Tall Tales
Tall tales are often based on real people and real events, but those who tell them reveal a tendency to ...
62A. Embellish the truth, and what the sets of circled letters do?: SPIN A TALE.
Yes, this puzzle has CIRCLES! I know that some of you are not big fans of circles (and you know who you are 😁), but try to imagine how you would have described this puzzle's theme without them. You may recall today's constructor Catherine Cetta's last puzzle in which she used the phrase CHANGE AGENT to reveal what was obvious to all (but regrettably not to this reviewer 🙁), that the word AGENT had been scrambled into each of the theme fills. In today's puzzle she has packaged the word TALE in 4 pairs of 2x2 boxes across 2 consecutive fill lines and then SPUN it by a single letter for each successive pair. IMHO that arrangement wasn't easy to construct. Please post any suggestions in the comments as to how this theme could be described without circles! Here's the grid ...
Across:
1. Have a ball?: DANCE. A CSO to Yellowrocks ...
9. Parking unit: SPACE.
14. Some foreign language exams: ORALS.
15. "The View" co-host Navarro: ANA. ANA Violeta Navarro-Cárdenas (née Navarro Flores; born December 28, 1971) is a Nicaraguan-American political strategist and commentator. She appears on various television programs and news outlets, including CNN, CNN en Español, ABC News, and Telemundo. She is also a co-host of the daytime talk show The View, garnering Emmy Award nominations for her work.
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| Ana Navarro |
17. Fashionable sort?: LATECOMER.
19. Reflexology targets: SOLES. It sounds like acupuncture without the pins. Here's what a doctor has to say about it.
21. Trumpet, e.g.: HORN. Will a French HORN do? Here's the 3rd Movement Rondo - allegro from Mozart's Horn Concerto No. 2 in E-flat major, K. 417 ...
22. One of Australia's six: STATE. Here are Australia's six STATES, two Territories and capital cities.
23. Crow bar?: ROOST. 😀
25. Ship: VESSEL.
26. Store: STASH.
29. Lined up for a cornhole toss: AIMED.
31. Strikes and rebounds: CAROMS. This guy could teach Isaac Newton a few things about ORB dynamics. Note that the 8 ball goes in last, as it should. And get a load of the stunned look on his opponent's face! ...
34. Moore of "G.I. Jane": DEMI. Here's what Ebert had to say. Here's the trailer ...
40. Welcoming presence: GREETER.
42. "That's the __ ridiculous thing I've ever heard!": MOST.
45. Deli slice: SALAMI.
46. Penne, essentially: TUBES. Here's a recipe for PENNE Alla Vodka.
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| Penne Alla Vodka |
49. Attack: ASSAIL.
53. Emmy-winning journalist Connie: CHUNG. Constance Yu-Hwa Chung (born August 20, 1946) is an American journalist who has been a news anchor and reporter for the U.S. television news networks ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, and MSNBC. Some of her more famous interview subjects include Claus von Bülow and U.S. representative Gary Condit, whom Chung interviewed first after the Chandra Levy disappearance, and basketball legend Magic Johnson after he went public about being HIV-positive. In 1993, she became the second woman to co-anchor a network newscast as part of CBS Evening News.
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| Connie Chung |
56. Televises: AIRS. AIR May also be a noun like this one -- originally from Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 3 D major, BWV 1068. It was transcribed from the latter by August Wilhelm to the famous Air on a G String, here performed by Rusanda Panfili ...
61. Alabama city in civil rights history: SELMA. While some of the major battles of the Civil Rights Movement were fought here, the modern city of SELMA has made major strides in equal rights for minorities. Start for example with the fact that the city's current Mayor, James Perkins, is an African American ...
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| James Perkins Mayor of Selma, Alabama |
62. [Theme
reveal]
64. HP rival: EPSON. IMHO, EPSON's printers might rival HP's, but the former is not a major player in the development and marketing of server farms and enterprise management systems like Hewlett-Packard (full disclosure: I was an HP subcontractor for several years ).
65. Garment edge: HEM.
66. Even: LEVEL.
67. Romanov rulers: TSARS.
68. Mind reader's claim: ESP. Extra Sensory Perception. Scientist J.B. Rhine (September 29, 1895 – February 20, 1980), who coined the term ESP, claimed to have demonstrated it experimentally, but, other scientists were skeptical.
69. Optimal: IDEAL.
Down:
1. Agricultural giant whose mascot is Bobby Banana: DOLE. He
looks like a slippery character to me ...
