Greetings, Cruciverbalists. Anomalous Moderate here with a recap of today's puzzle by Katie Hale. As was the case with the puzzle I reviewed this past December 29th, Lisa Simpson leads the way to anagram-ville (well, it's kinda close to Margaritaville). At five places in the grid Katie has a bit of fun by rearranging the initial three or four letters of everyday vocabulary and thereby produces humorous themed answers. After the first few of these were figured out by this solver (not in top-to-bottom order) I thought that the theme would have an electronics angle (STEM, USB, RCA) but this was not to be.
Here are the five he terms, er themers:
18 Across: Shirts for a coders vs. physicists softball game?: STEM JERSEYS. (New York) METS JERSEYS has been rearranged. A tech reference.
24 Across: Break-even transactions involving vintage TVs and turntables?: RCA WASHES. CAR WASHES RCA was an early brand of TVs and other electronic gear (although I do not recall ever seeing an RCA turntable). A break-even transactions is sometimes referred to as "a wash". Six of one a twenty-fourth of a gross of the other.
38 Across: One issuing tickets to the over-50 crowd?: AARP TROOPER. PARATROOPER If anyone here needs AARP explained please drop me a line.
51 Across: Animated image of an apple falling on Sir Isaac?: GIF NEWTON. FIG NEWTON A popular cookie morphs into an animated illustration of an aha moment in the history of physics. Here, now, a GIF:
59. Lab work focused on data storage devices?: USB CULTURES. SUBCULTURES
This is how all of this appears in the grid:
Here are the rest of the clues and answers:
So, Cars: Oops, Across:
1. Trailhead posting: MAP. My hiking friends and I used to rely heavily on the USGS contour maps.
4. Courtroom drama on NBC from 1986 to 1994: LA LAW. Today's first TV show reference.
9. Lariat: ROPE. Drop the L from the clue and we could form RIATA.
13. Spring mo.: APR. APRIL. This could have been clued with a credit card interest rate reference.
14. Vague afternoon time: ONE-ISH. Probably not Katie's favorite fill.
16. Multicolored gem: OPAL. We have all seen some so-so posts on blogs but here are some gems: emeralds, sapphires, OPALs, rubies
17. "Gotta __!": JET. New to this solver. "I gotta JET is, apparently, a phrase that means "I have to go (quickly)".
20. Miner concern: ORES. Often found in crossword puzzles but rarely seen pluralized.
22. Water coolers: ICE. The use of the plural in the clue lead to a bit of head scratching but, I guess, ICES would not be not used in this context.
23. Water movers: MAINS. Not the first water conduit that came to mind but the clue is on target.
27. Dead set on: WED TO. Pairing Dead with WED might be perceived as a slippery slope.
29. Tangy red spice: SUMAC. Popular in middle-eastern cuisine.
30. "Jingle Bells" contraction: O'ER.
32. CSNY's "__ House": OUR. It was very, very, very fine house with two cats in the yard.
33. Making one's hair stand on end?: TEASING. A clue to be taken literally.
37. Doesn't take well?: ROBS. Don't take this wrongly . . .
40. Mark left by a bumper: DENT. If a plane has a small DENT does that make it an airline fracture?
42. Afternoon rests: SIESTAS.
43. Sprint: RUN. Did the clue jog your memory?
44. Dudes: MEN. By definition.
45. Romance novelist Dare: TESSA. Unknown to this solver although I am aware that Romance Novels exist and I have heard such books referred to as "bodice rippers".
49. Make space on the whiteboard: ERASE. Clued many ways.
55. "__ you a barrel of laughs": AREN'T. See also 63 Across.
57. Nintendo character option: MII. Completely unknown to this solver. Thanks perps. MII is a customizable avatar used on several Nintendo video game consoles.
58. Artemis org.: NASA. With Artemis missions, NASA will land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon.
62. Gov. or sen.: POL. POLitician. We see POLs quite often.
63. Barrel of laughs: RIOT. See also 55 Across.
64. Big-box shop: COSTCO. I was in one just prior to starting to work on this write-up.
65. 68-Across restroom: LOO. We often go there in our puzzles.
66. Drummer Ulrich: LARS. Of Metallica.
67. "Anything Goes" star Merman: ETHEL.
68. U.K. part: ENG. United Kingdom. ENGland
Down:
1. Focuses in college: MAJORS. If marine biology was the right major for you then your grades were probably above c-level.
2. Brief sketch: APERCU.3. Comms experts: PR TEAM. COMMunicationS experts - Public Relations TEAM
4. Rock's __ Lonely Boys: LOS.
5. Opposition parties: ANTIS. ANTIS is a word not often heard, seen or used.
6. Hanger-on: LEECH. Idiomatically and literally. Ugh.
7. Teegarden of "Friday Night Lights": AIMEE.
8. Financial paper, for short: WSJ. The Wall Street Journal
9. "The Jetsons" maid: ROSIE. That's ROSIE in the back. You know the other names from the song. Another TV reference.
10. What love is, per a "Frozen" song: OPEN DOOR.
11. Earnings report: PAY STUB. Of a sort, I suppose, for an individual but not for a company.
12. Lapel edges?: ELS. Lapel begins and ends with the letter L.
15. Take up, in a way: HEM. See also 37 Down.
19. Playful "grr" alternative: RAWR. Used to express anger, flirtation or affection.
21. Try to hit: SWAT AT.
25. Lenovo rival: ACER. DELL and SONY would also have fit the allotted space.
26. Wireless speaker brand: SONOS. Hand up for ANKER.
28. RN workplaces: ORS. Registered Nurse. Operating RoomS.
31. Elton John accomplishment, briefly: EGOT. Emmy Grammy Oscar Tony. Elton John is the most recent person to complete this feat and, of all who have done so (less than twenty people) he was the oldest at "completion".
34. Basilica alcove: APSE. Do you struggle to find domed recesses in cathedrals? There's an APSE for that.
35. Result of angering a wasp, probably: STING. Not the ethnic kind of WASP.
36. Fury: IRE.
37. Taken up, in a way: RE-SEWN. See also 15 Down.
38. University of Michigan city: ANN ARBOR. Go Blue!
39. Spread out at a cocktail party: PATE. Not splayed. An edible spread that might be put out (served).
40. Rap's Dr. __: DRE.
41. "1984" superstate: EURASIA.
44. Maitre d' offering: MENU.46. Paper clip alternative: STAPLE. Alternatively: You shouldn't eat stationery. It might become a dietary STAPLE.
47. "Time to go already?": SO SOON.
48. Like a watch with hands: ANALOG.
50. Factions: SECTS.
52. "You can't stop me": I MUST.
53. Colin of "1917": FIRTH. An actor/motion picture reference.
54. Extended family member: NIECE. In Nice, nièce.
56. "No Scrubs" group: TLC. A music/"girl group" reference.
59. Clickable link: URL. Here's One
60. Little piggy: TOE.
61. Mexican lager: SOL. Aaahhh, a nice cold beer to wrap things up.
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