Wednesday, April 17th, 2024, Emma Oxford

IN BLOOM

Nirvana - In Bloom

April showers bring....hey, wait, we're too early for the flowers~!  This is my second blog of an Emma Oxford puzzle this year ( see 67A.).  Four 11-letter and one 13-letter spanners for the theme - scrambled, or "wild" - flower names.  No circles, but "in my opinion" ( see 59D. ) it might have helped, as the first two themers are two-word scrambles, but then the second two are just the first four letters.  Your Experience May Be/Might've Been Different - in fact, I'm coining a new term, "YEMBD" - pronounced "yem-beady".  Very few names, plenty of foreign (read) French words, but a longer than usual solve time for me, as I did not get the "ta-DA~!" at the end due to my "LIKE to serve" mistake, which took a while to find.

18. *Be extremely helpful: LIVE TO SERVE - VIOLET - the original Willy Wonka

There's a valid argument for why she should have "won" the Chocolate Factory

29. *Staged a fireworks show: LIT UP THE SKY - TULIP - ah, there's an organ joke in there....

I do not have this record...

36. *Start of an instruction to an automated assistant: SIRI SET A TIMER - IRIS

The 'Monet' version; perhaps you're a Van Gogh type~?

44. *Sensitive area: SORE SUBJECT - ROSE - and the 'start' of the joke ....

Axl "ROSE is" on the piano - and, er, Slash is on piano, too....

58. Colorful elements of a meadow, and what can be found at the starts of the answers to the starred clues?: WILDFLOWERS

And Away We Go~!

ACROSS:

1. Gasteyer of "Mean Girls": ANA

4. Stand-up individual?: COMIC

9. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner: MEALS

14. Place for a pint: PUB - Bzzzt~! Not BAR - AND - 20A. Some pints: ALES

15. Miso soup mushroom: ENOKI - perps, but then again, a crossword staple lately

16. Data processor's need: INPUT

17. Lenovo products: PCs - Lenovo is a Windows-based computer maker

22. Crying harder: TEARIER - meh.

23. Tempo similar to largo: LENTO

25. Prepares, as a sleeping bag: UNROLLS

33. Part of EVOO: OIL - Extra Virgin Olive Oil

34. Used DoorDash, say: ATE IN - had food delivered, that is; I made my own version of General Tso's chicken the other day~!

35. Auction site: eBAY

41. Very: MOST - as in "she is most attractive"

"Très OUI" - Frawnche #1

42. Rene of "Tin Cup": RUSSO

43. Death on the Nile cause, perhaps: ASP - "Very dangerous...you go first"

50. Frightening vision: DAYMARE - as opposed to NIGHTmare - a new word for me; more here

52. Part of TNT: NITRO - Everything you ever wanted to know about trinitrotoluene

53. Do over and over: ITERATE - so to REiterate is to do over and over AND OVER~?

57. "Begone!": SHOO

62. Convent figure: NUN

63. Adult stage in insects: IMAGO

64. Provide an address: ORATE - ooh, clever misdirection

65. Here, in France: ICI - Frawnche #2

66. Airport structure: TOWER

"We have no tower - just a bridge, Sir"

67. "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" host Aisha: TYLER - strangely, this is the second time with this clue/answer for me in an Emma Oxford puzzle blog

68. "Evita" role: CHE


DOWN:

1. Revolt: APPALL - the "ick" revolt, not the political one

2. Atomic cores: NUCLEI - I read somewhere that our constructor Emma has atomic knowledge

3. Playing hooky, perhaps: ABSENT

4. Cartoon still: CEL

5. "Roger that, boss!": "ON IT~!"

6. Make emotional: MOVE - MOKE seemed like a possibility 😜

7. Maker of Ektorp sofas: IKEA - I have learned to default to "IKEA" when it's an oddly-named furniture clue....

8. Fruit type that tends to be in season in winter: CITRUS - I did not know this; read more here from "The CIA"

9. Kathy Bates film based on a Stephen King novel: MISERY - I am not a fan of this genre

10. Month after diciembre: ENERO - the Spanish spelling of January

11. Mo. after Mar.: APRil - the current "mid-spring" month - I have daffodils in my front yard

It would appear that I need to wash my siding

12. Hon: LUV - Thank God it was not the "other" three-letter cringe word

13. Sault __ Marie: STE - Frawnche #3

19. Sty sound: OINK

21. Queen Anne's house: STUART - I have had this type of misdirection before; not the actual house as in structure/style, but the "political" one - see the Wiki highlighted

A "local" example, the James Alldis house in Torrington, CT

24. __-Free: contact lens solution: OPTI

26. Piercing spot: LOBE

27. "Not true!": LIAR - I had "LIES~!" to start

28. Devious: SLY

30. Your, in Tours: TES - Frawnche #4

31. Dash, quaintly: HIE

32. __ nous: ENTRE - fifth and finale Frawnche

35. Characters in some texts: EMOJIS - 😀😎😜

36. Slugger Sammy: SOSA - an easy baseball reference, tho I am not a fan like our blog host C.C. - I did like the link to the two guys trying to hit 100mph fastballs, Chairman~!

