Claire and David have given us a very clever Wednesday offering featuring Matroyshka DOLLS that stack up and nest inside each other as you can see here:
Husker Gary on duty for a tour of what our two constructors have done graphically in their wonderful puzzle as you can see in the grid below. They have the letters for the word DOLL in the circles getting progressively and symmetrically closer and closer, until they culminate in the single word DOLL. (Could this reveal have worked without the circled DOLL letters?)
But wait, there's more! They have added the two adjectives that describe this arrangement - NESTING and STACKED in a very neat seven letter stack at the bottom (part of 7, 8, 9/9, 8, 7 letter corners) as shown in the reveals:
45. Arranged like the 68-Acrosses in the answers to starred clues are designed to be : STACKED - DO and LL STACKED until NESTING at the bottom. Other visuals for STACKED were considered but...
68. *See 42-Down : DOLL - Here is a seasonal Matroyshka set
Pretty cool, huh?
Now let's look at the theme fill elements:
18. *Is unsuitable : DOESN'T FIT THE BILL - At first glance it might appear that Earl Boykin DOESN'T FIT THE BILL to play against Shaquille O'Neal
32. *Literary character with an evil alter ego : DOCTOR JEKYLL - John Barrymore transistioning from the good Doctor Jekyll to the evil Mr. Hyde in the 1920 silent movie of the Robert Louis Stevenson classic
50. *Threshold : DOOR SILL - This kitty is protecting hers!
Let's set off to see what else Claire and David have nested in this stack of clues
1. Schooner features : MASTS - or BEERS
6. Frosty coating : RIME
10. Shine : GLEAM
15. Advil competitor : ALEVE
16. __ of March : IDES - The soothsayer Spurinna warned Caesar to beware
17. EVE's companion, in a 2008 Pixar film : WALLE
21. "__ ideas?" : ANY
22. "Back to the Future" vehicle : DELOREAN - At 88 mph the question becomes not "Where is the DeLorean?" but "When is the DeLOREAN?"
23. Wild place : ZOO - Famous for much wild life in Lincoln, NE!
24. Rays or Jays : TEAM
26. RAM part : MEMORY - I remember when 64K of Random Access Memory was a big deal
27. First light : DAWN
28. Egyptian snake : ASP
30. Wide shoe spec : EEE - President Obama seems pretty impressed with the width and length of his Shaquille O'Neal autographed shoe
38. Anti-cruelty org. : PETA
39. "Hold up!" : WAIT
40. Radiate : EMIT
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| Bob Dylan |
43. Breakfast order : EGGS
44. BFFs : FAVES
46. Gets a glimpse of : ESPIES - Not in my verbal or written quiver
48. Most innocent : PUREST
49. Canonized Mlle. : STE - Joan Of Arc may be the most famous one
55. Bus depot: Abbr. : STA - Marilyn Monroe starred in a 1956 movie about a Bus Depot in Tonganoxie, Kansas
56. Corrida opponent : TORO
58. Paddock sound : WHINNY
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| Walt and Hank |
60. Modern-day Persian : IRANI
62. Tiny annoyance : GNAT
63. Former One Direction singer Zayn __ : MALIK - No idea/interest
65. Fairy tale baddie : OGRE - Except for Shrek
66. In reserve : ASIDE - How much money do you have set ASIDE for that inevitable rainy day?
69. Knight's horse : STEED
Down
1. Angry with : MAD AT
2. Without assistance : ALONE
3. "Later!" : SEE YA - Wouldn't wanna BE YA!
4. Family room sets : TVS - We now have way more TV'S than the number of channels we used to have
6. Search quickly through : RIFLE
7. Figure of speech : IDIOM
8. Way around D.C. : METRO - A 10 min. Uber ride would have taken a half hour on the METRO for us in March
9. Perfume compound : ESTER
10. No Doubt lead singer Stefani : GWEN - Now, her I know!
11. Chocolate dog : LAB
12. "My Fair Lady" heroine : ELIZA - Here is Wendy Hiller as ELIZA in the 1938 non-musical movie Pymaglion. A role that Audrey Hepburn later made famous.
13. Let happen : ALLOW
14. Fruit that's still a fruit when two of its letters are switched : MELON - Switch the first and third letters and you get my first car
19. What sirens may do : TEMPT - Greek mythology tells of these creatures who used enchanting music and lovely voices to lure sailors to their doom on rocky shores
20. Actress Salma : HAYEK
25. Chinese liquor brand : MAOTAI - Alexander Haig warned President Nixon to not actually drink any of this very potent liquor during toasts. Dan Rather called it "liquid razor blades"
27. San Diego suburb : DEL MAR - A city of 4,356 whose name means "By The Sea" and is home to a famous horse racetrack
29. Climbed : SCALED
31. The Eiffel Tower, aptly? : EYEFUL - Cute! Granddaughter did not go up the tower last week because of the daunting lines
32. Western outlaw : DESPERADO
33. Be indebted to : OWE
34. Cleaning cloth : RAG
35. Irish dance : JIG - For some reason a guy is doing pushups while the girls are dancing a JIG
36. "Close Encounters" beings : ETS - I loved the cantina scene from Star Wars
37. Hides one's true self : LIVES A LIE - Fewer people have to do this now
38. Idyllic : PASTORAL
41. Take for a first drive : TEST RIDE - Al Pacino played a blind man who took a Ferrari for a TEST RIDE in Scent Of A Woman
47. Farm mom : SOW
48. Tissue layer : PLY - Some schools save money with single PLY toilet tissue. Yikes!
51. "What a nightmare!" : OH GOD
52. Fab Four drummer : RINGO - The luckiest man in Rock 'n Roll history?
53. [Don't touch my bone!] : SNARL
54. Info a spy might gather : INTEL
57. Dollar bills : ONES
61. Recipient of much Apr. mail : IRS
63. More, in Madrid : MAS - Esas son todas las pistas. No hay más. (That's all the clues. There are no more.)
Now feel free to stack and nestle your comments:
