Theme: One Big Happy Family - because in the end, they're all ARKIN (our kin).
17A. 2012 Baseball Hall of Fame inductee : BARRY LARKIN
24A. Best Supporting Actor nominee for "Argo" : ALAN ARKIN
38A. Relatives, and an apt title for this puzzle : KINFOLK
45A. Iowa senator since 1985 : TOM HARKIN
57A. Al Pacino's "Sea of Love" co-star : ELLEN BARKIN
Argyle Markin here. C.C. has delivered a crunchy Monday. Full names, that's always nice. Nine-letter Down fill is nice but more than a few three-letter fill was needed. Foreign words and locations add little nuggets of crunch.
Across:
1. Discoverers' shouts : A-HAs
5. Dictation takers : STENOs. These days they can find work as a 'court stenographer'. Beyond that?
11. "Every kiss begins with __": jeweler's slogan : KAY. "Since 1916, Kay Jewelers has grown from one store to more than 900 from coast to coast ... the #1 specialty jewelry brand in the United States" from the company web site.
14. Red salad veggie : BEET
15. Clear the fustiness from : AIR OUT. Like using a leaf blower to clean your car?
16. Grand __ Opry : OLE
19. Not too bright : DIM
20. Volume of maps : ATLAS
21. Versailles ruler : ROI. Des résidences du Roi au château de Versailles.
22. Plucky movie pig : BABE. (1995) Seventeen years ago already.
23. Michelle, to Barack : WIFE
27. Patio furniture repairman : CANER. I'll bet they are hard to find and expensive.
28. Expressive music subgenre : EMO. (no link available)
29. Report card figs. : AVG's
30. Hopi home : PUEBLO. Not as grand as Versailles.
34. Kind : ILK. Kind is derived from the same root as KIN; ILK is not but they have come to mean the same thing.
37. Modern, in Munich : NEU
39. "__ do not!" : NO, I. and never did.
40. Hee-hawing critter : ASS
41. Watchdogs from Japan : AKITAs
42. Get snippy with : SASS
43. Unrefined find : ORE
44. Superhero duds : CAPES. like 48D. Superman, on Krypton : KAL-EL
51. Elevator innovator : OTIS
52. "Can I get a word in?" : [AHEM!]
53. D-backs, on scoreboards : ARI. Baseball's Arizona Diamondbacks.
54. Formal decrees : DICTA. Singular, DICTUM (edict, decree, fiat, order, declaration)
56. Party coffeemaker : URN
60. Statistical data: Abbr. : NO's
61. City known for its Boys' Choir : VIENNA
62. Giggly Muppet : ELMO
63. "Schedule uncertain at press time" abbr. : TBA. (to be announced)
64. Passages between buildings : ALLEYS
65. Gets the point : SEES
Down:
1. "Fernando" band : ABBA. No need to link; you're probably hearing it in your head already.
2. Stretches in the high 90s, say : HEAT WAVES
3. Flier with a shamrock logo : AER LINGUS
4. Fires on from above : STRAFES
5. "My gal" of song : SAL. The mule on the Erie canal, ye haven't forgotten her already, have ye?
6. Sparkling topper : TIARA
7. Flamboyant Flynn : ERROL. The best swashbuckler ever.
8. Cellphone giant : NOKIA
9. "I'd love to, Yvette!" : "OUI!"
10. MTA stop : STN. Unless you're poor old Charlie. He couldn't get off of that train.
11. Camera name since 1888 : KODAK
12. Suspect's excuse : ALIBI
13. Aden's country : YEMEN
18. Belgian river : YSER. So much geography, so little time.
22. Dude : BRO
25. Actress Carter and "little" Dickens character Trent : NELLs. Nell Carter was on Gimme a Break! and was noted for her 42-Across. "Little Nell Trent" was a character in Charles Dickens' The Old Curiosity Shop.
26. Hog-wild : AMOK
27. Water-to-wine village : CANA
30. Penny pincher : PIKER. Etymology is in question.
31. Prefix with cycle : UNI
32. Wee newt : EFT
33. Showy wrap : BOA
34. Up the creek : IN A PICKLE. Funny, after having Vlasic yesterday.
35. Runs too slowly, as a watch : LOSES TIME
36. X, in valentines : KISS
38. Former "Idol" judge DioGuardi : KARA. She seems quite qualified to be a judge so she only lasted two seasons.
42. Ironic sketches : SATIRES
43. Resistance measure : OHM. Symbol: Ω
44. Musical wrap-up : CODA. Coda is the Italian word for “tail.” Makes sense now.
45. Talk trash to : TAUNT
46. "The Dick Van Dyke Show" catchphrase : "OH, ROB!". At 1:10.
47. Brainy bunch : MENSA
49. Dancer Castle : IRENE
50. Simpleton : NINNY
55. Years in España : ANOs
57. One of the Gabors : EVA
58. Small, in Dogpatch : LI'L
59. History majors' degs. : BA's
Argyle
Notes from C.C.:
1) This is my original submitted grid with no unifier, just 5 *KIN people:
Rich said: "This is potentially a cute theme, but it needs a unifying element. The
one that jumps out at me is KINFOLK. If you can figure a way to include that
with 5 entries, that'd be great--but if not, I'd suggest cutting to 4 entries..."
I could not come up with clean fill with my 5 entries plus the unifier, so I chickened out and used 4. K's gave me trouble.
2) Happy Birthday to dear Warren, who has not made a comment since we started the Captcha. Hope all is well with you and Ruth!
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| Left to right: Warren, JD, EddyB, Chickie |
