I R Malodorous Manatee and I R here with a recap of this Friday morning's puzzle from puzzle setter Zachary David Levy. In the puzzle, at 58 Across, he asks the question that David Spade is snidely posing, above:
58 Across: Rude greeting, or an apt title for this puzzle?: AND YOU ARE ? In this case, though, we are required to take the phrase literally as in adding (and) U R. Zachary takes standard items and adds U R to the beginning to create appropriate answers to the clues. Something AND U R.
This is the third puzzle in a row that I have recapped where "letter play" is at the core of the themed-answers. Fortunately for our still-recovering-previously-scratched-up heads today's letter play is not as enigmatic as it was a couple of weeks ago. Today, this gimmick is employed at four places. I R ready to point them out if U R ready to take a look:
17 Across: Cash in Eurasia?: URAL GREEN. Al Green the singer morphs into money in the URAL region along the border between Europe and Asia. Green being slang for money. The expression "longgreen" has been around since the late 1880s, but it isn't as popular as some more recent slang terms for money, like moola (or moolah), dough, or even scratch.
24 Across: Greetings from the bear's den?: URSINE WAVES. A SINE WAVE is a periodic wave whose waveform is the trigonometric sine function. Got that? Here, it simply morphs into something a bear might do.
35 Across: Like an address bar?: URL SHAPED. A computer-ese reference. The address bar is at the top of an open browser web page. This solver is not sure at all what URL SHAPED means (perhaps a wide, not very high space) but it was derived, in this case, from L-shaped. Perhaps 39 Down (below) will inspire someone to open a neighborhood Address Bar
49 Across: Tunes for some pathetic Dickens characters?: URCHIN MUSIC. Here, CHIN morphs into URCHIN. In baseball, CHIN MUSIC refers to a pitch thrown at a batters head. I am pretty sure that no batter said "Please, sir I want some more" ala Oliver Twist.
Here, now, the filled-in grid:
... and, as is customary, the other clues/answers:
Across:
1. "Doctor Who" genre: SCI FI. SCIence FIction.
6. Air quality monitoring org.: FCC. A bit of misdirection. The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency first came to mind) but the clue was refering to the airwaves (radio and television).
9. Wrap brand: SARAN. Having used The Fugs recording in an earlier write-up, we'll go with this:
14. Capital city of Piedmont: TURIN. Site of the 2006 Winter Olympic Games.
15. Sigma preceder: RHO. I helps to have a working familiarity with the Greek alphabet if one is into solving crossword puzzles.
16. System of beliefs: CREDO. "I believe". Valerie has plates that read:
I Believe In Enternal Love
For The Orchiette With Turnip Greens For Example
19. Mars exploration vehicle: ROVER. The more we learn about Mars the less strange, and therefore, in an odd way, the weirder, it becomes...at least to this observer.
20. Swede's neighbor: DANE. A geographical proximtiy reference.
21. __ Lingus: AER. A frequent crossword flier.
22. Many a dance track: REMIX. I REMIXed a REMIX. It's back to normal.
23. DOJ arm: FBI.
27. Pass: ELAPSE. Not a football reference. Not a mountain gap reference. Not a pick-up line reference. Not a school grade reference. Not a dice game reference.
As Time Goes By
29. Not at all welcoming: ICY.
30. Friendly opening: ECO. One of those types of clues. ECOfriendly
31. "__ Meenie": 2010 pop single: EENIE. Unknown to this solver. I looked it up. Justin Beiber recorded it. I have heard of him but know very little about him or his music.
32. Storybook bear: PAPA.
34. Bone, in Italian: OSSO. As in OSSO bucco.
38. Jul. 4 shindigs: BBQS. Abbreviated clue . . .
41. From Los Angeles to San Bernardino: EAST. Easy for this SoCal solver. Likely not so easy for folks from other places.
