PTheme: Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall. Each of the 13(!!) starred theme entries relates to the animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
1A. *"Bohemian Rhapsody" group : QUEEN. you're singing it in your head, aren't you?
6A. *Poet Whitman : WALT. i finally bought leaves of grass after hearing part of the poem 'spontaneous me' in the movie 'the notebook.' noah read it to his dad on the porch, remember?
23A. *Painfully shy : BASHFUL
26A. *Tormented by pollen, say : SNEEZY. bless you!
31A. *Cross : GRUMPY. harumph.
40A. *Medico's address : DOC. it looks nice right in the middle like that.
44A. *Like a quiet town : SLEEPY
48A. *He won 26 Oscars, including an Academy Honorary Award (consisting of one full-sized and seven miniature statuettes) for the film depicted in this puzzle's starred answers : DISNEY. when i first read this clue i hadn't figured out the theme yet, and had no idea anyone had won that many oscars (he was nominated for 64). it is a record that has not been broken. no wonder he created the happiest place on earth. here's an interesting disney link.
52A. *Cry of surprise : HEIGH HO. i thought of him.
68A. *Frosted flakes : SNOW. cute clue, sore subject for some of you. i was thinking more along the lines of this.
69A. *Chess side : WHITE
13D. *All smiles : HAPPY
48D. *Not very bright : DOPEY
melissa bee bogging.
WOW! i had so much fun with this puzzle. love, Love, LOVE heavy themage, and this one is absolutely overflowing with it. would not think it was even possible to fit all seven dwarves names, and 6 other related theme entries in a 15 * 15 grid . have not seen this constructor's name before, but now i'll keep an eye out for her ... really really enjoyed this, just brilliant.
a few bonuses, too:
39A. Aladdin's helper : GENIE. also a disney movie.
58A. Like a noted piper : PIED. 1933 disney short
60A. Roads scholar? : TRAMP. well it coulda been clued as 'Lady's beau.'
11D. "__ porridge hot ..." : PEASE. not disney, but a children's nursery rhyme. interesting trivia, according to wikipedia: "The 1959 Billy Wilder film Some Like It Hot derives its title from this rhyme."
and, loosely related:
8. Passed-down stories : LORE.
22. Man with morals : AESOP
i feel like it's my duty to link at least one song ... and what came to mind with this theme was seven days. it even contains the lyric 'the mirror squeaked, away i ran.'
Across
10. Exotic food fish : OPAH
14. Año Nuevo month : ENERO. enero is spanish for january - año nuevo is spanish for new year's eve.
15. Irish Spring variety : ALOE. soap.
16. Wife of Zeus : HERA
17. Sudoku fill-in : DIGIT
18. Fronded plant : FERN. i learned on npr's wait, wait don't tell me that sigmund freud had pteridophobia, a the morbid fear of ferns.
19. Irving hero : GARP
20. Starbucks pickup : COFFEE
27. Torino time period : ORA. italian for hour.
28. Good thinking : REASON
34. Overhauls : REBUILDS
41. Red simile words : A BEET. red as a beet.
42. Parent who minds how her kid acts? : STAGE MOM. cute.
45. Dojo discipline : KARATE. training facility for martial arts.
47. WNBA position : CTR
55. Quarterfinals complement, e.g. : OCTAD
56. Danube capital : VIENNA. austria. the danube is the second longest river in europe, after the volga.
59. Watch : TEND
64. Feminine suffix : ENNE
65. Corleone family head : VITO. the godfather.
66. "We're out of choices" : OTHER. made me giggle.
67. "Son of Frankenstein" role : YGOR
Down
1. Proof abbr. : QED. from wikipedia: an initialism of the Latin phrase quod erat demonstrandum, which means "what was to be demonstrated". The phrase is traditionally placed in its abbreviated form at the end of a mathematical proof orphilosophical argument when what was specified in the enunciation — and in the setting-out — has been exactly restated as the conclusion of the demonstration. The abbreviation thus signals the completion of the proof.
2. Cycle prefix : UNI. unicycle.
3. Hosp. test : EEG
4. "Love Story" novelist Segal : ERICH
5. __ this world: bizarre : NOT OF
6. Hem and haw : WAFFLE
7. On the safer side : ALEE
9. Downing Street number : TEN. number ten downing street, in london. residence of the prime minister.
10. "My goodness" : OH GEE
12. Paella ingrediente : ARROZ. spanish word for rice.
21. Faulkner's "The Sound and the __" : FURY
22. Like some reports : ANNUAL
23. His 3,000th hit was a homer : BOGGS. wade.
24. Stop in Québec? : ARRET. french.
25. Healthful hot spot : SAUNA
26. Cry noisily : SOB
29. Starbucks pickup : AROMA. clecho.
30. NYSE overseer : SEC. securities and exchange commission.
32. "Top Gun" foe : MIG. russian military aircraft.
33. Didn't wait for Christmas : PEEKED. are you a peeker?
35. "May __ of service?" : I BE
36. Hanger-on : LEECH. ew.
37. Pool statistic : DEPTH. the minimum depth of an olympic sized pool is 6' 7".
38. Start to foam? : STYRO. Styrofoam. thought of rabies.
40. Palme __: Cannes film award : DOR. the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival, it goes to the director of the best feature film of the official competition. had no idea.
43. Has the okay : MAY
44. Spotted : SEEN. i spy, with my little eye ...
46. Market index, familiarly : THE DOW. dow jones.
49. Best part of the cake, to some : ICING. you can have mine.
50. Shorthand pro : STENO. stenographer.
51. "Unsafe at Any Speed" author : NADER
53. Attached to a trailer hitch : IN TOW
54. Brooks of C & W : GARTH. thought kix first, not enough letters. why not spell out country and western?
56. Vital thin blue line : VEIN
