Wednesday, June 8, 2016 C.C. Burnikel

Title - HARPER VALLEY HYPOCRITES - The Harper Valley P.T.A. didn't dig Jeannie's mini-skirt and so she musically pulled all the skeletons out of their closets.

Our brilliant house mother has spun a wonderful web of words with a theme that was very skillfully constructed and  fiendishly clued. She has the letters "PTA" intersecting/meeting vertically and horizontally in three separate part of the puzzle, e.g.

 P

PTA

A

Having the circles greatly facilitated seeing C.C.'s elegant scheme and so I present them here with the grid at the top of the write-up instead of at the bottom.

Theme Reveal: 63. After-school event ... and, literally, what takes place at this puzzle's circles : PTA-MEETING       

Husker Gary here with my list of NOES - Was this puzzle a snap? NO Did I see the theme early? NO But, did I have a great time? YES, YES, YES! Wow!
         
Theme Entries:

18. Highway beautification program : ADOPT A ROAD (going across)

CROSSING

9. Understanding : UPTAKE (going down) - Which describes me today

32. Toaster Strudel kin : POP-TARTS (going across) Not exactly the breakfast of champions

CROSSING

4. Seafood in a shell : SHRIMP TACO (going down). Not merely a tiny taco

50. Motivating halftime speech : PEP TALK (going across). Motivating "up close and personal"

CROSSING

31. Watch closely : KEEP TABS ON (going down). 21st century style!

The meeting will now come to order as we explore the rest of our Wednesday curriculum:

Across

1. Oodles : GOBS

5. Language group that includes Swahili : BANTU - Here ya go, the BANTU languages are in orange

10. Enormous : VAST

14. "Forget it" : UH UH

15. Single-master : SLOOP - I first thought baseball loving C.C. might be going for Pete Rose who has hit 3,215 singles and not the boat celebrated in The SLOOP JOHN B

16. Funny Dame : EDNA

17. NYC-to-Suffolk County line : LIRR - 1882 map of the Long Island RailRoad

20. Put forward : POSIT

22. Middle East carrier : AIR ARABIA

23. Counterfeiter catcher : T-MAN - The most famous one's credentials

25. Mischievous god : LOKI - The wily trickster of Norse mythology

26. 2015 Payne Stewart Award honoree Ernie : ELS

27. "Enough already!" : STOP NOW

30. Common pay period : WEEK - My first teaching contract amounted to $111/WEEK

34. Unhand, in a toaster brand slogan : LEGGO - LEGGO my EGGO!

38. Nevada's __ 51 : AREA - From space. Uh, I think we took the picture.

39. Like most chopsticks users : ASIAN - I'd starve if I had to use them

42. Estrada of "CHiPs" : ERIK

43. Lip-__: mouths the words : SYNCS

45. "The Tempest" hero : PROSPERO and 19. Servant of 45-Across : ARIEL Needed lotsa help!

47. Musical work : OPUS

51. Obstinate beast : ASS

54. MSN and AOL : ISPS - Our Internet Service Provider is Time Warner

56. "Beat it!" : SCAT

57. Crunchy snacks sometimes dipped in baba ghanouj : PITA CHIPS - How 'bout those chips and baba ganoush?

60. "Idol" judge replaced by DeGeneres : ABDUL -Working drunk doesn't help

65. H.H. Munro's pen name : SAKI

66. Checkout hassle : LINE

67. Indian royals : RANIS

68. Small bills : ONES - A "Tijuana Wad" is a big bill on the outside and mostly ONES on the inside

69. Brings to a close : ENDS

70. First instruction : STEP A 

71. Robin's house : NEST - The babies at our house are finally flying and are safe from our kitty

Down

1. Large swallow : GULP - Can anyone really drink one of these?

2. University about an hour from Columbus : OHIO

3. Break forcefully, as an inflated bag : BURST OPEN - Australian dog going for the Guinness Record

5. Merit badge gp. : BSA

6. "The Blacklist" actor Alan : ALDA - He has many roles and vowels that can be used for cluing

7. Salad restriction : NO OIL

8. Stadium high spot : TOP ROW - A $17 view from the TOP ROW of Kaufman Stadium

10. Wang with a Hippie Princess fragrance line : VERA - Wang, of course

11. Acrobat maker : ADOBE

12. Escargot : SNAIL

13. Triumphant shouts : TA-DAS - What we aim for here!

21. Lake __: Blue Nile source : TANA - The Blue Nile Hotel on its south shore is $33/night

24. Screenwriter Ephron : NORA

27. Golf resort amenities : SPAS - Will that fix your putting?

28. Conservative Brit : TORY 

29. Lb. and kg. : WTS

33. Small swallow : SIP - Far different from The Big Gulp

35. One of dogdom's "gentle giants" : GREAT DANE

36. Cover __ : GIRL

37. "I get it, I get it!" : OK OK

40. Dadaist Jean : ARP - In case you were thinking of buying his Demeter's Doll, it's $138,176.78.

41. Poll responses : NOES

44. Part of little girls' makeup? : SPICE - Along with Sugar and Everything Nice

46. Animal rights org. : SPCA

48. Theater group? : USHERS - Pity the poor USHER that has to take people up to those seats in the TOP ROW shown in 8 Down

49. Show disdain for, figuratively : SPIT AT

51. Big name in smartwatches : APPLE

52. Peaceful protest : SIT IN - Woolworth's in Greensboro, N.C. Sadly, not that long ago

53. Put up with : STAND - These men above definitely took a STAND by taking a seat

55. Moral fiber : SPINE

58. College town north of Des Moines : AMES

59. Short cut : SNIP - Can you say vasectomy?

61. Lanai strings : UKES

62. BuzzFeed article, often : LIST - Here are some of them

64. Fed. property manager : GSA

The meeting has been adjourned and so let's move to the cafeteria for punch, cookies and comments: