Straighten Up And Fly Right
Good Morning, Cruciverbalists, from high altitude. Well, perhaps not as high as our friends above, but at 9,375 feet the weather has been cold and snowy and goggles do come in handy.
Today's puzzle setter is George Jasper. The earliest puzzle by George that I was able to find on the Corner website was from 2017 with something like a half-dozen others also recapped here between 2019 and 2021.
Similar to the puzzle this marine mammal recapped a couple of weeks ago, there are no topically-defined theme answers but, rather, four places marked with asterisks where adjoining scrambled letters spanning two words can be found in circles. When unscrambled, the letters all spell GATE. The unifier appears at:
56 Across: Airport annoyance, and a literal hint to the answers to starred clues: GATE CHANGE. By today's standards, a minor annoyance indeed.
Here are the asterisked clues and answers:
17 Across: *It's hard to put down: PAGE TURNER. A book that one cannot stop reading.
23 Across: *Bond, for one: SECRET AGENT. Bond, James Bond.
36 Across: *One of about 50 orbiting the Milky Way: SATELLITE GALAXY. A smaller companion galaxy that is in orbit around a larger "host" galaxy
47 Across: *Put the pedal to the metal: GO GREAT GUNS.
. . . . and here is how this all appears in the grid:
There are many polysemous words used in the cluing today. They keep us on our toes.
Across:
1. Assurance on some menus: NO MSG.
6. Current event: EDDY. Clever cluing. Not the news of the day but a current in the water or atmosphere that runs contrary to the main current.
10. Crawled?: SWAM. The crawl is a type of swimming stroke.
14. Have the floor: ORATE.
15. Outback option: RARE. Outback, in this case is the name of a chain of steakhouse restaurants. A clue that riffs on the fact that all crossword clues start with a capital letter.
16. Head light: HALO. Not an automobile reference in this case. A religious reference.
19. Like much cheese: AGED. I really like a well-aged Gouda with those crystals.
20. Middle of Cannes?: ENS. We have seen this type of clue before and are less likely than in the past to be significantly delayed by it. CANNES. Two ENS in the middle of the word.
21. Lend, informally, as money: SPOT. Can you SPOT me a ten-spot until pay day?
22. Think the world of: ADORE.
26. Clothing buyer's pleased words: IT FITS. If the shoe fits wear it.
29. Also-ran's terse summary: I LOST.
30. Buzzer beater?: SWAT. Not a basketball reference. As in to SWAT (or beat, apparently) a buzzing insect.
31. Low point: NADIR.
33. "Awesome, dude!": RAD. Slang word. Shortened form of "radical". Popular in the 1980's.
40. Saddlebag carrier: ASS. It's not yet as difficult to come up with new clues for ASS as it is to do so for OREO - but it's getting close.
41. Roof features: EAVES.
42. Qwirkle piece: TILE. I do not know the game. It looks a bit like Dominoes.
43. Colonial diplomat Silas: DEANE. The first of six proper nouns in a row.
45. Julia of "Ozark": GARNER.
50. Toyota since 1982: CAMRY.
1982 Camry
51. 31-Down competitor: OLAY.
52. Anthem author: KEY.
55. Component of 53-Down: OBIE. Is this an editing oversight? The OBIE (Off Broadway Theater Award) is a "cousin" of a TONY but I do not believe that an OBIE is a part of the EGOT (see 53 Down) quartet.
59. Slips on: DONS. Not mafia leaders. Opposite of DOFF.
60. Appearance: MIEN.
Chow Mien?
61. Bagel flavor: ONION. Poppy, Plain, and Bialy would have fit the allotted space.
62. Genesis grandson: ENOS. Son of Seth. Grandson of Adam and Eve.
63. Shaw's "__ and the Man": ARMS.
64. Units of power: WATTS. What's the difference between WATTS and Ohms? Watts are units of electrical energy. Ohms are where British people live.
Down:
1. "Don't think so": NOPE. We often see "I bet" as a similar quote.
2. Algerian coastal city: ORAN. Frequently visited in xword puzzles.
3. Time and Money, briefly: MAGS. Clever clue. Time is money, as they say but in this case they are both names of MAGazineS.
4. Abbr. in some vineyard names: STE. Often clued as a French Holy Woman.
5. Prepare: GET SET. On your mark . . .
6. Catcher's interference is charged as one in baseball: ERROR. A somewhat obscure clue for this answer.
Do you know why baseball games are often played at night? Because the bats sleep during the day.
7. Italy's "Supreme Poet": DANTE. DANTE Alighieri (b. 1265 d. 1321)
8. Titled rapper: DRE. Doctor DRE.
9. "__ Blues": "White Album" track: YER. A Beatles reference.
10. Nuances: SHADES.
11. Old West traveling group: WAGON TRAIN.
12. Warn: ALERT. Be A LERT. The world needs more LERTS.
13. Rock's Depeche __: MODE. More New Wave than Rock n' Roll.
18. Lines at the checkout counter?: UPCS. Universal Product CodeS
22. Greek marketplace: AGORA.
23. Something to build on: SITE.
24. Oceans' motions: TIDES.
25. Sacha Baron Cohen persona: ALI G. Borat would not fit.
26. Rae of "Insecure": ISSA.
27. Christmas poem opener: TWAS. . . . and all through the house . . .
28. Inaugural Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee: FATS DOMINO. Along with Ray Charles, James Brown, Chuck Berry, Don & Phil Everly, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley, Sam Cooke and Buddy Holly.
31. Skin care brand: NIVEA.
32. Bolted down: ATE. Not a hardware reference. To eat your food very quickly.
34. Bridge toll unit: AXLE.
35. One skilled at giving hints?: DYER. Hints of color, I suppose. One skilled at giving lints? Innie.
37. "Rescue Me" actor Denis: LEARY. Had it been clued with Timothy I would have solved the clue more rapidly.
38. Road division: LANE.
39. USPS deliveries: LTRS. LeTteRS Abbreviated clue. Abbreviated answer. At least this one has some usage in the "real world" unlike some of the three-or-four-letters-plucked-out-of-a-word that we sometimes see.
44. Way out: EGRESS. Not as in "That's way out, man." The opposite of ingress.
45. Short dip?: GUAC. Not a swim. GUACamole
46. "As I was saying ... ": ANYHOW.
47. Cameroon neighbor: GABON.
48. __ pole: TOTEM. Ski was too short.
49. Secluded locations: GLENS. One of my favorites is GLENdronach.
50. Airport ID, e.g.: CODE.
52. Heal, in a way: KNIT. As with broken bones.
53. Showbiz "grand slam" acronym: EGOT. Emmy. Grammy. Oscar. Tony. EGOOT, anyone?
54. Itches: YENS. Not the Japanese currency.
56. Morning TV fare, initially: GMA. Good Morning America.
57. Word before France or Jordan: AIR. Jordan's national airline is called Royal Jordanian Airlines.
Air Jordan Basketball Shoe
58. CNN anchor Cabrera: ANA. For an interesting take on how the "news of the day" as presented on television stymies rational discussion and shapes the manner in which we process ideas, I recommend the book Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse In The Age of Show Business by Neil Postman.
______________________________________________________
