Thursday, July 15, 2021, Grant Howell

 

Good morning, Cruciverbalists one and all!  It's time to rise and shine.  Let's shake out those cobwebs and continue our perpetual search for answers.  It might be a good idea to start by opening our eyes.

Today's puzzle setter is Grant Howell.  This writer was unable to find any LAT puzzles with his byline so this might be his LAT debut.  If that is incorrect, I hope that he will accept my sincere apologies.  If true, welcome, Grant!

THE AYES HAVE IT.  Or, the eyes have it.  Or, in this case, the I's (or the i's) have it.  How does one write the plural of the letter I?  We?  Is?

At four places in the grid our constructor has replaced the word "eye" in a common idiomatic expression with the letter "I".  He reveals this substitution at . . . .

54 ACROSS:  Payback phrase altered to provide a hint to solving four other puzzle answers: AN I FOR AN EYE.  Although an eye for an eye seems vengeful, the original intent was to restrict retribution to the value of the loss.

.  .  .  . and the substitution is employed as follows:

20 ACROSS:  Good-looking: EASY ON THE IS.  Easy on the eyes.  Self explanatory.

39 ACROSS:  Vegas loser, often: SNAKE IS.  Snake eyes.  In dice play, (e.g. backgammon or craps) a pair of ones, a single pip on each die.  The odds of doing this are one in thirty-six.  When shooting craps, if you roll Snake Eyes you lose instantly.

11 DOWN:  Affectionate idiom that originally referred to a pupil: APPLE OF MY I.  Apple of my eye.  As the clue says, the phrase originally referred to the "aperture at the center of the human eye" - the pupil.

29 DOWN:  Perch perspective: BIRDS I VIEW.  Bird's eye view.  Today, perhaps, a drone's camera view.

. . . . and here is how the rest of the clues and answers appear to our eyes . . . .

Across:

1. Big drink of water: GULP.

5. Choice: PLUM.  In this case, not the fruit but, rather, something that is desirable.

9. Pesky crawler: ROACH.  My father claimed that, as a child growing ip in NYC, he had learned to identify the gender and species of almost any roach.  There is no substitute for experience, I suppose.  My mother told me that I was named for my maternal grandfather.  Maybe not.

Joey The Roach

14. Like most eggs: OVAL.

15. Making people wait, maybe: LATE.  In the context that was presented, I first thought of RUDE.  The E worked.  Nothing else did.

16. Wolf pack leader: ALPHA.

17. Self-named 2000s sitcom set in Texas: REBA.

18. Somewhat: A TAD.  Until we check the surroundings, we never know if it will turn out to be A TAD or A BIT or A FEW or A  DAB.

19. Landlocked Asian country: NEPAL.

23. Awesome, in slang: LIT.  I was totally unfamiliar with this use of LIT.  It used to mean drunk.  Thanks, perps.

24. Chinese toy: PEKE.  A bit of misdirection intended to lead us to think of a kite, or of Chinese Checkers or maybe even something to do with the balance of trade.  Instead, we get a small, or "toy", dog.  In this case, a Pekingese or PEKE.

Wasabi.  Best In Show.  2021 Westminster Dog Show

25. Works a wedding: CATERS.  I first thought of  USHERS.  Ushes?  Too few letters.

27. Prince in a can?: ALBERT.  The old prank.  Phone a tobacco store and inquire of whoever answers, "Do you have Prince Albert in a can?"  "Yes."  "Well, then, please let him out!"

30. Classic film involving a split personality: PSYCHO.  Alfred's vision is deservedly a classic.  So is Mel's.

32. Chow __: MEIN.  MEIN is the Chinese word for noodles.  Chow means fried.  Lo means tossed.

33. Wind heard in Dion's "Abraham, Martin and John": OBOE.  More misdirection.  I kept running through the lyrics in my head trying to find something Mariah-like.  Instead we got instrumentation.  You'd think that I'd be on to this trick by now.

35. "The Metamorphosis" author: KAFKA.

38. Bag or ball lead-in: AIR.  An AIR bag is a passive safety device in an automobile.  An AIR ball is a shot in basketball that completely misses the basket, the rim, and the backboard.

41. Early 11th-century year: MII.  1002 A.D.  More i's.

42. Couldn't say no: HAD TO.

44. Help to withdraw: WEAN.

45. Many a gospel song: HYMN.

46. Run-scoring out: SAC FLY.  A baseball reference.  SACrifice FLY.

48. Lao-tzu follower: TAOIST.

The Tao of Pooh

50. "Peer Gynt Suite" dancer: ANITRA.  ANITRA is the daughter of a Bedouin chief and she steals Peer Gynt's money after he attempts to seduce her.

