17A. Rolling Stones guitarist : RON WOOD. Prior to the Stones, he was Rod Stewart's sideman with "The Faces". Tearing it up in 1972 in London.
25A. Harpers Ferry raider : JOHN BROWN. His soul goes marching on.
50A. Legendary Manhattan restaurateur : TOOTS SHOR. When Charlie Chaplin complained about having to stand in line, Toots told him to entertain the others while they were waiting.
61A. "The Joy of Painting" artist : BOB ROSS. Ron Wood may have started with one of Bob's kits, he's an accomplished water-colorist.
20D. Regular on Bob Newhart sitcoms : TOM POSTON. He played the bumbling George Utley.
and the reveal
39A. 1976 horror classic ... and, read another way, group that appears at 17-, 25-, 50- and 61-Across and 20-Down : THE OMEN. Alternatively, THE O-MEN. Flashback nightmares for me; after watching The Exorcist and this terror-fest at an early age, I swore off horror movies for ever.
Good morning all! Steve here with Andrew's Wednesday Workout, and I confess this was a real tester for me. Bob Ross and Tom Poston were both unknowns, and there was some real crunch in the fill. I thought this was a tremendous puzzle. Six theme entries, some sparkly non-themers and not much wince-worthy made for a really fun test. One of the highlights in the fill that I loved was the OMEGA/OMICRON pair - not only a shout-out to the main theme, but I'd never made the "Mega" and "Micron" connection before. A great learning moment.
Across:
1. Part of a Genesis-inspired costume : FIG LEAF
8. Tom in an alley : MALE CAT. Hanna-Barbera's version. I can still remember the theme song pretty much word-for-word.
15. Good-natured : AMIABLE. I had to leave this alone and go back to it - I couldn't understand why AMICABLE wouldn't work when I had the "AM" and the "LE"
16. Vivid language : IMAGERY
18. Fuddy-duddies : CODGERS
19. "__ said it!" : YOU
20. Cross at a frat : TAU
21. Bloke's bathroom : LOO. I tried "LAV" first against all common sense.
22. "RUR" playwright : CAPEK. This was about as tough pulling this from the inner recesses of my brain as pushing a strand of wet spaghetti uphill.
28. Trash emanation : ODOR. Not PONG, which was my first thought. I seemed to have my English head screwed on today, it might be a side-effect of watching the World Cup and calling "soccer" "football" again.
29. Sponge, as a smoke : BUM
30. TNT part : TRI. Nitrotoluene is the rest. Makes a big bang when it's all put together.
31. Chain including the Matterhorn : SWISS ALPS. I've skied the Matterhorn. Well, the ski-able bits at the bottom. It looks mightily impressive from the Swiss side, but from the Italian side it just looks like a craggy lump.
 |
| Matterhorn, Italian-style |
38. "Oh, wow!" : MAN
41. "Hunh?" : WHA'?
42. Weed control giant : ORTHO
44. George Orwell or George Eliot : PSEUDONYM. Eric Blair and Mary Evans. Evans used a man's name to ensure her works would be taken seriously. Orwell is famously known for Animal Farm and 1984, his other books are also worth exploring, he was a wonderful writer.
46. Hoppy brew, for short : I.P.A. India Pale Ale. Beer shipped to the British troops in India in the 1800's would often arrive spoiled due to the long sea journey and the heat. Faced with a lot of sulky faces in the ranks, the IPA recipe was developed - it increased the hops and alcohol content to act as natural preservatives.
48. Road surface : TAR
49. Re-re-re-re-shared link on Facebook, e.g. : MEME
54. Fall beverage : CIDER
55. Roadie's unit : AMP. Jackson Browne's homage to the roadies and the fans.
56. Dawson in the first Super Bowl : LEN
57. Soft slip-on : MOC. I'm not sure if I knew this or WAG'd it. The latter, I think.
58. More prepared : READIER
65. Suitable for tweens, usually : PG-RATED. The more common usage is "Rated PG" but this variant is perfectly OK.
66. Weaken from disuse : ATROPHY
67. Ancient provincial governors : SATRAPS. Dear Perps. Thank You. Kind Regards, Steve.
68. Suffragist Elizabeth Cady __ : STANTON. You'd better be up on your suffragists today. There's a potential Natick with 57D if you're not careful.
