos, California: LOS. They have many very pretty and very expensive houses there.
8. __ house: OPERA. It was the only five letter fill that came to mind.
10. Planetary reflected-light ratio: ALBEDO. After reflecting on this clue, I realized I did not know it was the proportion of the incident light or radiation that is reflected by a surface, typically that of a planet or moon. The word comes from the Latin ALBUS.
11. One who is more than just famous: ICON. Same start and length as IDOL.
12. Monthly check: RENT. Somewhat random.
13. Mine products: ORES. No, they are mine!
23. Actor Morales: ESAI. The first crosswordese fill I learned.
25. Bagels and donuts, shapewise: TORI. I like bagels and donuts, but I feel like some music with my coffee.
28. Tailor's task: SEAM. This seems incomplete.
31. "That __ it!": DOES. See, I told you so!
32. That girl: SHE. This show predated the Mary Tyler Moore Show
33. Not taken by: ON TO.
35. Group dance with hand-holding: HORA.
37. Nasser's org.: UAR. The United Arab Republic was a state formed by the union of the republics of Egypt and Syria in 1958. The juxtaposition is fun!
40. Happy __: HOUR. Are you aware of Sober Curious? Or do you get buzzed and dance the Hora by the Hour?
43. Lens holders: RIMS. Meh.
46. "You're wrong about me!": I AM NOT. Not a chance.
48. Poet's honor: LAUREL. These days you get a hardy handshake and no wreath on your head.
50. Hearth sweepings: ASHES.
52. Sweetie: TOOTS. This term is no longer pc to call a female. Spenser still calls Dr. Silverman "toots" at times.
54. Lettuce type: BIBB. Bibb lettuce is smaller butterhead lettuce with soft leaves used primarily as a salad green but also works well as a wrapper for foods.
55. Frozen drink brand: ICEE.
56. Computer images, briefly: GIFS. Graphics Interchange Format is a bitmap image format that was developed by a team at the online services provider CompuServe.
57. Sate: FILL.
61. Tankard contents: ALE. Arrgh.
62. Athos, vis-à-vis Aramis: AMI. They were French after all, just like M. Dumas.
We made it to the end of the puzzle and what appears to be my last puzzle blog of 2019. Thank you all for all the kind words and happy thoughts during the 11th year of C.C.'s creation. Thank you, DAB for being one of our regular Friday warriors. Also kudos to everyone who has created for our enjoyment. C.C. what a nice place you have here. Until next year GWATCDR, Lemonade out.
