Malodorous Manatee, here, wishing a Good Morning to all you cruciverbalists. Today, much like our water-loving friend, above, the constructor, Craig Stowe, seems to have leaned a bit too heavily on the keyboard. As a result, we have characters (letters) that are repetitious, redundant, and repetitive. Or, not. Craig must enjoy repetition because he has had puzzles published in the LA Times in January and February of this year. With this one in March, he now has a 2021 LAT Hat Trick.
LETTERS, WE GET LETTERS, WE GET LOTS AND LOTS OF LETTERS
Bing Crosby, Dean Martin and Patti Page
At three places in the grid, Craig has substituted multiple identical letters for the more common name of an event, a product, and a group of drug sniffing dogs. A clever and well executed, if none-too-subtle, theme.
20 Across. Meeting of powerful nations: GGGGGGG SUMMIT. Seven, count 'em, Gees. The Group of Seven, or G7, SUMMIT meetings are held between the USA, France, Canada, Germany, Italy, The United Kingdom and Japan to discuss international economic and monetary issues. Russia used to be part of what was then called the Group of Eight (with 40 across G8 would have been interesting) but Russia got kicked out after annexing the Crimea.
40 Across. Campbell's concoction: VVVVVVVV JUICE. Eight (an octad) Vees. V8 JUICE is made from vegetables and fruits by Campbell (known mostly for their soup)
.
59 Across. Team at a drug bust: KKKKKKKKK UNIT. Nine Kays. Dogs in the police K-9 (canine as in dog not tooth, although there is a relationship) UNIT are trained to sniff out drugs and other contraband.
Brian Griffin K-9 Cop
. . . . and now, sufficiently invigorated, let us move on to the rest of today's puzzle. We'll leave the completed puzzle for the end of the recap because, today, locating the theme answers requires neither circles nor highlighting.
Across:
1. John follower: ACTS. A reference to the books of the Bible (New Testament).
5. Whack, biblically: SMITE. A nice juxtaposition with 1 Across.
10. Behold, to Cicero: ECCE. "Cicero" is a tip-off that the answer will have something to do with the Roman Empire or the Latin language.
14. Young Adult novel by Carl Hiaasen about an owl habitat: HOOT. Carl Hiaasen writes very humorous books. My favorite was written in collaboration with Dave Barry and eleven other authors who each wrote one chapter of:
15. Wore: HAD ON. What, I hear you asking is a HADON ?
16. Devise, with "up": DRUM. Our first, of many, idioms today, to DRUM up something means to bring about by persistent effort.
17. Blue-green: AQUAMARINE. There are other blue-green colors.
19. Garage occupant: AUTO. A garage is a good place to park an AUTOmobile.
22. One looking at a lot of tickets: USHER. Or, for an answer, a compulsive speeder. Or, for a clue, an entertainer.
USHER
24. Berliner's "Blimey!": ACH. Our German language lesson for today.
25. School contest: BEE. On Monday it would have been clued as Spelling Contest.
26. "It's __ good": ALL. NO didn't have enough letters. NOT was not good. Another idiomatic expression.
27. 2016 US Open champ Wawrinka: STAN. A tennis reference unknown to this author (it could have been golf for all I knew - they both have US Opens). Thanks, perps.
Stan Wawrinka
31. Possessive pronoun: OUR. His? Her? Its?
33. Landlocked Asian country: LAOS. While on a visit to Cambodia, our group of ten intrepid travelers took a day trip to LAOS. At an open air market a vendor was selling some of the local libations. He offered us a sample of this one. Only one member of our party was curious enough, brave enough, and stupid enough to take him up on the offer. Guess who that was.
Yes, Those Are Real Snakes
35. Native Nebraskan: OTOE. One of the North American tribes. OTO, Cree would also have fit the space.
37. Carpenter's tool: RASP. Sometimes clued as "a hoarse voice".
43. Spotted: SEEN. As opposed to Spotted like a leopard, for example
44. Breeze (through): SAIL. Yet another idiom in today's puzzle.
45. Vegas rollers: DICE. Also used in Yahtzee.
47. Ping-Pong table need: NET.
49. Messy one: SLOB.
51. Goat's cry: MAA. Often, BAA.
Goat Sounds
52. Braying beast: ASS. Some constructors are reluctant to include ASS in their puzzles due to a couple of its many connotations. Today's "I will pass on the graphic" moment.
55. Trig. function: COS. COSine. In Trigonometry, the ratio of the side adjacent to an acute angle to the hypotenuse (in a right triangle). It would have been cool if I had remembered that from the tenth grade but I had to look it up.
57. "I can take __!": A HINT. Idiomatic? On the cusp.
64. Green on a weather map: RAIN. The first time I ever saw four-color weather radar was on a small plane taking off from Mobile, Alabama in 1980. On the cockpit display, we could see a violent storm (lots of red) closing in on us in real time. The pilot started the takeoff roll as we were closing the cabin door.
65. Largest portion: LIONS SHARE.
68. Miranda __ of "Homeland": OTTO. A proper noun that was unknown to this mindless marine mammal.
69. "Solutions and Other Problems" writer Brosh: ALLIE. See 68 Across, above.
