Tuesday, June 21, 2022, Stella Zawistowski

 

Good morning.  Malodorous Manatee here.  Hahtoolah is still on vacation and, once again, I have the honor of filling in for her.

Today's puzzle setter is frequent contributor, Stella Zawistowski.  I always enjoy solving her puzzles.  Much has previously been written here on The Corner about Ms. Zawistowski so rather than repeat that let's join the festivities.  Party On, Cruciverbalists!

At three places within the grid, Stella has, at the end (or back) of a longer answer, placed synonyms for PARTY.  For our convenience, the themed answers are starred.  Two of these answers are fourteen letters long and two are twelve letters long.  Nice grid, Stella.

Here are the party-themed answers (and their respective clues):

20 ACROSS: *Broadcast quality determined by a car antenna: RADIO RECEPTION. Jumping right in, indeed:

26 ACROSS: *Sine or cosine, for short: TRIG FUNCTION. A TRIGonometry reference. It might have also been clued linguistically: Conjunction Junction . . .

. . . What's Your Function

43 ACROSS: *Issue best kept within the clan: FAMILY AFFAIR.

The reveal comes after the three party-themed answers and explains them to us:

52 ACROSS: Tongue-in-cheek description of a mullet, and of the answers to the starred clues: PARTY IN THE BACK. Hairstyles come and go. The mullet is, perhaps, best forgotten.

Here is how this all looks in the grid:

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

Across:

1. Drains of energy: SAPS.

5. Prefix with sphere: ATMO. ATMOsphere

9. Jousting weapon: LANCE.

14. Drive-__ ATM: THRU.

15. Have to have: NEED.

16. Negatively charged particle: ANION. Positively charged, it is a:

17. Many millennia: AEON. Outside of North America, AEON is favored over EON for uses unrelated to science.

18. Surrealist Salvador: DALI.

19. Muscular: TONED.

23. NFL six-pointers: TDS. TouchDownS

24. Beer barrel: KEG.

25. One, in Germany: EIN.

32. Mongolia's continent: ASIA.

34. Load, as cargo: LADE. STOW would have fit the space.

35. Movement-sensing game console: WII. Nintendo WII

36. Get set, casually: PREP. PREPare

37. Fireplace ducts: FLUES. Somebody asked me what a Spoonerism was. I haven't got a cooking FLUE.

39. "You said the same thing as me!": JINX. Typically, after the coincidental voicing of the same content, the individuals compete to say the word JINX before the other person.

40. Go kaput: DIE.

41. Sheet music symbol: CLEF. NOTE or REST would have fit the space, too.

42. Really, really stinky: RANK. Interesting word, RANK, with other definitions than the one used here.

47. Cry inconsolably: SOB. A depressed French baker sobs bitterly into the dough . . . His life is pain.

48. "__ go time!": IT'S.

49. Boxer's stat: KOS. Knock OutS

57. Move rapidly toward: RUN AT. Alternatively,

58. Sweetie: BABE. Often clued with the movie pig. Used this way, BABE is preferable to the BAE we see so much of lately.

59. Double Stuf cookie: OREO. Cookie of a thousand clues.

60. Cosmetician Lauder: ESTEE. A frequent visitor.

61. "Yes, let's do it!": I'M IN. Or, a hacker's pronouncement.

62. Actor Sharif: OMAR.

63. Youngster: CHILD.

Buffalo Springfield (Neil Young)

64. Sitcom backgrounds: SETS. The Addams Family tv show living room set was actually pink.

65. Breathe hard: PANT.

Down:
1. Microwave button: START. Among others.

