We have our fifth offering from a Nancy Salomon, Jeff Chen disciple, and her first Friday. Debbie takes advantage of the beauty and variety of the English language. RUED and RUDE, ROWED and ROAD are clear sound a-likes. DUCKED and DUCT, PASSED and PAST may vary geographically, but the concept is the same. You take a familiar phrase and change the first word for a sound a-like word that creates a new meaning. Like all punny or sound a-likes, once you get the idea, they are easy but it requires filling lots of perps. These are all reasonable if not dramatically funny. Debbie also fits in some nice long fill WEBINAR, FIXINGS, SNARLED, THERMOS and two that are as long as theme entries- RARING TO GO and EYE OPENERS. On to the solve!!!!
16A. Played hooky from the office? : DUCKED WORK (10). DUCT work.
26A. Was sorry to have set the alarm? : RUED AWAKENING (13). RUDE awakenings.
46A. Made it through the Civil War? : PASSED HISTORY (13). PAST history.
60A. Reached the 2016 Olympics the hard way? : ROWED TO RIO (10). ROAD to Rio.
Across
1. Quick : RAPID.
6. Zurich-based sports org. : FIFA. Fédération Internationale de Football Association, not only the governing body of world wide futbol, but also beach soccer!
10. Dis : RIP.
13. Metaphorical title word in a McCartney-Wonder hit : EBONY. Ivory is suing SONY.
14. Major composition : OPUS. We have seen this often lately.
15. Dr Pepper Museum city : WACO. I had no idea. LINK.
18. Journalist/author Larson : ERIK. A very talented author.
19. Telegram period : STOP.
20. Long in the tooth : OLD. which is how I am feeling, not being able to walk, unaided.
21. Texas-Louisiana border river : SABINE. now that clues must be PC, we get this river.
I am sure our cajun contingent jumped all over this CSO.
23. "Without further __ ... " : ADO.
25. Taco toppings : FIXINGS.
31. Random selection : ANY.
32. Give a halfhearted effort : DOG IT. We use dog in many ways. READ.
33. Gratified and then some : SATED.
36. Pizzeria staples : PIES.
38. Romantic dining spot : PATIO. Never thought of that as a romantic spot, but that is just me.
40. Bush advisor : ROVE. Karl. No politics but you can READ his slant.
41. You can skip it : STONE. One of many fun clues.
43. Piaggio transport : VESPA. Interesting HISTORY.
45. X or Y preceder : GEN.
49. Lunchbox container : THERMOS. Vacuum sealed container. A valid trademark? The CASE.
51. "Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!" airer : NPR. National Public Radio.
52. Small creek : RUNLET. Nope. Never heard of it.
53. Meet at the poker table : SEE. I'll see you $1,000,000.00 and raise you...does anybodt watch the WSOP ?
55. Hound sound : YELP.
59. Downwind : ALEE.
63. Joker, for one : CARD.
64. Continental divide : URAL. Europe and Asia. LESSON.
65. "Buffy" spin-off : ANGEL. David Boreanaz has gone seamlessly from Buffy to Angel to Bones.
66. Superhero symbol : ESS.
67. They're fixed shortly after being intentionally broken : EGGS. Convoluted but cute clue.
68. Crystalline stone : GEODE.
Down:
1. Bench mates? : REDS. Really fun deception, as Hall of Famer Johnny Bench played for the Cincinnati Reds.
2. Bump up against : ABUT. A great word for Cartman.
3. Little, to Luis : POCO.
4. Rubber stamp partner : INK PAD.
5. Highlight provider : DYE. Those nice highlights in your hair.
6. Barnyard regular : FOWL.
7. 2001 Apple debut : IPOD. How time flies.
8. Lab coat : FUR. We continue with witty cluing using the capital letter starting the clue to attempt to deceive.
9. Welcomes warmly, as a visitor : ASKS IN. Of course, "ask sin" might be a warm greeting.
10. Ready in a big way : RARING TO GO.
11. Cupcake cover : ICING. Alliteration.
12. Uses a fireplace tool : POKES. That is why it is called poker.
15. Online workshop : WEBINAR. Very big in the law world.
17. The Platters' genre : DOO WOP. According to the dictionary it is a style of pop music marked by the use of close harmony vocals using nonsense phrases, originating in the US in the 1950s. LISTEN?
22. x or y follower : AXIS.
24. Senior, to Junior : DAD.
25. Amulet : FETISH. We tend to think more of behavioral fetishes.
26. Emulates Eminem : RAPS.
27. Meter or liter : UNIT.
28. Revelations : EYE OPENERS. Nice long fill.
29. Plants used to make tequila : AGAVES.
30. Cashed, as a forged check : KITED. Sorry, kiting has nothing to do with forgery. Check kiting is a form of check fraud, involving taking advantage of the float to make use of non-existent funds in a checking or other bank account. In this way, instead of being used as a negotiable instrument, checks are misused as a form of unauthorized credit. (per wiki).
34. "... happily __ after" : EVER. The fairy title of life.
35. Say no to : DENY.
37. Tangled : SNARLED.
39. Put in one's two cents : OPINED.
42. Mrs. Cullen in Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight" : ESME. Played by Elizabeth Reaser.
44. Venomous snake : ASP.
47. "I know, right?" : SO TRUE.
48. Sign next to free samples : TRY ONE.
49. Hint : TRACE. Only reminds me of Hodgins.
50. Luau entertainment : HULAS.
53. Gala giveaways : SWAG. The famous Hollywood swag bags now worth about $40,000.00 at the Oscars.
54. "Electric" swimmers : EELS.
56. "For that reason ... " : ERGO. Latin word co-opted by English.
57. Told a fantastic story, perhaps : LIED.
58. North __ : POLE. A little late for Santa.
61. URL ending : ORG.
62. Identify on Facebook : TAG. A prefect segue, as tag you the reader are IT, as I have had my say with all the typos and errors that a human can create. Because there were so many words filled by the downs, this was pretty easy. As for the theme, YMMV. lemonade out.
