Today we have a return engagement by Mike Peluso. Old timers will remember that Mike has published here many times over the years. He has visited at least 5 times in the past year, the most recent being December 27, 2020. This is a WORKING PERSON's puzzle, but even the retirees on the corner
have to solve it. The reveal best describes the TASK at hand:
36. Comment about routine work ... and hint to the ends of the answers to
starred clues: IT'S A JOB. That is the last word is a "type" of JOB.
And here are the themers:
17. *Closest to the rail, at Churchill Downs:
ON THE INSIDE. e.g. INSIDE JOB is a documentary on the 2008 financial crisis,
still available for streaming from Amazon Prime. Haven't seen it, but I
think they name names.
53. *It may be used with a grunt or two: ELBOW GREASE. e.g. I did a GREASE JOB on my tiller the other day using WD40. Did a spritz or two, but not much grunting (other than to drag the beast out of the shed).
25. *Barely triumphs: WINS BY A NOSE. e.g. a NOSE JOB never
occurred to Cyrano de Bergerac but he won anyway. My favorite
movie version of this story is titled with the object of his affections,
ROXANNE, and stars
Daryl Hannah and Steve Martin:
Hey, the work's just getting started:
Across:
1. Mail in: REMIT. Not a themer, but often a metaphor for minimal effort on a JOB. Same with "phone in".
6. Hair-raising experiences?: PERMS.
11. Bare-bones sleeper: COT.
14. Egypt's Mubarak: HOSNI. an Egyptian military and political leader who served as the fourth president of Egypt from 1981 to 2011.
15. Font that's a homophone for a mermaid: ARIAL. The font is rather dull, so here's Ariel. She is the first non-human Disney princess, and even has her own wiki.
16. Color: HUE. There are varying ways to define HUES, one of the most common being as factions of RED, GREEN, and BLUE. "RGB" is a digital standard for this approach.
19. Mitch McConnell's org.: RNC. The Republican National Committee, the titular governing board of the Republican Party.
20. Balance sheet category: ASSETS versus LIABILITIES.
21. "Love Story" author Segal: ERICH.
23. The Big Easy, locally: NAWLINS. A CSO to our very own Big Easy!
26. Works: OPUSES. But there's really only one OPUS:
27. Get one's bearings: ORIENT.
28. Refines, as ore: SMELTS. Also a small silvery fish resembling a sardine. I've always thought of them as food for larger fish, but apparently they are good eating if you know how to prepare them. I'll be interested in what CC or Boomer have to say about them. This fish is a tiny fraction of the size of the Ling cod in 44D.
|
| Smelt |
30. Loads: TONS.
31. "Dandy for your teeth" old toothpaste: IPANA. And here's Bucky!
32. Guffaw: YUK. I don't see anything funny about this at all:
|
|
Mr Yuk |
35. Ambulance letters: EMS.
38. Wee, in Dundee: SMA. New to me.
39. Apply gently: DAB.
40. Novgorod nos: NYETS. No, NOT the New York Mets!
41. Financial news channel: CNBC.
42. Judge of baseball, for one: YANKEE. UMPIRE didn't perp, so I had to use perps to get this. As I'm not a YANKEE fan so I hadn't heard of Aaron Judge. AL Rookie of the Year for 2017:
44. Pakistani metropolis: LAHORE.
46. Jolson classic: SWANEE. Jolson is best known for his appearance in the "Jazz Singer", the first "talking picture". But he performed in many Broadway musicals prior to this, including the hit Sinbad in 1918. At some point he included George Gershwin's Swanee in the song list. It was a smash hit and helped launch Gershwin's career.
48. Dispensed (with): DID AWAY.
49. Privilege of playing first, in golf: HONOR. All of you golfers may know this term, but this lefthander certainly didn't. This explains it. I do find it very relaxing to watch. All those greens, and an occasional patch of brown.
