Wednesday, August 16, 2017, Kurt Mengel & Jan-Michele Gianette

TITLE: Time To Move Your Vowels!

Kurt and Jan-Michele have given us a fun variation of a Bruce Venzke/Gail Grabowski puzzle I blogged July 19 of this year. Bruce and Gail progressed through the vowels nesting them between N & T at the start of two-word phrases.  Similarly, Kurt and Jan-Michele placed their vowel progression betwixt M _ SS at the end of multiple word phrases as you can see below:

Throw in a generous dash of proper nouns, mythological creatures, Spanish and some muppets and you have the ingredients for a lovely Wednesday exercise. I caught on early and wondered what the fill for MUSS would be. Not to worry!

Let's first look at the theme fills from Kurt and Jan-Michele:

20. Sustained nuclear chain reaction requirement : CRITICAL MASS - This is an illustration of the reaching of critical mass in 1942 in an underground squash court at the University of Chicago as part of The Manhattan Project

27. Really botch things : MAKE A MESS - After spending $20B for 2,000 new trains, the French found out they are too wide for 1,300 platforms which will cost millions more to retrofit

35. Haphazard : HIT OR MISS - Ask Ford Motor Company

45. Edible seaweed : IRISH MOSS - Got any catsup?

51. A breeze to use, in adspeak : NO FUSS NO MUSS - Looks easy to me and more palatable than Irish Moss.

Kurt and Jan-Michele definitely did not aMASS a MESS and gathered no MOSS or MISS a trick in this MUSSless puzzle:

Across

1. Feathered Nile wader : IBIS 

5. Tropical hardwoods : TEAKS

10. Title of respect : MAAM

14. Have a flat? : RENT

15. Barbera's partner in cartoons : HANNA - They had quite a stable

16. Sea eagle : ERNE

17. Designer Schiaparelli : ELSA crossing 2. __ Paese: Italian cheese : BEL (Beautiful country) got my Natick right up front and I got it, uh, right 

18. Moving : ASTIR

19. Journalist Jacob : RIIS - His muckraking was very discomforting for Tammany Hall

23. Room where you may have to stoop : ATTIC - Anne Frank's hiding place

26. One working with dough : KNEADER - or with a puppy

31. Port and claret : WINES

32. __-Magnon : CRO

33. The Cowboys of the NCAA's Big 12 : OSU - Their sugar daddy Boone Pickens is an "awl man"

34. __ one's time: waited : BIDED

38. Tires (out) : POOPS  

40. Give in to the munchies : EAT

41. __ green : PEA

44. Emmy nominee Fischer of "The Office" : JENNA - She played sensible Pam against Steve Carrell's eccentric Michael

48. 1992 Disney film featuring a magic lamp : ALADDIN

50. Wild West brothers : EARPS - Most famous residents of Pella, IA in their boyhood

55. Moscow news acronym : ITAR - Informatsionnye Telegrafnoye Agentstvto of Rossi (Information Telegraph Agency of Russia)

56. Retired racehorses, often : SIRES - Studs works too

57. Thames museum : TATE

61. 35-Down house : CASA and 35. Tegucigalpa's country : HONDURAS - Aquí están algunas CASAS en Tegucigalpa (Here are some homes in Tegucigalpa) 

29. That, in Tegucigalpa : ESO - Es por ESO que podría ser agradable vivir allí (That is why it might be nice to live there)

62. "I give!" : UNCLE

63. Ticklish Muppet : ELMO - Oh, that's how it works!

64. Inexact figs. : ESTS

65. "My heavens!" : EGADS - Your EST was $400 and the bill is $1,200! EGADS!

66. Prince's "Purple __" : RAIN

Down

1. Intense anger : IRE

3. GEICO product: Abbr. : INS

4. One of Barbie's siblings : STACIE - I totally, for sure didn't know if it was spelled STACEY

5. Pad __ : THAI

6. Right direction? : EAST - A country boy is just as likely to say "Turn EAST" at the stop sign rather than "Turn Right".

