Sunday October 9, 2016 Matt Skoczen

 Theme: "Big Time" - The first word can follow "Big".

 23A. Breakfast order : CHEESE OMELETTE. Big cheese. I use the OMELET spelling. You?

36A. Fruity pastry shop purchase : APPLE TURNOVER. Big Apple.

51A. Unite : BAND TOGETHER. Big Band.

78A. Wedding acquisition, perhaps? : BROTHER- IN- LAW. Big brother.

95A. Stab : SHOT IN THE DARK. Big shot.

111A. 1949 Crosby film set in Ireland : TOP O' THE MORNING. Big top. Unfamiliar with the film.

17D. Fan of Pat and Vanna, familiarly : WHEEL WATCHER. Big wheel.

60D. Ones not at home on the range : CITY SLICKERS. Big city.

Simple theme. I mentioned before that Rich prefers this type of "words that can follow/precede" theme on weekdays, unless the theme really excites him to warrant a Sunday.

Impressive chunks of white spaces in upper left & lower right corners. Themeless look. This is very hard to pull off with sparkly and clean fill.

Across:

      

1. Suffered a setback : RELAPSED

9. Shared spirit : ETHOS. We also have PATHOS (63. Pity-evoking quality)

14. Bit by bit : SLOWLY

20. Swimwear option : ONE PIECE

21. "High waving heather __ stormy blasts bending": Emily Brontë : 'NEATH

22. Tie up : TETHER

25. Writ word : HABEAS. Habeas corpus.

26. NFL lineman-turned-actor Alex : KARRAS. Is he a gimme to you?

27. Powder first marketed as Hudson's Soap : RINSO

28. Burned in a thurible : CENSED

29. Spanish liqueur : ANIS

30. Rolled __ : OATS. I've been having overnight oats every morning since March 31. Pomegranates are now in season. So good with overnight oats.

32. Garage event : SALE

33. Directed : LED

35. Abbr. for old dates : BCE

41. Twistedly funny : WRY. PK is having problem with her iMac, Irish Miss. Hopefully her computer guy fixes her glitch soon.

42. "Absolutely!" : YES SIREE

44. __ bread : RAISIN. Not BANANA or GARLIC.

45. Still-life subject : VASE. I tried EWER first. It showed up later at  76. Still-life subject : EWER

46. Tabasco, por ejemplo : ESTADO

47. Illusions in an act : MAGIC

49. Foppish neckwear : ASCOT

55. Yokels : HICKS

58. Drag, e.g. : RACE. Got via crosses.

61. Delete : ERASE

62. What X may mean : TEN. Also 88. M, on many forms : MALE

 

64. Bird: Pref. : AVI

65. Bernadette et al.: Abbr. : STES

66. Tammany Hall Tiger artist : NAST (Thomas)

68. U.K. country : ENG

69. Kugel ingredient : POTATO. Never had Kugel before.

71. Middle of Christmas? : ESS

74. Spa feature : SAUNA

76. Part of Q.E.D. : ERAT

77. First name in dance : TWYLA (Tharp). Not ADELE.

81. Work for : SERVE

83. Court tie : DEUCE. Oh, tennis.

84. Trypanosome transmitter : TSETSE. The fly is back.

 

90. Energy output : EFFORT. Did not come to me easily.

92. Concepts : THEORIES

94. 2001 boxing biopic : ALI

98. Richie's dad, to the Fonz : MR. C

99. F1 neighbor on PCs : ESC

100. U. of Maryland player : TERP

101. "No problem" : EASY. And  103. "No problem" : OK BY ME

 

102. Sandra Denton, in a hip-hop trio : PEPA. Salt-N-Pepa. Got me.

105. Rapper __ Shakur : TUPAC

108. Kitchen gadget : PEELER. D-Otto brought his potato peeler to Florida when he visited his sister. His legendary potato dumplings need serious prep work.

110. Louisiana cuisine : CREOLE

114. Set : HARDEN

115. Stirred : AWOKE

116. Scolds severely : RIPS INTO

117. Newspaper ad, commonly : INSERT

118. Baltimore's __ Harbor : INNER. Aleppo moment.

119. Least seasoned : GREENEST. Also 3. Most skeptical : LEERIEST

Down:

1. "__ baby ... " : ROCK-A-BYE. Got via crosses.

2. Adds value to : ENHANCES

 

4. Mimes : APERS. Noun "Mimes".

5. Italian coastal city : PISA

6. Understands : SEES

7. Friendly front? : ECO. Eco-friendly.

8. JFK, e.g. : DEM

9. Sign up : ENLIST

10. Many a senior : TEEN. Also 19. Jr. and sr. : YRS

11. They may be tipped : HATS

12. "The Simpsons" bus driver : OTTO. And our Meals on Wheels driver as well. D-Otto volunteers for several causes.  

