Saturday, November 22, 2014

Saturday, Nov 22nd, 2014, Brad Wilber

Theme: BW

Words: 70 (missing Q,W,X)

Blocks: 27

 Mr. Wilber's prolific solo Saturday work is starting to rival that of Mr. Silk~!  We last had a visit from Brad in September.  Lots of vagueness on the first pass, but the Downs gave me a lot of letters to work with, and I ended up smoking through the puzzle in about half time.  Not an intimidating grid at all, yet a block count that is only one more than last week's.  How deceiving - and just two 9-letter fills comprised the whole of the 'long' answers;

25a. Highly visible septet : BIG DIPPER - The Big Dipper consists of these seven stars, yet part of the larger constellation Ursa Major


45. Gig at the brig : GUARD DUTY - I was thinking Jailhouse Rock


ONWARD~!

ACROSS:

1. Jeweler's concerns : SETTINGS

9. Coke product : FRESCA - Coca-cola, that is

15. Passed : OVERTOOK - the kind of passing drivers of cars do; see 7d.

16. "Top Hat" dancer : ROGERS - Ginger - because ASTAIRE did not fit ( the only other dancer I know of that regularly appears in crosswords )

17. How Dickens' novels were first published : SERIALLY - I had S---IALLY, and I thought, SOCIALLY~? Naw, they didn't have Facebook back then....

18. Is wild about : ADORES

19. Backwash creator : OAR - I went with "EBB", but it fit better at 48a.

20. Montreal Canadiens' all-time leading point scorer : LaFLEUR - Guy; I went with Maurice "Rocket" RICHARD first; he scored 50 goals in 50 games in the '44-45 season, but LaFleur scored 50 goals a season for 6 straight seasons decades later

22. Toon shopkeeper : APU - The Simpsons

23. Signals one's presence, in a way : RAPS

27. Year in Clement VIII's papacy : MDCI - well, just had to wait on perps, but after the "M" and "I" appeared, I tried the other Roman numerals ( C, D, X, V ) that would work with the "down" answer

28. Piquancy : TANG

29. Silly sorts : GEESE - "Silly Goose~!"

30. Jump back into the fray : RE-ENGAGE

32. Clingy husk : BUR - seems short a letter....

33. Paper fatteners : INSERTS - ah, Newspaper; I did not get this until I came to do the write-up; our Sunday paper is about to gain some weight with the holiday season upon us

34. Flips : GOES APE

38. Hot air ballooning watchdog: Abbr. : FAA - we have a drone problem developing over here; they're interfering with JFK airspace

39. Almond confection : MARZIPAN

40. About 1% of the Earth's atmosphere : ARGON - I did not go with RADON; just linked this two weeks ago

43. Engine once known as Live Search : BING - WAG

44. Abbey section : APSE - APSE~?  NAVE~? wait on perps

47. Your alternative, at times : ONE'S - seen often in crossword clues

48. Taper off : EBB - ah - that's where it goes....

49. 1974 top ten hit for Carole King : JAZZ MAN - Link away~!

51. Kenyan export : TEA - had the "A", WAGed the "T-E-"

53. Green Giant morsel : NIBLET - toyed with CARROT first

55. Dietary practice : VEGANISM - it may be a practice, but I'm not in the game; I just had this for dinner here at A Lure


57. Efface : DELETE

58. Sea along the Balkan peninsula : ADRIATIC - with the first "A", and "C" in place, this dawned on me

59. Letter closing : AS EVER

60. Buoys up : HEARTENS

DOWN:

1. Underwhelming : SO-SO

2. She played Principal McGee in "Grease" : EVE ARDEN

3. View providers : TERRACES

4. Prefix with athlete : TRI - TRIathlete

5. Right-leaning type?: Abbr. : ITALicS - see above

6. Bourbon Street city, informally : NOLA - New Orleans, LousianA

7. Drivers can be seen in them : GOLF BAGS - nailed it; did not confuse the 'club' with the 'car controller'

8. Broad view : SKYLINE

9. Mountebank : FRAUD - filled via perps; did not have any clue ( except to consider the Alp, Mont Blanc ); a swindler

10. Five-time A.L. home run champ : RODRIGUEZ - oh, him

11. A BMOC may have a big one : EGO - speaking of EGOs, see above

12. Colorful cover-up : SERAPE - total WAG, total win~!

13. Brunch order : CREPES - anyone try OMELET~?

14. Guarantee : ASSURE

21. Whisking target : EGG - and, uh, see above

24. Miss badly : PINE FOR - I went with LONG at first; I am holding out hope for my blue-eyed girl still

26. Blofeld's cat, in Bond films : PERSIAN - I think Mr. Bigglesworth was a great way to satire the whole thing


27. Picture of health? : MRI - we've seen this before; the "?" denotes the slight mis-direction

28. "I'm off!" : "TA-TA~!"

31. Baryshnikov move : GRAND JETÉ - Hello~!  I couldn't link a male in the pose, it looked to painful; yet this past Wednesday I played hockey, and the other goalie asked how I could get so low - I guess I'm almost as flexible; my buddy Bob sent me this pic from a few years ago


32. Wimbledon five-peater : BORG - Bjorn

34. Largest moon of Jupiter : GANYMEDE - I love watching shows on the probes we've sent out to explore the solar system; this one took 6 years to get there, but had some great moments

35. Fondness : APPETITE - for Destruction?  Great album cover, which was, of course, banned

36. Submits, as an exam paper : PASSES IN - HANDS IN was not enough; but then again, I remember we used to "pass in" exams by handing them to the person at the desk in front of us

37. Topeka-to-Peoria dir. : ENE - I threw in NNE

39. Bar __ : MITZVAH - this should have come easier than it did

40. Handout from a chair : AGENDA - I knew what direction this was pointing, but I spent Tuesday helping my buddy Adam move, and he has a 13 month-old son, so there was this image of baby food flying....

41. 40th anniversary symbols : RUBIES - an educated WAG after the "R" showed; I knew it was not Diamond, but a little further on than, say, "wood"; here's the list

42. Unintelligible talk : GABBLE - I had GARBLE in place; EBB fixed that

43. Sawyer of old comics : BUZ - the other "missing a letter" answer

46. "Antiques Roadshow" expert : DATER - carbon dater?  Now that's an antique~!

47. Booth warning sign : ON AIR

50. Onetime capital of the Mughal Empire : AGRA - seems sensible, now that I look at it

52. Pacers and Ramblers : AMCs - nailed it - but then again, I owned a Concord Sportabout
























54. Bk. of the Torah : LEV

56. Baseball's Ryan Zimmerman or Jordan Zimmermann, briefly : NAT - I defer to our  baseball-starved but fearless leader, C.C. on these answers

There's always room for dessert~!


Splynter

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