Today's constructor is Ezra Brauner from Teaneck N.J. He is a third year computer science student at Rutgers. Here's what he had to say about this puzzle:
Hi Gary,
I find it interesting seeing the final puzzle ahead of time, particularly comparing the submitted and final clues. Cluing is challenging for me: I'm not so comfortable with proper cluing syntax and I find it hard to focus on one clue at a time. Most of my clues were changed: some had words rearranged to be made shorter but are effectively my clues, while others were probably too out there. There were many clues that I see now were too wordy; some of the clues that were changed entirely were long, so I understand making them more concise. I'm a somewhat new constructor, but I think my cluing skills are improving.
On the other hand, grid filling is my favorite part of the process: it's analytical, which meshes with my computer science background. I think this themeless was one of the first I made. My focus now, when filling a themeless grid, is packing it with interesting long entries, but here I think I was going for a clean grid, filled largely with familiar words and phrases. This is an earlier work of mine so the clues I wrote then were probably a bit strange.
I'm happy to have a puzzle in the LA Times!
Best,
Ezra Brauner
Across:
1. Big name: SUPERSTAR and 10. Put together: BUILT and 23. 10-Across dude: HE MAN - A vintage photo of someone who fits all three categories and literally has a Big Name
15. Early program marketing method: SHAREWARE - Early on I had a lot of floppy disks with SHAREWARE on them. Most of it was junk but...
16. Clarinetist Shaw: ARTIE - A self-described "difficult man", he was married 8 times including to Lana Turner and Ava Gardner who is seen with him here.
17. Passing words: NONE FOR ME - When a waitress asked my friend if he wanted more coffee, he always said, "NONE FOR I". I applied the old Ann Landers test, "Is anything going to be any better if I say something?"
18. Comes up: RISES.
19. Byron's "__ Walks in Beauty": SHE - She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies - My learned friends will see the iambic tetrameter.
20. Pressed: URGED.
21. 24-Across' love, with "the": BEAST and 24. 21-Across' love: BELLE (The Beauty of whom Lord Byron might have written). Here is BELLE (Beauty) and the BEAST
22. "God in His wisdom made the fly / And then forgot to tell us why" poet Nash: OGDEN - Iambic tetrameter again?
23. Campus building word: HALL - I was a freshman in Morey HALL in 1964, it was old then and is still in use 58 yrs later
27. Satisfied for now, with "over": TIDED - After tomorrow, we football fans have to find something to TIDE us over until next fall
29. Trip-taking aid: LSD - Dr. Timothy Leary was one of the first travel guides
32. Biting: ACID - This adjective is a noun in the LySergic ACID Diethylamide at 29 Across
33. Alarmist: FEAR MONGER - We all know who the famous one was in the Aesop Fable
35. Been in the fridge for too long: GONE BAD.
37. "That I can answer!": EASY ONE - I was so happy granddaughter face-timed me to get help with this algebra problem this week and that I was able to walk her through it. I hope Bill G. reads this today!
38. Justice who clerked for Thurgood Marshall: ELENA KAGAN.
40. Bottom-line bummer: LOSS.
41. Spill preventer: LID - This MacDonald's Coffee LID tells you the contents are hot in two languages, has two "push in" indicators in case it is Decaf or Other and the opening folds down into a recess to stay out of the way. Oh yeah, it can stop spills too.
42. Shroud: BEDIM - Online dictionaries call this a rarely used word
43. Presages: BODES - The Chiefs' roster BODES well for its chance in the Super Bowl tomorrow
44. Uses Venmo, say: PAYS - An app that is owned by PayPal
46. Held for a more opportune time: SAT ON - Hawkeye and Trapper John SAT ON Spearchucker Jones until after halftime to run up the bet and then turned him loose.
48. Not suitable: INAPT - I have the amazing facility to do something INEPT at an INAPT time.
54. Household nickname: POPPA - An alternate spelling of what grandkids (ages 23 - 15) call me.
55. Self-reflection period: ALONE TIME - I have been "hip-deep" in adolescents my entire life
57. The "O" in football's OBJ: ODELL - ODELL Beckham is mostly remembered for this catch as a Giant. When he and his ego left Cleveland, the Browns got better.
58. Ready to be turned on: PLUGGED IN.
59. Shemar's "Criminal Minds" role: DEREK - Here ya go
60. Two-person exchange: TETE-A-TETE - and this piece of furniture takes its name from this exchange that it facilitates
Down:
1. Figures to protect, briefly: SSNS - I have the SSN for thousands of people in my files from hiring them when they were kids
2. "Here comes trouble!": UH OH.
3. Glazier's job: PANE.
4. "Blood hath been shed __ now": Macbeth: ERE -Act 3, Scene 3 - (Banquo's ghost appears) Blood hath been shed ere now, i' th' olden time, ERE humane statute purged the gentle weal. (Translation: In ancient times, before there were laws to make the land safe and peaceful, a lot of blood was spilled.)
5. Harbor: REFUGE.
6. Symbol of military power: SWORD.
7. Marketing tailored to personal tastes: TARGETED AD - As soon as I searched for bird feeders, ADS for them started appearing on other pages I viewed
8. Georgia neighbor: ARMENIA - Nogorno-Karabakah (shown in red below) is claimed by both ARMENIA and Azerbaijan
9. Oboist's need: REED.
10. Rihanna's birthplace: BARBADOS - This is her childhood home in Bridgetown, BARBADOS. The street has been renamed Rhianna Drive.
11. One of the archangels: URIEL - There are seven of them and each is associated with a day of the week. URIEL's is Tuesday
12. "We're cool": IT'S ALL GOOD.
13. Rests: LIES - If for some reason this golfer LAYS his ball in the sand trap, he can then say the ball LIES there.
14. Final, e.g.: TEST.
22. Long-ago: OLDEN.
24. Everything __: BAGEL - They could be topped with most anything. Common toppings include poppy seeds, sesame seeds, onion flakes, garlic flakes, pretzel salt, and pepper.
25. Food recall trigger: E-COLI - Uh, this would not be an appropriate topping
26. Binder filler, perhaps: LINED PAPER - I'm sure your binder if fine but if you want to talk LINED PAPER to us baby boomers:
28. Fervently hope for: DREAM ABOUT.
30. Make __: SENSE.
31. Get ready, as for a fancy dinner: DRESS - What? You don't change clothes for dinner? How gauche!
33. Forges: FAKES - There is only one forgery in this note. The forger changed (sloppily) the April 14 date from 1864 to 1865, the day Lincoln was assassinated, because he thought that he could sell it as perhaps the last document Abe signed.
34. Common toothbrush material: NYLON.
36. Speech that's hard to follow: BABY TALK - I could swear she said "Daddy"
39. Ballet whose title heroine dies in Act I: GISELLE - GISELLE features these "back from the dead brides" known as the Wilis. This may have been the origin of getting the "willies".
43. Barrio market: BODEGA - Jerry bounced a check at his BODEGA
45. With 48-Down, only its Touch is still in production: APPLE and 48. See 45-Down: IPOD - Costs much less than an iPhone, but, oh yeah, it is NOT a phone.
47. Trace amount: TINGE - Last Saturday this was mistaken for TINCT in Joe Deeney's puzzle
49. Joint: NODE.
50. Mesmerized: RAPT - This little finch has Lily's RAPT attention.
51. Surprise party cry: HIDE - "No giggling!"
52. Leave unsaid: OMIT.
53. Trait carrier: GENE - How 'bout a round of "Name That GENE" (answers below)
56. Saigon New Year: TET.
NAME THAT GENE: Hackman, Rayburn, Kelly, Autry, Wilder, Pitney
Nickelodean remake starring an emotionally unstable songbird and
his dimwitted cat?
Wren and Stimpy
Hello Cornerites! It's Chairman Moe here recapping his second straight
Bruce Haight Friday Crossword Puzzle. And this one was quite a doozy!
While it didn't make me sick to my stomach, I did feel like a
Wretch midway through ...
