Thursday November 2nd 2017 Peg Slay

Theme: Level-Set - as hinted at by the central entry:

37A. Road trip troubles ... and what can be found in 17-, 24-, 43- and 57-Across : FLATS

17A. Where to find 37-Across : APARTMENT HOUSES. "Flat" is a common term in the UK for an apartment.

24A. Where to find 37-Across : GARDENING CENTER. Also known as Daisy trays, they commonly hold 18 plants

43A. Where to find 37-Across : WOMEN'S SHOE STORE. Not heels.

57A. Where to find 37-Across : SYMPHONIC SCORES.  Here's a whole bunch of 'em:

37A. Road trip troubles ... and what can be found in 17-, 24-, 43- and 57-Across : FLATS

A nice puzzle from Corner regular Peg Slay. Just like last Thursday, there's four grid-spanners as the themers, and with the hint in the center that makes a solid 65 letters of theme entries. Some nice trickery to deal with - AURAE rather than AURAS, GNASH rather than GRIND and some clever longer fill.

Let's see what else catches the eye:

Across:

1. Ford crossover SUV : EDGE

5. Fawning flattery : SMARM. Great word.

10. Void partner : NULL. Null and void.

14. Melt fish : TUNA. Food! Tuna and cheese in a sandwich. I've had one, I believe.

15. Surrounding glows : AURAE

16. Pennsylvania city subject to lake-effect snow : ERIE. Nailed it! Brrr - this is not good:

20. Go hog-wild : LET LOOSE

21. Gardener's transplant : GRAFT

22. Penn of "Harold & Kumar" films : KAL. Crosses all the way for me here.

23. U.N. workers' gp. : I.L.O. The International Labour Organization. Note the spelling!

33. Table spreads : OLEOS. Margarines.

34. Ostrich kin : EMUS. "Kin" in the plural here.

35. "__ rule ... " : AS A

36. Clutter-free : NEAT

39. Piedmont bubbly : ASTI. Do they make anything else bubbly in Piedmont? I need to take a trip out there and find out.

40. Nine-time NHL All-Star : ORR. Hockey's Bobby.

41. Walk or run : GAIT

42. Cathedral areas : APSES. One is usually found at the Eastern, or altar end of the cathedral.

47. Map line: Abbr. : LAT. Not Long.

48. Kendrick Lamar's genre : RAP. Not my first choice musical genre, but the name is familiar enough.

49. Greek vowels : IOTAS

52. Send up : SATIRIZE. I spelled it the English way with an "S" first but ZEST fixed that for me.

60. Popular jeans : LEES

61. "Once Upon a Time in China" star : JET LI. More crosses. I wasn't familiar with most of the proper names today.

62. Attitude : SASS

63. White-tailed seabird : ERNE

64. Dutch painter of "The Drawing Lesson" : STEEN. Another unknown, or at least one I was unsure of.

65. Poker buy-in : ANTE

Down:

1. Abbr. in an abbreviated list : ET AL. "Et Alii", "Et Aliae" or "Et Alia" depending on the gender of the noun being described. No wonder we abbreviate it to lose all the gender-noun uncertainty. See how great English can be?

2. Con : DUPE

3. Pest you might slap : GNAT

4. British peer : EARL

5. South Pacific islander : SAMOAN

6. Oaty breakfast mix : MUESLI

7. Obama Education secretary Duncan : ARNE. Any relation to Thomas Arne, the composer of the perennial British favorite "Rule Britannia"? I think I've linked this before. It bears a repeat.

8. Traitor : RAT

9. [Yawn] : MEH! Relatively new addition to the dictionary. It came from "The Simpsons" TV show.

10. Cell using a synapse : NEURON

11. Bear in the sky : URSA

12. Willingly : LIEF. A learning moment for me. When it appeared I looked very critically at the across entries to see which one I'd got wrong.

13. For fear that : LEST

18. Tips for dealers : TOKES. I'd never heard this term before today. A toke to me is a puff of a certain kind of "herbal" cigarette, the type that Bill Clinton famously did not inhale from.

19. Checks figures intently? : OGLES

23. Post-op sites : I.C.U.S

24. Dismissive words : GO NOW

25. Last Olds off the line : ALERO

26. Furnish with more weapons : RE-ARM

27. One of four in Mississippi : DOT. Tried ESS first, of course. More than a couple of do-overs today.

28. Under, poetically : 'NEATH

29. Clock-setting std. : GMT
.
30. Italian Renaissance poet : TASSO. Another unknown/uncertain proper name.Solid crosses to the rescue yet again. First name "Torquato" which is also a new one on me. Here's a sample:

ONCE a mosquito came a-buzzing round 

The happy place 

Where in his mother’s lap Love lay sleep-bound 

With pretty grace; 

Said Love, aroused from slumber by the hum: 

“How from so small 

A body can so great a clamour come, 

Awaking all?” 

   Beguiling him with song, Venus replied: 

“Thou too art small, 

Yet mortals wake who on the earth abide 

And the Gods all 

Up in the sky, 

Hearing thee cry.”

Interesting! I think there's some symbolism there I should think about.

31. Aromatic compound : ESTER

32. Jack up : RAISE

37. Ramadan ritual : FAST

38. Fleur-de-__ : LIS. I know it as a Fleur-de-lys, this spelling always confuses me.

39. Germane : APT

41. Grate together, as teeth : GNASH

42. Mold that's cold : ASPIC. Food!

44. Slide by : ELAPSE

45. Big name in databases : ORACLE. I know all about these folks, I worked there for seven years.

46. Has leftovers, say : EATS IN. Indian curry leftovers are the best of all. The flavors develop overnight.

49. Daysail destination : ISLE

50. Terminer's partner, in law : OYER. "To hear and determine".

51. Feds under Ness : T-MEN

52. Place to build : SITE

53. Parks whose famous bus is in the Henry Ford Museum : ROSA. The museum in Dearborn is great. There's some fascinating stuff in there, not all motor-transportation-related.

54. Shah's former land : IRAN

55. Fragrant peel : ZEST

56. Cato's "to be" : ESSE. Latin. Thank you, Latin lessons at school, and "Ma Batt" as my teacher was affectionately nicknamed. Her son wrote the theme music to "The Wombles" which will mean as much to you as the phrase "It's as good as a homer in the bottom of the ninth with the bases loaded" meant to me when I read a Colt 45 promotional beer coaster in the first "American bar" to be opened in our little parochial home town. We literally no idea what it meant. The Dodgers could have done with one of those last night. The beer was awful, by the way. Upon research, it had some pretty terrible advertising. This one is the best I could find, and it's just a picture of the label.

58. a.m. beverages : O.J.S

59. Fishing aid : NET. Not ROD then.

That wraps it up for me. I'm heading to New York for a couple of days for some budget planning meetings for 2018. It's as exciting as it sounds! United don't fly LAX to JFK direct anymore, so it's Newark for me, and the NJ Transit rail link into Penn Station.

Here's the grid!

Steve

Notes from C.C.:

Here are two cute pictures of Melissa's granddaughter from Halloween. 

Thursday, October 26 2017 Mark McClain

Theme: FAN-tastic. Four FAN definitions, four different results. Three nouns-based, one verb-based.

17A. FAN : RANGE HOOD DEVICE. Really? OK. My range hood doubles as a microwave, so I've got two devices in one, I guess. I treated myself to a new range last week, the old one went kaput in the oven-ignition department. I'm not fond of the smell of gas in my kitchen.

26A. FAN : GEISHA ACCESSORY. Can be very ornate.

43A. FAN : GO DOWN ON STRIKES. It took me forever to parse this. Baseball - you fan the batter when you have him swinging and missing at for strike three. World Series time is on us! I won't claim to being an ardent supporter of my LA Dodgers. I am a fan, though.

