After a Christmas Day debut, our provincial policy advisor from Victoria, B.C. returns from north of the 49th parallel with another fun entry. Here are his notes:
Hi Gary,
Happy new year! I'm excited to have my second Saturday themeless in as many weeks.
This puzzle started with BLACK FRIDAY SALE — I'm always on the lookout for interesting 15-letter grid spanners that haven't (at least to the best of my knowledge) been used in a crossword before. A few other personal favorites are BAR BRAWL (I pulled it from a word list, but it feels like a fun answer), OTTAWA (I'm Canadian and lived in Ottawa for four years, and I always look for an opportunity to slip Canadian clues or answers into my crosswords if I can get away with it), KITING (I used to work in anti-money laundering) and ELAINE (I'm a Seinfeld fan).
BOOSTER didn't stand out for me when I made the puzzle many months ago, but looking at the puzzle again now, it feels much more timely with the push on for people to get their COVID booster shots. It's funny how the relevance of some words can ebb and flow over time like that.
It's always interesting to see how the editors change the clues. One of my favorites that made the cut (with some improved phrasing by the editors) was clueing RELIGIOUS ORDERS in relation to sisters. A couple that didn't survive were clueing HAIRCUTS in an investment context (interesting to me as an economist, but perhaps not to a wider audience), and WALKING DISTANCE (I really like the fun quote the editors found for this one; my attempt was the more minimalist "Two-foot reach?").
Thanks again for the opportunity to share my thoughts! I hope folks enjoyed the puzzle.
Cheers,
David
Across:
1. Brews-to-bruises event?: BAR BRAWL - A bit more than a BAR FIGHT
9. Rubberneck, at times: GAWKER.
15. Epitome of Americanism?: APPLE PIE - Part of a Chevy ad campaign
16. "Seinfeld" character who dated baseball's Keith Hernandez: ELAINE.
17. Vitamin intake for some: MEGADOSE - Sheldon's opinion of the use of vitamins
18. Screenwriter __ Trumbo: DALTON - DALTON was a Hollywood screenwriter and communist sympathizer but refused to testify in front of the HUAC committee in the 50's. He went to jail for "contempt of Congress" and said, yes, that he certainly had that. More
19. Events in a crime film subgenre: CAPERS.
21. Bypass: SKIRT - If you SKIRT sensitive issues you might avoid catching 22. Criticism: FLAK.
25. Doesn't squander: USES.
27. "By the power vested __ ... ": IN ME.
28. Winter hat feature: EAR FLAP - A Johnny Carson original
31. Got into a new outfit: CHANGED.
33. Godfather cocktail ingredient: AMARETTO and scotch whiskey
35. KFC bucket piece: LEG.
36. Many of them have sisters: RELIGIOUS ORDERS - Here is my daughter with a teacher colleague Sister Peter Marie who is in the ORDER of Christ The King
41. MLB segment: DIV - DIVision not INNing
42. "Pens down": TIME IS UP - After 30 seconds your Final Jeopardy pen quits working (*Final Jeopardy correct question at the bottom)
43. Put drinks on plastic?: RAN A TAB - Liquor on a credit card. What could possibly go wrong?
47. Source of added protection: BOOSTER - I got BOOSTED on October 27
Which could be clued: "What is it called when you omit Jagger, et al, from your playlist?"
Here's a STONE'S tune that's never skipped on my playlist:
Puzzling thoughts:
Welcome to the first Friday of 2022. Lots to cover today, and I won't leave a single STONE unturned; promise! First off, today brings a memory of what would've been my Uncle Bud's 90th birthday. He passed away at age 85, and was always a family member I trusted and could count on to help me through life's obstacles. He was my first mentor, so to speak. And speaking of mentors, I have been blessed with a few crossword mentors over the past two years as I am developing my puzzle constructing hobby. Two of them happen to be today's collaborators: Christina Iverson and Jeff Chen.
I reached out to them - ala Husker Gary - to ask what was the inspiration for today's grid. Christina replied as follows:
Hi Chris!
I think I pitched the phrase "skipping stones" to Jeff as a potential revealer with a tricky gimmick ... Early in the pandemic when playgrounds were closed, I spent a lot of time on walks to the river with my son, where we'd attempt to skip stones. I think we came up with this idea together after some back and forth over email about how best to implement the stone skipping concept. I seem to remember getting a headache trying to figure out filling around the skipped letters! Jeff had done similar things before and had a better idea of how to make it all come together.