13. Byron's "__ Walks in Beauty" : SHE

14. Mount named for a friend of George Vancouver : ST HELENS. I did not know who George Vancouver is. Now I know.

15. Not quite a ringer : LEANER. Drew a blank. Horseshoe score.

16. Wagering places: Abbr. : OTBs

 

18. Band heads : LEADERS

 

24. "Symphony in Black" artist : ERTE

28. Sturgeon delicacy : CAVIAR. This is how I first tried caviar. On sliced baguette.

30. Reveal in a poem? : OPE

31. Taproom quencher : ALE

32. Letters in the sand? : SOS. I like this clue.

34. Easter decorating supply : DYE

36. Opera that premiered in Cairo in 1871 : AIDA

37. Characterized by : PRONE TO

38. Impulse : URGE

39. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee the same year as Clapton and Taylor : RAITT. Got via crosses.

40. Wall recess : NICHE

43. Word from Tonto : SABE. Kemo Sabe.

45. Big name in sporting goods : VOIT. This stumped some last time.

47. Rap sheet routines: Abbr. : MOs. MO = modus operandi.

48. Turn gray, maybe : AGE

50. Rap (with) : CHAT. I did not know "Rap with" means  "Chat with". So I was rapping with Boomer. Told him that pumpkin pie should be called "squash pie". Pumpkin is too stringy. What you get in a can is mostly a mixture of various winter squashes.

52. Rap's Dr. __ : DRE

53. Shock source : TASER

54. Tedium : ENNUI

56. Hawaiian coffee district : KONA

57. U.S. Army E-6 : SSGT

58. Spellbound : RAPT

59. Swear to be true : AVOW

 

63. Hymnal that's often richly illustrated : PSALTER. Learning moment for me. 

65. Rating unit : STAR

67. Massachusetts cape : ANN

70. On the safer side : ALEE

72. "Ditto!" : SO DO I

73. Back on the ocean : STERN

74. Champagne word : SEC

75. "Odds __ ... " : ARE

 78. Sooner than : BEFORE

79. Sluglike "Star Wars" alien : HUTT. I only know Jabba the Hutt.

80. "Dilbert" intern : ASOK. Learned from doing crosswords.

82. Heated : VEHEMENT

85. Facebook feature : TIMELINE

86. Medusa's hair, after Athena got done with it : SERPENTS. Vivid clue.

87. Dish requiring special utensils : ESCARGOT. Had no idea how to eat these when I first tried.

88. Questel who voiced Betty Boop : MAE, Unknown figure to me.

89. Loser : ALSO-RAN

91. Data-uploading letters : FTP.  OK, File Transfer Protocol.

92. 6-pt. scores : TDs

93. Loft filler : HAY

95. Salon appliance : STYLER. Also the name of Sting's wife. I doubt Rich will ever use it though. A bit obscure.

96. Winter warmer : HEATER

97. Apiece : EACH

102. Secure, on a farm : PEN IN

104. Portend : BODE

105. College __ : TOWN

106. Conversant with : UP ON

107. Nose (around) : POKE

108. Vitalian, for one : POPE. Aleppo moment. Did not know Pope Vitalian.

109. Gaelic tongue : ERSE

110. See 111-Down : CHI. And 111. With 110-Down, Eastern discipline : TAI

112. Bit of work : ERG

113. Fallen space station : MIR. Fell to Earth in 2001.

Last Monday I met with Andrea Carla Michaels, the Monday Queen of NYT crosswords. We walked around Lake Harriet where Andrea grew up. She showed me her childhood home, which is gated now. Andrea now lives in San Francisco, but might move back to MN someday. She used to be a standup comedian and has so many interesting stories to tell. Wish you guys were walking along with us. Click here for a few more pictures.

Thursday, July 14th 2016 Matt Skoczen

Theme: A lot of Toro! Circles reveal the word BULL four times in the grid.

17A. Music in 62-Across : PASODOBLE. Here's one for blog-background music.

39A. Performer in 62-Across : MATADOR

62A. Fighting venues suggested by this puzzle's circles : BULLRINGS

Ernest Hemingway would approve of this puzzle's theme. Bullfighting and bull-running have been much in the news in recent days.

Neat theme from Matt; once I realized what was going on with the circles they helped me fill in a couple of blanks. Nice that three of the entries cross-referenced the theme. If you don't get circles in your puzzle and you don't like cross-referential clues, then this one probably wasn't entirely up your street.

