Theme: "If Ever I Would Leave You" - I is removed from each theme entry.
23A. CliffsNotes bio of a civil rights leader? : CONDENSED MLK. Condensed milk.
36A. Junk-rated salad? : BBB LETTUCE. Bibb lettuce.
64A. Popular cosmetic surgery? : NOSE ABATEMENT. Noise abatement.
92A. Winnebago-driving elder? : OLD MAN RVER. Old Man River.
111A. Prison? : CON COLLECTOR. Coin collector.
17D. Art teacher's tip for drawing a lion? : REMEMBER THE MANE. Remember the Maine.
42D. What the team's goat mascot did? : SWALLOWED THE BAT. Swallowed the bait.
Noticed
there are no extra I's in the theme entry at all? Nice touch. Sometimes
we see letters removed from the key words, but not completely from all
theme answers.
Of course, there are still 21 I's in
non-theme entries. Hard to completely avoid a common letter when there are 375
empty squares to fill.
This grid only has 138 words & 66 black squares. Fairly low compared with the 144 & 78 norm we get on Sundays.
Across:
1. Term attributed to architect Le Corbusier : ART DECO. New trivia to me. More familiar with our Xword stalwart Erté.
8. Black cloud : anger :: light bulb : __ : IDEA
12. Amazon checkout option : GIFT-WRAP
20. Everest climbers : SHERPAs
21. Brits' outerwear : MACs
22. "Who would refuse that?!" : I'D LOVE TO. 8D. "That's about it" : I'M DONE. 35. "My turn" : I'M NEXT. All nice entries.
25. Shoebox creations : DIORAMAS
26. Worshipped : ADORED
27. Five-star : A-ONE
28. "Awakenings" drug : L-DOPA
29. Biblical suffix : ETH
30. Curtail : PARE
31. It can be spun two ways : YARN
33. Author Potok : CHAIM. "My Name is Asher Lev".
35. Hungary's Nagy : IMRE. Learned from doing Xwords.
38. Stereotypical Monroe roles : BIMBOS. Poor Marilyn.
40. TV funded by "Viewers Like You" : PBS
43. Arctic explorer John : RAE
44. Gretzky, once : OILER. Edmonton Oilers.
45. TV reporter Peter : ARNETT. Been out of news for quite some time.
46. Oregon Coast Aquarium city : NEWPORT. Only know the one in RI.
48. "Sesame Street" crank : OSCAR
49. Garson of Hollywood : GREER
50. Some 6-Downs : CLARKS. And 6D. Snack stand array : CANDY BARS
51. NYU, for one : SCH
52. Edinburgh native : SCOT
54. Bonus, in adspeak : XTRA. Love the Xtra serum (left) I got yesterday. Smells divine. Eager to try the shampoo/conditioner after I'm done with this write-up.
57. Beat : PULSE
58. Monkeyshines : ANTICS
61. "Give Peace a Chance" co-songwriter : ONO
62. Crossword solver's ref. book : THES. OK, thesaurus.
63. Lip-reading alternative: Abbr. : ASL
68. Terrestrial newt : EFT
69. Frat jacket P's : RHOS
71. Title for Connery : SIR
72. Online persona : AVATAR. Turn blue! It's very simple.
73. One about to shoot : AIMER
75. Small flightless bird : KIWI
76. Sticks on : ADDS
78. Miguel's "more" : MAS. No mas!
79. Mena of "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh" : SUVARI. Never saw the movie. But "Mena" is enough. She's Kevin Spacey's daughter in "American Beauty". (Correction: Spacey's daughter is played by Thora Birch.)
80. Story in la maison : ETAGE
82. Pros' foes : ANTIS
85. Approached dusk : LATENED. Spell check does not like this word.
86. Title for Dickens's Defarge : MADAME
88. Liquid fat : OLEIN
89. It may be tapped : ALE
90. Rare shoe width : EEE
91. Team with a star in its logo : ASTROS. American League now.
95. Slangy negatives : NAHS
96. Getting warm : CLOSE
97. "Uh, excuse me ..." : AHEM
98. Pet pad : CAGE
102. Pavarotti's trio : TRE
103. Not in any way : NO HOW
105. Kindle read : ZINE
107. Colonel Klink's clink : STALAG. Never saw "Hogan's Heroes". Wiki says Stalag is a contraction of Stammlager, "base camp". Stamm = Base, same as our Stem then. Lager = Camp.
