Thursday, November 24th, 2016 Nora Pearlstone

Theme: The Puzzle That Keeps On ..

1A. Giving __ : ADVICE

17A. Giving __ : PERMISSION

40A. Giving __ : CONSENT

63A. Giving __ : DIRECTIONS

71A. Giving __ : THANKS. I assume this is the reason for all the "giving" today.

11D. Giving __ : ASSISTANCE

25D. Giving __ : LESSONS

27D. Giving __ : BLOOD

29D. Giving __ : ABSOLUTION

33D. Giving __ : BIRTH

Happy Turkey Day!

A thumping 74 theme squares in this one. With themage this heavy in a 15x15 with 36 blocks, that leaves a challenge to fill the remaining white squares cleanly without the whole thing feeling forced. I confess I didn't really enjoy this experience. There's nothing to relate the theme entries to each other except for the fill-in-the-blank clue unless there's some meta-element to the puzzle that I've missed.

Given there are ten fill-in-the-blank clues in the theme, I'd have tried very hard not to have any more of those in the puzzle, but there are another three in the across set.

Throw in an unhealthy dose of IT A/EWW/OHO/AS I/PHI/PSIS/TNPK/EPI/ISM/OTS/PYS and I'm feeling more BLAH than anything else. I'm not sure the "Thanksgiving" payoff was really worth the stuffing that went into this.

Alrighty then! I got that off my chest. I'm having a few days of downtime in Mexico this week. Here's the sunrise this morning while I was walking on the beach - now I know where the namesake tequila cocktail got its name. Cheers!

Let's see what else we've got going on:

Across:

7. High ick factor reaction : EWW

10. "Misery" co-star : CAAN

14. Title teen in a '90s-'00s sitcom : MOESHA. Passed me by. Thank you, crosses. The last episode aired back in 2001.

15. Key letter : PHI. The symbol of the Phi Beta Kappa fraternity is a key. Of course it is.

16. Regarding : AS TO

19. General __ chicken : TSO'S

20. Actor who gave up wearing his trademark gold jewelry after Hurricane Katrina : MR T.

21. Kingston Trio hit with the line "He may ride forever 'neath the streets of Boston" : MTA. Fresh in the memory from 1949.

22. Stew : AGONIZE

24. While : SPELL

26. Places to unwind : SPAS

27. Boring : BLAH

30. Eggs from the sea : ROE

31. Can opener : POP TAB

34. Chad neighbor : LIBYA

36. Coveted award : OSCAR

38. "__ said earlier ... " : AS I

39. Brief game deciders? : OT'S. Overtimes. Just one in the NFL, as many as it takes in college football until there's a winner.

42. "Morning Edition" airer : NPR

43. "So that's your game!" : OHO!

44. Williams of "Happy Days" : ANSON. "Potsie" portrayer.

45. Ref. to a prior ref. : OP. CIT. "Opere citado" - "In the work cited"

47. Put one over on : DELUDE

49. '60s-'70s protest subject : 'NAM

51. __-savvy : TECH

52. "Battle Cry" author : URIS

53. A lot : SCADS

55. Make a pretrial determination : SET BAIL

58. Sch. with a Shreveport campus : L.S.U. Louisiana State.

59. Longtime Richard Petty sponsor : STP. The second-longest sponsor-driver relationship in motorsports.

62. Samoan port : APIA

66. Sign gas : NEON

67. Outback bird : EMU

68. They have many arms : OCTOPI

69. Trait transmitter : GENE

70. Hound : DOG

Down:

1. Clock radio toggle : AM/PM. Not AM/FM.

2. Evil end? : DOER

3. Dial on old TVs : VERT. Vertical Hold. I couldn't find an image of the control, but I did find the packaging for a spare.

4. Believer's suffix : -ISM

5. Congo River area denizen : CHIMP. Not worthy of the full "chimpanzee" today?

6. Spring festival : EASTER

7. Center opening : EPI-

8. "Hold on!" : WHOA!

9. Flying statistic : WINGSPAN

10. Afternoon refresher : CATNAP

12. Including everything : A TO Z. The London street atlas was the A-Z. Everyone had an A-to-Zed before Google Maps made it all a little, sadly, obsolete.

