Good Morning, Cruciverbalists. Malodorous Manatee here with today's recap of a puzzle by Katie Hale. The theme of this creation seemed to me to be simultaneously a tad "forced" (but, hey, it's a crossword puzzle) and quite clever (which is the stuff that keeps us coming back to solve them day after day). Let's go straight to the reveal as it seems, with a nod to Maria, to be a very good place to start:
38 Across: Classic demonstration, and a way to describe the relationship between each starred clue and its answer: TEXTBOOK EXAMPLE. A TEXTBOOK EXAMPLE of something is, as the clue says, a classic or perfectly illustrative instance of something. In the case of today's puzzle, however, our puzzle setter has creatively combined abbreviations used in texting with book titles. TEXT and BOOK. The TEXTing abbreviations form the clues and the BOOKs form the answers. One might say that we are dealing with Literal (literary) examples:
Here are the four places where the theme is employed:
16 Across: *LOL OMG: THE DIVINE COMEDY. LOL and OMG = "Laughing Out Loud" and "Oh My God" in text-speak. Either/both could be a reaction to something comedic. The reference is to this book:
22 Across: *CU soon: ON THE ROAD. CU = "See You" in text-speak. As in, e.g, "I am on the road but will see you soon." The reference is to this book:
51 Across: *SRY: ATONEMENT. SRY is text-speak for "(I'm) Sorry" and atonement is the act of making amends for one's misdeeds. The reference is to this book:
62 Across: *TMI: NOTES ON A SCANDAL. TMI = text-speak for Too Much Information. The reference is to this book:
In each instance the perps were a big help in sussing out the correct answers. Here is how the completed grid looks (please ignore the yellow and orange highlighting as it is a product of the Crossword Nexus solver and in this instance has no meaning):
, , , and here are the rest of the clues and answers:
Across:
1. Welcome gifts at the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel: LEIS. The hotel lies on the Hawaiian island of, well, Hawaii (The Big Island).
5. Deputy: AIDE.
9. Some parents: MOMS. DADS would also fit.
13. Mount near Taormina: ETNA. Taormina is a town in Sicily where A-listers like to hang out.
14. Passing remark?: I'M OUT. "I pass."
15. Nike rival: AVIA. An athletic shoe reference.
19. __ year: GAP. When I took my GAP year(s) we simply called it dropping out.
20. Actress Collette: TONI.
21. Fatal flaw of some Greek heroes: HUBRIS.
25. Fuel for some grills: GAS. See also 27 Across. Some prefer wood pellets.
26. Youngest March sister: AMY. Another literary reference. In this case to Little Women by Louisa May Alcott.
27. Some barbecue remains: ASH. See also 25 Across.
29. Young chap: LAD.
32. Tesfaye whose stage name is the Weeknd: ABEL. I suppose that Weend is no sillier than e.g. Beatles, Kinks or Zombies but it does seem that way.
35. Bandleader's cue: HIT IT.
37. Old-fashioned before: ERE. Able was I ERE I saw Elba.
42. Indifferent review: MEH.
43. Queues: LINES. British English.
44. Fission target: ATOM.
45. Hindu title: SRI. Remember this guy?
Bhagwan Sri Rajneesh
46. Well-worn: OLD. No comment.
47. Place for a paraffin body wrap: SPA.
49. __ choy: BOK. The vegetable.
57. Tiny slice: SLIVER. A man walks into a bar with a SLIVER of metal on his tie. The bartender says, "Sorry, we don't want your tie pin here."
60. Can of worms, maybe: BAIT. Used literally not idiomatically. As an idiom it means a situation that causes a lot of problems when you start to deal with it.
61. "Narcos" org.: DEA.
65. Not buttoned: OPEN.
66. Actor Rami: MALEK. An American actor best known for his role as Elliot Alderson in 'Mr. Robot' and Freddie Mercury in 'Bohemian Rhapsody.'
67. Send for onboarding: HIRE. Onboarding sounds, to me, like something that Alexander Haig would have conjured up (see: Vietnamification).
