Thursday, June 16, 2011, Bill Ballard

Theme: Wacky (absurd) cutoffs.  The last three letters have been removed (reduced) from the last word in accordance with the first word indicating that something is incomplete.

17A. Schubert's eighth, aptly: UNFINISHED SYMPHony.

27A. Reference book, aptly: ABRIDGED DICTIONary.

48A. Burnout symptom, aptly: DIMINISHED INTERest.

65A. Logical principle that applies to 17-, 27- and 48-Across, aptly: REDUCTIO AD ABSURdum. Too long to summarize succinctly, you can read it if you wish.

Great theme, four grid-spanning 15 letter answers all with the same number of letters removed. Some of the fill was a bit rough, quite a few abbreviations to make it all work.

ACROSS:

1. Needle-nosed fish: GAR.

4. Work unit: Abbr.: FT LB. Foot Pound. Lb is an abbreviation of Latin libra, the word for pound, or balance as with a scale.

8. __ Island, Florida city near Naples: MARCO. Map.

13. Put away: ATE.

14. Dickens's Heep: URIAH. Also a 70's rock band.

16. Some fitness ctrs.: YMCAS. Young Men's Christian Association.

20. Butcher's offering: LOIN. Chart of meat cuts.

21. Besides: AT THAT. My concept of this idiom is more one of concession or appeasement to smooth over an argument... But it might be right at that.

22. Garden veggie: PEA.

23. Try to be elected: RUN.

25. Sue Grafton's "__ for Lawless": L IS.  A gimmie answer, even if you never have read her books. The first letter always gives it away.

36. It goes with boo, woo or yoo: HOO. Echoic emphasis.

37. Puppet dragon of early TV: OLLIE. Along with Kukla and Fran.

38. Dix follower: ONZE. French for ten and eleven.

39. Off-white shade: ECRU.

41. Banana oil, e.g.: ESTER. An artificial flavoring, Isoamyl acetate is released by a honey bee's sting apparatus where it serves as a pheromone beacon to attract other bees and provoke them to sting.

43. Pickup attachment: PLOW.

44. John Isner, a record 113 times, in a 2010 Wimbledon match: ACER. Un-returned tennis serves.

45. Lot units: ACRES.

47. Chemical suffix: ENE. Would it be so much to ask to add the phrase "indicating a carbon double-bond" to this clue?  At least that way it isn't just "three random letters that you need to get from the perps".

52. California's __ Gabriel Mountains: SAN. Near LA.

53. PC brain: CPU. Central Processing Unit.

54. Govt. mortgage agency: FHA. Federal Housing Administration.

57. Brute: SAVAGE. Old French sauvage, salvage "wild, savage, untamed," from Late Latin salvaticus, alteration of silvaticus "wild," lit. "of the woods," from silva "forest, grove." Related word: sylvan, diety of the woods.

61. Engels collaborator: MARX. The Communist Manifesto. It argues that class struggles, or the exploitation of one class by another, are the motivating force behind all historical developments. Class relationships are defined by an era's means of production. However, eventually these relationships cease to be compatible with the developing forces of production. At this point, a revolution occurs and a new class emerges as the ruling one.

68. Mezzo role in Barber's "Vanessa": ERIKA. An Opera by Samuel Barber.

69. Big cats: PUMAS. Can be either black or tawny, spotted when young.

70. "So that's it!": AHA.

71. Cartridge contents: TONER.

72. Protective cover: TARP.

73. Meddle: PRY.

DOWN:

1. Caesarean conquest: GAUL. The Roman Empire vs ancient France.

2. Elemental ID: AT NO. Atomic number.

3. Homeowner's way to raise money, briefly: RE-FI. Refinance with cash back.

4. Pleasure: FUN.

5. Bermuda shape?: TRIANGLE. Smack in the middle of hurricane alley, the Gulf stream current cuts through it and is home to the Puerto Rico trench, the deepest point of the Atlantic.  Good luck finding anything that happens to wreck there. I kind of also like the methane hydrates theory, too.

