Good Morning, Cruciverbalists. Malodorous Manatee here with a puzzle by Gunther Toody. Oh! Oh! Wait a minute. That's wrong on a couple of counts. First, isn't today scheduled to be Chairman Moe's day? Well, yes but we've traded days to accommodate some scheduling issues and Moe will be back in a couple of weeks. Second, our friend from "Car 54 Where Are You?", Joe E. Ross, did not construct today's puzzle. That was done by Robin Stears. To quote Chairman Moe (October 7, 2022):
"Robin is no stranger to either this blog or blogger; (see my Jan 1, 2021 recap) at last count she must have at least ___ puzzles (fill-in-the-blank, someone!) published at the LAT, and perhaps 1,000+ puzzles published in total. Maybe she will stop by today and help me with my math!"
At four places in the grid Robin has added the letter O to common words and phrases in order to create clever answers to the clues. Three of the four are riffs on entertainment staples. The fourth is a bit of an odd duck and/or, perhaps given the clue, a rubber ducky.
Here are the spots when the gimmick has been employed:
17 Across: Excellent rendition of a Belafonte hit?: ONE FINE DAY O. Harry Belfonte's "Banana Boat Song" was a big hit in the early 1950's. The "hook" was "Day O, Day-ay-ay O, Daylight come and me wan' go home." The clue also gives a nod to the song by Carole King and Gerry Goffin (recorded by the Chiffons). Here is ONE FINE DAY O :
27 Across: Help a former first lady feel better?: NURSE JACKIE O. "Nurse Jackie", as we have come to know her more recently, is the main character of a Showtime dramedy series. The clever reference is Jackie Kennedy Onassis who, in this case, is being nursed back to health. Here, she gives a tour of the White House.
44 Across: Gala for the cops?: PARTY OF FIVE O. A reference to the TV show "Party of Five" is morphed into a reference to the TV show "Hawaii Five-0". Book 'em, Danno.
59 Across: Give a cool cat a thorough bath?: SCRUB DADDY O. Scrub Daddy is a brand of sponges. Are you a cool cat? Can you dig it, DADDY-O ?
Here, for all of you hep cats and dollies, is how the completed grid looks:
Here are the rest of the ginchiest clues and answers:
Across:
1. Insect-preserving resin: AMBER. We all learned about this from "Jurassic Park".
6. Kick in or kick off: START. Are we waiting for the drugs to kick in? Is the election season about to kick off?
11. Crunch targets: ABS. Not as in 48 Across. A workout reference.
14. Coupe de __: classic Cadillac: VILLE. Ah, tail fins.
1959 Coupe de Ville
15. Airport structure: TOWER. Control TOWER.
16. Shot chaser?: PUT. One of these type of clues. PUT follows shot in track and field.
The Shot Put
19. Time for the history books: ERA. Sometimes clued with a baseball pitching statistical reference.
20. Oyster bed?: ICE. Hand up for first thinking SEA or someplace where oysters breed. This location comes later.
21. Shabby: SEEDY. In the 1970's a SEEDY joint was something else. My friend knows just who he can trust in the SEEDY part of town to get him safe candy and sweets. He has treat smarts.
22. Novelist Louise who created the fictional police inspector Armand Gamache: PENNY. Thanks, perps.
24. Removed from power: DEPOSED. Also, a legal term.
26. Bearing: MIEN. I before E except after C.
32. Red-hatted figure in Travelocity ads: GNOME.
35. Group before millennials: XERS.
36. Catch: NAB.
37. More than fancy: LOVE. Fancy, in this case means not ornate but, rather to want to do something or to like something.
38. Push (for): LOBBY. As in K Street.
40. In this case: HERE. A bit obtuse but, hey, it's Friday so HERE it makes sense.
41. "Bravo, mi amigo!": OLE. A review Spanish lesson.
42. Squabble: TIFF.
43. Always ready to order?: BOSSY. Hand up for heading down the ON TAP road. Ready to BOSS around / give orders.
48. Crunch's rank: CAPN.
49. Some UPS Store customers: SENDERS. SHIPPERS fits the clue better but does not fit the allotted space.
53. Japanese room divider: SHOJI. Thanks, perps.
55. As a soloist: ALONE.
57. Cut (off): LOP. Did you hear about the guy that had his ears LOPped off? He didn't either.
58. Pursue romantically: WOO. You know, owls never go on a date if it's raining. It's too wet to woo.
62. Beseech: ASK. If you are offended by my dad jokes, please don’t get mad and ask me to go to the artificial excavation filled with water. I mean well.