13. Difference in a close race : NOSE

18. Oater settings : SALOONS

23. Iberian coastal city : OPORTO. From whence "port" wine.

24. Retiring : SHY

28. Like ballerinas : LITHE

32. Cold mold : ASPIC

35. New England's only National Park : ACADIA. OK, now I know.

37. Traditional Jerusalem site of the Last Supper : CENACLE. New to me. It doesn't look like it's ever been used in the LAT crossword before (nor the NYT), so I imagine it might be new to a few of us.

41. Not close at all : ONE-SIDED

46. Bookie's spread units: Abbr. : PTS. Points. The points spread in gambling to even out the betting on the favorite and the underdog.

48. Suave : URBANE

50. Michigan State's Sparty, e.g. : MASCOT. Imagination at work in the mascot-naming stakes. Not.

54. How a couple might go for dinner? : DUTCH. 

55. Squealed : SANG

56. Olympian's blade : ÉPÉE

57. Prom rental : LIMO

59. "It's next on my list" : SOON

60. East-west Mass. artery : TNPK

61. Penultimate Greek letters : PSIS. Right before Omegas. I suppose.

64. Decorator's suggestion : RUG

65. Call-day link : IT A

And .. I'm calling it a day with this one. My Tequila Sunrise awaits! If you are celebrating Thanksgiving today, I hope you have a happy and safe one!

Steve

Wednesday, November 23, 2016 Lonnie Burton & Nadine Anderton

Theme:: CLAMS UP  (24. Figuratively, stops talking ... or, literally, what are hidden in this puzzle's four longest answers)  - CLAM goes up in these four entries.

3D. Bell-shaped graphic : NORMAL CURVE. I did not know there's a term for this shape.

8D. Treat in a box with a circus wagon design : ANIMAL CRACKER. Like this? I never had Animal Crackers.

17D. District attorney's filing : FORMAL CHARGES

 

26D. Dissatisfied sorts : MALCONTENTS. You can be sure that constructors tried but could not find one more entry where MALC span across two words like the other three.

C.C. here. 

The blog record shows that this is the second puzzle we got from Lonnie Burton & Nadine Anderton. Their last puzzle had an anagram gimmick.

For this type of Up/Down theme, all the theme entries are placed in Down slots for visual effect. Construction-wise, it's no easier or harder than our normal puzzle. Same.

Across:

1. Temporary shelter : TENT

5. Boeing product : JET

8. Blue hue : AZURE. Rather a scrabbly top edge.

13. Decor finish? : ATOR. Drecorator.

14. Mediocre : SO SO. I noticed this morning that Blogger changed the link color in the Comments section. I much prefer the previous solid blue. You can't see, but our internal Draft title color and label color are changed also. The label is now gray. Hard to read. Sigh! Read the last comment for our Bad Request glitch. I reported the issue on Nov 2. Hard to believe it takes Google engineers so long to solve a problem, but the bland/double post glitch we face when we write the blog have been going on for months. The font size bug remains unsolved. So be tolerant when you see a typo in our write-ups, as every post is produced with efforts.

15. Stuffy-sounding : NASAL

16. Comparatively frugal : THRIFTIER

18. Apple products : IPODs. Trimmed down my Podcasts to 15.

19. Prepares to sail, maybe : UNMOORS. Spell check does not like this word.

20. Common fall hiree : TEMP

22. Extinct emu-like bird : MOA

23. Campus military org. : ROTC. Not such org in our campus. We did have Youth League. Its members were groomed to be Communist Party members.

25. Member of the flock : LAYMAN

29. Word with light or shade : LAMP

31. Idle : LOLL

33. Tavern offering : ALE

34. For example : SUCH AS

36. Baldwin of "Beetlejuice" : ALEC. I really liked the SNL debates.

37. Go beyond fudging : LIE

38. Same old same old : USUAL

39. Tussaud's title: Abbr. : MME. Never been to a Madame Tussauds. You?

40. Tried to outrun : RACED

42. Poetic contraction : E'ER

43. NFL sportscaster Collinsworth : CRIS. The guy on left. "Do you believe in miracles?"

45. Sticks for drum majors : BATONs

46. Mo. or Miss. : RIV. I had RI?, just could not believe the answer.

47. Rwanda native : HUTU

48. Desktop graphic : ICON

49. "Word Freak" author Fatsis : STEFAN. Forgot. We had him before.

