Theme: MAD GAMES. Each answer consists of two magazine names which are given a crazy clue that forms a play on words. It is revealed in 57A: Place to find both parts of 20-, 36- and 43-Across: MAGAZINE RACK.
20A. Lawyer after too much coffee?: WIRED ESQUIRE.
36A. A day at the spa?: GLAMOUR TIME.
43A. George, Abe et al.?: MONEY PEOPLE. Dead presidents. It's all about the Benjamins, who, of course, wasn't a president, but I'll still collect his pictures.
Happy Thursday everyone, Al here. A very scrabbly puzzle today, six X's and two Z's, and a pangram to boot.
ACROSS:.
1. Given by: FROM.
5. Milton or Shelley: ODIST. John Milton (Christ's Nativity), and Percy Bysshe Shelly "Hail to thee blithe spirit" (Ode to a Skylark).
10. 2004 Best Actor: FOXX. Jamie Foxx as "Ray" (Charles).
14. __ lamp: LAVA. Use only as directed and don't heat these on a stove. The Mythbusters showed that even if the exploding glass shards aren't fast enough to kill, anyone nearby would be severely burned.
15. Rocker's place: PORCH. Anyone fooled into entering ARENA?
16. Top: APEX. Or ACME, fill in the "A" and wait for at least one perp.
17. Had too much: OD'ED.
18. Comforting words: I CARE. CBS cares, too.
19. Midas competitor: CAR-X. "Don't worry, call the Car-X man".
23. Military response: NO SIR.
24. Came with: BROUGHT.
28. Bowie's scientist role in "The Prestige": TESLA. A magician's grief for his wife and obsession over his ex-partner's impossible trick turns into a deadly rivalry. I liked it, but the ending was a bit disturbing. Oh, and I wouldn't have even noticed that David Bowie played Tesla if I hadn't paid attention to the credits. It wasn't really a small part, either.
32. "I'm just __ boy, I need no sympathy": "Bohemian Rhapsody": A POOR. Ah, Freddie, we miss ye.
33. Bank worker that never takes time off: ATM. Fresh clues can sometimes make up for the occasional bit of trite fill.
39. Snub, say: SHUN.
41. First U.S. multimillionaire: ASTOR. John Jacob, fur, real estate and opium.
42. Draft status: ONE-A.
46. Prime meridian std.: GST. Greenwich Standard Time is not usually used, GMT, Zulu, or UTC, all names for the same thing are more common.
47. Pianist Claudio: ARRAU. We've had him before.
48. Ruby's spouse: OSSIE. Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee.
50. Welcome site: DOORMAT. Ours reads: There's no place like 127.0.0.1 (geek joke about the Internet Protocol Address that all computers keep for themselves internally)
53. Onetime "SCTV" head writer Harold: RAMIS. That other ghostbuster. You know...the tall one.
61. Gertz of "Still Standing": JAMI. Unknown to me, but apparently appeared in quite a few TV series.
64. Truth held to be self-evident: AXIOM.
65. Roquefort hue: BLEU. Sheep's milk cheese. To each their own, I suppose, but it's not for me.
66. Israeli arms: UZIS. No one was fooled by this arms/weapons misdirection, right?
67. Tubes on the table: PENNE. Pasta.
68. Gas or elec.: UTIL.ity. Abbr. clue/answer
69. Olympic VIPs: GODS. I was expecting a plureal abbreviation for the International Olympic Committee, IOCS.
70. Newark's county: ESSEX. New Jersey
71. Chilly and wet: DANK.
DOWN:.
1. Left the coop: FLOWN.
2. Ham's medium: RADIO. Amateur radio operators, in the sense of amateur actors, or "hams".
3. Printing extras: OVERS. It is a standard in the printing industry to allow for overs and unders. If the printer runs a quantity below a certain percentage (the standard is generally 10%) the manufacturer/printer is obligated to print more to meet the minimum, at their expense. But if the manufacturer prints hundreds of additional packages more than what you ordered they can only charge for a maximum of 10% over the original order.
4. Is living the dream: MADE IT. If only...
5. 60s TV munchkin: OPIE. Little Ronny Howard. The word was coined by L. Frank Baum in "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz." He never explained how he came up with it.
6. MS Word output: DOCS.
7. OPEC founding member: IRAQ. Fill in IRA and wait for the perp.
8. Cancel, slangily: SCRUB. As in a military mission.
9. "... over __ flock by night": Luke: THEIR. Shortly afterwards, according to King James, those watching shepherds were terrified by an angel's appearance.
10. Deal with: FACE UP TO.
11. __-Locka, Florida: OPA. OK, now you're just making stuff up. Four square miles and a population of 15K. Sounds kind of dense, actually.
12. MTV Generation member: X-ER. The generation after the boomers.
13. Old designation for strong beer: XXX. Traditional brewers mark for barrels of "extra strong" beer - extended to other alcoholic beverages and other products having an "extra strong" dimension (varying from washing soap to pornography) and probably also to poison as a (possibly humorous at first) comment about the alcohol designation.
21. Bit of sediment: DREG. From Old Norse "dregg" for sediment.
22. Big engine sound: ROAR. The (Mustang) National Anthem.
25. __ concern: GOING. A viable business.
26. Geographical mnemonic: HOMES. Huron Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior, The Great Lakes.
27. Spring for, with "to": TREAT.
29. Reaction to an offensive line, perhaps: SLAP. "Can I buy you a drink, or do you just want the money?" On the other hand, in football, there used to be a lot of those little sneaky "fanny pats" caught on camera after the play was over. That was kind of taking the offensive...
30. Zap: LASE. A verb back formation from the acronym "LASER" (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation), which became a noun for the device. So, if the device is called a laser, then it must be something that lases, right?
31. Recess riposte: AM TOO. A quick thrust after parrying a lunge. Oh, the sharpness of wit it must have taken...
33. Equally irate: AS MAD.
34. Complete, briefly: THORO. Noah Webster tinkering with English simplification again. Thorough. Ugh.
35. Saki's real name: MUNRO.
37. "My bad": OOPS.
38D. Addresses with dots: URLS. Internet addresses: Universal Resource Locators such as blogger.com
40. "Phew!" evoker: NEAR MISS. See 37D.
44. Sunniest place on Earth, per Guinness: YUMA. Arizona desert.
45. Cork's location: EIRE. A county in Ireland, not a bottle stopper.
49. iPod accessory: EARBUD. Didn't your mom ever tell you never to put anything smaller than your elbow in your ear?
51. Like losers' faces after a buzzer-beating shot: AGAPE.
52. April concern: TAXES.
54. Island nation near Sicily: MALTA.
55. Trap at the chalet: ICE IN. Verb form, to trap.
56. Move furtively: SKULK. Norwegian "skulke", to shirk, malinger, avoid notice.
58. Some reds, briefly: ZINS. Zinfandel wines.
59. Actress Skye: IONE.
60. Roswell's st.: N. MEX. State, New Mexico. Even the McDonald's there is saucer-shaped.
61. Makeshift band instrument: JUG.
62. Nitrogen-based dye: AZO.
Answer Grid.
Al
63. Day's beginning?: MID. If I ever get to retire, midday will be all my days' beginnings, at least for the first few months.
Answer Grid.
Al
