Saturday, October, 30, 2021, Adrian Johnson

 Themeless Saturday by Adrain Johnson

CARINA!

After only a month's absence, our friend Adrian Johnson has another Saturday puzzle for us. To refresh your memory, Adrian is from Laramie Wyoming and has graduated with a degree in  International Studies from Macalaster College in Saint Paul, MN. I had a delightful struggle with the puzzle and had one bad cell at LE_A/CARI_A. Not knowing anything about Game Of Thrones is one thing but for this amateur astronomer to miss CARINA was a real disappointment.  It seemed that a lot of consonants could have filled that cell. Sigh...Particularly impressive to me was Adrian's double stack of grid spanners with a central grid spanner thrown in for good measure. Wow! Adrian's notes:Hi Gary

Thrilled to be back with my third LA Times themeless, just 5 weeks after my sophomore effort at the end of last month. I'm back to my old ways with a grid heavy on 15-letter entries, yet somehow this puzzle has one less grid spanner than my February LAT debut. As for the fill... I haven't seen 54A, but I made a deal with my partner that if she finishes my crossword I'll watch it with her. 

Personally, I'm not a big fan of superhero/fantasy movies as a whole, but Endgame was more than a movie. Endgame was the culmination and turning point of the Marvel Cinematic Universe– a saga of 25 (26 on 11/5) films that's become a cultural phenomenon and touchstone for millions around the world. 

My other seed, 15A, reminds me of how much of a pushover I'd be as a father... allowing my kid to act up and then telling them "okay THIS time I mean it..." but then not being serious, thereby provoking a never-ending cycle of mayhem and empty promises in our house. I didn't find it in any database or wordlist I use as a constructor, so I thought It'd make for an engaging and original start to the puzzle. 

Crosswords are my favorite OUTSIDE INTEREST in life right now, and I can't wait to share more of my work with you in the months and years ahead!

-AJ

Across:

1. Make bold, maybe: STRESS - When you really want to stress a point

7. Advanced degree candidate's no.: GRE SCORE - I took mine and got my score (no.) in 1968

15. "No more kidding around!": THIS TIME I MEAN IT - A seed entry for Adrian

17. Hobby: OUTSIDE INTEREST - Here is my hobby where I am celebrating my first hole-in-one

18. Peck in the park, informally: PDA - "Get a room!"

19. Controversial oil well verb: FRACK.

20. "Whose __ was that?": IDEA 

21. Philosophy 101 subject: PLATO.

22. Headey of "Game of Thrones": LENA - LENA Horne didn't work for a Saturday puzzle

24. "Turning Tables" singer: ADELE - She and her lovely vowels are on stage here quite often.

27. Main ingredients in the Thai dish tam som: PAPAYAS.

30. Shuffle alternative: NANO.

iPod NANO           iPod Shuffle

31. Speak from memory: RECITE - Did you have to memorize and RECITE the Gettysburg Address too?

34. One-named "Chandelier" singer: SIA - Her IMDB

35. Start thinking about old unpleasantness: DREDGE UP THE PAST - A Thanksgiving tradition that should be abandoned. Get over it!!

38. Stately tree: ELM.

39. Gas up?: AERATE - Inside this dispenser are tanks of syrup for flavor and CO2 tanks for AERATING "gassing up" water, This combination produces a soft drink

40. World's largest fashion magazine: ELLE.

41. Responds to a minister, in a way: SAYS I DO.

43. Coarse cloth: TWEED - Professor Indiana Jones in a TWEED suit

44. Join (with): ALLY.

45. Sources of suffering: BANES.

48. Ginormous: MEGA - _ _ G _  turns out to NOT (see 1 across) be HUGE

50. Completely surround: BOX IN - This guy in D.C. got BOXED IN but refused to sell his small building for years even though he was offered $3M.

51. Food is tossed in it: WOK.

54. 2019 culmination of a 22-film story: AVENGERS ENDGAME - One of AJ's seed entries. I hope he and his partner watch it soon!

