Friday, November 13, 2015, Jeffrey Wechsler

Theme: You do what in your spare time?

Jeffrey is back with a very fun puzzle which recognizes the great possibilities of our language by taking famous people who have a first name that is the ending of a profession and mashing them into an answer. I would guess the seed fill was APOTHECARY GRANT, but they all are so cool.  I find this one of his wittiest creations to date.  I thought of one more profession that worked  and immediately forgot. Jeffrey uses two authors and two performers. We also get two "7 space 7" as top and bottom to the grid. There are also many nice 7 letter fill like ACTUATE, ATTUNES, BENEFIT, BORSCHT, CHICHEN, ETCHERS, I'LL STOP,  IT'S BEST, OCEANIA,  and VW JETTA.  We get some odd abbreviations, some very fun cluing and a Friday workout that was not a hair-puller. Another Friday the 13th so be careful out there.

17A. Classic leading man who moonlighted at a pharmacy? : APOTHECARY GRANT (15). Unlike Nathan Fillion this is ruggedly HANDSOME.

25A. Pulitzer-winning writer who moonlighted in a nightly news studio?: WEATHERMAN  WOUK (14).  He wrote so many great BOOKS.

44A. Actor who moonlighted in a brass band? : TRUMPETER BOYLE (14). An actors ACTOR.

57A. English author who moonlighted at LensCrafters? : OPTICIAN FLEMING (15).  New glasses? Try, Bond, CARTER BOND.

Across:

1. Set into motion : ACTUATE. A Friday word to start.

8. Golf alternative, briefly : VW JETTA. Funny but a stretch as the answer JETTA by itself is more accurate.

15. Red bowlful : BORSCHT. Not many northern Jewish families did not make beet  borscht when I was a kid. Served cold with hot potato was yummy.

16. __ Itzá: Mayan ruins : CHICHEN. Mexican Pyramids

19. Second of 24 : BETA.  Greek has 24 letters in their Alphabet.

20. L.A. Kings' org. : NHL. National Hockey League.

21. Management : SUITS.

22. Fiji's region : OCEANIA. Did you KNOW?

32. Saying that often goes without saying : AXIOM.

33. Breaks down : SOBS.

34. One with a handbook : USER.

36. Tony winner Huffman : CADY. Loved The Producers. Do not know her name.

37. Bolshoi outfit : TUTU. We have  a ballet studio in our back yard, fun.

38. Kitchen bar : OLEO.

39. "I'd strike the sun if it insulted me" speaker : AHAB. The Captain's reply when Starbuck tells him how stupid it is to seek vengeance from a animal acting on instinct.  "Talk not to me of blasphemy, man; I’d strike the sun if it insulted me." Interesting inclusion as Wouk wrote the Caine Mutiny.

43. Folklore threats : OGRES.

47. Makes complementary (to) : ATTUNES.

48. "Here Come the __": 1945 college comedy : COEDS.

52. Actor Stephen : REA. The Crying Game

53. 18-Down competitor : AVIS. Car rentals.

61. Enhances in the kitchen : SEASONS.

62. "That's my recommendation" : IT'S BEST. After many many Fridays, I am now looking for JW's multi word fill; it really helps.

63. Reply to "That's enough!" : I'LL STOP. See.

64. Pool workers : TYPISTS. Tricky, old fashioned and not true anymore.

Down:

1. Rhyme scheme in many sonnets : AB AB. Is this all the Shakespeare we get today? First four lines...
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date

2. Bear up : COPE.

3. Moderate pace : TROT.

4. Open org. : USTA. United States Tennis Association.

5. "__ du lieber!" : ACH.

6. From that place : THENCE. A word very important in surveys, and legal descriptions which are metes and bounds.

7. Rembrandt and Picasso, at times : ETCHERS. I knew nothing of their etchings.

8. Obsolescent family room fixture : VCR. Someday I will get all the tapes of my kids on DVD....

9. Justification : WHY. And the equally famous why not?

10. Puzzle sometimes framed : JIGSAW. Loved the clue, I know very serious jigsaw people.

11. Hose shade : ECRU.

12. Southeast Asian language : THAI. A CSO to my sweet wife who had her birthday yesterday.

13. Garden party protection : TENT. And the clecho...

14. Garden party intruders : ANTS.

18. 53-Across competitor : ALAMO. More rental car; I use Enterprise.

22. Resistance unit : OHM.

23. Collar : NAB.

24. A-listers : INS. And the outs.

25. City SSW of Dallas : WACO. Home of Baylor University.

26. Praise to the heavens : EXALT.

27. To help, to Henri : AIDER. The French looks like English, sorta. Pronounce AY-DAY

28. Piece of toast? : TO YOU. E.G. Happy Birthday...

29. Expenditure : OUTGO.

30. Activity of great interest? : USURY. A good one. Too much interest, in most states there are laws; Florida 18 or 25% but you can read the LIST to see where your state sits..

31. __ One: vodka brand : KETEL.