42. Crew: POSSE. Modern slang. No U.S. Marshall in a TV western ever said "Round up a crew".
46. Driveway stuff: TAR. What in TARnation!?
47. Kilmer of "Real Genius": VAL. I would have referenced "Top Secret" (1984)
48. Concern for a software engineer: PIRACY. A music or movie reference would have been easier to suss out.
53. Tavern owner who stocks Duff beer: MOE. MOE Syzslak. A "Simpsons" TV show reference.
54. Covers: COATS.
55. Allow: LET.
56. Shellacking: ROUT. Slang for decisive victory/defeat.
57. When repeated, "et cetera": YADDA.
60. As good as it gets: IDEAL.
61. Not keep up: LAG. A friend told me that for minimal LAG I should use an analogue connection instead of Bluetooth for my speaker system. Sound advice.
62. Sonar sounds: PINGS. As in The Hunt For Red October.
63. Where chickens come home to roost: NESTS. A clue meant to be taken literally.
64. Bile: IRE.
65. Map feature: INSET.
Down:
1. Payment to a breeder: STUD FEE. I suspect that the horse would work for free.
2. Having a decent prognosis: CURABLE.
3. Like many songs or movies in Farsi: IRANIAN.
4. Spicy herb seasoning in gumbo: FILE. As in FILÉ gumbo.
Hank Williams
5. End to end?: ING. Another one of those types of clues. EndING
6. Unshackles: FREES.
7. French endearment: CHERI.
8. Big gathering of fans, casually: CON.
9. Disconcertingly odd: SCREWY.
10. Fragrance: AROMA.
11. Brings back to life: REVIVES.
12. Campaign pros: AD EXECS. As in ADvertising campaigns.
13. Negating word: NOR.
18. Not in circulation, perhaps: RARE.
22. Episode lead-in, sometimes: RECAP. Of what previously happened.
24. Friendly opening: USER. Another one of those types of clues. USER friendly, Sometimes we get ECO friendly.
25. Bite gently: NIP AT.
26. "Hamilton" Tony nominee Phillipa: SOO.
28. Name of 12 popes: PIUS. History suggests that not all of them were completely so.
32. Mass reading: PSALM. Something to be read during the service.
33. "Open wide" sounds: AHS. As at the doctor's office.
34. Fragrance: ODOR. I once met a wine waiter with a really bad body ODOR. Sort of like a dead skunk only sommelier.
36. Shows bias: LEANS.
37. Out of this world: EPIC. An idiomatic clue and an idiomatic answer. Far out, man!
38. AC meas.: BTU. Air Conditioning. British Thermal Unit.
39. Spot for beer and video games: BARCADE. New to this solver. A portmanteau of BAR and ARCADE.
40. Scannable squares: QR CODES.
43. Some Pacific Islanders: SAMOANS.
44. Nemesis: SCOURGE.
45. Exam for pupils: EYE TEST. Not pupils as in students.
47. Set taken by a doctor: VITALS.
48. Feel sorry for: PITY.
50. Charged: HAD AT. Hand up for first thinking RAN AT.
51. Of an arm nerve: ULNAR.
52. Tufted marsh plant: SEDGE.
56. Destroy: RUIN.
57. Dark portion of a Chinese circle: YIN.
58. Arab name that means "high": ALI.
59. Brand celebrating Hello Kitty's 50th Mani-versary in 2024: OPI. A nail polish reference. Crosword puzzles sure are broadening.
Rebecca Goldstein's theme features don't exactly jump out at you ...
She uses 4 cross references to another clue to identify the theme clues, a feature unpopular with some solvers, some of whom might even call it 49D 😀.
She uses mixed Across (1) and Down (3) clues ...
... here are the themers ...
49A. 58-Across of a social crafting event: QUILTING BEE. Here are two quilts made by Teri's sister Rose. Rose was formerly the seamstress for the Maryland Ballet Company ...
3D. 58-Across of some jeans: BUTTON FLY. I thought these went out of fashion after the publication of Erica Jong's novel Fear of Flying(link rated PG13 😀).
Button Fly Jeans
7D. 58-Across of the German auto industry: VW BEETLE. Over the years we had 5 of these -- 3 bugs and 2 vans. VW stopped making them after awhile, but they're back -- you just can't kill 'em ...
2024 VW Beetle
11D. 58-Across of 1990s rock: PAPA ROACH. Papa Roach is an American rock band from Vacaville, California, formed in 1993. The original lineup consisted of lead vocalist Jacoby Shaddix, guitarist Jerry Horton, drummer Dave Buckner, bassist Will James, and trombonist Ben Luther. I think the term ROACH in this instance refers not to an insect, but the stub of a funny cigarette.😀 It took me a while to find it, but here's their G rated version of Last Resort ....
