Good Morning, Cruciverbalists. Malodorous Manatee here with today's recap. I hope that everyone had a great (extended) Independence Day holiday.
Our puzzle setter is Hanh Nuynh for whom I see references on the Crossword Fiend site but not on the LAT site so, once again, this may be an LAT debut.
Today's puzzle theme consists of four entries and a reveal. Within those entries, our constructor has inserted the letters AD into other words to create appropriate answers to the somewhat (of necessity) strained clues.
The reveal sums things up pretty clearly so let's start with that:
59 Across: Words on an empty billboard, and a hint to how the answers to the starred clues were formed: YOUR AD HERE. We've all seen this many times IRL, if not in our puzzles.
The four places (with the clues marked by asterisks for our convenience) where these insertions are to be found are:
17 Across: *Abandoned in the shallow end?: LEFT WADING. LEFT WING is transformed into the answer. I came across this theme answer before the others and, at first, thought that the "riff" was going to be along the lines of changing WAITING to WADING.
23 Across: *Group that oversees some sauces in the kitchen?: MARINADE CORPS. My IT to D theory was clearly not going to work out here.
36 Across: *Not fully self-indulgent?: HALF WAY DECADENT. HALF WAY DECENT
49 Across: *Job description for a private eye?: SHADOW AND TELL What did you bring to share with the class today?
Here is how this all looks in the grid:
, . . . and below are the rest of the clues and their answers:
Across:
1. "Mi __ es su ... ": CASA. This could be cited as today's Spanish lesson but it seems like this expression has been adopted into American English vernacular usage (much like RSVP, below). My house is your house.
5. Notice with a clickable 10-Across: E-VITE and 10. 5-Across letters: RSVP. Invitation and reply to same.
14. Sitting on: ATOP. The God of Thunder rode up the mountain ATOP his trusty steed. "I am Thor!" he cried. "Of course you are," replied his horse, "You forgot your thaddle, thilly."
15. Romantic partner: LOVER. Let Paul please explain . . .
16. Red Muppet: ELMO. A frequent visitor
19. Shiny wrap: FOIL.
20. __ tai: MAI.
21. Long walk: HIKE.
22. Question of methodology: HOW.
28. Minecraft resources: ORES. I have never played the Minecraft game but am familiar with the resources from solving crossword puzzles.
29. Plug: PROMOTE. Neither an electrical nor a hair restoration reference.
31. Text that may have red squiggly underlining: TYPO.
42. Brewpub pours: ALES. IPAS would have fit the allotted space.
43. Olympus neighbor: OSSA. We used to see Mt. OSSA often in our puzzles during what I sometimes refer to as the "age of snood". We did see this last Sunday clued as "Thessaly Peak".
57. Pot-baking spot: KILN. Not where you got to get "baked" on pot. And not where you would place the pot to bake the food therein. The place where you would "fire" the pot when you were making it out of clay.
62. Blizzard component, often: OREO. Blizzard, in this case, is a blended milkshake-like drink from Dairy Queen. The clue takes advantage (to mislead us) of the convention that has the first word all crossword clues capitalized.
What's In The Middle? The White Stuff
63. Shift neighbor: ENTER. A computer keyboard reference.
64. See 56-Down: EGGS with 56 Down. With 64-Across, retirement funds: NEST. NEST EGGS Idiomatic
65. Ramona, per Beezus: PEST. A reference to the 1955 children's novel written by Beverly Cleary and subsequent media adaptations.
Ramona and her sister Beatrice, aka Beezus
66. Requires: NEEDS. Whenever my girlfriend is upset I let her color in my black and white tattoos. Sometimes she just NEEDS a shoulder to crayon.
67. Rendezvous: MEET. Used as a verb.
Down:
1. Chill: CALM. Idiomatic.
2. First-stringers: A TEAM. I will skip the Mr. T reference.
5. "Seinfeld" character with unusual dance moves: ELAINE.
Elaine Benes and Friends
6. Stoli and Smirnoff: VODKAS. Stolichnaya and Smirnoff.
7. Like Wrigley Field's outfield walls: IVIED.
8. Messi's jersey number: TEN. A soccer (football) reference.
9. Work unit: ERG.
10. Improve: REFORM. A bit of a stretch. Remember when kids talked about getting sent to IMPROVE School? Not!
11. Sluggish ones: SLOWPOKES. SLOW POKES are something else entirely.
12. The Keydets of the NCAA: VMI.
13. Party pro: POL. Often seen.
18. Sound at a drone race: WHIR. A modern reference for WHIR.
22. Commotion: HOOHA. Usually we get ADO as the answer.
24. __ deck: ROOF. Anyone go with POOP?
25. Olympic blade: EPEE. A weapon frequently employed in crossword puzzles.
26. Colorful clog: CROC. Shoes. Often clued as a 'gator's cousin.
27. Worships to excess, in slang: STANS. The act of being overly obsessed with an artist/person/character/etc. STalker + fAN = STAN. Used, here, as a verb.
30. Jazz legend James: ETTA. A frequent visitor.
31. Take __: admit defeat: THE L Take the Loss or in crosswordese DNF?
32. Graph line: Y AXIS.
33. Continuity problems: PLOT HOLES. Why didn't Kevin just call the cops in Home Alone?
34. Football meas.: YDS. YarDS
37. Rabbit conjurers: WANDS. Hand up for first thinking that this was going to be a person not an inanimate object.
38. Choir part: ALTO.
39. Pained cry: YEOW. YEOH and YEOW in the same puzzle!
40. Lavish affection (on): DOTE.
45. Emphatic denial: I AM NOT. I AM pretty certain that we can all think of others.
46. Was obviously asleep: SNORED.
47. Mystery awards named for a mystery writer: EDGARS. Named for Edgar Allan Poe.
48. VA concern: PTSD. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
50. Like some angles: ACUTE. Less than 90 degrees.
51. Medieval lord: LIEGE. A bit of an odd word because LIEGE can also mean vassal.
52. Tee size: LARGE. T-shirt
57. Keystone __: KOP. A throwback to an earlier era.
58. Isl. with four provinces: IRE. The Island is IREland. Don't get mad.
59. Hong Kong actor/director Donnie: YEN. You know where to find the info.
60. Four quarters: ONE. I was once asked "How many quarters are there in a basketball game?"
