Theme: Taking Flight.
Jeffrey
Wechsler is making a rare (At least it seems rare to me.) mid-week
appearance, and so is desper-otto. Without the circles it's doubtful
you'd ever find the JET, FIGHTER, GLIDER, or TURBOPROP on upward
trajectories in the grid. My newspaper had the circles. My only
problem was failing to look at 'em. This puzzle is a normal 15 x 15,
but is symmetrical left-to-right only for those of you who care about
those things. OK, let's get started...
Across:
1. Barely enough: SCANT. Scantily clad, perhaps.
6. Like a pooch's smooch: WET. It makes me cringe when folks kiss their dog or cat. It can also cost an arm and a leg...or worse. Caution: That article is not breakfast-friendly.
9. "Happy Days" actress Erin: MORAN.
She fell on hard times with financial problems and depression, and
ultimately succumbed to throat cancer a couple of years ago at age 56.
14. Software writer: CODER.
Never considered myself just a coder. I was involved in all aspects
of my applications from specifications to design to coding to beta
testing and finally release to the production environment.
15. Texter's "As I see it": IMO. In my opinion, or IMHO, in my humble opinion.
16. Defunct defense gp.: SEATO. SouthEast Asia Treaty Organization. It lasted from '54 thru '77.
17. Pear variety: ANJOU. No reason, but it always reminds me of this old-timey actor Adolphe Menjou (Nobody names sons Adolph anymore.)
18. Opening setting of "Madagascar": Zoo.
19. Be carried by the current: DRIFT.
20. Fort Worth sch.: TCU. Texas Christian University.
21. RR stop: STA. Will it be STA or will it be STN? Only the perps know for certain.
23. Giuseppe's god: DIO. Italian.
25. "S" on an invitation: S'IL.Repondez s'il vous plait. French.
26. NFL's Gronk and others: TES.
First I learned that his name wasn't T.E. Gronk. In fact it wasn't
Gronk at all. It was Gronowski. And his first name was Rob, not
something beginning with a T. Further research yielded his position.
So TES stands for Tight EndS. Hooray. It'll be forgotten by lunch
time.
27. Roller coaster experiences: THRILLS. Don't care for 'em, myself.
29. Previously, to a poet: ERE. Gluey.
30. 1999 Ron Howard satire: ED TV. Not his best work. It only received a 30% Rotten Tomatoes audience score.
32. Easy-to-spot jigsaw pieces: EDGES. Does everybody fill in the border first? I do.
33. Ado: FUSS. It's how we say "I do" here in redneck country [See above].
34. Turn back to zero: RESET. Illegal, if it's your car's odometer.
36. Hundred Acre Wood joey: ROO. Most of what I know about Winnie the Pooh, I learned from doing cws.
37. Egyptian Christians: COPTS. Not to be confused with the Picts who fought the Roman legions in what is now Scotland.
38. Word from Robin preceding headache, homework, and hamstrings, among others: HOLY. "Holy Hemorrhoid, Batman, what a pain!"
40. "Beetle Bailey" dog: OTTO. CSO, he said, taking a deep bow.
42. __ monster: GILA. Pronounced hē-lə -- the only venomous lizard native to North America.
43. Song and dance: ARTS. Fred and Ginger-ish
45. Ramp, and what's found in each set of circles: INCLINED PLANE. The airplane names are found in the inclined circles, doncha see.
50. Con: FOOL. Fool me once...
51. Floor models: DEMOS. Some can be good deals.
52. Putting game: GOLF.
Not my game. It's 50/50 whether the ball will land in front of me or
behind. I just swing and holler, "Eight!" to cover all eventualities.
54. Iconic lemon: EDSEL. The '50s sedan, not the ironic Friday Lemon.
56. "Live With Kelly and Ryan" network: ABC. I just wait on the perps.
57. Big name in whisky: DEWAR. CSO to IM, I think.
58. Small songbird: TIT. I would've clued this differently. I did not know that a chickadee is technically a tit.
59. Reevaluated favorably: UPRATED. OK, I guess. I doubt that Jeffrey's proud of this one.
62. Corp. tech boss: CIO.
My former boss was one. He said it meant Career-Is-Over. He was not
39d, and died young of a heart attack -- his first and only.
