Saturday, December 10, 2016

Saturday, Dec 10th, 2016, Doug Peterson & Patti Varol

Theme: DP & PV

Words: 72 (missing J,Q,Z)

Blocks: 30

The return of a Saturday duo - the last time we saw these two constructors was back in April of this year.  That puzzle featured a 15-letter spanner with a central climber of 13 letters.  Today we have 9-letter corners in the across, a pair of 10-letter climbers in the down, and a smattering of 8-letter fill elsewhere.  I moved through this grid as smoothly as the one from April, did not get stalled on the proper names, but I have to admit I did not get my "ta-DA~!" - turns out I went with BETAS and not BETHS, and should have known better with the crossing down.  Oh well.  Some of the longer fill;

15. Only pitcher whose jersey number was retired by the Mets : TOM SEAVER - I'm from L.I., NY, so I had a pretty good idea who this was


12. 2013 literature Nobelist : ALICE MUNRO - her Wiki
 
66. Bright one in a school : NEON TETRA


27. Smartphone notification : EMAIL ALERT

How 'bout this one~?

ONWARD@Splynter.com~!
 
ACROSS:

1. Sole proprietor? : SHOE STORE - since I was 'hip' to the "?", it would have been in my best interest to try filling in SHOE somewhere, but I left it blank on the first past

10. Spiffy : SMART

16. Certain internet chatter : AOLer

17. Headache source : EYESTRAIN

18. Lopez who played Jiminez in "The Dirty Dozen" : TRINI - got it from perps, but should have been a logical guess in the first place - so would that be a L.A.G.~?  The "Logical-Ass Guess"~?

19. Bear fruit : PAN OUT - watermelon didn't fit....

Get it~? "Bear" fruit~? C'mon, that's funny

20. Company whose old factory had a water tower shaped like the company's product : DIXIE CUP - I tried HERSHEY'S, thinking a "Kiss" would be a pretty cool water tower

22. One of the gang : PAL

24. Get the word out? : ERASE - har-har

25. "Wrong call, I suppose" : "GUESS NOT."

30. Test ban subjects : A-BOMBS - I dropped an "A" bomb at 18a.

33. Coloratura Gluck : ALMA

34. Crow heard on tracks : SHERYL - not fooled - I know who Sheryl Crow is 


36. Keats wrote on one : URN - "Ode on a Grecian..." I believe

37. Mount, as a comeback : STAGE

39. Santa __ winds : ANA

40. The blahs : ENNUI

42. New England sch. in Kingston : Univeristy of Rhode Island

43. 1980 film with the #1 hit "Magic" : XANADU - I remember the title track from star Olivia Newton-John, but never saw the movie - it was a flop, but the soundtrack did well

46. Like the Kara Kum : ARID - a WAG, but it sounded like a desert

47. Goddess on whose bust Poe's raven perched : PALLAS - mostly perps

49. Droning : MONOTONE

51. Target : AIM AT

53. Bad check letters : NSF - @#$Z&%~!  I paid Geico on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, got email confirmation, then paid my credit card bill in full on Black Friday - and received notice from my bank
Saturday that I had -$147 in my checking account - Geico posted late.  The negative balance included the Non-Sufficient Fund charge of $38.  Like they don't have enough of my money....

54. It takes a licking : LOLLIPOP - There's a girl at UPS who used to come by with a big bag of lollipops for me once a month. (lollipops is a word you can type with one finger in the top right of the keyboard - try it.)

Umm, not the girl from UPS

57. Bargain for : PLAN ON - I plan on getting a cel phone remote car starter, but wanted to ask those here at the blog for any input they can offer on best brands or functions

62. Canceled a reservation, maybe : ATE IN

63. Tossing and turning : WIDE AWAKE - I hear all the rookies at UPS complaining about trying to get to sleep for a 12am-10am shift for the Christmas peak season.  If I have to, I will take some non-alcoholic night-time sleep aid, just to get over the "switch"

65. Death in Venice : MORTE - I figured it was Italian for "death", but was not sure of the spelling

67. Hebrew letters : BETHs - Dah~! Not BETAs

68. Montana's has a plow, a pick and a shovel : STATE SEAL - oops, I went with STATE FLAG

- shout out~!

DOWN:

1. Pedometer unit : STEP - I used to have a step-counter on my cel phone, and it recorded something like 20,000 steps while working at UPS one morning - and I got nowhere; I was still standing between the slide and four trucks....

2. Georgetown newspaper, with "The" : HOYA

3. Sign : OMEN

4. Brand on the Alcan Highway : ESSO

5. Stings : SET-UPS

6. Tam patterns : TARTANS

7. Some gametes : OVA

8. Journalist Whitelaw __ : REID

9. Orange half of a comic duo : ERNIE - Bert and Ernie


10. Like some appetites : SATIABLE - reminds me of that funny story with the "prefix-less" words; see here

11. To a greater extent : MORE SO

13. Eye care brand : RE۰NU

14. Touch off : TRIP

21. Letter between Whiskey and Yankee : X-RAY - I once worked for an architect who owned his own 4-seater plane (Dudley~!), so know my pilot's alphabet, which may be why I screwed up my Hebrew one

23. "Herbie: Fully Loaded" star : LOHAN

25. Get ready to hit the road : GAS UP - had the "S", so this worked for me

26. Modern opening? : ULTRA

28. Sink : SAG

29. Latish wake-up time : TEN AM

31. TD Garden skater : BRUIN - I know my hockey teams

32. Snarky : SNIDE

35. Odorless gas : RADON

38. Scrutinizes : EXAMINES

41. Styron's Turner : NAT - nearly duplicated at;
59d. Electoral analyst Silver : NATE

44. Hustler's request : ASAP

45. Still saved : UNSPENT

48. Demon of Semitic lore : LILITH

50. In recent times : OF LATE

52. Stops on a commuter train : TOWNS

54. Souvlaki choice : LAMB

55. Plains native : OTOE

56. Painter Mondrian : PIET

58. Dazzles : AWES

60. Cajun staple : OKRA

61. Sci-fi author Stephenson : NEAL

64. 1988 film noir remake : D.O.A. - well, I looked at both films (1950)-(1988), and they do not feature the same characters, nor the same plot, so I am not wholly convinced that the later one could be considered a "remake".  Besides, I would have gone with the Van Halen song....
 
For the guitar players out there try this link
watch the fills & the whammy bar work - 
the player in this video hits the mark - 
and they're not easy

Y'all tried the "LOLLIPOP" thing, didn't you....

Splynter

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