Theme: INDEPENDENCE DAY (17A: Today)
27A: Today's celebrant: THE UNITED STATES
46A: Today's colors: RED WHITE AND BLUE
61A: Today's song: GOD BLESS AMERICA
Were John Underwood a woman, I would shout "BRAVA" (16A) to him for this great puzzle. Wow, look at those 15-letter theme answers running through the grid, amazing!
Both OBSERVE (45D: Keep an eye on) and TGIF (52D: End-of-the-week cheer) are brilliant answers for today in my opinion. And Shish KEBAB (57A: Food on a stick) is an ideal grilled dish to be served on the 4th of July. Large shrimps, bell pepper cubes & chunks of fresh pineapple on a skewer, hmmm, delicious!
It's also nice to see both MOM (63D: May honoree) and DAD (23A: Father) appear in the same grid, but why DAD is not clued as "June honoree"? I like the way FREEMAN intersects INDEPENDENCE DAY, and BAD IDEA (7D: I wouldn't, if I were you) balances out WE'LL SEE (44D). Very nice.
I hate the clues for OATS (45A: Feedbag contents) due to FEEDS (67A: Flows into) and BIEN (58D: Well in France) because of WE'LL SEE (44D). "Très BIEN" would be parfait!
New words/names to me today: ELISA, ARPEL, BRAVA, ERI TU & RAYE.
ACROSS:
1A: Normandy town: ST. LO. Reagan's (or rather Peggy Noonan's) patriotic masterpiece D-Day "The Boys of Pointe du Hoc" speech popped into my mind earlier this morning: "...These are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. These are the heroes who helped end a war..." Look, Pointe du Hoc is so close to ST. LO & Caen.
14A: Dnieper port: KIEV. I've never heard of the Dnieper River before. But KIEV is easily obtainable here.
15A: Gentleman caller: BEAU. I don't get this one. "Caller", what does that mean? (Update later: "Gentleman caller" is "an old-fashioned term for boyfriend").
16A: Soprano's accolade: BRAVA. New to me, I always thought the exclamation "Bravo" applies to both male and female.
20A: Wisdom unit?: PEARL. PEARL of Wisdom. Bernard-Henri Lévy had a very interesting take on "Who killed Daniel PEARL?". Lévy's "J'accuse" sometimes can be very overwhelming.
21A: Queen of Carthage: DIDO. Same clue on June 9 puzzle. Here is DIDO & Youssou N'Dour's Live 8 (2005) "Thank you".
22A: Slack off: EASE. The opposite of yesterday's "MAL dans sa peau" (Ill at EASE) is "BIEN (58D) dans sa peau".
37A: Permission doc.: LIC (License). I was misled into thinking of some doctor rather than document.
42A: Immunoassay diagnostic: ELISA ( Enzyme-Linked ImmunoSorbent Assay). Absolutely no idea. What an intimidating clue! If ELISA is an acronym, why there is no hint in the clue?
50A: Adrien of cosmetics: ARPEL. I am not familiar with this brand or the person at all. Pieced the answer together from down clues.
51A: Greek letters: XIS
69A: Tight positions?: ENDS. I like how this answer ENDS the grid.
DOWN:
3D: Swan's mate of myth: LEDA. Mother of Helen of Troy.
4D: Outstanding: OVERDUE
8D: Made to resemble nappy leather: SUEDED. Did not know that SUEDE can also be a verb.
10D: Actor Morgan: FREEMAN. My favorite FREEMAN movie is "The Shawshank Redemption". What's yours? Oh, I also like his "Million Dollar Baby" and "March of the Penguins".
13D: "Big Mouth" Martha: RAYE. I filled in ROYE as I got BRAVO for 16A. I sure have difficulty remembering her name. Why was she called "Big Mouth" Martha? I want a Big Bertha.
27D: 10th President: TYLER (John). I tend to confuse him with the 12th President Zachary Taylor.
28D: Selassie of Ethiopia: HAILE. Know him due to my love for Bob Marley.
29D: Spanish national hero: EL CID. I like how TYLER, HAILE and EL CID are stacked together.
32D: "Un Ballo in Maschera" aria: ERI TU. No idea. Strung the answer together from across clues. Here is Leo Nucci's ERI TU.
40D: Wildcat: LYNX. Obviously our Minnesota LYNX (WNBA) is not good enough to be clued.
43D: Used a Q-tip: SWABBED
47D: __dixt: IPSE. And another Latin phrase: 19D: Sine qua __(essential things): NONS
59D: LSD, to users: ACID. CNN had a very interesting news segment on the "Magic Mushroom LSD effect" the other day. Sounds very intriguing. Too bad, "Magic Mushroom" is banned in the US.
Happy 17A everyone!
C.C.
27A: Today's celebrant: THE UNITED STATES
46A: Today's colors: RED WHITE AND BLUE
61A: Today's song: GOD BLESS AMERICA
Were John Underwood a woman, I would shout "BRAVA" (16A) to him for this great puzzle. Wow, look at those 15-letter theme answers running through the grid, amazing!
Both OBSERVE (45D: Keep an eye on) and TGIF (52D: End-of-the-week cheer) are brilliant answers for today in my opinion. And Shish KEBAB (57A: Food on a stick) is an ideal grilled dish to be served on the 4th of July. Large shrimps, bell pepper cubes & chunks of fresh pineapple on a skewer, hmmm, delicious!
It's also nice to see both MOM (63D: May honoree) and DAD (23A: Father) appear in the same grid, but why DAD is not clued as "June honoree"? I like the way FREEMAN intersects INDEPENDENCE DAY, and BAD IDEA (7D: I wouldn't, if I were you) balances out WE'LL SEE (44D). Very nice.
I hate the clues for OATS (45A: Feedbag contents) due to FEEDS (67A: Flows into) and BIEN (58D: Well in France) because of WE'LL SEE (44D). "Très BIEN" would be parfait!
New words/names to me today: ELISA, ARPEL, BRAVA, ERI TU & RAYE.
ACROSS:
1A: Normandy town: ST. LO. Reagan's (or rather Peggy Noonan's) patriotic masterpiece D-Day "The Boys of Pointe du Hoc" speech popped into my mind earlier this morning: "...These are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. These are the heroes who helped end a war..." Look, Pointe du Hoc is so close to ST. LO & Caen.
14A: Dnieper port: KIEV. I've never heard of the Dnieper River before. But KIEV is easily obtainable here.
15A: Gentleman caller: BEAU. I don't get this one. "Caller", what does that mean? (Update later: "Gentleman caller" is "an old-fashioned term for boyfriend").
16A: Soprano's accolade: BRAVA. New to me, I always thought the exclamation "Bravo" applies to both male and female.
20A: Wisdom unit?: PEARL. PEARL of Wisdom. Bernard-Henri Lévy had a very interesting take on "Who killed Daniel PEARL?". Lévy's "J'accuse" sometimes can be very overwhelming.
21A: Queen of Carthage: DIDO. Same clue on June 9 puzzle. Here is DIDO & Youssou N'Dour's Live 8 (2005) "Thank you".
22A: Slack off: EASE. The opposite of yesterday's "MAL dans sa peau" (Ill at EASE) is "BIEN (58D) dans sa peau".
37A: Permission doc.: LIC (License). I was misled into thinking of some doctor rather than document.
42A: Immunoassay diagnostic: ELISA ( Enzyme-Linked ImmunoSorbent Assay). Absolutely no idea. What an intimidating clue! If ELISA is an acronym, why there is no hint in the clue?
50A: Adrien of cosmetics: ARPEL. I am not familiar with this brand or the person at all. Pieced the answer together from down clues.
51A: Greek letters: XIS
69A: Tight positions?: ENDS. I like how this answer ENDS the grid.
DOWN:
3D: Swan's mate of myth: LEDA. Mother of Helen of Troy.
4D: Outstanding: OVERDUE
8D: Made to resemble nappy leather: SUEDED. Did not know that SUEDE can also be a verb.
10D: Actor Morgan: FREEMAN. My favorite FREEMAN movie is "The Shawshank Redemption". What's yours? Oh, I also like his "Million Dollar Baby" and "March of the Penguins".
13D: "Big Mouth" Martha: RAYE. I filled in ROYE as I got BRAVO for 16A. I sure have difficulty remembering her name. Why was she called "Big Mouth" Martha? I want a Big Bertha.
27D: 10th President: TYLER (John). I tend to confuse him with the 12th President Zachary Taylor.
28D: Selassie of Ethiopia: HAILE. Know him due to my love for Bob Marley.
29D: Spanish national hero: EL CID. I like how TYLER, HAILE and EL CID are stacked together.
32D: "Un Ballo in Maschera" aria: ERI TU. No idea. Strung the answer together from across clues. Here is Leo Nucci's ERI TU.
40D: Wildcat: LYNX. Obviously our Minnesota LYNX (WNBA) is not good enough to be clued.
43D: Used a Q-tip: SWABBED
47D: __dixt: IPSE. And another Latin phrase: 19D: Sine qua __(essential things): NONS
59D: LSD, to users: ACID. CNN had a very interesting news segment on the "Magic Mushroom LSD effect" the other day. Sounds very intriguing. Too bad, "Magic Mushroom" is banned in the US.
Happy 17A everyone!
C.C.