50. Kid's retort: ARE NOT. ARE TOO!
52. Latin 101 verb: AMO. Okay, let's not get too personal here.
58. Network soliciting donors: PBS. Use to donate. Now I just sponge off of people with JOBS.
59. Spry: AGILE.
60. Stubborn: BALKY. This was a stubborn clue, especially crossing the NATICK ADORBS (see 45D).
61. Atlanta-to-Charleston dir.: ESE.
62. Evaluated: RATED. This review is RATED PG.
63. Everly Brothers song sleepyhead: SUSIE. "Wake Up Little Susie" is a popular song written by Felice and Boudleaux Bryant and published in 1957. The Everly Brothers' cover of it came out in September of that year and quickly went to the top of the charts. Alright everybody, hands up if you found yourself in a similar situation years and years ago:
Down:
1. Pi follower: RHO. Don't get 'em too close though. You might start a FIRE.
2. Ages and ages: EON.
3. Casper winter hrs.: MST.
4. Consumes eagerly: INHALES. Unlike some politicians of a certain age who didn't ...
5. Connects logically: TIES IN. Personally I think everything TIES IN.
6. See-through sheets: PANES. I have some friends like that, but I can't see thru 'em.
7. Once, old-style: ERST.
8. Social reformer Jacob: RIIS. And a gluey one at that.
9. Magazine with "The Lighter Side of..." features: MAD. [considered inserting a cover, but didn't want to blow my PG RATING.]
10. Where apnea might be diagnosed: SLEEP LAB. I can speak from personal experience, I predict that the person who invents a low-cost, paste on, disposable, blue-tooth EKG sensor will become a BRAZILIANAIRE. Those of you who've been there know what I mean. There's a CSO for ya' Anon-T (and I want a finder's fee)!
12. Prevention unit: OUNCE. Always a good investment.
13. Many Microsoft employees: TECHS. And a lot of them have nothing better to do than lard on useless new features to the next release of Windows.
18. "It __ fair!": ISN'T. IS TOO!
22. Tire track: RUT.
23. Famous: NOTED.
24. Bakery draw: AROMA. This is starting to make me hungry.
26. Napa prefix: OENO. OENOLOGY is the science and study of wine and wine making. This is distinct from viticulture, the agricultural endeavor of vine-growing, and the agricultural endeavor of grape-harvesting. The English word oenology derives from the word oinos, "wine" and the suffix –logia, "study of" from the Ancient Greek language. - Wikipedia.
28. Overflow: SPATE.
29. Some mil. brass: MAJS.
31. "Understood": I SEE. Most of the time I really don't though.
33. Eclipse shadow: UMBRA. What is an UMBRA?
34. Country singer Musgraves with six Grammys: KACEY. New to me, but I was glad to make her acquaintance. Here's Merry-go-Round from her breakthrough album, Same Trailer Different Park released in 2013:
36. Cochlea site: INNER EAR. Here's your inner ear explained. And here's a 'pitcher', and "they have BIG EARS" (as my Dad often said to Mom when I was in the room). The COCHLEA is the part that looks like a conch shell on the right:
37. Child: TYKE.
41. Loire Valley sight: CHATEAU. In addition to a CASTLE, also an Appellation Contrôlée, an official designation for French wines, certifying that the grapes in a vintage were grown, pressed, barrelled, and bottled on the CHATEAU estate. This is the highest standard. The next highest I believe are COMMUNITY appellations, where the grapes are all from the same community in a REGION. Here is a map of the wine communities in the LOIRE VALLEY REGION (C MOE for more on appellations):
43. 2021, por ejemplo: ANO. Today's leccion de Español.
44. __ cod: Pacific Coast catch: LING. I'd not heard of this fish, and it's not really a cod, but those in the know consider it a delicacy ...
|
| Lingcod |
45. "Totes __!": really cute: ADORBS. New to me. "Totes adorbs" is a slang abbreviation of "totally adorable" that's evolved among the 20 and under age group here in the States", per the Cambridge English Dictionary.
46. Fitness magazine: SHAPE.
47. Development sites: WOMBS. More often UTERI, but it didn't perp.
48. Like morning grass: DEWED. Wet morning grass always brings to my mind this song, the lyrics by Eleanor Farjeon (13 February 1881 –5 June 1965), set to an old Scottish tune called "Bunessan", and sung by Cat Stevens:
50. Somewhat: A BIT. A humble but very versatile word. With just a series of the values "0" or "1", they can be used to create vast universes, or little ones like the Corner.
51. Part: ROLE.
54. JFK alternative: LGA. A remarkable story began here on January 15th, 2009. If you haven't seen the movie SULLY, I highly recommend it.
|
|
Miracle on the Hudson |
55. Pacino and Capone: ALS.
56. Water __: SKI.
57. Hurricane center: EYE. Hurricane Andrew (1995) had a "pinhole" eye, the most destructive type. A CSO to Spitz or any other Cornerites with tales to tell about these storms.
|
|
Hurricane Andrew |
Here's the grid:
To get some insight into Mike Peluso's background, inspiration, and theme preferences here's C.C.'s interview with him from the early days (2009).
waseeley
Cheers,
Bill
