Hello there, Cornerites, and welcome to another Friday version of Chairman Moe trying to make heads or tails out of what developed into a pretty clever crossword puzzle. Today's offering is a collaboration of two Crossword Puzzle "All-Stars", Kevin Christian and Tracy Bennett. They used a "p-o-w's" question to combine two separate team names of the Wowen's National Basketball Association. (51-Down, and the "reveal": Org. that includes each part of four puzzle answers: WNBA)
Kevin and Tracy managed to find 4 combinations (8 of the 12 teams in the WNBA) and the Chairman found one more - my "theme" title. And whilst I couldn't come up with an appropriate question (The SUN are the WNBA team in Connecticut, and The FEVER are the WNBA team in Indiana), "SUNS" FEVER is rampant here in the Valley of the Sun, as the Phoenix team (the SUNS) are playing in their first ever NBA Championship Finals, as we speak, and are leading the Milwaukee Bucks 2 games to 0. Count the Chairman as one who has hopped on the SUNS bandwagon . . . but I digress . . .
20-Across. Longing at a dull lecture? (N.Y., Atlanta): LIBERTY DREAM. The New York LIBERTY are one of the original eight teams that formed the WNBA in 1996, and play their home games in Brooklyn at the Barclays Center - a venue also used by the NBA's Brooklyn NETS. The Atlanta DREAM was one of the league's expansion teams in 2007, and play their games at the Gateway Center Arena, in College Park, GA
The "play-on-word's" question for the clue probably means having the freedom to doze off, but since this was the first clue in the set, and the use of N.Y. and Atlanta was at first confusing, I was thinking about things other than team names, quite honestly, and I am a sports fan. NY LIBERTY airport? MLK's "I have a DREAM" speech? WTH? Let's go on . . .
32-Across. Talented meteorologists? (Seattle, Las Vegas): STORM ACES. OK, Moe is confused. Airports? Well, Seattle is linked with Tacoma (SEATAC), but as I was solving the puzzle, the only letters I had were "____MACES", and this one sat a long time before filling in. The Seattle STORM joined the WNBA in 1999, and has been one of the better and more successful franchises. The Las Vegas ACES are one of the original teams of the WNBA, but the franchise has moved a few times. Starting out in Utah as the STARZZ as a charter league member, then moving to San Antonio TX, and finally to Las Vegas. Kevin and Tracy's clue fits well, as talented meteorologists are indeed, "storm aces"
38-Across. Lightning? (Chicago, L.A.): SKY SPARKS. The Chicago SKY are another expansion team, and the Los Angeles SPARKS are one of the founding eight. An easier clue to connect the two team names, as "lightning" flashes are very much "sky sparks"
48-Across. Feature of a Roman god's boots? (Phoenix, Dallas): MERCURY WINGS. The Phoenix MERCURY are one of the original eight, and have featured stars such as Nancy Lieberman and Diana Taurasi. The Dallas Wings began in 1998 in the first expansion of the league as the Detroit Shock. The franchise relocated to Tulsa, OK, and finally in Dallas in 2016. And let's not forget the other two WNBA teams: The Washington Mystics and Minnesota Lynx. The WNBA season is underway; here are the standings as of July 8:
And here a few of the current players in the league:
Across:
1. Motel arrival?: ROACH. I think it was Black Flag that introduced us to the "ROACH" Motel - a trap that lured the world's most reviled insect to its deadly fate ...
6. Amazed: WOWED. I am always WOWED when I can complete a Friday puzzle with no cheats (or a Saturday; sometimes Thursday and Sunday, too!)
11. One of three in the opening scene of "Macbeth": HAG. The video clip is but 0:50 in length . . . three, count 'em, three HAGs
14. The Jetsons' boy: ELROY. "Meet George Jetson. "His boy ELROY." The Jetson's were a part of my "growing-up" years
15. Saw: ADAGE. Oh, the "noun" form of saw:
16. Radio host Shapiro: ARI. NPR star, among other things
17. Clear for better viewing: DEFOG. When I "Googled" the word DEFOG, and looked for an image, most all of what came up was related to THIS. Any of our Cornerites young enough to have known, or are familiar with this??!