Rebecca's clever reveal suggests that she might have done a stint in IT at some point in the past ...
58A. Seeming flaw that's intentional: A FEATURE NOT A BUG. I.e. the second word of each theme fill is part of an in-the-language term (a "feature") not an "insect" ...
... the reveal reminds me of the old programmer's excuse -- "That's not a bug, that's a feature!" to justify an attempt to fix a bug that unintentionally introduces a new and bigger one. A good example of such a claim might be one of the improvements recently made to the Blogger comments section -- the new feature of always returning to the top whenever you refresh the screen gives you multiple opportunities to read each commenter's bon mots, insuring that you'll have them all memorized by the end of the day. 😀
Here's the grid ...
Here's the rest ...
Across:
1. From downtown, maybe: URBAN. The etymology of the word URBAN.
6. Dream team member?: MVP. Most Valuable Player. We are blessed to have C.C. as our MVP.
9. Mammal with a prehensile snout: TAPIR. Elephant wouldn't fit, but this mammal did ...
15. Avian Tootsie Pop mascot: OWL. The mascot for Tootsie Roll Pops is known for asking "How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop?" and then saying "One, two, three..." before biting down on the pop.
18. Jazz org.: NBA. The Utah Jazz are an American professional basketball team based in Salt Lake City. The Jazz compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Northwest Division of the Western Conference. Here's their noted logo ...
19. Like some comic-con attendees: CAPED. Here's an attendee from the 2023 Comic Con held in Cape Town, South Africa ...
Any guesses on who she's cosplaying? I haven't a clue.
20. QB's throw: ATT. Short for ATTEMPT. QB's get a stat just for trying!
42. Parisian palace: ELYSEE. The Élysée Palace (French: Palais de l'Élysée) is the official residence of the President of the French Republic in Paris. It was originally built in 1722 and is located on the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, near the Champs-Élysées. The name Élysée derives from the Elysian Fields, the place of the blessed dead in Greek mythology.
Élysée Palace
44. Big name in competitive eating?: NATHAN. I drew this clue a few puzzles back and quite frankly I'm fed up with it! 😀
46. "Welp, what can you do?": ALAS. ALAS, the very last thing I thought of.
48. Solemn vow: OATH. Traditionally an oath (from Anglo-Saxon āþ, also called plight) is either a statement of fact or a promise intended as a sign of that the speaker is telling the truth. A common legal substitute for those who conscientiously object to making sacred oaths is to give an affirmation instead. Nowadays, even when there is no notion of sanctity involved, certain promises said out loud in ceremonial or juridical purpose are referred to as oaths. OTOH in certain contexts it implies profanity ...
49. [Theme clue]
52. Unit of magnetic induction: GAUSS. Definitely not a Thursday clue. GAUSS is a unit of magnetic flux density named for the physicist Carl Friedrich Gauss, whose researches helped define it. To make matters worse the unit is obsolete and has been superseded by the Tesla, an SI unit equal to10,000 Gauss. My links having exceeded 1000 words, I am forced to resort to this picture ...
54. Poetic preposition: ERE. Also the middle of a famous palindrome that has sometimes been credited to one J.T.R., a resident of Baltimore.
55. Color-blending technique: OMBRE. Ombré (literally "shaded" in French) is the blending of one color hue to another, usually moving tints and shades from light to dark. It has become a popular feature for hair coloring, nail art, and even baking, in addition to its uses in home decorating and graphic design.
58. [Theme reveal]
61. "Succession" cousin: GREG. Succession is an American satirical black comedy-drama television series that aired for four seasons on HBO from June 3, 2018, to May 28, 2023. The series centers on the Roy family, the owners of global media and entertainment conglomerate Waystar RoyCo, and their fight for control of the company amidst uncertainty about the health of the family's patriarch. Gregory John "Greg" Hirsch, played by Nicholas Braun is great-nephew of Logan Roy, played by the great Brian Cox, the patriarch that everybody's trying to succeed. This following trailer is rated PG13 (profanity and dramatic music 😀) ...
