Saturday, Jun 11th, 2016, Mark Bickham

Theme: None

Words: 72 (missing Q)

Blocks: 28

I had to cave in to red-letters to solve the NE corner, and even then I was not able to come up with any logical answers, so I resorted to alphabet runs, and once the ta-DA~! came, I was really disappointed with the results.  I don't care if they are acceptable answers, even for a Saturday.  A couple were just too much of a s-t-r-e-t-c-h, and therefore "fun-sponge" gets called on this puzzle.  Too bad, really; other than in the NE, I did well (OK, there were some groaners in other places, too) and I am usually not very successful with Mark's constructions.  Oh, and did I mention the circumreferential clues~?  Triple 10s and paired 10s in the corners, with two 9s and four 8s;

17a. Where the Walking Piano scene in "Big" was filmed : FAO SCHWARZ - Nailed it; great scene, fun movie, can always watch it when it's on regular TV - from 1988, same as 12d.

12d. "The Accidental Tourist" Oscar winner : GEENA DAVIS - IMDb

64a. Wait follower : "...THERE'S MORE~!"

27d. Classic film words of self-revelation : I'M A REAL BOY

NO WRD Answer

ACROSS:

1. "Star Wars" High Council member : JEDI MASTER

11. Co. leaders : MGTS - ???  What~? Say again~?  Managements~?  Really~?  NOT.

15. Writing desk : ESCRITOIRE - Le Frawnche

16. Realize : REAP - Argh~!  Too much of a s-t-r-e-t-c-h

18. Toy since ancient times : PEKE - ugh.  The Dog, not YO-YO or KITE

19. Laughs : FUN

20. Text giggle : HEE - ugh, not LOL

21. ZzzQuil competitor : SOMINEX

23. Military actions : RAIDS - police actions, too

25. Spanish uncle? : NO MAS - cry uncle~!  No more~! Leave out the fun-sponge answers~!

26. Toys since 1964 : G.I. JOEs - I have part of the 80's collection of "action figures" that were about 4" tall; including the Hovercraft and a few other vehicles

29. Discombobulated : ASEA

31. Single dose? : DAT - ugh.  Not HIT

33. It's often made at parties : SMALL TALK - I'd like to talk with this girl at a party

35. Part of a suit : SPADE - not PANTS

37. Unlikely to bite : TAME

38. Join for a session : SIT IN - musical jam session

40. Base path? : EVIL

41. Proper 53-Down : AREN'T - circumreferential with; 53. Improper 41-Across : AIN'T - if you Ain't got a clue, you Aren't solving this without perps

43. Many a single : LINE DRIVE - baseball, not lonely guys/girls

45. Ds, in the key of C : REs - the key of C is C - D - E - f - G - A - b, so "D" corresponds to the Re of Do - Re - Mi....I play guitar, so I got it, but I can see this one being a fun-sponge, too

46. Sum is a form of it : ESSE - similar to "SERA" being part of ÊTRE from a few weeks ago, "I am" in Latin from the verb "To be"

48. Like many salons : UNISEX

49. Chance to hit : AT BAT - ah.  baseball, not blackjack

51. Country : RURAL - dah~!  Totally in "REALM", not "bumpkin/backwoods" mode

53. Chemical bases : ALKALIS - for some reason I kept telling myself this is the answer, but swore it wouldn't fit, even with --K-LI- filled....I can't explain it

55. Word with wire or water : HOT - you get caught doing a hot wire, you'd be in hot water

56. Gambling initials : OTB - Off-Track Betting

59. Once-venerated bird : IBIS - popular with the Egyptians

60. Homeric island dweller : LOTUS EATER - not the one I was thinking of; couldn't get SIRENS to fill in all spaces

63. Agreement with a refusal : NOR I

65. Kid : TYKE - oops, not JOke

66. No longer fashionable : "SO LAST YEAR"

DOWN:

1. Buckley who covered Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" : JEFF - WAG

2. Son of Rebecca : ESAU

3. Anti-rodent brand : d-CON

4. Return letters : IRS - tax return, that is

5. Most popular boy's name in 44 of the last 100 years : MICHAEL - mine was 11th in NJ for the year I was born - the site

