Theme: Unlike the Liberty Bell
17A. Well-cast "Into the Woods" actress? : MERYL STREEP
23A. Well-cast "An Education" actress? : EMMA THOMPSON
47A. Well-cast "Duplicity" actress? : JULIA ROBERTS
57A. Well-cast "Birds of America" actress? : HILARY SWANK
35A. Director's explanation as to why this puzzle's actresses were well-cast? : IT'S ALL IN THE NAME
Four movies, four actresses that appeared in the movie and four four-letter nouns embedded that relate in some way to the title.
Neat enough puzzle, although there can be a problem with proper name themes in that once you've tumbled the gimmick you can generally fill in a whole lot of squares without a great deal of thought. I've not seen any of the movies, but the actresses came pretty quickly.
Let's see what else we've got:
Across:
1. Home of the Great Sphinx : EGYPT. The nose and beard are missing. According to one version of the story, the nose was shot off by a cannonball fired by Napoleon's soldiers.
6. French thinkers? : TÊTES. From whence come idées. I'm going to Paris next weekend, so a good time to brush up on my French.
11. Priestly garb : ALB
14. Charter : LEASE
15. Discharge : EGEST. New to me, but patently a perfectly good word. Makes throwing up sound classy.
16. __ chi : TAI
19. It's used for some trips : LSD. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds - no, wait, Lysergic acid diethylamide.
20. Bank customer acct. datum : S.S.N. I mentally parsed DEP, BAL and CHK before making SSNse of the clue.
21. Tackle box items : LURES
22. It may have a nice bouquet : VASE. Could have been WINE. Wasn't.
26. Like the Detroit Lions in 2008 : WINLESS. A season of futility leading to the worst record in NFL history. They did, naturally, get the first draft pick in 2009 and selected QB Matthew Stafford. It didn't immediately do much good - they went 2-14 that year.
29. Financial pg. topics : I.P.O'S
30. Clod breakers : HOES
31. __ arguments : ORAL. Stop snickering at the back.
32. Spat : ROW
40. Familiar saint? : PAT. I don't mind this so much, but seeing "St. Patty" drives me crazy. He's not a burger. My Dad was Uncle Paddy to the nephews and nieces.
41. Gets ready to fire : AIMS
42. "Zounds!" : EGAD. We've had the "offensive" debate before, but I didn't read this article on "minced oaths" until just now. Interesting stuff.
43. Cable service extras : DVRS. Digital Video Recorders rather than your basic decoder box.
44. "Spoon River Anthology" poet : MASTERS. Thank you crosses - I'd not heard of this before. Looks like it might be a fun read.
51. Fissionable particle : ATOM. Strictly speaking, an atom isn't a particle, it's comprised of particles - protons, neutrons and electrons.
52. "Sorry, __ go!" : GOTTA
53. Whale watcher's dream : POD. Or a pea-sheller's nightmare, one of the two.
56. Software issue : BUG. I read somewhere that there's likely to be a bug in every 11 lines of code. During my coding days, I reckon I probably wrote somewhere north of 100,000 lines, so I was personally responsible for around 9,100 bugs. Sorry.
60. Bud : BRO
61. "Is that __?": challenging words : A DARE. Usually ends badly.
62. Quad Cities resident, maybe : IOWAN. If you're from Davenport or Bettendorf. Not if you're from Rock Island, Moline or East Moline. I'm sure there's a perfectly reasonable explanation why there are five cities.
63. Rule of crime writing : ANN. Crosses filled this in for me, I didn't see the fill until now. Just as well, I'd never heard of her.
64. Actresses Diane and Cheryl : LADDS. I think I might have tried to construct this area differently to avoid another "actress" entry given the theme.
65. Address to a boy : SONNY
Down:
1. O'Neill's "Desire Under the __" : ELMS
2. Heist units : GEES. As in 1,000's. Fun clue.
3. Unlikely story : YARN. A priest, a rabbi and an imam walk into a bar. The bartender says "This is a joke, right?".
4. Subj. involving cognitive development : PSY. cology.
5. "Spill it!" : TELL ME
6. Aquarium fish : TETRAS. Fish do totally inconsistent things with plurals. Including "fish" itself.
7. Wetlands wader : EGRET
8. Top choice : TEE SHIRT
9. Legal conclusion? : -ESE
10. Brake fluid brand : STP. The name comes from "Scientifically Treated Petroleum. Now we know.
11. Low-tech GPS? : ATLAS. Nice clue. Modern GPS actually tells you where you are, rather than you pointing hopefully at a page in the atlas and saying "I think we're here".
12. Stock holder? : LASSO
13. Former senator known as "Amtrak Joe" : BIDEN. Amtrak's Wilmington station is named for Joe in honor of the more than 7,000 trips he took into DC from there.
