Theme: An unhealthy obsession: 45D. Feeling of resentment associated with the last words of the starred answers: GRUDGE. Better to forgive and remember.
17A. *Yellowstone Park beast: GRIZZLY BEAR. To bear a grudge, as in carrying it as a burden.
28A. *Fort McHenry defended it in 1814: BALTIMORE HARBOR. Harbor from "herebeorg", a place of protection for an army or horde, (later ships). To shelter within and defend.
43A. *Medical professional: REGISTERED NURSE. To nurse is to nurture and make stronger. It comes from the sense to suckle an infant to make it grow.
55A. *Feature of many customer service calls: MUSIC ON HOLD. To hold a grudge is to tend it and keep it as property.
Hi all, Al here.
Interesting partnership today. When I read Doug's note (see the end of the write-up for how this happened), for some reason this tribute/collaboration came to mind.
ACROSS:
1. Checkbook no.: ACCT. Number is abbreviated "no." from Latin "numero", a form of numerus.
5. Mason of "The Goodbye Girl": MARSHA. Also a vampire in the "Dark Shadows" soap.
11. Cinephile's cable channel: AMC. American Movie Classics.
14. Par: NORM.
15. Delta competitor: UNITED.
16. "Turn on the heat!": BRR.
19. The Mustangs of the NCAA's Conference USA: SMU. Southern Methodist University. Good thing they didn't add "of Technology" to the title.
20. Work like a dog: MOIL. To labor in the muck and mire.
21. Flooring material: PLYWOOD. Ah, ok, the underlayment, not the finishing material.
23. The Grammys, e.g.: EVENT.
25. Egyptian Christian: COPT.
27. Prado hangings: ARTE. Museo del Prado in Spain.
31. Norwegian noble name: OLAV. Also spelled with an "f" instead of "v". Wait for perps.
32. "__ Yankee Doodle ...": I'M A. From the musical "Little Johnny Jones" written by George Cohan. Made into a movie: "Yankee Doodle Dandy" starring James Cagney. I don't think there were any dirty rats in it.
33. Swelter: FRY. Swelter originally meant to burn slowly, thus overcome with heat or fever.
34. 50-Across's st.: NEB.raska to go along with 50A. Home of Creighton University: OMAHA.
35. A director may ask for more of it: EMOTION.
37. Justice Dept. agency: FBI.
40. Curly smacker: MOE. Two of the three stooges, always slapping each other. My favorite clue today. This reminded me the most of Dan.
41. Lacto-__ vegetarian: OVO. One who will eat dairy and eggs, but not meat. Compare to pescetarian (will eat fish but not red meat), and vegan, no animal products at all.
42. Provoke: GOAD. From Old English "gad", spearhead or arrowhead.
48. Puts on the tube: AIRS.
49. Tampa Bay squad: RAYS. Until 2007, they were the Devil Rays, which are perfectly legitimate sea creatures. Then the PC police won again.
51. Seasonal pharmacy offering: FLU SHOT. Perhaps people might try vitamin D3 and probiotics so that your resistance will increase instead. People living in northern latitudes do not get enough sunshine for sufficient D3 production.
53. Red ink: LOSS. OK, maybe this only appeals to my sense of humor, but on the Wiki page for "in the red", the link color for "net loss" appears in red. (Meaning they lost the article it used to point to..)
54. Served dinner: FED. Wanted ATE, even though it seemed ungrammatical.
60. Race segment: LEG. Wanted LAP instead. These two in this area slowed my solving time down a bit.
61. Spoke out: OPINED.
62. Fit to be drafted: ONE-A. Again, a wait for at least one perp because a-one is sometimes clued instead.
63. GPS heading: ENE.
64. Martial arts instructor: SENSEI. A Japanese address for a person above your status, such as a teacher, lawyer, doctor, editor, etc. In Tae Kwon Do, the term for instructor is Sa Bum Nim.
65. "My word!": EGAD. Euphemism for "Oh, God".
DOWN:
1. "Hulk" director Lee: ANG. I wasn't all that fond of his Hulk, but I suppose it would be too cliche to use Crouching Tiger instead.
2. __ anglais: English horn: COR. A french term, it is neither English, nor a horn, more similar to an oboe and half again as long. It got the name from the German word engellisches horn, which meant angelic horn, as it resembled the depicted instruments in statues of angels, but engellisch also was vernacular for English, and the name stuck.
3. Forensic test site: CRIME LAB. I guess that's where they (pause, puts on sunglasses) "flesh out" the evidence... Yaaaaaaaaaa!
4. Celebrity gossip show: TMZ ON TV. A television show that came from a website. TMZ refers to the Thirty Mile Zone, the studio zone of downtown Hollywood.
5. Ponder: MULL. To grind or powderize (thoughts), related to mill, perhaps. Also to sweeten, spice and heat a drink, as mulled wine.
6. Unspecified amount: ANY.
7. Messy barbecue morsel: RIB.
8. Grassy plain: STEPPE.
9. Nutritionist's recommendation: HEALTH FOOD. Here's a clue: if it actually has a label on it claiming to be health food, it probably isn't. Stick with whole unprocessed foods.
10. Hit __ spell: A DRY.
11. Engross: ABSORB. From Latin "absorbere", to swallow up.
12. Sleuth played by Peter Lorre: MR MOTO. You might also see this as Marquand's (John P.) sleuth.
13. Less refined: CRUDER. Latin "crudus", rough, not cooked, raw, bloody.
18. Pasta often baked: ZITI. Like elbow noodles, only straight.
22. On one's guard: WARY.
23. Black, in stanzas: EBON.
24. Low area: VALE.
25. "We get letters" '50s-'60s TV singer/host: COMO. His second RCA LP release, of songs requested via viewer mail on his show, recorded just about the time I was born.
26. Rhetorical skill: ORATORY. Public speaking.
29. Group that goes through the motions?: MIME TROUPE. Apparently there are actually mime troupes, but more in the sense of mimicry, as in satiric presentation of public figures and "official" stories, not pantomime as the clue suggests.
30. "Prince Valiant" character: ARN. A comic strip running since 1937, there were two characters with that name: Prince Arn of Orn, who gave Val the singing sword, and Arn, Val's son, who was named for the former.
35. Dawn goddess: EOS. A greek Titan, sister to Helios, the sun, and Selene, the moon. In Roman mythology they were Aurora, Sol, and Luna.
36. Currier's colleague: IVES. "Publishers of Cheap and Popular Prints", lithographs.
37. Inexpensively: FOR A SONG. More aptly, for the performance of a song.
38. Spirited party: BASH. From striking violently, to a violent drunken spree, to a wild party.
39. "What's the big __?": IDEA.
40. Pageant title: MISS. I didn't want to put that in at first, it seemed too easy.
42. Sam Spade, e.g., slangily: GUMSHOE. Literally from the gum rubber shoes they wore to sneak around.
43. School fund-raiser: RAFFLE.
44. Astronaut Collins: EILEEN. First woman to command the space shuttle.
46. Dirties the dishes: EATS IN.
47. Cinematic showdown hour: NOON. Latin "nona hora" the ninth hour of daylight, or canonical hour of nones was really 3 PM at first. The meaning shift from "3 p.m." to "12 p.m." began during 12c., when the time of Church prayers shifted from ninth hour to sixth hour, or perhaps because the customary time of the midday meal shifted, or both.
52. Wellness gps.: HMOS. Health Maintenance Organization. St. Peter told one of the directors who was present before him: "Well, you may enter the kingdom of Heaven, but you can only stay for three days."
53. City near Sacramento: LODI. CCR.
56. Aetna's bus.: INS. Business, insurance abbrevs.
57. So-so grade: CEE.
58. Rural expanse: LEA. No doubt wordplay on the similarity to the "Great expanse" sea clue we see so often.
59. Pops: DAD.
A note from Doug:
"The puzzle uses a theme that Dan sent to Rich for approval. Rich liked it, but unfortunately Dan didn't get a chance to make the puzzle. So a few months ago, Rich asked me if I'd like to try to construct a puzzle around this theme. What an honor! I met Dan a couple of times, and he was passionate and opinionated about his puzzles. I hope I got a little of his spirit into this one. I'm especially happy with the long downs, and I think this grid represents a nice mixture of our styles."
Al
PS: Rich said there are enough Dan Naddors in his pipeline to last us til April.
Al
PS: Rich said there are enough Dan Naddors in his pipeline to last us til April.