52. Put on: WEAR.

53. Rainbow mnemonic surname: BIV. Roy G. BIV.  Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Indigo Violet.

60. Jennyanydots' creator: ELIOT.  From T S Eliot's poem Cats.

 Jennyanydots - As portrayed in what some consider 

to be the worst movie ever made.

62. Farm house: COOP.

63. "The Favourite" actress Stone: EMMA.

64. The "A" in CDA, to an Idahoan: ALENE.  Coeur d'ALENE is a city in Idaho with a population of roughly 55,000 people.

65. Automaker Ferrari: ENZO.  The last name is eponymous.

Enzo Ferrari

66. Verbal quirks, like "y'know": TICS.  A frequent, often unconscious quirk of speech.  Below, The Waco Kid Exhibits a TIC.

67. Coolidge's VP: DAWES.

68. Texter's sign-off: TTYL.  Talk To You Later

69. "Right now!": STAT.   When used in a medical context.  We often see the editing mark STET.

Down:

1. 2000 presidential runner-up: GORE.  Albert Arnold Gore.

2. Pigmented eye layer: UVEA.  Appropriate for today.

3. Some yellow dogs: LABS.

4. New parent's purchase: PLAY PEN.

5. Mr. Krabs' nemesis: PLANKTON.  A SpongeBob SquarePants reference.

Plankton and Mr. Krabs

6. Dunkin' Donuts offering: LATTE.   In a wonderfully clever bit, Merl Reagle anagramed Dunkin to Unkind Donuts.  Now re-branded as, simply, Dunkin' the chain seems to be trying to be though of as more a purveyor of coffee than of donuts.

7. U.S. territory until 1896: UTAH.  The UTAH Territory included what became the State of Utah, most of what became the State of Nevada, and parts of what became the States of Colorado and Wyoming.

8. Ancient Persian: MEDE.  The MEDEs established an extensive empire in the 7th Century BCE.

9. Pillages: RANSACKS.  Via Middle English from Old Norse.  Literally,  house seek.

10. Cry after un gol: OLE.  Today's Spanish lesson with significant global overtones.

12. Committee leader: CHAIR.

13. Stops: HALTS.

21. Above, to a bard: O'ER.  Variant of OvER.

22. Like some stares: ICY.  We also get ICE T today at 55 Down.

26. Lil Wayne's "__ Carter III": THA.  The sixth studio album released by Lil Wayne (2008).

27. Asian nurse: AMAH.  A nursemaid frequently appearing in crossword puzzles.

28. Princess from Alderaan: LEIA.  A Star Wars reference. LEIA Skywalker Organa Solo.   Alderaan is the name of a planet.

 

30. Stir: POKEY.  Another bit of misdirection.  Hmmm, MIX IN?  BLEND?   Both have five letters.  Nope.  A riff on two slang terms for jail.  

31. "I __ red door and I want it painted black": Stones: SEE A.  A straight-forward fill-in-the-blank clue.

 

 34. Cry buckets: BAWL.

36. Basinger and Cattrall: KIMS.  I was unable to find a photo of KIM Basinger and KIM Cattrall together.  Like Batman and Bruce Wayne?

37. "If it __ broke ... ": AINT.  . . . don't fix it.  Another straight-forward fill-in-the-blank clue.

39. Ancient dialogues subject: SOCRATES.  Plato wrote approximately thirty-five dialogues in most of which SOCRATES is the main character.

Bill & Ted's Take on the Subject

40. Worldwide anti-crime group: INTERPOL.  Officially, The INTERnational Criminal POLice Organization.

43. Ankle pic: TAT.  A few alternative locations for a TATtoo come to mind.

45. Charlotte NBA team: HORNETS.  The professional basketball team.

47. Autograph seeker: FAN.  An ardent devotee or enthusiast.

49. Duracell size: AAA.

50. Draw __ on: aim at: A BEAD.

51. Wafer brand: NILLA.

52. Light-headed: WOOZY.

55. Very cool rapper?: ICE T.  Ice is very cool, as in cold.  ICE T is a well-known rap artist.

56. Type of type: FONT.  Clever clue.

57. Radiate: EMIT.

58. Disco hit with arm motions: YMCA.  As someone who has been known to wear a "Death Before Disco" T-shirt, I cannot bring myself to use the original here.  Subsequent to the last administration, most of the really good spoofs are too political for this blog.  So, let's go with something nerdy.

DMCA

59. Towards sunrise: EAST

61. Phone button with no letters: ONE.

. . . . and on that note (or tone) . . . .