18. Totals : SUMS
22. LBJ and Nixon, e.g. : VP'S
23. Einstein's second wife : ELSA. Thank you, crosses.
24. Hawaiian food fish : OPAH. Because humuhumunukunukuapua`a doesn't fit.
25. Lawn problem : MOLE
26. Blender button : WHIP. Really? Mine has "On" and "Off", I only use it to blend smoothies. I have more suitable whipping tools. Like a whisk.
27. Bit : IOTA
28. Brooding spot : NEST
31. Iron-__ : ONS.
32. Extreme road response : RAGE
33. "Rubáiyát" poet : OMAR. Here was I wondering "Why don't I know who wrote "The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam? I'm sure I must!" And then the penny dropped.
34. Brings together : WEDS
36. California's __ Beds National Monument : LAVA. Beautiful spot in Northern California.
37. Way to get to N.Y.'s Citi Field : L.I.R.R.. Long Island Railroad. 17 miles and 25 minutes from Penn Station gets you to the ballpark.
38. Response to happy news : I'M SO GLAD
39. Brings home : NETS
43. Lacking luster : DIM
44. Scotland yards? : METRES. 39.3701 inches, so a wee tad more than a yard, laddie. Euro-spelling. Fun clue.
45. Pretentious : ARTY. Moi?
46. Balanced state : STASIS
47. "Star Wars" villain : JABBA. Big bloke, if I remember correctly.
48. Reversal : U-TURN
49. Start a telecommuting session : LOGON. That's me, most mornings. Not this morning - doing the Burbank - SFO commute with United. They were nice enough to upgrade me to First too. I ♥ UAL.
50. Advisory body : BOARD
53. Puppet : PAWN
54. Put-act link : ON AN
55. Designer label initials : DKNY. Donna Karan, New York.
57. Evil computer of film : HAL "I'm sorry, Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that".
58. NW state : IDA -ho.
59. Court : WOO
Here's the grid with the circles for those of you missing then, and that's going to do it for me.
Steve
Front Row (Left to Right: Grady & his dad Derek; Truman (Grady's big brother) & mom Corie; Dylan and mom Shelby; Cameron (Dylan's big brother) and dad Joe.
Back Row: Proud grandparents JD & Bob.
17A. Well-cast "Into the Woods" actress? : MERYL STREEP
23A. Well-cast "An Education" actress? : EMMA THOMPSON
47A. Well-cast "Duplicity" actress? : JULIA ROBERTS
57A. Well-cast "Birds of America" actress? : HILARY SWANK
35A. Director's explanation as to why this puzzle's actresses were well-cast? : IT'S ALL IN THE NAME
Four movies, four actresses that appeared in the movie and four four-letter nouns embedded that relate in some way to the title.
Neat enough puzzle, although there can be a problem with proper name themes in that once you've tumbled the gimmick you can generally fill in a whole lot of squares without a great deal of thought. I've not seen any of the movies, but the actresses came pretty quickly.
Let's see what else we've got:
Across:
1. Home of the Great Sphinx : EGYPT. The nose and beard are missing. According to one version of the story, the nose was shot off by a cannonball fired by Napoleon's soldiers.
6. French thinkers? : TÊTES. From whence come idées. I'm going to Paris next weekend, so a good time to brush up on my French.
11. Priestly garb : ALB
14. Charter : LEASE
15. Discharge : EGEST. New to me, but patently a perfectly good word. Makes throwing up sound classy.
16. __ chi : TAI
19. It's used for some trips : LSD. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds - no, wait, Lysergic acid diethylamide.
20. Bank customer acct. datum : S.S.N. I mentally parsed DEP, BAL and CHK before making SSNse of the clue.
21. Tackle box items : LURES
22. It may have a nice bouquet : VASE. Could have been WINE. Wasn't.
26. Like the Detroit Lions in 2008 : WINLESS. A season of futility leading to the worst record in NFL history. They did, naturally, get the first draft pick in 2009 and selected QB Matthew Stafford. It didn't immediately do much good - they went 2-14 that year.
29. Financial pg. topics : I.P.O'S
30. Clod breakers : HOES
31. __ arguments : ORAL. Stop snickering at the back.
32. Spat : ROW
40. Familiar saint? : PAT. I don't mind this so much, but seeing "St. Patty" drives me crazy. He's not a burger. My Dad was Uncle Paddy to the nephews and nieces.
41. Gets ready to fire : AIMS
42. "Zounds!" : EGAD. We've had the "offensive" debate before, but I didn't read this article on "minced oaths" until just now. Interesting stuff.
43. Cable service extras : DVRS. Digital Video Recorders rather than your basic decoder box.
44. "Spoon River Anthology" poet : MASTERS. Thank you crosses - I'd not heard of this before. Looks like it might be a fun read.
