Why do I always get the fishy puzzles? And today's is shell fishy to be exact. Thank you Bryant White for a very clever puzzle with lots of sparkly grist on which to hang internet bling. The puzzle has two cryptic reveals, pointing to a graphic that only finally emerges in the circles near the very bottom of the grid.
Here are the reveals:
34A. Red variety of this puzzle's circles: MANHATTAN.
RED
circles? My newspaper is B&W, How can this be. Wait and see ...
6D.
White variety of this puzzle's circles: NEW ENGLAND. They
were BLACK actually - I can't even HIGHLIGHT WHITE. But
it's getting warmer ...
3D. With 9-Down, crispy go-with for this puzzle's circles: SALTINE. Or the related OYSTER CRACKERS for us hypertensives. Fishier still ...
9D. See 3-Down: CRACKER. Lots of synonyms for this: YEGG, HACKER, and some that are not so PC.
Here's the grid:
Following the highlighted circles starting in 36A from left to right and down the rows below, a BOWL emerges, which you can use for a serving of either MANHATTAN or NEW ENGLAND CLAM CHOWDER. Complete with SALTINE CRACKERS at 3D and 9D respectively. Notice that Bryant tosses in some COD at 9A and AHI tuna at 65A. Throw these in the bowl and you've got the makings of a SEAFOOD CHOWDER (see C.C.'s Blog Recipes)
Here are the rest of the clues.
Across:
4. He's Santa in "Elf": ASNER. Before playing global altruist
SAINT NICK, Ed Asner played
LOU GRANT, a hard-bitten newspaper man.
9. Fish-and-chips fish: COD. ENGLISH carry-out, with
FRENCH fries not potato chips. Do you smell something fishy?
12. Andean stew tubers: OCAS. Speaking of POTATOES,
OCAS
are their up and up competition.
14. Geoffrey of fashion: BEENE.
15. "You have a point": TRUE. The one at the end of the answer.
16. Hanukkah moolah: GELT.
Money, gold-foil clad chocolate actually, given as presents during the
Jewish festival of Hanukkah. It is typically given to children and sometimes
teachers, often in conjunction with the game of
Dreidel.
17. Cut with sharp teeth: SAW UP. A tree must be SAWN
DOWN before it is can be SAWN UP. I wonder what
Sir Isaac would have thought of that?
18. Greasy spoon sign: EATS.
19. Board game endings: MATES.
Le Roi est mort, vive le Roi! He lives to play another day!
21. Dudes: MEN. They don't make very good
RANCHERS though.
22. Sonora flora: CACTI. Prickly subject.
23. Jungian inner self: ANIMA. Well ... half of the inner self. Also a Latin noun for BREATH or SOUL.
24. Anti-apartheid org.: ANC. Founded by
Nelson Mandela, a truly remarkable human being.
25. Actor Werner of "Fahrenheit 451": OSKAR. The film, based on
the SF novel by Ray Bradbury, was a vehicle not only for Werner, but for Julie Christie as well. Werner was also in one of my all time favorite movies,
Jules and Jim in1962. Fahrenheit 451(the ignition temperature of
paper), takes us to a post-literate society in the future where
"firefighters" burn books instead of putting out fires. In 2018 HBO did
a new adaptation of the novel , and it seems to have been roundly panned.
26. Element #50: TIN. The integer indicates "Atomic Number";
TIN is the only 3 letter element name.
27. More squalid: MANGIER.
30. Scrape (out): EKE.
31. Crackerjack: ACE. A TOY in every box!
32. Restricted road area: BUS LANE. HOV would fit too, but
doesn't perp.
33. High-__ image: RES. Cyber jargon for the
PIXEL DENSITY ("Picture Elements") of an image.
36. Larry __, former Phillies All-Star shortstop who was 2001 N.L. Manager of
the Year:
BOWA. Larry has not yet made the trip to Cooperstown. A CSO to
any FANS who might want to hazard a guess on his prospects?
39. Meat-eating aids: TINES. They put the TEETH in
FORKS.
40. River to the Baltic: ODER. The "River of Peace" marking
the border between Poland and Germany, and the only 4 letter river flowing
into the Baltic.
44. "Invisible Cities" author Calvino: ITALO.
Marco Polo makes them visible in the mind's eye of Emperor Kublai Khan.
46. Copper orgs.?: PDS. Police Departments.
47. Happy, but not cheerful or upbeat?: DWARF.
48. Spoonful, say: DOLLOP.
50. Was in the cards: LOOMED. A tangled NET unfolds ...
51. Group with rackets: MAFIA. No, not this one ..
53. Long __: JOHNS. It's that time of year. Tell me
about it Boomer!
54. Slightly cracked: AJAR. When a door is not a door it's ...
56. Glass-half-empty sort: CYNIC. After all of these centuries
Diogenes is still looking for an honest man. As I am only a
half-cynic, I still hope he finds one.
58. Computer giant: DELL. IBM is too short. ACER didn't perp. Which leaves MICHAEL S. DELL,
who revolutionized the PC computer industry in 1984 by allowing
customers to buy directly from the manufacturer at considerable cost
savings. He came by his fortune honestly, except for a little tiff with
the SEC: see PENALTY in the Wiki link.
61. "Amen!": WORD. So be it.
