Saturday, Dec 31st, 2016, Patti Varol & Doug Peterson

Theme: PV & DP

Words: 70 (missing K,Q)

Blocks: 30

Our third installment from this duo to close out 2016, and this time Patti gets 'top billing'.  A smattering of fills on my first pass, a few gaffes, a few WAGs, and I called it done - but no ta-DA~!  So I had to go back and check where I went wrong, though I was fairly certain it was in the spanner at 34a.; turned out I had another mistake at the proper name for 42a.   Oh well.  Finished within my personal allotted time, and now I am freezing as I compose the write-up; see 31a.  One 15-letter spanner, one 15-letter climber, two 12-letter fills, and paired 10s in the down corners;

34. First volume of a Beverly Cleary series : BEEZUS AND RAMONA - I recognized the author's name, but only the "Ramona" part from any titles

8. "You're skating on thin ice" : DON'T EVEN GO THERE - I had "eveR", since I had no idea about the 15-letter spanner crossing here

23. They're hard to put down : PAGE TURNERS - nailed it.  The last Page Turner I read was "The Racketeer" from John Grisham - now I am on to "The Broker".  I was reluctant to read his stuff because I knew the books revolved around lawyers (and frequently jails/prisons, too) the way Crichton's revolves around genetics, Patterson & Kellerman around murder mystery, etc. - but I am glad I started with "The Litigators", which was quite humorous

43. Comedy team staples : STRAIGHT MEN - I have heard this phrase, but couldn't think of an example - and then I read the list here at the Wiki, and I see quite a few I recognize - which includes James May from the British Top Gear series

2O1seveNWARD~!

ACROSS:

1. Not much : JUST A TAD

9. "__ Weeks": classic Van Morrison album : ASTRAL

15. Caravaggio masterpiece that pictures Pontius Pilate with Jesus : ECCE HOMO - the painting

16. Raise : PARENT

17. Iconic building with "point" offices : FLATIRON - dah~! Not PENTAGON, tho I realize there would need to be the phrase "with THE" in the clue

18. Market array : BRANDS

19. What stars have : FAME - I tried EGOS

20. Specialty docs : ENTs

22. In order : TIDY

26. Dauntless : STOUT

29. Spray holder : VASE - ah - I forgot that a "spray" is kind of floral arrangement

30. Site of monkey business : ZOO

31. Get a winter coat? : ICE UP - I am afraid my apartment will ICE UP this weekend - we lost the furnace, which includes the hot water, and won't get repaired until Tuesday.  Always on a holiday weekend....

32. Part of an inheritance : GENE - ah, that kind of inheritance

33. River to the Severn : AVON - another good WAG

37. Cornerstone word : ANNO - I figured EST'D was not going to last

38. Hauls : LUGS - I had TOWS to start

39. 2009 A.L. MVP Joe : MAUER - filled via perps

40. Spectrum band : RED

41. 1969-'70 Broadway musical that ends with a fashion show : COCO

42. Brandt of "Breaking Bad" : BETSY - beSsy seemed just as likely - I have not watched a single episode of this show, but I got a Firestick for Christmas from my landlord, so I can watch everything now - but first I am making my way through "Burn Notice"

46. Benjamin portrayer : HAWN - Goldie, as in Private Benjamin; I was thinking BRAD or PITT, for Benjamin Button

47. Cries of surprise : O-HOs - oops, went with A-HAs

48. John follower : ACTS - Bible chapters

52. Fleet destroyed by the Protestant Wind : ARMADA

54. Ovid, for one : EPIC POET

56. More expensive : DEARER - started as DEEPER

57. Bought back : REDEEMED - Blue Öyster Cult song, too

Redeemed

58. Joshua tree habitat : DESERT - as for what got filled in first, I WILL NOT EVEN GO THERE

59. Tests using Snellen charts : EYE EXAMS

I can read line 7

DOWN:

1. Bridges of Los Angeles County : JEFF - once I changed my "building", this actor's name (and not a structure) occurred to me

2. Home of the Herb Alpert Sch. of Music : UCLA - I had the U and A

3. Hustle : SCAM - ah, the noun, not the verb

4. Head of the Sorbonne? : TÊTE - Frawnche

5. Sushi choice : AHI - made my PENTAGON wrong

6. Eagerly unwrapped : TORE AT - Not even a week ago - I got a Millennium Falcon Bluetooth music player

7. In with : AMONG

9. SFPD alert : APB

10. "Nausea" novelist : SARTRE - I recognize the name, but not much else - the Wiki

11. Express, say : TRAIN

12. Orbital maneuver : RENDEZVOUS - learned this word from reading the 'adapted' novel of The Empire Strikes Back - but I was about 9, and read it literally as ren-dez-vows

