Good morning, Cruciverbalists. Malodorous Manatee here with this morning's review of a puzzle constructed by Amie Walker. I had the pleasure of recapping one of Amie's puzzles last July and in that puzzle she added a letter or two to common expressions and, thereby, created new and different expressions. In today's offering, she leads us in the opposite direction and deletes a single letter to yield definitions for three themed clues (all of which are starred for our convenience). The reveal comes at:
50 Across: "Stay alert!," or a phonetic hint to the answers to the starred clues: KEEP AN EYE OUT. The phonetic hint is that we must delete an I. An "eye for an I" in the reveal, as it were.
The starred clues are found at:
19 Across: *Relocation specialist?: MOVE PRODUCER. Movie Producer before the deletion.
Steve Martin - Insurance Agent/Claim Adjuster
42 Across: *Lift for Mom's mom?: GRAN ELEVATOR. Grain Elevator. Lift being, in this case, British English for what we in the USA call an ELEVATOR.
This is how the completed grid looks:
. . . and here are the other clues and answers:
Across:
1. PC shortcut key: CTRL. The classic being CTRL ALT DEL
5. __ Jansen: kid-lit detective with a photographic memory: CAM. Unknown to this solver. Thanks, perps.
8. More than a few: MANY.
12. Seehorn of "Better Call Saul": RHEA. A TV reference.
12. Seehorn of "Better Call Saul": RHEA. A TV reference.
13. Repaired, maybe: TAPED. Yes, maybe. Not often the best way to repair something.
15. Facial tissue additive: ALOE.
16. God of war: ARES. MARS would also have fit, and meet the definition, but would not work out.
17. Market directives that have yet to be executed: OPEN ORDERS. A financial market reference.
21. Study closely: PEER AT. Hand up for first trying to make PERUSE work out.
22. Intended: MEANT.
34. Land divisions: ACRES. 5,280 feet per mile x 5,280 feet = 27,878,400 square feet per square mile. 27,878,400 square feet divided by 43,560 square feet per acre = 640 acres per square mile.
35. Maker of Don't Bossa Nova Me Around nail polish: OPI. This brand often appears. It's probably one that I should commit to memory.
36. Light air: LILT. Air as in a happy tune or song.
37. Tennessee athlete: TITAN. A professional football team. Formerly the Houston Oilers.
40. Cutoffs fabric: DENIM.
41. Walk quartet: BALLS. A baseball reference. The new baseball rules regarding allotted time to throw a pitch and for the batter to be ready to hit are going to seem a bit odd at first.
45. Tag line?: NOT IT.
Please Forgive the Animals for Not Knowing
Their (There, They're) Contractions
46. Spectators on "Ted Lasso," e.g.: EXTRAS. Some are created with CGI. Another TV reference.
55. Evasive reply to "Why do you ask?": OH NO REASON. The reply is often an untruth.
58. Ancient letter: RUNE. From Germanic alphabets used in the 3rd to the 13th centuries.
59. Lug: HAUL. Hand up for TOTE (although that's often clued as a pledge drive giveaway).
60. Makes a baby blanket, say: KNITS.
61. Jazz legend James: ETTA. This rare talent is a frequent visitor so we cannot say "At Last" she has arrived:
62. Bird in the starling family: MYNA. To enforce a ban against exporting MYNA birds, a country trained lions to guard its frontiers. One day two smugglers tried to sneak a MYNA bird out of the country while the border lions were sleeping. The big cats woke up in time and captured the smugglers, who were accused of transporting MYNAs across state lions.
