Wednesday, May 18, 2016 Jerry Eldstein

Title: NOR ANY DROP TO DRINK

Husker Gary on board, blogging Jerry's wonderful Wednesday-level puzzle that combines a famous line from Coleridge's poem of the ill-fated, albatross-slaying sailor and eight, count 'em, eight phrases that can be formed when WATER precedes both words of two word theme fills. WATER, WATER everywhere indeed! Very impressive to this land lubber!

THEME FILL (where I freely admit there are alternate interpretations):

26. Oil conduit : PIPELINE - One of which, runs from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez in Alaska or

WATER PIPE - A conveyance for a buzz

or

WATER LINE  - What has been receding behind Lake Mead during the SW drought

31. Electricity source : POWER PLANT - What is inside Hoover Dam that uses the waters of Lake Mead or

WATER POWER - a rough idea of what happens inside Hoover Dam

or WATER PLANT - A facility that makes your water potable

42. Reaganomics term : SUPPLY SIDE - Economic system where government gets less money and private enterprise gets to keep more or

WATER SUPPLY - What can be threatened when these run too much in dry years

or WATER SIDE - A great San Antonio location

47. Primary entrance : MAIN GATE - A Disney Park front door or

WATER MAIN - They can be spectacular when they break

or WATERGATE - Enough said!

The fabulous THEME REVEAL:

17. With 59-Across, words from a fictional mariner ... and a hint to both parts of 26-, 31-, 42- and 47-Across : WATER WATER and 59. See 17-Across : EVERYWHERE. 

Now let's sail on to see what else Jerry has cast upon our crossword waters:

Across

1. Pricey : STEEP - Who ever thought water would cost more per gallon than gas?

6. Place for a chicken : COOP

10. Herring prized for its roe : SHAD

14. Use a lectern : ORATE - You'd better have a sandwich, el presidente is gonna be a while!

15. A fan of : INTO

16. Tortilla snack : TACO

19. Any minute now, to a bard : ANON

20. Tampa-to-Jacksonville dir. : NNE - It's 198.4 miles

21. Frosty coat : HOAR - A HOARY engraving from our poem du jour of the crew and that bird

22. Fern-to-be : SPORE

23. Criticize sneakily : SNIPE - Here it is usually to criticize as an ANON

28. Chef's tool : SPATULA

30. Fire, or fire-fighting tool : AXE - Or Gene Simmons' bass

34. Astronaut Grissom : GUS - He almost drowned on the second Mercury mission

37. Incriminate with false evidence : FRAME - Did OJ ever find the real killer?

38. __-Locka, Florida : OPA - Originally Opa-tisha-wocka-locka

39. Emaciated : GAUNT

41. Messy spot : STY

44. __ Kan: Alpo rival : KAL

46. Fit as a fiddle and tough as nails : SIMILES - The one about me ends ...as a rock

52. Exams for would-be attys. : LSATS

53. Shore eagles : ERNES - Our old cwd friend and a surprise prey

54. Object of worship : IDOL

56. Dick's wife, twice : LIZ - Liz Taylor was Mrs. Richard Burton twice

58. __-Seltzer : ALKA

62. Safe document : DEED

63. Left : GONE

64. Conundrum : POSER 

65. They may be split or tight : ENDS - Pretty easy to discern

66. __ buco: veal dish : OSSO

67. Make a mess of : MISDO - Okay


Down

1. Seeded : SOWN - Some consider the SOWER atop Nebraska's capital buliding to be, uh, controversial when its image is transferred to our sesquicentennial license plate

2. Convey : TRANSPORT

3. Completely eroded : EATEN AWAY 

4. Nice season? : ETE - Je n'étais pas dupe! (I was not fooled!)

5. Part of 60-Down : PER - My sister typed over 100 words PER minute 50 yrs ago. I once got half that.

6. "Ta-ta" : CIAO

7. Coming up next : ON TAP

8. Ferrell's "SNL" cheerleading partner : O'TERI

9. __ favor: Pedro's "please" : POR

10. Paper clip alternative : STAPLE 

11. Onetime capital of French Indochina : HANOI

12. Oak nut : ACORN - "Gee! Ahma tree!", exclaimed the mathmatically mature ACORN.

13. Charity, say : DONEE - I would think the DONEE receives the charity

18. Puppy : WHELP - Dura-WHELP makes a box for them

22. Masters and Johnson subject : SEX - Their research revealed sexual intimacy could last well beyond 70. Could, mind you!