68. Some twins: BEDS. Hand up for first trying BOYS.
69. Beltmaking tools: AWLS. For making holes.
70. Not so much: LESS.
Down:
1. Abandon one's inhibitions: LET GO.
2. Hawke of "The Northman": ETHAN.
3. Clumsy: INEPT. How does a socially inept cat walk away from a conversation? On her faux pas.
4. Like a tear-jerker: SAD.
5. __ acid: AMINO. Lysergic Diethylamide was too long.
6. Ancient Aegean region: IONIA. Often visited in our puzzles.
7. Not yet settled: DUE.
8. Make a lasting impression?: ETCH.
9. Green arboreal snake: MAMBA. Was Rosemary Clooney singing about a snake?
Mambo Italiano
10. Had to scramble to get out the door, perhaps: OVERSLEPT.
11. Calf-length skirt: MIDI.
12. Voices: SAYS. In the clue, voices is used as a verb. Do we hear voices raised in protest?
14. Cream relative: IVORY. Cream, here, is used as a color and not as a dairy product and Blind Faith was too long.
17. Part of a collection: ITEM.
18. Really must, informally: OUGHTA.
23. "Come no further": HALT.
24. Palm fruits: DATES.
28. Number of suspects in Clue: SIX. The answer was going to be a number three letters in length. One, two, six and ten were the suspects.
30. "Alligator Boy" in a 2021 Netflix animated film: ARLO. Unknown to this solver.
31. Judge to be: DEEM.
32. Places for taking notes?: ATMS. We can take banknotes out of ATMS (Automatic Teller MachineS).
33. __ garden: BEER. Hands up for those who first tried ROSE.
34. Put on display: EXHIBITED. One of those clues where the verb can be either present or past tense.
35. Accord maker: HONDA. Not as in treaty or pact.
1976 Honda Accord
36. Barinholtz of "History of the World, Part II": IKE. Ah, the TV series not the movie.
39. Chaps: BLOKES.
40. Safflower __: OIL. Pretty crude ____ if you ask me.
41. Polite address: MA'AM.
47. Former weekend programming block that featured "Clarissa Explains It All": SNICK. Short for Saturday Night Nickelodeon.
48. Anti-fur gp.: PETA.
50. Bakery features: OVENS. Aromas was too many letters.
52. Kids' batting game: T-BALL.
53. Fertile spots: OASES.
54. __ Bauer: EDDIE. Me and EDDIE have a clothes relationship.
55. Gets warmer?: NEARS. As in the kids game Hot And Cold.
56. Chaucer works: TALES. Yet another book reference.
57. Nose-in-the-air type: SNOB.
58. Casual gait: LOPE. When you turn off Auto-correct all LOPE is host,.
59. Oblong tomato: ROMA. The most common variety of tomatoes used in crossword puzzles.
63. "Yup" opposite: NAW.
64. Bruins' org.: NHL. The Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League. Being a UCLA "product" (a year of undergrad, two years of grad school and a few years of teaching) the puzzle-appropriate response was not the first thing that came to mind.
It's often said that "you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear", but our
soloist Eric Bernhardt does exactly the opposite in his rift above called
Sow's Ear to a Silk Purse. And so too do our new team of constructors for
today's puzzle: David Goldenberg and Matthew Goldenberg. They do this by taking
the nicknames found in five fictional themers and fancifying them with formal first names. Here are the resulting fills, followed
by the names their friends call them ...
18A. Formal name of a tech business?:
DOROTHY COM. Nickname: DOT COM. A dot.com is a company that does most of its business on the Internet, usually through a website on the World Wide Web that uses the popular top-level domain (TLD) ".com". As of 2021, .com is by far the most used TLD, with almost half of all registrations.
23A. Formal name of a bun holder?:
ROBERT PIN. Nickname: BOBBY PIN.
Bobby Pins
37A. Formal name of a free local periodical?:
PENELOPE SAVER. Nickname: PENNY SAVER. A pennysaver is a free community periodical
that advertises items for sale. It usually contains classified ads
grouped into categories. Many pennysavers also offer local news and
entertainment, as well as generic advice information, various syndicated
or locally written columns on various topics of interest, limited
comics and primetime TV listings. Pennysavers can also be online, e.g. this one is for our neighborhood.
51A. Formal name of a twin-engine fighter jet?:
THOMAS CAT. Nickname: TOMCAT. The F-14 Tomcat ...
