Friday, October 14, 2022 Christina Iverson

Theme:

Christina Iverson is becoming a regular contributor to the L.A. Times crossword. She's back today with a bit of a rebus. Four emotions, clued as "Feeling under the weather?" are placed directly beneath four words from your daily forecast. The feelings are literally "under the weather." It's probably easiest to understand by examining the grid:

 

Other than placement, The emotions don't seem to have any relation to the weather words. We have WIND/FEAR, RAIN/LOVE, SNOW/HOPE, SUN/IRE. It would've been nice if Christina could have found another 4-letter pair to replace SUN/IRE, but it's still a pretty neat theme. As is the custom lately, there were plenty of proper names in today's puzzle, but the perps always came to the rescue. I'm happy to say that no WAGs were required. Maybe Christina will drop by to explain her inspiration for this one.  

Across:

 

1. "The Mandalorian" actor Weathers: CARL. No clue. I stopped following when Jar Jar Binks appeared.

 

5. Half of hexa-: TRI. Hexa:6, Tri:3. 

 

8. Parrot: MIMIC.

13. On track to win: AHEAD.

15. Lav: LOO. No hint that it's British on a Friday. 

 

16. Jungian archetype: ANIMA. One's true inner self in Carl Gustav Jung's analytical psychology. 

 

 

 

17. Cozy spot to read a book, perhaps: BAY WINDOW. Wind source.

 

19. Tiffany collectibles: LAMPS. Created by Louis Comfort Tiffany in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They make frequent appearances on Antiques Roadshow on PBS. 

 

20. Feeling under the weather?: FEAR. Theme "feeling." 

 

21. Omniscient: ALL WISE. ALL KNOWING was too long. 

 

23. Fencing move: THRUST. LUNGE was too short. 

 

26. "Born a Crime" memoirist Trevor: NOAH. After seven years, he recently announced he's leaving his late-nite TV talk show. 

 

27. Keeps in office: REELECTS.

30. Fit: TRIM. These two words go together just like AID and ABET. 

 

32. Have a bug: AIL.

33. Spot where soap scum may accumulate: SHOWER DRAIN. Rain source. Also hair, when showering after a haircut. 

 

37. Some forensic drama spinoffs: CSIs. The original Las Vegas location is back this season, and Marg Helgenberger is returning as Catherine Willows after a 10-year hiatus. Not sure this is one of CBS's better ideas. 

 

39. Little bit: TAD.

40. Feeling under the weather?: LOVE. Theme feeling. 

 

41. "That's hardly a surprise": IT'S NO WONDER. Snow source. 

 

46. Syncopated work: RAG. Scott Joplin was a master. 

 

47. Feeling under the weather?: HOPE. Theme feeling. 

 

48. Practice of slicing open a bottle of champagne: SABERING. If you've got five minutes to waste, Alton Brown explains everything you need to know to master the art of sabering. 

 

 50. Sported: WORE. Had on. 

 

52. City east of El Paso: ODESSA. East? Yes. Close? No. It'll take you 4 hours to drive the 284 miles.

 

53. Nonspeaking roles on 37-Across: CORPSES. Corpse roles are usually nonspeaking.

 

56. Bath toy: BOAT. No rubber ducky? 

 

57. Fire sign of spring: ARIES. Leo and Sagittarius are the other two fire signs. 

 

58. Expenditures that can't be recovered: SUNK COSTS. SUN source. 

 

 63. Asian gambling mecca: MACAU. Sometimes spelled MACAO. It's a couple hour bus trip from Hong Kong. 

 

64. Feeling under the weather?: IRE. Feeling source. 

 

65. Bridal gown part: TRAIN. Well, actually it's the caboose. 

 

66. Proto- finish: PLASM. Ecto, too. 

 

67. U.K. part: ENG. England. 

 

68. Bridge payment: TOLL.

Down:
 

1. Semi-important part?: CAB.

2. "The penny drops!": AHA. Now I get it. 

