Thursday, October 20th, 2022 - David Alfred Bywaters

Going Down?

 

M.C. Escher's Relativity (1953)

David offers us descending phrases that literally go down the grid. Each themer is amusingly clued. Let's take a look.

All Downs:
3. Committee members parachuting from an airplane?: DIVING BOARD. Or BOARD members tanking their company. #Enron

9. Feathers during a no-holds-barred pillow fight?: DROPPING DOWN. Did you know there are no-holds-barred pillow fights?
//I learned about it from Ronny Chieng three weeks ago [The Daily Show]

21. Church steeple in hurricane-strength winds?: TIPPING POINT. Also a book by Malcom Gladwell.

27. Ball carrier on a wet football field?: FALLING BACK. The end of Daylight Saving Time. I think this is also a reference to football.

Football Positions - there's at least 3 BACKS on the offense.

Across:
1. Realm surrounded by the Styx: HADES. Styx is the mythical river between ours and the underworld. Being dipped in it will protect you. Just be sure to dip your son's Achilles heal in too.

Thetis dipping Achilles in the River Styx

Styx was also a popular band so the realm coulda been an 'arena'.

6. Didn't release: HELD. Styx released Renegade in '78. I bought the album Pieces of Eight.

10. Preliminary race: HEAT. Royals would warm their steeds on the track before the final race. Now preliminary races are called heats. [cite]

14. Serving a purpose: UTILE. Useful.

15. Gulf States ruler: EMIR. A crossword staple.

16. Pennsylvania city on I-90: ERIE. ibid.

17. Piercing site: NAVEL. Ouch!

18. Plot-heavy work: MELODRAMA. Nothing mellow about it; just all drama.

20. Table protector: TRIVET. Protects your table or countertop from hot dishes.

Pretty

22. Swift: RAPID. Who else was thinking Jonathan the satirist first?   Misty?

23. Moral lapse: SIN. You throw the first stone.

24. Trivial thing: NIT. Sometimes they're picked here at The Corner.

26. Audit firm exec: CPA. Certified Public Accountant. I waited on perps to make sure it wasn't CFO (Chief Financial Officer).

27. Non-magical source of invisibility: FOG. Cute.

30. Sales meeting diagrams: GRAPHS. #DeathByPowerPoint.

33. Enter en masse: INVADE.

35. Udon kin: SOBA. The difference between udon & soba.  //The TL;DR - wheat flour (udon) v. buckwheat (soba).

37. "To __ it mildly": PUT. The harsh truth - GLOSSY'd over.

38. Affix with a hammer: NAIL IN. If your only tool is a hammer, every job is a nail.


39. MBA field: ECON. Master of Business Administration and Economics.

40. Choosing from a lineup: ID'ING. I'm not sure how to punctuate ID'ING. It's IDentifying the perpetrator from a lineup. A Dragnet staple.
 

Jack Webb & Harry Morgan

42. Fail to enunciate: SLUR. Elide is a letter to long.

43. Make tidy: NEATEN. Hide the mess; I hear Mom!.

45. Curtain holder: ROD. Yep.

46. News magazine since 1923: TIME. It's TIME they stopped Person of the Year, no?

47. Loose garment: SARONG.

Sarong

48. The 1973 Mets' "Ya Gotta Believe!," e.g.: SLOGAN. With Willie Mays, Tom Seaver, Rusty Staub, Cleon Jones, et.al. managed by Yogi, "Ya Gotta Believe." They lost the World Series to Oakland's A's.

50. Finish: END. Sorry readers, I'm not even close.

51. Tailless simian: APE. I waited on the perps 'cuz I was thinkin' "man."

53. Leatherwork tool: AWL.  I call mine a pokie-tool.

Awww, these are real nice.

54. Controversial agribusiness letters: GMO. Genetically Modified Organism. While some folks are afraid of 'Franken Foods,' science feeds the world.

57. Treat with disdain: SCORN. Like some folks at me after my above comment? ;-)

59. "I've seen worse": NOT BAD. "I've had worse." [Monty Python - The Black Knight (@3:10)]

61. Words from the weary: I'M SO TIRED. Me on Friday afternoons.

65. Play group reminder: SHARE. #Mine!


66. Midday: NOON.

67. "You've Got Mail" director Ephron: NORA.


