Puzzling thoughts: Friday puzzles are now officially categorized as "wordplay". It seems that the last several puzzles that I (and MM) have recapped are all based around play-on-words/puns. Not sure if this is by design, but it sure seems like more than a coincidence. And I have no complaints! I much prefer recapping these, as puns are in my "wheelhouse". Let's see how Jeff Stillman created today's entries:
17-Across. Preference for the center of the road?: MEDIAN BIAS. Playing off of the more common and popular phrase, "MEDIA BIAS". MEDIAN is the center part of a divided highway. This clip shows "The Bandit" and his "MEDIAN BIAS" (check the scenes from 1:42 to 1:48 of this trailer)
29-Across. Where a Met singer reclines between arias?: OPERA DIVAN. "DIVA" has become a crossword "staple" (along with ARIA), so the phrase "OPERA DIVA" makes sense. To my ear, DIVAN and DAVENPORT (a less often used term for "sofa") sound alike. But according to [wiki diff], a DIVAN is: "A couch- or sofa-like piece of furniture made of a mattress lying against the wall and either on the floor or an elevated structure." It doesn't have to have a back support. Either way, a clever play-on-words
46-Across. Cereal that has amazing health benefits?: WONDER BRAN. Drop the "N" from this entry (great clue, BTW) and you're left with ... well, you can figure it out! But since I am not going to post a picture of that piece of lingerie, I'll add a Moe-ku instead:
Not wanting implants,
The lass stuffed some Wonder Bread
In her WONDER BRA
61-Across. Hotel choice leading up to Eid al-Fitr?: RAMADAN INN. First off, the clue/entry is pretty darn clever. However, not all would know that Eid al-Fitr (according to [Wikipedia]) is: "the earlier of the two official holidays celebrated within Islam. The religious holiday is celebrated by Muslims worldwide because it marks the end of the month-long dawn-to-sunset fasting of Ramadan. RAMADA INN hotels have been owned by Wyndham since 2006.
Fun fact: The first RAMADA INN was built on the old Route 66 in Flagstaff, AZ, back in the early 1950's
And the entry that didn't make the cut (too many letters to fit): "What does Sally (from Peanuts) call her pet primate?" Answer: MY SWEET BABBOON [sic]
Here is the grid, and then off to the rest of the words/clues ...
Across:
1. "Likewise": SO AM I. DITTO fit, too
6. Oft-misused pronoun: WHOM. This seems to be a good explanation
10. Scholastic nos.: GPAS. Grade Point AverageS
14. Labor alliance: UNION. Hoping that the collective UNIONs that are involved with the Railroad industry come to an agreement by the time this blog posts [spoiler alert: I am writing this on Tuesday Nov 29th]
15. Icicle spot: EAVE. Moe-ku 2:
Where icicles form
December the 24th?
On Christmas Eve EAVE
16. "If all __ fails ... ": ELSE. Drop back 10 yards and punt
19. Significant other: MATE. MARGARET didn't fit into this spot, but she's MY MATE
20. Neruda's "__ to Salt": ODE. [as copied from some random Google result I saw on the Web]
"This salt in the saltcellar I once saw in the salt mines.
I know you won't believe me, but it sings,
Salt sings, the skin of the salt mines sings with a mouth smothered by the earth.
I shivered in those solitudes when I heard the voice of the salt in the desert"
21. Sport: WEAR. "Sport" is also a nickname for a guy
22. Slopes topper: SKI CAP. Also worn by football players ...
24. APB subject: PERP. We here at the Crossword Corner prefer THIS clue: "Word that avoids having a Natick?"
25. Biblical possessive: THINE. Fun Fact about quotes (from the Bible or not?) [from adefiniteplan dot com] Does the Bible say "to thine own self be true"?
"I commonly hear “Be true to yourself.” It's most commonly misquoted as coming out of the Bible as “To THINE own self be true.” It's NOT in the Bible. It comes from William Shakespeare's Hamlet. Sometimes we get confused about Shakespeare's quotes because he used over 2,000 Bible verses in his writings"
26. "Pumice-powered" soap: LAVA. A manly soap ...
33. Valuable violin: AMATI. You want one? Visit this website
35. Hang out in a hammock: LOLL. LAZE fits, too
36. "Odds __ ... ": ARE. Odds ARE "even money" that Moe will give you a song video! From the group that had the theme song for "The Big Bang Theory", Barenaked Ladies ... enjoy!
37. __ cit.: footnote notation: LOC. [from proofed dot com] "How do you write loc cit?"
“Loc. cit.” is an abbreviation of loco citato, which means “in the place cited.” It is used when citing the exact same part of a source as in a previous citation:"
38. Response producers: STIMULI. "Groans" are the STIMULI that follow many of my Moe-kus and R-O-S's daffynitions
41. Paris article: LES. "THE" could fit, if the clue meant Paris, KY
42. 2010 health law, for short: ACA. Affordable Care Act. Thumper
43. Pests treated with Nix Ultra shampoo: LICE. I wonder if LAVA soap works???
44. Needle: TAUNT. TEASE fits, among other 5-letter words here. How about these? ANNOY, BULLY, CHAFF, FLIRT, GOADS, HAUNT, JESTS, JIVES, PUT ON, SCOFF, ARROW, STING, and I'm sure many more. One-word Friday clues should always have some vagueness
50. Wasabi __: PEAS. Spicy little devils ... FYI, I watched this until the bloody end ... I suggest you fast forward through most of it, but listen to the last couple minutes. This is just an example of what we bloggers do to keep you solvers amused!! ;^)