3. "West Coast" singer Lana Del __: REY. "Elizabeth Woolridge Grant, known professionally as Lana Del Rey, is an American singer and songwriter. Her music is noted for its cinematic quality and exploration of tragic romance, glamour, and melancholia, containing references to contemporary pop culture and 1950s–1960s Americana." Wikipedia 

 

4. Legitimate: LAWFUL. Licit. 

 

5. Internet abbreviation before an internet abbreviation?: TLDR. I believe "TLDR" is text-speak for "too long, didn't read." So I suppose that second "internet abbreviation" would be a link to that document? Dunno. 

 

6. Hopping marsupial, casually: ROO. Kangaroo. 

 

7. Ames resident: IOWAN. Ames is home to the Iowa State University Cyclones. 

 

8. Wild duck: MALLARD. Also "Ducky" on NCIS. AHA, now it's time for that ducky. 

 

9. Spinning: IN A WHIRL.

10. Rogers of "Bosch: Legacy": MIMI.

 

 

11. Little devils: IMPS.

12. Bulk buy: CASE. Beer comes to mind. 

 

14. Double daggers, in printing: DIESES. Learning moment. It's this symbol: ‡ Asterisk, dagger, and double-dagger are used to denote items which are referenced later in the document, usually at the bottom of the current page.

 

18. "Goes without sayin'": NATCH. Colloquial "Naturally." 

 

22. Tolkien trilogy, to fans: LOTR. Lord Of The Rings.

 

 

23. "Braxton Family Values" sister: TRACI. Braxton Family Values is an American reality television series that airs on WE tv and premiered on April 12, 2011. It chronicles the lives of the Braxton sisters: Toni, TRACI, Towanda, Trina and Tamar and their mother, Evelyn" Wikipedia News to me.

 

24. Caper film event: HEIST.

25. Chicago dog component: RELISH. But NO KETCHUP! 

 

28. "... and your little dog, too!" dog: TOTO.

 

via GIPHY

 

 

29. Graceful swimmers: SWANS. Mean critters. 

 

31. Indigenous New Zealanders: MAORIS.

34. Old Icelandic text: EDDA. Hello, old cw friend. 

 

35. Director Reitman and tennis great Lendl: IVANS. Knew Lendl, but not Reitman.

 

36. "Passing" actress Ruth: NEGGA.

 

38. Stir-fry vegetables: SNOW PEAS.

42. Marsupial that plays dead: OPOSSUM.Cute when they're little.

 

 

Then there's Ole Possum, George Jones.

 

 

43. "Now __ talking!": WE'RE. I've usually heard it with "You're" rather than "We're." 

 

44. Tablet download: E-BOOK. I read Kindle E-books on my phone now, after my Kindle Paperwhite (my 3rd Kindle reader) bit the dust. 

 

45. Censor for security reasons, e.g.: REDACT. The first time do you simply "dact" it? 

 

49. Sharp comeback: RETORT.

51. Nail polish brand in square bottles: ESSIE. I'm sure we've seen this before. I'm equally sure that I forgot it by lunch time that day. 

 

53. Like-minded group: CAMP.

54. Hard-to-cheat-on exam: ORAL.

55. Costa __: RICA.

56. Rare blood type, briefly: B-NEG.

 

59. Spigoted server: URN. Not all urns are spigoted, but I believe all samovars have spigots. When we visited Japan back in the 60's there was a samovar at the breakfast buffet. Its spigot was labeled in English "Open / Crose." 

 

60. __ Tomé and Príncipe: SAÕ. Whenever you see saõ you can be sure there's a Portuguese connection. 

 

61. Up to, in ads: TIL.

62. Bowen Yang's show, for short: SNL. Saturday Night Live. That's about it. I was called up when Lemonade begged off due to health issues. I sure hope he's feeling better. Desper-otto, heading back to the minors... 

 

Notes from C.C.:

1) Thanks for stepping in again, D-Otto! 

2) Lemonade has decided to take a step back from blogging due to health reasons. Our blog labels showed that he started blogging for us on August  26, 2011 and wrote a total 550 posts (Thanks for the correction, TTP). That did not include the early days when I copied and pasted his writeups to the blog, just I did today with D-Otto's post. Thank you so much for your time and efforts these years, Lemonade! Looking forward to your pinchhitting someday!