So, if you hadn't figured it out by now, Bruce looked at using a silent "W" in his four puzzle answers to offer a pun of a familiar phrase. Not an easy task, as there are precious few words that begin "WR" where the "R" word is an actual word. How do I know this? Well, as I began blogging I found this list of words beginning with wr where the w is silent. Not a lot of choices, and aside from MY punny addition, Bruce chose all of the others.
Well, maybe not ... I wonder if this one ever made the short list?
A Moe-ku:
Couple with COVID Had to ink their vows. It was The "Write" of Marriage
17-Across. Kitty Hawk?: WRIGHT PLACE. This one didn't strike for me immediately, although I did eventually think of the Wright Brothers. Kitty Hawk, NC was the PLACE where the brothers trialed their first airplane flight. Their Memorial there is shown below:
22-Across. Englishman Charles' ripped-up early essay attempts?: WRACK OF LAMB. Charles Lamb, aka "Elia" (a favorite crossword puzzle word) was not the first "Charles" to come to mind. Prince Charles wouldn't fit. So I "wracked" my brain trying to figure this one out, but how did Bruce know that the Chairman's most favorite meat dish is this:
38-Across. Good insurance risk?: WRECKLESS DRIVER. Very clever! I wonder if this was the "seed entry"? Regardless, it was by far MY favorite pun among the four.
47-Across. Pre-Christmas affair?: WRAP SESSION. The word "affair" threw me off. Dictionary dot com defines "Rap Session" as: a usually informal or unstructured group discussion, attended especially by people with shared interests, concerns, or problems. The pun is clever but I didn't think of how this made sense, given the clue. As far as a WRAP SESSION, I usually left the Christmas present "wrapping" to my kids or the wrapping department found at most major Department Stores . . . Maybe this couple were having a mini-wrap session. Love the sweaters!
And of course the unifier: 59-Across. Winning, in sports slang ... and what each of four puzzle answers is doing?: GETTING THE "W". And while this all makes sense NOW, my first impression of the W and R came from this erstwhile "hare hunter" (shown below), although his was replacing the R for a W, and that form of speech impediment is known as rhotacism.
On to the "Wrest" . . .
Across:
1. 3.0 and 4.0, briefly: GPAS. As in Grade Point AverageS. I think I finally graduated with a GPA slightly higher than 3.0, but not by much. Never an "A" student, I, but this song came to mind:
5. "The Fall" guy?: CAMUS. Perps filled this one for me. You? Never connected the clue to a book and its author.
10. AOL rival: MSN. I had this in, then erased it, and finally put it back in once the perps fell into place
13. James' evil golfing opponent, in a 1964 film: AURIC. I got this one straight away. And similar to the last Haight puzzle, GOLF is at the fore! AURIC Goldfinger was JAMES Bond's foil in the eponymous movie based on Ian Fleming's book. Here is a scene worth watching all the way through:
15. Up to one's neck: AWASH. Also, a 500 mile long river in Ethiopia . . . who knew? Picard maybe?
16. Subj. of a "delayed" notice: ETA. Estimated Time of Arrival or ETA: the 6th letter of the Greek Alphabet
19. Monk's title: DOM. Here is MY favorite DOM:
20. Asset for a musician: KEEN EAR. Moe-ku:
Famed actor starred in A musical, and was then Billed, as Greg KEEN EAR
21. One with all the answers?: SIRI. She may have all the answers, but don't try getting too friendly with her. Just ask Raj on TBBT:
27. Tight gp.: BFFS. Texting talk; Best FriendSForever (BFSF) might be more grammatically correct though
31. Some voting machine parts: LEVERS. LEVERS seem so old-fashioned re voting machines, and now that many folks are voting via snail mail maybe the lever shown below is the new "retro" LEVER . . .
32. Arcade plumber: MARIO. Pac Man reference
34. 2010s White House name: MALIA. Wait a darn minute! Didn't we see her yesterday? MALIA Ann Obama, born July 4, 1998. As waseeley said, she's of legal age now. Do we feel old or what?!
35. 1860s White House name: ABE. CLecho . . . and do you "get" why I emboldened the "CL"?
