Thursday August 31 2017 David Poole

Theme: Nationality Pun Fun - Five examples of mirth and merriment:

20A. Volleyball players in Dublin? : IRISH SETTERS. The setter in volleyball is the player who decides who gets the ball for the next shot

28A. Euros in Rome? : ITALIAN BREAD. Used to be Lira back in the good old days when you had to exchange currency about every five minutes when you were travelling in Europe. Imagine the chaos in the north-east if you had to go the currency exchange every time you crossed a state line.

37A. Airport inspectors in Beijing? : CHINESE CHECKERS. Do airport inspectors inspect the airport, or the passengers? I've been to Beijing airport, it is beautiful. (Well it was in 2008 ready for the Olympic Games!)

45A. Dance lessons in Madrid? : SPANISH STEPS. Piazza di Spagna  at the bottom, Piazza Trinità dei Monti at the top.

56A. Number cruncher in New Delhi? : INDIAN SUMMER. I laughed at the "SUMMER" part of the clue.  We're having an LA summer right now, we're into triple digits.

Neat theme from David, I'm actually surprised it's not been done before. I had a fun five minutes trying to think of others, SWISS WATCH, RUSSIAN DOLL, AUSTRALIAN BIGHT, SWISS CHEESE seemed to have some mileage.

Typical Thursday cluing with misdirection and some of the less-obvious clues. 63 theme squares sometimes doesn't leave a lot of room for much fill, but the sixes and fives had some nice entries including HAIRDO and REBEC. Good job all round by Mr. Poole.

What else have we got? Let's see:

Across:

1. Draft day announcements : PICKS. "With the 199th pick of the 2000 NFL draft, the New England Patriots select Tom Brady, Quarterback, Michigan." Who would have thought how that 's turned out?

6. In-tents experience? : CAMP. Nice wordplay in the clue.

10. Like some dental floss : WAXY. I use those little Christmas Tree brushes for the most part. Floss is fussy stuff to deal with.

14. End of __ : AN ERA

15. Jai __ : ALAI. Helluva dangerous game. The ball is hard as a rock and goes a bizillion miles an hour.

16. Wrapped up : OVER

17. Artifact : RELIC

18. Board member? : KING. Chessboard.

19. Unites : WEDS

23. New York's __ Island : STATEN. My first thought was Riker's Island for no good reason. Well two good reasons I suppose - it's an island, and it's in New York.

24. Sturgeon delicacy : ROE

25. Engineering sch. on the Hudson River : R.P.I. I know I'll never remember this. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Also known for schools of design and business management.

32. Deadly snake : ASP

35. White House signing ceremony memento : PEN

36. __ Trinket, "The Hunger Games" chaperone played by Elizabeth Banks : EFFIE. Thank you, crosses. Never seen the movies.

42. Cosmonaut Vladimir : TITOV. Four missions, and one where the Soyuz capsule was pulled clear of the rocket a few seconds before it exploded on the launch pad. They landed a couple of miles away. That's not messing around with the "pulling clear".

43. Partner of abet : AID

44. Most of Ariz. doesn't observe it : D.S.T. Hawaii doesn't either. Very sensible.

50. CIA predecessor : OSS

51. Drivers' org. : AAA

52. Phillies' div. : NL EAST

59. SALT subject : ICBM

62. Crab Key villain : DR NO. Bond, James Bond.

63. Mazda MX-5, familiarly : MIATA. Little sporty number.

64. Witty tweet, e.g. : QUIP

65. Novelist O'Brien : EDNA

66. Bunsen burner kin : ETNAS. Kin can be singular or plural. Can cause uncertainties.

67. Small ticks? : SECS

68. Travel aimlessly : ROAM

69. One of Franklin's two certainties : DEATH. I'm not sure which causes the most dread. Taxes, probably, they come around every year. At least you've only got to meet the Grim Reaper once.

Down:

1. Musée d'Orsay city : PARIS. I love this museum. A converted railway terminus, the glass roof is perfect for lighting the galleries.

2. Still : INERT

3. Salsa singer Cruz : CELIA. Thank you, crosses.

4. Spring 2008 "Dancing with the Stars" champion Yamaguchi : KRISTI. I've had a crush on her for years.

5. Potpourri pouch : SACHET

6. Wedding reception sight : CAKE

7. Hit the ground : ALIT. Hopefully gently. Alit - present or past tense. Can be tricky.

8. Hindu incantation : MANTRA

9. Word with carrier or passenger : PIGEON. The former is alive and kicking, the latter is now sadly extinct. I'm not pointing fingers or anything, but a species tends not to go from three billion or so to zero without humans having something to do with it (asteroid impacts excepted).

10. Floors : WOWS

11. Abbr. in many addresses : AVE.

12. Crossed (out) : X'ED

13. Jr. and sr. : YRS. High school and college.

21. Loses it : SNAPS

22. Lute-like instrument : REBEC. Here's one in action. I knew the sound, I certainly didn't know what made it.

25. Served seconds, say : RE-FED

26. Figure skating event : PAIRS

27. In other words, in other words : ID EST. Hello, Latin, my old friend. Great clue.

29. Novelist Harper : LEE. There was a BritPop band in the 90's called The Boo Radleys. I didn't know about the fictional character, I'd not read To Kill a Mockingbird at that point.

30. Quechua speakers : INCAS

31. He served as A.G. under his brother : R.F.K. I looked down the list of prior Attorneys General and couldn't see another brother A.G./POTUS combo. There were some candidates, from just looking at their names - Levi Lincoln, Augustus Hill Garland and Alonso Taft among them. There are a couple or more who belong in the "Great Names Hall of Fame", including Caesar Augustus Rodney and Philander Chase Knox.

32. "Don't __ innocent" : ACT SO

33. Port arrivals : SHIPS

34. Pockets for falafel : PITAS

38. Start to skid? : NON-

39. French spa : EVIAN

40. Strike : HIT

41. Utopias : EDENS

46. More melancholy : SADDER

47. Bob, for one : HAIRDO. Not "Builder" then?

48. Like peacocks : PLUMED. Because "Noisier than a jet fighter on a carrier deck" doesn't fit.

49. Many a Mideast native : SEMITE

53. Appliance maker since 1934 : AMANA. Began life as The Electrical Equipment Co. Amana is the Iowa town where they were founded.

54. Attack : SET AT

55. Vandalize : TRASH

56. Rascals : IMPS

57. Kendrick of "Pitch Perfect" : ANNA

58. "Syntactic Structures" author Chomsky : NOAM. He announced on Tuesday he's leaving MIT after 62 years for ASU; this should prompt Travelocity to feature him in their new ad campaign: "The Roaming Noam".

59. Nos. averaging 100 : IQ'S

60. What a shark strikes with : CUE. Nice clue. Shark in the pool hall hustler sense.

61. Wite-Out maker : BIC. I'd like to see today's production quantities vs. 20 years ago. I'm guessing around 10%.

That should do it for the day. Here's the grid:

Steve

Note from C.C.:

Garlic Gal, JD and Chickie had a get-together yesterday. Here is a selfie JD took. Or is it USIE? They used to meet every month.

Garlic Gal, JD and Chickie (Leah)

Thursday, August 24 2017 Peg Slay

Theme: The Doors - all the words on the edges of the grid are types of doors as the hint has it:

38A. Not alfresco, and what this puzzle is vis-à-vis its border answers : INDOORS

The Corner's own C6D6 Peg is the constructor-in-residence today. Great word-play with the theme - all the non-theme answers are "Indoors" Artfully done and some nice fill - EXCELLED AT, COOK STRAIT, KEYNOTE and my favorite MALINGER. Good job.

We were having a discussion last week about people's different solving methods - I tend to go once across and once down, then fill in what's left, so I thought you might like to see my first pass across. I used to be a lot more careful about checking crosses when I solved on pen and paper, but now there's no inkblots I just have at it. You can see the central east was going to cause some rework, but nothing slowed me down too badly.

