Theme: Hop to It - Our little unifier hops across the bottom of the grid, as indicated by the circles. Check the answer grid for the proper placement of the circles if your version is missing them or are incorrect (Cruciverb puz file contained an error, the three circles should be moved one column right to 60D). Because the unifier is in the vertical columns, I will list them left to right instead of top to bottom.
51D. Sing like Bing : CROON
30D. 2007 Iraq War strategy : TROOP SURGE
6D. In whatever way possible : BY HOOK OR BY CROOK
34D. Little one hopping across today's puzzle : ROO. Winnie-the-Pooh's little buddy.
9D. Stereotypical deal-making site : SMOKE-FILLED ROOM
10D. Was angry to the max : HIT THE ROOF
60D. Cheer : ROOT
Argyle here. Lemonade714 must have some pull. He asked Friday, "Isn't it time we had a Jeff Chen puzzle?" and here we are. You might call this a visual theme. If you had the circles, it was easy to pop in ROO in the appropriate places, perhaps a little too easy. It might have been more satisfying to find them on your own. ?
Across:
1. Schmooze, as with the rich and famous : HOBNOB
7. Baseball's Cobb et al. : TYs
10. Fabled loser : HARE
14. Hooters' hangout : OWLERY. The Owlery is a room on the top of Hogwarts Castle's West Tower, where the school owls and the owls belonging to students live during the school year. Of course!
15. __ Kippur : YOM
16. Quite angry : IRED
17. Money to burn : WEALTH
18. Pi follower : RHO
19. Musical quality : TONE
20. Canonized pope known as "The Great" : ST. LEO. He was an Italian aristocrat, and is the first pope of the Catholic Church to have been called "the Great". He is perhaps best known for having met Attila the Hun in 452, persuading him to turn back from his invasion of Italy. Reason enough to make him a saint, eh?
21. Spoken thumbs-up : A-OK
22. Feds concerned with counterfeits : T-MEN
23. Top-level URL ender : .GOV
25. Donkey's bray : HEE-HAW
27. "Oopsy!" evoker : MISTAKE
31. "How silly __!" : OF ME
32. State emphatically : AVER
33. Legendary Bruin : ORR. Played his first ten seasons with the Boston Bruins.
35. Words with a sigh : "I TRIED"
39. __ Bell : TACO
40. Phantom's rival, in "The Phantom of the Opera" : RAOUL
42. Nobel Institute city : OSLO
43. Lay to rest : ENTOMB
45. NBA's Magic, on scoreboards : ORL. The Orlando Magic play in the Amway Arena.
46. Actress Lena : OLIN. Swedish-born Lena Olin already had a successful career as an actress before she came to Hollywood.
47. Settles the bill : PAYS
49. Fixed charges : SET FEES
51. Washington-based warehouse club : COSTCO
53. Hubbub : ADO
54. Pakistani language : URDU
55. Barbecue morsel : RIB. 13Down. Site of a 55-Across removal : EDEN
57. Less polite : RUDER
61. Dark film genre : NOIR. French black; noting the black numbers in roulette.
62. Nickel source : ORE
63. Cat also known as the dwarf leopard : OCELOT. Image.
65. Quarterback Flutie : DOUG. Played in both the NFL and the CFL.
66. "__ the land of the free ..." : O'ER
67. "Check that out!" : "OH, LOOK!"
68. Bar buyer's words : ON ME
69. Bar barrel : KEG
70. Treating maliciously : MEAN TO
Down:
1. In what way : HOW
2. Hasn't settled yet : OWES
3. Beginning trumpeter's sound : BLAT
4. "Gimme a Break!" star Carter : NELL. TV sitcom ran '81 to '86 on NBC.
5. Sandinista Daniel : ORTEGA
7. Banks with an Emmy : TYRA She has had so many different looks, I'll just lick the Google search page.
8. "__ and a bottle of rum!" : "YO-HO-HO!"
11. Odor : AROMA
12. Buy more Time, say : RENEW. The magazine.
24. Aloe __ : VERA
26. 911 respondent : EMT. Emergency Medical Technician.
27. Play or room follower : MATE
28. Nobelist Pavlov : IVAN. The Russian physiologist who went to the dogs.
29. Breakaway group : SECT
36. Ginger and Mary Ann's home away from home : ISLE. TV's Gilligan's Isle. The show was Gilligan's Island but the theme song called it Gilligan's Isle.
37. Nobelist Wiesel : ELIE
38. Crime bosses : DONs
41. Major in astronomy? : URSA
44. Yoga student's roll : MAT
48. Nighttime bash : SOIREE
50. Acknowledgment of a witty rejoinder : TOUCHÉ Derived from the sport of Fencing.
52. Hatred : ODIUM. You may be more familiar with the adjective form, ODIOUS.
54. Annul : UNDO
56. North Atlantic hazard : BERG
58. Oscar __ Renta : DE LA
59. North Carolina university : ELON
64. WBA decision : TKO. World Boxing Association/Technical Knockout.
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