Friday, July 21, 2023, Jess Schulman, Shannon Rapp

 

Good Morning, Cruciverbalists.  Malodorous Manatee here with today's recap of a puzzle by Jess Shulman and Shannon Rapp.

Let us begin with the reveal:

57 Across:  Business retreat, and an apt title for this puzzle?: COMPANY OUTING.

OUTING is used here as a stand-in for take out.  No, not like in take-out food but as in to remove something. The removal is employed at three places within the grid where our puzzle setters delete the abbreviation for COMPANY (CO) from recognizable names and phrases.  

20 Across:  Melt down in response to some trash talk?: PANIC AT THE DIS.  Before the "outing" PANIC AT THE DISCO.  DIS as in to criticize.  Panic at the Disco was an American pop rock band.

36 Across:  Talent for sliding into someone's DMs?: PING SKILLS.  DM is contemporary talk  for Direct Messaging.  Before the "outing" COPING SKILLS.  PING is a network utility used to test reachability of a host.  Alternatively, PING me."

43 Across:  Little cat with a beachy vibe?: CALI KITTEN.  CALI as in California.  I wish they all could be California cats, I suppose.  Before the "outing" CALICO KITTEN.

Here is how this looks in the completed grid.  It proved impossible to highlight the letters that were not there:

The remaining clues and answers are:

Across:

1. History: PAST.

5. Dreamcast maker: SEGA.  A home video game console.

9. Blessing preceder: ACHOO.  Gezuntheit.

14. "__, Brute?": ET TU.  A Shakespearean reference.

15. God attended by Valkyries: ODIN.

16. Intact: WHOLE.

17. Instagram video: REEL.  A contemporary usage of the word REEL.

18. Compact __: DISC.  They replaced LPs

19. Like some seals: EARED.  Most often fur seals and sea lions.

23. Refill: TOP UP.  As in a cocktail or fuel tank.  Do we TOP UP electric vehicles?

24. Costa del __: SOL.

25. AED pro: EMT.  Automated External Defibrillator was new to this solver but the perps quickly led to Emergency Medical Technician because EMTs appear here frequently.

28. Copy cats?: MEOW.  Not exactly copycats as in persons who imitate.   Literally, copy a cat.

30. Noisy bird: MAGPIE.  See also 33 Down.

33. Colorado's __ Verde National Park: MESA.  Cliff dwellings.

39. Haim of "Licorice Pizza": ALANA.  Unknown to this solver.  As the puzzles get more contemporary I find myself becoming less enthusiastic about some of them.  I also know that time marches on and a puzzle full of references to prior generations of entertainers won't do either.

41. Zodiac lion: LEO.

42. __-garde: AVANT.

46. Peepers: EYES.  If one goes looking online for the old song one is "rewarded" with many references to the horror movies.  The phrase predates both.  Louis Armstrong sang it to an eponymous horse.

Jeepers Creepers

47. Connect: ATTACH.   What can you ATTACH to a ball, a cart or a harp to make it something completely different.  OON.

48. "Star Wars" family name of Han and Ben: SOLO.

50. Bentley of "Yellowstone": WES.

51. Substance that lacks refinement?: ORE.  Nice word play.   No, not the French city.

54. Benchmarks: NORMS.  If Weird Al Yankovic wasn't weird he'd be called NORM Al.

62. Language of Iran: FARSI.   . . . and portions of Los Angeles.

64. Exam with a max score of 180: LSAT.  The law school aptitude test.

65. Sunburn salve: ALOE.  Often applied in crossword puzzles.

66. __ beverage: ADULT.  Alcohol.

67. Entice: LURE.

68. Mario __: game with a Rainbow Road: KART.

69. Captcha target: ROBOT.    A contrived acronym for "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart".  It is a type of challenge-response test used in computing to determine whether the user is human.

70. Itches: YENS.  As in desires not allergic reactios.

71. Docs who insert tympanostomy tubes: ENTS.  Our second medical reference with an abbreviated clue (Docs) and answer.  Ear Nose and Throat specialistS

Down:

1. BOLO target: PERP.  Be On The Alert.  PERPetrator not a crossing word in a puzzle.

2. Patronized, as a restaurant: ATE AT.

3. Shorthand pro: STENO.  A somewhat obsolete profession.

4. Dutch market craze of the late 1630s: TULIP MANIA.  Perhaps not what we have been led to believe,

Smithsonian Magazine - September 2017

5. Soft drink: SODA POP.

What Is It Called Across the USA

6. Address plot holes, perhaps: EDIT.

7. General ideas: GISTS.  What do biologists, archaeologists and meteorologists all have in common?  They all get the GIST of their fields.

8. Dried poblano: ANCHO.

9. Amazed: AWED.  A truck loaded with thousands of copies of Roget's Thesaurus crashed yesterday losing its entire load.  Witnesses were stunned, startled, aghast, taken aback, stupefied, confused, shocked, rattled, paralyzed, dazed, bewildered, mixed up, surprised, awed, dumbfounded, nonplussed, flabbergasted, astounded, amazed, confounded, astonished, overwhelmed, horrified, numbed, speechless, and perplexed.

10. Milky spiced tea: CHAI.

11. Tomfoolery: HORSEPLAY.

12. La Liga cheer: OLE.  A soccer reference.

13. Ref. work that once employed J.R.R. Tolkien: OED.  Oxford English Dictionary.  Tolkien was an English author best known for the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

21. Snooker stick: CUE.

22. Long-lived trees: ELMS.  Neither Sequoias nor Bristle Cone Pines would fit.

26. Eeyore creator: MILNE.  A Winnie The Pooh reference.

27. Challenges: TESTS.  Both can be used as nouns or verbs so that wasn't at issue.

29. Go limp: WILT.

31. Pseudonym indicator: AKA.  Also Known As

32. "Ish": GIVE OR TAKE.

33. Noisy bird: MACAW.  The second noisy bird today.

34. Thrill: ELATE.

35. Element of a margarita pedicure: SALT SCRUB.  Margarita pedicures are not within my ken.  SALT, however, was not surprising as part of the answer.

37. Aquarium scoop: NET.

38. "So It __ ... ": song on Taylor Swift's "Reputation": GOES.  Is Taylor Swift now channeling Kurt Vonnegut?

40. "For the love of all things dog" org.: AKC.

44. Eatery with a "Happy Face" combo on the kids menu: IHOP.

45. "Don't change a thing": NO NOTES.

49. "Mambo No. 5" singer Bega: LOU.

52. Comeback: RALLY.

53. Follow: ENSUE.

55. "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" novelist Kundera: MILAN.  MILAN Kundera passed away on July 11, 2023.

56. Stifled laugh: SNORT.

58. Norse city name that can be translated as "meadow of the gods": OSLO.  Frequently visited in our puzzles.

59. Fly catcher?: MITT.  A baseball reference.

"I Got It"

60. Crocheter's supply: YARN.

61. Understands: GETS.  Can you dig it?

62. Way off: FAR.

63. Fuss: ADO.

Well, coworkers, that will wrap things up for today.  For those of you entertaining guests this weekend, enjoy your COMPANY.

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