Friday, December 20, 2024 - Alan Siegel

Theme:  Goonerisms, Spalore! 

Puzzling Thoughts:

Sorry for my brevity today, but the holiday season has made blogging duties take a back seat.  Today's puzzle by Alan Siegel uses an assortment of spoonerisms to add some levity to our crossword puzzle solving.  I will describe these as the puzzle unfolds

Today's puzzle was not as difficult as some Friday puzzles I've blogged, nor was it so hilarious and/or clever that I got majorly excited.  On my 5-star rating scale, I give this one a ⭐⭐and 1/2⭐

Solved grid - my one mistake @ 44-down

Across:

1. Bunches of bucks: WADS.  The dollar bills; not the stags

5. A neighbor: B FLAT.  It is right next to "A".  Don't believe me?  See the image below: 

 

 

10. Annoyance that may be tough to reach: ITCH. Nothing more satisfying than an itch being scratched

14. Hodgepodge: OLIO.  Crosswordese

15. Still kicking: ALIVE.  As in "alive, and kicking"

16. Grand Canyon carrier: MULE.  I'm going to go out on a limb here and ask Picard to post a picture of him on a mule, descending into the Grand Canyon ... don't let me down, Robert!!

17. Org. that works with SpaceX: NASA.  Outsourced to Elon Musk 

18. "Bridgerton" rank: BARON.  Read all about it here

19. Murky: GRAY.  Nice Friday clue

(Entry #1) 20. Au pair with a sinister sidekick: CROOK AND NANNY.  First of the Spoonerisms:  the more recognized phrase is NOOK and CRANNY

23. Big name in battery-powered lawn equipment: EGO.  Unfamiliar to me; solved with perps.  I know that many of you dislike taking a word such as ego and clueing it as a proper noun/name

25. Briny delicacy: ROE.  This:

26. Official timekeeper of the Olympic Games: OMEGA.  Dunno why I chose ROLEX first

(Entry #2) 27. Purchases for an organized gardener: SHED AND HOLDERS.  Second of the Spoonerisms:  the more recognized phrase is HEAD AND SHOULDERS

32. Danger: PERIL.

33. Lines of praise: ODES.  Cute clue

34. Thumbs-up votes: YEAS.  AYES also fit

35. Italian fashion brand: PRADA.  Didn't the devil wear Prada?

37. Slash mark: SCAR.  The most recent famous one:

Harry Potter scar

41. Symbol on a dressing room door: STAR.  Also found on a famous street in Hollywood

Walk of Fame

And another clue/entry whose word means "star" in French: (44-down. Prima ballerina:) ETOILE. 

42. Roughly: CIRCA.  Referring to a date, perhaps ... I was born circa 1950, e.g. ... rounding the actual number up or down 

(Entry #3) 43. Common sights in the Caribbean: KEYS AND PARROTS.  Third of the Spoonerisms: the more recognized phrase PEAS and CARROTS (made famous by Forrest Gump)

48. Adjust to, as a radio dial: SET AT.  Green paint?  I have a number of pre-sets on my car radio

49. Flamenco shout: OLE.

50. Wee taste: SIP.  I am having a wee sip of Scotch as I am writing my blog tonight

(Entry #4) 51. Some pieces in an avian-themed chess set: CROWS AND PAWNS.  Fourth of the Spoonerisms:  the more recognized phrase PROS AND CONS

56. Has __ with: AN IN.  

57. Lack of musical ability: NO EAR.  Moe-ku #1:

        Vincent Van Gogh was

        Tone deaf.  He had an excuse

        'Cause he had NO EAR (literally)

        

58. Naturally curly style: AFRO.  This hair style is making a comeback 

61. TV component?: TELE. As in: TELE Vision

62. Gas meter unit: THERM. "a unit of heat equivalent to 100,000 Btu or 1.055 × 10 joules" [according to Dictionary dot com]

63. Feature of some vacation homes: VIEW.  I erroneously placed LOFT in here

64. Luge, for one: SLED.  I thought that the word "luge" meant an Olympic event ... 

65. Arranges in order: SORTS.  One of the many functions of an Excel spreadsheet

66. School visible from Windsor Castle: ETON.  This was too easy for a Friday clue

Down:

1. Finished up?: WON. Huh?  As in, finished (a game, e.g.) and were the winner? Meh 

2. __ Française: A LA.  In the French manner

3. Summer's "Hot Stuff" time: DISCO ERA.  This one gave me fits, at first, as I misspelled olio as oleo and I couldn't figure out what "time" began DESC_ERE (I also had AYES instead of YEAS in 34-across).  I eventually saw the ways of my errors and corrected it.  And of course, I spent the rest of the puzzle solving with this ear worm ... 

