I blogged Rich's LA Times debut in April and now he is back with this challenge. I zoomed through the NE and SE and had to fish around to earn my "got 'er done" on the western side.
Across:
1. Trust-worthy figure: HEIR.😀 - Many of my golf buddies are recommending we set up an irrevocable trust for our two HEIRS.
5. Guardians, on scoreboards: CLE - In 2021 the Cleveland Indians became the Guardians.
8. Daytime fare: SOAPS.
13. Item that may bring a room together: ACCENT RUG.
16. Accustom: INURE.
17. Deep-sea pod cast?: WHALE SONG 😀 - Whales are deep-sea animals whose "singing" can be done by a pod of whales acting as a cast
18. __ four: PETIT.
19. Offensive deception?: NO-LOOK PASS.
21. Patches, in a way: SODS 😀
22. Goons: APES.
23. Fugitive's request: HIDE ME - Rick sticks his neck out for no one
25. Withstood: ABIDED.
28. Early Sony devices: BETA CAMS - Our video guy said a BETA CAM was the future and so we bought one. Everyone else went VHS and we soon had a white elephant.
30. Creed: TENET.
31. Sent in: FILED - Today reporters simply send in/FILE stories from their computers. Before the digital age, reporters had to either call in their stories or drive to the newsroom to type it out to FILE it.
32. Also: TOO.
33. Maintain: HOLD - An air traffic controller might tell a pilot, "Maintain present heading and altitude" which means "fly straight and level"
37. Fathers: SIRES - Secretariat had seven of his progeny in the 2023 Kentucky Derby
38. Family nickname: AUNTY - Clara Blandick played Dorothy's AUNITE Em
39. Elements of love and hate: SILENT E'S - 🙄 My last fill as the meta cluing hit me
41. Actress Cuthbert: ELISHA.
42. Sole protector?: GALOSH - Around here we use them in pairs and call them "five-buckle overshoes".
43. NASA __: research center in Silicon Valley: AMES.
44. Third novel in Marilynne Robinson's "Gilead" series: LILA.
45. "Just watch me!": YOU BET I CAN.
50. __ purchases: IN APP - Put simply, an IN-APP purchase is something that you buy when using an app on your computer or mobile device.
52. Five-spice powder ingredient: STAR ANISE - Five spice is a blend of star anise, cloves, cinnamon, Sichuan peppercorns and fennel seeds.
53. Clerical home: MANSE.
54. "No sweat": EASY PEASY.
55. "The __ Scrolls": video game series: ELDER - If you have ever played or heard of this game, that makes one of us.
56. Sound before the orchestra begins: SHH.
57. 2020 NL batting champion: SOTO.
Juan Soto
Down:
1. Russell's "The Christmas Chronicles 2" co-star: HAWN - Kurt Russell and his longtime companion Goldie HAWN
Rotten Tomatoes Audiences gave it a 44%
2. Fifth letter of the NATO alphabet: ECHO.
3. Bygone scheduling app: ICAL.
4. Added to a card, e.g.: RELOADED - Chuck E Cheese calls it recharging, just bring your credit card to pay for more games
5. Makes a borderline call: CROPS - Yours truly changing the borderline in cropping this picture of me talking to 500 kids.
6. Moon goddess: LUNA.
7. Source of calcium and magnesium in compost: EGG SHELLS.
8. Taste: SIP.
9. "Hang on": ONE SEC.
10. Robotic sorts: AUTOMATONS - Disney has thousands of them
11. When Obergefell v. Hodges was issued: PRIDE MONTH - Obergefell v. Hodges: On June 26, 2015, the United States Supreme Court ruled in a landmark decision that the 14th Amendment requires all states to license marriages between same-sex couples and to recognize all marriages that were lawfully performed out of state.
12. Groups at the gym: SETS.
14. Tamagotchi alternative: NEOPET.
15. Expressed impatience: TSKED.
20. Lots to build on: SITES - How bout these SITES to build on in Italy?
24. "Hi hungry, I'm __": DAD 😀
25. Literary musketeer: ATHOS.
26. "March to the beat of your own drum!": BE ORIGINAL.
