Monday October 21, 2024 Micah Sommersmith

  

Happy Monday, everyone!

Theme:                    This one's a KEEPer!  

Constructor Micah Sommersmith KEEPS it real by delivering a fun puzzle with the perfect unifier. What's that? You're ready for the themers? KEEP your hat on. Here they are:

20 Across. Precarious plan, metaphorically: HOUSE OF CARDS.  When my grandfather babysat us, his go-to tactics were:  (1) seeing who could stand on our heads as long as he could and (2) teaching us how to make playing card houses.

Bryan Berg recently set a world record. Check out this 1:16 min. video for the details. 

34 Across. Events with sprints and relays: TRACK MEETS.  

40 Across. Corporate executive's perk: COMPANY CAR.  This answer was the topic of many comments on last Friday's puzzle.

And the reveal:

54 Across. "I don't need that back," and what can be said about the starts of 20-, 34-, and 40-Across: YOU CAN KEEP IT.

It's hard to KEEP up with all the various constructors so let me point out that Micah is a brilliant lateral thinker. Today's puzzle is a good example. When he says YOU CAN KEEP IT, he is calling upon these idioms:

• KEEP HOUSE  ~  do the cleaning and cooking for a household.
• KEEP TRACK  ~  stay informed on what is happening to someone or something.
• KEEP COMPANY  ~  spend time with someone.

OK, let's KEEP on KEEPing on:

Across:

1. Vision-correcting surgical beam: LASER.  This can be expensive so one should KEEP an eye out for special deals.

6. Topiarist's target: BUSH.  A topiarist is skilled at topiary gardening. This is a 1 min. video visit of the world's oldest topiary garden, located at Leven's Hall, U.K.  

10. No-frills grocer based in Germany: ALDI.  There are 2,427 locations in the U.S.

14. Words on a Wonderland cake: EAT ME.

15. "¿Cómo __ usted?": ESTA.  "How are you (formal)?" in Spanish

16. Woodwind insert: REED.     and     35 Across. Woodwind instruments that need 16-Acrosses: CLARINETS.  

how to put a REED on a CLARINET (1:45 min.)

17. Moves briskly: TROTS.  

18. Symbols like :-) and :-(: EMOTICONS.  It's fun that this word's symmetrical partner is 57-Across HUMANLIKE.

An EMOTICON is a sequence of keyboard characters used to illustrate a facial expression/picture/symbol. On the other hand, an emoji is a small image. 😊

22. Sinus MD: ENT.  

23. JFK successor: LBJ.  

24. Mai __: cocktail: TAI.  

Might I make an exception for MalMan? His puns are the best!

25. Poetic sphere: ORB.

28. Many a "Men in Black" character: ALIEN.  Men in Black was released in 1997. Sequels came out in 2002, 2012, and 2019. Here is a 2:19 min. clip from Men In Black II, starring Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith ... and many ALIENs.  

30. Tissue that covers the iris and pupil: CORNEA.  Details about eyeballs give me the heebie-jeebies.

32. Pink Floyd co-founder Barrett: SYD.  When my brother was in high school, he asked our parents if he could paint his bedroom door. It had a big ding in it so my parents were impressed that he wanted to make things nicer. They quickly agreed but then were surprised with the final result. It looked like this:  

Here is the story of SYD and the band.

36. Go in one's __: replace: STEAD.  Use "in stead" if you mean "standing in for". Use "instead" if you mean "something other than".

Example:  Because my friend was busy, I went to the meeting in her stead. She said I should take her car instead of my own.

38. Penn of "Harold & Kumar" films: KAL.  These three films star John Cho and Kal Penn as stoner buddies. The first one was Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (2004). Hand up if you've ever been to a White Castle. I've only been once.

39. Cooks quickly, as tuna: SEARS.  SEARed ahi tuna is a popular restaurant dish in Hawaii. 

Yes, it is supposed to be that raw on the inside. So 'ono (delicious)!

43. On the __: furtively: SLY.  "Furtively" means to do something in a quiet and secretive way to avoid being noticed.

44. Punch combo: ONE TWO.  This clue/answer combo was my favorite today!  

45. Ordinary writing: PROSE.

47. Half a score, or a perfect score: TEN.  I liked this clue, too. "Score" can mean "twenty" and it can mean "a number that expresses accomplishment."  