F-14 Tomcat
59A. Formal name of a DNA collection?:
EUGENE POOL. Nickname: GENE POOL, Also referred to as an organism's genome. And as they're busy 7x24, also a place where GENES can get a little RNR (Ribo Nucleic Recreation 😀) ...
I thought this was a clean, clever theme. No
reveal. None needed.
5. Blue-white heavenly body: B STAR. A B-type main-sequence star (B V)
is a main-sequence (hydrogen-burning) star of spectral type B and
luminosity class V. These stars have from 2 to 16 times the mass of the
Sun and surface temperatures between 10,000 and 30,000 K. B-type stars
are extremely luminous and blue.
10. Dash dial: TACH.
14. Taboo: NO NO.
15. Shrine on the San Antonio city flag: ALAMO. One of my favorite cities.
16. Dull pain: ACHE.
17. First queen of Carthage: DIDO. DIDO was the lover of Aeneas, a Trojan who fled the fall of Troy and traveled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans, as related in the EPIC poem The Aeneid, by the Latin poet Virgil.
On his long journey to what will eventually become Rome, he visits
Carthage, meets Dido, and they fall in love. But as he lingers in
Carthage Aeneas realizes that he is duty bound to continue his mission
and deserts her. She is grief stricken and takes her own life. Her
lament before dying is related in this famous aria from the opera Dido and Aeneas by Henry Purcell ...
18. [Theme clue]
20. Employ: USE.
21. __ Pueblo, New Mexico: TAOS.
22. "The Bear" platform: HULU
. The Bear is an American comedy-drama television series created by Christopher Storer. It premiered on HULU on June 23, 2022, and stars Jeremy Allen White as Carmy
(short for Carmen), a young, award-winning chef who returns to his
hometown of Chicago to manage the chaotic kitchen at his deceased
brother Michael's sandwich shop. "The Bear" is a term of endearment that Michael had for Carmy ... 23. [Theme clue]
26. Heath shrub: GORSE. GORSE, also known as furze, whin, or ulex) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae. The genus comprises about 20 species of thorny evergreen shrubs in the subfamily Faboideae of the pea family Fabaceae. The species are native to parts of western Europe and northwest Africa, with the majority of species in Iberia.
32. Picture: IMAGINE. I can't IMAGINE how we store all the pictures in our heads, and rapidly retrieve them after many decades have passed.
36. Small bit: TAD.
37. [Theme clue]
41. "Argo" spy org.: CIA. Argo is a 2012 American historical drama thriller film directed, produced by, and starring Ben Affleck. The screenplay, written by Chris Terrio, was adapted from the 1999 memoir The Master of Disguise by U.S. C.I.A. operative Tony Mendez and the 2007 Wired article The Great Escape: How the CIA Used a Fake Sci-Fi Flick to Rescue Americans from Tehran by Joshuah Bearman.
The film deals with the "Canadian Caper", in which Mendez led the
rescue of six U.S. diplomats from Tehran, Iran, under the guise of
filming a science-fiction film during the 1979–1981 Iran hostage crisis.
42. Home of the WNBA's Storm: SEATTLE.
43. Chihuahua y Tabasco: ESTADOS. Today's Spanish lesson: "States"
46. Microorganisms: GERMS.
50. Egg specification: LARGE.
51. [Theme clue].
55. See 9-Down: IRAS.
57. Theater honor: OBIE. Here are the 66th Annual Off Broadway Awards announced on February 23, 2023.
58. Wail: CRY.
59. [Theme clue].
62. April honoree?: FOOL.
63. Queens stadium namesake: ASHE. Arthur ASHE, tennis great.
Arthur Robert Ashe, Jr. July 10, 1943 – February 6, 1993
64. First name in cosmetics: ESTEE.
65. Sunscreen additive: ALOE.
66. "Darn it all!": RATS.
67. "Doctor Who" role for Michelle Gomez: MISSY. Last Thursday the Dr. Who industry celebrated the 60th anniversary of the first appearance of "The Doctor" in a blue Police Box parked in a junkyard in London on November 23, 1963. I recall watching all of the pre Sylvester McCoy episodes at least three times until it went into hiatus in 1989. But it was rebooted in 2005 (some say at the request of Queen Elizabeth II!) and given fancy new production digs in South Wales.
