Theme: "Hack-er" - ER is hacked from the end of each theme entry.
23A. Oatmeal? : MORNING PAP. Morning paper. Poor Spitzboov! He's having pap every morning.
25A. Smooth con man's tool? : NATURAL FIB. Natural fiber.
34A. Victoria's Secret ad? : UNDERWEAR DRAW. Underwear drawer. Mine are like this. I don't fold them.
47A. New member of the faith shaking things up? : CATALYTIC CONVERT. Catalytic converter.
61A. Soup kitchen scene? : EVERYONE AND HIS BROTH. Everyone and his brother.
81A. Skewed priority? : DISLOCATED SHOULD. SHOULD is a noun here? Dislocated shoulder.
90A. Foot pain location? : AROUND THE CORN. Around the corner. So, as someone mentioned last Sunday, we have yellow corn, red corn, white corn, CORN is still not plurable?
107A. Edam? : CHEESE BURG. Or STAD. Cheese burger.
109A. Tired of watching "Downton Abbey"? : SERIAL NUMB. Serial number.
Nice title. I think this is Jean O'Conor's first Sunday puzzle. Congratulations!
Two of the Across entries OPERA HOUSE (20A. Venice's La Fenice, for one) and HORSE SENSE
(111A. Good thinking) have the same letter count as two of the theme
entries. Since neither has ? mark in their clues, so solvers should not
mistaken them for theme entries.
When theme entries are
all placed in Across, constructors tend to have long Down entries and
cap the maximum letter count of their Across non-theme entries to avoid
any confusion. Normally they're shorter than the shortest theme entry.
Across:
1. Roasting aid : BASTER
7. Monopoly token introduced in 2013 : CAT. Did you nail it, Dave? 70A. Token replaced by 7-Across : IRON
10. Preserve, in a way : SALT
14. Hardly eye-catching : DRAB
18. Fifth-century plunderer : ATTILA. The Hun.
19. Woodcutter Baba : ALI
26. Bridge : SPAN
27. Building sites : LOTS
28. Roman statesman : CATO. "The Censor".
29. Refer (to) : ALLUDE
30. Bit of climbing gear : PIT-ON
32. Words before DVD : OUT ON
33. Celebrity entourages : POSSES
38. People at the supermarket counter? : MAG. People magazine.
39. Fifth of a century : SCORE
40. Fictional barber Sweeney : TODD
41. Leeds leave-taking : CHEERIO
46. "Don't reckon so" : NAW
52. Pisa's river : ARNO
54. Exhilarating : HEADY
55. Makes better : HEALS
56. "You're looking at her" : I'M IT
57. Queen dowager of Jordan : NOOR. What if she remarries?
59. Unstable particle : MUON. PION, KAON, no difference to me.
60. Felicity : BLISS. Oh, I loved Felicity.
68. Jordan's only port : AQABA. Another U-less Q.
69. Award-winning 2012 film thriller : ARGO
71. Hill of "Psych" : DULE. His face looks familiar.
72. Tickle : AMUSE
74. One to ten, say : SCALE
77. German one : EINS
84. Soft slip-on : MOC
85. Bee student : SPELLER
86. Wave to from the curb, maybe : HAIL
87. Courtmate of Elena and Ruth : SONIA (Sotomayor). This love letter Ruth Bader Ginsburg's husband Marty wrote to him shortly before he died is so moving.
89. Drying-out problem : DTS
94. Café : BISTRO
98. Orly arrival : AVION
99. Subject of the 2008 biography "The Man Who Made Lists" : ROGET
100. Kutcher of "No Strings Attached" : ASHTON
101. Marathon prep run : TEN K
102. "Wuthering Heights" setting : MOOR
104. Befuddled : ASEA
112. Diplomatic VIP : AMB (Ambassador)
113. "Katie" host : COURIC
114. Diamond datum : STAT
115. Stag, e.g. : DEER
116. Spot markers? : X'ES
117. Collectible Fords : EDSELS
Down:
1. Cries from Emeril : BAMS
2. On : ATOP
3. Attach to the luggage rack, say : STRAP DOWN
4. Less resonant : TINNIER
5. Hillary Clinton, e.g. : ELI
6. Dwindled alarmingly : RAN LOW
7. Cook, for one: Abbr. : CAPT. Captain Cook.
8. "Ah, me!" : ALAS
9. Handicapper's help : TIP
10. Beethoven's "Pathétique," e.g. : SONATA
11. "Bridesmaids" co-producer Judd : APATOW. Look at his beautiful family. They're all in "This is 40".