27. Checked out: IN LALA LAND 😵 Where Mike Tyson put a lot of boxers
28. Gymnast honored with a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2022: BILES.
29. Posthumous "General Hospital" Daytime Emmy winner Eddy: SONYA - Fellow cast member and Emmy winner Robert Gossett paid tribute to the late SONYA in his acceptance speech.
31. Items that wind up on red trucks: FIRE HOSES - Wind up 😀
34. Quite wee: BITSY.
35. Cookbook categories: CUISINES.
37. __-cone: SNO.
38. Public house fixture: ALE TAP.
40. Go by: ELAPSE.
41. __ board: EMERY.
43. Humiliate: ABASH - You have the option to remain unabashed
44. Green shade: LIME.
46. Jazz venue: UTAH - The team kept the nickname when it moved from New Orleans just like the Los Angeles kept the name Lakers when they moved from Minneapolis. UTAH is not known as a hotbed for jazz and LA has very few lakes compared to Minneapolis.
47. Parting word: CIAO.
48. Second: Abbr.: ASST.
49. "Self Explanatory" R&B artist: NEYO.
51. A pop: PER - We buy bottled water at a big box store for $.15 but at this game they are $3.50 a pop.
Good Morning, Cruciverbalists. Malodorous Manatee here asking the question of the day: What the H is going on here? Let's try to answer that.
Today's puzzle setter is the prolific and always entertaining Ed Sessa. In today's puzzle, Ed has dropped the H sound from the SH start to the first words of four common two-word expressions and, thereby, morphed the expressions to provide fitting answers to the clues - at least phonetically. Here is where he has done this:
17 Across: Principle behind "speak softly and carry a big stick"?: SUBTLE DIPLOMACY. From Shuttle Diplomacy. Drop the H and we get "SUTTLE". Correct the spelling and we get the answer. Shuttle Diplomacy is the action of an outside party in serving as an intermediary between (or among) principals in a dispute, without direct principal-to-principal contact. Personally, I never thought there was much subtlty involved in TR's advice/approach.
31 Across: Grumblers left holding the bag?: SOUR CADDIES. A golf reference. From Shower Caddies. Drop the H and we get "SOWER" which works phonetically if we retain the pronunciation from SHOWER and don't decide to start a garden, Again, correct the spelling and, well, you get it.
40 Across: Some Lakota winter supplies?: SIOUX STORES. From Shoe Stores. Many moons ago, this reviewer watched a TV sitcom in which an Eastern European and a Native American went into the retail business together. They opened a shop called The Sew And The Jioux. I wonder if Ed saw that same show.
56 Across: Item in a moth-infested closet?: SUIT FULL OF HOLES. From Shoot Full Of Holes.
Here is a look at the completed grid:
Here are the rest of the clues and answers:
Across:
1. Gymnastics event, informally: BARS. (Uneven) parallel bars. As used at the Olympic Games.
5. Soccer star Kelley who hosted a "Just Women's Sports" podcast: OHARA. Might have been clued with a GWTW reference.
10. Cobbler's item: SOLE. Not a baking reference. Cobbler's material would have let this solver first think of something other than AWL (too short, anyhow). Speaking of close but not quite (homophone-wise):
Yardbirds - 1965
14. Cyan kin: AQUA. See also 49 down.
15. Lavender kin: LILAC. A reference to the color (not the plant).
16. "Metamorphoses" poet: OVID.
20. When doubled, very affectionate: KISSY.
21. Superlative ending: EST. Anyone remember Erhard Seminars Training?
22. Perambulates: WALKS. For pleasure.
23. Fictional archaeologist Lara: CROFT.
25. Hair salon supply: GEL. DYE would have fit.
26. Church ensemble: CHOIR.
28. Law expert: JURIST. By definition.
34. __ sale: TAG. AKA garage sale.
36. Cartoon corporation: ACME. Wile E Coyote's supplier of choice.
37. Maze features: TURNS.
38. The Met __: annual NYC fundraising event: GALA. Formerly called the Costume Institute Benefit, the Met GALA is the annual fund raising benefit for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The GALA has been highly publicized in recent years.