51. Carved symbol: TOTEM.
52. Wall calendar span: YEAR. WEEK fit, too
54. First woman Speaker of the House: PELOSI. Soon to be replaced by Kevin McCarthy - not a woman, but also a representative from CA
56. Hit or miss: VERB. Nice clue to provide a little Friday "diversion". The phrase "hit or miss" is more common to our brain than to break the words down to being either a noun, a verb, et al
57. Hon: BAE. I'm adjusting to the new words/expressions that are finding their way into crossword puzzles; slowly, but surely
60. Run __: AMOK.
64. Moreno of "West Side Story": RITA. She appeared in both movies; the 1961 and 2021 versions. The imbedded video is an interview of RITA as well as some clips from each movie
65. Jazz singer Anita: O'DAY. Here she is singing "That Old Feeling"
66. Govt. investment: T-BOND. Moe-ku 3
Roger Moore said this,
When asked about investing:
"T-BOND; not James Bond"
67. Crafty website: ETSY. I actually bought a couple of things from this website - back when the pandemic first hit I found some sports-themed facemasks from various craftspersons
68. Plane part: NOSE. WING also fit
69. Alleviates: EASES.
Down:
1. Sport with referees called gyoji: SUMO. Haiku, of course:
Japanese wrestler
Has legal issue, with Stooge.
He wants to SUMO
2. Linear: ONE D. "ONED" looked funny; ONE "D", not so much. Short for one dimensional (linear)
3. Assistant: AIDE.
4. "Pretentious? __?": MOI. Who else but Miss Piggy??
5. Flabbergasted: IN AWE.
6. Google Docs, e.g.: WEB APP. APP is another of those words - like "BAE" - that is becoming a crossword staple
7. Bun contents: HAIR. I suppose BRAT could fit if it were referring to a type of bread/roll
8. Egg cells: OVA.
9. Private eatery: MESS HALL. Ha ha; "private" as in a soldier's rank
10. NASA's second human spaceflight program: GEMINI. Could've been clued as: "One who is born between May 21 and June 20"
11. Mathematical concept based on a digit's position: PLACE VALUE. I found this interesting novelty on-line; it's a PLACE VALUE placemat! ;^)
12. Hammett dog: ASTA. Nick and Nora's pet
13. Permeate: SEEP. When the water table's high, perhaps?
18. Adopted son of Claudius: NERO. Who knew? Not I. Always a learning experience doing crossword puzzles
23. Judy Blume books, e.g.: KID LIT. Margaret helped me with this as I was solving the puzzle, otherwise I would have had to look it up. Here is a link to her website. I'll ask my daughter if she had any of Blume's books as a kid, or if she has bought some for my less than 3 year-old grandson
24. Butter square: PAT. This made me think of when butter PATs were actually used in restaurants. Probably back when they last used sugar cubes ...
25. Slangy slacks: TROU. An even slangier term is for boxers/briefs: "U-TROU"
26. Dey-time drama?: L.A. LAW. Another "groaner" clue, as you need to see that DEY is used, not DAY. Susan Dey is the actor who starred in L.A. LAW
27. BP subsidiary: AMOCO. Hard sometimes to keep track of all the mergers within the oil and gas industry
28. Developers' purchases: VACANT LOTS. Here in our part of AZ there have been a huge number of developers buying VACANT LOTS (aka, "the desert") to create new housing; mostly rentals
30. Cartoon hunter who tries to take a vacation in "Wabbit Twouble": ELMER. I knew this was "ELMER FUDD" as the word "Wabbit" gave it away. So, Moe, how about a video?? OK, since you asked! Wabbit Twouble
31. Boxing venue: ARENA.
32. Egg holders: NESTS.
34. Archipelago units: ISLETS.
39. Flat-changing tool, once: TIRE IRON. Once upon a time, for most readers here. Ever since tubeless tires have become the norm, and ever since hubcaps disappeared, a TIRE IRON is not normally used to fix a flat. But I am guessing that the wrench end of one could still remove the lug nuts ...
40. Disarmament subj.: ICBM. Crossword staple abbr
45. Spring mo.: APR. Crossword staple abbr - MAR or JUN could have fit, too
47. Just get by: DO OKAY. Anyone else try "EKE OUT" in this spot?
48. "Understood, cap'n": AYE AYE. Yes, yes
49. Young Sheldon, e.g.: NERD. One of Margaret's and my favorite sitcoms
53. Lessen: ABATE. I suppose - in a stretch - ERODE could work here, too
54. Peel: PARE. Does anyone PARE a pear?
55. Discharge: EMIT.
56. MTV statuettes with an astronaut holding a flag: VMAS. Total PERP to get this one. I don't watch MTV so the acronym was not familiar; nonetheless, getting VMAS (short for Video Music AwardS) was pretty easy
57. Many Wiki entries: BIOS. Wiki, as in [Wikipedia dot com]. They are back on their "request for $ kick", so today's blog has been void of any links to them
58. Queen played by Olivia Colman in "The Favourite": ANNE. Read all about it, and play a trailer if you're so inclined
59. Concludes: ENDS. My blog is almost over!!
62. Big fuss: ADO. Much ADO about nothing
63. Slam Dunk Contest org.: NBA. National Basketball Association. Some of the all-time greatest dunks, IMO; number "4" was sick ...
Please enter your comments/questions/thoughts below. See you in a couple weeks ...