Let''s see what else Peg cooked up for us, or rang the bells:

Across:

1. Support financially : BACK

5. Hurricane, e.g. : STORM. Here's Rory Storm and the Hurricanes playing at the Jive Hive in 1960. That's Ringo Starr on the drums.

10. Drainpipe section : TRAP. P-Trap, not for what you might think. It's shaped like a "P"

14. Face cream additive : ALOE

15. Medicare component : PART A. Fill in PART and go back for A/B

16. Leaping critter : HARE

17. Depend (on) : RELY

18. Had superior skills in : EXCELLED AT

20. Word on really bright Crayolas : NEON. Brightens up your day:

21. Jazz great Montgomery : WES

22. Helen Reddy's "__ Woman" : I AM

23. Commentary page : OP-ED Someone asked last week what OP-EDS meant, I didn't really explain. Opinion pieces opposite the editorial page of a newspaper.

25. Turned out to be : ENDED UP

29. Blew hard : GUSTED

32. Way back when : AGES AGO. I progressed from LONG thru EONS to AGES. Got there in the end. The long way around.

33. Helped start the pot : ANTE'D

34. Comic Johnson : ARTE. See "almost Natick'ed" at 25D

36. Big __ : MAC. Oh, not SUR then. Darn. I confess that I recently ordered a Big Mac and Fries via Uber Eats when I'd spent the evening out with some friends and was home and had the munchies. It was either get back in an Uber and go get it myself, or save myself the Uber ride back and forth. Sometimes, junk food is just what you need. Delivered to your door.

37. Regret : RUE. I didn't rue the Big Mac.

41. Craft built in the 2014 film "Noah" : ARK. I tried "Bagel Delivery Van" but it didn't fit.

42. Nile snake : ASP

43. Yemeni seaport : ADEN

44. Speed : HASTE

46. Become resentful : GET SORE

49. Vampire's bed? : CASKET. Corrected my COFFIN misstep.

50. Painter Manet : EDOUARD Started to fill this in and then hesitated about the spelling; I think my first thought was right. This is "A bar at the Folies-Bergère" in London's National Gallery. Back when I was impoverished and making a pittance at my first real job, I was amazed to find that London's public galleries and museums were free. I spent quite some time looking at this painting trying to figure out if the off-kilter reflection of the server was the result of a warped mirror or just playful imagery by Manet.

51. Sketch material : GAGS

52. Commuter org. in the Loop : C.T.A. Chicago Transit Authority.

53. __ Butterworth : MRS

54. "Wild Blue Yonder" mil. group : USAF

58. Waterway between the major islands of New Zealand : COOK STRAIT. I couldn't pull this out of my brain bank on my first pass across the puzzle. I've sailed in the Cook Strait - on an America's Cup yacht. The decks were teflon-coated, not easy to stay in one place!

62. Leg-covering skirt : MAXI

63. Green Gables heroine : ANNE

64. Boardroom prop : EASEL

65. Part of FEMA: Abbr. : EMER. Federal Emergency Management Agency. Came in for a lot of criticism in the afterrmath of Hurricane Katrina

66. Caboose place : REAR. Back of the train. We call them guard's vans back in the old country. Because they were vans. And they had a guard in them.

67. Broadway platform : STAGE. All the world is one.

68. Fries, for instance : SIDE. Big Mac. Fries. Uber Eats. Yay!

Down:

1. Silo neighbor : BARN

2. Toward protection, at sea : ALEE. Also the side of the boat to be if you feel a touch of the mal de mer.

3. Great Sand Dunes National Park st. : COLO. rado. Can't you ski down them? Yes, apparently you can:

4. Pinnacle of a lecture series : KEYNOTE

5. Erupted : SPEWED. I'd make a connection to 2D but it's breakfast time for many.

6. Strained : TAXED

7. Tolkien henchmen : ORCS. Not exactly men. Hench-things.

8. GPS suggestion : RTE

9. Feign illness to avoid work : MALINGER. Great word. My mom used to accuse us of malingering when we tried to skip a day of school. She was right most of the time, until the time I came down with measles and she wouldn't hear a word of it.

10. Motifs : THEMES

11. "Far out, dude!" : RAD!

12. Notre Dame's Parseghian : ARA

13. Kennel guest : PET

19. Put on board : LADE. I think it's a 17th-century typo that no-one bothered to fix.

24. Spa treatment : PEDI

25. Big name in stationery : EATON. I was almost Natick'ed with T here. I did a full alphabet run until on the second pass EATON almost sounded familiar. It was my best guess so in it went.

26. Ornamental fabric : DAMASK

27. Lorre's "Casablanca" character : UGARTE. Thank you crosses, I always forget this.

28. Pita feature : POCKET Food! The gyro is one of my favorite sandwiches.

29. Tech company's origin, perhaps : GARAGE. Apple, HP and Microsoft all started off in garages. Dell started off in Michael Dell's dorm room at the University of Texas

30. On the shelf : UNUSED

31. Move in the direction of : STEP TO

34. Threw in : ADDED

35. Sushi roll topping : ROE. Food! I like to top my sushi rolls with Sujiko roe, from the salmon, and the tiny Tobiko roe from flying fish.

39. Tells a story : NARRATES

40. Layered do : SHAG

45. Takes for granted : ASSUMES

47. Lollipop : SUCKER

48. Feed bag feed : OATS

49. Once-per-player chess move : CASTLE. King side or Queen side if I recall from my youth. I haven't played chess for years.

51. "Norwegian Dances" composer : GRIEG

53. Tamale dough : MASA. I buy mine from the local Vallarta market, it's much lighter than when I tried to make my own.

55. Scandinavian language : SAMI. Nailed it! Remembered this from a little while ago. The road signs need a lot of lettering:

56. Used a hatchet on : AXED

57. Cause for alarm : FIRE

58. Honda or Hyundai : CAR. My current car is a Hyundai. It's the Genesis brand, so it doesn't actually have a Hyundai badge on it.

59. Pepsi product that's also its calorie count : ONE

60. Springsteen's "Working __ Dream" : ON A. Not sure I know this one from The Boss.

61. Scoundrel : RAT

That was fun, thanks Peg! Here's the grid and I'm done!

Steve

Thursday, August 17th 2017 Mark McClain

Theme: Insert Coin - the coin-shaped letter "O" is inserted into a phrase, changing the meaning in a thigh-slapping manner.

20. Computer accessory honored in verse? : MOUSE OF POETRY. Muse of Poetry. There are three poetry muses - one for epic poetry, one for lyric poetry and one for love poetry.

28. Olympic dominance by Team USA? : AMERICA'S COUP. America's Cup. Team NZ won this year in Bermuda by a runaway score of 7-1

45. How some medieval knights described their relationships? : JOUST FRIENDS. Just friends.

55. Grammarian's treatise? : THE NOUN'S STORY. The Nun's Story. 1959 movie starring the lovely Audrey Hepburn.

Morning! Apparently I came across as not quite as chipper as usual last week, so I'll try to keep things bright today. This was a real toughie for me, I was staring down a huge quantity of white space after my first pass across and down. I'm not sure the last time I spent 30 minutes on a Thursday-level crossword, but I did on this one.

The theme was nicely done; I'm not generally a fan of pun-type puzzles because of the groan-factor, but these were fun. It took me ages to figure out the theme but once AMERICA'S COUP fell into place that helped with the others. Some obtuse cluing and misdirection added up to a good challenge.

Let's see what else we've got:

Across:

1. Bowl over : STUN

5. Hardly prudent : RASH

9. Chophouse order : FILET. Food! If I went to a chophouse, I'd order the chops. This is Simpson's in London, it's been around since 1757. I'd lunch there occasionally when I worked in the City. Back in those days you'd have a bottle or two of a nice red wine and finish up with a glass of port. Then go back to work.