48. Doc intended to protect confidentiality: NDA.  As it turns out, I recently signed a Non-disclosure Agreement as part of an Appearance Release document. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time. I was out on my kayak and a film crew asked if they could get some shots of me to possibly use as interstitial footage for a documentary they are making. I can say that the topic is intriguing and that it will be narrated by one of my favorite actors. I imagine it will be a while before it is released. I'll KEEP you posted....

50. German pronoun: ICH.  In English, it means "I".

JFK appears twice today.

51. Smallish batteries: AAs.  The -ish and the plural deterred me from size AAA.

57. Anthropomorphic: HUMANLIKE.  We see a lot of examples of ascribing human characteristics to nonhuman things in animated films.  

Be Our Guest  ~  Jerry Orbach as Lumière and Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Potts

Beauty and the Beast (1991)

60. Over the top: EXTRA.  The party hosts went a bit EXTRA in the above presentation.

61. Not close: AFAR.

62. Change to fit in, perhaps: EDIT.  This one makes me think both of a fashion adjustment and of a writing change.

63. Spud: TATER.  Both are slang for "potato".

64. Elevator direction: DOWN.  Such a simple clue, but it works, right?

65. Double-hyphenated digits, for short: SSNs.  123-45-6789

66. Three-ingredient sweet treat: S'MORE.  Want Some MORE S'MOREs? You do not have to wait until you go camping. You can make them in your microwave.  

Down:

1. Mythical river of forgetfulness: LETHE.  Today I learned that the LETHE is one of the five rivers of the Greek underworld. The other four are Styx (the river of hate), Acheron (the river of pain), Cocytus (the river of lamentation) and Phlegethon (the river of fire). Given those choices, one ticket for LETHE, please!

2. Slugger Judge who was the 2017 AL Rookie of the Year: AARON.  We often see this word's homophone, ERIN, but not in a baseball clue.  ☘⚾

3. Portly, or porter: STOUT.  I liked this fun play on port-ly and port-er!

A porter is a dark beer...so is a STOUT.

4. CPR experts: EMTS.

5. Flip, as a property: RESELL.  Here is a 5 min. flip video.  

6. Slim Jim product: BEEF JERKY.  

... and know you know!

7. "Semper Fi" military org.: USMC.  

the meaning of Semper Fidelis (1:20 min.)

8. Ferret kin: STOAT.  Cue the cute animal pic.  

STOATs eat small rodents as well as bigger mammal prey, including rabbits and squirrels.

9. Porkpie's place, perhaps: HAT RACK.  Where else would you put your pulled pork empanada?  

left:  a pork pie 
right:  Buster Keaton sporting his porkpie hat

10. Pickleball paths: ARCS.  

11. Sign before Virgo: LEO.   ...and the only 3-letter sign.

12. TV room: DEN.

13. Employee badges, e.g., for short: IDs.  

19. Figures of speech: IDIOMS.  See today's reveal for three examples. Others include "KEEP the ball rolling (Don't pause.); KEEP up with the Joneses (Buy things for social status as opposed to need.); and KEEP your nose clean (Stay out of trouble).

21. Memorial bio: OBIT.  I always read the OBITs.

25. NBA star with the hit rap album "Shaq Diesel": O'NEAL.

26. Have another go at: RETRY.

27. Chilean sea __: BASS.  I Googled this for the blog and ended up Wiki-walking over to this 5 min. video about caring for giant sea BASS--not Chilean sea BASS. I especially liked when they show what a baby giant sea BASS looks like.  

28. Change to fit in: ADAPT.

29. Civil rights gp. since 1909: NAACP.

31. Witherspoon of "Walk the Line": REESE.  Reese Witherspoon (b. March 22, 1976) won an Oscar for best actress for her performance as June Carter Cash in this biopic about Johnny Cash. This scene stayed with me. I wonder how today's celebrities might respond in a similar situation. (1:32 min.)  

