Thursday, February 11, 2021, Chuck Deodene

Good Morning!  Malodorous Manatee, here.   Another Thursday has dawned, cruciverbalists, and today we get to catch a glimpse of the world through the eyes of five well-known artists.  The glimpse comes via the efforts of constructor Chuck Deodene.  Chuck is a veteran constructor who has had many puzzles previously published in both The Los Angeles Times and The New York Times.  Chuck is also a contributor to the Reading For The Oxford English Dictionary Programme.  As such, his task is "to read books (and other texts) and note down potentially interesting instances of word use."

Today's theme:  But Is It Artists?

Let's start at 60 Across: Self-taught creators, in modern lingo, and a hint to each set of circles: OUTSIDER ARTISTS.

This is the reveal and, to this writer, it certainly was an interesting instance of word use in that I had never before come across the term.  It does, however, do a good job of describing the placement of the theme answers.  At five places within the grid, the names of the ARTISTS can be formed by combining the OUTSIDE letters of the answers.

17 Across:  Security perimeter feature: POLICE ROAD BLOCK.  Jackson POLLOCK (1912 - 1956) was an American painter who was a major figure in the Abstract Expressionist Movement.  Loosely translated, this means that our parents thought that we, as children, could create works of art very similar to his.

Blue Poles By Jackson Pollock

26 Across:  Formally begins, as a meeting: CALLS TO ORDER.  Alexander CALDER (1898 - 1976) was an American sculptor best known for his kinetic sculptures powered by air currents or motors.

Alexander Caldwell - Opening Scene "American Masters"

35 Across:  Successfully lured: ROPED IN.  Auguste RODIN (1840 - 19170) was a French sculptor perhaps most famous for his works "The Thinker" and "The Kiss".   It is fascinating to note the change in style between RODIN and CALDER (above) and between RODIN and ARP (below) who were each born less than sixty years later.

The Burghers of Calais By Auguste Rodin

38 Across:  High-intensity light source: ARC LAMP.  Jean ARP (1886 -1966) was a German-French sculptor, painter and poet.

The Forest  By Jean Arp

45 Across:  Navy Cross recipient, for one: MILITARY HERO.  Joan MIRO (1893 - 1983) was a Spanish painter and sculptor.  He is associated with the Surrealist and Dada movements.

Plate 2 By Joan Miro

Here is how the five OUTSIDER ARTISTS appear in the finished puzzle:

These artists looked at the world differently than most mere mortals.  Certainly, quite differently than many marine mammals.  Now, let's take a look at the rest of the puzzle and see if we are able to spot some potentially interesting instances of word use.

Across:

1. Appreciate: VALUE.  Interesting.  Here Appreciate is not used as in to increase in value but, rather, as in to appreciate something and find it to be of value.

6. Goat of the Alps: IBEX.

10. Fine cotton: PIMA.  PIMA cotton is an extra-long staple cotton grown primarily in the United States.

14. Turing and Cumming: ALANS.  It probably says something about those of us who know who ALAN Turing is but have no idea who Alan Cumming is.

15. Resentful: SORE.  Interesting.  As in "to be SORE (mad) at" someone or something.

16. Screen image: ICON.  Interesting.  We could have seen a clue such as Screen Icon for an answer of STAR.   Name...Image...Icon...Star.  Something like this might make for a good word ladder puzzle.

20. Extraction by rescue copter, e.g.: EVAC.  EVACuation.  Alternatively, and still quite consistent with the clue:

Dad Uses Helicopter to Pull Out Son's Tooth

21. Contented sighs: AAHS.  Onomatopoeia.

Aaaahhhh !

22. Helpful: OF USE.

23. Like the lawn at dawn: DEWY.  Not this Dewey:

Huey, Dewey and Louie

24. Camping gear retailer with an #OptOutside campaign: REI.  Recreational Equipment, Inc. was formed as a Co-op in Seattle in 1938.  Each of the five founding members paid One U.S. Dollar to join.  I purchased my first down sleeping bag from REI in 1971.

25. "Seasons in the Sun" songwriter: BREL.  Jacques BREL wrote this song in 1961 with the title "Le Moribond" - "The Dying Man".   Later it was translated by Rod McKuen.  It has been recorded by The Kingston Trio, The Beach Boys and Terry Jacks, among others.

The Kingston Trio

31. Clutch: HOLD.  Interesting.  At first we might have thought of an automobile part, a type of purse or a critical situation in a sporting event.