14. Young Clark's love : LANA. I was way off base with this one; at first I thought it was referring to Clark Gable's affair with Lana Turner, but not a bit of it - Clark Kent's high school sweetheart Lana Lang.

15. 90 degrees from norte : ESTE

16. Century plant, e.g. : AGAVE. Agave Americana, more properly. There are several types of agave plants.

17. Hindustani tongue : URDU

18. Boardwalk extension : PIER. These had a habit of "mysteriously" catching fire in the UK, usually when they were falling into a state of disrepair due to the expense of upkeep.

19. Trick : COZEN. A new word for me. "To deceive, win over, or induce to do something by artful coaxing and wheedling or shrewd trickery." I discovered that there is a law firm here in LA called Cozen O'Conner which I find thoroughly amusing.

23. Construction alloy : STEEL. You can add a whole slew of stuff to steel depending on the characteristics you're looking for.

24. RSVP part : S'IL "répondez s'il vous plaît". Don't say "please RSVP", it's annoying as heck.

25. Bud : BRO

33. Virgin __ Records: British label : EMI. A lot of people don't realize that Richard Branson sold Virgin Records to EMI way back in the 90's to keep the airline afloat (or aloft, more correctly).

36. Male delivery : SON

37. Canadian coin since 1996 : TOONIE. Tried LOONIE against all logic as I knew it had been around for longer than that.

38. Landslide victory claim : MANDATE. "Now I have a mandate to do what the heck I like". Usually ends badly.

41. Stretch out : DISTEND

42. Recorded : ON TAPE

43. Mine in Milan : MIO. Tried MIA. Was wrong.

44. Conscription agcy. : SSS. Crosses filled this in for me, I just noticed it now. Selective Service System.

49. "__ Fell": Beatles : IF I. I didn't actually know this was the title of the song. John sounds every bit of his Liverpool background on the track.

50. Chicago's __ Center : AON

51. Post-lecture activity, briefly : Q AND A

60. Strange : ALIEN

62. Watch part : STEM. You can guarantee this one ain't going to be cheap:

63. Potpourri quality : ODOR. I tend to associate odors with bad smells.

64. Did a gainer, say : DIVED

65. Yokohama product : TIRE. They are the shirt sponsor of my soccer team, Chelsea, they're paying $300M for the privilege over five years. I think it's a curse: of the four players from left to right below - the first is no longer a starter, the second is no longer with the club, the third broke his ankle and hasn't yet returned to the team and the fourth did not return for preseason training and is suing the club for illegal restraint of trade.

66. Eric who founded an eclectic reader : UTNE

67. Autobahn autos : OPELS. The other four-letter German car brand.

68. Strongbox alternative : SAFE

69. The ten in "hang ten" : TOES. You hang'em over the edge of your surfboard.

Down:

1. Frequents dive bars, say : SLUMS. As in "he's slumming it".

2. Deck with a Hanged Man : TAROT. There's a bunch of weird-looking cards in a Tarot deck.

3. Inordinate : UNDUE

4. Queasiness : NAUSEA. Not a good feeling.

5. Certain auction offering : REPO

6. "Fat chance!" :  AS IF!

7. Intervenes : STEPS IN

8. Stout-hearted : HEROIC

9. It's not debatable : FACT

10. "Young Frankenstein" helper : IGOR. "Eye-gor." I've posted the link to the scene before. Here it is again if you missed it.

11. Slugabed : LAZYBONES. Nice clue/answer.

12. Christmas lead-in : EVE

13. Coffee break time : TEN

21. "Slippery" tree : ELM. First I've heard of it. Learning moment. Apparently you can make tea from the leaves.

22. Joy : ELATION

26. Place for digs : RUINS

27. Essays appearing daily : OP.ED'S

29. "Get on Your Feet" singer : ESTEFAN. Gloria. Thank you crosses, I didn't know the song.

30. Anonymous '70s litigant : ROE vs Wade.

31. Song on the album "ABBA" : SOS. Why I didn't fill this in right away is beyond me. How many Abba songs are there with three letters? I needed the S to get me going with this one.

32. Bed at a base : COT

33. The Oxford Dictionaries 2015 "Word" of the Year is one : EMOJI. A stab in the dark and nailed it! Note the quotes around "Word". This is the emoji which was used:

The 2012 Word of the Year was "omnishambles" which I love.

34. "__ Constant Sorrow": folk classic : MAN OF. Thank you crosses, never heard of it.

35. Easy to figure out : INTUITIVE. Unlike this crossword, for me anyway.

39. Wagner's "__ Rheingold" : DAS

40. Fitting : APT

41. Gambling cube : DIE

43. Trivial matter : MINUTIA

46. Perches : ROOSTS

47. Kicks off the field, briefly : DQ'S. Disqualifies.

48. Skipped : SAT OUT

52. Greet quietly : NOD TO

53. Airborne intruder : DRONE. Annoying as heck, these things. Can ruin a perfectly peaceful hike. The creepy dude who lives on my street likes to fly his over other people's back yards.

54. Lew in old movies : AYRES. Best known for "All Quiet on the Western Front".

56. Dog trainer's word : HEEL. Could be STAY, so wait for a cross.

57. Good things to make meet : ENDS

58. Soft ball : NERF

59. "Hook" pirate : SMEE

60. Commotion : ADO

61. Impertinence : LIP. Great little word.

Stick a fork in me, I'm done!

Steve

Thursday August 10th 2017 Mel Rosen

Theme: Foreign Accents - Four Non-English words have their accented letters spelled out "in detail"

17A. Tarragona title, in detail? : SEN-TILDE-OR. Señor. Spanish. Port city in Catalonia. Here's the Roman amphitheater:

29A. Arles animal, in detail? : BE-CIRCUMFLEX-TE Bête. French. Strictly speaking, it should be "circonflexe" if we're speaking French.

48A. Toulouse trace, in detail? : SOUPC-CEDILLA-ON Soupçon. French.

59A. Augsburg above, in detail? : U-UMLAUT-BER Über. German. This was the entry where I saw the theme. There were a lot of blank spaces in the other theme entries until this point.

I'm lurching between "loved the theme" and "mostly liked the theme". I thought the idea was excellent; I conferred with a couple of friends regarding spelling out the accented letters - one thing that bothered me a little was that the "ñ" (en-yay) in Spanish is a distinct letter in the alphabet, it's not an accented "n". My Austrian buddy over in Vienna also told me that you'd spell out "Über" as u-e-b-e-r. Interesting stuff.

Some of the fill seemed a little scrappy - A MAJ to start out with, ABCD, DH'S and others are not on my list of favorites.

Let's see what else we've got to talk about:

Across:

1. Mus. key of "I Am The Walrus" : A MAJ. I was going to try to explain the lyrics, but apparently I haven't taken enough LSD this morning, so I'm stumped.

5. Gulf : CHASM

10. They're underfoot : MATS

14. Shade akin to ecru : BONE

15. Critical vessel : AORTA

16. K-12 : EL-HI

19. Tucked in : A-BED. From Shakespeare's Henry V:

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;

For he to-day that sheds his blood with me

Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,

This day shall gentle his condition;

And gentlemen in England now a-bed

Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,

And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks

That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

20. NBC show that inspired "30 Rock" : SNL

21. It's hidden in some profiles : LEFT EYE. Let'd go for a little Bob Dylan to help things along. This is the "New York Sessions" version of the song.

23. How great minds think : ALIKE

26. Sweet __ : TEA

28. Immature bee nourished by royal jelly : LARVA

32. Amorous murmur : COO

33. Voice mail prompt : TONE. Most people's voicemail greeting is totally redundant - do you really need instructions to tell what you should do?