56A. FAN : ARDENT SUPPORTER. Now, that's me! Chelsea F.C. When I'm back in London next month I'll be at the ground being ardent. I still renew my annual club membership each year even though I get to one game every goodness knows when.

Four grid-spanners is always a nice construction job - things can get tricky making this kind of pattern work. I thought we were onto a pangram when X, Z, J, K and the other usual suspects started showing up, but no Q, so close, but no cigar.

Lots of nice fill to go with the solid 60 (count 'em!) theme letters. Let's see:

Across:

1. "The Hobbit" figure : DWARF. Makes a nice change from ents, orcs and what-not. There were 13 of the vertically-challenged, pugnaciously-bearded bunch in The Hobbit

6. Moneyless deal : SWAP

10. It may involve an exchange of letters : CODE. Also known as a substitution cipher - you change one letter for another.

14. Like a raucous crowd : AROAR. Your honor, I refer to my previous blog entries on this particular word.

15. Grassy "pet" : CHIA

16. Binged (on) : OD'ED

20. Donkey Kong, e.g. : APE. I'm old enough to remember the first Donkey Kong machine in my local pub in London. I'm also old enough to remember the first Pong machine, and the first Space Invaders machine. I retired after Missile Command and saved my money.

21. Tiny bit : IOTA

22. Gas in an arc lamp : XENON

23. Cultural opening? : AGRI-

24. Working away : AT IT

33. Dark : UNLIT

34. Holy Week season : LENT.

35. Menagerie : ZOO

36. Organa family royal : LEIA. I don't know why I have a problem with this "Organa" family clue. I know I know it's Star Wars, but why was I playing around with LENA and LEDA as possibilities?

37. Outback youngsters : JOEYS. Sing after me the Australian kids' show theme tune: "Skippy, Skippy, Skippy the bush kangaroo". The show came on right after "The Magic Boomerang" on the BBC. I'm guessing cheaply-acquired programming.

39. Cover up : MASK. Verb and noun. Nice.

40. Is for many : ARE. Singular/Plural hint.

41. Trombone's symphonic neighbor : TUBA. Twinned with the 38D clue/answer. Nice.

42. First two-time Nobelist : CURIE

47. False move : FAKE. Sporting term - faking someone out.

48. Try in court : HEAR

49. "Star Wars" genre : SCI-FI

52. Contrary girl of rhyme : MARY. How did her garden grow?

53. Relaxation spot : SPA

60. Oblique look : LEER

61. Lowland : VALE. I wait - DALE or VALE?

62. Din : NOISE

63. Bigelow products : TEAS

64. Cut without mercy, as a budget : AXED

65. Maker of iComfort mattresses : SERTA. I'm surprised lawsuit-happy Apple haven't sued over the name.

Down:

1. Swimmer Torres with 12 Olympic medals : DARA. She's a motiviational speaker now and lives up the street (actually, up quite a few streets) in Beverly Hills.

2. Sub alternative : WRAP

3. As good as it gets : A-ONE

4. Joplin work : RAG

5. Train load : FREIGHT

6. Nova __ : SCOTIA

7. "Just a doggone minute!" : WHOA

8. Legal __ : AID

9. Legal __ : PAD

10. Longs for enviously : COVETS

11. Mr. Wednesday's real identity in "American Gods" : ODIN

12. Artistic style of L.A.'s Eastern Columbia Building : DECO.  A beautiful loft building downtown. Here's the entryway:

13. Churchill's 1955 successor : EDEN

18. Hand-holding celebratory dance : HORA

19. Be real : EXIST

23. Where Vladivostok is : ASIA

24. __-deucey : ACEY

25. Arithmetic column : TENS. Please complete the following as your homework. It's due back to me tomorrow.

26. Solzhenitsyn subject : GULAG. I read "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" when I was a teen. Quite the eye-opener.

27. Día de Reyes month : ENERO. Nailed it! January, the twelfth day of Christmas in Spanish-speaking countries.

28. "That wasn't quite true ... " : I LIED

29. Do housework : CLEAN

30. Netflix drama set in a Missouri mountain resort : OZARK. Never seen the drama, but easy to guess.

31. WWII riveter : ROSIE

32. Devices used with oxcarts : YOKES. As one ox said to the other: "This plow is heavy. No yoke".

37. Rubbish : JUNK

38. Flute's symphonic neighbor : OBOE. I like the pair of orchestral maneuvers today. Let's use that as an excuse for some 80's pop. And some hilarity with the video production standards of the day.

39. Sierra Club founder : MUIR

41. With "the," East and West, in a Kipling ballad : TWAIN

OH, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,
Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God’s great Judgment Seat;
But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth,

When two strong men stand face to face, tho’ they come from the ends of the earth!

From "The Ballad of East and West" by Rudyard Kipling

I've got a beaten-up old copy of Kipling's "Barrack Room Ballads" that belonged to my Dad and which followed him around his pre-war British Army postings to Hong Kong and Palestine and his WWII assignments in North Africa and Burma. No wonder it's a little rough around the edges.

42. Colorful set : CRAYONS

44. They're music to job-seekers' ears : OFFERS

45. Molded : SHAPED

46. Maryland athlete, familiarly : TERP

49. Cellar contents : SALT. Wanted WINE. A recent addition to my pantry is a Himalaya black salt that smells sulfurous. It's used to finish a couple of Indian curries that I'm fond of. Not to everyone's taste.

50. First Nations tribe : CREE

51. Thought : IDEA

52. Backless shoe : MULE. I tried MOCC first, a bad decision on more than one front.

53. Start to wake up : STIR

54. Sitter's challenge : PEST

55. Geometry figure : AREA

57. Power agcy. since 1933 : T.V.A.

58. Jazz band staple : SAX

59. Landmark '70s case anonym : ROE vs. Wade.

That's about it from me.

Steve

Thursday October 19 2017 Bruce Haight

Theme: Aural Plurals - repeat the last letter of each theme answer and listen to the result:

17A. Southern dish, so we hear : BLACK-EYED PP (Peas). Food! I'm happy already.

25A. World's navigable waters, so we hear : SEVEN CC (Seas) I wanted to link the OMD song from the 80's for this, but I went back to listen to it on YouTube, and, actually, it really wasn't very good. I thought that I remembered that the drum riff intro was awesome, but, in hindsight, it was - pants What happened to the bass?I must have imagined it. See  what you think? Maybe I had "drink taken", as my Irish family would say. I was young. Moving on.

36A. Welcome relief, so we hear : A SIGHT FOR SORE II (Eyes)

48A. Suggestive dance, so we hear : STRIP TT (Tease)

and

57A. Warning hint, so we hear : WORD TO THE YY (Wise)

Another cracking puzzle from Bruce. I tumbled to the theme right off the bat, but that didn't spoil my amusement one bit. The fill is great, the theme entries all very much fun, and those 6's, 8's and 10's in the downs just speak to the quality of the construction.

There are a couple or more candidate theme phrases out there that spring to mind such as THE BIRDS AND THE BB, Yellow Submarine's A LIFE OF EE, TORONTO BLUE JJ, POOL QQ but probably not enough to expand this to a Sunday-size. Shame, because I'm sure Bruce could to a sterling job with a 21x21.

Anyway, great stuff, Bruce! Let's see what else jumps out - BOO! - it is Hallowe'en season after all.

Across:

1. Wing it : AD LIB

6. Doing battle : AT WAR

11. Quarterback Brady : TOM. Just this week, the New York Giant's GM at the time, Ernie Accorsi, revealed that he ignored pleas from one of his staff to draft Brady in the 6th round and regretted it ever since. Brady fell to the Patriots and look how that turned out, but Ernie shouldn't be so tough on himself. No-one else saw that coming.