2. Coming up: AHEAD. What did one hat say to the other? "You stay here, I'll go on ahead."

3. Urges along: PRODS.

4. Gymnast Lee who won a gold medal at the 2020 Olympics: SUNI.

Suni Lee With Her Medal

5. Nobel Peace Prize winner Sakharov: ANDREI.

6. Hard-boiled Chinese snack: TEA EGG.

7. Sporty Spice of the Spice Girls: MEL C. MELanie Jayne Chisholm

8. Garfield's drooling frenemy: ODIE. That's ODIE on the right, er left.

9. Crisscross pie crust pattern: LATTICE.

10. Bless with oil: ANOINT.

11. Yucatán boy: NINO. One of today's Spanish lesson.

12. Last name of filmmakers Ethan and Joel: COEN. The "Best Of" clips are too long. So, let's just go with this Fargo trailer:

13. Come to a close: END.

21. Bhindi masala pod: OKRA. A Northern Indian curried dish featuring, you guessed it, OKRA. Thanks, perps.

22. Isn't yet decided: PENDS.

26. Felt-__ marker: TIP.

27. Material in a lint trap: FLUFF. Never has anyone that I know referred to lint as FLUFF.

28. Abu Dhabi's fed.: UAE. United Arab Emirates

29. "Victory is mine!": I WIN.

30. Pigpen grunt: OINK. What's the difference between bird flu and swine flu? If you have bird flu you get tweet-ment. If you have swine flu you need OINK-ment.

31. Put the kibosh on: NIX. Remember this bumper sticker?

32. "Eri tu," but not "Eres Tu": ARIA. "Eri tu" is an aria from a Verdi opera. "Eres Tu" (It's You) is a popular song. However, ere is a version of "Eres Tu" recorded with a symphony orchestra.

33. Look like: SEEM.

36. Many an email attachment: PDF. Portable Document Format

37. Low-altitude airplane pass: FLYBY. The pattern is full.

38. "Miss Saigon" Tony winner Salonga: LEA. Unknown. Perped.

39. Salsa container: JAR.

41. Formed clumps: CLOTTED.

42. Get out of bed: RISE.

44. Holy Land nation: ISRAEL.

45. Step-counting device: FITBIT.

46. Capital of Greece: ATHENS.

49. Cosmic balance: KARMA. One person's take on this:

50. Salty expanse: OCEAN.

51. Hybrid garment: SKORT. A cross between a SKirt and shORTs.

52. Pull's opposite: PUSH.

53. Voting against: ANTI

54. Bird in Egyptian art: IBIS.

55. First line on a form, often: NAME.

56. "Touched your nose!" sound: BOOP. We have seen this clue/answer before. I prefer this take:

Betty Boop

57. TiVo remote button: REC. RECord.

Stella, 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.

. . . . and now it is time to rest and recover from all of this partying.

_________________________________________________________

פרת ים

MM Out

Thursday, June 16, 2022, Robert Wemischner & Mark McClain

Good Morning Cruciverbalists.  Malodorous Manatee here with the Thursday recap.  Our Princess of Power friend She-Ra, above, is having a tough time.  We all know what that can be like.  That said, the fact that this puzzle seemed to be a bit more difficult to solve than most Thursday puzzles is certainly a "first-world" problem.  I will try to remember to point out the ROUGH PATCHes that I encountered as we go along.

Let's begin with the themed entries - all of which were starred for our convenience.   At four places within the grid, the puzzle-setting team has placed answers within which can be found adjacent, scrambled letters forming the word PATCH when unscrambled.

 18 Across:  *Supply on a gift wrap station: SCOTCH TAPE.  Often use it.  At a gift wrap station might have been a bit clearer.

27 Across:   *Messaging app: SNAPCHAT.  Never use it.

39 Across:  *"Some Enchanted Evening" musical: SOUTH PACIFIC.  They don't seem to make 'em like this anymore.  Okay, so it's not the best version of the song, but did you know that Jay & The Americans (Western Union, She Cried) recorded it in 1965?  This is from 2019:

Jay & The Americans

54 Across:  *Second game of a doubleheader: NIGHTCAP.  NIGHTCAP, obviously, has a couple of other meanings, too.

The reveal comes at:

66 Across:  Difficult time, or what is hidden in each of the answers to the starred clues?: ROUGH PATCH.  I suppose that we are supposed to take ROUGH to mean something along the lines of "approximation".  In this context I find ROUGH to be a bit of a stretch.   But, hey, we're talking crossword puzzles, here.   We're not drafting legislation.

