Friday, October 4, 2024, Gary Larson, Amy Ensz

 

Good Morning, Cruciverbalists.  Malodorous Manatee here with a Friday offering from frequent contributors/collaborators Gary Larson and Amy Ensz who are dillgently trying to help us Get ER Done (but, hopefully, in a manner significantly different than the one our friend, above, appears to be employing).

At six places within the grid we are asked to append the letters E and R to a common expression and, thereby, create appropriate answers to the clues.  To make things even more interesting, today we get a mixture of themed-answers placed both Across and Down in the grid.  Here is where we are asked to get ER done:

17 Across. Die-hard independent?: PARTY HATER.   A reference to political parties and people who are not convinced that the two dominant ones have the answers.  Derived from: Party Hat

28 Across. Baked potato?: HOT TUBER.  From: Hot Tub  A potato being, of course, a TUBER.

48 Across. Diamond heist?: ICE CAPER.  From: Ice Cap  CAPER being film noir/tec - speak for a robbery.

63 Across. Problematic dental patient?: DRILL BITER.  From:  Drill Bit  Ouch!

11 Down. Gauge on an oil rig?: WELL METER.  From: Well Met which is an archaic adjective used as a salutation, or part of a salutation, meaning "glad to meet you".  It is also carries connotations of suitability and propriety.  It's based on a different meaning of "meet," an adjectival/adverbial usage indicating something is literally or figuratively the right size for a given situation.

35 Across. Quality-control inspector at a knapsack factory?: PACK RATER.  From: Pack Rat.  A pack rat is a hoarder.  Not to be confused with the Rat Pack.

The grid:

The rest of the clues and anwser-ers:

Across:

1. Floor it: SPEED.  Put the pedal to the metal.  Step on the accelerator.  An automotive reference.

6. Grasps: SEES.  Understands.

10. Exchange: SWAP.

14. Eighth Greek letter: THETA.  See also 62 Across.

15. Do roadwork: PAVE.  Better to see this than something to do with TAR.

16. Deli sandwich: HERO.  How The Hero Sandwich Got Its Name

19. Came to rest: ALIT.

20. Alpine cheese from Italy: ASIAGO.

21. Vexes: RANKLES.

23. Support on a course: TEE.  A golfing reference.

24. "Stay" singer Lisa: LOEB.  Not in this solver's musical wheelhouse but they've TEEd it up so:

27. Ode or haiku: POEM.

Our clever Chairman

Crafts amusing Moe-kus but

Eschews writing M-odes 

30. One of Bo Peep's charges: EWE.  LAMB was t00 long.  RAM would have fit but would not mesh with the perps.

33. Incident that hurts one's credit score: REPO.  REPosession.

36. Hence: ERGO.

37. Place atop: SET ON.

39. "To the stars," in mottos: AD ASTRA.  Today's Latin lesson.

41. Facility that's in a constant state of ferment: BREWERY.  Nice wordplay.  Beer is fermented.

43. Kitchen gadget: RICER.  Sometimes PARER.

44. Carp kin: DACE.  While we have previously seen DACE in our puzzles this solver did not recall the word.  Thanks, perps.

46. Writer Bombeck: ERMA.  A frequent visitor.

47. Comics shriek: EEK.  Sometimes we see EKE as in to EKE out a living.

51. Rolling in dough: RICH.  Slang.

53. Henry VI's school: ETON.  If it's a reference to English royalty the school is almost always ETON.

54. Apollo vehicle, briefly: LEM.  Lunar Excursion Module

57. Netflix title role for Lily: FRANKIE.  Lily Tomlin I know.  The show I don't know.  Thanks perps.

60. Gender-neutral ethnic identity: LATINE.  As contrasted with Latino or Latina neither of which is gender-neutral.

62. Ninth Greek letter: IOTA.  See also 14 Across.

66. "Couldn't agree more": AMEN.

67. Country whose name comes from a Gaelic goddess: EIRE.  Ireland.

68. Not fully trusting: LEERY.

69. Shredded: TORE.  Will it be TORN?  Not this time.

70. "Out!": SCAT.  SCAT also has other meanings.