58. Thrift store merchandise: VINTAGE CLOTHING - A store in NYC's West Village

59. Free throws, usually: SET SHOTS - Wilt Chamberlain didn't in his early years but changed to overhead SET SHOTS later in his career because he didn't like how the underhand style looked. He missed a lot  either way.

 

60. "You're absolutely right": SO IT IS - What I say when my lovely bride is right. When I'm right, silence...

Down:

1. "That's enough!": STOP.

2. Sound of a flop: THUD - In sports an athlete who falls down dramatically feigning being fouled despite being untouched is said to have "flopped". The THUD is manufactured

3. Romance writers' award until 2019: RITA - Accusations of racism

4. Assassin standout?: ESS - Yup, there's a lot of 'em.

5. Smother: STIFLE.

6. Libya's Gulf of __: SIDRA 

7. Company with woodchuck ads: GEICO - GEICO also used pigs, squirrels, et al

8. Stars' play area: RINK - Their rink is in Dallas. 

9. Lifesaver, briefly: EMT - Can't say enough good things about First Responders 

10. "Catch my drift?": SEE.

11. Canopus' constellation: CARINA - Canopus is the brightest star in CARINA that is the "Keel Of The Argo"

12. Short promotion: ONE DAY SALE.

13. Hilltop: RISE - "They'll be coming over the RISE any minute now"

14. Place Sundance liked to see: ETTA - Ah yes, The Sundance Kid's girlfriend ETTA Place always has a, uh, place in crosswords 

16. Substance: MEAT - Some college football teams don't get into the MEAT of their schedule until this time of year

21. Drudge or trudge: PLOD - I'm more used to the former word being a noun

22. Woodshop tool: LATHE.

23. Heaviest of the three modern fencing swords: EPEE.

24. Quito's range: ANDES.

25. Alfalfa's love interest: DARLA.

26. Suspicious plant: ENEMY AGENT - This scene from Stalag 17 had William Holden outing Peter Graves as the ENEMY AGENT who was actually a Nazi plant in their prisoner barracks.

27. The Panthers of the ACC: PITT.

28. Symbolic compromise crossing: AISLE - Not much of that being done in today's very contentious Congress

29. Having no more room, perhaps: SATED - If relatives are SATED they won't DREDGE UP THE PAST at Thanksgiving.

31. Thin in tone: REEDY - Anyone else think of Barney Fife?

32. Latvian capital: EURO - A KFC in Riga. Instead of a decimal point, the EURO uses a comma.

33. Pro concerned with returns: CPA.

36. Olympic sprinter Devers: GAIL.

37. Prayer supports?: PEWS - It amazed me that St. Mark's Basilica in Venice (and many other great churches) had no PEWS, just chairs. 

42. Op-ed features: SLANTS - One piece may "point with pride" and the next one will "view with alarm"

43. Care for: TEND TO.

45. Bartlett relatives: BOSCS - I posted pear types last Saturday     

46. Double or triple skating move: AXEL - Count the revolutions

47. Boys of Sevilla: NINOS - The Boy Who Touched The Stars

48. Cuban team, for short: MAVS - HUGE made me think HAVS (sic) would work before I realized Adrian was talking about the Dallas Mavericks, the NBA team Mark Cuban owns

49. Name that sounds like its first two letters: EVIE 

50. Poison lead singer Michaels: BRET.

51. Stand by: WAIT.

52. Start to science?: OMNI - OMNI and SCIENCE both sound very different in this word below

53. Bar supply: KEGS.

55. Cry of exasperation: GAH - Not UGH or BAH

56. Word with surf or trip: EGO - I knew EGO trip but not

57. Letters next to a 4: GHI - Even on my iPhone 11

Friday, October 29, 2021, Gary Larson

Theme: HOMOPHONES

Good Friday morning! Today I have the pleasure of recapping my fourth Gary Larson puzzle. To say that he is a prolific constructor is an understatement. I'm sure that if I had done some research I could share just how many crossword puzzles Gary has created. But it has to be in the hundreds. This one focuses on homophones and play-on-words. But unlike most homophonic words/phrases, Gary's are all about the sounds represented by certain letters.