Shindig 1964 The Miracles (Live)

You Really Got A Hold On Me

33. Light keeper's view: SEA.  . . .  and often a great view, at that.

34. Afore: ERE.  Interesting.  Two rarely used prepositions.

41. "Much __ About Nothing": "The Simpsons" episode: APU.  Interesting.  Not, as we usually see, "Much Ado About Nothing".  In Episode 23 of Season 7 of The Simpsons TV show, APU Nahasapeemapetilon is caught up in the turmoil when an initiative is placed on the ballot that would require the deportation of all illegal immigrants living in the town of Springfield.

42. Have a good cry: SOB.  Interesting.  It could have been clued as a general term of contempt. 

44. Pocket bread: PITA.  Interesting.  It could have been clued as an annoying or tedious person or thing.

50. "Buy It Now" site: EBAY.

Weird Al Yankocvic's Parody of "I Want It That Way"

51. Best-liked, online: FAV.  Texting slang for FAVorite.

52. Nearly here: NIGH.  Interesting.  Another rarely used word.

56. "That's enough!": CAN IT.

58. Peruse, with "over": PORE.  I always forget if it is PORE over or Pour over in this context.  There is an estate planning device called a Pour-Over will.  The heirs can, hopefully much later, PORE over it.

59. __-deep: very involved: KNEE.  That's how it all begun.  We were knee deep in the Big Muddy but the big fool said to push on.

63. Mystery writer Gardner: ERLE.  Interesting.  We almost always see the full name: ERLE Stanley Gardner.  He created the Perry Mason detective stories.

64. "The Hobbit" soldiers: ORCS.  In "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy and in  "The Hobbit" an ORC was a fictional humanoid monster akin to a goblin.

65. Starts a pot: ANTES.  A poker reference.  If we each had a Dime for every time we have seen some form of ANTE in a puzzle . . . . .

66. __ Inn: DAYS.  The hotel chain.

67. Pool strikers: CUES.

Buster Keaton Busts A Pool Cue

68. So-so effort, in sports: B GAME.   One's A-Game is the best.  One almost never hears B-GAME although it's existence is clearly implicit if there is an A-Game.  How far down the grading curve does this go?

Down:

1. Used Juul pods: VAPED.  Juul is a brand name of E-Cigarettes of VAPEs.  Juul claims that its "mission is to improve the lives of the world's one billion adult smokers."  Even if true, there has been, demonstrably, significant collateral damage.  "Hey, kids, check this out.  Sweet!"

2. "__ Supreme": classic Coltrane album: A LOVE.  Recorded in 1964, it is said that the album was a spiritual declaration by Coltrane that his "musical devotion was now intertwined with his love for God."

3. Old NBC legal drama: L.A. LAW.  We often see Susan Dey in our puzzles and she is usually clued with reference to L. A. LAW.

4. Street performer's vehicle: UNICYCLE.

5. PC key: ESC.  The key generates the ESCape Character - ASCII Code 27 in decimal.  

6. Holy Land nation: ISRAEL.

7. ["You need new glasses, ump!"]: BOO HISS.

Finn The Bat Dog

8. Low nos. for aces: ERAS.  Earned Run AverageS.  The aces in this case are baseball pitchers and "nos." tells us that the answer will be an abbreviation.

9. Crossed (out): XED.  Interesting.  The Thesuarus.Plus site does not mention XED (out).

10. Filch: PILFER.  Interesting.  Both the clue and answer are less-than-commonly-used words for steal.

11. Lukewarm "You hungry?" reply: I COULD EAT.  Interesting.  When used in the expression I COULD EAT a Horse, it is not at all lukewarm.

12. Comfy shoes: MOCS.  Short for MOCcasinS.

13. German tennis player Huber: ANKE.

Anke Huber

18. British peer: EARL.  The one was certainly teed up.  A swing and a . . . solid hit (A Number One Hit in 1962).

Gene Chandler - The Duke of Earl - 1962

19. NYC division: BORO.  Interesting because, although the word can also be spelled BOROugh.

25. Piglet's dad: BOAR.  A BOAR is a male swine.  No sows appeared in today's puzzle.

27. "Just __ water": ADD.   After hearing this line over and over and over again in commercial advertisements the phrase became a synonym for something that was easy to do.