41. "Didn't I tell you?": SEE. Didn't I tell you?" It will be all right!! Sing it, sister!!
42. U.S. laundry soap since 1918: RINSO. DREFT also fit, but it wasn't introduced until 1933. PUREX, too, but that was in 1923. RINSO, OTOH, was the first mass-marketed laundry detergent, so this "fit the bill"
43. Mound stats: SAVES. Mariano Rivera - whose STATUE (see 44-across) is shown below - is the Major League Baseball pitcher who has the most total SAVES in a career, and was a first ballot unanimous inductee in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
According to mlb dot com, this is what constitutes getting a SAVE: A relief pitcher recording a save must preserve his team's lead while doing one of the following: Enter the game with a lead of no more than three runs and pitch at least one inning. Enter the game with the tying run in the on-deck circle, at the plate or on the bases. Pitch at least three innings.
44. It might be a bust: STATUE. I hope I won't be censored here, but does this STATUE contain two busts? Or is it three?
46. Where Ford gets an F: NYSE. "F" is the New York Stock Exchange symbol for The Ford Motor Company
52. Forgets the lyrics, maybe: HUMS. And when my belly "HUMS", sometimes I take:
53. Evil laugh: MWA HA HA. Used twice, previously, in the LA Times Crossword Puzzles; May 7, 2018 and Aug. 16, 2014
58. "59-Down" need: AMP. Well, if you "got" 59-Down. Part of a band tour: GIG, then you could've gotten 58-Across. Mine took a few perps to fill
63. Bit of online mirth: LOL. More texting talk; Laugh(ing) Out Loud may be considered a bit of "mirth"
64. Bury: INURN. Literally, when a dead person's ashes (cremation) are placed IN an URN. When this vessel is placed into a burial plot (aka "crypt" or "mausoleum") it is INURNed
65. Gooey goody: S'MORE. Moe-L'ick. This is an archived one that I don't think I posted here before. It was a limerick "smack-down" in which I answered another's (Kirk Miller). Follow along . . . mine is the second one:
There's a marshmallow salesman named Mel Who's successful. The way to excel Is to use a technique That is rather unique For his job. You should learn the soft sell.
You know, Mel sells his treats, door-to-door; Which of course, many people, abhor. If they’re unwilling to budge, He’ll add Graham crackers and fudge, And of course, then they all want S'MORE.
66. Poetic conjunction: ERE. Crossword-ese
67. Shoot for the stars: GO BIG. Yesterday's Arizona Republic newspaper had a headline on the Nation's News page (AP article by Lisa Mascaro and Josh Boak) entitled: "Biden urges House to 'go big' on aid".
But when I first saw the answer, my thoughts were, "GO BIG, or go home!"
68. Corrosive chemicals: LYES. I'll tee this one up for Ray-O-Sunshine. Don't let me down, buddy!
Down:
1. Rubberneck: GAWK. What is it about driving past an accident that makes us all want to rubberneck/GAWK?
2. Sheer: PURE. There it is! First synonym listed!
3. R&B's India.__: ARIE. According to Wikipedia: India Arie Simpson (born October 3, 1975), also known as India. Arie (sometimes styled as india.arie), is an American singer and songwriter. She has sold over 3.3 million records in the US and 10 million worldwide. She has won four Grammy Awards from her 23 nominations, including Best Rhythm and Blues Album.
4. Take the offer: SIGN. "Get them to SIGN on the line which is dotted . . . . . "
5. Three-time Best Director of the 1930s: CAPRA. Frank Russell CAPRA was an Italian-born American film director, producer and writer who was best known for these two films (for which he won an Oscar) in the 1930's (It Happened One Night (1934), and You Can't Take It with You (1938)); he was also the Director for "It's a Wonderful Life" which has become a classic film shown during the Christmas Holidays
6. Spiked punch?: AWL. Cartoonist Leo Cullum had this "punny" version of the word "AWL". See below:
7. Kid's cry: MAA. But I am sure that some of you parents, when your kid cried "MAA", knew it was DAD's turn to find out what was wrong . . .