Here is how this looks in the completed grid:

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

Across:

1. Fountain output: SODAS.  Not the Trevi Fountain or something similar.

6. Basics: ABCS.  Did you hear about the new Abraham Lincoln sitcom on ABC?  Shot in front of a live audience.

10. Cause a scene: ACT UP.

15. Join forces: UNITE.

16. Bring (out): TROT.

17. Old Scottish landholder: THANE.  We've seen it before but it was still a bit of a rough PATCH.

20. Cancels: VOIDS.

21. As suggested by: PER.  ALA, anyone?

22. Cratchit boy: TINY TIM.  A Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol reference.

God Bless Us, Every One

24. Drink that may cause brain freeze: ICEE.

25. Go by: ELAPSE.  As in time.

29. Verne captain: NEMO.  He preceded the clownfish.

30. "Lion" Oscar nominee Patel: DEV.  DEV has been visiting us often recently.

33. Zesty Twirls maker: ORE-IDA.

34. Constellation near Ursa Minor: DRACO.  A rough PATCH for this solver.  Some familiarity with the word DRACO helped.  Most of that familiarity came from a dive into the history of Vlad The Impaler.  Dracula = son of the dragon.

36. Chicago suburb: CICERO.  The site of a race riot in 1951.

43. Mato __: third-largest state of Brazil: GROSSO.  A rough PATCH for this solver.  "Largest" helped.  A bit of Romance Language knowledge helped.

44. Flower holders: STEMS.  Hand up for first going with VASES.  Commander Cody would not have made that mistake.

Asbury Park, New Jersey - August 5, 1977

47. First name in mysteries: AGATHA.  AGATHA Christie, nee Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller.

51. GPS heading: ENE.  East North East.  The answer to this type of clue can be any one of the many secondary intercardinal directions denoted by the first letter of North, South, East and West.

53. Congeal: CLOT.

57. Stick (to): ADHERE.  I tried to start the Church of Teflon . . . but I couldn't find any adherents.

59. "Thanks for explaining": I SEE.  "I SEE," said the blind man as he spit into the wind.  "It's all coming back to me now."

60. Barbecue spot: TERRACE.  A rough PATCH.  PATIO was too short.  I guess that I will have to move to a high-rise condo.

63. The way things are usually done, for short: SOP.  Standard Operating Procedure.

64. Learned league?: MENSA.  A rough PATCH.  Would they revoke one's membership for being stymied here for a while?

68. Wood used in guitar-making: ALDER.  Many other types, too.

69. Beachy vacation spot: ISLE.  Beachy?  That's almost as bad as PROSY.

70. Minimal amount: TRACE.  Rough PATCH.  Hand up for LEAST, initially.  It would have gone well with 71 Across.

71. Paper for a pad: LEASE.  Cute.  Pad as in beatnik slang for the place where you live.

72. Examined: EYED.

73. Sports: HAS ON.  As in wears.

Down:

1. Hang: SUSPEND.  SUSPEND me from the highest tree?

Roger Miller - 1978

2. "The Lorax" voice role for Ed Helms: ONCE-LER.  A rough PATCH.  Thanks, perps,

3. Grade school exhibits: DIORAMAS.  Three-dimensional models.

4. NFL passing stat: ATT.  ATTempts.  At least it wasn't pluralized.

5. Splinter groups: SECTS.

6. Env. directive: ATTN.  ATTeNtion.

7. Sound like an ass: BRAY.  After watching too much TV leading up to last Tuesday's primaries, my mind went in a different direction, initially.

8. Egyptian Christians: COPTS.  The largest Christian denomination in Egypt and the Middle East.

9. Biergarten vessel: STEIN.  A German theoretical physicist walks into a bar.  He orders himself ein stein.

10. Off-rd. rig: ATV.  All Terrain Vehicle

11. First-class: CHOICE.

12. "Meditation in motion" discipline: TAI CHI.  I wanted to do TAI CHI but I ended up with chai tea.