34. Wow : AWE

35. Rat Pack nickname : DINO

37. Wetland area : MARSH

39. Fire : SACK

43. Sci-fi SFX : CGI. Science fiction special visual effects - computer-generated imagery. That's a mouthful.

45. Take at a concert : GATE. Receipts.

47. Capital of Delaware? : DEE

52. Poundstone of "Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!" : PAULA. Who? Thank you, crosses.

53. Like the occasional clean sock : ODD. I've got two of them on my dresser right now. One black dress sock, one white sports sock.

54. Emphatic affirmation : I AM SO!

55. Craftsperson : ARTISAN. Every menu nowadays seems to have to have at least one "artisan" item - bread, cheese, salami, what-have-you.

57. N.L. teams usually don't use them : DH'S Designated Hitters. They can be used in inter-league matches, most notably during the World Series.

58. Bus sched. info : RTES

65. "Foiled again!" : DRAT

66. Brat condiment : KRAUT. The Kraut Dog is a menu item at the West Coast fast food chain Wienerschnitzel. I was a little surprised when I first saw this - in England the word is a derogatory term for a German.

67. Gable neighbor : EAVE

68. Jazz sessions : SETS

69. 37-Across plant : SEDGE

70. CT scan component : X-RAY. A computed tomography scan uses multiple x-rays to build up the image.

Down:

1. They might be ripped : ABS

2. "The Simpsons" tavern owner : MOE

3. Gloucester's cape : ANN

4. Lake craft : JET SKI

5. Word with roll or toll : CALL. Nice clue.

6. Mason's burden : HOD. You carry your bricks in a hod. Usually, the mason is responsible for laying the stones, his assistant, a hod carrier, does the heavy lifting.

7. "__ you coming?" : ARE

8. College in Northfield, Minn. : ST. OLAF. Liberal arts school.

9. Colt producer : MARE

10. Cleavers : MEAT AXES. Not sure I've heard this term before. My meat axe weights in at a hefty three pounds of mean blade. It makes short work of a Jamaican-style jerk chicken.

11. Finney with a recurring role in Jason Bourne films : ALBERT

12. "Look What __ Done to My Song, Ma" : THEY'VE

13. What an LP has that a CD lacks : SIDE A

18. Like helium : INERT

22. Went like mad : FLEW

23. Preschool song opener : ABCD. Yuk.

24. Sainted pontiff called "the Great" : LEO I

25. Revered one : ICON

26. Skipjack or bluefin : TUNA

27. Came to light : EMERGED

30. Stand-up individual? : COMIC

31. "The Blacklist" actress : LAHTI. Thank you, crosses.

36. Eye experts, old-style : OCULISTS. Optometrists and ophthalmologists nowadays.

38. DUI-fighting org. : SADD

40. TV Batman West : ADAM. He passed away last month at his home here in LA. His final performance as Batman in the animated feature Batman vs. Two-Face is slated for release in October.

41. Biz biggies : CEO'S

42. Bingo kin : KENO

44. Dean's list nos. : GPA'S

46. Friend of Job : ELIHU. A mysterious character, apparently.

48. "Nausea" novelist : SARTRE

49. Surpass in a hot dog contest : OUT-EAT. Joey Chestnut retained his "world title" at Nathan's on July 4th, managing to eat (and keep down) 72 dogs and buns in 10 minutes.

50. Small parrot : CONURE. New one on me. Cute things.

51. Yarn that makes fabric stretchy : LASTEX. Another learning moment.

52. Oater colleagues : PARDS. Howdy, Pards.

56. Arctic divers : AUKS

57. Check figure : DATE. I can't remember the last time I wrote a check.

60. Sore : MAD

61. Carry with difficulty : LUG

62. Backdrop for many jokes : BAR. A horse, a crocodile and an anteater are sitting at a bar. The bartender asks them what's wrong - they say "Nothing, why?" "Why all the long faces then?"

63. Actress Longoria : EVA

64. Spanish king : REY. Here's the Marina Del Rey in Los Angeles. I've sailed out of here quite a few times.

And with that, here's the grid. Hasta luego!

Steve

Thursday August 3rd 2017 Samuel A. Donaldson

Theme: Read all about it! Four famous newspaper end names can be found in the circles:

The theme entries "break" a name into two pieces. Let's go around the globe with examples:

20A. Forest canines : TIMBERWOLVES - That's a gimme example for me, but certainly not a gimme entry.

The Times, London's original broadsheet,which has been published under that name since January 1, 1788. It was deemed the UK's "Paper of Record". I had a letter published in The Times in around 1981 when you still had to pen, ink, stamp and post.  I wish I still had the evidence. The Letters Editor reserved a spot at the end of the page for "quirky" letters that didn't address the major issues of the day but were deemed worthy of mild interest. Hand Up for "mild interest".

29A. "Yankee" entrée : POT ROAST

Can we get apple pie to go with that? Then we've got a Yankee Doodle Dandy. Stick around for Paul Robeson. Not a bad soundtrack for this crossword. The Washington Post is the first name to mind for me.

37A. "Good heavens!" : GLORY BE! I wasn't sure. It worked out fine eventually/

Boston. If you write anything bad about (in order) the Celtics, the Bruins or the (I think third) New England Patriots you might be in trouble. Great sports writing.

46A. Diver's weapon : SPEAR GUN. HAND HELD TORPEDO didn't fit. LIMPET MINE also. Eventually, sanity prevailed. Baltimore. Chicago also had a shout at this, but the Sun-Times rather messed it up in the naming stakes. A great paper!

53A. Developing story, and what this puzzle's circles illustrate : BREAKING NEWS

Great newspapers all. 

Thanks to all the journalist who every day help us understand the day. And thanks to all who syndicate the LA Times Crossword!

What a fun ride here. I started out with swathes of white squares and slowly things started to make sense. I got the SW corner first, I filled in the reveal and suddenly I saw SUN at 46A. Five minutes later with a Sahara of while squares in the NW the TIMES hint got me there.

Great job, Samuel, Print journalism is the primary source of my, and others, worldview. I'll leave it at that.

Across:

1. Promising location? : ALTAR

6. Omegas, to an electrician : OHMS

10. Best Actor winner for "Ray" : FOXX. I thought we were on to a pangram right here. Didn't help that I thought WILL Smith played the part.

14. "The Big Bang Theory" co-creator Chuck : LORRE. Crosses, I owe you dinner or a drink. The "L" was, in all honesty, a (considered WAG). See 1D for details.

15. Gusto : ZEAL

16. Tool for a landscaper : RAKE. 

17. Posh water : EVIAN. I think a lot of water brands have added to the posh pantheon.

18. Diva's number : ARIA

19. __ out a win : EKES

23. Island near Barbuda : ANTIGUA. Contributed to my ills in the NW. Perfectly fair.

24. Serve in the capacity of : ACT AS

28. Secretary of state before Shultz : HAIG. Head scratch and try to work your way backwards. The Veeps are tough enough for me.

32. Close on film : GLENN

34. Prefix with hertz : TERA. I had to look this up post-solve. I'm down in the IT world with tera, mega., kilo and all other stuff. Here's a frequency explanation that I would never have been able to deliver: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terahertz

35. Big name in vodka : SKYY. Handy YY for a crossword!

36. Allowed : LET

40. Slippery swimmer : EEL

41. 19th-century Arizona lawman : EARP

43. Sly as __ : A FOX

44. Die down : ABATE

48. Prohibitionists : DRYS

49. Sirius XM radio star : STERN. Shock Jock Howard. Certainly a polarizing individual. Either you think he moved talk radio forward, or he should never have been allowed close to a microphone.