14. "Fun With Dick and Jane" (2005) actress : LEONI

15. Hourglass, e.g. : SHAPE. TIMER sprung to mind first.

16. Political commentator Navarro : ANA

19. Tap site : KEG. Tried BAR first. Then I got to 33A and out it came.

20. Justice Dept. branch : A.T.F.  Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Sounds like a "Bring Your Own" party invitation somewhere out in West Texas.

21. Fair : EVEN

22. What "A" is for, in Sue Grafton's mystery series : ALIBI

24. Hot rod? : SPIT. Food! reference. Think rotisserie.

27. __ Friday : CASUAL. I had CA**AL and was wondering why I'd never heard of CARNAL FRIDAY nor been invited to an event.

30. Savory Chinese snack : TEA EGG Food! A boiled egg is cracked, then boiled again in tea and five-spice powder before being shelled.

31. Manufacturing facility : PLANT

32. Manhattan developer? : BAR. Manhattan as in the cocktail, not the island borough, more of which we see below.

33. #1 texting pal : BFF

41. Sevilla sun : SOL

42. Nice way to say no? : NON. Nice, en France. Sur la mer Méditerranée. I have an unpaid parking ticket from a summer trip to Nice about mumble years ago. Did they seriously expect me to pay? Je dit NON!

So,if you're now driving a 1992 red UK-registered Acura Integra, license plate F488 OLC, and reading this, contemplating a trip to Nice, be warned. You're on the hook for about 500 Francs, converted to Euros now, plus penalties, let's say about twelve billion with accrued interest. Be careful.

43. __ signs : VITAL

44. "I bet!" : OH SURE!

47. Composes, as music for a poem : SETS TO. I've been looking this one up and down for a little while. I'm OK with it, I think.

50. Put on : WORE

51. Hindu class : CASTE. We are heading into Diwali, the great Hindu "festival of light" which runs for five days, this year starting today on the 19th. I was lucky enough to be in Mumbai for Diwali one year, it was quite beautiful.

52. Works on walls : OILS. Not MURALS then? Nope, can't force six letters into four squares.

53. Nursery complaint : WAH!

56. __ Dhabi : ABU

61. "Little ol' me?" : MOI?

62. "Middlemarch" novelist : ELIOT. George Eliot, a pen-name for Mary Ann Evans. She used the nom de plume as she thought she'd have a better chance of publishers accepting her work if they thought she was a guy. Looks like it worked out for her.

63. Flowed back : EBBED

64. Soup cooker : POT

65. Criticize sharply : DECRY. I think sharply and loudly. I'm not sure you can quietly decry.

66. Butch and Sundance chasers : POSSE

Down:

1. Goya's "Duchess of __" : ALBA. He painted her a bunch of times, including the famous reclining studies of her dressed and undressed. This one is a little less risqué:

2. Muscle used to raise your hand in school, for short : DELToid. Fun clue.

3. Lollygag : LOAF

4. "Monsters, __" : INC

5. Spokesperson's route? : BIKE PATH. Very nice.

6. Till now : AS YET

7. In those days : THEN

8. Gum ball : WAD

9. Galaxy download : APP. The Galaxy smartphone.

10. Maintain, as roads : RE-PAVE

11. Bookie's work : TAKING BETS

12. Last non-AD yr. : ONE B.C. Apparently we should use BCE/CE now to avoid upsetting sensitive folk.

13. Tricks : MAGIC

18. Wicked : EVIL

23. Cut of lamb : LEG! More Food! I love leg of lamb. I either roast it bone-in for a British-style Sunday lunch, or bone it, butterfly it and grill it for a more Mediterranean-style treatment.

24. Belted out : SUNG, lustily.

25. Burn slightly : SEAR

26. They may ring or have rings : EARS

27. Calculating pros : CPA'S

28. Plus : ALSO

29. Outfit with bell-bottom trousers : SAILOR SUIT. Here's a great clip from the Broadway musical "On The Town" filmed on the streets of the city.

30. Steak named for its shape : T-BONE. Food! Flatiron (another New York landmark!) didn't fit. Tri-tip would work too, it's triangular, hence the name. Someone tried to tell me once that the New York Strip is so-called because it's the same shape as Manhattan. Not buying that one.

34. Bravo automaker : FIAT

35. Dough used in baklava : FILO

37. Letter-shaped fastener : T-NUT. I thought these were the same as wing nuts, but no.

38. One might be made of sheets and pillows : FORT

39. Exceed, as a boundary : OVERSTEP

40. Bris, e.g. : RITE. Crosses filled this in for me, I didn't see it until I came to the write up.

45. Flop's opposite : HIT

46. Gushed : SPEWED

47. Go it alone : SOLO

48. Rapscallion : SCAMP

49. Just not done : TABOO

50. Quick with comebacks : WITTY

52. Funk : ODOR

53. Halloween decor : WEBS

54. All in favor : AYES

55. Literary alter ego : HYDE. Dr. Jekyll's alter, and more unpleasant, ego.

58. Stadium cry : OLÉ!

59. Wrestler Flair nicknamed "The Nature Boy" : RIC. Thank you, crosses. Ric Ocasek from "The Cars" is the only Ric on my radar.

60. "Entourage" channel : HBO "Home Box Office", originally. No longer abbreviated! They make some great original programming. So great that I cancelled my subscription last year. Still trying to figure out the rationale behind that one.

Grid? Here it is! Hasta luego!

Actually, this has nothing whatever to do with the puzzle today, but I came across a recording of "La Bamba" this week (while I was doing my Spanish language homework) that I want to share. Click this link, put your screen into full size, crank up your volume and enjoy three minutes of really joyful music.The producers put together a virtual band from all around the world and recorded the result. Baby-Black-Dombe is only slightly cheating by not singing in Spanish, but the whole thing is fantastic!

Yo no soy marinero, soy capitan, soy capitan!

Steve

Thursday, October 12, 2017, J. Michael McHugh

Theme: Breakfast Surprise - scrambled OATS

17A. *What may put a fire in the belly? : HOT SAUCE. I've got quite a few varieties in my pantry. One of my favorites is a green habañero sauce I picked up at a market in Jalisco.

24A. *Commuter entertainment source : RADIO STATION

38A. *Slick trick : FAST ONE. Fast ones are always pulled. I might try and push a fast one and see how far I get.

52A. *Pre-release programs : BETA SOFTWARE. Full of bugs, typically.

64A. What young people may sow ... and what's literally hidden in the answers to starred clues : WILD OATS.

"Boys will be boys, young men must sow their wild oats, and women must not expect miracles." From Little Women by Louisa May Alcott.

A pretty straightforward theme today, a word scramble. If the constructor lived in TAOS, NM that would be cool. It does appear to be an LAT debut for Mr. McHugh, so congratulations are in order for that. The stacked 6's at top and bottom are nice. There is a little "bitty" feel to the rest of the fill, but nothing to get too upset about. Maybe a slight surfeit of crossword-ese. More of a Monday feel to this one. Let's see what else we've got:

Across:

1. Part of BYOB and MYOB : OWN. Bring your own bottle/mind your own business. I first heard the term BYO in Australia, which described restaurants which did not have a license to serve alcohol, but you were welcome to bring your own wine.

4. Band name with a lightning bolt slash : AC/DC

8. Unlike a couch potato : ACTIVE

14. T'ai __ : CHI

15. Afrikaans speaker : BOER. Dutch origin. It's not the most mellifluous of languages.

16. 9Lives mascot : MORRIS. Thank you, crosses. No idea with this one.

