Saturday, July 25, 2020, Joe Deeney

Saturday Themeless by Joe Deeney

Joe Deeney returns with a puzzle that was a real tester for me. As far as times are concerned, I won't show you mine if you don't show me yours.

Joe's reply to my note:

Hi Gary,

Thanks for reaching out. Always good to hear from you, glad you enjoyed the puzzle. I actually hadn't yet heard from Patti and Rich that this was slotted, so good to know it’s coming up.In early 2019, I started playing around with themeless grids with a high number of 10 letter answers. I don't have stats for the LA Times, but on xwordinfo there is a page showing that the max published in the NY Times in a 15x is 14 answers of length 10. This grid is relatively unconstrained and has 16. I have another puzzle in Rich's queue with this same grid layout, and another one with 18 answers of length 10 from the same period of experimentation. The tradeoff with these grids is more answers of length 4 than 5 or 6, but as long as the long fill shines that doesn't bother me so much, though I know for some solvers it's not ideal.

The seed for this puzzle was EXCUSEZ MOI which I had hoped to clue [Pardon my French?] but I guess that required a bit too much of a grammatical stretch for Rich's taste – or maybe it narrowly missed passing the breakfast test. I'm glad the gist of my clue for SHOWER GIFT and ORDER A LIMO remained the same. I've been trying to work ORDER A LIMO into a themeless puzzle for a few years now with essentially that clue - very friendly combination of letters, especially starting and ending with a vowel.

Everyone is healthy and safe here, hope the same for you.

-Joe

Across:

1. "Touché": POINT TAKEN.

11. Small complication?: PROB - See above

15. Agree to take the long way there?: ORDER A LIMO - Getting there is half the fun in a long car on a long route

16. Condominio, por ejemplo: CASA - Hmmm... A type of house and in Spanish

17. Dancer's driver: SANTA CLAUS and 18. First word in a classic poem about 17-Across: TWAS.

19. "Telephone Line" rock gp.: ELO - Here ya go!

20. Prepares (for): GETS SET - A man GETS SET for his 100th birthday jump

22. Stretch (out): EKE.

23. "Dark side" sci-fi group: SITH - Jedi enemies in Star Wars franchise

24. Stuffed grape leaves: DOLMAS - From Trader Joe's

26. Rodeo ride: BRONC - Bronc 1 Cowboy 0

29. Either Bush, in school: ELI - George H.W. and George W. were both Yale grads

32. Spanish wine region: RIOJA - A marks the spot

33. "The Mammoth Hunters" author: AUEL.

34. Like some agreements: PREMARITAL - Also called a pre-nup(tial) 

36. I-9 ID: SSN.

37. Caddies and cozies: TEAWARE.

Antique tea caddy                        A cute little tea cozy

38. Pub pick: IPA - A brew often seen here at the Crossword Pub

39. Towels, e.g., aptly: SHOWER GIFT - Now that's just a fun clue!

41. Katy Perry hit that starts "I used to bite my tongue and hold my breath": ROAR - Her feminist anthem

42. Youngest French Open champ: SELES - Monica now, Monica after being stabbed on court and Monica as a 16-yr-old French Open champ

43. Pueblo pronoun: ESA.

44. Like undercooked eggs: RUNNY.

45. Oscar-winning foreign language film based on a Fugard novel: TSOTSI (South African slang for thug) 

47. Sarcastic retort: I BET.

49. Fix: RIG.

50. TV revenue source: AD SALES.

53. Neon tips?: ENS - NeoN

56. Actor Kapoor of "Slumdog Millionaire": ANIL - This story is of a boy from the slums of Mumbai not Johannesburg 

58. Pierre's polite lead-in: EXCUSEZ MOI - I prefer Joe's "Pardon my French" cluing! 

60. Wee: ITSY.

61. Galileo, notably: ASTRONOMER - One of my heroes but was not a big hit with the Pope!

62. NPR giveaway: TOTE.

63. Great bargains: SWEET DEALS.

A classy way to divide the Across and Down clues!

52. Entr'__: ACTE 

Actually intermission
for My Fair Lady

And now back to our regularly scheduled review:

Down:

1. Prepare for cheese?: POSE - Gotta love this clue too!

Sat CHEESE (fromage?)

2. Spoken: ORAL - There are so many questions I never thought to ask my grandmothers

3. Lic. figure: ID NO.

4. Barclays Center NBAer: NET.

5. Like some flaws: TRAGIC  Hamlet's "To be or not to be" reveals his TRAGIC FLAW of indecisiveness  

6. "Don't play," in music: TACET.