32. Pebble, e.g.: STONE.     and     42-Down. Pebble, e.g.: ROCK.

33. Country south of Saudi Arabia: YEMEN.  Oil accounts for about 60% of Yemen's exports. Scrap iron is next on the list at 6.4%. Saudi Arabia used to be Yemen's top trading partner but now it is China. It receives a little over 30% of Yemen's goods.

36. Kilt wearer, often: SCOT.  

37. Occur to: DAWN ON.  It DAWNed ON me that this would be a good place to insert a song from Tony Orlando and Dawn. Here is Candida from 1970. 

41. Small lumps: NODULES.

46. Units of paper: SHEETS.  A ream is 500 sheets.

49. Corrosive compounds: ACIDS.  Vinegar ACIDity 101

51. Is __: probably will: APT TO.

52. Broadcast network: AIRER.  one that airs a TV show

53. Fixed gaze: STARE.  Here's a seasonal one...  

54. Crochet need: YARN.  I started with "hook". Do we have any crocheters on The Corner?

55. Similar (to): AKIN.

56. Test: EXAM.

57. Consumed: HAD.  I HAD chana masala for dinner.

58. Airborne mystery: UFO.  The U.S. Air Force coined this term in 1952.

59. Gaping mouth: MAW.  This can be a literal mouth or something suggestive of a mouth, like a cave's entrance.

Today's completed grid:

That's it for today. You can KEEP the change!

Thursday, August 29, 2024, Micah Sommersmith

 "May I cut in?"

Today veteran constructor Micah Sommersmith treats us to a letter insertion theme.  For the punny version of the theme clues the answer to the above question is YES.  For the in-the-language version the answer is NO ...

17A. Accumulation on neglected steps?: STAIR DUST.  Joni Mitchell sings the words "... we are STAR DUST, we are golden, we are 10 billion year old carbon ..." in her classic song Woodstock ...

24A. Institute for invective?: TIRADE SCHOOL.  With the high cost of college these days, increasing numbers of high school graduates are going to TRADE SCHOOLS.  They generally cost less than college and enable students to enter the work force more quickly.  Here are some programs offered at Maryland trade schools. 

51A. Shop selling more groanworthy gag gifts?: CORNIER STORE.  One CORNER STORE is an establishment created by Zhouqin Burnikel where everyday you find crossword puzzles, clever reviews, and divergent opinions about them posted by a community of devoted solvers.  And some of their comments are even groanworthy!  E.g. CSO to Ray - O. 😀

And the reveal ...

64D. Question on the dance floor, or an apt title for this puzzle: MAY I CUT IN.

... the inserted letter of course being I.

Here's the grid ...

Here's the rest ...

Across:

 1. Carrie-Anne of "The Matrix": MOSS.  Carrie-Anne Moss (born August 21, 1967) is a Canadian actress. After early roles on television, she rose to international prominence for her role of Trinity in The Matrix series (1999–present). Her parents named her for an old Holley's song. 😀

Carrie-Anne Moss

5. "An octopus has three hearts," e.g.: FACT.  A FACT I didn't know, but I'm sure my 10 year old grandson does. 😀

9. Satirical bit: SKIT.  These guys invented the genre ... 

13. Unit of length: INCH.

14. Superfood berry: ACAI.

15. Midmorning hr.: TEN AM.

17. [Theme clue]

19. Disentangle: UNTIE.  A CSO to Jinx.

20. Netflix's "__ Kai": COBRA.  Cobra Kai is an American martial arts comedy-drama television series and a sequel to the original The Karate Kid films created by Robert Mark Kamen.  Here's the Season 6 trailer ...

 

21. Thing of the past: RELIC.  One of the most fascinating relics is the Greek Antikythera mechanism developed in the late 2nd century BC and discovered by divers from a shipwreck off the coast of the Greek island Antikythera in 1901.  Upon close examination it was discovered to be an analogue computer that could be used to predict astronomical positions and eclipses decades in advance ...

23. Molecule in some vaccines: RNA.  An mRNA vaccine works by triggering your immune system to create antibodies. Antibodies are proteins in the body. They fight bacteria and viruses that cause disease.  The preceding link contains a great video on how they work and  is definitely worth watching.