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Thursday, July 1, 2021, David Poole

Good morning, cruciverbalists.  Malodorous Manatee here with a canine friend to celebrate the first day of July with a puzzle that might have been more appropriately published on the first day of October.  Go figure.  Of course, jumping into a pile of loose leaves is fun at any time of the year.  Just ask any Labrador Retriever.

Today's constructor is David Poole.  David has previously had several puzzles published in both the L.A. Times and the N.Y. Times.

At four places within today's grid David took the letters of the word LEAF and scrambled them.  It seems that David just could not LEAF WELL ENOUGH ALONE.

To make it even more interesting, David starts each sequence with a different one of the four letters.  Those are my words.  His, or, perhaps, the editor's, are found at 57 Across:

57 Across.  Kind of paper . . . and a hint to a sequence, each starting with a different letter, found in four other puzzle answers: LOOSE LEAF.

In any event, here are the four theme answer:

17 Across.  Pub purchase: YARD OF ALE  We saw YARD used this way in a recent puzzle.  That might have helped with the answer.

26 Across.  Standard for a high seas villain:  PIRATE FLAG  Standard, in this case meaning a flag used for identification. 

35 Across.  Property insurance phrase: PERSONAL EFFECTS   I have most often heard the phrase used when someone is being put in, released from, jail as in "Here are your PERSONAL EFFECTS."

48 Across.  1996 Gere thriller: PRIMAL FEAR  This one could be interpreted as a slight break in the sequencing as the A in PRIMAL also works to jumble LEAF.

Here is how everything looks in the completed grid:

. . . below are the rest of today's clues and answers:

Across:

1. "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" quintet: IAMBS.  Dictionaries, and probably my High School English teachers, say that IAMBS are metrical feet consisting of one short (or unstressed) syllable followed by one long (or stressed) syllable.

6. Vietnamese soup: PHO.  Still working on the correct pronunciation.

9. Country album?: ATLAS.  Cute clue.  An ATLAS could be described as an album filled with maps of the world's countries.

14. Sidewalk artist's supply: CHALK.  Some of the CHALK is washable.

15. Runner's circuit: LAP.  Sometimes clued in reference to sitting down or standing up,

16. Wince or flinch, say: REACT.

19. Follow: ENSUE.  An answer that often follows crossword puzzle clues.

20. Produce providers: GROCERS.  Produce as in fruits and vegetables.

22. Prefix with angle: TRI.  RECTangle was not going to work out.

23. Me-time resorts: SPAS.

29. Part of UCLA: LOS.  The University of California at Los Angeles.  Neither University nor California nor Angeles was going to fit.  I did more than one year of undergraduate and two years of graduate work at UCLA.    I also taught for a while at the UCLA Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Planning.

30. Trip letters: LSD.  This could have been AAA or another travel-related answer but, as answered, we're talking about an Acid Trip.  LySergic acid Diethylamide.

31. Onion rolls: BIALYS.  Brought to the United States by Polish Jewish refugees in the late 1800s.  Many know of the onion rolls.  More, likely, know of Max.

Max Bialystock

32. Asia's __ Mountains: ALTAI.  This is known to me only through it's occasional appearance in crossword puzzles.

34. Four-time Emmy winner Woodard: ALFRE.

Alfre Woodard

41. Kick off: START.  The original use (the first kick in a football match) apparently dates from 1857.  The first use in the figurative sense dates from 1875.

42. You might hang one if you're lost: U TURN.

43. "Get lost!": BEAT IT.  Also, a song by Michael Jackson.  This marine mammal prefers Weird Al's version.

Side By Side

45. Up to, in ads: TIL.  Short for unTIL.

47. Hot __: TEA.  A three-letter fill in the blanks clue.  Hot AIR?  Hot TUB?  Hot ROD?

50. Not superficial: DEEP.

Deep Thoughts By Jack Handey

51. It may be checked at a station: OIL.  When was the last time someone at a gas station checked your oil or cleaned your windshield?

52. Computer building game: SIM CITY. There are a series of SIM games.  Among them are Sim Ant, Sim Earth, Sim Town, and, of course, SIM CITY.  SIM as in SIMulation.

54. Go out at night?: SLEEP.  The question mark tips us off that this answer will be a pun or some other unexpected usage.

61. Justice Kagan: ELENA.   Of SCOTUS.

62. "Lou Grant" production co.: MTM.  Lou Grant (Ed Asner) was the eponymous character in a television series produced by Mary Tyler Moore's production company.  A spoof both in name and in logo.  The cat would meow instead of roar like the MGM lion.

63. 2011 title cowboy chameleon: RANGO.