51. President between Tyler and Taylor : POLK

53. To boot : TOO

56. More than annoys : IRES. Wish it were IRKS. 

58. Name of 14 popes : CLEMENT

60. Mimicry : APING. I tried APERY first.

63. Sign, as a contract : ENTER INTO

65. Actress Zellweger : RENEE

66. Looked at : EYED

67. Store in a hold : STOW

68. Finishing nails : BRADS

69. Poll fig. : PCT (Percent)

70. "Around the Horn" channel : ESPN. We just had AROUND THE HORN last Saturday.

 

 Down:

1. Jazz pianist Art : TATUM

2. Prefix with musicology : ETHNO. Wiki says "Ethnomusicology is the study of music from the cultural and social aspects of the people who make it". A mouthful.

 

4. Charlie's Angels, e.g. : TRIO. And 52. 4-Down plus five : OCTET

5. Support beam : JOIST

6. L.A.-to-Tucson dir. : ESE

7. Legal wrong : TORT. Also 34. Plaintiffs : SUERS

9. Speedy : ZAPPY. I've only used ZIPPY. Not ZAPPY. 

10. "Force Behind the Forces" tour gp. : USO

11. "Totally cool, dude!" : RAD

12. Raised railroads : ELs

14. Barbershop bands? : STROPS. Nice clue.

21. Couture magazine : ELLE. Elle China used to be my guilty read.

27. Not of this world : ALIEN

28. Prerequisites : NEEDS

30. "Caught you!" : AHA

32. Spanish cheer : OLE

35. Start of a fitness motto : USE IT. We also have A TO (41. Words on Volume One, maybe)  & IN A (62. __ nutshell). Normally partials are limited to 2 for a 15*15.

39. Cambridge univ. : MIT

44. Mystic character : RUNE

45. Handed the check, say : BILLED

50. Cited, in a way : FINED

54. In first place : ON TOP

55. "All or Nothing" boy band : O-TOWN. Unfamiliar to me.

57. Leak slowly : SEEP

59. __-en-scène: stage setting : MISE

60. Wall St. trader : ARB (Arbitrager)

61. Pricing word : PER

64. Home of LGA and JFK : NYC

I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your loved ones. Thanks for hanging out here every day. I enjoy your daily puzzle comments, musings, limericks, quotes, silly picture links, recipes,  advice & banters.

I want to say "Thank you" to Rich, Patti, their test solvers, fact checker, all LAT constructors. Thank you for another year of entertainment and education.

Also big "Thank you" to my blogging team: dear Santa Argyle, Melissa, Gary, Ron, Steve, Lemonade & Splynter. Week after week, year after year, their commitment and dedication remain unchanged.  They blog when they're traveling. They blog when they're under the weather. They blog when the blog is glitchy. They give each puzzle its deserved attention and analysis. Total pros!

D-Otto does not blog regularly, but he's always there for me and this blog. Always gives me quick and reliable feedback. TTP is another behind the scenes hero, who saved us out of the Google Hell a few years ago and continues to help me with every Blogger glitch.

My thanks also goes to Agnes (Irish Miss) and all my puzzle collaborators, thanks for the trust and opportunities!

I'm so grateful that you're in my life.
 

Tuesday, November 22, 2016 Janice Luttrell

Theme: Let's Build Something - You can find the tools we need in the grid.

17. One of a daily three at the table: SQUARE MEAL

41. Ten-spot: SAWBUCK

64. Reality show hosted by rapper M.C.: HAMMERTIME

11. Military marching unit: DRILL TEAM

34. Utmost effort: LEVEL BEST

Argyle the Builder here with Janice the Constructor. Very nice pinwheel project today with the all important SAW in the center. No plumb bob though. (Only seven three-letter words!)