62. Memorable mission: ALAMO. This is not a big place. How
the Texans held the Mexicans at bay for so long is miraculous. I have
visited San Antonio many times and it's my favorite city in Texas. So
much to see and do there and in the surrounding country side.
63. Director Kazan: ELIA. Makes frequent appearances in crossword
puzzles.
A real cinema giant.
64. "I'm up for it!": LETS. Let's not and say we did.
65. Sashimi selection: AHI. My favorite way to eat this is in a
dish called
TEKKADON. Yummy!
66. Initial request for an answer?: RSVP. We'll be taking your
comments immediately after this review.
Down:
1. Church doctrines: DOGMATA. Plural of DOGMA.
2. Airline on "Lost": OCEANIC.
4. Washboard __: ABS. The hunks go for 6-pack ABS.
That's nothin' - I've got at least a 12-pack!
5. Sailor's skill: SEAMANSHIP. Requires strength, courage, a
knowledge of how to keep the ship ship-shape, and an in-depth knowledge of the
sea. On the old sailing ships sailors were masters of rope work and
specialty knots. The once popular craft of
MACRAMÉ
came down from sailors.
7. Doesn't mumble: ENUNCIATES. Dw says I
mumble. I guess I need to E-NUN-CI-ATE more.
8. Press in a gym, say: REP. What you do to get 6-pack
ABS. Or maybe someone who is trying to sell you a gym membership.
10. Scene not meant to be seen: OUTTAKE. "Left on the cutting
room floor." Some of our constructors complain about this too.
Flip the words and you can also get 9A that way.
11. Wish list items, e.g.: DESIRES. Hmm. I don't see that
in MASLOW's Hierarchy ...
13. Stern's opposite: STEM. Also "Science Technology English and
Math". Did I get that right? Apologies to Dash T!
15. They're often in hot water: TEAS. Don't get me started on
this. It's not HOT water, it's BOILING water! I've
yet to be served a proper cup of tea in the USA. I take that back.
The old Gypsy's Tea Room in Westminster, MD knew how to do it.
20. Bossa nova ancestor: SAMBA. Literally Portuguese for
"new trend" or "new wave" Someday
I'm going to get my TAXONOMY of Latin dances down pat. Hard to do though when
you've got two left feet.
22. Chick of jazz: COREA. While Corea is primarily thought of as
a jazz pianist, like Keith Jarrett he is a pianistic POLYMATH (the GERSHWIN bit is in the second half):
28. Family member: AUNT.
29. Tolkien's Quickbeam et al.: ENTS. For my money the most endearing creatures in MIDDLE EARTH But while LOTR takes place in our minds, this takes place on EARTH.
34. Adaptable ducks: MALLARDS. Mallards are the most adaptable of ducks, perhaps due to their escape and release from captivity, and have moved into habitats that once belonged to other duck species. They aren’t picky about nesting locations and often benefit from a close proximity to people.
35. "I get it now": NO WONDER. A major problem of our time.
36. Two diamonds, possibly: BID. Bridge? Hands up from all you Bridge players. I was introduced to it too late in life.
37. Ioway relative: OTO. The state of IOWA derives its name from the former tribe. The OTOE are from the same language group (Chiwere: Jiwére). They appear often in crosswords, as their name is very GLUEY.
38. Store whose first three letters come from its founder's name: WALMART.
41. Ones "in distress": DAMSELS. Not all of them are in distress. If they are young, unmarried, attractive DAMES, they are in high-demand in the novels of Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters. But beware the ENTAIL!
42. Before, before: ERE.
43. "Mayberry __": '60s sitcom: RFD. I watched the old "Andy Griffith" show, but don't think I caught this one.
45. Body blow reaction: OOF.
47. Simpson outburst: DOH.
49. 12-point type: PICA.
50. El Pollo __: chain in the U.S. and Mexico: LOCO. I love TEX-MEX, but there are no "El Pollo Loco" restaurants in Maryland that I know of. So they specialize in crazy chickens? A CSO to Cornerites in the SW who would weigh in on this chain. My grandchildren have a cat they call "POCO LOCO" (more than a little I think). When we visited last he surprised me when he jumped into the front seat of the car on our arrival. I think it was the CRAB DIP.
52. "The Clan of the Cave Bear" heroine: AYLA. I Wiki-ed the plot summary of this book and it confused me. In it AYLA, a Cro-magnon has a child (DURC) by BROUD, a Neanderthal. The ability to produce FERTILE offspring is a defining characteristic of a SPECIES. Another CSO to anyone who has read this or any of the 5 SEQUELS. Does DURC ever have any children? I.e. does AYLA ever become a GRANDMA?
53. Hendrix at Woodstock: JIMI. One of the greatest guitarists of our time (Andre Segovia, Julian Bream, and Eric Clapton excepted of course). Here he is playing his "Foxy Lady" at Maui in 1970 (see 59D for the sequel called "Foxy Elf"):
54. Leather-work tool: AWL. A standard blade on a Swiss Army Knife.
55. Film noir coffee: JOE. In NORDIC noir it gets ICED.
57. "I'll pass": NAH. Think I'll pass on this one.
59. Tyler who played Arwen in the "Lord of the Rings" films: LIV. This puzzle is book-ended by ELVES at the beginning and end, with a DWARF in the MIDDLE. We're not in Kansas anymore FRODO!
60. Catcher behind the plate?: LAP. Shouldn't that be BELOW the plate?
waseeley