37. Guessing game: I SPY

38. Ger. neighbor: AUStria

39. Nashville sch.: TSU - I WAGed this, figured it was something like "Tennessee State University"

40. ID on a Barnes & Noble buy: ISBN - ID is abbr., so too the International Standard Book Number

41. Outraged: MAD

44. Took, as an exam: SAT FOR

45. Baseball analyst Hershiser: OREL - does this mean he offers "Orel" exams~? ba-dum-tiss

46. Transplant: REROOT - I re-potted my houseplant a month ago, and it's still in shock; I don't want to lose it, because it was my mother's plant and I kept it when we sold the LI house after she passed

47. Pertaining to a certain culture: ETHNIC

48. Catcher's stance: CROUCH - ah; much better than "SQUAT", which was my first thought

49. Nickname for the Canadian $2 coin: TOONIE - I filled in LOONEY, as I have seen this before in Crosswords, but obviously had the wrong $ value, and spelling - but 50% correct~!

51. Small fly: MIDGE

54. Out of whack: AWRY

55. Blue-green shade: TEAL

56. Art Deco icon: ERTÉ - I happen to "MOKE" (😁) the Art Deco style - his Wiki

58. Cleverness: WIT

59. Brief "I would say ... ": IMO - In My Opinion

60. Order's partner: LAW - for those who are interested, the LAW & ORDER tab for the TV show theme from Ultimate Guitar; you'll have to create a log-in to see it if you don't already have one

61. Msg. from a pulpit: SERmon


Splynter

Thursday, April 17, 2025, Emma Oxford

 

Theme:  Hey, where'd you find the neat horns?

Constructor Emma Oxford has favored us with her creations a few times already, and was published on this exact date last year!  This time, she is looking for a few good horns.

The theme clues and answers, symmetrically arranged in rows Across, are:

17. Place to find a pointy horn: RHINOCEROS.

23. Place to find many horns: FULL ORCHESTRA.

53. Place to find a loud horn: STEERING WHEEL.

63. Place to find a geographical horn: EAST AFRICA.

I'm impressed that each of the four horns is a completely different type:  animal horn, musical horn, vehicle horn, and geographical horn.  The Horn of Africa is the fourth largest peninsula in the world.

Let's grab the rest of the puzzle by the horns ...

Across:

1. 1975 thriller filmed largely on Martha's Vineyard: JAWS.  No horns, but big teeth!

5. Comedian Black: LEWIS.  No horns, but steam coming out of his ears!

Lewis Black

10. Store: MART.

14. Smoothie berry: ACAI.

15. Balderdash: TRIPE.  Rubbish, nonsense, baloney, hogwash ...

16. __ vera: ALOE.

17. [Theme clue]

19. Sizable barrels: KEGS.

20. Ready: SET.

21. Zip: NONE.

22. "__ the thing ... ": HERE'S.  Uh oh!  Some of our solvers hate conversational prompts.

23. [Theme clue]

27. Budget prefix: ECONO.

... as an example.

29. "The __ and I": song from "Wicked": WIZARD.  I am going to have to watch Wicked.  It is becoming a cultural touchstone.

30. Carey known as the "Queen of Christmas": MARIAH.  Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas" is a holiday staple.  In 2021, Carey filed a petition to trademark the title "Queen of Christmas," meaning that no one else would be able to use it.  Other Christmas minded music makers filed opposing motions, and in 2022, the Trial Trademark and Appeal Board ruled against Carey.  Old news, but news to me.

32. __ de mer: MAL.  Adopted into English, meaning "seasickness," the original French is "illness of the sea."

33. "Klutzy me!": OOPS.  D'oh is too short.

37. Diagnostic scan: Abbr.: MRI.  Magnetic Resonance Imaging uses a magnetic field and computer-generated radio waves to create detailed images of the organs and tissues in your body.

38. Composer Rorem: NED.  Ned Rorem (1923 - 2022) was an American composer of contemporary classical music and a writer.

Ned Rorem

40. Symbol of Aries: RAM.  Astrology.

42. "The Jungle Book" python: KAA.  A character from The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling, adapted various times for the silver screen.

43. Italian wine region: ASTI.  Asti is in Piedmont, a region of Italy surrounded on three sides by the Alps. Asti is the source of sparkling Asti wine, also called Asti Spumante. The wine is sweet and low in alcohol, and is made solely from the moscato bianco (white muscat) grape.

45. Rapper Lil __ X: NAS.  Lil Nas X, born Montero Lamar Hill, is an American singer, rapper, and songwriter who became famous for his 2018 song "Old Town Road."  The song became the longest-running number-one song in the history of the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.  Lil Nas X has won multiple awards, including two Grammys, five Billboard Music Awards, and five MTV Video Music Awards. 

Lil Nas X
(My grandchildren *loved* Old Town Road.)

47. Lines at a karaoke bar: LYRICS. The lines you sing.

49. __ crab: HERMIT.