50. Coming-down-with-something feeling : MALAISE

57. "Buzz off!" : SHOO

60. Square cereal : CHEX. Food! I think. Is Chex Mix in Gardetto's, or am I completely confusticating myself?

61. Wine list heading : ROSÉS. Dry, please.

62. Mani mate : PEDI Do you get a pedi without a mani? We should be told.

63. Ritz-Carlton competitor : OMNI

64. First name in cosmetics : ESTÉE. Probably Mme, but I"m just guessing.

65. Rink jump : AXEL

66. Vegas glower : NEON. Funny, I read the clue first as "Vegas unhappy face". Sulk, Lost, what else? Then I saw it

67. "The Tower" poet : YEATS. A snippet from the poem:

I have prepared my peace

With learned Italian things 

And the proud stones of Greece, 

Poet's imaginings 

And memories of love, 

Memories of the words of women, 

All those things whereof 

Man makes a superhuman 

Mirror-resembling dream.

Down:

1. Prince Valiant's wife : ALETA. WAG with the "L", but it made my success with the "L" in LORRE. Best Guess sometimes wins.

2. Like the singin' Spoonful : LOVIN' Another "Didn't you know" songs? Yes, so did.

3. Do some holiday decorating : TRIM THE TREE. How can this be so rare in a crossword? It is. Bravo.

4. Versatile horse : ARABIAN. I stared this down so long with ARAB in my mind and then finally ...

5. Weaseling out (on) : RENEGING

6. Longtime Boston Symphony maestro : OZAWA

7. Superman's favorite sandwich? : HERO

8. It may be registered : MAIL

9. Pole, e.g. : SLAV

10. Diego Rivera works : FRESCOS. Thank you, crosses.

11. Charter __: historic Hartford landmark : OAK. Why did I think LOG might work? I plead ignorance of the immigré. C.C. has this stuff down much better than me.

12. Jag to remember : XKE. Ah now! The E-Type. How can I not show this? A 1969 V12 Convertible in British Racing Green - sex on legs, I mean wheels:

13. Cancels (out) : XES

21. Throw __ : RUG

22. Bud holder? : EAR

25. Go out in the afternoon? : TAKE A SIESTA. There was some great down fill in this puzzle, this is one of them. These long fills really make a puzzle buzz.

26. To date : AS YET

27. Fashionista's concern : STYLE

29. Evita's married name : PERON

30. African antelope : ORYX

31. Diet Coke predecessor : TAB

32. "Cagney & Lacey" co-star : GLESS. Thank you, Mr. Earp for fixing my confident GLASS

33. Took off : LEAPT. Great clue/answer. When you see the past tense, you're always thinking "ED". It's this stuff that makes a crossword compiler/editor make you think twice

34. Food that has an extra-firm option : TOFU. Food! An ingredient in my Pad Thai. Hint: Even with extra-firm, cube the tofu then pour boiling water slowly over it in a sieve or a colander - it sounds counter-intuitive, but the water shower dehydrates the tofu - then when you fry it, it browns a lot better.

38. Hang back : LAG

39. Tea named for a nobleman : EARL GREY. It's a lovely, aromatic tea, flavored with Bergamot oil. My favorite is to take two parts of Assam and one of Earl Grey. That's a kick-ass wake-me-up tea with a soft side.

42. Precook, in a way : PARBOIL

45. Close way to win : BY A NOSE

47. Time away from the base, for short : R'N'R. Rest and Recuperation in the armed forces. I'm re-reading "A Bright Shining Lie" and "Chickenhawk" right now, so this didn't need much thought.

48. Stevens of "Beauty and the Beast" (2017) : DAN. Thank you, crosses!

50. Recipe phrase : MIX IN - A LOVIN' spoonful, a SWEET moment, and AH ME. The best dish.

51. Short partner? : SWEET

52. Mississippi foursome : ESSES

54. Macro or micro subj. : ECON.  I majored it Economics. I LOVED that subject. Not too many rules, it was a BA not a BSc. Tells you a lot. It's an art, not a science.

55. Wistful words : AH ME!

56. Numbers game : KENO

57. Cruise ship amenity : SPA

58. Bewitch : HEX

59. Dedicated piece : ODE. Especially Grecian Jugs. Next time, I'm coming back as a jug.

So - I'm listening to "Puff the Magic Dragon" because I left the YouTube feed running after posting the link to the Lovin' Spoonful song.

I'd love to share the earworm with you. I have to go to bed shortly so, all together:

Puff, the Magic Dragon, lived by the sea
and frolicked in the autumn mist
in a land call Honah Lee

Right then!

Grid? Here!

PS - I know you don't need to PS on a blog, but I wanted to add a journalist shout-out to Halberstam, Sheehan, Arnett and Galloway; Capra and Pyle - and many more. Nothing to do with the puzzle.

Steve

Note from C.C.:

Happy birthday to our beautiful Melissa B, creator of Adopt an Inmate project. Melissa inspire me every day with her strength and compassion. She's a quiet hero.

Left to Right: Melissa's daughter, Melissa's mom Barbara B, Melissa

 

Thursday July 27th 2017 Pancho Harrison

Theme: Beau Knows (and so do Jeff, Dorothy and Lloyd)

14A. *Billboard entry : POP SONG. Sometimes known as the middle eight, the bridge usually follows the second chorus in a pop song and forms a stylistic break. Many great examples could be referenced, but let's go with "Born To Run" from Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. The bridge follows the great Clarence Clemons and his sax solo at around the 2:10 mark

20A. *Upright instrument in a bluegrass band : BASS FIDDLE. There's the bridge in the middle with the strings crossing it:

36A. *Place to land when there's no land in sight : AIRCRAFT CARRIER

On a traditional vessel, the bridge spans the superstructure from port to starboard. Due to the fact that you can't put a bridge on the flight deck, the bridge is off to one side.

49A. *LensCrafters products : EYE GLASSES. The bit in the middle that kids break and repair with a band-aid for maximum nerdiness.

and the reveal:

61A. Hollywood family name ... and what the answers to starred clues have in common : BRIDGES. Brothers Beau and Jeff and parents Lloyd and Dorothy.

Nice theme here and some tricky Thursday-level cluing to keep us on our toes. I made couple of missteps in the northwest that slowed me up, but once I gave them a second thought it all fell into place up there. Let's see what jumps out.

Across:

1. "Dawn of the Dead" (1978) director : ROMERO. Thank you, crosses.

7. Street, in Stuttgart : STRASSE

16. "S'pose so" : I RECKON

17. First of a film series about Damien Thorn : THE OMEN. Scared the living daylights out of me, as did the Exorcist. No more horror movies for me after that. I don't do scary.

18. Cultural environments : MILIEUS

19. Marines NCO : S/SGT Staff Sergeant.

22. Head of Hollywood : EDITH. Lots of Hollywood and movie references today.

24. Switchback feature : ESS. Bends.

25. Bordeaux wine : CLARET. The English name for the classic Bordeaux blends; pick two or more varietals from Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot and Malbec and mix. Winemakers in the US produce a similar blend known as Meritage, usually mispronounced with a long "a" at the end. It is "merit-idge" not "merit-arge"

28. Hankering : ITCH

30. Mauna __ : LOA. Could be KOA. Wait for the cross.

33. 19-Across boss : LOOIE. Slang for lieutenant. Pronounced left-tenant in the UK for no good reason I can see.

34. Conniption : FIT

35. "Oh, crud!" : DANG!

40. Span. miss : SRTA. Senorita.

41. "U R 2 funny!" : LOL' Laugh Out Loud in text-speak.

42. Goosebump-inducing : EERIE. See The Omen, above.

43. Neptune's realm : SEA

44. Hot state : RAGE

45. Irritating inconvenience : HASSLE

46. Post-Manhattan Project org. : A.E.C. Nice logo:

47. Selling points? : SHOPS. Nice clue.

53. Grouch : CRAB

57. "Let's talk in my office" : NOT HERE

58. Word in many hymns : REJOICE

60. "Inka Dinka Doo" singer : DURANTE. More crosses, thank you.