39. Extinct New Zealand bird: MOA. For extinct birds they sure do appear regularly.
42. Peppers used in mole: ANCHOS. Today's Mexican cuisine reference.
44. Gouges: SOAKS. Hand up for first thing of something to do with cutting a groove in a piece of wood. Colloquialism for taking advantage of someone financially as in price gouging.
45. Lady bird: HEN. Not a reference to LBJ's spouse.
46. Fingerprint feature: WHORL.
48. __ New Guinea: PAPUA.
51. Sci. course: BIO. Several to choose from. Thanks, perps.
52. Split up: APART.
59. Long-winged sea eagle: ERNE. Sometimes we see TERN.
60. It means a lot: MUCHO. One of today's Spanish lesson and not the first of several possible answers that came to mind.
61. Lustrous fabric: SILK. Two SILK worms had a race. They ended up in a tie.
62. "The Jellicle Ball" musical: CATS.
63. Like a loud crowd: AROAR. A sound often heard in our puzzles.
64. __ Pueblo, New Mexico: TAOS. Located north of the modern city of TAOS, TAOS Pueblo has a thousand-year history.
Down:
1. Enjoy the sun: BASK.
The Sunrays
2. Here, in Spanish: AQUI. Another Spanish lesson.
3. Spice blends: RUBS. This confirmed BBQ smoker liked this one.
10. Mogadishu resident: SOMALI. Mogadishu is the capital city.
11. Like some rugs: OVAL. There were quite a few possibilities with this one.
12. Guitar riff: LICK. Everybody has thier personal favorites.
13. Ice cream brand: EDY'S.
18. Melodious: LYRIC. Shouldn't this be LYRICal?
19. People in debt: OWERS. Has anyone ever heard this useage?
24. Special delivery?: ORATION. Not a USPS reference. Delivery of a speech.
25. "I suppose": GUESS SO. Something that someone might say, I suppose.
26. Swiss Miss product: COCOA. Not a reference to Heidi.
27. Not perfect: HUMAN. To err is Human....
28. "We said the same thing!": JINX. CSO!
29. Unembellished: STARK. How refreshing to see this clued without a "Game of Thrones" reference.
30. Chaucer collection: TALES.
31. Heughan of "Outlander": SAM. Unknown to this solver. Thanks, perps.
32. Olympic badminton teams, e.g.: DUOS. There are other, less obscure, ways to clue this but (a) it is topical and (b) it is Friday.
33. R&B's __ Hill: DRU.
35. Mini mover: GAS. A bit of a stumper at first. The clue seems to refer to the Mini Cooper automobile.
38. End zone upright: GOAL POST. Often used in a metaphor.
40. Wheat bundle: SHEAF.
41. Bat mitzvah scroll: TORAH. The first five books of the Hebrew Bible.
43. Half of a board game: CHUTES. Cute clue.
46. "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" indie band: WILCO. Being unfamiliar with the band this one was a bit difficult. The NATO alphabet and radio lingo answer (Will Comply) seem to go well to gether.
47. Rumpus: HOO-HA. I am pretty certain that I recall this word being used in a quite different context on "Two And A Half Men".
48. Min. fraction: PSEC. Often, we get NSEC. PicoSECond. One trillionth of a second.
49. Energy field: AURA. See also 14 Across. According to ancient Japanese lore, the colour of a person’s aura changes when they leave the room. Cyan-aura.
50. Pub order: PINT.
51. Cloudiness: BLUR. Not sure if the forms of the clue/answer match up? It's a bit of a BLUR.
53. Et __: and others: ALIA. Sometimes we get ALII.
Today constructor Rebecca Goldstein presents us with three
straightforward theme clues and a rather cryptic reveal, one of those
puzzles within a puzzle. Here are the theme clues.
17. Patrons of the arts: CULTURE VULTURES. After getting
this on perps, I thought it might be a rhyming theme -- but it wasn't.
There seem to be
several definitions for this phrase. Here's a poetic definition by Christopher Lindsay
Vultures in Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarves
27. Fluffy blockers of the sun: CUMULUS CLOUDS. This one
was pretty obvious.