Let's see what else we've got today:

Across:

1. UV filter once widely used in sunscreens : PABA. New to me. Para-amino Benzoic Acid. Apparently caused allergic reactions in a number of people, so no longer used.

5. Word in Italian dishes : ALLA. Food! Here's spaghetti alla vongole.

9. Italian for "wasp" : VESPA. New to me, but as soon as I had the "V" I knew what it was. Those scooters do buzz around like wasps.

14. Lifetimes : AGES

15. Sign on for more service : RE-UP

16. One-__ chance : IN-TEN

19. Swedish-born Chan actor : OLAND. Thank you, crosses. I've never seen any of the Charlie Chan movies.

20. Cunning : ARTFUL

21. River through Kazakhstan : URAL

23. Dating letters : BCE. Before the Common Era.

24. Fisherman's knot : SNELL. Another new one to me. I don't fish, so ..

26. They may be independent : CLAUSES

28. Race town near Windsor Castle : ASCOT. I'm going to be staying in Windsor next Thursday night. I'll say hello to the Queen and her peeps.

30. People never seen in "Peanuts" : ADULTS

32. Word with smoke or kisses : BLOW

33. Arthurian address : SIR. The Arthurian knights. Here's "the" Round Table hanging in Winchester's Great Hall. I'll be there again on Saturday. My friend is 5' tall to give you some idea of the scale.

34. Very old thing : FOSSIL

38. Sylvan sticker : BUR

41. Thurman of "Henry & June" : UMA

42. More than just suggest : REEK OF

44. Salyut successor : MIR. The Soviet/Russian space station programs. There were six Salyut stations; the last one came out of orbit in 1991.

45. Snead has won three of them, briefly : PGA'S. US Men's golf's PGA Championship. Jason Duffner's wife famously took this picture of him the morning after he won the trophy in 2013.

46. Existing: Lat. : IN ESSE. Never heard of this one, but then again I'm not a lawyer.

48. Work with a team : COACH

49. Misconception : FALLACY

52. Brown shade : UMBER

54. Brown address ending : EDU. Brown University can be found on the interwebs at www.brown.edu.

55. Bausch's partner : LOMB. Ray-Ban Aviators, anyone?

57. Opens up : LETS ON

60. Cover story : ALIBI

64. Levels, in Leeds : RASES. I used to live in Leeds as a kid. One of my earliest memories is being taken by my teenage sister to see "A Hard Day's Night" at the local cinema. I couldn't figure out why everyone in the place spent the entire movie screaming. The cinema was RASED in 1966 to make way for a shopping mall.

65. Comic strip canine : ODIE

66. Mind, with "for" : CARE

67. College near Albany : SIENA. Nailed it!

68. D-Day craft : LST'S. Landing Ship, Tank.

69. What it's risky to build on? : SPEC

Down:

1. Haydn sobriquet : PAPA

"Papa Haydn's dead and gone

but his memory lingers on.

When his mood was one of bliss

he wrote jolly tunes like this."

2. Food thickener : AGAR

3. Visual media soundtrack Grammy Award : BEST SCORE

4. Presently : AS OF NOW

5. Winning, with "on" : A ROLL

6. Med. nation : LEB. Lebanon; the only country with a tree on the flag.

7. Doozie : LULU

8. Brief summary : APERÇU. I try to keep these summaries brief, but usually I fail miserably.

9. Crook, e.g. : VIOLATOR

10. Phot. lab request : ENL. Least favorite clue/entry of the day.

11. They may be taken on "Jeopardy!" : STABS

12. British coin additive? : PENCE. Here's an old sixpence from the Queen's coronation year:

13. Chilean range : ANDES

18. Number for two : DUET

22. Highly in favor of : ALL FOR

25. Metz milk : LAIT. Metz sounds more German than French; as it happens it's only a few miles from the German border.

27. Letters with Arizona or Missouri : U.S.S.

28. Short for short? : ABBR.

29. Swing around : SLUE

31. "Wee" pours of Scotch : DRAMS. Cheers, Tin-man!