24. [Theme clue]

27. Actress/activist Milano: ALYSSA.  Alyssa Jayne Milano (born December 19, 1972) is an American actress, producer, activist, and former singer. She has played Samantha Micelli in Who's the Boss?, Jennifer Mancini in Melrose Place, Phoebe Halliwell in Charmed, and many other roles in TV and films.  As an activist, Milano is known for her role in the MeToo movement in October 2017.

Alyssa Milano

30. Barrel of laughs: RIOT.  

31. Feline sign: LEO.

32. Experts who may recommend rebooting a PC: IT PROS.  We used to call that "Getting out of the car and getting back in again".  Don't get me started on how the boys in Redmond get away with this kind of stuff. 😡

35. Lab rodents: MICE.

39. "Pale Blue Dot" author Carl: SAGAN. Carl Edward Sagan (November 9, 1934 – December 20, 1996) was an American astronomer, planetary scientist, and science communicator. His best known scientific contributions are his research on the possibility of extraterrestrial life, and the assembly of the  first physical messages sent into space, the Pioneer plaque and the Voyager Golden Record, which were universal messages that could potentially be understood by any extraterrestrial intelligence that might find them.   Here is his iconic monologue from The Pale Blue Dot ...

Every time I  hear this I am reminded of  Dr. Lewis Thomas, who writing in his book The Lives of the Cell, suggested an alternative to Sagan's plaque and record --"I'd send Bach.  All of it.  It would be bragging of course ...". 😀

41. Georgia airport code: ATL.

42. Elided address: MLORD.  An elision commonly heard upstairs at Downtown Abbey.

43. Color-changing gem: OPAL. The value of these gems has dropped significantly in recent years due to their frequent appearance in crossword puzzles -- e.g. last Thursday. 

44. Reaction to bright light, for some: SNEEZE.   Among other more technical terms this has been called the ACHOO syndrome!

46. Carried the day: WON.

47. Paintballs, e.g.: AMMO.

49. National Gallery of Canada locale: OTTAWA.  The museum is particularly known for its Indigenous art, e.g. a recent exhibition by Mohawk artist Shelley Niro.  I was particularly taken by this brilliant "sound sculpture" by artist Janet Cardiff called Forty-Part Motet, a reworking of Renaissance composer Thomas Tallis' Spem in alium (Latin for "Hope in any other").  Here is Janet's description of it ... 

Here's the work it was based on ... 

51. [Theme clue]

56. Verse opener?: UNI.  Also Britspeak for University.

57. Percolate: LEACH.  Also the surname of the great Bernard Leach, the father of British Studio pottery in the mid 20th Century.  Village craft pottery had been all but destroyed by the industrial revolution in the previous century and Leach revived it by elevating it to high art.

Stoneware bottles, thrown and paddled
Bernard Leach, circa 1950

58. Prefix with gram: INSTA.

62. Dismally dull: BANAL.  Or a description for the commonness of evil, as described in the book by philosopher Hannah Arendt ...

64. [Theme reveal].

66. Flight path?: AISLE. "Please fasten your seat belts and prepare yourself for landing". 😀

67. Word with "open" or "up in": ARMS.  We seem to see a lot more of the latter than the former in the world these days. 

68. Number for a letter?: RENT.  I.e. the cost for letting an apartment ...

69. Tail section: REAR.  Among other ...

70. Appear: SEEM.

71. Star of Life wearers: Abbr.: EMTS.  Worn by Emergency Medical Technicians ...
 

Down:

 1. Catchall category, briefly: MISC.

2. Glom __: ONTO.

3. Wound covering: SCAB.

4. Tops: SHIRTS.

5. Short-lived trend: FAD.   "Fashion is merely a form of ugliness so absolutely unbearable that we have to alter it every six months!" -- Oscar Wilde, 1883.

6. Luxury car brand: ACURA.  Acura is the luxury and performance division of Japanese automaker Honda, based primarily in North America.

