FLEETING MOMENT
While
I am pleased to see a constructor I have not blogged before ( I
checked, and found two grids back in 2022, one in 2019 ), this was a
real struggle for me, as it felt a little more than Wednesday-level. Another 16x15 Grid, another set of circles (yay), another run of 26 Three-Letter Words, another set
of some really vague people ( I'm looking at you, 56A. ) crossing names
with vague clues, and I ended up with two bad squares - see the grid at
the end. I'm feeling "unsuccessful" with this puzzle - I didn't catch a BREAK, I just feel "broken"; Yem Beady. Two
12-letter, two 10-letter themes, and a centered 8-letter reveal;
37. Opportunity for success, or what 17-, 29-, 45-, and 61-Across each have: BIG BREAK - synonyms for BIG, with a 'break' in between
17. Small, rustic house on a game reserve: HUNTING LODGE
29. Vacation spot in the Adirondacks: LAKE GEORGE - I once lived in upstate New York, so I got this; at 45 Sq. Mi., it's quite LARGE
45. Joins the table: GRABS A SEAT
61. Changing price: VARIABLE COST - oof. A looooong way to go for VAST
And Away We Go~!
ACROSS:
1. Stage name of actor Raiford Chatman Davis: OSSIE - I begin with the down clues, but even with perps this was still a non-starter for me (#1)
6. Spanish 53-Down: CARNE - AND - 53D. 24-Across, for one: MEAT - sometimes, I am not a big fan of circumreferential clues like this
11. Band also known as the Bangtan Boys: BTS - Their Wiki (#2)
14. Shapewear brand: SPANX - it should be no surprise that I knew this one
15. Trojan War hero: AENEAS - I could not recall this name (#3)
16. "Shine Ya Light" singer Rita: ORA - no clue about this name (#4)
19. Say "Bingo," say: WIN - Shout would have been better
20. "Another thing ... ": "AND ALSO..." - Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy follow-up
21. Aired: RAN
22. Recurring TikTok post: VLOG - Video bLOG; ya know, I don't
think I have ever visited TikTok, but I do have a friend on Long Island
who uploads clips of car repairs/modifications
23. Mauna __: KEA - Dah~! I had KEA, switched to LOA, had to switch back to KEA, missed the "K"
24. Antipasto choice: SALAMI
26. Wine sale units: CASES - Dah~! Wine CasKs is a perfectly acceptable answer~!
33. Shaq's alma mater: LSU - it helped to know who Shaq is, but I still didn't know where he attended school - from his Wiki page (#5)
34. Meadow: LEA
35. Muppeteer Jerry: NELSON - No clue - his Wiki, and here's his most popular character (#6)
40. Large container: VAT - why isn't it Huge, Great, or Vast~?
41. Polite refusal: NO, MA'AM - I like this fill
43. Nobel winner Hammarskjöld: DAG - Died in a plane crash - or was it something more~? (#7)
44. Gloves, gowns, and goggles in the ER: PPE - I had to take the "1D." 30-hr course to qualify for work at the National
Cathedral; they used the term "PPE" about a thousand times in the
tutorials - Personal Protective Equipment
48. Fabled hare, e.g.: LOSER - ah. I was looking for a name - go figure.
50. "Star Wars" heroes: REBELS
51. Andrew Lloyd Webber title: SIR - "Ektorp" (#8)
52. Actress Watson: EMMA - name, and it messed up my "LYFT" at 54D. (#9)
55. Green hotel opening?: ECO - something something crossword 'green' = ECO; again, Ektorp, but the whole clue seems 'meh' to me
56. Chinese American fashion icon: ANNA SUI - my apologizes, C.C., but I had no idea who she is; double digits, #10
60. Director Ang: LEE - I knew this one, but still name #11
63. Yield to gravity: SAG
64. Latin for "actually existing": IN ESSE - I got it because I took 4 years of Latin
65. "A Delicate Balance" playwright: ALBEE - gee, another name - #12
66. GPS guess: ETA - I hardly call it a "guess"; in fact, I
notice that it is extremely accurate, and the longer the trip, the more
accurate it gets; as a result, it's pretty clear that one simply cannot
go any faster to get there sooner - as shown in this Mythbusters
clip, the whole weaving in traffic shaves a mere two minutes off a 46
mile drive - so what do you plan to do with your "extra" two minutes~?