13. Like zombies: UNDEAD.  I prefer this type of Zombie:

2019 Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony

14. Coin replaced by the euro: PESETA.  Spanish.  Neither Pound nor Franc nor Lira was going to fit.

19. Made haste: HIED.

23. Haka dancers of New Zealand: MAORI.

Kapa Haka

26. A bit, in music: POCO.  Italian. . . or . . .

2015 Colorado Music Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony

28. Faculty figs.: PROFS.  PROFessorS.  Not the worst plural-y abbreviation that we have come across.

31. Amazon gadget: ECHO.  Amazon's smart speaker.

32. Celebs given the red-carpet treatment: VIPS.

35. Should, with "to": OUGHT.  What did the librarian say when the books were in a mess?  We OUGHT to be ashamed of our shelves.

37. Word in many Encyclopedia Brown titles: CASE.  The boy detective series of books.

38. MBA course: ECON.  ECONomics.  B'school reference.  UCLA GSM class of '79, here.

40. Piece of land: TRACT.  "Sherlock, what do you know about the gastrointestinal tract?"  "It's alimentary, my dear Watson."

41. Hankering: ITCH.  URGE?  

42. Keyboard instruments that sound like glockenspiels: CELESTAS.  A rough PATCH.  Thanks, perps.

45. "Casablanca" setting: MOROCCO.

46. Composer Sondheim: STEPHEN.

47. Twisted balloon shape, often: ANIMAL.

48. Supermodel Bündchen: GISELE.  A bit of a rough PATCH.  Thanks perps.

49. Board meeting outline: AGENDA.

50. Dissertations: THESES.

52. Per item: EACH.

55. American Eagle Outfitters loungewear brand: AERIE.  A rough PATCH.  Usually clued with an avian reference.  Thanks perps. 

56. Unlike poetry: PROSY.  We kinda guessed that PROSE would be a likely jumping off point but PROSY?

58. Pool statistic: DEPTH.

61. Wear the crown: RULE.

62. Like some dried meats: AGED.

65. "__ you decent?": ARE.

"Me?  Sure, I'm decent."

67. Coach Parseghian: ARA.  University of Notre Dame Head Football Coach from 1964 to 1974.

That wraps things up for today.  May your day be without much in the way of rough spots.

Robert and Mark, 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.

____________________________________________________________

Tuesday, June 7 ,2022, Robin Stears

Good morning, Cruciverbalists.  Malodorous Manatee here.  "What!? Isn't this Tuesday and not Thursday?" I hear you ask.  "Did I oversleep?  By forty-eight hours?  Where is Hahtoolah?"  Well, as she let us know last Tuesday, Hahtoolah is touring in Europe this month.  I have the honor of filling in for her today.  While I do not expect to come anywhere close to her level of clarity and humor, perhaps we can still share some insights and some laughs.

Today's puzzle setter, in what is not her L A Times crossword debut, is Robin Stears .   Here is a link to a December, 2017 introduction to Robin on the Puzzle Nation site:  Robin Stears / Puzzle Nation.

The puzzle's reveal comes after all four of the themed answers (if you solve from top to bottom):

54. "Shoo!," and an instruction that goes with the last words of the answers to the starred clues: GET OUT OF HERE.

The starred clues and answers are:

19 Across:  *Social media time-out: FACEBOOK JAIL.  Get out of jail.

26 Across:  *Channel bottom: CREEK BED.  Get out of bed.

34 Across:  *Area of Hersheypark with the Candymonium roller coaster: CHOCOLATE TOWN.  Get out of town.

47 Across:  *Bit of trickery on a return: TAX DODGE.  Get out of Dodge.  From oaters.

Here is how this all looks in the grid:

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

Across:

1. Multivitamin mineral: ZINC.  What kind of metal was RMS Titanic made of?  ZINC.

5. Joined the choir: SANG.  A famous singer SANG for the patients at a hospital.  When he finished he said "Bye bye.  I hope you get better."  "You, too," replied the patients.

9. Corn discard: COB.  The first of twenty-six three-letter answers today.

12. Rachael Ray sauteing initialism: EVOO.

13. Ranch rope: LARIAT.  See also 8 Down.

15. "Knives Out" actress de Armas: ANA.

