Theme: B+. B homophones PLUS another word to complete the phrase. For extra B credit, every single clue across and down starts with a B.
17A. Buzz-filled 2007 animated film : BEE MOVIE. A Dreamworks Animation vehicle for Jerry Seinfeld who co-wrote the screenplay and voiced the lead character.
30A. Betty White co-star in "The Golden Girls" : BEA ARTHUR. I wonder what her Shortz Factor is?
43A. Biotin, thiamine et al. : B VITAMINS. There seem to be many more vitamin B's than A, C or D's. Someone cleverer than what I is can explain.
57A. Behave candidly : BE HONEST. OK, I'll give this an A+
Steve at your service, pinch-hitting on this first day of February (where did January go?) Robin "Stears" us into the month with a blazingly brilliant alliteration exercise. I've never seen anything quite like this treatment of the cluing before, has anyone else?
Across:
1. Bank heist : JOB
4. Bedframe piece : SLAT
8. Beyond harmful : LETHAL
14. "... by __ other name ..." : ANY. Juliet's words to Romeo could well be described as a PAEAN
15. Bare bones : PITH. Not the orange peel or helmet pith, but the root of the "pithy phrase"
16. Billiard ball feature, about half the time : STRIPE. In the UK you play billiards with three balls, none of which have a stripe. Here in the US however, you have seven solids, seven stripes and the black 8-ball.
19. Brings together : UNITES
20. Burdensome additional levy : SURTAX. I think I've only ever seen this word used on a "Chance" card in Monopoly, I always seemed to be paying out taxes. A life lesson at an early age?
22. Boldly states : AVERS. No-one on this blog ever avers.
23. Birthplace of Hans Christian Andersen : ODENSE. Here he is in his hometown.
26. Baker's meas. : TSP. I can never remember if it's meant to be a level teaspoonful or a heaped one. I don't bake for that reason.
28. "Behold," to Brutus : ECCE
29. Ball-shaped frozen dessert : BOMBE. Food! Preferably chocolate, please.
32. "Ben-Hur," e.g. : EPIC
33. Bedrock resident : BARNEY Rubble, Fred's BUB
34. "But then again ..." : YET
35. Bug-bitten? : ILL
36. Brown who wrote "The Da Vinci Code" : DAN
37. Billion-year period : EON
40. Brother of Judah : SIMEON. Something I learned today!
42. Bump off : SLAY. Somehow, bumping off seems a nicer way of consigning someone to the hereafter than slaying them.
47. Blinked the sleep from one's eyes : AWOKE
48. Bothersome parasites : LICE. Ewwwww. I refrained from posting a link here, the pictures gave me the shudders.
49. By order of : PER
50. Bigheaded sort : EGOIST. I always thought the word was EGOTIST until I started doing crosswords and discovered they are synonyms.
51. Bing Crosby's "__ You Glad You're You?" : AREN'T
53. Baseball team's list of players : ROSTER Basketball would have worked here too, but most other sports wouldn't have alliterated (if that's a real word?)
55. Balanced state : STASIS
61. Black-tie wear : TUXEDO. I'm oddly proud that my tux still fits, and no, I didn't buy it last week.
62. Bardot's "the same" : EGAL. Brigitte's "equal". The national motto of France is "Liberté, égalité, fraternité" - Liberty, Equality and Brotherhood.
63. Breathtaking snake? : BOA
64. Began, as a lawn : SEEDED. We also have SOD later to cover all our grass-growing bases.
65. Beachfront property? : SAND
66. Buddy : BUB
Down:
1. Boxer's punch : JAB
2. Binary digit : ONE
3. "Bon voyage!" : BYE
4. Better half, so to speak : SPOUSE. I like how this is gender-neutral!
5. Burgundy book : LIVRE. I wanted WINE LIST first, but it's French-language February!
6. Bickering : AT IT. Knock it off, you bloggers back there.
7. Box office setting : THEATER
8. Baton Rouge sch. : L.S.U. We fondly know them from puzzles as the Tigers.
9. Blower of Sicilian smoke : ETNA
10. Buffer between a hot plate and a dinner table : TRIVET
11. Built for NASA, say : HI-TECH. As "built" is past tense, that's accurate. Your cellphone has about a billion times more computing power than the Space Shuttle. (From C.C.: "Built" here is a past particle and used as an adjective, no?)
12. Brief summary : APERCU. More French, but this word is adopted into English now, and usually written without the cute cedilla accent dangling from the C.
13. __ Bear: Ursa Minor : LESSER I wanted LITTLE first, then backtracked.
18. Broadcaster of "Morning Joe" : MSNBC
21. Blackboard symbols in the locker room : X'S AND O'S. Here is the winning play in Sunday's upcoming Superbowl (sorry, I can't remember which coach drew it up for me)
23. Bride's passé promise : OBEY. I over-thought this and had "I DID" first.
24. Birdbrain : DOPE. Me for a few of my first guesses today.
25. Belch, say : EMIT.
27. Blissful song : PAEAN
30. Better for enjoying the outdoors, as weather : BALMIER
31. "Belshazzar's Feast" painter Rembrandt van __ : RYN
33. "Black Sunday" airship : BLIMP. We'll see the blimp at the Superbowl, just hopefully not as closely as in the movie.
35. Biblical prophet: Abbr. : ISA
37. Blond sci-fi race : ELOI. Those "War of the Worlds" folk.
38. Barrel sources : OAKS. For aging your Chardonnay, whiskey or anything else that takes your fancy.
39. Bolshevik's denial : NYET
41. Bundles up (in) : ENROBES. A BOMBE is ENROBED in chocolate. I'm getting hungry.
42. Bound by oath : SWORN
43. Blaring siren sounds : BLASTS
44. Basis of morality : VIRTUE
45. Belaying tool for climbers : ICE AXE. Climber Pete Schoening saved six climbing companions who fell while roped together on K2 in an incredible feat known as simply "The Belay"; he was the seventh and last climber and arrested all of the fallers with a belay around his ice-axe.
46. Became edgy : TENSED
47. Belonging to an ancient time : AGE-OLD
50. "Blood Simple" co-screenwriter Coen : ETHAN. Joel's brother.
52. Bay of Fundy wonder : TIDE. The bay has a tidal range in excess of 50 feet.
54. Big name in video games : SEGA
56. Bald spot filler : SOD
58. Backward flow : EBB. The EBB TIDE in the Bay of Fundy is pretty dramatic!
59. Bronze coin of old France : SOU
60. Bar bill : TAB. I'm out of here, can I get mine please?
Steve
Note from C.C.:
I'm very happy to announce that from now on Steve will blog one (or two) Wednesday puzzle for us every month. Steve is a British and came to the US in 1995. A serious foodie. I look forward to many yummy offerings from him.
