Theme: STAGE DIRECTIONS : Each theme clue has two parts - the first part clues the "stage" upon which a particular athlete plays a sport, the second part is a straight definition and the two-word answer forms a new noun.
17A Tennis player’s meal request? : COURT ORDER
20A Ping-Pong player’s etiquette? : TABLE MANNERS
36A Runner’s music choice? : TRACK RECORD. I thought at first that this was a little too close to the sport in the clue, but then realized that if you use the "body of work" definition of the phrase it fits perfectly well with the rest of the theme.
53A Golfer’s bank advance? : COURSE CREDIT
58A Football player’s map? : FIELD GUIDE
Hi Gang - Steve here, pinch-hitting for Marti who is saying "Buon giorno, Italia!" today. There wasn't much of a musical nature in the puzzle today, so I'll use Marti's Italian trip as an excuse to post today's ear worm!
Nice work here from Julian, five snappy theme entries with the top and bottom pair partially stacked - I always find that impressive! Some nice long downs too, so plenty to like. Let's get started!
Across:
1 Desktop offering an AppleCare warranty : iMAC
5 Man of la casa : SEÑOR. I know that in French you don't use diacriticals on capital letters, but I'm not sure if the same rule applies in Spanish. Throwing the tilde in here just in case.
10 Chew : GNAW
14 Wine lover’s destination : NAPA. If you've not seen the movie "Bottle Shock", it's definitely worth checking out - it's based on the true story of the "Judgment of Paris" competition that put Napa wines on the international map. Very entertaining.
15 Micronesian nation once called Pleasant Island : NAURU. I confuse my Micronesian islands and my Indian Prime Ministers, so I wait for the perps.
16 San __, Italy : REMO
19 Announce assuredly : AVER
22 Worshipers of Quetzalcoatl : AZTECS. Of course they are. And OLMECS doesn't fit.
25 Fry’s former BBC comedy partner : LAURIE. Hugh appeared with Stephen both in their own show, and with Rowan Atkinson and Tony Robinson in one of the funniest comedy series - "Blackadder". It was odd at first to see him playing a straight role in "House".
26 Renaissance painter Uccello : PAOLO. Crosses and more crosses.
27 Genuine article? : THE. Great clue!
30 Close of “Albert Nobbs” : GLENN
31 Coin first minted in 13th-century France : ECU
32 Movie trainer of Daniel-san : MIYAGI. The "G" here was the last letter to fall - the cross with EGEST didn't help at all - I'd never seen that word before. Something of a WAG between G and K.
35 Clause joiners : ANDS
39 Grammy winner Erykah : BADU. Crosses again!
41 Corners : HEMS IN
42 Producer of wall flowers : IVY. Nice cluing again, and it made me revisit my assumption that all ivy is green and non-flowering.
45 Area of activity : ARENA
47 Old speedster : SST. Sadly, I never got to fly on Concorde, the Supersonic Transport jointly developed by the British and the French. I heard it plenty of times though - I used to live under the flight path into London's Heathrow Airport and Concorde was LOUD!
48 Bath-loving Muppet : ERNIE
50 Make even smoother : RE-SAND
52 Span that can’t be shrunk : AGE GAP. This caused me some confusion - I had 44D as YES and was scratching my head wondering what the heck an AGEGAS was.
57 Ovid’s others : ALII Needed to fish in my Latin memory banks. We studied Ovid back in High School - his poems were pretty racy; there's nothing like a bit of sex and sizzle to get schoolboys concentrating on their translations! Caesar's "Conquest of Gaul" was another one to get the adolescent attention - that seemed to be all battlefields and sex.
62 “Oh, criminy!” : RATS
63 Totally enjoy something, with “up” : EAT IT
64 Muddy up : ROIL. I didn't know that this specifically meant "muddying the waters" - I always thought roiling waters were simply turbulent. Nice learning moment for me.
