Good Morning, Cruciverbalists. Malodorous Manatee, here, with today's recap of a puzzle constructed by Garrett Herzfeld. Today's puzzle does not have a "reveal" but it does contain four themed answers and the theme could be dubbed, simply, COUPLES. Or, perhaps even more simply, AND. At four places in the grid, the answers are commonly used expressions that consist of two things each of which directly relate to the topic of the clue. In keeping with the theme, these four clues all contain only a couple of words . . . one of which is, of course, couple. Here are the themed clues and answers:
17 Across: Married couple?: TO HAVE AND TO HOLD. The traditional (Western Christian norms) marriage ceremony contains the phrase "to have and to hold". A couple of marriage-related things.
26 Across: Perfect couple?: PRIM AND PROPER. Both PRIM and PROPER could refer to a condition of perfection (seemingly, a wee bit of a stretch, clue-wise). A couple of perfection-related things.
42 Across: Celebrity couple?: RICH AND FAMOUS. Celebrities are often both rich and famous. A couple of celebrity-related things.
56 Across: Power couple?: BIGGER AND BETTER. Again, just a bit of a stretch, clue-wise. A couple of power-related things? Let us know if you come up with a BETTER way to clue this.
Here is how all of this appears in the grid:
. . . and here are the rest of the entries:
Across:
1. "Calvin and Hobbes," for one: COMIC. Bill Watterson's classic. My kids grew up with the characters . . . and I grew along with them.
Calvin is the one on the left
6. Cave __: ART. Punting on second down (no pun intended 'cause it's across)? Lots of other ways to clue ART. See, for example, 38 Down.
9. Church bell sound: CHIME.
Manfred Mann Sings About Bells Chiming
14. Catherine of "Schitt's Creek": O'HARA.
15. Ultrasound goo: GEL. Often clued with something relating to hair care.
16. Enter one's credentials: LOG ON. Ah, the old "log in" vs "log on" hesitation.
20. Navigate black diamond slopes: SKI. Black (diamond), Blue (square) or Green (circle)? Advanced, Intermediate or Beginner?
21. Telephone no. addition: EXT. EXTension
22. Destinations in some getaway plans?: RESORTS. A nice bit of word play.
23. Craters of the Moon locale: IDAHO. Not our planet's satellite.
25. "Big whoop": MEH. Slang and slang.
31. Basic bagel order: PLAIN. Not onion, sesamee, poppy seed or everything.
33. Uber __: EATS.
34. Many a Monopoly sq.: AVE. AVEnue
35. Forever, seemingly: EONS. What do you call a smell that lasts for a very long time? EON musk.
36. Sonic explosions: BOOMS.
38. Kitchen job: PREP. PREParation.
39. "Pressure" singer Lennox: ARI. ANNIE Lennox was not going to fit.
40. Artificial grass: TURF. Astro TURF was first installed in 1964 at Fieldhouse at the Moses Brown School in Providence Rhode Island. The subsequent (1966) installation at the Houston Astrodome gave it fame, and its name.
41. City north of Memphis: CAIRO. Cairo, IL is north of Memphis, TN. Cairo, Egypt is north of Memphis, Egypt. Take your pick.
46. Large deer: ELK. What do you call a well-known ELK? Famoose.
47. Olfactory sense: SMELL. Tautological.
48. Holds carefully: CRADLES.
52. Not feeling well: ILL. It makes me sick when people forget to add an apostrophe. If it happens again, I'll be ILL.
53. Mobile download: APP. Mobile phone.
59. Uses Liquid Nails, say: GLUES. Useful stuff. Great for re-setting bricks if you don't want to chip out and reinstall mortar.
60. Rapper Lil __ X: NAS. Yet another visit from this guy.
61. Pond honker: GOOSE.
What's In The Bag, GOOSE?
62. Brute: BEAST.
63. Procure: GET.
64. Ready for a refill: EMPTY.
Down:
1. Camp beds: COTS.
2. "Aw, what the heck": OH OK. I suppose.