7. Hot, hot, hot: ALL THE RAGE - Name the song with this lyric (*answer at bottom of write-up)

8. Sorento and Sedona: KIAS - Car models 

9. Big birds: EMUS.

10. Barely bested, with "out": NOSED - You may have to look for a while to see that Horse #2 not only didn't win but got third. (**reason at bottom of write-up)

11. Dietary info abbr.: PCT.

12. What an actor may bring to an audition: RAW EMOTION - Stella!

13. Honshu city: OSAKA JAPAN - OSAKA and Hiroshima are both on the island of Honshu and it's a 4-hr drive between them

14. Factor in bonus size, perhaps: BASE SALARY - I had a BASE SALARY every year I taught and my bonus was 0% of that

21. Hall of Famer who was an MVP and Manager of the Year: TORRE - 1971 MVP for the St. Louis Cardinals and A.L. Manager of the Year in 1996 and 1998 for the Yankees

23. Longtime NBC hit: SNL.

25. Only Super Bowl the Eagles won: LII - The NFL is doing their bit to keep Roman numerals alive

26. Victoria-Tasmania divider: BASS STRAIT - The diary of Andrew MacCauley's 35 hr crossing of the Bass Strait in a sea kayak

27. Doesn't stop to think about: RUSHES INTO.

28. Expert on ports?: OENOLOGIST - We see OENO associated with wine here quite often and LOGIST indicates an expert so...

30. Martin's partner: LEWIS - Two reasonable choices

Dean Martin and Jerry LEWIS            Dan ROWAN and Dick Martin

31. Angsty lament: I'M A FAILURE - The sun'll come out tomorrow!

34. Each: PER.

35. "The one way possible of speaking truth": Browning: ART 

37. "Creed" actress Thompson: TESSA - Her IMDB

40. Like spring snow: WET - This beautiful Johnny Mathis song has a lyric of "melt my heart like April snow" @~1:12

41. Sticking point?: RUT.

44. Forward, say: RESEND - What I do when I get a cool video from someone

46. Noodle nuggets: IDEAS - Even my noodle/bean/noggin has good IDEAS sometimes

48. Ply with drink: BESOT - George knew he could get the truth from Elaine with peach schnapps

51. Austin festival, briefly: SXSW - South by Southwest conference and festival. Cancelled this year

53. Austen classic: EMMA - Also my granddaughter 

54. Coward with a knighthood: NOEL - He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1970 twenty-eight years after Winston Churchill vetoed her dad's desire to do so.

55. Knight titles: SIRS - Sir Noel had to wait

57. Caustic chemical: LYE.

59. Muppet friend of Elmo: ZOE - Rhymes with snow. With the diaeresis mark ZOË rhymes with snowy 

* The song about THE RAGE is The Beat Goes On by Sonny and Cher

** If you look closely the winning horse is between horse #2 and the horse at the top of the picture. The winner's nose is sticking out in front of horse #2. Horse #2 was declared the winner but someone spotted that the winning nose didn't belong to #2

Crossword Map Update

After four years,I decided to update my map of our LA Times bloggers. I went through the old map and deleted some names that didn't seem to be active any more. My memory is very suspect and I may have eliminated some people who are still contributing but I know we have some new members who are not included. I have also received requests from others who do not usually post but want to be on the map.

Please email me at gschlapfer@gmail.com if you want to add your name and location or edit what is already there. I am truly sorry if I have omitted anyone and am anxious to get the map up to date.

Gary 

(click on image or open in a new tab to enlarge)

 

Friday, July 24, 2020, Jake Scheele

Title: Another bird mystery solved!

Welcome to the LAT Jake. I know you have had some prior CHE puzzles published and a 2019 Universal, but at the moment that is all I know about you. You might be surprised by how many people have that name. Please come by and tell us about yourself.

This Friday challenge has many layers, including the dreaded circles for those who use the Mensa site for their solving pleasure. They will miss the unifying reveal and the answer to the mystery. The theme itself has two parts, symmetric linked fill that ask a question and 5 shorter fill (5 to 7) letters.

Before the themers are revealed, we must look at the longer fill that was woven into this tapestry. CARNAGE, EMAILER, NO DRAMA, SILLY ME,  EMBARKED,  IRON MASK, KEEP IT UP, and  WILD OATS are all very uncommon and despite that they as long or longer than the 5 middle themers.

17A. With 59-Across, old English nursery rhyme being investigated by the detectives in this puzzle: WHO KILLED (9).
And, 59A. See 17-Across (and see circles for the solution to the mystery): COCKROBIN (9) describe the mystery. HISTORY. There is a spoiler if you do not know.

