Theme: Rock Remix - A word scramble with "ROCK" in the theme entries.
As the grid-spanner in the center tells us:
39A. Jangle pop and the like, and a hint to a hidden feature of 17-, 30-, 46- and 63-Across : ALTERNATIVE ROCK. Exemplified in this case by a youthful-looking Michael Stipe and the jangly-mandolin-lead from Peter Buck. Great song. (Great video too).
17A. Temporarily out of stock, with "on" : BACK ORDER. You get an "F" in Supply Chain Management if you're responsible for inventory and this happens.
30A. One might spoil a dream : CLOCK RADIO. I've been woken many times in hotel rooms by the radio going off at quite bizarre times during the night and tuned to a weird channel. I always check and turn it off now when I check in to the room.
46A. Gadgets with helical parts called worms : CORKSCREWS. I never travel without one in my bag. I'd had the same one in my carry-on for at least two years until last Tuesday when the TSA guy at Burbank Airport took exception to it. Considering it had been through, conservatively, at least 50 checkpoints I was a little surprised.
63A. Restaurant convenience : CHECKROOM. I had no idea this was a thing. Now I know it is.
Neat theme from Mel and some suitably crunchy fill and cluing which together make up a firm Thursday. It took me a little while to get started and "jangle pop" was an unknown term for the theme hint, but after pinwheeling around the grid a couple of times things came together. Let's dive in a little deeper.
Across:
1. Congressional authority : WHIP. Keeping elected representatives under control, in attendance and toeing the party line. In an infamous case in the UK, during a tied vote, an MP was brought to Parliament in an ambulance (having suffered a severe heart attack) to break the deadlock. The two party whips were discovered in the ambulance arguing as to whether or not he was dead and could vote.
5. Lifeless : BLAH. Not the first definition that springs to mind.
9. Repaired, as a boot : SOLED. Not re-soled?
14. Warning to a tot : NO NO. This one's odd. Why a tot? Because you have to repeat "No"? Or is it a "no-no"?
15. Academic apparel : ROBE
16. Dancer Fred's dancing sister : ADELE. The singer gets a break from crossword duty today.
19. Add a lane to, say : WIDEN
20. Hot rod rods : AXLES. I saw "Hot hot rods" and was completely bamboozled by this one. Then I realized I'd misread the clue. So, axle = rod. Hot rods have axles, therefore hot rod rods. I'm channeling my inner Thumper on this one.
21. Not stable, in a way : TOP HEAVY
23. Sighed line : AH, ME
26. Wall St. event : I.P.O.
27. "Yeah, sure!" : I BET!
36. Beth, to Jo : SIS
37. Hindu "sir" : BABU. A very respectful term. I was called "Steve-babu" and "Steve-guru" on occasion when I was working in Mumbai. I don't think I merited either.
38. Spot in a spa : SAUNA
43. Old counters : ABACI. This little section caused me some trouble - I had ESTER first, and I didn't know ECK so I was looking at ABE_I and scratching my head, then the penny dropped.
44. Aussie hoppers : 'ROOS
45. Daisy __ : MAE
49. The Constitution St. : CONN -ecticut. Also known, less catchily, as "The Land of Steady Habits".
50. Cadenza maker : KIA
51. 50-Across' locale : ASIA. South Korea to be exact. I had a Kia rental car last week. Not the most stylish thing to look at, but it was nicely equipped and was pretty lively.
53. Enjoy the sunset : FACE WEST
58. About : CIRCA
62. Old marketplace : AGORA
66. Flower part : SEPAL
67. Dynamic beginning? : AERO
68. The Big Easy acronym : NOLA. Because EEPG (Ernie Els, Professional Golfer) is wrong. CSO to one of our regulars.
69. "East of Eden" surname : TRASK. Great novel.
70. Balcony section : LOGE
71. Card game for three : SKAT
Down:
1. Where the Sky and the Sun collide, for short? : WNBA. Last week's CHICAGO SKY learning moment clued me into this one. Coincidentally, the SUN are from "The Land of Steady Habits".
2. Scam : HOAX
3. Part of the pkg. : INCL. I tried ENCL first, thinking of an enclosure in an envelope. Nope, this is "included in the price".
4. Jab : POKE AT
5. "Darn, it's cold!" : BRR
6. Airport near Tel Aviv : LOD. The former name. It's now called Ben Gurion Airport. The airport code is TLV, so I think this is a wee error in the cluing. No harm, no foul, in my book. One of our snarky anons doubtless will jump on this one though.
7. Withhold information about, say : ABET
8. Beyond noble : HEROIC
9. Supports in shop class : SAWHORSES
10. Comic strip drooler : ODIE. Garfield's antagonist.
11. Mythical Spartan queen : LEDA
12. The mi. in Mile-High City : ELEV. I was there last week. Curiously, the ELEV is posted in the lobby of the Denver Tech Center Marriott next to the ELEVATORS.
