Theme: Add-oons. Take a noun, add an "oon" and clue the resulting object in a witty fashion.
17A. Parody involving molten rock? : LAVA LAMPOON. Anyone own up to having a lava lamp?
28A. Wind god's whaling weapon? : AEOLIAN HARPOON. Loved this one. The aeolian harp is played by the wind.
48A. Blubbering Belgian? : WAILING WALLOON. Very nice! The Wailing Wall in Jerusalem is more "properly" known as the Western Wall.
61A. Hollywood harlequin? : FILM BUFFOON. I'm definitely not a film buff, most of the movies each year pass me by. I don't particularly equate "harlequin" with "buffoon" though, the character is usually portrayed more as a trickster than a fool.
Morning! I enjoyed Matt's word play in this one and some solid construction with the four themers; two nice long downs and some good fill with ALCOVE, ESPRIT, CORTEX et al. Two clunkers though - I'm looking at you, IREFUL and the clue for ELEM (tchr). Let's see what else we've got.
Across:
1. Library recess : ALCOVE. Also a posh-looking hotel in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam.
7. Brief amt. of time : NSEC. Nanosecond. One billionth of a second. That's really brief.
11. Karaoke need, briefly : MIC. I was pretty much forced to sing Karaoke at a bar in Kowloon where my colleague and I were the only westerners. The only song on the menu that I recognized was Barry Manilow's "Copacabana". The result was not pretty.
14. Slanted : LEANED
15. With 34-Across, concert band instrument : ALTO.
16. Big fuss : ADO
19. Sneaky job : CON
20. APA member?: Abbr. : ASSN. American Psychological Association.
21. Med. test : EKG. Fill in E_G and wait for the cross.
22. Eight-time co-star of Joan Crawford : GABLE. Ooops. Joan Crawford in the clue should result in Clark Gable in the answer.
24. Teeth: Pref. : DENTI
27. Note : MEMO
33. Crybaby : MOANER
34. See 15-Across : SAX
35. Arctic flier : SKUA
36. Stalling-for-time syllables : ERS
37. Honor earned by 27 Super Bowl QBs : MVP. Refreshingly, the Denver Bronco's pass rusher Von Miller won the award this year, only the sixth player from the defensive side of the ball to be named MVP.
39. Light lead-in : TWI-
41. Scoreboard fig. : PTS.
42. Director Preminger : OTTO
44. It borders It. : AUS. Italy's neighbor Austria. I've skiied between the two.
46. Sparkling wit : ESPRIT
51. 8th-century Japanese capital : NARA. 奈良市 Capital of the Nara Prefecture in southern Japan. Who knew?
52. Runs while standing : IDLES
53. Try a new color on : RE-DYE
55. June portrayer in "Henry & June" : UMA. Ms. Thurman played the role of Henry Millers' wife in a loose adaptation of the Anaïs Nin book.
56. Repeat, but more softly each time : ECHO
60. First name in shipping : ARI. I wonder how many news stories in the 60's led with "Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis ...."
65. Java : JOE. Coffee. Two Javas today. Just needed the programming language for the trifecta.
66. Eclectic quarterly digest : UTNE
67. Hard to read, maybe : SLOPPY. My handwriting has definitely got sloppier over the years.
68. Animal in some fables : ASS
69. He says to Cordelia, "Thy truth, then, be thy dower" : LEAR. The king speaks to one of his daughters. It's worth remembering his other two daughters too - Regan and Goneril - they crop up in crosswords quite frequently.
70. Cerebral __ : CORTEX
Down:
1. __ breve : ALLA. Waited for crosses to tell me whether this was DEMI or SEMI. In hindsight, I was going to be waiting a long time. Apparently, in music time-signature terms, it is "a simple-duple meter with a half-note pulse". I didn't understand a word of that. It has its own symbol though, so it must be important:
2. Pastures : LEAS
3. Home team at Cleveland's "The Q" : CAVS. NBA's Cavaliers play at the Quicken Loans Arena.
4. Uninterrupted : ON AND ON
5. Mph : VEL. ocity.
6. Former PBS host LeShan : EDA
7. Place setting items : NAPKINS
8. Tough march : SLOG
9. 1940s stage for Ike : E.T.O. WW2's European Theater of Operations. I wonder if Churchill and Ike argued whether it should be spelled (or spelt) Theater or Theatre.
10. __ eel : CONGER. They love to hang out in wrecks and can grow to quite a fearsome size.
11. Apple with a Force Touch trackpad : MACBOOK PRO
12. Fan club focus : IDOL
13. Lane-closing sight : CONE. Usually accompanied by a sinking feeling and another delay. In the UK at one time there were so many lane closures on the freeways and no sign of any work being done that you could actually call "The Cones Hotline". No-one really knew what the hotline was meant to achieve and it became a butt of many jokes.