In anticipation of the anniversary celebration I've been binging a lot of post 2005 episodes, but [as you can see from this list] I'm hopelessly behind. I've not yet encountered MISSY, but from what I gather she is a female incarnation of Dr. Who's perennial nemesis, the evil Time Lord called The Master. Here she is unleashing the dreaded Cybermen on the streets of London and introducing herself to the 12th Doctor, played by Peter Capaldi.
Missy The Mistress
68. Map publisher __ McNally: RAND. While it might seem that the invention of the GPS has made maps obsolete, apparently RAND McNally is still going strong.
Down:
1. Last: ENDURE.
2. Cause of death in some cozy mysteries: POISON. Murder mysteries don't get any cozier than those of Agatha Christie, and in her case saying that "some" perps use POISON
is a bit of an understatement. Before achieving fame as a novelist she
worked as a apothecary's assistant and knew quite a bit about poisons.
Here's the trailer for the star studded The Mirror Cracked with Angela Lansbury as Miss Marple ...
3. Owing: IN DEBT.
4. Dove sound: COO.
5. Unskilled in: BAD AT.
6. Single-master: SLOOP. I know we had this last week, but I'm playing it again for Jinx.
7. Anklebones: TARSI.
8. "Yo te __": AMO. More Spanish: "I love you". Also a song, here sung by Chayanne ...
10. "Midnights" artist Swift: TAYLOR. Here's Anti-Hero from her 10th studio album Midnights ...
11. Spot on: ACCURATE.
12. Sulu player John: CHO. John CHO (born Cho Yo-Han; June 16, 1972) is an American actor known for his roles as Harold Lee in the Harold & Kumar films, and Hikaru Sulu in the Star Trek rebooted film series.
John Cho
13. __ and haw: HEM.
19. Massive: HUGE.
21. Response to "You won't believe this": TRY ME.
24. Speedskater Jackson who won a gold medal at the 2022 Olympics:
ERIN. ERIN Jackson (born September 19, 1992) is an American speed skater, roller derby player, and Olympic gold medalist. Jackson is the first Black woman to win a Winter Olympic gold medal in an individual sport.
Erin Jackson
25. Nine-piece combo: NONET. Here's the Miles Davis'
NONET playing Moon Dreams from his album
The Birth Of The Cool ...
27. Injury reminder: SCAR.
28. Check-in info: ETD.
31. Sleeveless outerwear: VEST.
33. Plus: ALSO.
34. "Whither thou __ ... ": GOEST. These words are the beginning of a verse from the Old Testament Book of Ruth(1:16-17). In 1954 it was set to music by Earl Chalmers Guisinger. Here's Canadian Leonard Cohen's farewell song from his 2012 tour of Canada (another CSO to CanadianEh!)...
These are the lyrics to the song from the Biblical text ...
"Wither thou goest I will go Wither thou lodgest I will lodge Thy people shall be my people, oh Wither thou goest I will go".
When
my Father asked my Mother to marry him in England after WWII and to
come to America, she recited that verse to accept his proposal.
35. Craft brew with a high ABV: IPA. India Pale Ale with a
high
Alcohol By Volume (ABV). One of my son's brother-in-laws operates a brewery with an IPA named
Dundalk Calling. After a can of it I can't hear it calling me any more. 🙄
37. Italian city known for a campanile: PISA. Legend has it that
Galileo used
the bell tower in PISA
to perform experiments proving that objects of different masses fell with
the same acceleration, disproving Aristotle's theory of gravity (which
states that objects fall at speed proportional to their mass). Most
historians consider it to have been a thought experiment rather than a physical
test.
38. Nutritionist's advice: EAT RIGHT. Good advice.
39. Aquarium gunk: ALGAE. Assuming you have more than one ALGA in your aquarium.
40. Victory signs: VEES.
41. Cartoon still: CEL. Their subjects are serving life with no parole. 😁
44. Corresponds: AGREES.
45. Norris of "Breaking Bad": DEAN. I've never seen
Breaking Bad. Is Norris a campus figure?
