(Except, Perhaps, Today)
Good Morning Cruciverbalists. Malodorous Manatee here with your Friday puzzle recap. Today's puzzle comes to us courtesy of previously-published Wendy L. Brandes.
Let's start with the reveal:
52 Across: Chophouse order, and an apt title for this puzzle?: NEW YORK STRIP.
What the constructor has done is remove (strip) the NY (New York) from recognizable word patterns and, thereby, created new, humorous definitions for four clues. Here are the four themed-answers:
20 Across: Dinner roll that provides an unexpected boost?: ENERGIZER BUN. ENERGIZER BUNNY.
27 Across: Outlandish stories about Vietnamese soup?: PHO BALONEY. PHONY BALONEY PHO, of course is a Vietnamese soup. BALONEY, in addition to being a lunch meat, is slang for nonsense.
37 Across: Valued at one fancy ballpoint?: COSTS A PRETTY PEN. COSTS A PRETTY PENNY. Ballpoint pen.
46 Across: Golfers who just need to dance, dance, dance before every drive?: TEE BOPPERS. TEENY BOPPERS. May the gods forgive me: I never thought that I would cite the following anywhere, anytime , for any reason:
and here are the rest of the clues and answers . . .
Across:
1. Meet portion, or portion of meat: LEG. For example, a leg of a relay race or a chicken leg.
4. Film franchise featuring Lightning McQueen: CARS.
8. Regarding: ABOUT.
13. Portfolio options, for short: IRAS. Individual Retirement AccountS
15. Perched on: ATOP. The god of thunder rides to the top of the mountain atop his noble steed.
Upon reaching the summit, he gets off his horse, raises his hammer to the sky and yells, "I am Thor!" The horse turns around and says, "That'th cuth you forgot your thaddle thilly!"
16. Deteriorating: WORSE. A bit of a head scratching moment because the clue is a gerund but the answer is not. WORSEning?
17. "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of __": NIMH.
18. NYC gallery with a Bell helicopter on display: MOMA.
19. Melted together: FUSED.
23. Pool necessity: CUE. Not a swimming pool.
24. Had as a regular customer: SOLD TO.
32. Bulky boats: ARKS.
Noah's Ark
34. Lithium-__ battery: ION.
35. Seized auto: REPO. Derived from REPOssession.
36. Tease mercilessly: RIDE.
42. Texter's "But ... ": OTOH.
42. Texter's "But ... ": OTOH.
43. "Monday Night Football" commentator Aikman: TROY. I would have clued this with a reference to UCLA.
44. Young man: LAD.
When I was a lad I served a term
As office boy to an Attorney's firm.
I cleaned the windows and I swept the floor,
And I polished up the handle of the big front door.
45. Anklebones: TALI. Plural, in Latin, of TALUS
49. Stretching muscle: TENSOR.
51. Common Market letters: EEC.
58. Silky fabric: SATIN. Letters I've Written Never Meaning To Send (mail).
61. The "genu-" in "genuflect": KNEE.
Tom Lehrer -1967
plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose
62. American tennis phenom Gauff: COCO.
63. Begins: OPENS. COMMENCES was far too long and STARTS would not fit either.
64. Low-pH stuff: ACID.
65. Is shy: OWES. Not a reference to social interaction but, rather, a financial reference.
66. Play area: STAGE. Not a reference to children on the schoolyard but, rather, a theatrical reference.
67. Egg layers: HENS. This clue is to be taken literally and not, in this case, idiomatically as in "to lay an egg" meaning to do something poorly.
68. After taxes: NET.
Down:
1. Command to a prompter: LINE. The use of "Command" threw me off a bit. I think of it as more of a request.
2. Actress Moriarty who plays Starlight on "The Boys": ERIN.
3. PlayStation, for one: GAME CONSOLE.
4. Strappy top, for short: CAMI. CAMIsole
5. Comprehensive: ATOZ. From A TO Z.
6. Trevi Fountain city: ROME. Was the answer going to be ROME or ROMA?
7. Like Greenland's population: SPARSE. 0.14 people per square kilometer. For comparison the USA population density is 34.05 per square kilometer.
8. "Zero stars": AWFUL.
9. Edge: BOUNDARY. I just found out that my girlfriend is mad at me. According to her diary, I have "BOUNDARY issues".
10. Sterile work environs: ORS. Operating RoomS
11. Employ: USE. I once saw a car with a bumper sticker that said:
12. "Thank you for coming to my __ Talk": TED. A phrase that has become a part of the urban lexicon. The phrase parodies the popular TED talk series, where in some cases the statements made by the performers are very obscure and meaningless.
14. Azalea, e.g.: SHRUB. I bought a new SHRUB trimmer last week. It's cutting hedge technology.
21. Park and drive: GEARS. VERBS would have fit. An automotive reference.
22. "If I Were a __": Beyoncé ballad: BOY. If she were, she probably would not look like this:
25. Horseracing achievement: TRIPLE CROWN.
26. "Will do, hon": OK DEAR.
27. Crochet loop: PICOT. A learning moment. Thanks, perps.
28. Heckle: HOOT AT.
29. Seydoux of "No Time to Die": LEA.
30. On the facing pg.: OPP. Punt! OPPosite
31. Compass dirección: NORTE. Spanish in the clue . . .
33. Mails: SENDS. Baby You Mail me?
Sam Cooke
38. Watering down: THINNING.
39. Tarzan creator's monogram: ERB.
40. Also: TOO. It can mean overly, too.
41. Blood groups: TYPES.
By Percent of US Population
46. AAA job: TOW.
47. Neo-soul artist Badu: ERYKAH. Troy, Coco, Erin, Lea and now ERYKAH. Okay, that's enough of this for today.
50. Feel: SENSE.
53. "... cut __": end of a carpentry maxim: ONCE. Measure twice . . .
54. Bridle strap: REIN. Neither RAIN nor REIGN.
55. Canvas shoe brand: KEDS.
56. Frozen treat brand: ICEE. SLURPEE wouldn't fit. SQUISHEE is almost never seen in our puzzles.
57. Station: POST. One of those words that can either be a noun or a verb.
58. Distress signal: SOS. Morse code.
60. Leaves for dim sum: TEA. TEA leaves.
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