Theme Iceberg Ahead! The too-late Titanic shout from the Crow's Nest. Here we have a murder of crows:
17A. Crow: HUMBLE PIE. Eat crow, eat humble pie.
26A. Crow: BOAST WITH JOY. Be careful, because next week you might be eating crow. Be humble in victory, and gracious in defeat.
45A. Crow: SINGER SHERYL. She was the soundtrack to my first years in Los Angeles. Her "Tuesday Night Music Club" album was all over the radio.
60A. Crow: BLACK BIRD. All crows are black birds, but not all blackbirds are crows. The ravens at the Tower of London have their wings clipped so that they can't fly off. Why? Because a superstition tells that if ever the ravens leave the Tower, "the monarchy will collapse and Britain with it." I think the monarchy, and Britain, has been doing a pretty good job of collapsing on their own recently, no help required from absentee blackbirds.
So, a first collaboration from Kevin and Howard, no strangers to these pages individually and severally. I liked the theme; I think they may have sweated over "boast with joy" which doesn't exactly trip off the tongue, but the end result was pretty good and uncovering each "crow" was fun.
Across:
1. Suffix for Wikipedia: ORG
4. Humiliate: ABASE
9. Network with a "Cameras in the Court" page: C-SPAN
14. Excessively: TOO
15. Where many watch the Beeb: TELLY. Formally, the British Broadcasting Corporation, "the Beeb" in common parlance. It's on the telly, it is, yer Royal 'ighness. When I was a kid, there were two channels - the BBC and ITV, or "Independent Television" which ran commercials. If you didn't like what was running on one channel, you tuned to "The Other Side" to see if there was anything better.
16. Get to laugh: AMUSE
19. Plug-in Chevys: VOLTS
20. Series-ending abbr.: ET AL.
21. Lightning __: ROD
22. "Settle down!": COOL IT!
23. Delete for security reasons, say: REDACT.
25. Alphabetize, e.g.: SORT
32. Lapped (up): ATE. Funny, as lapping is the act of drinking as a cat or a dog, and eating, is, well, eating.
35. Take to a higher court: APPEAL
36. Amana Colonies state: IOWA. Why did I try IRAN first? Wrong, obviously. What did "Homestead" do to offend the other Armanas? Armana, East Armana, High Armana, Middle Armana, South Armana, West Armana and .... Homestead. One is not like the others. Is one of these maypole dancers from Homestead? We should be told.
37. Copier pioneer: XEROX
39. Taylor of fashion: ANN
40. Likely 2020 Baseball Hall of Fame inductee: JETER. Isn't he pretty much a shoo-in for Cooperstown? I can't think of anyone with better credentials right now.
41. Composer Satie: ERIK. If you've never been to Paris, you could do a lot worse than living vicariously with this
42. Taco sauce brand: ORTEGA
44. IRS identifier: SSN
48. In years past: ONCE
49. Range that contains much of the Mark Twain National Forest: OZARKS
53. Temple with an upcurved roof: PAGODA
56. Blue-__: pain relief brand: EMU. Speaking of which, why do auto insurance companies have such terrible commercials? The "LiMu Emu" is the latest abomination. Geico started the whole thing and should be ashamed of themselves.
58. "Allow me": MAY I?
59. Meter measure: USAGE
62. Electric car named for a physicist: TESLA
63. Kirin competitor: ASAHI. Beer! Cheers!
64. Zero, in soccer: NIL
65. Get to the point?: TAPER
66. Exorcist's target: DEMON. Could be "devil" so hold your horses (of the apocalypse) and wait for the crosses.
67. "Get how it's done?": SEE?
Down:?
1. "Some __ time": OTHER
2. Waze recommendation: ROUTE
3. Lose one's grip: GO MAD
4. Delta hub code: ATL. The tram that lets you off at the "D" gates at Atlanta Hartsfield announces that you are arriving at "D - David" because everyone flying Delta used to get off when they heard "D - Delta", which is actually the United terminal. So now it goes "A - Alpha, B - Bravo, C - Charlie, D - David, E - Echo" to avoid confusion.
5. Draft source: BEER TAP. I've never seen Asahi nor Kirin on tap. Must investigate.
6. Pet food brand: ALPO
7. Avoided a tag, perhaps: SLID. Baseball reference to sliding into the base to avoid being tagged "out".
8. "Queer __": revived style show: EYE. It used to be called "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" but I assumed the Straight Guy part was not inclusive. One of my favorite food show presenters, Ted Allen, was one of the original cast, as, aptly, the food and wine expert.
9. Frolic: CAVORT
10. Blended beverage: SMOOTHIE
11. Yank: PULL
12. Bubbly city: ASTI. I think we need a moratorium on ASTI for a while, it's been cropping up a lot.
13. Stick-y place to sleep?: NEST. I like the clue.
18. Spill the beans: BLAB
22. Slinky shape: COIL. The "Slinky" toy which was a big spring and "walked" downstairs. That was it. It was something of a fascinating one-trick pony which was quickly consigned to the toy box, never to be seen again.