7. Opposed : ANTI

8. Madison Square Garden hoopsters : KNICKS - Hopeless hoopsters recently 

9. Clear wrap : SARAN

10. Mythological swimmers : MERMAIDS - How long do you have to be at sea to mistake one for the other?

11. Daughter of King Minos : ARIADNE - Associated with mazes and labyrinths

12. Liqueur flavoring : ANISEED - Also called ANISE. It's flavor is in many things but I love it in my black jellybeans!

13. Mr. and Mr. : MESSRS

21. HDTV maker : RCA

22. Explorer with Clark : LEWIS - They had it much tougher than Armstrong and Aldrin and were darn lucky to have Sacajawea!

23. "Preacher" network : AMC

24. Black goo : TAR

25. Ref's ruling : TKO - One of these quieted Rhonda Rousey 

28. Zingers : MOTS - One of the kings:

30. More definite : SURER

34. Information units : BITS 

36. Tablets that can't be swallowed : IPADS - What's a crayon?

37. __ tai : MAI

38. Jai alai balls : PELOTAS - Number 40 catches the PELOTA in his cesta and returns it. I wonder if one sips a Man Tai while watching Jai Alai?

39. Observing Ramadan, say : ON A FAST - My colleague in a multinational school in Brooklyn said Muslim kids didn't have much energy during Ramadan

41. __ favor : POR

42. Sixth sense letters : ESP - If you've seen Ghostbusters, you know he never had a chance

43. Stubborn beast : ASS

44. Muppet who plays lead guitar in The Electric Mayhem : JANICE

45. Baseball division : INNING - 33 of 'em!

46. Blokes : HE'S

47. Become an expert in : MASTER 

49. Point of contention : ISSUE

52. Killer whale : ORCA

53. Blend : MELD 

54. Doesn't allow to rust : USES - What moms might be saying this time of year

58. Mobile's st. : ALA

59. "Enough gory details, thanks" : TMI - ...and then the doctor had to...

60. Ages and ages : EON - Either a generic term for a long time or scientifically, a billion years

What say you?

Tuesday, March 11, 2014 Kurt Mengel and Jan-Michele Gianette

Theme: Vowel Progression - First word starts with FL followed by vowels A to U, then T.

17A. Penniless : FLAT BROKE

26A. Like champion sprinters : FLEET-FOOTED

41A. Worker in the sky : FLIGHT ATTENDANT

52A. Suggest something tentatively : FLOAT AN IDEA

64A. Piece for two winds : FLUTE DUET. "The Flower Duet" May it inspire some flowers to make an appearance soon.

Argyle here. A straightforward puzzle today. Nice grid spanner. I can't help but wonder how much trouble it would have been to include an FLY.... A couple of long crossing columns.

Across:

1. Pi r squared, for a circle : AREA

5. Encyclopedia tidbit : FACT

9. Big-time : MAJOR

14. Speeds (up) : REVs

15. __ about: roughly : ON OR

16. Render speechless : AMAZE

19. Powerful person : NABOB. "nattering nabobs of negativism" : voiced by Spiro Agnew, coined by William Safire.

20. Cozy corner : NOOK

21. Monogram part: Abbr. : INITial

23. Singer DiFranco : ANI

24. Crone : HAG

29. Capri suffix : OTE. "A Capriote" by John Singer Sargent.

30. Little lie : FIB. 52D. Like lies : FALSE

31. Church-founded Dallas sch. : SMU. (Southern Methodist University)

32. FDR's dog : FALA. Scottish Terrier.

34. Confused mental states : FOGs

37. Mythological sky holder : ATLAS

44. Foil maker : ALCOA

45. Struggling to decide : TORN

46. Bone: Pref. : OSTE

47. Queue after Q : RST. Quite cute clue.

49. 20s dispenser, for short : ATM

51. Darjeeling, for one : TEA

57. "Bad" cholesterol letters : LDL. The "good" is HDL and the ratio between them is important. An optimum ratio is 3.5-to-1. Mayo Clinic

58. Key next to the space bar : ALT

59. "A Visit From the Goon Squad" Pulitzer-winning novelist Jennifer : EGAN

60. March Madness org. : NCAA. Basketball.

62. Pig __ : LATIN

68. Pillar from a fire : SMOKE

69. Film director's unit : TAKE. Tricky. A scene is made up of different units or takes.

70. Look at rudely : OGLE

71. Slipped gently (into) : EASED

72. Renders speechless : AWES

73. Wobbly table stabilizer : SHIM

Down:

1. "Bowwow!" : "ARF!"