6. Foxhole absentees, so it's said : ATHEISTS - as a "Friend of Bill W.", I am familiar with "foxhole prayers"

7. Scattered : SOWED - STREWN and SOWN were not working

8. __ Maria : TIA

9. Goes thataway instead of thisaway : ERRS

10. Do a city planner's job : RE-ZONE

11. Absent-minded A.A. Milne title character : Mr. PIM - Don't know this character, so I was totally "ASEA"

13. Goes down as planned : TAKES A DIVE

14. Informal glasses : SPEX - meh.

22. Extinct birds : MOAs

23. Seven-time All-Star third baseman Scott __ : ROLEN - more baseball

24. More thirst-inducing : SALTIER

26. The sun, for one : G-STAR

28. TV hero who famously kissed 52-Down : JAMES T. KIRK - paired to; 52. See 28-Down : UHURA - if you didn't know it, this was fun-sponge, too.  I am a big fan of the "Next Generation" version; the original was too boring for me, but I did like the movies - I liked Shatner; can't get into the "latest" re-re-version.

30. Bones' partner : SKIN - Ironic that this should follow Kirk - Dr. McCoy "Bones", also from Star Trek

32. Bygone messager : TELEX

34. Feels off : AILS

36. "__ at End House": Christie mystery : PERIL - perps

39. Complex parts : NEUROSES

42. Color on San Jose Shark uniforms : TEAL - San Jose lives~!  At least one more game, tho I'd like to see them go two more and take it all

44. Evidence provider : DNA TEST

47. Circus equipment : STILTS - drywall mudding, too

50. Musical count : BASIE - ah.  That kind of Count

54. NYC gallery district : SOHO - SOuth of HOuston Street; the Wiki

56. Plains tribe : OTOE

57. Trillion: Pref. : TERA

58. Fictional rabbit's title : BR'ER

61. Address bk. info : TELephone

62. Pulitzer poet Lowell : AMY

Splynter

Saturday, March 26th, 2016, Mark Bickham

Theme: MB

Words: 72 (missing J,X,Z)

Blocks: 34

   I typically cringe when I see Mr. Bickham's name in the title, though upon reviewing his last two Saturday offerings, I see that I fared well on the last one, and claimed to have breezed through the one prior to that.  This week, I have to say, I threw in a few WAGs and they worked out for the best; they helped my long answers tremendously, and led to a fast solution.  I might have discovered the wavelength that Mark operates on.  I will admit I had one letter wrong, which I discovered when there was no "Ta-DA~!" at the end.  I'll take it.  One climber, and one spanner, with a pair of 12-letter fills stacked either side;

7d. Loan document : PAYMENT SCHEDULE

35a. Response acknowledging familiarity : I GET THAT A LOT

38a. Couple getting away together? : PARTNERS IN CRIME

41a. Beyond reproach : SQUEAKY CLEAN

вперед~! (62a.) 

ACROSS:

1. She played Madeleine in "Bel Ami" (2012) : UMA - did not see this movie

4. Get really excited : FLIP

8. Mug shot result? : FAT LIP - not sure which "mug" and "shot" we might be looking at; the one involving arrest, or the one involving 'arrested development' ( that is, consuming alcohol excessively ).  Turns out neither - instead it's a shot to the mug

14. __ data : RAW

15. "The Diana Chronicles" author Brown : TINA - filled via perps

16. Rooks, e.g. : AVIANS - I was on a chess wavelength; here it's the bird

17. Social follower? : ITE - socialite

18. Levitate : DEFY GRAVITY - that's what it means

20. Fashionable : CHIC - I did technically post a pic of legs last week, but just to be clear, this is still what I call "chic"

22. "Enough, José!" : "NO MAS~!"