23A. Wealthy TV sleuth Matt: HOUSTON (7). No doubt the least famous of the fictional detectives, the short-lived SERIES starred Lee Horsley a tall handsome poor man's Tom Selleck. Horsley's first role was as Archie Goodwin to William Cannon's Nero Wolfe and even shorter series.

26A. Hard-boiled sleuth Mike: HAMMER (6). Micky Spillane made an art of the shoot first ask questions later hero, brought to television first by Darren McGavin and then twice by Stacy Keach.

39A. Falcon-finding sleuth Sam: SPADE (5). Created by the incomparable Dashiell Hammett. He also wrote about the Thin Man and the Continental Op.

51A. Twinkly-eyed sleuth Jane: MARPLE (6). Agatha Christie's female tec from St. Mary Mead (Cabot Cove anyone) who paid attention.

54A. Wisecracking sleuth Philip: MARLOWE (7). Raymond Chandler's contribution to the genre (can you hear Alex Trebeck in your head?).

The solution to the mystery, if you do not know the story is in the circles and I will not spoil it. If you use the Mensa site, sorry.

It breaks some rules, but let us look at the rest.

Across:

1. Need in many outdoor games: BALL. And indoor games as well; well not all indoor games.

5. Basic card game: WAR. It is among the many games which helped me to learn how to count long before I started school.

8. Saltpetre: NITRE. I do not know why we do not have Saltpeter/Niter. I attended a private high school where I lived on the campus and ate all my meals there. We were told by the cooks that they were forced to put saltpeter in our food to quell our sexual desire. At the girls' school up the hill, they only served the hot dogs sliced. Life can be gross.

13. Takeout option: THAI. Just marry a wonderful Thai chef and you do not need takeout, except every so often for a quick vacation (not during COVID).

14. Camaro __-Z: IROC. A muscle car.

16. They may be crumbled in ice cream: OREOS. They also may be sprinkled throughout so many crossword puzzles.

19. Coffee mate?: DONUT. Cute clue even with the modern spelling.

20. German finale: ÉNDE. Inferrable?

21. Chaotic situation, in slang: CARNAGE. Not for me; carnage could be the result of a chaotic situation but I do not see them as interchangeable.

27. Northern sky sight: AURORA. If North, it is BOREALIS if south it is AUSTRALIS.

28. __ ballerina: PRIMA. Number one!

30. Where Charlie "may ride forever," in a 1959 hit: MTA. Once again brought to mind by Boomer, this time on Wednesday.

31. Gaming biggie: ATARI. This PIONEER gaming company has had some problems.

33. Watchdog org.?: ASPCA. I really enjoy this pun.

37. Exploit: MILK. I could give examples but I do not want to milk the opportunity.

41. Medieval Asian leader: KHAN. Khan is a contracted form of Khagan, from the Turkish khan meaning "chief or ruler." It was originally a hereditary title born by early Mongol leaders, such as the legendary Genghis Khan, but is now widely used as a surname throughout the Muslim world.

42. Consents: YESES. No!

44. Twosomes in the news: ITEMS. Are they really dating?

46. Guadalajara gold: ORO. Spanish. Is Lucy our only Spanish speaking regular?

47. Gulf of Aqaba city: EILAT. In antiquity, Eilat bordered the states of Edom, Midian, and the tribal territory of the Rephidim, the indigenous inhabitants of the Sinai Peninsula. The Midianites are an important part of the Book of Exodus.

49. Took the sloop: BOATED. Ugh. 40D. Left on a sloop: EMBARKED.

55. Spammer, e.g.: EMAILER. They attack so many ways.

57. City on Utah Lake: OREM. The 57th appearance in the LAT, including one in a puzzle I did with C.C.

58. Cordial relations: AMITY. The ironic home of the horror.

64. It's a fact: DATUM. One lonely piece of data.

65. Pain in the neck, e.g.: ACHE.

66. Roman fiddler: NERO.

67. Rickman role in Harry Potter films: SNAPE. RIP Alan.

68. Smidge: TAD.

69. Feint on the ice: DEKE. From decoy, I would guess.

Down:

1. FYI cousin: BTW. By the way.

2. Sound from a spa: AHH.

3. Vientiane native: LAO. My cousin Joe is married to one.

4. "Just watch me": LIKE SO. Eh.

5. Metaphor for youthful indiscretion: WILD OATS. If you want read a very complicated but thought out ETYMOLOGY here is your chance.