19. Makes room on, as a schedule : CLEARS

20. Window part : SASH

21. Mother of Pollux : LEDA

23. She plays Crawford in FX's "Feud" : LANGE. Jessica Lange portraying Joan Crawford.

27. Regards with surprise : GAPES AT

30. Sped : TORE

31. Botch : MISDO. Hmmm. Really? "Don't misdo that!". "Darn, I misdid it!" Not convinced that would be the first phrase out of my mouth if I stripped a bolt.

32. Miracle-__ : GRO

33. One teaspoon, e.g. : DOSE

37. Sponsor's array : ADS

42. Pampering place : SPA

43. Lets hit them : NETS. Tennis. A let actually hit the net cord, not the net, but let's not get too picky.

45. Pi follower : RHO

46. Heroism : VALOR

48. In-land link? : LA-LA. You know no-one ever calls Los Angeles La-La land? Just as only tourists call San Francisco "Frisco" and only Guy Fieri calls the state "Cali".

50. Leopardlike cats : OCELOTS

56. Not right : AMISS

57. Commuter's expense : TOLL

58. Staff symbol : REST. Music.

62. Metaphorical state of agitation : LATHER

66. Like most Chaplin films : SILENT. This New Yorker article is an interesting read regarding Chaplin and his attitudes towards sound.

67. "Uh-huh" : I SEE

68. By way of : VIA

69. Gives a heads-up : ALERTS

70. Drag racing gp. : N.H.R.A. National Hot Rod Association.

71. Prompt a correction : ERR

Down:

1. "Draft Dodger Rag" folk singer : OCHS

2. Stop on the trail : WHOA!

3. Quibbles : NITS

4. "Defending Liberty, Pursuing Justice" org. : ABA. American Bar Association. Second association of the day.

5. Might've : COULD'A. Would'a, could'a, should'a.

6. Con man's forte : DECEIT

7. Set of beliefs : CREDO. Had CREED first.

8. "The Walking Dead" channel : AMC

9. Nab : COLLAR

10. Pressure-__ : TREATED. Lumber that has chromated copper arsenate preservative forced into it under pressure.

11. Like two-time Oscar-winning director Asghar Farhadi : IRANI. More crosses to the rescue.

12. Late summer sign : VIRGO. That's me!

13. Steel city near Cologne : ESSEN. Food! It's also the verb "to eat" in German. All I know about Essen is what I learned from the friendly fictional family who populated the text book in high school German lessons. Herr Mueller was an executive at some kind of factory, and I recall the river was nice and the park was spacious.

18. Bit : SHRED

22. Orbit City pooch : ASTRO

25. Starting : AS OF

26. One in a cel block : TOON. Astro, for example.

27. FBI guy : G-MAN

28. Assistant : AIDE

29. "Wanna hear a secret?" : PSST!

32. '60s-'70s Pontiac : GTO

34. City that hosts an annual Norwegian Wood music festival : OSLO. Quick - name another Norwegian city of four letters. 3-2-1 Go!

35. Blind __ : SPOT

36. Elephant flappers : EARS

39. Singer Guthrie : ARLO

40. Golf club part : SHAFT. The shaft used to be made of good old hickory, then steel and now all kinds of fancy-schmancy carbon fiber, titanium and assorted rocket parts developed by NASA. Or something.

41. Even once : EVER

44. Cutting-edge horror film? : SLASHER

47. Olds compact : ALERO

49. Approval : ASSENT

50. Wide-eyed and wise-looking : OWLISH

51. Telemarketer : CALLER. Bleedin' nuisance, more like.

52. Light wood : BALSA. We used to make model aeroplanes out of balsa wood when we were kids.

53. It's often distributed in cc's : E-MAIL

54. Sir or sri : TITLE

55. Haul to the shop : TOW IN

59. Nesting site : EAVE

Oh - here we are at the end, I stumbled off the edge of the roof. Here's the grid!

Steve

Thursday, October 5 2017 Ed Sessa

Theme: Single-Letter Add-A-Word - or a name. 

17A. Cut most likely to win a BBQ competition? : MODEL T-BONE Model T, T-Bone

Not this kind of T-bone. Ford Focus vs Ford Explorer crash test.

25A. Keurig coffee for the big day? : SPECIAL K-CUP Special K, K-Cup

35A. Rental to get the twins to college? : DOUBLE U-HAUL W. U-Haul.

47A. Sports competitions in anti-gravity? : SPACEX GAMES SpaceX. X Games.

56A. Ring up a short story writer? : DIAL "O"'HENRY Dial "O". O'Henry.

Ach. Two good ones to start with, one "really?" in the middle and two stretches to finish. If you're going to make a puzzle like this, you need to be consistent. "Double U" is a phrase? X Games is not hyphenated. Dial "O" was never used without ".. for Operator", and actually will never be heard again in modern parlance. Let's go with 2.5/5 for themage.

However, let's go find what is likable - there's a lot!

Across:

1. Seize : USURP. Great word. I think you can usurp power, I'm not sure you can usurp the day nor usurp the moment nor the initiative. Good luck, ESL students, and I think Spanish is difficult.

6. Just slightly : A BIT

10. Lip-__ : SYNC. Almost an art form nowadays. Back in 1990 Milli Vanilli were stripped of their "Best Newcomer" Grammy when it was revealed that they didn't sing on any of their own records nor at any of their live appearances.

14. Justice nominated by Barack : SONIA

15. Buddy, in slang : BRAH. Hawaii'an slang. It makes the gods cry when bratty high schoolers from Orange County use it.

16. Secure with lines : MOOR

19. TT automaker : AUDI. Looks a little like a VW Beetle that had an appointment with the chop shop.

20. Part of : IN ON. In on the plan, in on the secret ...

21. Feminine side : YIN vs. Yang. I can never remember the female/male definition of these two.

22. Keyboard shortcuts : MACROS. They're almost too complicated to bother with now. Some combination of ALT-SHIFT-CTRL and a letter or number gives you a shortcut. The only macro I have configured on my laptop is ALT-B which blacks out my screen when I'm presenting and I want to kill the projector display behind me.

24. TV scientist with 19 Emmys : NYE. Bill, the Science .... Guy.

27. Tear drier : TISSUE

29. Richmond-to-D.C. direction : N.N.E.

30. Hunk's pride : ABS

31. Finishes second : PLACES

34. Deli order : BLT. Enemy of the ABS.

38. Word before or after pack : RAT. Nice one. Rat Pack/Pack Rat.

39. Nearly : ALMOST

40. Asian New Year : TET

41. Harmless cyst : WEN

43. They're tossed up before they're made : PIZZAS. Food! Key word is "up" which helps distinguish the pizza from the salad.

51. Uganda's Amin : IDI

52. Ciudad Juárez neighbor : EL PASO

53. It's crude, then refined : GAS. Wait for it ..... oh, so not OIL. Nor Whisky.

54. Bit of cabinet hardware : KNOB

55. Money box : TILL

59. Bering Sea barker : SEAL

60. Impromptu modern group pic : USIE. Looks like it should be pronounced "You-sie" but it is actually "Uhzee" Think selfie and put your friends in the picture.

61. King Triton's mermaid daughter : ARIEL

62. Poet __ St. Vincent Millay : EDNA

63. Boys, to men : SONS

64. Commencement celebrants : GRADS

Down:

1. Org. that makes cents : U.S. MINT

2. Woody's wife : SOON YI. The less said about this the better.

3. Repeals : UNDOES

4. It meant nothing to Edith Piaf : RIEN. "Non, je ne regrette rien ..." I think her pronunciation is a little off with the "je" bit. But I'm English, what the heck do I know?

5. Buddy : PAL

6. Chicago 7 first name : ABBIE. Abbie Hoffman, on trial with his co-defendants following protests at the DNC Convention in Chicago in 1968.