"A," you ask? G, will U bear with me for a second? Here's an example:

16-Across. Submits a racy version of a film to the MPAA?: CHANCES R. Right off the bat, Gary hits a home run with a clever play-on-words. CHANCES "R", as in submitting an R-Rated movie to the Motion Picture Association of America. Or is it CHANCES ARE, a very iconic Johnny Mathis hit single?

And not to B undone, we next have: 25-Across. Trouble at the family rec center?: Y BOTHER. Y as in "why", or Y as in YMCA (a rec center, of sorts)? And Moe, Y bother putting this next video clip into the blog? B caws, it will remain as an earworm for the rest of the morning!!

Moving on 2 the next example: 36-Across. Filling in for rapper Cardi?: SPELLING B. As in the "artist" Cardi B. CAUTION: If you click on this link and listen to the video, you could be offended by her language. I don't think she was "chancing R". Here is an example of her work

Or maybe you thought of this SPELLING BEE?

Now that U C where Gary is going with the puzzle, here are the last two "themers":

49-Across. Deans, professors and undergrads?: U PEOPLE. Of the five, this was my least "favorite", but it still fits just fine. The "U" is a term used to abbr. University. Of which Deans, undergrads, and prof's are all a part of. On the flip side, there are so many images to choose from with the phrase: "YOU PEOPLE!" I finally decided on this (with a mini-SO to Canadian, Eh?):

And last, but not least, this: 60-Across. Mediocre bakery item in home ec class?: C BISCUIT. Brilliant. I can just imagine Gordon Ramsay reaming out a chef on an episode of "Hell's Kitchen" for making a mediocre BISCUIT, and giving it a "C" grade. The flip side of this answer is one of my favorite movies based on the book by Laura Hillenbrand. Here is a trailer:

Across:
1. Bad-mouth: DIS. My immediate thought was that the word for this clue should be spelled "DISS". But as we recappers are known to do, I found this on the internet, which explains it perfectly. Yellowrocks, you concur??

4. Times to call, in ads: AFTS. Since the word "ads" in the clue is an abbreviation, the implied word should be one as well. And the plural (times) makes it likewise. Not a big fan of pluralizing abbreviations, but I don't think that the word AFT - as in the rear of the boat - can have an S at the end. Moe rambling here . . .

8. Descendants of Muhammad, in Shi'ism: IMAMS. And Dictionary dot com agrees: IMAM is a title of various Muslim leaders, especially of one succeeding Muhammad as leader of Shiite Islam

13. Mag for execs: INC.

14. Down: BLUE. This is an example of a homonym. BLUE can be a description for sadness or one of the three primary colors

15. Irritate: GNAW AT.

18. Certain war hero: AIR ACE. His battles with the Red Baron are legendary!

19. Fictional spread near Jonesboro: TARA. Well I'll be darned! Just look here, then scroll down to Movies and Literature for confirmation of the clue

20. "La Dolce Vita" co-star: EKBERG. A former Miss Sweden. She made her home Italy after the movie was released

22. Sailor's pronoun: SHE. As I like to have my blogs be interactive, I defer to Spitzboov to expound on this. My first thought was that nearly everything seen by a sailor is referred to as "she", as the image below implies

23. Come down: ALIGHT. But if this were clued as a two-word answer

27. Wound up: TENSE. TENSE? I was thinking that if there were enough spaces, a fitting answer to "wound up" would be: PAST PARTICIPLE OF WIND UP

28. Scottish refusal: NAE. Here is something that if I were a Scot I would say NAE to

30. Serious observance: RITE. RITE of Passage and RITE of Spring were the first "RITES" that came to mind. But wanting to explore further (the last line is a hyperlink - open only if curious) . . .