62. Son of Clytemnestra : ORESTES. Complicated family. His mother killed his father, then Orestes killed his mother to avenge the deed. All kinds of complications ensued.

63. Campaign ugliness : SMEARS

Down:

1. Official accts. : RPTS. Reports. Not a fan of this one.

2. Sounds of amazement : OOHS. Tried WOWS, didn't work.

3. Compressed video file format : MPEG. Moving Picture Experts Group? Really? Who knew?

4. Abstruse knowledge : ESOTERICA

5. Com can follow it : ROM. Once I took out my first try DOT here and thought twice about WOWS things started to come together in this area. It was my last section to finish.

6. At all : ONE BIT

7. "The Urbz: __ in the City": video game : SIMS. Guesswork. I knew the game Sim City, I didn't know this title.

8. Long-odds bet : TRIFECTA. One-two-three in the race. I won a quite sizable sum of money at Santa Anita when I hit a trifecta. It was a complete fluke, I was looking at the next race in the Racing Form when I picked my numbers.

9. It's often put on a dog : RELISH. Nice clue again. Relish, mustard. No ketchup, ever.

10. Litmus reddeners : ACIDS. Alkalis turn litmus paper blue, if chemistry lesson memory serves me correct. Or was that Universal Indicator Paper? It's been a while since science class.

11. Short itinerary? : SKED.

12. Motown music : SOUL

13. First word of Massachusetts' motto : ENSE. Quite a mouthful, this motto:

"Ense petit placidam sub libertate quietem" Usually translated as "By the sword we seek peace, but peace only under liberty".

15. Pest in a swarm : GNAT

21. Lazy : SHIFTLESS

23. Stag, for one : DEER

25. Elegance : CLASS

26. French wine valley : LOIRE. France has some beautiful countryside, including the quite stunning Loire Valley. Did you see the Tour de France this last three weeks? Plenty of aerial shots of the French countryside. Beautiful.

27. Main artery : AORTA. Not the 405 or the 101 in this neck of the woods.

29. It may be nervous : TIC

30. Hibernation spots : LAIRS

31. NBC newsman Roger : O'NEIL. Nailed it. Finally got this name set in my head.

32. Come to terms : AGREE

35. Specification regarding threads : DRESS CODE. Great clue.

37. Like many steakhouse menus : A LA CARTE. Just steakhouses?

38. London bank? : FOG. The legendary and notorious London fogs are a thing of the past since the introduction of the Clean Air Act and the phasing out of coal fires for heating homes. The air is still pretty bad, mainly from emissions from diesel engines (taxis and buses).

39. Harvest : REAP

44. Give in : RELENT

45. Unmannerly sorts, in Canadian slang : HOSERS. We had a discussion about this a couple of months ago when it appeared in another Thursday puzzle.

46. Turkish honorifics : AGHAS. That middle "H" seem to make me stumble.

48. Window box plant : HERB. I've got basil in mine.

49. Opposite of exo- : ENDO-

50. Part of FYI : YOUR. For Your Information.

51. Raison d'__ : ETRE. Reason for being, literally.

52. Witnesses : SEES

54. Latvian capital : RIGA

55. Taiwan-based computer giant : ACER. I thought until recently this company had gone out of business, but no.

56. Gershwin heroine : BESS

59. Parsons of "Hidden Figures" : JIM

Wow, that went quickly. So here's the grid, and I'm done!

Steve

Thursday, July 20 2017 Agnes Davidson & C.C. Burnikel

Theme: My advice to you is to start drinking heavily ...

63A. 1978 misfit comedy ... and something hidden in each answer to a starred clue : ANIMAL HOUSE

And thus we find:

17A. *Felt-covered gaming equipment : CRAPS TABLES. I think this is pretty cool - have you ever tried to play Craps on an unstable table? Usually for-charity fun, but I like the solid lean-on-with-the-elbows tables in Vegas. I usually don't like the eventual outcome.

39A. *What may be moved by a fan : COOL AIR. I had my A/C replaced last month. Now I have cool air, not hot and humid air. Came at a price, but I'm not complaining.

11D. *Dr Pepper Museum locale : WACO, TEXAS Thank you, crosses. TEXAS emerged pretty quickly, WACO took a while due to some half-a**ed attempts at 19A and 22A that were so off the mark I can't even remember what I was thinking.

32D. *Result of a Merlot mishap : WINE STAIN. Fun clue. Cabernet catastrophe? Pinot ... ?

Darn, I wish I thought of this theme. Acrosses, downs, a theme reveal and all sorts of fun in the fill. Agnes (aka Irish Miss) takes the lead role in this collaboration with C.C. I ran through this one counter-clockwise and finally ended up at CON. A circuitous route indeed.

I'm coming off ten days of antibiotics due to some dental scraping and poking and not a glass of wine to be seen, so tonight is my first-thought theme night. I'll go lightly though.

Let's take a tour:

Across:

1. Held in check : AT BAY. Took my check? eBay.

6. Spot for a Fitbit : WRIST. My wrist usually sports a Koa wood and titanium bracelet from Hawaii which was given to me as a birthday gift when I was on Maui. I love it.

11. Practical joker : WAG

14. __ diem : CARPE. I can't see this without remembering Robin Williams in "The Dead Poets' Society".

15. Shade-loving ornamental : HOSTA

16. Polished off : ATE

19. Hoodwink : CON

20. Reality TV host Mike : ROWE. He also narrates "Deadliest Catch". With a great theme song. Mike is a talented dude.

21. Fit to __ : A TEE. Speaking of which, The Open Championship tees off today. Any early picks for the winner? I'm torn.

22. Grey Goose rival : STOLI. Super-minor grump, but "Stoli" is not the name of the vodka, it's an affectionate moniker. If I'm in a bar, I'd be offered "Goose" or "Stoli". Actually, let's elevate this to a minor grump  because I took the clue literally and tried to make "Siroc" work. B-Minus.

24. Coca-Cola Company headquarters : ATLANTA

26. Seuss' shelled reptile : TERTLE Thank you, crosses. Update: YERTLE

27. Daughter of Michelle and Barack : SASHA. First Daughter?

29. "Hard __!": sailor's cry : A-LEE! Shorthand for "We're toast! Put the stern into the wind and hope that we don't take the mast off with a gybe!" Bon Chance.

30. Not as many : FEWER. Quick! Supermarket checkout - Ten Items or ...... which? Less? Fewer?

33. Team on the field : OXEN. My high school soccer team. We were slow.

35. Midterm, e.g. : EXAM

38. NPR's Shapiro : ARI

42. Bio stat : AGE

43. Grammy : NANA. Not a music award? Dang!

45. UPS driver's assignments : RTES. Splynter and my brother know all about these.

46. Match play? : ARSON. Fun clue

48. Nights before : EVES - Christmas, New Year - more fun than the actual holiday

50. Home of Aleppo : SYRIA

52. Where to find wheels and deals : CASINO. Roulette wheels and card dealers. I know a bartender at the Universal City Hilton who was a dealer in Las Vegas. He keeps a deck of cards under the counter. Ask him to deal you a flush, or a pair, or an Ace-King and off he goes. Amazing.

54. Capelike garments : PONCHOS

58. Collar attachment : ID TAG. Pooches, not combatants.

59. Jessica of "Hitchcock" : BIEL

61. ATM output : CASH. Beats the "Insufficent Funds" receipt.

62. Tazo product : TEA. Starbucks, I think? Tea, not Coffee.

66. Nutmeg State collegian : ELI. Yale, in Connecticut. Which I now learn is the "Nutmeg State". Excuse me while I read the fascinating story of this nickname.

