Theme: The Truth Is Out There, revealed in 64A. You can find one in the four longest puzzle answers, even if you don't believe: UFO.
17A. Continental alliance's intl. strategy: EU FOREIGN POLICY. Abbr. European Union, and abbr. international.
25A. Treat thicker than the original: DOUBLE STUF OREO. Extreme oreo.
43A. Toyota RAV4 competitor: SUBARU FORESTER. SUVs.
57A. Complaint after a reluctant act: YOU FORCED MY HAND.
Hi all, Al here as usual on a Thursday, with a hidden word theme. Did you spot the Unidentified Flying Objects split between words in all cases? I hope there wasn't any deep probing needed.
Across:
1. Medea's husband: JASON. Sorceress daughter of King Aeetes, who possessed the golden fleece. Unwilling to give it up, he set a series of impossible tasks for Jason to obtain it. Medea fell in love with Jason and assisted him in return for a promise of marriage.
6. Tarboosh : Arabic :: __ : Turkish: FEZ. The 11th Doctor says Fezzes are cool. (spoilers, his significant other doesn't agree.)
9. When bulls crow?: BOOMS. Bulls make money in the stock market when the economy is expanding (buy low, sell high later). Bears are betting that there will be a downturn or recession on the way (sell high futures, buy back low later).
14. Utah County seat: PROVO.
15. Obit number: AGE. Astaxanthin resveratrol
16. Hamilton of "The Terminator": LINDA. In her prime, except for the fourth pic...
20. Prime meridian hrs.: GMT. Greenwich Mean Time.
21. Drops a pop: ERRS. Baseball. Pop-ups should become easy outs.
22. Otolaryngologist's diagnosis: OTITIS. Inflammation of the middle ear.
23. "Richard III" star McKellen: IAN.
24. E or G, e.g.: NOTE. Music, A through G.
32. Bluesy Waters: ETHEL. I so wanted to fill this with Muddy.
33. Resistance units: OHMS. Named for Georg Ohm, a pioneer in electricity theory.
34. "Outstanding!": RAD. Shortening of radical.
36. Looking displeased: POUTY. Glad it wasn't MOUEY.
37. 50-50, say: TIE. In basketball, perhaps. Possible but unlikely in football, very unlikely in other sports.
38. Covered in goo: GUNKY.
40. Allotment word: PER. Per diem means "for each day".
41. Rabbit's title: BRER. Shortening of brother.
42. Actor Davis: OSSIE.
47. Two-time Indy 500 champ Luyendyk: ARIE.
48. Old boat-steering tool: OAR.
49. Yes or no follower: SIRREE.
52. Askew view: BIAS. True clue.
54. Storm of the '90s: GEO. GM's release of an Izusu.
60. Slop: SWILL. Old English swilian, swillan "to wash, gargle," related to the root word of swallow.
61. Canada's smallest prov.: PEI. Prince Edward Island.
62. Moved like goo: OOZED.
63. Country's Tucker: TANYA. A millionaire by the age of 16, married Glen Campbell (45 at the time) when she was 21. When you look up "wild child" in the dictionary, it has her picture by the definition.
65. Draws closer: NEARS.
Down:
1. File format for pics: JPEG. Joint Photographic Experts Group. A compression format that allows pictures to retain their image, yet not take as much storage (if you choose).
2. __ lily: ARUM. Pretty.
3. Player's piano?: SOFT. The full instrument name, pianoforte, literally means soft-loud.
4. Ab __: from the start: OVO. A reference to one of the twin eggs of Leda and Zeus, disguised as a swan, from which Helen was born. Had Leda not lain the egg, Helen would not have been born, so Paris could not have eloped with her, so there would have been no Trojan War.
5. "Seriously!": NO, REALLY!.
6. Not foul: FAIR. More baseball.
7. Clutch contents: EGGS. A clutch is a "nest" in reference to chickens, from clekken "to hatch" perhaps of imitative origin (cluck).
8. Path to enlightenment: ZEN. from the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word Chán, which can be approximately translated as "meditation" or "meditative state".
9. Smashed: BLOTTO. Soaked.
10. Slicker: OILIER.
11. Taking care of business: ON IT.
12. Year when "Hamlet" is believed to have been completed: MDCI.To believe or not to believe, that is the question...
13. Remarks: SAYS.
18. Beach bird: ERNE. The sea eagle.
19. Vanishing sounds: POOFS. Unless you're trapped in an elevator and can't get away. SBDs are only funny to one person.
23. "Doubtful": I BET.
24. Dígito: NUMERO. Spanish digit, number.
25. He played Dillinger in "Public Enemies" (2009): DEPP. Johnny.
26. Great Plains natives: OTOES.
27. Swahili for "freedom": UHURU. Or, the communications officer of the USS Enterprise.
28. "Got that right!": SO TRUE.
29. One taking things wrong?: THIEF. Nice meta-clue. Did you take it wrong?
30. Dadaist Max: ERNST. Certainly not boring.
31. Jack of "The Great Dictator": OAKIE.
35. Batik artist: DYER. This has appeared enough times to not have to search for it, right?
38. Show leniency toward: GO EASY ON.
39. Red letters?: USSR. Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
41. Prickly shrub: BRIER. To go along with Brer Rabbit.
44. Person sometimes 9-Down: BARFLY.
45. Biological ring: AREOLA. Not linking this, even with safe-search on.
46. Gallivant: ROAM. Play the gallant, flirt, gad about.
49. Part of DOS: Abbr.: SYST. Disk Operating System. Why is internal storage a "disk", but a CD-ROM is a "disc"? A disk is magnetic, and a disc is optical (and removable), but that still doesn't explain why...
50. Midwest university with 23 team wrestling championships: IOWA.
51. Bollix up: RUIN.
52. Grievance: BEEF.
53. Peculiar: Pref.: IDIO. Idiosyncratic.
54. Strip under duress?: GAZA. Today' geography lesson.
55. Cabinet dept. since 1977: ENERgy.
56. Numbers on horses: ODDS.
58. PC core: CPU. Central Processing Unit.
59. Soil-moving tool: HOE.
Al