67. Will of "Blue Bloods": ESTES -ARGH~! SIX names in just 10 clues = #13
68. Set a security system again: REARM - I'm a REBEL, about to take up arms in the fight against proper names~!
DOWN:
1. Div. of Labor: OSHA - well, whaddya know~? BTW, the Organ
renovation is scheduled to be finished in 2028, not 2029, but it's still
going to take FOUR years; I am cleaning the biggest wood pipes this
week
2. Played dreidel: SPUN - played~? I thought it was the top, not the activity
3. Castle makeup: SAND - Dah~! Got me. I was too deep into real castles, like Greystone, and the beach kind never occurred to me
4. Output opposite: INTAKE - intaLK seems like a very reasonable word in our text-speak society
5. Ostracizes: EXILES
6. Bambi still, e.g.: CEL - a single frame of animation
7. Winter hiker's coat: ANORAK - I knew this, but was not clear on the spelling at first
8. Irish brew: RED ALE - I know of Killian's, and here's the process, plus I found this one . . . .
9. "You always tell me what to do!": NAG NAG NAG - clever clue/answer
10. Jargon suffix: ESE - e.g. legal-ESE
11. Pitch, in cricket: BOWL - Dah~! Another one got me - the verb pitch, but I have an excuse - my parents were born & raised in England, so I knew the (noun) "pitch" was the field.
12. Snap, Crackle, and Pop, e.g.: TRIO - oof. Vague for Wednesday; ZZTop, Rush~? Better.
13. Performed an aria: SANG - nice to see ARIA in the clues, not the grid
15. Before today: AGO
18. SIGINT org.: NSA - I had no clue, but the perps gave me _SA; strangely, I can link their site
22. Baroque instrument: VIOL - Smile, it's a "VI-al"
24. Bygone Swedish carmaker: SAAB - I had one; buy now, "Saab" later - get it~?
25. Mouselike: MEEK
26. Trolley sound: CLANG - meh. Trolley BELL . . . .
27. Fur tycoon: ASTOR
28. __ cum laude: SUMMA - MAGNA or SUMMA~? I got it wrong; but 40% was 20% correct
29. Pants part: LEG - ooh~! Another opportunity~!
Thanks for the shoutout Sunday, CanadianEh!
30. Attendance records?: RSVPs - in the plural noun, it just seems "meh"
31. Rant and rave: GO APE
32. [Run program]: ENTER - my WAG, but still a bit "meh"
34. Legumes from the Andes: LIMA BEANS - now that I see the answer, it seems obvious; some info from the USDA
37. Possible litmus test result: BASE - or ACID~? Guess which one I picked. Bzzzt~!
38. Nutritional stds.: RDAs - again, in the plural, a bit meh.
39. Snack: EAT - ah. The verb again
42. Syllables for a stage magician: ABRA - is this not just ONE syllable~?
46. Like some alter egos: SECRET
47. Plaza Hotel girl: ELOISE - Never heard of this; the Wiki, and the Plaza site, too
48. Straight: LINEAR - like my thinking a lot of the time
49. Seer: ORACLE
51. Bowen Yang's show, for short: SNL - perps got me S_L; this clue/answer has shown up three days in a row. sumdaze linked his Titanic iceberg skit Monday
52. "Can I get you anything __?": "ELSE~?"
54. Über relative: MEGA - ah. Not the taxi service from yesterday, but the adjective
56. Only pres. to hold a patent: ABE - Dah~! I was looking for DDE, HST, FDR - his patent
57. Japanese noodle: SOBA - I can never remember which one this is NORI, ROTI, MISO - four-letters crossword something . . . .
58. Password keeper: USER - Fooled me; clever
59. Agenda listing: ITEM
61. Fight (for): VIE
62. Jack or jenny: ASS - second time this week, and speaking of which, we are at the "bottom"
Splynter
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