67. Big dos : GALAS. Darn! Tried "FETES", wasn't.

68. Ancient Anatolian region : IONIA

69. Rubio's title: Abbr. : SEN.

70. Foe : ENEMY

71. Type in : ENTER

Down:

1. African capital near the prime meridian : ACCRA. 350-odd miles away, close enough:

2. Fortune-teller? : TAROT. I had a set in my younger days. Wrapped the deck in purple silk as per instructions. Smoked some weed. Put Pink Floyd or Genesis on the record deck. Told fortunes. Was wrong. Don't underestimate the experts (equally wrong).

3. Barroom mix-up : BRAWL. Now you're talking. An Irish tradition. Two of my uncles had a minor contretemps at my Dad's wake. Blows were not quite (quite!) struck.

4. Pacify : APPEASE. See above. Two minutes later, all was forgotten.

5. "That's right" : YES!

6. "Too funny!" : WHAT A HOOT!

7. Loungewear item : ROBE. Not me. Hugh Hefner?

8. Man or Manhattan : ISLE. How do you spell "heeeehuuughhhhhhh maybe?" Manhattan Island. Isle of Man. I know they're both "Isles" but ach - let's let this one go.

9. Jeanne d'Arc, e.g.: Abbr. : STE. If she was a man, she'd be Jean D'Arc and an St. I'm watching the Tour de France at the moment while I'm on the treadmill for inspiration - what a beautiful country.

10. Top of a cornstalk : TASSEL. Had the British TASSLE/TASSEL conflict. Guessed right.

12. Ring-shaped coral reef : ATOLL

13. Garage door opener brand : GENIE. Open, Sesame! And put some lox and cream cheese on that sesame bagel. And some red onions while you're about it. And a slice of tomato. Oh, and some scrambled eggs and chopped scallions on the plate. Can I get some black pepper please? Finally, breakfast is served. Food! Oh - where's my coffee?

18. Puddies, to Tweety : TATS. I tawt ....

23. Family __ : TREE

25. Certain undercover cop : NARC

26. Golfer Tseng who's the youngest player to win five major championships : TANI. Update: YANI. crosses, thank you. Here she is, the immensely-talented golfer:

28. Car bars : AXLES. Fun clue.

30. One of the faithful : FAN. I'm a Chelsea fan, I'm not sure I'm one of a few these days, but back in the 70's there were a hardcore few of us watching a losing team in the rain at the wrong end of the Fulham Road. I think the Dog Track that surrounded the pitch made more money than the professional soccer team. How times change.

31. Reliever's stat : ERA. Hey C.C!

34. "Piece of cake!" : EASY PEASY! Lemon Squeezy!

36. Gone by : AGO

37. Popes and cardinals, but not nuns : MEN

40. Approximately : OR SO

41. Drops from above : RAIN

44. Nike competitor : AVIA

47. Rocky in a Beatles title : RACCOON. OK. A throwaway song? There were plenty, for all the adoration the Beatles attracted.

49. Captivate : ENGAGE

51. Get moving : ROLL

52. Quotes : CITES. I've been writing some academic papers recently. I'm really quite done with citations. I never want to see the APA Publication Guide again in my life. Really.

53. Simpson of fashion : ADELE.

55. Place to hang : HAUNT

56. Actor Davis : OSSIE

57. Shave, as sheep : SHEAR. Complete the first part of this joke:
...
...
Wow, mate, back in NZ we shear our sheep!!
Nah mate, here in Oz we're got plenty for one each!

Badaboom. I'm here all week.

59. Anger : BILE

60. Muslim holy man : IMAM

64. Chicken vindaloo go-with : NAN. Food! Near and dear to my heart, I can't not post a picture:

65. Make tracks, old-style : HIE

Blog? Check.
Grid? Check.
Theme Expo? Check.

Steve? Hasta Proxima Semana! Homework done? Check!

Thursday July 13 2017 Bruce Haight

Theme: Horse Play - the four theme entries are equine-related homophonic, or near-homophonic phrases.

17A. Arabian's head covering? : BRIDLE VEIL. Bridal veil. Arabian in the horse breed sense.

26A. Mounting problem at Churchill Downs? : STIRRUP TROUBLE. Stir up trouble.

42A. Something well in hand at Waterloo? : REIN OF NAPOLEON. Reign of Napoleon.

55A. Feature of 50-Down? : HORSE VOICE. Hoarse voice.

and ..

50D. '60s TV personality who would especially enjoy this puzzle : MR. ED

A straightforward-enough punning theme from Bruce with the character reveal tucked away neatly at the bottom of the puzzle.

I'm not sure if I'm bothered or not by STIRRUP TROUBLE - it's certainly an outlier from the other three homophone theme entries, both by not being a homophone and the original phrase having three words, not two.

Not a deal-breaker though, so let's see what else we've got:

Across

1. Unit of heat energy : THERM

6. Like wild boar meat : GAMY and  54. Like wild boar meat : LEAN. Nice clecho.

10. Rock-in-pond sound : PLOP. More like a pebble sound. I think a rock would make more of a KA-BLOOSH sound.

14. Bit part : CAMEO. Konstantine Stanislavsky, the great character actor and theatrical director remarked "there are no small parts, only small actors".

15. Matty of baseball : ALOU. Talented family, those Alous.

16. Most Rembrandts : OILS. Here's one that's not - "Self-portrait, Staring". Aptly titled!

19. "Concord Sonata" composer : IVES. Thank you, crosses. Charles Ives composed what is officially titled Piano Sonata No. 2 "Concord, Mass., 1840-1860". I tried listening to it but gave up after a couple of minutes, it's not my cup of tea.

20. Nevertheless : YET

21. Cools quickly : ICES

22. Physicist Rutherford : ERNEST. His research led to the first atom-splitting by nuclear reaction in 1917.

24. Arequipa's land : PERU. Second most populous city in the country.

25. Pats dry : BLOTS

31. Film that's barely shown? : NUDIE. As a side-theme note, Nudie Cohn was the original "Rhinestone Cowboy" known for his flamboyant clothing design (and custom car design too).

32. Carry on : WAGE

33. 2008 TARP beneficiary : AIG

35. Bit that can be split : ATOM. Rutherford from 22A figured this out.

36. Luges, e.g. : SLEDS

38. Attracted : DREW

39. Sci-fi vehicle : POD

40. Midwestern tribe : OTOE

41. Prairie wanderer : DOGIE. A calf separated from its mother.

46. Stole (in) : CREPT

47. Track piece : RAIL

48. "Wait, start again, please" : I'M LOST. As the dogie said to the cowpoke.

50. Track event : MILE. I like that the mile race is still run even though the other race distances with the exception of the marathon are all metric.

51. Horned viper : ASP

58. Bollywood garment : SARI

59. Help in a bad way : ABET

60. Triage MD : E.R. DOC. Ouch. Least favorite fill of the day.

61. Writer Waugh : ALEC. Elder brother of the better-known Evelyn Waugh. He was a prolific writer, but according to his nephew Auberon "[he] wrote many books, each worse than the last". Tough crowd.

62. Bustle : TO DO

63. Symbols among notes : RESTS

Down

1. Frozen dessert chain : TCBY "The Country's Best Yogurt".

2. Overconfident fable critter : HARE. Beaten by the tortoise.

3. Throw off : EMIT

4. White alternative : RED. Vino.

5. "Le Misanthrope" playwright : MOLIERE

6. Allowed from the mound : GAVE UP. Baseball nomenclature - the pitcher gives up a hit or a run.

7. See 45-Down : ALES.

8. "You think I did it?!" : MOI? Accompanied by innocent eyebrow raising.

9. Christmas cracklers : YULE LOGS

10. Destination in a simple itinerary : POINT B. Early Google Maps didn't always give you quite the correct route.

11. Has extravagant ways : LIVES LARGE

12. Fútbol cheers : OLÉS

13. Attractive sound? : PSST! Attention-attracter.

18. Lampshade shade : ECRU

23. Cad : ROUÉ

24. Stuffy : PRIM

25. "Ratatouille" director Bird : BRAD. More crosses, thank you.