2. Belief sys. : RELigion

3. Pertaining to the gospel : EVANGELIC

4. Concerning : AS TO

5. Warehouse vehicle : FORKLIFT

6. "It's __-win situation" : A NO

7. Newswoman Roberts : COKIE. Mary Martha Corinne Morrison Claiborne Roberts.

8. River through Nottingham : TRENT

9. Direct, as a father-son conversation : MAN TO MAN

10. Doctors' org. : AMA

11. Try to punch : JAB AT

12. Layer with "holes" in it : OZONE

13. Opener's second call, in bridge : REBID

18. Big Broadway hit, slangily : BOFF. Shortened from BOFFO, slang for a hit on Broadway

22. Stipulations : IFs. There is always an IF, eh?

24. Teamsters president James : HOFFA

25. For any reason : AT ALL

27. WWII torpedo craft : EBOAT. On the water, eboat; under the water, uboat

28. One-up : OUT-DO

33. Greek marketplace : AGORA

35. Pontiac muscle car relaunched briefly in 2004 : GTO. It was an Australian car. Link I had no idea!

36. Valuable violin : STRAD

38. Comeback victor's vindication : LAST LAUGH. "He who laughs last, laughs best"(or longest)

39. Fed the kitty : ANTED

40. Filch : STEAL

42. Hurried : HASTENED

43. International accords : ENTENTES. [French: understanding]

48. Schoolyard game : TAG

50. Riot control weapon : MACE

53. Alpaca kin : LLAMA

54. Director Preminger and others : OTTOs

55. U.S.-Mexico-Canada commerce pact : NAFTA. (North American Free Trade Agreement, 1994)

56. Bride's new relative, say : IN-LAW

61. Hullabaloos : ADOs

63. Eisenhower nickname : IKE

65. Guitar cousin : UKE

66. Brother of Peyton Manning : ELI

67. President pro __ : TEM

 

 

Argyle

Note from C.C.:

Happy Birthday to our lovely Mari! Hope it's a beautiful day in Chicago. Snow has been melting steadily here in MN. (To Dave: Cats (obviously) & needlepoint.)

Wednesday, January 30, 2013 Kurt Mengel and Jan-Michele Gianette

Theme: Football Frailties

17A. New Orleans team confused? : SAINTS BEDEVILED

26A. New York team punished? : JETS GROUNDED

46A. Indianapolis team stymied? : COLTS LASSOED

59A. San Diego team upset? : CHARGERS SHOCKED

Yay! It's Superbowl Week! (oops, I should say "Big Game Week" as we at the blog don't pay royalties to the NFL for the use of the word "Superbowl" and we're already in enough trouble with the Blogger Police Department. We don't want Roger Goodell piling on here).

Today we have four theme teams that sadly didn't make it to New Orleans for "The Big Game" for reasons most aptly described by Kurt and Jan-Michele. To add insult to  injury, the Bedeviled Saints had to clear out of their own locker room for a couple of weeks to allow temporary lodging for the Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers in the Big Easy.

NFL fans can make their own jokes regarding the aforementioned Commissioner, the Saints and "punished", "grounded", and "upset", let alone "confused".

Steve here! This was a corker of a theme for me, I loved it. I got the teams right away, then spent a LOT of time noodling around the rest of each theme answer and needed crosses, more crosses and then some perps to git 'er done.

A couple of nits to be picked, but let's see how the rest played out.

Across:

1. Net help pages, briefly : FAQS. When I was small, my most frequently-asked question was "Are we there yet?". I'm not sure I ever got a reliable answer.

