Friday, January 3, 2020, Kevin Conway

Title: What the  'L is going on here?

Lemonade here beginning 2020 welcoming another new constructor who begins with an "add-a-letter" theme which was easier for me than the reveal. I hope Kevin stops by to explain his take. There are numerous Kevin Conways in the world, so I will wait to hear from him. In my ongoing discussion of solving themed puzzles, I mentioned two weeks ago that first I look to clue/fill 17A. Today I saw -
17A. Lawyer's missing text?: LOST CLAUSE (10) [LOST CAUSE].
Then I look for the mirror fill, here it is:
54A. Another name for the five-second rule of dropped food?: MORSEL CODE [MORSE CODE] (10).
The pun is better in 54 A, and it certainly reveals the theme.
The rest -
22A. Offer from one unwilling to negotiate?: STICKLER PRICE  [STICKER PRICE](13) and its mirror -
44A. Military directive?: BATTLING ORDER [BATTING ORDER](13) fit together nicely Then we have the bonus of a reveal:
35A. Calendar period that 17-, 22-, 44- and 54-Across are celebrating?: L-WEEK. My only thought as shown in the Title I chose was HellWeek, the time when pledges make their final pitch for membership in fraternities/sororities. But a reveal that needs a reveal would be new.

The puzzle itself is a classic Friday.
The distribution is fair.

Stats		Average Values by Day of Week — 15 x 15 only						21 x 21 only
This puzzle		Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun
Blocks	34	37.5	37.3	37.4	36.8	31.4	30.7	73.9
Words	72	77.0	76.8	76.3	74.8	69.6	68.9	139.3
Open Squares	83	69.3	69.4	69.7	72.9	91.3	94.7	122.7
Scrabble Avg	1.52	1.57	1.58	1.59	1.58	1.56	1.56	1.55
Avg Word Length	5.31	4.87	4.89	4.92	5.06	5.59	5.66	5.28
Freshness Factor™ Percentile	77.2	18.5	26.2	30.7	46.1	78.1	84.3	62.6

The green highlighted squares show which daily puzzle average is closest to this puzzle for each statistical category.

If this is a debut, Kevin packed in lots of fun non-theme fill like NATIVES, RETURNS, SET ATOP. UBER CAR, ALKALINE,  UNDERPIN, DISK SPACE, INTERPOSE,  OPEN DOORS, and  SETS ASIDE.

On to the solution which did not leave me cranky, but see if you spot why below:

Across:

1. Sports headwear retailer: LIDS.


5. Joplin's "Me and Bobby __": MCGEE.

"Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose
Nothin', don't mean nothin' hon' if it ain't free, no no..."







10. Charlie Brown's "Darn!": RATS.
  
14. Comic strip dog: ODIE.Garfield's pet.
Not related to 59A. Tributes in verse: ODES.

15. Variety: ARRAY.

16. Poetic black: EBON. 1350–1400; Middle English eban, ebyn ebony < Anglo-French eban(ne), Old French eban, ebaine < Medieval Latin ebanus, for Latin (h)ebenus < Greek ébenos, of Semitic orig.

19. Prepare to fly, maybe: TAXI. On the runway.

20. Type of battery: ALKALINE. ALL you want to know.

21. Coherent: LUCID.

25. Chicago Outfit gangster: CAPONE. Not called the mob nor the mafia in Chicago - just the "Outfit."

27. One for the road: SIGN. Cute clue.

28. Be flexible: ADAPT.

29. Saves up: SETS ASIDE. The way we were taught to save.

34. Hot __: MIC. Another name for a microphone that is turned on, in particular, one that amplifies or broadcasts a spoken remark that is intended to be private.

36. Wooden shoe sailor: NOD. Wynken, Blynken, and Nod one night. Sailed off in a wooden shoe,— Sailed on a river of crystal light. Into a sea of dew. By Eugene Field.

37. Create opportunities: OPEN DOORS.

40. First owner of the expansion Los Angeles Angels: AUTRY.
Gene Autry was a singing cowboy who became a movie star and rich enough to be awarded the expansion baseball franchise. This time of year his Christmas contribution - he was the first to record Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Here Comes Santa Claus (Right Down Santa Claus Lane), and Frosty the Snowman. Additionally, he co-wrote Here Comes Santa Claus.