8. Neil Armstrong alma mater: USC. Neil Alden Armstrong (August 5, 1930 – August 25, 2012) from Wapakoneta, OH, earned is BS from Purdue University and his MS from the University of Southern California; who's iconic marching band tune played often at their football games. "Fight On"!
9. __-crab soup: SHE. SHE-Crab Soup, also called She Crab Bisque, is made with female crabs. Makes sense. In addition, the roe of the female crab is added to the recipe. Unless you live in an area where crabs are regularly harvested, you will probably have a more difficult time finding “female” crabs. Click on this link for the recipe
10. Smart regarding marketing: MEDIA SAVVY. Defined as having a good understanding of the influence of the internet, newspapers, television, etc. and how to use it effectively. These people are media-savvy and they are not going to say anything on camera that makes them look stupid.
The Blog's "no politics" rule kept me from saying more!
11. Picnic spoiler: STORM. Well, ANTS didn't fit!
12. Desert along Africa's southwest coast: NAMIB. In Namibia. One picture = lot of Moe's words:
14. Mull (over): CHEW. Thesaurus +
18. Sailing moniker: TAR. CSO to Spitzboov?
21. Shooting option, briefly: SLR. Single Lens Reflex. This explains it better than can I
23. School meetings: CLASSES. I couldn't get anything with the letters "PTA" to fit. I guess in the broadest sense of the clue, school meetings could mean CLASSES. Does this clue make it fit just for a Friday puzzle?
24. "That '70s Show" role: KELSO. Ashton Kutcher as Michael KELSO was the dumb pretty boy of the group, who hopes to coast through life on his good looks. The show ran from 1998 to 2006 on Fox Network. I never watched it. Kutcher later starred in Two and a Half Men after Charlie Sheen was written out of the show
25. The "Tristia" poet: OVID. Publius Ovidius Naso known as OVID in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. One of his works was "The Metamorphoses"
26. Quake causes: FEARS. I didn't quite get this clue and answer, but I found this clip on The Weather Channel
27. Autobahn autos: BMWS. The BMW - short for Bavarian Motor Works - is one of several German Autos that can be found driving on the Autobahn. I put in AUDI first, as I drove that brand for over 17 years, and actually drove my A5 on several Autobahns, as I took the "European Delivery Option" when I bought it
28. One may be taken for a ride: FARE. Clever clue! Taxicab drivers still accept a FARE from passengers, while Uber and Lyft drivers get their $ after the passenger's "FARE" is collected by the APP. Tips are optional ...
29. Shopper's lure: FREE SAMPLE. Another great clue and fill. FREE SAMPLE? Of course! But you'll not find one at this merchant now that we are in a pandemic . . . at least not here in Arizona . . .
30. Quote qualifier: SIC. SIC is a Latin term meaning “thus.” It is used to indicate that something incorrectly written is intentionally being left as it was in the original, thus the quote qualifier. SIC is usually italicized and always surrounded by brackets to indicate that it was not part of the original. Place [sic] right after the errer [sic]
33. Gumbo pods: OKRAS. I would've bet that the plural for OKRA was OKRA (as in Deer/Deer). Word Hippo agrees, sort of, but OKRAS is/are acceptable
34. Screen lists: MENUS. Simply stated, MENUS are a set of options presented to the user of a computer application to help the user find information or execute a program function.
For my appetizer, I will have "File"/Save As
For my main course I will have "Edit"/Undo
And for dessert, "Help"/About
36. Fliers with combs: BEES. Ouch! This one hurt! If it weren't for the perps, this might have stayed in its hive. Not even sure what I considered at first . . . but this flier might need a comb (Note: Meant ONLY in good humor and spirits!)
37. Source of "clan" and "slogan": ERSE. Word origins. Clan and slogan are words that originate from Gaelic (also known as "ERSE"). All words come from somewhere, no? ERSE is also a very popular crossword answer. We probably had it earlier this week ...
