Wednesday, February 28, 2018 Paul Coulter

Theme: CAPITAL IDEAS.  This one is unusual.  Four country names cross the names of their capital cities.  They are arranged in two country-capital pairs, each of which is diagonally symmetrically placed in the grid.  Each country is placed across and each capital is placed down.  Lots of geometric thought went into this arrangement.  Note that the grid symmetry is 180 degree rotation around the central cell - the G of GRIDLOCK. Also, quite a trick finding the places that make this work.

3 D. With 17-Across, where the Duma sits : MOSCOW.
17 A. See 3-Down : RUSSIA.

13 D. With 23-Across, where the Hellenic Parliament sits : ATHENS.
23 A. See 13-Down : GREECE.

42 D. With 52-Across, where the Assembleia Nacional sits : LUANDA.
52 A. See 42-Down : ANGOLA.

45 D. With 58-Across, where Parliament sits : OTTAWA.
58 A. See 45-Down : CANADA.

And the centrally-placed, vertical, grid-spanning unifier -- 7 D. Legislative impasse ... and what occurs at this puzzle's circles? : CAPITAL GRIDLOCK.  Without getting political, this refers to the inability of congress to pass meaningful legislation due to intractable competing interests.  In the puzzle, the crossing of the countries with their capital cities locks both into the grid.  Nicely done.  And a lesson in the spellings of CAPITAL and CAPITOL, for those like me who need it.

Hi Gang, JazzBumpa here. Let's unlock the grid.

Across

1. Fitting the season : TIMELY.  Our daffodils are about 2 inches tall, but the crocuses have yet to make an appearance.

7. Innermost part : CORE.  Of an apple or nuclear reactor, among other things.

11. Gp. known for travelers' checks? : TSA.  The Transportation Safety Administration checks the travelers before they board airplanes.  Clever misdirection.

14. Ancient markets : AGORAE.  In ATHENS.  I wanted a terminal S, but the perps took care of that.

15. Erelong : ANON.  Soon.

16. Bow (out) : OPT.  You can also OPT in.

18. Sullen look : POUT.  Girls in my family, across the generations, have an infamous lower lip pout.

19. "Well, __-di-dah!" : LAH. An expression of derision directed at the pretentious.

20. Nutmeg spice : MACE.  Nutmeg is the ground seed-stone of the nutmeg plant.  MACE is the dried fibers of the surrounding fruit.

21. NY engineering sch. near Albany : RPI.  Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is a private research university and space-grant institution located in Troy, N. Y.  to the best of my knowledge, Helen never matriculated.

25. Enero to enero : ANO.  From January to January is one year in Spain, just like everywhere else.

26. Charcuterie fare : MEAT.  This is a store selling cold cooked MEATs.

27. Tippi of "The Birds" : HEDREN.  Famous Hitchcock movie.

Melanie Griffith's mom, now 88

28. Black bird's call : CAW.  Vide supra.

29. Necessitate : ENTAIL.

31. Goes on and on : GABS.  Blah, blah, blah.

32. Fish often fried : COD.  From the north Atlantic.

33. "The Thin Man" actress : LOY.

Myrna, with co-starWilliam Powell

34. Zeta follower : ETA.  Letters from ATHENS.

35. Pack away : STOW.

37. Ratings for family-friendly films : PGS.  No sax or violins.

38. Rathskeller draft : BIER.   Contents are closely regulated.

39. __ goo gai pan : MOO.   Americanized Chinese cuisine - a stir-fried dish of chicken with button mushrooms and vegetables.

40. Wine-and-cassis drink : KIR.   Cassis is a black current liquer.  KIR is a measure of cassis topped up with white wine, usually drunk as an apéritif.

41. Cooped-up female : HEN.   Chicken lady.

42. Break in the action : LULL.  Time out.

43. 20 Questions category : ANIMAL.  Along with vegetable and mineral.  One of my long ago colleagues, a PHD physicist, chose something he claimed as vegetable, and nobody could suss it.  Turned out to be crude oil.

45. Food scrap : ORT.  Crossword fodder.

48. More unsightly : UGLIER.

50. Minor body-shop job : DENT.

51. Lipton product : TEA.  I happen to be sipping a mug of Twinings Earl Grey at the moment.

53. Inc., in London : LTD.  Designations for a limited liability corporation.

54. Wild guess : STAB.  Shot in the dark.

55. Class-conscious org.? : The National Education Association is a professional organization for teachers and support personnel.

56. Bouncing effect : ECHO.

60. "Spring forward" letters : DST.  Daylight Savings Time.

61. À la mode : CHIC.  Per the current fashion, rather than served with ice cream.  Will be passé in no time.

Is this chick a la mode?

62. Confessor : AVOWER.  I knew to avow meant to assert.  Didn't know it also meant to confess.  Learning moment.

63. Enzyme suffix : -ASE.   An enzyme is a large molecule that aids chemical reactions in biochemistry.

64. Watch word? : TICK.  It's companion is TOCK.

65. Word on a lost-dog poster : REWARD.

Down

1. Airport surface : TARMAC.  Pavement, generally made from tar and crushed rock.

2. Galápagos lizard : IGUANA.  A large arboreal lizard native to Central and South America.  Be careful in Florida.

4. Hebrides language : ERSE.  Scottish Gaelic.

5. French narrative poem : LAI.  A rhyming, counted-syllable form.

6. Like closing financial reports :  YEAR END.

8. "Oh Yoko!" dedicatee : ONO.  Japanese mulimedia artist and activist, best known as John Lennon's second wife.

9. Or so : ROUGHLY.  An approximation.

10. __ nous : ENTRE.  Just between us,

11. Stand : TOLERATE.  Put up with.

12. Long key : SPACEBAR.  On your keyboard.

22. Bit of butter : PAT.  A non-specific rather small quantity, so-called because fancy restaurants would pat butter into a mold to give it a decorative shape, such as a flower.

24. Enter cautiously : EDGE IN.

26. Cat call : MEOW.

30. Platform for Siri : IOS.  Operating system for Apple branded mobile devices.

32. "Cookin' With __": rapper/chef's web show : COOLIO.  Artis Leon Ivey Jr. (born 1963) is an American rapper, actor, chef, and record producer.

35. Overconfidence : SMUGNESS.  More like excessive pride.

36. Bridge entrance structure : TOLL GATE.  Only if it's a bridge that requires that a toll be paid.

37. ATM code : PIN.  Personal Identification Number.

38. One-swallow drink : BELT. Slug, gulp.

40. Pakistani port : KARACHI.  The CAPITAL of Sindh Province and, with 21.1 million residents, the most populous city in the country, and also a major industrial and financial center.

41. Railroad maintenance vehicle : HAND CAR.

44. Bumped into : MET.

46. Library patron : READER.

47. "The Canterbury Tales" inn : TABARD.  This is a real place, established in 1307, that was often used by pilgrims on the way to Canterbury.  Also the name of a peanut-shell-strewn tavern, back in the day, just down the road from my alma mater.

49. Campaign poster word : ELECT.  Vote for me!

54. White flakes : SNOW.  Winter is going.

57. Hawaiian Punch alternative : HI-C.  A fruit juice flavored drink made by the Minute-Maid division of the Coca-Cola Company.

59. Hail, to Caesar : AVE.  Latin word of greeting.

That's it for another Wednesday.  Hope you were able to work through it.

Cool regards!
JzB

Loren Muse Smith & Bruce Haight

THEME - HEARTS and FLOWERS for VALENTINE'S DAY.

Our theme song.



Wow - that's horrible. Moving right along, here are our theme entries.  The first words of each horizontal three-word entry build up to today's pressing question.

