Theme: Clecho Collection - the theme entries all have the same clue.
18A. Strike site : FRONT LINE. A military place you don't want to be when the artillery strikes come in. My Dad was a gunner in the Royal Artillery until he discovered he could earn an extra sixpence a week if he transferred to the Medical Corps. I don't think he factored in the reality that he'd be a lot closer to the other lot, and duly spent quite some time in North Africa and Burma dodging bullets (successfully, thank you, otherwise it'd be someone else writing this blog today).
27A. Strike site : BASEBALL PARK. Some more than others, depending on the pitcher. My local team of the moment, the Colorado Rockies, play at a mile high, so the pitch comes at you pretty fast, but there's not a lot of movement on the ball. If you connect, it's gone.
47A. Strike site : BOWLING ALLEY. Not if it's me that's bowling. Suffice to say it's not my signature sport. Boomer's a lot more likely to be bowling strikes.
60A. Strike site : UNION SHOP. I wanted PICKET LINE until I ran out of squares.
Greetings (from Denver) today. Al is Spitzboov, one of the regular commenters on the blog if you missed his debut back in October. I'm not sure who this C.C. Burnikel character is though.
Neat theme, some Thursday-level cluing (wait for it .... SETS or ACTS? THIRD or TENTH?). Plenty of baseball and some long stacked downs to sense a C.C. presence too. Good job, people.
And ... let's see what else.
Across:
1. Stage segments : ACTS
5. Apiece : EACH
9. Fur fighters, initially : P.E.T.A. Let's have a little music courtesy of the closely-related Foo Fighters.
13. Revealed : BARED
15. Slushy treat : ICEE
16. Lumberjack : AXER. I think this is one of my least favorite crossword words. I've just never heard it or read it anywhere else. Maybe I just don't read "Logging Monthly" often enough.
17. "Lone Survivor" actor Hirsch : EMILE
20. LBJ, for one : DEM. Like the liberal Irishman, Dem O'Crat
21. Champs-Élysées sights : CAFÉS. It really is one of the great pleasures in life to sit out on the sidewalk in Paris with a coffee or an Ricard 75, or a beer, or all three, and people-watch. It's also fun to pretend to the waiter than you don't speak any French and watch his Parisian blood start to boil.
23. Shady garden denizen : HOSTA. They don't like a suntan.
24. Go through again : RE-LIVE
26. Counter alternatives : BOOTHS. Ah - at the diner! This was slow to come to me.
30. Signature scent since 1968 : ESTÉE
31. Place for an anvil : EAR. Because BLACKSMITH'S SHOP doesn't fit.
32. Works at Museo del Prado : ARTE
36. Sailor's pronoun : SHE. Thar she blows!
37. Company with a crocodile logo : LACOSTE. My friends and I often used to vacation in Turkey when I was in my twenties, and always bought knock-off polo shirts to bring home. We called them Low-Cost Lacoste.
41. Pitching stat : E.R.A.
42. Banks on some magazine covers : TYRA. Elle, Cosmopolitan, Vogue and I'm sure a bunch of others.
44. Golfer Woosnam : IAN. He's getting a little long in the tooth now, and is surely approaching the time when he'll politely decline the "previous winner" invitation from Augusta National for the Masters.
45. Spikes : LACES. Wha'? Oh - Mickey Finn. You don't want one of those in your drinks.
51. Insect that may live for 17 years : CICADA
54. Live-in helper : AU PAIR. I dated a Danish au pair in London in the late seventies. She was petite, blonde and pretty. She also drank pints of Tubörg and smoked a Meerschaum pipe with a lid. That caught some stares in the pubs of the time.
55. Psychologist May : ROLLO
56. Date bk. listings : APPTS
58. Peeples of "Walker, Texas Ranger" : NIA. Thank you, crosses.
62. Unspoiled spots : EDENS
64. Vikings' home: Abbr. : MINN. C.C.'s football team?
65. Opinion : TAKE. "My take on that is ..... [insert opinionated statement here]"
66. Mournful music : DIRGE
67. Get too much sun : BAKE. Had BURN, was wrong.
68. Hand-me-down : USED
69. It's often spoken with one hand at the edge of one's mouth : PSST!
Down:
1. Retired : A-BED. Here's one famous usage:
2. Resisting being taken? : CAMERA SHY. Squirrelly clue.
3. Academic term : TRIMESTER. One-third, basically.
4. Poivre's tablemate : SEL. I wonder if a French sailor is called a "Vieux sel"? Old salts should tell us.
5. Statue of Liberty architect : EIFFEL. The amazing Gustav. This is the statue being fabricated in a Paris suburb. I love this picture.
