JW returns quickly and gives us another CSO puzzle, this one for our own Ron and his talented trombone. The use of a single clue for all theme answers is not uncommon, but Jeffrey brings it home with 4 themers that are all grid-spanners! He injects some nice 8 letter fill in the corner with two stacked long ones crossing a single down fill. APPRISED, SHUT OUTS, PARISHES, RING TOSS, IN SPIRIT and CASSETTE are the 8s, with triple 6s intersecting double 6s in the other corners. A very nice grid with very few short fill.
17A. Slide : MICROSCOPE MOUNT (15). Obviously sussing the theme is not an issue, but how the fill was going to become four different types of slides was the fun. We begin in the lab.
30A. Slide : PLAYGROUND CHUTE (15). Next we go back to our childhood.
45A. Slide : RUNNER'S MANEUVER (15). Of course the slide in baseball is an integral part of the game, reminding me of Dizzy Dean who said of Phil Rizzuto in the 1938 world series, "He slud into third."
59A. Slide : TROMBONE SECTION (15). How about the entire orchestra.
1. Without markup : AT COST. The big lie in the car business.
7. Informed : APPRISED. A big word in the law, as judges are fully apprised of the premises.
15. Like the Godhead : TRIUNE. Definition: consisting of three in one (used especially with reference to the Trinity).
16. Where flocks assemble : PARISHES. Parishes are flocks, or they are part of a parish, but they assemble in churches, chapels...
19. "Defending Liberty Pursuing Justice" org. : ABA. American Bar Association.
20. Org. for Sharapova and Kournikova : WTA. Women's Tennis Association...a dupe for you purists? Tricky using two Russian Tennis Pros.
21. Base or case closer : MENT. A suffix clue.
22. Exaggerates, as a résumé : PADS.
24. Follow : ENSUE.
27. Ref. with quarterly online updates : OED. Oxford English Dictionary.
34. Respond to a failed delivery : RESEND. A Friday tortured clue.
35. Not your average joe? : LATTE. A really fun clue, especially if you know coffee is know as joe, as in a really good cup of joe. You ask WHY?
36. Video game hero with a kart : MARIO. I played and lost often when my boys were growing up.
40. Epic including the Catalogue of Ships : ILIAD. The Catalogue of Ships (Ancient Greek: νεῶν κατάλογος, neōn katalogos) is an epic catalogue in Book 2 of Homer's Iliad (2.494-759), which lists the contingents of the Achaean army that sailed to Troy. WIKI.
41. Willing to take risks : DARING.
50. Shocked letters : OMG.
51. Colleague of Ruth and Sonia : ELENA. The three lady justices, again!
52. Trillionth: Pref. : PICO. Learn the history of the nomenclature. International System of Units
53. Kit Carson House site : TAOS.
56. Texter's "Keep the rest to yourself" : TMI. Too Much Information.
58. Moo __ pork : SHU. The dicitionary says the name comes from the Mandarin mùxū, the fragrant flowering shrub Osmanthus fragrans (because the scrambled eggs in the dish resemble the shrub's blossoms in shape and color. It is a Northern Chinese dish, how about this RECIPE C.C., Barry G.?
64. Way to be there when you can't be there : IN SPIRIT.
65. Looked for a school, perhaps : SEINED. What a break that this word appeared in yesterday's puzzle; of course with a Friday twist in the clue.
66. Tape container : CASSETTE.
67. Jousting mounts : STEEDS. Not...
Down:
1. Bank smartphone offering : ATM APP. I had no idea there was an APP to find ATMs....
2. Type of chief or custom : TRIBAL.
3. Noisy bug : CICADA.
4. "In __ Time": Hemingway story collection : OUR. An interesting HISTORY for Papa.
5. White fall : SNOW.
6. Quality control personnel : TESTERS.
7. Mil. mail drop : APO. One of three special Postal Addresses Army/Air Post Office (APO), Fleet Post Office (FPO), Diplomatic Post Office (DPO).
8. Unchallenging reading material : PAP. Comes from bland soft or semiliquid food such as that suitable for babies or invalids. This led to "reading matter or entertainment that is worthless or lacking in substance."
9. Specialized undergrad track : PREMED.
10. Frosty film : RIME.
11. Will go ahead as planned : IS ON.
12. Walter Johnson's career-leading 110 : SHUTOUTS. More baseball.
13. Yet, poetically : EEN. I am also confused by this meaning. Yet higher - even higher? I guess.
14. Summer hrs. : DST. Daylight Savings Time.
18. Boat better not rocked : CANOE.
23. Many a recent refugee : SYRIAN. No politics.
25. "Arise, fair __, and kill the envious moon": Romeo : SUN. Shakespeare is back with JW with one of my favorite scenes...
"But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief,
That thou, her maid, art far more fair than she."
26. Sturm __ Drang : UND. And in German, It was a literary MOVEMENT.
28. Incredulous rebuke : ET TU. And you too, Brutus?
29. Believe : DEEM. Another favorite word in judicial orders.
31. Amethyst source : GEODE, The inspiration (maybe?) for geodesic dome made famous by Buckminster FULLER.
32. "I Fall to Pieces" singer : CLINE.
33. Inhibition : HANG UP.
36. Catalan surrealist : MIRO. When I was little my uncle had a Miro print in his office. I thought it was silly.
38. Fair game : RING TOSS. An unfair game at the fair. "The Ring Toss: The rings are just a hair wider than the neck of the target bottle or spike, ...and are made of hard plastic to facilitate extra bouncing. If the carny shows it can be done, you should suspect he's using a larger ring than you're given or that he scores by dropping it from directly overhead, a move that, like the Basketball Shoot, is virtually impossible from the player's position." LINK.
41. Broadband letters : DSL.
42. Gallic soul : AME. It would be better if you saw ÂME. 62D. Août season : ETE. We are in August, and it is summer. See how much easier it is with the accent.
43. Agitated blog posts : RANTS.
44. Muddled : IN A MESS.
46. One often has a golf course : RESORT.
47. Clear Eyes rival : VISINE. Eye drops and a CSO to one of the ones who are gone.
48. Seconded : ECHOED.
49. Hospital routines : ROUNDS. An important function at the hospital where a doctor goes round and visits his in patients. Also, part of grand rounds when the doctor has other doctors and medical students along to learn.
54. Tour gear : AMPS. Rock and roll tour.
55. Drama prize : OBIE. Off Broadway.
57. TV co-star of Hargitay and Belzer : ICE T. Again.
59. Spasm : TIC.
60. Usually single-stranded molecule : RNA. RiboNucleic Acid as opposed to the double helix of DNA.
61. Trivial thing : NIT. I wonder how he picked that clue?
63. Draw : TIE. Correct me if I am wrong, Steve or NC, but I believe in Cricket a tie and a draw are different.
Well another JW Friday; the long fill really helped leading to a fairly quick Friday. Hope you all had as much fun as I did. lemonade out.