19 A. Has no chance of working : WILL NEVER FLY.   Won't get off the ground.

23 A. "This is a sure bet" : YOU CANT LOSE.   If it's too good to be true  .  .  .

42 A. "Hold on a sec" : BE RIGHT BACK.   Don't wait up for me.

48 A. 2000s sitcom starring Jason Lee : MY NAME IS EARL.  Grifting bully wins the lottery and has an epiphany, then decides to use his new unearned wealth to right all the wrongs of his life.  Never watched it.

Today's quasi-unifier completes the idea.  20 D. End of a question begun by part of 19-, 23-, 42- and 48-Across : VALENTINE.  You can read about the eponymous saint here.

Putting it all together: WILL YOU BE MY VALENTINE?.  Of course I will, I love you all.

Found these gems on Face Book.

Hi gang, Jazzbumpa on duty.  I didn't bring you any chocolates,  but let's see what other lovely delights we can uncover.

Across

1. Drive-thru device : ATM.  Automatic Teller Machine for banking from your driver's seat.

4. Org. people line up for? : TSA. Transportation Security Administration.   I used to love air travel.  This is one more reason not to.

7. Sell under false pretenses : PALM OFF.  I had PASS OFF, which slowed me down a bit.

14. Tries to scam online : PHISHES.   Uses fraudulent e-mail to get people to reveal personal information, like pass words or credit card numbers.

16. South Pacific region : OCEANIA.  A collective name for the many scattered islands in the  Pacific Ocean, north and south of the equator, plus Australia.

More or less

17. Good thing to break gently : BAD NEWS.  Otherwise, you're breaking bad, badly.

18. Bought time : STALLED.  Dragged one's feet.

21. "__ Lisa" : MONA.  Famous painting, and a chance for some better music.



22. Golf's "Big Easy" : ELS.  South African golfer Theodore Ernest [Ernie] b.1969, with 19 PGA wins, 28 European Tour wins, and dozens of other trophies.

28. "Halt and Catch Fire" network : AMC.  TV network formerly known as American Movie Classics.  The named program was a fictional drama series about the early days of personal computing and the growth of the world wide web.

31. Writers Patchett and Brashares : ANNS.  I'm currently reading Lords and Ladies, [without having read the necesssarry prequels, and it's till working out OK] and misread Patchett as Pratchett.  But TERRY doesn't fit.  Ms Patchett [b 1963] is an American writer of magazine articles, short stories and novels.  Her novel Bel Canto won the PEN/Faulkner award in 2002.  Ms Brashares [b 1967] is an American writer of YA fiction, best know for her novel The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.

32. Korea setting : EAST ASIA.  With whom we have not always been at war.

34. Rhodes of Rhodesia fame : CECIL John Rhodes [1853-1902]. Without spending more time than I was willing to, I couldn't verify that he was the eponym for Rhodesia, but I'll still make that intuitive leap.  His Wikipedia entry says he was a mining magnate, businessman and staunch believer in British imperialism, which I take to mean he was also a virulent racist and exploiter.

36. "__-Man": superhero film : ANT.  The IMDB entry for this movie says, "Armed with a super-suit with the astonishing ability to shrink in scale but increase in strength, cat burglar Scott Lang must embrace his inner hero and help his mentor, Dr. Hank Pym, plan and pull off a heist that will save the world."

37. Longtime SeaWorld star : SHAMU.  The killer whale.

38. Four-legged collar wearer : HOUSE PET.  Cat or dog, most of the time.

40. Indigo plant : ANIL.  Indigofera suffruticosa, is a flowering plant of the pea family native to tropical and subtropical Americas.  It is a source of indigo dye.

41. Rubble-making stuff : TNT. TriNitroToluene.  Originally used as a yellow dye, it is now best known as an explosive.  Since it is rather difficult to detonate, it has relatively safe handling properties.

46. Storybook crone : HAG.  Witch.

47. Close at hand : NEAR.

53. "God willing!" : I HOPE SO.  Wishful thinking.

55. "We've heard enough" : SPARE US. T M I.