Cumulus clouds have flat bases and are often described as puffy, cotton-like, or fluffy
in appearance. Their name derives from the Latin cumulus, meaning "heap" or
"pile", as in "to accumulate".
Cumulus clouds
48. Coined phrase?: E PLURIBUS UNUM. Today's Latin
lesson: "Out of many, one", a phrase describing the unity of our nation --
one state comprised of many states. It appears on the
Great Seal of the United States, and on the coinage and paper bills of our currency. It is
also
the title of this book
by former President George W. Bush ...
61. "So great, bestie!," and a phonetic hint to 17-, 27-, and
48-Across: I LOVE THAT FOR YOU. This was not so easy to get, as
I initially had HOPE instead of HYPE for 58 down. The
FOR YOU in the fill is a homophone for the FOUR Us that occur in each of the themers. Here's how they appear in the grid ...
Here's the rest ... Across:
1. Topic covered in middle school math:
RATIOS. In mathematics, a ratio shows how many times one number contains another.
For example, if there are eight oranges and six lemons in a bowl of
fruit, then the ratio of oranges to lemons is eight to six (that is,
8:6, which is equivalent to the ratio 4:3).
The ratio of width to height of standard-definition television (aka the "aspect ratio")
7. Pretax funds for medical expenses: Abbr.: HSA. Health Savings Account (HSA). A
type of savings account that lets you set aside money on a pre-tax
basis to pay for qualified medical expenses. By using untaxed dollars in
an HSA to pay for deductibles, copayments, coinsurance, and some other
expenses, you may be able to lower your out-of-pocket health care costs.
10. Salty snack: CHIP.
14. Tennis great Andre: AGASSI. Andre Kirk Agassi
(born April 29, 1970) is an American former world No. 1 tennis player.
He is an eight-time major champion, an Olympic gold medalist, and a
runner-up in seven other majors. Agassi is the second of five men to
achieve the career Grand Slam in the Open Era and the fifth of eight
overall to make the achievement. He is also the first of two men to
achieve the career Golden Slam (career Grand Slam and Olympic gold
medal), as well as the only man to win a career Super Slam (career Grand
Slam, plus the Olympic gold medal and the year-end championships). He
has been married to tennis great Steffi Graf since 2001 ...
October 22, 2001
15. Industrious insect: ANT.
16. Traditional Maori dance: HAKA. Traditionally, HAKA was a customary way to welcome visiting tribes,
but it also served to invigorate warriors as they headed into battle.
It was a show of physical prowess but also an embodiment of cultural
pride, strength, and unity. It was intended to strike fear in the hearts
of the enemy, but perhaps more so, to get them to retreat, avoiding
bloodshed on both sides. Today is often danced when New Zealanders
start a contest in competitive sports such as rugby or soccer and thus
it is known to sports fans around the world ...17. [Theme clue]
20. Per: EACH.
21. Chill: VEG. Just act like a VEGetable and relax! 😀
22. Regions: AREAS.
23. Recurring theme: MOTIF. Recurring themes are used in all types of music, but in none more than in Richard Wagner's four opera Ring Cycle. In these operas they are called leitmotifs ("leading themes") and they play a important role in announcing the arrival of characters, objects, emotions, and places.
In this brief clip members of the Metropolitan Opera's brass section
explain and play some of the major leitmotifs from the cycle ...
26. Inspired stuff: AIR. The guys illustrating the last clue are inspiring a lot of AIR, demonstrating some of Richard Wagner's inspirations for several new types of instruments.