6. Supermarket need, maybe: LIST.

7. Thai money: BAHT. What, no "bread" clue on a Thursday?

8. Arcane: MYSTIC.

9. "Rehab" singer Winehouse: AMY. Now, that's ironic.

10. Dudley Do-Right's gp.: RCMP. Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

11. New England attraction, with "the": CAPE. Cape Cod, Nantucket, and Martha's Vineyard.

12. Org. concerned with asbestos stds.: OSHA. Occupational Safety and Health Administration

15. Sneaky laugh: HEH.

18. Cross letters: INRI. Iesus Nazarenus, Rex Iudaeorum. Jesus, the Nazarene, King of the Jews.

19. Picasso contemporary: DALI. We've seen enough "Persistence", here are Picasso and Self sculptures.

24. Japanese veggie: UDO. Doesn't appear particularly appetizing.

26. Station: STOP. Railroad departures.

27. In first: AHEAD.

28. Game for bowlers: BOCCI. Anglicized form of BOCCE.  Tricked me.

29. Composer Ned: ROREM. I have heard of "Our Town", but otherwise not on my radar.

30. "__ Dream": "Lohengrin" aria: ELSA'S. Wagner Opera.

31. Lose on purpose: DITCH. Literally "to throw into a ditch".

32. 43-Across maker: DEERE.

33. Fjord: INLET.

34. Depleted layer: OZONE.

35. Like a 2011 model, say: NEWER.

40. "QB VII" author: URIS.

42. Aromatic evergreen: RED CEDAR.

46. Try a little of: SIP.

49. Its Hall of Fame is in Charlotte, N.C.: NASCAR. National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing

50. "For those listening __ home ...": IN AT.

51. Insensitive: NUMB. Old English "nimen" for "taken".  The current meaning comes from the notion of being "taken" with cold, or shock. Oddly related to the word "nimble", quick to grasp (take).

54. Neck piece: FRET. On a guitar neck.

55. Super Bowl party order: HERO. Sub, hoagie, togo, etc.

56. Game point: AD IN. Tennis.

58. Big cheese: VIP. Very Important Person. I know you all know that, I'm just pointing out abbreviations.

59. Juillet's follower: AOUT. More French: July, August.

60. Vasco da __: GAMA.

62. Rush job notation: ASAP. As soon as possible.

63. German industrial region: RUHR.

64. Like a certain superpower: X-RAY. Superman's vision.

66. Luau strings: UKE.

67. Nile biter: ASP.

Answer grid

Al

Thursday, June 9, 2011, James Sajdak

Theme: End for end. Suffixes are swapped between the two words of the answers to wackily change their meanings.

20A. Choir members during the sermon?: SINGERS WAITING. Singing waiters. Restaurant gimmick.

24A. Grocery employee dealing with a shortage of shelf space?: STOCKER STUFFING. Stocking Stuffer. Christmas.

47A. Top sellers sealing the deal?: CLOSERS PITCHING. Closing pitchers. Baseball.

53A. News hound's sign-off?: ROVER REPORTING. Roving reporter.

Hi all, Al (mostly) here again.  A pretty solid Thursday puzzle overall, I liked seeing SNORKEL and some of the clever clues.  Not much else jumped out and grabbed me, but I could just be sleepy yet.  On with the analysis then...

ACROSS:.

1. Sieben und eins: ACHT. German: seven and one macht eight.

5. Roe source: SHAD. Caviar.

9. Finish the doughnuts?: GLAZE. Wisconsin is down to one remaining Krispy Kreme. That wave sure peaked and receded quickly.

14. New York restaurateur: SHOR. Toots. Apparently a big deal with celebs. Anyone not from NY ever heard of him?

15. Not, some time back: NARY. Shortening of "never a".

16. "The Kiss" sculptor: RODIN. A depiction of illicit love taken from Dante's Inferno.

17. Certain conic sections: PARABOLAS.

19. Gladiator's milieu: ARENA.  From Latin harena "place of combat," originally "sand, sandy place"  The central stages of Roman amphitheaters were strewn with sand to soak up the blood.