2024 Acura TLX
Premium Sports Sedan
starting at $45,000

7. Scoped out: CASED.

8. Cagney or Lacey: TITLE ROLE.  Cagney & Lacey is an American police procedural drama television series that aired on the CBS television network for seven seasons from March 25, 1982, to May 16, 1988. The show is about two New York City police detectives who lead very different lives: Christine Cagney (Sharon Gless) is a career-minded single woman, while Mary Beth Lacey (Tyne Daly) is a married working mother.  The classic trope of the mismatched detective duo.

9. Rough finish: STUCCO.  A rough clue too -- Crossword Tracker has never seen this clue before.  Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and artistic material in architecture.

Baroque stucco on the ceiling
 of the Rotonde de Mars
Louvre Palace, Paris
Gaspard and Balthazard Marsy, 1658

10. "The Masked Singer" panelist Jeong: KEN.  The Masked Singer is an American reality singing competition television series that premiered on Fox on January 2, 2019. Celebrities sing songs while wearing head-to-toe costumes and face masks concealing their identities. Hosted by Nick Cannon, the program employs panelists who guess the celebrities' identities by interpreting clues provided to them throughout each season. Ken Jeong, Jenny McCarthy Wahlberg, Nicole Scherzinger, and Robin Thicke appear in each episode and vote alongside an audience for their favorite singer after all performances have concluded. The least popular is eliminated, taking off their mask to reveal their identity.

11. 101-level course: INTRO.

12. Indigenous Caribbean language: TAINO.  The Taíno were historic Indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, whose culture has been continued today by Taíno descendant communities and Taíno revivalist communities.  The Taíno language was a dialect of the Arawakan language group.  At the time of European contact in the late 15th century, they were the principal inhabitants of most of what is now Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Haiti, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, and the northern Lesser Antilles.

The Lucayan branch of the Taíno were the first New World peoples encountered by Christopher Columbus, in the Bahama Archipelago on October 12, 1492.  Here is stone statue in Puerto Rico dedicated to Agüeybaná II, a Taíno hero remembered for his bravery in fighting the Spanish invaders during Taino rebellion of 1511 ...  

Agüeybaná El Bravo

16. __ prep: MEAL.

18. Trail mix bit: RAISIN.

22. Egyptian fertility goddess: ISIS.  Isis was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingdom (c. 2686 – c. 2181 BCE) as one of the main characters of the Osiris myth, in which she resurrects her slain brother and husband, the divine king Osiris, and produces and protects his heir, Horus.  In Roman times, Egyptians across the country celebrated her birthday by carrying the local cult statue of Isis through their fields, probably celebrating her powers of fertility.

Isis nursing Horus
Ptolemaic Period
332–30 B.C.

25. Lab rodent: RAT.

26. Code with tags: HTML.  Hypertext Markup Language is standard language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. It defines the content and structure of web content.  It is the underlying language in which our reviews are written and this paragraph looks like this in HTML. 
 

The tags are the symbols <> and </> -- e.g. <b> ... </b> mean start/stop boldface.  But this a simple example -- HTML has a complex syntax and it can be quite unwieldy to hand code (except for wizards like -T 😀), so we use an application called Blogger that generates the HTML for us.  Blogger is an example of a WYSIWYG editor ("What You See Is What You Get") and is much easier to use. 

27. To boot: ALSO.

28. __ of faith: LEAP.

29. Meditative discipline: YOGA.

33. Long shots?: PANORAMAS.  Odds are they can be created with most cell phones. 😀

34. GPS suggestion: RTE.

36. "The Music Man" setting: IOWA.  It has a reputation for being a stubborn state ...

37. Brag: CROW.

38. Poet __ St. Vincent Millay: EDNA.  Edna St. Vincent Millay (February 22, 1892 – October 19, 1950) was an American lyrical poet and playwright. Millay was a renowned social figure and noted feminist in New York City during the Roaring Twenties and beyond.  She won the 1923 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for her poem "Ballad of the Harp-Weaver"; she was the first woman and second person to win the award. In 1943, Millay was the sixth person and the second woman to be awarded the Frost Medal for her lifetime contribution to American poetry.  Here's her "The white bark writhed and sputtered like a fish".

