Theme: Barefoot on the beach, or no flip "flops". No flops at all with the theme entries today! All four answers are perfectly grand definitions for "flip".
2A. Flip : BECOME EXCITED. You can flip out when you finish today's offering from Kevin and realize that it's also a pangram.
28A. Flip : COMEDIAN WILSON. Star of the Emmy award-winning "The Flip Wilson Show" which aired on NBC.
45A. Flip : DIVING MANEUVER. Try not to over-do your back-flip and turn it into a belly-flop.
54A. Flip : RESELL QUICKLY. Probably not a great idea to try flipping your house in the current market, at least not here in California.
Happy Friday, everyone. Steve here standing in for Lemonade and trying not to commit any gender-confusion sins in today's write-up. I found this nice and tricky; I needed a lot of crosses to make headway on the theme entries as well as on a few of the others. Some nice learning moments too. I enjoyed the "Jeopardy-style" cluing for the theme entries, I'm sure there's a correct crossword term for that, but I'll have to defer to the experts on that one.
Let's take a look at everything else:
Across:
1. Spiced tea : CHAI. The Indian spice cardamom flavors this drink, which is widely available in Starbucks. Starbucks, however, is not widely available in India - remarkably the country does not (yet) have a single outlet.
5. Nerdy guy in "Meatballs" : SPAZ. Jack Blum's character in the 1979 movie.
9. Center of Florida? : EPCOT. Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow at Walt Disney World in Orlando.
14. Deep-tissue massage pioneer Ida : ROLF. I needed the crosses to discover this lady.
15. Half up front? : HEMI. Chrysler Motors trademarked the "Hemi" name, although other auto manufacturers also produce engines of a similar design. "SEMI" was my first thought here, until I found myself scratching my head at "SSIELDS"
16. Big wheel from Holland? : GOUDA. Food! The "other" Dutch cheese. I especially like the smoked variety.
17. City in 22-Down : AMES
18. Coast-to-coast hwy. : I-TEN. Just across the Hollywood Hills from me, this Interstate stretches from Santa Monica, CA to Jacksonville, FL
19. Barn nestling : OWLET
23. Write (down) : SET
24. Camera with interchangeable parts : SLR. You can swap out the lens on a Single-Lens Reflex camera.
25. "... if not cheaper" : OR LESS
32. Eats more of than is wise, with "on" : OD's. I'm completely unsure of how to punctuate a pluralized abbreviation - any suggestions?
33. Cut the crop : REAP. What a great clue!
34. Lettre recipient, perhaps : AMI. Your French friend will be happy to receive your missive.
35. Florida county renamed to include its largest city : DADE. Now Miami-Dade.
38. Travel, in a way : JET. Not necessarily my preferred mode of transport, but certainly my most frequent. Southwest Airlines to Oakland this morning.
39. Rapper-turned-actor : ICE-T
40. Egg opening? : OVI. Quick - give me an egg-opening word that isn't OVIDUCT.
41. Zen master's riddle : KOAN
43. Tobacco co. based in Winston-Salem : RJR. R.J.Reynolds. I recently stopped contributing to their revenues when I quit smoking, and not before time.
50. Chemical relative : ISOMER. Could one of our resident chemistry experts tell us the difference between an ISOMER and an ISOTOPE?
51. Pay stub abbr. : Y.T.D. DED was my first try here, my year-to-date deductions are depressing.
52. French article : DES
58. Ltr. accompaniers : ENCLS. You could enclose a SASE in your letter to your French friend "pour encouragez les auteurs" perhaps?
60. __ Honor : YOUR
61. Frost : HOAR. The beautiful formation of ice crystals like these:
2A. Flip : BECOME EXCITED. You can flip out when you finish today's offering from Kevin and realize that it's also a pangram.
28A. Flip : COMEDIAN WILSON. Star of the Emmy award-winning "The Flip Wilson Show" which aired on NBC.
45A. Flip : DIVING MANEUVER. Try not to over-do your back-flip and turn it into a belly-flop.
54A. Flip : RESELL QUICKLY. Probably not a great idea to try flipping your house in the current market, at least not here in California.
Happy Friday, everyone. Steve here standing in for Lemonade and trying not to commit any gender-confusion sins in today's write-up. I found this nice and tricky; I needed a lot of crosses to make headway on the theme entries as well as on a few of the others. Some nice learning moments too. I enjoyed the "Jeopardy-style" cluing for the theme entries, I'm sure there's a correct crossword term for that, but I'll have to defer to the experts on that one.
Let's take a look at everything else:
Across:
1. Spiced tea : CHAI. The Indian spice cardamom flavors this drink, which is widely available in Starbucks. Starbucks, however, is not widely available in India - remarkably the country does not (yet) have a single outlet.
5. Nerdy guy in "Meatballs" : SPAZ. Jack Blum's character in the 1979 movie.
9. Center of Florida? : EPCOT. Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow at Walt Disney World in Orlando.
14. Deep-tissue massage pioneer Ida : ROLF. I needed the crosses to discover this lady.
15. Half up front? : HEMI. Chrysler Motors trademarked the "Hemi" name, although other auto manufacturers also produce engines of a similar design. "SEMI" was my first thought here, until I found myself scratching my head at "SSIELDS"
16. Big wheel from Holland? : GOUDA. Food! The "other" Dutch cheese. I especially like the smoked variety.
17. City in 22-Down : AMES
18. Coast-to-coast hwy. : I-TEN. Just across the Hollywood Hills from me, this Interstate stretches from Santa Monica, CA to Jacksonville, FL
19. Barn nestling : OWLET
23. Write (down) : SET
24. Camera with interchangeable parts : SLR. You can swap out the lens on a Single-Lens Reflex camera.
25. "... if not cheaper" : OR LESS
32. Eats more of than is wise, with "on" : OD's. I'm completely unsure of how to punctuate a pluralized abbreviation - any suggestions?
