Theme: None
Words: 70
Blocks: 32
Four criss-crossing "theme"-like answers, two spanners, two climbers;
20A. Line before "Et tu, Brute?" : SPEAK HANDS FOR ME - Shakespeare's Julius Caesar
54A. Ethical concern for a bar association : AMBULANCE CHASER - I shoulda known this
3D. Symbol of phoniness : THREE-DOLLAR BILL
11D. Dearborn attraction : HENRY FORD MUSEUM - this one I nailed
Wow, this one kicked my butt - too many obscure references in the NW for me to complete it without red-letter help
ACROSS:
1. Candy vehicle : SCTV - Canadian skit show, at least I guess - I have no clue on the "Candy" part....{ it just came to me, about 2 hours later - John Candy }
5. Imported wheels : SAAB - I once owned an '83 900
9. Gone crackers? : HIHOS - crackers, no longer available; Sunshine, then Keebler, then Kellog's were the companies
14. Education acronym : ELHI - ugh, I don't think of this as an acronym; it's abbreviation for EL-ementary thru HI-gh school....
15. Brad's role in "Inglourious Basterds" : ALDO - great movie; this guy's performance outdid Brad's
16. Certain Yemeni : ADENI - again, ugh, really? Am I a "Long Island-i" ?
17. Brings out : AIRS
18. Side of beef part : SLAB
19. Like some raincoats : LINED
23. Tailless mammal : APE - had "MAN" first
24. Self-titled 1988 R&B album : LATOYA - one of the Jacksons
25. Initial response to a yenta? : MYOB - Mind Your Own Business - Yenta is yiddish, originally a woman's name, comes to mean a "busy-body" or gossip
26. Skyscraper feature : LEDGE - UGH~! There are ledges here in my one-story house....
28. Part of psi?: Abbr. : LBS - now this was a good one - psi, for Pounds per Square Inch, like tire pressure, and the imperial abbreviation for pounds - lb., from the Roman libra, a weight measure.
30. Dom alternative : FRA - not really sure; I think this is airport codes, but it could be types of champagne for all I know....
31. Metaphors, e.g. : TROPES - never heard this; from Greek tropos "to turn"
33. Ice cream parlor order : MALT - hey, I got one ~!
34. "... lay the sod __ me": "Streets of Laredo" lyric : O'ER - poetic contraction, over
35. Celebrity mentioned in Warren Zevon's 1978 hit "Werewolves of London" : LON CHANEY, JR. - super fun song 2:38
38. World Chess Champion after Botvinnik : TAL - sure, OK
40. Valley in the first book of Samuel : ELAH - um, OK, here's a map?
41. Heavy hitter : SLEDGE - I typo'ed Stylish as styhish, so it took a moment for this to appear.
44. Santa __ : ANA - California
45. Some signatures : XES - makes me think of the Blues Brothers, right Melissa Bee?
46. Blend : IMMIX - yup, it's a "word", from Latin
47. "Beetle Bailey" cartoonist Walker : MORT
49. Members of an Afrocentric movement : RASTAS -short for Rastafarian
53. Exhaust : USE
57. Daughter of Muhammad : LAILA - the boxer, Ali - she boxes, too.
58. Court ritual : OATH
59. Green : GELT - a long way to go, from Yiddish for money to dollar bill color
60. Coty Award winner Perry : ELLIS - designer
61. Fonda's beekeeper : ULEE - from the movie, Ulee's Gold - popular crossword answer
62. Golden __ : RULE
63. Willowy woman : SYLPH
64. Polanski film based on a Hardy novel : TESS
65. Wrote, as an AOL buddy : IM'ed - Instant Message
Down:
1. Epicure's condiment : SEASALT - an epicure is a connoisseur, did not know
2. Fast ship : CLIPPER - I went down my list of ships, and forgot this one
4. Traveler's need : VISA
5. White House girl : SASHA - Obama
6. __ once : ALL AT - "all at once, it came to me that I was NOT going to finish"
7. Hersey setting : ADANO - "A Bell for Adano", by John Hershey. Total stumper - was thinking Pennsylvania for the park
8. Winner of a 2008 Pulitzer Prize Special Citation for his "profound impact on popular music and American culture" : BOB DYLAN - not a fan
9. Game division : HALF - really only soccer; all others are quarters, periods and innings
10. Way of putting things : IDIOM - I wanted a Monty Python link; this is, um, the scene, at 1:19
12. Encore, basically : ONE MORE ~!!!
13. News supplement : SIDEBAR - this is more legalese than news related, for me
21. Box for a cold : KLEENEX - had tissues to start, funny how a lot of words and phrases have same letter-number commonality
22. Luxury furs : SABLES
27. Mail hub: Abbr. : GPO - General Post Office, more British
29. In : STYLISH
32. White of the eye : SCLERA
33. __-jongg : MAH - a game
36. Isn't trapped : HAS AN OUT - always leave yourself an "out" when driving - I have avoided many a cell-phone driver this way....
37. "To Kill a Mockingbird" brother : JEM
38. Cantina servings : TAMALES - not the Cantina I was thinking of....
39. Unusual occurrence : ANOMALY - like in Star Trek, or the X-files, an "anomaly" was usually the seed for the episode.
42. Princess in Disney's "Enchanted" : GISELLE - image
43. Applied : EXERTED - as force
48. __ mania, 17th-century Dutch phenomenon : TULIP
50. Model aspect : SCALE -had ratio to start
51. Sorbonne heads? : TETES - French for head, Sorbonne, France
52. Inflammation symptoms : ACHES
55. Tie securely : LASH - had bind to start
56. Business intro? : AGRI - frequently appears in crosswords. Agribusiness.
OK, I am ready for a Monday/Tuesday now ~!
Splynter