7. Rodeo bucker : BRONC

8. Writer/illustrator Falconer known for "Olivia" children's books : IAN

9. Stan "__" Musial : THE MAN

10. Big wet one : SMACK.

11. "I'm not making that decision" : YOUR CALL

12. "For sure!" : NO DOUBT!

13. Baked fruit desserts : CRISPS. Pretty much the last thing that came to my mind. The interwebs are awash with recipes though, so I stand crumbled - I mean humbled.

18. Rare blood designation : TYPE AB. Positive or Negative, potential universal plasma donors.

23. Dogfish Head brew : ALE. What, not super-tasty Icelandic Fish Soup? I'm gutted.

25. "Star Trek" role for Takei and Cho : SULU. George Takei is a great person. Anyone who can say this, with all truthfulness, deserves a place in the World's Great People Hall Of Fame:

"I love things British. My car is British. My wardrobe, to a good extent, is British. I even love the food in London – I think British food has shaken its prevailing perception as indigestible and become quite wonderful."

The food? What a saint.

26. "To recap ... " : IN SUM

28. Pick out of a crowd : SPOT. There's Waldo!

32. Bell tower sound : CLANG

33. Long fish : EEL

34. Secretary of Agriculture under Nixon : BUTZ.

35. Smartphone arrangement : DATA PLAN

36. "Knock on wood" : HOPE SO

37. Craigslist caveat : AS IS. I don't like throwing things away, so I often put used items on Craigslist in the "Free" section. I just ask the person responding to agree they've actually read the ad by repeating the key phrase. The last thing I gave away was a totally hosed HP Printer/Scanner. The magic phrase was "It doesn't print anything black, which really means it doesn't print at all" Two hours later a very nice lady in a Mercedes C350 was happily loading it into her trunk.

38. Wrote back : REPLIED

40. Fly around the equator? : TSETSE

41. Actor Bentley : WES. My last fill - I didn't know the actor, nor the cyst. WES/WEN sounded marginally more believable than LES/LEN so Yay!

42. It included a sweet, not sorrowful, parting : EXODUS. I'm guessing this refers to Exodus, the book in the Bible. Guessing, because I got this totally through crosses; and a Google search of the phase to educate me io what I missed simply brought up two pages of other crossword clue links. I'd call this obscure to the point of being unreasonable.

44. Sunflower relative : ZINNIA. I'm neither a botanist nor a gardener, but this and 48D went straight in. However, if I were down to my last life whilst being dangled over the Slough of Despond and I was shown this picture, I'd have confidently, nay jubilalantly! cried "Chrysanthemum!" and that would be that. Steve No More. Seriously, how does this look like a sunflower?

45. Doted on : ADORED

46. Delphic diviners : SIBYLS. The Greek oracles, whence "sybillant". They were a little hissy, I guess.The clue is a wee bit off - there was one oracle at Delphi; the others were scattered around the Mediterranean. They came together at an annual convention called "Oracle OpenWorld". (I made that bit up).

48. Lily plant : CALLA

49. "Not __!" : AGAIN

50. Cock and bull : MALES

54. Broadway's Walter __ Theatre : KERR. Thank you, crosses.

57. Classified ad shorthand for "seeking" : ISO. In Search Of.

58. Folklore crone : HAG

That about ties it up for me. Just like a trussed chicken - stick me in the oven and I'm done!

Steve

Thursday, September 28th 2017 Derek Bowman

Theme: Food! And solve the reveal, solve the puzzle. First the reveal:

34A. Clue for 20-, 23-, 48- and 52-Across : TIME FOR DINNER! Yay, Food!

and then:

20A. See 34-Across : COME AND GET IT! Yay, Food! And Yay! 50's pin-up art!

23A. See 34-Across : SOUP'S ON! Yay, Food!

48A. See 34-Across : LET'S EAT! Yay, Food!

52A. See 34-Across : SUPPER'S READY! Yay, Food!

Blecho. I'm calling it. Blogger's Echo. Yay, Food!

I have to practice my Spanish before class tomorrow, so - Hoy es jueves, el vienteocho de Septiembre, dos mil diecisiete. I'll go back and proof that later :) As always, corrections welcome!

What a nice puzzle from Derek. I went top-to-bottom with this one but stopped to smell the coffee on the way. The theme came early for me - I had a fill-in-the-blank for 20A, more than half of 23A - I tried SOUP'S UP! first, but once that was fixed it was pretty much a done deal. But look at:

• WHITE PERCH/FISH FILLET symmetry and a great connection between the two

• The two upper and two lower themers stacked on four letters. That's not easy to do

• There's still room for SATIRIST and ASBESTOS in the across and

• DIET PLAN/MEN'S SHOP in the downs

... and not a clunker to be upset about in the fill. I think is is one of the nicest-constructed puzzles of the year. Two fantastic clues, we'll get to those in a minute Let's go!

Across:

1. Historic spans : ERAS

5. 2012 World Series MVP Sandoval : PABLO

10. FiveThirtyEight fodder : DATA. Opinion-data-driven website

14. Ristorante bottle : VINO

15. "Let's call it __": "We're even" : A DRAW

16. Spring flower : IRIS. How weird. I was just looking up the guitar chords for this song today. Put a capo at the 4th fret and off you go.

17. Disney CEO since 2005 : IGER

18. Small, silvery Chesapeake Bay swimmer : WHITE PERCH. I saw what you did there, Derek. Is the symmetrical 56A related much? Of course. Nice work.

22. Experiment : TRIAL

27. National Lampoon writer, typically : SATIRIST

31. Old West gunslinger Jack : SLADE

32. Hand over : CEDE

33. State with conviction : AVOW

40. Spray holder : VASE

41. Casino game : FARO. I've never played this game. It's a little dated, but the history is interesting.

42. __ acids: protein components : AMINO

44. Fireproofing construction mineral banned in many countries : ASBESTOS. I remember helping my Dad with the honey-do list when I was a kid. My job when we were putting up shelves and anything else that required drilling holes in walls (before the days of plastic plugs) was mixing up the cement to stuff into the holes. It was 99% asbestos fiber.

50. Bit of land : ISLET

56. Boneless seafood cut : FISH FILLET. See 18A, Smart.

59. Nonstick cookware brand : TFAL

60. Reverberate : ECHO

61. Chips go-with : SALSA

62. Online page : SITE

63. Profound : DEEP

64. Owner of Regency hotels : HYATT. I have a story about the Hyatt at Denver Tech Center. Basically, a great bar with some interesting characters.

65. At any point : EVER

Down:

1. Kick out : EVICT

2. Hardships : RIGORS

3. Iron deficiency concern : ANEMIA

4. Upset with : SORE AT

5. Chess piece that may be promoted : PAWN

6. Condition treated by Ritalin, briefly : ADHD

7. Sailor's jail : BRIG

8. Most recent : LATEST

9. Have financing from : OWE TO

10. Jenny Craig offering : DIET PLAN Food! Wait! Not Food! Are you calling me on a cellular phone? Crank Call! Crank Call!

11. LAX incoming flight : ARR. Usually bouncy over the mountains over San Bernardino from the south/east or Ventura from the north, then ARR!!!! Land like a Pirate!

12. Muscle spasm : TIC

13. Volcanic output : ASH

19. __ XIII: Title role in "The Young Pope" : PIUS

21. Pulitzer winner Walker : ALICE

24. File menu command : SAVE

25. Aroma : ODOR

26. Just announced : NEW

28. Two-legged zebra : REF. Clue of the day. This is great. Football "zebra" referee. Here is Ed "Sun's out, guns out" Hochuli of the NFL, one of the best in the business. When players come over to argue a call he can either out-bench them or challenge them to an arm-wresting contest to decide the issue.

