Wednesday, July 10, 2024, Seth Bisen-Hersh

 FLEETING MOMENT

While I am pleased to see a constructor I have not blogged before ( I checked, and found two grids back in 2022, one in 2019 ), this was a real struggle for me, as it felt a little more than Wednesday-level.  Another 16x15 Grid, another set of circles (yay), another run of 26 Three-Letter Words, another set of some really vague people ( I'm looking at you, 56A. ) crossing names with vague clues, and I ended up with two bad squares - see the grid at the end.  I'm feeling "unsuccessful" with this puzzle - I didn't catch a BREAK, I just feel "broken"; Yem Beady.  Two 12-letter, two 10-letter themes, and a centered 8-letter reveal;

37. Opportunity for success, or what 17-, 29-, 45-, and 61-Across each have: BIG BREAK - synonyms for BIG, with a 'break' in between

17. Small, rustic house on a game reserve: HUNTING LODGE

Apparently, there's nothing "small" about Greystone Castle; I would say it's HUGE

29. Vacation spot in the Adirondacks: LAKE GEORGE - I once lived in upstate New York, so I got this; at 45 Sq. Mi., it's quite LARGE

45. Joins the table: GRABS A SEAT

Knights of the "unfound" table - they're not doing "GREAT"

61. Changing price: VARIABLE COST - oof.  A looooong way to go for VAST

And Away We Go~!

ACROSS:

1. Stage name of actor Raiford Chatman Davis: OSSIE - I begin with the down clues, but even with perps this was still a non-starter for me (#1)

6. Spanish 53-Down: CARNE - AND - 53D. 24-Across, for one: MEAT - sometimes, I am not a big fan of circumreferential clues like this

11. Band also known as the Bangtan Boys: BTS - Their Wiki (#2)

14. Shapewear brand: SPANX - it should be no surprise that I knew this one

15. Trojan War hero: AENEAS - I could not recall this name (#3)

16. "Shine Ya Light" singer Rita: ORA - no clue about this name (#4)

19. Say "Bingo," say: WIN - Shout would have been better

20. "Another thing ... ": "AND ALSO..." - Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy follow-up

Not Douglas Adams, but part "six" of "three"

21. Aired: RAN

22. Recurring TikTok post: VLOG - Video bLOG; ya know, I don't think I have ever visited TikTok, but I do have a friend on Long Island who uploads clips of car repairs/modifications

23. Mauna __: KEA - Dah~!  I had KEA, switched to LOA, had to switch back to KEA, missed the "K"

24. Antipasto choice: SALAMI

 "Yummers"  :7))

26. Wine sale units: CASES - Dah~!  Wine CasKs is a perfectly acceptable answer~!

33. Shaq's alma mater: LSU - it helped to know who Shaq is, but I still didn't know where he attended school - from his Wiki page (#5)

34. Meadow: LEA

35. Muppeteer Jerry: NELSON - No clue - his Wiki, and here's his most popular character (#6)

I had to do the pipe organ, of course

36. Cash provider: ATM

40. Large container: VAT - why isn't it Huge, Great, or Vast~?

41. Polite refusal: NO, MA'AM - I like this fill

43. Nobel winner Hammarskjöld: DAG - Died in a plane crash - or was it something more~? (#7)

Air Disasters

44. Gloves, gowns, and goggles in the ER: PPE - I had to take the "1D." 30-hr course to qualify for work at the National Cathedral; they used the term "PPE" about a thousand times in the tutorials - Personal Protective Equipment

48. Fabled hare, e.g.: LOSER - ah.  I was looking for a name - go figure.

50. "Star Wars" heroes: REBELS

May The Force Be With You

51. Andrew Lloyd Webber title: SIR - "Ektorp" (#8)

52. Actress Watson: EMMA - name, and it messed up my "LYFT" at 54D. (#9)

55. Green hotel opening?: ECO - something something crossword 'green' = ECO; again, Ektorp, but the whole clue seems 'meh' to me

56. Chinese American fashion icon: ANNA SUI - my apologizes, C.C., but I had no idea who she is; double digits, #10

60. Director Ang: LEE - I knew this one, but still name #11

63. Yield to gravity: SAG

64. Latin for "actually existing": IN ESSE - I got it because I took 4 years of Latin

65. "A Delicate Balance" playwright: ALBEE - gee, another name - #12

66. GPS guess: ETA - I hardly call it a "guess"; in fact, I notice that it is extremely accurate, and the longer the trip, the more accurate it gets; as a result, it's pretty clear that one simply cannot go any faster to get there sooner - as shown in this Mythbusters clip, the whole weaving in traffic shaves a mere two minutes off a 46 mile drive - so what do you plan to do with your "extra" two minutes~?

