Theme: PLUG (63A. Ad, or word that can follow the end of 17-, 26-, 43- or 55-Across)
17A. "Imagination at work" company: GENERAL ELECTRIC. Electric Plug. Rare gimme theme entry for me. Still waiting for my GE stock to bounce back.
26A. Fried-dough carnival treat: ELEPHANT EAR. Earplug. Have never tasted Elephant Ear. I wanted CORN FRITTER, which has the same number of letters and ends in R too.
43A. The Doors #1 hit covered by José Feliciano: LIGHT MY FIRE. Fireplug. Here is the clip. I've never heard of José Feliciano. His constant nodding made me dizzy.
55A. "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" author: DAME MURIEL SPARK. Spark Plug. Both the book and the author (Scottish) were strangers to me.
I liked how PLUG ends the grid, good visual image.
Lots of D'oh clues in this puzzle. My favorites are DELI (6D. Sub station?) and RHYMES (38D. Stop and shop e.g.). Both reminded me of the "License to drill?" clue Barry had for DDS (Doctor of Dental Science) in his 2008 Phillies Championship Tribute puzzle. Very clever.
I struggled at the last theme answer. Tough crossing between TORI (59A. Doughnut shapes) and RTE (56D. Way to go: Abbr.) for me. Had a breeze freeze on both. "Way to go," Barry, you got me. I did recognize the torus shape when I googled. Had no idea that its plural form is tori.
Across:
1. Cheese town in the province of Noord-Holland: EDAM. Four-letter Dutch cheese town has to be Edam.
5. Cooper's tool: ADZE. Or adz.
9. Like some potatoes: RICED. How do you like your potatoes prepared? I like oven-baked potato wedges.
14. Snare __: DRUM
15. Powerful 19th century Virginia family: LEES. Of them, R.E Lee appears in our Xword very often.
16. Positive terminal, at times: ANODE. It could be negative terminal at times?
21. Sale condition: AS IS
22. Deceived: LIED TO. What Tiger probably did.
23. Stranded motorist's aid: JACK
25. Cambodian money: RIEL. Pronounced the same as "reel".
30. General on a Chinese menu: TSO. General Tso's Chicken.
33. Fiesta Bowl site: TEMPE. No idea. Arizona State (Sun Devils) is located there as well.
34. Work units: ERGS
35. Group including flower children's children, briefly: GEN X. Stumped me. Flower children refer to those hippies in the 1960's. I was picturing Lyndon Johnson's Daisy Flower Girl ad.
36. Pants fabric: TWILL
38. Actress Blakley: RONEE. No idea. Looks like she's a singer as well.
39. Je t'__: Parisian's "I love you": AIME. And MME (4D. Marseille Mrs.)
41. Drambuie ingredient: HONEY. I've never heard of Drambuie, a honey and herb flavored Scotch whisky.
42. Govt. ID issuer: SSA (Social Security Administration). They issue SSN.
46. Grant and Vanderbilt: AMYS
47. Spotted cat: OCELOT. Hi, buddy, what are you looking at?
50. Exceptional: RARE. Rara in Latin, as in Rara Avis, like Sade or our Kazie.
52. Subway alternative: BUS
58. Cream of the crop: ELITE
60. Merrie __ England: OLDE. And ETON (62A. School founded in 1440). I actually know this trivia.
61. Begat: SIRED
Down:
2. Stowe novel: DRED. Does this book have anything to do with Dred Scott the slave?
3. Quaker Oats trademark: AUNT JEMIMA. Awesome entry.
5. Mount McKinley's state: ALASKA
7. Puzzle center?: ZEES. Two letter Z's in the center of the word puzzle.
8. Subj. taught bilingually: ESL (English as a Second Language)
10. Spy's briefing contents, briefly: INTEL. Intelligence I suppose.
11. Firewood order: CORD. It's been a very mild winter here in Minnesota.
12. Correct, perhaps: EDIT
13. Empire State Building style: DECO
18. "Silent Spring" author Carson: RACHEL. Have heard of the book, not the author.
19. Inventor Howe: ELIAS. Sewing machine inventor.
24. Winesap, e.g.: APPLE. Nope, first encounter with winesap apples.
25. Contrition: REGRET
26. Singer James et al.: ETTAS
27. Explorer aided by Sacagawea: LEWIS. Or Clark.
28. Dogma-rejecting spiritual genre: NEW AGE. All I know about New Age is that Enya and Yanni are New Age musicians.
30. Court bouncer: TENNIS BALL. Oh, tennis court.
31. Show contempt: SNEER
32. Kind of daisy: OX-EYE. Hope this is the kind Jeannie likes.
40. Artistic merit: VIRTU (ver-TOO). Italian for virtue. New to me.
43. Came menacingly into view: LOOMED
44. Large game fish: MARLIN. Barry probably clued it as baseball related (Florida Marlins) originally. He's an avid baseball fan.
45. 1950s-'60s Yankee Boyer: CLETE. No idea. Clete Boyer played third base for the Yankees.
48. City SW of Bogotá: CALI. Maybe Chickie could tell us a bit about Cali, she lived there for two years.
49. Mideast bigwig: EMIR. Those emirs need to clean up the Dubai mess.
50. Scream: RIOT. Did not know riot can mean "scream". I wanted RANT.
51. Opening for dynamic: AERO. Aerodynamic.
53. Pakistani tongue: URDU. I just learned that Urdu is essentially identical to Hindi in its spoken form but in its literary form heavily influenced by Persian and Arabic and written in an Arabic alphabet.
54. Surfboard fin: SKEG. New word to me. Looks like each surfboard has two skegs.
57. How the weasel goes?: POP. Pop! Goes the Weasel. Excellent clue too.
Answer grid.
C.C.
17A. "Imagination at work" company: GENERAL ELECTRIC. Electric Plug. Rare gimme theme entry for me. Still waiting for my GE stock to bounce back.
26A. Fried-dough carnival treat: ELEPHANT EAR. Earplug. Have never tasted Elephant Ear. I wanted CORN FRITTER, which has the same number of letters and ends in R too.
43A. The Doors #1 hit covered by José Feliciano: LIGHT MY FIRE. Fireplug. Here is the clip. I've never heard of José Feliciano. His constant nodding made me dizzy.
55A. "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" author: DAME MURIEL SPARK. Spark Plug. Both the book and the author (Scottish) were strangers to me.
I liked how PLUG ends the grid, good visual image.
Lots of D'oh clues in this puzzle. My favorites are DELI (6D. Sub station?) and RHYMES (38D. Stop and shop e.g.). Both reminded me of the "License to drill?" clue Barry had for DDS (Doctor of Dental Science) in his 2008 Phillies Championship Tribute puzzle. Very clever.
I struggled at the last theme answer. Tough crossing between TORI (59A. Doughnut shapes) and RTE (56D. Way to go: Abbr.) for me. Had a breeze freeze on both. "Way to go," Barry, you got me. I did recognize the torus shape when I googled. Had no idea that its plural form is tori.
Across:
1. Cheese town in the province of Noord-Holland: EDAM. Four-letter Dutch cheese town has to be Edam.
5. Cooper's tool: ADZE. Or adz.
9. Like some potatoes: RICED. How do you like your potatoes prepared? I like oven-baked potato wedges.
14. Snare __: DRUM
15. Powerful 19th century Virginia family: LEES. Of them, R.E Lee appears in our Xword very often.
16. Positive terminal, at times: ANODE. It could be negative terminal at times?
21. Sale condition: AS IS
22. Deceived: LIED TO. What Tiger probably did.
23. Stranded motorist's aid: JACK
25. Cambodian money: RIEL. Pronounced the same as "reel".
30. General on a Chinese menu: TSO. General Tso's Chicken.
33. Fiesta Bowl site: TEMPE. No idea. Arizona State (Sun Devils) is located there as well.
34. Work units: ERGS
35. Group including flower children's children, briefly: GEN X. Stumped me. Flower children refer to those hippies in the 1960's. I was picturing Lyndon Johnson's Daisy Flower Girl ad.
36. Pants fabric: TWILL
38. Actress Blakley: RONEE. No idea. Looks like she's a singer as well.
39. Je t'__: Parisian's "I love you": AIME. And MME (4D. Marseille Mrs.)
41. Drambuie ingredient: HONEY. I've never heard of Drambuie, a honey and herb flavored Scotch whisky.
42. Govt. ID issuer: SSA (Social Security Administration). They issue SSN.
46. Grant and Vanderbilt: AMYS
47. Spotted cat: OCELOT. Hi, buddy, what are you looking at?
50. Exceptional: RARE. Rara in Latin, as in Rara Avis, like Sade or our Kazie.
52. Subway alternative: BUS
58. Cream of the crop: ELITE
60. Merrie __ England: OLDE. And ETON (62A. School founded in 1440). I actually know this trivia.
61. Begat: SIRED
Down:
2. Stowe novel: DRED. Does this book have anything to do with Dred Scott the slave?
3. Quaker Oats trademark: AUNT JEMIMA. Awesome entry.
5. Mount McKinley's state: ALASKA
7. Puzzle center?: ZEES. Two letter Z's in the center of the word puzzle.
8. Subj. taught bilingually: ESL (English as a Second Language)
10. Spy's briefing contents, briefly: INTEL. Intelligence I suppose.
11. Firewood order: CORD. It's been a very mild winter here in Minnesota.
12. Correct, perhaps: EDIT
13. Empire State Building style: DECO
18. "Silent Spring" author Carson: RACHEL. Have heard of the book, not the author.
19. Inventor Howe: ELIAS. Sewing machine inventor.
24. Winesap, e.g.: APPLE. Nope, first encounter with winesap apples.
25. Contrition: REGRET
26. Singer James et al.: ETTAS
27. Explorer aided by Sacagawea: LEWIS. Or Clark.
28. Dogma-rejecting spiritual genre: NEW AGE. All I know about New Age is that Enya and Yanni are New Age musicians.
30. Court bouncer: TENNIS BALL. Oh, tennis court.
31. Show contempt: SNEER
32. Kind of daisy: OX-EYE. Hope this is the kind Jeannie likes.
40. Artistic merit: VIRTU (ver-TOO). Italian for virtue. New to me.
43. Came menacingly into view: LOOMED
44. Large game fish: MARLIN. Barry probably clued it as baseball related (Florida Marlins) originally. He's an avid baseball fan.
45. 1950s-'60s Yankee Boyer: CLETE. No idea. Clete Boyer played third base for the Yankees.
48. City SW of Bogotá: CALI. Maybe Chickie could tell us a bit about Cali, she lived there for two years.
49. Mideast bigwig: EMIR. Those emirs need to clean up the Dubai mess.
50. Scream: RIOT. Did not know riot can mean "scream". I wanted RANT.
51. Opening for dynamic: AERO. Aerodynamic.
53. Pakistani tongue: URDU. I just learned that Urdu is essentially identical to Hindi in its spoken form but in its literary form heavily influenced by Persian and Arabic and written in an Arabic alphabet.
54. Surfboard fin: SKEG. New word to me. Looks like each surfboard has two skegs.
57. How the weasel goes?: POP. Pop! Goes the Weasel. Excellent clue too.
Answer grid.
C.C.