Thanks, and looking forward to reading your write up!
Christina
I don't know if this captures what Christina and her son did, but it's a fitting graphic:
So to be fair, if your grid came without circles, this puzzle would be nearly unsolvable, given the theme and placement of all of the STONE's that are "SKIPped" - which ultimately answers each of the themers. Here is a picture of the solved puzzle, in case you Finished It Wrong:
In four vertical answers the first names of famous people with the last name STONE are in circles: SHARON (the famous actress and femme fatale), EMMA (whose acting roles include portraying Billie Jean King and Cruella De Vil), SLY (as in SLY and the Family STONE, although his given name was Sylvester Stewart), and MATT (noted for his creation of the animated TV show 'South Park').
In 9 - yes, 9 - perpendicular crossings, the letter(s) in the STONE's name, when skipped (omitted), reveal the correct answer to each of the starred clues:
19-Across. *Works with needles: (S)KNITS. Take out the (S) and you have KNITS
22-Across.*Binge-watch on Netflix, say: V(H)EG OUT.Take out the (H) VEG OUT
24-Across.*Hero's place: DELI(A). No (A) leaves DELI
28-Across. *Work position with little mobility?: DES(R)K J(M)OB. Toss the (R) and (M) et voila: DESK JOB
34-Across. *Italian sparkling wine region: AS(E)TI(S). Moe knows his wines, and ASTI needs no (E) nor an additional (S); SKIP 'em!
37-Across. *Tweetstorm, e.g.: TI(O)RA(A)DE. The clue "Tweetstorm" may have thrown you for a loop if you don't participate on that APP, but when the (O) and (A) are skipped, TIRADE fits as the answer. And as a footnote, go back and read Melissa Bee's recap from Wednesday; she described "Tweetstorm" perfectly
40-Across. *Sandie ingredients: PE(M)CA(Y)NS. PECANS - as in Pecan Sandies (a cookie). No (M) or (Y) in my cookies!
41-Across. *Existential funk: ANG(T)ST. ANGST (I hope you're all getting it by now. The puzzle, that is, not ANGST!)
42-Across. *Crisis specialists: SW(A)AT TEAM. SWAT TEAM
And the reveal: 38-Across. *Makes splashes at the shore ... and what each answer to a starred clue does: SK(M)IP(L)SST(N)ON(T)ES. SKIPS STONES.
You might not have liked today's puzzle, but from a constructor's point of view, this one was brilliant
Across:
1. TV show featuring both blood cells and jail cells: CSI. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation had its beginning on CBS back in 2000, and became an instant hit. It spawned several additional spinoffs (the original was in Las Vegas) including NYC and Miami
A tie-in clue was found in 58-Down: (1-Across evidence:)DNA.
4. Not exactly a warm blanket: SNOW. This one came to me right away as I immediately thought of the phrase, "blanket of SNOW". Not something we see too often here in the greater Phoenix area, but does exist in many places in N Arizona where the elevation is above 4,000':
8. "Heavens!": MY GOSH. Moe-ku:
I really don't think That anyone would utter: "MY GOSH to Betsy"
14. Boo: HON. Very clever clue for this; had the word Boo been written as "Boo!" you'd immediately think it was ghost-related. But without the quotes you had to dig deeper, and find the synonym 'HON' which is an old-fashioned way of describing one's boyfriend, girlfriend, or companion. We saw this same word on Wednesday clued as "sweetie"
15. Club in a Manilow hit: COPA.
16. Waver's cry: YOO HOO. Did anyone ever drink this?
18. Green card offerer: AMEX. Another "brilliant" clue! I was thinking of USCIS - the immigration service that issues Green cards: A Green Card holder (permanent resident) is someone who has been granted authorization to live and work in the United States on a permanent basis. As proof of that status, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) grants a person a permanent resident card, commonly called a "Green Card."