13. "Years of Minutes" author : ANDY ROONEY - good WAG with the "OO" in place

14. SFPD ranks : LTs

21. Resolute policies : STANDS

23. __ platter : PU PU

24. One working on keys : USER - computer keys

25. Wreck locator : SONAR - shipwrecks

26. When, in Act IV, Juliet drinks the potion : SCENE THREE

27. "The O.C." and "Gossip Girl" : TEEN DRAMAS - never watched any of them

28. Taverna liqueur : OUZO

31. Structural pieces : I-BARS

32. Riata twirler : GAUCHO

33. Basic Latin word : AMAT - ah.  I had AMAS

35. Rough going : SLOG - popular Saturday Crossword descriptor

36. "Yes!" : AMEN

41. __ block : CINDER

42. Next to : BESIDE - the blue-eyed girl from some time back sat BESIDE me yesterday - my heart was galloping in my chest....

44. Clued in : AWARE

45. Glum : MOPEY

48. Crown : APEX

49. Food __: after-eating drowsiness : COMA - did not suffer this on either holiday this year

50. Come down hard : TEEM - like rain

51. FDA output : STDs - Tried RDAs first

52. Throw into the mix : ADD

53. "The lie that enables us to realize the truth": Picasso : ART - I think I just read this in a book on novel writing

Cubism, get it~?

55. Volcano center? : CEE - VolCano

Splynter

Friday, December 30, 2016, Jeffrey Wechsler

Title: We play the game to WIN!

Returning to the perch he ruled in 2016, is JW with a superb reveal. With two grid spanners and two 13 letter fill, he packs 56 letters in the theme answers, each of which has WIN inside twice. This would be a somewhat pedestrian theme for a wit like JW, but for the perfect 15 letter reveal. In life I am tired of people trying to talk me into WIN WIN situations but the puzzle was great. There is so much nice fill such as INNARDS,  EGOTIST, DISRAELI,  ESTONIAN,  SCARED OF,  THE PRADO, IS IT ENOUGH,  I WON'T DANCE.  Let's solve this puppy!

17A. Its B-side was "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" : BLOW'IN IN THE WIND (15). I really lucked out here as I was a big Bob Dylan fan when this came out. I saw the WIN WIN right away. I used sing Don't Think Twice, It's All Right to myself in my Junior year in high school. LISTEN.

25A. Portable ventilation option : TWIN WINDOW FAN (13). I was not positive THIS existed, but it had win/win, so....

43A. Repair shop vehicle features : TOWING WINCHES (13). Then we see this DEVICE.
The reveal!

57A. Mediator's goal ... and what's found in three puzzle answers : WIN WIN SITUATION (15).

Across:

1. British prime minister before and after Gladstone : DISRAELI. If you like history this was quite a RIVALRY.

9. Fifth-century conqueror : ATTILA. He is extremely popular in the Xword world.

15. Baltic native : ESTONIAN. Across the sea from Finland sits this COUNTRY.

16. A quarter of the time? : SEASON. Really fun clue and fill; one of the four seasons.

19. Flower part : SEPAL.

20. Actor Daniel __ Kim : DAE. From LOST to the reboot of Hawaii 5-0, he works. LINK.

21. Bony opening : OSTEO.

22. Arising from : BORN OF.

24. Miss, say : ERR.

31. 1976 African uprising site : SOWETO. This HISTORY is too political to discuss here, but....

32. Longtime NBC hit : SNL. Saturday Night Live.

33. Flip-flop revelations : TOES. What a cute way to clue feet and toes.

36. Armada leaders? : PROWS. They stick out in front as they are the portion of a ship's bow above water

37. Bewilder : STUMP.

38. Email status : SENT.

39. Sallie __ : MAE. Student loan debt.

42. Bad mark : STIGMA.

46. Criterion: Abbr. : STD. Standard.

48. Cast components : ACTORS.

49. Overflowing (with) : AWASH.

51. Suffix indicating residency : ITE.

52. "Just like me" : AS AM I.

60. Los Angeles region bordering Tarzana : ENCINO.

61. Fearing : SCARED OF.

62. Judged : DEEMED. A favorite word in Orders.

63. Where to see Velázquez's "Las Meninas" : THE PRADO. The MUSEUM for art in Spain.

Down:

1. Aristocratic newcomers : DEBS. Debutantes.

2. Key : ISLE. A gimme for any Floridian.

3. Block : STOP.

4. Seats by the orchestra pit : ROW A. This took an extra second to parse.

5. Blue dye : ANIL.

6. A, in Augsburg : EIN.

7. Applied, as stucco : LAID ON.

8. Working parts : INNARDS. Does not sound like a real word but it IS.

9. Etna ejection : ASH. Volcanic by nature.

10. Irk : TEE OFF .3. Slang To make angry or disgusted: The impertinent remarks teed the speaker off.

11. Shooting marbles : TAWS. plural noun: taws, a large marble. Nope, not me.

12. "Can we do more?" : IS IT ENOUGH. Perps all the way.