16. Foam ball brand: NERF.

Nerf Dog Tennis Ball Launcher

17. Kampala's country: UGANDA.  The capital and largest city.

18. Pro Bowl org.: NFL.  The National Football League.

22. Pinnacles: ACMES.  When the clue is singular we have to choose between ACME and APEX but neither APICES nor APEXES was going to work.

25. Church topper: STEEPLE.

30. Frozen rain: SLEET.

31. How-__: DIY guides: TOS.

32. "Life of Pi" director Ang: LEE.

33. Jazz poet Scott-Heron: GIL.  New to me but easily perped.

40. Half an umlaut: DOT.

41. "Blue Bloods" actor Cariou: LEN.

42. Thumbs-up at NASA: AOK.  Not a dyslexic tree.

44. Land measures: ACRES.  A quarter ACRE of undeveloped land might not seem like much to some people but to me it's a lot.

50. Move in a breeze, as a flag: FLUTTER.

53. Printer brand: EPSON.

58. Skeptical laugh: HAH.  Not to be confused with a sneaky laugh, HEH?

59. "__ Rouge!": Kidman film: MOULIN.  Français.  En anglais, c'est Red Mill.

60. Written reminder: NOTE.

64. MSNBC journalist Melber: ARI.  See also Exodus, Entourage, and Jackie "O".

65. Came afterward: ENSUED.

66. Actor McGregor: EWAN.

67. "Science Guy" Bill: NYE.

68. Papaya discard: SEED.

69. Many an auctioned auto, for short: REPO.  REPOssessed.

REPOSSESSED - 1990

Down:

1. Super chill, informally: ZEN.

2. "Now __ seen everything!": IVE.

3. Neither's partner: NOR.

4. Dunkin' serving: COFFEE.  In 2019, Dunkin' Donuts changed its name to, simply, Dunkin'.  Several years earlier, Merl Reagle gave us all a laugh by relocating the D and thereby changing the name to Unkind Donuts.

5. Stuffing herb: SAGE.

6. Many a Moroccan: ARAB.  ARAB has also been clued roughly seven hundred other ways according to the Visual Fractions website.

7. Spanish boys: NINOS.

8. "Wonder Woman" star Gal: GADOT.  Gal visits often.

Wonder Woman and Her Lasso of Truth

9. Cocktail party bite: CANAPE.

10. Among one's records: ON FILE.

11. "Swan Lake," for one: BALLET.

Les Ballets Trockadero De Monte Carlo

13. "Star Trek" captain Jean-__ Picard: LUC.  A CSO to Robert.

14. Doesn't fight back: TAKES IT.  For a brief moment I thought that they had dropped a letter.  Don't TAKE SIT from anyone!

20. Inquire: ASK.

21. Dessert that quivers: JELLO.

22. Play a role onstage: ACT.

23. Shoe with lots of holes: CROC.

24. Netting material: MESH.

27. Rorschach test component: BLOT.  What do you see?

28. Fish that can swim backward: EEL.

29. Handed out cards: DEALT.

33. Group with fortysomethings: GEN X.  Born between 1961 and 1981.

35. Poetic opening: ODE TO.

36. Halloween garb: COSTUME.

37. Spill the __: gossip: TEA.

38. Fistfuls of dollars: WADS.

39. Thumbs-down at NASA: NO GO.  Not A OK.

43. Jeong of "Community": KEN.  This was beyond my KEN.  Thanks, perps.

44. Crocheted coverlet: AFGHAN.

45. "Ramona the Pest" novelist Beverly: CLEARY.

46. Blues and folk singer/songwriter Foster: RUTHIE.

Ruthie Foster Covers Johnny Cash

48. German article: DER.  We have to figure out if it will be DER or EIN.

49. Warm-up act: OPENER.

51. Jackets named for a British school: ETONS.

52. Shake awake: ROUSE.

55. Chimney part: FLUE.

56. Hurried, quaintly: HIED.

57. Finish: END.  So what if you don't know what Armageddon means.  It's not like it's the END of the world.

61. Be indebted to: OWE.

62. Slight touch: TAP.

63. Ambient music pioneer Brian: ENO.  Another frequent visitor.

. . . . and now, perhaps, it is time to get out of Dodge . . .

פרת ים

MM Out