Theme: "Watch the Birdie" - ONE UNDER PAR (69A: Birdie that's hidden literally in 10 pairs of puzzle answers). ONE is placed under PAR in 10 different places. See this grid. I've circled all the PARs and ONEs.
20A: Fortified: RAMPARTED
23A: Cather novel set in Nebraska: O PIONEERS!
21A: Convey: IMPART
24A: __ Tunes: LOONEY
36A: Not up to stuff: SUBPAR
43A: Nary a soul: NO ONE
44A: Peeled strip: PARING
50A: Year in Augustus's reign: ONE BC
61A: Cowpoke's pal: PARD
61A: Birdie that's hidden literally in 10 pairs of puzzle answers: ONE UNDER PAR
76A: Skye of "Say Anything": IONE
88A: Like some stock: NO-PAR
93A: Philosopher __ de Beauvoir: SIMONE
94A: Arctic garb: PARKA
99A: Tip of Massachusetts: ONEILL
115A: Ancient Athens rival: SPARTA
120A: Complexion aides: TONERS
117A: California shrubland: CHAPARRAL
121A: Time long past: BYGONE ERA
I watch Chris Matthews's "Hardball" every day, yet I missed O'NEILL earlier. Chris was a long time aide to Tip O'NEIL and he speaks of his name often.
Very creative theme. I liked how the constructor placed ONE UNDER PAR in the very middle of the grid and paralleled two more theme answers at each end. Total 19 theme answers, heavy!
Quality non-theme fills also. Some are quite scrabbly. Some are very clever. Below are my favorite:
55A: HI and OK: STS (States)
72A: Priceless? FREE
16D: Delivery notice?: IT'S A BOY
5D: High point of a European vacation?: ALP
Unfortunately I had a triple-bogey round. I actually teed off very nicely, then I lost my ball. The rough was not that tough, but I did not have enough clubs in my bag.
Across:
1A: Hardly a knockout: PLAIN JANE. And STARES (123A: Knockouts attract them). Nice "knockout" pair.
10A: Imported roadsters: MIATAS. Wrote down MAZDAS.
16A: Schools of thought: ISMS
22A: Via, to Burns: THRO. Poetic "through". Mine was THRU.
26A: Mind the store: VEND. Kept trying TEND. But the intersecting PROVE (1D: Leave no doubt) says no.
27A: Large currency unit?: WAD. Nice clue.
28D: Ancient France: GAUL. Adjective Gallic. Not to be confused with Gaelic.
31A: Bev Bevan's band, briefly: ELO. Easy guess.
32A: "The Life Aquatic with Steve __": Bill Murray film: ZISSOU. Nope. Not familiar with this movie. Bill Murray loves golf. He is in "Caddyshack".
34A: Dr. Mom's remedy: TLC
38D: Pickup trick: LINE. Pickup LINE.
39A: "Great Expectations" hero: PIP. Unknown figure to me.
41A: Iowa's state tree: OAK
47A: Chilling order? SEDATIVE. I was thinking of torture.
51A: Three-part European union: BENELUX. Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. The union began on January 1, 1948.
52A: Houston-to-Dallas dir.: NNW
56A: "Come Back, Little Sheba" playwright: INGE. Also the playwright for "Picnic" & "Bus Stop".
57A: Further shorten: RE-EDIT
58A: Cybercommerce: E-TAIL
60A: "Hud" Oscar winner: NEAL (Patricia). She won best actress for the movie.
62A: Brings home: NETS
64A: Brno-born people: CZECHS. Last time CZECH was clued as "Brno native". See this map of Brno. It's to the southeast of Prague.
68A: Starbucks order: TALL
73A: Scandalous stuff: SLEAZE
75A: Plant reproduction prefix: SPOR. For spore.
77A: Stretch: TERM. Noun. I was thinking of verb.
78A: Development sites: WOMBS. Couldn't get LABS out of my mind.
80A: Kid's shooter: POP GUN
82A: Burlap source: HEMP
86A: Boo Boo, in Barcelona?: OSO. Spanish for bear. Boo Boo & Yogi Bear.
87A: Sorrow: REMORSE
89A: Net grazers: LETS. Tennis.
91A: Judgment Day hymn: DIES IRAE
96A: Small wrapper?: ELF. Santa's little helper. I thought of the awful ASP.
97A: One whose tickets are often expensive: COP. I liked this clue too.
98A: Hit the sauce: TOPE. Sauce is slang for liquor.
101A: Big cat sign: LEO
103A: Dig discoveries: Var.: SHERDS. Variant of SHARDS.
