Theme: "Less is More" - LESS is attached to the first word of each familiar phrase.
25A. Coward's path? : GUTLESS COURSE. Gut course.
32A. Sleeping watchman, say? : POINTLESS GUARD. Point guard.
44A. Bro who cracks insensitive jokes? : TASTELESS BUD. Taste bud. Are you familiar with W. Kamau Bell?
61A. Chores done altruistically? : SELFLESS CLEANING. Self-cleaning.
93A. Naive Romeo? : ARTLESS LOVER. Art lover. How tall do you think Romeo is? Short men tend to be very artful.
74A. Cruel school assistant? : HEARTLESS MONITOR. Heart monitor.
107A. Pixie whose dust lacks potency? : TOOTHLESS FAIRY. Tooth fairy.
116A. Stairway to heaven? : TOPLESS FLIGHT. Top flight. The answer cracked me up. Dennis would want a different clue!
Very consistent. LESS is added to the end of the first word of each theme entry. Gareth's themes are always tight. Meaty too. No light theme in his grids. He takes no gutless courses.
I mentioned before that gridding always gets tougher when you dedicate over 100 squares to the theme. This one has 110.
Across:
1. PC core : CPU
4. NYC airport : LGA. Unusual to have the top/bottom divided into 5 parts. Easier to have more abbrs with 3-letter fill.
7. Shia holy man : IMAM
11. Short : CURT
15. Driver's economy meas. : MPG
18. __ Tin Tin : RIN
19. Its "Concise" version has more than 1,700 pgs. : OED
20. Orkan sign-off half : NANU
21. Sailing, say : ASEA
22. Uncommon size : EEE
23. Nine-circles literary locale : INFERNO. Hot spot.
28. Oregon's Douglas fir, e.g. : STATE TREE. Ours is Red Pine.
30. Uncertain : LEERY
31. General __ chicken : TSO'S
35. "Dead parrot" sketch actor : CLEESE (John). Funny episode.
37. London's __ Modern : TATE
38. Secret supply : STASH
39. Roman naturalist : PLINY
40. Letters for a British princess : HRH
42. Tennis legend : ASHE
49. Clumsy types : OAFS
51. Oncle's mate : TANTE. Aunt. J'ai trois tantes on my father's side. All illiterate. My grandparents were too poor to send them to schools. I miss my youngest aunt very much.
53. "Telephone Line" gp. : ELO
54. Vatican masterpiece : PIETA
55. Cute cases : ETUIs
57. Grasp : SEE
58. White hat, in oaters : HERO
60. Skewed : ASLANT
65. Oolong or souchong : TEA. What the heck is "souchong"? Never heard of it. OK, I just googled. Never heard of it.
66. Jam cause, maybe : TOLL
67. Subway opposites : ELs
68. Like much lore : ORAL
71. "That's refreshing!" : AHH
82. Capital affected by typhoons : TAIPEI. Immediately thought of my old haunt Guangzhou, also a capital city, also affected by typhoons. It has the best tea and tea houses in China. No "souchong"!
85. "The Highwayman" daughter : BESS. Was this a gimme to you?
86. Theta preceder : ETA
87. Like a good guess : CLOSE
88. Powerful god : TITAN
89. Classic Pearl Jam album : TEN. Guessed.
90. "Inside the NBA" analyst : O'NEAL (Shaq). Sir Charles too.
92. 'Tis the season : YULE
97. Latin trio word : AMAS
99. Psalm 23 comforter : ROD. This might be Rich's clue. "Thy ROD and thy staff they comfort me."
100. "Under the Redwoods" author : HARTE (Bret)
101. AMD rival : INTEL
103. Kitten's plaything : YARN
105. Playground retort : ARE TOO
112. Cub with records : SOSA (Sammy). With *records.
113. Necklace gem : PEARL
115. One-legged ballet pose : ARABESQUE
120. Is connected : HAS PULL
121. Old MGM rival : RKO
122. Meat : GIST. Hard clue for me.
123. Put a handle on : NAME
124. Vague time frame indicator : ERE. Poetically.
125. Sargasso swimmer : EEL
126. German sunrise direction : OST. East.
127. Small bills : ONEs
128. Beethoven's nine: Abbr. : SYMS. Alright, symphonies.
129. First name in comics villains : LEX (Luthor)
130. QB's coups : TDS
Down:
1. Like fresh lettuce : CRISP
2. Patchy horse : PINTO
3. Not true : UNFAITHFUL. This "Ai Du" was featured in the movie "Unfaithful". Melissa Bee likes Ari Farka Touré.
4. Sissy's Oscar-winning role : LORETTA
5. Least violent : GENTLEST
6. Love : ADORE. I've been thinking of that "60 Minutes" Korean prisoner a lot. My family, specifically my mom, suffered tremendously during Cultural Revolution. But I never hated Chairman Mao. I was deeply brainwashed and I believed (I still do) many things I was taught.