26. Word with brim or bean : SNAP. I'd never heard of a snap bean until today. Live and learn.

27. Coach : TUTOR

28. "My word!" : I DO DECLARE!

29. Many a Belieber : TWEEN. Generally agreed to be the pre-teen years between 10 and 12 when your children start to hate you.

30. Refrain from singing as a child? : EIEIO. Old McDonald and his noisy farm.

34. Singer Stefani : GWEN. She recorded a great remake of Talk Talk's 1984 hit It's My Life

36. "Enough!" : STOP THAT!

37. Room at the top : LOFT

38. Kid's tea party attendee : DOLL

40. Singles : ONES

41. "You bet!" : DO I EVER

43. Like much humor : IRONIC

44. Blue blood, for short : ARISTO

45. With 7-Down, bitter brews : PALE. It's the hops in the ale that gives it the bitter note.

48. "Play it once, Sam" speaker : ILSA

49. Spread, maybe : MEAL

51. Supports : AIDS. We have both aid and abet today.

52. Macbeth or Macduff : SCOT. Aye.

53. Muscle Beach display : PECS

56. "That price is negotiable," in ads : OBO

57. Vein output : ORE

I think we just need a grid and a by-line and we're done, so here they are:

Steve

Thursday July 6th 2017 Pawel Fludzinski

Theme: Love Thy Neighbor - The neighboring states are so close that they're practically sitting in each other's lap, as the reveal neatly sums up:

47A. What the answers to three "pair" clues share, both in this grid and in reality : STATE BORDERS

19A. Midwestern pair : NEBRASKANSAS

26A. Northeastern pair : MAINEWHAMPSHIRE

42A. Southwestern pair : NEWMEXICOLORADO

Nice puzzle from Pawel. I tumbled the theme after seeing COLORADO emerging from the crosses and things were pretty plain sailing after that. A very clean grid with the two pairs of stacked 9's and a lot of solid white areas. The fill had some really nice stuff - those aforementioned 9's and some tricky partials in the downs.

Let's see what jumps out:

Across:

1. Many opera villains : BASSI. Really deep-voiced. I can spoof a basso profundo speaking voice, but as I can't sing a note that's about as far as I get. I have to channel my inner Paul Robeson. Come back and watch this great piece of history from 1949.

6. Georgia __ : TECH

10. '70s Israeli prime minister : MEIR

14. Ration out : ALLOT.

15. Antioxidant-rich fruit in smoothies : ACAI BERRY. Goji berries fit the bill too, so you need to wait for the crosses.

17. Some earrings : HOOPS

18. Celestial explosion : SUPERNOVA. This was a tough corner. If you don't know MEIR, I'm not sure you'd be able to unpick the triple three-letter downs.

21. Japanese prime minister since 2012 : ABE. Shinzo. Is he "honest" too?

22. Cold War weapons : ICBMS. Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles. They pack quite an unpleasant punch.

33. Ready followers? : OR NOT. I tried SET-GO first, which caused some problems later.

34. Jumper cable connection : ANODE

35. Did lunch, say : ATE

36. Morse clicks : DITS. D--S and wait for the crosses.

37. Fly catchers : MITTS. Nice one. Fly ball in baseball. Some of the catches can be pretty spectacular:

38. Corp. money execs : C.F.O.S

39. Puerto Rican pronoun : ESO. That.

40. Bandleader's cry : HIT IT!

41. Ring figure? : CARAT. Nice.

45. Queen __ lace : ANNE'S. Also known as the wild carrot. The roots, leaves and flowers are all edible. I'll leave the eats, roots, leave humor to the peanut gallery, tempted as I am.

46. Lode load : ORE

55. Soldier of Fortune subject : MERCENARY

58. D-sharp equivalent : E FLAT

59. Grifter : CON ARTIST. Do any of you watch the "Cooks vs. Cons" on the Food Network? I enjoy the show, but have you noticed that most of the "pros" who lose out are personal chefs, not restaurant chefs? Big difference in standards. One of the winning contestants who had me totally fooled appeared in one of the early episodes - she was French, and turned out to be a barber in New York City.

60. __ del Sol : COSTA. On the Spanish Mediterranean. One of my favorite soccer players, Diego Costa, looks like he might be leaving my club Chelsea, and returning to his old one, Atletico Madrid. Hasta luego, y gracias Diego! Of course, there's also this:

61. Prepare for mailing : SEAL

62. On the less windy side : ALEE. I learned the lesson early - if you're at sea and you experience what is kindly known as reverse peristalsis, then you'd better be on this side of the ship when you start to feed the fishes.

63. Woods components : TREES

Down:

1. Automobil route : BAHN. It can also be a rail route: Deutsche Bahn AG is the company that operates Germany's rail networks, among others.

2. Healing salve : ALOE

3. Frustrating roommate for a neatnik : SLOB

4. Many opera heroines : SOPRANOS. Nice tie-in with BASSI at the top.

5. "I'll take that action" : IT'S A BET

6. Checklist item : TASK

7. Galápagos locale: Abbr. : ECUA. Ecuador. I stumbled around here a little, I tried AGUA which caused me some confusion for a while, and made no sense whatsoever given that we are told we need an abbreviation.

8. Bos'n's boss : CAP'N

9. Hustles : HIES

10. Stand-up sort : MENSCH

11. Mancinelli opera "__ e Leandro" : ERO This trilogy at 11D, 12D and 13D would have been a total bust for me if I didn't know Golda MEIR. I'd have WAG'ed at ARO, ERV and NO IDEA which would have left me looking at MAE-

12. Robbins of Baskin-Robbins : IRV

13. Shaggy Scandinavian rug : RYA

16. Slow-cook, in a way : BRAISE

20. Give a darn? : SEW

23. Former African secessionist territory : BIAFRA

24. "The Wind in the Willows" character : MR. TOAD. It's a fun book. I never understood how Mr. Toad could escape from jail, go home to reclaim Toad Hall, and the police never bothered to come over and pick him up.

25. Handles : SEES TO

26. Italian headquarters of Maserati : MODENA. Also Ferrari's HQ. Lamborghini had a factory there too, but forget all about that. Balsamic vinegar! Yay!

27. Out of the sack : ARISEN

28. Around, so to speak : IN TOWN

29. French-speaking republic : HAITI

30. Escapade : ANTIC

31. "Crossroads of America" in Indiana, e.g. : MOTTO

32. Law-and-order gps. : P.D.S Police Departments.

37. Pancake-making aid : MIX.

38. Nurtured : CARED FOR

40. Mother of Pearl, in an 1850 novel : HESTER. Hester Prynne, in Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter".

41. PC part? : CORRECT

43. Cantina quaff : MESCAL

44. Head of England? : LOO

48. Masonry support : ANTA. The support between the pillar and the roof. Here's one at the Athenian Treasury:

49. Word with coat or shirt : TAIL.I still have my tailcoat, formal wedding-wear in the UK. I haven't worn it for 30-odd years though.

50. Gaelic tongue : ERSE

51. Bunch of bits : BYTE. Nice

52. "What __ could I say?" : ELSE

53. Evaluate : RATE

54. D.C. Metro stops : STAS. Stations on the Washington D.C. transit.

55. Escher and Hammer : M.C.S. The rapper and the graphic artist come together harmoniously.

56. Fair-hiring letters : EOE Equal Opportunity Employer.

57. Protein-building molecule : RNA

I've been in San Antonio for a couple of days and went to check out the Alamo. Everyone tells you it's not as big as you expect and they're right!

Here's the grid, and I'm heading out to the airport!

Steve

Note from C.C..:

Here are three sweet pictures of Bill G's new granddaughter Bella. Bill said she is about 5 weeks old now.