But NO!! Christina and Jeff - or maybe Rich - threw us a curve ball with the clue. The correct answer is the green card issued by AMEX (short for American Express). "What's in your wallet?" Oops; I think I pulled a "Hahtoolah"! (See this past Tuesday's blog). That's VISA's line. "Don't leave home without it!" is the tagline for AMEX
20. Mob inductee: MADE MAN. According to Wikipedia, "In the American and Sicilian Mafia, a MADE MAN is a fully initiated member of the Mafia. To become "made", an associate first must be Italian or of Italian descent and sponsored by another made man. An inductee will be required to take the oath of omertà, the Mafia code of silence and code of honor
23. Grand __: PRIX. OLE OPRY had too many letters to fit into this space. The Grand PRIX is the ultimate event for Formula 1 race cars
26. Chaney of the screen: LON. Leonidas Frank "Lon" Chaney was an American stage and film actor, make-up artist, director and screenwriter. He is regarded as one of the most versatile and powerful actors of cinema, renowned for his characterizations of tortured, often grotesque and afflicted characters, and his groundbreaking artistry with makeup. Wikipedia. He looked scary even without makeup
44. Hopped-up refreshment?: ALE. Nice play-on-words; ALE is usually rife with hops which give it the bitter flavor
45. OutKast chart topper with the lyric "My baby don't mess around": "HEY YA". Another of my learned moments today. This song WOULD be skipped from Moe's playlist; sorry for the offensive lyrics
47. Humorist Bombeck: ERMA. She appears more often in crossword puzzles than I recall her appearing in person or on TV
50. Bebop lover: HIPSTER. Bebop is just one of the many things a HIPSTER would love:
55. One crossing the line?: ROAD HOG. Lots of clues used mis-direction today. A ROAD HOG is a driver who, as I like to say, takes their half out of the middle
57. Like some garages: ONE CAR. I had TWO CAR before the perps arrived. ONE CAR garages are quite often found in condo communities. Could a ROAD HOG actually park in a ONE CAR garage??
58. Word with bike or bag: DIRT. DIRT BAG is not one of my favorite expressions, but a DIRT BIKE could be a lot of fun!
59. Fertility clinic collections: OVA. Moe-ku 2:
Fertility lab Gave kudos, and called them a Standing OVAtion
60. Ones taking advantage of suckers to get by?: OCTOPI. Yet another mis-directed clue; OCTOPI being the plural of OCTOPUS
61. __ alphabet: NATO. The NATO phonetic alphabet is a Spelling Alphabet, a set of words used instead of letters in oral communication (i.e. over the phone or military radio). Each word ("code word") stands for its initial letter (alphabetical "symbol"). The 26 code words in the NATO phonetic alphabet are assigned to the 26 letters of the English alphabet in alphabetical order as follows:
62. Lip: RIM. The Grand Canyon has two RIMs; North and South
63. Secure: FASTEN.
64. Early creation: ADAM. And this clue/answer crossed with (56-Down. Tiny bit:) ATOM. A bit of intended "homophonia"??
65. Word in wedding announcements: NEE. Second evidence of "crosswordese", but it fit perfectly
Down:
1. First hominid in space: CHIMP. I guess if you knew what the word "hominid" meant this answer would come easily. I didn't and had to look it up. The first CHIMP in space was named HAM
2. Bat signal?: SONAR. More mis-direction. I was thinking this:
3. Stuck: IN A DILEMMA. What I'm guessing many of you/us were when we saw today's puzzle!
4. Email to watch out for: SCAM. An unfortunate CSO to our dear Irish Miss; she's reported these email SCAMs - as well as telephone SCAMs - to us over the past few months, and Agnes, I hope your accounts are all safe and protected
Another thought; when employees at Hormel get erroneous e-mail do they still call it:
5. One lacking roots: NOMAD.
6. Made the first bet: OPENED. This is what happens in poker, e.g. The first player to bet (add) chips into the pot is said to have OPENED
7. Need on the slopes or the waves: WAX. Another Friday-worthy clue; this of course refers to a snow board/snow skis (for the slopes) or a surfboard (for the waves). WAX helps lower the coefficient of friction and allows you to go faster. But could the clue have also read, "Need on eyebrows or the mustache"? Hmm
8. 1979 #1 hit by The Knack: MY SHARONA. So, I was listening to various YouTube recordings of The Knack's "MY SHARONA", and I wondered, 'has anyone done a parody on the Coronavirus using this melody?' Well, sure enough, there are several of those, too. Look, I am not downplaying the severity of COVID-19 and all its Greek-letter variants. But these lyrics are no worse than what The Knack wrote! I hope this brings a smile. Part (I) of this parody is also good
9. Draft choice?: YOKE. Has anyone been keeping count of how many mis-direction clues Christina and Jeff used today?
10. It has a nice ring to it: GONG. About the same time that The Knack came out with their hit 'MY SHARONA', Chuck Barris was featuring THIS GONG on a weekly TV show:
11. Home to Athens and Dublin: OHIO. This native Buckeye knew this straight away. Athens, OHIO is the home of Ohio University; Dublin, OHIO is the home of Muirfield Village, a Jack Nicklaus-designed golf club
12. Yearly address, initially: SOTU. Short for State of the Union. It's given by the POTUS in late January
13. One sending a Zoom link: HOST. Who had ever heard of or used Zoom prior to COVID-19? Not I
21. Stranger things: EXOTICA. Those with prurient minds might have seen EROTICA before EXOTICA. Not me, of course . . .
22. Friends often pay one: VISIT. Another clue whose answer came quickly to Moe
25. "Supposing ... ": LET'S SAY. LET'S SAY that you got all of today's puzzle solved, but STILL did not know what the @#$! was going on! ;^)
27. Playfully bite: NIP AT. And they call it puppy love
29. Swedish coin: KRONA. Why did Sweden not adopt the Euro, you might ask? Sweden does not currently use the euro as its currency and has no plans to replace the existing Swedish KRONA in the near future. Sweden's Treaty of Accession of 1994 made it subject to the Treaty of Maastricht, which obliges states to join the eurozone once they meet the necessary conditions. The EU countries that do not use the euro as their currency are: Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Sweden
30. Clanked around, like keys in one's pocket: JANGLED. Or like spurs on a cowboy's boots
31. Swiss peak: MATTERHORN. This majestic peak; and I will lay odds that if Picard shows up today he will have several pictures of his own to share with us; hope so! And if you're curious but don't want to look it up, the summit is 14,692'
32. Oft-spoken tributes: ODES. I speak in haiku and limerick. Speaking of limericks:
Saturday Night Live comic Eugenia Likes to parody folks from Slovenia. But her speech has since slurred; We know why it occurred: 'Cause she now suffers from skits-ophrenia
33. Outdo: BEST. Yup, it's there; toward the bottom ...
34. Serpents in some hieroglyphics: ASPS. No Cleo in the clue??
35. Bias: SKEW. In this case, a noun; SKEW: "a bias toward one particular group or subject"; courtesy of an online dictionary
36. Severus Snape's house: SLYTHERIN. Christina and Jeff are throwing in a bit of Harry Potter on us. These books were quite popular among today's "GEN Y's". Hogwarts, the name of the boarding school for would-be witches and warlocks, has four separate "Houses" that new "students" are assigned to upon their arrival. SLYTHERIN, RAVENSCLAW, HUFFLEPUFF, and GRYFFINDOR. Here is a quiz you can take to see which house would best fit you! Me? I am mostly GRYFFINDOR, but would fit into RAVENSCLAW as well
39. Look on Snape's face, often: SNEER. Sadly, the actor who played Snape - Alan Rickman - died in 2016 at age 69. That kinda hits home . . .
43. Large number: MYRIAD. Fun fact: the origin of the word "MYRIAD" is from the mid 16th century late Latin from Greek murias, muriad-, from murioi, which means the number 10,000. Seems pretty large to me.
Fun Fact #2: You want to know how you can "blow" $10,000 in one year? By spending just $29.70 a day on random stuff
46. Major artery: AORTA. This could be categorized as crossword-ese by now
48. Flick: MOVIE.
49. Top performance level: A-GAME. I always try to bring my "A-GAME" when I blog these puzzles; but today's A-GAME is a CSO to OwenKL and Dash T who use a letter grade {A+, A, B+, etc} for Owen's CC poems
