I ended the year with John Lampkin, and I begin with another from the clecho king. This time the theme seems simple, the second word, or second part of a known word or phrase is a synonym for boss. The clecho part is that each are clued with "TOP" meaning the best or the boss. The grid is filled with sparkly stuff like AT FAULT, AURORAS, BAD CALL, DOLLS UP, HAYSEED, I’M TOAST, SPARROW, SPEEDOS, TEARFUL, COPY DESK and SUSPENSE.
17A. Top horticulturist? : BUSHMASTER. This SNAKE breaks into parts for the theme. It is part of the viper family.
27A. Top orthopedist? : BONEHEAD. Any bonehead know orthopedists deal with bones.
36A. Top dairyman? : CREAM CHEESE. Like wheel below, this one needs a "Big" before it to project the same meaning as the rest of the theme.
47A. Top entomologist? : FLYWHEEL. You had to know John would get something buggy into the grid. A flywheel is a rotating mechanical device that is used to store rotational energy. Flywheels have a significant moment of inertia and thus resist changes in rotational speed. The amount of energy stored in a flywheel is proportional to the square of its rotational speed. Energy is transferred to a flywheel by applying torque to it, thereby increasing its rotational speed, and hence its stored energy. Conversely, a flywheel releases stored energy by applying torque to a mechanical load, thereby decreasing the flywheel's rotational speed. per wiki.
Picture and captions from John Lampkin:
I don't pretend to be a FLY WHEEL myself, but I do enjoy photographing
them! This bee-mimic Robber Fly captured a beetle and landed on my friend Doug's pant leg. The other members of our group who were 20 feet away were wondering why I was photographing Doug's crotch. Anything for a shot.
57A. Top cinematographer? : FILM LEADER. The TERM is also about movies but I did not know it.
Across:
1. Like Sherlock's game : AFOOT. An A word that is really used, and for a detective story lover, this was a great way to start.
6. Jerk : BOOB. This meaning for the word boob has long been supplanted by the slang word for female breast, which makes JL's intersecting 6D. Museum work : BUST so amusing. The king of the cross-reference strikes again. I found the clue/fill slowed me down big time.
10. Medical ending : OSIS. For some reason HALITOSIS popped into my head, even though HYPNOSIS, OSMOSIS and TUBERCULOSIS are clearly more common.
14. Sierra Nevada tourist attraction : TAHOE. A truly awesome place to visit with the mountains, the lake and the casinos.
15. Bruin's home : UCLA. This took much longer than it should have, perhaps a product of growing up near Boston, though my first answer was CAVE.
16. Leave in a bad way : DUMP. Ah the heartbreak of it all. Any great stories of broken romances? 35D. Like some goodbyes : TEARFUL.
19. East in Ecuador : ESTE. How odd that of all the Spanish speaking countries, JL picked Ecuador. We have clients involved in a big project there.
20. Puncture opening? : ACUpuncture.
21. Lay : PUT. Not sure, Lay Down?
22. Main signal : SOS. In this case the bounding main of the open seas.
24. "I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity" writer : POE. An interesting and tragic figure. You can read more HERE.
25. Less inclined to ramble : TERSER.
29. Get a leg up ... and down : STEP.
30. Pearl Buck heroine : OLAN. How lucky can I get, we just had this.
32. Playground retort : CAN SO. Can not.
33. Comparable to a beet : AS RED.
35. Private meetings : TRYSTS. Well usually private and naughty.
38. Emulates a fan : ADORES.
40. Lessen : ABATE.
41. Go __ : TO POT. Or Colorado?
42. Rosa's rosa, e.g. : FLOR. Is this flower in both Spanish and Italian?
43. Cut, in a way : ETCH.
49. Homburg kin : FEDORA. Hats off to John, who actually wears hats for getting this fill in the grid.
51. City VIP : ALDerman.
52. Lamp opening? : ELL. The letter, silly.
53. Cannes confirmation : OUI. Must have some French for Splynter.
54. Even so : YET.
55. Applications : USES.
60. Verdant : LUSH. Usually associated with growing things.
61. "Young Frankenstein" Fräulein : INGA. The incomparable Teri Garr and her knockers.
62. "If only!" : I HOPE.
63. I-76 in Penn., e.g. : TPKE.
64. Handy : NEAR.
65. "Good Lord!" : OH GOD.
Down:
1. Chances for a walk in the park? : AT BATS. Some baseball misdirection as the park is the ball park. It is safe to say John likes to be misleading, as in another baseball clue 27D. Mistake at home, perhaps : BAD CALL.
2. Tap : FAUCET. So simple but I started out struggling in the NW corner.
3. "And I'm Cleopatra" : OH SURE. followed by...
4. Awed response : OOH. Now if the next clue were Buckeye state, we would have quite a progression. We also have 59D. Spa sound : AHH.
5. Home of Arizona State : TEMPE. I have quite a few cousins who got degrees there.
7. Calendar pg. : OCTober.
8. Nellie __, character in Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House" books : OLESON. This was all guesswork.
9. Low-grade peer : BARON. Downton Abbey will be back soon.
10. Lyric tribute : ODE.
11. Film genre : SUSPENSE.
12. "My goose is cooked" : I'M TOAST. Two cooking references. Two I references.
13. Small trunks : SPEEDOS. Joe Manganiello anyone?
18. Dawns : AURORAS. Better than my old friend Eos.
23. It may be told in anger : SECRET. 34D. Rage below the surface : SEETHE. 46D. More than dislike : HATRED. Mini-theme? Hmm, some issues JL?
26. Field chirper : SPARROW.
28. Yokel : HAYSEED. Fun fill.
31. Apollo 11's Eagle, briefly : LEM. Thanks JL for the CSO.
36. News editing site : COPY DESK. Where is our newswoman? Do they still have these.
37. Starz rival : HBO. Is this still an initialism for Home Box Office?
38. Liable : AT FAULT. Florida has no fault divorce and car insurance.
39. Dons fancy duds : DOLLS UP. Fun phrase.
42. One may be in your lap : FELINE. The perfect clecho for the Corner. For CED.
44. One may be in your lap : TOY DOG. For Manac.
45. Sleazeball : CREEPO. So many variations of the word creep, but I did not know this one.
48. Puckish : ELFIN. Just watched the final of the Hobbit Trilogy. Filled with Elves who were not ELFIN. I also rewatched ELF for Christmas.
50. Farm sequence? : EIEIO. Old MacDonald would be proud of so many O words.
53. "A Book of Verses underneath the Bough" poet : OMAR.
56. Ship, to the captain : SHE. On the bounding main.
58. JFK alternative : LGA. Three letter airport codes. MSY, MCO, ORD are trickier to suss.
Well another year has begun with a challenging but doable Friday (only 74 words and 34 blocks, so we had to work hard). Thank all for the good wishes after my wedding and have a great year.
Lemonade out.