Edna St. Vincent Millay
1922

40. Disney composer Menken: ALAN.  Alan Irwin Menken (born July 22, 1949) is an American composer and conductor, best known for his scores and songs for films produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and Skydance Animation. Menken's music includes the soundtracks for The Little Mermaid (1989), Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin (1992), and Pocahontas (1995).  His accolades include winning eight Academy Awards — becoming the second most prolific Oscar winner in the music categories after Alfred Newman (who has 9 Oscars), a Tony Award, eleven Grammy Awards, seven Golden Globe Awards, and a Daytime Emmy Award. Menken is one of nineteen people to have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony ("an EGOT").  Here's the song The Enemy Within from the musical King David, with lyrics by Tim Rice ...

42. Like grams: METRIC.  It's a shame that the metric system never caught on in the US.  Formulating and compounding ceramic glazes using English units would be a nightmare.

44. "Peter Pan" pirate: SMEE.  The villain HOOK didn't perp, but SMEE seems like a likeable pirate ...

Smee

45. San Diego tourist attraction:  ZOO.  The San Diego Zoo is a zoo in San Diego, California, located in Balboa Park. The zoo houses over 12,000 animals of more than 680 species and subspecies. It is the most visited zoo in the United States. Travelers have cited it as one of the best zoos in the world. The zoo was a pioneer in the concept of open-air, cage-less exhibits that recreate natural animal habitats. It sits on 100 acres (40 ha) of land leased from the City of San Diego.  Here are some of their attractions.  This is the entrance (don't worry -- he doesn't bite. 😀) ...
 

Rex's Roar

48. Sienna of "Horizon: An American Saga": MILLER.  Horizon: An American Saga is a film series that consists of four planned American epic westerns directed, co-written, and produced by, as well as starring Kevin Costner, from a script he co-wrote with Jon Baird and based on an original story co-authored by Costner, Baird, and Mark Kasdan. The plot centers on fictional characters and takes place in pre- and post-Civil War America, and details the exploration of the American West. Depicting a twelve-year span, the movies feature an ensemble cast portraying various characters and their experiences pioneering into new territory.  Sienna Miller plays Frances Kittredge a main character in the series.

50. Length of service: TENURE.

51. Home of Buena Vista Social Club: CUBA.  The Buena Vista Social Club was a musical ensemble primarily made up of Cuban musicians, formed in 1996 and "discovered" by  American guitarist Ry Cooder.  The group's eponymous studio album was recorded in March 1996 and released in September 1997, quickly becoming an international success.   This prompted the ensemble to perform with a full line-up in Amsterdam and New York in 1998.  We were fortunate to see them perform at the Lyric Theater in Baltimore some time after that.  Here's Chan Chan, one of their hits from the documentary film by Wim Wenders ...

52. Broadcasting: ON AIR.

53. Washer cycle: RINSE.

54. Close call: SCARE.

55. Oregano kin: THYME.  MARJORAM wouldn't fit.

59. Woody part of 55-Down: STEM.  My big gripe about THYME -- separating all those tiny leaves from all those the woody stems ...

Thyme

60. Shade: TINT.

61. Terro trap targets: ANTS.  

63. In the style of: A LA.

65. Belief system: ISM.  For example DARWINISM -- the name of a scientist + ISM.  Believe it or not I still haven't found another example of this.

Cheers,

Bill

And as always, thanks to Teri for proof reading and for her constructive criticism.

waseeley

Monday April 15, 2024 Micah Sommersmith

 Happy Monday, everyone! sumdaze here to review Micah Sommersmith's fourth LAT puzzle.

Title:  

We'll begin with the three themed clues:

17 Across. Backyard vegetable patch, e.g.: GARDEN PLOT.  

I know you did not need an illustration for GARDEN PLOT
but tidy veggie patches are my happy places.

26 Across. Configuration before customization: DEFAULT SETTING.  If you restore your electronic device to its DEFAULT SETTINGs, it will reset to the point where it was when it was first taken out of the box.

47 Across. Element of early internet art: ASCII CHARACTER.  American Standard Code for Information Interchange is a common character encoding format for text data in computers on the internet.  ASCII (pronounced "a-skee", where the "a" is like the "a" in "has") is a 7-bit character set containing 128 characters, including the numbers from 0-9, the upper and lower case English letters from A to Z, symbols, and punctuation marks.  