33. Mariners' home, familiarly : SAFECO. Seattle's Major League ballpark.

35. Pea variety : SUGAR SNAP

36. Apple variety : iMAC

37. Hit violently, as waves against the shore : LASH

39. Oscar-winning song immortalized by Nat King Cole : MONA LISA

40. "Mon __!" : DIEU

43. About .62 mi. : KILometer.

45. Discourse on verses : POETICS. Aristotle wrote this c. 335 BCE

47. $, for one : SYMBOL

48. Many a trucker : CB-ER

49. Causes of trembles : FEARS

50. Dwight's two-time opponent : ADLAI

51. First two-time Best Actress Oscar winner Rainer : LUISE. Crosses all the way for me.

53. Lille lasses: Abbr. : MLLES. Mademoiselles, milk and OMG today for our French lesson.

56. Pals : BUDS

58. Folklore fiend : OGRE

59. Wee part of a min. : NSEC. Nanosecond.

61. Big __ : BEN. Another excuse to post a photo from my last UK trip. Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Bridge.

63. Brightened, with "up" : LIT.

That's it from me for today. I'm heading back to the UK tomorrow for a quick visit; to see family and eat as much curry as is humanly possible for one person without exploding. Here's a final sample from my last visit. Yum!

Steve

Annnnd ... here's the grid, circles 'n all.

Thursday, June 9th, 2016 Matt Skoczen

Theme: Mega Mix - Word scrambles

17A. Get-even competition : GRUDGE MATCH. The rematches between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier fit nicely into this category. After Ali's sad passing last Friday, George Foreman related that Ali wanted George to come out of retirement so he could beat up Ken Norton for him. Fun stuff. And a great excuse for an iconic photograph taken by Neil Liefer:

24A. Kunta Kinte's country : THE GAMBIA. I confess I've never seen "Roots", so I needed crosses here. I'm looking forward to the new remake.

38A. They're often seen under hoods : GARAGE MECHANICS. I just got shot of my old car, my mechanic was spending more time with it that I was. I leased a "for fun" sports coupe that allegedly has a top speed of 160MPH. I need to take it to Germany to figure out if that's true.

50A. "I didn't get that" : COME AGAIN?

62A. Last-minute interception, say, and a hint to this puzzle's circles : GAME CHANGER. The famous last-second interception in Superbowl XLIX was an all-time doozy. I don't think Pete Carroll can still believe it happened.

Nice theme from Matt, and the themers all split the GAME scramble across two words. Nothing at all clunky in the fill, I thought this was very nice and smooth. A grid-spanner across the middle and a couple of long downs filled things out nicely. Let's take a look at what else jumps out.

Across:

1. Two cents : SAY. I had the S and decided on a whim that a SOU was a French coin worth two cents. I couldn't have been more 66% wrong.

4. Place for pews : SANCTUM. Nice! I'd never thought of a sanctum being anything other than an inner one, with secrets I'd never be privy to. NAVE is often the answer for this clue.

11. Hubcap holder : RIM

14. NASDAQ news : I.P.O. Initial Public Offering. Usually followed by Immediate Profit Offloading.

15. Awabi sushi mollusk : ABALONE. Food! Abalone in California are caught by hand, and there's a guy who fishes the Farallon Islands off San Francisco who shares the waters with between 30 and 100 Great White sharks depending on the time of year. He admits to being nervous at times.

16. Actress Brenneman : AMY

19. "Tell Me More" broadcaster : NPR

20. __ de Cervantes : MIGUEL. Of Don Quixote fame.

21. El stop: Abbr. : STA. Tried STN first. Got it wrong.

22. City SSE of Sana'a : ADEN

23. Bath oil additive : ALOE

26. Traffic slower : GLARE

29. Suffix in skin product names : DERM

30. Pressure letters : PSI Pounds per Square Inch.

32. Usual : NORM. Check out Norm drinking his usual in "Cheers".

34. Tests using mice : MAZES

42. "It's __ simple" : ALL SO

43. The other side of midnight? : NOON. Didn't think twice about this. I was on Matt's wavelength today.

44. __ reaction : GUT

45. Skated : SLID

48. Crammer's tablet : NO-DOZ. Last fill; I couldn't shake the "iPad" tablet thinking and then rumbled the pill angle. Too much caffeine gives me a migraine, not what you want when you're cramming.

54. One of a Social Security card pair : DASH 999-99-9999

57. Problem for Lady Macbeth : SPOT. She needed better detergent. What was that stuff we had on here last week - Soil-be-gone or something?

58. Unwritten parts of some addresses : UMS. We've all sat through extremes of the "Ladies and, um, gentlemen, um, thanks for um, coming today and um, um ....". Makes your toes curl.

59. Scarlet letter, e.g. : STIGMA. Had -IGMA so didn't stop to read the clue and just threw ENIGMA in. Went back and fixed that about a minute later.