22. Reaction to one who's revolting: ICK.  That's sick.

23. Palais denizen: ROI. French: palace, king.

33. Neighbor of Arg.: URU. Argentina, Uruguay.

34. Evoke gaiety with gags at a gig: SLAY. Overwhelm.

35. He shared the peace prize with Shimon and Yitzhak: YASIR. Peres, Rabin, Arafat, 1994, the Oslo Accords.

36. "Do the __": MATH. An alternate idiom for "It doesn't add up"

38. Male sovereigns' address: SIRES. From Latin "senior" for elder.

41. Polynesian pendant: TIKI. Carved image of the creator-ancestor of Maoris and Polynesians.

42. Lent a hand: AIDED.

44. __ Jackson, Fonda title role: ULEE. I only got this because of how often it appears with Fonda's name in these crosswords.

46. One of the 10 lowest digits?: TOE. This one shouldn't have tricked me, but it did. Looking at too many numbers lately.

51. Monodrama about Capote: TRU.

52. Toy magnate __ Schwarz: FAO. Frederick August Otto Schwartz.

61. Anglo-__: SAXON.

62. Road safety feature: GUARDRAIL.

63. Throw out: EJECT. Literally in Latin: Ex- prefix(out) jacere (to throw).

64. Once, once: ERST. Earliest.

65. Make eyes at: OGLE. Low German oglen from oege, meaning eye.

66. Indian noble: RANEE.

67. "He __ not sleep": Shelley: DOTH. Adonaïs: An Elegy on the Death of John Keats.

68. Pill bottle instruction: DOSE.

DOWN:.

1. Some cobras: ASPS.

2. Spiced tea: CHAI.

3. Cape __: HORN. Chile. Not quite the lowest tip of South America, named for the city of Hoorn in the Netherlands.

4. Disastrous: TRAGIC. Tragedy is apparently literally "goat song," from tragos "goat" + oide "song." The connection may be via satyric drama, from which tragedy later developed, in which actors or singers were dressed in goatskins to represent satyrs.

5. Reef exploration gear: SNORKELS. From German navy slang Schnorchel "nose, snout," related to schnarchen "to snore". So called from its resemblance to a nose and its noise when in use.

6. Dutchman who painted "Gypsy Girl": HALS. Cleavage...

7. Got __ deal: A RAW.

8. "L.A. Law" actor: DYSART. Richard. I didn't recognize any characters even after I saw all the pictures...

9. Please: GRATIFY.

10. Actress Loughlin: LORI. I did recognize "Jessie's Girl" though.

11. Yemeni port: ADEN. Today's geography lesson.

 

12. Sock it to: ZING. "High pitched sound," of echoic origin.

13. Faline's mother, in Salten's "Bambi": ENA.

18. Bremen brew: BECKS. Imported bier aus Deutchland.

21. Pot marker: IOU.  Big Julie: "IOU one thousand --signed X."  Nathan Detroit: "How is it you can write one thousand, but not your name?"  Big Julie: "I was good in arithmetic, but I stunk in English."

24. Poison __: SUMAC. Three of a kind.

25. Hiker's route: TRAIL.

26. Best: OUTDO.

27. Heyerdahl craft: RA I. A papyrus craft that broke apart, but RA II made of Totora reeds survived his journey and proved that ancient mariners could have crossed the Atlantic using the Canary Current.

28. Corn product: SYRUP.

29. Budgetary waste: FAT. Oh how conceptions change over time starting with one flawed study by Ancel Keys... fat used to mean the "best or most rewarding" part.

30. Last Supper question: IS IT I. Mark 14:18-21 The passage about betrayal.

31. Maker of Coolpix cameras: NIKON.

32. "Peer Gynt Suite" composer: GRIEG.  In the Hall of the Mountain King.

37. Boys and men: HES.

39. Lilly of pharmaceuticals: ELI.

40. Outline, as a plan: SET FORTH.

43. International thaw: DETENTE. Related to the catch on a crossbow you use to relax the string, or the detent catch used to regulate a clock's action.