3. Fish tacos fish, on menus: MAHI.
4. Sportswriter Berkow: IRA. He shared in a Pulitzer Prize in 2001.
5. Collapsed: CAVED IN.
6. Kathryn's "WandaVision" role: AGATHA. I have never seen the show. Thanks, perps.
7. Kylo of the "Star Wars" sequels: REN. It helped that the clue referenced the source.
8. Letters before a summary: TLDR. Too Long, Didn't Read. SMH.
9. Bullpen aces: CLOSERS. A baseball reference. The best relief pitchers.
10. Santa's laugh: HO HO HO. Oh, ok.
11. Archetypal lab assistant: IGOR.
That's Eye-gore
12. Shed feathers: MOLT.
13. Burnt __: ENDS. The trimmings from a smoked brisket.
18. Checkup: EXAM.
19. Dangles a carrot in front of: TEMPTS. The old Carrot and the Stick dichotomy.
23. Fashion icon Apfel: IRIS.
24. Singular events: ONE-OFFS.
26. "Pray for the Wicked" band __! at the Disco: PANIC.
27. Reservoir creator: DAM. BEAVER would not fit.
28. Musée d'Orsay city: PARIS. An art museum housed in a former railroad station, the Gare D'Orsay. I preferred the Jeu de Paume mais c'est la vie.
29. At any point in time: EVER.
30. Credit report blot: REPO. It is tough to get around if the bank has REPOssessed your car.
31. Bottom-heavy fruit: PEAR.
32. Chicago mayor Lightfoot: LORI.
36. "All in the Family" surname: BUNKER.
Archie and Edith Bunker
37. Chicago airport code: ORD. code for Chicago O'Hare International Airport. The airport used to be called Orchard Field. Ah, that explains it.
38. Simon & Garfunkel half: PAUL. Not Art. Did you know that PAUL wrote this song?
Not The Cyrkle
40. Like Denali, among North American peaks: TALLEST. 20,310 feet
41. Morehouse, e.g.: COLLEGE. I first thought that it said Moorehead, as in Agnes.
43. Shrubbery: HEDGES.
44. In the thick of: AMIDST.
45. Former Spice Girl who was a judge on "America's Got Talent": MEL B.
48. Longtime NYC punk rock club: CBGB. The letters stood for Country, BlueGrass and Blues. . . but it became the birthplace of Punk.
49. Stir up: RILE.
50. Desierto's lack: AGUA. La lección de español de hoy. A desert lacks water.
51. Belted out a tune: SANG.
53. Situated on: ATOP.
54. Vexation: PEST. Interesting cluing.
55. 2022 prequel film in the "Predator" franchise: PREY. Hollywood does like to recycle ideas. They call the bodies of work franchises.
57. Scottish no: NAE.
58. Spider-Man player Holland: TOM.
Well, that's it for today. . . and for a while. 57 Down is a fitting send off as I will be in Scotland next month (with brief visits to both Spain and Portugal, also). I will be able to read the blog but I will nae be available to write up the puzzles. Slainte!
Garrett, you are invited to post anything that you'd like to share about this puzzle, its evolution, the theme, or whatever in the comments section below. We would love to hear from you.
Good morning Cruciverbalists. Malodorous Manatee, here, with today's puzzle recap. Our puzzle setter today is Pawel Fludzinski. There is information about Pawel to be gleaned if you perform a web search. If you include the words Crossword Corner in the search terms, the returns should include past Crossword Corner writeups containing quite a bit of information thanks to the efforts of Husker Gary.
Today's puzzle features a word ladder that leads us from HATE to LOVE. A word ladder puzzle is one in which a given word is converted into another by way of a series of words each formed by changing just one letter of its predecessor.
Let's start with the unifier:
73 Across: Mushy message, and the end of a sequence that progresses through the answers to the starred clues: LOVE NOTE. LOVE is the final rung on the ladder.
Here, marked with stars for our convenience, are the starting rung and the three intermediate rungs of the ladder:
1 Across: *Mean message: HATE MAIL. The initial rung is HATE. We certainly do not want to end here.
27 Across: *Occasion for hiring a babysitter: DATE NIGHT. Change the H to D and we have DATE.
41 Across: *"So Much to Say" Grammy winners: DAVE MATTHEWS BAND. Change to T to V and we have DAVE. For fans of the band:
53 Across: *Fits together neatly: DOVETAILS. At the risk of stating the obvious, changing the A to O gives us DOVE.
Then at 73 Across change the D to L.
Here is a look at the completed grid:
. . . and the rest of the clues and answers:
Across:
9. Administer an oath to: SWEAR IN.
16. 2018 SAG Life Achievement Award honoree: ALAN ALDA. Eight letters four of which are A's. Perped.