61. Babe's environs : PEN. No crosses at the time, so impetuously STY went in.

64. Torah holder : ARK

65. Fallacious : IN ERROR

66. Cauliflower __ : EAR. Ali avoided these, as do many boxers nowadays. I think the referees are much more on guard for nefarious ear-abuse.

67. "Street Dreams" rapper : NAS

68. Droopy face feature : SAD EYES

69. Like about half the counties in Arkansas : DRY. Not going there on vacation, right, Tinbeni?

Down:

1. 18th Greek letter : SIGMA

2. 4, at times : APRIL. This clued me into the fact that SOU was a rather idiotic attempt to solve 1A.

3. Cry of support : YOU GO GIRL!

4. Herb in a ballad : SAGE. Food! Along with parsley, rosemary and thyme in "Scarborough Fair". Simon and Garfunkel got the pronunciation of the town mostly correct.

5. Genesis brother : ABEL

6. "We Were Soldiers" setting : NAM. From the book "We were soldiers once, and young" written by Harold Moore, the officer portrayed in the movie, and the amazing Vietnam news reporter Joe Galloway. Intense reading.

7. What stripes and polka dots do : CLASH. I think the yellow Bug clashes more with the pink purse, to be honest.

8. Added (up) : TOTTED. Is this British English? I've not heard it for a while.

9. Free, as a bird : UNCAGE. Love the clue.

10. "Does nothing for me" : MEH.

11. Anita Baker genre : R AND B. Rhythm and Blues. I always put an extra "y" in rhythm and then wonder why it looks wrong.

12. 1983 Pritzker prize recipient : I.M. PEI. Solid crosses.

13. Loy of "Thin Man" films : MYRNA Solid crosses!

18. Fight with rules : DUEL. Gadzoiks, ye bounder! Pistols at twenty paces!

22. Mideast capital : AMMAN

24. __ paper : TERM

25. Tycoon Hammer : ARMAND. Hall-of-fame name.

27. Its capital is Luanda : ANGOLA

28. Sushi topper : ROE. Food! Remind me to go get sushi this week, it's been way too long. I roll my own sometimes for parties:

30. Sports org. founded in 1916 : P.G.A.

31. Co-star of James and Natalie in "Rebel Without a Cause" : SAL. Mineo.

33. Wise __ : MEN ".. say, only fools rush in"

35. Went like lightning : ZIG-ZAGGED

36. Former French coin : ECU

37. 2003 retiree, briefly : SST. Supersonic Transports. It's a shame they retired the Concorde, but I lived under the Heathrow flight path in London for a few years and those things rattled the windows. They were LOUD.

39. Positive point : ASSET

40. Fifth state: Abbr. : CONN. Oh, so not COLOrado then? I guess not. Zero marks for history.

41. Half a beverage : HOO. Maybe this one might raise some eyebrows. Yoo-hoo is the beverage.

46. Reptile with a "third eye" : IGUANA. Wikipedia notes:

"A parietal eye, also known as a third eye or pineal eye, is a part of the epithalamus present in some animal species. The eye is photoreceptive and is associated with the pineal gland, regulating circadian rhythmicity and hormone production for thermoregulation.".

So there we have it. Now repeat back to me. "A parietal .....".

47. Blocked, beaver-style : DAMMED

49. God in both Eddas : ODIN. There are two Eddas? There I was, all smug because I knew there was (were)? an edda (eddas?) and now I find there are two varieties - the prose and the poetic. Cross "smug" off my list of boasts today.

50. Where to see the House : C-SPAN. Capital "H" warning - it's not what you think.

51. Dvorák's "Rusalka," for one : OPERA

52. Some ascetics : MONKS

53. Rhone tributary : ISÈRE. I skied many times in Val D'Isère, site of the 1992 Winter Olympics downhill races, so this came relatively easy (unlike the skiing). The river in the village was about <- yay -> wide and mostly frozen; I've jumped across it in ski boots. In spring with the snowmelt at the bottom of the valley in Moutiers, it was usually <^^^^^^^^^^^^^ YAY ^^^^^^^^^^^^> wide and happy to turn tour buses into cruise ships.

55. Sully : SMEAR. What you'd be if you missed a turn on the Val D'Isère Olympic course.

56. Bother no end : HARRY.

59. It's about a foot : SHOE

60. Works on roads : TARS. The Black Stuff.

62. PX patrons : GI'S

63. Blubber : CRY

And ... here's the grid. Time to finish off some chicken thighs braising on the cooktop. Food!

Steve

Thursday, March 31st, 2016 Matt Skoczen

Theme: Add-oons. Take a noun, add an "oon" and clue the resulting object in a witty fashion.