27. [Theme clue]
32. Up for the day: ARISEN.
34. Minor issue: NIT.
35. Quick cut: SNIP.
36. Small drink?: BEV. Short for BEVerage.
37. Volleyball court divider: NET.
39. Where to hang one's hat: PEG. Or the INSPIRATION for this song ...
41. Average guy: JOE. Or a BEV I drink soon after I've ARISEN.
42. Villain's hideout: LAIR. According to this book, some of those LAIRS are pretty fancy hideouts ...
44. Little glob: DAB. We had a DAB of Brylcreem just last week.
46. Insist on: DEMAND.
48. [Theme clue]
51. Thumbs-down in Dijon: NON. Today's French lesson: "NO", in a town that DEMANDS that any mustard be made locally. 😀
52. Drew (in): ROPED.
53. Pod used as a chocolate substitute: CAROB. The carob, sometimes called "the poor man's chocolate"
is a flowering evergreen tree or shrub widely cultivated for its edible
fruit, which takes the form of seed pods. The carob tree is native to
the Mediterranean region and the Middle East. Portugal is the largest
producer of carob, followed by Italy and Morocco. Here's a recipe for Carob Almond Freezer Fudge.
66. Make things interesting, say: BET. Just make sure it's a sure thing!
67. Acclimates: ADAPTS.
68. Time between birthdays: YEAR.
69. Reddit Q&A: AMA. Ask Me Anything. But you'd better take a seat first. 😀
70. Spotify button: REPEAT.
Down:
1. Fun run, for one: RACE.
2. Amazon contents: AGUA. Today's Spanish lesson: "Water", as in the water in the Amazon River, which passes through Peru, significant parts of Colombia, Ecuador, and Bolivia, and a small area of Venezuela. As it also passes through Brazil, so it is also today's Portuguese lesson: ÁGUA.
Amazon River
3. Mineral no longer used in baby powder: TALC. TALC is a clay mineral composed of hydrated magnesium silicate, with the chemical formula Mg3Si4O10(OH)2. In 2019 Johnson and Johnsondiscontinued sales of their baby powder product, due to the association of the mineral in nature with asbestos, a known carcinogen.
9. 53-Down with more than 70 sts. that have a form of "Peachtree" in their
names: ATL. "sts" is an abbreviation for "streets" and ATL is an abbreviation for a particular 53D.
10. Pastries often dipped in chocolate: CHURROS. Here's a recipe (I think Misty is going to like this puzzle!). I bet you could dip them in hot Carob sauce too.
Churros
11. Jackrabbit, e.g.: HARE.
12. Billy bookcase retailer: IKEA. Ektorp.
13. "Nah, thanks": PASS.
18. Wicked: EVIL.
19. Shadow: TAIL. As in TAILING a suspect.
24. Bad sign: OMEN. Albert King sings the blues ...
25. Aware of one's surroundings: TUNED IN. In the Sixties, a lot of hippies TURNED ON, TUNED IN, and DROPPED OUT. 😀
26. Pulled shenanigans: ACTED UP. A lot of those were going on back then too.
27. On speaking terms, say: CIVIL. Civility appears to be a lost art.
28. Small drink: SIP. A clecho with 36A . DNK that the term clecho was actually invented on the Corner by someone named Dennis? Hand up if you know him?
29. Remove a crumpled sheet from, maybe: UN JAM. E.g. a
Laser printer. When I was in IT support I often said that "Computers
would be really great if it weren't for printers!".
30. Singer Celine: DION. Celine Dion sings a stirring rendition of Édith Piaf’s Hymne à l’amour ("Hymn to Love") at the base of the Eiffel Tower on the evening of the Paris Olympics opening ceremony ...(and a CSO to CanadianEh!) ...
45. Creamy cheese: BURRATA. Burrata is an Italian cow's milk (occasionally buffalo milk) cheese made from mozzarella and cream.
The outer casing is solid cheese, while the inside contains
stracciatella and clotted cream, giving it an unusual, soft texture. It
is a specialty of the Puglia region of southern Italy. Here's a recipe.
Burrata with heirloom tomatoes
47. Cleansing treatment that sounds dirty: MUD WRAP. I seem to get WRAPPED up in MUD every time I go down to my studio. 😀
49. Plushy hotel perk: ROBE. Also a 1953 film starring Jean Simmons and Richard
Burton ...
50. Word with launch or landing: SOFT.
53. Dot on a map: CITY.
54. Plant toxic to some pets: ALOE. Funny that Aloe is toxic to some pets, but not to humans -- you can actually add the stuff to smoothies. And here's another shameless ripoff from Hahtoolah's cartoon hoard ...
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