Saturday, November 19, 2016

Saturday, Nov 19th, 2016, Erik Agard

Theme: None

Words 70 (missing Q,V,W,X)

Blocks: 38

  First time blogging an Erik Asgard LA Times Saturday puzzle for me; he has seven previously published constructions, and with a posting on a Tuesday, he will have hit for the cycle.  Odd-looking grid with the black corners, a high block count, and the step-stacks of 12-,13-, and 14-letter fills; 12 & 14 is hard to do.  Not much success on my first pass, and the short down clues did not help much - if it had not been for some "I know this" fills, I would probably still be working on the grid.  Got my ta-DA~! with one bad cel, silly mistake crossing a total unknown.  Oh well.  Some of the longer fill;

13a. ESPN game show where four expert panelists compete debate-style : AROUND THE HORN - I see it on the TV at the restaurants occasionally, but not an actual watcher - but I do like the chalkboard quotes


15a. "42" subject : JACKIE ROBINSON - my first thought was the "42" of Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and that was not working.  Baseball is not my thing, but once the -SON appeared, a vague recollection of this movie occurred 


65a. Early U.S. Navy flag motto : DON'T TREAD ON ME


66a. Likely to be returned : MISADDRESSED

ONWARpeD~!

ACROSS:

1. Diagnostic aid : TISSUE SAMPLE - oof; vague

17. Water __ : SKI - oops, not "PIK"

18. Gets ready to eat, in a way : NUKES - affectionate term for microwaving; it's how I defrost chicken and re-heat pizza

19. Key of Beethoven's Sym. No. 7 : A Maj - I filled in the "M", and waited; it's going to be A-G, Major or Minor

21. Clipped affirmative : YES,'M

23. Other: Pref. : HETERO-

25. Scary story sound : CREAK

28. One of a prohibitive septet : SIN - the Se7en Deadly

31. Industry bigwigs : CZARS - ah, we've seen this before; did not occur to me at first; I went with EXECS

32. Hide out, with "down" : HUNKER

34. School offering belts : DOJO - martial arts

36. Get : NAB - oops, not "SEE"

37. Rihanna album whose title is a common prefix : ANTI - half perps and a WAG

38. Cosmic balance : KARMA

40. Analogy part : IS TO

41. An ace is under it : PAR - in golf, it's par, birdie, eagle; on a par-three hole, "ace" is a hole in one

42. Desert bordering the Altai Mountains : GOBI

43. Mitt with ten fingers : ROMNEY - clever

45. "Luck Be __": "Guys and Dolls" song : A LADY

47. Smoking evidence : ASH

49. Shuffles, say : iPODS - Apple MP-3 music players

50. Firming (up) : TONING - D-oh~! I filled in Boning, and 25d was anyone's guess

52. Italian recipe word : ALLA

54. User of recording devices called quipus : INCA - fascinating, for me - I had to find out what a quipu was, and here's the Wiki; down at the bottom, the article mentions Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt series, and I have read two of his books - now I need to get the one mentioned here.

55. WWII conference city : YALTA

58. Home of MLB's Redbirds : STL - St. Louis Cardinals

61. Learn : GET INFORMATION

DOWN: 
      

1. Persian for "crown" : TAJ - pondered "ABU" at first

2. Subjects of IRS Pub. 590 : IRAs

3. Belt : SOCK - ah, not "SHOT"

4. Japanese hot pot dish : SUKIYAKI - oops, not TERI yaki

5. Athlete's wear, for short : UNI - I believe it's short for unitard

6. Idyllic settings : EDENS - one of the few clues I got on the first pass

7. Toys with strings? : STRUMS - I have been known to toy with the strings of my guitars

8. "I see now" : "AH, OK"

9. "Leave __!" : "ME BE"

10. Trey Anastasio's band : PHISH - nailed it, but for the life of me I cannot remember my favorite song from them from a live concert; my brother might recall the name.  I spent way too much time looking for it....

11. Chaney of the screen : LON

12. Imitation : ERSATZ - great WAG off the "T" in hetero-

14. Unequivocal rejection : NO MEANS NO

16. Told : NARRATED

20. Alcott's "Little Men" sequel : JO'S BOYS

22. __ out a victory : EKE

24. Prefix with tourist : ECO

25. Indian flatbread : CHAPATI


26. Words with a dismissive wave : RUN ALONG

27. Unable to look away : ENTRANCED

I am unable to look away~!

29. Actor __ Elba of "The Wire" : IDRIS - his IMDb; I was not aware he played the captain in the movie Prometheus, the 'prequel' to ALIEN

30. French handle? : NOM - Frawnche for "name"

33. "Citizen Kane" studio : RKO

35. Shake up : JAR

39. Old hoops org. : ABA

40. Thick paint applications : IMPASTOS

42. OB/__ : GYN

44. Sautéing substance : OIL

46. Unicellular alga : DIATOM

48. Abomination : HATRED

51. "Peer __ Homecoming": Grieg work : GYNTS

53. Rapper Kendrick __ : LAMAR

56. Mennen skin product : AFTA

57. Voldemort's title : LORD - from the Harry Potter series of books and films, portrayed by Ralph Fiennes

59. Cookie containers : TINS

60. __-Tokoin Airport: Togo hub : LOME


62. Pasta ending : INI - rotini was the only one I could think of, so I went looking, and found the pasta shapes dictionary

63. Soft drink ending : ADE

64. Young adult fiction author Vizzini : NED - perps

Splynter

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