Theme: Sounds like a letter
Mark Feldman pops up quickly after last Sunday's effort, with the opposite of miss marti's favorite letter-word words. Each of the theme answers undoes a familiar letter-word and creates a new and amusing sound alike two word phrase. The theme answers are short, but there are 8 of them. With stacked 7s in each corner, the third row from the top and from the bottom being part of the theme, this one took some work to get going and must have been a real challenge to build. This was the hardest Friday for me in a very long time. The theme came easily and saved me or I would have never been able to finish.
17A. Call from a collection agency? : OWE RING. (7) (O-ring). Really cute but convoluted image of the phone ringing with a debt collector caller.
18A. Questionable alliance? : WHY AXIS. (7) (Y-axis). Axis being the enemy of the Allies in WWII, the big one.
23A. Social attire? : TEA SHIRT.(8) (T-shirt).
39A. Sheep transport? : EWE BOAT.(7) (U-boat).
41A. Message from the captain? : SEA NOTE. (7) (C-note).
49A. Suggestion from one waiter to another? : QUEUE TIP. (8) (Q-tip).
61A. Hive workers? : BEE TEAM. (7) (B-team).
63A. Lasik ray? : EYE BEAM. (7) (I-beam).
Across:
1. Approaches aggressively : ACCOSTS. A great word, but such a hard way to start.
8. Like some scenic highways : COASTAL. PCH anyone or US1?
15. Avant-garde neighborhood : BOHEMIA. A name taken from the gypsies, I think. LINK.
16. On the line : AT STAKE.
19. Compass pt. : WSW. It is always ENE or WSW, never WNW.
20. Malicious look : LEER.
22. "You __!": Ren, to Stimpy : EEDIOT.
25. Rash symptom : ITCH.
28. Best : TOP. See if you can come up with a better clue.
29. Eastern priest : LAMA. I wonder if anyone ever introduces him with this song playing in the background. LISTEN. (2:29).
33. Playground troublemakers : DARERS. and its counterpart 58D. Bit of derring-do : DEED.
36. Something that's going around : ORBITER. Another nice long fill that really required work to unearth.
42. Internal device on most cellphones : ANTENNA. Ah, anyone still have an old phone somewhere with the outside antenna?
43. German port : BREMEN. In Northern Germany; I will ask our travelers Kazie and marti to discuss.
44. Strong cleaners : LYES.
45. "Keep it down!" : SHH. Really, after all the tryptophan from the turkey, I am sleepy.
48. Stamp of approval letters : USDA. I have no beef with this fill.
53. Agamemnon's father : ATREUS. This KING from ancient GREEK lore is not one of the more famous figures, but his failure to sacrifice a lamb led to much suffering. A Friday clue and the first in our Greek history lessons.
57. Flubs the shot, e.g. : ERRS. We forgive you.
58. Stranded stuff : DNA. Nice play on the fact that DNA is a strand.
65. Humor : INDULGE.
66. Tease mercilessly : TORMENT. What older brothers do.
67. Always-open merchant : ETAILER.
68. New York tribe : ONEIDAS. Not to be confused with the OREIDA potato people.
Down:
1. Take __ : A BOW. If you finished this one unaided in your normal Friday time.
2. Intimidates : COWS. I wonder if this comes kowtow, which may come from the Chinese, Cantonese 叩頭 / 叩头 where one bows so low they touch the forehead to the ground?
3. Enjoy some Trident : CHEW. Finally one I knew.
4. Anthem preposition : O'ER the ramparts we watched...
5. Facial arc : SMILE. What a fun definition.
6. Skin woe : TINEA. Two of our favorite FUNGI jock itch and athlete's foot. More Friday cluing.
7. Most like a guru : SAGEST.
8. Avian cry : CAW.
9. With "The," 1971 best-seller about an evil twin : OTHER. A Tom Tryon novel, that made for a very creepy MOVIE. (3:09)
10. So far : AS YET.
11. Dutch town : STAD. A word in many Germanic languages, probably from the Latin root STATUS from which we get our word Stand.
12. Sitcom set in a garage : TAXI. Did you all like Andy Kaufman?
13. Japanese wrestler Sato : AKIO. Now this made the northeast so hard, who knows this female judo champion?
14. "__ we forget" : LEST.
21. Greek consonant : RHO. Looks like a P sounds like an R.
23. Ancient city whose ruins are in modern Luxor : THEBES. The Greek name for the ancient Egyptian city of antiquity. Greek the language of the day.
24. Wall St. debuts : IPOS. Initial Public Offerings.
25. Perfect : IDEAL.
26. Yellowish-brown : TAWNY. Why do I think of this GIRL (0:52) from the Whitesnake video?
27. Land of the Minotaur : CRETE. The STORY. More Greek.
29. Get in position for the parade, as a band : LINE UP.
30. Proton carriers : ATOMS.
31. Rationed (out) : METED.
32. Amphitheater : ARENA.
34. "Arrested Development" narrator Howard : RON. You can watch new episodes on Netflix.
35. __ Miguel: Cozumel city : SAN.
37. Confederate : REB. Should this be an abbreviation?
38. Musical measure : BAR.
40. Zap, in a way : TASE. Famous FILM. (2:24).
46. Tint : HUE.
47. Contract adverb : HERETO. A nice law word.
49. Put down : QUELL. Like a rebellion.
50. Custom : USAGE.
51. Test, in a way : TRY ON.
52. Rhone feeder : ISERE. marti have you rafted this water in Grenoble, France?
53. Rose's Broadway beau : ABIE. Once the longest running Broadway play.
54. Simple shelter : TENT.
55. Prynne's stigma : RED A. An opposite letter word. Poor Hester; I recently reread the book and it was mostly boring.
56. Holder of needles and such : ETUI.
59. Granny : NANA. I am anxious to learn what Charlotte will call me. She pointed at me during Thanksgiving and said Gigah (or so it sounded) but who knows.
60. Qts. and pts. : AMTS. Amounts.
62. Côte d'Azur view : MER. French for Sea.
64. Ratio involving ht. and wt. : BMI. Body Mass Index. A very misused concept that ignores muscle weight and tells too many they are obese.
Well I am fat and sleepy as everyone went all out on the food, with too much, turkey and fish and mashed potatoes, and corn casserole and green beans, and roasted brussel sprouts, sweet potatoes, and ... all tasty and way too many desserts. I hope you received your just ones, and I wish you all a happy holiday season. Now shop! Thanks Mark. Lemonade out.
