Monday, September 4, 2017

Posted on September 3, 2017 by pannonica

BEQ 12:40 (Laura!) 

 


LAT untimed (pannonica) 

 


NYT untimed (pannonica)  

 

nb: No WSJ today, as the paper doesn’t publish on holidays.

Tracy Gray’s New York Times crossword — pannonica’s write-up

NYT • 9/4/17 • Mon • Gray • № 0904 • solution

Not for vegetarians.

  • 38aR [Cookout, briefly … and a hint to the ends of 17-, 23-, 52- and 58-Across] BBQ. A traditional Labor day activity.
  • 17a. [Is ready for one’s star turn, say] WAITS IN THE WINGS.
  • 23a. [1992 Tarantino crime thriller] RESERVOIR DOGS.
  • 52a. [Children of armed forces personnel, slangily] MILITARY BRATS.
  • 58a. [Fast, sharp-breaking curveballs] BACKDOOR SLIDERS. Not a term I was familiar with, but wow does it sound salacious.

I dig how each theme element is a nickname/slangy term for the fleshy comestibles. Wings = chicken wings, dogs = hot dogs, brats = bratwursten,  sliders = little hamburgers.

  • 47a [Rickey or gimlet ingredient] Could be lime, but as it’s only three letters, that’s GIN. Factette: gin is also an ingredient in gin and tonic. Amazing, no? Cin-cin!
  • 11d [Consumer products giant that makes Tide, for short] P AND G.  *scowl*  45d [Recede, as the tide] EBB.
  • 12d [Mythical 100-eyed giant] ARGUS. He never slept with all of them closed—even after many gins and tonic—which is why the gods employed him as a guard. Well, except for that one time that SLY (63d) Hermes charmed him. But it was only that one time! Okay, fine. So Hermes slew him also.
  • 52d [National auto body repair chain] MAACO. Not to be confused with AAMCO, the national auto transmission repair chain. Which in turn is not to be confused with AMOCO, the erstwhile national gasoline chain which was acquired by BP, British Petroleum.
  • 24d [“King Kong” and “Citizen Kane” studio] RKO. Fun fact*: all titles released by RKO Pictures had to include the letter K.

    *not a true fact
  • 18d [Bundle of papers] SHEAF. What, you thought it was going to be QUIRE?
  • Longdowns are 3d [8:00–11:00 p.m. on TV] PRIME RIB TIME. 33d [Tourist] SIGHTSEERED TUNA.

De gustibus, et cetera.

John Lampkin’s Los Angeles Times crossword — pannonica’s write-up

LAT • 9/4/17 • Mon • Lampkin • solution

Same clue for the three 15-letter spanning theme entries: [“Chill! It’s Labor Day!”] SIT BACK AND RELAX / LET YOUR HAIR DOWN / DON’T LIFT A FINGER. 17a, 38a, 61a

OK.

§

§

In truth, after I finish writing this I’m planning on getting up, putting my hair up, and taking care of many errands and chores. So maybe I am lifting a finger, too.

Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Themeless Monday—Laura’s write-up

BEQ 9.4.17

BEQ – Mon – 9.4.17 – Solution

Hello F(r)iends, Laura here. I look forward to [31a: Becoming well acquainted (with)]: FAMILIARIZATION (with) the BEQ Themeless Monday since I’ll be covering it from here on out. Not an auspicious start for me, speed-wise, but certainly enjoyable. Fine center stack with [36a: Reza Aslan, e.g.]: IRANIAN AMERICAN and [37a: Automatic vehicles?]: SELF-DRIVING CARS. [11d: “Look closely”]: TAKE NOTICE how there are some nice long downs intersecting the stack, while you adjust your [25a: Conspiracy theorist’s cover?]: TINFOIL HAT, update your [6d: Blogs with some clips]: VIDEO DIARIES, and reheat your [21d: Meal for the cooking-inept]: FROZEN DINNER.

[15a: Devil Dogs, by another name]

Some BEARDSLEY drawings were considered the PR0N of their day

I was hung up right out of the gate because I just wasn’t associating [15a: Devil Dogs, by another name] with the US MARINES. Got a stronger foothold in the SW and SE with literary entries [57a: “A Town Like Alice” author Nevil]: SHUTE, [58a: Illustrator Aubrey who inspired Art Nouveau]: BEARDSLEY, and [42d: Ser Arthur ___ (“Game of Thrones” knight)]: DAYNE. There were more sports proper names than seemed proportional (O’NEAL, DOLAN, PAM [Shriver], and ANDRE [Ethier]), but I got them all through fair crosses. Favorite misdirect: [8d: Pitcher’s spot?] for TENT. Entry I’ve never seen in a grid before: [24a: Dirty stuff on the intertubes]: PR0N (with a zero for the O as it is generally styled on the intertubes if one doesn’t want bots or filters to parse it as such). Yeah, [18a: “You don’t have to remind me]: I KNOW.

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26 Responses to Monday, September 4, 2017

  1. Ethan says:
    September 3, 2017 at 9:45 pm

    Since ARGOS/DOH is just as valid as ARGUS/DUH, can we call this a Schrodinger puzzle? Seriously, I spent a solid ten minutes trying to figure out what I had wrong before I gave up and clicked the check puzzle option. Terribly unfair. Also a slider and a curveball are two different things. I liked the theme a lot. It was very creative and perfect for Monday. But the puzzle was a little bit… under-edited?

  2. RSP64 says:
    September 3, 2017 at 11:15 pm

    I don’t like that fact that brat (sounds like brought) on the BBQ is pronounced differently than the reference to a child.

  3. Lise says:
    September 4, 2017 at 6:38 am

    LAT: I like that TOILS (51D Works hard) crosses 61A DON’T LIFT A FINGER. ;)

    pannonica, that peacock really woke me up. Happy Labor Day, everyone.

  4. Pat says:
    September 4, 2017 at 9:31 am

    Okay, I fell for your fun fact and looked up a list of RKO pictures. Since I found very few movies with a K anywhere in the title, this must be April Fool’s day instead of Labor Day.
    Did I make your day?!
    Pat

  5. Bob says:
    September 4, 2017 at 11:45 am

    BEQ clued LIE as [Lame out] today. How does that work? Seems like an error to me. E.g., Googling “lame out” brings up a few Urban Dictionary hits, none of which support this, and Googling “lame out” along with lie brings up nothing even remotely relevant.

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