71. Barnett of CBS News: ERROL.

Down:

1. Mid-Mar. figure: ST. PAT.

2. Lunar cycle component: PHASE.

3. Supercreepy: EERIE.  Halloween is less than a month away.

4. Blues guitarist Baker: ETTA.  Often clued with a reference to ETTA James.

Goin' Down The Road Feeling Bad

Same Song - A Different "Take"

5. Company that invented black-light fluorescent paint: DAY-GLO.  Until solving this puzzle yours truly was unaware that DAY GLO colors traced their name back to a specific company.

Day-Glo Color Corp.

6. Upscale bathroom installation: SPA.  Somewhat convoluted cluing, IMMHO.

7. Down: EAT.  Slang.  Down has many meanings (e.g. feathers, a direction, nail it down) so this one had to be sorted out.

8. At any time: EVER.

9. Oaxacan wrap: SERAPE.  Oaxaca tips us off to a likely Spanish answer.

10. Lose: SHAKE.  As in to get away from someone who is following you.  My Labrador loved it when, in a "cops and robbers" flick, someone would say "Let's see if we can SHAKE the tail."

12. "Songversation" artist India.__: ARIE.  A frequent visitor.

13. Double boilers, e.g.: POTS.

18. Owl: HOOTER.  Not a themed answer.

22. Like Vikings: NORSE.  I love NORSE puns.  They're Frigg'n hilarious.

25. Robinhood alternative: E-TRADE.  Both are platforms for trading stocks.

26. App issue: BUG.  A tech reference.

28. Socks: HOSE.  Used as a noun.  Not as in punches someone.

29. Excavator-maker: BOBCAT.

31. Compost bin helper: WORM.  I saw a pack of gummy WORMs that said “No artificial flavors.”  Who buys gummy worms hoping they’d taste as close to real worms as possible?

32. Grammy winner from Donegal: ENYA.  A frequent visitor.

33. Uncommon: RARE.

34. Actress Falco: EDIE.  A frequent vistior.

38. Amphoralike vessel: EWER.  Not a themed answer.

40. Take in: TRICK.  As in "I've been taken in".

42. Get a second opinion?: RE-POLL.   Okay, but this solver has never heard this used.

45. Part of the upper deck?: ACE.  A playing card reference.

49. Takes to task: CHIDES.  My ex-wife used to CHIDE me about everything.  She was a real multi-tsk-er.

50. Empower: ENABLE.

52. Idiotic: INANE.

54. Soda purchase: LITER.  Hand up for first guessing it was a flavor or a brand name and not a size.

55. Año Nuevo month: ENERO.  Spanish lesson.  The New Year happens each January.

 

56. Streep of "Only Murders in the Building": MERYL.  Are there other Streeps?

57. Order: FIAT.  From the Latin:  Let it be done.

58. Tony who holds the Cowboys record for most touchdown passes: ROMO.  Dak Prescott holds the single season Dallas Cowboys' record for most touchdown passes.

59. Playwright Bogosian: ERIC.

61. Layer: TIER.  Hen was too short.

64. 401(k) rollover target: IRA.  A rollover IRA is a retirement account used to move money from a former employer-sponsored retirement account, such as a 401 (k) plan, into an IRA without losing its tax-deferred status.

65. Tennis mulligan: LET.  A do-over.

Well, that will wrap things up on a day where we visited, or were visited by, ERMA, ETON, EIRE, ETTA, ENYA, EDIE, and ERIC.  Was that a sub-theme?

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Friday, September 20, 2024, Will Pfadenhauer

Good Morning, Cruciverbalists.  Malodorous Manatee, aka MM aka OO, here with a recap of a puzzle by Will Pfadenhauer.  Will has previously had puzzles published by both the LAT and NYT and the puzzles seem to evoke strong responses from the solvers.  It is strongly suspected that today will not be different in that regard.