18. River to the Caspian Sea: VOLGA. VOLGA: The longest river in Europe. When you look at the image below, you get a better perspective for just how long the VOLGA river is. From Google: "Rising in the Valdai Hills northwest of Moscow, the VOLGA discharges into the Caspian Sea, some 2,193 miles (3,530 kilometres) to the south. It drops slowly and majestically from its source 748 feet (228 metres) above sea level to its mouth 92 feet below sea level
19. Zip: VIM. "Code" wouldn't fit; "Nil" did but did not work with the perps
23. How J.Lo performs: IN HEELS. Not only does she perform in them, she also designs them
26. Where flight attendants often work: AISLE. But hopefully, not in high heels. Not sure of the current flight attendant "dress code", but I would think that most flight attendants who identify as she/her would be far safer performing their duties in flats, or minimal heels
27. Declines to: DOESN'T. "But ya DOESN'T have to call me Johnson!"
28. Gated water channel: SLUICE. I somehow recall SLUICE showing up in a recent LAT puzzle. July 4th, perhaps?
31. Humpty Dumpty-shaped: OVATE. OVATE: "having an oval outline or ovoid shape, like an egg"
35. WC: LAV. Water Closet, abbr. Anyone else put LOO in first? I did
36. "Rappa Ternt Sanga" artist: T-PAIN. Rap is not my style, so this one was all perps. Here is what I found out about the artist "T-PAIN"
37. Granola morsel: OAT. And what is it called when you are more OAT? OATER
41. Clerical home: MANSE. Or more specifically, "the house occupied by a minister of a Presbyterian church." Google
43. "See you later": BYE BYE. TA TA didn't fit
44. Hair-coloring style: DIP DYE. What??? Well, perhaps since the Chairman is selectively bald, this clue and answer had no meaning for him. However, and unlike the word we had on Monday in CC and Andy's puzzle, "ombré hair involves gradually fading your hair from one color into the next, DIP-DYED hair isn't so subtle. Your hair will shift straight from your natural roots into your color of choice, with no in-between shade to soften the look. Basically, it's perfect for those looking to make a statement. Like this person:
45. __ double: STUNT. "STUNT doubles are a cross between a body double and a stunt performer, specifically a skilled replacement used for dangerous film or video sequences, such as jumping out of a building or from vehicle to vehicle, and for other sophisticated stunts (especially fight scenes). Believe it or not, I was a STUNT double for Richard Dreyfuss, but I only subbed for him on love scenes . . .
47. Popular cider apple: WINESAP. WINESAP is an old apple cultivar of unknown origin, dating at least to American colonial times. Its apples are sweet with a tangy finish. They are used for eating, cooking, and cider. Wikipedia
52. Plus: AND. One AND (+) two = three
53. Interminably: NO END. I'm sure there are those of you who say, "Is there NO END to the Chairman's recap today??!"
54. Mario's brother: LUIGI. From the Nintendo video games, c 1981 with Donkey Kong. Mario is depicted as a portly plumber who lives in the fictional land of the Mushroom Kingdom with LUIGI, his younger, taller brother. In the television series and film, Mario and Luigi are originally from Brooklyn, New York. LUIGI is the guy in green
58. Employ: USE. Crossword "fill" and one of several 3-letter words USEd today
59. "How about that!": I'LL BE. Well I'LL BE a monkey's uncle
60. Pillow stuffing: EIDER. I thought the word "EIDER" could only be USEd in "down" words
61. __-Z: GEN. JAY fit, but not with the perps. GEN-Z's: "GENeration Z, colloquially also known as zoomers, is the demographic cohort succeeding Millennials (GEN Y) and preceding Generation Alpha. Researchers and media use the mid-to-late 1990s as starting birth years and the early 2010s as ending birth years. Most members of Generation Z are children of Generation X. Wikipedia
62. "The Gold-Bug" name: ALLAN. You'd have to have known that Edgar ALLAN Poe wrote this. I didn't and had to look it up
63. Took badly?: STOLE. Nice play-on-words clue
Down:
1. Great American Ball Park player: RED. Having lived in the Queen City (aka, Cincinnati) this one came immediately. Great American Ball Park replaced Riverfront Stadium (later called, Cinergy Field) as home to the Cincinnati REDs baseball team. Its first year of operation was 2003
2. Fútbol cheer: OLE. Favorite skin care brand of Fútbol fans?
3. Canine alert: ARF. Sandy's favorite expression
4. Most suave: COOLEST. Slang use of COOL for "fashionable" (suave) is by 1933, originally African-American vernacular; its modern use as a general term of approval is from the late 1940s, probably via bop talk and originally in reference to a style of jazz; the word is said to have been popularized in jazz circles by tenor saxophonist Lester Young
5. Keep-it-clean routine: HYGIENE. Not going to make this "personal"
6. Ripple-patterned hairstyle: WAVES. I had wavy hair once; now I have none! But this pretty lady has lovely WAVES in her hair
7. Compost emanation: ODOR. We tried a compost bin for awhile before starting a garden. The ODOR was fortunately contained in the side yard . . .