5. County counterpart, in Canterbury : SHIRE. Major nit. I know the alliteration is part of the charm of this clue, but it doesn't really make sense. Canterbury is in Kent, which is a county. "County" and "Shire" are not really synonyms. It would help if if Kent was short for Kentshire, but it's not.

10. Boring : BLAH

14. Longtime Stern rival : IMUS. Howard Stern and Don Imus faced off in a ratings battle in Philadelphia early in Stern's career.

15. Little bits : IOTAS.

16. Baltic capital : RIGA

20. __ Who : THE

21. Little bits : ATOMS. Nice clecho. Yodel-eh-ee-o!

22. Silly : INANE

23. Musical quality : TONE

25. Chooses : ELECTS

31. Fail to mention : OMIT

32. Picky eaters of rhyme : SPRATS. Jack and his wife. Even as a lad I wondered how Jack's wife managed to keep her girlish figure when all she would eat was fat. I guess she had the Jane Fonda Workout Tapes (we're going back a few years here, I don't think pilates was invented yet!).

33. Different : ODD

36. "Network" director : LUMET. Sidney. If you've never seen "Twelve Angry Men" from way back in 1957, you have a treat in store.

38. Old West mil. force : CAV. The Cavalry, a Military Force.

39. Andrea Bocelli, e.g. : TENOR

41. Half a fly : TSE

42. More than a sobber : WAILER

45. Small or large : SIZE

48. Loads to clean : WASHES. I didn't skip a beat with this one, then I've been wondering why; it's not exactly obvious?

51. Person in a sentence, say : NOUN

52. Convention pin-on : ID TAG. I think I've probably got my own weight in these things. One peculiar property of ID tags hanging from a lanyard is that they ALWAYS turn to face the wrong way however you try to arrange things.

53. Heroic poems : EPICS

56. "Homeland" airer, briefly : SHO. Hmmm. Nymmmm. Hmmmmmmm. Could do better if you resort to this fill, methinks.

62. Hardly friendly : COLD

63. Go on and on : PRATE. Is there a rule for using PRATE vs PRATTLE? I'm guessing the root is common.

64. Take on : HIRE

65. Golf rarities : ACES. I've had one. I took a friend out to play for her first time on a "real" golf course and I aced the par-3 third. She didn't understand why I was so excited, she thought that as I'd been playing for 30 years I should be doing that every day. A fair point, in hindsight.

66. Fur fortune-maker : ASTOR

67. Football positions : ENDS. Schoolboy hilarity ensues about "tight" and "defensive" varieties. We were all young and foolish once.

Down:

1. Punch source : FIST

2. Indian nursemaid : AMAH. I think this qualifies as crosswordese. I know it, but ...

3. Being alone with one's thoughts : QUIET TIME

4. IRS ID : S.S.N. I wonder who had 000 00 0001? That's an awesome Social Security Number. There was probably some money in the pot when he or she retired too.

5. TV drama about Alex, Teddy, Georgie and Frankie Reed : SISTERS. Crosses all the way.

6. Vagabond : HOBO

7. News piece : ITEM

8. X-ray units : RADS. I need to stop overthinking four-letter fill, ROENTGEN is simply not going to work, I don't even know if it's got anything whatsoever to do with the clue, but I couldn't move beyond it.

9. Linguistic suffix : ESE.

10. Pickled : BRINED. Oh! Not too much vodka then?

11. Purple __: New Hampshire state flower : LILAC.  Very pretty - looks a little like the foxgloves/digitalis from last week to my untrained eye:

(Note to self. - Filling in ILLAC doesn't make the NE quadrant any easier to complete)

12. Word with travel or talent : AGENT. I wanted SCOUT for the longest while, I almost convinced myself that there are professional TRAVEL SCOUTS out there.

13. Underworld : HADES

18. Zippy flavor : TANG

19. Most nasty : VILEST

24. Bone: Pref. : OSTE. Again with the hmmmmmm fill. Not a fan.

25. NH summer hours : E.D.T. The Eastern Time bit is always a given for me, but why can I never remember when it's "Standard" and when it's "Daylight"?