I love traditions
But sometimes they go too far
These RITES just seem wrong

31. Work unit: ERG. Every time I see the word "ERG" used in an xword puzzle, I just want to say, "ARRGGH"

32. Passionate: AVID. I do believe that all of the Crossword Corner bloggers are AVID

34. Started to overtake, with "on": GAINED. Word has it that they are nearly neck and neck!

38. Watercolor user: ARTIST. An ARTIST also uses oils, pen and ink, glass, tempera, bronze, and marble, to name a few others. And while many of the images below are quite ARTISTIC, if they were done in watercolor it might not be so tough to undo

41. Water color: AQUA. Not quite a clecho, but close! According to Pantone dot com, here is what AQUA looks like

42. On the __: famous: MAP. Check out these "famous" locations on America's show

45. Sailor's emergency container: BAIL. Sailors might also call their "emergency container" a PAIL; pretty sure Bert Reynolds called his a "Motorman's Friend" in the movie Semi-Tough

46. Frank McCourt memoir: TIS. As in "TIS:, A Memoir". Order it here if you like

47. Govt. security: T BILL. T BOND also fits. "T" for treasury. The letter "T" could've subbed for one of the other theme entries, I suppose. How about this instead? 47-Across (modified). Shirt sorter at an AA meeting?: T TOTALER

52. Qajar dynasty's domain: PERSIA. According to Wikipedia dot com: In the Western world, PERSIA (or one of its cognates) was historically the common name for Iran. On the Nowruz of 1935, Reza Shah asked foreign delegates to use the Persian term Iran (meaning the land of Aryans in Persian), the endonym of the country, in formal correspondence

53. Wilt: SAG. I don't think I ever saw this guy "SAG"

54. Ebert's partner in the 2000s: ROEPER. Richard ROEPER. Roger Ebert's film critic partner the year after Gene Siskel passed

57. Library ID: ISBN. International Standard Book Number. ISBNs were 10 digits in length up to the end of December 2006, but since 1 January 2007 they now always consist of 13 digits. ISBNs are calculated using a specific mathematical formula and include a check digit to validate the number. Akin to a UPC, in a sense. A bar code for books??

58. Win over: ENAMOR. I think of ENAMOR more of "being attracted to", or having deep feelings for. Wonder what the Thesaurussaurus has to say?

62. Muss: RUMPLE. RUMPLE - from the Old Dutch "rompel" (wrinkle).

It's impossible
To muss Iron Man. Guess you
Can't RUMPLE steel skin

63. "Roll Tide" school: BAMA. They have an exemplary record in college football: Since their first season in 1892 and going into this year, their overall record is 931 wins, 331 losses, and 43 ties, for a winning percentage of .730. I believe they trail only the University of Michigan for the most total victories. They claim 18 National Championships. The nickname "Crimson Tide" dates back to 1907 and probably was coined after the school's primary color, crimson. Certainly a polarizing team; kind of like the NY Yankees (baseball) or New England Patriots (recently, in pro football); you either like them or hate them. And again, there were far too many images to choose from with regard to BAMA and "Roll Tide" . . . here's one I chose due to the futility of trying to beat them

64. Witness: SEE. Or in this puzzle, the abbreviated answer would be "C"

65. Battle tactic: SIEGE. Could Gary Larson have spelled this Cge?

66. Kid stuff: SNAP. As in a breakfast cereal, perhaps?

67. Word in a recipe: ADD. We are trying not to ADD more salt to our dishes

Down:
1. Command: DICTATE. I wonder where the "command" button was on THIS keyboard that contains the root word, DICTATE?

2. Asthma sufferer's relief: INHALER.

3. Working hard to find, with "up": SCARING. Will the day after tomorrow be "normal", or will we find it hard, "SCARING up" trick-or-treaters?