6. Former senator Specter: ARLEN. They like his letter distribution.

7. Caviar: ROE. Fish eggs are fish eggs.

8. Having a calm temperament: NO DRAMA.

9. Identity-concealing attire, in a Dumas novel: IRON MASK.

10. Coffee hr.: TEN AM. Or six, seven, eight...

11. Compact item: ROUGE. Nice next to your...

12. Perfume compound: ESTER.

15. Epidemic-fighting agcy.: CDC. I cannot comment without getting into politics.

18. Mural opening: INTRA. The word, not the art.

22. Sashimi selection: AHI. Tuna.

23. Given to overacting: HAMMY.

24. Navel type: OUTIE.

25. Eurasian divide: URALS.

28. Star-Lord portrayer Chris: PRATT.

29. Theme park staple: RIDE.

32. Samoan port: APIA.

34. One of many on a phone these days: PHOTO.

35. Rod in Cooperstown: CAREW. An all-time GREAT.

36. Positive pole, perhaps: ANODE. Cathode?

38. "Hang in there": KEEP IT UP. really?

43. "D'oh!": SILLY ME. Hi Homer.

45. More ticked off: SORER.

48. Sheltered side: LEE.

50. __ Joy: ALMOND. You can combine with your wild oats. RECIPE.

51. Honey drinks: MEADS. As old as beer and wine.

52. Capital south of Beirut: AMMAN. More BIBLICAL history.

53. Indian yogurt dip: RAITA. Not to be confused with TATZIKI.

54. Coffee shop order: MOCHA. More complicated than you thought...Mocha is a high-quality type of coffee made from a specific coffee bean. It's easily confused with the flavored drink also called a mocha, which combines coffee and chocolate. Mocha coffee beans are from the plant species called Coffee arabica, and it was originally only grown in Mocha, Yemen

56. Color TV pioneer: RCA.

60. It ends rather spookily: Abbr.: OCTober. Halloween humor.

61. Busyness symbol: BEE.

62. Tick off: IRK.

63. San Francisco's __ Valley: NOE. Here is a great LINK. One of my childhood nicknames was NOEY, no relation.

I really enjoyed the puzzle and all the places I ended up following Jake's train of thought. I hope we find out more about him today. Thank you all for coming by and for those who comment, keep it up?

                                            THE SPARROW!

Thursday July 23rd 2020 Susan Gelfand

Theme: Edible Apparel - take a food item and the clue turns it into something to wear:

17A. Jewelry to wear for a good cry?: ONION RINGS. The first time I tried making onion rings all the batter ended up in the pan and the rings came out bald. Not what I was looking for!

61A. Warm stole to wear on Thanksgiving?: TURKEY WRAP. All stoles are wraps, but not all wraps are stoles. That's fashion sense for you.

10D. Headgear to wear while truffle hunting?: MUSHROOM CAP. Is a truffle a mushroom? Nice clue though. Here's a truffle pig - if the pig finds a truffle, you have to be quick before he eats the whole thing. That's an expensive piggy-snack!

24D. Shoes to wear when driving a junky car?: LEMON WEDGES. There are a few "how to" videos on YouTube which detail how to cut citrus wedges. How can the video run for 80 seconds? Are they teaching you how to make a knife first? Incroyable. Cut lemon(lime) north-south. Cut wedges. Don't cut yourself. Rinse. Repeat. What was that, five seconds?

Today we have an across-and-down theme from Susan. Nice plays on words for the theme entries and all "in the language" and some fun in the fill too. Let's go look:

Across:

1. Noisy with activity: ABUZZ.

6. A bit cracked: AJAR.

10. Fem. counterpart: MASC.

14. Southeast Asian capital: HANOI. Vietnam's capital city. The Old Quarter is very colorful - and moped-friendly!

15. Place to bowl: LANE.

16. Golden rule word: UNTO.

19. Toffee bar with a crown in its logo: SKOR. Assuming that Hershey's meant that the name of the bar makes you think "Swedish" (especially with the crown) you'd have thought they'd have named it SKÖR, with the umlaut, as that means "brittle" in Swedish, a good name for a brittle toffee bar covered in chocolate. But they didn't - the named it SKOR, which means "shoes" in Swedish. So if you think Hershey's chocolate tastes like old shoes (and I do), then apparently the company agrees with you.

20. Thus far: YET.

21. Procure: GET.

22. CenturyLink Field NFLer: SEAHAWK. Wow, that's some formidable Caps/Lowercase/Caps/LowerCase/Caps clueing.

24. Support under the table?: LEG.

25. "I wouldn't __ you wrong": STEER.

26. Poem often starting with "There": LIMERICK.

"There once was a man from the sticks

Who loved to compose limericks.

But he failed at his sport,

They were always too short."