17A. Parody involving molten rock? : LAVA LAMPOON. Anyone own up to having a lava lamp?

28A. Wind god's whaling weapon? : AEOLIAN HARPOON. Loved this one. The aeolian harp is played by the wind.

48A. Blubbering Belgian? : WAILING WALLOON. Very nice! The Wailing Wall in Jerusalem is more "properly" known as the Western Wall.

61A. Hollywood harlequin? : FILM BUFFOON. I'm definitely not a film buff, most of the movies each year pass me by. I don't particularly equate "harlequin" with "buffoon" though, the character is usually portrayed more as a trickster than a fool.

Morning! I enjoyed Matt's word play in this one and some solid construction with the four themers; two nice long downs and some good fill with ALCOVE, ESPRIT, CORTEX et al. Two clunkers though - I'm looking at you, IREFUL and the clue for ELEM (tchr). Let's see what else we've got.

Across:

1. Library recess : ALCOVE. Also a posh-looking hotel in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam.

7. Brief amt. of time : NSEC. Nanosecond. One billionth of a second. That's really brief.

11. Karaoke need, briefly : MIC. I was pretty much forced to sing Karaoke at a bar in Kowloon where my colleague and I were the only westerners. The only song on the menu that I recognized was Barry Manilow's "Copacabana". The result was not pretty.

14. Slanted : LEANED

15. With 34-Across, concert band instrument : ALTO.

16. Big fuss : ADO

19. Sneaky job : CON

20. APA member?: Abbr. : ASSN. American Psychological Association.

21. Med. test : EKG. Fill in E_G and wait for the cross.

22. Eight-time co-star of Joan Crawford : GABLE. Ooops. Joan Crawford in the clue should result in Clark Gable in the answer.

24. Teeth: Pref. : DENTI

27. Note : MEMO

33. Crybaby : MOANER

34. See 15-Across : SAX

35. Arctic flier : SKUA

36. Stalling-for-time syllables : ERS

37. Honor earned by 27 Super Bowl QBs : MVP. Refreshingly, the Denver Bronco's pass rusher Von Miller won the award this year, only the sixth player from the defensive side of the ball to be named MVP.

39. Light lead-in : TWI-

41. Scoreboard fig. : PTS.

42. Director Preminger : OTTO

44. It borders It. : AUS. Italy's neighbor Austria. I've skiied between the two.

46. Sparkling wit : ESPRIT

51. 8th-century Japanese capital : NARA. 奈良市 Capital of the Nara Prefecture in southern Japan. Who knew?

52. Runs while standing : IDLES

53. Try a new color on : RE-DYE

55. June portrayer in "Henry & June" : UMA. Ms. Thurman played the role of Henry Millers' wife in a loose adaptation of the Anaïs Nin book.

56. Repeat, but more softly each time : ECHO

60. First name in shipping : ARI. I wonder how many news stories in the 60's led with "Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis ...."

65. Java : JOE. Coffee. Two Javas today. Just needed the programming language for the trifecta.

66. Eclectic quarterly digest : UTNE

67. Hard to read, maybe : SLOPPY. My handwriting has definitely got sloppier over the years.

68. Animal in some fables : ASS

69. He says to Cordelia, "Thy truth, then, be thy dower" : LEAR. The king speaks to one of his daughters. It's worth remembering his other two daughters too - Regan and Goneril - they crop up in crosswords quite frequently.

70. Cerebral __ : CORTEX

Down:

1. __ breve : ALLA. Waited for crosses to tell me whether this was DEMI or SEMI. In hindsight, I was going to be waiting a long time. Apparently, in music time-signature terms, it is "a simple-duple meter with a half-note pulse". I didn't understand a word of that. It has its own symbol though, so it must be important:

2. Pastures : LEAS

3. Home team at Cleveland's "The Q" : CAVS. NBA's Cavaliers play at the Quicken Loans Arena.

4. Uninterrupted : ON AND ON

5. Mph : VEL. ocity.

6. Former PBS host LeShan : EDA

7. Place setting items : NAPKINS

8. Tough march : SLOG

9. 1940s stage for Ike : E.T.O. WW2's European Theater of Operations. I wonder if Churchill and Ike argued whether it should be spelled (or spelt) Theater or Theatre.

10. __ eel : CONGER. They love to hang out in wrecks and can grow to quite a fearsome size.

11. Apple with a Force Touch trackpad : MACBOOK PRO

12. Fan club focus : IDOL

13. Lane-closing sight : CONE. Usually accompanied by a sinking feeling and another delay. In the UK at one time there were so many lane closures on the freeways and no sign of any work being done that you could actually call "The Cones Hotline". No-one really knew what the hotline was meant to achieve and it became a butt of many jokes.