62. Coop up, say: PEN IN.
63. Rowlands of "The Notebook": GENA. Virginia Cathryn "Gena" Rowlands (June 19, 1930 – August 14, 2024) was an American actress, whose career in film, stage, and television spanned nearly seven decades. A four-time Emmy and two-time Golden Globe winner, she collaborated with her actor-director husband John Cassavetes in ten films, including A Woman Under the Influence (1974) and Gloria (1980), both of which earned her nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actress. She appeared in Woody Allen's Another Woman (1988), and her son Nick Cassavetes's film, The Notebook (2004). In 2021, Richard Brody of The New Yorker said, "The most important and original movie actor of the past half century-plus is Gena Rowlands." In November 2015, Rowlands received an Honorary Academy Award in recognition of her unique screen performances. Here's the trailer for The Notebook ... 64. Feeling yesterday's workout: SORE.
65. Briquettes: COALS.
66. Tagged, say: IDED.
Down:
1. Campus near Sunset Blvd.: UCLA. The University of California, Los Angeles. The new UCLA campus in 1929 had four buildings: Royce Hall and Haines Hall on the north, and Powell Library and Kinsey Hall (now called Renee And David Kaplan Hall) on the south. Today, the campus includes 163 buildings across 419 acres (1.7 km2) in the western part of Los Angeles, north of the Westwood shopping district and just south of Sunset Boulevard. In terms of acreage, it is the second-smallest of the ten UC campuses.
2. Endodontic therapy: ROOT CANAL. Everybody's favorite dental procedure.😀 A root canal is treatment for infections in tooth pulp, the innermost layer of your teeth. Endodontists and dentists do about 15 million root canals in the United States every year. Typically, root canals are painless treatments. You can avoid needing a root canal by brushing your teeth after meals, flossing daily and having regular dental checkups.
See, it's simple! 😀
3. [Theme clue]
4. Spot-on: APT.
5. In the neighborhood: NEAR.
6. City named for the hill it surrounds: MONTREAL. Montreal is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest in Canada, and the tenth-largest in North America. Founded in 1642 as Ville-Marie, or "City of Mary", it is now named after Mount Royal, the triple-peaked mountain around which the early settlement was built.
Mount Royal view from av. du Parc in Montreal.
7. [Theme clue]
8. Organ that nourishes a fetus: PLACENTA. The Cleveland Clinic addresses this description to expectant mothers -- "The placenta is a temporary organ that connects your baby to your uterus during pregnancy. The placenta develops shortly after conception and attaches to the wall of your uterus. Your baby is connected to the placenta by the umbilical cord. Together, the placenta and umbilical cord act as your baby's lifeline while in the uterus."
10. Therapy for some individuals with autism, for short: ABA. This one is a real toughie. The articles on ABA (Applied Behavioral Analysis) are heavily peppered with psychological jargon -- a language in which I am reasonably fluent, as my BA is in Psych -- yet I still wasn't able to come up with a succinct explanation for how this "therapy" works. However one of the characteristics of persons with autism is that they are often very visually oriented, so I've decided to start with a trailer for a biopic about a real individual with autism named Temple Grandin, who has managed to succeed in a world of "normal" people ... And here's Temple Grandin speaking for herself... Now I'll leave it to you to go back to the first link and see if you can make any sense of ABA.
11. [Theme clue]
12. Cold, chocolaty cafe order: ICED MOCHA.
13. Frees (of): RIDS.
22. __ glance: AT A.
23. MA and PA home: USA.
26. Hardly huge: WEE.
28. Blunder: ERR.
29. Supine winter sport: LUGE. Luge racing is a competitive sport that's included in the Winter Olympics, and "to luge" means to speed down a snowy hill on a luge. The word luge comes from the Latin sludia, or "sled." This is another clue that can only be described visually. Here's the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea with Chris Mazdzer taking the silver medal run in men's singles luge ...
36. Customer service agent unlikely to pass a captcha test: CHATBOT. CAPTCHA is a contrived acronym for "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart". It usually takes little effort to convince a customer service CHATBOT that I need to talk to a human -- they're not as smart as they think they are. 😀
43. McMuffin option: SAUSAGE. “Laws are like sausages. It is best not to see them being made.” -- origin disputed.
45. Crèche trio: THE MAGI. The MAGI go all the way back to the infancy narratives of Jesus Christ (Matthew 2:1-13), but the Crèche ("Nativity Scene") didn't appear in modern Europe until 1223, when St. Francis of Assisi staged a living Crèche complete with an ox and an ass in the Italian town of Greccio.