52. Ones always underfoot?: SOLES.

53. [Theme clue]

57. Some campus buildings: HALLS.

58. Carol: NOEL.

59. Gp. with badges: BSA.  Boy Scouts of America.  

62. Chain that sells Mexican Tres Leches Pancakes: IHOP.  The first International House of Pancakes opened in Burbank, California, in 1958.  The *third* one opened on Stocker Street in the Baldwin Hills of Los Angeles, near my neighborhood, and is still in operation.  IHOP Corporation purchased Applebee's restaurants in 2007.  Clearly their cuisine is selling like hotcakes.

63. [Theme clue]

66. Bishop of Rome: POPE.

67. Rose: STOOD.  To rise is to stand *up*.  He rose = he stood.  Of course, stood could also be the past tense of stand.  He just stood there.

68. Provo's state: UTAH.

69. Plant-to-be: SEED.

70. Rescuee in "The Rescuers": PENNY.  I loved the 1959 novel The Rescuers written by Margery Sharp and illustrated by Garth Williams.  Penny is a character in Disney's 1977 animated adaptation.

71. Beauts: GEMS.  Beaut is an informal word meaning something beautiful, remarkable, or amazing.  That horn is a beaut!  Oh yes, it's a gem.

Down:

1. Canning array: JARS.  Preservation of foods in airtight containers started with glass CANisters, and  was called canning.  Later, factories introduced tin cans.  Today, when folks preserve foods at home using glass jars, they still call it canning.

2. Feel yesterday's workout: ACHE.

3. "Keep watching ... ": WAIT FOR IT.

4. Do bad: SIN.

5. Rank for Sen. Tammy Duckworth: LT COL.  Tammy Duckworth is an American politician, retired Army National Guard lieutenant colonel, and combat veteran of the Iraq War.  She has served as a United States senator from Illinois since 2017. 

Senator Tammy Duckworth

6. Heretofore: ERE NOW.

7. Feature of some glasses: WIRE RIM.

8. Wall St. debut: IPO.  An Initial Public Offering is when a private company offers its shares for sale to the public for the first time.

9. French possessive: SES.  Plural his/her/its.  "Ses amis" means his/her/its friends.  It is plural to match the modified noun, amis (friends).  "Son ami" means his/her/its friend, singular.

10. Gets by: MAKES DO.

11. On edge: ALERT.  I've been gathering photos and videos from the neighbors following a burglary on the block, and sharing the evidence with the Sheriff.

12. "Man Fire Food" host Mooking: ROGER.  Roger Mooking is a Trinidadian-Canadian chef, musician, and television host. He has hosted the television series Man Fire Food since 2012, and is also the host of Everyday Exotic on the Cooking Channel and Food Network Canada.  

Check out his featured recipes at rogermooking.com

13. Thompson of "Thor: Ragnarok": TESSA.  Tessa Thompson began her professional acting career with the Los Angeles Women's Shakespeare Company while studying at Santa Monica College.  Since 2005, she's appeared in many TV series and movies, including Thor: Ragnarok (2017) and Thor: Love and Thunder (2022).

Tessa Thompson in "Thor: Ragnarok"

18. Like some exhibition pieces: ON LOAN.  My brother's wife manages private art collections, and sometimes travels internationally with paintings to be displayed in exhibitions overseas.

Amazing S-I-L, NaomiZ, and DH

22. "That woman?": HER.

24. College abroad?: UNI.  In England, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, "uni" is commonly used as a shorthand for "university."

25. Policy setter: CZAR.

26. Kosher : Judaism :: __ : Islam: HALAL.  Dietary rules.  Jews eat kosher food; Muslims eat halal food.  The rules have to do with what foods may be eaten, but also how they must be prepared.  

27. Stone with two Oscars: EMMA.  Emma Stone won two Academy Awards for Best Actress for her roles as an aspiring actress in the romantic musical La La Land (2016) and as a resurrected suicide victim in the comic fantasy Poor Things (2023).

Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone in "La La Land."
DH watched this movie dozens of times.

28. Train units: CARS.

31. Painter Matisse: HENRI.

34. "Fine, tell me": OK, I'LL BITE.

35. Trot or gallop: PACE.

36. Fresh answers: SASS.

39. Curse: DAMN.  Verbs:  to condemn to a punishment or fate.

41. "If I do say so __": MYSELF.

44. "Give me some credit!": I HELPED.

46. Joins the team: SIGNS ON.

48. Fish-to-be: ROE.

50. Hosp. areas: ERs.  Emergency Rooms.

51. Weighing 4,000 pounds: TWO TON.

53. Roots for romantically, in slang: SHIPS.   In the context of transporting goods, "ship" means to send something from one place to another. In the context of fan culture, "ship" means to hope that two people will become romantically involved. When we watched The Office, we were all shipping for Jim and Pam.  Thank you, Emma Oxford, for teaching me this through today's puzzle!