28. Sun __: TEA.  Sun Tzu just could not be made to work.

29. Humorist Bombeck: ERMA.  I always forget if her name is ERMA or Irma.  Or, maybe, Emma.

30. One ab crunch, say: REP.  REPetition.  Working out at the gym.

31. Native Arizonans: HOPI.

Hopi Girls - Circa 1920

32. In a luxurious manner: OPULENTLY.  Interesting.  We rarely see this word in our puzzles.

35. Sheep's dad: RAM.  A RAM is a male sheep.  As with the swine, above, no female sheep appeared in today's puzzle - so one, or more, of each has been added:

Babe and Friends

36. Words of surprise: I SAY.  It is interesting to see this British colloquialism turn out to be the correct answer.

37. Easter lead-in?: NOR.  A bit of misdirection as this clue, despite the capitalization, does not refer to the Christian holiday.  A NOR'Easter "is a synoptic-scale extratropical cyclone in the western North Atlantic Ocean."  The winds that one produces are typically from, you guessed it, the northeast.  The Northeast has been hit by a series of NOR'Easters recently.

39. EMT skill: CPR.  Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation

40. Pride Rock monarch: LION KING.  The TV show "The Critic" once presented a wonderful parody of the scene below employing a cockroach. 

Pride Rock

43. Using coercion: BY FORCE.  Interesting.  I thought the answer was going to be a gerund.

46. Hieroglyphics birds: IBISES.

47. Filmmaker Jacques: TATI.  A French filmmaker probably best known for Mon Oncle and Traffic.

48. Beset: HARASS.  Ah, "Much Ado About Nothing" (See 41 Across) doth sorta make an appearance after all!  Hero:  "Oh, god, defend me.  How I am BESET!  What kind of catechizing call you this?"  Translation from the English to the English:  Oh, God help me!  How I am being attacked!  What kind of game is this?

49. At any time: EVER.  Are we supposed to cover the square(s) if we have EVER done it or cover the square(s) if we have never done it?

A "Never Have I Ever" Bingo Game Card

53. App with pics: INSTA.  We have seen this abbreviated term for the  INSTAgram app before.  Never have I ever used Instagram.

54. Order to a Western posse: GET EM.  Interesting in that this use is exceedingly non-specific.  A posse could be given many other instructions and GET 'EM could be used in many other contexts.

55. "Siddhartha" author: HESSE.  Herman Hesse also wrote Steppenwolf and Demian.  In 1946, he received the Nobel Prize in literature.

56. Like dorms for men and women: COED.  I suppose that COED dorms could be quite educational.

57. Radiance: AURA.  My house was once filled with a demonic AURA so I called the local exorcist.  When he entered the house I told him to "Get the hell out of here."

58. Lake Titicaca is partly in it: PERU. . . and it is partly in Bolivia.

61. MRI interpreter: DOC.  Punt!

62. Browser window feature: TAB.

That wraps things up for today's puzzle.  I think that Chuck did employ some potentially interesting word use.

________________________________________________

MM OUT

Thursday, January 28, 2021, Jeff Stillman

Good morning, cruciverbalists.  Malodorous Manatee, here.  It is time to rise and shine.  If your cat did not wake you up this morning perhaps your dog did.  Or, your significant other.  Or, it's now the afternoon in your time zone.  In any event, grab that morning newspaper or that electronic device and head for the puzzle page.

THEME:  THE FOUR V's

In "Big Data" the Four V's are Volume, Veracity, Velocity, and Variety.  In today's puzzle, by Jeff Stillman, the letter V, and only the letter V, is used as the clue to each of the four long answers.  A straightforward theme, this was.

In addition to being the title of a Thomas Pynchon novel and a TV show, V can, of course, take on may different meanings and Jeff has employed some of them to good advantage.  

Here are the themed answers:

17 Across. V:  VICTORY SIGN.

27 Across. V:  T-SHIRT NECK TYPE.  Self explanatory.

44 Across. V:  GEESE FORMATION.  Also, self explanatory.  The theory is that the V formation conserves energy and facilitates co-ordination.

59 Across. V:  CAESAR'S FIVE.  Roman Numeral.  If Jeff had been able to work in V, and only V, theme answers (and I would be willing to bet that he tried) then that really would have been a coup.

That's it for the theme.  Now, let's take a look at the rest of Solver v. Puzzle.

ACROSS:

1. Two-mile-high city: LA PAZ.  LA PAZ, the capital of Bolivia, sits at an elevation of 11,942 feet.

6. Numbskulls: BOOBS.  This one has certainly been teed up.  Fore!  A swing and a miss (to mix golf and baseball lingo).   Today's "It's best to skip the graphics" moment, shared with 57 Down.  In this instance BOOBS is a synonym for other five-letter words such as dopes, bozos, or dodos.  All of these words have multiple meanings.

11.  Ate: HAD.  As in "I had too much to eat last night."  In 1967, The Electric Prunes used that expression as the jumping off point for a song.