6. One of 640 in a square mile : ACRE
7. Top suits : CEO'S
8. Tom's mate : HEN. Now we're talking turkey, forget the cheap polo shirts from Turkey.
9. Lummox : PALOOKA
10. Live and breathe : EXIST
11. Mahler's last symphony : TENTH
12. Fields : AREAS
14. Loudness measure : DECIBEL
19. God with a hammer : THOR. Not sure what the dB rating of the hammering was, but I'm sure it had the neighbors yelling "Do you know what time it is?".
22. Co-star of Burt in "The Killers" : AVA
25. Author Harper : LEE
26. D.C. : Metro :: S.F. : __ : B.A.R.T. Bay Area Rapid Transport acronym. METRO is an acronym for .... hmmm, what? The idea nonpareil (see what I did there?) from the Corner wins the Internet.
27. Nonpareil : BEST
28. Téa of "Madam Secretary" : LEONI
29. Strasbourg step : PAS. E.g. pas de deux, two step.
33. They're often found in dens : RECLINERS. My last fill; a couple of tricky crosses left some vital squares blank. Very nice.
34. Forest age indicators : TREE RINGS
35. "Duck soup!" : EASY
38. Electronics brand relaunched in 2015 : AIWA
39. 19-time All-Star Ripken : CAL
40. Went by : ELAPSED
43. Rock-clinging mollusk : ABALONE
46. __ carte : A LA
48. Have too much, briefly : O.D. ON
49. Took a snooze : NAPPED. I know this is a word, but it looks so odd when it is spelled/spelt out.
50. Inner, as a feeling : GUT
51. Bit of Hansel's trail : CRUMB
52. Land of ancient Asia Minor : IONIA. More Turkey! A very hidden theme is emerging!
53. Toast-making sound : CLINK. Not the sound of the toaster popping up your bread. We need a sniglet for that, because it's such a happy thing. Cheers, Tinbeni!
56. Cries of discovery : AHAS
57. Elbow : POKE
59. "I'd hate to break up __" : A SET. Really? Then why don't you just go away and find someone else to annoy?
61. Good name for a cook? : STU
63. Guacamole, e.g. : DIP
That's probably enough from me today. 'Til we meet again - heeeere's the grid.
Steve
Anon T to Jerome:
18A. Strike site : FRONT LINE. A military place you don't want to be when the artillery strikes come in. My Dad was a gunner in the Royal Artillery until he discovered he could earn an extra sixpence a week if he transferred to the Medical Corps. I don't think he factored in the reality that he'd be a lot closer to the other lot, and duly spent quite some time in North Africa and Burma dodging bullets (successfully, thank you, otherwise it'd be someone else writing this blog today).
27A. Strike site : BASEBALL PARK. Some more than others, depending on the pitcher. My local team of the moment, the Colorado Rockies, play at a mile high, so the pitch comes at you pretty fast, but there's not a lot of movement on the ball. If you connect, it's gone.
 |
| Yeah, that's gonna land somewhere in Broomfield! |
60A. Strike site : UNION SHOP. I wanted PICKET LINE until I ran out of squares.
Greetings (from Denver) today. Al is Spitzboov, one of the regular commenters on the blog if you missed his debut back in October. I'm not sure who this C.C. Burnikel character is though.
Neat theme, some Thursday-level cluing (wait for it .... SETS or ACTS? THIRD or TENTH?). Plenty of baseball and some long stacked downs to sense a C.C. presence too. Good job, people.
And ... let's see what else.
Across:
1. Stage segments : ACTS
5. Apiece : EACH
9. Fur fighters, initially : P.E.T.A. Let's have a little music courtesy of the closely-related Foo Fighters.
13. Revealed : BARED
15. Slushy treat : ICEE
16. Lumberjack : AXER. I think this is one of my least favorite crossword words. I've just never heard it or read it anywhere else. Maybe I just don't read "Logging Monthly" often enough.
17. "Lone Survivor" actor Hirsch : EMILE
20. LBJ, for one : DEM. Like the liberal Irishman, Dem O'Crat
21. Champs-Élysées sights : CAFÉS. It really is one of the great pleasures in life to sit out on the sidewalk in Paris with a coffee or an Ricard 75, or a beer, or all three, and people-watch. It's also fun to pretend to the waiter than you don't speak any French and watch his Parisian blood start to boil.
