5.06.2010

THURSDAY, May 6, 2010 — Jack McInturff


Theme: Afterlife — The end of each theme answer can come after the word life in a familiar phrase.


Theme answers:
  • 17A: Hunk (DREAMBOAT).
  • 23A: Upstages a performer, e.g. (CRAMPS ONE'S STYLE).
  • 39A: Becomes less leery (LOWERS ONE'S GUARD).
  • 49A: Gets a single, double, triple and homer in one game (HITS FOR THE CYCLE).
  • 62A: Spiritual existence, and where the ends of 17-, 23-, 39- and 49-Across can go (AFTERLIFE).
Really sorry, but I don't have time for a write-up today. I was up late helping PuzzleSon with his first big writing project and thought I'd have time to blog this morning, but ended up taking care of a few last-minute things on the paper. So I'm off to work. But you've got the grid and the theme answers here. Knock yourselves out in the comments.

Everything Else — 1A: Bump into (MEET); 5A: Muslim journey (HADJ); 9A: Dig deep (PROBE); 14A: First name in mystery (ERLE); 15A: '50s Hungarian premier Nagy (IMRE); 16A: Kind of police gun that doesn't use bullets (RADAR); 19A: Thus follower (AND SO); 20A: It's charged (ION); 21A: One of a Latin trio (VICI); 22A: Called, old-style (DIALED); 26A: 33-time Rose Bowl sch. (USC); 27A: You, to Yves (TOI); 28A: Campus home for some (FRAT); 31A: "Whoops" ("UH-OH"); 34A: Pat, for one (NFLER); 42A: Seriously chubby (OBESE); 43A: Separate into like groups (SORT); 44A: Jam causes (LOGS); 45A: Beautician's supply (DYE); 47A: Actor Holbrook (HAL); 58A: '50s-'60s TV Earp portrayer (O'BRIAN); 59A: Congo river (UELE); 60A: Fireplace shelf (HOB); 61A: "Bye Bye Bye" singers ('N SYNC); 64A: Do a winter airport maintenance job (DE-ICE); 65A: Knock for a loop (STUN); 66A: "A Jug of Wine ..." poet (OMAR); 67A: Tossed in a chip (ANTED); 68A: Nile biters (ASPS); 69A: Baltic dweller (LETT); 1D: Doc (MEDIC); 2D: Boot in the field (ERROR); 3D: Actress Verdugo (ELENA); 4D: Crumpets' partner (TEA); 5D: Flower used in herbal teas (HIBISCUS); 6D: It began as Standard Oil of Indiana (AMOCO); 7D: Bathtub feature (DRAIN); 8D: Deep black (JET); 9D: Applauding (PRAISING); 10D: Attacked on foot (RAN AT); 11D: "Strange to say ..." ("ODDLY …" ); 12D: Swiss city on the Rhine (BASEL); 13D: Eat away at (ERODE); 18D: N.L.'s Pujols and A.L.'s Mauer in 2009 (MVPS); 22D: Brit. military award (DSO); 24D: Deadens (MUTES); 25D: Old knockout cause (ETHER); 28D: Showman Ziegfeld (FLO); 29D: Hold up (ROB); 30D: Wonder (AWE); 32D: Firefighter, at times (HOSER); 33D: Lennon's love (ONO); 35D: To the nth degree (FULLY); 36D: Mekong River dweller (LAO); 37D: Work measure (ERG); 38D: Tobacco and Abbey: Abbr. (RDS.); 40D: Embarrassed (RED-FACED); 41D: 1980 erupter (ST. HELENS); 46D: Over there, poetically (YON); 48D: One serving well (ACER); 49D: Civic engineer? (HONDA); 50D: "Peer Gynt" playwright (IBSEN); 51D: "Have a little" ("TRY IT"); 52D: "__ You Went Away": 1944 Best Picture nominee (SINCE); 53D: The great horned owl has prominent ones on its ears (TUFTS); 54D: Excited (HET UP); 55D: Add one's two cents, with "in" (CHIME); 56D: Dieter's catchword (LO-FAT); 57D: "Questions for the Movie Answer Man" author (EBERT); 62D: Comparison words (AS A); 63D: Online yuk (LOL).

31 comments:

Rex Parker said...

NE took me (comparatively) forever. TASER for RADAR.

Liked it.

rp

JOHNSNEVERHOME said...

ODDLY, I finished this puzzle correctly without any Google-aid, but never did catch onto the theme (until @PG explained it). Many of the words that stumped me were revealed via the crosses. Words like UELE, OBRIAN, DSO, and BASEL.

I too entered TASER for RADAR.

I use UHOH a lot when I’m solving a puzzle like this (followed by an eraser).

I’ve never heard the baseball term HITS FOR THE CYCLE before.

HOSER (for a firefighter), I’d use a heavy drinker clue for that one.

Never liked hearing HET UP for HEATED UP… it just ain’t a legit word.

Best clue of the day: “Tobacco and Abbey” (RDS).

Yesterday I planted a beautiful ‘Kopper King’ HIBISCUS plant that I got from The Morton Arboretum (where I work). I never knew that I could make herbal TEA from it.

Can someone explain why NFLER for “Pat”?

Well today we got both a French lesson (TOI) and a Latin lesson (VICI).

At first I said, “who the heck is ELENA Verdugo”, but then who could forget those screams in “The House of Frankenstein”?

I’m not PRAISING Jack McInturff today because I thought it was, for him, a rather bland puzzle.

Finishing my second cup of coffee and then back out to my gardening.

Anonymous said...

A member of the New England Patriots football team is commonly referred to as a "Pat".

Anonymous said...

Het Up - Booo! Bad form, I say.

SMPosten said...

i find it funny that i found the answers to todays NYpost puzzle via this blog rather than Nypost.com which is impossible to find on that site! Kudos to this blog, and I will continue to use it as my answer guide from now on!!

The Corgi of Mystery said...

TASER for RADAR here too for a good minute. Stupidly enough, I first put in ODDLY, stared at __D_R for 2 seconds and then swapped out my correct ODDLY for the incorrect TASER. D'oh.

PhillyGirl said...

From Philadelphia so couldn't get Tasar out of my head.

Lime D. Zeze said...

LO FAT is two words, not one "catchword" ... SHEESH!

*David* said...

HET UP crossing UELE is not cool. The UELE river isn't one of those common rivers that comes to mind, it could easily be UOLE. I had ODDLY, erased it when I saw gun, and put in TASER. Otherwise the puzzle moved relatively quickly. McInturff appears to be Rich's new Thursday/Friday guy.

Tinbeni said...

HITS FOR THE CYCLE was my first entry.
It is a bit rare, only been done about (almost) 300 times. The other day (5/2/10) a Florida Marlin player did it leaving only the San Diago Padres as the only team that has not had a player do it.
Never done in Post-Season play. -wiki-

Hand up on that TASER, which has now become part of baseball lore.
@PhillyGirl what is the fans mood regarding that guy being Tasered the other night? Personally, I liked it.

NFLER (today) and the ALER, NLER, NBAER whatever sport'ER' are pretty lame every time we see them.

UELE and IMRE were both all crosses and a learning plus.

Burner10 said...

A bit tuff for me. Hands up tor TASAR - then changed to LASAR to accomodate CLAPPING. Finally Googled my way out of this mess with BASEL. One of my favorite baseball terms! HFTC right up there with Can of Corn and Defensive Indifference. I thought I'd like this puzzle more than I did when I got the HFTC clue early.
Off the bus for now...

Argyle said...

Catchword doesn't have to be one word... SHEESH!

catch·word n. A well-known word, phrase, or slogan.

(The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

shrub5 said...

Very enjoyable puzzle with some tough spots here and there. I even had to resort to using WiteOut in one area where I had a big mess.

I didn't like the clue for CRAMP ONE'S STYLE (upstages a performer, e.g.). When I use that phrase, I mean it in the sense of preventing one from acting or doing as he normally/ naturally does.

ANTED just looks wrong to me. ANTEED looks better and is an alternate spelling acc. to a couple of on-line dictionaries.

I wasn't familiar with the term HITS FOR THE CYCLE. To add to @Tinbeni's comments above....according to MLB.com, several players have done it more than once. There is also the term "natural" cycle which is hitting a single, double, triple and home run, in that order, in one game. Thirteen players have done that.

Anonymous said...

can anyone explain "boot in the field" A:error ?

is it a sports term?

Toady said...

@Anonymous:

In baseball booting the ball means you did not hang on to it and therefore you made an error and you made that error in a baseball field.

CrazyCat said...

I guess SINCE it's baseball season we are having baseball theme answers every day? Didn't like either HET UP or LO FAT. At least HET UP is in the dictionary. Tried googling LO FAT and got nothing. HOB was new. HOB can also be the peg used to play QUOITS. Also wanted TASER instead of RADAR. Then I tried to shove in Chamomile instead of HIBISCUS. Hardest part for me was the SW. Could not remember Hugh OBRIAN for the life of me even though I watched that show as kid. Never heard of Bye Bye Bye SINCE I was never a fan of NSYNC. Also thought ANTED looked really odd and got tricked by Civic engineer HONDA. A little frustrating, but fun, nonetheless.
Son just got accepted to the MBA program at USC.

