Good morning, once again, cruciverbalists. As you have likely guessed from my reptilian friends, above, for today's theme our constructor, Julian Lim, has chosen a SALAD from the menu.
THEME: SUPER SALAD ? - "I'll go with just the regular salad, please."
REVEAL: 36 ACROSS: Steak go-with, perhaps, and a hint to 10 puzzle answers: SIDE SALAD.
This was a salad effort from Julian. As if tossing ten (count 'em) theme answers into the grid was not, in and of itself, a sufficient recipe for success, he has skillfully placed all ten of the SALADs along the SIDEs of the grid. Fortunately, this marine mammal spends copious time chomping on vegetation so the theme was recognized pretty quickly. As an aSIDE, if you are helping a less-experienced solver work on a puzzle, you can fill in the perimeter for them. Not only will they find it to be a help in working out the answers for themselves, but filling in those squares, and only those squares, can be an enjoyable way to hone one's own skills.
Rather than explore all ten of the theme answers here at the beginning of this recap, which would substantially disrupt the flow, we will address them in situ. However, lettuce now take a look at the grid, the better to appreciate the accomplishment. The overall success of the construction allows for a bit of forbearance when it comes to the quantity of three-letter fill . . . and a couple of other answers, too.
ACROSS :
1. Inaugural class MLB Hall of Famer: COBB. COBB SALAD. Ty COBB was elected to the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936. Joining him were Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson and Walter Johnson.
Ty Cobb
5. Gift basket option: FRUIT. FRUIT SALAD
A Fruit Basket
10. Groanworthy humor: CORN. CORN SALAD. Before the expression "Dad Joke" became popular we used to call that type of humor CORNny. For example: Why don't they play poker in the jungle? There are too many cheetahs.
14. Certain something: AURA. Frank Zappa penned a line in which he rhymed AURA with Dora and flora but it is inappropriate for PG audiences.
15. Sunken ship finder: SONAR. SOund NAvigation Ranging
16. Jai __: ALAI.
17. Dominic West alma mater: ETON. This seems as if it is the five-hundredth way that we have seen ETON clued. "The Wire" did not "air" under the sea so I had no idea who Dominic West is.
18. Tot's ache spot: TUMMY. It is not the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, but you were (sorta) forewarned. Apologies for any ear worms. Wait, that's insufficient. Apologies. Period.
In 1968, Joey Levine Had Love In His Tummy
19. 1933 Banking Act creation: Abbr.: FDIC. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
21. Brother of Aaron: MOSES. An Old Testament reference.
MOSES Gives Unto Us The Commandments
22. Like some survey questions: YES NO. Survey question: Have you seen this previously in crossword puzzles? Please circle your answer: YES YES
23. Turkish title: AGA. Often spelled AGHA, this honorific title was used more commonly during the time of the Ottoman Empire.
24. Is __: likely will: APT TO.
25. Sapporo rival: ASAHI. Although now brewed in various places around the globe, ASAHI is a Japanese beer brand. So is Sapporo. ASHAHI's headquarters building is quite distinctive.
ASAHI Building, Tokyo
26. Brought back, in titles: REDUX. Sometimes used today in reference to Java Script apps, the typical meaning of REDUX is to reference something revived or, as the clue says, "brought back".
28. Performed: DID. By definition.
30. Had the role of: WAS. Perhaps, a thespian or professional reference.
31. Mo. in which Oktoberfest begins: SEP. "Mo." is used in the clue to tell us that the answer will be an abbreviation. In this case the MOnth of SEPtember. Oktoberfest officially begins at noon on the second to last Saturday in September.
32. Add: APPEND. Again, by definition.
35. Abbr. in some vineyard names: STE. As in SainTE, the French title for a female saint. This time the clue was not the usual reference to STE. Jeanne D'Arc. Merci.
Cuvee Ste Catherine Schlossberg
39. "Rugrats" infant: DIL. Dylan Prescott "DIL" Pickles is a character in the "Rugrats" comic strip.
DIL Pickles
42. Trudeau's country: CANADA. Is the plural of Trudeau Trudeaux?
Trudeau Fils et Pere
43. Night school subj.: ESL. English as a Second Language. A Crossword Staple.
46. Job listing inits.: EOE. Equal Opportunity Employer. Another Crossword Staple.
47. "__ dreaming?": AM I. It is often clued along the lines of a French friend.
50. Line of cut grass: SWATH. A common sight on farms. A SWATH can also be seen on baseball fields.
52. Lacking one's A game: NOT ON. "A Game" is used in reference to performing at the very best of one's ability. If twasn't for 54 Down, NOTON would be today's dubious prize winner.
56. Enero begins it: ANO. Enero is Spanish for January and ANO is Spanish for year.
57. Mickey Mantle's number: SEVEN.
58. Reads quickly: SKIMS. At first glance, I thought that it might be SCANS but these days that word is most commonly reserved for digitized documents and photographs.
59. Tatami, e.g.: MAT. A traditional Japanese MAT at that.
60. Watches closely: EYES. I have used the next image before but, with this clue and answer, 'tis worth a 26 Across:
Lab Redux Retriever
61. Prize money: PURSE. When Floyd Mayweather fought Conor McGregor in August of 2017, the PURSE won by Mayweather was $275 million USD.