"Hello? Cones Hotline? I've spotted some cones."

"How many?"

"About four and a half million on the M6, doing absolutely nothing."

"Thank you for telling us."

18. Physical leader? : META

23. Gear on stage : AMPS. Jackson Browne was a great songwriter, but the final rhyme in this snippet from "The Load-Out" is a bit of a clunker! Great song and segue though.

"Now roll them cases out and lift them amps
Haul them trusses down and get'em up them ramps
'Cause when it comes to moving me
You know you guys are the champs ..."

25. Kind of tchr. : ELEM. That's a pretty horrible abbreviation for "teacher".

26. Buddhist state : NIRVANA

27. Klinger's first name on "M*A*S*H" : MAXWELL. I wonder how often this actually came up in the series? Solid crosses.

28. Vital supply line : AORTA

29. Where to find Java : EAST INDIES. I tried to make "Indonesia" fit for a while.

30. Magic show prop : HAT. Where all the Easter bunnies go back to sleep when they've finished their egg-rounds.

31. __ the cold : OUT IN

32. Democratic donkey drawer : NAST. He was responsible for the Republican elephant too.

33. Litter cry : MEOW

38. Wrinkly little dog : PUG

40. __ Royale, Michigan : ISLE. A new one on me. I find it is in Lake Superior, and the US-Canada border does a little jig around it. It looks a lot closer to Minnesota than the UP though, I think the folks of Grand Portage, MN have every right to be peeved.

43. Skin care brand : OLAY

45. Pool party? : SWIMMER. Nice clue; party in the sense of "party of one".

47. Be the subject of, as a painting : POSE FOR.

49. Furious : IREFUL. Ugh! What a horrible word. It's a bad sign when you Google a word and the first results page shows dictionary definitions and two video game references.

50. Not much at all : A DAB. Hesitated at "A TAD" and waited for a helpful cross.

53. Indian noble : RAJA

54. Love deity : EROS. He and his Roman counterpart Cupid were always shooting off arrows and making people miserable.

55. Forearm bone : ULNA

57. Egyptian Christian : COPT

58. "The thing with feathers / That perches in the soul": Dickinson : HOPE

59. Cameo stone : ONYX. Most often carved with a head in profile, but there are other more intricate examples.

62. Suburban trailer? : -ITE

63. The Trojans of the Pac-12 : U.S.C. The University of Southern California, or as often dubbed by Bruins from cross-town rivals UCLA "The University of Spoiled Children" (or after the Reggie Bush affair, U$C).

64. "Alice" spinoff : FLO. Never heard of the original series, let alone the spinoff. Thank you, crosses. Here's actress Polly Holliday as Flo:

Fun Thursday ride. Here's the grid ......

Steve

Wednesday, March 23, 2016, Matt Skoczen

Title: A Peeling Duty

Kitchen Patrol is a common stereotype of punishment in the armed services. As most other military terms, like MP and AWOL, it has acquired an acronym - KP. No character better represents a soldier who is in constant trouble than our favorite buck private Beetle Bailey who is on KP seemingly interminably.

Matt's offering today offers four theme phrases which are two-word phrases that begin with the letters K and P respectively.

Theme entries:

17. *Freebie with fries : KETCHUP PACK - Are they easy to open for you?

38. *Spicy Chinese dish with chicken and peanuts : KUNG PAO - Or how a Superhero would order it

11. *South Korean subcompact : KIA PRIDE - Does 6' 1", multimillionaire Michelle Wei really drive a KIA or just cash their checks?

37. *Beer pong venue : KEG PARTY - In this Beer Pong game, somebody on the other team must now drink that cup of beer perhaps drawn from a KEG.

THEME REVEAL:

50. Mil. grunt work, and a hint to the answers to starred clues : KP DUTY - In the Navy too! Spitz?

Across  
      
1. Tatum O'Neal played one in "The Bad News Bears" : TOMBOY - Her character was also a GRIFTER, a word from last Thursday's puzzle. 

