Today, MaryEllen Uthlaut has given us a Dutch treat, if going Dutch is
indeed a treat! The last time she treated us here was on Thanksgiving
Day.
This solved as a themeless, which is just as well because after I read the revealer, I still had no idea what was going on. But my fans (?) out there in crossword-land wouldn't want me to give up! So I dug in and eventually everything checked out.
63. With 65-Across, request from some diners, or what a black square creates in rows 3, 6, 8, and 10 of this puzzle: SEPARATE + CHECKS. So, we have SEPARATE CHECKS, where people in a group each pay for their own meal. The trick is the end of the first answer together with the beginning of the second (the parts that are "separated" by a black square) ideally combine to form a type of "check."
3rd row = 17A + 18A TARMAC COUNTESS → An ACCOUNT is a financial arrangement with a business entity whereby goods or services may be obtained without outlaying money until a set time later. I don't think she meant a checking ACCOUNT.
6th row = 27A + 30A SATIN VOICED → An INVOICE is a itemized document a seller sends to a buyer requesting payment for goods or services.
8th row = 38A + 40A LOVE SET ABSCOND → A TAB is a running total of what one owes, typically at a bar.
10th row = 47A + 50A GERBIL LEMON → A BILL is a payment request,,but usually more informal than an invoice.
All pretty clever, but some of these work better than others. When patrons ask for a check, they are often handed a totaled TAB or BILL. They are never handed an INVOICE, at a restaurant at least. And having an ACCOUNT is more of a business dealing, meaning that you will pay later (on ACCOUNT of having no money!). Unless MaryEllen simply intended that all these debts could be paid by check...
CHECK please! I've got a game to catch.
Across:
1. Grape used for sweet wine: MUSCAT. Varieties of MUSCAT grapes have been around since antiquity. Their intense perfume inspired Pliny the Elder to call them "the grape of the bees". Unfortunately, he didn't respond to my email asking why.
7. Ornery sort: CUSS. I had CRAB at first and wouldn't let it go for the longest time. Am I a CUSS?
11. Nev. neighbor: ARI. Nevada is next to ARIZONA and four other states.
14. Colored ring: AREOLA.
15. Like many new recruits: UNTESTED.
17. Airport area: TARMAC. Here's the TARMAC at NARITA, Japan.
18. Noble title: COUNTESS. I entered "dutchess" at first, part of my ornery NE corner.
19. High-five, e.g.: SLAP.
20. HP supply: INK. Formerly known as Hewlett-Packard, HP printers need INK.
22. Airport serving Tokyo: NARITA. NARITA International Airport is in a city on the eastern outskirts of the capital. Not to be confused with Narnia, which is on the other side of the wardrobe.
23. Make changes to: RETOOL. Usually in order to improve something.
26. Buttonlike flower: TANSY. I wrote pANSY, adding to my infamous NE meltdown.
27. Silky material: SATIN.
30. Spoken: VOICED.
32. Novelist Lurie: ALISON. ALISON Lurie won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her 1984 novel Foreign Affairs.
34. The Mustangs of the NCAA: SMU. The Southern Methodist University Mustangs football team play in the NCAA Football Subdivision (FBS) under the Atlantic Coast Conference. Dallas-based SMU, along with California's Stanford, joined the ACC last year even though neither school is anywhere near the east coast. Unfortunately, it makes extremely long road trips for all teams involved with them.
35. Feel sorry about: RUE.
38. Tennis shutout: LOVE SET. Winning a set 6-0. My LOVE, RightBrain, plays in two tennis leagues. Her custom license plate says "ELSKA," which is Swedish for LOVE. She was an exchange student there in high school.
40. Run away (with): ABSCOND.
43. 1980s Formula One driver __ Fabi: TEO. I somehow forgot about this Italian driver who was in his heyday 50 years ago.
44. North Sea diving bird: AUK.
46. Fill with bubbles: AERATE.
47. Leaping rodent: GERBIL.
50. Edsel, notably: LEMON. The Edsel wasn't really a LEMON, in the sense that it was in the shop all the time. It failed due to styling missteps, poor marketing strategy and bad timing as a recession hit.
