Wednesday, August 13, 2014 Kurt Krauss

Theme: Critic's Nightmare - The last word of each theme entry indicates a less-than-stellar assessment of a production.

17A. High-jump style named for 1968 Olympic gold medalist Dick : FOSBURY FLOP. Revolutionary (!) technique introduced by this OSU student:

23A. Morning-after shot : HAIR OF THE DOG. I swear I've never felt like I've needed one, honestly. No, really. Oh well, maybe once.

36A. Last Martin/Lewis film : HOLLYWOOD OR BUST. Dean and Jerry road caper also starring Anita Ekberg. She gets the picture honors.

49A. Subject of 1950s testing : HYDROGEN BOMB.

58A. Lays it on the line : TALKS TURKEY. A curious expression, with no truly believable explanation as to it's origins (apostrophe uncertainty precedes).

Hi everyone - Steve here with Kurt's latest midweeker. I enjoyed the theme and, as convention allows, there's no reveal required as the link between the entries is reasonably obvious. Some nice long downs too. Although there were quite a few 3's, the grid was thankfully light on abbreviations. Nice job!

Let's see what else jumps out.

Across:

1. AARP concern : AGEISM

7. Other, in Oaxaca : OTRA

11. AOL chats : IM'S. Instant messages, IMHO.

14. Quick look : GLANCE

15. Need to retake in summer school, say : FAIL

16. Sylvester, to Tweety : TAT. More usually "Puddy Tat".

19. Andean vegetable : OCA. They call it a yam in New Zealand, for absolutely no good reason that I can see. Popeye in New Zealand says "I oca what I oca". No, I made that up. Food!

20. Adams of "American Hustle" : AMY. Thank you, crosses. 2013 comedy drama which never even blipped on my radar, I had to go look it up.

21. Sitter's handful : BRAT

22. Signal to stop, with "down" : FLAG

27. Spoke out against : OPPOSED

30. Zany : LOONY. Tweety's "Tunes" brand name is spelled with an additional "E".

31. Lobster part : CLAW. Not if you're a spiny lobster. Food!

32. "Wish you __ here!" : WERE

33. Expose, in verse : OPE. Romeo, on the subject of Juliet:

"She will not stay the siege of loving terms,

Nor bide th' encounter of assailing eyes,

Nor ope her lap to saint-seducing gold."

She sounds like one tough cookie!

41. Cold War missile prog. : S.D.I. Strategic Defense Initiative, or derisively "Star Wars".

42. Sound from a pen : OINK

43. Former VOA overseer : USIA. Unknown to me - thank you, crosses! I now know that the United States Information Agency was the overseer of the Voice of America broadcasts.

44. "Bye Bye Bye" boy band : 'N SYNC. No music links yet - I'll spare you this one.

46. Stumped : AT A LOSS

52. Big-grin borders : EARS. Fun clue. Grinning from ear to ear.

53. Flying prefix : AERO

54. Unlike a spring chicken : OLD

57. "Alice" waitress : FLO. 70's-80's CBS sitcom.

62. San Antonio NBA star Duncan : TIM. A very pleasant, self-effacing man if you've ever seen him interviewed.

63. Skin soother : ALOE

64. Daily special, e.g. : ENTRÉE. When I moved to the US I was confused by this being the main course - in England and France it means a course between the appetizer and the main. Marti would not bat an eyelid at three courses, but wonder why we don't all have aperitivo, antipasto, primo, secondo e contorno, insalata, formaggi et fruti, dolce, caffè and digestivo every Wednesday. And that doesn't even include the wine! Fooood! I'm moving to Italy.

65. "Comprende?" : SEE? The more I think about this, the more it seems odd - wouldn't we expect a Spanish answer here (except that the only one I can think of is "Entiende?" and that doesn't fit!)?

66. Remain up in the air : PEND

67. Swordfish servings : STEAKS. Food-fest today.

Down:

1. Former Belgian camera brand : AGFA. Knew the name, but didn't know it was a Belgian company.

2. Steal, slangily : GLOM. Crosses helped here - I thought GLOM meant "cling to, annoyingly".

3. Simple : EASY

4. Having five sharps, musically : IN 'B'

5. Dives with a tank : SCUBAS

6. Like olde England : MERRIE. Quite a lot of times not so much; plenty of wars, famine, pestilence and London catching fire to keep you on your toes.

7. __ a good start : OFF TO

8. 1960s chess champ Mikhail : TAL. Crosses again. This might be a little obscure, what do you think?

9. Ebro, por ejemplo : RIO. 578 miles long, it drains into the Mediterranean Sea. Pretty!

10. Swiss skyline sight : ALP

11. "Shoulda listened to me!" : I TOLD YOU SO

12. Region on the South China Sea : MACAO. A short ferry ride from Hong Kong and popular with gamblers.

13. Immortal college coach Amos Alonzo __ : STAGG

18. Farm attachment? : YARD

22. Bog : FEN. This seems to have cropped up a few times recently.

23. Lupine cry : HOWL

24. Took it on the lam : FLED

25. Deere competitor : TORO

26. Field worker : HOER. Hmmmm. I'll leave it at that.

27. Adolph of publishing : OCHS. Former "New York Times" owner. I never made the connection before, but when Ochs built a new headquarters in 1904 for the Times on what was then Longacre Square in Manhattan, the city renamed it "Times Square".

28. Walk with effort : PLOD

29. Mom or dad, e.g. : PALINDROME. Nice word, fun clue.

32. Bowl-shaped pan : WOK

34. Greek consonants : PSIS

35. Greek vowels : ETAS

37. Ma with a cello : YO-YO. Great stuff.

38. Annex : WING

39. "If I told you __ ..." : ONCE

40. Tulip-to-be : BULB

45. Soon-to-be alumni: Abbr. : SRS

46. Fivers : ABES. "Lady Godivas" in UK rhyming slang (she's not on the note, alas!)

47. Flourless cakes : TORTES. Food!

48. Invoice figure : AMOUNT

49. Lifts with effort : HEFTS

50. Connecticut collegian : YALIE. We had the plural on Monday.

51. In one's birthday suit : NAKED. Just like Lady Godiva.

54. Pickled or deep-fried veggie : OKRA. Food!

55. Onion relative : LEEK. Food!

56. Colorist's supplies : DYES

58. Bug on a wire : TAP

59. Microbrew choice : ALE. Comes out of a 58D!

60. Horror star Chaney : LON

61. Driver's decision: Abbr. : RTE. I let Google Maps make those decisions for me now, it does a much better job than I ever did.

And, in the words of Sylvester and Tweety: That's all, Folks!

Steve

Notes from C.C.:

1) Happy Birthday to our Jam Master Chickie! Chickie has a loving & tight-knit family. Her kids and grandkids will probably celebrate her birthday this weekend.

L to R: Chickie, Lucina, Garlic Gal, JD, and Dodo

2) Happy Birthday to Spitzboov's wife Betty as well! Don't miss this "It Matters Where You Put the Tag" & this Christ the Redeemer construction work links Spitzboov got for us the past couple of days. This vacuum one made me laugh out loud also.

Spitzboov & Betty at the reunion dinner held at the US Coast Guard Academy, New London, CT, 2012