30. Lasso loops: NOOSES.

34. Sistine Chapel ceiling man: ADAM.

35. Giant Giant: MAYS.

37. __ Dame: NOTRE. It's sad looking at Notre Dame cathedral at the moment with no spire after the fire last year.

38. Like New York's Chrysler Building: DECO. I often stay at a hotel close to the Chrysler Building in Manhattan. Depending on the luck of the draw, I either get a view of the building looking south, or a generic view of Lexington Avenue looking north.

39. Church leader: ELDER.

41. Gold source: MINE.

42. Brings home: EARNS.

44. Extended ride?: LIMO.

45. "At the Movies" segment: CLIP.

46. Reduce speed: SLOW UP. You can slow down too, but you can't speed down, although you can speed up. What a confusing language we speak.

48. Breaks, as the law: VIOLATES.

50. Clear in class, maybe: ERASE. Mostly whiteboards now. When I was at school it was a dusty job to wipe off the chalkboard from the previous class, usually given to the kid who was last through the door. (Me).

52. Weather report backdrop: MAP.

53. Most loving: FONDEST.

56. Chivalrous title: SIR.

57. "Knives Out" actress __ de Armas: ANA. I should watch the movie, it's got a great cast and excellent reviews.

60. Awestruck: AGOG.

64. Turn over: CEDE.

65. Comics canine: ODIE. Garfield's doggie chum - or nemesis?

66. None too worldly: NAÏVE.

67. Light tops: TEES.

68. Sandberg with nine Gold Gloves: RYNE. Baseball. Imaginatively (!) nicknamed "Ryno" he played second base for the Phillies and the Cubs before retiring in 1997.

69. Dental exam component: X-RAYS. One part of a dental exam that doesn't make me sweat. I'm not particularly fond of dentists, I was tortured as a small child by them and I've never forgiven nor forgotten. My current team are great though!

Down:

1. Sea greeting: AHOY!

2. Curse: BANE.

3. Textbook section: UNIT.

4. Where the wild things are: ZOO. Not really, they're not exactly wild if they're in a zoo? Maybe wild at being incarcerated.

5. Witty retort: ZINGER.

6. Landed: ALIT.

7. "Surf City" duo __ and Dean: JAN. Still a fun ditty from 1963. The lyrics might not exactly be PC nowadays.

8. Inner turmoil: ANGST.

9. Viewed anew: RE-SEEN. I suppose so. It took me a while to come up with an example of usage.

11. "Put Your Head on My Shoulder" singer: ANKA.

12. Put in the overhead bin: STOW.

13. Popped top: CORK. I've got one in my hand right now. My Home Happy Hour chardonnay from the Central Coast.

18. Prevailing power: REGIME.

23. Ages and ages: AEON.

25. Perform a long jump?: SKYDIVE. No thanks. The only time I'm jumping out of an airplane is if it's on fire and it's on the ground.

26. Puts on cargo: LADES. The next time I'm putting my groceries in my trunk, I'm going to remind myself that I'm "lading". Sounds both strenuous and posh.

27. Best possible: IDEAL.

28. Computer shortcut: MACRO. I'm getting used to my new MacBook, and what is lovely is that I don't have to remember "shortcuts" to type accented words - no CTRL-ALT-SHIFT-NUMLOCK-ALT-00085 or something for an umlaut. I can type "U" and hold down the key until a little menu pops up with my dicritical choices for the letter. Saves me a lot of time, especially here on the blog!

29. Word with cold or close: CALL. Do you like getting cold calls? I only ask because I dislike making them, but that's part of my job. My mission is not to intrude, bore or over-promise. If I do that, I've had some quite pleasant conversations.

31. Long-legged wading bird: STILT. That's new to me. STORK didn't fit. STILT? Quite nice-looking though. Learning moment.

32. Banks on a diamond: ERNIE. More baseball. Without baseball, crosswords would be struggling.

33. Oozes: SEEPS.

36. Tractor-trailer: SEMI.

40. Rent sharer: ROOMIE.

43. "Of course!": SURE!

47. Church leader: PASTOR.

49. Vocal cords locale: LARYNX.

51. Cram, say: STUDY. If you're cramming, it's too late, Chillax, take the grade and vow not to backslide on your studies next semester.

53. It's the truth: FACT. Mostly true.

54. S-shaped molding: OGEE. I had a flat on the ground floor of a Victorian house in London way back when. I could recite the interior wall components as I had to replace most of them - baseboards, base caps, panel moulds, chair rails, ogees; plinths aprons and casings and then picture rails and crown mouldings. The crown mouldings were tricky, they were wet plaster which you shaped with a template. Oh, and the ceiling rose around the central pendant light. I'm not sure how I survived that experience.