64. "SOS" and "Help!": SONGS.  SOS is an ABBA song and Help! was written and recorded by the Beatles.  I could use a bit of help on this one.  Hands up for those who want to hear the ABBA song.  Okay.  Now, hands up for the Beatles.  Not even close.

65. Red __: SEA.  Another three-letter fill ion the blanks clue.  Red Fox (not the comedian)?  Red Ant?  Red Dye?  Red Sox?  Red Hot?

66. Last part of many a book: INDEX.  Appendix was too long,

Down:

1. Needing salt, maybe: ICY.  As in putting salt on ICY roads.

2. "Now I get it!": AHA. AHA is an exclamation of understanding, realization, recognition or invention.  OHO expresses surprise.

  

3. Blemish: MAR.  From the Old English merran meaning to hinder or to waste.

4. Campus units: Abbr.: BLDGS.  There are many other locations for BuiLDinGS.  But a campus can, indeed, made up of same.

5. Hershey toffee bar: SKOR.

6. Composed: PLACID.

7. More healthy: HALER.

8. In working order: OPERABLE.

9. Modern art?: ARE.  Wherefore art thou, Romeo?  Where ARE you, Bae?

10. Highest Scrabble tile point value: TEN.  The Q and the Z.  There are only one of each.

11. In conclusion: LASTLY.

12. Luxury cars since 1986: ACURAS.  Honda Motor Company's line of upscale automobiles.  Other than oil, fluid and filters my 2011 RDX has required on one minor repair.

13. "Sylvester and the Magic Pebble" author William: STEIG.  This was new to me but the perps filled it in.  If the clue had been "Shrek" I would have gotten it more quickly.

18. Dandy dressers: FOPS.  Men who are concerned with their appearance in an affected and excessive way.

21. Leave zip for a tip: STIFF.  The use of the idiom ZIP (meaning zero, nothing) in the clue indicates that the answer will also, most likely, be idiomatic.  To STIFF someone means to not pay for something for which it is expected that you will pay.

23. High-five, e.g.: SLAP.

24. Gondolier's implement: POLE.

Photo By MM

25. Subj. for Neil deGrasse Tyson: ASTR.  Although Neil deGrasse Tyson is eminently worthy of our esteem, using ASTRonomy as fill is a Punt!

27. Severe scolding: EARFUL.  Another idiomatic expression.

28. Admiral's command: FLEET.  Hmmm.  It might have been an instruction to a subordinate.  No, it is what the Admiral is in command of.

30. Ray who played "Shoeless Joe" Jackson in "Field of Dreams": LIOTTA.

33. Indian tea region: ASSAM.  With two A's and two S's ASSAM is a five-letter word favored by constructors.

34. Genre modifier: ALT.  There are many, many ALTernative music genres.

36. Manicurist's targets: NAILS.  What is the hardest part about making a manicure joke?  You really have to nail it.

37. Small-theater movies: ART FILMS.

38. Like cat videos: CUTE.

39. Genealogist's chart: TREE.

40. Pic: SNAP. As in to SNAP a photograph.

43. Scrubber brand: BRILLO.  There was a time when almost all households were either BRILLIO or SOS (but not as used at 64 Across).

44. Astronaut Collins, first female Space Shuttle commander: EILEEN.  Without the qualifier, Michael would have been a good, if unworkable, guess.

45. Airport sharer with Seattle: TACOMA.  SEATAC airport used to be famous for spending a lot of time getting through security.   Perhaps things have changed.

46. Crocus cousin: IRIS.  Has anyone named their child Crocus?

48. Runway array: POSES.  As in modeling clothing.  A not-too-difficult attempt at misdirection.  Still, something airport-related was the first thing to come to mind.

49. Chew the scenery: EMOTE.

50. Musician who was the 2016 Literature Nobelist: DYLAN.  This might seem like a good place to insert a song by Robert Allen Zimmerman (aka Bob DYLAN).  However, I am going to go with my favorite Nobel Prize Awards Dinner moment.

Richard P. Feynman

53. Actress Hatcher: TERI.

55. U.K. part: ENG.  ENGland, Scotland, Wales and the northern portion of Ireland comprise the United Kingdom.

56. Faux __: PAS.  Could this still be considered to be a French lesson?  It has become pretty mainstream in the English language.

58. Conclude: END.  Too bad this was not the final clue although that has probably been done.

59. What candles may measure: AGE.  After a while, putting one candle for each year on a birthday cake becomes a fire hazard.  But not for this three-year-old.

60. Kit's parent: FOX.  A female fox is called a Vixen, a male is called a Dog Fox or Tod and a baby fox is called a pup, cub, or Kit.

Photo By MM

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