35. Scam : RUSE. I think of ruse an element in a scam.

39. Proper : APT.

40. In a lather, with "up" : HET. Is this three times this month?

41. Words with take or lose : A TURN.

42. Fund-raiser : BENEFIT.

43. Like "fain": Abbr. : OBSolete. Archaic. But also OBScure.

45. Poe of the Baltimore Ravens, for one : MASCOT.

46. Certain agent's area : REALTY. Big money here; 6% of a million dollar sale is $60,000.00.

48. Mozart title starter : COSI Fan Tutti.

49. General Motors subsidiary : OPEL. German automobile manufacturer headquartered in Rüsselsheim, Hesse, Germany.

50. Substitute in a list : ETAL.

51. Ph.D. hurdle : DISSertation.

53. Both, at the start : AMBIvalent about this clue?

54. Contests : VIES.

55. Smithsonian, e.g.: Abbr. : INST. Home for Bones.

56. PD ranks : SGTS. Like Joe Friday.

58. Italian diminutive suffix : INO.

59. Venom transmitter : ASP. Meh.

60. Arguable ability : ESP. Extra Sensory Perception.

Thanks for the ride Jeffrey and thank all of you who came along for the write up.  Lemonade out.

Harper at 6 weeks

1 A

2 C

3 T

4 U

5 A

6 T

7 E

8 V

9 W

10 J

11 E

12 T

13 T

14 A

15 B

O

R

S

C

H

T

16 C

H

I

C

H

E

N

17 A

P

O

T

H

E

C

18 A

R

Y

G

R

A

N

T

19 B

E

T

A

20 N

H

L

21 S

U

I

T

S

22 O

C

E

A

23 N

24 I

A

25 W

26 E

27 A

28 T

H

E

R

M

A

N

W

29 O

30 U

31 K

32 A

X

I

O

M

33 S

O

B

S

34 U

S

E

35 R

36 C

A

D

Y

37 T

U

T

U

38 O

L

E

O

39 A

40 H

41 A

42 B

43 O

G

R

E

S

44 T

R

U

45 M

P

E

T

E

46 R

B

O

Y

L

E

47 A

T

T

U

N

E

S

48 C

49 O

50 E

51 D

S

52 R

E

A

53 A

54 V

55 I

56 S

57 O

P

T

I

C

58 I

59 A

N

F

L

60 E

M

I

N

G

61 S

E

A

S

O

N

S

62 I

T

S

B

E

S

T

63 I

L

L

S

T

O

P

64 T

Y

P

I

S

T

S

Thursday, November 12th, 2015 Kurt Krauss

Theme: Six Servings - a veggie melange today. The circles reveal four jumbles and two anagrams thrown into the pot for good measure.

10A. Long-armed beasts : APES. Peas.

17A. Diamond heist? : STOLEN BASE. Beans.

23. Bare-bones staff : SKELETON CREW. Leeks. Here's a cheery bunch, courtesy of artist Ian O'Keefe:

47A. Divides, as lovers : COMES BETWEEN. Beets.

57A. Stereotypical bachelors' toys : SPORTS CARS. Carrots. You can have one of these McLarens for around $275,000 if you stick with the base package.

63A. He's fifth on the career home run list : MAYS. Yams. Second of the baseball-referencing themers. I know someone around these parts who didn't have any trouble there.

and the reveal:

35A. Dinner side, and what can literally be found in this puzzle's circles : MIXED VEGETABLES. Food! Here's some with a Thai flavor:

Hi everyone - Steve here with Kurt's challenge for the day. I definitely found this one crunchier than usual (and not because the vegetables were under-cooked!) - that middle top section almost did me in, egads! 

Any of you solving without circles might have been handicapped by their lack; once I'd tumbled to the theme they definitely gave me a leg-up with the trickily-clued STOLEN BASE when I was having conniptions up in the North Dakota/Minnesota area.

Let's see what else we can find to ponder upon:

Across:

1. Thin locks, as of hair : WISPS

6. League fraction : MILE. This was my first "what????" moment up here. I was fixated on sports league references. Finally, right at the end, the penny dropped. Three miles in a league. Here's the opening to Tennyson's "Charge of the Light Brigade". Cheerful stuff.

Half a league, half a league, Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death rode the six hundred.
"Forward, the Light Brigade!
"Charge for the guns!" he said:
Into the valley of Death Rode the six hundred.

14. Tin Pan Alley org. : ASCAP. Performing rights royalty collections agency. The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. Irving Berlin was one of the founders, which gives me the perfect excuse to have a little fun with Jeeves and Wooster.

15. "... but I play one __" : ON TV. Second "what?????" up here. Took a while, and had me doubting "EVE" - what word ends in "V"?

16. Lead-in for sci : POLI

19. Tiger Woods' ex : ELIN. Still crossword-current though.

20. Fresh from the oven : HOT

21. One may be tossed after a wish : COIN. I read "crossed" first, and wondered how you can cross one finger?

22. Rub the wrong away : ERASE. Nice clue - of course I read "wrong way" first. Something wrong with my eyesight today.

26. Painter who was a leader of the Fauvist movement : MATISSE. Familiar with the artist, unfamiliar with the movement.

29. "__ Ben Adhem" : ABOU. Who? Thank you, crosses. Title character of the Leigh Hunt poem, apparently.