26. Quite a blow : JOLT

27. Tall runners : EMUS. EMUS and IMUS must be related.

28. Footnote ref. : OP. CIT. "Opere Citato" or "in the work cited" to refer to a previously-credited work to avoid needless repetition of the full title.

29. Mount Narodnaya's range : URALS.

30. __ orange : NAVEL. I had NAVAL first, I guess I was going with my own LIMEY nautical citrus theme.

33. Thin paper : ONION SKIN.

34. Nap : DOZE

35. Slave Scott : DRED.

37. Like many omelets : TWO EGG

40. "Mi casa __ casa" : ES SU. Not to be taken toooo literally.

43. Gore and Hirt : ALs

44. Stock market VIP? : RANCHER. Loved this clue/answer.

46. Casual wine choices : CHARDS. There are many nice ones from my home state of California. I had a glass of Sterling tonight - an odd choice considering I'm in South Beach, Miami for the day. I should be drinking rum and channeling Hemingway.

47. Not bad, not good : SO-SO. Related to the above?

48. Modern witch's religion : WICCA

49. For this purpose : AD HOC. A learning moment. If challenged to define "ad hoc" I'd have been offering up variations of "ad lib" or "off the cuff".

50. Old, as a joke : STALE

53. Goofs : ERRS. "To goof is human, to err is Bill Buckner". I just made that up! Almost 30 years too late to make a fortune selling t-shirts in New York, alas.

54. Exam sophs may take : P-SAT

55. Colon, in analogies : IS TO

57. Sheep together : HERD. Another one I got right away then looked back and said "huh"? "Shepherd" makes this work, otherwise you'd look for "FLOCK" as the answer or "Cow Together" as the clue, right?

58. Keats works : ODES

60. Org. concerned with greenhouse gas : E.P.A. The Environmental Protection Agency has a lot to worry about right now.

61. Ally of Fidel : CHE. Castro's amigo Guevara. The dictionary definition of "iconic" should simply cite this image:

That's all, Folks!

"The Superbowl", "Saints", "Jets", "Colts", "Chargers" and related names and indicia are the sole property of the National Football League and may not be used or reproduced without the express written consent of the NFL. "Lilac" image may be subject to copyright. "Jane Fonda Workout", "Emu" and "Imus" copyright their respective owners. "Che" copyright the William Soler Pediatric Cardiology Hospital in Havana, Cuba. I think that's got us covered today :)

Wednesday, December 19 2012 Kurt Mengel & Jan-Michele Gianette

Theme:  Meanwhile, back at the ranch  .  .  .   or, Mammas, don't let this happen.  Four long theme answers are common phrases related to a cowboy's typical activities, but with figurative meanings.  Two of these are grid spanning, and the other two only miss by 1 letter, so the themeage is pretty rich.

17A. Lay a trip on, cowboy-style? : SADDLE WITH GUILT.  This one baffled me until I had enough perp help to suss it out.  Pretty clever, now that I get it.  Someone can try to lay a guilt trip on you, the way a cowboy burdens his horse with a saddle.  But, unlike the horse, you don't have to accept it.

 27A. Motivate, cowboy-style? : SPUR INTO ACTION.   This is a pretty literal image, since a cowboy kicks his spurs into the horse to get it going.  A variation on the kick-start idea, maybe.

43A. Control spending, cowboy-style? : REIN IN THE COSTS.  And this is equally and oppositely  literal, since our intrepid western hero pulls on the reins to get his horse to stop running.

 56A. Hang in there, cowboy-style? : RIDE OUT THE STORM.  Cowboy's do ride, but this is the only theme answer that evokes a nautical rather than an old west image.   Does this detract from the coherence of the theme?  I can't decide.  Anyway, for another grid-spanner, it's worth it.

Hi gang, it's jazzbumpa.  C'mon, pards, let's ride on out and see what we can lasso.

Across:

1. "__ Comes Mary": Association hit : ALONG.  They don't write songs like that anymore.