45. Convenient greeting: E-CARD. When you don't care enough to send the very best.

48. Sch. basics: RRR. The three "R"s. Spelling must not have been emphasized.

49. Progressed in waves: SURGED.

50. Dragster's wheels: HOT ROD.

53. Indian noble: RAJA.

54. Paddy team: OXEN.

55. Viva __: VOCE. Literally "with living voice" but usually translated as "by word of mouth".

56. Cannes cash: EURO.

57. Tense time?: PAST.

58. Emilia's husband: IAGO. The villain who thought Othello was sleeping with his wife.

59. Lofgren of the E Street Band: NILS.

60. TV show about a high school choir: GLEE.

61. Rev.'s speech: SERmon

Answer Grid.

Al

Note from C.C.:

Happy Birthday to our always cheerful and caring Annette!

Thursday, May 26, 2011, Jack McIntruff

Theme: Whee! Fun homonyms. I might have gone with the five (three sir!) little piggies, but that's spelled the same as one of the clues.

17. We: PERSONAL PRONOUN.

23. Wie: GOLFER MICHELLE.

33. Oui: FRENCH YES.

50. Wee: EXTREMELY SMALL.

57. Wii: NINTENDO CONSOLE.

Hi all, another Thursday, and another puzzle with the clues carrying the theme instead of the answers. A good mix, all different spellings and meanings. For a while there, I thought I wasn't going to be able to think of another one to to tie them together.

ACROSS:

1. Bass-baritone Simon: ESTES. A late week, more obscure clue than Colorado Park.

6. Second-century date: CXIX.

10. Welding sparks: ARCS.

14. Hard to stir: STOIC. Stir, as in the emotional sense.

15. Old __, Connecticut: LYME. Historical district, artist's colony, and summer resort. Pop. 7500.

16. Half a fictional detecting pair: NORA. Nick and Nora Charles (with Asta the crossword puzzle terrier).

20. Prov. bordering four Great Lakes: ONTario, Canada.

21. Limoges liver: FOIE. French  Foie gras is "fatty" liver.

22. Saltpeter: NITER. Puts the bang in gunpowder and takes it away from something else.

27. Maroon: ENISLE. I had the "LE" at first and was thinking PURPLE? That can't be right.

28. Cycle start: TRI.

29. Common street name: ELM.

30. Amateur golfer's score, perhaps: LIE.  If you lie about your lie, you won't lie easy.

31. Lasting impression: SCAR.  From Old French escare "scab," from Greek eskhara "scab formed after a burn," lit. "hearth, fireplace,"

32. Confucian path: TAO. Literally "the way", path.

38. First woman to land a triple axel in competition: ITO. Midori.

41. Nyctophobic fictional race: ELOI. Afraid of the dark because the Morlocks lived below and hunted at night.

42. Fed. fiscal agency: OMB. Office of Management and Budget.

45. Cheese partner: MAC. We just call it "glop".

46. Moving aid: VAN. Shortening of caravan.

47. "Obviously": SO I SEE.

53. Win by __: A HAIR.  Anyone for a nose or a mile first?

54. Words before many words?: IN SO.  Idiom: In so many words.

55. Canadian attorney's deg.: LLB. Bachelor of Laws.  The double L is a plural form abbreviation, like pp for pages or bbl for barrels.

61. Seller of FÖRNUFT flatware: IKEA. Swedish uses umlauts, too.

62. Phnom __: PENH. Capitol of Cambodia, today's geography lesson.

63. Corn Belt native: IOWAN.

64. Tracy's Trueheart: TESS. The Dick Tracy comic strip that went 18 years before they finally married on Christmas, in 1949.

65. Chipmunks creator Bagdasarian: ROSS. (Rostom) The real name of David Seville, the original voice of Alvin, Simon and Theodore.  Later he employed female vocal artists, recorded at 33, and played back at 45 rpm.