63. Action film gun: UZI. Israeli assault weapon.
64. Privately: SUB ROSA. Literally "under the rose" which supposedly has some sort of history regarding secrecy. I remember an old joke involving a subpoena
65. Journalist Curry: ANN. Spent many years with NBC. Not sure what she's doing now.
66. Brief time: SEC. Yeah, that's pretty brief.
67. Taste: TRY.
68. Charles of R&B: RAY. Didn't recognize the name...oh, Charles is his last name. D'oh! I'd been torn between RAY and ROY before the light blinded me.
69. Macaw, for some: PET. Could be a long-term commitment. Macaws can live to be 70 years old.
Down:
1. Disperse: SCATTER. Also the source of "Diaspora," so I've read. Or maybe it's versa vice.
2. Admit having lost: CONCEDE. Some folks just can't admit when they're wrong.
3. Fiddles with: ADJUSTS.
In my ute there was a notice in our phone book that if you connected a
tape recorder to the phone a "periodic beep would be provided to notify
the other party that they were being recorded." I thought this would
happen automagically. Figuring it must have something to do with
magnetic fields, I put the phone atop my bulk tape eraser and turned it
on. I listened for almost a minute before giving it up as a lost cause.
No beep was provided. At lunch time my father came home all steamed
up. "Where have you been," he accused my mother. "I've been calling
every few minutes all morning long!." It took a few days to realize
that we were no longer getting phone calls from anybody. The telephone
repair guy, who happened to be my uncle, determined that the phone's
ringer was defective, but he couldn't figure out why. He replaced the
whole phone. Problem solved. A few weeks later he reported to my dad
that the permanent magnet in the phone had mysteriously become
demagnetized. Tom!
4. Fresh start?: NEO. Also the role played by Keanu Reeves in The Matrix films.
5. Estate manager's suggestion: TRUST. "Trust me," or the document he writes.
6. Potter's specialty: WIZARDRY. Harry Potter.
7. Angsty rock genre: EMO. Not sure I'd recognize it if I heard it.
8. "Ta-ta!": TOODLEOO. I inked this in immediately, figuring I'd soon be reaching for the Wite-Out. Nope.
9. Early PC platform: MS-DOS.
I wrote some powerful, itty-bitty programs in C for the MS-DOS
platform. Programs with the same capability would suffer severe bloat
when Windoze came along.
10. Above, to a bard: OER.
11. Elevate: RAISE UP.
12. Initially: AT FIRST.
13. Qualifier for a minimum price: NOT LESS. I get it, but I don't get it.
22. With 48-Down, Time Lord played by various performers: THE DOCTOR. Who was your favorite? Here's mine.
24. They, in Calais: ILS. French.
28. "Need __ on?": I GO. Yes for a few more c/a's.
31. Jam ingredient?: VEHICLE. My German relatives call a traffic jam a "marmalade."
33. Cinematographer's compilation: FOOTAGE.
35. Temporary usage fee: TOLL. One man's fee is another man's tax.
37. PC key: CTRL. CTRL and ALT are two keys that are used in combination with other keys. CTRL+ALT+[key] yields still other possibilities.
39. __-back: relaxed: LAID. Type B. Guilty, as charged.
41. Solemn bugle solo: TAPS. Lyrics, according to NPR.
42. Early Christian: GNOSTIC. I've heard of the Gnostic Gospels, but didn't know what that meant. Still don't.
44. Kilimanjaro topper: SNOWCAP. The Snows of Kilimanjaro
45. Treat, as table salt: IODIZE. Added to prevent iodine deficiency -- goiter. Remember those pseudo-chocolaty pills we had to take in grade school?
46. At hand: NEARBY.
47. Put in prison: EMBAR. My dictionary says this usage is archaic. I agree.
48. See 22-Down
49. TV pal of Jerry and George: ELAINE. Seinfeld.
50. Womb occupant: FETUS. DW received an email sonogram of her niece's unborn daughter. I thought it was a radar pic of tropical storm Imelda.
53. Weather map feature: FRONT. Why is there no weather tail?
55. Unbridled desire: LUST.
57. June 6, 1944: D-DAY.
60. Water filter brand: PUR.
61. That, in Tijuana: ESA. It could also be ESO, right Lucina?
Whew,
made it all the way to the bottom. Now C.C. will magically make the
grid appear below. It's been fun. Desper-otto over and out.