'Splainin' this one is going to take some verbal gymnastics so let's jump right in with the reveal:

70 Across. With 73-Across, insert for some water pitchers, or what has been used row-by-row on the answers to the starred clues?: BRITA. and 

73 Across. See 70-Across: FILTER

Like it or loathe it, Will has executed quite a tour de force.  All of the themed-answers come in pairs with each of the five pairs (ten themers in all) placed, one following the other, on the same row (once with an intervening answer the other times not) .  What we solvers filled in, via perps, early on no doubt made no sense.  How can ARIES, e.g., be the answer to the clue at 19 Across?  Well, what our puzzle setter has done is consecutively FILTER out the letters found in BRITA ...  each letter (dis)appearing twice in each of two words found on the same row.  Double or even quadruple filtered, if you will.  

The first pair is found at 17 and 19 Across:

17 Across. *Youthful helpers on tennis courts: ALLOYS - from BALLBOYS.  If one commenced solving in the northwest, then it soon became apparent that something "tricky" was going on.  BALLBOYS was not a difficult answer to suss out but it certainly was not going to fit within the allotted space.  Next, we got the aforementioned ARIES.  This solver moved on to something else trusting that the gimmick would become known somewhere further down the road.  Later, returning to where he started,  this quote came to mind:

If one removes the Bs from BALLBOYS we get the word ALLOYS.  Will has removed the same letter twice from a word and drived a perfectly acceptable word as the residual.  Then he goes ahead and does it again with another word focusing on the same letter!!  Doing a single pair of these would be impressive enough but in pairs five freaking' times!?

But I digress.  The Bs were also removed from 19 Across, on the same row:

19 Across. *Fashion toys from Mattel: ARIES - derived from BARBIES.

That takes care of filtering out the B of B R I T A.  Now, on to the rest, whixh appear in the proper order (top to bottom within the grid), no less.  I could go on and on about the gimmick but let us allow the technique to speak for itself.

For the R:

25 Across. *Restaurant freebie: BE A DOLL - from BREAD ROLL  (was the BE A DOLL bit following the BARBIES bit a mere coincidence?)

28. *Weapon in Clue: EVOLVE - from  REVOLVER

For the I:

34 Across. *Italian red wine: CHANT - from CHIANTI

36 Across. *Sasquatch trait: HARNESS - from  HAIRINESS

For the T:

50 Across. *NCAA basketball powerhouse in Milwaukee: MARQUEE - from MARQUETTE

52 Across. *Tornado: WISER - from TWISTER

For the A:

59 Across. *Weekend part: STURDY - from SATURDAY

61 Across. *Finding the means?: VERGING - from AVERAGING  Mean in this case as the companion to mode and median (methods of finding an average).

This is how it all looks in the grid:

Below are the rest of the clues and answers.  It does not escape us that the puzzle setter has employed some not-too-often-seen vocabulary and has sprinkled more than a bit of tech-speak into the grid.  This is befitting of a high school teacher who recently received a PHD in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology.  (I wonder if he and his former fellow-classmates were teased about that first one):

Across:

1. Pong publisher: ATARI.  A familiar bit of tech-related-ness.

6. Garden variety?: ZEN.  Not as in run-of-the-mill.  A place of serenity.  One example:

9. Untrue: NOT SO.  Well, actually in this case, yes.  See also 2 Down.

14. Motto: SLOGAN.  A friend was commissioned to come up with a Slogan for the year 2020 that was as catchy as, say, "click it or ticket".  She came up with "mask it or casket".

15. Glass of NPR: IRA.  A frequent visitor.

16. Thickset: BURLY.  

18. Tit for __: TAT.  Equivalent retaliation.

20. Support: AID.

21. "Assassin's Creed" game company: UBISOFT.  A not-so-familiar bit of tech-related-ness.  Unknown to this solver.  Thanks, perps.

24. __ peeve: PET.

30. Sandwich on telera: TORTA.  One had to recognize that telera is a Mexican bread.  TORTA being Spanish for sandwich.

31. Furry foot: PAW.  On your pet peeve, perhaps.

33. Social equal: PEER.

39. Throbbed: PULSED.

41. "Find out if they know": GO ASK.  These something-that-someone-might-say type of clues provide great flexibility to constructors.

42. School in L.A.: USC.

45. Mature: AGE.  Used a a verb.  The adjective, AGED, was too long.

46. Obtains: GAINS.

48. Remote login protocol: TELNET.  Another not-so-familiar bit of tech-related-ness.  Unknown to this solver.  Thanks, again, perps.