Across:

1. Took a powder: LEFT

5. Wake-up call alternative: ALARM

10. Real estate ad abbr. after 2 or 3, commonly: BDRM. (bedroom)

14. Golfer Aoki: ISAO

15. Blender button: PURÉE

16. "Wonderfilled" cookie: OREO

19. __ colada: cocktail: PINA

20. Heart rate: PULSE

21. Tempo: PACE

22. Tar Heel State university: ELON

23. Hunting dog: SETTER

25. Israeli currency: SHEKEL. 1 Israeli New Sheqel equals 26 US Cents (Note the spelling change. We may see this in the future.)

27. __ out a living: EKEs. Had to wait on final letter, S or D.

29. Fiber-__ cable: OPTIC

32. Temperate: MILD

35. Jinx: HOODOO

39. Tokyo, long ago: EDO

40. Drink cooler: ICE

42. Ga. neighbor: ALA. (Georgia/Alabama)

43. Voting mo.: NOV. (November)

44. Ditching class, say: ABSENT

45. Visa rival, for short: AMEX. (American Express)

46. Mournful toll: KNELL

48. Former OTC market regulator: NASD. The phrase "over-the-counter" can be used to refer to stocks that trade via a dealer network as opposed to on a centralized exchange./ The National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) was the self-regulatory organization of the securities industry responsible for the operation and regulation of the NASDAQ stock market and over-the-counter markets.

50. Trendy, with "the": LATEST

54. NFL team that moved from St. Louis in 2016: L.A. RAMS

58. Perfume that sounds forbidden: TABU

60. Foes of us: THEM

62. "The Bourne Identity" star Matt: DAMON

63. Universal donor's blood type, briefly: O NEG

66. "Golly!": "GOSH!"

67. Suggest: IMPLY

68. Salinger title girl: ESME

69. Aardvark fare: ANTS

70. Affectionate nickname: CUTIE

71. __-Pei: wrinkly dog: SHAR

Down:

1. Talks like Sylvester: LISPS

2. Suffix with arab: ESQUE

3. San Andreas __: FAULT

4. Like much breakfast bread: TOASTED or a CSO to Tinman.

5. Jungle chest-beater: APE

6. Sugar cube: LUMP

7. Real estate calculations: AREAS

8. Gunslinger's "Hands up!": "REACH!"

9. Brawl: MELEE. (clever Sunday offering)

10. Girl with a missing flock: BO PEEP

12. Gambling town northeast of Sacramento: RENO

13. Sound of pain: MOAN

18. Smell bad: REEK

24. Halfway house activity: REHAB. (Rehabilitation)

26. Oddball: KOOK

28. Spreads, as seeds: SOWs

30. Sitting around doing nothing: IDLE

31. Win over gently: COAX

32. Luxurious fur: MINK

33. Twitter's bird, e.g.: ICON

36. Brit. honor: OBE, (Officer (of the Order) of the British Empire)

37. Brooks' country music partner: DUNN

38. In base eight: OCTAL

41. Fries sprinkling: SALT

45. Costs for sponsors: AD RATES

47. Guffaws or giggles: LAUGHS

49. Iraq's __ City: SADR

51. Code of conduct: ETHIC

52. SeaWorld orca: SHAMU

53. Entice: TEMPT

55. Horse-and-buggy-driving sect: AMISH

56. Mother's nickname: MOMMA

57. Lip-curling look: SNEER

58. Frat party robe: TOGA

59. Very shortly, to Shakespeare: ANON

61. Mid-21st century date: MMLI. (2051)

65. Cornea's place: EYE

Argyle

Monday, November 21, 2016 Agnes Davidson & C.C. Burnikel

Theme: Musical Monday - A bit of lyric is the unifier of three diverse words.

17A. It's "down at the end of Lonely Street," in an Elvis hit: HEARTBREAK HOTEL. Hotel Chain

28A. Oil well output, in slang: BLACK GOLD. Gold Chain

47A. Miracle-Gro, e.g.: PLANT FOOD. Food Chain

62A. Part of an Aretha Franklin refrain about fools ... and a hint to the ends of 17-, 28- and 47-Across: CHAIN, CHAIN, CHAIN. chain of fools.

