Saturday, Feb 15th, 2014, Brad Wilber

Theme: None

Words: 70  (missing Q,X,Z)

Blocks: 33

  Either I am getting very comfortable with Saturday puzzles, or this one comes in at about a Friday, maybe even earlier level.  Brad is flying solo this week, as did his partner "DP" two weeks ago, and has what I would call a 'get out of jail free' offering today. A not-so-intimidating grid, with non-chunky corners and two grid-spanners;

17. Norwegian offerings : PLEASURE CRUISES - sort of a mini-theme going, with 31a and 45a, too - I won't go near any type of cruise like this

56. Fails to intervene : SITS ON ONE'S HANDS

ONWARD, wandor, norwad, wordan, donwar, rondaw, etc.

ACROSS:

1. "A Different World" actress : LISA BONET - spin-off from "The Cosby Show", she was once married to Lenny Kravitz and has changed her name - some interesting ones, here

10. More than ready to do : UP FOR

15. Halley's field : ASTRONOMY - as in Halley's comet - a gimme here; you too, Husker?

16. Veronese white : SOAVE - drew a blank until I had S--VE, then the light bulb came on

19. Most like a beachcomber : TANNEST - any one else think "HOMELESS" ?

20. "__ Mutual Friend": Dickens' last completed novel : OUR

21. Royal letters : HRH - His/Her Royal Highness(ness) - as in 35a.

22. Texting gasp : OMG - Oh, My, Gawd~!

23. Profile listing : HOBBY

25. "Yes!" : "I DO" - I did, but I stopped

26. St. Peter's Basilica attraction : PIETA - Michelangelo's marble statue

29. Many roomies : SIBS - Siblings; my brother and I shared a room for 12 years

30. Match : BOUT

31. The first one open on Majorca in 1950 : CLUB MED - I think the clue should be openED; I recall the TV commercials

33. Lake Geneva river : RHONE

35. Princess with a Wookieepedia entry : LEIA - Star Wars

36. "I Lost It at the Movies" author : KAEL - Pauline, never heard of her

37. Narrow vents : SLITS

39. Teaching method based on set theory : NEW MATH

42. Gent : CHAP

43. Moselle tributary : SAAR

45. "The Love Boat" bartender : ISAAC - click for Earworm~!

47. Hit the __ : HAY

48. "Precisely!" : "BINGO~!"

49. Lucy of "Elementary" : LIU - I liked her in the Mel Gibson movie "Payback"

50. Time to look forward : EVE

51. Trot : JOG

52. Aids : SUCCORS

59. Spud : TATER

60. Europe's tallest ferris wheel : LONDON EYE

61. Underhanded type : SNEAK

62. Mississippi has four : AREA CODES - nice bit of ambiguity

DOWN:

1. Telecommuter's tool : LAPTOP

2. Like about 1.5 billion people : ISLAMIC

3. His was the first number retired by the Mets : STENGEL - Casey; I am a Mets fan, but maybe C.C. has more to offer (C.C.: #37. Retired by the Yankees as well.)

4. Ireland's __ Islands : ARAN

5. Audio giant : BOSE - ah, not SONY - had the "O" first

6. Cross to bear : ONUS

7. View from The Hague : NORTH SEA

8. Graph- ending : EME - Grapheme, the smallest semantically distinguishing unit in a written language

9. Cooperstown charter member : TY COBB - Not a baseball guy; I went with "C. Young" to start - can you tell I had the "Y" first~?!?

10. There's a lot of interest in it : USURY - I have one credit card that is 19.99% - getting close to my definition of usury

11. Food cooked in an imu : POI - Hawaiian cooking - more here

12. Method : FASHION

13. Accruing fines, maybe : OVERDUE

14. Did a double take? : RE-SHOT - as in photography

18. Chafes : RUBS RAW

24. Kin of -ish : OID - Roundish object = spheroid

27. Spring bloom : TULIP

28. Distract the security guard, say : ABET

30. Pampas weapons : BOLAS

32. Assignment : MISSION - "Your mission, should you choose to accept it...."

34. Half: Pref. : HEMI - Like Dodge advertises, their "HEMI" engine just means the cylinder shape is half round at the top

36. Fuel that built the Rockefeller fortune : KEROSENE - Learned this from watching "The Men Who Built America" from History channel

37. Adjective for "Pygmalion" or "Major Barbara" : SHAVIAN - of, pertaining to, or characteristic of George Bernard Shaw or his works: Shavian humor.

38. Shower paraphernalia : LAYETTE - Baby shower, that is; an outfit of clothing or bedding

39. Hound : NAG - ah, not DOG - the verb, not the noun

40. Like owls : TALONED

41. Lock-changing tool? : HAIR DYE - nice

42. See 57-Down : CHESTS, 57. With 42-Down, spots for sailors' gear : SEA

44. Luanda's land : ANGOLA

46. Triggers a bleep, maybe : CUSSES - @$#%X~!!!

48. Icelandic singer : BJORK - I had -J-RK to start, and it worked~!

53. Org. that rejects bad eggs : USDA - literally

54. Van. alternative : CHOColate - I saw the "." after Van(illa) and so I wondered if it might be referring to Van(couver), which happens to be in the same area as....

55. Recent Yankee star named for Jackie Robinson : CANO - Robinson Cano is now with the Seattle Mariners, 10yrs, $240mil.  Yeah.

58. Scand. kingdom : NORway - not q u i t e ...a duplication of the name in 17a.

Splynter

Note from C.C.:


Happy Birthday to dear Skip (Hondo on the blog), who is a huge fan of UConn women's Basketball. He's also an expert on vintage sports cards & attends shows often on weekends. Besides Marti, Dudley & Montana, Hondo also met Irish Miss in person.

Left to Right: Marti, Dudley, Hondo & Montana