17. Above it all, in a way: TALLEST. A bit of an odd use of "Above it all" unless you're talking about a mountain or a building. Thanks for the "in a way" tipping us off to the clue taking a bit of liberty.
18. Featured dishes: SPECIALS.
19. Grassy expanse: PRAIRIE. One night Johnny Carson got to talking about his Nebraska roots and he told this alleged true story during a sketch scene. Johnny mentioned that the most fearsome Indian tribe were not the Sioux, nor the Apache or even the Comanche Indians. No they were the Fahkarwee tribe!
Johnny went on to explain,: Almost every wagon train that crossed the prairie on their trek to California were known to have their wagon masters and scouts constantly scanning the horizon ahead the entire trip asking, "Where the Fahkarwee?"
20. Impassive: DRY EYED.
22. Skewed view: BIAS. I think that it is best to cut vegetables diagonally but I am BIASed
23. Walk leisurely: AMBLE.
29. Beers served with lime: CORONAS.
32. Grubhub link: MENU. Grubhub says that it "is part of a leading global online food delivery marketplace."
34. "Hidden Figures" org.: NASA. "Hidden figures" is a movie about the early days of NASA and the contributions of a team of African-American women.
36. Jazz great who was the first African-American man to win a Grammy: BASIE. The best motion picture cameo ever?
Blazing Saddles - 1974
45. Nocturnal sound: SNORE.
46. 50+ group: AARP. Formerly called the American Association of Retired Persons. It was formed n 1958 as a sister organization to the National Retired Teachers Association. At its core, an insurance marketing device.
47. Microsoft search engine: BING. Used for about 2.5% of web searches worldwide.
48. Spring: LEAP. Combine this answer with 3 Down and you get (see 3 Down).
51. Pungent cleanser: AMMONIA. Why do chemistry students learn about AMMONIA first? It's pretty basic stuff.
58. Put into words: UTTER.
59. Disney's "__ and the Detectives": EMIL. First, it was (and still is) a book but I guess the movie is more widely known.
60. Hailed: GREETED. Not the frozen precipitation.
History Of The World - Part I - 1981
63. Philadelphia school whose teams are the Explorers: LA SALLE. The addition of the team name to the clue was helpful.
65. Lucrative venture: GOLD MINE. What do you get when you drop a piano down a gold mine? A flat minor. No, not a person not yet of legal age. See 71 down.
70. Harness racer: TROTTER.
71. Minor issue?: AGE LIMIT. Clever cluing. A minor is a person under the age of 18 or 21 depending on the issue at hand.
72. Stops: ARRESTS. In criminal matters, ARRESTS sometimes follow stops, in mountain climbing the terms are synonymous.
5. __ name: MAIDEN. Usually, we get the answer NEE.
6. Banned fruit spray: ALAR. Widely used as a growth regulator sprayed on apple trees. It cut waste and labor by preventing the fruit from falling before it was ripe. It also had toxic effects on humans.
7. Without much thought: IDLY.
8. Performed light surgery on?: LASED. Light as in ray of light not as in minor. Minor as in the opposite of major not as in 71 Across. Major not as in army rank.
9. Fla. recreation spot: ST PETE. Recreation spot was a bit more misleading than simply referring to a city in Florida.
10. Norton in "The Shawshank Redemption," for one: WARDEN. A great movie with Bob Gunton cast as Warden Norton William Sadler.
11. Portuguese feminine pronoun: ELA. Why, in puzzles, does the use of Portuguese seem less fair than Spanish or French?
12. Excuse: ALIBI.
13. Outfit again: RERIG. Usually referring to a seagoing vessel.
14. Whitlock Jr. of "The Wire" and "Veep": ISIAH. As with ISIAH Thomas, there is some question as to whether the bestower of the name knew how to spell.
15. Arms treaty subj.: N TEST. Nuclear TEST. Unless, of course, you're George Bush.
21. Big name in pianos: YAMAHA. Big name in motorcycles, too.
23. Corrosive compounds: ACIDS.
24. Colonel called "the second most dangerous man in London" by Sherlock Holmes: MORAN. Second to Professor Moriarty, Colonel Sebastian "Basher" MORAN first appeared in the 1903 short story The Adventure of the Empty House.
25. "Way to go!": BRAVO. If the clue was not in quotes, indicating something that someone might say, the answer might have been a synonym of ROUTE.