8. Mickey's maker: WALT. WALT Disney; creator of Mickey Mouse, et al
9. Like quiche: EGGY. Definition of EGGY (courtesy of Google): Adjective; covered with or dipped in egg. EGGY bread (cooking) Resembling eggs in some way. An EGGY smell/taste. Of or relating to an egg or eggs. A quiche is a French tart made with a simple pastry crust (with flour, butter and water) that is filled with a savory egg custard
10. Something taken by an archer: DEAD AIM. Rather a morbid phrase, eh?! Thank goodness this archer had a good AIM, but his son wasn't thrilled!!
11. What hungry diners often do: HAVE SECONDS. Our family (me, as a kid growing up) rarely had "SECONDS" at the dinner table, and when we did there was always a battle for them. Moe-ku:
The clock family
Made sure their kids were fed. They
Always HAVE SECONDS
12. If you don't like it, you can go to Helvetica: ARIAL. Cute clue. Helvetica and ARIAL fonts are pretty darn similar, if you ask me. Can you spot the differences?
13. Tot's "Mine!": GIMME. Well, the clip below is hardly the words of a tot; but when I see the word GIMME, I always think of the song that the Rolling Stones made famous in the late '60's. "War - children - is just a shot away; it's just a shot away". "Love - children - is just a kiss away, it's just a kiss away". And if you're needing a big Stones fix click on the link for a copy of the 1970 Documentary, based on the Stones' Tour in 1970. Caution: it's 1 hour and 30 minutes in length. The song below is about 4-1/2 minutes
21. Three-ingredient sammie: BLT. Interesting clue. "Sammie" is an abbreviation for the word "sandwich", and BLT is an abbreviation for Bacon Lettuce & Tomato
22. Costa __: RICA. Costa RICA is a rugged, rainforested Central American country with coastlines on the Caribbean and Pacific. Though its capital, San Jose, is home to cultural institutions like the Pre-Columbian Gold Museum, Costa Rica is known for its beaches, volcanoes, and biodiversity. Roughly a quarter of its area is made up of protected jungle, teeming with wildlife including spider monkeys and quetzal birds. ― Google. The Chairman visited there in 2008 or 2009 on a business trip, so he didn't get a chance to enjoy much of the beauty or culture. The few pics I saved are shown below
23. Beloved stars: IDOLS. Did any of you have an IDOL when you were a kid? As a boy growing up in the '50's and early '60's, I was a huge baseball fan, as well as a pretty good player. My baseball IDOL was Rocky Colavito, who may be one of the better players of his generation not to be inducted into the Major League Hall of Fame
24. Tennis ace Djokovic: NOVAK. The Chairman is not a huge tennis fan, though he's heard of him. Heard of him? I mean, c'mon Moe, NOVAK has only been the #1 professionally ranked men's tennis player in the WORLD for over 6 years now!! Like I said, not a tennis fan. It might have been the only "ball" sport in which Moe never participated. Meh. Now when MOE thinks of NOVAK, this person came to mind:
25. Considerable load: HEAVY BURDEN. This titan had quite a HEAVY BURDEN
28. Investment: STAKE. Let's see what the Thesaurusaurus has to say: yep, there it is at #8
29. Two-time Newbery Medal winner Lowry: LOIS. OK. Two things the Chairman will admit to not knowing: 1) who LOIS Lowry is, and 2) what a Newbery Medal is. Other than that, this clue was a breeze! Actually, LOIS won her Newbery Medals in 1990 for Number the Stars, and in 1994 for the book The Giver
30. Buffet server: URN. "Server" as in a thing, not a person. Nowadays, many if not all buffets are being staffed by people who plate and serve your food, rather than have a bunch of potential Covid carriers spread their germs among many dishes. An URN of course is the large coffee vessel used alongside a buffet
32. Nimble: SPRY. Believe it or not, I grew up not too far from SPRY Pennsylvania. I'll bet that Misty has heard of it
33. GPA booster: EASY "A". Moe needed a couple of EASY A courses to boost his GPA during his college years. He was a pretty good student; just a bit lazy at times . . . If the cartoon below were penned when I was in school, the teacher's comment would've been "Cliff Notes" instead of Wikipedia!