70. Wheelhouse: AREA. The idiom "in one's wheelhouse" is synonymous with "right up one's alley" or AREA of expertise or interest.
71. Retreat: NEST.
2020 - 2021 A.D.
72. Blind parts: SLATS. As in window covering.
73. Old autocrat: TSAR.
Tsar Nicholas II of Russia
Down:
1. "Got it!": AHA. We can at least put in the H until we figure out if it's going to be AHA or OHO.
2. __ au vin: COQ. C'est francais, n'est-ce pas? A chicken dish made with Brandy and wine.
3. Compassionate but strict approach: TOUGH LOVE.
4. Put on: STAGE. As clued, a verb. As a noun:
5. Carpet type: SHAG.
Now or Later
6. "All Rise" actress Helgenberger: MARG. This proper noun was known from CSI and not from the clue or from Ryan's Hope.
Marg Helgenberger
7. "Got it": I DIG. Wow, 50's hipster slang!
8. Island kingdom whose capital is Nuku'alofa: TONGA. This was easier than if the clue had been "Capital of the Island Kingdom of Tonga".
9. "Romanian Rhapsodies" composer: ENESCO. George ENESCO, often spelled Enescu, composed the two Romanian Rhapsodies in 1901. He was born in Romania but also lived in France. Therefore, the spelling variations.
For Two Clarinets and a Piano
10. Answer to the riddle "What cheese is made backward?": EDAM. An oldie but a goody. M A D E < - - - > E D A M
11. Roomba pickup: CRUMB. True, but a bit of a stretch. A Roomba is an automated vacuum cleaner that can pick up all sorts of things in addition to CRUMBs.
12. Term of affection: CUTIE.
13. Gush on stage: EMOTE. A lot of actors seem to over do it in crossword puzzles.
18. Diamond VIPs: MGRS. A baseball reference. ManaGeRS. My mother, who hailed from Brooklyn introduced me to this book:
21. Freedom, in Swahili: UHURU. Not to be confused with UHURa.
Shown, Here, On The Right
22. Chi.-based flier: UAL. United AirLines is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.
23. Some Balkans: SLAVS. There were many other ways to draft this clue as SLAVS include Belarusians, Rusyns, Ukrainians, Czechs, Kashubs, Poles, Slovaks, Sorbs, Bosniaks, Bulgarians, Croats, Macedonians, Montenegrins, Serbs, Slovenes, and others.
28. "Mazel __!": TOV. A Hebrew / Yiddish expression of congratulations. Literally, good fortune.
You've Almost Finished The Puzzle, Mazel Tov!
29. Quads on roads: ATVS. All Terrain VehicleS.
Fun For Everyone
30. Breakout stars?: NOVAS. A NOVA, plural sometimes NOVAE, is a transient astronomical event that causes the appearance of a bright, apparently "new" star.
A Nova In The Andromeda Galaxy
32. Surprise attack: RAID.
34. Cinematographer Nykvist: SVEN. SVEN Nykvist is best know for his work with Ingmar Bergman. Even with no idea who they were looking for, the name in the clue was a hint that the answer would very likely be a Scandinavian name.
36. Sermon subject: EVIL.
Dr. Evil
38. Curved sabers: SCIMITARS.
39. Butter __: PECAN. Knife? Finger? No a sweet.
41. Jersey type: V NECK. We have seen this clue and answer before.
42. "On the Floor" singer: JLO. I confess that I would not recognize Jennifer LOpez if I bumped into her on the street. I am even less familiar with her music.
46. Put away: EAT. Yet another of today's idioms.
48. Stein's partner: TOKLAS. Alice B TOKLAS and Gertrude Stein were a couple for forty years. I did see the 1968 movie.
50. Makes illegal: BANS. We never know, until the perps, if it will be BANS or BARS but we can fill in three of the four letters and that usually helps.
52. LeBron's hometown: AKRON. LeBron James, arguably one of the best ever professional basketball players, was born in AKRON, Ohio.
53. Do lutzes, say: SKATE. Today, not the fish but a jump done on a pair of ice SKATEs.
The Russian Explains It
54. Vaudeville fare: SKITS. Short comedy sketches of humorous writing. Often, parodies.
56. Ability: SKILL. Our third-in-a-row answer consisting of five letters and starting with SK.
58. Percussion pair: HI HAT. A HI HAT is a combination of two cymbals and a pedal that is often heard in x-word puzzles.
A Hi Hat
60. One in a sailor's repertoire: KNOT.
61. Beverage nut: KOLA. I seem to recall having KOLA in the last puzzle that I blogged. This time, no Koala riff.
62. Make mittens, say: KNIT.
63. Exploits: USES. The answer could have been DEEDS but not of the type used in a game of Monopoly.
66. Irish actor Stephen: REA. He visits us often.
67. Mr. Potato Head piece: EAR. Mr., Miss, Mrs., Ms., NB and other Potato Heads have been in the news lately with all of their various pieces. Back in the day we used real potatoes. Did I spell that correctly, Dan?
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MM Out