7. Burn a tad : CHAR - A CHAR-broiled Clearwater, Nebraska steak. Can't do better!

11. Keystone bumbler : KOP - Mack Sennett's wacky silent-movie police force

14. Running by itself : ON AUTO - Otto Pilot appears in my funniest movie ever

15. Drought-ridden : SERE - Not ARID this time

16. Suffix with infant : ILE

19. Woodworking tool : ADZ

20. Kosher deli offering : LATKE

21. Sipped sherry, say : HAD A NIP

23. Nails, as a test : ACES

24. Baptism receptacle : FONT

25. How some Bibles present Jesus' words : IN RED - Jesus had a lot to say in Matthew 11 and 12

28. Secure with a seat belt : STRAP IN - A lot of us grew up with strapless cars!

30. Stool pigeon : RAT FINK 

32. Barrister's topper : WIG - London Lawyer's Fake Coif

33. Playing card symbol : PIP - Go ahead and count 'em all. 364 pips + 1 joker = 365 days in a year and + 2 jokers = 366 days for leap years

34. Chief Valhalla god : ODIN - Valhalla is the Norse Hall Of The Slain ruled over by ODIN

35. Whiskey barrel wood : OAK - Aging in CHARred OAK barrels give whiskey its color

41. Big name in ice cream : EDY

42. It may be gray : AREA

44. In medias __ : RES - "Into The Middle Of Things" For example the start of the movie The Da Vinci Code has Jacques Saunière being pursued and killed in The Louvre by Silas and we don't find out what that's about for a while

45. Dr. Mom's forte : TLC

47. Source of early clothing? : FIG TREE - I wonder what size Adam wore

49. With 56-Across, blamed for : CHALKED paired with 56. See 49-Across : UP TO

53. Antique photo : SEPIA - So named because the the ink sac of the cuttlefish SEPIA was originally used in photography

54. Heavy hauler : DRAY - Add to our Cartage discussion this month

57. Recognition : ACCLAIM

59. Fund : ENDOW

60. Part of dpi : PER - Resolution quality in Dots PER Inch

62. *Of its species, only the emperor is larger : KING PENGUIN

64. 747, e.g. : JET

65. Cyberzine : EMAG - Here's some EMAG's you can try online for 2 weeks for free

66. Inner strength : METTLE

67. Wily : SLY

68. Very best : TOPS - Baby if I'm the bottom, You're the TOP(s)! Can't go wrong with Cole Porter

69. Verne __, Mini-Me portrayer in Austin Powers films : TROYER - Verne and his ex-wife Genevieve Gallen. 
 

Down

 1. Gertrude Stein confidante Alice B. __ : TOKLAS

2. Like Chekhov's "A Marriage Proposal" : ONE ACT

3. "As a __ of fact ..." : MATTER

4. Firewood-sizing tool : BUCKSAW - Here's a cute one on a whirligig 

5. Will-wisp link : O THE - Problematic Musical Maria - A flibbertigibbet! A will-O'-THE wisp! A clown!

6. Thou, now : YOU

7. Political channel : C-SPAN

8. Intellectually stimulating experience : HEAD TRIP

9. Conquistador's chest : ARCA - Same root for the item Indiana Jones was seeking.

10. Weave anew : REKNIT

12. Antique : OLD

13. Brick-shaped candy : PEZ

18. Unit of loudness : PHON - Number of dB's at 1,000 Hz. You're welcome.

22. It may be supplied at a booth, briefly : INFO

24. Work (out) : FIGURE

26. Writer Bagnold : ENID - A father is always making his baby into a little woman. And when she is a woman he turns her back again. Guilty as charged, ENID!

27. Seventh Avenue fashion initials : DKNY - Donna Karen New York or

29. Water__: oral irrigator : PIK

31. "So what?" feeling : APATHY 

33. Family-friendly ratings : PG'S

35. Big galoots : OAFS

36. Grammy winner India.__ : ARIE - She added the period because she liked how it looked 

39. "Ready for forty winks?" : NEED A NAP - Everyday at 1 pm when I sub!

40. Portuguese hi : OLA

43. Symptom ending : ATIC - My brother was ashthmATIC

46. Held fast : CLUNG TO

48. Dishonest activity : RACKET - After all his RACKETEERING, this sent him to Alcatraz

49. Kid's summer spot : CAMP - Hello Mudder, Hello Fadder...

51. French star : ETOILE - You can probably translate this children's song: Brille, brille, petite  ÈTOILE

52. Real drag : DOWNER

55. Gibson's "Lethal Weapon" role : RIGGS

58. Stretch __ : LIMO - I'm trying to get my mind around what group would use this one

59. Cabinet dept. : ENER

60. Nightcap complement : PJ'S

61. Sushi fish : EEL

63. CPR pro : EMT - Because of declining populations,  required training time and necessary availability at a moment's notice, some small towns no longer have  EMT's

All in all, a very nice mid-week exercise but now I've got a few taters to peel! Looking forward to your comments which I hope you will Keep Positive. Dismissed!