39. Miller option: LITE. OK, I will admit to being a "beer snob" as I find most all LITE beers, including Miller's, to be quite watery and unappealing. But clearly I am in the minority as Miller's iconic brand sells somewhere north of 100 million cases annually
45. Pranks, in a way, informally: TP'S. This one is a stretch for me, but back on June 6, 2018, the LA Times allowed it with this clue: "Pulls a Charmin shenanigan, briefly". I posted a cartoon before, regarding this. Check 46-Across
47. More than a high roller, in casino lingo: WHALE. One of two words that C Moe had to look up in order to solve the puzzle. The other was NAMIB. Interesting that the two words I "missed" were in the exact opposite corner location from each other. Critical corners though, as the other words in those corners didn't fall for me straight away.
I've been to many casinos in my lifetime but can't honestly say I've heard the term "WHALE" before. But then, I usually played Blackjack at a $5 or $10 table ... I was a minnow! Click on this link to read 5 crazy tales of Las Vegas WHALEs
48. Buzz: RUMOR.
49. Cyberchatting: I'MING. Abbr. for Instant MessagING
50. Have mastery over: OWN. Would our cat owners here agree?
51. Badgers: NAGS.
Think of an upper midwest team in the NCAA . . .
Moe-ku:
Madison athletes Who are pesterers are called The Wisconsin NAGS
54. Webmaster's code: HTML. HyperText Markup Language. Our blog is done this way. Had HTTP yesterday
55. Call from a bridge: AHOY. Spitz, do you have any knowledge of this; its origin perhaps? Was the phrase actually used aboard ship?
56. "__ goes!": HERE. Possibly the phrase I uttered when posting my first blog
57. Floors: AWES. Another Friday clue, perhaps. "Stuns" is a word I would use to describe AWES, but "floors" is perfectly acceptable. "To cause an unpleasant surprise for"
60. "The Realistic Joneses" playwright Will: ENO. Will ENO is an American playwright based in Brooklyn, New York. His play, Thom Pain was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama in 2005. Total unknown to me
61. Slow boat: TUB. Rub-a-dub-dub, three men in a . . .
62. TNT component?: TRI. TRI Nitro Toluene. Invented by Alfred Nobel of the Nobel Peace Prize fame. Go figure!
And with that, POOF! We're done! Here is the grid. I highlighted the "W's"; "AWL" seven of them. Did anyone else "get the Win?" Please add any thoughts and comments below . . .
C-Moe (and yes, this emoji is pretty accurate . . .)
Today's puzzler is brought to us by Jeffrey Wechsler, and I assure you that it's a real gas. In fact it's full of gas! The following themers are inflated with a different gas at different points in the answer. Per the usual Xwd convention they each span 2 or more words:
18. Red River city: FARGO NORTH DAKOTA. The setting for a 1996 Cohen Brothers crime dramedy starring Francis McDormand, who won an Oscar for best actress in it. It also spun off a highly successful 4 season TV series. This answer is inflated with Element #18 ARGON.
30. Words of urgency: NOW MORE THAN EVER it's VERY URGENT that you don't strike a match! This answer is inflated with ETHANE, a highly volatile hydrocarbon gas:
47. Intro suggesting uncertainty: SOMEONE ONCE SAID. Element #10 NEON. Very illuminating.
59. Pre-road trip detail ... and a hint to what certain parts of three long answers were doing as you solved them: FILLING UP WITH GAS.
It's interesting that the first and last of these clues are INERT GASES, whereas the last is HIGHLY EXPLOSIVE. I'm not sure if there's any significance to this. Maybe Jeff will stop by and elucidate.
Here are the rest of the clues ...
Across:
1. Queens stadium namesake: ASHE. Arthur Ashe was an iconic sports pioneer among many greats. Not too many have a stadium named after them. He was named in last Sunday's puzzle, clued by his book "Hard Road to Glory".
5. Elevated vantage point for Wile E. Coyote: MESA. Wiley wasn't very wily was he?
9. Sister of Sasha: MALIA. Malia came to the White House when she was 10. She's now 22 and studying at Harvard. Her sister SASHA is 19.