48. Result of achieving a goal?: ONE NIL. The score after the first goal in games like soccer, ice hockey and lacrosse would be ONE NIL. In American football a six point touchdown would have to be scored before a single extra point could be scored.
49. Part of LGBTQ: QUEER.
50. Humanitarian Sendler recognized by Yad Vashem: IRENA. Irena Stanisława Sendler (née Krzyżanowska; 15 February 1910 – 12 May 2008), was a Polish Catholic social worker, and nurse who served in the Polish Underground Resistance during World War II in German-occupied Warsaw. She was eventually captured and tortured, but refused to reveal the identities of a list of potential Holocaust victims. She was scheduled for execution, but escaped when her compatriots bribed the guards who were to take her to the firing squad -- corruption has a way of corrupting itself.
Irena Sendler 1942
Sendler was recognized as one of the Polish Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem, and received her award at the Israeli embassy in Warsaw in 1965.
51. Receded: EBBED.
52. Funny bits: GAGS. Last week we had funny bits from Monte Python. Today we hear from Beyond the Fringe. A friend of mine from High School could intone this whole monologue from memory ... 53. Natural style: AFRO.
56. Ancient character: RUNE. A RUNE is a letter in a set of related alphabets known as runic alphabets native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were used to write Germanic languages (with some exceptions) before those peoples adopted the Latin alphabet. In addition to representing a sound value (a phoneme), runes can be used to represent the concepts after which they are named (ideographs). Here are the Anglo-Saxon runes, also known as the futhorc ...
59. Checkout lines?: UPC. The Universal Product Code (UPC or UPC code) is a barcode symbology that is used worldwide for tracking trade items in stores. Here is the UPC for this clue ...
60. Word with come or carry: ONS. And with that I'm signing OFF.
Cheers,
Bill
And as always, thanks to Teri for proof reading and for her constructive criticism.
Another Wednesday, another crossword with circles, another ton of proper names ( I lost count ) again. Today's puzzle has 21 TLWs, and 20 four-letter ones. I am not familiar with author Prasanna Keshava, last seen here in March 2023. We do get two unique crossword fills, at 22 & 35A. Found inside the circles are the words ORATE, CHAT, UTTER and SAY, "reversed", to define our theme reveal at 56A. The theme answers;
18. Recommendation called to lovebirds: "GET A ROOM~!"
yeah, simply add 3.14159265358~lbs of cherries....
56. Sass, and what can be found in this puzzle's circled letters?: BACK TALK - TALK synonyms, spelled BACKwards
And Away We Go~!
ACROSS:
1. Canada's capital city: OTTAWA - Name #1; I know this from watching NHL hockey - the Senators, CanadianEh~!
7. "History of the World, Part II" writer/producer/narrator Brooks: MEL - Name #2; I loved the 1981 movie HotW part ONE, but I am chagrinned to say, I have not watched the new series - tsk tsk tsk.
10. Utah ski resort: ALTA - Name #3; learned by doing crosswords
14. Driver's lic. with added security: REAL ID - I was issued a Real ID by default when I "converted" to CT from NY
15. "__ Maria": AVE - Name(ish) #4; more crosswordese
16. Phobia: FEAR - I am claustrophobic & agoraphobic; some others fears I don't suffer from include dromophobia, triskaidekaphobia, and gephyrophobia - see the end of the blog for these fears defined *
17. Not on the dot: BEHIND - meh. "LATE" sounds better
20. Perform penance: ATONE
21. Muse's bestowal, casually: INSPO - 21st century-speak for "inspiration"
25. Word with pocket or socket: HIP - hip pocket, hip socket - it's Hip to be 8D.
Huey Lewis & The News
28. Fellows: HEs - not a fan of these clues/answers
40. Green one, in slang: NEWB - short for newbie, someone just starting out, but willing to learn; NOOB means you're a 'hacker' who doesn't care to improve
If you don't REVIT, you don't "get it"
41. Brownstone porch: STOOP - strangely, there are TWO front doors on my house; the one I rarely use has a "stoop", while the other, on the sunroom, has a "porch" - and when my brother visits, he always uses the "wrong" one....
