Wednesday, Feb 19, 2014 Jeffrey Wechsler

Theme: Heads Up! The first word in each theme answer references a Head of State.

17A. Confederate slogan symbolizing financial independence : KING COTTON. 

King Charles I of England

24A. Romaine lettuce dishes : CAESAR SALADS. Food! Created in Tijuana in 1924 by Caesar Cardini.

Caesar Augustus

39A. "Happy Feet" critters : EMPEROR PENGUINS. There are King Penguins too. I believe "penguin" comes from the Welsh for "black head".

Emperor Napoleon

50A. Study guides for literature students : MONARCH NOTES. This is the slight odd-man-out of the five as "monarch" is a collective term for Kings, Kaisers, Caesars and Emperors (amongst others) - There's no "Monarch Steve I of Studio City" as much as we may like to have one.

64A. Sandwich choice : KAISER ROLL. More! Food! There are many theories around the origin of the name.

Kaiser Wilhelm I of Prussia

Happy Wednesday everyone - Steve here with Jeffrey's foray through the crowned, be-hatted or be-laurelled luminaries of historical Europe. Some nice symmetry with the theme - three plurals bracketed by a singular top and bottom. If I was to put on my purist hat (or crown) then the slight odd-man-out-ness of the "Monarch" entry would bother me, but I'll leave that hat in the closet and I'm happy!
 
Across:

1. Appliance connector, briefly : AC PLUG. The handiest gadget I've got in my travel bag is a universal adapter for my US-standard AC plug and any international socket.

7. Cairo cobra : ASP

10. Selling site with a Half.com division : EBAY

14. Point in the right direction : ORIENT

15. Bather's facility : SPA

16. No longer green, perhaps : RIPE

19. Asia Minor honorific : AGHA

20. Swipe : STEAL

21. Thin soup : BROTH

23. Plywood wood : FIR

27. Literary alter ego : MR HYDE. Growing up, I always thought Dr. Jekyll seemed more fearsome just from the sound of the name.

Egads!

30. Slowing, to the orch. : RIT. From the Italian "ritardando", gradually getting slower.

31. Great Lakes' __ Canals : SOO

32. Speak harshly : RASP

36. Co-founding SkyTeam airline : DELTA. I've flown over a million miles, and oddly only a single round trip from LAX to Atlanta on Delta.

43. Small thicket : COPSE

44. Sans serif, e.g. : TYPE. In honor of this clue let's use Helvetica as the typeface.

45. Razor-billed diver : AUK

46. "Isn't __ shame?" : IT A

47. Sudden jets : SPURTS

56. Cousin of edu : ORG. There used to be a only couple or three more cousins like .com, .gov and .mil, now there's a whole bunch.

57. Municipal ribbon cutter, often : MAYOR. Or John Lennon.

58. Rapper __ Shakur : TUPAC

62. Femme fatale : VAMP

66. List catchall : ET AL From the latin "et alia", "and others". Compare and contrast with "et cetera", "and the rest".

67. Sci-fi staples : E.T. s. They bring their own cellphones with them now.

68. Rest of the afternoon : SIESTA

69. Modernize : REDO

70. Messy digs : STY

71. How coal may be priced : PER TON

Down:

1. Launchpad thumbs-ups : A-OKs. A shameless plug for Team Oracle's stunt pilot Sean Tucker.

2. Review, briefly : CRIT

3. Long (for) : PINE

4. Inheritance : LEGACY

5. Naked : UNCLAD

6. Potent '60s-'70s Pontiac : GTO

7. Stars in Kansas' motto : ASTRA. "Ad astra per aspera" - "To the stars through adversity". Very similar to the Royal Air Force's "Per adua ad astra" - "Through struggle to the stars". Lots of Latin today!

8. Animal trail : SPOOR. That's a nice polite way of describing it.

9. Khakis, e.g. : PANTS

10. Timeline chapter : ERA

11. Deceitful sort, on the playground : BIG FAT LIAR

12. Sap sucker : APHID

13. Century units : YEARS

18. "Very funny" TV station : TBS. TBS has a place in TV history as the first "superstation" when Ted Turner took the then-unheard of step of distributing this local Atlanta station via satellite enabling the station to be received nationwide.

22. Good start? : HARD G

25. Architect Saarinen : EERO

26. In __ of: replacing : LIEU

27. Connection rate meas. : M-SEC. Measuring the speed of data connections in milliseconds.

28. Cowboys quarterback Tony : ROMO

"I can't believe I just did that"

29. Fit to be tied : HOPPING MAD. Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, often, after watching Tony Romo.

33. Getty collection : ART

34. Le Carré's Smiley, for one : SPY

35. Get-up-and-go : PEP

37. Fastener with flanges : T-NUT

38. Seeks, with "for" : ASKS

40. Picasso's "this" : ESTA

41. Provide with new weaponry : RE-ARM

42. __ egg : NEST

48. "The Dick Van Dyke Show" surname : PETRIE. Rob, played by Dick.

49. Figure of high interest? : USURER. Favorite clue/answer of the day.

50. Man with a van, perhaps : MOVER

51. Emulate Cicero : ORATE

52. "Ace of __": 2000s Food Network bakery show : CAKES. Food! or Art?

53. Marriott rival : HYATT

54. Like leaf blowers : NOISY

55. RN workplaces : ORs

59. Military assignment : POST

60. Certain chorister : ALTO

61. Family group : CLAN

63. West Bank gp. : P.L.O. Mahmoud Abbas is the current leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

65. Debatable "gift" : ESP

That's all,  Folks. As Tupac would say - "It's a rap".

Steve