23. Shout after a muleta manipulation : OLÉ - Spanish uno mas - a muleta ( having had to look it up ) is a red cape fixed to a stick.  I pretty much figured out what the answer was without knowing, though the actual definition of the word is "crutch"

24. Hard-to-hit pitch : HIGH C - ah, not baseball

26. __ fail : EPIC - this was my first thought, but I hesitated

28. Carrier of many old couples : ARK

30. Historic Buddhist temple : SHAOLIN

33. You can count on them : ABACI - got it

42. Lemony spice used in Middle Eastern cuisine : SUMAC - I'm guessing it's not the poisonous kind....

43. Question of time : "HOW LONG~?" - I tried "HOW SOON", and two "O"s were good to go

46. Half a drink : TAI - and of course, I tried MAI

47. Not out : SAFE - ah, here's the baseball

50. 2000s Showtime series, with "The" : L WORD - heard of it, have not seen it

52. "Star Trek" initialism : TNG - "The Next Generation", which truly was MY generation's Star Trek; I could not get into the original, tho the movies with the original cast were to my liking.  Now we're being shown Star WARS, the next generation

54. In a big way : BADLY

57. Party where lomi salmon may be served : LUAU - I tried BRIS to start; bzzzt.  The internet claims it's actually lomi-lomi

58. Runway highlight : BEAUTY QUEEN - I have been communicating with a girl who was the beauty queen of a dance at her college - and she is a cutie; 29, with beautiful green eyes - maybe more next week....

61. Treasury Dept. variable : GNP

62. Fitting game : TETRIS - one of my all-time favorite video games

I also found this, this and this

63. 1970 Kinks hit : LOLA

64. Stand in a barrel : AGE - think the verb

65. Outsmarts : ONE-UPS

66. Good place to see plays : ESPN - more likely to see RE-plays, actually

67. Rocker Nugent : TED

DOWN:

1. "Spenser: For Hire" actor : URICH - It took a moment to recall his last name; I knew his first name was Robert; I knew him from "The Ice Pirates" from way back in 1984

2. He's no Johnny One Note : MATHIS - I have one of his Christmas albums

3. Barely clear of the bottom : AWEIGH

4. Co. with a bouquet in its logo : FTD - Florists' Transworld Delivery - the Wiki

5. Bank security : LIEN

6. Scoop : INFO

8. Iranian language : FARSI

9. Clark's "Mogambo" co-star : AVA

10. It helps you avoid seeing spots : TiVO - the "spots" being TV ads; I DVR all my stuff so I can skip the commercials, too

11. Boxer who retired undefeated : LAILA ALI

12. Building security device : INTERCOM

13. Humanities dept. : PSYchology; I see that it might be considered a science instead

19. Clothing giant : GAP - different "gap" from yesterday

21. Starbucks latte order : CHAI TEA

25. Courvoisier and Hennessy : COGNACS

27. Taunt : CATCALL

29. Surfer's option : KITE - my one wrong letter was the "K"; I had SITE, which makes internet surfing sense; I did not check my crossings

31. Garlic relative : LEEK

32. "Just doing my job" : "I TRY." - this week I had a new truck in my UPS line-up, and it was a disaster the first day of the week; I did not feel very good about the job I did.  I recovered pretty quickly, however, as the driver told me I did an outstanding job two days later.  I try.

34. Nocturnal bird : BARN OWL

36. City name that looks like an oxymoron : HILO - High, or Low~?

37. Over : ANEW

38. "Hey!" : PSST - oops; with my MAI, I tried AHEM

39. "__ Hunger Force": Adult Swim cartoon : AQUA-TEEN - I have seen a few episodes of this show, but I was more a fan of "Robot Chicken"

40. Ponder : RUMINATE

44. Milky Way component : NOUGAT

45. Farm : GRANGE - my first AA home group was in a community center we called "The Grange"; I am guessing it was once a part of a local farm, as it is now an historic landmark

48. Profundity metaphor : ABYSS - this one goes "deep"

49. Provider of answers, briefly : FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions

51. Had : DUPED - "I've been duped~!"

53. Provider of answers : GURU

55. Some summer births : LEOS

56. Kennel noise : YELP

58. "Takin' Care of Business" rock gp. : BTO - Bachman-Turner Overdrive; classic rock of the 70's