13. Hardly a bon vivant : LONER. One who loves life is seldom alone.

14. Words with a slash : AND/OR.

18. Mortise partner : TENON. You want know HOW?

22. CV section : BIO. The CurriculumVitae has education, work and biographic information.

23. Symbol of wisdom : OWL. I see a mini-theme. The modern West generally associates owls with wisdom. This link goes back at least as far as Ancient Greece, where Athens, noted for art and scholarship, and Athena, Athens' patron goddess and the goddess of wisdom, had the owl as a symbol. Add this to 30D. Story of Greek origin : ATTIC. This was a nice twist to force us to recall that in ancient Athens where the dialect of Greek used and the chief literary form of classical Greek was Attic.

25. Kitchen amts. : TSPS.

26. Modeled : WORE.

27. Jerome Kern title lyric preceding "don't ask me" : I WON' T DANCE. Nit. The music was written by Mr. Kern but not the lyrics. There were two sets of lyrics with the one sung by Fred Astaire in the movie Roberta, the one that became famous. Sinatra also covered the song.

28. Never before experienced by : NEW TO.

29. Oz. and lb. : WTS. Weights.

34. Soaps actress Rylan : EMME. We had her in September. Anyone remember?

35. Luxuriating locales : SPAS.

37. RR map dot : STN. Station.

39. __ drop : MIC. Filled by perps but it is POPULAR.

40. They're against it : ANTIS.

41. Tough person to bargain with : EGOTIST. You think it was accidental this clue is next to...

42. Kim, to Khloé : SIS.

44. "Hawaii Five-0" extra, perhaps : WAHINE.  All of our past corner Hawaii people know this is a Polynesian woman or wife.

45. Unfortunate sort : WRETCH.

46. Cut : SAWED.

47. It's often found in a ball : TWINE. Cute.

50. Part of an exercise regimen : SWIM.

52. Marketer of Medigap insurance plans : AARP.

53. Dump annex? : STER. Dumpster.

54. Opera set in Egypt : AIDA.

55. Disposition : MOOD.

56. It may be classified, briefly : INFO.

58. Okay : NOD.

59. Home of the Burj Kalifa: Abbr. : UAE. United Arab Emirate. There are SEVEN emirates. The Burj is the 163 story tallest structure at the moment.

Well we have done it again, and for last time in 2016. Thank you all for riding with us most Fridays; thank you Jeffrey for providing so many great Friday puzzles, and of course thank you C.C. for this blog and for being who you are. Lemonade out

Thursday, December 29th 2016 Roland Huget

Theme: Whaddya know? Synonyms in the Circles, as the reveal tells us:

55A. Privileged information demonstrated by this puzzle's circles : INSIDE KNOWLEDGE

17A. Producer of lavish revues : FLORENZ ZIEGFELD (LORE). The Ziegfeld Follies. I never knew the first name until today. When it appeared, I was surprised as I thought the impresario was a guy, so I went to look and ... "Flo" and behold, he was a guy.

25A. Where everything turns out all right : STORYBOOK ENDING. (KEN) Depends on what kind of story you're reading.

42A. New Orleans spectacle : MARDI GRAS PARADE. (GRASP) Here's a part of one on St. Charles:

Thursday already? And three more days until the New Year? Tempus fugit, for sure. Nice clean puzzle from Roland today, four grid-spanning theme entries and a tidy grid. Let's see what else jumps out.

Across

1. Little bit of progress : DENT. STEP went in, then came out to be replaced by INCH. Not a clean start for me today.

5. Mike supports : BOOMS. Had me wondering what on earth another name for a STAND could be.

10. Capitol cap : DOME

14. Zeno's home : ELEA. Crosses all the way. Zeno of Elea, a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher. I never studied philosophy.

15. Great-grandfather of Noah : ENOCH. Nailed it. Learned from crosswords.

16. Struck (out) : EX'ED. Now then, you constructors and editors, pay attention. You can have X'ED or you can have EX'ED, but you can't have both. Pick one or the other. Thank you.

20. Catch some rays : TAN

21. Chop __ : SUEY. Food! Chinese-American cuisine, and the title of a song from alternative metal band System of a Down. Raucous Music Advisory.