55. Connecting point: NODE.

56. __-Ball: SKEE.

57. Puccini piece: ARIA.

58. Deep blue: NAVY.

59. Gibbons and gorillas: APES.

62. __ Tin Tin: RIN.

63. __ movie: WAR.

And with that, I guess I'm out of time and out of clues to chat about. Here's the grid!

Steve

Note from C.C.:

Irish Miss (Agnes) and I made today's Universal puzzle. You can solve it here. It's edited by David Steinberg.

Wednesday July 22, 2020 Zachary David Levy

Theme: Colorful Creatures 

17. Whodunit misdirection: RED HERRING.

25. Bovine-named pet food brand: BLUE BUFFALO.

37. Costly possession that's no longer useful: WHITE ELEPHANT.

50. Diamond in a 1963 Peter Sellers film: PINK PANTHER.

Reveal:

60. Where this puzzle's "animals" might congregate?:  IN THE SHADE.  

Boomer here again, filling in another blog slot.  

I am not sure about this theme.  Red herring may be in a shady pond but the only time I might see a buffalo, elephant, or panther would be in the zoo.  If someone has figured it out, rattle my cage.  

Please everyone stay as safe as possible.  C.C. and I are okay, but the numbers coming in on the news are very concerning.

Across:

1. Frankie who played Malcolm in "Malcolm in the Middle": MUNIZ.

6. Forensic CBS episodes: CSIS.

10. Urban pollution: SMOG.  We are pretty lucky here in Minnesota.  First we don't have much fog, and secondly, most of our businesses control their pollution.

14. In unison: AS ONE.

15. Hyatt competitor: OMNI.  I have never stayed at an OMNI nor have I ever driven a Dodge OMNI.

16. Own: HAVE.  Or HAVE not.

19. Wax-coated cheese: EDAM.  I've seen it, but I prefer shredded cheddar to add on my pizza.

20. "Look what __!": I DID.

21. Poetic adverb: OFT.

22. Kind of green: NILE.  Silly me. I thought it was an African River.  I know it is odd, because it flows south to north.

24. __ Cabos: Baja area: LOS.  Means "The" in Spanish.  I am thinking of Los Angeles - home of the L.A. Times, the Rams and Dodgers, and many problems with a virus that is plaguing us all.

29. Straighten, as hair: UNCURL.

31. Online addresses: Abbr.: IPS. Internet Protocol addresses.

32. "Tubular!": RAD.

33. Burst in on, maybe: RAIDED.  When the Oakland (now Las Vegas football team) comes to play our Vikings.

36. Bit of misdirection: RUSE.

41. Cross shapes: TAUS.

42. Dugouts, e.g.: CANOES.  Many, many CANOES on our Minnesota lakes in the summer.

43. "We the Living" writer Rand: AYN.  Born in Russia, died in New York. Authoress of many quotes.

44. Wedding vow: I DO.  I DID.

46. Melonlike tropical fruit: PAPAWS.  We like watermelon.

54. Pose for a portrait: SIT.

55. Chinese currency: YUAN.  Last I checked, a YUAN was equal to about $.14 US.

56. Tofu source: SOY.  I do not care for Tofu, but I like soy sauce on some things.

57. Thin smoke trail: WISP.

58. __ Crunch: CAPN.  I pretty much stick to Chex and Grape Nuts.

63. "The Time Machine" race: ELOI.

64. Polite sneeze: CHOO.  No,  a polite sneeze would be to go outside and blow your nose off.

65. __ Meunier: Champagne grape: PINOT.

66. Court do-overs: LETS.  Tennis Anyone?

67. Swiss landscape highlights: ALPS.  "The hills are alive, with the Sound of Music!"

68. Set up: FRAME.

Down:

1. Henner of "Taxi": MARILU.  Ricky Nelson once sang "Hello Mary Lou".

2. Applied to: USED ON.

3. DVD player error message: NO DISC.  Mine never worked right, I gave all my movies away.

4. Aired with sharper resolution: IN HD.  I think most TVs are HD now.

5. Letter akin to omega: ZEE.

6. Ionian Sea island: CORFU.  A bit of a tourist resort of Greece.

7. Strike, biblically: SMITE.

8. Roadside stop: INN.  My favorite is the C'mon Inn in Billings MT.

9. Enlist: SIGNUP.  I did not sign up, I was drafted.  But I did not mind giving two years to my country.  It's given me a lot back now.