59. Bills left behind, perhaps : TIP

60. Indian bread : NAN

Splynter

Saturday, Feb 13th, 2016, Mark Bickham

Theme: None

Words: 70 (missing J,Q)

Blocks: 30

Our first Saturday offering in 2016 from Mr. Bickham - his last one, back in September, was easy; I breezed through.  Not so much today.  I had to cheat one proper name, but for the most part, I prevailed, and within my personal allotted time.  Today was one of those days when I truly took advantage of the "Wild-A** Guess".  Had two entries that were featured in recent puzzles, too, which I thought was odd; one clued the same, the other, differently.   Triple 8/6 corners, two spanners, and two 9-letter answers today;

26. Philosophers in the news since 1985 : CALVIN AND HOBBES - One of my all-time favorite comic strips, and I know BarryG is a huge fan as well

46. Basics : BARE NECESSITIES - also a lingerie shopping site - one of their ads....

O be miNe WARD~!

ACROSS:

1. Candy in a strawlike container : PIXY STIX - I knew this, but all I could recall of the spelling was "-STIX".  The rest I had to WAG 

pure sugar

9. "The Great Santini" Oscar nominee Michael : O'KEEFE - caved in to Google on this one - before my time - IMDb

15. Do-it-yourself style : HOME PERM - ah.  The important thing to recognize here is that "style" refers to 'hair', not 'manner'

16. One often checking boxes : POLLER - I considered "TESTEE" at first

17. Partly : IN A SENSE - oops.  Had ONE SENSE

18. He broke Walter's NFL career rushing record : EMMITT - Once I had half the letters, I recalled this guy - but I am not such a fan of football that I know the players all that well; in fact, I was told that he won Dancing With The Stars, too

19. Was sharply critical, with "out" : LASHED - not CHEWED

20. Adopted great-nephew of Claudius : NERO

22. Everyday list ender : ZEE - dang~!  Not ETC

23. Common pledge : I DO

24. Composer/conductor Boulanger : NADIA - the "D" was my last fill - funny story; more at 10d.

33. Like many fliers : AVIAN - Dah~!  Had A-I-N, so I tried aLiEn first - as in unidentified fliers

34. Fictional place near Atlanta : TARA - Gone With The Wind

35. Internet __ : MEME - CAFE was wrong, but 25% correct 100%ly

36. Put one's foot down? : REV - and then see 5 Down

37. What smart alecks do : GET CUTE - WISE OFF was wrong

40. Swift of fiction : TOM - WAG

41. Binged (on) : ODed - total WAG

43. Fabrication : YARN - LIE was too short, but I was on that wavelength

44. "Running on Empty" (1988) actress : LAHTI - WAG

49. Ruin partner : WRACK - not an idiom I am familiar with

50. Metaphor words : IS A - ugh.  I had AS A, and nothing was working in the SE.  "Life IS A Journey" - I get it now

51. Dept. in a "Law & Order" spin-off : SVU - I put in MCS first, Major Case Squad

53. Piece of work : TASK - not OPUS

55. Like Miss Congeniality : NICEST

59. Compression-utilizing weapon : AIRGUN

61. Forbidden zone : NO-GO AREA - sounds made up

63. Beckett genre, with "the" : ABSURD - WAG.  I had to find out what makes up the genre - the Wiki

64. Whirlpool protection, perhaps : OVEN MITT - clever; Whirlpool, the manufacturer of fine ranges

65. Designer Johnson : BETSEY

66. 2003 film with the tagline "He doesn't care if you're naughty or nice" : BAD SANTA - never saw it, and have no desire to do so in the future, even at (clecho); 3d. 66-Across setting, briefly : XMAS

DOWN:

1. Dr. __ : PHIL - took just a little too long for this one to occur to me; J, No, Who, Spock, Pepper, Zhivago - letter by letter, I missed the four-letter one