12. Show you know : LET ON
13. 1989-'90 Broadway one-man show : TRU
14. American Girl collection : DOLLS
15. Chaka Khan's original band : RUFUS. Learning moment for me.
16. Remark to the audience : ASIDE
17. Nice infants : BEBEs
21. Wyoming natives : ARAPAHOS
22. Chlorine or fluorine : HALOGEN
24. Used up : GONE
28. Like cottage cheese : CURDY. Never used this word before.
31. III, in modern Rome : TRE
32. "You'd never guess, but ..." : ODDLY
34. Pres. Carter's alma mater : USNA
35. Cape Fear's st. : N. CAR
36. Congratulatory contraction : ATTA (boy/girl)
37. Place for a hog? : ROAD. Oh, road hog.
38. Mid-century year : MCCL. 1250. Non-clue clue to me.
42. Archfiend : EVIL ONE
43. Send in : REMIT
44. Gaeilge, to its speakers : IRISH. I only know Gaelic.
45. Baseball's Mel and Ed : OTTS
47. Bok __ : CHOY. The secret to delicious bok choy is the soy sauce, right, Jayce? Has to be the sweet kind.
48. Flying prefix : AERO. 63. Suffix with 48-Down : NAUT
49. Clunk cousin : THUD
50. The "I" in I.M. Pei : IEOH. Totally irrational Cantonese spelling. In Mandarin, Ieoh is spelled as Yu. Pei was born in Guangzhou, where Cantonese is spoken.
51. "Pleeease?" : CAN I
53. Seaman's 12:30 : ONE BELL. For Spitzboov/D-Otto (Shocked at your Chronicle picture. But, what can you do?)
58. "Chopsticks __ fork?" : OR A
59. Phone button letters : MNO. 6.
60. Fella : BRO
61. Provide with gear : EQUIP
62. Triple-meter dance, in Dijon : VALSE. I forgot. We had this before.
64. Language that gave us "clan" : ERSE
65. Like much wine and cheese : AGED
66. Houseplant spot : SILL
67. Raised on a farm : BRED. Hello, PK!
68. Totals : ADDS
72. Flammable solvents : ACETONEs
73. Bar in a brown wrapper : MARS. Dark brown.
74. Snowboarding gold-medalist White : SHAUN
75. Bit of change : COIN
76. Word sung after midnight : AULD. Was not thinking of New Year's Eve.
78. "Can't really say" : I'M NOT SURE.
79. "The Third Man" genre : NOIR
80. Digitize, in a way : SCAN
82. Antique grayish-pink shade : OLD ROSE. Like the color of these beads.
83. Trembled : SHOOK
87. Part of a line: Abbr. : SEG
88. Father of the river gods : OCEANUS. You'd think it's Poseidon.
90. Reluctant : AVERSE
91. Lookalike : RINGER
92. Enterprise counselor : TROI. "Star Trek".
93. Ancient odist : HORACE. Roman lyric poet.
94. Baroque musical dynasty : BACHS
95. Has sex appeal : IS HOT. For Splynter.
96. He-Man's twin sister : SHE-RA
97. Statistical tool first used to monitor the quality of stout : T-TEST. Well, Lemonade & Abejo & Windhover might know this. I have no idea.
98. Hum __ : A TUNE
102. Cultural idea that may go viral : MEME. DFN (Did Not Finish) is a meme on our blog. Everyone just adopted it in quick fashion.
103. Round bodies : ORBS. Hello, "Round body"!
105. First Best Actor Oscar winner Jannings : EMIL
106. Basics : ABCs
108. Soil holder : BED. Flower bed.
109. Adderley's instrument : SAX
110. City close to Ben-Gurion Airport : LOD
C.C.