AMERICAN BANDSTAND

14. Sister of Euterpe: ERATO.   One, or more, of the nine muses frequently drops by to visit us in puzzles.  

EUTERPE AND ERATO

15. Satellite's path: ORBIT.

16. "I __ you one!": OWE.  In this case, the clue is most likely referring to the reciprocation of a favor.

19. Carried the day: WON.  Did you hear about the person who WON a hundred thousand dollars in the lottery and decided to give one quarter of it to charity?  She now has $99, 999.75.

20. Brainstorm: IDEA.

21. Spanish pronoun: ESO.  Given their range of dispersion, Manatees generally speak pretty good Spanish.  This one does not but has been told that ESO translates, in English,  to "that".

22. Understated way to put it: MILDLY.  "To Put It Mildly" is an idiomatic expression indicating that the thing referred to is actually larger, more important, or more serious than stated.

24. Old PC display: CRT.  Cathode Ray Tube

26. City west of Hong Kong: MACAO.   Now, officially, The MACAO Special Administrative Region Of The People's Republic Of China has a human history that goes back 6,000 years.  MACAO is sometimes referred to as "The Gambling Capital of the World" or as "The Monte Carlo of the East".

MACAO

33. Scribble (down): JOT.  I have a friend who learned Italian by JOTting down sentences that she heard.  She used the wrote learning method.

34. Read (over) closely: PORED.  Along with 35 Across, these two clues provide a good example of how constructors mess with our heads.  Read can be either present tense (reed) or past tense (red), and . . .

35. Wind into rings: COIL.  . . . wind can be a flow of gasses that blows leaves all over and lets us fly kites or, as in this case, its heteronym (wined) which means to put something into a COIL.  The chances of constructors winding up the use of these tricks is nil.

36. Look into closely: PROBE.

38. Egg: Pref.: OVI.  Today's punt from our constructor.  It could  been clued as "NE opening".  Baaaa.

39. Suspends operations, with "down": SHUTS.   It is time to turn off the computer?

40. European erupter: ETNA.

SIRACUSA AND MT. ETNA - Photo by MM

41. Low card: DEUCE.  As an alternative to the playing card reference (a two), this clue could have cited the 1932 Ford Model 18 which was know as the DEUCE Coupe.

THE BEACH BOYS

43. Female antelope: DOE.  DOE an antelope, a female antelope.

48. La Scala locale: MILAN.  Il Teatro Alla Scala, what we call La Scala, e situato a MILANo, Italia.

TEATRO ALLA SCALA

49. Word with rolling or bowling: PIN.

50. Slanted, in a way: ITALIC.  Tilted and biased both came to mind before ITALIC which comes from the Latin word for Italian, Italicus.  The print style was named in honor of the Italian printer, Aldus Manutius, who is credited with being the first to use it.

52. Diamonds, slangily: ICE.  Diamonds are called ICE because of (a) their clear, colorless nature and (b) their ability to pull heat away from any warm object with which they come into contact.

54. Bar requests: ALES.  One of the most overused words in crossword-dom.  A four-letter word with three of them being two vowels and an S does come in handy.  This marine mammal does not tire of it, however, due to a significant affinity for India Pale ALES.

58. A.L. East team: BOS.  In late 1978, or early 1979, I was walking up a stairwell of The Goldminer's Daughter Hotel in Alta, Utah when I spotted a gentleman coming down the stairs.  He was wearing a T-shirt on which was emblazoned "The Yankees Suck".  Being somewhat more parochial than I am today, and the Dodgers having recently lost the 1978 World Series to the Bronx Bombers, I said to the man "You must be from Los Angeles."  He smiled broadly and replied, "Nah Bahston!"

62. It may need a boost: EGO.

63. Revered ones: IDOLS.  Humans are proscribed from worshiping false IDOLS.  This bit of wisdom seems, however, to be almost universally ignored.

64. Official Wimbledon timekeeper: ROLEX.  Not the person in charge of keeping time but, rather, the timepiece manufacturer and sponsor.  Not being a tennis buff, I first tried Omega because it fit nicely in the allotted space.

65. Summer shade: TAN.

TAN LINES THROUGH THE DECADES

66. Article of faith: TENET.

67. Title feeling "beyond power of speech," in an "Into the Woods" song: AGONY.  A reference, unfamiliar to the author, to a song by Stephen Sondheim.

AGONY

DOWN:

1. Son of Jacob: LEVI.  Coincidentally, on May 20, 1873, U.S. Patent Number 139,121 was issued to Jacob Davis and LEVI Strauss & Company for the first riveted work pants.  What we call Blue Jeans, today.

