Theme: CAT-ITUDE. each theme answer describes a characteristic of a cat.
17A. *Like some ovens : SELF-CLEANING. more things should come with this option. like cars. and kids. and where's the self-cleaning toilet?
17A. *Checking, as books : BALANCING
35A. *Field action : HIGH-JUMPING
53A. *Part of many a magic act : DISAPPEARING. my cat does this all the time. about which my son says, 'he's a man, he'll be fine.'
58A. New York resort area, and what the answers to starred clues are : CATSKILLS - or CAT SKILLS. cute pun. see note from don hard g at the bottom.
Across:
1. Work on, as a part : COMB. i suppose.
5. Donald, to his nephews : UNCA. easy guess.
9. Polite title : MADAM. ma'am is short for madam.
14. [Turn the page] : OVER.
15. Indian flatbread : NAAN
16. Monterrey girlfriend : AMIGA. monterrey is mexico's third largest city.
19. Plymouth's county : DEVON. plymouth is a city in england. in this map of devon county, you can see plymouth to the southwest.
22. Expand operations : UPSIZE
60. Flee : LAM. didn't know this could be a verb, meaning escape. usually hear it as a noun, 'escaped convicts on the lam.'
Answer grid.
Melissa
Constructor note:
What an interesting word, Catskills. I wonder about its origin. For some reason one day, I just heard it as Cat Skills, two words. I grew up with cats, and was always amazed at what they can do. They do have extraordinary abilities. Why not do a puzzle about them? It helps that Rich is a cat person. Thanks to Rich, he helped me to round off my list of cat abilities. There may be some others that I have forgotten. Will the cat people out there write in to tell us about cat’s skills that others of us may have forgotten?
25. Expand one's belly : EAT. partial clecho.
26. Goose egg : NIL. zip, nada, zilch.
27. Hard work : MOIL. not to be confused with mohel.
28. Activist with Raiders : NADER. ralph nader recruited hundreds of idealistic college students and lawyers to work with his center for study of responsive law.
31. 1987 Masters champ Larry : MIZE. best known for this shot.
32. 61-Down resident : PIG, and 61D. 32-Across home : STY
33. Versatile, powerwise : AC/DC. "DC is the abbreviation for direct current, which is a type of electrical current that travels through a circuit in only one direction. Direct current is the type of electrical power that is produced by fuel cells, batteries, and generators equipped with commutators. While DC power was the first type of electricity to be commercially transmitted, it has been widely replaced by alternating current (AC) electricity, and is now used primarily in electrochemical and metal-plating applications."
34. Subdivided : ZONED. tricky.
39. Flat-topped formation : BUTTE. courthouse butte near sedona, arizona.
41. Boston or Baltimore : PORT
42. Blame, slangily : RAP. according to the book, 'the whole ball of wax,' by laurence urdang, the expresssion is taken facetiously, from a ‘rap on the knuckles.’ that shows what i know, i would have guessed it was related to rap sheet, which is an acronym for record of arrest and prosecution.
45. Blame : ONUS. from latin.
46. Flower girl's path : AISLE. timely - gotta love this shot.
48. Geologic procession : EONS
49. Bert Bobbsey's twin : NAN
50. Little devil : IMP
51. Lunch time : MIDDAY
57. Place to play : ARENA
62. Best Buy squad members : GEEKS. before i switched from pc to mac, i had a stool there with my name on it.
63. Busy as __ : A BEE
64. Toned-down "Awesome!" : NEAT. extra credit for anyone who knows where this comes from: "dear annie. thanks for your letter. you sound neat."
65. Ferber and a Dame : EDNAS
66. Mama __ : CASS
67. Plucky : GAMY. if you say so...
Down:
1. Cheap pipe material : COB. scroll down this page for instructions on making your own corn cob pipe.
2. Ooplasm containers : OVA. the ooplasm is cytoplasm of an oocyte. oo yeah, i knew that off the top of my head.
3. Blanc who voiced Bugs : MEL
4. Sergio Mendes & __ '66 : BRASIL. remember this?
5. Relax, as one's fist : UNCLENCH. made me think of this.
6. Greenhorn : NAIF. a naive or inexperienced person.
7. Call off an appt. : CANCel. often abbreviated cx.
8. "Hulk" director : ANG LEE. didn't know that, never saw hulk.
9. Ticked off by : MAD AT. wanted irked.
10. Word of agreement : AMEN
11. Water shower? : DIVINING ROD. show-er. get it?
12. Fret (over) : AGONIZE
13. Really botched up : MANGLED
18. Pince-__ : NEZ. the style of spectacles worn by teddy roosevelt.
21. Poor listener's in-and-out organ : EAR. in one ear, out the other.
22. One wearing black at home : UMP. umpire.
23. Island dish : POI
24. Trusting way to purchase : SIGHT UNSEEN
29. Descriptive wd. : ADJ. adjective.
30. Bra choices : D-CUPS.
31. Day for the fair-of-face child: Abbr. : MON. "Monday's child is fair of face." what day were you born?
33. Some do it gracefully : AGE. like her.
34. Teen omen : ZIT. acne.
36. "__ for me to know ..." : IT'S. '... and you to find out.'
37. Kind of biol. : MOL. the branch of biology that deals with the molecular basis of biological activity, commonly mol bio.
38. Bases for arguments : PREMISES
39. "Of Human __" : BONDAGE. novel by w. somerset maugham.
40. Like some TV pilots : UNAIRED
43. Nostalgist's suffix : ANA. as in, americana.
44. Future therapist's maj. : PSY. psychology.
46. Band booster : AMP. amplifier.
47. Medicinal syrup : IPECAC. ick.
48. Garden container? : EDGING. nice.
50. "None for me, thank you" : I PASS
52. Publicity : INK
54. Songwriter Paul : ANKA
55. Rhyme scheme in Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" : AABA. yes, but only the first stanza:
Whose woods these are I think I know.
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
lines 1, 2, and 4 all have the same rhyme sound, while line 3 introduces a new sound. see this link for the rhyme scheme of the remaining stanzas.
56. Hwys. with nos. : RTES
59. Thompson of "Back to the Future" : LEA
Answer grid.
Melissa
Constructor note:
What an interesting word, Catskills. I wonder about its origin. For some reason one day, I just heard it as Cat Skills, two words. I grew up with cats, and was always amazed at what they can do. They do have extraordinary abilities. Why not do a puzzle about them? It helps that Rich is a cat person. Thanks to Rich, he helped me to round off my list of cat abilities. There may be some others that I have forgotten. Will the cat people out there write in to tell us about cat’s skills that others of us may have forgotten?