26. Introvert: LONER.
28. Worn-down pencils: NUBS.
30. Santa __ winds: ANA. A bit of local SoCal meteorology that often blows through the puzzles
31. Posed (for): SAT.
35. Swingline insert: STAPLE. Swingline is a brand of STAPLErs.
37. Cloister leader: ABBOT. ABBESS was just a bit too long.
38. Canonized one: SAINT.
39. Concave navel: INNIE.
40. Painter Degas: EDGAR. His first name is almost an anagram of his second. He seems to have had a real affinity for ballet . . . or, at least, for ballerinas.
42. Cheesy sandwich: MELT.
Tuna Melt Sandwich
43. Pitching stat: ERA. A baseball reference. Earned Run Average.
44. Typing stat: WPM. Words Per Minute
49. Young bird of prey: EAGLET.
50. Broadcasters: AIRERS. Meh.
52. Confuse: MUDDLE. I prefer to MUDDLE jalapenos.
53. Atlanta-based airline: DELTA. Always highly ranked even in these trying flying times.
54. Astrologer Sydney: OMARR. 1926 - 2003 His column appeared in more than 200 newspapers.
55. Cap brim: VISOR.
56. Thrill to pieces: ELATE.
57. "The Goldbergs" actor George: SEGAL.
61. Like deli orders: TO GO.
62. Hgt.: ELEV. Height ELEVation. The first of four abbreviations in a row.
64. Capt.'s underlings: LTS. Second. Captains and LieuTenantS.
66. Max. opposite: MIN. Third. Maximum MINimum
67. "I think," in texts: IMO. Fourth. In My Opinion
68. Minor quibble: NIT. At this point you may have had one to pick.
69. Bastille Day time: ETE. French for summer. Bastille day is celebrated on le 14 juillet.
A bientot,
le lamentin
P.S. As the theme of today's outing ended up being LOVE, I could not pass on the opportunity to insert the following. It was written by Chet Powers (who used the stage name Dino Valenti) but it was popularized by The Youngbloods. Hmmm, maybe I should have gone with something by Arthur Lee. In any event, have a terrific Thursday and a wonderful weekend, everyone.
Good Morning, Cruciverbalists. Malodorous Manatee, here, with today's recap. Our puzzle setter is Hoang-Kim Vu who sometimes constructs/publishes with his wife, Jessica Zetzman. A web search will return quite a few hits for each/both of them.
Today's puzzle does not have a "reveal" but it does contain four themed answers and the theme could be dubbed Job Descriptions. At four places in the grid, the answers are tasks required of an employee. Each of those four clues employ a bit of paranomasia - punning, playing on words. The job descriptions are also all presented in a somewhat Tarzan (or Tonto)-esq manner in that gerunds are eschewed.
Tonto, Tarzan and Frankenstein
Here are the four themed clues and answers:
17. Part of a DJ's job description?: KEEP RECORDS. The clue riffs on recorded music.
28. Part of a matchmaker's job description?: PLAN MEETINGS. Matchmakers PLAN (potentially) romantic meetings.
50. Part of an umpire's job description?: WORK FROM HOME. In this case Home plate.
65. Part of a squire's job description?: DELIVER MAIL. MAIL as in chainmail armor. A squire was a young man who hoped one day to become a knight himself.
Here are the rest of the clues and answers:
Across:
1. Savory jelly made with meat stock: ASPIC.
6. Focus of many HGTV shows: DECOR.
11. Animal that brays: ASS.
14. Animal native to the 54-Down: LLAMA. Ogden Nash having been invoked last week, let's go with this: What did the mama LLAMA say to her children as they got ready for a picnic? Alpaca lunch. Maybe I should have gone with the LLAMAS and the Papas.
15. Produce concern: E-COLI. Produce used as a noun. Fruits and vegetables. A hand up, here, for trying to work out something ripeness-related.
16. Deep __: CUT. SLEEP and STATE were both too long. Never cared much for PURPLE and $H!T was not going to appear in an LAT puzzle.
19. Gene messenger: RNA.
20. Belt-maker's tool: AWL.
21. Pop-folk singer Williams: DAR. Dorothy Williams. The first of many proper nouns in today's list of clues/answers the abundance of which has been previously discussed.
