Theme: Cutting some Zs. Each of the theme answers is a phrase containing the letter "Z" which is removed and is replaced by the pluralized D sound to make a similar sounding but very different phrase, fraught with humor. This is the third James Sajdak puzzle I have had the pleasure of blogging, and like his June 24, 2011 farmhouse puzzle, sound has much to do with the theme. In his interview, Mr. Sajdak, who is an English teacher by trade, emphasized his goal was to entertain, so he fits in perfectly for the Corner and myself. Let's see where he takes us today, P.S., shh but it is Lemonade here as the tour guide today.
20A. Easy-to-use sock drawer organizer?: PEDS DISPENSER. This morphed from PEZ DISPENSER, the famous collectable candy holding toy, into a really nice image of a drawer shooting out little socks, PEDS being footie socks.
28A. Dog show eye-catchers?: COOL BREEDS. COOL BREEZE. As you can see the changed word can be first or second and the replacement is not just D for Z, but to accomplish the sound.
36A. Feline alpha groups?: TOP PRIDES. TOP PRIZE; we know lions come in prides, do other cats?
48A. "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "We Are the Champions" : QUEEN SIDES. QUEEN SIZE. A song on one side of a 45; these are two by the irrepressible late, great FREDDY MERCURY. I wonder where the idea that royalty meant bigger? Why are there no Jack sized beds?
56. Winter Olympics winner's wall hanging?: BLADES OF GLORY. This theme is going out in a BLAZE OF GLORY, unlike the MOVIE, which brought a new dimension to the world of Olympic pairs skating; funny or lame?
Across:
1. Henri's here: ICI. We begin in my wheelhouse with a simple French word, which means "here."
4. Sci-fi psychic: EMPATH. We have had Ms. Troi before.
20A. Easy-to-use sock drawer organizer?: PEDS DISPENSER. This morphed from PEZ DISPENSER, the famous collectable candy holding toy, into a really nice image of a drawer shooting out little socks, PEDS being footie socks.
28A. Dog show eye-catchers?: COOL BREEDS. COOL BREEZE. As you can see the changed word can be first or second and the replacement is not just D for Z, but to accomplish the sound.
36A. Feline alpha groups?: TOP PRIDES. TOP PRIZE; we know lions come in prides, do other cats?
48A. "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "We Are the Champions" : QUEEN SIDES. QUEEN SIZE. A song on one side of a 45; these are two by the irrepressible late, great FREDDY MERCURY. I wonder where the idea that royalty meant bigger? Why are there no Jack sized beds?
56. Winter Olympics winner's wall hanging?: BLADES OF GLORY. This theme is going out in a BLAZE OF GLORY, unlike the MOVIE, which brought a new dimension to the world of Olympic pairs skating; funny or lame?
Across:
1. Henri's here: ICI. We begin in my wheelhouse with a simple French word, which means "here."
4. Sci-fi psychic: EMPATH. We have had Ms. Troi before.
10. Druid's sacred hill : TARA. This was my LEARNING EXPERIENCE. I only knew GWTW and Sookie's friend on True Blood.
14. What Lin's D.C. wall commemorates: NAM. I was moved to tears when I first went and traced the names of friends who perished. Maya Ying Lin.
15. Craps table tactic: PARLAY. Letting your winnings ride, never have played.
16. Like some terrible reviews: ACID. Acid tongue I know, but this did not come easily.
17. Wee: SMA. We have has this Scottish version of small often, usually with a Robert Burns reference, but not a favorite of Ms. Hearti who spoke out against it earlier this month.
18. Bandit feature?: ONE ARM. Back in the day when you actually had to pull on a lever, this slot machine reference made sense; no longer.
19. Watch lights, briefly: LCDS. Liquid Crystal Displays like the James Bond Pulsar.
23. Emphatic words: I REPEAT.
24. Run-of-the-mill: USUAL.
27. Track position: RAIL. Very important in horse racing; bet on it.
32. Cornerstone abbr : ESTAB. Established.
34. Just outside of: NEAR.
35. Rolls in the grass?: SOD. Very clever picture of rolled up sod.
40. Palm Sunday carrier: ASS. Avoiding religion as a topic, we all must agree there are an awful lot of asses in the Bible.
43. German battleship Graf __: SPEE. The ship is long gone, but it lives on in VIDEO GAMES.
44. 1945 "Big Three" conference site: YALTA. Your HISTORY LESSON.
