Author: Tom Heilman
Theme: Adding short names of muscles to phrases.
- Geologic + LAT = GELATO LOGIC (18a: Reason for having a preference for Italian ice cream?).
- Boondocks + AB = BABOON DOCKS (24a: Primate piers?).
- Moats + DELT = MODEL TATS (36a: Display body art?).
- Restroom + PEC = RESPECT ROOM (54a: Where dissing isn't allowed?).
- Warrant + QUAD = WAR QUADRANT (59a: Combat division?).
This is kind of a cool Wednesday theme. Gelato Logic reminds me of the old Steely Dan album, "Pretzel Logic". And no, I'm not sure what that means either.
Sunny Spots:
- Kudos for the nice variety of food references with scrabbly letters:
- 12d: Street vendor snacks (KNISHES).
- 25d: Pasta that resembles rice (ORZO).
- 45d: Butter pear (AVOCADO).
Sundries:
- 15a: Color also called meadowlark (ACORN). I never really thought of ACORN as a color. They are actually several colors throughout their life, ranging from green to brown to black.
- 29a: Where Tigrinya is spoken (ERITREA). Find a country name that fits. Once it ends in _EA, there aren't a lot of options.
- 30a: Spray of paint, e.g. (SPATTER).
- 32a: Interrobang part (DOT). I knew that a "bang" was an exclamation point, so it wasn't hard to figure that this was some other punctuation mark. Albeit, one I've never seen nor heard of.
- 33a: Part of ZPG (ZERO). Zero population growth.
- 47a: Sister of Iphigenia (ELECTRA). Daughters of Agamemnon in Greek legend/history.
- 51a: Mothball (RESERVE).
- 53a: Accessory for a lepidopterist (NET). Butterfly collector.
- 56a: Member of the first family (EVE). You'll see this clue again, so keep it in mind.
- 66a: Volatile solvent (ETHER). My favorite ETHER clue is "Number of people?"
- 67a: Close of an engagement? (I DO).
- 68a: Outfielder Ricky who won two World Series rings with the Yankees (LEDEE). HENDERSON didn't fit. And he won his rings with Oakland and Toronto.
- 69a: Questionable (SHADY). I had SHAKY to start, but NEK didn't sound much like a name to me.
- 2d: Plant on the back of Arizona's state quarter (SAGUARO).
- 9d: Eponym of Gdansk's airport (WALESA). Pretty easy guess once I had the W.
- 11d: Cowes Week event (REGATTA).
- 19d: Slicing spuds, perhaps (ON KP).
- 36d: Casual slip-on (MOC). Short for moccasin.
- 37d: Went like mad (TORE). Tried SPED first, which didn't help me any.
- 39d: Battery component (TEST). As in a battery of tests, not part of a Duracell.
- 44d: It's called Hrvatska by natives (CROATIA).
- 46d: Prescription pain reliever (DEMEROL). Drug reference tag? Nah, not for legal prescriptions...
- 55d: "The Fair Maid of ___" (Sir Walter Scott novel) (PERTH).
- 60d: The St. Lawrence R. flows through it (QUE). Quebec.
- 61d: Clicking sound? (AHA). Cute clue.
Suns of Bitches:
- As always, first names are my bane.
- 6d: Gretchen of "Rounders" (MOL).
- 38d: "Vertigo" co-screenwriter Coppel (ALEC).
- 62d: Main character in "Pushing Daisies" (NED).
All in all, a fine Wednesday, with none of the SOBs crossing anything particularly difficult.
Thanks for listening.
- Pete M.
1 comment:
and if you needed a third reason, it's rickey henderson, not ricky.
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