22. Celebrated: EMINENT.
24. Some car deals: LEASES. As opposed, one supposes, to SALES.
27. Gift to new parents: ONESIE. Actually, wouldn't it would be more of a gift for the infant?
31. "Look alive!": HOP TO. HOP TO IT. Begin to do something quickly and energetically.
32. Have a life: ARE. Often this is clued with "exists".
33. Snooty sort: SNOB.
37. Pitching stat: ERA. A baseball reference. Earned Run Average
38. Sport for Amanda Nunes, briefly: MMA. Mixed Martial Arts. Her nickname is The Lioness. Ronda Rousey might have been the clue earlier in the week.
41. Single, for one: Abbr. SYN. Thanks, perps. This marine mammal scratched his head for a while over this one. . . and flippers aren't the best for scratching. Then came the aha moment: Single can be a SYNonym for one.
43. "Hadestown" Tony nominee Noblezada: EVA. Two unknowns in a row. Thanks, again, perps.
44. Pitching stat: WINS. Nice job repeating the clue. A record of WINS and losses is kept for baseball pitchers.
46. "Christopher Robin" hopper: ROO. Roo also visited us two Thursdays ago. Christopher Robin is a character in A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh stories. So are Kanga and her child, ROO.
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
48. Portend: AUGUR.
54. "Mother of Democracy," to Filipinos: AQUINO. Corazon AQUINO is best remembered for being associated with the revolt which overthrew Ferdinand Marcos.
57. Least possible: FEWEST. By definition.
58. Tricky soccer moves: NUTMEGS. I am not completely ignorant when it comes to soccer but I had never heard this term. Here is what it is and how it is done:
61. L'eau land: ILE. C'est la leçon Français d'aujourd'hui. Eau = water. ILE = island.
64. "The Chronic" rapper, familiarly: DRE. This time, at least, it wasn't Lil Nas X. Rap culture is a good source for constructors because it offers additional letter combinations outside of established usage.
68. Tuner's asset: EAR. For tuning instruments, it is better to have a good EAR than a tin EAR.
69. Elegance: GRACE.
70. One "She's Gone" vocalist: OATES. Daryl Hall and John OATES.
71. __-Cat: SNO.
72. Best Upset and Best Driver, e.g.: ESPYS. ESPY AwardS seem to be handed out quite frequently in our puzzles.
73. Pet __: PEEVE.
Down:
1. __-Seltzer: ALKA.
Plop Plop Fizz Fizz
2. Boatload: SLEW. We sift through those other four-letter alternatives - among which are TONS, ALOT, LOTS, GOBS, and MANY - to find the one that works.
3. Redundantly named equipment for a rice-and-seafood dish: PAELLA PAN. From the old French for frying pan. In Spanish, PAILA refers to certain metal or clay pans.
4. Little troublemaker: IMP.
5. Spice in many chai mixes: CARDAMOM. Someone called me pretentious today. I almost choked on my honey-cardamom latte.
6. Edict: DECREE.
7. Fuel-saving mode in some cars: ECO.
8. Plank target: CORE. ABS was too short to work.
9. Nouveau riche counterpart: OLD MONEY. Hand up for first trying to think of something having to do with being needy.
Randy Newman - It's Money That Matters
(with Mark Knopfler on guitar)
10. On the up and up?: RISING.
11. Griffith Park's 4,210+: ACRES. Located in Los Angeles.
12. Largest division of Islam: SUNNI.
13. Condition: STATE.
18. Slide (into): EASE.
23. Loch in hoax photos: NESS.
The Loch Ness Monster?
25. Tolkien talking tree: ENT. ENTs and ORCs often come from Middle earth to visit us.
26. Metro stop: Abbr.: STA. Okay, is it going to turn out to be STN or STA?
28. "That was close!": PHEW. Okay, it is going to turn out to be WHEW or PHEW?
29. Greiner of "Shark Tank": LORI.
30. Org. to report tax fraud to: IRS.
34. Discuss terms: NEGOTIATE.
35. Certain gamete: OVUM. Why do Romans use more eggs in their omelets than do Parisians? Because in Rome they feel that as far as eggs go you can never have too many OVUM while in Paris the feel that one egg is un ouef.
36. Austere: BARE.
39. Neighborhood guy: MR ROGERS. Clever cluing. The TV show is beloved by millions . . . and often spoofed.
40. Hunky-dory: A OK. Having not gone with Eddie Murphy (Mr. Robinson's Neighborhood), just above, this seems appropriate. What do you say, Eddie?