57. Accumulates : PILES UP.  I had AMASSES, leading to more difficulty.

58. Cautious bettors : HEDGERS.  Here is how they do it.

59. Mailer's need : ADDRESS.  Only if you want it to arrive.

60. Many promos : ADS.

61. Spot for family game night : DEN.  AKA, family room.

Down

1. Manhunt letters : APB.  All Points Bulletin.  A broadcast to law enforcement agencies to be on the look out for a certain dangerous or missing person.

2. Winter warm spell : THAW.  We had two or three last week, with snow storms in between.

3. Skirt style : MIDI.  I had MINI first.  More wishful thinking, I suppose.  Then MAXI 'cuz i go to extremes.

Sadly, sold out.

4. Title role for Geena : THELMA.  Along with Susan as Louise.  Iconic feminist story with a Greek tragedy finale.

5. Attached, as a button : SEWN ON.  Holding on by a threat

6. Give the go-ahead : ASSENT.

7. Something struck by a model? : POSE.



8. One in a cast : ACTRESS.  I believe ACTOR is now the preferred non-gender-specific term.

9. Circulars : LEAFLETS.  Things that are circulated, not things that are shaped round.

10. Store collections : MALLS.  Nice misdirection.  Collections of stores rather than collections of things in stores.

11. The Beach Boys' "God __ Knows" : ONLY.   I never knew this was title.



12. Quaint "For shame!" : FIE.  Expression of outrage or disgust.

13. Fidget spinners, apparently : FAD.   Short-lived enthusiasm for some thing that generally doen't deserve it.

15. Kate McKinnon is in its ensemble, briefly : SNL.  Saturday Night Live.  Common X-word TV entry.

23. Regatta entry : YACHT.  A recreational boat in a race.  The word YACHT derives from the Dutch word for "hunt."  Originally it meant a fast sailing ship used to hunt down pirates and other aquatic miscreants.

24. Diamond situation after a leadoff double : ONE ON.  One base runner in baseball.  Why a double and not a single, triple, walk, or batter hit by pitch?

25. Full-length, as a film : UNCUT.  Unabridged.

26. Several CBS dramas : CSIs.  Crime Scene Investigation - a franchise of CBS crime dramas involving procedural forensics in evidence gathering and crime solving.  Never watched any of them.

27. Bread grain : OAT.  Not just for horses.

28. Yoga pose : ASANA.  Didn't we already have a POSE?!?  An ASANA is a seated posture, or other yoga position.

Do not try this at home

29. Make like : MIMIC.  Act in the manner of, aka a la.

30. Sink sealant : CAULK.  A waterproof sealant.

33. Captain described as a "grand, ungodly, god-like man" : AHAB.  From Melville's classic Moby Dick.

35. Beirut natives : LEBANESE.

36. Bubbly prefix : AER-.  [gurgle]

39. Winged steed of myth : PEGASUS.

Dragons are more fun

43. Performer with many fans? : GEISHA.  Another misdirection.

Join the fan club

44. Secured, as a gate : HASPED.  Dating back to the Germanic origins of Old, English, a HASP is a perforated metal plate that fits over a metal loop that can then be secured with a lock.  Its use as a verb is archaic.

45. Tire features : TREADS.  The textured surfaces where the rubber meets the road.

46. Bouncing off the walls : HYPER.  Over-excited or -active.

48. Shape : MOLD. 

49. Hairdressing challenges : MOPS.  Unruly locks.  Maybe a HASP would help?

50. Uru. neighbor : ARG. Two So. Amer. Ctries.

51. Swamp thing : REED.   Plant life.

52. Angler's fly, e.g. : LURE.  A type of bait that attracts the targeted fish.

53. Pub letters : IPA.  India Pale Ale.   A high hop content brew, originally designed to be brewed in England and shipped to India.  The hops stabilize the product in transit.

54. Squirreled away : HID.

56. Bank acct. info : SSN.  Social Security Number.  Guard it from the PHISHermen.

OK kids. That wraps up another Wednesday.  And since it's Valentine's day, I'll close with this. Nā Pana 'Elua, in Hawiian means "The Two Heartbeats."

Peace and Love!
JzB