6. Black-clad subculturist : GOTH.  A post-punk splinter group with influence on music and fashion.  Whatever turns you on, I guess.

10. "Famous" snack maker : AMOS.  Famous for his cookies.

14. Fracas : MELEE.  A confused struggle, possibly involving hand to hand combat.  A brawl.

15. Finis : OVER.   Done.  Stick a fork in it.  Like the Lions, frex.

16. Logan of "60 Minutes" : LARA.  This EMMY-winning CBS news correspondent was brutalized by a mob while covering the Egyptian uprising of 2011.

20. Hockey legend : ORR.  Bobby, No. 4 of the Boston Bruins, finished his career with the Chicago Blackhawks.

21. Breezed through : ACED.  Thus spoken of schools exams and unreturnable tennis serves.

22. Tony's cousins : EMMYS.  Television production awards. 

23. Nobelist Hahn et al. : OTTOS.   This German chemist won the  Nobel prize in chemistry for discovering nuclear fission. During WW I he developed poison gas.  I'm speechless.

25. City on the Rhine : BONN.  On a happier German note, they have a monument to Beethoven there.

32. Decathlon gold medalist Ashton __ : EATON.  No clue.

33. Minor quibbles : NITS.  I've had a few.

34. Chest protector : BIB.  Protection from vagrant food residue, worn by babies and lobster eating adults.

36. __ rain : ACID.  Just what is sounds like - rain with a high acid content [low pH.] It can result from natural phenomena such as volcanoes and lightning, or from pollution resulting from human activity.

37. Selassie worshipper : RASTA.  RASTAfarians believe that Ethiopian emperor Haile Sellassie [ruled 1930-74] is the reincarnation of Jesus.

39. One-time teammate of 20-Across, familiarly : ESPO.  Tony ESPOsito had a long and illustrious career playing goalie for the Blackhawks.  But the nick-name refers to his brother Phil, who had a long and illustrious career playing forward for the Blackhawks, Bruins and Rangers.  Tony's first NHL start was a 2-2 tie with the Bruins, in which he made 33 saves and his brother Phil scored both goals on him.

40. Guys : MEN.

41. Actress Skye : IONE. Her film career started in 1986, and in addition to Say Anything and  Wayne's World is a long list of movies I've never heard of.  Anyone here a fan of Girls in Prison or One Night Stand?

42. Winner of 82 PGA Tour tournaments : SNEAD.  Slammin' Sammie.

47. WWII battle site : ST LO. It was almost totally destroyed in WW II during the battle of Normandy.

48. Out of whack : AMISS.  Why is nothing ever in whack when it's going well?

49. Town __ : CRIER.  An official whose duty is to make public announcements.  A bit passé these days, but several municipalities in North America, Australia and New Zealand still have Town CRIERS.  Should I be disturbed that the first answer I thought of was DRUNK?  It fits.

52. Acquisitions in a certain race : ARMS.  Weapons of greater or lesser degrees of destruction.

53. Treat, as a bruise : ICE.  Here, ICE is a verb, meaning to place an ice bag [or equivalent] on the afflicted region.  Actually, a bag of frozen peas works really well.

60. Sheryl Crow's "__ Wanna Do" : ALL I Wanna Do is have a little fun before I die.  Seems like a modest enough goal.

61. Baby's word : MAMA.  Often baby's first word, and sound meaning "mother" in many languages around the world

62. "... but it could be otherwise" : OR NOT.   Only maybe.

63. Swimming contest : MEET.  Or a foot race contest. 

64. Needy : POOR.  Two reasons why we don't need the word "indigent."

65. Carpenters' tools : RASPS.  Rough files used for shaping.  Also great for scraping knuckles.

Down:

1. Playground retort : AM SO.  Are not  .  .  .

2. King with three daughters : LEAR.  It's hard to have much sympathy for a guy who would name his daughter Goneril.  How is she ever going to get a date?

3. Thing to break free of, perhaps : OLD ROUTINE.  If you are in a rut.

4. Folk hero Kelly : NED. Or cold-blooded murderer.  Who you gonna believe? He was an Irish-Australian bushranger, and bankrobber.  Eventually, he was hanged.

