Theme: "Border States" -State postal codes bookend each theme entry.
24A. Land on the Red Sea : ARABIAN PENINSULA
39A. Eponymous Italian educator : MARIA MONTESSORI
57A. Time Warner, to CNN : PARENT COMPANY. Still remember Jerry Levin?
104A. Rioter's weapon : MOLOTOV COCKTAIL
87A. Periodic "Top Chef" judge with a restaurant in Manhattan : WYLIE DUFRESNE. He looks familiar, but I don't recall his name.
122A. Macro, e.g. : COMPUTER SHORTCUT. I
never really understood what Macros are, TTP. By the way, belated Happy
One-Year Anniversary! What a great asset you've been to our blog and
myself.
3D. She voiced Princess Fiona in "Shrek" : CAMERON DIAZ
75D. Under-the-hood cleaner : WASHER FLUID
Oh
I love this theme. Notice the two states in each theme entry do border
each other and there are no repeats of state abbreviations?
With 48 states to work with, you can imagine the amount of work involved in getting the best set of answers.
Across:
1. Filled fast food : TACO. All alliterative.
5. Orange County city : ANAHEIM. Angels.
12. Picks, with "for" : OPTS
16. Improv piece : BIT
19. Algerian seaport : ORAN
20. Brand formerly marketed as Philishave outside the U.S. : NORELCO. Unaware of this trivia. Made by Philips.
21. __-mutuel : PARI
22. Fruity finish? : ADE. Lemonade, e,g.
23. Way off the highway : RAMP
27. Pick up the tab for : TREAT TO
29. Homeowner's burden : LIEN
30. They include skateboarding and snowboarding : X GAMES
31. "__ Angel": doo-wop classic : EARTH. Who made it famous?
32. __ about : ON OR
36. Genus subdivision : SPECIES
38. Mall unit : STORE
44. Yule quenchers : NOGS
46. Ben Gurion airline : EL AL
47. '60s activist gp. : SDS. I used to confuse this with SLA the '70s radical gp.
48. Fancy pitcher : EWER
49. Laura Bush's birth city : MIDLAND. I only know she was born somewhere in Texas.
52. Turow work about first-year law students : ONE L
54. About to come up : ON DECK
56. "I'd like to buy __" : AN I. "Wheel of Fortune".
62. Driller's deg. : DDS
63. Diagnostic test : SCAN
65. Sling spirits : GIN
66. Rise dramatically : SPROUT UP
68. Driver's license word, maybe : HAZEL. Mine is BLK.
70. "Horton Hears a Who!" villain : VLAD
73. "Don't change that" : STET. And 90D. 73-Across writer : EDITOR
74. New Zealand exports : KIWIS
78. Wrongly left the base : GONE AWOL. I was shocked to learn that there were about 50,000 military deserters during WWII.
81. Russian fighter : MIG
83. Rain block : TARP
84. MC's aid : MIC
91. Wee : SMA
92. Orbital extreme : APOGEE
94. Una y __ vez: time after time : OTRA. Once and again, right?
95. Grabbed the chance : MADE HAY
97. Golfer Aoki : ISAO
98. Yukon winter hrs. : PST
101. Smaller serving : SIDE
103. Learned : WISE
109. City on the Po : TURIN. Po River.
112. California city associated with the founding of Hells Angels : FONTANA. Another unknown trivia to me.
113. Normandy river : ORNE. And 135. River in central Germany : EDER. So many European rivers have 4-letter words.
114. "Friend __?" : OR FOE
115. Not vulnerable (to) : IMMUNE
118. Score symbol : REST
120. Ford and others : GERALDs
127. Bedtime in Burgundy : NUIT. "Bonne nuit!".
128. Music-licensing org. : BMI
129. Affectedly quaint, in Colchester : TWEE
130. "Great show!" in headlines : IT'S A HIT
131. Theater : CINE. Shoudn't this have a French/Spanish hint in the clue?
132. Utmost : MAX
133. Word often written diagonally on signs : SOLD
134. Taboo : NOT DONE. And 6D. Bad news at the inn : NO ROOM
Down:
1. Linzer treats : TORTES. Marti must have had Linzer tortes before.
2. Biblical landfall : ARARAT
4. Policing the area : ON PATROL
5. Future MD's course : ANAT
7. Altar constellation : ARA. Three letter constellation is always ARA.
8. N.T. epistle : HEB
9. Actor Wallach : ELI
10. Myth ending : ICAL. Mythical.
11. Philosophy espousing a single reality : MONISM
12. Like some auto leases : OPEN END
13. Kitchen cooker : PAN
14. Upstairs neighbor of Ralph and Alice : TRIXIE. "The Honeymooners".
15. Sears : SINGES
16. "Queen Zixi of Ix" author : BAUM. L. Frank Baum. He was also the author of 119D. Dog who reveals he can speak in "Tik-Tok of Oz" : TOTO. I don't remember Toto speaks in the movie at all.
17. Not going : IDLE
18. Brews for parties : TEAS. Amazed this did not come to me immediately. I guess I don't associate teas with parties.
25. Gourd fruits : PEPOS. New word to me. This is from the Free Dictionary: PEPO refers to the fruit of any of various related plants, such as the cantaloupe, watermelon, cucumber, squash, pumpkin, and melon, having a hard or leathery rind, fleshy pulp, and numerous flattened seeds.
26. Got fresh with : SASSED
28. Thing to mind, on train platforms : THE GAP. Mind the gap.
33. Captain Kidd's negative : NAE
34. DuPont acrylic : ORLON
35. Cheerful : RIANT. No one uses this word in real life.
37. Amt. after a period : CTS
40. Smart ones? : ALECS. Smart alecs.
41. Due : OWED
42. Stamp on a packing list : RECD
43. Peeves : IRKS
45. Catch : SNAG
49. Sour __ : MASH
50. Worshipper of the sun god Inti : INCA
51. Hooey : DRIVEL
53. Hacks : LOPS
54. CN Tower prov. : ONT
55. Stooge chuckle : NYUK. "Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk!
58. Zhou of China : ENLAI. Zhou is Mandarin. Chou is Cantonese.
59. He played Clubber Lang in "Rocky III" : MR T.
60. Vichy verse : POEME. French "poem".
61. Temple Grandin's disorder : AUTISM
64. Below zero: Abbr. : NEG
67. Stomach part? : PIT. Clever clue.
69. Actor Rob : LOWE
71. Bowl over : AWE
72. Lamebrain : DODO. Not ours.
76. Culinary author Rombauer : IRMA
77. Fix, as a pet : SPAY
79. TV's "Science Guy" : NYE (Bill)
80. Ukraine city : LUTSK. Learning moment for me. Lots of V's in their city names.
82. Eat away : GNAW
84. Seriously injure : MAIM
85. __ facto : IPSO
86. Stove fuel : COAL
88. It can be dipped in dip : FRITO
89. Meteorologist's tool : RADAR
93. Err : GOOF UP
96. Allstate online subsidiary : ESURANCE. Helpful clue.
98. Many a GI : PVT
99. Like Capone's face : SCARRED. Hence the nickname "Scarface".
100. Moderates, with "down" : TONES
102. A, in Augsburg : EIN
105. From soup __ : TO NUTS. 6-letter partial is allowed in LAT. But don't abuse. One is enough.
106. Punch combo : ONE TWO
107. Make bread from chips? : CASH IN. Nice clue.
108. "Earthsea" series author Ursula : LE GUIN. I forgot. We had URSULA clued as "Sci-fi author ___ K. Le Guin" a while ago.
110. First-aid kit staple : IODINE
111. Empty __ : NESTER
115. SALT weapon : ICBM
116. NYC cultural center : MOMA
117. International Year of Astronomy year : MMIX. 2009. Non-clue for me.
121. Kitchen add-on? : ETTE. Kitchenette.
123. Sushi selection : EEL
124. What U can follow : RST. Alphabetically.
125. Mite : TAD
126. Sulu player John : CHO. Gimme! He was born in Seoul. More than a milllion people have surname CHO in Korea. It's spelled as CAO or CHAO (as in Elaine Chao, Bush's Secretary of Labor) in Chinese. Chinese has 4 tones, the name CAO has rising tone. CAO with the falling tone is the F word.
C.C.