7. Put away : INGEST
8. Egyptian __: spotted cat : MAU. Hi, cutie, do you know CrossEyedDave?
9. Army unit : ANT
10. Muslim theologians : MULLAHS
11. Examined, as a joint : CASED
12. 1979 Afghanistan invader: Abbr. : USSR. They failed, of course.
13. Use color-coded cans, say : RECYCLE
14. Lao Tzu principle : TAO
15. British Invasion genre named for Liverpool's river : MERSEY BEAT. River Mersey. Unknown fact to me.
16. Mexican change : PESOS
17. Honkers : GEESE. Lots lots of honkers in our neighborhood.
24. Sicilian high point : ETNA
26. Ballad's end? : EER. Balladeer.
27. Spork, for one : UTENSIL. I'm thinking of buying a garlic press. Do you all use it?
29. Reputed Dead Sea Scrolls transcribers : ESSENES. This word used to stump me.
33. Concert receipts : GATE
34. Ryder Cup team : USA. The 2016 Ryder Cup will be held here in MN.
36. Imitates Daffy : LISPS. Reminds me of Marti's "Going Daffy".
39. Arafat's org. until 2004 : PLO. Arafat died in 2004.
40. Breaks ground : HOES. Nice clue.
41. Assign stars to : RATE
43. Annoyance : HASSLE
45. Bird that migrates from the Arctic to Antarctica : TERN. That's interesting.
46. Sci-fi people : ELOI
47. __ Reader: eclectic magazine : UTNE
48. Facts and figures : DATA
50. Baker's verb : SIFT
52. Noir hero : TEC. Detective.
56. City NW of Santa Barbara, to locals : SLO. San Luis Obispo. New to me. Makes sense.
58. "__ Kitchen": Gordon Ramsay show : HELL'S. This guy is so hot-tempered.
59. No trouble at all : EASE
60. Farming prefix : AGRO
62. Comprehensive, gradewise : EL-HI. Let's accept it and move on.
63. "Shall we?" reply : LET'S
64. Polite reply : NO MA'AM
69. RSA ruling party : ANC (African National Congress). Gareth lives there, in case you're new to this blog.
70. Showy bloom : LILY
71. "__ girl!" : ATTA
72. "What a Piece of Work Is Man" musical : HAIR
73. Fulfill an urgent desire : HIT THE SPOT. Nice long entry.
75. Explorer Tasman : ABEL. Oh, the guy who discovered Tasmania.
76. Nevada casino city : RENO
77. Cong. member : SEN
78. Rickey Henderson, notably : STEALER. Henderson holds the records for most stolen bases.
79. Ambulance bandage : TOURNIQUET. Also new word to me.
80. 1952 Olympics city : OSLO
81. Oboe component : REED
83. Like tongue-against-roof-of-the-mouth consonants : PALATAL. Wish I had proper education on how to speak English.
84. Febrero preceder : ENERO. January/February.
89. Mao __-tung : TSE
90. Surg. branch : ORTH. Orthopedic.
91. Exposes : LAYS BARE
94. Makes a call : STOPS IN
95. Orchestra section : VIOLINS. Remember that time when Joshua Bell played incognito at a Washington subway station? From Wiki: "The experiment was videotaped on hidden camera; of the 1,097 people who passed by, only seven stopped to listen to him, and only one recognized him. For his nearly 45-minute performance, Bell collected $32.17 from 27 passersby (excluding $20 from the passerby who recognized him.")
96. Foe of Saruman, in Tolkien : ENT
98. Controversial high school health lesson : SAFE SEX
102. Makes happy : ELATES
104. Throaty sound : RASP
105. Space age toon dog : ASTRO. On "The Jetsons".
106. Corner pieces : ROOKS
107. First family before the Wilsons : TAFTS
108. Magic, on scoreboards : ORL (Orlando)
109. Saharan region : SAHEL. Arabic for "shore, coast". "describing the appearance of the vegetation of the Sahel as a coastline delimiting the sand of the Sahara."
110. Held power : RULED
111. Cheerleaders' repertoire : YELLS
114. In __: truly : ESSE
117. Group decision-making challenge : EGO
118. In high spirits : GAY
119. "Let me think ..." : HMM
C.C.