Remember ASCII Art (left)? We've come a long way!

Next, let's read the reveal:

63 Across. Brainstorming breakthroughs, and the ends of 17-, 26-, and 47-Across?: NOVEL IDEAS.

The ends of the themed clues are PLOT, SETTING, and CHARACTER. These are the three main elements of a story. An author combines these IDEAS to write a NOVEL.  

As a former library teacher I recognized today's theme early on. These are the ABC's for writing. I like how Micah found meanings for PLOT, SETTING, and CHARACTER that were completely different from their literature meanings. He deserves a gold star! ⭐

Across:

1. Activist Brockovich played by Julia Roberts: ERIN.  We begin with the first of eight names in today's grid. All, except for one (see below), are clued at a Monday level. Most solvers know them well -- even if they never saw the referenced shows.

This thriller/documentary was release in 2000.

5. Without a cent: BROKE.  

10. Youngsters: KIDS.

14. High-fat, low-carb diet, casually: KETO.

15. Merits: EARNS.

16. Falco of "Nurse Jackie": EDIE.  

Nurse Jackie aired on Showtime from 2009-2015.

19. "__ Enchanted": Anne Hathaway film: ELLA.  

Anne was in her early twenties when she made Ella.
Memory trick:  Switch ends on the A and E.

20. Surveil secretly: SPY ON.  

21. Socialized at leisure: SAT A SPELL.  

Forrest's leisurely chat ended when he learned 

he did not have to take the bus to go visit Jenny.

23. Stretch the truth: FIB.  

(I am going with the NOVEL theme here.)

25. Prefix with pod: TRI-.  Has anyone owned a tri-pod dog? I always smile when I see one. They have the best attitudes! Here is a 60-sec. dogumentary.

34. Tiny criticism: NIT.  Is someone who is a wit at pointing out NITs a nitwit?  😜

35. 24-Down soother: CREAM.     and     24-Down. Unwanted beach souvenir: BURN.  

Ouch!!

36. Hearing-related: AURAL.

37. Tennis great Arthur posthumously awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom: ASHE.

39. Titled: NAMED.  She titled her book ___. / She NAMED her book ___.

41. Mani-__: PEDI.  

42. Hops along happily: SKIPS.  

This clue make me think of the track event hop, skip and jump. The inaugural modern Olympic Games in 1896 had a track event which consisted of two hops and a jump. By 1908 the format was standardized to a hop, a skip, and a jump. Today the event is usually referred to as the triple jump.  

44. Shadowboxes: SPARS.  Were you thinking of the verb or the noun?

Shadowbox the verb is to SPAR with an imaginary opponent as a form of training.

Shadowbox the noun is similar to a frame used for art but it is extra thick so as to display memorabilia, jewelry, coins, or other small objects.  

46. Pen tip: NIB.  I only know this from doing crosswords.

50. Lifesaving skill, for short: CPR.  If you've ever taken a CardioPulmonary Resuscitation class then you know you can sing this (appropriately titled) song in your head to get the timing right.  

Bee Gee's Stayin' Alive  (1977)

51. Gaming console with a gesture-based controller: WII.  

52. Leafy bowlful with hard-boiled eggs: CHEF SALAD.  

Where are the leaves?

58. Bub: FELLA.

62. Civil rights icon Parks: ROSA.

65. Opposed to: ANTI.

66. Bring to mind: EVOKE.  One of the fun things about a good XWD puzzle is it can EVOKE a fond memory.

67. Pull sharply: YANK.  

YANKee Babe Ruth seldom pulled his swings.
(Yeah, I know this one is a stretch but you got it, right?)

68. Breakfast for dinner, say: MEAL.  Here is the ultimate Venn Diagram for breakfast, lunch, snack, and dinner.  

This looks a bit like an 8-Down.  😃

69. Used needle and thread: SEWED.

70. Concludes: ENDS.  Bonus points to Micah for the position of ENDS in his grid!!

Down:

1. Cardiac readouts, briefly: EKGS.  An electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG) is a test to record the electrical signals in the heart. It shows how the heart is beating.