Down:
1. Not within walking distance : FAR. Kind of an odd clue here - something can be far, but still walkable, just a long walk. No? The Proclaimers didn't think 500 miles was too far.
2. "I'd say," in texts : IMO. In My Opinion. Usually seen with an embedded H for 'Humble".
3. Rickey ingredient : GIN. Perps all the way. I'd never heard of a Rickey. I discover it is gin (originally bourbon), lime juice and soda. Cover your ears, Tinman - it's got one cube of ice in it.
4. Ones doing case studies : LAWYERS
5. Tablet download : EBOOK. Tortuous brain-path from apps, through painkiller pill scripts to the final result.
6. Baseball's Moises : ALOU. I knew the name, but little about the man. I looked him up, and discovered he had a rather novel way of toughening his hands as he didn't wear batting gloves. I'll let you read it for yourselves if you're interested. Not over breakfast, probably. C.C. surely knows all about him.
7. Gave lunch to : FED
8. Old Testament prophet : MICAH
9. PayPal figure : AMOUNT
10. Young chap : LAD
11. Quiche base : EGG. Food! And is this a misdirection or - shhhhhh - a mistake? The base of the quiche filling is egg, but the base of the quiche itself is pastry. What say all y'all?
12. Hip-hop star Green : CEE-LO. I sat next to Mr. Green on a flight from New York to London. Bizarrely, I was listening to "Crazy" on my iPod when he boarded and sat next to me.
13. "This way" symbol : ARROW
14. "The Pluto Files" author Neil deGrasse __ : TYSON.
22. Fruity cocktail, familiarly : COSMO. It's a cocktail-fest in the downs today!
23. Pitching duel? : AD WAR. Loved it.
24. Writing end : POINT
25. Minty Derby cocktail : JULEP. That makes three cocktails in five minutes, I'd better slow down *hiccup*
26. Product name : BRAND
27. Baby-back goodie : RIB. Perfect, ribs and quiche to go with the cocktails.
29. "Dang it!" : BAH
32. Local stations : STOPS. Yeah, I guess so. Local stops could also be stations.
33. Makeup mishap : SMEAR
35. Didn't lease : OWNED
36. Sample, for example : RHYME. Lovely clue.
37. Worker with show tigers : TAMER
40. 31-Across locale: Abbr. : EUR
43. Bomb opposite : HIT
45. Greek for "little O" : OMICRON. As I mentioned at the top, I loved this pairing with 51D and the cunning tie-in to the theme. When I realized O-micron and O-mega indicated the size of the letter I was thoroughly entertained and educated. Bravo, Andrew!
47. Dreaming, say : ASLEEP
50. Canvas covers : TARPS
51. Greek for "big O" : OMEGA
52. Mesmerizing designs : OP-ART. This was a gimme for CrossEyedDave!
53. Steers the steers : HERDS. Another nice clue.
54. Deadly snake : COBRA
57. Suffragist Lucretia : MOTT. I'm up on my British suffragettes, not so much the US suffragists. Crosses took care of most of Mott, and I think I knew Ms. Stanton, so potential Natick nastiness avoided.
59. Patriotic women's org. : D.A.R. I'm blindly going to call this one: "Daughters of the American Revolution" and not fact-check to see if I really have learned this one from crosswords. How did I do?
60. Feminizing Spanish suffix : ITA
61. English lit degrees : BAs Bachelor of Arts-es (way to make an ugly-looking plural!)
62. Choose : OPT
63. "Homeland" airer, briefly : SHO. Showtime, usually part of a premium cable package.
64. Specimen, for example: Abbr. : SYN. I got the answer through crosses, but I stared at this for ages trying to understand it before the penny FINALLY dropped. SYN is an abbreviation for "synonym", and "specimen" & "example" are synonyms. Devious!
Well, that's it from me. I'm in sports junkie heaven. World Cup soccer! GO USA!
Steve
Note from C.C.:
1) Today's constructor Andrew J. Ries is from St. Cloud, Minnesota. Andrew also made a puzzle for the the
third Minnesota Crossword Tournament which will be held on June 22,
2014 at The Landmark Center in Saint Paul. Please click here for more information.
2) In case some of you skipped the comments yesterday, Steve linked a fantastic picture of him at the bike leg of the 1989 Winchester Triathlon.
2) In case some of you skipped the comments yesterday, Steve linked a fantastic picture of him at the bike leg of the 1989 Winchester Triathlon.