29. Swear words : I DO. Great clue again. Two for the day.

30. Feudal workers : SERFS

34. Hardly envelope-pushing : TAME

35. "Do you really think so?" : IS IT?

36. Haberdashery : MEN'S SHOP. Funny, I thought it was a shop selling buttons, fabric and what-not, not just for men. My school played yearly cricket, rugby and soccer fixtures against Haberdashers' Aske's school in London.

I wouldn't have had any idea where to place the apostrophes unless a) I worked there ( didn't) or b) I looked it up to check (I did).

We usually won the soccer, lost the cricket and generally went to-and-fro at at the rugby.

37. Blot gently : DAB

38. Cork's home: Abbr. : IRE. Both the county and the city in the Republic of Ireland.

39. Respectful negative : NO, SIR

40. Kilmer of "Tombstone" : VAL

43. Ingredient in une omelette : OEUF. Food! There's better be more than un ouef in my omelette, otherwise there will be trouble. The "Love" score in tennis comes from the shape of an egg. "Federer with the serve, fifteen-l'ouef". Then eventually AD-IN and AD-OUT, beloved of crossword compilers. I think I used AD-IN in my first published solo, I'll have to go back and check.

44. Having fun : AT PLAY

45. Scary African fly : TSETSE

46. 1380s Norwegian king : OLAF IV.

47. Unruffled : SEDATE

49. Very silly : APISH. I can deal with APISH. APER I can't.

51. "House of Payne" creator __ Perry : TYLER. Thank you, crosses.

53. Frequent collaborator with Louis and Duke : ELLA

54. Take a nap : REST

55. Doc's "Right away" : STAT!

56. Nourished : FED

57. Sprain treatment : ICE. And wrapping and heat.

58. "Thar __ blows!" : SHE."Thar she blows, there she blows again..." Oh wait, misheard lyrics? It's a bit late for a music link, but I like this one! Not quite a mondegreen, but close.

Enter, stage left  - "The Grid"

Exit - Steve, amidst Alarums and Excursions

Thursday, September 21st 2017 C.C.Burnikel

Theme: "King of Horror" - to celebrate Stephen King's 70th birthday, four of his very extensive fiction catalog begin the four theme entries:

17A. Measurement based on inflation and unemployment rates : MISERY INDEX. For 2016 Venezuela was ranked most miserable and Japan least miserable.The US was ranked towards the least miserable end of the scale.

24A. "Postcards From the Edge" author : CARRIE FISHER. Sadly, recently passed.

38A. Smart comment? : IT HURTS. Nice! Smart in the lemon-juice-in-the-nick-in-your-finger sense.

52A. Semipermeable biological barrier : CELL MEMBRANE. Osmosis: "a process by which molecules of a solvent tend to pass through a semipermeable membrane from a less concentrated solution into a more concentrated one, thus equalizing the concentrations on each side of the membrane.". Phew.

and the reveal:

62A. Author born 9/21/1947 who penned the starts of 17-, 24-, 38- and 52-Across : STEPHEN KING

C.C.'s tribute to Stephen King on his birthday. The reveal did nothing to help me, as I've mentioned before, I don't do horror books nor movies, they scare me to death and make me cry. I saw "The Exorcist", "The Omen" and "Carrie" in short order in my youth. I slept with the lights on for about a year, and even now I can't listen to Side 2 of "Tubular Bells".

Fun puzzle, crunchy Thursday cluing and a couple of trademark long downs - and A-ROD making an appearance on C.C.'s watch.

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

Across:

1. Hopped out of bed : AROSE. Oh, the energy of youth. I stagger out of bed nowadays, stumble on a good day on the way to go hike.

6. Challenge for Santa's dry-cleaner : SOOT. I remember as a small boy asking my mother if we were getting our chimneys swept in time for Christmas. Then we got central heat installed, and I could not figure out how Santa was going to get into the house.

10. Medicine __, Alberta : HAT. Nailed it!

13. OPEC, for one : CARTEL

15. Radius neighbor : ULNA. Arm-bone pairing.

16. Sworn statement : I DO. "... the truth, the whole truth and nothing but .."

19. X, at times : TEN

20. Tesla Motors co-founder Musk : ELON. Space-X bloke too. He seems to know his tech. Did you see that Tesla came in for a lot of flak when they remotely "turned on" the extra mileage range capability of the cheaper models for drivers evacuating Florida in advance of Hurricane Irma?

21. "Inside Politics" channel : CNN

22. Poet laureate, e.g. : TITLE. My favorite UK Poet Laureate was Ted Hughes, a surprising choice as his poetry was often about subjects such as dead carrion and lines such as:

"... Till, with a sudden sharp hot stink of fox

It enters the dark hole of the head."

Not exactly the stuff of "Happy Birthday to the Queen" poems, a requirement of the Laureate.

28. Where Moses received the Ten Commandments, for short : MT. SINAI

31. Colorful fall tree : MAPLE

32. Put together : BUILT

33. Instagram upload, briefly : PIC. Apparently I have an Instagram account, which comes as something of a surprise considering I've never used it.

34. Three-time A.L. MVP : A-ROD. The first with the Texas Rangers, the subsequent two with the Yankees.

37. "Is there more?" : AND?

42. Baja she-bear : OSA. OSO is he-bear. A bunch of bears of mixed sexes are OSOS, the plural takes the male form. Can you tell I've been paying attention in Spanish class?

43. Understands : SEES

45. Solar wind particle : ION

46. Song of worship : PSALM

48. Off-white color : PEARL. I tried PEACH first, mentally justifying this highly curious solution to the fact that there are white peaches. I question my decision-making sometimes.

50. It may be reckless : ABANDON

55. Big glitch : SNAFU. I think it was last week we had the conversation about the meaning of the "F".

56. Inhospitable : ICY

57. 2000s Chevy : AVEO. Thank you crosses, never paid attention to one.

61. Signature piece? : PEN and ink. My signature is now a couple of wiggles and a line tailing off

66. Biblical craft : ARK

67. Roof edge : EAVE

68. "Mad About You" co-star : REISER. Thank you, crosses.

69. "But, mom!" evokers : "NO"S

70. Zoomed : SPED

71. Drumroll drum : SNARE

Down:

1. Top : ACME

2. Scenic overlook safety feature : RAIL. There's a lot of these on Mulholland Drive a the top of Hollywood Hills near me. It still doesn't stop cars plunging off the road, there's generally an incident every couple of years.

3. Driving directions qualifier : OR SO. "Make a right, then go half a mile or so and it's on the left. Oh wait, no. Make a LEFT, then go a quarter mile or so, then it's on the RIGHT. No, wait ...". Thank goodness Google Maps is more precise.

4. Sign maker's aid : STENCIL

5. Always, in sonnets : E'ER

6. Denomination of most Iraqi Kurds : SUNNI

7. Unlike spring chickens : OLD. Hand up. See 1A for bed-staggering.

8. Person : ONE

9. Advice for an e-filer : TAX TIP

10. Get going : HIT THE ROAD. Cue Ray Charles

11. One-named "All I Ask" singer : ADELE. Sorry, Ms. Adele Laurie Blue Adkins, Ray just snuck in with my music link for the day.

12. Skin care product : TONER

14. Sports bra fabric : LYCRA

18. Cross characters : INRI. Christian imagery.

23. Land surrounded by agua : ISLA. Yay! More Spanish!

25. Not pro : ANTI

26. Bahrain bigwig : EMIR

27. One of John Adams' "stubborn things" : FACT. "Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence." Smart chap, that Adams fella.

28. Corp. execs' degrees : MBAS

29. Use a fork, perhaps : TUNE. I have a tuning fork in E to tune my guitars to concert pitch. I never use it, the electronic ones are quicker.