52. Slangy negatives: NAHS.
53. 14th-century Russian prince: IVAN I. A prince of Moscow. Like the Popes, the "I" makes it hard to parse.
54. Retro tees: TIE DYES. Another difficult to suss letter combination, looking like TIED YES.
60. Prussian pair: ZWEI. Alliteration for the Germanic Two.
62. Stimulate: INCITE. Calm down we are here to entertain, no riots.
63. 36 for nine, often: PAR. There really are many golfers in the puzzle world.
64. Votes for: AYES. A half shout out to our Poet Laureate.
65. Semi-sheer fabrics: VOILES. Back to the French, meaning VEIL. You like?
66. Owner of Abbey Road Studios: EMI. Electrical and Musical Industries, Ltd. is one of the oldest companies in music. They are now wholly owned by Citigroup.
67. Orkin target: PEST.
68. Speak with conviction: ASSERT.
69. Decoding org.: NSA. National Security Agency.
Down:
1. Fire up: INSPIRE. In contrast to the earlier INCITE.
2. Set pieces?: CAMERAS. What you will find on the TV or Movie SET.
3. Cry from one reaching the top: I MADE IT. Also part of my night time ritual for another day.
4. Lyrical poetic form: EPODE. CA, you are on.
5. Zealot-plus: MANIAC.
6. Appearance announcement: PRESTO. What they say when the bunny shows up from the hat.
7. Gain __: get further ahead in the race: A LAP.
8. Empty weight: TARE. We have many clues about ships and LADING.
9. Mass music: HYMN.
10. "Honor Thy Father" author: TALESE. A poor man's Mario Puzo.
11. Grows: ACCRUES. The interest in your account.
12. Purged: RID.
13. Spots with slogans: ADS. I wonder when they started calling radio and TV ads, spots?
21. Egg toss miss indicator: SPLAT. Very nice visual clue. You were supposed to catch the egg Jeannie not sell it to BK.
22. Light carriage: SURREY. My mind went immediately to the FRINGE.
25. Flap: ADO. A new clue for an old fill.
26. Dr. Leary's turn-on: LSD. Turn on, tune in and drop out.
29. No right __ : ON RED. I was shocked when I moved to Florida and you could turn right at a red light.
30. Jasmine neckwear, perhaps: LEI. Hawaii people, do they have Jasmine on the island?
31. Wicked: BAD. As opposed to Massachusetts, where wicked is good.
33. Sarajevo's region: BOSNIA.
37. Forgetful writer's letters?: PPS.
38. Louvre Pyramid designer: PEI. I M impressed, two famous designer in one puzzle.
39. Subj. of an '80s-'90s financial crisis: S AND L. Savings & Loan, a tough one to see.
40. EPA concern: AQI. We are getting acronym intensive, Air Quality Index.
41. Toyota RAV4, e.g. : SUV. Sport UtilityVehicle.
42. Navy builders: SEABEES. The name comes from a pun on Construction Battalion. Like all our service men, they should be HONORED.
45. Expose: LAY OPEN. Wow, talk about your DF, getting laid out in the open; oh, you mean lay bare!
46. St. Louis team, familiarly: THE RAMS. Football team that moved from LA, after starting originally in Cleveland.
47. Ancient kingdom on the Tigris: ASSYRIA. Modern Iraq.
49. Sign on: ENLIST. We daily bloggers enlist, after we are drafted.
50. Star of France: ETOILE. Just another lesson, STAR = ETOILE.
51. Bakery utensil: SIFTER. Must get the flour flowing.
55. Discharge: EGEST. From the Latin gerere to carry, with the prefix E, which means from; so literally to carry from. A fancy way of saying pooping. DIgest goes in, Egest goes out.
57. Price or Battle: DIVA. Opera stars Leontyne and Kathleen.
58. Genesis grandson: ENOS. More Bible, a son of Seth, the third child of Adam and Eve.
59. H.S. courses: SCIS. Sciences.
60. Cook quickly, in a way: ZAP. Microwave mania.
61. Three-switch railroad track section: WYE. The word is very descriptive of the tracks coming together, and featured in this MOVIE, which was suspenseful, but like the blog has a happy ending (or does it?). I finished another Friday, did not hurt myself and get to watch Devin and his band play again tonight. They had four paying gigs this month, the most yet. Have a great week end and celebrate, and for those in the path of Irene, we pray the cold front pushes her out to sea. Take care.
Answer grid.
Lemonade