2. Gather crops: REAP.  Jack Johnson offers some social commentary on television in his song Good People  (2005).

We got heaps and heaps of what we sow.

3. Coy response to a compliment: I TRY.  My high school Government class teacher's first name was Coy...but coy he was not.

4. Drift into dreamland: NOD OFF.  

5. Actor/director Stiller: BEN.  Ben was born November 30, 1956 in New York. He is known for starring in movies such as There's Something About Mary (1998), Meet the Parents (2000, 2004, and 2010), and Zoolander (2001).

Here is Ben with his famous parents.
Not only did he follow his mother, Ann Meara, into show business,
he also followed her into in XWD puzzles.

6. Many Megan Thee Stallion songs: RAPS.

7. "Derry Girls" girl played by Louisa Harland: ORLA.  This is "the one" I alluded to in 1-Across.

The TV show Derry Girls is a coming-of-age story set in 1990s Northern Ireland. It aired from 2018 to 2022.

8. Celtic artwork feature: KNOT.  

I did not realize there were so many.

9. North Carolina's Biltmore __: ESTATE.  10 Facts about Biltmore

10. "Don't stop now!": KEEP IT UP.

11. Unoccupied: IDLE.  To be IDLE is to be not occupied or employed; inactive.

12. Pickle herb: DILL.  I love fresh DILL in my summer sandwiches.

13. Official emblem: SEAL.

18. Giant computer of the 1940s: ENIAC.  Computer History Museum

22. Miss, in Mex.: SRTA.  "Mexico" is abbreviated, so it "SeñoRiTA".

26. Once-common storage media: DISKS. 

DISK with a K is the preferred spelling in American English. It is also the spelling used for computer-related objects (like this clue).

DISc with a C is the preferred spelling in British English. It is also the spelling for devices carrying sound.

I see my confusion now. I used to load music discs into my computer.

27. Moral principle: ETHIC.

28. Dog walker's line: LEASH.  Here's another line, "Your dog is cute. Can I have his number?"

29. __ Bay Buccaneers: TAMPA.  football

30. Lipstick mishap: SMEAR. 

31. "Fame" star Cara: IRENE.  (1959 - 2022)  her IMDb page

32. Lowest point: NADIR.  

33. Silver-tongued: GLIB.

34. Astronauts' gp.: NASA.  DH's boss is a former astronaut. He flew on four Space Shuttle missions. Wow!

38. Dumpster fire-level blunder: EPIC FAIL.  Dumpster fire is slang used to describe a catastrophically bad situation.

This was my favorite clue/fill today! I like how the slang in the clue matched the slang in the answer. 

40. __ a blank: DRAW.  I could not remember this one.

43. Tentative tastes: SIPS.

45. Space series genre: SCI-FI.  We could have an interesting discussion here on The Corner as to your favorite television space series. I will start off by nominating Babylon 5  (1993-1998)...but I could also go with Firefly.  

48. Building site sights: CRANES.

49. Camp project with rubber bands: TIE DYE.

52. Make up for procrastination, perhaps: CRAM.  Think "prepare for a big test".

53. Sharpen, as a blade: HONE.

54. " Cómo __ usted?": ESTÁ.  

Spanish 101

55. Adoration: LOVE.  like Pepe La Pew's feelings for Penelope Pussycat  

56. Declare publicly: AVOW.

57. Hockey feint: DEKE.  another one I learned from solving XWDs

59. Incline: LEAN.  We can think of this as a physical slope. We can also think of it figuratively. If one is inclined  to do something, he is leaning towards that action. Similar to 44-Across, it is noun and verb situation.

60. Terra firma: LAND.  Terra firma was first used in English print in 1638 to mean "solid land". Here are other words that entered English print in 1638.

61. Requests: ASKS.  Let's squeeze in one more musical number. This is All I Ask Of You from The Phantom of The Opera.  

64. Went first: LED.  Ironically, this clue for LED went last.

And the grid:

Well, we are now at the end of our book-themed puzzle. It was bound  to happen!