Good Morning, Cruciverbalists. Malodorous Manatee, here, with today's recap. Our puzzle setter is Hoang-Kim Vu who sometimes constructs/publishes with his wife, Jessica Zetzman. A web search will return quite a few hits for each/both of them.
Today's puzzle does not have a "reveal" but it does contain four themed answers and the theme could be dubbed Job Descriptions. At four places in the grid, the answers are tasks required of an employee. Each of those four clues employ a bit of paranomasia - punning, playing on words. The job descriptions are also all presented in a somewhat Tarzan (or Tonto)-esq manner in that gerunds are eschewed.
Tonto, Tarzan and Frankenstein
Here are the four themed clues and answers:
17. Part of a DJ's job description?: KEEP RECORDS. The clue riffs on recorded music.
28. Part of a matchmaker's job description?: PLAN MEETINGS. Matchmakers PLAN (potentially) romantic meetings.
50. Part of an umpire's job description?: WORK FROM HOME. In this case Home plate.
65. Part of a squire's job description?: DELIVER MAIL. MAIL as in chainmail armor. A squire was a young man who hoped one day to become a knight himself.
Here are the rest of the clues and answers:
Across:
1. Savory jelly made with meat stock: ASPIC.
6. Focus of many HGTV shows: DECOR.
11. Animal that brays: ASS.
14. Animal native to the 54-Down: LLAMA. Ogden Nash having been invoked last week, let's go with this: What did the mama LLAMA say to her children as they got ready for a picnic? Alpaca lunch. Maybe I should have gone with the LLAMAS and the Papas.
15. Produce concern: E-COLI. Produce used as a noun. Fruits and vegetables. A hand up, here, for trying to work out something ripeness-related.
16. Deep __: CUT. SLEEP and STATE were both too long. Never cared much for PURPLE and $H!T was not going to appear in an LAT puzzle.
19. Gene messenger: RNA.
20. Belt-maker's tool: AWL.
21. Pop-folk singer Williams: DAR. Dorothy Williams. The first of many proper nouns in today's list of clues/answers the abundance of which has been previously discussed.
22. Celebrated: EMINENT.
24. Some car deals: LEASES. As opposed, one supposes, to SALES.
27. Gift to new parents: ONESIE. Actually, wouldn't it would be more of a gift for the infant?
31. "Look alive!": HOP TO. HOP TO IT. Begin to do something quickly and energetically.
32. Have a life: ARE. Often this is clued with "exists".
33. Snooty sort: SNOB.
37. Pitching stat: ERA. A baseball reference. Earned Run Average
38. Sport for Amanda Nunes, briefly: MMA. Mixed Martial Arts. Her nickname is The Lioness. Ronda Rousey might have been the clue earlier in the week.
41. Single, for one: Abbr. SYN. Thanks, perps. This marine mammal scratched his head for a while over this one. . . and flippers aren't the best for scratching. Then came the aha moment: Single can be a SYNonym for one.
43. "Hadestown" Tony nominee Noblezada: EVA. Two unknowns in a row. Thanks, again, perps.
44. Pitching stat: WINS. Nice job repeating the clue. A record of WINS and losses is kept for baseball pitchers.
46. "Christopher Robin" hopper: ROO. Roo also visited us two Thursdays ago. Christopher Robin is a character in A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh stories. So are Kanga and her child, ROO.
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
48. Portend: AUGUR.
54. "Mother of Democracy," to Filipinos: AQUINO. Corazon AQUINO is best remembered for being associated with the revolt which overthrew Ferdinand Marcos.
57. Least possible: FEWEST. By definition.
58. Tricky soccer moves: NUTMEGS. I am not completely ignorant when it comes to soccer but I had never heard this term. Here is what it is and how it is done:
61. L'eau land: ILE. C'est la leçon Français d'aujourd'hui. Eau = water. ILE = island.
64. "The Chronic" rapper, familiarly: DRE. This time, at least, it wasn't Lil Nas X. Rap culture is a good source for constructors because it offers additional letter combinations outside of established usage.
68. Tuner's asset: EAR. For tuning instruments, it is better to have a good EAR than a tin EAR.
69. Elegance: GRACE.
70. One "She's Gone" vocalist: OATES. Daryl Hall and John OATES.
71. __-Cat: SNO.
72. Best Upset and Best Driver, e.g.: ESPYS. ESPY AwardS seem to be handed out quite frequently in our puzzles.
73. Pet __: PEEVE.
Down:
1. __-Seltzer: ALKA.
Plop Plop Fizz Fizz
2. Boatload: SLEW. We sift through those other four-letter alternatives - among which are TONS, ALOT, LOTS, GOBS, and MANY - to find the one that works.
3. Redundantly named equipment for a rice-and-seafood dish: PAELLA PAN. From the old French for frying pan. In Spanish, PAILA refers to certain metal or clay pans.