4. Fox competitor: ABC. A nice mis-direction clue. Fox, as in the TV network. American Broadcasting Company

5. Sails force?: FLEET. Punny clue. Not SALES force. But not this, either!

6. Narwhal feature: TUSK. Would help to know what a Narwahl is

7. Macedonian's neighbor: SERB. SERB is the term used to identify a resident of SERBia

8. __ Montoya, "The Princess Bride" role: INIGO. Mandy Patinkin's role of this fictional character

9. Scrape, say: MAR. MAR and not EKE??!

10. Flooded with: AWASH IN. Merrium-Webster defines it as: flooded with or covered by water or another liquid. : floating in a large amount of water or another liquid

11. Tool for the jungle: MACHETE. Or for the Everglades, as this picture depicts

12. Guided: STEERED.

15. Duds: GARB.

Past century fad
That women wore in their hair?
A Greta GARB-bow

17. Won't leave alone: NAGS. Or, the colloquial term for old horses?

21. "__ of the Needle": Ken Follett novel: EYE. "I" of the Needle wouldn't fit

24. Piles: HEAPS. Kind of what my dirty clothes are in when I forget to toss them into the laundry basket

26. Common newspaper nickname: TRIB. Here is a list from Wikipedia

28. Zippo: NIL. This wouldn't fit!

29. Two-time loser to Ike: ADLAI. Adlai Ewing Stevenson II was an American lawyer, politician, and diplomat. Raised in Bloomington, Illinois, Stevenson was a member of the Democratic Party, and twice (1952 and 1956) ran against Dwight David (IKE) Eisenhower for the US Presidency. He also failed to secure the nomination in 1960; the Dem's chose John F Kennedy instead

33. Check for accuracy: VET.

Animal doctor,
Turned investigator, now
VET's candidate's pets

34. Safari sight: GNU.

Serengeti TRIB
Headline reports "none were killed"
No GNUS is good news

35. Rock with bands: AGATE. Cute clue. I remember having these as a kid. AGATEs were used as "shooters"

36. Rural skyline feature: SILO. Did this guy go a bit overboard during the pandemic?!

37. Nos. averaging 100: IQS. Intelligence QuotientS. Based on a score of standardized tests to measure one's intelligence

38. Ones who take too much advantage of a privilege, e.g.: ABUSERS. The clue doesn't really speak to the "severity" of this noun, IMO. Not sure that "privilege" fits, but YMMV

39. Easter Island, to natives: RAPA NUI. Not a word that I knew, and IIRC, I had to LIU. The words RAPA NUI translate to the indiginous people of Easter Island

40. Draw: TIE GAME.

Ascot and Cravat
Played football. Would you guess it
Ends in a TIE GAME?

42. Pageant held in Memphis in 2020: MISS USA. Past winners

43. Said, "She was with me all day," say: ALIBIED. The verb form, past TENSE

44. Put in the ground: PLANTED. The verb form, past TENSE

46. Three-way joint: TEE. Not the implement that holds a golf ball? Not the name for a casual shirt? OH, this!

48. __-a-brac: BRIC. As in "BRIC-a-brac", miscellaneous objects and ornaments of little value. Originated in the Victorian Era

50. Worker, informally: PROLE. Short for PROLEtartiat

51. Stuff of legends: LORE. Like my blogs??!! LOL!!

52. __ ballerina: PRIMA. __ donna works, too. But this is what I think of when I see the word "PRIMA":

55. Banned pollutants, for short: PCBS. From Wikipedia dot com: PolyChlorinated BiphenylS, are organic chlorine compounds, now recognized as an environmental toxins and classified as a persistent organic pollutants

56. Meir contemporary: EBAN. Abba Solomon Meir EBAN was an Israeli diplomat and politician, and a scholar of the Arabic and Hebrew languages. During his career, he served as Foreign Affairs Minister, Education Minister, and Deputy Prime Minister of Israel. Later, he formed a Swedish rock band

59. It's usually higher on the hwy.: MPG. Miles Per Gallon. Tesla's measure theirs in MPKW

61. Weaken: SAP. Many definitions for this word; now don't be a SAP and believe EVERYTHING I included today!!

Here is the grid:

Comments are always welcome! See you again in a couple of weeks . . .