64. Cubicle surface: DESK.
Down:
1. Muscle woe: CRAMP. I flexed my glutes and got a cramp. That was a pain in the butt.
2. Pang: THROE.
3. Superman player: REEVE. In the 1978 movie "Superman" and in three sequels.
%3Amax_bytes(150000)%3Astrip_icc()%2FSuperman-Reeve-body-56df97d65f9b5854a9f6c7cf.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=cd1539b241ed8a5839323dd78a1ada59074660c9791bf122de949ff6d9526a36&ipo=images)
4. Use an engraving machine, say: LASER CUT. I found this one to be just a bit of a stretch.
5. Guitar accessory: CAPO. Let's say that the guitarist knows how to play a song in the key of G but the singer wants to do it in A flat. Put the CAPO on the first fret and play just as you would in G.
6. Mimicked: APED.
Humans Pretending to Be Apes Aping Human Choreography
7. Set of dishes?: MENU. Word play. Not plates.
8. Some ladies of Spain: MADRES. Spain was a bit of misdirection except to let us know that the answer might be, and was, a Spanish word. Some ladies everywhere are mothers. A somewhat open-ended clue in that there are many, many possible answers.
9. Yard sale?: ALE. As in a yard of ALE. A yard is a tall beer glass holding 2 1/2 imperial pints.
10. "That's neither here __ there": NOR.
11. "Bingo!": YES. Aha! Oho! Yea! Another open-ended clue,
13. Sandwich that might have queso fresco and crema: TORTA. A Mexican street food lesson.
14. OB-GYN, e.g.: DOC. Abbr/abbr
18. Brother in Roman lore: REMUS. Romulus and REMUS had a wolf for a foster mother. The legend says that they founded Rome (named for Romulus).
Romulus and Remus
20. Buddies: PALS. Good PALS don't let you do stupid things . . . alone.
23. Lagoon border: ATOLL. I often forget if it's one T and two L's or vice versa.
24. Landlocked country in South Asia: NEPAL.
25. Abridges: TRIMS. An editing reference. No one says that they're going to abridge the hedges.
27. Location of the fictional town Horseshoe Bay on The CW's "Nancy Drew": MAINE. Another TV reference.
28. Play ender, often: ACT IV. This clue and answer is always a bit of a punt whether it is ACT IV or ACT I or ACT II, etc.
29. Pulitzer category: DRAMA. There are 21 categories. Yet another open-ended clue.
30. Fox Sports NFL sideline reporter Hale: JEN. Another TV reference.
31. Square up: ALIGN.
32. TNT component: NITRO. triNITROtoluene
33. Rub it in: GLOAT.
37. __ Aviv: TEL. A major Israeli city.
38. Exchanged: BARTERED. SWAPPED did not quite fit.
40. Dissuade: DETER.
41. Like classic Volvos: BOXY.
1975 Volvo 240
43. Inventor Tesla: NIKOLA. Born in 1856. Musk was born in 1971. NIKOLA should have had the foresight to trademark his last name.
44. Chilly temps: TEENS. As you read this I am at 9,500 feet in Colorado. The forecast low tonight is fourTEEN ° F.
Looking West From Mt. Crested Butte
47. Path: ROUTE.
48. Reunion attendees: AUNTS. Again, an open-ended clue. This could refer to a family reunion (and it did) or a school class reunion or a military service reunion, etc.
49. Cookout choice: STEAK. Lots of possible answers fit this clue, too.
51. Startled cry: EEK. Often, EEK a mouse! More often, we see the homophone EKE (out a living).
52. Huff and puff: PANT.
53. Craigslist caveat: AS IS. I saw an ad on Craig's List that read: "Radio, one dollar, volume stuck on high." I thought to myself, "I can't turn that down . . ."
54. __ bene: NOTA.
55. Resistance eponym: OHM. We're talking (electrical) physics here not political resistance.
56. Pile near a pitchfork: HAY.
57. Convent figure: NUN.
Well, that wraps things up for today . . . and, you may well be thinking, NUN too soon.
As you read this, Valerie and I are most likely driving through Utah or Colorado. Hopefully, running on clear roads behind the storm that came through California on Wednesday headed east. Stay safe, everyone.
____________________________________________
Leave a comment