23. Gear on stage : AMPS. Jackson Browne was a great songwriter, but the final rhyme in this snippet from "The Load-Out" is a bit of a clunker! Great song and segue though.
25. Kind of tchr. : ELEM. That's a pretty horrible abbreviation for "teacher".
26. Buddhist state : NIRVANA
27. Klinger's first name on "M*A*S*H" : MAXWELL. I wonder how often this actually came up in the series? Solid crosses.
28. Vital supply line : AORTA
29. Where to find Java : EAST INDIES. I tried to make "Indonesia" fit for a while.
30. Magic show prop : HAT. Where all the Easter bunnies go back to sleep when they've finished their egg-rounds.
31. __ the cold : OUT IN
32. Democratic donkey drawer : NAST. He was responsible for the Republican elephant too.
33. Litter cry : MEOW
38. Wrinkly little dog : PUG
40. __ Royale, Michigan : ISLE. A new one on me. I find it is in Lake Superior, and the US-Canada border does a little jig around it. It looks a lot closer to Minnesota than the UP though, I think the folks of Grand Portage, MN have every right to be peeved.
43. Skin care brand : OLAY
45. Pool party? : SWIMMER. Nice clue; party in the sense of "party of one".
47. Be the subject of, as a painting : POSE FOR.
49. Furious : IREFUL. Ugh! What a horrible word. It's a bad sign when you Google a word and the first results page shows dictionary definitions and two video game references.
50. Not much at all : A DAB. Hesitated at "A TAD" and waited for a helpful cross.
53. Indian noble : RAJA
54. Love deity : EROS. He and his Roman counterpart Cupid were always shooting off arrows and making people miserable.
55. Forearm bone : ULNA
57. Egyptian Christian : COPT
58. "The thing with feathers / That perches in the soul": Dickinson : HOPE
59. Cameo stone : ONYX. Most often carved with a head in profile, but there are other more intricate examples.
62. Suburban trailer? : -ITE
63. The Trojans of the Pac-12 : U.S.C. The University of Southern California, or as often dubbed by Bruins from cross-town rivals UCLA "The University of Spoiled Children" (or after the Reggie Bush affair, U$C).
64. "Alice" spinoff : FLO. Never heard of the original series, let alone the spinoff. Thank you, crosses. Here's actress Polly Holliday as Flo:
Fun Thursday ride. Here's the grid ......
Steve
17A. Parody involving molten rock? : LAVA LAMPOON. Anyone own up to having a lava lamp?
28A. Wind god's whaling weapon? : AEOLIAN HARPOON. Loved this one. The aeolian harp is played by the wind.
48A. Blubbering Belgian? : WAILING WALLOON. Very nice! The Wailing Wall in Jerusalem is more "properly" known as the Western Wall.
61A. Hollywood harlequin? : FILM BUFFOON. I'm definitely not a film buff, most of the movies each year pass me by. I don't particularly equate "harlequin" with "buffoon" though, the character is usually portrayed more as a trickster than a fool.
Morning! I enjoyed Matt's word play in this one and some solid construction with the four themers; two nice long downs and some good fill with ALCOVE, ESPRIT, CORTEX et al. Two clunkers though - I'm looking at you, IREFUL and the clue for ELEM (tchr). Let's see what else we've got.
Across:
1. Library recess : ALCOVE. Also a posh-looking hotel in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam.
7. Brief amt. of time : NSEC. Nanosecond. One billionth of a second. That's really brief.
11. Karaoke need, briefly : MIC. I was pretty much forced to sing Karaoke at a bar in Kowloon where my colleague and I were the only westerners. The only song on the menu that I recognized was Barry Manilow's "Copacabana". The result was not pretty.
14. Slanted : LEANED
15. With 34-Across, concert band instrument : ALTO.
16. Big fuss : ADO
19. Sneaky job : CON
20. APA member?: Abbr. : ASSN. American Psychological Association.
21. Med. test : EKG. Fill in E_G and wait for the cross.
22. Eight-time co-star of Joan Crawford : GABLE. Ooops. Joan Crawford in the clue should result in Clark Gable in the answer.
24. Teeth: Pref. : DENTI
27. Note : MEMO
33. Crybaby : MOANER
34. See 15-Across : SAX
35. Arctic flier : SKUA
36. Stalling-for-time syllables : ERS
37. Honor earned by 27 Super Bowl QBs : MVP. Refreshingly, the Denver Bronco's pass rusher Von Miller won the award this year, only the sixth player from the defensive side of the ball to be named MVP.
39. Light lead-in : TWI-
41. Scoreboard fig. : PTS.
42. Director Preminger : OTTO
44. It borders It. : AUS. Italy's neighbor Austria. I've skiied between the two.
46. Sparkling wit : ESPRIT
51. 8th-century Japanese capital : NARA. 奈良市 Capital of the Nara Prefecture in southern Japan. Who knew?
