Category: Mini

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Mini Venn Mini

Venn Mini 8

Words: 11

Average Length: 4.55

online | puz | pdf | solution

This is the last Venn Mini for a bit – they’re a bit of a pain to construct, to be honest.  Same rules as always:  each half of the clue is like a circle in a Venn Diagram; the answer falls in the intersection of the clues and is something they have in common – it could be a name, a place, the same word used in different context, or some other commonality.  Explanations follow the photo.

This has nothing to do with the puzzle, but I saw this little one while walking my dog yesterday and it posed very nicely

1A – You BASTE a turkey and a seam

6A – Shaq and the Great One both played CENTER, though in different sports.  (Seeing Shaq ice skate might be interesting!)

7A – HAVANA was a hit for Camilla Cabello, and the USS Maine sank in Havana harbor, igniting the Spanish-American War

8A – EDITS as a verb includes cuts; director’s cuts may be considered EDITS used as a noun.  I apologize for this one, which is the real weak link in the grid.

9A – Spike LEE; a shelter is on the LEE side

1D – BEAD is associated with drops of sweat and Mardi Gras

2D – One of the bones in your ear is the ANVIL, which is also used in a forge

3D – STATE of matter (liquid) and of the union

4D – Future is a TENSE, a cliffhanger is tense

5D – ERA – as an acronym for the Equal Rights Amendment, which was supported by NOW (the National Organization for Women), and for Earned Run Average, a key pitching stat

6D – CHE is the narrator of Evita, and Michael Che is known from SNL

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Mini Venn Mini

Venn Mini 7

Words:  10

Average Length:  4.20

online | puz | pdf | solution

Think of each half of each clue as a circle in a Venn diagram. The answer will lie in the intersection of the two circles. It could be a name, a word with different meanings in each context, a common component, or something else they share.

Spoilers/explanations below the photo

Ceiling inside the Vatican (8A)

1A: SPOCK – Dr. Benjamin Spock wrote what was, for a long time, the baby care bible.  Mr. Spock, of course, needs no introduction.  Live long and prosper!

6A:  THREE – Lithium’s atomic number and Dale Earnhardt’s car number

7A:  DADDY – Daddy Yankee was featured on Despacito and Daddy Warbucks is a main character in Annie

8A:  SEE – The government of the Catholic Church (Holy See) operates from the Vatican, and you “see” in poker when you match a bet

9A:  ERS – as in emergency rooms and “ers” when someone is searching for a word

1D:  STD – a reg (regulation) is a standard (std), and the “clap” is slang for gonorrhea, a kind of sexually transmitted disease

2D:  PHASE – the “terrible twos” is considered a phase, and liquid is a phase (state) of matter

3D:  ORDER – is a categorization in taxonomy (between family and class), and a monastery generally is populated by monks of a specific order (e.g., Franciscans)

4D:  CEDES – sorry about this one; it’s a stretch but it works if you consider that the root -cede is used with con (concede) but not pro (which changes the root to ceed) and pre (precede) but not post (instead it’s succeed).  I got backed into a corner on this one!

5D:  KEY – a piano has 88 of them; Florida has around 800

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Mini Venn Mini

Venn Mini 6

Words: 10

Average Length: 4.80

See 6A (taken in Venice, July 2014)

online | puz | pdf | solution

Spoilers/solving notes below:

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1A:  A shepherd uses a STAFF and an employer hires a STAFF

6A:  An ear has a CANAL, and Erie is one

7A:  Lewis Carroll wrote about ALICE in Wonderland, and Jefferson Airplane’s song White Rabbit is based on Carroll’s book

8A:  Bags are TOTES and in “I Love You Man,” Paul Rudd’s character says “TOTES McGotes”

9A:  Mathematician John NASH was the subject of “A Beautiful Mind,” and Graham NASH was a founding member of The Hollies

1D:  Ella Fitzgerald was known for SCAT singing, and animal poop is called SCAT

2D:  An eagle has TALONs, and TALON is a major brand of zipper

3D:  ANITA Hill accused Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment, and ANITA is Maria’s friend in West Side Story

4D:  Clocks have FACES and Rod Stewart was in a band called FACES

5D:  In The Merchant of Venice, Shylock famously speaks of “the pound of FLESH, which I demand of [Antonio]”, and Matthew 26 contains the line “the spirit is willing but the FLESH is weak”

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Mini Venn Mini

Venn Mini 5

Words:  10

Average Length:  4.60

See clue for 3 Down (this is a raven (I believe), photographed near Stonehenge. Flocks of them were swooping around the stones, creating quite an eerie atmosphere.

online | puz | pdf | solution

1A:  STEAM comes from a kettle and a steamroller is a piece of construction equipment

6A:  a HEDGE is a kind of bush and one can hedge a bet

7A:  Mike Trout is an ANGEL, as is an investor in a start-up

8A:  ROAST can mean good-natured kidding, and one roasts a turkey

9A:  ERR works as a prefix for both -and and -or

1D:  Kids learn to SHARE in kindergarten, and stocks are sold in shares

2D:  Coltrane played TENOR sax and Pavarotti was a tenor

3D:  EDGAR Allen Poe wrote “The Raven” and EDGAR Degas painted “The Dancing Class”

4D:  AGES follows both “Stone” and “Middle”

5D:  Ice will MELT, and a tuna melt is a (delicious!) sandwich

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Mini Venn Mini

Venn Mini 4

Words:  10

Average Length:  4.60

This one may (or may not) play a bit tougher than previous VMs – I can never tell.  Spolers/explanation below the break.

online | puz | pdf | solution

Brecon Beacons National Park, Wales (see 4 Across)

1A.  AMP – amplifier, ampere

4A.  CORDS – newborns have umbilical cords and cords (corduroy pants) have wales (ridges)

7A.  IDIOT – Village idiot; Dostoevsky wrote The Idiot

8A.  DEMME – Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins appeared together in Silence of the Lambs, Jonathan Demme’s most famous movie.