23. Shady garden denizen : HOSTA. They don't like a suntan.
24. Go through again : RE-LIVE
26. Counter alternatives : BOOTHS. Ah - at the diner! This was slow to come to me.
30. Signature scent since 1968 : ESTÉE
31. Place for an anvil : EAR. Because BLACKSMITH'S SHOP doesn't fit.
32. Works at Museo del Prado : ARTE
36. Sailor's pronoun : SHE. Thar she blows!
37. Company with a crocodile logo : LACOSTE. My friends and I often used to vacation in Turkey when I was in my twenties, and always bought knock-off polo shirts to bring home. We called them Low-Cost Lacoste.
41. Pitching stat : E.R.A.
42. Banks on some magazine covers : TYRA. Elle, Cosmopolitan, Vogue and I'm sure a bunch of others.
44. Golfer Woosnam : IAN. He's getting a little long in the tooth now, and is surely approaching the time when he'll politely decline the "previous winner" invitation from Augusta National for the Masters.
45. Spikes : LACES. Wha'? Oh - Mickey Finn. You don't want one of those in your drinks.
51. Insect that may live for 17 years : CICADA
54. Live-in helper : AU PAIR. I dated a Danish au pair in London in the late seventies. She was petite, blonde and pretty. She also drank pints of Tubörg and smoked a Meerschaum pipe with a lid. That caught some stares in the pubs of the time.
55. Psychologist May : ROLLO
56. Date bk. listings : APPTS
58. Peeples of "Walker, Texas Ranger" : NIA. Thank you, crosses.
62. Unspoiled spots : EDENS
64. Vikings' home: Abbr. : MINN. C.C.'s football team?
65. Opinion : TAKE. "My take on that is ..... [insert opinionated statement here]"
66. Mournful music : DIRGE
67. Get too much sun : BAKE. Had BURN, was wrong.
68. Hand-me-down : USED
69. It's often spoken with one hand at the edge of one's mouth : PSST!
Down:
1. Retired : A-BED. Here's one famous usage:
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.
Henry V, Act IV Scene III, William Shakespeare
2. Resisting being taken? : CAMERA SHY. Squirrelly clue.
3. Academic term : TRIMESTER. One-third, basically.
4. Poivre's tablemate : SEL. I wonder if a French sailor is called a "Vieux sel"? Old salts should tell us.
5. Statue of Liberty architect : EIFFEL. The amazing Gustav. This is the statue being fabricated in a Paris suburb. I love this picture.
6. One of 640 in a square mile : ACRE
7. Top suits : CEO'S
8. Tom's mate : HEN. Now we're talking turkey, forget the cheap polo shirts from Turkey.
9. Lummox : PALOOKA
10. Live and breathe : EXIST
11. Mahler's last symphony : TENTH
12. Fields : AREAS
14. Loudness measure : DECIBEL
19. God with a hammer : THOR. Not sure what the dB rating of the hammering was, but I'm sure it had the neighbors yelling "Do you know what time it is?".
22. Co-star of Burt in "The Killers" : AVA
25. Author Harper : LEE
26. D.C. : Metro :: S.F. : __ : B.A.R.T. Bay Area Rapid Transport acronym. METRO is an acronym for .... hmmm, what? The idea nonpareil (see what I did there?) from the Corner wins the Internet.
27. Nonpareil : BEST
28. Téa of "Madam Secretary" : LEONI
29. Strasbourg step : PAS. E.g. pas de deux, two step.
33. They're often found in dens : RECLINERS. My last fill; a couple of tricky crosses left some vital squares blank. Very nice.
34. Forest age indicators : TREE RINGS
35. "Duck soup!" : EASY
38. Electronics brand relaunched in 2015 : AIWA
39. 19-time All-Star Ripken : CAL
40. Went by : ELAPSED
43. Rock-clinging mollusk : ABALONE
46. __ carte : A LA
48. Have too much, briefly : O.D. ON
49. Took a snooze : NAPPED. I know this is a word, but it looks so odd when it is spelled/spelt out.
50. Inner, as a feeling : GUT
51. Bit of Hansel's trail : CRUMB
52. Land of ancient Asia Minor : IONIA. More Turkey! A very hidden theme is emerging!
53. Toast-making sound : CLINK. Not the sound of the toaster popping up your bread. We need a sniglet for that, because it's such a happy thing. Cheers, Tinbeni!
56. Cries of discovery : AHAS
57. Elbow : POKE
59. "I'd hate to break up __" : A SET. Really? Then why don't you just go away and find someone else to annoy?
61. Good name for a cook? : STU
63. Guacamole, e.g. : DIP
That's probably enough from me today. 'Til we meet again - heeeere's the grid.
Steve
Anon T to Jerome:
