Saturday, Jul 5th, 2014, Melanie Miller

Theme: None

Words: 68 (missing B,F,J,Q,X,Y,Z)

Blocks: 25

   We have us a new Saturday constructor~!  Melanie has had 5 LAT puzzles, with the last one coming in Feb on a Monday.  Today's offering had some similar clues/answers to that grid, I noticed.  Chunky corners of 9's and 8's, with two 11-letter fills on the inside.  Fairly difficult for a Saturday, IMHO, but I was able to solve without any look-ups or cheating, and only the SW corner requiring some WAGs to complete.  The two longer answers:

20a. Ranks achieved by Armstrong and Lovell : EAGLE SCOUTS - Two astronauts who reached the highest 'rank' in the Boy Scouts - Wiki

53a. Events after shootings : WRAP PARTIES - Melanie's last puzzle was a "party" theme, and this in not the violent kind of shooting, but the movie set type - I worked on a made-for-TV film way back in '97, and we had us a Wrap Party the following summer with a preview of the finished show.

"OM" ward~! (working my 60a.)

ACROSS:

1. Harassed, in a way : HEN-PECKED

10. Lenox brand : DANSK - their enameled steel cookware looks familar

15. Busy state to go into : OVERDRIVE

16. Boiling : IRATE

17. Made for the tube : TELEGENIC

18. Decalogue delivery site : SINAI

19. They may hook you up, briefly : RNs - Hook you up to IVs, tho I have seen certain movies....

22. Los __, city near San Luis Obispo : OSOS

24. Greenland capital : KRONE - this being the money kind of capital, not the city

25. Flanged bit of hardware : T-NUT

26. Powder holder : DONUT - Cute

28. Added a little to the pot : ANTED

30. Took in takeout : ATE - Nice clue alliteration

31. First lady after Bess : MAMIE - Truman and Eisenhower

33. Kind : MANNER

35. Kind of support : SPOUSAL

38. "Tritsch-Tratsch-Polka" composer : STRAUSS

39. "The Fox and the Hound" hound : COPPER - What does the fox say?

40. Stops running? : CLOTS - Ah, like wounds

41. Beluga output : ROE

42. Arabian capital : SANA'A - Yemen

44. "__ luego" : HASTA

48. Bald eagle cousins : ERNS

50. Settles : CALMS

52. Start of many a prayer : LORD

56. Crib cry : WAH - Two cries, and it's a guitar effects pedal....

57. Gugino of "Night at the Museum" : CARLA - a WAG with the --RL- in place

58. Exterminator's target : CENTIPEDE - among other creepy-crawlies; 'round here, it's ants, crickets and lately, wasps

60. Hindu principle of life : ĀTMAN - this was a WAG for me, too

61. "The Raven" feature : OCTAMETER

62. Pains : PESTS

63. Pump house? : SHOE STORE - Nailed it; I love women in platform pumps - so sexy - and if they zip up at the back....ha-muna ha-muna

DOWN:

1. Zoom : HOT-ROD - the verb, not the noun

2. Yet : EVEN SO

3. Hold on a mat : NELSON - Educated WAG

4. Start to date? : PRE - predate, as in 'comes before'

5. It's uncomfortable to be on it : EDGE

6. Sign of age : CREAK - I had CRACK to start, pretty close; that's 80% right

7. Large, long-billed marsh bird : KING RAIL

8. Satan : EVIL ONE - because MIROSLAV was too long; shoulda played for the NJ Devils....

9. Respectable : DECENT - Are you dressed?

10. Round snow toy : DISC - I had a wood and metal sled as a kid

11. "That's __!": "Funny!" : A RIOT

12. Otherworldly greeting? : NANU-NANU - Mork from Ork's greeting

13. Former bills : STATUTES

14. Bums' American counterparts : KEISTERS - anyone else see this as "B-u-r-n-s" first?  Once I had the K----STER, I figured out my eyes were getting a bit wacky

21. Look that way : SEEM TO

23. Recap : SUM UP

27. Stuns in an arrest : TASEs

29. Sith title : DARTH - Star Wars reference, which I won't miss~! Vader, Maul, and others

32. Rumba shaker : MARACA - shaking like your keister

34. Cavity opening? : NASAL

35. Cork alternative : SCREW-CAP - DAH~! I wanted TWIST-CAP, but I knew ROE was correct

36. Elizabethan property tax to benefit the disadvantaged : POOR RATE - the "T" was my last fill

37. Title words before "Nothing to hide," in a Journey hit : OPEN ARMS - Link away~!

38. Collide with : SLAM INTO

40. MIT rival, despite the distance : CALTECH

43. Some agents : NARCOs

45. Site of a 1976 anti-apartheid uprising : SOWETO - Part of Johannesburg, South Africa

46. Broker's customer : TRADER

47. Hold tight : ADHERE

49. Fall sound : "SPLAT~!"

51. Spiders' sensors, e.g. : SETAE - Latin for bristle, it's the hairs on a spider's legs, e.g.

54. Sweeps the set : PANS - another movie-making term

55. Virtual people, in a popular game series : SIMs - I love Sim City, but couldn't get into the virtual reality of the individual people version of the game (but I do have it).  Here's the crop circles that UFOs left on my farm in my last Sim City game

59. Ferret, for one : PET - My roomie in Cincinnati, OH had one - they bite...literally

Splynter