4. Little troublemaker: IMP.
5. Spice in many chai mixes: CARDAMOM. Someone called me pretentious today. I almost choked on my honey-cardamom latte.
6. Edict: DECREE.
7. Fuel-saving mode in some cars: ECO.
8. Plank target: CORE. ABS was too short to work.
9. Nouveau riche counterpart: OLD MONEY. Hand up for first trying to think of something having to do with being needy.
Randy Newman - It's Money That Matters
(with Mark Knopfler on guitar)
10. On the up and up?: RISING.
11. Griffith Park's 4,210+: ACRES. Located in Los Angeles.
12. Largest division of Islam: SUNNI.
13. Condition: STATE.
18. Slide (into): EASE.
23. Loch in hoax photos: NESS.
The Loch Ness Monster?
25. Tolkien talking tree: ENT. ENTs and ORCs often come from Middle earth to visit us.
26. Metro stop: Abbr.: STA. Okay, is it going to turn out to be STN or STA?
28. "That was close!": PHEW. Okay, it is going to turn out to be WHEW or PHEW?
29. Greiner of "Shark Tank": LORI.
30. Org. to report tax fraud to: IRS.
34. Discuss terms: NEGOTIATE.
35. Certain gamete: OVUM. Why do Romans use more eggs in their omelets than do Parisians? Because in Rome they feel that as far as eggs go you can never have too many OVUM while in Paris the feel that one egg is un ouef.
36. Austere: BARE.
39. Neighborhood guy: MR ROGERS. Clever cluing. The TV show is beloved by millions . . . and often spoofed.
40. Hunky-dory: A OK. Having not gone with Eddie Murphy (Mr. Robinson's Neighborhood), just above, this seems appropriate. What do you say, Eddie?
42. Try to impress by association, say: NAME DROP. Today's construction drops several (perhaps too many) actor/actress/singer/athlete names.
45. Triathlon part: SWIM. SWIM, bike, run.
47. Switch position: OFF. ON was too short.
49. Stumbling blocks?: UHS. ERS? Hmm. Punt.
51. Jittery: ON EDGE. A Dachshund and a Labrador are walking together when the former suddenly unloads on his friend. “My life is a mess,” he says. “My owner is mean, my girlfriend ran away with a Pomeranian and I’m as JITTERY as a cat.” “Why don’t you go see a psychiatrist?” suggests the Labrador. “I can’t. I'm not allowed on the couch.”
52. Actor who plays himself in "Always Be My Maybe": REEVES.
53. Boo-boo: OWIE. Not Boo Boo the cartoon bear.
54. Chilean range: ANDES. The ANDES mountain range is over 5,500 miles long, extends through seven countries and averages more than 13,000 feet in elevation.
55. Sacred text read during Tarawih: QURAN. Hand up for first trying KORAN.
56. In __: not yet born: UTERO.
59. Put (on) hastily: SLAP. SLAP on a coat of paint and call it done.
62. Actor Schreiber: LIEV. The penultimate name in this list of clues/answers.
63. Besides: ELSE.
66. Needing salt, maybe: ICY. Hand up for first thinking it had something to do with food.
67. Actress Whitman: MAE. The final proper name in this list of clues/answers.
The Singing Walrus Presents The Sun The Moon and The Stars
Good morning cruciverbalists. Malodorous Manatee here to present today's recap with a little help from his friend The Singing Walrus. Today's puzzle setter is often-published (NYT, LAT, USA Today, etc.) constructor, Rebecca Goldstein. In today's outing we have a fairly straightforward theme so let's go right to the unifier (which proved helpful to this solver):
49 ACROSS: Classic arcade game with pixelated aliens, and what three answers in this puzzle have: SPACE INVADERS.
Released in 1978, most of us probably played that game. Some of us to excess. Arcade game graphics have, of course, come a long, long way since then. As for the theme, each themed answer contains a celestial object. Those objects might be said to INVADE that answer's space.
17. Film festival hype?: SUN DANCE FEVER. The SUNDANCE film festival is held every year in Utah. FEVER as a synonym for hype is a bit of a stretch but not entirely opaque.
27. Bucket list item for an aspiring astronaut?: COLLECT STARDUST. We are stardust . . .
6. Guatemalan girl: CHICA. Esta es la primera lección de español de hoy.
11. Guffawed: ROARED.
13. Enters a password: LOGS ON. We often do not know, at first, if it's going to be LOGS ON or LOGS IN.
14. Airport city east of Los Angeles: ONTARIO. Those of us in SoCal probably had an easier time with this than did those folks in other locations. Still, roughly 4.5 million passengers flew into/out of ONT last calendar year.
16. Lil Nas X song subtitled "Call Me by Your Name": MONTERO. Unknown to this solver. Thank you very much, perps.
19. Small songbirds: LARKS. A hand up for first trying WRENS.
20. Excel function: SORT. A spreadsheet/database reference.
21. Himalayan ox: YAK.
23. NYC airport on Flushing Bay: LGA. Airport code for LaGuardia and our second airport clue/answer today. Named for the former mayor (1933 through 1945), Fiorello LaGuardia.
24. Frozen Four game: SEMI. The Frozen Four is collegiate hockey's equivalent of the SEMI Finals of NCAA Basketball tournament. Only four teams left.
