Theme: Whee! Fun homonyms. I might have gone with the five (three sir!) little piggies, but that's spelled the same as one of the clues.
17. We: PERSONAL PRONOUN.
23. Wie: GOLFER MICHELLE.
33. Oui: FRENCH YES.
50. Wee: EXTREMELY SMALL.
57. Wii: NINTENDO CONSOLE.
Hi all, another Thursday, and another puzzle with the clues carrying the theme instead of the answers. A good mix, all different spellings and meanings. For a while there, I thought I wasn't going to be able to think of another one to to tie them together.
ACROSS:
1. Bass-baritone Simon: ESTES. A late week, more obscure clue than Colorado Park.
6. Second-century date: CXIX.
10. Welding sparks: ARCS.
14. Hard to stir: STOIC. Stir, as in the emotional sense.
15. Old __, Connecticut: LYME. Historical district, artist's colony, and summer resort. Pop. 7500.
16. Half a fictional detecting pair: NORA. Nick and Nora Charles (with Asta the crossword puzzle terrier).
20. Prov. bordering four Great Lakes: ONTario, Canada.
21. Limoges liver: FOIE. French Foie gras is "fatty" liver.
22. Saltpeter: NITER. Puts the bang in gunpowder and takes it away from something else.
27. Maroon: ENISLE. I had the "LE" at first and was thinking PURPLE? That can't be right.
28. Cycle start: TRI.
29. Common street name: ELM.
30. Amateur golfer's score, perhaps: LIE. If you lie about your lie, you won't lie easy.
31. Lasting impression: SCAR. From Old French escare "scab," from Greek eskhara "scab formed after a burn," lit. "hearth, fireplace,"
32. Confucian path: TAO. Literally "the way", path.
38. First woman to land a triple axel in competition: ITO. Midori.
41. Nyctophobic fictional race: ELOI. Afraid of the dark because the Morlocks lived below and hunted at night.
42. Fed. fiscal agency: OMB. Office of Management and Budget.
45. Cheese partner: MAC. We just call it "glop".
46. Moving aid: VAN. Shortening of caravan.
47. "Obviously": SO I SEE.
53. Win by __: A HAIR. Anyone for a nose or a mile first?
54. Words before many words?: IN SO. Idiom: In so many words.
55. Canadian attorney's deg.: LLB. Bachelor of Laws. The double L is a plural form abbreviation, like pp for pages or bbl for barrels.
61. Seller of FÖRNUFT flatware: IKEA. Swedish uses umlauts, too.
62. Phnom __: PENH. Capitol of Cambodia, today's geography lesson.
63. Corn Belt native: IOWAN.
64. Tracy's Trueheart: TESS. The Dick Tracy comic strip that went 18 years before they finally married on Christmas, in 1949.
65. Chipmunks creator Bagdasarian: ROSS. (Rostom) The real name of David Seville, the original voice of Alvin, Simon and Theodore. Later he employed female vocal artists, recorded at 33, and played back at 45 rpm.
66. Recipe amts.: TBSPS. Equal to half a fluid ounce, one-sixteenth of a cup.
DOWN:
1. Five-time Art Ross Trophy winner, for short: ESPO. Phil Esposito, hockey.
2. Baseball's "Old Perfessor": STENGEL. Casey. "They told me my services were no longer desired because they wanted to put in a youth program as an advance way of keeping the club going. I'll never make the mistake of being seventy again."
3. Ristorante dessert: TORTONI. Ice cream made with heavy cream, minced almonds, chopped maraschino cherries, flavored with rum. How have I never had this?
4. Frozen Wasser: EIS. German: water, ice.
5. Mocks: SCOFFS.
6. Eau __, Wisconsin: CLAIRE. "Clear waters".
7. Water-carrying plant tissue: XYLEM. A picture is worth a thousand words.
8. Sitter's handful: IMP. Old English impe, impa "young shoot, graft," from impian "to graft," sense of "child, offspring" came from transfer of the word from plants to people. "Suche appereth as aungelles, but in very dede they be ymps of serpentes."
9. Thirtysomething, e.g.: X-ER.
10. Hall of fame: ANNIE. My best guess is referring to the Woody Allen movie with Diane Keaton,since fame is in lower-case, so not part of a title.
11. Small plant support: ROOTLET.
12. Fur-loving villain de Vil: CRUELLA.
13. Riviera resort: SAN REMO.
18. Carol: NOEL.
19. Available for service: ON HIRE. Again? This still sounds odd to me. On call, now that I understand all too well..
24. Gladly: LIEF. Etymology gives this as "dear" or "love" as with German lieb.
25. Burning desire: ITCH. Um... not really the kind of burning you want to associate with desire.
26. Supercomputer name: CRAY.
31. Fi front: SCI. Science Fiction.
34. Admire greatly: REVERE. From revereri to stand in awe of, to fear, to be wary of.
35. Ancient rival of Assyria: ELAM. Now part of southwest Iran.
36. Zilch: NONE.
37. Slugger Sammy: SOSA.
38. Mom's tough emphasis: I MEAN IT.
39. It makes one's net smaller: TAX HIKE.
40. Pump ratings: OCTANES.
43. Veges (out): MELLOWS.
44. Last track circuit: BELL LAP.
47. Meshes: SYNCHS.
48. __ buco: OSSO. Italian: bone with a hole, a marrow bone of veal with vegetables and wine.
49. Music to the boss's ears: I'M ON IT.
51. Coolidge and Moreno: RITAS.
52. Ford Field team: LIONS. Football, Detroit.
56. Uncle __: BEN'S. Competitor for Minute Rice.
58. "Fresh Air" airer: NPR. A talk show hosted by Terry Gross for over 30 years.
59. __ gratias: DEO. Latin: Thanks be to God.
60. Sound after a breakup, maybe: SOB. Hmmm, that could be what was done, or what was said...
Al
Note from C.C.:
Here is a beautiful picture of Linda & her husband cutting their 50th wedding anniversary cake last Saturday. She said: "Being a non-traditionalist, I chose lavender, pink and white as my color theme. Those were our wedding colors. The cake topper is the original one. Note the photo at lower left of us cutting the first cake".
Note from C.C.:
Here is a beautiful picture of Linda & her husband cutting their 50th wedding anniversary cake last Saturday. She said: "Being a non-traditionalist, I chose lavender, pink and white as my color theme. Those were our wedding colors. The cake topper is the original one. Note the photo at lower left of us cutting the first cake".