Jenna Fischer and John Krasinski as Pam and Jim in "The Office"

54. Chevy SUV since 1994: TAHOE.

55. Skip the wedding planning: ELOPE.

56. Intoxicating: HEADY.

60. Offer that seems too good to be true, probably: SCAM.

61. Oohs and __: AAHS.  How the crowd reacts to fireworks.

63. Clairvoyance, e.g.: ESP.  Extrasensory perception.

64. Broke a fast: ATE.  Speaking of kosher and halal dietary restrictions, sometimes we cannot eat at all!

65. Throw __: RUG.

Here's the grid:

If you Finished It Right (FIR), you can toot your own HORN in the comments!

Otherwise, please horn in with your objections.

NaomiZ

Thursday, June 23, 2022, Emma Oxford

 

 
 

Higgs Boson
Large Hadron Collider
Geneva Switzerland

Emma Oxford, our constructor today,  is  a graduate student in particle physics and I thought the above splash screen  might make a nice welcome mat.  And it's even tangentially related to one of the themers. This is her second outing with the LAT,   her first was on Thursday March 25, 2021, reviewed by my partner in crime Malodorous Manatee.  Emma has long been solving crosswords, but only began constructing them about a year ago.  During this brief time she has also had puzzles published by Universal, WSJ, and Inkubator, as well as mini and "meta" puzzles on the constructor site CrossHare, under the username damefox

Outside of crosswords and physics, Emma is a fan of baking, running, jigsaw puzzles, reading, keeping her cat away from the houseplants, and as we'll soon see, she has very eclectic tastes in music.  Check out The Inkubator site where I found Emma's bio - it has some other names I'm sure you'll recognize. 

For today's outing she presents us with a classic theme: taking a common phrase, dropping a letter from the last word, and cluing the rump with a punny riff.  So that I can discuss both shades of meaning together, I'll start with the reveal:

63A. Decisive defeat, and a two-word hint to the answers to the starred clues: ROUT (my italics). To make sense of the fill, you have to parse this R OUT. 

Here are the themers with the removed R restored:

16A. *Frying pans anyone can use?: PUBLIC WORKS.  The Chinese WOK provides an ingenious way of controlling heat when heating vegetables, sea foods, and meats that cook at different rates.  This link will school you on its history and usage.

Some examples of PUBLIC WORKS projects are, but are not limited to: Parks and recreational facilities; Public education facilities (elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, universities and community colleges, etc.); Health care institutions (hospitals, community health care facilities, etc.). 

22A. *Group that attends Mass together every week?: SUNDAY BRUNCH.  My BIL and SIL attend Mass with a Sunday BUNCH, who follow the service with a pot luck Sunday BRUNCH in the under croft of the Church.

36A. *Discussion about what fruit to bake for dessert?: PIE CHART.  Make mine CHERRY (topped with home made whipped cream).

46A. *Fitting motto for Pisa's tower keeper?: LIVE AND LEARN.  Galileo Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642) whom many consider to be the first experimental scientist, lived in Pisa and legend has it that he used the Leaning Tower to conduct a series of revolutionary experiments  on gravity and acceleration.  Here's the picture worth a thousand words.

Galileo's Experiment

Galileo's findings at the LEANing Tower were the very beginning of experimental physics, and eventually led to the state of the art stuff that Emma is LEARNING.

55A. *Devil on one's shoulder?: CLOSE FRIEND.  We've all heard the first one whispering in our ear, "You can't do that, you're not good enough".  Add the R back and you'll hear the second one saying, "I know you can do it.  I'm pulling for you!"

Here's the grid:
 

And here's all the 'est:

Across:

1. "You Shook Me All Night Long" band: ACDC.  As I'm not a particular fan of Heavy Metal, I originally intended to use this clue to focus on the dispute between Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison over the best way to transmit electricity over long distances.  I suppose, had Edison won this one, the band might have been called DCAC.  They've popped up on my watch twice now, and both times I've used the Muppets to cover for them.  This time I've decided to let the band sing for themselves.  As comedian Garrison Keillor used to say, "they're not bad", although I'm not sure he'd have said that  about ACDC.  But they are pretty naughty, so there will be no lyrics with this clip.   Not a problem unless you read lips:

5. Apiphobe's phobia: BEES.  Fear of bees, technically known as melissophobia (from Ancient Greek: μέλισσα, melissa, "honey bee" + , Ancient Greek: φόβος, phobos, "fear") and also known as apiphobia (from Latin: apis for "honey bee" + Ancient Greek: φόβος, phobos, "fear"), is one of the common fears among people and is a kind of specific phobia. Not a CSO to our Melissa Bee.

9. "I __ confused": AM SO.  On the theme for this puzzle, not so much.  Unlike the last two.

13. Wintry mess: SLUSH.

14. Sole: ONLY.  Also a flat fish.

15. Mountain cat: PUMA.  Puma is a genus in the family Felidae whose only extant species is the cougar (also known as the puma, mountain lion, and panther).  The only large cat that purrs.  Not a sound you'd like to hear on a mountain path.

