IN BLOOM
April
showers bring....hey, wait, we're too early for the flowers~! This is
my second blog of an Emma Oxford puzzle this year ( see 67A.). Four
11-letter and one 13-letter spanners for the theme - scrambled, or
"wild" - flower names. No circles, but "in my opinion" ( see 59D. ) it
might have helped, as the first two themers are two-word scrambles, but
then the second two are just the first four letters. Your Experience
May Be/Might've Been Different - in fact, I'm coining a new term,
"YEMBD" - pronounced "yem-beady". Very few names, plenty of foreign
(read) French words, but a longer than usual solve time for me, as I did
not get the "ta-DA~!" at the end due to my "LIKE to serve" mistake,
which took a while to find.
18. *Be extremely helpful: LIVE TO SERVE - VIOLET - the original Willy Wonka
36. *Start of an instruction to an automated assistant: SIRI SET A TIMER - IRIS
44. *Sensitive area: SORE SUBJECT - ROSE - and the 'start' of the joke ....
58. Colorful elements of a meadow, and what can be found at the starts of the answers to the starred clues?: WILDFLOWERS
And Away We Go~!
ACROSS:
1. Gasteyer of "Mean Girls": ANA
4. Stand-up individual?: COMIC
9. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner: MEALS
14. Place for a pint: PUB - Bzzzt~! Not BAR - AND - 20A. Some pints: ALES
15. Miso soup mushroom: ENOKI - perps, but then again, a crossword staple lately
16. Data processor's need: INPUT
17. Lenovo products: PCs - Lenovo is a Windows-based computer maker
22. Crying harder: TEARIER - meh.
23. Tempo similar to largo: LENTO
25. Prepares, as a sleeping bag: UNROLLS
33. Part of EVOO: OIL - Extra Virgin Olive Oil
34. Used DoorDash, say: ATE IN - had food delivered, that is; I made my own version of General Tso's chicken the other day~!
35. Auction site: eBAY
41. Very: MOST - as in "she is most attractive"
42. Rene of "Tin Cup": RUSSO
43. Death on the Nile cause, perhaps: ASP - "Very dangerous...you go first"
50. Frightening vision: DAYMARE - as opposed to NIGHTmare - a new word for me; more here
52. Part of TNT: NITRO - Everything you ever wanted to know about trinitrotoluene
53. Do over and over: ITERATE - so to REiterate is to do over and over AND OVER~?
57. "Begone!": SHOO
62. Convent figure: NUN
63. Adult stage in insects: IMAGO
64. Provide an address: ORATE - ooh, clever misdirection
65. Here, in France: ICI - Frawnche #2
66. Airport structure: TOWER
"We have no tower - just a bridge, Sir"
67. "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" host Aisha: TYLER - strangely, this is the second time with this clue/answer for me in an Emma Oxford puzzle blog
68. "Evita" role: CHE
DOWN:
1. Revolt: APPALL - the "ick" revolt, not the political one
2. Atomic cores: NUCLEI - I read somewhere that our constructor Emma has atomic knowledge
3. Playing hooky, perhaps: ABSENT
4. Cartoon still: CEL
5. "Roger that, boss!": "ON IT~!"
6. Make emotional: MOVE - MOKE seemed like a possibility 😜
7. Maker of Ektorp sofas: IKEA - I have learned to default to "IKEA" when it's an oddly-named furniture clue....
8. Fruit type that tends to be in season in winter: CITRUS - I did not know this; read more here from "The CIA"
9. Kathy Bates film based on a Stephen King novel: MISERY - I am not a fan of this genre
10. Month after diciembre: ENERO - the Spanish spelling of January
11. Mo. after Mar.: APRil - the current "mid-spring" month - I have daffodils in my front yard
12. Hon: LUV - Thank God it was not the "other" three-letter cringe word
13. Sault __ Marie: STE - Frawnche #3
19. Sty sound: OINK
21. Queen Anne's house: STUART - I have had this type of misdirection before; not the actual house as in structure/style, but the "political" one - see the Wiki highlighted
24. __-Free: contact lens solution: OPTI
26. Piercing spot: LOBE
27. "Not true!": LIAR - I had "LIES~!" to start
28. Devious: SLY
30. Your, in Tours: TES - Frawnche #4
31. Dash, quaintly: HIE
32. __ nous: ENTRE - fifth and finale Frawnche
35. Characters in some texts: EMOJIS - 😀😎😜
36. Slugger Sammy: SOSA - an easy baseball reference, tho I am
not a fan like our blog host C.C. - I did like the link to the two guys
trying to hit 100mph fastballs, Chairman~!
37. Guessing game: I SPY
38. Ger. neighbor: AUStria
39. Nashville sch.: TSU - I WAGed this, figured it was something like "Tennessee State University"
40. ID on a Barnes & Noble buy: ISBN - ID is abbr., so too the International Standard Book Number
41. Outraged: MAD
44. Took, as an exam: SAT FOR
45. Baseball analyst Hershiser: OREL - does this mean he offers "Orel" exams~? ba-dum-tiss
46. Transplant: REROOT - I re-potted my houseplant a month ago,
and it's still in shock; I don't want to lose it, because it was my
mother's plant and I kept it when we sold the LI house after she passed
47. Pertaining to a certain culture: ETHNIC
48. Catcher's stance: CROUCH
49. Nickname for the Canadian $2 coin: TOONIE - I filled in LOONEY, as I have seen this before in Crosswords, but obviously had the wrong $ value, and spelling - but 50% correct~!
51. Small fly: MIDGE
54. Out of whack: AWRY
55. Blue-green shade: TEAL
56. Art Deco icon: ERTÉ - I happen to "MOKE" (😁) the Art Deco style - his Wiki
58. Cleverness: WIT
59. Brief "I would say ... ": IMO - In My Opinion
60. Order's partner: LAW - for those who are interested, the LAW & ORDER tab for the TV show theme from Ultimate Guitar; you'll have to create a log-in to see it if you don't already have one
61. Msg. from a pulpit: SERmon
Splynter