30. Exercises that strengthen obliques : SIDE PLANKS. I came across the most bizarre leotard design ever when I went to look for an example of the side plank. I can't not use it.

33. "Sign language is pretty handy," e.g. : PUN

35. Nobel Prize city : OSLO

36. Butler's last word : DAMN. That's when he dropped the teapot in her Ladyship's lap. It was his last word before he was fired. Or, it might have been "Gone with the Wind". Perhaps.

39. Flag : TIRE

40. "Chariots of Fire" Oscar nominee Ian : HOLM. He played the legendary athletics coach Sam Mussabini.

41. Time period : SPAN

44. __-service : SELF

47. Enter surreptitiously :  SNEAK IN

49. Makes giggle : AMUSES

50. Cat's back shape, at times : ARCH. Accompanied by hissing, if said cat is riled about something.

51. Tylenol rival : BAYER

52. Political channel : C-SPAN

53. Calendario month : ENERO. Nailed it! I can confidently recite them all now.

54. Two-footer : BIPED

58. Authorization to enter a country : VISA. I first came here on an H1B visa which allowed me to work, but only for the company who sponsored me. Mutterings of "Indentured Servitude" accompanied bad days at work.

59. Fed. power dept. : ENER.

60. Barbarian : OGRE

63. __ water : TAP

64. Holiday threshold : EVE

65. Nintendo's Super __ console : NES. All together everyone: "Nintendo Entertainment System".

Cue the grid!

Steve

Thursday September 14th 2017 Clive Probert

Theme: "T" Times - punning clues to a phrase with an added "T".

20A. Place to mingle on the slopes? : SINGLES T-BAR. There's an aprés-ski joint in Val d'Isère called "Dick's T-Bar." I had many a post-piste pick-me-up  there back in the 80's. The bar has outlasted the T-bar style lifts. Those things were tricky.

34A. Misplace a casual top? : LOSE YOUR T-SHIRT. Two theme entries in one T-shirt:

39A. Take Rover to Ruth's Chris? : GIVE A DOG A T-BONE. Funny how many people want to call this steakhouse chain "Ruth Chris's".

53A. Dinosaur family drama? : OEDIPUS T-REX My ex and I named our daughter "Jocasta". Then I read the play. Hmmm. Rated "R" for family unpleasantness (the play, not my daughter). She didn't hold a grudge.

Clever by Clive not just to add a "T" to a phrase, but to find four "T-hyphen" in front of the final word of the phrase. This kind of consistency is really difficult to strive for - you can start out with a seed entry that sets you on your way, and then find yourself compromising when you can't find much else that fits the plan.

Fresh fill, including GIRLRIEND, LOW VOLTAGE, SNARFS and TROUGHS. A lot to like. Let's see what else we've got to talk about:

Across:

1. Superhero attire : CAPE

5. Six-footers at parties : SUBS

9. Parakeet quarters : CAGES

14. "You can say that again!" : AMEN!

15. St. Paul's architect : WREN. The City of London's cathedral. Wren lived across the river in Southwark so that he could monitor progress. This is Herbert Mason's iconic photograph taken during the Blitz in WW2:

16. Important fruit in the Mediterranean diet : OLIVE

17. Novelist Morrison : TONI. One of America's literary greats.

18. Zaragoza's river : EBRO. Zaragoza in Spain, not Mexico.

19. Harder to come by : RARER

23. Legal deg. : LLB

24. Big hand measurement: Abbr. : MIN.

25. Gobble (up) : SNARF. Great word. Almost onomatopoeic.

27. Octet since 2006 : PLANETS. Poor Pluto.

31. Shakespearean call to arms : ALARUM. "To Arms!". The stage direction "Alarums and Excursions" indicates that the assembled throng of extras need to start running around grabbing spears and what-not and calling "To War!" and the like.

36. "I saw the opening __ of hell": "Moby-Dick" : MAW

37. "Straight Outta Compton" role, familiarly : DRE. The good Dr. I met Andre when we were pitching software to his Beats Music brand. Smart guy.

38. Word with head or roll : EGG

46. Dull : STODGY. Hopefully, not your egg rolls.

47. Run things? : ERRANDS

48. Doone of fiction : LORNA. Based in the West of England. A good read!

50. NBA tiebreakers : OT'S. Basketball overtimes.

51. Balderdash : ROT

59. Major mess : SNAFU. I like the "Major=Military" connection in the clue. People will have you believe that the "F" means "fouled". Don't fall for it. Situation Normal, All [insert preferred word here] Up.

61. Universal donor's type, briefly : O-NEG

62. Support person : AIDE 

63. One with a strict diet : VEGAN. I'm on a strict diet too - I call it the Food! diet. You won't catch me eating anything else.

64. Boring : BLAH

65. Pass the bouncer : GO IN. BYPASS the bouncer would be "sneak in".

66. Respond to a charge : PLEAD. Pleading ignorance was a loophole that was closed many moons ago.

67. Hearing things : EARS. Fun clue.

68. Singer James : ETTA. Could also be "RICK". So steady on there, Turbo, wait for the crosses.

Down:

1. Subjects of many viral online videos : CATS. This might not fall strictly into the genre, but it's still a treat - a UK commercial for milk. I love it.

2. Mine, in Marseille : A MOI

3. The Quakers of the Ivy League : PENN. Penn State are the Nittany Lions. They sound more fun.

4. Conundrums : ENIGMAS. "It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma". Winston Churchill's assessment of Russian foreign policy in 1939. Also - here's "Nimrod", one of Elgar's "Enigma Variations". Quite beautiful.

5. "American Gods" leprechaun Mad __ : SWEENEY. Thank you, crosses. Neither novel, author nor character have never even come close to knocking at the door of my wheelhouse.

6. Metro areas : URBS. Subs and Exes. Sounds like an adult novel.

7. Muppet with a unibrow : BERT

8. Elitists : SNOBS

9. Western pens : CORRALS

10. In the style of : A LA. Mode. King. Food!

11. Sweetheart : GIRLFRIEND

12. Robbie's daredevil father : EVEL

13. Many a Montenegro resident : SERB

21. One-fifth of a limerick : LINE. Take it away, Owen KL

22. Art school subj. : ANAT. omy

26. Cheering sound : RAH!

27. Hair piece : PLAIT

28. Relatively safe, as electricity : LOW VOLTAGE. Wasn't the Van de Graaf generator that I stuck my hand on in high school which set my hair on end generating 50,000 volts? At a micro-amp, I seem to remember. Or something. Anyway, it didn't kill me. Stick your tongue on a 12V car battery and it's a different story.

29. Flap : TO DO

30. Tidal peril during a storm : SURGE and the anagram hot on the heels ....

32. More than asks : URGES

33. Board rm. session : MTG. Often "bored room". Too many meetings, too much decision paralysis.

35. Bring up : REAR

36. British racing cars : MG'S. Originally an abbreviation of "Morris Garages", now long lost to history. One of these chaps is either over-cautious or terribly rash, vis-à-vis headgear:

40. Old name of Tokyo : EDO

41. Bad way to run a ship : AGROUND. Usually leaves a mark not easily buffed out.

42. Unit of force : DYNE

43. Low-pressure systems : TROUGHS

44. Cricket clubs : BATS.

45. Performing : ON STAGE

49. Southwestern brick : ADOBE

51. Invitation letters : RSVP

52. Scott Turow memoir : ONE L. Harvard Law School freshman year. Published in 1977, apparently many first-year law school students still read it as part of their prep.

54. Getting pictures of the Hollywood sign, say : IN L.A. My local landmark. I still want to get up close, but the arrest/fine/night in jail isn't worth it.