Cougar

18. "Oh, please!": AS IF.

19. Revealing session on Reddit, for short: AMA.  Ask Me Anything.
 

AMA Subreddit Logo

20. Christmas song: NOEL.

21. Shrimp and __: GRITS.  Here's Bobby Flay's recipe.

25. Treeless plain: STEPPE.  Sounds pretty bleak, but if you look closely enough steppes abound with life.  Chemist and composer Alexander Borodin (12 November 1833 – 27 February 1887) painted  a beautiful sound portrait of that life in his Steppes of Central Asia, here conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy (7:07 min.)

 
28. Districts: AREAS.

29. Like some dental floss: WAXY.

30. Shortcomings: VICES.  I guess that depends on how short.

32. "The Last O.G." network: TBS.  The Last O.G. is an American comedy television series, starring Tracy Morgan.  It was created by Jordan Peele and John Carcieri and premiered on March 31, 2018. The series follows ex-convict Tray (the O.G. or "original gangster") who is released from prison after serving fifteen years, and returns to Brooklyn to find that his old neighborhood has changed and that his ex-girlfriend is raising their children with another man. The co-stars are Tiffany Haddish, Allen Maldonado, Ryan Gaul, Taylor Christian Mosby, Dante Hoagland, and Cedric the Entertainer.

Tracy Morgan 2009

 35. Bother: ADO.

38. In the style of: ALA.

39. Spoil: MAR.

40. Man of many words?: ROGET.  I tried all the online thesauri and none would cough up a synonym for ROGET.  But here's a link about Peter Mark Roget (1779–1869), British physician, natural theologian and lexicographer.

41. Wild beasts also called wildebeests: GNUS.  Also a recursive ("self-referential") pun on AT&T's old Unix operating system: GNU is NOT UNIX.  GNU is an extensive collection of free software (383 packages as of January 2022), which can be used as a stand alone operating system, or parts of it can be used in other operating systems.  The use of the completed GNU tools led to the family of operating systems popularly known as Linux.  Here's their logo:

GNU is NOT UNIX

42. Water filter brand: BRITA.

44. Some surprise hits: B SIDES.  The best place to look for B sides that made it big are Beatles songs.  There are so many to chose from, but here's one of my favorites, the B-Side for the 1969 single Get Back (lyrics):

49. Big name in applesauce: MOTTS.

50. Tirade: RANT.

51. Bath mother: MUM.  My Mum was a Stoke-on-Trent mother, but we just called her Mom.  I had the opportunity years back to do some consulting in Bath, a fascinating town that goes back to the Romans and was later the home of Jane Austen for several years.

Jane Austen Center
Bath, England.

54. Way off: AFAR.

58. "What __ say?": CAN I.

59. Catholic leader: POPE.  The POPE (Latin: papa) is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome.  He is believed by Catholics to be a successor to the Apostle Peter, the closest of Jesus Christ's disciples.  Interestingly enough, his diocesan church is not St. Peter's Basilica, but rather the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran.  Pope Francis is the current bishop of Rome.  He is the first Pope to take that name:
 

Pope Francis

60. Old Dodges: OMNIS.  The Dodge Omni (also marketed as the Plymouth Horizon) is a subcompact car that was produced by Chrysler Corporation from the 1978 to 1990 model years. The first Chrysler model line produced with front-wheel drive, the Omni and Horizon were also the first front-wheel drive economy cars assembled in the United States.

1990 Dodge Omni

61. URL starter: HTTP.  URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator, the symbolic Internet address for an object such as a file or webpage.  HTTP stands for HyperText Transport Protocol, the rules that govern the transfer of copies of Hypermedia (e.g. web pages) across the Internet.   Note that HTTP is not the only URL "starter".  See 3D for a clecho.

62. Spy-fi country: USSR.  All that "spy-fi stuff" came to an end on December 26, 1991, the day the Soviet Union fell.  And if you believe that, perhaps I can interest you in a bridge I own in New York.

Down:

1. Grad: ALUM.
 
2. Gloria Estefan's birthplace: CUBA.  Gloria Estefan (Spanish: [ˈɡloɾja esˈtefan]; born Gloria María Milagrosa Fajardo García; 1 September 1957) is a Cuban and American singer, actress, and businesswoman. She has been married to Emilio Estefan Gómez since 1978.  A contralto (hand up if you can name a pop music soprano?), Gloria started her career as the lead singer in the group Miami Latin Boys, which later became known as Miami Sound Machine.  Here's her breakout song "Conga" (lyrics):

3. ISP option: DSL.  Pet peeve: as used in crossword puzzles, the term ISP (Internet Service Provider) is very ambiguous. Today it was filled with DSL, tomorrow it could be AOL.  The two are very different however. The latter is a service that the customer actually "sees", whereas the former provides its services "under the covers".  As it turns out, it takes 7 different types of hierarchically layered services to move information from point A to point B on the Internet. These services are commonly described by the OSI Model defined by the International Standards Organization.  Here's the big picture:

ISO/OSI Model

Roughly speaking DSL (Digital Subscriber Line)  is a service of OSI Layer 2 near the bottom and AOL (America OnLine) is a service of Layers 5-7 at the top.  If you're a real techno-masochist, watch this for more info (6 min).