25. Dip in the Mediterranean?: AIOLI. A sauce. Swim was too short (and on the wrong path).
31. Cookbook writer Garten: INA.
32. Traditional March 14 dessert: PIE. March 14th can be written as 3/14. Pi, of course, is the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. As Pi equals approximately 3.14 some wag decided that 3/14 should be known as Pi day. . . or PIE day.
42. Menzel who won a Tony for playing Elphaba in "Wicked": IDINA. IDINA is also well know for her work in Frozen.
43. Iowa State city: AMES.
44. Good Grips brand: OXO.
45. Sausalito summer hrs.: PDT. Pacific Daylight Time. A bit of misdirection if you thought that the clue referred to a town in Italy rather than a town in Marin County, California.
46. Bygone Russian royal: TSAR.
47. H.S. class with a unit on heredity: AP BIO. Advanced Placement BIOlogy
53. French houses: MAISONS. C'est la leçon Français d'aujourd'hui.
54. Citation software: ENDNOTE. A computer software reference.
56. National park in Utah: ARCHES.
57. Fiddle (with): TINKER. Idioms.
58. Outwitted a Predator?: DEKED. The Predators are a National Hockey League team. A DEKE is a fake-out maneuver on the ice.
59. Requirements: NEEDS. (see 16 Down?)
Down:
1. Dude: BRO.
Dude One: Hey, Bro?
Dude Two: Yeah Bro?
Dude One: Can you pass me that pamphlet?
Dude Two: Brochure.
2. When dinosaurs roamed the earth: EONS AGO. We get something less scientific than MESOZOIC which would not have fit in any case.
3. __ gas: NATURAL.
4. Jack-in-the-box appendage: CRANK. Not a fast food reference.
5. Collections of cattle: HERDS.
6. David who won the 1994 AL Cy Young Award: CONE. A baseball reference. During the 1994 strike-shortened season, David CONE played for the Kansas City Royals.
7. "House Hunters" channel: HGTV.
8. "That's a terrible hiding spot": I SEE YOU.
9. Pens in: CORRALS.
10. "Should I take that as __?": A NO. Apparently, yes.
12. Part of una semana: DIA. Esta es la segunda lección de español de hoy. Semana = week. DIA = day.
13. Studio site, maybe: LOFT. As in a studio apartment. Hand up for first thinking of LOT and wondering why the extra square.
15. Beginning: ONSET.
16. Scholarship basis: MERIT. Often, we get NEEDs (see 59 Across?)
18. Dot-__: COMS.
19. Business ltrs.: LLC. Limited Liability Company. Letters is abbreviated, ergo . . .
22. Baby fox: KIT. A baby beaver, ferret, muskrat, or skunk is also called a KIT.
24. Phony deal: SCAM. IIRC, SCAM was also an answer two weeks ago.
25. Diva's time to shine: ARIA.
Nicola Keen and Jan Hartley
26. Carded: IDED. IDentifiED
28. Home security?: LIEN. Not a deadbolt, or a scatter gun. A lender's right to seize the property for non-payment.
29. New Age singer from County Donegal: ENYA. It's almost always ENYA.
30. Silver Alerts, e.g.: APBS. All Points BulletinS. A Silver Alert is a public notification system to broadcast information about missing persons - particularly senior citizens.
33. Toddler's perch, at times: HIP. Hand up if you first thought of LAP.
34. "If I had to bet ... ": ODDS ARE. What are the odds of a chronic gambler calling the addiction helpline? No, seriously. I have $100 riding on this.
35. Sweat the small stuff: NIT PICK. After nitpicking a small detail in my friend's story, he said to me "What are you? President of the Pedantic Society?" Vice President, actually.
36. Grove of palm trees, maybe: OASIS.
Ubari, Libya
37. Muscat's country: OMAN.
38. Chutzpah: NERVE. די היינטיקע יידישע שיעור (today's Yiddish lesson)
39. Lose it completely?: GO BROKE. A car stopped in front of a hotel. The driver immediately realized that she was bankrupt. What was going on?
40. Lived and breathed: EXISTED.
41. Kanga's kid: ROO. An A.A. Milne reference.
46. Hamilton bills: TENS.
47. Use as an ingredient: ADD IN.
48. Tubular pasta: PENNE. A Macaroni, a Penne and a Spaghetti were drinking wine in a bar one evening. They saw a noodle sitting by himself and discussed inviting him to join them. They all agreed he looked Cannelloni.
50. Tennis great profiled in ESPN's "30 for 30" special "Arthur and Johnnie": ASHE. It's almost always ASHE.
51. Like Sarah Lawrence since 1968: COED. CO-EDucational. Both genders.
52. Social insect: ANT.
53. Furious: MAD.
55. Triage ctrs.: ERS. Emergency RoomSCenters is abbreviated so the answer is also.
Here is how all of this appears in the grid:
Rebecca, you are invited to post anything that you'd like to share about this puzzle, its evolution, the theme, or whatever in the comments section below. We would love to hear from you.
