Saturday, October 10, 2015

Saturday, Oct 10th, 2015, Bruce Venzke

Theme: None

Words: 68 (missing Q,V,X,Z)

Blocks: 30

 My experience with Mr. Venzke's puzzles has been tough, but do-able.  Today, however, I smoked through his construction in half my personal allotted time. Lots of "definitions" which helps avoid the names of people and places.  Triple 9-letter corners, two 10-letter climbers, and one spanner;

38a. House adjustment : REAPPORTIONMENT - The US House of Representatives; more here

16a. Calculated : TOTALED UP - straight up

36d. Pleasant : ENJOYABLE

55a. Nebraska tribe : WINNEBAGO
  
3d. Eroded : ATE AWAY AT


ACROSS:

1. Ray in the water : SKATE - oops, not MANTA

6. Lasting consideration : SHELF LIFE - I find it peculiar that my bottled water has a shelf life....

15. Times in ads : NITES - this had to be right, so it made me take out MANTA

17. On one's toes : ALERT

18. Periodic synchronizations : LEAP YEARS

19. Key ingredient in a Bloody Caesar : CLAMATO - I vaguely remembered this, but where it comes from is new to me - the Wiki

 

21. High-fashion shoemaker Jimmy : CHOO - HeartRx is all too familiar with this brand


22. Royal Botanic Gardens locale : KEW

23. Chef's introduction? : SOUS - working in the restaurants, this was easy for me

25. Do a farm vet's job : DEHORN

27. Frank's cousin : BRAT - oh, that frank(furter)

29. Cried from a shelter : YIPPED

31. 1989 James Cameron film, with "The" : ABYSS - I did see it, but didn't recall it right off the bat

33. Discontinues : SURCEASES - my Latin helped me here

40. Initiates detailed plans : SETS A DATE - think wedding

41. 1932 Lake Placid gold medalist : SONJA - one of the few proper nouns in today's puzzle, this one was mostly perps

42. Least exciting : TAMEST - did not get my ta-DA~! because I had Lamest first

44. Rapper __ Moe Dee : KOOL - I went with Cool first, and knew it was wrong

45. Malting material : BARLEY - think beer

49. Itinerary elements: Abbr. : RTEs

51. Sometime substitute for 45-Across : RYE

52. Spread on the table : OLEO

53. Native whose land has an Atlantic and Caribbean coastline : HAITIAN


60. Don't disturb : LET BE

61. Sign, as an agreement : ENTER INTO

62. Challenge for a future doctor : ORALS - I threw in MSATS

63. Hit from behind : REAR-ENDED - happened to me in 1989; took 4 years to recover the money from the other insurance company

64. Items in a slush pile: Abbr. : SASEs - the envelopes included with the manuscripts

DOWN:

1. Bite sites : SNACK BARS

2. First recurring "SNL" character : KILLER BEE

4. Insurance policy datum : TERM

5. Spanish pronoun : ESTAS

6. Edward Jones Dome athlete : St. LOUIS RAM - mostly perps; glad to see we had a hockey-themed puzzle for the opening of the season this week.  Not so much the football season

7. Masonry tool : HOE

8. Seventh of 24 : ETA - Greek letters

9. Once around : LAP

10. 1986 Jeff Goldblum film, with "The" : FLY - the more graphic version - IMDb

11. It's hard to get rid of one : LEECH

12. Wyoming neighbor : IDAHO

13. Hubbub : FUROR

14. Big name in printers : EPSON - since I had the "O", XEROX seemed likely

20. Bichon Frise, e.g. : TOY - dogs, learned from doing crosswords

24. Sound flustered : SPUTTER - oooh, so close, I had sTutter

25. Chrysler Building style : DECO - Art Deco, and my favorite building of the NYC skyline - and here combined with one of my other favorites













26. Heavens : EDENS

28. Rx amts. : TSPS

30. Group of fathers : PRIESTHOOD

32. Sudden rush : SPATE - yeah, um spaLe was, uh, wrong....

34. Frenzily : AMOK

35. Misses at many bullfights : SENORITAS - the ladies, not the "close calls"; need to call in the Farm Vet from 25a.

37. Lack of originality : STALENESS

39. Jazz singer Anita : O'DAY - dredged from the nether regions of the mind

43. Word with caddy or ball : TEA - tea caddy I get, but a tea ball is new to me


45. Shaded recess : BOWER - reminds me of this Led Zeppelin song

Gallows Pole - lyric @ 2:18

46. Flared dress shape : A LINE

47. __-Wreck : RENT-A

48. Hardly an extrovert : LONER

50. Storage areas : SILOS - semi-clecho at 57d.

54. Prefix with hertz : TERA - went with MEGA - that's 50%, 100% correct

56. Poetic preposition : ERE

57. Storage place : BIN

58. Word between two ages : AND - ummm....

59. Onetime Bell Atlantic rival : GTE

Splynter

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