9A.  SLEEP – REM is a sleep stage; the famous Hamlet soliloquy contains the line “to sleep, perchance to dream”.  (The clue would work equally well for DREAM.)  I wanted to further the REM misdirection by having the second half of the clue be “Sidewinder”; the band had a medium-sized hit song called “The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite,” but it’s 30 years old and I wasn’t sure how well-known it is.

1D.  ACIDS are used in etching, and “on acid” is slang for tripping on LSD

2D.  MODEL – a model poses on a runway, and an A380 is an airplane model from Airbus. Major misdirect on this one!

3D.  PRIME – beef and numbers both may be prime

5D.  DOME – Buckminster Fuller is known for designing a geodesic dome, and the Pantheon in Rome is one of the most famous domed buildings in the world

6D.  STEP – it’s a synonym for stair and, in music, a step is a whole tone (e.g., from C to D).

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Mini Themeless Venn Mini

Venn Mini 3

Words:  10

Average Length:  4.40

online | puz | pdf | solution

Explanation/spoilers below the break

Bike (see 6 Across) on a rainy day in Amsterdam, Oct. 2019

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1A:  SPARE is a score in bowling and an emergency tire

6A:  PEDALs are used to ride a bicycle and to stop a car

7A:  ATOMS have nuclei, and Thom Yorke/Flea’s band was Atoms for Peace

8A:  DEBS is short for debutantes and also the surname of Eugene V. Debs, a 5-time Socialist candidate for US President

9A:  ERE is contained in both Where and There

1D:  SPADE is a suit in a deck of cards and also a garden tool

2D:  PETER Cottontail was Flopsy and Mopsy’s brother; a famous Tsar was Peter the Great

3D:  ADOBE is a type of clay brick as well as the developer of Acrobat software

4D:  RAMS are pick-up trucks from Dodge and an NFL franchise in Los Angeles

5D:  ELS (elevated train) are operated by the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), and Ernie Els is a noted member of the PGA Tour

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Mini Venn Mini

Venn Mini 2

Words:  11

Average Length:  4.73

Drying heads of 5 Down, Lofoten Islands, Norway

online | puz | pdf | solution

I wasn’t threatened too grievously after posting Venn Mini 1 last week, so here we go again! Think of each half of each clue as a circle in a Venn diagram; the answer will fit in the intersection between the two circles. It could be a common component, a word used in both “circles” but with different meanings, a name associated with both “circles,” or some other common ground.

EXPLANATIONS/SPOILERS BELOW

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1A:  MOSS is a kind of bryophyte; Kate Moss is a supermodel

5A:  COPPER is an essential element of both brass and bronze

7A:  O’LEARY was the owner of the cow that started the great Chicago fire, and “Mr. Wonderful” on Shark Tank is Kevin O’Leary

8A:  DERIVE is a term used both in calculus and in etymology

9A:  SANE – besides meaning “sensible,” Aladdin Sane was one of David Bowie’s alter egos

1D:  MOLES are enemy agents who’ve burrowed into a spy organization as well as rodents that burrow in gardens

2D:  OPERA – The Marx Brothers are known for A Night at the Opera and Kurt Weill is noted for his music for The Threepenny Opera (esp. “Mack the Knife”)

3D:  SPAIN – Toledo is a city in Spain and Columbus’s expeditions were funded by Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain

4D:  SERVE – people serve in tennis and in the military

5D:  COD – Cash on Delivery or a kind of fish

6D:  RYE – Salinger wrote The Catcher in the Rye, and rye is a type of whiskey

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Mini Venn Mini

Venn Mini 1

Words:  10 (5×5)

Average Length:  4.20

I haven’t seen a puzzle like this before, although I’m sure the concept exists.  Think of each half of the clue as a circle in a Venn diagram; the answer is found in the intersection between the two circles.  It may be a shared trait or name, a constituent part of each category, a word associated with both “circles” but meaning different things in each context, or some other common ground.

online | puz | pdf | solution

Explanation/spoilers below:

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1A: FLEA is the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ bassist, and a flea is common parasite

5A:  BRAND is a ranch “dressing,” or decoration, and Hidden Valley is a common brand of ranch dressing

6A:  LINDA Rondstadt sang Blue Bayou (as did Roy Orbison, but he doesn’t fit), and Linda Blair starred in The Exorcist

7A:  UTEs is the name both of an indigenous American people and a common shortening of “utility” for vehicles.

8A:  EOS is a Canon camera and the Greek goddess of the dawn

1D:  FRITO means fried in Spanish; a chimichanga is fried – and of course Frito is an iconic corn chip

2D:  LANES are found in both highways and bowling alleys

3D:  ENDS – a line segment has 2 ends, and codas are the ends of musical pieces

4D:  ADA Lovelace is regarded by some as an early computer programmer, and the ADA is the professional organization of dentists

5D:  BLUE is component of both Green (with yellow) and Purple (with red)

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Mini Puny but Punny

Puny but Punny 4

Words: 10

Average Length: 4.80

More Wednesday silliness. This one might be a bit more difficult than my other PBP puzzles, but with extra challenge comes extra humor, I hope.

online | puz | pdf | solution

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Mini Puny but Punny

Puny but Punny 3

Words: 8

Average Length: 4.0

Another bite-sized package of silly puns.  I’m particularly proud/ashamed of 4 Down.

online | puz | pdf | solution