14. Many a gamer: TEEN.
15. Oodles: A LOT. It's misspelled ALOT.
16. Freezes: ICES UP. It's doing that here in Charm City as I'm finishing this up.
21. Fronded plant: FERN. Easy to grow, otherwise we wouldn't have so many of them in our back yard.
22. Exit in a hurry: BAIL. You can only do this after you MAKE BAIL. But keep an eye out for the BAIL BONDSMAN if you do. They're big dudes.
23. Oodles, with "a": SLEW. Or OFFED. In the Biblical sense.
24. They, in Calais: ILS. Today's French lesson. But wait there's more ...!
25. Drawn from diverse sources: ECLECTIC. A school of philosophy "denoting or belonging to a class of ancient
philosophers who did not belong to or found any recognized school of
thought but selected doctrines from various schools of thought." A good way to avoid COGNITIVEDISSONANCE.
29. Hound for payment: DUN. And they won't stop until they're DONE.
33. Partners: COHORTS.
34. TV component?: TELE. Don't watch much TELLY, except for British murder mysteries.
35. He hit his 600th homer exactly three years after his 500th: A ROD.
36. Medical suffix: ITIS. Then there's ITISITIS, a.k.a. HYPOCHONDRIA.
40. Caesar's next-to-last words: ET TU. "You BRUTE!"
44. "Take a hike!": GET LOST. Not difficult to do, with my sense of direction.
51. Way off: FAR. What results if you do light a match around 30A.
52. Be decided by: TURN UPON.
53. Sot's woe: DTS.
54. Caesar's last day, e.g.: IDES. Some days you just shouldn't get out of bed! You never know who'll run you thru.
56. __ act: RIOT. Much in the news these days.
57. Summers in Bordeaux: ETES. My favorite French region. But not in the ÉTÉ.
64. Make certain: ASSURE.
65. Island in Micronesia: GUAM. Looks like a nice place to visit. Anybody been there?
66. Big name in digital imaging: AGFA. Many will remember KODAK as the "big name" in photography compared to this Belgian competitor and others at the time. But KODAK wasn't looking when the Internet hit and now what's left of them is a brand name applied to OEM products. AGFA in the meantime has become a leader in digital imaging:
67. Jovial: MERRY.
68. Modern address letters: HTTP. Look at the address line (URL) at the top of your browser. The first thing in the address will be the letters HTTP, which stand for HyperText Transfer Protocol. A protocol is a standardized agreement between computer programs about how they exchange data and documents across a network. This particular protocol was invented in 1989 by computer scientist Timothy Berners-Lee (now Sir) when he was working for the CERN particle physics lab in Geneva, Switzerland. An initial objective of this protocol was to facilitate the transfer of documents among scientists world-wide, e.g. Hypertexts like the blog you're now reading. The first programs using HTTP for document transfer were text-based, but after a team led by Marc Andreessen at NCSA developed a GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE for it called MOSAIC, the protocol's usage mushroomed and the modern World Wide Web was born.
3. "Want to know the culprit? I'll tell you!": HERES WHO.
4. Many an MIT alum: ENGR.
5. Ralph Ellison's "Invisible __": MAN. Born in 1914 in Oklahoma City, the grandson of slaves, Ralph Waldo Ellison and his younger brother were raised by their mother, whose
husband died when Ralph was 3 years old. His mother supported her young
family by working as a nursemaid, a janitor and a domestic.
6. "Livin' Thing" rock gp.: ELO. The Electric Light Orchestra is an English rock band formed in Birmingham in 1970. Here's an audio clip ...
7. Cold dessert: SORBET. What's the difference between SORBET and SHERBET? They're both iced, fruit-based confections that contain sugar. The former contains no dairy products and would be the suitable for those who are LACTOSE INTOLERANT. The latter contains milk and is creamier than sorbet. Neither sounds suitable for diabetics.
8. Stick on: ATTACH.
9. Central dividing point: MIDLINE. Often a medical term denoting a bisection line or plane in the body, e.g. for an incision.
10. Here, in Juárez: ACA. Today's Spanish lesson. What little Spanish I know I learned from crossword puzzles. And also from a group of Mexican nuns who used to do the housekeeping for a nearby monastery I visited every Saturday morning. Before the world changed.