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| A face only a mother could love! |
51. Follow, as a tip: ACTON.
54. Ties in knots: SNARLS. Like South Fla. rush hour traffic, or in almost any major city nowadays. Honestly, traffic is my #1 complaint around here.
56. Kin of ad hoc: PRO TEM.
58. Add color to: DYE.
59. Set of circumstances: CASE. As in The Curious Set of Circumstances of Benjamin Button.
65. [theme]
67. Perfect examples: EPITOMES.
68. Maintenance job: TUNE UP.
69. Champagne label word: SEC. Despite the name SEC meaning "dry," it is sweeter than Brut and Extra Dry.
71. Place for mail to accumulate: IN TRAY.
Down:
1. Floor cushions: MATS.
2. Eurasia's __ Mountains: URAL. It's URAL, as usual.
3. "Buona __": SERA. "Good evening" in Italian. "Buona SERA" may be used as both a hello and a goodbye during the evening hours.
4. Be made up of: COMPRISE.
5. Taking after: ALA.
6. Understood: TACIT.
7. Birds that make hourly appearances: CUCKOOS. The CUCKOO'S sound is created by two tiny flue pipes in the clock with bellows attached to their tops. The clock's movement activates the bellows to send a puff of air into each pipe alternately when the timekeeper strikes. That's CUCKOO!
8. Card game with an edition for colorblind players: UNO. When you're down to one card, you must shout, "UNO!"
9. Shock: STUN. When another player asks, "How many cards do you have left?" before you say "UNO!"
10. Legislative century: SENATE.
11. Had DiGiorno, perhaps: ATE IN. Frozen pizza has gotten better over the years, but still can't compete with fresh. "Is this delivery?" said no one, ever.
12. Takes five: RESTS.
13. Emphatic agreement: I'D SAY.
16. Fine fiddle: STRAD. STRADivarius. The difference between a fiddle and a violin is mainly what kind of music is played on it. Folk and country musicians call them fiddles, while classical and jazz players use violins.
21. Veterans Day mo.: NOV. It falls in the month of NOVember.
24. Mireille of "Hanna": ENOS. Who? Of what? I guess I don't watch the right TV shows.
25. Peruvian metropolis: LIMA.
27. Shaker fill: SALT.
28. __ vera: ALOE.
29. Early DVR: TIVO.
31. Birthplace of 2021 AL Rookie of the Year Randy Arozarena: CUBA. Names can be hard, but you know what's harder? Where they're from.
33. Closely related: NEAR.
35. Cover a lot of ground: ROAM.
36. King James preposition: UNTO. UNTO is used many times in the KJV, such as, "For UNTO us a child is born." Surprisingly, it was not in the Golden Rule as written: "And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise."
37. Garden of delight: EDEN. Here's the most famous panel from Bosch's triptych "The Garden of Earthly Delights."
39. Ice cream containers: TUBS.
41. "Don't __ yourself short": SELL.
42. __ roll: CRESCENT.
45. Most charitable: KINDEST.
47. Insinuated: GOT AT. I see what they are getting at.
48. Año openers: ENEROS. Spanish years begin in Januaries, as do most years. (The plural of January looks weird!)
49. Nonprofessional: LAY.
51. Semicircular recesses: APSES. APSES may also be polygonal.
52. Pancake with frizzled edges: CREPE.
53. Debate assignment: TOPIC.
55. Prefix with linear: RECTI. Rectilinear means consisting of, or moving in a straight lines, unlike this fellow:
57. Broadway "Auntie": MAME. Rosalind Russell played everyone's favorite aunt in both the 1956 play and 1958 movie.
60. Aspire laptop maker: ACER.
61. Predatory seabird: SKUA. Today I learned that SKUAs (pronounced skew-ah) are common in Antarctic and Arctic regions. They've been spotted at the South Pole. (At the North pole, they are striped! 💈 )
62. Catch sight of: ESPY. I ESPY with my little eye...
64. Lost Tribes number: TEN. The TEN Lost Tribes were those from the Twelve Tribes of Israel that were said to have been exiled from the Kingdom of Israel after it was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire around 720 BCE.
66. Nomadic invader: HUN.
Thank you for all the kind words on yesterday's puzzle that I coauthored with C.C. This really is the best Corner of the internet! Be good. RB
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