55. Nectar flavor : PEAR

56. Sidesplitter : RIOT

57. Menu including Cut and Paste : EDIT

58. "Hercules" character who got her own show : XENA. She was the honorary starter at a charity golf tournament sponsored by Universal that I played in at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena a few years ago. There were more mulligans taken on that tee than I've seen before or since.

60. Drone regulator: Abbr. : F.A.A

A belated and heartfelt thank you to everyone for the birthday wishes on Tuesday - I've been up to my ass in alligators at work this last couple of weeks so I didn't have time to stop by on the 12th. My friend Jill took me to my favorite Indian restaurant, and a hot, spicy and merry time was had by both of us.

That leaves the grid - so here it is!

Steve

Thursday September 7 2017 Kurt Mengel & Jan-Michele Gianette

Theme: Colorful Language: Take the adjective's color, mix it with the original phrase's color, and the result is a pleasing pigment. As the reveal tells us:

61A. Primary mixes that affect 17-, 27- and 46-Across : COLOR COMBOS

17A. Cowardly Snoopy nemesis? : ORANGE BARON - A "yellow" Red Baron gives us ORANGE

27A. Gloomy route to Oz? : GREEN BRICK ROAD - A "blue" Yellow Brick road gives us GREEN

46A. Embarrassed three-person Vegas act? : PURPLE MAN GROUP - A "red" Blue Man Group gives us PURPLE.

Clever theme, very nicely done. The elegance in the cluing is finding an adjective to represent the color which is to be "mixed" with the phrase color. Very nicely done.

Some nice fill, very little groan-worthy, all in all a very good job by Kurt and Jan-Michele. Let's see what we've got:

Across:

1. Drains : SAPS

5. Takes from page to screen, say : ADAPTS

11. One of Beethoven's nine: Abbr. : SYMphonies

14. Party with tiki torches : LUAU

15. Flashy Chevy : CAMARO. The first car I bought when I moved to the USA was a Camaro. I think the dealer thought it was his lucky day; it was the very base model (it was a stick shift, it even had wind-down windows) and had probably sat on the lot for a year. I enjoyed driving it.

16A. With 36-Down, Dr. Seuss classic with the subtitle "The Simplest Seuss for Youngest Use" : HOP  and ...

36D. See 16-Across : ON POP. Thank you, crosses. The second "O" was my last square.

19. Seagoing "I see" : AYE. I see? Are you sure?

20. French film icon Brigitte : BARDOT. We can't have Mlle Bardot without Roger Vadim's movie poster, can we?

21. "The Racer's Edge" : STP. I've got no idea what this stuff actually does.

22. Urban air concern : SMOG. The La Tuna Canyon wildfire here last weekend sent everyone indoors. I passed on going hiking, it didn't seem such a smart idea when the air was yellow.

23. Much : A LOT

25. Curriculum __ : VITAE. Resumé here, CV over there. "[the] course of [one's] life."

32. Actress Vardalos : NIA. Opa!

33. Butte relative : MESA. An eroded mesa becomes a butte.

34. RadioShack predecessor : TANDY. I have no idea how I knew this, but no hesitation at all.

35. Automaker Ferrari : ENZO

37. Watched closely : SPIED

40. Fictional London alter ego : HYDE. Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

41. United : AS ONE

43. Halt : STOP

45. Belonging to us : OUR

50. Kentucky pioneer : BOONE. Daniel Boone, born in Pennsylvania, died in Missouri and buried in Kentucky. He got around quite a bit for those days.

51. Divided sea : ARAL

52. Applaud : CLAP

54. Old PC monitor : CRT. Cathode Ray Tube. It's been a while since I saw one of these. They weighted a ton and took up most of your desk.

56. "Altogether ooky" family name : ADDAMS

60. Rocker Ocasek : RIC. "The Cars" front man and songwriter.

63. Query : ASK

64. Fire up : AROUSE

65. Attract pigeons for, say : ABET. Nice clue! The "pigeon drop" is a con carried out by two or more hustlers.

66. Bluster : GAS

67. Colorful fish : TETRAS

68. 2016 N.L. East champs : NATS. Washington Nationals.

Down:

1. Untidy type : SLOB

2. Certain something : AURA

3. Early late-night host : PAAR. Yay! I resisted filling in PARR for the very first time.

4. Ice cream treat : SUNDAE

5. Polish removers : ACETONES. I love the smell of acetone. If I worked in a nail salon I think I'd be high as a kite all the time.

6. Apply carefully : DAB. As acetone, on nail polish.

7. Latin I verb : AMAS. You are. I was very surprised to discover that Spanish has two verbs for "to be" just to make things complicated for no good reason.

8. "Friday the 13th: Jason Lives," sequentially : PART VI. Something I will never watch.

9. Torrid Zone parallel : TROPIC. Crosses filled this in for me. Tropic of Cancer to the north, Tropic of Capricorn to the south. I've always called that zone "The Tropics".

10. Junior : SON

11. Words of reproach : SHAME ON YOU! Fool me once ...

12. Up-and-down toy : YO-YO

13. Downloaded video format : MPEG

18. Jewish folklore figure : GOLEM. A being made of clay or mud. Depictions vary, here's a relatively calm one:

22. Mother of Isaac : SARAH

24. Recipe amt. : TBSP. Tablespoon. And yes, before Anonymous in the comments quibbles later that it's not correct, yes, it's correct. It's not TBS, that's a cable channel.

26. B'way buy : TKT. A ticket to a Broadway show. Probably not my favorite clue/fill of the day.

27. Many of its knives have a limited lifetime warranty : GINSU

28. Arkansas team : RAZORBACKS. University of Arkansas. Whilst Arizona's Diamondbacks are often dubbed the D-Backs, these folk are never referred to as R-Backs. The fans chant "Woo Pig Sooie". I have no idea why.

29. Mrs. Gorbachev : RAISA. A blast from the past. Is there a Mrs. Putin? I've never seen her if there is. There's something odd about that chap, he loves taking his shirt off, showing off his guns and challenging people to wrestle. Maybe he should set about that North Korean nutcase.

30. Compute : ADD UP

31. Salon worker : DYER

32. Twice-monthly tide : NEAP. Two neaps, two springs.

38. Sicilian high point : ETNA

39. Track events with mechanical lures : DOG RACES. We used to go to the Walthamstowe dog races after business was done for the day in the City back when I worked in London. The best sight ever was seeing the electric hare jump the rails and cause all kinds of commotion as six dogs realize that they were actually going to catch up with it. Happy days.

42. "Strange Magic" gp. : E.L.O.

44. Museum with Goyas and El Grecos : PRADO

47. Recital bonus : ENCORE

48. Red wine option : MERLOT

49. Gary who played Beethoven in "Immortal Beloved" : OLDMAN. Ludwig V. of the nine syms. up top.

52. Outcropping : CRAG

53. Songwriter Loeb : LISA. The first person to have a number 1 pop single without being signed to a recording contract.

55. __ de force : TOUR

57. "Dancing Queen" quartet : ABBA

58. Bubbly maker : MOËT. The diacritical on the E tells you to pronounce the vowels separately, otherwise you'd be saying "meur" or something vaguely similar.

59. Old fast fliers : SSTS

61. Player in an indoor tree : CAT. I had no idea these things were called Cat Trees.

62. Soweto's country: Abbr. : R.S.A. Republic of South Africa. Johannesburg's Soweto is an abbreviated form of "South Western Townships."

Just the grid to post, and I think that's me done!

Steve

Note from C.C.:

Big Easy (George) sent me this picture. He wondered "if any of the Cornerites' baseball fans​ know who the statue is behind me. Hint. The first National League player to hit 500 home runs. The plaque with his name is covered by flowers."

Big Easy and his wife come to this gym twice a week to play Pickleball.