108A: Most of Uruguay: PAMPAS
110A: Hayseed: RUBE
113A: Either director of "No Country for Old Men": COEN. The Coen brothers.
114A: Capitale south of San Marino: ROMA. See this map.
119A: They may be pale: ALES. Pale ALE.
122A: Clunkhead: JERK
124A: Didn't worry a bit: SLEPT EASY
Down:
2D: Carnation locale: LAPEL
4D: Nano or shuffle: IPOD. Mine is classic.
5D: Pita look-like: NAN. I have not eaten any NAN for ages.
6D: TV shooting victim of 3/21/1980: J.R. EWING. I was picturing John Lennon then Ronald Reagan, completely ignoring the clue "TV".
7D: Far from frenzied: AT EASE
9D: MS. fixers: EDS (Editors). They fix the manuscripts (MS).
10D: "__ 18" (Uris novel): MILA. Here is the book cover. I learned the title from doing Xword.
11D: "Too rich for my blood": I'M OUT. Had trouble with this one. I did not know the meaning of "Too rich for my blood".
12D: Lunar Module test mission: APOLLO IX. Interesting trivia: Wikipidia says Alan Shepard hit two golf balls on the lunar surface during Apollo 14.
13D: One of two Crayola colors with the shortest name: TAN. The other is RED?
14D: Bellicose god: ARES. Roman Mars. The Norse equivalent is THOR, correct?
17D: Garnier products: SHAMPOOS. Not a Garnier fan.
18D: Monocled food mascot: MR. PEANUT
19D: 2009 Rihanna hit: SOS. Not familiar with the song. What a poignant title, considering how she was beat up by her boyfriend.
32D: Mineral in oysters: ZINC. Oh, I did not know oysters contain ZINC.
33D: Bared one's soul: OPENED UP
35D: LeBron James, e.g., briefly: CAV(Cavalier)
37D: Cabs on the table: REDS. Wine.
38D: Attorney's specialty: LIBEL LAW
40D: The same either way: PALINDROMIC. Toughie.
42D: Lane partner: KENT. "Superman".
44D: APB part: POINTS
45D: Temper: ANNEAL. Verb.
46D: Lavishly entertain: REGALE
47D: Cassandra, for one: SEERESS. But nobody believes in Cassandra's prophecy. Apollo is a vengeful guy. He put such curse on Cassandra when she did not return his love.
48D: Private pupil: TUTEE. You would think the word is TUTOREE, as tutor is the verb.
51D: Breakfast staple: BRAN. Rice for me.
53D: Abalone product: NACRE. Mother-of-pearl.
54D: Virtuoso: WIZ. No abbreviation hint?
58D: Adopt, as a cause: ESPOUSE
59D: Moved out: LEFT HOME
61D: Pope's work: POEMS. Alexander Pope. Nice clue.
63D: Three letters forming a single sound: TRIGRAPH. New word to me. Dictionary gives an example: eau in beau.
65D: Obnoxious sort, in slang: CREEPO
66D: Jazzman Woody: HERMAN. No idea. He does not look like a jazzman. I thought of Woody Allen.
67D: Throughout, in music: SEMPRE. No idea. Same root as Marine's "Semper Fi" motto I suppose.
71D: Either of two Henry VIII wives: ANNE. I only know ANNE Boleyn.
74D: Moat site: ZOO
79D: Presage: BODE
81D: Like pumice: Var.: POROSE. No idea. Variant of porous I guess.
83D: Classic Chunky brand: ALPO. I thought of chunky peanut butter.
84D: Ecotomorph: BEANPOLE. Did not know the meaning of ecotomorph. It sounds like a verb.
85D: Newlyweds' car decoration: STREAMER
87D: Doctor, at times: REFERRER
88D: Barely beats: NIPS. New meaning of NIP to me.
90D: Holdup cover-up: SKI MASK
92D: Peaked: ILL. Not familiar with this definition of "peaked".
93D: Fountain drink: SODA POP
98D: Army medic's system: TRIAGE
100D: Doesn't die out: LASTS
102D: Eccentric: OUTRE
104D: Type of alcohol: ETHYL
105D: Jazz pianist Chick: COREA. Him I know.
107D: Driller's filling: INLAY
109D: Obsession for Lady Macbeth: SPOT. I got the answer from Across fills.
111D: Doo-wop group anchor: BASS. Strung this answer together from Across fills as well.
113D: Hudson Bay tribe: CREE. Canadian tribe answer is always CREE.
114D: British rule in India: RAJ
116D: TV wheel spinner's purchase: AN A. "Wheel of Fortune". AN E, AN I, AN O all can be clued as "TV wheel spinner's purchase".
117D: "Criminal Minds" network: CBS. Easy guess.
Answer grid.
C.C.
20A: Fortified: RAMPARTED
23A: Cather novel set in Nebraska: O PIONEERS!
21A: Convey: IMPART
24A: __ Tunes: LOONEY
36A: Not up to stuff: SUBPAR
43A: Nary a soul: NO ONE
44A: Peeled strip: PARING
50A: Year in Augustus's reign: ONE BC
61A: Cowpoke's pal: PARD
61A: Birdie that's hidden literally in 10 pairs of puzzle answers: ONE UNDER PAR
76A: Skye of "Say Anything": IONE
88A: Like some stock: NO-PAR
93A: Philosopher __ de Beauvoir: SIMONE
94A: Arctic garb: PARKA
99A: Tip of Massachusetts: ONEILL
115A: Ancient Athens rival: SPARTA
120A: Complexion aides: TONERS
117A: California shrubland: CHAPARRAL
121A: Time long past: BYGONE ERA
I watch Chris Matthews's "Hardball" every day, yet I missed O'NEILL earlier. Chris was a long time aide to Tip O'NEIL and he speaks of his name often.
Very creative theme. I liked how the constructor placed ONE UNDER PAR in the very middle of the grid and paralleled two more theme answers at each end. Total 19 theme answers, heavy!
Quality non-theme fills also. Some are quite scrabbly. Some are very clever. Below are my favorite:
55A: HI and OK: STS (States)
72A: Priceless? FREE
16D: Delivery notice?: IT'S A BOY
5D: High point of a European vacation?: ALP
Unfortunately I had a triple-bogey round. I actually teed off very nicely, then I lost my ball. The rough was not that tough, but I did not have enough clubs in my bag.
Across:
1A: Hardly a knockout: PLAIN JANE. And STARES (123A: Knockouts attract them). Nice "knockout" pair.
10A: Imported roadsters: MIATAS. Wrote down MAZDAS.
16A: Schools of thought: ISMS
22A: Via, to Burns: THRO. Poetic "through". Mine was THRU.
26A: Mind the store: VEND. Kept trying TEND. But the intersecting PROVE (1D: Leave no doubt) says no.
27A: Large currency unit?: WAD. Nice clue.
28D: Ancient France: GAUL. Adjective Gallic. Not to be confused with Gaelic.
31A: Bev Bevan's band, briefly: ELO. Easy guess.
32A: "The Life Aquatic with Steve __": Bill Murray film: ZISSOU. Nope. Not familiar with this movie. Bill Murray loves golf. He is in "Caddyshack".
34A: Dr. Mom's remedy: TLC
38D: Pickup trick: LINE. Pickup LINE.
39A: "Great Expectations" hero: PIP. Unknown figure to me.
41A: Iowa's state tree: OAK
47A: Chilling order? SEDATIVE. I was thinking of torture.
51A: Three-part European union: BENELUX. Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. The union began on January 1, 1948.
52A: Houston-to-Dallas dir.: NNW
56A: "Come Back, Little Sheba" playwright: INGE. Also the playwright for "Picnic" & "Bus Stop".
57A: Further shorten: RE-EDIT
58A: Cybercommerce: E-TAIL
60A: "Hud" Oscar winner: NEAL (Patricia). She won best actress for the movie.
62A: Brings home: NETS
64A: Brno-born people: CZECHS. Last time CZECH was clued as "Brno native". See this map of Brno. It's to the southeast of Prague.
68A: Starbucks order: TALL
73A: Scandalous stuff: SLEAZE
75A: Plant reproduction prefix: SPOR. For spore.
77A: Stretch: TERM. Noun. I was thinking of verb.
78A: Development sites: WOMBS. Couldn't get LABS out of my mind.
80A: Kid's shooter: POP GUN
82A: Burlap source: HEMP
86A: Boo Boo, in Barcelona?: OSO. Spanish for bear. Boo Boo & Yogi Bear.
87A: Sorrow: REMORSE
89A: Net grazers: LETS. Tennis.
91A: Judgment Day hymn: DIES IRAE
96A: Small wrapper?: ELF. Santa's little helper. I thought of the awful ASP.
97A: One whose tickets are often expensive: COP. I liked this clue too.
98A: Hit the sauce: TOPE. Sauce is slang for liquor.
101A: Big cat sign: LEO
103A: Dig discoveries: Var.: SHERDS. Variant of SHARDS.
108A: Most of Uruguay: PAMPAS
110A: Hayseed: RUBE
113A: Either director of "No Country for Old Men": COEN. The Coen brothers.
114A: Capitale south of San Marino: ROMA. See this map.
119A: They may be pale: ALES. Pale ALE.
122A: Clunkhead: JERK
124A: Didn't worry a bit: SLEPT EASY
Down:
2D: Carnation locale: LAPEL
4D: Nano or shuffle: IPOD. Mine is classic.
5D: Pita look-like: NAN. I have not eaten any NAN for ages.
6D: TV shooting victim of 3/21/1980: J.R. EWING. I was picturing John Lennon then Ronald Reagan, completely ignoring the clue "TV".
7D: Far from frenzied: AT EASE
9D: MS. fixers: EDS (Editors). They fix the manuscripts (MS).
10D: "__ 18" (Uris novel): MILA. Here is the book cover. I learned the title from doing Xword.
11D: "Too rich for my blood": I'M OUT. Had trouble with this one. I did not know the meaning of "Too rich for my blood".
12D: Lunar Module test mission: APOLLO IX. Interesting trivia: Wikipidia says Alan Shepard hit two golf balls on the lunar surface during Apollo 14.
13D: One of two Crayola colors with the shortest name: TAN. The other is RED?
14D: Bellicose god: ARES. Roman Mars. The Norse equivalent is THOR, correct?
17D: Garnier products: SHAMPOOS. Not a Garnier fan.
18D: Monocled food mascot: MR. PEANUT
19D: 2009 Rihanna hit: SOS. Not familiar with the song. What a poignant title, considering how she was beat up by her boyfriend.
32D: Mineral in oysters: ZINC. Oh, I did not know oysters contain ZINC.
33D: Bared one's soul: OPENED UP
35D: LeBron James, e.g., briefly: CAV(Cavalier)
37D: Cabs on the table: REDS. Wine.
38D: Attorney's specialty: LIBEL LAW
40D: The same either way: PALINDROMIC. Toughie.
42D: Lane partner: KENT. "Superman".
44D: APB part: POINTS
45D: Temper: ANNEAL. Verb.
46D: Lavishly entertain: REGALE
47D: Cassandra, for one: SEERESS. But nobody believes in Cassandra's prophecy. Apollo is a vengeful guy. He put such curse on Cassandra when she did not return his love.
48D: Private pupil: TUTEE. You would think the word is TUTOREE, as tutor is the verb.
51D: Breakfast staple: BRAN. Rice for me.
53D: Abalone product: NACRE. Mother-of-pearl.
54D: Virtuoso: WIZ. No abbreviation hint?
58D: Adopt, as a cause: ESPOUSE
59D: Moved out: LEFT HOME
61D: Pope's work: POEMS. Alexander Pope. Nice clue.
63D: Three letters forming a single sound: TRIGRAPH. New word to me. Dictionary gives an example: eau in beau.
65D: Obnoxious sort, in slang: CREEPO
66D: Jazzman Woody: HERMAN. No idea. He does not look like a jazzman. I thought of Woody Allen.
67D: Throughout, in music: SEMPRE. No idea. Same root as Marine's "Semper Fi" motto I suppose.
71D: Either of two Henry VIII wives: ANNE. I only know ANNE Boleyn.
74D: Moat site: ZOO
79D: Presage: BODE
81D: Like pumice: Var.: POROSE. No idea. Variant of porous I guess.
83D: Classic Chunky brand: ALPO. I thought of chunky peanut butter.
84D: Ecotomorph: BEANPOLE. Did not know the meaning of ecotomorph. It sounds like a verb.
85D: Newlyweds' car decoration: STREAMER
87D: Doctor, at times: REFERRER
88D: Barely beats: NIPS. New meaning of NIP to me.
90D: Holdup cover-up: SKI MASK
92D: Peaked: ILL. Not familiar with this definition of "peaked".
93D: Fountain drink: SODA POP
98D: Army medic's system: TRIAGE
100D: Doesn't die out: LASTS
102D: Eccentric: OUTRE
104D: Type of alcohol: ETHYL
105D: Jazz pianist Chick: COREA. Him I know.
107D: Driller's filling: INLAY
109D: Obsession for Lady Macbeth: SPOT. I got the answer from Across fills.
111D: Doo-wop group anchor: BASS. Strung this answer together from Across fills as well.
113D: Hudson Bay tribe: CREE. Canadian tribe answer is always CREE.
114D: British rule in India: RAJ
116D: TV wheel spinner's purchase: AN A. "Wheel of Fortune". AN E, AN I, AN O all can be clued as "TV wheel spinner's purchase".
117D: "Criminal Minds" network: CBS. Easy guess.
Answer grid.
C.C.