2. New York school : IONA - true clecho to follow; this one is Catholic....

4. New York school : YESHIVA - this one is Jewish

5. Ticket generator : SPEEDING - eh.  I like speed TRAP better

6. Body stretcher? : TENDON

7. Agcy. with complicated schedules : IRS

8. Colossus and Cyclops, e.g. : X-MEN

9. Collapsible topper : OPERA HAT

10. Dragon habitat : KOMODO - OK, so I was thinking FOREST first, and then DUNGEON ( I was a huge D&D fan ).  Then I had --O-O, and filled in KIMONO.  Yeah, I know that's wrong

11. Tree that can form natural tunnels : ELM

12. Daughter of Anne Boleyn : ELIZABETH I - this one we had back on Jan 16

13. Blowout : FETE - not ROUT

14. Deco pseudonym : ERTE - I like Art Deco, and I like this bronze

21. Sweeps on a gridiron : END RUNS - 18a. was probably good for this

25. Watson's creator : IBM

26. Evergreen with edible pods : CAROB - and this one we had on Jan 30

27. Estée Lauder subsidiary : AVEDA

28. Spreadable sausage : LIVERWURST

29. Goes after : ATTACKS

30. Pearly coating : NACRE

31. Behave theatrically : EMOTE

32. They come before finals : SEMIs

38. Superficially attractive thing : EYE CANDY - I learned this term when I worked on the movie set back in '97

39. Colloquial language features : ELISIONS - wanna, gonna, etc.

42. __ Spiegel: German magazine : DER

45. South American desert : ATACAMA - WAG

47. Human __ : NATURE - I thought there might be a slight misdirection, so I went with BEINGS, being in the plural

48. Burned a little : SINGED

51. Scandinavian import : SAAB - SAADLY, they're no more

52. Vague feeling : VIBE

54. Turner of old TV? : KNOB - Mr. Bickham GOT CUTE on this one (37a.)

56. Land near Albion : ERIN - WAG

57. Paving stone : SETT - learning moment for me; I have heard of a Belgian block

58. Casual farewell : TA-TA

60. The Theatre Cat in "Cats" : GUS

62. Tiny tube travelers : OVA - another one that took too long to occur to me

Thank you for all the birthday comments this week - no time to do the puzzle that day, but I did get a chance to read the comments~!

Splynter

Sunday Jan 31, 2016 Mark Bickham

Theme: Misaligned 

In Mark's lovely Sunday offering (Sunday? Offering?), he revealed the theme with 

121. Misaligned...or, literally, a perfectly aligned aspect of seven answers in this puzzle: OFF CENTER - as you see below in this mint mistake. 

The twist of course is the fact that Marks's fun theme fill has the word "OFF" in the geometric CENTER of some common phrases. So the theme is OFF CENTER (Misaligned) but the fill consists of the word OFF in the  CENTER of common phrases. Run that around your brain box a few times!

I found the triple stacks of 11 particularly impressive and here are Mark's fun theme fills

21. Place of business : THE OFFICE - Here's the cast from the original UK TV show THE OFFICE starring Ricky Gervais before Steve Carell, et al made it a hit here

23. Powerful display : SHOW OF FORCE - A joint US/South Korea Air Force SHOW OF FORCE intended for a certain party north of the 38th parallel  

39. Recidivists : REPEAT OFFENDERS - The NHTSA says the REPEAT OFFENDER rate for DUI is about 25%. 

48. Olive branch: PEACE OFFERING - After being accused of a horrible crime, Kobe Bryant gave his wife Vanessa a $4M purple diamond ring as a PEACE OFFERING which sports reporters called "The Apology Ring". She initiated divorce proceedings and then called them off eight years later

102. Clique : CIRCLE OF FRIENDS - Some thought it odd that this CIRCLE OF FRIENDS could not find a minority member in NYC for their clique. 

119. Vivien Leigh's last film : SHIP OF FOOLS - 36 years twixt Scarlett O'Hara and Mary Treadwell

93. Red Label spirits : SMIRNOFF VODKA - They get the Bronze Medal in this "Rate The Vodka" poll that was taken of the World's 50 Best Bars. However, it is the top seller world-wide by a large margin.