34. Expensive: STEEP. Again, the word associated with the clue has several meanings, and choosing this one allowed it to be more of a Friday clue/fill than if the constructor's had clued it as: "a 30% grade on a hillside"
36. Generous pickup: TAB. How about THIS TAB "pickup"?? The video is quite long, but skip through some of the video to see something totally weird!
39. Bring together: SYNC. Short for SYNChronize. According to Webster's, the word can also be spelled "SYNCH", and this use often appears in xword puzzles
40. Hanging basket bloomer: PETUNIA. Your gardening tip du jour from C Moe: Planting PETUNIAS in hanging baskets is a cinch, as long as you use a sturdy container with at least one drainage hole. Fill the container with a lightweight commercial potting mix, which will promote healthy drainage. Never use garden soil, which quickly becomes compacted and too heavy for proper drainage
41. Associates (with): MINGLES. Movie Trailer
42. Jungle film costume: APE SUIT. A little APE SUIT history
44. Cacophony: DIN. A four-syllable clue for a one-syllable, three-letter word. Welcome to Friday!!
45. "The Hobbit" dragon: SMAUG. Did you ever wonder how they shot some of the animated scenes which use actor's voices? Watch the first and then the second
46. Not cool at all: TENSE. The antonym of 4-Down
47. Expand: WIDEN. I am guessing that part of the eventual "infrastructure" bill in Congress is the plan to both rebuild and WIDEN certain roads and bridges. I never could quite understand why, as a kid, when we took the PA Turnpike west of Harrisburg, the seven tunnels used were all only two-lanes wide when the highway itself was four. Until I discovered the history. Here is a brief snippet from Federal Highway Administration dot gov:
The Turnpike originally began as a railway route. The construction began in the 1880s but was never completed, even though a combined total of 4.5 miles of tunnel had been dug through seven mountains. Called the "Tunnel Highway" or "America's Super Highway," the seven-tunnel Pennsylvania Turnpike opened 60 years later in the fall of 1940 as a four-lane highway. For truckers, the down-hill travel on the low grades would be mechanically safer, and all motorists could enjoy a safe journey while also saving time. At a cost of more than $61 million, the 160-mile roadway took 770,000 tons of sand, 1,200,000 tons of stone, 50,000 tons of steel, and more than 300,000 tons of cement to complete.
The 24-foot wide lanes, divided into 12-foot lanes, accommodated the width of vehicles, but shrunk to 11.5 feet wide inside the tunnels where the double lanes ended and only one lane in each direction began. In 1941, after one year of operation, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission reported more than two million cars had traveled the road. By 1960, however, there were many more vehicles on the roadway causing congestion and delays at the tunnels. Some of these delays were as long as five miles.
49. Sushi prep verb: ROLL. Watch and learn; it seems to me that you're paying for the labor, not the ingredients:
50. Shout: YELL. Per Google, I checked to see just how "loud" a shout or YELL is: "Using everyday items you could probably measure sounds in the range of roughly 20 to 80 dB. ... Loud appliances such as a vacuum cleaner or power tools could exceed 80 dB. Human YELLS can be quite loud, possibly exceeding 100 dB (as of March 2019, the world record is 129 dB!). That's loud
55. Promising words: I DO. One of the sixteen three-letter fills used in today's puzzle. I like the clue; "I DO, I DO!"
56. Dab that'll do your do: GEL. But was the one that I recall really a GEL or was it something else? It definitely had a memorable commercial ad for TV:
57. Dander: IRE. Technically speaking, the word "dander" refers to tiny scales shed from human or animal skin or hair. Dander floats in the air, settles on surfaces, and makes up a good portion of household dust. Cat dander is a common cause of allergic reactions. But in the phrase "get one's[sic] dander up", "dander" refers to anger, or IRE. I hate to end on a negative, so I'll plea, "Thumper"
Here's the grid:
Please feel free to comment below . . .
Notes from C.C.:
Happy birthday to Dear Anon-T (Tony), who
turns 51 year old today. The First picture is Tony on Father's Day hiking At Wit's End
near Carmel. And of course, we just saw him and Leo a few days ago. Thanks for the care and attention you've given to each of us on the
blog over the year, Tony!
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| Tony 2017 |
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| Anon-T & Leo, 7/3/2021 |