62. Pocket often filled: PITA.
63. Churn: ROIL. ROILing seas move turbulently and violently.
64. Metallic sound: CLANG.
65. Hand or foot: UNIT. The Hand is an ancient UNIT of measurement now standardized at four inches and used primarily for measuring the height of horses.
66. Cat food flavor: TUNA. TUNA SALAD. Do they make TUNA-flavored cat food? I don't know. Maybe we should ask him:
Rocket J. Cat
AKA Rocket Squirrel Blue Stanley
67. Naples staple: PASTA. PASTA SALAD. The regional cuisine of the Naples area favors paccheri and it must be cooked al dente.
Paccheri
68. __ Bell: TACO. TACO SALAD. TACO Bell has changed their advertising slogan several times over the decades but the food has stayed pretty consistent.
DOWN:
1. "The fault . . . is not in our stars" speaker: CAESAR CAESAR SALAD.
". . . but in ourselves" continues the quotation. Some real wisdom there. A line from Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar spoken in Act 1 Scene III but not by this CAESAR:
Sid Caesar
2. Power losses: OUTAGES. In 1965, an OUTAGE caused 30 million people in eight U.S. states and two Canadian Provinces to lose electrical power. Despite the urban myth, a comparison of the number of births in New York City nine months after the Great Blackout showed no increase associated with the OUTAGE.
A Woven Brocade Silk Lehanga
4. Make illegal: BAN. An old joke goes, "My grandfather had the heart of a lion . . . and a lifetime BAN from the zoo."
5. Nikon setting: F-STOP. A photographers' joke: "I was watching a beautiful sunset with my girlfriend and thinking . . . 1/250s at F8."
7. Yet to be satisfied: UNMET. "Life is under no obligation to give us what we expect." -- Margaret Mitchell
8. "There's no getting out of this one": I AM SO DEAD. Well, likely not literally DEAD. The quotation marks tell us that it is something somebody might say when they're in a difficult situation. We have all heard alternative words spoken.
9. Handle in court: TRY.
Judge Judy TRYing a Trying Case
10. Cappuccino sellers: CAFES. Okay, so lots of places sell Cappuccinos. Neither Starbucks nor Coffee Bean And Tea Leaf would fit in the allotted space.
11. Adages: OLD SAWS. From the Old English SAGU meaning "saying".
An OLD SAW
12. Gear for a drizzle: RAIN HAT. This could have been many different things for you land-based mammals but this is the best answer:
13. From a coastal French city: NICOISE. SALADE NICOISE originated in the city of Nice, France. It is similar to our Cobb Salad (see 1 Across) but is made with tuna, green bean, and potatoes instead of bacon, chicken, and avocado.
21. Highest degree: MAX. Often, the answer to this clue is the misuse of Nth.
22. One-third of et cetera?: YADDA, YADDA, YADDA.
27. Happy times: UPS. When the UPS driver arrives with that package from Amazon?
Griffith Observatory Los Angeles, California
32. Counting Crows frontman Duritz: ADAM.
Adam Duritz
33. Cape Cod, e.g.: PENINSULA.
37. Billionaire business mogul Carl: ICAHN. As of 2020, Carl ICHAN's net worth is reported to be just under 15 Billion USD.
38. Tenth mo. in the original Roman calendar: DEC. I am fascinated by humankind's repeated attempts to smash together, in their calendars, the timing of the orbit of our moon and the earth's orbit around the sun.
39. It's usually downed last: DESSERT. DESSERT SALAD.
Cranberry Ambrosia Salad
40. "Next one's on me": I OWE YOU.
41. Keep as part of the manuscript: LEAVE IN. Usually, we see STET.
44. Legs: STAMINA. A bit of misdirection. Not a body part. In slang, something that "has legs" is something that lasts a long time. It would have been more fun if the the answer had been ZZ Top. Formed in 1969, ZZ Top has legs.
LEGS
45. Nut: LUNATIC. This clue may have been intended to deceive us as into thinking of a Filbert (or some other seven-letter nut) or, perhaps, something to do with hardware.
48. Q&A part: Abbr.: ANS. . . . and the ANSwer is: Fill
49. Ingredient in the Irish dish colcannon: POTATO. POTATO SALAD. Colcannon is made with mashed POTATOes and kale or cabbage.
51. Model S manufacturer: TESLA. The eponymous Nikola TESLA was a highly noteworthy inventor. I wonder if, one hundred years from now, people will move around in things called Musks.
Tesla Model S
53. Veggies whose seeds can be roasted and ground to make coffee: OKRAS. I did not know this.
54. Quaint denial: TISNT. This almost-never-seen contraction for It Is Not is, IMHO (In a Manatee's Humble Opinion), the nadir of today's construction. Really, 'tis.
55. __-3 fatty acids: OMEGA. OMEGA-3 fatty acids are generally believed to be beneficial to humans. Walnuts, salmon, CVS, Walgreens and Shoppers Drug Mart are good sources.
61. Angel Dust letters: PCP. Phenyl Cyclohexyl Piperidine Quite the misnomer as PCP, with it's neurotoxic side effects, is the antithesis of angelic.
62. Knock, with "down": PUT. To PUT down someone, or something, is slang for criticizing.
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MM OUT
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