66. Recipe amts.: TBSPS. Equal to half a fluid ounce, one-sixteenth of a cup.

DOWN:

1. Five-time Art Ross Trophy winner, for short: ESPO. Phil Esposito, hockey.

2. Baseball's "Old Perfessor": STENGEL. Casey.  "They told me my services were no longer desired because they wanted to put in a youth program as an advance way of keeping the club going. I'll never make the mistake of being seventy again."

3. Ristorante dessert: TORTONI. Ice cream made with heavy cream, minced almonds, chopped maraschino cherries, flavored with rum. How have I never had this?

4. Frozen Wasser: EIS. German: water, ice.

5. Mocks: SCOFFS.

6. Eau __, Wisconsin: CLAIRE. "Clear waters".

7. Water-carrying plant tissue: XYLEM. A picture is worth a thousand words.

8. Sitter's handful: IMP. Old English impe, impa "young shoot, graft," from impian "to graft," sense of "child, offspring" came from transfer of the word from plants to people. "Suche appereth as aungelles, but in very dede they be ymps of serpentes."

9. Thirtysomething, e.g.: X-ER.

10. Hall of fame: ANNIE. My best guess is referring to the Woody Allen movie with Diane Keaton,since  fame is in lower-case, so not part of a title.

11. Small plant support: ROOTLET.

12. Fur-loving villain de Vil: CRUELLA.

13. Riviera resort: SAN REMO.

18. Carol: NOEL.

19. Available for service: ON HIRE. Again? This still sounds odd to me. On call, now that I understand all too well..

24. Gladly: LIEF. Etymology gives this as "dear" or "love" as with German lieb.

25. Burning desire: ITCH. Um... not really the kind of burning you want to associate with desire.

26. Supercomputer name: CRAY.

31. Fi front: SCI. Science Fiction.

34. Admire greatly: REVERE. From revereri to stand in awe of, to fear, to be wary of.

35. Ancient rival of Assyria: ELAM. Now part of southwest Iran.

36. Zilch: NONE.

37. Slugger Sammy: SOSA.

38. Mom's tough emphasis: I MEAN IT.

39. It makes one's net smaller: TAX HIKE.

40. Pump ratings: OCTANES.

43. Veges (out): MELLOWS.

44. Last track circuit: BELL LAP.

47. Meshes: SYNCHS.

48. __ buco: OSSO. Italian: bone with a hole, a marrow bone of veal with vegetables and wine.

49. Music to the boss's ears: I'M ON IT.

51. Coolidge and Moreno: RITAS.

52. Ford Field team: LIONS. Football, Detroit.

56. Uncle __: BEN'S. Competitor for Minute Rice.

58. "Fresh Air" airer: NPR. A talk show hosted by Terry Gross for over 30 years.

59. __ gratias: DEO. Latin: Thanks be to God.

60. Sound after a breakup, maybe: SOB. Hmmm, that could be what was done, or what was said...

Answer grid.

Al

Note from C.C.:

Here is a beautiful picture of Linda & her husband cutting their 50th wedding anniversary cake last Saturday. She said: "Being a non-traditionalist, I chose lavender, pink and white as my color theme. Those were our wedding colors. The cake topper is the original one.  Note the photo at lower left of us cutting the first cake".

Thursday, May 19, 2011, Peter A. Collins

Theme:  Connect the dots. Click here. The circled letters A through J (the tiny bubbles from 57A) make the outline of (a little fishy from 38A) if you trace a line to each one in alphabetical order after completing the puzzle. (Note, the circles do not appear on the LA Times applet, you can see them if you do the Across Lite version on Cruciverb.com).

19A. Vast expanse (and a fitting setting for this puzzle): DEEP BLUE SEA. 

38A. Somewhat suspect (and a hint to what can be found by connecting the circled letters in alphabetical order): A LITTLE BIT FISHY.

57A. Don Ho hit (and what the O's in this grid represent): TINY BUBBLES.

This was kind of different, I don't remember doing any other connect the dots puzzles, but I'll bet it didn't help anyone very much in solving.  However, this seemed more like a Monday or Tuesday to me today anyway, less than 10 minutes to complete it.