24. Agenda line : ITEM

25. Partner of simple : PURE - 70-year-old Dolly has launched her 2016, 60-city PURE And SIMPLE Tour 

27. First lady after Lady Bird : PAT

28. Suntan lotion numbers, briefly : SPFS

29. Baseball's Matty or Felipe : ALOU

32. Droid download : APP

33. Snoozes : NAPS

34. Free from blame : GUILTLESS from  35. Not wanted : UNDESIRED calories?

36. Fr. holy women : STES

39. Places with rings and horses : GYMS - In Lego Land

40. Massive land mass : ASIA

42. Gp. that kidnapped Patty Hearst : SLA

43. Big name in pharmaceuticals : LILLY - And for our kitty (one L please)

44. Works on, as dough : KNEADS

45. Top prosecutors: Abbr. : AGS - Attorneys General

47. Maryland's Fort __ : MEADE - Named for the the Union Commander at Gettysburg

48. "Over the Rainbow" composer Harold : ARLEN - Some MGM execs wanted it cut from the movie because they thought it slowed down the pace

49. Signed in pen : INKED

50. DVR devices : TIVOS

51. Blissful places : EDENS

55. Treat often split : OREO - Found nestled among these most common cwd answers

57. Nothing : ZERO

59. __ trip : EGO

60. Typing meas. : WPM

61. __ polloi : HOI - Ah, ya gotta love the classics!

Wisdom, wisdom everywhere and plenty for us to read. Let those unfiltered comments rip!

The Grid

Tuesday, May 17 2016, Jeff Stillman

Theme: Picture Perfect.

20. Outgoing sort : PEOPLE PERSON
 
33. Extra-earnest entreaty : PRETTY PLEASE
 
56. Clerical worker, facetiously : PENCIL PUSHER

41. KP duty need : POTATO PEELER.   

Two word phrases in which each word is six letters beginning with P. I can think of lots of P* P* phrases, but only PETER PIPER fits the six letter rule. Otherwise, there's Pentagon Papers, Pleasantly Plump, Personal Pronoun, Polling Place, Poison Pen, Pickled Peppers, Priscilla Presley. 

Melissa here. Got through this one in record time - in large part because I realized the theme early on with PEOPLE PERSON. My one bad entry was misspelling WIENIE as weenie. 

Across: 

1. Negotiated agreements : PACTS

6. Coagulate : CLOT

10. Cry of disbelief : WHAT

14. Wake-up call alternative : ALARM

15. Talk wildly : RAVE

16. Dance that tells a story : HULA

17. Arm bones : ULNAE

18. Sign of things to come : OMEN

19. Wild goat with recurved horns : IBEX. For many solvers, this is one of the first memorized answers.

23. Spews : EGESTS

24. Sets upright : ERECTS

28. Danger color : RED

29. Body shop fig. : EST

31. Feel remorse over : RUE

32. Chop (off) : LOP

36. Crate component : SLAT

39. Multivolume ref. work : OED. Oxford English Dictionary. From their website, "The OED is the definitive record of the English language, featuring 600,000 words, 3 million quotations, and over 1000 years of English."

40. Common diagnosis for distracted kids: Abbr. : ADHD

46. Back in time : AGO

47. Black __: spy doings : OPS

48. Critic Reed : REX

49. Punching tool : AWL

52. Sales enticement : REBATE

54. National park on the Maine coast : ACADIA

60. April honoree? : FOOL. Cute.

63. German automaker : AUDI

64. Occupy, as one's time : SPEND

65. Bridges in Hollywood : BEAU

66. TMZ twosome : ITEM

67. Creepy : EERIE

68. Vexes : IRKS

69. Gather in the fields : REAP

70. Expression of disdain : SNEER

Down:

1. Prince's lookalike, in a Twain novel : PAUPER. Little bonus, The Prince and the Pauper.

2. Assert without proof : ALLEGE

3. Enjoyed a ride in a birchbark : CANOED. Don't think I've ever heard this as a verb before. This author can make anything fascinating.

 

4. Police stings, e.g. : TRAPS. Or this Police Sting.

5. Metal refinery : SMELTER

6. Edit for size, as a photo : CROP

7. __ duck : LAME.

8. "Back to you," in CBspeak : OVER. Or a tune by John Mayer.

9. Stiffen in fear : TENSE UP

10. Moan and groan : WHINE

11. Center of activity : HUB

12. Draft pick : ALE

13. Price add-on : TAX

21. Latin 101 infinitive : ESSE

22. Sports analyst Hershiser : OREL

25. Unlike Lady Godiva : CLAD

26. Poppycock, to a Brit : TOSH. Didn't remember this, perps to the rescue.

27. Made tracks : SPED

30. Car roofs with removable panels : T-TOPS

31. Golf's __ Cup : RYDER. Biennial men's golf competition between teams from Europe and the U.S.

33. Class-conscious gp.? : PTA. Parent Teacher Association. Clever.

34. Golf ball support : TEE

35. Musical gift : EAR. See 61 Down.

36. Box for practice : SPAR. So sneaky. Wanted RING, but waited for perps.

37. Theater section : LOGE. Private box for seating.

38. Get from __: make slow progress : A-TO-B

42. Carryall bag : TOTE

43. Outdoor : OPEN AIR

44. Spring : LEAP

45. Reasons that may be flimsy or lame : EXCUSES

49. Cling : ADHERE

50. Dog at a roast : WIENIE. That spelling just looks funny to me.

51. Kitchen storage area : LARDER. Vaguely familiar with this word but needed perps for help. A storage room for food, commonly used before refrigeration.