Argyle here with a couple of classy ladies. Enjoy!

Across:

1. Correct: RIGHT

6. Dr.'s visit: APPT.

10. "No __": "Piece of cake": PROB. (no problem)

14. Farewell that's bid: ADIEU. Not yet.

15. Societal woes: ILLs

16. Weapon in Clue: ROPE. Current weapons.

20. Horse hair: MANE

21. Online marketplace: eBAY

22. City in upstate New York: UTICA

23. Business baron: TITAN

25. Liver secretion: BILE

27. Practice boxing: SPAR

33. Hindu teacher: SWAMI

34. Fútbol fan's cry: ¡OLÉ!

35. Fencing weapon: EPEE

36. Malleable metal: TIN

37. Historic events at Gettysburg and Vicksburg: BATTLEs

41. Sister of Zsa Zsa: EVA

42. Ye __ Shoppe: OLDE

44. Spoil: ROT

45. Word with circle or tube: INNER

50. Flower usually sold by the dozen: ROSE

51. Ivory source: TUSK

52. Upper crust: ELITE

54. NFL Hall of Famer Bart: STARR

57. Dreaded high school spots?: ACNE

59. Baker's amts.: TSPs. (teaspoon)

65. Swiss river: AARE

66. Congressional confidante: AIDE

67. Florida city on the Gulf Coast: TAMPA. Meanwhile, down at the dog beach ....

68. Waitstaff rewards: TIPS

69. Post-combat affliction, briefly: PTSD. (PostTraumatic Stress Disorder)

70. Sharply inclined: STEEP

Down:

1. Chicago mayor Emanuel: RAHM

2. Thought: IDEA

3. Big bamboo muncher: GIANT PANDA

4. "Peekaboo!": "HERE I AM!"

5. Boy king: TUT

6. Online service for booking rooms with local hosts: AIRBNB. (AirBed & Breakfast) Does it mean you get to sleep on an air bed?

7. Guilty, for one: PLEA

8. Ump's cry before the first pitch: "PLAY BALL!"

9. "For shame!": "TSK!"

10. Mentored person: PROTÉGÉ

11. Roast, in Dijon: ROTI

12. Oil cartel acronym: OPEC

13. Actor Lugosi: BELA

18. Arthur of "Maude": BEA

19. "Incredible" superhero: HULK

24. Chicago daily, familiarly: TRIB

26. Frozen drink brand: ICEE

27. Sty supper: SWILL

29. Keno kin: LOTTO

30. Ali Baba's magic words: OPEN SESAME

31. "Drove my Chevy to the __": "American Pie" lyric: LEVEE

32. Luv: DEAR

33. "Knock it off!": STOP

38. Kennel cacophony: ARFS

39. Suffered financially: TOOK A HIT

40. iPhone's voice-activated app: SIRI

43. Postings in ledgers: ENTRIES

46. "Please, anything else!": NOT THAT

48. Right or left, while driving: TURN

49. Didn't admit: DENIED

53. Sportscaster Berman: LEN

54. Ella's expertise: SCAT

55. Spicy Asian cuisine: THAI

56. Boomers' lobbying group: AARP

58. Scoundrels: CADS

60. Water carrier: PIPE

61. "Just like that!" fingers sound: SNAP

63. Put a limit on: CAP

64. Dol.'s 100: CTs. Dollars and Cents

Argyle

Note from C.C.:

Erik Agard, constructor for last Saturday's LAT, just released a set of 12 puzzles of various shapes and themes. Erik is known for his innovative themes with extra layers and brilliant clue writing ([Mitt with ten figures] for ROMNEY, e.g.).

You can get the puzzles here. Pay what you wish. If you don't use Stripe, you can pay agarderik@gmail.com via PayPal. Or just email Erik if you prefer paying via other methods. You'll get puzzles in both PDF and Puz formats.

I hope you can support Erik, who's been publishing a free puzzle at Glutton for Fun since 2012. Week after week, he's there, quietly delivering a quality puzzle.