50. One of a buck's four: HOOF.
51. Quechua speaker: INCA. Here is what Brittanica dot com has to say: "Quechua, (Quechua Runa) are South American Indians living in the Andean highlands from Ecuador to Bolivia. They speak many regional varieties of Quechua, which was the language of the INCA empire (though it predates the Inca) and which later became the lingua franca of the Spanish and Indians throughout the Andes"
53. Paisley native: SCOT. Paisley is a large town situated in the west central Lowlands of SCOTland. Located north of the Gleniffer Braes, the town borders the city of Glasgow. And here I thought Paisley was this:
54. It's on a roll: TAPE. My first "career" job was selling Scotch TAPE for 3M. Believe it or not, I was one of the first sales reps to peddle the plastic box sealing tape that is now a staple (pun intended) for use in closing corrugated containers
And with that, all of the STONES have been turned. Thanks again Christina and Jeff for an amazing puzzle. Hope one or both of you will stop by today to share any other thoughts. Comments or questions? Please add to the merryment! See you again in two weeks
Jeffrey Wechsler visits us today with another reveal-less theme (but you can definitely hear it) based on acoustic signals we receive from different sources (see 61A for a film clip that touches on this theme as well). The themers may look simple, but coming up with 4 grid spanners that all answered the same 4 letter clue could not have been simple.
17A. Buzz:
NOISE MADE BY BEES. The world may be on the cusp of the tragic answer to Shakespeare's eternal question, "To bee or not to bee", but on the lighter side here are a lot of bad bee puns.
Bee on clover
25A. Buzz:
WORD ON THE STREET. There's a song about this with the lyric, "What's the buzz, tell me what's happening", but I'll leave the googling to you. 44A. Buzz:
ASTRONAUT ALDRIN. Buzz Aldrin; (born Edwin Eugene Aldrin Jr.; January 20, 1930) is an American former astronaut, engineer and fighter pilot. He made three spacewalks as pilot of the 1966 Gemini 12 mission, and, as Lunar Module Eagle pilot on the 1969 Apollo 11 mission, he and mission commander Neil Armstrong were the first two people to land on the Moon. He is the last surviving crew member of Apollo 11. Anybody remember the name of the guy they left in orbit?
Buzz Aldrin
57A. Buzz:MILITARY HAIR CUT. We live about 30 miles from the Naval Academy and every June the Baltimore Sun publishes a picture like this:
I don't know what this guy is thinking, but here's what he's hearing. You don't have to listen to all of it, but he does.
And I will have nothing to say about all the BUZZ that started exactly one year ago today. Across:
1. Star-crossed: HAPLESS. An illustrator for the Baltimore Sun was HAPLESS enough to have the surname HAZARD (his given name was Charles). When he showed up for his first day of work there, his colleagues promptly nicknamed him "Hap" Hazard. His illustrations graced the Sun for many years, before he died in 2018. Here are a just few of his many drawings:
Illustrations by Charles "Hap" Hazard
Hap's mother Stella, was a fellow parishioner of ours. She also worked for the Baltimore Sun and became its first woman Art Editor. She was a world class oil painter, portraitist, and medical illustrator and died at the age of 104.
8. Enhanced the recipe with: ADDED IN.
15. "Invisible Man" author: ELLISON. Ralph Ellison, in full Ralph Waldo Ellison, (born March 1, 1914, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S.—died April 16, 1994, New York, New York), American writer who won eminence with his first novel (and the only one published during his lifetime), Invisible Man (1952).
“I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.”
- Ralph Ellison
16. Always raring to fight: WARLIKE. The planet MARS is named for the Roman God of WAR, ARES in Greek. It's no coincidence that the two moons of Mars are called Deimos ("dread") and Phobos (fear").
19. Increase, with "up": STEP. See also 34A used as a vowel.
20. Org. monitoring insecticides: EPA. See 17A.
21. Vex: EAT AT.
22. Sideline advisers: COACHES.
33. Tickle: AROUSE.
34. Rock box: AMP. Amplifier, something that increases the flow of sound. Also AMP, short for AMPERE, a unit of electrical current flow as defined by Ohm's law.
35. Marathon Petroleum brand: ARCO.
36. "The spring is __ when green geese are a-breeding": Shak.:
NEAR. From "Love's Labours Lost" Act I. From this precis for the Act I: "After vowing to avoid women, the King and three of his friends have to
host a princess and her three ladies. The four men fall in love and
decide to court the women. In the end, the women must return to their
kingdom for a year after which they will marry the king and his friends,
providing they remain true to them." Well you know that'll never work! Hmm, sounds a lot like the plot of Mozart's "Così fan tutte". Here's the overture.