63. Small crown: TIARA. Often worn in crosswords.
64. Foot the bill: TREAT.
65. "You got it": YES.
66. Weapon in a scabbard: SABER.
67. Chucks: HURLS. As in to throw or to toss. Not to be confused with upchucks which could also be HURLS.
3. Censor: BLEEP. Bleeping a curse word is usually funnier than the word itself. Itself just isn't a very funny word.
4. Rivendell resident: ELF. A Lord Of The Rings reference.
5. Second edition: REISSUE.
6. Knight mares: STEEDS. Cute homophone. Not bad dreams. Knights' horses.
7. Figure skating great Eldredge: TODD. Three-time Olympian. 1996 World Champion. Six-time U.S. Champion.
8. On the road: AWAY. Let's see. Willie Nelson or Canned Heat? Hmmm. Flip a coin.
9. Lightsaber-wielding heroine: REY. A "Stars Wars" reference.
10. Torrid Zone region: TROPICS.
11. Italian mountain range: APENNINES.
12. Waste: BURN. As in BURNing through money, I suppose.
13. "Don't leave!": STAY.
18. Poetic contraction: NE'ER. NEvER
23. Cry from one atop a chair: EEK. As opposed to EKE.
EEK A Mouse !
25. "That's a new one __": ON ME. Not to be confused with 64 Across.
26. "The Pink Sash" painter Cassatt: MARY. Thanks, again, perps.
28. Split personality?: EXBFF. Because you have split (cut ties with) your best friend. Meh.
29. Laura Bush's brother-in-law: JEB.
30. Glasses holders: EARS. Hand up for RIMS. Eyeglasses.
31. Follow: OBEY.
32. Mushy bowlful: GLOP. GLOP GOOP SLOP GUNK
33. French Quarter city, familiarly: NOLA. The French Quarter is a section of New Orleans, LouisianA
34. Stays on the range too long: OVERCOOKS. Not an oater reference.
38. Sphinx, mostly: LION.
39. Clocked out: OFF.
40. Piece of academic regalia: HOOD.
42. Keyboard pros: TYPISTS. When we all took typing in junior high little did we know how the skills would come to be applied.
43. Outranked by: BENEATH. True, but a bit of a stretch.
45. __ Mahal: TAJ. A place frequently visited in our puzzles. Or an American blues musician.
46. Weather map line: ISOBAR. Where meteorologists go for a drink.
47. Peddle: VEND.
50. Church leader: ELDER. VICAR would have fit. PASTOR and PRIEST would not.
51. __ flush: ROYAL.
52. Catches: SPOTS. Again, a bit of a stretch. Might have been clued as "Catches sight of" earlier in the week.
53. Influence: SWAY.
54. Kiddie pool filler: HOSE. Water? No. Urine? Not likely in a puzzle. The means with which to fill the pool with water.
55. Many an Emirati: ARAB. A reference to the United Arab Emirates.
56. Tackle box gadget: LURE.
60. Org. whose HQ is home to the unsolved puzzle sculpture Kryptos: CIA. Abbreviated clue/answer. The Central Intelligence Agency is headquartered in Langley, VA.
61. Gru's long-lost twin brother in "Despicable Me 3": DRU.
Today's splash screen is an Irish Rain hat, with the wool so
tightly woven that it is completely water proof. If it looks familiar,
it's the same type of hat that I wear in my
Bloggeravatar (sans the feather, which I lost years ago). I bought the first one from
Avoca Weavers
in Ireland 25 years ago and I'm now on my third. They are also available in the USA and via
mail order from Ireland.
They go by other names as well. Our constructor
Joseph Marquez, who is making his LAT debut today, calls them
Bucket Hats. I've not heard that term before, but I suspect that if need be my hat could
actually hold water like a bucket. 😀.
Joseph's puzzle uses sets of of circled squares arranged in the shape of buckets
to contain the name of 4 different types of hats. Since this becomes
obvious almost immediately, we'll start with the reveal --
65A. Headwear featured four times in this puzzle:
BUCKET HAT. -- and as shown by the grid --
From left to right and top to bottom our buckets are lined with the following types of hats ...
The classic
BEANIE is of course equipped with a
propeller ...
The classic FEDORA was favored
by NOIR detectives ...
Humphrey Bogart a.k.a Sam Spade
PANAMA hats originated in Ecuador,
a long time ago
and were the favorite of the
5th Dr. Who, who often sported one to cricket matches ...
Peter Davison
The eponymous BOWLER hat was designed in 1849 by the
London hat-makers
Thomas and William Bowler,
and was made famous by the great comedian of the silent era
Charlie Chaplin
...
Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin
KBE (16 April 1889 – 25 December 1977)
FWIW, here's a similar puzzle I blogged sometime back using circled grid
squares to depict a grid spanning bowl of clam chowder.
28. Mythological event depicted in a 2017 "Thor" film: RAGNARÖK. Definitely Thursday cluing. In
Norse mythology, the
Ragnarök is a prediction of the end of the world, including a great battle in which numerous great Norse gods will perish. It
will entail a catastrophic series of natural disasters, including the burning of
the world, and culminates in the submersion of the world underwater.
The trailer for the 2017 film was a bit too commercialized, camp,
and violent for my taste. I think themajesty of the RAGNARÖK is much
better depicted in Richard Wagner's epic Ring Cycle, a retelling
of the exact same story. Here is the closing scene from the final act of the 4th opera,
Die Götterdämmerung
("The Twilight of the Gods"), where the ValkyrieBrunhilde spurs her mighty steed
to leap onto her husband Siegfried's enormous funeral pyre. The fire then spreads
to Valhalla, the hall of the gods, consuming it and ultimately
causing it to tumble
beneath the waves of the Rhine. This challenging piece of stagecraft is
imaginatively depicted here with a moving tableaux of Art Deco scrims
...
32. Share on social media: REPOST.
35. "Xanadu" rock gp.: ELO. The
Electric Light Orchestra
(ELO) is an English rock band formed in Birmingham in 1970 by songwriters and
multi-instrumentalists Jeff Lynne and Roy Wood with drummer Bev Bevan. Their
music is characterised by a fusion of pop and classical arrangements with
futuristic iconography. They wrote many of the songs for the musical
Xanadu, including the hit single Magic sung by
Olivia Newton-John.
36. Saintly ring: HALO. Most people have one, but they are much brighter on a few of those people. 😀
37. Baghdad currency: DINAR. This is how many
DINARS a DOLLAR
will get you.
38. Heaps and heaps: ALOT. The above may seem like A LOT,
but it's still just a DOLLAR.
40. Gross figures: SLOBS.
43. __-switching: CODE. In linguistics,
code-switching
or language alternation occurs when a speaker alternates between two or more
languages, or language varieties, in the context of a single conversation or
situation.
44. Gold-loving king: MIDAS. In the classic version of the Greek myth MIDAS dies of hunger, but this one has a happy happy ending
...
48. Home of the world's tallest building, briefly: UAE.
The Burj Khalifa. Dubai has plans to complete an even taller structure in 2025 called the
Dubai Creek Tower. The Japanese are planning
a structure to be completed in 2050
that will far outstrip these efforts. But then
these sorts of projects
have been going on for thousands of years and are one of the reasons that the
Arabs, the Japanese, and many other peoples can't seem to talk to one
another. 😀
Burj Khalifa 2,722 ft (0.52 mi)
49. Blind dates, e.g.: SETUPS. Blind dates may have better results if they're
set up by a professional.
51. Enhances: AUGMENTS.
53. Different: OTHER.
55. California wine region: NAPA.
56. __ choy: BOK.
58. Like some change: EXACT. Here's an oldie, but goodie ...
63. Dogpatch name: ABNER. Here's how it all started ...
First Li'l Abner by Al Capp for August 19, 1934 (click to enlarge)
65. [Theme reveal]
68. Baggy: LOOSE.
69. Like one of Picasso's periods: BLUE. The
Blue Period comprises the works produced by Spanish painter Pablo Picasso
between 1901 and 1904. During this time, Picasso painted essentially monochromatic paintings in
shades of blue and blue-green, only occasionally warmed by other colors. These
sombre works, inspired by Spain and painted in Barcelona and Paris, are now some
of his most popular works, although he had difficulty selling them at the
time.
Le Gourmet (The Greedy Child), 1901 National Gallery of Art, Wash., D.C.
70. Trickster of Asgard: LOKI.
Loki is a god in Norse mythology
and Asgard is
another name for Valhalla, the home of the Norse gods. He
presumably met his fate in clue 28A.
Loki
71. Cries like a kitten: MEWLS.
72. Barely noticeable: ITTY.
73. All those in favor: AYES.
Down:
1. Civil War POTUS: ABE.
2. "Abbott Elementary" actress __ Ann Walter: LISA.
Lisa Ann Walter
(born August 3, 1963) is an American actress, comedian, and television producer,
best known for her roles as Chessy the housekeeper in the romantic comedy
film The Parent Trap (1998) and Melissa Schemmenti on the Peabody
Award winning ABC mockumentary sitcom Abbott Elementary (2021–present),
for which she received a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Ensemble in a
Comedy Series.
