"P END"
17. Really cool traffic sound?: KILLER BEEP.
29. Reaction to an impressive flower?: GREENHOUSE GASP.
37. Summer getaway for a young Peter Parker?: WEBCAMP.
45. Waterproofer's guarantee?: LONG TIME NO SEEP.
60. Part of a bad restaurant review on Yelp?: DINING CARP.
68. Remain unsettled, or, read as two words, what five of this puzzle's long answers have: P END.
How fun was that ? The theme answers, esp. Dining Carp, made me laugh.
You probably got an idea of what to look for after seeing the ending P in a couple of those answers, didn't you ? Knowing that the P was coming helped me with the others. I really liked the way David tied them all together with PEND as the reveal.
It was interesting to see consecutive answers at 29 and 30 Down both end with the ING suffix. David handled the consecutive letters in the crossing answers skillfully.
BTW, David offers both old novels and crosswords for you to download at his blog. In the "About" tab, David writes, "You can find reviews and All the crosswords here have themes involving modifications either in language or its interpretation. Their purpose is rather to amuse than to baffle. I care nothing for hipness; I make no effort to include the latest neologism, celebrity, or TV series."
Sounds to me like that would be a great source of crosswords for the solvers who don't care for all of the pop culture clues and answers. And as you'll notice when you review the clues and answers for today's crossword, there's a scarcity of them. For the few that do exist, I wonder if they are David's clues or the editor's clues.
Moving on. Let's check it out:
Across:
1. Thing with three feet: YARD. First thought was tripod. Too many letters.
5. Mucho: LOTSA. As in the expression, lotsa gusto.
10. Life __ know it: AS WE. has changed for most of us. Mind your three W's.
14. On the quiet side: ALEE.
16. Steady guy: BEAU.
19. __'acte: ENTR'. "Between the acts". Last Saturday, the clue was 52. Entr'__: ACTE.
20. Hardy: STOUT.
21. Makes blue, maybe: DYEs. Dye, Green and Brown were cousin's surnames in my family. No Blues.
23. Friendly opening?: ECO.
24. Literary count, familiarly: DRAC. ula
27. Up in the air: ON HIGH.
33. Feat: DEED.
34. Large cask: TUN.
35. Mediterranean island nation: MALTA.
36. "__ not over": IT'S. Yes it is. Roy said so.
Shankars is a big fan of Roy Orbison.
40. Go awry: ERR.
41. Kitchen magnet?: AROMA.
43. Game with a "Moo!" version for preschoolers: UNO. U no I didn't know, but it was an easy guess.
44. Future atty.'s hurdle: LSAT.
49. Rio Grande city: LAREDO. About a 300 mile drive for Dash T. We normally get Marty Robbins singing Streets of Laredo, but how about some Jim Reeves this time ?
50. Env. directive: ATTN. Envelope / Attention
51. Short-order order: BLT. Abejo would order his BLT sans mayo. Abejo, I hope you are able to harvest some home grown tomatoes. We did not plant any this year. My error.
52. Ceremony: RITE.
54. Beasts of burden: ASSES.
58. "How the Other Half Lives" author Jacob: RIIS. "...a pioneering work of photojournalism by Jacob Riis, documenting the squalid living conditions in New York City slums in the 1880s" - Amazon Book review.
63. Cornerstone word: ANNO. Latin for year.
64. In need of a sweep: SOOTY. Like the chimney or hearth of a wood burning fireplace.
65. French friend: AMIE. Vince Gill, with long hair in 1979:
That guy can hit some high notes. Shades of Roy Orbison.
66. Like custard: EGGY.
67. Beginning: ONSET. From the get go. Jump street. Square one.
This song has an instantaneously recognizable beginning:
Down:
1. Shaggy beasts: YAKs. Goes on and on.
2. Came to rest: ALIT.
3. Pull up stakes for one's co.: RELO. cate. Happened to me. Houston to Chicago. From the 5th largest city in North America to the 3rd largest.
4. Played for a chump: DELUDED.
5. Env. insert: LTR. Envelope / Letter
6. Eye, to a bard: ORB.
"Cold-hearted orb that rules the night
Removes the colours from our sight
Red is grey is yellow white
But we decide which is right
And which is an illusion"
Red is grey is yellow white
But we decide which is right
And which is an illusion"
Graham Edge of The Moody Blues - A modern bard.