24. Persuade with flattery: COAX
25. Title river in a Gershwin/Caesar song: SWANEE.
27. Like Wyoming's population: SPARSE. Alaska's got 'em beat - 1.3 people per square mile rather than the crowds in Wyoming - six to the square mile, no room to swing a cat over there.
28. Start of the back nine: TENTH. Golf, again.
29. Quickly writes: JOTS
30. Is in the red: OWES
31. It may get crewel treatment: YARN. Fun, play-on-words clue. Embroidery.
32. x, y and z, in math: AXES. The Z axis confused me when I first came across it, I don't visualize well in 3D and dealing with three variables makes my brain hurt.
33. Polo of "The Fosters": TERI. Thank you, crosses.
34. Shillelagh's land: ERIN
38. Words that activate an assistant: OK, GOOGLE. One of my friends made me laugh the other day - he told me "I'm in trouble, I called Siri "Alexa". She thinks I'm cheating on her".
40. "Empire State of Mind" rapper: JAY Z
42. White-bellied swimmer: ORCA
43. First name in comedy: GROUCHO. There's a private club in London, The Groucho Club, whose members are primarily from the fields of publishing, entertainment and the arts. It was founded as an alternative to the archaic and stuffy members clubs in London and took its name from Groucho Marx's assertion that "he wouldn't want to belong to a club that would have me as a member".
46. Make lovable: ENDEAR
47. Souvlaki meat: LAMB. Food! Count me in if you're making souvlaki, I'll bring the ouzo.
50. Comes down: RAINS
51. 2012 NBA Rookie of the Year __ Irving: KYRIE
52. Crab-walk: SIDLE
53. Miniature golf stroke: PUTT
54. Riding the waves: ASEA
55. [Oh no!]: GASP!
56. Besides that: ELSE
57. Word said with a tip of the hat: MA'AM
60. Evil: BAD
61. It's all relatives: KIN. Nice clue. All your relatives are your kin. I'm lucky, my relatives are a pretty fine bunch so I don't subscribe to the "you can choose your friends but you can't choose your relatives" maxim.
And with that, we reach the end, my friends. A quick grid-posting and it's a wonderful day in the neighborhood, so let's have at it!
Steve
17A. Crow: HUMBLE PIE. Eat crow, eat humble pie.
26A. Crow: BOAST WITH JOY. Be careful, because next week you might be eating crow. Be humble in victory, and gracious in defeat.
"For when the One Great Scorer comes to mark against your name,
he writes not that you won nor lost, but how you played the game".
Grantland Rice
45A. Crow: SINGER SHERYL. She was the soundtrack to my first years in Los Angeles. Her "Tuesday Night Music Club" album was all over the radio.
60A. Crow: BLACK BIRD. All crows are black birds, but not all blackbirds are crows. The ravens at the Tower of London have their wings clipped so that they can't fly off. Why? Because a superstition tells that if ever the ravens leave the Tower, "the monarchy will collapse and Britain with it." I think the monarchy, and Britain, has been doing a pretty good job of collapsing on their own recently, no help required from absentee blackbirds.
So, a first collaboration from Kevin and Howard, no strangers to these pages individually and severally. I liked the theme; I think they may have sweated over "boast with joy" which doesn't exactly trip off the tongue, but the end result was pretty good and uncovering each "crow" was fun.
Across:
1. Suffix for Wikipedia: ORG
4. Humiliate: ABASE
9. Network with a "Cameras in the Court" page: C-SPAN
14. Excessively: TOO
15. Where many watch the Beeb: TELLY. Formally, the British Broadcasting Corporation, "the Beeb" in common parlance. It's on the telly, it is, yer Royal 'ighness. When I was a kid, there were two channels - the BBC and ITV, or "Independent Television" which ran commercials. If you didn't like what was running on one channel, you tuned to "The Other Side" to see if there was anything better.
16. Get to laugh: AMUSE
19. Plug-in Chevys: VOLTS
20. Series-ending abbr.: ET AL.
21. Lightning __: ROD
22. "Settle down!": COOL IT!
23. Delete for security reasons, say: REDACT.
25. Alphabetize, e.g.: SORT
32. Lapped (up): ATE. Funny, as lapping is the act of drinking as a cat or a dog, and eating, is, well, eating.
35. Take to a higher court: APPEAL
36. Amana Colonies state: IOWA. Why did I try IRAN first? Wrong, obviously. What did "Homestead" do to offend the other Armanas? Armana, East Armana, High Armana, Middle Armana, South Armana, West Armana and .... Homestead. One is not like the others. Is one of these maypole dancers from Homestead? We should be told.