Captcha AXICAB

Sfingi said...

Another vote for tAseR before RADAR.

Misread "hunk" as "hulk" and had stEAMBOAT before DREAMBOAT. By the way, checkout images of steampunk, sometime. Wonderful decorative workmanship.

Had KyAm before OMAR.

Googled for EBERT, O'BRIAN, NSYNC, UELE, TUFTS, IMRE. That's a lot.

Lots of sites had OBRIeN, which was confusing.

I'm going to tell my husband to get his TUFTS (earhairs) trimmed when he needs a haircut. That terrific word just didn't occur to me.

I didn't get any of the sports stuff, but only Google the Pujols/Mauer thing. They both had so many things going in 2009, I had to pick one and picked right. It helps to know everything or near nothing.

@CrazyCat - beat me to the quoits thing.

Civic engineer reminded me of something I heard once:
"Was your surveyor a Civil Engineer?"
"Oh, he was very polite."

C said...

HITFORTHECYCLE, very cool answer.

I had TASER written in first for the NE corner as well, after two downs that crossed, I knew that I UHOH'ed (or, in Scooby speak, RUHROH'ed) and was able to fix. I blame people who run onto baseball fields for my momentary lapse.

Anonymous said...

@ Toady

being Australian this baseball jargon is totally alien to me, thanks a lot for the clarification,

"hit for the cycle" stumped me as well, even after I got it it just seemed wrong.

Van55 said...

I never even considered TASER for RADAR. I did have NILE before UELE and DORM before FRAT.

I'm about to add the ubiquitous "LOL" to my list of pet peeves for crossword answers.

Not sure that to DEICE is a maintenance task, but that's a tiny quibble.

Fun puzzle for the most part.

Clevelander said...

In the Plain Dealer sports section today:

Headline: "Valbuena boots away a win"

Sub Title: "Error with two out in ninth leads to Tribe loss"

chefbea said...

Hand up for taser, Nile and dorm. Learned a lot of new baseball terms today

Tinbeni said...

@Chefbea
Nice to see your beet again.

Yeah, this was fun for a baseball fan but the Dan Naddor at the NYT was delicious!

Eric said...

Hmm, never seen HADJ with a "d" before, only "haj" or "hajj". But then, I always assumed that when spoken it rhymed with "mirage", so clearly the "d" adds value.

I guessed TASER too. That should have been the answer; then the clue for 65-A could have been "Use a 16-A on" :-)

Did anyone guess YCLEPT for 22-A? (I didn't either, I misspelled it ECLEPT :-/). I knew it was way too obscure, but couldn't resist...

My main two gripes are both with the clue for 62-A: (1) "Spiritual existence" = AFTERLIFE is religiously insensitive to say the least. (2) Can someone please explain "... and where the ends of 17-, 23-, 39- and 49-Across can go"? I'm stumped!

2-D: "Boots in the field"? I was looking for something military...

3-D: Got it right off. Elena Verdugo played Marcus Welby's ... um, nurse? Receptionist? Something like that.

@johnsneverhome: Agreed: "Tobacco and Abbey" -> RDS totally rocked! And rolled.

But the best thing about this puzzle? No stinkin' OLIO, hooray!

Eric said...

Strike my gripe #2 for 62-A. I've since found the explanation right at the top of PuzzleGirl's original post...

Sfingi said...

@Eric - I thought of "yclept," with memories of a professor 45 years ago.

And no ssn, ssno.

@Tinbeni - picked up the NYT just before the drug store closed. I usually don't buy Fri., and I bet it's hard.

JOHNSNEVERHOME said...

Thanks, @Anon6:37 for the "Pat" explanation.
And thanks to @Tinbeni, @Burner10, @shrub5, and @Toady for all the good info on baseball. I like to watch baseball, but honestly I'm clueless regarding rules and jargon.

mac said...

@Bill from NJ: great story!

lit.doc said...

Mid-period grades due tomorrow, so late getting here. Great commentary today.

Hand up for TASER. Also DORM/FRAT and NUMBS/MUTES.

@Lime D. Zeze, I think LO-FAT is typically used as a compound adjective, not a noun, so it is, functionally, one word.

hazel said...

@Bill from NJ - Great to hear from you. baseball story => bonus!

Bill from NJ said...

@hazel & @mac-

Thank you. It was too good a story not to pass on. Excuse the language, though.