Theme: LINCOLN CENTER (37A: Performing arts site where ground was broken 5/14/1959, and a hint to the shared features of the answers to starred clues) - ABE is embedded in the very center of each theme entry.
17A: *Era in which Shakespeare wrote most of his plays: ELIZABETHAN
60A: *Put in order, as files: ALPHABETIZE
11D: *With no tags: UNLABELED
33D: *Veggies of Andean origin: LIMA BEANS
LIMA BEANS is an odd entry, the only ABE that spans two words. A bit of inconsistency here. The theme title entry LINCOLN CENTER is very clever, and it's gridded in the central row # 8. I wonder if the puzzle was originally created for the big 200th Anniversary of Lincoln's birth. (Added later: According to Orange, today is the 50th anniversary of when they broke ground to build LINCOLN CENTER.)
Some sweet baseball sub-theme:
11A: Official in black: UMP
66A: Cobb and others: TYS
8D: Only team besides the Yankees to win three consecutive World Series: ATHLETICS (1972-1974)
61D: Manager Piniella: LOU
ATHLETICS is an easy fill, though I was not aware of their consecutive World Series wins (1972, 1973 and 1974). Neither the Yankees nor the Athletics has won since I arrived in the US in May 2001. Then LOU Piniella was still the manager for the Mariners and Ichiro had all the media attention. Pineilla is currently with the Cubs.
Nice scrabbly upper left corner & lower right corner. I liked those 6 long non-theme words in the Down entries.
Across:
1A: Sign in a reserved parking area: STAFF. Except OFF & EFF, we seldom see a single ?FF ending word, not even BUFF.
6A: Time's Person of the Year 2008: OBAMA. He will probably be again this year. Or his wife. Or both of them.
14A: Screen dot: PIXEL
15A: Communion bread holder: PATEN. Chalice and PATEN. I completely forgot about this word.
19A: __ Palmas: LAS. Have never heard of this remote Spanish province. What's it famous for?
22A: Indifferent: BLASE
26A: Unadorned: NAKED. BARED came to me first.
28A: Border: ABUT. Verb.
29A: "Rocky III" actor: MR. T
31A: Quick-drying paint: TEMPERA. Only one letter difference from TEMPURA, the Japanese deep frying battered veggies.
34A: Jumps (out): BAILS
36A: Article in Elle France: LES. The French definite article (plural). Good clue. I like Elle China.
43A: Leave in the lurch: ABANDON
45A: A followers: BCD
47A: Keats's "__ Psyche": ODE TO. Easy guess since he wrote so many ODES. Here is a sculpture of Cupid and Psyche at the Louvre.
50A: Kennel chatter: YAPS. No plural form for "Chatter"?
56A: Work on the cutting edge?: STROP. Great clue.
58A: English __: LIT. Thought of TEA first.
59A: "Ghost" psychic __ Mae Brown: ODA. Played by Whoopi Goldberg. Loved "Ghost".
63A: Wasn't colorfast: RAN
64A: Foolish: GOONY. Only knew goon. Strange. Why its adjective is not goonish like thuggish? There is no thuggy after all.
65A: "Hungarian Rhapsodies" composer: LISZT (Franz)
67A: Idlers in a jam: AUTOS
Down:
1D: Command to Fido: SPEAK
2D: El Niño feature?: TILDE. Nailed it immediately. Saw identical clue before.
3D: Geometry truth: AXIOM. I don't know what "Geometry truth" is. But AXIOM is truth any way.
4D: Tasseled topper: FEZ
5D: Wing movement: FLAP
7D: Dying art: BATIK. Of Javanese origin. New word to me. Dictionary explains it as "a technique of hand-dyeing fabrics by using wax as a dye repellent to cover parts of a design, dyeing the uncovered fabric with a color or colors, and dissolving the wax in boiling water".
10D: "The Brady Bunch" actress Davis: ANN B. Got her name with Across help. I wanted ANNE or ANNA. Did not expect the B abbreviation.
12D: Calibrated tool: MEASURER. If you say so. What do you call the person who measures then? Not MEASURER?
13D: Old dinero: PESETAS. I forgot. It's the Spanish currency from 1869 to 2002. Then it's replaced by Euro.
18D: Crooked: BENT
23D: Computer site, sometimes: LAP. I was in the wrong direction, thinking of web site.
27D: Editing marks: DELE. And STETS (53D: Leaves in).
32D: "Hardball" airer: MSNBC. I think Chris Matthews has the best job in the world.
34D: The right side-view mirror compensates for it: BLIND SPOT. Nice theme-long non-theme entry.
35D: Farm crawler: ANT. (ANT farm. Thanks, Al)
37D: Symbolic end of summer: LABOR DAY
40D: Garage alternative: CARPORT. New word to me also. We only have garage.
44D: Marshal at Waterloo: NEY (Michel). Learned his name from doing Xword also. Napoleon called him "th bravest of the brave"
45D: Nincompoop: BOOB. Wrote down BOZO first.
48D: Culture: Pref.: ETHNO
49D: Fast-food carriers: TRAYS. And PIZZA (52D: Lunch slice).
55D: It's a long story: SAGA
57D: Hide: PELT
62D: __ Maria: Liqueur: TIA. Coffee liqueur. Made originally in Jamaica using the Blue Mountain Coffee beans, according to Wikipedia. New to me.
Answer grid.
C.C.
PS: Due to some changes in my life, blog posts will be brief from now on, and I will only respond to questions in the Comments section. Thanks for the understanding.
17A: *Era in which Shakespeare wrote most of his plays: ELIZABETHAN
60A: *Put in order, as files: ALPHABETIZE
11D: *With no tags: UNLABELED
33D: *Veggies of Andean origin: LIMA BEANS
LIMA BEANS is an odd entry, the only ABE that spans two words. A bit of inconsistency here. The theme title entry LINCOLN CENTER is very clever, and it's gridded in the central row # 8. I wonder if the puzzle was originally created for the big 200th Anniversary of Lincoln's birth. (Added later: According to Orange, today is the 50th anniversary of when they broke ground to build LINCOLN CENTER.)
Some sweet baseball sub-theme:
11A: Official in black: UMP
66A: Cobb and others: TYS
8D: Only team besides the Yankees to win three consecutive World Series: ATHLETICS (1972-1974)
61D: Manager Piniella: LOU
ATHLETICS is an easy fill, though I was not aware of their consecutive World Series wins (1972, 1973 and 1974). Neither the Yankees nor the Athletics has won since I arrived in the US in May 2001. Then LOU Piniella was still the manager for the Mariners and Ichiro had all the media attention. Pineilla is currently with the Cubs.
Nice scrabbly upper left corner & lower right corner. I liked those 6 long non-theme words in the Down entries.
Across:
1A: Sign in a reserved parking area: STAFF. Except OFF & EFF, we seldom see a single ?FF ending word, not even BUFF.
6A: Time's Person of the Year 2008: OBAMA. He will probably be again this year. Or his wife. Or both of them.
14A: Screen dot: PIXEL
15A: Communion bread holder: PATEN. Chalice and PATEN. I completely forgot about this word.
19A: __ Palmas: LAS. Have never heard of this remote Spanish province. What's it famous for?
22A: Indifferent: BLASE
26A: Unadorned: NAKED. BARED came to me first.
28A: Border: ABUT. Verb.
29A: "Rocky III" actor: MR. T
31A: Quick-drying paint: TEMPERA. Only one letter difference from TEMPURA, the Japanese deep frying battered veggies.
34A: Jumps (out): BAILS
36A: Article in Elle France: LES. The French definite article (plural). Good clue. I like Elle China.
43A: Leave in the lurch: ABANDON
45A: A followers: BCD
47A: Keats's "__ Psyche": ODE TO. Easy guess since he wrote so many ODES. Here is a sculpture of Cupid and Psyche at the Louvre.
50A: Kennel chatter: YAPS. No plural form for "Chatter"?
56A: Work on the cutting edge?: STROP. Great clue.
58A: English __: LIT. Thought of TEA first.
59A: "Ghost" psychic __ Mae Brown: ODA. Played by Whoopi Goldberg. Loved "Ghost".
63A: Wasn't colorfast: RAN
64A: Foolish: GOONY. Only knew goon. Strange. Why its adjective is not goonish like thuggish? There is no thuggy after all.
65A: "Hungarian Rhapsodies" composer: LISZT (Franz)
67A: Idlers in a jam: AUTOS
Down:
1D: Command to Fido: SPEAK
2D: El Niño feature?: TILDE. Nailed it immediately. Saw identical clue before.
3D: Geometry truth: AXIOM. I don't know what "Geometry truth" is. But AXIOM is truth any way.
4D: Tasseled topper: FEZ
5D: Wing movement: FLAP
7D: Dying art: BATIK. Of Javanese origin. New word to me. Dictionary explains it as "a technique of hand-dyeing fabrics by using wax as a dye repellent to cover parts of a design, dyeing the uncovered fabric with a color or colors, and dissolving the wax in boiling water".
10D: "The Brady Bunch" actress Davis: ANN B. Got her name with Across help. I wanted ANNE or ANNA. Did not expect the B abbreviation.
12D: Calibrated tool: MEASURER. If you say so. What do you call the person who measures then? Not MEASURER?
13D: Old dinero: PESETAS. I forgot. It's the Spanish currency from 1869 to 2002. Then it's replaced by Euro.
18D: Crooked: BENT
23D: Computer site, sometimes: LAP. I was in the wrong direction, thinking of web site.
27D: Editing marks: DELE. And STETS (53D: Leaves in).
32D: "Hardball" airer: MSNBC. I think Chris Matthews has the best job in the world.
34D: The right side-view mirror compensates for it: BLIND SPOT. Nice theme-long non-theme entry.
35D: Farm crawler: ANT. (ANT farm. Thanks, Al)
37D: Symbolic end of summer: LABOR DAY
40D: Garage alternative: CARPORT. New word to me also. We only have garage.
44D: Marshal at Waterloo: NEY (Michel). Learned his name from doing Xword also. Napoleon called him "th bravest of the brave"
45D: Nincompoop: BOOB. Wrote down BOZO first.
48D: Culture: Pref.: ETHNO
49D: Fast-food carriers: TRAYS. And PIZZA (52D: Lunch slice).
55D: It's a long story: SAGA
57D: Hide: PELT
62D: __ Maria: Liqueur: TIA. Coffee liqueur. Made originally in Jamaica using the Blue Mountain Coffee beans, according to Wikipedia. New to me.
Answer grid.
C.C.
PS: Due to some changes in my life, blog posts will be brief from now on, and I will only respond to questions in the Comments section. Thanks for the understanding.