33. Cut the crop : REAP. What a great clue!
34. Lettre recipient, perhaps : AMI. Your French friend will be happy to receive your missive.
35. Florida county renamed to include its largest city : DADE. Now Miami-Dade.
38. Travel, in a way : JET. Not necessarily my preferred mode of transport, but certainly my most frequent. Southwest Airlines to Oakland this morning.
39. Rapper-turned-actor : ICE-T
40. Egg opening? : OVI. Quick - give me an egg-opening word that isn't OVIDUCT.
41. Zen master's riddle : KOAN
43. Tobacco co. based in Winston-Salem : RJR. R.J.Reynolds. I recently stopped contributing to their revenues when I quit smoking, and not before time.
50. Chemical relative : ISOMER. Could one of our resident chemistry experts tell us the difference between an ISOMER and an ISOTOPE?
51. Pay stub abbr. : Y.T.D. DED was my first try here, my year-to-date deductions are depressing.
52. French article : DES
58. Ltr. accompaniers : ENCLS. You could enclose a SASE in your letter to your French friend "pour encouragez les auteurs" perhaps?
60. __ Honor : YOUR
61. Frost : HOAR. The beautiful formation of ice crystals like these:
62. Good thing not to wear in a rainstorm : SUEDE. It probably beats wearing nothing at all in a rainstorm though.
63. "Bingo!" : I WIN
64. When Valjean is released from prison : ACT I. Our good friend Jean from Les Miserables.
65. Continue until : END AT
66. Hockey Hall of Famer __ Stewart : NELS. Robert Nelson "Old Poison" Stewart was probably inducted into the Hall of Fame for his awesome name alone.
67. Flightless bird : RHEA
Down:
1. Chesapeake Bay haul : CRABS. I dithered over this one, as CRAB is also plural. Now it's got me wondering which other nouns can either add an "S" or not for the plural form.
2. Shop alternative : HOME EC. Back in my UK schooldays we had "Woodwork" or "Domestic Science."
3. One of the Greek Furies : ALECTO. Needed all the crosses for this, I'm trying to figure out how to remember it for next time.
4. Conditional words : IF SO
5. Defense mechanisms : SHIELDS
6. He ruled jointly with Ivan V for nearly 14 years : PETER I
7. "Don't leave home without it" co. : AMEX. Diner's Club introduced the first credit card in 1952, American Express came along with their card six years later.
8. Sunscreen element : ZINC
9. Vacation for the self-employed? : EGO TRIP.
10. Secretary of state after Albright : POWELL. Colin served under George W. Bush.
11. Good street for playing : CUL-DE-SAC. I can vouch for this having lived on one of these dead-end streets as a kid, and as kids are wont to do, we sniggered when we learned that "cul" is a rather impolite French word for "bottom".
12. Inspired poetry : ODE
13. Body pic : TAT. "Tattoo" seems to be almost archaic now.
21. Teacher's grad deg. : M.S.Ed, the Master of Science in Education degree.
22. 17-Across's state : IOWA
26. Roughly : SOME
27. Distraught state : SNIT. Personally, I would be only mildly distraught if I was in a snit, for more extreme distraughtedness I've got much better words, but Rich wouldn't like them in his crosswords.
29. Duff Beer server : MOE. Homer Simpson's favorite brew poured by his favorite barkeep.
30. Concert venue : ARENA
31. Not gross : NET. Don't get me started on those year-to-date deductions again.
35. Diana's escort __ al-Fayed : DODI. The companion of the Princess of Wales in the latter years of her life.
36. National rival : AVIS
37. No longer together : DIVORCED. Just like me and the gross part of my paycheck that didn't make it into my net.
38. Bind : JAM
39. "Mr. Chicago" journalist Kupcinet : IRV. Very subtle "Mr." abbreviation clue here.
41. Israeli parliament : KNESSET
42. Storybook heavy : OGRE. Shrek seems to have taken the sting out of the good old-fashioned scare-the-bejabers-out-of-you fairy tale baddies.
43. Stock clerk's charge : RETURNS
44. Dench of "Iris" : JUDI. Dame of British theatre and film.
46. Leader with a shoestring budget? : IMELDA. First Lady (now Congresswoman) Marcos of the Philippines, reputed to own more than 2,500 pairs of shoes.
47. Cold remedy in LiquiCaps : NYQUIL
48. "Mayor" memoirist : ED KOCH, former Mayor of New York City.
49. Connect : RELATE
53. Arab League member : SYRIA
55. "__' Eyes": Eagles hit : LYIN. On my iPod for those maudlin moments.
56. Actor Rob : LOWE
57. Blacken : CHAR.
58. Journal ending : -ESE. I had to wait to decide between -ese and -ist.
59. Sister or mother : NUN. Lovely aha! clue to finish with.
That's all from me - have a wonderful weekend.
Steve
