Wednesday, Feb 15 2012, Kurt Krauss

theme:

17a. *classic little red wagon : radio flyer. anyone not have one?

30a. *memorable, as a day : red letter. a red-letter day is a day of special significance. would have been a good entry for yesterday, valentine's day.

48a. *one seeding clouds : rain maker. Wikipedia page.

61a. *knee-slapper : rib tickler. har har.

2d. *nuclear plant sight : reactor. device used to initiate and control a sustained nuclear chain reaction.

6d. *suitcase lugger's aid : roller

12d. *rosie's role : riveter. rosie the riveter - cultural icon representing women who worked in factories during world war II.

41d. *broke up late, as a meeting : ran over

46d. *short-antlered animal : roe deer. painting.

50d. *one paying a flat fee? : renter

and the unifier, beautifully placed right in the center:

36a. they're not in the in-crowd ... and read differently, what each starred answer has two of : outsiders, or outside r's

wow! eleven theme answers (including the unifier), all words or phrases that begin and end with the letter r. that can not be easy to do.

across:

1. superfluous thing : frill. i like frills.

6. copy room unit : ream. paper.

10. good-sized building site : acre

14. __, meenie ... : eenie. miney mo, catch a tiger by the toe. also a song by justin bieber - i only knew that because it popped up on google. not a fan. i'll spare you the link.

15. best way to make a mistake : once. measure twice, cut once.

16. like a fly ball that hits the foul pole, ironically : fair. baseball rules.

19. thomas __ edison : alva

20. old at&t rival : mci

21. dockworker's gp. : ila. international longshoreman's association.

22. sign of the ram : aries. zodiac sign. any aries' here?

23. tchotchke stand : etagere. open shelving unit to display small items.

26. o'er and o'er : oft. over and over - often.

28. vw forerunners? : stu. alphabet letters, s - t - u - v - w.

29. fifth canonical hour : nones. the ninth hour after sunrise, about 3 p.m., one of seven specified times for prayer in the roman catholic church.

33. part of dot: abbr. : trans. department of transportation.

34. marvin or majors : lee

35. bern's river : aare. came easily since we just saw this last wednesday.

40. humorist bombeck : erma. i never leaf through a copy of National Geographic without realizing how lucky we are to live in a society where it is traditional to wear clothes.

43. snitch : rat

44. video game pioneer : atari. steve jobs was a technician there for a time.

51. animal toxin : venom

52. berlin conjunction : und. german for and.

53. tarzan raiser : ape. tarzan the ape man. yeah baby.

54. comes out of hiding : emerges

56. wooden peg : dowel

58. yoko from tokyo : ono

59. tokyo, before 1868 : edo

60. currier's partner : ives

65. experiment : test

66. soothing additive : aloe

67. doting aunt, perhaps : cooer

68. art deco master : erte. a russian-born french artist and designer known by the pseudonym erté, the french pronunciation of his initials, r. t.

69. heckle : jeer

70. more than reasonable interest : usury. lending of money with large interest charge.

down:

1. turn to wine, as grape juice : ferment

3. home to purdue : indiana

4. full deck at caesar's palace? : lii. deck of cards, 52.

5. "seinfeld" uncle : leo

7. "shepherd moons" grammy winner : enya

8. unreturnable serve : ace

9. sea, in paris : mer

10. out yonder : afar

11. actress flockhart : calista

13. puzzle solver's smudge : erasure.

18. commonly decorated tree : fir

22. consumed : ate

24. columbus, by birth : genoan

25. "mi casa __ casa" : es su. spanish, my house is your house.

26. scarfed down too much, with "on" : od'ed

27. run for the hills : flee.

31. in-crowd : elite

32. busy employee of a paranoid king : taster

37. snare : trap

38. "oh, for pity's __!" : sake

39. "must-see" review : rave

40. scholarly : erudite

42. 3-down's region : midwest

45. "and still i rise" poet : angelou. maya.

47. "forgive me" : i'm sorry

49. practice opening? : mal. malpractice.

55. pierre, to pierre : moi. french for me.

57. tequila sunrise direction : este

58. bassoon kin : oboe. wind instruments.

61. indian rule from 1858 to 1947 : raj

62. __ de la cité : ile. one of two islands in the seine within the city of paris.

63. hosp. heart ward : ccu. critical care unit.

64. ring victories, briefly : ko's. boxing - knock outs.

Answer grid.

melissa

Note from C.C.:

Happy Birthday to Skip (HondoHurricane on the blog)!