4. "Things'll turn around, you'll see": CHIN UP.  Or as my Mom would say "Stiff upper lip!"

5. Showed respect, in a way: BOWED.

6. Sherlock's sister, per a 2020 Netflix film: ENOLA.  Enola Holmes is a 2020 mystery film based on the first book in the young adult fiction series of the same name, The Case of the Missing Marquess by Nancy Springer.  I've not seen the film, as we're still waiting for the flick's revenues to fall and for Netflix to DROP it on Prime.  Here's the trailer:

7. Caribou kin: ELK.  If it has an S on the end then it's a bunch of old guys sitting around drinking beer in a lodge.

8. Pt. of GPS: SYS.  Global Positioning System.  Hand up if you travel without one of these?

9. "Just Putting It Out There" comedian Nancherla: APARNA.  Aparna Nancherla (born August 22, 1982) is an American comedian and actress of Indian descent. She has appeared on Inside Amy Schumer and has written for Late Night with Seth Meyers, and Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell.  Here is "(Some of) The Best of Aparna Nancherla" (8:34 min):

10. Score keeper?: MUSIC STAND.  Cute.

11. Patti known as the "Godmother of Punk": SMITH.   Patricia Lee Smith (born December 30, 1946) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and poet who became an influential member of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album Horses.  One of her best known songs, Because the Night, was co-written with Bruce Springsteen, and released on her album Easter: (lyrics):

12. Clods: OAFS.

13. Place for pampering: SPA.

17. Ice cream holder: CONE.

21. Word in many Wi-Fi network names: GUEST.  E.g. if you're staying in a hotel.  Wi-Fi provides internet services at OSI Layers 1-2 (see 3D)

22. Intel collector: SPY.

23. Luxury vessel: YACHT. 

24. La __ Tar Pits: BREA.  More Spanish.  La Brea Tar Pits and Museum is an active paleontological research site in urban Los Angeles. Hancock Park was formed around a group of tar pits where natural asphalt (also called asphaltum, bitumen, pitch, or tar; brea in Spanish) has seeped up from the ground for tens of thousands of years. Over many centuries, the tar preserved the bones of trapped animals. The George C. Page Museum is dedicated to researching the tar pits and displaying specimens from the animals that died there. La Brea Tar Pits is a registered National Natural Landmark.  Below a Saber-tooth cat is attacking a Dire Wolf trapped in the mire.  The tiger will probably be caught in the pit too before it's all over.
 

Saber-tooth tiger
Dire Wolf

25. Did the breaststroke, e.g.: SWAM.  Diner, "What's this fly doing in my soup?".  Waiter, "Looks like the breaststroke sir."

26. "Voilà!": TADA.

27. Outrageous, as a price: EXORBITANT.  For example, the price of a gallon of gasoline these days.

30. Like the Beyond Burger: VEGAN.  Well McDonald's is selling them and Kim Kardashian is their Chief Taste Consultant, so they must be good!

31. Curling surface: ICE.  Everything you want to know about this slippery sport.  It sounds confusing.

33. Sad: BLUE.

34. Back talk: SASS.  You can do this in the Comments: section below.

36. Noses around: PRIES.  Looking for intel no doubt.

37. Wee bit: IOTA.

41. Negroni need: GIN.  A Negroni is an Italian cocktail, made of one part gin, one part vermouth rosso and one part Campari, garnished with orange peel. It is considered an aperitivo. A traditionally made Negroni is stirred, not shaken; it is built over ice in an old-fashioned or rocks glass and garnished with a slice of orange.

Negroni

43. Family vacay, perhaps: RV TRIP.

44. "Molto __!": BENE.  Very good!  Today's Italian lesson.

45. Had done, as a portrait: SAT FOR.

46. Diet-friendly: LO FAT.

47. Comes out, as an album: DROPS.  We use this to describe the arrival of a new streaming series or episode.  DNK this usage originated with albums.

48. __ tag: LASER.

49. Namesake of a speed ratio: MACH.  Ernst Mach (/mɑːx/ MAHKH; 18 February 1838 – 19 February 1916) was a Moravian-born Austrian physicist and philosopher, who contributed to the physics of shock waves. The ratio of one's speed to that of sound is named the Mach number in his honour.

Ernst Mach

51. List that may be accessed by scanning a QR code: MENU.  The usage of these has increased as a result of the pandemic.  If you live in the vicinity of Rockaway, NY and have a yen for Irish food, try the QR code in this link (above the  SCAN ME  bar).  Just scan it with Google Lens or iPhone Live Text and see what you get.

52. One of a kind: UNIT. 

53. Rx writers: MDS.  Let's C?  CSO's to inanehiker and Ray - O.  Anyone else?

55. PC core: CPU. Central Processing Unit, the component of a computer that actually processes the machine instructions in a program or app.

