Theme: Location, Location, Location
17A: Past it: OVER THE HILL
36A: Focuses: CENTERS
56A: Pressurized: UNDER THE GUN
11D: Precedence: RIGHT OF WAY
27D: Like a southpaw: LEFT-HANDED
Nice puzzle. Simple theme. Perfectly executed. Every theme answer is gridded in its proper position. I would prefer a singular CENTER, but the grid rule dictates an odd-number word in the middle, so CENTERS has to be in plural form.
Disliked the clues for YENS (63A: Yearnings) and OCTET (12D: Octopus arms, e.g.) due to letter duplication. The stale "Group of eight" is just fine for OCTET. As for YENS, I would use a simple "Desires".
Liked the fresh clue for ENTS (54D: Adjective-forming suffixes, as in different). "Tolkien's trees" clue bores me. Happy to see our editor dumped "Poet's dusk" for EEN (37D: Ending for car or cant). But the clue was rather bland. Why not "Car tail?"
Across:
5A: Edouard's paintings: MANETS. Here is "Olympia" again. My favorite MANET. I love those daring eyes, so confronting.
14A: Porto-__, Benin: NOVO. See the bottom. Literally "New port" in Portuguese. I strung the answer together from down clues.
15A: Painter Modigliani: AMEDEO. The Italian painter. Like van Gogh, he died penniless.
21A: Slide, like a snake: SLITHER
24A: Market protests: BOYCOTTS. Named after Charles BOYCOTT, a British land agent who refused to lower rent for his tenant farmers in Ireland.
28A: $5 bill: FIN. Half a sawbuck.
29A: U.N. agcy.: ILO. Nobel Peace winner 1969. I did not know they belong to the UN.
31A: Eur. carrier: SAS. Sometimes the answer is KLM.
35A: One-time female mil. grp.: WAF. Women in the Air Force (1948-1976). New abbreviation to me.
38A: Female GI, once: WAC. Women's Army Corps (1943-1978). Saw this clue before.
39A: Compromise: SETTLE. Litigation-wise?
41A: Stephen or Chris: REA. Know Stephen REA ("Michael Collins" & "The Crying Game"). Have never heard of the British singer Chris REA.
42A: Polanki's Sharon: TATE. Was aware of the murder story, did not know her name. I am accustomed to the TATE Museum clue.
45A: Point NW of San Francisco: REYES. See the map. REYES is the plural form of REY, Spanish for king. Vs the Spanish Queen REINA.
50A: Made to join a mortise: TENONED. Did not know TENON can be a verb.
59A: Carolina river: PEE DEE. New river to me. Named after a Native American tribe.
62A: Lost sheep: STRAYS. Kept reading the clue as "Lost sleep".
Down:
5D: Olympic skier Phil: MAHRE. Foreign to me. British spelling to Maher (Bill Maher)? He does not look as cool as Bode Miller.
7D: Bk. after Ezra: NEH. Before Esth.
9D: Actor Savalas: TELLY. Have never heard of this actor. Wikipedia says he is the godfather to Jennifer Aniston, who is also of Greek root. I thought he has British blood, with this name TELLY.
10D: Importunes: SOLICITS
18D: Sales rep's domain: TERR
22D: Enameled metalware: TOLE. French for "Sheet metal". Most of the TOLE trays seem to have flowers painted on.
24D: Small bars: BISTROS. Some of the BISTROS are quite big.
26D: Winglike parts: ALAE. ALA is singular for Latin "wing". I wonder why the plural is not ALAS.
32D: Monterrey Mrs.: SRA. Alliteration again.
33D: Lot: FATE. The answer did not come to me easily. I was not in the "destiny" direction.
40D: Ex-Yankee Martinez: TINO. Yankees' ex-first base. Was replaced by Jason Giambi in 2001.
46D: One Barrymore: ETHEL. Dennis quoted her last Monday: "You must learn day by day, year by year, to broaden your horizon. The more things you love, the more things you are interested in, the more you enjoy, the more you are indignant about, the more you have left when anything happens."
47D: Jerry Stiller's Anne: MEARA. Ben Stiller's mother. I obtained her name from across fills.
52D: "The Night of the Hunters" screenwriter: AGEE. Also the screenwriter of "The African Queen". He drank a lot a lot.
53D: Actor Moses: GUNN. Completely unknown to me. Wikipedia says Moses GUNN was in "Roots". I don't remember seeing him though.
C.C.
17A: Past it: OVER THE HILL
36A: Focuses: CENTERS
56A: Pressurized: UNDER THE GUN
11D: Precedence: RIGHT OF WAY
27D: Like a southpaw: LEFT-HANDED
Nice puzzle. Simple theme. Perfectly executed. Every theme answer is gridded in its proper position. I would prefer a singular CENTER, but the grid rule dictates an odd-number word in the middle, so CENTERS has to be in plural form.
Disliked the clues for YENS (63A: Yearnings) and OCTET (12D: Octopus arms, e.g.) due to letter duplication. The stale "Group of eight" is just fine for OCTET. As for YENS, I would use a simple "Desires".
Liked the fresh clue for ENTS (54D: Adjective-forming suffixes, as in different). "Tolkien's trees" clue bores me. Happy to see our editor dumped "Poet's dusk" for EEN (37D: Ending for car or cant). But the clue was rather bland. Why not "Car tail?"
Across:
5A: Edouard's paintings: MANETS. Here is "Olympia" again. My favorite MANET. I love those daring eyes, so confronting.
14A: Porto-__, Benin: NOVO. See the bottom. Literally "New port" in Portuguese. I strung the answer together from down clues.
15A: Painter Modigliani: AMEDEO. The Italian painter. Like van Gogh, he died penniless.
21A: Slide, like a snake: SLITHER
24A: Market protests: BOYCOTTS. Named after Charles BOYCOTT, a British land agent who refused to lower rent for his tenant farmers in Ireland.
28A: $5 bill: FIN. Half a sawbuck.
29A: U.N. agcy.: ILO. Nobel Peace winner 1969. I did not know they belong to the UN.
31A: Eur. carrier: SAS. Sometimes the answer is KLM.
35A: One-time female mil. grp.: WAF. Women in the Air Force (1948-1976). New abbreviation to me.
38A: Female GI, once: WAC. Women's Army Corps (1943-1978). Saw this clue before.
39A: Compromise: SETTLE. Litigation-wise?
41A: Stephen or Chris: REA. Know Stephen REA ("Michael Collins" & "The Crying Game"). Have never heard of the British singer Chris REA.
42A: Polanki's Sharon: TATE. Was aware of the murder story, did not know her name. I am accustomed to the TATE Museum clue.
45A: Point NW of San Francisco: REYES. See the map. REYES is the plural form of REY, Spanish for king. Vs the Spanish Queen REINA.
50A: Made to join a mortise: TENONED. Did not know TENON can be a verb.
59A: Carolina river: PEE DEE. New river to me. Named after a Native American tribe.
62A: Lost sheep: STRAYS. Kept reading the clue as "Lost sleep".
Down:
5D: Olympic skier Phil: MAHRE. Foreign to me. British spelling to Maher (Bill Maher)? He does not look as cool as Bode Miller.
7D: Bk. after Ezra: NEH. Before Esth.
9D: Actor Savalas: TELLY. Have never heard of this actor. Wikipedia says he is the godfather to Jennifer Aniston, who is also of Greek root. I thought he has British blood, with this name TELLY.
10D: Importunes: SOLICITS
18D: Sales rep's domain: TERR
22D: Enameled metalware: TOLE. French for "Sheet metal". Most of the TOLE trays seem to have flowers painted on.
24D: Small bars: BISTROS. Some of the BISTROS are quite big.
26D: Winglike parts: ALAE. ALA is singular for Latin "wing". I wonder why the plural is not ALAS.
32D: Monterrey Mrs.: SRA. Alliteration again.
33D: Lot: FATE. The answer did not come to me easily. I was not in the "destiny" direction.
40D: Ex-Yankee Martinez: TINO. Yankees' ex-first base. Was replaced by Jason Giambi in 2001.
46D: One Barrymore: ETHEL. Dennis quoted her last Monday: "You must learn day by day, year by year, to broaden your horizon. The more things you love, the more things you are interested in, the more you enjoy, the more you are indignant about, the more you have left when anything happens."
47D: Jerry Stiller's Anne: MEARA. Ben Stiller's mother. I obtained her name from across fills.
52D: "The Night of the Hunters" screenwriter: AGEE. Also the screenwriter of "The African Queen". He drank a lot a lot.
53D: Actor Moses: GUNN. Completely unknown to me. Wikipedia says Moses GUNN was in "Roots". I don't remember seeing him though.
C.C.