42. Try to impress by association, say: NAME DROP. Today's construction drops several (perhaps too many) actor/actress/singer/athlete names.
45. Triathlon part: SWIM. SWIM, bike, run.
47. Switch position: OFF. ON was too short.
49. Stumbling blocks?: UHS. ERS? Hmm. Punt.
51. Jittery: ON EDGE. A Dachshund and a Labrador are walking together when the former suddenly unloads on his friend. “My life is a mess,” he says. “My owner is mean, my girlfriend ran away with a Pomeranian and I’m as JITTERY as a cat.” “Why don’t you go see a psychiatrist?” suggests the Labrador. “I can’t. I'm not allowed on the couch.”
52. Actor who plays himself in "Always Be My Maybe": REEVES.
53. Boo-boo: OWIE. Not Boo Boo the cartoon bear.
54. Chilean range: ANDES. The ANDES mountain range is over 5,500 miles long, extends through seven countries and averages more than 13,000 feet in elevation.
55. Sacred text read during Tarawih: QURAN. Hand up for first trying KORAN.
56. In __: not yet born: UTERO.
59. Put (on) hastily: SLAP. SLAP on a coat of paint and call it done.
62. Actor Schreiber: LIEV. The penultimate name in this list of clues/answers.
63. Besides: ELSE.
66. Needing salt, maybe: ICY. Hand up for first thinking it had something to do with food.
67. Actress Whitman: MAE. The final proper name in this list of clues/answers.
The Singing Walrus Presents The Sun The Moon and The Stars
Good morning cruciverbalists. Malodorous Manatee here to present today's recap with a little help from his friend The Singing Walrus. Today's puzzle setter is often-published (NYT, LAT, USA Today, etc.) constructor, Rebecca Goldstein. In today's outing we have a fairly straightforward theme so let's go right to the unifier (which proved helpful to this solver):
49 ACROSS: Classic arcade game with pixelated aliens, and what three answers in this puzzle have: SPACE INVADERS.
Released in 1978, most of us probably played that game. Some of us to excess. Arcade game graphics have, of course, come a long, long way since then. As for the theme, each themed answer contains a celestial object. Those objects might be said to INVADE that answer's space.
17. Film festival hype?: SUN DANCE FEVER. The SUNDANCE film festival is held every year in Utah. FEVER as a synonym for hype is a bit of a stretch but not entirely opaque.
27. Bucket list item for an aspiring astronaut?: COLLECT STARDUST. We are stardust . . .
6. Guatemalan girl: CHICA. Esta es la primera lección de español de hoy.
11. Guffawed: ROARED.
13. Enters a password: LOGS ON. We often do not know, at first, if it's going to be LOGS ON or LOGS IN.
14. Airport city east of Los Angeles: ONTARIO. Those of us in SoCal probably had an easier time with this than did those folks in other locations. Still, roughly 4.5 million passengers flew into/out of ONT last calendar year.
16. Lil Nas X song subtitled "Call Me by Your Name": MONTERO. Unknown to this solver. Thank you very much, perps.
19. Small songbirds: LARKS. A hand up for first trying WRENS.
20. Excel function: SORT. A spreadsheet/database reference.
21. Himalayan ox: YAK.
23. NYC airport on Flushing Bay: LGA. Airport code for LaGuardia and our second airport clue/answer today. Named for the former mayor (1933 through 1945), Fiorello LaGuardia.
24. Frozen Four game: SEMI. The Frozen Four is collegiate hockey's equivalent of the SEMI Finals of NCAA Basketball tournament. Only four teams left.
25. Dip in the Mediterranean?: AIOLI. A sauce. Swim was too short (and on the wrong path).
31. Cookbook writer Garten: INA.
32. Traditional March 14 dessert: PIE. March 14th can be written as 3/14. Pi, of course, is the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. As Pi equals approximately 3.14 some wag decided that 3/14 should be known as Pi day. . . or PIE day.
42. Menzel who won a Tony for playing Elphaba in "Wicked": IDINA. IDINA is also well know for her work in Frozen.
43. Iowa State city: AMES.
44. Good Grips brand: OXO.
45. Sausalito summer hrs.: PDT. Pacific Daylight Time. A bit of misdirection if you thought that the clue referred to a town in Italy rather than a town in Marin County, California.