ACROSS:

1. Ones minding their peas in queues?: PODS. Pea pods hold their seeds all in a row. There are many stories about the origin of the phrase this plays on, but investigations by the Oxford English Dictionary in 2007 when revising the entry turned up early examples of the use of Ps and Qs to mean learning the alphabet. The first is in a poem by Charles Churchill, published in 1763: “On all occasions next the chair / He stands for service of the Mayor, / And to instruct him how to use / His A’s and B’s, and P’s and Q’s.” It is more likely to be that than any of the more fanciful explanations.

5. __ band: PEP. Student sports boosters.

8. Where the music stops?: HARD C. The last letter of the word music has a "k" sound.

13. Uprising: RIOT.

14. Consider judicially: HEAR.

15. End of __: AN ERA. An overused trite phrase.

16. Bony beginning: OSTE. From the Greek word for bone: osteon.

17. Scots Gaelic: ERSE. Early Scottish variant of Old English Irisc or Old Norse Irskr "Irish"; applied by Lowland Scots to the Gaelic speech of the Highlanders (which originally is from Ireland)

18. They might be executed by a judge: STAYS. Original meaning is to stand (related to editor's "stet"), to come to a halt.

22. York's title: Abbr.: SGT. Alvin York, a Tennessee sharpshooter who was deeply religious/pacifist early on, and a conscientious objector to the war. He took out a German machine gun nest by killing 28 soldiers, but he saved 132 others, so he was fighting to save lives.

23. __ Lanka: SRI. Honorific for "beautiful".

24. Fourth-cen. monastic: ST. BASIL. Of Caesarea, (now Turkey) known for his care of the poor and underprivileged.

26. a.m. beverages: OJS. Skip the juice, which has been pasteurized and is concentrated sugar, eat an orange instead...

29. Citric __: ACID. A weak acid found naturally occurring in citrus fruits, it is added to soft drinks to make them sour. The commercial production technique is cultures of A. niger are fed on a sucrose or glucose-containing medium to produce citric acid. The source of sugar is corn steep liquor, molasses, hydrolyzed corn starch or other inexpensive sugary solutions. After the mold is filtered out of the resulting solution, citric acid is isolated by precipitating it with lime (calcium hydroxide) to yield calcium citrate salt, from which citric acid is regenerated by treatment with sulfuric acid. Yummy! Eat an orange instead...

32. Finesse shampoo maker __ Curtis: HELENE.

33. Shows inattention at a lecture, maybe: NAPS.

35. Shrinking sea: ARAL.

37. Chicago commuter carriers: ELS. Elevated trains.

43. Folksy negative: NAW.

44. Identical: SAME.

45. Very wide shoe: EEEE.

46. Lessens: ABATES. From O.Fr. abattre "beat down, cast down." Related to batter, to fell or slaughter found in abattoir.

49. "Voila!" cousin: TADA. Japanese: Yatta!

51. ENTs, e.g.: DRS. Ear, Nose, and Throat doctors.

52. Bonding capacity measure: VALENCE. Chemistry bonds between atoms to make molecules.

54. Actor Wallach: ELI.

56. Ideal conclusion?: IST. Suffix clue. The most charitable definition of idealist is one who pursues high or noble purposes or goals, such as justice, charity, altruism, equality, fairness, etc. As Terry Pratchett's character "Death" says: "You have to believe in things that aren't true, else how can they become so?"

63. Gaming pioneer: ATARI. The word "atari" in Japanese is a term in the board game of GO for one or more stones that are one move away from being surrounded and thus captured.

65. Judge: DEEM. To pass judgement, to form an opinion. Related to doom, which also meant judgement, condemnation.

66. "Please allow me": MAY I. Or, with "mother" a children's game similar to Simon Says.

67. Old dwelling for 68-Across: TEPEE. From Dakota (Siouan) thipi "dwelling, house."

68. Western natives: UTES. (Utah) from Spanish yuta, name of the indigenous Uto-Aztecan people of the Great Basin, perhaps from Western Apache (Athabaskan) yudah "high" (in reference to living in the mountains).