13. Opposite of admit : DENY
18. Kyrgyzstan city : OSH
22. Walther __: James Bond's pistol : PPK. One of my friends carries a concealed PPK when he's carrying cash to the bank. It packs a heck of a punch in spite of being so small.
24. Thom of shoes : MCAN. Spelled McAn.
25. Tyrrhenian Sea island : ELBA. "Able was I, ere I saw Elba".
27. Name on the "Robot" series books : ISAAC. Author Asimov.
28. Bag End notable : BILBO. Of "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings" fame. Not Frodo, though it could be.
29. To be, in Toledo : ESTAR. Not ESTER as I originally thought. Spanish isn't my "first" foreign language.
31. Bizarre : OUTRÉ
32. Berne's river : AAR
33. Italian cathedral : DUOMO
34. Like Andean pyramids : INCAN
35. Kind of bucket : OAKEN. This one is the trophy for the winner of the Purdue - Indiana football rivalry game.
37. Outdoor exercise choice : BRISK WALK
40. Luther opponent Johann __ : ECK. Close to Natick'ed with ABACI until I fixed my "ESTAR" misspelling.
41. Louisiana Territory state : IOWA
42. Discovery astronaut James : VOSS' Flew five times on the shuttle and in the International Space Station. He, with colleague Susan Helms., has the record for the longest space walk from the ISS (eight hours, 56 minutes). Definitely the Right Stuff.
47. Cannes corp. : CIE. Compagnie abbreviation.
48. Imp : RASCAL
49. Stone monuments : CAIRNS
52. Word of disgust : ICK. My reaction when I got the answer to 54D below.
53. Up-tempo : FAST
54. Too much sun, they say : AGER
55. Club in a Manilow song : COPA. I thought it was the Copacabana, but the song title is "Copacabana (At the Copa)". I stand corrected.
56. Baseball stats : ERAS
57. Religious prefix : THEO. -logy, -logian, etc.
59. Corner piece : ROOK. Chessboard corners. They do move around, but they start off in the corners.
60. Fizzy drink : COLA
61. Bit of introductory Latin : AMAT. Amamus, amatis and amant don't seem to be crossword-fodder. Do we run out of familiarity when we get to the plural verb forms?
64. 100 nanojoules : ERG
65. 41-Down college : COE. Thank you, crosses.
And .... here's the grid.
Steve
As the grid-spanner in the center tells us:
39A. Jangle pop and the like, and a hint to a hidden feature of 17-, 30-, 46- and 63-Across : ALTERNATIVE ROCK. Exemplified in this case by a youthful-looking Michael Stipe and the jangly-mandolin-lead from Peter Buck. Great song. (Great video too).
17A. Temporarily out of stock, with "on" : BACK ORDER. You get an "F" in Supply Chain Management if you're responsible for inventory and this happens.
30A. One might spoil a dream : CLOCK RADIO. I've been woken many times in hotel rooms by the radio going off at quite bizarre times during the night and tuned to a weird channel. I always check and turn it off now when I check in to the room.
46A. Gadgets with helical parts called worms : CORKSCREWS. I never travel without one in my bag. I'd had the same one in my carry-on for at least two years until last Tuesday when the TSA guy at Burbank Airport took exception to it. Considering it had been through, conservatively, at least 50 checkpoints I was a little surprised.
63A. Restaurant convenience : CHECKROOM. I had no idea this was a thing. Now I know it is.
Neat theme from Mel and some suitably crunchy fill and cluing which together make up a firm Thursday. It took me a little while to get started and "jangle pop" was an unknown term for the theme hint, but after pinwheeling around the grid a couple of times things came together. Let's dive in a little deeper.
Across:
1. Congressional authority : WHIP. Keeping elected representatives under control, in attendance and toeing the party line. In an infamous case in the UK, during a tied vote, an MP was brought to Parliament in an ambulance (having suffered a severe heart attack) to break the deadlock. The two party whips were discovered in the ambulance arguing as to whether or not he was dead and could vote.
5. Lifeless : BLAH. Not the first definition that springs to mind.
9. Repaired, as a boot : SOLED. Not re-soled?
14. Warning to a tot : NO NO. This one's odd. Why a tot? Because you have to repeat "No"? Or is it a "no-no"?
15. Academic apparel : ROBE
16. Dancer Fred's dancing sister : ADELE. The singer gets a break from crossword duty today.
19. Add a lane to, say : WIDEN
20. Hot rod rods : AXLES. I saw "Hot hot rods" and was completely bamboozled by this one. Then I realized I'd misread the clue. So, axle = rod. Hot rods have axles, therefore hot rod rods. I'm channeling my inner Thumper on this one.