46. Bygone Russian royal: TSAR.
47. H.S. class with a unit on heredity: AP BIO. Advanced Placement BIOlogy
53. French houses: MAISONS. C'est la leçon Français d'aujourd'hui.
54. Citation software: ENDNOTE. A computer software reference.
56. National park in Utah: ARCHES.
57. Fiddle (with): TINKER. Idioms.
58. Outwitted a Predator?: DEKED. The Predators are a National Hockey League team. A DEKE is a fake-out maneuver on the ice.
59. Requirements: NEEDS. (see 16 Down?)
Down:
1. Dude: BRO.
Dude One: Hey, Bro?
Dude Two: Yeah Bro?
Dude One: Can you pass me that pamphlet?
Dude Two: Brochure.
2. When dinosaurs roamed the earth: EONS AGO. We get something less scientific than MESOZOIC which would not have fit in any case.
3. __ gas: NATURAL.
4. Jack-in-the-box appendage: CRANK. Not a fast food reference.
5. Collections of cattle: HERDS.
6. David who won the 1994 AL Cy Young Award: CONE. A baseball reference. During the 1994 strike-shortened season, David CONE played for the Kansas City Royals.
7. "House Hunters" channel: HGTV.
8. "That's a terrible hiding spot": I SEE YOU.
9. Pens in: CORRALS.
10. "Should I take that as __?": A NO. Apparently, yes.
12. Part of una semana: DIA. Esta es la segunda lección de español de hoy. Semana = week. DIA = day.
13. Studio site, maybe: LOFT. As in a studio apartment. Hand up for first thinking of LOT and wondering why the extra square.
15. Beginning: ONSET.
16. Scholarship basis: MERIT. Often, we get NEEDs (see 59 Across?)
18. Dot-__: COMS.
19. Business ltrs.: LLC. Limited Liability Company. Letters is abbreviated, ergo . . .
22. Baby fox: KIT. A baby beaver, ferret, muskrat, or skunk is also called a KIT.
24. Phony deal: SCAM. IIRC, SCAM was also an answer two weeks ago.
25. Diva's time to shine: ARIA.
Nicola Keen and Jan Hartley
26. Carded: IDED. IDentifiED
28. Home security?: LIEN. Not a deadbolt, or a scatter gun. A lender's right to seize the property for non-payment.
29. New Age singer from County Donegal: ENYA. It's almost always ENYA.
30. Silver Alerts, e.g.: APBS. All Points BulletinS. A Silver Alert is a public notification system to broadcast information about missing persons - particularly senior citizens.
33. Toddler's perch, at times: HIP. Hand up if you first thought of LAP.
34. "If I had to bet ... ": ODDS ARE. What are the odds of a chronic gambler calling the addiction helpline? No, seriously. I have $100 riding on this.
35. Sweat the small stuff: NIT PICK. After nitpicking a small detail in my friend's story, he said to me "What are you? President of the Pedantic Society?" Vice President, actually.
36. Grove of palm trees, maybe: OASIS.
Ubari, Libya
37. Muscat's country: OMAN.
38. Chutzpah: NERVE. די היינטיקע יידישע שיעור (today's Yiddish lesson)
39. Lose it completely?: GO BROKE. A car stopped in front of a hotel. The driver immediately realized that she was bankrupt. What was going on?
40. Lived and breathed: EXISTED.
41. Kanga's kid: ROO. An A.A. Milne reference.
46. Hamilton bills: TENS.
47. Use as an ingredient: ADD IN.
48. Tubular pasta: PENNE. A Macaroni, a Penne and a Spaghetti were drinking wine in a bar one evening. They saw a noodle sitting by himself and discussed inviting him to join them. They all agreed he looked Cannelloni.
50. Tennis great profiled in ESPN's "30 for 30" special "Arthur and Johnnie": ASHE. It's almost always ASHE.
51. Like Sarah Lawrence since 1968: COED. CO-EDucational. Both genders.
52. Social insect: ANT.
53. Furious: MAD.
55. Triage ctrs.: ERS. Emergency RoomSCenters is abbreviated so the answer is also.
Here is how all of this appears in the grid:
Rebecca, you are invited to post anything that you'd like to share about this puzzle, its evolution, the theme, or whatever in the comments section below. We would love to hear from you.
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