12. Tristan's love: ISOLDE. Among other retellings of this 12th century story, Tristan and Isolde is a 3 act tragic opera with libretto and music by RICHARD WAGNER. Wagner is an acquired taste and this 4 hour opera (not including intermissions!) is not the way to acquire it. It is rarely performed outside the MET in New York, and requires specialized "Wagnerian" singers with incredible vocal skills and stamina. These people are literally musical Olympians!
13. Filmmaker with a distinctive style: AUTEUR. FREDERICO FELLINI and FRANÇOIS TRUFFAUT come to mind.
17. One before a king?: PAWN. In addition to being a chess piece, it can also connote a HOSTAGE or a pledge to return money for an object that has been PAWNED.
19. "It's __ the other": ONE OR. But not BOTH. Unless of course we're talking about QUANTUM MECHANICS. But as NOBELIST and bongo player extraordinaire RICHARD FEYNMAN once said: "If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don't understand quantum mechanics." That's QM in a nutshell!
20. Try to strike: HIT AT. See 47D.
24. Old Peruvian: INCA. They weren't called that when they were growing up?
26. Old TV component: CRT. CATHODE RAY TUBE. A CSO to the Cornerite who said she used to solder the electrodes for these during WWII. Please correct me if I'm wrong. I make some of this stuff up. The problem is I can't tell which is which!
27. "__ Miz": LES.
28. Wile E. Coyote collectible: CEL. See 5A for a whole bunch of these.
31. Surfing tool: MODEM. A MODulator DEModulator converts analog signals (e.g. telephone, radio, coax, WiFi) to/from digital formats (i.e. usable by computers).
32. Bridal shop array: VEILS.
37. Source of some tadpoles: TOAD EGGS.
38. "Okay to come out yet?": IS IT SAFE. Someone please tell me when it is!
39. Norms: Abbr.: STDS. See e.g. 63D below.
41. Asian holiday: TET. This word entered Western vocabulary in 1968 after a major North Vietnamese offensive during the VIETNAM WAR. I've always thought that it was exclusively the Vietnamese Lunar New Year, but the Chinese celebrate it too. However it starts at a different time because of a 1 hour time zone difference. A CSO to CC for any additional details.
42. Competition: TOURNEY.
43. Strip of gear, as a ship: UN RIG.
44. Econ. yardstick: GNP. Gross National Product vs Gross Domestic Product? GDP measures the value of goods and services produced within a country's borders, by citizens and non-citizens alike. GNP measures the value of goods and services produced by a country's citizens, but both domestically and abroad. GDP is the most commonly used metric by global economies. You may have to perp it. I didn't last week and FIW.
45. Environmentalist's prefix: ECO. Last month it was clued "Novelist Umberto".
46. Principle: TENET.
47. Cruelty named for a marquis: SADISM. Nasty business.
48. Ultimatum phrase: OR ELSE. OR WHAT? "Is that a threat?".
49. "Just stop, okay?!": ENOUGH. Or as my granddaughter says when I'm teasing her: "STOP ... STOP!"
50. Production: OUTPUT.
51. World Cup soccer org.: FIFA. All I know about soccer is that PELE is a very gluey person and was one of the greatest players in the sport. I'm more of a Cricket FAN. It's much easier to take NAPS during a match. A CSO to Vidwan827 - can you explain cricket scoring to us?
55. Omit a part of, perhaps: SLUR.
58. Asian takeout option: THAI. CSO to anyone who knows if they celebrate 41D.
On the other hand, grid filling is my favorite part of the process: it's analytical, which meshes with my computer science background. I think this themeless was one of the first I made. My focus now, when filling a themeless grid, is packing it with interesting long entries, but here I think I was going for a clean grid, filled largely with familiar words and phrases. This is an earlier work of mine so the clues I wrote then were probably a bit strange.
26. Binder filler, perhaps: LINED PAPER - I'm sure your binder if fine but if you want to talk LINED PAPER to us baby boomers:
