Thursday November 3, 2022, Carly Schuna

 

 Car Talk
An NPR interview with Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers

 

(and a CSO to Picard)

Today's constructor, Carly Schuna, is relatively new, with one puzzle in the NY Times and two in the LA Times.  I can give you no better introduction to this multi-talented person than Husker's review of her March 26, 2022 outing.  BTW it looks like Carly could give CrossEyedDave a run for the money in the cake department.

Today Carly wants to talk cars, one of modern life's necessities.  She does this with 4 punny clues,  each containing the name of a car manufacturer, and then filling with 4 commonly used two word phrases, each beginning with one of the manufacturer's popular models:

17A. Place that showcases certain Fords?: ESCAPE ROOM.  An escape room, also known as an escape game, puzzle room, or exit game, is a game in which a team of players discover clues, solve puzzles, and accomplish tasks in one or more rooms in order to accomplish a specific goal in a limited amount of time. OTOH, a FORD ESCAPE looks like this:

2023 Ford Escape

29A. Beacon that illuminates some Hondas?: PILOT LIGHT.   A pilot light is a small gas flame, usually natural gas or liquefied petroleum gas, which serves as an ignition source for a more powerful gas burner.  OTOH, a HONDA PILOT looks like this:
 

Honda Pilot

46A. Starting line for a race exclusively for some Hyundais?: ACCENT MARK.  Among other uses accent marks, also called diacritical marks, are used  to indicate the correct pronunciation of words to which they are added.  OTOH, a HYUNDAI ACCENT looks like this:

Hyundai Accent

62A. Overall condition of certain Nissans?: ROGUE STATE.  "Rogue state" (or sometimes "outlaw state") is a term applied by some international theorists to states that they consider threatening to the world's peace. These states meet certain criteria, such as being ruled by authoritarian or totalitarian governments that severely restrict human rights, sponsoring terrorism, or seeking to proliferate weapons of mass destruction.  I'm sure everyone can think of at least one ROGUE STATE that has been in the spotlight for the last half year.  OTOH, a NISSAN ROGUE looks like this:

Nissan Rogue

No reveal, circles, or asterisks.  Here's the grid:
 

Let's  see if we can keep this one on the road ...

Across:

1. Minor in astronomy?: URSA.  The BABY BEAR that is.  Given that male bears are cads, URSA MAJOR must be the MAMMA BEAR.

5. Golden St. region: SOCAL.  SOuthern CALifornia.

10. Org. that includes the Sun and the Sky: WNBA.  Here are the WNBA teams.

14. Gravy __: BOAT.

15. Extremely, in slang: HELLA.  Shouldn't this be HELLAVA?

16. Swag: HAUL.  I think the 2nd definition applies here.

19. Marine mammal with the same colors as an Oreo: ORCA. Or  "Confection with the same colors as a marine mammal" could be yet another clue for OREO.

20. Save: RESCUE.

21. Digital covers?: TOE SOCKS.  They keep your piggies warm.

23. Broadcasting: ON TV.  Does anybody watch this anymore?

25. Result of a crash?: NAP.  I'm about to crash.  I think it's time for my NAP.

26. Planets, poetically: ORBS.  I still think Clyde Tombaugh was right.  Hand up if you think there are 9 planets?

35. Diner staple: MELT.

36. Oft-injured knee parts, for short: ACLS.  An ACL injury is a tear or sprain of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) — one of the strong bands of tissue that help connect your thigh bone (femur) to your shinbone (tibia).

37. Falcon's 69-Across: AERIE.  Sounds kinda scary to me.

38. In the style of: ALA.  Teri and I visited ALA a year back to attend a wedding.  A beautiful state with friendly, generous people.

39. Heartburn remedy: ANTACID.  IMHO, the best ANTACID is drinking lots of water.

41. Nail-biting NFL periods: OTS.

42. Dharma follower: HINDU.   Dharma is a key concept with multiple meanings in Indian religions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism and others.  Although there is no direct single-word translation for dharma in European languages, it is commonly translated as "righteousness", "merit" or "religious and moral duties" governing individual conduct.
 

44. Desktop with a Retina 5K display: IMAC.   Sweet! Hand up if you've got one Apple scruffs?

45. Promote aggressively: TOUT.   Thankfully the TOUTING season will be just about over by next Tuesday, followed by the WRANGLING season over what the REAL results were.

48. Gear on a tour bus: AMPS.

49. "Wanted to mention," for short: BTW. 

50. Ailing: SICK. 

52. "Ahem": EXCUSE ME. 

57. Reunion attendees: NIECES.  And 39D AUNTS.

61. Cross off: X OUT.

64. Tollbooth pricing unit: AXLE.  Correlates nicely with the number of wheels and weight, and thus road wear.

65. Nautical units: KNOTS.  Why do we need different measures of distance and speed on the ocean?

66. Former Indiana governor Bayh: EVAN.  Birch Evans Bayh III, born December 26, 1955 (not to be confused with his father Birch Bayh, Jr.),  is an American lawyer, lobbyist, and Democratic Party politician who served as a United States senator from Indiana from 1999 to 2011 and the 46th governor of Indiana from 1989 to 1997.
 

Evan Bayh

67. Blue part of blue cheese: MOLD.  Is it safe to eat moldy blue cheese?

68. Fills completely: SATES.

69. Egg holder: NEST.  If they're high enough they can be pretty EERIE.

Down:

1. Taxi alternative: UBER.  We tried UBER when we attended a wedding in New York, but the traffic was so bad there that we found it was faster to walk or take the subway.  We did have a lot of success with LYFT in D.C.

2. Thorny subject?: ROSE.  Teri likes roses.  Here's how to grow them.

Peach Rose

3. Anatomical pouches: SACS.   These containers seem to vary so much in their form and function that I was unable to find an overarching definition for them.  The best I could come up with was this Wikipedia subtopic with a menu of links to different types of sacs.

4. Not without consequences: AT A COST.  A clue is related to the Hindu concept of Karma (see 42A).

5. Ovenware for roasting vegetables: SHEET PAN.

6. Above, in odes: OER.  Perhaps the most famous usage of this word is in the ode to our nation's flag: "O’er the ramparts we watch’d were so gallantly streaming ..."

7. Coagulate: CLOT.

8. __ gobi: potato and cauliflower dish: ALOO.  Here's a recipe for Aloo gobi.  I first learned the word Aloo from Aloo parathas, Indian pastries stuffed with spiced potatoes.   I guess Aloo must mean "potato"

9. Mourn: LAMENT.  Lamentations of Jeremiah - No 1 by Thomas Tallis:

10. __ pie: WHOOPIE.  You can make your own.
 

11. DEA agent: NARC.

12. Mets manager Showalter: BUCK.  William Nathaniel "Buck" Showalter III (born May 23, 1956) is an American professional baseball manager for the New York Mets. Previously, he served as manager of the New York Yankees (1992–1995), Arizona Diamondbacks (1998–2000), Texas Rangers (2003–2006), and Baltimore Orioles (2010–2018).

Buck Showalter

13. Word of woe: ALAS.  See 9D.

18. "I threw away my golf shoes when I got a hole in one," e.g.: PUN.  Or maybe "I like to putter and dig holes" ...

22. Leaves in a bowl: SALAD.

24. Mr. Boddy in Clue, e.g.: VICTIM.   Speaking of PUNS.

26. Missouri River city: OMAHA.  Omaha is the largest city in Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about 10 mi (15 km) north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest city, Omaha's 2020 census population was 486,051A.  I did one of DAB's puzzles last week and he clued this as "Nebraska city that sounds like a German grandmother's laughter."  Another CSO to Husker.

27. Remnant of the past: RELIC. 

28. Sauvignon __: BLANC. Sauvignon blanc is a green-skinned grape variety that originates from the Bordeaux region of France. The grape most likely gets its name from the French words sauvage ("wild") and blanc ("white") due to its early origins as an indigenous grape in South West France.  A CSO to CMOE.
 

Sauvignon Grapes

30. Andes animal: LLAMA.  The llama is a domesticated South American camelid, widely used as a meat and pack animal by Andean cultures since the Pre-Columbian era. Or the beast in an Ogden Nash poem.

31. Filmdom awards: OSCARS.  Did they give any awards this year?  All I heard about was this:

"The Slap Heard Round the World"

At least Reuters photo-journalist Brian Snyder made some money from it.

32. Husband-to-be: GROOM.  A bridegroom (often shortened to groom) is a man who is about to be married or who is newlywed.

33. Ask (for): HIT UP. 

34. Battery units?: TESTS.  Here's a battery of tests to determine the usefulness of a battery of tests.

39. Reunion attendees: AUNTS.  And 57A NIECES.

40. Gross feeling: ICKINESS.  "adjective. Informal. Not pleasant or agreeable: bad, disagreeable, displeasing, offensive, uncongenial, unpleasant, unsympathetic. Slang: yucky" - The Free Dictionary

43. Showed for the first time: DEBUTED.  The T is silent. 

45. Relax for a bit: TAKE TEN.  I've only got time to Take Five:

47. Dances suggestively: TWERKS.  I checked out some GIFs, but I don't think Margaret Farrar would approve.

51. Opposite of trans: CIS.   Cis–trans isomers are stereoisomers, that is, pairs of molecules which have the same formula, but whose functional groups are in different orientations in three-dimensional space.  The prefixes "cis" and "trans" are from Latin: "this side of" and "the other side of", respectively.  Here's an example of cis-2-butene and trans-2-butene, both colorless gases used in the synthesis of gasoline.

cis-trans isomers

52. Proctor's handout: EXAM.

53. Sentimental sign-off: XOXO.  Hugs and kisses.  The first recorded usage X was in 1763 by a parson Gilbert White.  The origin of O is speculative and more recent.

54. Winnow: CULL.

55. Poet Van Duyn: MONA.  DNK Pulitzer Prize winning poet Mona Van Duyn (1921–2004), the first woman to serve as U.S. poet laureate.  Selected short poems by Mona Van Duyn.

56. Award quartet that includes 31-Down: EGOT.  Here's a list of EGOT winners.

58. Buckle: CAVE.  CAVE is short for CAVE IN,  a synonym for BUCKLE:

59. Airport guesses, for short: ETAS.

60. In the mail: SENT.

63. Shoshonean language: UTE.  Shoshone, also spelled Shoshoni; also called Snake was a North American Indian group that occupied the territory from what is now southeastern California across central and eastern Nevada and northwestern Utah into southern Idaho and western Wyoming.  Their language was one of the Uto-Aztecan languages.  The  State of Utah derives its name from the UTE language.

Shoshone Indian

Cheers,
Bill

As always, thanks to Teri for proof reading and for her constructive criticism.

waseeley

Carly Schuna, you are invited to post anything you'd like to share about this puzzle, its evolution, the theme, or whatever, in the Comments section below.  We'd love to hear from you.