53. Snail-mail org.: USPS.

56. Feed letters: RSS.  Yet another not-so-familiar bit of tech-related-ness.  Unknown to this solver.  Thanks, yet again, perps.  An RSS feed consolidates information sources in one place and provides updates when a site adds new content. With social media, all you see is the favorite stuff that people share.

57. Representative: AGENT.

64. Ultimate goal: AIM.

65. Drop dramatically: PLUMMET.

69. "The Matrix" hero: NEO.  A motion picture reference.

72. Cha or chai: TEA.  We also see Black, Green, Oolong, among others.

76. Thinking clearly: LUCID.

77. Aardvark snack: ANT.  What does an aardvark order on its pizza?  ANT-chovies.

78. Agree: ACCEDE.  IMHO, A word not often seen in our puzzles.  Do you agree?

79. Fencing blades: EPEES.  Blunted weapons often found in crossword puzzles.

80. Simple structure: HUT.

Pizza The Hutt from Spaceballs

81. Flushed: RUDDY.

Down:

1. Basketball great Quigley: ALLIE.  From the WNBA.  Not to be confused with Immanuel Quickley of the NBA.

2. Fibbed: TOLD A TALE.  See also 9 Across.

3. Many moons __: AGO.

Emma, the Yellow Wiggle, Explains

4. Writer Bradbury: RAY.  When, as a child, my family lived in a section of Los Angeles, RAY was a neighbor.  He drove a Corvette.

5. Dig: INSULT.  Not as with a shovel.  Not as a hipster would "grok" something.  Used as a noun.

6. Cylindrical pasta: ZITI.

7. Notable ages: ERAS.  Sometimes clued with as baseball pitching statistics.

8. Gp. joined by Sweden in 2024: NATO.  Uh, Vladimir, are you familiar with the law of unintended consequences?

9. Jazz station?: NBA TV.  A refence to where on TV one might watch the Utah Jazz professional basketball team.  One of those clues that attmpts to mislead us because all clues, by convention, start with a capital letter.  Not an abbreviated clue but an abbreviated answer this time.

10. Team's adjective: OUR.

11. Bases-clearing hit: TRIPLE.  A baseball reference.  All of those who had been on base are now "cleared" but there is now a runner on third.

12. Slob's napkin: SLEEVE.  Or where we have now been taught to sneeze.

13. Grayish-white: OYSTER.  Not the first hue that came to mind.

14. Bygone Volvo rival: SAAB.  An automotive reference.

22. Uninspiring: BLAH.

23. Easiest to count, perhaps: FEWEST.

26. Puts on: DONS.

27. Taco sauce brand: ORTEGA.

29. Photo __: OPS.  OPportunitieS

31. Plain text: PROSE.  As contrasted with, say, to poetry.

32. Actress de Armas: ANA.  The use of a minimal number of proper names in the grid is much appreciated.

34. No. pro: CPA.  A pro.  Not no pro.  No as in the abbreviation for number.  Certified Public Accountant.

35. Embrace: HUG.  I like to crouch down, HUG my knees and lean forward.  It's just how I roll.

37. __ Dei: AGNUS.   AGNUS Dei is the Latin name under which the "Lamb of God" is honoured within Christian liturgies descending from the historic Latin liturgical tradition, including those of Roman Catholicism, Lutheranism and Anglicanism.

38. Barbecue rod: SKEWER.

40. Strawberry whose No. 18 was retired by the Mets: DARRYL.  Originally from Los Angeles.  A baseball reference.

42. Full-throated: UNSTINTED.  Anyone recall previously seeing this in a crossword puzzle?

43. Spot: SEE.  The combination of the clue and answer bring back memories from early elementary school.  See Spot run.  Run, Spot, run.

44. WNBA pos.: CTR.  Abbreviated clue....  CenTeR 

47. Mensa stats: IQS.  

49. CBS News contributor Lisa: LING.

50. Brand sold at REI: MSR.  Another set of abbreviations.  Although both companies pretty much only use their initials these days.  Recreational Equipment Inc / Mountain Safety Research.