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Aral Sea |
4. Takes it on the lam: CLEARS OUT.
5. Keyboard panic button: ESC.
6. Potatoes-and-peas pastry: SAMOSA. Here's a recipe.
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| Samosas |
8. Rural sight: BARN. Here's a BARN with another crossword favorite, a SILO ..
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Silo and Barn |
9. Doped (out): SUSSED.
10. Tracts: PLOTS.
11. Map lover's book: ATLAS. An ATLAS is typically a bundle of maps of the Earth or of a region of Earth. Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats. In addition to presenting geographic features and political boundaries, many atlases often feature geopolitical, social, religious and economic statistics. They also have information about the map and places in it. The origin of the term dates to 1595, and interestingly has ties to clue 46D.
12. Island with the ancient Minoan palace at Knossos: CRETE. Knossos is a Bronze Age archaeological site in Crete. The site was a major center of the Minoan civilization and is known for its association with the Greek myth of Theseus and the minotaur. It is located on the outskirts of Heraklion.
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Palace of Minos |
18. "Why, what's this!?": OHO. Meh.
24. Units of resistance: OHMS.
25. Zigs or zags: VEERS.
26. Con: SCAM.
27. Chipotle order: TACO.
28. Lines on a flight-tracker map: ARCS. Here's a realtime flight-tracker map. It doesn't show you any ARCS, but it sure shows a lot of planes in the air.
30. EPA concern: MPG.
32. Gangnam District city: SEOUL. Gangnam (lit. South of the Han River), sometimes referred to as the Greater Gangnam Area, is a geographic and cultural region in SEOUL. The region is generally defined as including the city's affluent Gangnam, Seocho districts, and Songpa district which is separated by Tancheon, a tributary of the Han River. Gangnam Style is also the title of a K-POP song satirizing the affluent lifestyle of the area's populace. It's sung in Korean and fortunately I couldn't find a translation.😀
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Gangnam skyline |
36. Spider-Man pointing, e.g.: MEME. All of my researches point to this 1967 episode as the origin of this MEME ...
39. Smack-__ in the middle: DAB. And smack DAB in this middle of this puzzle is a DAB puzzle called Fed Up. And here's what David has to say about it ...
"That’s right—I’m fed up! I’m fed up, for example, with politics,
which is actually just an effect of tribalism, which is in turn just an
effect of human nature, which is itself just an effect of nature in general,
which is after all just an effect of whatever mysterious process created
everything for whatever mysterious purpose. So I’ll just do a
crossword."
I think we all have days like that sometimes. 😀. Spoiler alert: I've posted David's theme at the end of this review, so don't read past my sign off if you intend to do his puzzle.*
41. Merit: EARN.
44. America's Test Kitchen output: RECIPES. Like the NYT you need a subscription to get these RECIPES.
46. Giants: TITANS. ATLAS was a TITAN.
47. __ cocktail: SHRIMP. Judy Kim is giving away this RECIPE for free.
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Shrimp Cocktail |
49. Selling point: ASSET.
50. Choreography units: STEPS.
51. Topping for a 27-Down: SALSA. Here's a recipe for SALSA. I think Catherine just might be a foodie!
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Salsa |
54. SEAL's org.: USN. The United States Navy Sea, Air, and Land (SEAL) Teams, commonly known as Navy SEALs, are the U.S. Navy's primary special operations force and a component of the Naval Special Warfare Command. Among the SEALs' main functions are conducting small-unit special operation missions in maritime, jungle, urban, arctic, mountainous, and desert environments. SEALs are typically ordered to capture or kill high level targets, or to gather intelligence behind enemy lines. Probably their most famous operation was bringing down the leader of the 911 attacks. See also 34A.
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The Navy SEAL Trident |
58. Roof projection: EAVE.
59. Pest that pesters pets: FLEA.
60. "__ me about it!": TELL. E.g. TELL me if you have a winning hand? 😁
63. Soccer star Krieger: ALI. Alexandra Blaire Krieger (born July 28, 1984) has represented the United States at three FIFA Women's World Cups: 2011 in Germany, 2015 in Canada, and 2019 in France. She was part of the defense that held opponents scoreless for a record 540 minutes and helped lead the United States to become 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup champions.
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Ali Krieger |
Cheers,
Bill
And as always, thanks to Teri for proof reading and for her constructive criticism.
waseeley
* All of DAB's theme clues are DOWNS starting with DEF, which when spelled UPwards is FED.