21. Not stable, in a way : TOP HEAVY
23. Sighed line : AH, ME
26. Wall St. event : I.P.O.
27. "Yeah, sure!" : I BET!
36. Beth, to Jo : SIS
37. Hindu "sir" : BABU. A very respectful term. I was called "Steve-babu" and "Steve-guru" on occasion when I was working in Mumbai. I don't think I merited either.
38. Spot in a spa : SAUNA
43. Old counters : ABACI. This little section caused me some trouble - I had ESTER first, and I didn't know ECK so I was looking at ABE_I and scratching my head, then the penny dropped.
44. Aussie hoppers : 'ROOS
45. Daisy __ : MAE
49. The Constitution St. : CONN -ecticut. Also known, less catchily, as "The Land of Steady Habits".
50. Cadenza maker : KIA
51. 50-Across' locale : ASIA. South Korea to be exact. I had a Kia rental car last week. Not the most stylish thing to look at, but it was nicely equipped and was pretty lively.
53. Enjoy the sunset : FACE WEST
58. About : CIRCA
62. Old marketplace : AGORA
66. Flower part : SEPAL
67. Dynamic beginning? : AERO
68. The Big Easy acronym : NOLA. Because EEPG (Ernie Els, Professional Golfer) is wrong. CSO to one of our regulars.
69. "East of Eden" surname : TRASK. Great novel.
70. Balcony section : LOGE
71. Card game for three : SKAT
Down:
1. Where the Sky and the Sun collide, for short? : WNBA. Last week's CHICAGO SKY learning moment clued me into this one. Coincidentally, the SUN are from "The Land of Steady Habits".
2. Scam : HOAX
3. Part of the pkg. : INCL. I tried ENCL first, thinking of an enclosure in an envelope. Nope, this is "included in the price".
4. Jab : POKE AT
5. "Darn, it's cold!" : BRR
6. Airport near Tel Aviv : LOD. The former name. It's now called Ben Gurion Airport. The airport code is TLV, so I think this is a wee error in the cluing. No harm, no foul, in my book. One of our snarky anons doubtless will jump on this one though.
7. Withhold information about, say : ABET
8. Beyond noble : HEROIC
9. Supports in shop class : SAWHORSES
10. Comic strip drooler : ODIE. Garfield's antagonist.
11. Mythical Spartan queen : LEDA
12. The mi. in Mile-High City : ELEV. I was there last week. Curiously, the ELEV is posted in the lobby of the Denver Tech Center Marriott next to the ELEVATORS.
13. Opposite of admit : DENY
18. Kyrgyzstan city : OSH
22. Walther __: James Bond's pistol : PPK. One of my friends carries a concealed PPK when he's carrying cash to the bank. It packs a heck of a punch in spite of being so small.
24. Thom of shoes : MCAN. Spelled McAn.
25. Tyrrhenian Sea island : ELBA. "Able was I, ere I saw Elba".
27. Name on the "Robot" series books : ISAAC. Author Asimov.
28. Bag End notable : BILBO. Of "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings" fame. Not Frodo, though it could be.
29. To be, in Toledo : ESTAR. Not ESTER as I originally thought. Spanish isn't my "first" foreign language.
31. Bizarre : OUTRÉ
32. Berne's river : AAR
33. Italian cathedral : DUOMO
34. Like Andean pyramids : INCAN
35. Kind of bucket : OAKEN. This one is the trophy for the winner of the Purdue - Indiana football rivalry game.
37. Outdoor exercise choice : BRISK WALK
40. Luther opponent Johann __ : ECK. Close to Natick'ed with ABACI until I fixed my "ESTAR" misspelling.
41. Louisiana Territory state : IOWA
42. Discovery astronaut James : VOSS' Flew five times on the shuttle and in the International Space Station. He, with colleague Susan Helms., has the record for the longest space walk from the ISS (eight hours, 56 minutes). Definitely the Right Stuff.
47. Cannes corp. : CIE. Compagnie abbreviation.
48. Imp : RASCAL
49. Stone monuments : CAIRNS
52. Word of disgust : ICK. My reaction when I got the answer to 54D below.
53. Up-tempo : FAST
54. Too much sun, they say : AGER
55. Club in a Manilow song : COPA. I thought it was the Copacabana, but the song title is "Copacabana (At the Copa)". I stand corrected.
56. Baseball stats : ERAS
57. Religious prefix : THEO. -logy, -logian, etc.
59. Corner piece : ROOK. Chessboard corners. They do move around, but they start off in the corners.
60. Fizzy drink : COLA
61. Bit of introductory Latin : AMAT. Amamus, amatis and amant don't seem to be crossword-fodder. Do we run out of familiarity when we get to the plural verb forms?
64. 100 nanojoules : ERG
65. 41-Down college : COE. Thank you, crosses.
And .... here's the grid.
Steve