51. Roof overhang: EAVE.

53. Fit for service: USABLE.

54. Provoke: STIR UP.

55. Exfoliation stone: PUMICE.  PUMICE is also USABLE for cleaning hard water rings from toilets.

58. Make good progress: GET FAR.

60. Thumb-operated controls: D-PADS.  More tech-speak.

62. Not self-sufficient: NEEDY.

63. Singer Lesley: GORE.

Nobody Knows Where Her Johnny Has Gone

66. Provo's state: UTAH.

67. Main information source?: MENU.  Another bit of tech-speak?

68. Actor Damon: MATT.

Sarah Silverman Receives an Emmy for a bit of NSFW Singing 

(originally aired on the Jimmy Kimmel Show)

71. __-dyeing: TIE.  Far out, man!

74. Hospital dept.: ICU.  Intensive Care Unit

75. Rock's __ Soundsystem: LCD.  From Brooklyn, NY  This solver was not familiar with the band but we do solve these puzzles, in part, for the joy of learning new stuff.

________________________________________________

Friday, September 6, 2024, Zachary David Levy

 

 

I R Malodorous Manatee and I R here with a recap of this Friday morning's puzzle from puzzle setter Zachary David Levy.   In the puzzle, at 58 Across, he asks the question that David Spade is snidely posing, above:

58 Across:  Rude greeting, or an apt title for this puzzle?: AND YOU ARE ?  In this case, though, we are required to take the phrase literally as in adding (and) U R.  Zachary takes standard items and adds U R to the beginning to create appropriate answers to the clues.  Something AND U R.

This is the third puzzle in a row that I have recapped where "letter play" is at the core of the themed-answers.  Fortunately for our still-recovering-previously-scratched-up heads today's letter play is not as enigmatic as it was a couple of weeks ago.  Today, this gimmick is employed at four places.  I R ready to point them out if U R ready to take a look:

17 Across:  Cash in Eurasia?: URAL GREEN.  Al Green the singer morphs into money in the URAL region along the border between Europe and Asia.  Green being slang for money.  The expression "long green" has been around since the late 1880s, but it isn't as popular as some more recent slang terms for money, like moola (or moolah), dough, or even scratch.

24 Across:  Greetings from the bear's den?: URSINE WAVES.  A SINE WAVE is a periodic wave whose waveform is the trigonometric sine function.   Got that?  Here, it simply morphs into something a bear might do.

35 Across:  Like an address bar?: URL SHAPED.  A computer-ese reference.  The address bar is at the top of an open browser web page.  This solver is not sure at all what URL SHAPED means (perhaps a wide, not very high space) but it was derived, in this case, from L-shaped.  Perhaps 39 Down (below) will inspire someone to open a neighborhood Address Bar

49 Across:  Tunes for some pathetic Dickens characters?: URCHIN MUSIC.   Here, CHIN morphs into URCHIN.  In baseball, CHIN MUSIC refers to a pitch thrown at a batters head.  I am pretty sure that no batter said "Please, sir I want some more" ala Oliver Twist.

Here, now, the filled-in grid:

... and, as is customary, the other clues/answers:

Across:

1. "Doctor Who" genre: SCI FI.  SCIence FIction.

6. Air quality monitoring org.: FCC.  A bit of misdirection.  The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency first came to mind) but the clue was refering to the airwaves (radio and television).

9. Wrap brand: SARAN.  Having used The Fugs recording in an earlier write-up we'll go with this:

14. Capital city of Piedmont: TURIN.  Site of the 2006 Winter Olympic Games.

15. Sigma preceder: RHO.  I helps to have a working familiarity with the Greek alphabet if one is into solving crossword puzzles.

16. System of beliefs: CREDO.  "I believe".   Valerie has plates that read:

I Believe In Enternal Love

For The Orchiette With Turnip Greens For Example

19. Mars exploration vehicle: ROVER.  The more we learn about Mars the less strange, and therefore, in an odd way, the weirder, it becomes...at least to this observer.

20. Swede's neighbor: DANE.  A geographical proximtiy reference.

21. __ Lingus: AER.  A frequent crossword flier.

22. Many a dance track: REMIX.  I REMIXed a REMIX.  It's back to normal.

23. DOJ arm: FBI.

27. Pass: ELAPSE.  Not a football reference.  Not a mountain gap reference.  Not a pick-up line reference.  Not a school grade reference.  Not a dice game reference.