22. More than enough : PLENTY

23. Pollutant concentration meas. : P.P.M. Parts Per Million

24. Splint site : SHIN

33. Part of Great Britain : WALES. The bit on the left across from Ireland. The place names can be baffling if you don't know the Welsh language. Try "Pwllheli" or "Pencaennewydd" before tackling "Llanfairpwllgwyngyll".

34. Jersey, for one : SHIRT. Because "Channel Island" doesn't fit. I've got quite a collection of soccer jerseys; both from games I've seen around the world and bought the home team's jersey as a souvenir, and quite a few of my own team, Chelsea FC.

35. "The Purloined Letter" writer : POE

36. British tennis star Murray : ANDY. He's a good sport - he sold ice cream at a tournament in Cincinnati last year.

37. Internet greeting : E-CARD

38. Lawyer's job : CASE

39. Ham may be seen on it : RYE. It's funny, but thinking about it, I'd never put ham on rye. Wheat would be my choice.

40. "What I dream of is __ of balance ... ": Matisse : AN ART. He goes on to say "... of purity and serenity devoid of troubling or depressing subject matter - a soothing, calming influence on the mind, rather like a good armchair which provides relaxation from physical fatigue." Sounds nice.

41. Track divisions : LANES. Athletics tracks.

45. Spring bloom : IRIS

46. Recede : EBB

47. International economic bloc : G-SEVEN. Quickly - name them off! (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the USA.)

50. Sheltered at sea : ALEE

52. Epitome of slipperiness : EEL

58. Advance : LOAN

59. Start of a kid's rhyme : EENIE

60. Boil over : RAGE

61. Irish Rose's guy : ABIE. Thank you crosses, no clue. I discover that he is from an Anne Nichols play first performed in 1922.

62. Bring up : RAISE

63. Out of control : AMOK. I can't think of ever seeing this word used without being paired with the verb "to run".

Down

1. Like a magician's hands : DEFT

2. "__ and Louis": 1956 jazz album : ELLA

3. Element #10 : NEON. This chap: [He] 2s²2p⁶

4. Smelly sealant : TAR. I love the smell of fresh tar. I remember as a kid being bewitched by the road crew laying fresh blacktop on our street.

5. Render senseless : BENUMB

6. Number after dix : ONZE

7. Seeping slowly : OOZY. Oozy? OK, I'll let this one go.

8. Old Sprint rival : MCI. Part of Verizon now.

9. One often seen with a crook : SHEPHERD. It never ceases to amaze me how many dog owners have a German Shepherd, but don't know how to spell it.

10. Stand up for : DEFEND

11. Ground-breaking team, at times : OXEN. Enjoyed this clue.

12. Lunch order : MELT

13. Drain swirl : EDDY

18. Best Championship Performance and Best Team : ESPYS. The annual ESPY sports awards on ESPN.

19. Sparkle : GLINT

23. Carnivore's target : PREY

24. Goes around : SKIRTS

25. Buzzing cloud : SWARM

26. Self-named 2002 country album : TANYA. Thank you, crosses.

27. From an earlier time : OLDER

28. Statuettes that were made of painted plaster during WWII : OSCARS. That's a learning moment. I didn't hesitate to put it straight in though.

29. 1939 Leigh role : O'HARA

30. Bucky Beaver's toothpaste : IPANA. What happened to this stuff? It looks like it's still sold in Turkey: "Healthier and Brighter Teeth from the First Day"

31. Edged (out) : NOSED

32. Former goslings : GEESE

37. Mastermind : ENGINEER. The verb, not the noun. Nice clue/answer combo.

38. Certain dieter's concern : CARB-ohydrate

40. Made public : AIRED

41. Shop tag : LABEL

43. Godlike : DIVINE

44. Hall of Famer Reese : PEEWEE

47. Coolidge Dam's river : GILA. I really need to remember this, I was almost Natick'ed at GILA/ABIE.

48. Highbrow, perhaps : SNOB

49. Morales of "NYPD Blue" : ESAI

50. Years in Rome : ANNI

51. "Family Guy" mom : LOIS

52. Dutch export : EDAM. They do make other cheeses, but Edam always gets top billing.

53. French Toaster Sticks brand : EGGO

54. One of 33-Across' national emblems : LEEK. "Ydych chi eisiau benthyg fy cennin?" (Do you want to borrow my leek?)

56. Mauna __ : KEA. It's a big bugger too, 13,802 feet, the highest point in the state.

57. Starter's stat : E.R.A. The baseball pitcher's Earned Run Average. Lower is better.

I think that's my journey done for the day. Let's make sure I've got everything - keys, wallet, passport ... oh wait, the grid. Here it is:

Steve