10. Bookcase part: SHELF.  Ours are very full.  C.C. loves books.

11. Attempted to win, with "for": MADE A RUN.  Many are MAKING A RUN this November.

12. Lab eggs: OVA.

13. 50-Across, e.g.: GEM.

18. Baseball Hall of Famer Fingers: ROLLIE.  Made his name with the Oakland A's but also spent time with the Padres and Brewers.

23. Conditions: IFS.  Along with ANDS  or BUTS.

25. Hot dog relative: BRAT. There are some in our freezer now.  They should be gone near the end of August.

26. Six-term Delaware senator: BIDEN.  I think I have heard about him.

27. Final: LAST.

28. Tribute in verse: ODE.  My favorite is the "Ode to Billie Joe".  Bobbie Gentry.

30. "Trinity" novelist: URIS.

34. Hazardous material cleaning, briefly: DECON. Decontamination.

35. She, in Lisbon: ELA.

36. Utter harshly: RASP.

37. "The __ see it ... ": WAY I.

38. Pooh's pride, as Pooh would spell it: HUNNY POT.

39. Sailor since 1929: POPEYE.  Strong to the finish cuz' he eats his spinach.

40. Learn: HEAR.

41. Keg part: TAP.  Not a fan of beer so I never had to deal with one of these.  Now if you toss one in the pocket and leave a ten pin, that's a TAP.  7 pin for lefties.

44. Keg filler, briefly: IPA.

45. Patrick of NASCAR fame: DANICA.  She was Packer QB Aaron Rodgers' girlfriend for a couple of years but then they broke up.  Good girl Danica, I never liked Aaron much either.

47. South Korean carrier: ASIANA.

48. What may be dispensed in pearls?: WISDOM.  First you have to open an oyster.

49. Neighbor of Tampa, Fla.: ST PETE.  I visited Tampa once while I was employed by Graybar.  Never got farther south.  Florida has its problems now.

51. Mila of "Forgetting Sarah Marshall": KUNIS.

52. Metro station, in Boston: T STOP.  Well let me tell you a story 'bout a man named Charlie on a tragic and fateful day.  He put ten cents in his pocket, kissed his wife and family, went to ride on the MTA.

53. Hostess products: HOHOS.  When I was a kid, Mom would give us a dime to buy cupcakes or Twinkies for our bag lunch.  HOHOs came later.  It's been a long time since I was a kid.

57. Fan sound: WHIR.

58. Animation unit: CEL.

59. Part of 44-Down: ALE.  I am downing Canada Dry Diet Ginger ALE as we speak.

61. Org. with Sharks and Predators: NHL.  We used to have the Minnesota North Stars but they left for Texas.  Now we have the "Wild".

62. Beach meas.: SPF.

Boomer

Tuesday, July 21, 2020 Hannah Slovut

Dictionary Definitions for the FINAL SCORE:  The Final word in each answer is another word for Score.

17-Across. *   Spotify alternative: APPLE MUSIC.  Verb:  orchestrate or arrange (a piece of music), typically for a specified instrument or instruments.  Example:  The Quartet Suite was scored for flute, and violin.

27-Across. *   "More heat in that dish!," Emeril-style: KICK IT UP A NOTCH.  Noun:  a mark, such as an inscription or scratch made with a sharp instrument, used for keeping account.   

43-Across. *   "Unwell" band: MATCH BOX TWENTY.  Noun:  a group or set of twenty or about twenty.  Example: Four score and seven years ago ...

And the Unifier:

58-Across. Game-ending result ... or what each of the answers to starred clues has?: FINAL SCORE.

Across:

1. "__ U Been Gone": 2004 Kelly Clarkson hit: SINCE.  I'm not familiar with this song, but it was easy enough to suss out.

6. Church section: APSE.  Nave or Apse?  Check the perps.

10. __ facto: IPSO.  Today's Latin phrase.  It means "by the fact itself".

14. Early morning hr.: ONE A.M.

15. Abolitionist Lucretia: MOTT.  Lucretia Mott (née Lucretia Coffin; Jan. 3, 1793 ~ Nov. 11, 1880) was an advocate for women's rights and the abolishment of slavery.

16. Superhero whose surname is Odinson: THOR.  I didn't know that Thor had a last name, but the last name in the clue led me to his first name.

19. Foot part: SOLE.  And there are so many parts to the sole of the foot.

20. Palindromic address: MA'AM.  A contraction of Madame, which comes from the French ma dame which means my lady.

21. Baldwin of "30 Rock": ALEC.  Alec Baldwin (né Alexander Rae Baldwin, III; b. Apr. 3, 1958) portrayed Jack Donaghy in the television sit-com 30 Rock.