51. Fissionable particle : ATOM. Strictly speaking, an atom isn't a particle, it's comprised of particles - protons, neutrons and electrons.
52. "Sorry, __ go!" : GOTTA
53. Whale watcher's dream : POD. Or a pea-sheller's nightmare, one of the two.
56. Software issue : BUG. I read somewhere that there's likely to be a bug in every 11 lines of code. During my coding days, I reckon I probably wrote somewhere north of 100,000 lines, so I was personally responsible for around 9,100 bugs. Sorry.
60. Bud : BRO
61. "Is that __?": challenging words : A DARE. Usually ends badly.
62. Quad Cities resident, maybe : IOWAN. If you're from Davenport or Bettendorf. Not if you're from Rock Island, Moline or East Moline. I'm sure there's a perfectly reasonable explanation why there are five cities.
63. Rule of crime writing : ANN. Crosses filled this in for me, I didn't see the fill until now. Just as well, I'd never heard of her.
64. Actresses Diane and Cheryl : LADDS. I think I might have tried to construct this area differently to avoid another "actress" entry given the theme.
65. Address to a boy : SONNY
Down:
1. O'Neill's "Desire Under the __" : ELMS
2. Heist units : GEES. As in 1,000's. Fun clue.
3. Unlikely story : YARN. A priest, a rabbi and an imam walk into a bar. The bartender says "This is a joke, right?".
4. Subj. involving cognitive development : PSY. cology.
5. "Spill it!" : TELL ME
6. Aquarium fish : TETRAS. Fish do totally inconsistent things with plurals. Including "fish" itself.
7. Wetlands wader : EGRET
8. Top choice : TEE SHIRT
9. Legal conclusion? : -ESE
10. Brake fluid brand : STP. The name comes from "Scientifically Treated Petroleum. Now we know.
11. Low-tech GPS? : ATLAS. Nice clue. Modern GPS actually tells you where you are, rather than you pointing hopefully at a page in the atlas and saying "I think we're here".
12. Stock holder? : LASSO
13. Former senator known as "Amtrak Joe" : BIDEN. Amtrak's Wilmington station is named for Joe in honor of the more than 7,000 trips he took into DC from there.
18. Totals : SUMS
22. LBJ and Nixon, e.g. : VP'S
23. Einstein's second wife : ELSA. Thank you, crosses.
24. Hawaiian food fish : OPAH. Because humuhumunukunukuapua`a doesn't fit.
25. Lawn problem : MOLE
26. Blender button : WHIP. Really? Mine has "On" and "Off", I only use it to blend smoothies. I have more suitable whipping tools. Like a whisk.
27. Bit : IOTA
28. Brooding spot : NEST
31. Iron-__ : ONS.
32. Extreme road response : RAGE
33. "Rubáiyát" poet : OMAR. Here was I wondering "Why don't I know who wrote "The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam? I'm sure I must!" And then the penny dropped.
34. Brings together : WEDS
36. California's __ Beds National Monument : LAVA. Beautiful spot in Northern California.
37. Way to get to N.Y.'s Citi Field : L.I.R.R.. Long Island Railroad. 17 miles and 25 minutes from Penn Station gets you to the ballpark.
38. Response to happy news : I'M SO GLAD
39. Brings home : NETS
43. Lacking luster : DIM
44. Scotland yards? : METRES. 39.3701 inches, so a wee tad more than a yard, laddie. Euro-spelling. Fun clue.
45. Pretentious : ARTY. Moi?
46. Balanced state : STASIS
47. "Star Wars" villain : JABBA. Big bloke, if I remember correctly.
48. Reversal : U-TURN
49. Start a telecommuting session : LOGON. That's me, most mornings. Not this morning - doing the Burbank - SFO commute with United. They were nice enough to upgrade me to First too. I ♥ UAL.
50. Advisory body : BOARD
53. Puppet : PAWN
54. Put-act link : ON AN
55. Designer label initials : DKNY. Donna Karan, New York.
57. Evil computer of film : HAL "I'm sorry, Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that".
58. NW state : IDA -ho.
59. Court : WOO
Here's the grid with the circles for those of you missing then, and that's going to do it for me.
Steve
Note from C.C.:
Happy Birthday to dear JD, who's been with the blog since she retired from her teaching job in 2008. JD and her husband Bob live very close to her two daughters and their family. This picture was taken in 2014 when Dylan turned one.
Front Row (Left to Right: Grady & his dad Derek; Truman (Grady's big brother) & mom Corie; Dylan and mom Shelby; Cameron (Dylan's big brother) and dad Joe.
Back Row: Proud grandparents JD & Bob.