4. Fly high: SOAR.  

5. Primate with a doglike muzzle: BABOON.  Woof!

6. Like Maldon sea salt: FLAKED.  Two thoughts about this: 

        1) Who among us even knew about the Maldon "sea" and its salt? (I didn't)

        2) And if we didn't know, how would we determine that it is flaked? 

Moe to the rescue ... this short (2 minute) video is quite the "Cliff Notes" version of this fascinating place

7. Turkish currency: LIRA.  Italy sent all of theirs to Turkey when the Euro was coined ... 

8. Bath flower?: AVON.  ROSE might have fit if:

        1) There was no ? in the clue

        2) The word "flower" meant a member of the flora family

This tricky clue plays on the word "flower" as something that "flows" (a river, perhaps?), and the word "Bath" refers to a city in England.  The River Avon flows through the city.  And now you know

9. See (to): TEND.  I tend the Crossword Corner blog every two weeks ... 

10. "Sure, let's!": I'M GAME.  A bit about its origin

11. English Romantic painter: TURNER.  A brief biography and some images of his paintings

12. Metallic sounds: CLANGS. This may be the most bizarre video that Chairman Moe has ever attached to one of his blogs ...

13. OutKast hit that asks, "What's cooler than being cool?": HEY YA.  This might be the second most bizarre video that C-Moe has shared ...

21. Administered with a spoon: ORAL.  This one almost gagged me (with a spoon) ...

22. Silent assents: NODS.  Okay

23. Award won by Caitlin Clark: ESPY.  Caitlin Clark wowed the basketball world with her gritty performance in the NCAA Tournament for the University of Iowa Hawkeyes this past March/April, and then went on to wow the WNBA with her Rookie of the Year performance for the Indiana Fever

24. Biryani butter: GHEE.  Moe-ku #2:

        What's the best butter?

        Some say Irish; I say GHEE.

        Just to clarify ...

[groan]

28. Bad-mouth: DIS. Are you in the "one S" camp, or the two?  Dis versus diss

29. Stockpile: HOARD.  After my Mom passed away, and I was left to go through her stuff, I realized just how much of a hoarder she was

30. Peculiar: ODD.  Couldn't this be "EVEN"??  The word peculiar has eight letters ... just sayin'

31. Grassy meadow: LEA.  For as many times as I've seen the word "lea" in crossword puzzles, I don't think I've ever used it (in everyday conversation) to describe a grassy meadow

35. Org. with moms, dads, and educators: PTA.

36. Operated: RAN.

37. Post-dubbing title: SIR.

38. Workout regimen with tire flipping: CROSSFIT.  Oh, to be young again ...

39. Dramatic beginning: ACT I.  This is more of a Friday clue

40. Filing tool: RASP.  

41. Bygone jets, briefly: SSTS.

42. __ cut: CREW.  BUZZ also fit

43. Essence of an idea: KERNEL.  This seems kinda corny, to me 

45. Displayed boredom: YAWNED.  I thought that you yawned to get more oxygen into your lungs ... 

46. Warhol genre: POP ART.  Why didn't I think of this???  Could've made a fortune

47. Scares: ALARMS.  The verb form

48. Sings jazzy nonsense syllables: SCATS.  She was the best

52. Farm insects: ANTS.  Some might argue that ants were the original colonists

53. L.A. nabe with an arts district: NO HO.  Short for North Hollywood

54. Animal on "XING" signs: DEER.  Have you ever seen a deer actually cross at one of these signs??

55. Cathedral area: NAVE.  APSE fits, too

59. __ Speedwagon: REO.  Last of the videos ... 

60. Cop to: OWN.  See you all in 2025 ... Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Holidays!