7. Headed for extra innings: TIED. Major League Baseball is back !
Did you hear about the lineup that Toronto (North America's 4th largest city) had in their opening game of the season ?
The Blue Jays had Bo Bichette, Cavan Biggio, Vlad Guerrero, Jr. and Travis Shaw batting one through four. Those first four batters are all sons of retired MLB players. A first in ML history.
8. "Bye now": SEE YOU. Later, alligator. After while, crocodile.
9. Shivering trees: ASPENs. Quakers.
10. Japanese prime minister since 2012: ABE. Two syllables in Abe. Shinzō Abe.
11. Dakar residents: SENEGALESE. Immediately keyed in Sengallis and almost just as quickly corrected it. Why in the world I tried Sengallis or where it came from is unknown.
12. What prevents time from slipping away?: WATCH STRAP. Loved the clue.
13. German capital: EURO. Gee.
18. Raison d'__: ETRE. The most important reason.
22. One of the Stooges: SHEMP. Chairman Moe is a fan, as his avatar of Larry, Moe and Curly would suggest. Shemp was an original stooge but went solo, and was replaced by Curly. Curly had a stroke in 1946. Shemp returned to make the trio of stooges complete again.
25. Penny-__: ANTE. Often meaning petty. At other times, a poker game that won't break the bank.
26. Fish used for bait: CHUB. Now this was tricky for me, because chum is fish parts and blood used to attract other fish, typically predator fish like sharks (as in that scene from Jaws). Chub are freshwater fish, and are commonly used as bait for other larger fish such as bass and catfish. SansBeach, and other fishing aficionados, please chime in.
28. Supermarket franchise initials: IGA. Independent Grocers Alliance. With the slogan, "Hometown proud." Not International Grocers Association, even though they are also in Canada, Australia and the Philippines.
29. Initiate: GET ROLLING. Rock. Get it ? You know, Rolling Rock Beer, the beer that made Latrobe famous ? Or was it Arnold Palmer that made Latrobe famous ? Do you know who else was from Latrobe ? Fred Rogers. Yes, Mr. Rogers ! Plus, there was an apprentice pharmacist from Latrobe that is credited as the inventor of the banana split. Now where was I ? Oh, the review. Time to get rolling.
30. Striking a chord (with): RESONATING. My first thought. Funny how some word associations are so strong. Like Rolling Rock, and the Laurel Highlands. It just seems to resonate.
You don't usually see words like resonating in crosswords. Surely someone somewhere has used it, but I've never seen it. (I think Lemonade has some tools to check these kind of things.) But having only about eight years of solving history, I don't have a great purview.
31. As prompted: ON CUE.
32. Hair line: PART. Two words in the clue. Cute word play by David. Hairline (one word) would be the edge of one's hair, or a very thin or fine line.
33. Old TV control: DIAL. They used to have these on old phones, too. Most readers here should have a good visual image of both of those dials.
37. Word with buffalo or wings: WATER.
38. "Frozen" sister: ANNA. Knew it had to be Elsa or Anna, so I looked to confirm with a perp. The first one I got was the last A.
39. Academic: MOOT.
"Whatever was done is done
I just can't recall
It doesn't matter at all" - Greg Lake.
42. Dept. head: MGR.
44. Shot spoiler: LENS CAP.
46. "You couldn't have!" retort: I DID SO.
47. Security lighting trigger: MOTION.
48. Deer sir: STAG.
51. Highlands hillside: BRAE.
53. Short-lived spinoff of "The Dukes of Hazzard": ENOS. I wonder if this was David's clue ? Doubtful, given his predisposition to "...make no effort to include the latest neologism, celebrity, or TV series." He probably had something like "Grandson of Eve".
55. Identical: SAME.
56. Sportscaster Andrews: ERIN. I wonder if this was David's clue ? Doubtful, given his predisposition to "...make no effort to include the latest neologism, celebrity, or TV series." He probably had something like "Welsh name for Ireland".
57. Went fast: SPED. Answers flowed today. Got the scheme early. Never saw the reveal until starting the write up. Shame on me. Then realized how clever it was.
59. __ sauce: SOY.
61. Mineral suffix: ITE. A few examples would be jerrygibbsite, jimthompsonite and joesmithite.
62. Paper read on the LIRR or Metro-North, perhaps: NYT. Long Island RR, and the common abbr for the New York Times.