68. Political leader?: SOCIO. Prefix for 'political.' Sociopolitical is combination of of social and political factors.

69. Agrees quietly: NODS. Smile & Wave boys... Smile & wave.


70. Took steps: TROD. Cute.

71. Whitehorse's territory: YUKON. Whitehorse is the largest city in the Canada's Yukon Territory.

Down:
1. Looks (for): HUNTS.

2. Classic arcade name: ATARI. So much misspent-youth INSERTing COINS. APM's How I Built This: From Pong to Chuck E. Cheese. [47m]

3. [See: theme]

4. Alt.: ELEV. ALTitude / ELEVation.

5. Gomez of "Only Murders in the Building": SELENA. If you have Hulu, this show is a must-see.


6. Garment edge: HEM.

7. Like a retired prof.: EMER. Emeritus. Like Misty & OMK.

8. Amethyst hue: LILAC. A sweet lady on my paper route had lilac bushes. The smell of those in the Spring -- sugar in your nose.

9. [See: theme]

10. Bunch of buffalo: HERD. I heard that.

11. Pitching stat: ERA. Earned Run Average. This is the number of runs scored against a pitcher per nine innings pitched. i.e (9 x earned runs)/innings pitched. A good pitcher has an ERA below 3. An Ace's ERA is typically less than 2. #Baseball!

12. Objective: AIM. Pitchers AIM for the strike-zone; batters AIM for the fences.

13. Leaves in a bag: TEA. DAB didn't fool me but for 7 seconds.

19. "Outlander" series novelist Gabaldon: DIANA. Perps for the win.

21. [See: theme]

25. Impact sound: THUD. Who can't think of Wile E. Coyote here?

via GIPHY

27. [See: theme]

28. Intense dislike: ODIUM. ? Odium (n.) general or widespread hatred or disgust directed at someone as a result of their actions. Oh, OK.

29. Britcom or bromance: GENRE. British Comedies and (male) buddys who are close.

31. Wound up costing: RAN TO. Add the window-etching, under-body rust protection, extended-warranty...

32. Arouses: STIRS.

34. Panoramic view: VISTA. The views around Cinque Terre blew me away.

35. Intuit: SENSE. I feel this clue/answer has something going for it.

36. Setting for much of "Aquaman": OCEAN. He's a fishORman, right?
//Eat your heart out, Ray-O :-)

41. The Big Easy, for short: NOLA. A CSO to "you know who" and one of the best places in America to visit. The Bourbon Orleans hotel is *chef's kiss*.

44. Put on the books: ENACT. Oh, not a loss or gain | red nor black ink, but a law. As if we needed another...

49. Shiny print: GLOSSY. Arlo ran into problems with the 27 8x10 color GLOSSY prints with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one.
For being a litterbug.
Eventually, he was on the Group "W" bench. [See: Alice's Restaurant]

52. Mistake: ERROR. C.C.'s for letting me blog another crossword puzzle :-)
//Love to you, C.C. & Boomer.

55. NHL great Lemieux: MARIO. Thank you perps. Read more at Wikipedia.

56. Ancient Greek theater: ODEON. We disdain these 'cuz... Oh, not ODIUM. #Untie!

57. "I Will Wait" band Mumford & __: SONS.


58. Fictional Wolfe: NERO. I've never read the books but the TV show on A&E was good.

60. Second person of old: THOU. Thy was too short.

61. Travel guide listing: INN. One year, for our anniversary, we went leaf-peeping in VT. DW always finds the best places to stay.

The INN at Round Barn Farm

62. Dairy farm noise: MOO. On that same trip, we hit Ben & Jerry's dairy and creamery. They have real cows at the factory! But, the cows were lowing.

63. Landscaping layer: SOD. Also, derogatory UK slang.

64. Pops: DAD. Pop is my 2nd-best friend. DW is #1.

The Grid

My Recap:
WO: ODEOm
ESP: ODIUM
Fav: Hard to pick one. It was just a peach to break DOWN the puzzle for y'all.

Now it's your turn to do the same.

Cheers, -T