42. Travel prefix with méxico and perú: AERO. National airlines.

43. Monks' homes: ABBEYS.

49. Spring time: APRIL. Notice that it is two words.

50. Support: UNDERPIN. That is where the pins go when Boomer and TTP bowl.

53. Makeshift blade: SHIV. Thank you to the gypsy population, this is from chive, chieve, chife, chiv (“knife”), from Romani chive, chiv, chivvomengro (“knife, dagger") from 1915.

56. Group of online pages: SITE. What a perfect description of so many sites.

57. Of past times: OLDEN.

58. Garage sale term: AS IS.

60. Greet with howls, as the moon: BAY AT. Or is it bays at?

61. Restaurant menu heading: REDS. Whites, or rosés?

Down:

1. Showgirl of song: LOLA. It is actually a very sad SONG.

2. Worshipped object: IDOL. Originally from Latin idolum ‘image, form.’  Hence the Hebrew law against worshipping graven images.

3. Modern capacity measure: DISK SPACE. Alternatively referred to as disk space, disk storage, or storage capacity, disk capacity is the maximum amount of data a disc, disk, or drive is capable of holding. Disk capacity is displayed in MB (megabytes), GB (gigabytes), or TB (terabytes). All types of media capable of storing information have a disk capacity, including a CD, DVD, floppy disk, hard drive, memory stick/card, and USB thumb drive.

4. Put on, as a high shelf: SET ATOP.

5. Bad intentions: MALICE.

6. Street organ feature: CRANK. Monkey not included. See 47D.

7. "Oliver Twist" food: GRUEL.

8. Warning service co-coordinated by FEMA: EAS. The Emergency Alert System is used by alerting authorities to send warnings via broadcast, cable, satellite and wireline communications pathways.

9. Part of a needle: EYE.

10. Investment gains: RETURNS.

11. Old calculators: ABACI.

12. Like guilt-trippers, say: TOXIC. There are so many KINDS.

13. Nasty: SNIDE. My favorite.

18. He played Dirty Harry: CLINT. Unlike John Wayne or other famous western stars, his real name is CLINT EASTWOOD, Jr.

21. Women's links gp.: LPGA. Ladies Professional Golf Association.

23. __ Park, Colorado: ESTES. A very small town at the base of Rocky Mountain Park Northwest of Denver. A gimme since my son moved to Denver. I went there for a moment.

24. Actuary's specialty: RISK.

25. Army gear, briefly: CAMO. Camouflage
 is the use of any combination of materials,
 coloration, or illumination for concealment,
either by making animals or objects hard to
see (crypsis), or by disguising them as something else (mimesis).

26. Take __: swim: A DIP.

29. Pass out: SWOON.

30. Always, to a poet: E'ER.

31. Put between: INTERPOSE.

32. "Finding __": 2016 sequel: DORY. A blue tang from the earlier Finding Nemo.

33. Dreyer's, east of the Rockies: EDYS. I scream you scream...

35. Loughlin of "Full House": LORI. Perhaps in bad taste, while she remains at the center of the College Admissions Scandal.

38. Indigenes: NATIVES. Indigenous people.

39. Lenovo rival: DELL. More computer talk.

40. Egyptian president __ Fattah el-Sisi: ABDEL.
This MILITARY MAN who is only 5'5" tall.

41. Ride available via mobile app: UBER CAR. I have never heard anyone use this term...just UBER.

43. Passionate: ARDENT.

44. Bartolo in "The Barber of Seville," e.g.: BASSO.

45. Ladybug's lunch: APHID.

46. Overdone: TRITE.

47. Half a stringed instrument: GURDY. Hurdy Gurdy.

48. Southend-__: ON-SEA. Southend-on-Sea is a resort town on the Thames Estuary in Essex, southeast England.

51. "Already taken care of": I DID.

52. Fabled loch: NESS. Do you like this clue better than Eliot?

54. Flash __: MOB.

55. Old ending for "Motor": OLA. We still have a factory here.

What a way to begin a new year, a new decade (?) 1-10, or 10-19?
Welcome, Kevin and welcome back for another year all. Lemonade out. Thank you, fellow bloggers, for all of your help and another year of work.

In the "it's a small world" I was speaking with my son, Aaron and he told me he had made dinner, and sent a picture because it was a Thai/Lao dish he had learned to cook when he worked in a Thai restaurant while in college (long before I met Oo)

It is called Laab (Larb) Gai. I had never heard of it. Then tonight on the great American baking show one of the semifinalists was making some Larb filled pastries. Recipe