Bruce Haight's crosswords have been appearing in the
New York Times and
Los Angeles Times since January 2013. Today's is his third Sunday puzzle and his 30th overall. In May, one of his crosswords contained several anagrams of state names plus an additional letter. Example: "CALIFORNIA + N = Majestic beast" is AFRICANLION. Today Haight revisits the theme with "Urbanagrams." Six answers include the name of a major US city followed by its anagram:
A few bars in the West? SANDIEGOSONGIDEA
Ticketholder's entitlement in the Southwest? SANTAFEFANSEAT
Stage handles in the West? SACRAMENTOACTORNAMES
Complex papers for a pad in the West? LOSANGELESLONGLEASES
Heavyweights in the Midwest? COLUMBUSSUMOCLUB
Do stuff in the Southeast? RALEIGHHAIRGEL
"Do stuff" -- meaning "stuff to put on a hairdo." One of my school teachers hated the use of "stuff" as a synonym for "things" and forbade us from using the word. I agreed with her. I still detest the word and it drives me crazy to hear baseball announcers say a pitcher has "good stuff." But I digress. Let's get back to the puzzle.
"Rubber" is a clever clue for MASSEUR. "Fleshy 'buttons'" is NAVEL. One of the early
Dennis The Menace comics showed Dennis staring at his navel and telling his mother, "I know it's a belly button -- but what does it
do?" "Hamburger man" is HERR, which is a German word referring to a man. (Hamburg is Germany's second-largest city, after Berlin.) My first thought was KROC. Richard and Maurice McDonald had opened a fast-food restaurant in San Bernardino in 1940. Ray Kroc partnered with them in 1954 and a year later opened the first franchised McDonald's in Des Plaines, Illinois. There are now almost 37,000 McDonald's restaurants worldwide.
"Chicago airport code" is ORD. In 1942, an aircraft factory near the farming community of Orchard Place west of Chicago began manufacturing Douglas C-54 military transport planes. A commercial airfield, Orchard Field Airport. It was assigned the three-letter code ORD by the International Air Transport Association. In 1949, the airport was renamed to honor Edward "Butch" O'Hare, a Navy pilot and Medal Of Honor recipient in World War II, but the airport code was never changed. It remains ORD. An explanation of some of the seemingly illogical codes is at
https://www.gonomad.com/2346-what-airport-codes-meanThat's all for today. Time for me to take flight.