37. Copier pioneer: XEROX
39. Taylor of fashion: ANN
40. Likely 2020 Baseball Hall of Fame inductee: JETER. Isn't he pretty much a shoo-in for Cooperstown? I can't think of anyone with better credentials right now.
41. Composer Satie: ERIK. If you've never been to Paris, you could do a lot worse than living vicariously with this
42. Taco sauce brand: ORTEGA
44. IRS identifier: SSN
48. In years past: ONCE
49. Range that contains much of the Mark Twain National Forest: OZARKS
53. Temple with an upcurved roof: PAGODA
56. Blue-__: pain relief brand: EMU. Speaking of which, why do auto insurance companies have such terrible commercials? The "LiMu Emu" is the latest abomination. Geico started the whole thing and should be ashamed of themselves.
58. "Allow me": MAY I?
59. Meter measure: USAGE
62. Electric car named for a physicist: TESLA
63. Kirin competitor: ASAHI. Beer! Cheers!
64. Zero, in soccer: NIL
65. Get to the point?: TAPER
66. Exorcist's target: DEMON. Could be "devil" so hold your horses (of the apocalypse) and wait for the crosses.
67. "Get how it's done?": SEE?
Down:?
1. "Some __ time": OTHER
2. Waze recommendation: ROUTE
3. Lose one's grip: GO MAD
4. Delta hub code: ATL. The tram that lets you off at the "D" gates at Atlanta Hartsfield announces that you are arriving at "D - David" because everyone flying Delta used to get off when they heard "D - Delta", which is actually the United terminal. So now it goes "A - Alpha, B - Bravo, C - Charlie, D - David, E - Echo" to avoid confusion.
5. Draft source: BEER TAP. I've never seen Asahi nor Kirin on tap. Must investigate.
6. Pet food brand: ALPO
7. Avoided a tag, perhaps: SLID. Baseball reference to sliding into the base to avoid being tagged "out".
8. "Queer __": revived style show: EYE. It used to be called "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" but I assumed the Straight Guy part was not inclusive. One of my favorite food show presenters, Ted Allen, was one of the original cast, as, aptly, the food and wine expert.
9. Frolic: CAVORT
10. Blended beverage: SMOOTHIE
11. Yank: PULL
12. Bubbly city: ASTI. I think we need a moratorium on ASTI for a while, it's been cropping up a lot.
13. Stick-y place to sleep?: NEST. I like the clue.
18. Spill the beans: BLAB
22. Slinky shape: COIL. The "Slinky" toy which was a big spring and "walked" downstairs. That was it. It was something of a fascinating one-trick pony which was quickly consigned to the toy box, never to be seen again.
24. Persuade with flattery: COAX
25. Title river in a Gershwin/Caesar song: SWANEE.
27. Like Wyoming's population: SPARSE. Alaska's got 'em beat - 1.3 people per square mile rather than the crowds in Wyoming - six to the square mile, no room to swing a cat over there.
28. Start of the back nine: TENTH. Golf, again.
29. Quickly writes: JOTS
30. Is in the red: OWES
31. It may get crewel treatment: YARN. Fun, play-on-words clue. Embroidery.
32. x, y and z, in math: AXES. The Z axis confused me when I first came across it, I don't visualize well in 3D and dealing with three variables makes my brain hurt.
33. Polo of "The Fosters": TERI. Thank you, crosses.
34. Shillelagh's land: ERIN
38. Words that activate an assistant: OK, GOOGLE. One of my friends made me laugh the other day - he told me "I'm in trouble, I called Siri "Alexa". She thinks I'm cheating on her".
40. "Empire State of Mind" rapper: JAY Z
42. White-bellied swimmer: ORCA
43. First name in comedy: GROUCHO. There's a private club in London, The Groucho Club, whose members are primarily from the fields of publishing, entertainment and the arts. It was founded as an alternative to the archaic and stuffy members clubs in London and took its name from Groucho Marx's assertion that "he wouldn't want to belong to a club that would have me as a member".
46. Make lovable: ENDEAR
47. Souvlaki meat: LAMB. Food! Count me in if you're making souvlaki, I'll bring the ouzo.
50. Comes down: RAINS
51. 2012 NBA Rookie of the Year __ Irving: KYRIE
52. Crab-walk: SIDLE
53. Miniature golf stroke: PUTT
54. Riding the waves: ASEA
55. [Oh no!]: GASP!
56. Besides that: ELSE
57. Word said with a tip of the hat: MA'AM
60. Evil: BAD
61. It's all relatives: KIN. Nice clue. All your relatives are your kin. I'm lucky, my relatives are a pretty fine bunch so I don't subscribe to the "you can choose your friends but you can't choose your relatives" maxim.
And with that, we reach the end, my friends. A quick grid-posting and it's a wonderful day in the neighborhood, so let's have at it!
Steve