42. Car part that helps prevent rollovers: SWAY BAR
54. Zodiac ram: ARIES- technically, a name, but there's only 12 ( or 13, if you believe in them )
55. Relay stick: BATON
59. Large juicy fruits: MELONS
60. "Didn't think you'd be here!": "OH, HI~!"
61. Precious stone: GEM
62. Not off-key: IN TUNE - I am learning how to tune pipe organs - it's way more difficult than you'd think; the first reason being, you have to be partnered, as the 'keyboard' can be hundreds of feet from the pipes
63. Make a profit: GAIN - think stock market
64. Poem of praise: ODE - ODD and ODE in one puzzle
65. Perfume sample: TESTER
To me, the most tantalizing scent - Calvin Klein's "Escape" The science of perfume
DOWN:
1. Briscoe player on "Law & Order": ORBACH - Name #7; I am a huge L&O fan, so I knew this one; he was one of the most convincing TV characters ever; their best seasons ran when he was a cast member
2. Show signs of growth?: TEETHE - I do the DOWNs first, and I had no clue on this one - I had kids for all of two years, and not infants
3. Chevrolet SUVs: TAHOES - Name(ish)
4. Dress with flare?: A-LINE
It's definitely got "flare"
5. Sonoma Valley excursion: WINE TOUR - over the last 10+ years, WINE TOURs have become very popular on the North Fork of Long Island; there are so many wineries and farm stands that traffic on the three one-lane roads during autumn is insane
6. Insert: ADD - the verb, as to add one's opinion
7. Orlando NBA team: MAGIC - Name(ish); not a basketball fan - but football is here, and hockey in a month~!
8. Square: EVEN UP - meh. this doesn't quite jibe for me, even in a "financial" sense
9. Doesn't disturb: LETS BE
10. Curly hairstyle: AFRO
11. Sign of summer: LEO - one of the "other" twelve names in the Zodiac
12. "__ Te Ching": philosophical text: TAO - Ektorp; the "text" was a hint
13. Radius locale: ARM - I filled in LEG for some ODD reason
19. Church nook: APSE - The comments last week about Pipe Organ lingo brought a smile to my face - It did not occur to me that I may sound obtuse
Click to Zoom
23. Bridge toll unit: AXLE - one's car is typically two axles; a semi, five
24. Victoria __: pen name in gothic romance: HOLT - Name #8, and no clue
25. Sledding spot: HILL - Back in the 80s, when we got snow, my father would take us sledding on the HILLs of St. Georges Country Club, across the way from SUNY Stony Brook on Long Island
26. Belief systems: ISMs - crosswordese
27. Soup eaten with a large spoon and chopsticks: PHO - no clue, filled via perps
31. Political satire starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus: VEEP - I did not know this; name(ish)
32. 16 Handles rival: TCBY - I've not heard of 16 Handles - The Country's Best Yogurt - that one I know; name(ish)
33. UFO riders: ETs
35. Stitched up: SEWN
36. Actor McGregor: EWAN - Name #9
37. Great Basin Natives: UTES - it's either OTO or UTE
38. Overly interested in someone's business: NOSY
39. Latin phrase that means "mark well": NOTA BENE
40. Intelligence org.: NSA - oops, not CIA
43. Fourth grader voiced by Nancy Cartwright: BART - Name #10; The Simpsons
44. Italian cheese: ASIAGO - Hah - I tried ROMANO, which did fit, and 33% correct
45. Whirled in confusion: REELED
47. Click "unsubscribe," say: OPT OUT
48. Warwick who sang "Do You Know the Way to San Jose": DIONNE - Name #11
49. More tightly packed: DENSER
52. "Shoot!": "ASK ME~!"
53. Seasons, as popcorn: SALTS
54. Related: AKIN
56. Soggy spot: BOG
57. "I see now!": "A-HA~!"
58. T'ai __ ch'uan: CHI - Oof. On a Wednesday
59. Cambridge sch.: MIT - Ah. Knew this, but I've not seen it in a crossword for a long time
