08.19 Fri

F R I D A Y
August 19, 2011
Jeff Louie

Theme: Crazy Cuisine — Hard G sounds are changed to hard C sounds in familiar foods, creating a madcap menu of outrageous edibles.

Theme Entries:

• 16A: Dairy food for a haunted house? (CREAK YOGURT).


• 23A: Boxed Brie? (CRATED CHEESE).


• 38A/41A: Pancake-flavored drink? (CREPE JUICE).


• 50A: Snacks for an all-nighter? (CRAM CRACKERS).


• 62A: Dinner dish decorated for a king? (CROWNED BEEF).

Hey, puzzle fans. Doug here, filling in on a Friday. PuzzleGirl is away on important business. She called me last night from an undisclosed location. There was a lot of loud music and laughter in the background, so I didn't catch everything she said. Sounded pretty important though. OK, let's get to the puzzle.

Unless I'm mistaken, this is Jeff Louie's debut puzzle. Congratulations! This is an ambitious theme. You could come up with a decent theme by finding a bunch of phrases that start with GR & then changing the G sound to a C sound. But Mr. Louie kicked it up a notch by only using food-related phrases. Nice work.

I like CREPE JUICE the best, because it sounds kinda gross, in a good way. It reminds me of some of the strange sodas that Jones Soda puts out around the holidays. Sodas with flavors like Turkey & Gravy, Dinner Roll, Christmas Tree, Green Bean Casserole, and Herb Stuffing. When I'm invited to Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner, I always bring the Jones Soda. The kids love it! I get out the fancy glasses, and we all have a sample of each flavor. (And yes, I'm always assigned to sit at the kids' table for some reason.) I remember the Turkey & Gravy soda was especially vile. It was like licking an ashtray. And Christmas Tree tasted like Windex. Best flavor: Pumpkin Pie.

Bullets:

• 1A: Espresso concoction (LATTE). Aren't espresso and latte two different things? I'm not a coffee drinker, so I may be completely off-base. That's right. I don't drink coffee, but I occasionally drink Mashed Potatoes & Butter soda.


• 10A/13A: Coming-out phrase? (IT'S A GIRL). Because the baby girl's "coming out" of the mother. Moving on...



• 14A: Surprisingly, the Rays don't play there (TAMPA). The Tampa Bay Rays play in St. Petersburg, Florida. The New York Giants and New York Jets play in New Jersey. And the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim? You can figure that one out.


• 16A: Dairy food for a haunted house? (CREAK YOGURT). I wasn't familiar with Greek yogurt. Wikipedia tells me that it's "yogurt which has been strained in a cloth or paper bag or filter to remove the whey, giving a consistency between that of yogurt and cheese, while preserving yogurt's distinctive sour taste." Uh, that almost sounds worse than the crepe juice.


• 34A: Sask. neighbor (N. DAK.). If PuzzleGirl was here, I'm sure she'd have something interesting to say about North Dakota. Let's see... It's the birthplace of Roger Maris. That's all I've got.



• 40A: Priest's vestment (ALB). That's a vintage Crosswordese 101 entry. Check it out here: ALB.


• 9D: Weather forecast word (PATCHY). This is one of my favorite clues today. Rather than giving us a boring synonym, the constructor came up with a clever way to make us think of "patchy." The only place I ever hear that word is in weather forecasts. Patchy fog, patchy clouds, etc.


• 10D: Sundance entry, usually (INDIE). Independent films at the Sundance Film Festival.


• 22D: Name that means "cool breeze" in Hawaiian (KEANU). That's the most interesting thing I've ever read about Keanu Reeves. My name in Hawaiian is Kouka. I learned that from a keychain in a Hawaiian gift shop.

PuzzleGirl will be back tomorrow, bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, and ready to blog. Or you'll be stuck with me again. Enjoy the rest of your Friday.