47. Soda since 1905: RC COLA. The RC stands for "Royal Crown" and their first product was a Ginger Ale. There is also a "Ginger Beer", which has a low ABV. IIRC the 4th Dr. Who (Tom Baker) imbibed a bit.
48. Dark red: MAROON.
49. Arranged: STYLED.
52. Nocturnal noises: HOOTS. Hand up if you speak owl?
53. Winds orchestras tune to: OBOES. I think we need a new clue for this, e.g. "Plural of the instrument featured in the soundtrack to the 1986 film
The Mission" ...
54. "Younger Now" singer Cyrus: MILEY. She'll get over it
eventually.
Well, it looks like I'm your Corner host for the next foreseeable Wednesdays as JzB and mb are out of pocket for a spell.
// Yo!, see 22a: BE CALM. JazzB is probably busy Bumpan' it on the trombone for Christmas shows & mb is fine. Both will be back hosting The Corner in January.
Today's puzzle is a cute/fun pre-Christmas [Advent Box Calendar anyone?] gift from Jeanne. If I'm not mistaken, this is her LAT debut (I found a Dr. Jeanne D. Breen, an infectious disease specialist / internal medicine Dr. in CT, but I donno if she's one & the same*).
I nearly grok'd the "kid" theme but I was missing something. Thanks to the regular bloggers who set me straight and parsed things properly. (I was thinking children, not pranks.)
17. *Collection for an afternoon party: TEA SERVICE. My Girls [kids] would have tea service with me hunched over a little table with an American Girl doll, a teddy bear, and a stuffed Unicorn as one of 'em hosted & poured imaginary tea. It was delicious spiked (I TEASE!)
26. *Subject of many June parades: GAY PRIDE. RIDE.
49. *Bed in a nursery: BABY CRIB. RIB.
59. *Desert plant on the back cover of a U2 album: JOSHUA TREE. JOSH. //great album!
38. "But seriously," and an apt description of the answers to the starred clues: ALL KIDDING ASIDE.
OK, Corner eFriends. Slow down. Pace yourself. 'Cuz here we go...
Across:
1. Primary: CHIEF.
Don Adams & Edward (Chief) Platt
6. Biblical twin: ESAU.
10. New Mexico skiing destination: TAOS.
14. Poet/activist Lorde: AUDRE.
15. Leather stickers: AWLS. Not Hell's Angels' patches but pokie tools.
Awe
16. Stash: STOW. Just wait, CACHE will come later... #Foreshadowing
17. [See: Theme]
19. Sunrise obscurer: HAZE.
20. "Malo" opposite: BUENO.
21. Televised: AIRED.
22. "Don't panic!": BE CALM.
If you've never read Douglas Adams' HHGTTG, make it a point. You'll laugh your bum off (if you're skew'd a bit).
42. Issa of "Insecure": RAE. More ??? - LIU [WikiP again]
43. Runway figure: MODEL.
44. Jerseys and Guernseys: COWS. Moo Milk (not that almond stuff).
45. Greek consonant: TAU.
46. Place to practice asanas: YOGA MAT.
49. [See: Theme]
54. Major route: ARTERY.
55. Grand-scale tales: EPICS. Wait 'till we get to 51d. That is a saga :-)
56. Secret stash: CACHE. And there you are 16a.
58. "Collapsed in Sunbeams" singer Parks: ARLO. Another ARLO singer?
I had to Google after the fill.
59. [See: Theme]
64. AnnaSophia of "Little Fires Everywhere": ROBB. No idea - WikiP
65. Not backing: ANTI.
66. Cussed: SWORE.
67. Stuck-up sort: SNOB.
68. Fraction of a min.: NSEC. Nanosecond.
69. Sing "The Lonely Goatherd," say: YODEL.
This is cute.