56. Grammy winners __ Lonely Boys: LOS.  Los Lonely Boys are an American musical group from San Angelo, Texas, who had their first hit nearly twenty years ago.  They play a style of music they call "Texican Rock n' Roll," combining elements of rock and roll, Texas blues, brown-eyed soul, country, and Tejano.  Here's their song Heaven (lyrics)

 

Guitarist Henry Garza wrote the lyrics and in his own words he states,“Losing a son, when I was 18 years old. That’s where the music comes from, deep inside. What God has entrusted us with is to make the music".

57. "As I see it" shorthand: IMO or sometimes IMHO.  As I see it, I've certainly got a lot to be humble about.

waseeley

And thanks as always to Teri for proof reading and constructive suggestions.

Cheers,
Bill

Emma, you are invited to post anything you'd like to share about this puzzle, its evolution, the theme, or whatever in the Comments section.  We'd love to hear from you.  Perhaps you could even share a bit about the Higgs Boson.

Friday, November 25, 2022, Emma Oxford

 

Good morning, Cruciverbalists.  Malodorous Manatee here with today's state-of-the-puzzle recap.  That is, I am here for those of you who have come out of any food-induced stupors that may have been caused by yesterday's feasting.  If you have not yet recovered then you have probably yet to solve the puzzle and are probably also not reading this so . . . never mind.

Today's puzzle setter is Emma Oxford.  I have previously recapped Emma's puzzles and they are always a pleasure.  The clues are often very clever.  Her themes are always creative and today's is no exception.  To grasp what she has accomplished today it helps if you, first of all, know the nicknames for various (in this case six) constituent states of these United States.  Second, it helped to know the postal abbreviations for those states.  Third, you need to like to play with words - in this case by breaking them apart at out-of-the ordinary places.  Here are the six themed clues and answers:

16 Across:  Flower of the Hoosier State?: IN CARNATION.  The Hoosier State is the nickname for Indiana and its postal abbreviation is IN.  INCARNATION becomes Indiana Carnation.

24 Across:  Basement access in the Palmetto State?: SC AREA WAY.  The Palmetto State is the nickname for South Carolina and its postal abbreviation is SC.  SCARE AWAY becomes South Carolina Area Way.

30 Across:  Clothing in the Sunshine State?: FL ATTIRE.  The Sunshine State is the nickname for Florida and its postal abbreviation is FL.  FLAT TIRE becomes Florida Attire.

44 Across:  Girls from the Show-Me State?: MO LASSES.  The Show Me State is the nickname for Missouri and its postal abbreviation is MO.  MOLASSES becomes Missouri Lasses.

50 Across:   Psychedelics from the Evergreen State?: WA SHROOMS.  The Evergreen State is the nickname for Washington and its postal abbreviation is WA.  WASHROOMS becomes Washington Shrooms (slang for mushrooms of the psychoactive type).

62 Across:  Fortified wines from the Ocean State?: RI VERMOUTHS.  The Ocean State is the nickname for Rhode Island and its postal abbreviation is RI.  RIVER MOUTHS becomes Rhode Island Vermouths.

Here is how this looks in the grid:

. . . and here are the rest of the clues and answers:

Across:

1. Spanish home: CASA.  La lección de español de hoy

5. Yelped about?: RATED.  Clever.  Nothing to do with a dog complaining.  Having used the food review app, Yelp.

10. Fix: JAM.  Hand up for thinking this had something to do with repair work.  Then thinking it might be pet related.  Nope, Fix is used, here, as in to be in a fix or predicament.  That's probably better than being in a pickle.

13. Actress Taylor-Joy: ANYA.  A web search reveals that she has both a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award.  I wouldn't know her from Eve.

14. Take from commercial to residential, maybe: REZONE.

15. PC core: CPU.  Central Processing Unit

18. Some triage pros: RNS. and 65. Some triage pros: DRS.  Professionals is abbreviated to PROS in both clues.  Registered NurseS and DoctoRS.  See also 59 Down.

19. Opposite of paleo-: NEO.

20. Stand for a presentation: EASEL.  Again, it is not as if we are at a performance of Handel's "Messiah" and getting out of our seats in a show of respect.  Literally, a stand on which you might place your presentation.

21. Clog fillers: FEET.  Not the hairs in your sink.  The shoes.

22. Boot: EXPEL.  Not the shoe.  Used, here, as a verb.  Oust.

27. Three-line verse: HAIKU.

        Our own Chairman Moe

        Often writes HAIKU verses

        For our enjoyment

29. Screen __: TEST.  Hand up for first writing in SHOT (well, the second T worked).

33. Rise to the occasion: STEP UP.

37. Refrigerator drawer: BIN.

38. Word before toast or after peach: MELBA.  Created as a surname by opera diva Nellie Melba (born Helen Mitchell) after her hometown of Melbourne Australia.  Such was her fame that several food dishes were named after her.