Lisa Ann Walter
3. Memo abbr.: ATTN.
4. Staple of some plant-based diets: SEITAN. Seitan is a food
made from gluten, the main protein of wheat and is used as a meat substitute in
vegan diets. It is made from vital wheat gluten, a flour-like substance
primarily consisting of gluten extracted from wheat flour. Here's Sam's recipe
for seitan based "vegan chicken".
5. Title for a monk: FRA. Short for
Frate: "Brother", which I believe is short for Fratello -- today's
Italian lesson. Brother Ray - O?
6. "Time to go!": LETS ROLL. "Let's Roll" were
the last recorded words
of passenger
Todd Beamer on board United Airlines Flight 93
during the September 11 attacks in 2001, just moments before he and
other passengers attempted to storm the cockpit and retake the
plane from the hijackers. The slogan subsequently became a battle cry
for
American forces during the war on terror.
10. Third-party abbr.: IND. Only one Independent candidate has won
the presidency.*
11. Self-identifier such as "ze" or "hir": NEO PRONOUN. Here's
everything you need to know about NEO PRONOUNS, although I can't guarantee that they won't have changed by the time this
review drops.
12. "My Soft Machine" singer Parks: ARLO. Here's
Arlo Parks' Purple Phase from her album My Soft Machine ...
13. Played scissors against rock, say: LOST. According to the rules
of
Rochambeau,
rock beats scissors ...
18. Book between Jonah and Nahum: MICAH. The 3 books mentioned in
the clue and answer are three of the
12 Minor Prophets
of the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible).
MICAH
lived in the region of Judah before the fall of Jerusalem in 722 BC. His
prophecies were largely concerned with the decadence and corruption of the
inhabitants of Israel, and like all the prophets he was rewarded for his
efforts with execution. This manuscript page in the
Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore
shows him being cast from a cliff (often a precursor to stoning) and then buried
...
The Death and Burial of the Prophet Micah
22. Neither partner: NOR.
25. Notable times: ERAS. The most notable ERA these days
seems to be Taylor Swift's Eras Tour -- it even has its own
Wiki page. Here's her song Eyes Open re-released during the tour
...
27. Awesome: EPIC.
28. Paper orders: REAMS.
29. Classic TV's "Kate & __": ALLIE.
Kate & Allie
is an American sitcom television series that aired on CBS from March 19, 1984,
to May 22, 1989, starring Susan Saint James and Jane Curtin as two divorced
mothers who decide to live together in the same home. Here are the opening
credits ...
33. Nobelist Anwar: SADAT.
Muhammad Anwar es-Sadat
(25 December 1918 – 6 October 1981) was an Egyptian politician and military
officer who served as the third president of Egypt, from 15 October 1970 until
his assassination by fundamentalist army officers on 6 October 1981. In
1978, Sadat and Menachem Begin, Prime Minister of Israel, signed a peace
treaty in cooperation with United States President Jimmy Carter, for which they
were recognized with the Nobel Peace Prize. Menachem Begin died of a heart
attack on 3 March 1992.
Anwar Sadat
34. Forest denizens: TREES.
39. Not slack: TAUT.
41. Hairstyle with a uniform length: BLUNT CUT. They come in short,
medium, and long lengths ...
A blunt cut
42. Streets of Rage game company: SEGA. A 4 letter video game
company. Saturday cluing might be RUST, NIOH, or
DIRT.
45. Baseballs and basketballs, but not rugby balls: SPHERES. Here's
a rugby ball ...
Rugby ball
Notice that the ends don't come to a point like an American football ...
American Football
English footballs are SPHERES ...
English Football
47. Substantial: AMPLE.
50. Health class topic: SEX. Since y'all have probably had that
course, any further comment would probably be TMI. 😁
52. Nabe south of Pasadena: EAST LA.
54. Bar mitzvah figure: RABBI.
56. Application to chapped lips: BALM. A key ingredient in
BALM is of course is ALOE.
57. Clarinet kin: OBOE. Probably the most popular work for this
instrument is Gabriel's Oboe, from the soundtrack to the 1986 film
The Mission. Here it is conducted by the composer
Ennio Morricone
...
Click on the Watch on Youtube link to start it
59. Fringe group: CULT. They come in all shapes and sizes and there are a lot of them around these days.
61. Nautical call: AHOY.
62. Swipe: TAKE. Sometimes you have to swipe a movie scene more than once to get a good TAKE. 😀
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