Theme: # TIC TAC TOE (57A: Pencil game that hints at this puzzle's theme, found in the first and last letters of 18-, 25- and 43-Across) - Each familiar phrase is bookended by O and X.
18A: Rival of Staples: OFFICEMAX.
25A: Red Cloud's tribe: OGLALA SIOUX. Chief Jack Red Cloud. As a warrior and a statesman, Red Cloud's success in confrontations with the United States government marked him as one of the most important Lakota SIOUX leaders.
43A: Jane, to Dick, e.g.: OPPOSITE SEX.
Argyle here (a lot more here than yesterday).
How long did you play tic tac toe before discovering how to always win or at least, draw? I'm afraid I didn't get it until I was nine or ten.
It's a little harder than our usual Tuesday and a Pangram, to boot. Four Xs.
Across:
1A: Roaring group: CROWD. Bad start for me; had PRIDE. (lions)
6A: Bridge coup: SLAM. The card game. I'm more familiar with Denny's Grand Slam
10A: Boston NBAer: CELT. (basketball)
14A: Act like a doting grandma, perhaps: HOVER.
15A: Hawaiian port: HILO. (on the Big Island)
16A: Healthy: HALE.
17A: Musical narrated by Che: "EVITA".
20A: '40s-'50s paranoia that led to blacklisting: RED SCARE. Anti-communist fears played up by people like Senator McCarthy resulted in hearings where people were forced to name names and state, under oath, if you or anyone you knew, were communists. To stick to your constitutional right to not do so, got a person blacklisted.
22A: "For Your Eyes Only" singer Easton: SHEENA. The song was from the James Bond movie of the same name.
23A: Island strings: UKE.
24A: Rides roughshod over: STEPS ON.
30A: Board with eerie messages: OUIJA.
31A: Neither's partner: NOR.
32A: Microwaves: ZAPS.
36A: Not guilty, for example: PLEA.
37A: Make one of two?: UNITE.
39A: Came down to earth: ALIT.
40A: Cowpoke's prod: SPUR.
41A: Petunia, e.g.: PIG.
42A: Serpentine: SNAKY.
46A: Fillies and foals: EQUINES. (horses)
50A: __ la la: TRA.
51A: Track athlete: RUNNER.
52A: "The Breakfast Club" actors are part of it: BRAT PACK. Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy
59A: Conservative front?: ULTRA. Front of the word ultraconservative.
60A: Perry's creator: ERLE. ERLE Stanley Gardner created Perry Mason.
61A: "Major" constellation: URSA.
62A: Grand __ National Park: TETON. You latecomers to the blog have missed some epic comments about the Grand Tetons.
63A: Futurist: SEER.
64A: Seamstress's fold: TUCK.
65A: Not approximate: EXACT.
Down
1D: "Believe" singer: CHER. Official Music Video. "Believe" is noted for its use of the Auto-Tune pitch-correction software on the singer's vocals to create a peculiar sound effect, sometimes referred to as the "Cher effect". An interesting read at Wikipedia.
2D: Wander: ROVE. When do we go back to ROAM(which I enter every time).
3D: "Ars amatoria" poet: OVID. A Roman poet who authored Heroides, Amores, and Ars Amatoria, three major collections of erotic poetry.
4D: Antiprohibitionists: WETS. WETS vs. DRYS
5D: Count with a cape: DRACULA. Count Dracula.
6D: Coastlines: SHORES.
7D: Family board game: LIFE. When was the last time you played LIFE, or any board game, for that matter?
8D: TV E.T.: "ALF". A television sitcom that originally ran on NBC from 1986 to 1990 and was created by Paul Fusco. The title character was Gordon Shumway, a friendly extraterrestrial nicknamed ALF (for Alien Life Form) and he was very fond of cats.
9D: Defogging target: MOISTURE.
10D: Nest noise: CHEEP. (alliteration) Not a good sound if it's from starlings in your eaves.
11D: Chair maker Charles: EAMES With his wife, Ray, they were both designers
12D: South American plain: LLANO.
13D: Houston pro since 2002: TEXAN. The Houston Texans is football team currently a member of the Southern Division of the AFC in the NFL. The Texans joined the NFL in 2002 as an expansion team after Houston's previous franchise, the Oilers moved to Nashville and became the Tennessee Titans.
19D: Whole grain cereal brand: CHEX.
21D: Dossier letters: AKA. (also known as)
24D: Flue filth: SOOT.
25D: "How clumsy of me!": "OOPS!".
26D: Big swig: GULP.
27D: Stead: LIEU.
28D: Slightly open: AJAR.
29D: Jones of English architecture: INIGO. This is NOT a Tuesday word.
32D: Author Grey: ZANE. This is a Tuesday word.
33D: Quaint word of regret: "ALAS!".
34D: High-speed highway: PIKE.
35D: Underworld river: STYX.
37D: Pugilist's punch: UPPERCUT. Alliteration, A fighter's fist to the face of his foe.
38D: Puppy bites: NIPS.
42D: Legislative act: STATUTE.
43D: Military service designation: ONE-A.
44D: Windex target: STREAK. Commercial.
45D: Lyricist Gershwin: IRA.
46D: Art works by Romain de Tirtoff: ERTES. Our old friend, "R.T.", with his full name.
47D: Paper measure: QUIRE. A set of 24 uniform sheets of paper.
48D: "I surrender!": "UNCLE!".
49D: Bury: INTER.
52D: Pear choice: BOSC.
53D: Suffix with cine: PLEX. The term was coined by Philip Taylor of Toronto in 1978 and is the registered trademark "Cineplex Odeon Cinemas"
54D: "__ boy!": ATTA.
55D: Gator's kin: CROC.
56D: "Critique of Pure Reason" philosopher: KANT. Immanuel KANT(1724 – 1804) was an 18th-century German philosopher.
58D: Capote, on the stage: "TRU". In 1990, Robert Morse received both a Tony and a Drama Desk Award for his portrayal of Capote in the one-man show, "TRU".
Answer grid.
Argyle
18A: Rival of Staples: OFFICEMAX.
25A: Red Cloud's tribe: OGLALA SIOUX. Chief Jack Red Cloud. As a warrior and a statesman, Red Cloud's success in confrontations with the United States government marked him as one of the most important Lakota SIOUX leaders.
43A: Jane, to Dick, e.g.: OPPOSITE SEX.
Argyle here (a lot more here than yesterday).
How long did you play tic tac toe before discovering how to always win or at least, draw? I'm afraid I didn't get it until I was nine or ten.
It's a little harder than our usual Tuesday and a Pangram, to boot. Four Xs.
Across:
1A: Roaring group: CROWD. Bad start for me; had PRIDE. (lions)
6A: Bridge coup: SLAM. The card game. I'm more familiar with Denny's Grand Slam
10A: Boston NBAer: CELT. (basketball)
14A: Act like a doting grandma, perhaps: HOVER.
15A: Hawaiian port: HILO. (on the Big Island)
16A: Healthy: HALE.
17A: Musical narrated by Che: "EVITA".
20A: '40s-'50s paranoia that led to blacklisting: RED SCARE. Anti-communist fears played up by people like Senator McCarthy resulted in hearings where people were forced to name names and state, under oath, if you or anyone you knew, were communists. To stick to your constitutional right to not do so, got a person blacklisted.
22A: "For Your Eyes Only" singer Easton: SHEENA. The song was from the James Bond movie of the same name.
23A: Island strings: UKE.
24A: Rides roughshod over: STEPS ON.
30A: Board with eerie messages: OUIJA.
31A: Neither's partner: NOR.
32A: Microwaves: ZAPS.
36A: Not guilty, for example: PLEA.
37A: Make one of two?: UNITE.
39A: Came down to earth: ALIT.
40A: Cowpoke's prod: SPUR.
41A: Petunia, e.g.: PIG.
42A: Serpentine: SNAKY.
46A: Fillies and foals: EQUINES. (horses)
50A: __ la la: TRA.
51A: Track athlete: RUNNER.
52A: "The Breakfast Club" actors are part of it: BRAT PACK. Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy
59A: Conservative front?: ULTRA. Front of the word ultraconservative.
60A: Perry's creator: ERLE. ERLE Stanley Gardner created Perry Mason.
61A: "Major" constellation: URSA.
62A: Grand __ National Park: TETON. You latecomers to the blog have missed some epic comments about the Grand Tetons.
63A: Futurist: SEER.
64A: Seamstress's fold: TUCK.
65A: Not approximate: EXACT.
Down
1D: "Believe" singer: CHER. Official Music Video. "Believe" is noted for its use of the Auto-Tune pitch-correction software on the singer's vocals to create a peculiar sound effect, sometimes referred to as the "Cher effect". An interesting read at Wikipedia.
2D: Wander: ROVE. When do we go back to ROAM(which I enter every time).
3D: "Ars amatoria" poet: OVID. A Roman poet who authored Heroides, Amores, and Ars Amatoria, three major collections of erotic poetry.
4D: Antiprohibitionists: WETS. WETS vs. DRYS
5D: Count with a cape: DRACULA. Count Dracula.
6D: Coastlines: SHORES.
7D: Family board game: LIFE. When was the last time you played LIFE, or any board game, for that matter?
8D: TV E.T.: "ALF". A television sitcom that originally ran on NBC from 1986 to 1990 and was created by Paul Fusco. The title character was Gordon Shumway, a friendly extraterrestrial nicknamed ALF (for Alien Life Form) and he was very fond of cats.
9D: Defogging target: MOISTURE.
10D: Nest noise: CHEEP. (alliteration) Not a good sound if it's from starlings in your eaves.
11D: Chair maker Charles: EAMES With his wife, Ray, they were both designers
12D: South American plain: LLANO.
13D: Houston pro since 2002: TEXAN. The Houston Texans is football team currently a member of the Southern Division of the AFC in the NFL. The Texans joined the NFL in 2002 as an expansion team after Houston's previous franchise, the Oilers moved to Nashville and became the Tennessee Titans.
19D: Whole grain cereal brand: CHEX.
21D: Dossier letters: AKA. (also known as)
24D: Flue filth: SOOT.
25D: "How clumsy of me!": "OOPS!".
26D: Big swig: GULP.
27D: Stead: LIEU.
28D: Slightly open: AJAR.
29D: Jones of English architecture: INIGO. This is NOT a Tuesday word.
32D: Author Grey: ZANE. This is a Tuesday word.
33D: Quaint word of regret: "ALAS!".
34D: High-speed highway: PIKE.
35D: Underworld river: STYX.
37D: Pugilist's punch: UPPERCUT. Alliteration, A fighter's fist to the face of his foe.
38D: Puppy bites: NIPS.
42D: Legislative act: STATUTE.
43D: Military service designation: ONE-A.
44D: Windex target: STREAK. Commercial.
45D: Lyricist Gershwin: IRA.
46D: Art works by Romain de Tirtoff: ERTES. Our old friend, "R.T.", with his full name.
47D: Paper measure: QUIRE. A set of 24 uniform sheets of paper.
48D: "I surrender!": "UNCLE!".
49D: Bury: INTER.
52D: Pear choice: BOSC.
53D: Suffix with cine: PLEX. The term was coined by Philip Taylor of Toronto in 1978 and is the registered trademark "Cineplex Odeon Cinemas"
54D: "__ boy!": ATTA.
55D: Gator's kin: CROC.
56D: "Critique of Pure Reason" philosopher: KANT. Immanuel KANT(1724 – 1804) was an 18th-century German philosopher.
58D: Capote, on the stage: "TRU". In 1990, Robert Morse received both a Tony and a Drama Desk Award for his portrayal of Capote in the one-man show, "TRU".
Answer grid.
Argyle