As Time Goes By

29. Not at all welcoming: ICY.

30. Friendly opening: ECO.  One of those types of clues.  ECOfriendly

31. "__ Meenie": 2010 pop single: EENIE.  Unknown to this solver.  I looked it up.  Justin Beiber recorded it.  I have heard of him but know very little about him or his music.

32. Storybook bear: PAPA.

34. Bone, in Italian: OSSO.  As in OSSO bucco.

38. Jul. 4 shindigs: BBQS.  Abbreviated clue . . .

41. From Los Angeles to San Bernadino: EAST.  Easy for this SoCal solver.  Likely not so easy for folks from other places.

42. Crew: POSSE.  Modern slang.  No U.S. Marshall in a TV western ever said "Round up a crew".

46. Driveway stuff: TAR.  What in TARnation!?

47. Kilmer of "Real Genius": VAL.  I would have referenced "Top Secret" (1984)

48. Concern for a software engineer: PIRACY.  A music or movie reference would have been easier to suss out.

53. Tavern owner who stocks Duff beer: MOE.  MOE Syzslak.  A "Simpsons" TV show reference.

54. Covers: COATS.

55. Allow: LET.

56. Shellacking: ROUT.  Slang for decisive victory/defeat.

57. When repeated, "et cetera": YADDA.

60. As good as it gets: IDEAL.

61. Not keep up: LAG.

62. Sonar sounds: PINGS.  As in The Hunt For Red October.

63. Where chickens come home to roost: NESTS.  A clue meant to be taken literally.

64. Bile: IRE.

65. Map feature: INSET.

Down:

1. Payment to a breeder: STUD FEE.  I suspect that the horse would work for free.

2. Having a decent prognosis: CURABLE.

3. Like many songs or movies in Farsi: IRANIAN.

4. Spicy herb seasoning in gumbo: FILE.  As in FILÉ gumbo.  

Hank Williams

5. End to end?: ING.  Another one of those types of clues.  EndING

6. Unshackles: FREES.

7. French endearment: CHERI.

8. Big gathering of fans, casually: CON.

9. Disconcertingly odd: SCREWY.

10. Fragrance: AROMA.

11. Brings back to life: REVIVES.

12. Campaign pros: AD EXECS.  As in ADvertising campaigns.

13. Negating word: NOR.

18. Not in circulation, perhaps: RARE.

22. Episode lead-in, sometimes: RECAP.  Of what previously happened.

24. Friendly opening: USER.   Another one of those types of clues.  USER friendly,  Sometimes we get ECO friendly.

25. Bite gently: NIP AT.

26. "Hamilton" Tony nominee Phillipa: SOO.

28. Name of 12 popes: PIUS.  History suggests that not all of them were completely so.

32. Mass reading: PSALM.  Something to be read during the service.

33. "Open wide" sounds: AHS.  As at the doctor's office.

34. Fragrance: ODOR.  I once met a wine waiter with a really bad body ODOR.  Sort of like a dead skunk only sommelier.

36. Shows bias: LEANS.

37. Out of this world: EPIC.  An idiomatic clue and an idiomatic answer.  Far out, man!

38. AC meas.: BTU.  Air Conditioning.  British Thermal Unit.

39. Spot for beer and video games: BARCADE.  New to this solver.  A portmanteau of BAR and ARCADE.

40. Scannable squares: QR CODES.

43. Some Pacific Islanders: SAMOANS.

44. Nemesis: SCOURGE.

45. Exam for pupils: EYE TEST.  Not pupils as in students.

47. Set taken by a doctor: VITALS.

48. Feel sorry for: PITY.

50. Charged: HAD AT.   Hand up for first thinking RAN AT.

51. Of an arm nerve: ULNAR.

52. Tufted marsh plant: SEDGE.

56. Destroy: RUIN.

57. Dark portion of a Chinese circle: YIN.

58. Arab name that means "high": ALI.

59. Brand celebrating Hello Kitty's 50th Mani-versary in 2024: OPI.  A nail polish reference.  Crosword puzzles sure are broadening.

________________________________________