LEVI STRAUSS                 JACOB DAVIS

2. Dry as a bone: ARID.  Sometimes the answer turns out to be "sere" which also has four letters.

3. Go back and forth: PACE.  Yo Yo? No.  Sway?  No way.  Vary?  Nary a chance.

4. Include with an email: ATTACH.

5. Wild place: ZOO.  An actual ZOO is, in reality,  a pretty controlled environment.  This clue makes more sense when thought of as used in the colloquial expression "It's a real zoo out there" or something similar.

6. Clothing store department: BOYS.

7. Estimate phrase: OR SO.

THREE MINUTES  OR SO ABOUT  OR SO 

8. Kimono closer: OBI.  We see OBI often.  It is a wide sash or belt worn in Japan since ancient times to secure a kimono.

9. Classic fast-food sandwich since 1967: BIG MAC. 

10. Gift bearer, informally: STNICK.  What's a Stnick?  Oh, ST. NICK !

ONCE AGAIN, THE BEACH BOYS

11. Polite greeting: HOW DO YOU DO.  It is not really a question.

12. MP's quarry: AWOL.  Absent WithOut Leave

13. Disallow: DENY.

18. Old-school: RETRO.  RETRO is defined as imitative of a style, fashion or design from the recent past.

23. Door securer: LATCH.

A BARN DOOR LATCH

25. Ready to pluck: RIPE.

26. Soda order: MEDIUM.  This slow creature first thought of flavors, then name brands, then sparkling or flat.  Finally, with the aid of the perps, MEDIUM sized became clear.

27. Rich dessert cake: TORTE.  I always get confused between a TORTE and a Tart (I know, I know).  A TORTE is a rich, multilayered cake filled with buttercream, whipped cream, fruit or jam.  A Tart is a shallow, round pastry with no top crust.  I remain confused.

28. Building artisan: STONE MASON.  The work of  the ancient STONE MASONs of Cusco, Peru was remarkable.

 

INCA STONE MASONRY 

29. Trampled: TROD ON.  When reviewing the puzzle did you find yourself asking yourself "What's a TRODON?"  It was, of course, a species of dinosaur and a close relative of the Iguanodon, the Dimetrodon and the Thesaurus.

30. Emphatic refusal: NEVER.  Well, hardly ever.

HMS PINAFORE by GILLBERT and SULLIVAN

31. Mountaineer's tool: PITON.  I do not usually think of a PITON as being a tool.  It's more a piece of hardware but it does serve a very useful purpose.

A PITON SET INTO A CRACK

32. "Is there something __?": ELSE.  A very straightforward fill-in-the-blank clue.

33. Photoshop image acronym: JPEG.  JPEG is the acronym for Joint Photographic Experts Group.  JPEG is a standard image format.

37. Culinary herb: BASIL.  A Caprese salad is made with tomato, BASIL leaves and mozarella.  Season to taste.

INSALATA CAPRESE

39. Org. seeking far-out life: SETI.  SETI stands for Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.  Often, we see YETI in our puzzles.

SETI MIGHT FIND THIS YETI  

42. Playful prank: CAPER.  I am too old for this kind of CAPER and I have no taste for the other kind.

CAPERS

45. Summon up: ELICIT.

46. False appearance: FACADE.  An architectural term that has come to mean false fronts put up by people.

47. Dazed: IN A FOG.  

50. "Yeah, sure!": I BET.  Ah, sarcasm!

51. __ party: TOGA.

JOHN BELUSHI IN ANIMAL HOUSE

52. "Lost" setting: ISLE.

LOST -  OPENING SCENE - SEASON ONE, EPISODE ONE

53. Word before votes or shadows: CAST.

55. Stitch's movie pal: LILO.  Stitch, aka Experiment 626, was created by a mad scientist.   LILO Pelakai  is the young Hawaiian girl.

56. Fifty-fifty: EVEN.

57.  Hot:  SEXY.  I am informed that this is a G-rated Blog.  Today's second "Let's skip the graphics" moment, shared with 6 Across.

60.  Long division?:  EON.  At least we got the "?" to tip us off that this one was not going to be straightforward.  An EON is a long division of geologic time.  Less formally, the term refers to a span of one billion years.

61. Mexican Mrs.: SRA.  The abbreviation for SENORA, a married woman.

That completes our voyage through this virtual venue.  Now it is time to vamoose, venture forth and face the vagaries and vicissitudes of life.

________________________________________________

_________________________________________________

MM OUT