40. Comm. system in the film "CODA": ASL.  Comm as in communications.

41. Entirely: IN TOTO.  Also, where a dog treat might be located in Kansas.

47. Without: SANS.  From the Old French via Middle English.

49. Sore spots: WELTS.  When Gandhi was on his first hunger strike people would routinely bring him locally-made bread in an attempt to get him to eat.  What people don't understand, though, is that Gandhi was actually a very temperamental man and, prone to anger, he would hurl the bread at his friends sometimes leaving bruises and WELTS.  He justified this behavior by saying that it was all part of his philosophy of naan-violence.

54. Banks known as "Mr. Cub": ERNIE.

57. Think piece?: IDEA.  The result of cogitating, perhaps.

58. Social outcast, metaphorically: LEPER.

60. Portuguese greeting: OLA.  Lição de hoje de Portougese.

61. __ sequitur: NON.

66. Clinches the deal: ICES IT.  Idiomatic.  Sometimes we get SEWS UP.

67. Veal or venison: MEAT.

68. "Happy now?": SEE.  Ah, the things people say in crossword puzzles.

69. Bathroom fixture: BIDET.  More French.  Today's let's-skip-the-visual-aid moment.

70. IDs on tax forms: SSNS.  Social Security NumberS

Down:

1. Michael who plays Alfred in "The Dark Knight" trilogy: CAINE.  See also 30 Down.  Michael CAINE was in that movie too.

2. Building addition: ANNEX.  Putin is griping about all of the land he is trying so hard to ANNEX.  Oh, Crimea river, Vladimir.

3. Lackey: SYCOPHANT.

4. Level just below the majors: AAA.  A baseball reference.  The Triple A teams are comprised (with a few exceptions) of the best players in the minor leagues.  Below AAA is AA, A, and other tiers.  Altogether there are 209 minor league teams in 19 leagues spread across 44 states and 4 provinces.

5. Instill confidence in: REASSURE.  People keep telling me that alcohol isn't a solution but I've asked my chemist friends and they all REASSURE me that it is.

6. Xipe Totec worshipper: AZTEC.  Hand up for no idea what Xipe Totec was except that it sounded Mesoamerican.  The Z from REZONE was the hint that led quickly to AZTEC.

7. Labor over: TOIL AT.

8. Eclectic musician Brian: ENO.  Among other accomplishments, frequent visitor Brian ENO is known as the creator of "ambient" music.

9. Lair: DEN.

10. Banana Republic alternative: J CREW.  Hand up for first thinking of types of governments.

11. Sleep clinic study: APNEA.

12. Dank and damp: MUSTY.

14. Messenger __: RNA.  Pigeon would not fit.

17. On again: RELIT.  Like a light bulb or a candle.

21. Destiny: FATE.  "Man does not control his own fate.  The women in his life do that for him."    - Groucho Marx

23. Nosh on: EAT.  From the Yiddish nashn.

25. Flea market transaction: RESALE.

26. Educated guess, basically: Abbr.: EST.  ESTimate

28. Traditional garment for Japan's Coming of Age Day: KIMONO.  Despite not being familiar with Coming of Age Day this one filled quickly.

30. Org. in "Miss Congeniality": FBI.   A 2000 film featuring Sandra Bullock as an undercover FBI agent.

31. Three-time Tony winner __-Manuel Miranda: LIN.

32. West __: upscale furniture store: ELM.

34. Misbehave in class, in a way: PASS NOTES.

35. Purpose: USE.

36. "Thx" counterpart: PLS.  PLeaSe and Thanks.

39. Spar above a ship's figurehead: BOWSPRIT.

42. Job safety org.: OSHA.

43. Pitch: TAR.  Neither a baseball reference nor a sales spiel reference.  Pitch is the black viscous substance obtained as a residue through the distillation of organic substances.

45. Last new Olds: ALERO.  Oldsmobile.  A new olds.  Cute.

46. Orch. section: STR. and 50. Orchestra section: WINDS.  In the first of these two, almost identical, clues ORCHestra is abbreviated so STRings is also.

48. Cracked, as a mystery: SOLVED.

51. Love to bits: ADORE.

52. First word in a Jane Austen title: SENSE.

53. Attorney general under Reagan: MEESE.  Edwin MEESE.  A polarizing figure in his day.

55. Minnesota representative Omar: ILHAN.  A well-publicized figure due the the fact that she has also been seen as polarizing.

56. Bridge positions: EASTS.  We need one of the first two letters to see if it will be EASTS or WESTS.

59. Triage pro: EMT.  Emergency Medical Technician.  See also 18 and 65 Across.  Is the use of the same clue three separate times a new record?

62. Saguaro segment: RIB.  Saguaro is a ribbed cactus that looks like this:

63. Here, on Métro maps: ICI.  C'est francais n'est ce pas?  ICI is the French equivalent of here.

64. Verbal hesitations: UMS.  Hmm, a bit of a punt to wrap up a very, very entertaining puzzle.

Thanks for the wonderful grid, Emma.   Please feel free to stop by The Crossword Corner and share anything you'd like about the puzzle.

_________________________________________