37. Intuitively grasp, in slang: GROK. This word entered our language in 1961, courtesy of Sci-Fi author Robert Heinlein. Grokking is an essential skill for cruciverbalists.
38. Calculated intake: DOSE. See 39A for just what the doctor ordered for the ABA-NBA merger.
39. "Medical" sports nickname: DR J. Julius Erving began his professional career in the American Basketball
Association with the Virginia Squires and the New York Nets. Widely regarded as the greatest player of his time, he is often considered to
have been the main catalyst for the ABA-NBA merger in 1976.
64. Bygone employees of cautious royalty: TASTERS. Food TASTERS were persons who ingested food that was prepared for someone else, to confirm that it was safe to eat.
1. Toothless farm denizens: HENS. Today's French lesson:
Trois poules françaises
2. Plenty: A LOT.
3. Ballet motion: PLIE. More French: "Fold"
4. Struggle with scissors?: LISP. Sylvester the Cat had this problem just two weeks ago. LISP is also an early programming language designed for AI applications and characterized by (its (use (of (lots (of (parentheses)))))).
5. Santa Fe-to-Dallas dir.: ESE.
6. 2013 Alice McDermott novel that was a National Book Award finalist:
SOMEONE. Alice McDermott (born June 27, 1953) is an American writer and university professor (Hi Misty, hi OMK!). For her 1998 novel Charming Billy she won an American Book Award and the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction. Someone: A Novel, is her seventh book of fiction.
Alice McDermott
7. Get testy with: SNAP AT.
8. Evoke an "ooh" from, maybe: AWE. For example a reaction to New Years Eve fireworks:
11. 2013 Mandela portrayer: ELBA. In addition to being the tail end of a famous palindrome, and voted People Magazine's "sexiest man alive" in 2018, distinguished British actorIdris Elba had the privilege of portraying Nelson Mandela, one of the greatest heroes of the 20th Century, in the 2013 film Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom.
Idris Elba
12. Food regimen: DIET.
13. Swedish superstore: IKEA.
14. Hornet home: NEST.
18. Russian retreat: DACHA.
22. Trig. function: COS. Today's math lesson:
23. Verbal pause: HEM. and HAW.
24. Dubious ability: ESP. The dubious idea that we may have more than 5 senses.
25. Sykes of "black-ish": WANDA. Wanda Yvette Sykes (born March 7, 1964) is an American actress, stand-up comedian, and writer. She was first recognized for her work as a writer on The Chris Rock Show, for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award in 1999.
Wanda Sykes
26. Treats with embossed surfaces: OREOS.
27. __ beast: holiday dinner in a Seuss classic: ROAST. From How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Seuss' satire on the commercialization of Christmas:
42. Bach wrote one about coffee: CANTATA. Some people may think that Bach was just a stuffy composer, but as a guy who had 20 children, he HAD to have had a sense of humor. And it really comes out in his COFFEE CANTATA. Here's just a cup:
43. "Kidnapped" monogram: RLS. Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. Kidnapped is an historical fiction adventure novel written as a boys' novel and first published in the magazine Young Folks from May to July 1886. Among his many other works was a collection of poetry called Songs of Travel. Here is Ralph Vaughan Williams' setting of the poem Bright is the Ring of Words from that collection:
49. With 50-Down, group for movie enthusiasts: CINÉ. Ciné Clubs were groups formed to study the art of the film through the discussion or the actual making of films, particularly avant-garde or censored films (back in the day, we called them "art films"; nowadays they'd be called "indies"). These groups were also called "Film societies", a term that first appeared in France in 1907.
50. See 49-Down: CLUB.
51. Comic Rudner: RITA. Here's Rita. I think she's on to something ...
It's always interesting to see how the editors change the clues. One of my favorites that made the cut (with some improved phrasing by the editors) was clueing RELIGIOUS ORDERS in relation to sisters. A couple that didn't survive were clueing HAIRCUTS in an investment context (interesting to me as an economist, but perhaps not to a wider audience), and WALKING DISTANCE (I really like the fun quote the editors found for this one; my attempt was the more minimalist "Two-foot reach?").