52. Runs while standing : IDLES
53. Try a new color on : RE-DYE
55. June portrayer in "Henry & June" : UMA. Ms. Thurman played the role of Henry Millers' wife in a loose adaptation of the Anaïs Nin book.
56. Repeat, but more softly each time : ECHO
60. First name in shipping : ARI. I wonder how many news stories in the 60's led with "Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis ...."
65. Java : JOE. Coffee. Two Javas today. Just needed the programming language for the trifecta.
66. Eclectic quarterly digest : UTNE
67. Hard to read, maybe : SLOPPY. My handwriting has definitely got sloppier over the years.
68. Animal in some fables : ASS
69. He says to Cordelia, "Thy truth, then, be thy dower" : LEAR. The king speaks to one of his daughters. It's worth remembering his other two daughters too - Regan and Goneril - they crop up in crosswords quite frequently.
70. Cerebral __ : CORTEX
Down:
1. __ breve : ALLA. Waited for crosses to tell me whether this was DEMI or SEMI. In hindsight, I was going to be waiting a long time. Apparently, in music time-signature terms, it is "a simple-duple meter with a half-note pulse". I didn't understand a word of that. It has its own symbol though, so it must be important:
3. Home team at Cleveland's "The Q" : CAVS. NBA's Cavaliers play at the Quicken Loans Arena.
4. Uninterrupted : ON AND ON
5. Mph : VEL. ocity.
6. Former PBS host LeShan : EDA
7. Place setting items : NAPKINS
8. Tough march : SLOG
9. 1940s stage for Ike : E.T.O. WW2's European Theater of Operations. I wonder if Churchill and Ike argued whether it should be spelled (or spelt) Theater or Theatre.
10. __ eel : CONGER. They love to hang out in wrecks and can grow to quite a fearsome size.
11. Apple with a Force Touch trackpad : MACBOOK PRO
12. Fan club focus : IDOL
13. Lane-closing sight : CONE. Usually accompanied by a sinking feeling and another delay. In the UK at one time there were so many lane closures on the freeways and no sign of any work being done that you could actually call "The Cones Hotline". No-one really knew what the hotline was meant to achieve and it became a butt of many jokes.
- "Hello? Cones Hotline? I've spotted some cones."
- "How many?"
- "About four and a half million on the M6, doing absolutely nothing."
- "Thank you for telling us."
23. Gear on stage : AMPS. Jackson Browne was a great songwriter, but the final rhyme in this snippet from "The Load-Out" is a bit of a clunker! Great song and segue though.
"Now roll them cases out and lift them amps
Haul them trusses down and get'em up them ramps
'Cause when it comes to moving me
You know you guys are the champs ..."
Haul them trusses down and get'em up them ramps
'Cause when it comes to moving me
You know you guys are the champs ..."
25. Kind of tchr. : ELEM. That's a pretty horrible abbreviation for "teacher".
26. Buddhist state : NIRVANA
27. Klinger's first name on "M*A*S*H" : MAXWELL. I wonder how often this actually came up in the series? Solid crosses.
28. Vital supply line : AORTA
29. Where to find Java : EAST INDIES. I tried to make "Indonesia" fit for a while.
30. Magic show prop : HAT. Where all the Easter bunnies go back to sleep when they've finished their egg-rounds.
31. __ the cold : OUT IN
32. Democratic donkey drawer : NAST. He was responsible for the Republican elephant too.
33. Litter cry : MEOW
38. Wrinkly little dog : PUG
40. __ Royale, Michigan : ISLE. A new one on me. I find it is in Lake Superior, and the US-Canada border does a little jig around it. It looks a lot closer to Minnesota than the UP though, I think the folks of Grand Portage, MN have every right to be peeved.
43. Skin care brand : OLAY
45. Pool party? : SWIMMER. Nice clue; party in the sense of "party of one".
47. Be the subject of, as a painting : POSE FOR.
49. Furious : IREFUL. Ugh! What a horrible word. It's a bad sign when you Google a word and the first results page shows dictionary definitions and two video game references.
50. Not much at all : A DAB. Hesitated at "A TAD" and waited for a helpful cross.
53. Indian noble : RAJA
54. Love deity : EROS. He and his Roman counterpart Cupid were always shooting off arrows and making people miserable.
55. Forearm bone : ULNA
57. Egyptian Christian : COPT
58. "The thing with feathers / That perches in the soul": Dickinson : HOPE
59. Cameo stone : ONYX. Most often carved with a head in profile, but there are other more intricate examples.
62. Suburban trailer? : -ITE
63. The Trojans of the Pac-12 : U.S.C. The University of Southern California, or as often dubbed by Bruins from cross-town rivals UCLA "The University of Spoiled Children" (or after the Reggie Bush affair, U$C).
64. "Alice" spinoff : FLO. Never heard of the original series, let alone the spinoff. Thank you, crosses. Here's actress Polly Holliday as Flo:
Fun Thursday ride. Here's the grid ......
Steve
