Sunday September 4, 2022 Zachary David Levy

 

Theme: "I Oughta Be in Pictures" - I is added to each movie.

22. Film remake about a student who finally finds the right martial arts teacher?: THE SIXTH SENSEI. The Sixth Sense.

37. Film remake featuring a spooky archaeological site?: MIDNIGHT RUIN. Midnight Run.

51. Film remake heavy with art metaphors?: MONA LISA SIMILE. Mona Lisa Smile.

69. Film remake featuring broken raga instruments?: THE FAULT IN OUR SITARS. The Fault in our Stars.

89. Film remake that tries to prove all unmarried men are created equal?: BACHELOR PARITY. Bachelor Party.

99. Film remake featuring spa treatments that are no joke?: A SERIOUS MANI. A Serious Man.

123. Film remake that documents soapbox sites?: TIRADING PLACES. Trading Places.

We've had I addition theme in the past, but no extra film layer. Tight and elegant.

I only know "tirade" as a noun. Spellcheck does not like tirading. I just noticed that all the other new "I' words are nouns.

Across:

1. Device that may catch a private remark: HOT MIC.

7. Enemy of ancient Athens: SPARTA. "This is Sparta!"

13. Comfortable: AT HOME. Where's Leeza?

19. First MLB player inducted into the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame: ICHIRO. He was just inducted into the Mariners' Hall of Fame.

20. More hackneyed: CORNIER.

21. Unlike automobile gasoline: LEADED.

24. Earnings: INCOME.

25. Breath mints that contained Retsyn: CERTS. Google shows that "Retsyn is a trademarked name for a combination of copper gluconate and partially hydrogenated cottonseed oil".

26. Mend: HEAL.

27. Jerky spot?: KNEE.

29. Goodyear city: AKRON.

30. Realm from 800 to 1806: Abbr.: HRE. Holy Roman Empire.

31. NASA scientist Geoffrey who won a Hugo for his short story "Falling Onto Mars": LANDIS. Learning moment for me.

33. "Finished!": DONE.

35. "The Coldest Rap" rapper: ICE-T.

44. Etched art: ENGRAVING.

49. Comes up: ARISES.

50. Molecule central to many vaccines: RNA.

53. Choice: OPTION.

56. Wharton degs.: MBAS.

57. __-dried tomatoes: SUN.

58. Lighthouse view: SEA.

60. Grounation Day celebrant: RASTA. From Wikipedia: Grounation Day (April 21) is an important Rastafari holy day, second only to Coronation Day (November 2). It is celebrated in honour of Haile Selassie's 1966 visit to Jamaica. 

61. "Affirmative": YES.

62. Got: ATTAINED.

67. JD-to-be's exam: LSAT.

75. Hue: TINT.

76. Result of a sincere compliment: EGO BOOST.

77. Vitals checker, briefly: EMT.

79. Speed reader?: RADAR. Good old clue.

82. Cul-de-__: SAC.

85. "Uh-uh!": NOT.

86. Chris of Vampire Weekend: BAIO. Turns out he's the first cousin once removed of actor Scott Baio. 

87. Magic charm: AMULET.

95. First mo.: JAN.

96. Audrey Tautou title role: AMELIE. Lovely movie.

98. Holds dear: TREASURES.

103. Sign of neglect: DUST.

104. Emcee: HOST.

105. Yiddish word meaning "little town": SHTETL.  Like the town in "Fiddler on the Roof".

108. African viper: ASP.

111. Sign on: LOG IN.

114. Petrol brand: ESSO.

118. Region: AREA.

119. Food distribution giant: SYSCO. I think Jeannie used to work for them.

121. "Leave that to me": I'M ON IT.

126. Nod off: SNOOZE.

127. With a keen eye: ALERTLY.

128. "Blitzkrieg Bop" surname: RAMONE.  The Ramones.

129. Tree decor: TINSEL.

130. Number with 100 zeroes: GOOGOL. Count yourself.

131. Raw bar choice: OYSTER.

Down:

1. Catch: HITCH.

2. Earth tone: OCHER.

3. "Finished!": THERE.

4. Visibility reducer: MIST.

5. Grammy-nominated folk singer DeMent: IRIS. What's her most famous song?

6. Crew leader, briefly: COX.

7. "What a shame": SO SAD.

8. Early tourney match: PRELIM.

9. Fashion's __ Taylor: ANN.

10. Underwriter's assessment: RISK.

11. Many an Olympic gymnast: TEEN.

12. "Acoustic Soul" singer India.__: ARIE. Hi there, Splynter, tell others about your clue.

13. Journalist Velshi of MSNBC: ALI.

14. Rent payer: TENANT. How I wish our HOA could cap the number of rental units.

15. System infiltrator: HACKER.

16. Litter box concern: ODOR.

17. Exec's note: MEMO.

18. Fall setting: EDEN.

20. Chinese-American chef and restaurateur Joyce: CHEN. Gimme!

23. "I mean to say ... ": THAT IS.

28. Border: EDGE.

31. Strauss of denim: LEVI.

32. Thailand, once: SIAM. "One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble... Siam's gonna be the witness" Whatever your interpretation, I like the song.

34. Extremely: OH SO. Really like this curtain D-Otto found for us. So easy to install. Blocks out the sun nicely.

35. Funds for later yrs.: IRAS.

36. Ore. neighbor: CAL.

38. Soft & __: DRI.

39. Guitarist Lofgren: NILS.

40. "Good to know": I SEE.

41. Novelist Leon: URIS. He wrote "Exodus".

42. Going past the fourth qtr., say: IN OT.

43. Grams: NANA.

44. "Fleabag" award: EMMY.

45. Poker player's "pass": NO BET.

46. Grind, as teeth: GNASH.

47. __ cavity: NASAL.

48. NASA garb: G SUIT.

52. Navel type: INNIE.

54. "Parks and Recreation" actor Chris: PRATT. Son-in-law of Arnold Schwarzenegger.

55. Part of TTFN: TA TA.

59. Besides: ALSO.

62. Going up in smoke?: AFIRE. For real.

63. Beach souvenir: TAN.

64. Sounds of reproach: TUTS.

65. Lang. of Jamaica: ENG.

66. Lorna __ cookies: DOONE.

68. Female sib: SIS.

70. Abbr. after many names: ET AL.

71. Two-headed fastener: U BOLT.

72. Turbine blade: ROTOR.

73. Run over: RE-AIR.

74. Strike down, biblically: SMITE. Root of smitten.

78. Little dogs: TOYS.

79. Indian noble: RAJA.

80. Middle of a Latin trio: AMAS.  Amo, amas, amat.

81. __ buggy: DUNE.

83. Fivers: ABES.

84. Period of inactivity: CALM.

86. Like dry champagne: BRUT.

88. Artists' mecca near Santa Fe: TAOS.

90. Spy-fi org.: CIA.

91. Coop group: HENS.

92. Sale indicator: RED TAG.

93. Epistle apostle: PAUL.

94. Braying beast: ASS.

97. Remote button: MUTE.

100. Savanna beasts: RHINOS.

101. Give a charge to: IONIZE.

102. "Sorry! Couldn't resist!": I HAD TO.

106. Bird call: TRILL.

107. Bitty: EENY.

108. Neckwear named for a British racecourse: ASCOT. The Ascot Racecourse.

109. Tableau: SCENE.

110. Conundrum: POSER.

111. Tilt: LIST.

112. Potent start?: OMNI. Omnipotent.

113. "Keep talking": GO ON.

115. Unaccompanied: STAG.

116. Rural tower: SILO.

117. After-lunch sandwich: OREO.

119. Crack up: SLAY.

120. Sweet tubers: YAMS.

122. __ Aviv: TEL.

124. Braz. neighbor: ARG.

125. In favor: PRO.

J.D. sent me this picture of his grandkids. She said this: Below are my 4 grandsons. Truman is now 15. Fourteen years ago I found your tiny blog and started doing puzzles…best thing I did in my retirement. I do continue to donate my time in the boys' classes. This year I’m in Dylan's 4th grade.

We had a follow-up with the ortho doctor. All's good with Boomer's left shoulder. The doctor asked for one thing: no more falls.

Lots of VA appointments ahead, starting with Tuesday morning's blood draw. If the platelet number is good, then Boomer will get a freshly-made bone strengthener cocktail. Hoping for a miracle that his PSA (742) will go down or at least stabilizes, as this oral chemo is our last hope.

C.C.

Saturday, September 3, 2022, Brooke Husic and Michael Lieberman

Saturday Themeless by Brooke Husic and Michael Lieberman 

Today we continue our run of brilliant young constructors. It is Brooke's initial appearance here and Michael's third after Monday and Sunday solo appearances. 

Brooke Husic is from Glastonbury, CT and is currently doing post doc work in Berlin computational chemistry and machine learning work on molecular kinetics.

Mike Lieberman is a litigation partner in Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. His practice focuses on Supreme Court and appellate litigation. 

I had my usual Saturday experience as I came upon some fun fill where the bedeviling cluing first gave me fits but then  generated a very satisfying shout of, Voila! The NE corner seemed to be rife with subtle clues. Decoding that Silver was actually Long John Silver led to my conquering of that area.

I will address the clues where I had similar experiences in the write-up as they are numerous. I enjoyed the puzzle but would not want to work something this complex all day as indicated in the graphic below:  

Across:

1. "That ... can't be right": WAIT REALLY - More like, "WAIT, REALLY?"

11. Kitty: POT - Usually the amount in play in a poker game. Did you ever play Monopoly where all fines were put in a "kitty" on the Free Parking square where the next person to land there got the money?

14. Cuisine that may be served on banana leaves: INDIAN FOOD.

15. Shawarma bread: PITA - If you're ever in Omaha...

16. Nickname for fans of Instagram's most-followed musician: SELENATORS - The 1940's might have had a band of SINATRATORS.

17. Orsk river: URAL - The Ural flows through Orsk and then down to the Caspian Sea

18. Shepherd's charge: EWE and 34. 18-Across call: BAA.

19. Revise: AMEND.

20. Responsibility: BLAME and 35. Accepts responsibility for: OWNS.

21. Michelangelo's milieu: SEWER - In my deepest memory I dredged up that this was a Mutant Ninja Turtle and I guess he surfs in the SEWER. Anyone else think of STONE (marble) for that "other" Michelangelo?

23. Nap: SIESTA.

25. __ Ocho: Little Havana's main drag: CALLE - I knew Ocho is eight and CALLE is street, so...

 
27. Snack puff: CHEETO.

29. Needle: ANNOY - How Don Rickles made. his living. He'd be out of work today.

32. Hit a bunch of keys?: ISLAND HOP - Island keys finally occurred to me after struggling with computer, piano and door keys!

35. At a high frequency: OFTEN.

36. Farm critter: ANT - 28. Goes (for): OPTS gave me the last letter of T, so, this was not a cow, pig or hen.

37. Provide real-time commentary on social media: LIVE TWEET - All you need to know

40. "__ Dragon": PETE'S - Original movie was released in 1977

42. Only two-digit number spelled without the letter "T": ELEVEN - This math major learned this today!

43. 49-Down choice: ESSIE - and 30. Digital service provider: NAIL SALON and 49. 30-Down treatment, for short: PEDI. Not in my vocabulary but it filled itself in

45. Most artful: SLIEST.

47. Dull and dirty: DINGY.

49. Divides: PARTS.

50. Swiftly: APACE - Work on the bypass that will take 10 minutes off our drive to Lincoln continues APACE

52. "There you __!": ARE.

55. Fashion designer Saab: ELIE - If you'd like to see some of his $2,000+ items

56. Real or faux expression of gratitude: THANKS A LOT.

58. Opposite of doffs: DONS - We will soon be told to "Deck the halls and DON our gay apparel" 

59. Goofy-sounding person?: VOICE ACTOR - Nobody did it better or more OFTEN

60. Gerund ending: ING.

61. Symbolic centerpiece at Passover: SEDER PLATE.

Down:

1. Well-suited to be a mentor: WISE.

2. From scratch: ANEW - "Come on baby, let's start ANEW, Cause Breaking Up Is Hard To Do"

3. Remains neutral?: IDLES.

4. Deuce, e.g.: TIE - Part of tennis's screwy unique scoring system

5. Took off: RAN AWAY - A recurring issue at Boy's Town

6. Crown topper: ENAMEL - Oh, that crown

7. Realm of the "Divine Comedy": AFTER LIFE - Not exactly for reading at the beach

8. Diving bird: LOON - The TERN also dives but not today

9. Time __: fictional alien race: LORDS.

10. Units for Newton: Abbr.: YDS - Oh, that Newton! Fiendish indeed.

11. Silver adornment?: PIRATE HAT - Oh, Long John Silver. Fiendish too.

12. Electronic synthesizer whose name comes from the Japanese for "tadpole": OTAMATONE - Here's this weird looking, sounding instrument playing a song (1:12). New to me.

13. Account: TALE.

15. Had rhythm: PULSED - My rhythm is around 52 beats/minute

20. Restoration playwright Aphra __: BEHN - The first English woman to make living by being an author. I had no idea of who, what, when, why or where.

22. Friendly introduction?: ECO.

24. Words from the willing: I CAN.

26. Name on many a foundation: ESTEE - Oh, makeup foundation.

29. An end to reason?: ABLE - That seems to be, uh, REASONABLE

31. Center piece?: NAVEL RING.

33. 1983 album with the hits "China Girl" and "Modern Love": LET'S DANCE - Had to be

38. Internet company solicitations?: E-VITES - This completely works for me

39. Basic tops: TEES.

40. Conifer goo: PINE SAP.

41. Sleep lab test: Abbr.: EEG - My test showed I was having 33 apnea events/hr. CPAP has that down to an average of 4/hr.

44. Feeling worse: SICKER.

46. Lake whose name means "the lake" in Washo: TAHOE - The Washo people lived on the border of CA and NV mainly around what is now Lake TAHOE

48. "Big Three" summit site where Chekhov wrote "Three Sisters": YALTA - A 1900 picture of Chekov's dacha in YALTA, the town where FDR, Stalin and Churchill met in 1945.

112 Kirova St., Yalta, Crimea

51. No longer due: PAID.

53. Ginger or ginseng: ROOT.

54. Peut-__: French "perhaps": ETRE - Il était peut-ÈTRE malade (He may have been ill).

56. Sharp products: TV'S.

57. Knee part studied in an MRI: ACL - Tearing an Anterior Cruciate Ligament has ended many an athletic career.

Friday, September 2, 2022, Jeffrey Wechsler

 Title: Shh, I am trying to think, and I lost an H. 

Jeffrey is back with a puzzle that mostly plays very easy for a Friday. I do remind you that all final clue/fill pairings are up to the editor(s) so don't heap too much praise or too many complaints on JW. It is nice to know we will still get puzzles from our veterans like Jeffrey, Doug Peterson, Rich Norris, Gary Cee, and others. Today is a Friday staple, adding letters to a word in a phrase and cluing the created combination with wit and charm. Today we have a bi-gram (2 letters)  added- SH. 

RABBIT SHEARS and HOCKEY SHRINK  are both laugh-out-loud fill. The puzzle is also has conventional symmetry with 13/12/12/13 themers. We have no really obscure fill; FARRO and CORUNDUM are not easy but it is a Friday. We also have ALTAR BOY, FACING OFF  and MISS A BEAT  as long fill .

I have been doing puzzles since I sat in my parents' bed and watched them do the Sunday NYT and all the other delights in the Sunday magazine starting in about 1955.  I have seen many changes in all puzzles when editors move on. Everyone has the right to present the puzzles they want; but relax, they all also need to sell ads, I am encouraged for the future no matter how brief, especially if I get to blog a JW now and then. It may be only once a month, or even less but it will always be fun for me, and a joy to discuss with you all. On to the theme...

19A. Storage area for Christmas toys?: SANTAS SHELVES (13).  I think it is perfectly natural that Santa's helpers who are all elves, would store their work product on SHELVES. We do not even need to debate whether Santa himself is in fact an elf.

24A. Clippers used by Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cotton-tail?: RABBIT SHEARS (12). If you not know Flopsy, Mopsy and Cotton-tail from the Beatrix Potter books you might be stumped, but I imagine all would recognize a cotton-tail as a type of rabbit.

40A. Analyst for Ducks and Penguins?: HOCKEY SHRINK.(12). This challenged my link finding ability and made me cry "oncle." Are there psychiatrists for hockey players?  Would they work to make them meaner? You, my reading audience, are welcome to find a perfect link and make me look foolish.

46A. Earthquake-resistant?: FIT FOR SHAKING (13). This a very cerebral fill, which made me think before getting the clue/fill. FIT FOR A KING is a very common phrase and the only themer to change.  Many new tall buildings are constructed to withstand major tremors. More than half of the world's 7.8 billion population live in cities and urban areas, and 2.5 billion more are expected to join them within the next 20-25 years.(arch daily). (Various architecture magazines). The world has had the horror of the collapse of the Twin Towers in New York City and in SoFla, we had Champlain Towers South, a 12-story beachfront condominium in the Miami suburb of Surfside, Florida, United States, partially collapse. Ninety-eight people died. 

Now that Jeffrey has lightened the mood, or was it me? Let us examine the rest.

Across:

1. __ Cass: MAMA. Cass Elliot was a member of the successful 60s band The Mamas & the Papas. They only were together from 1965 to 1968, but since that was the end of high school and start of college for me, I recall them fondly. As far as who I would have fondled...never mind. 

5. Some Sappho poems: ODES. JW has brought his whole artistic side to this puzzle, first music then poetry, though I doubt he was in high school when she was writing. 

9. Not great, chancewise: SLIM. And his partner, NONE.

13. Malicious: EVIL. MAL is a root word in many languages for bad and has been used by writers, poets and movie makers forever. Oo loves musicals, so we recently watched the Disney series of movies called the DESCENDANTS which were based on the premise that all of the DISNEY villains had children who were equally bad. Or were they? 

The CAST.

14. Ruminant with striped legs: OKAPI. The okapi, also known as the forest giraffe, Congolese giraffe, or zebra giraffe, is an artiodactyl mammal that is endemic to the northeast Democratic Republic of the Congo in central Africa. Although the okapi has striped markings reminiscent of zebras, it is most closely related to the giraffe. Wiki.

15. Locks in a stable?: MANE. Staying in four legged mammals for $800 Alex, where do horses mainly live?

16. Chimney concern: NEST. Birds however can live anywhere, except maybe in a... 

17. Horror movie locale: CRYPT. Which freedom...

18. Rankles: IRKS. the bees.

22. "The Comedy of Errors," for one: FARCE. I love how JW sneaks in his Shakespeare with this play. It is the story of the farcical misadventures of two sets of identical twins. Many years earlier, the Syracusan merchant Egeon had twin sons, both named Antipholus. At their birth, he bought another pair of newborn twins, both named Dromio, as their servants. Why name both sons the same? For comedy of course. One son, and one servant were lost at sea, eventually reunited leading to much laughter of confusion.

23. Prepped: READY. Past participle? This not getting ready but already ready.

29. Cookies that once came in collectible tins: OREOS. This is a replica of a 1918 can.

30. Flying things: WINGS. Cute misdirection as wings are very often integral to flying. 

31. Basic nutrient: FAT. Despite what Jack S. thought fat is important in a human diet. What HARVARD RESEARCHERS found.

34. Hors d'oeuvres carrier: TRAY. Not the waiter but his instrument, but not a

35. Hand-picked instrument?: BANJO. Very cute visual clue.

36. Arrived: CAME. Boomer told me NOT to comment on this though it might be...

37. Very popular: HOT. No pictures, sorry.

38. Canine that preys on red kangaroo and swamp wallaby: DINGO. I know nothing of the RED KANGAROO or the SWAMP WALLABY   I know DINGOS are from Australia and like to eat babies. "A dingo ate my baby!" is a cry popularly attributed to Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton, as part of the 1980 death of Azaria Chamberlain case, at Uluru in the Northern Territory, Australia. The Chamberlain family had been camping near the rock when their nine-week-old daughter was taken from their tent by a dingo. Maybe?

39. Après-ski drink: COCOA. Ahh. chocolate.

42. Initial phase: ONSET. I am waiting for this to be the WORDLE word. (I wrote this Monday, August 28 at 8:13 PM, life can be amazing!)

45. Cy who pitched the first perfect game of the modern era: YOUNG. Again I could find no film of this all time great (511 victories!) but here is a retrospective on Cy and other baseball greats.

                                    

51. Touched down: ALIT. Like a mosquito on your arm.

52. Still in the game: ALIVE. It is imperative to be alive to play the game.

53. Dish (out): DOLE. Bob failed in many tries to become President. RIP Bob.

56. Inheritance factor: GENE. My first wife's uncle Gene was not nice.

57. Records, in a way: TIVOS. All you would want to know and more as TiVo has its own site. TiVopedia.

58. Aerial enigmas: UFOS.

59. Set up: Abbr.: ESTD. ESTablisheD. Good for businesses and buildings.

60. Pour out forcefully: SPEW.  I use this word with rhetoric or vitriol not volcanoes.

61. Some lit. degrees: MFAS. Masters of Free Association? I recall when I used to get lit my mind wandered; and it is doing it again.

Down:

1. Guys: MEN. 

                                        

2. Hail, in a hymn: AVE. Do you think of  Ave Maria? Or  Avē Imperātor, moritūrī tē salūtant  ?

3. Falter: MISS A BEAT.

4. Assistant in Mass production: ALTAR BOY. The capital M gives it away; Boomer was an Altar Boy, not just for the wine.

5. Pod that may be fried or pickled: OKRA. Such a debated food, but I married a woman raised in Birmingham who loved it. Maybe try this RECIPE.

6. Diary pages: DAYS. So simple it was hard.

7. Actor Omar: EPPS. He has had a good career for a young man. His IMDB.

8. Order of Darth Sidious: SITH. There are many here who scoff at the STAR WARS epics, and there are many who love them. Sidious is a most central character but he died. Or did he?

9. Shows satisfaction: SMILES. There are happy smiles. relieved smiles and satisfied smiles which are not all nice.

10. Silk source: LARVA. You probably all know silk comes from a silkworm. Bombyx mori, the domestic silk moth, is an insect from the moth family Bombycidae. It is the closest relative of Bombyx mandarina, the wild silk moth. The silkworm is the larva or caterpillar of a silk moth.

11. Tatted up: INKED. I grew up in a religious home where marking your body was s sin, because you had to be arrogant to improve on the perfection your creation had been. 

12. Out of order?: MESSY.

14. Chamber group: OCTET.

20. CBS military drama with regional spinoffs: NCIS. This first location in Virginia was a spin-off of s series known as JAG. They both were created by DONALD P. BELLASARIO who must be a real Giglionaire by now. From Virginia  NCIS went to Miami, New York, LA, New Orleans and now Hawaii. They also had some Doctors without Borders and a Cyber division.

21. __ on the side of caution: ERRS. DONALD clearly did not. Of course. I meant Bellasario. No politics here.

22. Grain of emmer, spelt, or einkorn: FARRO. This refers to the grains of three wheat species, which are sold dried, and cooked in water until soft. It is eaten plain or is often used as an ingredient in salads, soups, and other dishes. That will make you lose weight.

24. "Divergent" novelist Veronica: ROTH. Veronica Anne Roth (born August 19, 1988) is an American novelist and short story writer, known for her bestselling Divergent trilogy.

                                        

25. "Boys Don't Cry" Oscar winner: SWANK. Hilary has won two best actress Oscars, also winning for "Million Dollar Baby" with Clint Eastwood.

26. Trunk hardware: HINGE. The trunk of a car? The piece of luggage? DKDC.

27. "Have a ball!": ENJOY. My new life motto/

28. In the past: AGO. Up until weeks ago, in fact. I was always...

31. Going head-to-head: FACING OFF. with everyone, but now I know we are...

32. "You're __ friends": AMONG.

33. Deck chair wood: TEAK. Teak weathers beautifully.

35. Shaving brand: BIC. They were just cheap ball points when Boomer and I were young; of course we sill wanted them.

36. Mineral in abrasives: CORUNDUM. Corundum is a crystalline form of aluminum oxide typically containing traces of iron, titanium, vanadium and chromium. It is a rock-forming mineral. It is a naturally transparent material, but can have different colors depending on the presence of transition metal impurities in its crystalline structure. wiki

38. Inflict upon: DO TO.

39. Woo-shik of "Parasite" and "Train to Busan": CHOI.

40. Hoisted: HEFTED.

41. Wanda who plays Dr. Karl in the "Bad Moms" films: SYKES. Her IMDB.

42. Old enough to vote, say: OF AGE.

43. "Frasier" role: NILES. David Hyde Pierce and his 40 year RELATIONSHIP.

44. Stretch: STINT. I relate it to a prison sentence; why not?

47. "Phooey!": RATS. They got us boss, time to go.

48. Intimate apparel item: SLIP. Finally a picture...

49. Bee flat?: HIVE. Very cute, the apartment where the bees live.

50. State openly: AVOW. AVOW = AVER another APEX ACME choice.

54. Mauna __: LOA. I tried for years to get my clue, "it's higher than LOA" in a puzzle, no chance.

55. Start of spring?: ESS. Silly end to the puzzle but the word SPRING does start with an S.

I thank you all for reading, writing and enjoying. I now realize I cannot compete with all the Bloggers who link so much wonderful stuff. My limited vision and brain power are all you get. Thank you Jeffrey , C.C. ,and Boomer . Lemonade out leaving you the grid...

Thursday September 1, 2022 Hoang-Kim Vu, Jessica Zetzman

 

 

Silent Movie - The Card Game

Rabbit Rabbit.  Care to try your luck at cards?

Husband and wife team Hoang-Kim Vu and Jessica Zetzman are veteran constructors for the NYT and Vu has published here as recently as last Thursday.  But today is their first pairing on the Corner. and they have some new tricks up their sleeves.  We'd better start by calling 'em:

62A. With 66-Across, images played in silent films, and what one might use to play the games in the first parts of the answers to the starred clues?: TITLE.
66A. See 62-Across: CARDS.

Spreading their themers on the table, we quickly see the names of 4 films or videos that begin with the TITLE of a CARD game:

23A. *Channing Tatum film series featuring strippers: MAGIC MIKE. Bling wise this clue was not a good opening.   No trailer for this one, as I'm sure Merl Reagle would agree that a flick on male strippers wouldn't pass the Margaret Farrar "Sunday Morning Breakfast Test". 

OTOH, if you want to try your hand at Magic The Game, here's everything you need to know.

39A. *Martial arts series based on the writings of Bruce Lee: WARRIOR. Bruce Lee (Chinese: 李小龍; born Lee Jun-fan, 李振藩; November 27, 1940 – July 20, 1973) was a Hong Kong and American martial artist, martial arts instructor, actor, director, screenwriter, producer, and philosopher. Here's the trailer for the 2019 TV series Warrior:

Here are the rules for WAR the card game.

28D. *Netflix series starring Adjoa Andoh as Lady Danbury: BRIDGERTON.  Bridgerton is an American historical-romance television series based on Julia Quinn's collection of novels.

We have a friend who's been trying to get us to learn the game of BRIDGE for years.  He sometimes lurks on the Corner.  Perhaps he'll stop buy and post some corrections to this "complete tutorial": "Learn How to Play Bridge" (in 16 minutes?):

31D. *Emmy-nominated miniseries about a woman leaving her Hasidic community: UNORTHODOX.  Unorthodox is a German-American drama television miniseries that debuted on Netflix on March 26, 2020. The first Netflix series to be primarily in Yiddish, it is inspired by Deborah Feldman's 2012 autobiography, Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots.  Here's the trailer:

Here are the rules for UNO the card game.

Here's the grid:

The following are the rest of our constructors' tricks:

Across:

1. Crushes it on the runway: SLAYS.  A bit of fashion hyperbole used only in the present tense.  You never hear "The model really SLEW them on the runway yesterday".  BTW this clue hath oft been used in crossword puzzles.

6. Disapproving sound: TSK.  Perhaps the politest way of expressing the increasingly widespread reaction to just about everything.

9. Wolf (down): SCARF.  "eat hastily," 1960, U.S. teen slang, originally a noun meaning "food, meal" (1932), perhaps imitative, or from nautical slang scoff "eat hastily or voraciously, devour" which is attested from 1846 (compare U.S. tramps slang scoffing "food, something to eat," 1907). This is said to be a variant of scaff (by 1797) in the same sense, and scaff (n.) "food, provisions" is attested from 1768, but the group is of obscure origin. Perhaps the word comes ultimately from some survival of Old English sceorfan "to gnaw, bite".  -  etymonline.com

14. __ butter: COCOA.

15. Med. condition with repetitive behavior: OCD.  Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.  Varying degrees of this disorder are common among cruciverbalists.

16. "Culture Warlords" author Lavin: TALIA.  Subtitled My Journey Into the Dark Web of White Supremacy.  She may have spent just a little too much time there.

17. Get straight: ALIGN.

18. Average: PAR.  A CSO to Husker, Boomer, and TTP.  Not that any of them are average mind you.

19. Discontinued Apple devices: IPODS.

20. Angry with: MAD AT.  Oh, for the good old days when MAD meant this.

21. 27-Down garment: BRA.  I'm sure they're worn on the island that's the namesake for 27D.

22. Toothpaste choice: CREST.

26. "Waterloo" singers: ABBA.  Oh goodie, music ...!

29. "Don't get any __!": IDEAS.  Isn't that what I'm supposed to do?

30. Bubbles: SUDS.  Common slang for brewed drinks such as ...
 

15 facts about Guinness

34. Milk container: CARTON.  And you can use the milk to make your Guinness even sudsier:
 

Guinness Punch
recipe

36. __ route: SCENIC.

38. Yale student: ELI.  Why they're called ELIS.

43. Artist Yoko: ONO.  Well before her famous partnership with John Lennon, Yoko Ono was the "High Priestess of the Happening" and a pioneer in performance art. Drawing from an array of sources from Zen Buddhism to Dada, her pieces were some of the movement's earliest and most daring. With unprecedented radicalism, she rejected the idea that an artwork must be a material object.

Yoko Ono

44. Finished: DID IN.  The past tense of do in.

46. Set out of bounds: BAN.

47. Hawkeye projectile: ARROW.  The clue and the fill connote the sagas of the French and Indian War, immortalized in James Fenimore Cooper's novel The Last of the Mohicans, popularized in the 1992 film starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Madeline Stowe.  A minor nit is that while Nathaniel "Hawkeye" Poe was probably proficient with a bow and arrow, his weapon of choice was a "Killdeer" rifle not a bow and arrow.  Here's the trailer:

49. Baseball VIPs: GMS.  Even more important than the General Managers are the Owners.  Apparently a dispute has broken out in the Orioles organization among two sons of long-time owner Peter Angelos over the future of the team, raising the possibility of selling or moving it.  This is scary.

50. [shrug emoji]: IDK.  I Don't Know.  This immediately reminded me of a story by a priest I used to know.  He was describing questions his elementary school students used to try to trick him, e.g. "Father, can God make a rock so big that he can't pick it up?".  The priest paused for few seconds, and then shrugged "I don't know🤷".  But as this was before MS Windows, it looked more like this "¯\_(ツ)_/¯".

51. Nov. honoree: VET.  Veterans Day is always on November 11 so the day of the week changes each year.  Here is a calendar and a history of this day that we should always remember.

52. Sub (for): STEP IN.  Another CSO to Husker.

55. Collect: GATHER.

58. Lawn care tool: AERATOR.  Every thing you'd ever want to know about lawn AERATORS.

60. Upshot: OUTCOME.

61. Body art: TATS.  Plural to clecho 42D.

64. God of war: ODIN.  Hand up if you expected MARS or ARES?  ODIN is the Norse god of war, aka WOTAN in German. Here's Wotan singing a touching farewell ("Abschied") to his disobedient  daughter Brunhilde, one of the Valkyries in Wagner's Die Walküre.  She has fallen from grace and is now banished from Valhalla to spend the remainder of her days on Earth as a mortal.  Teri and I saw this very same performance years ago sung by bass James Morris, a Baltimore native and protégé of  the great Rosa Ponselle (lyrics).   The soprano was Hildegard Behrens.  A CSO to opera lovers Jayce and Ol' Man Keith.

65. God of love: EROS. The Norse goddess of Love was FREYJA, who also makes brief appearances in Wagner's The Ring of the Niebelung:

Freyja
John Doyle Penrose
(May 9, 1862 – January 2, 1932)

67. Take down: NOTE.
 
68. "Auld Lang __": SYNE.  We'll be singing this before you know it.  This version has ALL of the lyrics:

69. Helen who was the first actress to achieve the EGOT: HAYES.  Helen Hayes MacArthur (née Brown; October 10, 1900 – March 17, 1993) was an American actress whose career spanned 80 years. She eventually received the nickname "First Lady of American Theatre" and was the second person and first woman who have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony Award (an EGOT). She was also the first person to win the Triple Crown of Acting; as of December 2020, the only other person to have accomplished both is Rita Moreno.

Helen Hayes

70. Austin festival, briefly: SXSW.  South X SouthWest Festival.  Hand up from anyone who's been to it?
 
Down:

1. Con: SCAM.

2. Kinks woman with "a dark brown voice": LOLA.  The Kinks were an English rock band formed in Muswell Hill, north London, in 1963 by brothers Ray and Dave Davies. They are regarded as one of the most influential rock bands of the 1960s.  LOLA wasn't the only song they wrote.  Here's their SUNNY AFTERNOON:

3. Corrosive chemical: ACID. 

4. Studio rollout?: YOGA MAT.  A CSO to Lucina.

5. Nick name?: SANTA.  How Saint Nicholas became Santa Claus.
 

6. Auction winner, probably: TOP BID.  In addition to Antiques Roadshow  the BBC had a long running comedy series (1986 - 1984) called Lovejoy about an antiques dealer extraordinaire.  Lovejoy was a "divinator" with a second sense that immediately told him not to BID on an antique that was fake.   Played by actor Ian McShane, Lovejoy did however occasionally fake antiques himself, as he was an all-around  rogue.  In Series 1 Episode 1 he first meets his friend Lady Jane Felsam, played by Phyllis Logan.  You may remember Phyllis for her later role as Mrs Hughes in Downton Abbey:

7. In short supply: SCARCE.

8. TV series from Seoul, e.g.: K DRAMA.  As  Korean dramas (Korean: 한국 드라마; RR: Hanguk deurama), more popularly known as K-dramas, are television series in the Korean language, made in South Korea. They are popular worldwide, especially in Asia, partially due to the spread of Korean popular culture (the "Korean Wave"), and their widespread availability via streaming services which often offer subtitles in multiple languages

9. Selfie __: STICK.  In ancient Greek times they were called Narcissus Sticks.

10. Insalata of tomato, mozzarella, and basil: CAPRESE.  See the clue for the recipe.

11. Sunburn treatment: ALOE.  Very popular with constructors because of its VTCR of 75%.  Suntan lotion is much better though.  Not only does it prevent sunburn, but skin cancer as well.

12. Purges (of): RIDS.

13. Lickety-split: FAST.

24. Rodriguez of "Jane the Virgin": GINA.  Gina Alexis Rodriguez-LoCicero (née Rodriguez; born July 30, 1984) is an American actress. She is known for her leading role as Jane Villanueva in  satirical romantic dramedy series Jane the Virgin (2014–2019), for which she received a Golden Globe Award in 2015.

Gina Rodriguez

25. Playground comeback: IS SO.  IS NOT.

26. Served past: ACED.

27. Lingerie brand: BALI.  See 21A for one of their products.  And here's their eponymous island in the Indonesian archipelago:

Bali

32. T. rex, e.g.: DINO.  I think this may be a mistake.  I'm pretty sure DINO was a Snorkasaurus.
 

Dino

33. Freight boat: SCOW.  A scow is a small type of barge. Some scows are rigged as sailing scows. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, scows carried cargo in coastal waters and inland waterways, having an advantage for navigating shallow water or small harbors.  A CSO to Jinx.
 

Sailing Scow
New Zealand, circa 1900

35. Takes responsibility for: OWNS IT.

37. Ascot kin: CRAVAT.  What's the difference between an ASCOT and a CRAVAT?   OTOH this reference doesn't think it's that simple.

40. Result of a bases-loaded walk, for short: RBI.  Run Batted In, even though it wasn't batted in.

41. "Tubular!": RAD.  Surf culture slang for cool or awesome, derived from catching a wave and getting in the "tube".

42. Body art: INK.  Singular of clecho 61A.

45. Stalemate: IMPASSE.

48. Updates the backstory to accommodate new material, for short: RETCONS.  Retroactive continuity, or retcon for short, is a literary device in which established diegetic facts in the plot of a fictional work (those established through the narrative itself) are adjusted, ignored, supplemented, or contradicted by a subsequently published work which recontextualizes or breaks continuity with the former. [Hey,  I'm not making this up!]

52. Provides enough: SATES.  IMHO it may be impossible to SATE cruciverbalists.

53. Emotional: TEARY.

54. V-shaped cut: NOTCH.  A versatile word, e.g. a mountain pass, a degree of change,  a position, etc..

55. Speculate: GUESS.  Hand up if you had to speculate about any of today's fill?

56. Radiates: EMITS. 

57. Extend, in a way: RENEW.

59. Gold-certifying org.:  RIAA.  The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization formed in 1952 that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/or distribute approximately 85% of all legally sold recorded music in the United States". RIAA is headquartered in Washington, D.C.  I was 5 years old when they got their start, and they promptly pulled the plug on my business pushing bootlegged 78's.

60. Shoppe descriptor: OLDE.

63. Tackle: TRY.  I'm too tuckered out to tackle this one.

waseeley

And thanks as always to Teri for her proofreading and constructive suggestions.

Hoang-Kim Vu & Jessica Zetzman, you are invited to post anything you'd like to share about this puzzle, its evolution, the theme, or whatever, in the Comments section below.  We'd love to hear from you.

Cheers,

Bill