109. Applied during a massage : RUBBED IN. Melissa knows her oils.
113. Causing worry : ALARMING
114. Film adventurer, informally : INDY. I only know the films are Indie films. (Argyle: Indiana Jones.)
115. Lose freshness : GO STALE. And 49D. Toast, with "a" : GONER. Minor dupe. GO/GONE. Tough to spot when constructing.
116. '70s fad items shipped in boxes with air holes : PET ROCKS
117. Most '90s Prizms : GEOS
118. Parched : ATHIRST. Kind of like AREEL, ALOP, yes?
Down:
1. Tin Pan Alley gp. : ASCAP
2. Tenant in Carlton the Doorman's building : RHODA. Stumper for me. But Valerie Harper is one brave woman.
3. Voice above baritone : TENOR
4. Snoop Dogg's discoverer : DR. DRE. Learned this trivia from cluing DRE.
5. Sport with feinting : EPEE
7. William Donovan's WWII org. : OSS. Donovan created OSS and was considered the father of CIA.
9. Rhett's last word : DAMN
10. Varied : ECLECTIC
11. Use the reference desk : ASK
12. More flighty : GIDDIER
13. Down in the dumps, say : IDIOM. Nice clue.
14. Dud : FLOP
15. __ Bora: Afghan mountain area : TORA
16. Harpers Ferry's st. : WVA. Yellowrocks might have visited Harpers Ferry. She really has an encyclopedic mind.
18. Semi-quickly : AT A TROT
19. Most swanky : POSHEST
24. Title for Devereux : EARL. Earl of Essex.
28. Moms, before knot-tying lessons : LACERS
32. Act as accomplice to : ABET
34. Symbolic dance : HULA
36. On the blink : BROKEN
37. Japanese TV pioneer : TOSHIBA. The TO part stands for Tokyo.
38. MacLane who played General Peterson on "I Dream of Jeannie" : BARTON. Never heard of him. Was it a gimme to you?
39. Spleen : IRE
40. Pirates' home : PNC PARK. Twins play at Target Field. Corporate names!
41. Jim of "According to Jim" : BELUSHI
47. Common string that omits Q : PRS. Phone. 7.
48. Twice tetra- : OCTA
51. Bergen dummy : SNERD
53. Unconscious states : COMAS
55. Ring figure : REFEREE
56. In the saddle of, traditionally : ASTRIDE
58. Thespian's whisper : ASIDE
59. Ohio cager, briefly : CAV. Can't picture LeBron James returning there.
60. Triathlete's need : STAMINA
65. Siouan speakers : OSAGES
66. Updated midflight nos. : ETAs
67. More high-strung : TAUTER
70. Long-necked strings : SITARs
74. Bobby Rydell's "__ Got Bonnie" : I'VE
77. Sickly-looking : SALLOW
79. King novel with two apostrophes in the title : 'SALEM'S LOT. From Wiki: The story involves a writer named Ben Mears who returns to the town where he lived as a boy between the ages of 9 through 13 (Jerusalem's Lot, or 'Salem's Lot for short) in Maine to discover that the residents are all becoming vampires.
81. Latin lover's word : AMO.
83. Sparks and Beatty : NEDs
84. Mountain, e.g. : TIME ZONE. Art of cluing. "Mountain or Pacific" will give the answer away.
85. Cleanse : LAVE
86. Seductress : MANTRAP. Hmmm, let me guess what Barry will say: I really wanted MAN EATER. I don't think I've ever seen a woman referred to as a MAN TRAP before.
87. Generally speaking : AS A RULE
88. Chinese teas : OOLONGs
93. Kwan and Kerrigan : NANCYS. "The World of Suzie Wong" is a popular seller at Hong Kong Airport.
94. Prefix with stat : RHEO
96. Armor problem : CHINK. Alright!
98. Sonoran flora : CACTI
99. A train may be headed for it : ALTAR. Great clue.
100. Plymouth pokies : GAOLs. The beauty salon I visited in Guangzhou is next to a police station. I heard beating and crying all the times and thought nothing of human rights or whatever. I just thought those bad guys deserved the punishment. No surprise I'm for waterboarding.
101. Wetlands wader : EGRET
103. 2013 Northeast superstorm : NEMO. The blizzard.
104. Like Pindar's poetry : ODIC
106. Chinese intro : INDO. Indochina. The real intro is "Ni hao" ("Hello!"). Ni = You. Hao = Good. Sounds very ungrammatical, doesn't it? "You're very beautiful" in Chinese is "Ni Hen Piao Liang", literally "You very beautiful". Ungrammatical too. Ni = You. Hen = Very. Piao Liang = Beautiful. No "are" in this case.
108. "Intelligence for Your Life" radio host : TESH (John)
110. Cold comment : BRR
111. Short pack item : CIG
112. Flushing Bay airport letters : LGA
C.C.