Across        

1. Time to hang on? : A SEC 

5. Dinner __ : DATE

9. Trunk hardware : HASP

13. Future flowers : BUDS

17. Sheltered area : COVE

18. Declare frankly : AVOW

19. NFL Titan, before 1999 : OILER - Earl Campbell running for the Houston OILER team 15 years before they became the alliterative Tennessee Titans. Tony?

20. "But I could be wrong" : OR NOT

25. 49-Down counterpart: Abbr. : SOR

26. "Assuming that's true ... " : IF SO

27. Heap : TON

28. Sics on : LETS AT - I said "Good Night!"

29. Like some guitar music : TWANGY

31. Comic Jay : MOHR - MOHR, you're in for LENO

34. Not nice at all : SNIDE

36. U.S. govt. broadcaster : VOA

38. Mandlikova of '80s tennis : HANA

42. Louise __, National Book Award winner for "The Round House" : ERDRICH - an Ojibwe writer of novels, poetry, and children's books featuring Native American characters and settings

45. Empire with provinces called suyu : INCA - If you remember any of these after you scroll by... 

46. Superman nemesis Luthor : LEX

47. Hebrew for "skyward" : EL AL - Profiling is part of their security procedures

51. Still being tested, as software : IN BETA

53. Objectivism advocate Rand : AYN - Isn't there a 3-letter woman's LAST name we see often here hmmm...

54. Stadium shaker : ROAR

55. "There __ darkness but ignorance": "Twelfth Night" : IS NO

56. Undefined number : ANY - Give this A SEC

57. Thieves' room? : DEN

58. Cheat : ROOK

60. Wound covering : SCAB

62. __ center : MED

63. Sweater sizes: Abbr. : LGES

65. Ancient Roman garment : TUNIC - "Quod tunica spectat ridiculam super te , Caesar" (That TUNIC does look funny on you, Caesar!)  "Et tu, Brute" 

67. Camaro option : T-TOP

69. Where shakes may be seen : ROOF - Shake shingles

71. Udder parts : TEATS - "Quit that snickering or there'll be no recess!"

75. Quarterback Tony : ROMO

77. It receives many returns: Abbr. : IRS - I mail mine (don't trust electronic filing) on April 14th as late as I can. Grrrr....

79. Become less hostile : THAW - We've just had our January THAW this week with temps well into the 40's. Blizzard on Tuesday!

 81. Frigate front : PROW - The other end is called the what?

    

82. Meas. reduced by fog : VIS - VISiblity abbr. indicated

85. Major conflict : WAR

86. Country singer McCann : LILA

88. Picnic side : SLAW

90. Place for a nail : TOE

91. Van Cleef & __: French jeweler/perfumer : ARPELS - What's that S doing there?

96. Crisis team acronym : SWAT

97. Letters before F? : TGI - Everyday is Friday for me

100. Mr. Knightley's wife, in the novel of the same name : EMMA - Our EMMA at our house

101. Leaning : AT A TILT

106. Olympic hawk : ARES - I suppose a God Of War would be a hawk

107. Teen's opening number? : ONE - 13, 14...

108. Actress Ryan : IRENE - Her most famous role is on her tombstone

109. Close : NEAR

110. Common rejoinder in one-upmanship : OH YEAH -Not exactly pithy

112. "Full House" actor : STAMOS

114. Forest female : DOE

116. Rhein tributary : AARE

118. MLX ÷ X : CVI - We have ₤1,060 and tunics are ₤10 apiece which means we can buy 106 of them

123. Farm girls : MARES and 8 Down. Farm girl : EWE - Some rural girls 

124. Polonius hid behind one : ARRAS - I first saw this in the January 22 puzzle this year

125. Razor brand : ATRA

126. Source : ROOT

127. Blown away : AWED - Even Simon

128. Reddish horse : ROAN

129. General __ chicken : TSO'S

130. Shelter sounds : ARFS


Down

1. Does as expected : ACTS THE PART

2. "But enough about me" follower : SO HOW ARE YOU - We all know people who never utter these words