5. Glue base : GELATIN.  This is animal protein glue, though I never think of GELATIN in this context.

6. Greeley's advice : GO WEST.  Horace was a newspaper editor, abolitionist, vegetarian, and socialist.  Probably wouldn't do Jello shots.

7. Exiled Roman poet : OVID.  In 8 AD he was exiled by emperor Augustus from Rome to Tomis (now Constanţa, Romania), on the shores of the Black Sea, for reasons unknown.  At that time Tomis was a remote outpost at the edge of civilization, for Siberia had not yet been invented.  Maybe some of his pithy poetry pithed off old Augie.

8. Asian holiday : TET.   "Tết Nguyên Đán" is the Vietnamese New Year.  Why is Viet Nam so often conflated with all of Asia?   Or is this just another NIT?

9. Royal title: Abbr. : HRH.  Her Royal Highness.

10. Grads : ALUMNI.  Originates from the Latin alere, "to nourish or be nourished."

11. Hurt badly : MAIM.  Likely causing permanent damage.

12. Paris airport : ORLY.  Located 8 miles south of Paris, the 2nd busiest airport in France.

13. H.S. hurdles : S.A.T.'S.  Scholastic Assessment Tests. 

18. MBA's course : ECON.  I had Finance and Accounting classes in my MBA program, but no ECONomics. 

19. Classy guys : GENTS.  Abrv. for GENTlemen.

24. Walked : TROD. 

25. Worms, e.g. : BAIT.  For some reason, this was elusive.

26. Prefix with -gon : OCTA.  Could have been POLY, HEXA, DECA  .  .  .

27. Jeans joint : SEAM.  I tried KNEE, then SEAT.  Neither SEAMed quite right.

28. '70s AMC compact : PACER.  A genuinely ugly vehicle, with none of the Edsel's piquant charm.

29. Beginning : ONSET.

30. More than just desires : OBSESSIONS.  I took "desires" to be a verb, and entered LUSTS AFTER.  Hey - it fits, in more ways than one.

31. Try to bite, puppy-style : NIP AT.  Oh, my.

35. Spa displays? : BODS.  BODies, that is.  Could be, I guess.

37. Stir up : ROIL.  Am I stirring things up too much?

38. __ Domini : ANNO.  The year of our Lord, Roman calendar convention.

39. Grandson of Eve : ENOS.  The son of Seth, Adam and Eve's third son. Also a very forgettable Dukes of Hazard spin-off.

41. Brief opening : INTRO.  Brief meaning abrvtd.

42. Cut : SCISSOR.  Here, SCISSOR is a verb. I'm having some problems with parts of speech.

44. Response to "Look!" : I SEE IT.

45. Sarcastic laugh : HAR-HAR.

46. Palindromic fashion model : EMME. A plus size-model, and 22A homophone.

 

49. Squeeze (in) : CRAM.  Just the sound of the word makes it sound like a struggle.

50. Annoy : RILE.  And a near sound-alike to 37A.  Are these fleckos?

51. Vegging out : IDLE. 

52. Sphere starter : ATMO -  Meh!  The layer of air surrounding the earth.

54. Harvesting target : CROP.

55. Paramedics, briefly : E.M.T.'S Emergency Medical Technicians

57. Diamond caller : UMP.  Used to be the UMPire calling balls and strikes incorrectly at the old ball game, but the short form now seems pretty standard.

58. Eastern path : TAO.  The Chinese word for path, route or way.  Laozi's metaphysical concept that is the basis for Confucianism and Zen Buddhism.

59. Song syllable : TRA.  Usually travels with La.

That's it, fellow travelers.  Overall a beefy and enjoyable puzzle, though I did round up a few stray NITS.

Cool regards!

JzB

Note from C.C.:

Here are two great pictures of Jazzbumpa (Ron) at the Schoolcraft Winter Wonders Concert on Dec 17, 2012. Everything seems to be perfectly IN WHACK! Love his festive tie. Nothing is more cool than seeing a trombonist at work.