Saturday, June 24, 2023, Damon Gulczynski

 Themeless Saturday by  Damon Gulczynski 

D.C.-based Damon has been published here on 2/18/10 and 12/29/22. I got this one done in 25 minutes but my smooth sledding was was slowed down when I hit some blizzards of proper names but managed to work my way through them.

                  

60 Seconds With Damon

Across:

1. Gallery display: ART which would attract an 34. Gallery visitor, perhaps: AESTHETE.

4. Sweetener option: AGAVE - If you're not making tequila out of AGAVE...

9. Penner of classic tributes: ODIST - Penner is not a proper noun, it is an unusual name for one who pens or writes 

14. Spy rings?: PEEPHOLES 😀

16. Butter up, in a way: BASTE.

17. Geographic feature of nine states: PANHANDLE - Nebraska's used to me more pronounced.

18. Unfamiliar: ALIEN.

19. Common ingredient in wellness products: ALOE.

20. Sparks st.: NEV - Sparks is 5 minutes east of Reno down I-80.

21. Writer whose first novel was adapted as a film by Wayne Wang: AMY TAN - I had no real idea but with a few letters our cwd friend AMY TAN showed up.

22. Turkey bacon?: LIRA - Bacon is a euphemism for money and one of these 100₺ = $4.23

23. First name in soul: ARETHA.

25. "Some things are best left unsaid": TMI.

26. Creamy cold beverage: LASSI however I did know (What is one and how do I make it?) 54. Creamy hot beverage: LATTE

LASSI

28. However, briefly: THO.

29. "__ bien!": TRES - "Very well" in French 

30. Appropriate time for acting unprofessionally: AMATEUR HOUR - Will this karaoke guy really sound like Jim Morrison?

34. "To put it mildly": AND THEN SOME - To put it mildly, we screwed up...

35. Spoilsports: WET BLANKETS.

36. Moccasin sound: HISS - Cottonmouth Moccasin 

37. Lack of space?: AIR - Yes, space has a definite lack of air. 

38. Hinged fasteners: HASPS.

42. Med. specialty: ENT - My ENT and my audiologist are in the same building. One day I left there with hearing aids and a CPAP machine.

43. David Rakoff compositions: ESSAYS - On leaving Canada and becoming an American citizen: George W. Bush made me want to be an American. It was a need I had not known before. A desire that came over me in a rush one day, not unlike that of the pencil-necked honors student suddenly overwhelmed with the inexplicable urge to make a daily gift of his lunch money to the schoolyard tough.


46. "This is fun!": WHEE - Would you be filled with too much 56. Apprehension: DREAD to ride this?

47. Prepare, as leftovers: REHEAT

49. Dude: BRO.

50. Easy to maneuver, at sea: YARE - Landlocked me has only seen this word in cwds

51. Looks out for, in a way: ABETS.

52. Ones fluent both in JavaScript and Klingon, perhaps: UBER NERDS - Seems right 

55. Youngest MLB player to record 100 career home runs and 100 career stolen bases: MIKE TROUT - Mike makes the list of the best MLB players to never win a World Series

57. Hide away: STASH.

58. New beginning?: NEO.

Down:

1. Shock: APPALL.

2. Teaching aids that illustrate everyday life: REALIA - After 50+ years in education, I have never heard of this word but used it constantly in my classes. At the bottom of my emails, I have, "I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand."

3. Barbershop fixtures: TENORS - Towels didn't cut it. I was a TENOR as a freshman in our barbershop quartet and a bass as a senior

4. Insightful remark: AHA.

5. Fixin' to: GONNA - Billy Williams had a 1957 hit with this old Fats Waller song about what he was GONNA sit right down and do.

6. Tree whose roots contain nitrogen-fixing organisms: ALDER.

7. Plush toy in a Margery Williams classic: VELVETEEN RABBIT - $12,500 will get you this 1922 first edition in near fine condition

8. Legal conclusion?: ESE - LEGALESE for "date": In witness whereof, the parties hereunto have set their hands to these presents as a deed on the day month and year hereinbefore mentioned.

9. "The Audacity of Hope" memoirist: OBAMA.

10. Longtime "Last Call" host: DALY - Another DALY, John Charles DALY, was the longtime host of what TV show? (*answer below)

11. "Should I believe this?": IS IT TRUE.

12. Dumpling cooker: STEAMER.

13. Court activity: TENNIS 😀

15. Long-tailed birds: PHEASANTS - My friend missed my daughter's wedding because it was on the first day of Nebraska's PHEASANT season

21. In the saddle: AHORSE - Damon probably swallowed hard before he put in this archaic fill.

24. Dull sound: THUNK - How the fill above hit me.

27. Film site: IMDB - and 39. Leal of "Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin": SHARON - SHARON Leal's IMDB entry

29. Twain lad: TOM SAWYER - This 1876 first edition is $45,000

31. Jazz classic with the line "My lonely days are over": AT LAST - and 48. 31-Down singer James: ETTA. ETTA sings her signature song at her 1993 induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame

32. Many Bangkok Post readers: THAIS.

33. Ice planet with tauntauns and wampas: HOTH - I'm told this is a Star Wars Wampa preying on a Tauntaun. 🤔

35. Pour house?: WINE BAR 😀

36. Announce with pomp: HERALD.

40. Tyson rival: PERDUE - Oops!

41. Makes sure of: SEES TO.

43. Facilitated: EASED.

44. California town near the Oregon border: YREKA - YREKA (wy REE kuh) is 645 miles north of LA on I-5 and it is like a whole different world.

45. Tender spots: SORES.

52. Hesitant sounds: UMS.

53. To the __ degree: NTH.

In case you missed yesterday afternoon, here is my view as I blog. I got this by using the PAN function on my iPhone.

*10 Down option for (John Charles) DALY

Friday, June 23, 2023, Luke Schreiber

 

Good Morning, Cruciverbalists.  Malodorous Manatee here, once again, with a Friday recap.  Today's puzzle setter is Luke Schreiber.  As seems to be more common recently, I could find no previous reference to Luke here at the Corner so this may be his L A Times debut.  In any event, today, Luke has elected to do a riff on RIGHTs.  Right turns, Right angles, human Rights.

Two weeks ago I recapped a puzzle in which the theme answers were placed vertically in the grid in lieu of the more often seen horizontal placement.  Today, we get yet another approach.  At five places in the puzzle, all identified with circles, Luke requires us to make a right-angle (90 degree) turn to the right in order to get the right answer to the Down clue.  The answer to that clue requires the combining of the Down clue's answer with the corresponding Across clue's answer. Here are the five places that make up the themed answers:

1 Down:  Bounces back: RALL with 20 Across:  "It's all untrue!": LIES.  RALLIES  I imagine that most everyone went "Huh!?" when 1 Down filled.  Or did it?

7 Down:  Some Arctic Cats: SNOWMOB  with 35 Across:  Gymnast Simone: BILES.  SNOWMOBILES

10 Down:  RuPaul's competition: DRAG with 22 Across:  Coup de __: GRACE.  DRAG RACE  This one confused yours truly for a bit as the down answer, DRAG, is able to stand alone as a real word, a feature exhibited at none of the other four theme-word combinations.  After scratching my head for a while I assumed that RALL and SNOWMOB (which had previously been filled in) were, indeed, the right answers and that it was time to stop overthinking things and move right along.

26 Down:  Extremely beautiful, perhaps: HEARTST with 54 Across: Froyo choice: TOPPING.  HEART STOPPING.  A little bit odd as FROYO was a "truncated" clue (FROzen YOgurt) but the answer was a complete word.

48 Dwon:  Quilting technique: APPLIQ with 71 Across:  "¿__ pasa?": QUE.  APPLIQUE

The unifier comes at 64 Across:

64 Across:  Freedoms protected by the Equality Act, and an apt title for this puzzle?: LGBTQ RIGHTS.  Note that, when taken in order, the pivot points spell out LGBTQ.

Here is how all of this looks in the grid:

Here are the rest of the clues and answers.  Content warning:  Roughly a dozen or so are proper names.  Some additional theme-related answers also appear here and there:

Across:

1. Noisy toy: RATTLE.  Shouldn't RATTLEsnake warnings be called "Cautionary Tails"?

7. Went fast: SPED.

11. Oroville structure: DAM.

14. Legends on the road: ACURAS.  An automobile make/model reference.

15. Depilatory brand: NAIR.  Was it going to be NEET or VEET?  Nope.

16. Post-op area: ICU.  The Intensive Care Unit at a hospital.

17. Beatles song with the lyric "Sunday morning creeping like a nun": LADY MADONNA.  I strongly suspect that the Beatles imagery was not meant to evoke anything quite like these self-described "nuns":

.

19. Fistful of bills: WAD.  A wad of cash.  I guess the Times wished to avoid paying a royalty on this clue.

21. Possess: OWN.

24. Remorseful: ASHAMED.  Why was the pterodactyl not ASHAMED to use the toilet?  Its "P" was silent.

28. Nobelist Wiesel: ELIE.

29. Epicurious.com offering: RECIPE.  A very good web site to visit when you are looking for a RECIPE.

32. Lucille Clifton's "Homage to My Hips," for one: ODE.  In puzzles, the poems almost always turn out to be ODEs.

33. Lab container: VIAL.  Why are almost all test tube manufacturers single?  People seem to find them VIAL.

34. Bright bloom: DAHLIA.

37. "Rules __ rules": ARE.    . . and they are meant to be followed,  we are told.

 

38. Hesitant sound: ERM.  Punt!

40. Minor matter: NIT.  Idiomatic, unless you are, perhaps, a chimpanzee.

41. "Delish!": YUM.

44. SLR setting: F-STOP.  A photography reference.  The aperture setting on a Single Lens Reflex camera.

46. Halloumi, e.g.: CHEESE.  If it were Monday the clue might have been Cheddar.

48. Québec chum: AMIE.  Français dans l'indice donc Français pour la réponse.

51. Early Beatle Sutcliffe: STU.  Sometimes referred to as "the fifth Beatle".  We sometimes see this clued along the lines of "letter run after R".

52. Got bronze?: TANNED.  Not an Olympics reference.

53. Window part: PANE.  My stupid, hungry donkey decided to eat a window.  It was a pane in the ass.

56. Subject of many June parades: PRIDE.  Continuing with the theme.

58. "Awesome!": RAD.  "Bitchin'!"  "Groovy!"  "Far Out, Man!"  "Phat!"

59. Exercise aftermath: ACHE.

63. Cap: LID.  Remember when a LID cost $10?

68. "__ say!": I'LL.

69. Pouty face: MOUE.

70. Backup squads: B-TEAMS.

72. Cheek: SASS.

73. Attend without a partner: GO SOLO.

Down:

2. Berry that's a superfood: ACAI.  Frequently served in our puzzles.

"3. Truculent behavior, informally: TUDE.  Derived from attiTUDE.  "Don't Cop a TUDE, bro."

4. Seafarer's choice during a storm: TRYSAIL.  New to this solver.  "A TRYSAIL is a substitute mainsail designed solely for storm conditions. Setting independently of the boom it is loose-footed and designed to sit above the stack of your mainsail using a long tack strop."  Got it?

5. On the __: LAM.  Fleeing from the law.

6. Finnish conductor __-Pekka Salonen: ESA.  He led the Los Angeles Philharmonic from 1992 until 2009 when Gustavo Dudamel succeeded him.

8. Prepared for a close-up shot: PANNED IN.  A pan shot is a horizontal camera movement in which the camera pivots left or right while its base remains in a fixed location.

9. German article: EIN.  Was is going to be DER?  Nein.

11. South Asian festival of lights: DIWALI.  A bit obscure (to us North Americans) but we have seen this reference to the Hindu Festival of Lights a few previous times.

12. Tree favored by giraffes: ACACIA.

13. Bottom-dwelling fish: MUD EEL.  Also known as Heterenchelyidae but that would not fit the allotted space.   

18. __ double take: DO A.

23. Cranks (up): REVS.

25. Spots: SPIES.  Used as a verb.  Not, for example, a Dalmatian dog reference.

27. Corpus __: prosecutor's concern: DELICTI.

29. Nutrition fig.: RDA.  For those of you who have may not read a food product information label in the last twenty or thirty years, Recommended Daily Allowance.

30. Sideburn neighbor: EAR.

31. Michael of "SNL": CHE.

36. Actor Hawke: ETHAN.

39. Tour vehicle, quaintly: MOTOR BUS.

41. Osaka currency: YEN.  Money in Japan.

42. Exploit: USE.  Used as a verb.

43. __ school: MED.  DAY?  OLD?  LAW?  ART?  At least those are not abbreviated as is MEDical in response to a non-abbreviated clue.

44. Satellite signal: FEED.

45. Leaves the larval stage: PUPATES.  Rarely seen in our puzzles as a verb.  More often we see PUPA as in the insect stage between larva and adult.

47. Ties up: ENGAGES.  Perhaps a new take on an ENGAGEment announcement?

49. Henner of "Taxi": MARILU.  A TV sitcom reference.  There should be no trouble picking her out in this photo:

50. Warming up the car, say: IN IDLE.

55. ASAP kin: PDQ.  Pretty Darn Quick

57. Trees with many streets named after them: ELMS.  And streets with many movies named after them.

60. Rosalind of 2020's "Mulan": CHAO.

61. Web page standard: HTML.  HyperText Markup Language is used, among myriad other applications, to produce our daily Crossword Corner blogs.

62. Petro-Canada rival: ESSO.  A reprise from two weeks ago.  This time without the "petrol" reference.

65. Indian state known for white-sand beaches: GOA.  At 18 Down we had DO A.  Do these fit ___  T?

66. First member of SCOTUS to officiate a same-sex wedding: RBG.  Supreme Court Of The United States justice The "Notorious" Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

67. Manga artist Junji: ITO.  Often clued with reference to Judge Lance ITO.

As I am otherwise engaged, this seems like the right time to bid adieu for this morning  . . .

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