69. Ready for use: PREP.  Used as the verb form here, to get ready.  PREP is apparently one of those words, like "rhino" that we use without considering it an abbreviation.

70. 20% of seventy-six?: ESSES. There are 10 letters in "seventy-six", two of which are the letter "s", so 2 is 20% of 10.

71. Gambling area: PIT.  We just recently had pit boss.

72. Bad lads: CADS. Shortening of Cadet, "a jumped-up member of the lower classes who was guilty of behaving as if he didn't know that his lowly origin made him unfit for having sexual relationships with well-bred women." [Anthony West, "H.G. Wells: Aspects of a Life," 1984]

DOWN:

1. Urge: PROD.

2. Seine feeder: OISE. French rivers.

3. Heap affection (on): DOTE. Or what a mairzy eats.

4. Self-help segments: STEPS.  A 12 step program is a set of guiding principles outlining a course of action for recovery from addiction, compulsion, or other behavioral problems.

6. Lessen: EASE.

7. Basketball ploy: PRESS.  Short for pressure. Often called a full-court press, this is an attacking defense employed in the backcourt before the ball crosses center court, where the objective is to force a turnover.

8. Argues (with): HAS A BEEF.

9. Tiny crawler: ANT. Also formerly called an EMMET from *ai- "off, away" + *mai- "cut," (maim).  Thus, its name means "the biter off".

10. Like much real estate, annually: REASSESSED. Originally meant to fix the amount of tax on, so to place a value on.

11. Bombay product: DRY GIN. Bombay is a brand name of  gin distributed by Bacardi.

12. Way to relocate a king: CASTLE. A chess maneuver which protects the king and frees up the rook.

14. Like rotini: HELICAL. Pasta.

20. Support in a dresser drawer: BRA.

21. Sudan neighbor: Abbr.: ETH.iopia.  Today's geography lesson.

25. Kate's sitcom pal: ALLIE. 80's sitcom starring Susan St. James and Jane Curtin.

26. "Leaving __ Jet Plane": ON A. We've had lots of Peter Paul and Mary lately, so here's the guy that wrote the song.

27. Flier to Tokyo: JAL. Japan Airlines.

28. Lumbar punctures: SPINAL TAPS.  Cerebro-spinal fluid analysis can be used to diagnose certain neurologic disorders, particularly infections (such as meningitis) and brain or spinal cord damage.

30. Inflames: IRES.

31. Pat: DAB AT.

34. Declare: STATE.

36. 5-Down's capital: LIMA. along with 5D. See 36-Down: PERU.

39. ATM output: TWENTIES.

40. Latin hymns: TE DEUMS. Literal translation: "Thee, O God, we praise".  According to the Devil's Dictionary (Ambrose Bierce) on the similar sounding word tedium:  Many fanciful derivations of the word have been affirmed, but so high an authority as Father Jape says that it comes from a very obvious source -- the first words of the ancient Latin hymn Te Deum Laudamus. In this apparently natural derivation there is something that saddens.

41. Slip floater, to its owner: HER. Boats referred to with feminine gender.

42. "Absolutely!": YES.

46. Fly: AVIATE. Latin "avis", bird.

47. Moistens with drippings: BASTES.

48. Acoustics, e.g.: Abbr.: SCI. One of the sciences.

50. Priestly garb: ALB.

53. Turn out to be: END UP.

55. High-tech debut of 1981: IBM PC.

58. "__ do fear thy nature": Lady Macbeth: YET I.  "It is too full o' th' milk of human kindness." She is expressing doubt that he has the backbone for the ruthless action it will require to take and retain the kingship.

59. Epitome of redness: BEET.

60. Pasternak heroine: LARA. Dr. Zhivago...

61. Scrutinized: EYED.

62. Uses a straw: SIPS.

64. R&B artist Des'__: REE.  You gotta be.

Answer Grid 

Al