67. Will of "Blue Bloods": ESTES -ARGH~!  SIX names in just 10 clues = #13

68. Set a security system again: REARM - I'm a REBEL, about to take up arms in the fight against proper names~!


DOWN:

1. Div. of Labor: OSHA - well, whaddya know~?  BTW, the Organ renovation is scheduled to be finished in 2028, not 2029, but it's still going to take FOUR years; I am cleaning the biggest wood pipes this week

Low C of the Pedal Division

2. Played dreidel: SPUN - played~?  I thought it was the top, not the activity

3. Castle makeup: SAND - Dah~!  Got me.  I was too deep into real castles, like Greystone, and the beach kind never occurred to me

Wow. And I found a HUGE/LARGE/GREAT/VAST collection of others, too

4. Output opposite: INTAKE - intaLK seems like a very reasonable word in our text-speak society

5. Ostracizes: EXILES

6. Bambi still, e.g.: CEL - a single frame of animation

7. Winter hiker's coat: ANORAK - I knew this, but was not clear on the spelling at first

8. Irish brew: RED ALE - I know of Killian's, and here's the process, plus I found this one . . . .

Beer; it's not just for...uh, wait a minute....

9. "You always tell me what to do!": NAG NAG NAG - clever clue/answer

10. Jargon suffix: ESE - e.g. legal-ESE

11. Pitch, in cricket: BOWL - Dah~!  Another one got me - the verb pitch, but I have an excuse - my parents were born & raised in England, so I knew the (noun) "pitch" was the field.

12. Snap, Crackle, and Pop, e.g.: TRIO - oof.  Vague for Wednesday; ZZTop, Rush~? Better.

13. Performed an aria: SANG - nice to see ARIA in the clues, not the grid

15. Before today: AGO

18. SIGINT org.: NSA - I had no clue, but the perps gave me _SA; strangely, I can link their site

22. Baroque instrument: VIOL - Smile, it's a "VI-al"

24. Bygone Swedish carmaker: SAAB - I had one; buy now, "Saab" later - get it~?

25. Mouselike: MEEK

26. Trolley sound: CLANG - meh.  Trolley BELL . . . .

27. Fur tycoon: ASTOR

28. __ cum laude: SUMMA - MAGNA or SUMMA~?  I got it wrong; but 40% was 20% correct

29. Pants part: LEG - ooh~!  Another opportunity~!

Thanks for the shoutout Sunday, CanadianEh!

30. Attendance records?: RSVPs - in the plural noun, it just seems "meh"

31. Rant and rave: GO APE

32. [Run program]: ENTER - my WAG, but still a bit "meh"

34. Legumes from the Andes: LIMA BEANS - now that I see the answer, it seems obvious; some info from the USDA

37. Possible litmus test result: BASE - or ACID~?  Guess which one I picked.  Bzzzt~!

38. Nutritional stds.: RDAs - again, in the plural, a bit meh.

39. Snack: EAT - ah.  The verb again

42. Syllables for a stage magician: ABRA - is this not just ONE syllable~?

46. Like some alter egos: SECRET

47. Plaza Hotel girl: ELOISE - Never heard of this; the Wiki, and the Plaza site, too

48. Straight: LINEAR - like my thinking a lot of the time

49. Seer: ORACLE

51. Bowen Yang's show, for short: SNL - perps got me S_L; this clue/answer has shown up three days in a row.  sumdaze linked his Titanic iceberg skit Monday

52. "Can I get you anything __?": "ELSE~?"

54. Über relative: MEGA - ah.  Not the taxi service from yesterday, but the adjective

Kill Die~?  Oh, I see - the first "D" got damaged....phew

56. Only pres. to hold a patent: ABE - Dah~! I was looking for DDE, HST, FDR - his patent

57. Japanese noodle: SOBA - I can never remember which one this is NORI, ROTI, MISO - four-letters crossword something . . . .

58. Password keeper: USER - Fooled me; clever

59. Agenda listing: ITEM

61. Fight (for): VIE

62. Jack or jenny: ASS - second time this week, and speaking of which, we are at the "bottom"

Splynter