22. Family grams: NANAs.  //  Not to be confused with 39-Down. Indian flatbread: NAN.

23. Not online: Abbr.: IRL.  In Real Life.  Hand up if you knew this abbreviation.

24. Incensed feeling: IRE.

25. Cincinnati-based supermarket chain: KROGER.  This supermarket chain was started by Bernard Henry Kroger (Jan. 24, 1860 ~ July 21, 1938).  The chain has been around since 1883.

31. Formerly called: NÉE.  This word has appeared rather frequently recently in the puzzles.

32. Really popular: BIG.  I intially tried Hit.

33. Battery size: AAA.

34. African country whose capital is Accra: GHANA.

37. __-Z: Millennials' followers: GEN.  The Pew Research Center defines Generation-Z as people born from 1997 to roughly 2012.

38. Not at all pleased: ANGRY.

40. Slippery sea creature: EEL.

41. Neither's partner: NOR.  "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds."  These words are the informal creed of the United States Post Office.  Sadly, this is no longer true.  It seems that cuts in the postal budget is causing mail delays.  Now I know why I don't get mail every day.

42. Bygone airline: TWA.  Trans World Airlines and the Howard Hughes connection.

49. Go over again, as a contract: REREAD.

50. Cleanse (of): RID.

51. Positive response: YES.  //  And the French negative response:  22. Opposite of oui: NON.

53. Crowd requirement?: THREE.  Two is company, Three's a crowd.

54. Turn sharply: VEER.

56. South American berry: AÇAÍ. This is the third week in a row when this berry has appeared in the puzzle.  I'll have to try to find some of these berries to try.

57. Clarinet insert: REED.

60. Othello's betrayer: IAGO.  Othello is the tragedy written by Willie the Shakes.  It is supposedly based on an Italian story about a Moorish general in the Venetian army and his trusted, but traitorous ensign, IAGO.

61. Memorial notice: OBIT.  As in an obituary.

62. Honor-thieves link: AMONG.

63. Cons' opposites: PROS.

64. Candy apple and fire engine: REDS.  Both are descriptions of shades of RED.  Both can be found on the color chart below.

65. Thick, like fog: DENSE.

Down:

1. "Me too!": SO AM I!

2. Like a garaged car, gearwise: IN PARK.

3. Sherpa, typically: NEPALI.

4. The __ before the storm: CALM.

5. Suffix with morph: -EME.  As in Morpheme.  An obscure word for a Tuesday.  A morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit in a language.  Examples.

6. Protective piece of jewelry: AMULET.  You'll see a lot of these in Turkey.

7. Ask, as a question: POSE.

8. Neckwear-securing accessory: STICKPIN.

9. And more: Abbr.: ETC.  A Latin abbreviation for Et cetera, which means And the rest.

10. "Let's do this": IT'S A GO.

11. Frustrating series of missed calls: PHONE TAG.

12. Sun-powered vehicle: SOLAR CAR.

13. Valuable rocks: OREs.

18. Decluttering maven Kondo: MARIE.  Marie Kondo (b. Oct. 9, 1984) advises you to only keep items that "spark joy"

24. DIY furniture brand: IKEA.  A crossword staple.  I was reading this book yesterday (Waking Lions, by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen), and came across this line:  "The way the furniture you bought in Ikea always looked weird when you got it home, as if it missed its former home, the one in the catalogue."

26. Tattered cloth: RAG.

28. Current events TV channel: CNN.  CNN has been around for 40 year!  It began broadcasting in June 1980.

29. Popular ride app's basic service level: UBERX.  I have never used an Uber.  Here are the different options when selecting an Uber

30. Horses eat it: HAY.

34. Amazing person: GEM.

35. "Agreed!": HEAR!  HEAR!

36. Hannah Montana, for Miley Stewart: ALTER EGO.  Okay.

37. Positive feeling: GOOD VIBE.

38. Amazed: AWED.

41. Minnesota Timberwolves org.: NBA.  The National Basketball Association team.

42. Spin, as a baton: TWIRL.

44. Things one believes: CREDOS.

45. Giggle syllable: HEE.

46. Pays for everyone: TREATS.

47. Business big shot: TYCOON.

48. Longs (for): YEARNS.

52. Prolonged attack: SIEGE.

53. Excursion: TRIP.  Not much traveling this year.  Had we not been in the Quar, we would have been in Europe right now.

55. Geraint's beloved: ENID.  Here are the Cliff Notes for Idylls of the King.

56. Very top: ACME.

58. In favor of: FOR.

59. In low spirits: SAD.

Here's the Grid:

And on that sad note:  It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye.