Theme: Oh, Really? - Five phrases starting with an 'O' homonym.
17A. Evian, in Evian : EAU MINERALE. French mineral water.
23A. Thankfully credit : OWE EVERY THING TO ...
35A. One way to serve beef : AU JUS. French for "with [its own] juice".
50A. Sweet treat with an exclamation point in its name : OH HENRY! CANDY BAR. There is no definitive explanation as to the exact origin of the name.
56A. Classic noel : "O TANNENBAUM". German for "O Christmas Tree", Classic clip.(1:57)
Argyle again. Don "Hard G" doing a solo today. Two grid spanners, a season song; a trifle easy for a Thursday but who's complaining. Well, maybe HeartRx because she missed out blogging it but that's what you get if you go traipsing off to Europe.
Across:
1. Bombed : STANK
6. Hindu title : SWAMI
11. Easy letters? : ABC
14. Board : HOP ON
15. Bar mixer : TONIC
16. Mme., across the Pyrenees : SRA.
19. One who can't pass the bar? : SOT
20. Marked for removal : DELED
21. House coat : PAINT
28. Org. concerned with the No Child Left Behind Act : NEA. This time it is the National Education Association (NEA) and not the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), I think.
29. Ambulance arrival sites, briefly : ERs
30. London taxi : HACKNEY. Boston police department has a Hackney Carriage Unit, analogous to taxicab regulators in other cities, that issues Hackney Carriage medallions to its taxi operators.
31. She played Julia in "Julie & Julia" : MERYL. Streep
33. Bohemian dance : POLKA. Not what I'm familiar with.
34. Novelist Ferber : EDNA
37. SASE enclosure, maybe : RSVP
41. Weaklings : WIMPS
43. Place for a large umbrella : PATIO
44. Mooches : SPONGES
47. She turned pro before her 16th birthday : WIE. Michelle (golfer)
49. Sch. with a Mesa campus : ASU. Arizona State University.
53. One of the deadly sins : PRIDE
54. Pianist Claudio : ARRAU. Short but powerful clip.(1:29)
55. __ Tomé : SÃO. Off the west coast of Africa. Map. In 1908, Sao Tome had become the world's largest producer of cacao which still is the country's most important crop.
62. __ Today : USA
63. Joint-forming bones : ULNAE. Forearm.
64. Surface with legs : TABLE
65. Author : PEN so 4D. __ plume : NOM DE. pen name.
66. Tell off : SCOLD
67. Slammin' Sammy of golf : SNEAD. Snead(1912 - 2002) won a record 82 PGA Tour events including seven majors but failed to win a U.S. Open.
Down:
1. Sailor's pronoun : SHE
2. Ode title words : TO A
3. Kwik-E-Mart guy on "The Simpsons" : APU. Nahasapeemapetilon.
5. 1999 Motorcycle Hall of Fame inductee : KNIEVEL. Evel
6. Takes the wheel : STEERS
7. Prolix : WORDY. Word Origin & History: PROLIX - 1412, from O.Fr. prolixe (14c.), from L. prolixus "extended," lit. "poured out," from pro- "forth" + base of liquere "to flow". Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
8. Santa __ winds : ANA
9. "Cool" amount : MIL. as "a cool million"
10. Chipping tool : ICE PICK
11. Make responsible for, as a case : ASSIGN
12. 19th-century literary family name : BRONTË
13. Stuffed mouse, e.g. : CAT TOY
18. Card or Met : NLer. Baseball.
22. Capital south of the Black Sea : ANKARA. The capital of Turkey.
23. "My treat!" : "ON ME!"
24. Whacker's target : WEED
25. Merit : EARN
26. Grand : THOU. $1,000
27. Dutch Golden Age painter : HALS
32. Showed disinterest, maybe : YAWNED
33. Early a.m. wear : PJs. Might see them being worn anytime at Walmart.
35. AKC part: Abbr. : AMER.
36. Daisy lead-in : UPSY
38. Try : STAB
39. Plastic choice : VISA. I chose MasterCard.
40. Decant : POUR
42. Formed by the solidification of magma : IGNEOUS
43. Bookish types : PEDANTS
44. Absorbs, in a way : SOPS UP
45. More than words : PHRASE
46. Buckeye : OHIOAN
47. Put on alert : WARNED
48. Concerning, in memos : IN RE
51. Erie __ : CANAL
52. John Arbuckle's coffee : YUBAN. Decades ago there was a Yuban coffee ad campaign with the tag line: “as John Arbuckle would say, 'You get what you pay for'. Very interesting man. Info.
57. LPN skill : TLC
58. California's __ Nuevo State Park : AÑO. On the southern San Mateo County coast, Año Nuevo(New Year) is the site of the largest mainland breeding colony of the northern elephant seal. Fifty-five miles south of San Francisco, a low, rocky, windswept point juts out into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish maritime explorer Sebastian Vizcaino sailed by the point on January 3, 1603. His diarist and chaplain of the expedition, Father Antonio de la Ascension, named it Punta de Año Nuevo (New Year's Point) for the day on which they sighted it in 1603.
59. 16th prez : ABE. Honest!
60. Form ending : ULA. (formula)
61. Post-op dose : MED. Short version of medicine and for most of us, it's meds.
Argyle