30. Shooting star, to some : OMEN

31. 1928 Oscar winner Jannings : EMIL. He won the very first Best Actor Oscar. (It was actually in 1929, but you could argue he won for his 1928 performances).

32. Early Beatle Sutcliffe : STU. He quit the band in Hamburg to go to art school, leaving the bass-playing duties to be picked up by the left-handed Paul McCartney. Sadly, he died a year later of a brain aneurysm.

40. Firm : SET

41. Reason for a tow job : REPO. Not a flat, as I first thought.

42. Literary governess : EYRE. Quick - name a literary governess who isn't Jane Eyre.

43. Controversial video game feature : GORE. Controversial? To whom?

44. Does a security job : SCREENS

51. Squirrel away : AMASS

52. Fruit discard : RIND. I used to eat orange rinds. I only did it because it annoyed my mom.

53. __ bath : MUD

56. Cost of living? : RENT

60. Eye rakishly : OGLE

61. Place to see crawls : POOL. The front and back varieties. A lot of people think the front crawl is called "freestyle". It's not, the freestyle race allows you to pick your own stroke, it just happens that everyone uses the front crawl because it's the quickest one.

62. Rock's __ Boingo : OINGO

64. Kennel sounds : YIPS

65. Graph lines : X-AXES. Looks odd in the grid, better with the hyphen.

Down:

1. Break-even transaction : WASH. Or, as the water-colorist replied when he was asked what he was putting on the paper - "It's a wash".

2. Comparative words : IS TO

3. Nae sayer : SCOT. The Scots recently voted "nae" in their referendum to leave the United Kingdom.

4. Frequent companion : PAL. I guess that means you can't pal around with an infrequent chum.

5. Dust motes : SPECKS. I like this crossing WISPS for no good reason.

6. Calder piece : MOBILE. I had no clue this gentleman was known as "The father of the mobile". That top section remained stubbornly blank for a long time.

7. Featherbrained : INANE

8. SFPD ranks : LTS. Police lieutenants. SFPD ain't got periods, so I'll leave them out of the answer. Annoyingly.

9. Memorable temptation victim : EVE

10. Brief outline : APERÇU. I know the word, in the sense that I can recognize it when I see it, and spell it, but I realized today that I didn't actually know what it meant. Now I do!

11. __ cap : POLAR. Aren't we missing the word "ice" here?

12. Beethoven's "Für __" : ELISE. I learned this on the piano when I was a kid. My mother loved it, so taken along with the orange peel eating, it was a wash.

13. Resilient strength : SINEW. I've never seen this in the sense of "possessing strength" before. I like it.

18. Anti votes : NOES

22. Name on a historic B-29 : ENOLA. Gay, the pilot's mom.

23. Cosecant's reciprocal : SINE

24. Teach, in a way : TAME

25. Final notice? : OBIT. Common enough in the shortened form not to need an abbreviation indication in the clue.

26. Kids' drivers, often : MOMS. Moms drive their kids. In return, orange-peel-eating kids drive their moms nuts.

27. Valéry's valentine : AMIE. Former president of France is Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. I hope it's his wife he's sending valentines to - his successor, François Mitterrand, famously had a string of mistresses.

28. Printed words : TEXT

31. It may need a boost : EGO

32. Roy Rogers' birth name : SLYE. He wasn't born "Roy" either. Franklin Slye.

33. Fork-tailed flier : TERN

34. Exploits : USES

36. Smeltery waste : DROSS. Smeltery? I think most people call 'em steelworks.

37. Hit or miss : VERB

38. Three-sided blade : EPÉE. It's only got one side when you get to the business end - the point.

39. " ... I've __ to the mountaintop": King : BEEN. Martin Luther King Jr's last speech. He was assassinated the next day.

43. Beaux __: noble deeds : GESTES. Note the pluralization of both words.

44. Ice cream designs : SWIRLS

45. Copper : CENT

46. Three-time 21st-century World Series champs : RED SOX. In 2004, most Bostonians would have doubted they'd ever live to see the day they won one, considering they hadn't won one since 1918. Chicago Cubs fans take heart.

47. Billiards shot : CAROM. Aha! I said. MASSE! That came out about two seconds later.

48. Greek finale : OMEGA. The last letter of the alphabet. Nice clue.

49. Virile : MANLY

50. Military unit : TROOP. Funny old word, troop. In the plural, it's ambiguous - compare "American troops" (a non-specific number) and "The army is sending 1,000 troops to .." (a very specific number). "Troops" is interchangeable with "soldiers", but "soldier" is not interchangeable with "troop". "A troop of soldiers" is some number more than a few. Confused much?

53. Tailless cat : MANX. From the Isle of Man.

54. Goad : URGE

55. British mil. decorations : D.S.O.S. Distinguished Service Orders. It's no use giving distinguished service if you're not an officer - you won't get this gong. Officers only. Weird.

57. Tom Clancy figure : SPY

58. Hawaiian dish : POI

59. Org. in Tom Clancy novels : C.I.A. I see what you did with 57A there.

And I think that's all I've got. Here's the grid:

Steve