65 Quest after : SEEK
66 Event with buckjumpers : RODEO. Another new term for me. Is this the same as a bucking bronco?
67 “__ said!” : 'NUFF
Down:
1 IRS concern : INC. I wish they weren't so concerned about my income and let me keep more of it.
2 Familiar face in Tiananmen Square : MAO. The square itself is enormous and Mao's portrait looks down from the northern side at the entrance to the Forbidden City. When I visited in 2008 I was intrigued by the presence of a green Astroturf basketball court located through the arch below Mao. I think it must be the only turf court in the world and the location is certainly incongruous!
3 Homer’s doughnut supplier : APU. Proud owner of Springfield's Kwik-E-Mart and purveyor of the finest victuals to the Simpson family.
4 Trustbuster’s target : CARTEL
5 High-horse sorts : SNOBS
6 Rank above viscount : EARL
7 Feature of Manet’s “The Luncheon on the Grass” : NUDE. I wasn't sure why the title of the painting was translated, but realized that French in the clue would imply a French answer, and that's not what's needed here. I found this version which made me laugh:
Translations: "Hey boys! Come and see all these magic mushrooms!" - "Cool! Here, take the weed, it's kick-ass" - "Sheesh, this is it - I'm stoned" and finally "I think I forgot something - but what?"
(Note from C.C.: I don't get the joke. What made Steve laugh?)
8 Provo neighbor : OREM
9 Bucolic : RURAL. Nice tie-in with 7D
10 Like table salt : GRANULAR
11 Interminable : NEVER-ENDING
12 Language family spanning two continents : AMERIND. This came together on its own - it's not a term with which I'm familiar. It appears to be something of a discredited theory that the individual languages can actually be grouped together in a formal way.
13 Declines : WORSENS
18 Washington city : TACOMA. I first came to know of Tacoma by way of a physics lesson and the Tacoma Narrows bridge breaking up due to resonance at a certain wind speed.
21 Badger : NAG
22 Copycat : APE
23 Tween heartthrob Efron : ZAC. More crosses! I excuse my ignorance of Mr. Efron's first name, I'm a little older than his fans.
24 Immediately : TOUT DE SUITE. This foxed me for a little while - for some reason I had TOUTE SUITE stuck in my brain and couldn't figure out why it wasn't going to work when I had TOUT already filled in from crosses.
27 Little ones : TYKES
28 Damages : HARMS
29 Spew out : EGEST. New word for me, and as previously noted the G was my last letter fill due to the MIYAGI perp at 32A
33 Freud’s I : ICH. It's a good job I already had the "I", otherwise I'd have confidently filled in EGO and left myself with a mess to fix. German, Latin, Spanish, French and English today.
34 Fifi’s here : ICI. More French on our pentalingual Thursday.
37 Gamble : RUN A RISK
38 Small flash drive capacity : ONE GIG. I guess "gigabyte" doesn't need an abbreviation indication in the clue as the contraction is so common now.
39 Where some commuters unwind : BAR CARS. I used to commute on a train with a bar car and it was full of regulars. Sometimes I'd purposely miss my station because I was enjoying the company and get the next train back.
40 Biological rings : AREOLAE. Yay! I get to post the blog's famous (and quite delightful) link. In the meantime here's a teaser ..
43 Flight connection word : VIA
44 “Sure thing!” : YEP
46 A or B on a test, maybe: Abbr. : ANS is the answer you're looking for.
[A style question for the constructors amongst us - do you prefer to clue without using the "Abbr." clarification? Something along the lines of "A or B on the CSAT, maybe:"? The same question for 55D - maybe "Like so many Fla. snowbirds:"?]
49 E-filed document : RETURN. Sent to my good friends at 1D.
51 Shelve : DEFER
52 Increase : ADD TO.
54 “Later!” : CIAO
55 Like many snowbirds: Abbr. : RETD. I guess you can't use AARP in the clue as "Retired" is part of the acronym?
56 Wiesel who wrote “The Night Trilogy” : ELIE
59 Promising paper : IOU I enjoyed this one!
60 Brief dissimilarity : DIF, as in difference. As an ex-computer coder, this one came naturally - we used to 'DIF' two versions of a program to find the changes made in the newer version. It sounds about as exciting as it was.
61 Brownie, for one : ELF
I think that's a wrap - thanks to Marti for traveling today and giving me a bonus Thursday to write up!
Steve
