Saturday, Aug 6th, 2016, David Liben-Nowell

Theme: None

Words: 70 (missing Q,X,Z)

Blocks: 34

Hi there~!  Splynter back with less work and more blog this week.  Today's puzzle from David (see C.C.'s interview) had clues that were either gimmes or complete misses for me.  I either knew it, or didn't, and nothing was going to help me "45A."  Just a few too many 'half-word' clues for me, too.  The SW was utterly wrong on my first pass, and combined with the proper names/places, just wouldn't open up.  Add in one more red-letter cheat, and that's my story, an' I'm sticking to it.  A non-intimidating grid with only the two spanners and four 10-letter fills;

5. Intuition : GUT FEELING 

10. Line diagram : FAMILY TREE

25. Computer screen? : SPAM FILTER

26. Act too hastily : JUMP THE GUN - a line from Van Halen's "Secrets", too

Cathedral / Secrets (lyric at 3:14)

INKY~!

ACROSS:

1. Jet : INKY - I figured we were looking for 'black', and ONYX worked, but 4d. would have started with "X"

5. Govt. property overseer : GSA - the crossing of 7d. stymied me, so the "A" was red-lettered

8. Artists' pads : LOFTS - a gimme

13. Great __ : DANE - I wanted "SCOTT~!"

14. Gets onstage : CUES

15. Detached : APART - oops, not ALOOF

16. Slid across the pond, maybe : ICE SKATED

18. Start of a noncommittal RSVP : WE MAY

19. Last-minute number? : ELEVEN FIFTY-NINE - 11:59.  Here's another way to say Eleven Fifty-Eight

The video

21. Awards for "Rent" and "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" : OBIES - I put it in, but then I thought 4d. might be "EULOGIES", and took it out

22. Cads : HEELS

23. San Francisco, to most Californians : UPSTATE - We have "upstate" in NY, too - hello Argyle~!  When I talked to the admissions woman at Delaware Tech last year, she suggested taking classes at the campus "upstate" - Delaware is too short to have an "upstate"

26. Rice on a field : JERRY - WR, mostly for the SF 49ers of the NFL

27. Laid-back : TYPE B - I'm Type C - clueless....

28. Big lugs : LOUTS

30. PC-checking org., at times : TSA

33. Word of regret : ALAS

34. Pebbles bearer : WILMA - the Flintstones "10d."

35. Drop : DRAM - I was looking for the verb, not the noun

36. Bringing it up can lead to a fit : HEM - ah, my kind of clue~!  Thanks for covering lat week, CED~!

I found this one, too - my that's short~!

37. It first passed 2014 in 2014, briefly : S AND P - S&P 500 - the Wiki

38. Choice word : MEENY - eeny is my first choice....

39. "Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe" author : FLAGG - WAG

41. Raiding group, familiarly : THE FEDS

43. Fool : LIE TO

44. Sand bar : SHOAL

45. Figure it out : FILL IN THE BLANKS - there were a few "Wheel of Fortune" images I would like to have posted, but....

50. Hitching post? : ALTAR - a gimme

51. Group of football players, perhaps : RUGBY TEAM

52. "Mr. Belvedere" actress Graff : ILENE - a WAG

53. Weight : ONUS

54. French bread : EURO - almost got me

55. Square figures : NERDS - I had AREA, then ACRES, and never thought it was something else

56. Gp. using sub titles? : USN - submarines in the U.S. Navy

57. Unattached : STAG - dah~! Not LONE

DOWN:

1. "Thus with a kiss __": Romeo : "I DIE"

2. Table salt, in chem class : NaCL

3. Pants part : KNEE

4. Words said in passing? : YES VOTES

6. Part of WYSIWYG : SEE IS - I am usually pretty good with acronym-type challenges - I nailed this as "what you see is what you get"

7. Home position, for some : ASDF - and then I hit a brick wall with this reference - A S D F on a Q W E R T Y keyboard is called the home row, which I did not know

8. Bar staff : LAWYERS - Dah~! I was in the wrong bar here....

9. Bar tool : OPENER - but the right one here

11. Former leader? : TRANS - transformer

12. Sebaceous gland issue : STYE - nice Saturday cluing

14. "Enough already!" : "CAN IT~!" - I had CUT IT to start

17. Fare on a stick : KEBAB

20. Round Greek letter : THETA - DAH~!! - I had OMEGA, since the E - A was in place....

23. Monument Valley locale : UTAH - half perps, half WAG

24. Sitcom marine : PYLE

29. Overdone : OLD - oh, I get it now

31. Measure of passing time : SAND - like through the hourglass....

32. Organic frozen-food brand : AMY'S - I guessed the "M"

34. One traveling in Old West circles? : WAGON - circle the wagons~!

35. Lowers the volume of, in a way : DEFLATES - no NE Patriots joke~?

37. "SNL" sketches, e.g. : SATIRES

38. Like a bad apple : MEALY - argh~! not WORMY

40. University founder Stanford : LELAND - no clue

42. Film hero Roy who wielded a bat called "Wonderboy" : HOBBS - from "The Natural" - IMDb

43. De Gaulle's birthplace : LILLE - OK, sure - that's too Frawnche for me

44. Keeps away from : SHUNS

45. Willing : FAIN - never heard of this before

46. Briefs covering, in brief : TROUsers

47. Unaligned: Abbr. : NEUTral - two half-words in a row

48. Supergirl's Krypton name : KARA - another "no clue" on my part

49. Irritating blanket : SMOG - I pondered SNOW at first, but snow doesn't irritate me, personally

Splynter