Down:
1. Cindy Clawford of "Ted Lasso," for one: CAT. The bassist, Leslie Higgins', cat. Note the "L" in the cat's name.
2. Color chart element: HUE.
3. Princess in the Monument Valley video game: IDA. My Secret Santa editor looked it up for you.
4. Unsure sounds: ERS. Um, OK.
5. Lacking strength: FEEBLE.
6. Spot for icicles or icicle lights: EAVE. 'Tis the season.
7. Big Band style: SWING.
Squirrel Nut Zippers from the '90's
8. Metal giant: ALCOA.
9. Draw upon: USE.
10. Bit of concert merch: T-SHIRT.
Two of mine
11. Arcade pioneer: ATARI.
12. Exuded, as charm: OOZED.
13. Gothenburg native: SWEDE.
18. Persian poet who wrote the "Spiritual Couplets": RUMI. I've seen this before but needed a refresher.
21. Sleep malady: APNEA.
22. Kid-lit elephant: BABAR.
23. Sherlock's sister in a book series by Nancy Springer: ENOLA.
We had (IIRC) ENOLA clued similarly inre: Netflix my last expo.
24. Dish alternative: CABLE. Oy! and now I have 13 streaming channels of s*** to choose from.
//Allusion to Pink Floyd's "Nobody Home" from "The Wall" -- sorry folks, you'll just have to deal with my scattery brain like I have to all the time.
25. "Oh, gotcha": AH OK.
27. Bowen of "SNL": YANG.
He's super funny.
29. Emmy-winning journalist Roger: MUDD.
33. Pizzeria order: PIE.
Thatsa Pizza Pie! //Russo's 28" party goodie.
34. Exclusively: ONLY.
35. Ecosystem: BIOME.
36. Nasty marketing battle: AD WAR.
Cola Wars.
I grew up in a Pepsi household in the Midwest.
My first taste of Coke was like, "That's a bit bitter; Me like!"
//full-disclosure: I own bits of stock in KO & CCE (now an EU co.)
37. Piquant: ZESTY. [See: Coke above]
39. Apples that come in seven colors: IMACS. Cute - Apple's Computers.
The newer iMacs
40. Unsociably cross: DOUR.
41. Sing like Ella: SCAT.
45. Hall of Famer known as the "Georgia Peach": TY COBB. #Baseball
47. Waimea Bay island: OAHU.
48. __ spoon: GREASY.
Mel's Greasy Spoon Sitcom [Alice] Cast
49. Unwelcome picnic visitors: BEARS. Fun Clecho.
Hey, BooBoo!
50. Garment that may say "World's Okayest Cook": APRON. Mine says "Italia!" DW's says (in Green, White & Red) "IBM" [Italian by Marriage].
51. Baggins of Bag End: BILBO. Lord of the Rings / The Hobbit saga. #CallbackTo55a
52. Desktop array: ICONS. I have minimal (1.2 columns) ICONS on my laptop; DW's is literally covered with 'em -- drives my OCD self nuts.
53. Verb in cooking or sewing instructions: BASTE. Someone will have to fill me in on the sewing part of this clue 'cuz, at this point, I'm too lazy to look it up.
57. Smart: CHIC. Hep.
59. MLK Day's mo.: JAN. Martin Luther King Jr. is celebrated on the 3rd Monday of January.
60. Couple: TWO.
61. Divining tool: ROD. To find water(?) #BS!
62. Afore: ERE.
63. Rainbow roll fish: EEL.
OK, true, no Rainbow Roll in this boat -- but! the second one, [no photo available] for the KID's table, did.
The Grid:
The Grid
WO: BOzO
ESPs: AUDRE | IDA, BUENO (as clued), BAZ, RAE, ARLO (as clued), ROBB Fav: I'm going w/ 1a's CHIEF 'cuz it made me think of Buck Henry's & Mel Brooks' Get Smart.
No Joke folks, I'll be here for your next four (4) Wednesdays -- be sure to tip the waitstaff.
Cheers, -T
*My Angel Editor / Secret Santa found this about Dr. Breen:
"I’m a physician, piano player, voracious reader, lap swimmer, animal lover, movie buff, student of baseball, and a lifelong resident of the Northeast. I drink my coffee with milk and my gin gimlets straight up and ice-cold. I’ve enjoyed solving crosswords and other word puzzles for years and just started constructing this spring (2023); I’m honored that gin + grapefruit is the site of my debut. The ‘crossworld’ is such a warm, welcoming community and I’m genuinely in awe of how creative puzzlers are with their themes, themeless seed entries, and cluing. My thanks to Taylor for encouraging me to give midi construction a try and to Shannon for editing. I hope you enjoy the solve!" on this site.
Thank you Dr. B.