3. Occasionally : EVER AND ANON - "And EVER AND ANON they made a doubt" - Loves Labours Lost

4. Board VIP : CEO

5. Black toon duck : DAFFY - None of my H.S. Juniors knew him

6. Alamo competitor : AVIS

7. In the future : TO COME

9. Greeting from Kermit : HI HO

10. King in "The Tempest" : ALONSO

11. Put in stitches : SEW

12. Hot-button political platform term : PRO-LIFE

13. Warner __ : BROS - For whom the Black Toon Duck worked

14. Came apart : UNRAVELED

15. High degree : DOCTORATE - At least get one that's worth something 

16. Fr. holy woman : STE

19. Exclusion : OSTRACISM - Heartbreaking to watch on the playground 

20. Quite a bit : OFTEN

22. Fruit often dried : FIG

24. Shipping overnight, perhaps : FEDEXING - The old "noun to a verb" trick

30. Certain undercover cop : NARC

32. Andy's son : OPIE

33. Painter Rousseau : HENRI - Post impressionist (looked it up) and this is cool

35. 32-team gp. : NFL

37. "The Lord of the whole wood," per Mr. Beaver : ASLAN

39. Blood typing concern : RH FACTOR - 85% of white people and 93% of black people are RH+

40. Worker with hides : TANNER

41. Ball girl : DEB - Front of utante? :-) 

43. Suffix with front : IER

44. Sweet talk : COOS

49. Rites group : FRAT

50. Titular character with no lines : GODOT - I think they're still waiting for him

52. "My eye!" in Minsk : NYET

56. "__ Aunt": Little Rascals short : ALFALFA'S - I don't know about his Aunt but the consensus was that Alfalfa (Carl Switzer) was a jerk. He eventually died of a gunshot wound

59. Cassis aperitif : KIR - A French cocktail made with a measure of Crème de Cassis mixed with dry, white wine

61. Starts to bubble, maybe : BOILS - Not if you're watching it

64. NFL season opening mo. : SEP - Next Sunday it's the Super Bowl and then a long wait

66. Monastery garb : COWL

68. Easy read : PRIMER - Just the sight of this PRIMER brings back great memories

70. Extremely : OH SO

72. Production design team member : ART DIRECTOR

73. Said farewell to : TOOK LEAVE OF - Aren't we more familiar with TOOK LEAVE OF his/her senses?

74. Resort area souvenirs : SWEATSHIRTS

76. With "a," eminently skilled at, as disguise : MASTER OF

78. Severe disrepute : SLIMINESS

80. Be carried gently : WAFT

82. Explorer __ da Gama : VASCO - First European to sail around Africa to India. He left 5 yrs. after Columbus went the other way

83. "The Young Lions" novelist : IRWIN SHAW

84. External Jeep attachment : SPARE TIRE - Famously carried on the back of the vehicle

87. Napoleon's légion : ARMEE - French dogfaces 

89. Mountain State: Abbr. : W VA - In the words of John Denver

92. List-limiting letters : ETC

94. Gram : NANA

95. Our Gang assent : OTAY - Unlike Carl Switzer, Billie Thomas below, was a real gentleman who found work as a Technicolor film technician when the Rascals filming stopped

98. Makes it big : GOES FAR

99. Dogpatch conditional : IF'N

103. Rides to the prom : LIMOS

104. Sinatra trademark : FEDORA

105. They may be rough : DRAFTS - Written in the White House on Presidential stationary not on the back of an envelope while on a train. Lincoln edited it the night before and added the tenth and final sentence. Yup, only ten.

110. Black-and-white swimmers : ORCAS

111. Bit of a chuckle : HEE

113. Mimicked : APED

115. "The Good Earth" wife : OLAN

117. Hendrix hairdo : AFRO - Buckwheat?

119. Wee : SMA - A 1909 Sadie Wendell Mitchell poster of scandalous behavior!

120. Granada gold : ORO

121. Meal opener : OAT - Mom used to say OATMEAL will "stick to your ribs"

122. Food service trade org. : NRA - Maybe someone with a potato gun could belong to both this and the other NRA

I'm sure Mark is happy with a very fine puzzle and does not require a BURNT OFFERING and so let's see if there are any "OFF CENTER" remarks to follow. Anyone posting such a comment would probably not be a FIRST OFFENDER