53. Top grade : A-PLUS

55. Colorado skiing mecca : ASPEN

57. Baby-faced : CUTE

58. Invention beginning : IDEA

59. Like overcooked pasta : LIMP.  ew.

60. Justice Dept. agency : FBI

61. On top of, in an ode : OER. As in, "O'er the land of the freeeeeeee" (certainly unconstrained by *pitch*).  I'm pretty sure this is exactly how I sound when I sing. The piano was hilariously added later, "It was clear that what the singer really needed was just a sympathetic accompanist."

62. Furniture wood : OAK

Note from C.C.:

Please click here for Blue Hen's quick cheater's porcini risotto recipe. I thought it's a genius idea to re-hydrate porcini in white wine. Thanks for the recipe and the story behind it, Blue Hen!

Monday, May 16, 2016 Vivian O. Collins

                                   Theme:

 

17A. 1987 Cher film : MOONSTRUCK

64A. 1945 Ingrid Bergman film : SPELLBOUND

10D. 2005 Nicole Kidman film : BEWITCHED

37D. 2007 Amy Adams film : ENCHANTED

Argyle not all here. No reveal Monday. A LAT debut constructor but not her first puzzle by any means. I felt this pinwheel grid was a nice fit. Film at eleven.

Across:

1. Vehicles with meters : CABS

5. Give the heave-ho : EJECT

10. Fishhook point : BARB

14. Fabled monster : OGRE

15. South Pacific island studied by Margaret Mead : SAMOA

16. Olympic sword : EPEE

19. Refuses to : WON'T

20. Plain text : PROSE

21. Sophocles character for whom a Freudian complex is named : OEDIPUS

23. Lack of variety : SAMENESS

27. Trail mix tidbit : NUT

28. Gradually become narrower : TAPER

30. Group of eight : OCTET

34. Time co-founder Henry : LUCE

38. Track events : RACES

40. Put on the payroll : HIRE

41. Tehran's country : IRAN

42. Armistice : TRUCE

43. Ireland, to an Irish poet : ERIN crossed by 32D. New York border lake : ERIE

44. Painter Chagall : MARC. Paris par la fenêtre

Guggenheim Museum, NYC

45. New Testament king : HEROD

46. Monopoly card with mortgage values : DEED

47. __-Bits: letter-shaped cereal : ALPHA

49. Leaf under a petal : SEPAL

51. Escort's offering : ARM

53. Great energy : DYNAMISM. A legitimate words.

58. Capital of Lithuania : VILNIUS

62. Latest craze : MANIA

63. Tinker with text : EDIT

68. "What __ could I do?" : ELSE

69. Spine-tingling : EERIE

70. Latvian capital : RIGA

food market

71. Collecting Soc. Sec., maybe : RET'D

72. Threaded fastener : SCREW

73. Tabloid twosome : ITEM

Down:

1. Free tickets, say : COMPS. (complimentary)

2. Marketplace of ancient Greece : AGORA. Agoraphobia - "fear of the marketplace".

3. Dustpan go-with : BROOM

4. Good judgment : SENSE

5. Fla. clock setting : EST. (Eastern Standard Time)

6. Cookie container : JAR

It's never seen a cookie!

7. Outback bird : EMU. Not Tweety.

8. Chanel of fashion : COCO

9. Spoken for : TAKEN

11. For each one : A POP

12. Eye care brand : RENU

13. "All __ are off" : BETS

18. Telegraphed : SENT

22. Batman and Robin, e.g. : DUO

24. Word before or after "mother" : EARTH

25. Shows mercy : SPARES

26. Assured payment of, as a loan : SECURED

29. Duplicate again : RECOPY

31. Michelin product : TIRE

33. Watch over, as sheep : TEND

34. Peru's capital : LIMA

Nightlife

35. River to the Caspian : URAL

36. Bellyache : CARP. It could have been fish in 35-Down.

39. Family car : SEDAN

48. Tycoon Onassis : ARI

50. Sheepish youngster? : LAMB

52. Inspiration sources : MUSES

54. New Zealand native : MAORI

A strange pairing, 54 and 55.

55. Arctic dweller : INUIT

56. Burn slightly : SINGE

57. Respectful address : MADAM

58. Zig or zag : VEER

59. On a break : IDLE

60. Enumerate : LIST

61. On __: without a contract : SPEC. (on speculation)

65. Flub a line, say : ERR

66. Golf ball position : LIE

67. __ Alcindor: Kareem, formerly : LEW. Basketball. The man has his own web site: kareemabduljabbar.com.

Argyle

Note from C.C.:


Melissa and I had BILBAO in our puzzle yesterday. It turns out JD and her husband Bob were there before. Here are two pictures.