Theme: Kitchen Crises - there are legumes cascading all over the grid.
Six types of spilling beans picked out by the circles - PINTO, BUTTER, GREEN, WHITE, SOYA and BLACK are all present and correct and hinted at by grid-spanning reveal across the center.
Tricky little puzzle, this one from Bruce and Gail. The four corners took some unpicking - the southwest caused me the most problems. I liked how the beans were all "spilling" down the puzzle. The fill was tight and clean, just a couple of entries made me wince a little, but that's probably reasonable for a 78 word puzzle. Let's see what jumps out:
Across:
1. "La Vie en Rose" singer : PIAF. Splendid excuse for some gravelly soundtrack from the chanteuse.
5. Ashtray array : BUTTS
10. Interest greatly : GRAB
14. "There __ joy in Mudville ... " : IS NO. From the splendid Casey at the Bat by Ernest Lawrence Thayer.
15. Livid : IRATE
16. Cambodian currency : RIEL. A couple of repeats from yesterday - this and ARIA at 64A
17. Lump : CLOT
18. Hasbro soldier : GI JOE
19. Raison d'__ : ÊTRE
20. Lake Michigan port : KENOSHA
22. Dietary need : PROTEIN
24. TriBeCa neighbor : SOHO. The "Triangle Below Canal Street" and "South of Houston" neighborhoods in Manhattan.
26. Backspaced over : ERASED
27. 1974 hit with a Spanish title meaning "You are" : ERES TU
31. Jedi Council VIP : YODA. For the Star Wars fans:
33. VCR successor : TIVO
34. Brief meeting? : SESS. Not my favorite fill today. It's legal, just not very elegant.
36. Army rank above maj. : LT.COL
41. Told ... and a hint to this puzzle's six sets of circles : SPILLED THE BEANS
44. Ivy League sch. : YALE U.
45. "Rebel Without a Cause" star James : DEAN
46. Where a retriever may be retrieved: Abbr. : SPCA. Adopting a mutt from the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
47. Blacken : CHAR
49. Prepare : GET SET
51. Kansas motto word : ASPERA. Ad Astra Per Aspera. "Though hardships to the stars". Kurt Vonnegut used it as the motto of the Martian Imperial Commandos in The Sirens of Titan.
55. Omit : SKIP
57. "Moby-Dick" crew : WHALERS. This got me started in this corner. I didn't see the blindingly-obvious ARIA for quite some time.
59. Made possible : ENABLED
64. Italian air : ARIA
65. Cumberland Gap explorer : BOONE
67. Hall of Fame linebacker Junior : SEAU
68. Copper that's mostly zinc : CENT
69. Corned beef __ : ON RYE. Food! I started another batch of corned beef yesterday. Only 17 more days to go!
70. Not fem. : MASC
71. __-Ball : SKEE. I didn't know this thing actually had a name, I just thought it was "that game at Chuck-E-Cheese".
72. Construction rod : REBAR
73. Long haul : TREK
Down:
1. Draft item often traded : PICK
2. Vacation destination : ISLE
3. Erelong : ANON
4. Snap, commercially : FOTO
5. Michigan Stadium nickname, with "The" : BIG HOUSE. The largest stadium in the country with a capacity of just under 110,000
6. Heep of trouble? : URIAH
7. __ Mahal : TAJ. Big marble mausoleum in Agra, India, but more importantly a pretty great Indian restaurant on Ventura Boulevard up the road from me in Encino. Here's their famous Chicken Tikka Masala:
8. Camaro roof option : T-TOP
9. What 15-Across people do : SEE RED
10. Former Fox News anchor Van Susteren : GRETA
11. Ceremonies : RITES
12. Where eagles hatch : AERIE
13. Some of this and some of that : BLEND
21. JFK-to-Heathrow flier, once : SST. Because "Concorde" doesn't fit. By far the noisiest plane that came over my house in London on the way to landing at Heathrow.
23. Dental care name : ORAL B
25. Seafood found in beds : OYSTERS
27. Website for handmade art : ETSY
28. Electrolux spokeswoman Kelly : RIPA
29. Pernicious : EVIL
30. Something underfoot : SOLE
32. DOL division : OSHA
35. Scandinavian literary work : EDDA. Here's the first verse of Sæmund's Edda. Seems to be sensible advice:
1. At every door-way,
ere one enters,
one should spy round,
one should pry round
for uncertain is the witting
that there be no foeman sitting,
within, before one on the floor.
ere one enters,
one should spy round,
one should pry round
for uncertain is the witting
that there be no foeman sitting,
within, before one on the floor.
37. Try out : TEST
38. Toy gun ammo : CAPS
39. Almost never : ONCE
40. Six-part undergrad exam : LSAT
42. Money : LUCRE. Is lucre always filthy? I've never seen a quanity of lucre described as "sparkling".
43. Tech graduate : ENGINEER
48. Abet, in a way : HARBOR
50. Grime-fighting org. : E.P.A. Nice clue - Environmental Protection Agency
51. Spy plane acronym : AWACS Airborne Warning And Control System. I'm not really sure this is a spy plane, just a method of extending your radar detection capability.
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52. Toondom ogre : SHREK
53. "Common Sense" writer : PAINE. Crosses. Thomas Paine's 1775 pamphlet advocating independence from Great Britain. Smart cookie, that guy.
54. Give a big lift : ELATE
56. Uganda neighbor : KENYA
58. 40-decibel unit : SONE. Strictly speaking, it's equal to 40 phons, not decibels, but the distinction is minor so I won't stir up trouble.
60. Realty ad abbr. : BSMT. My "uggh" fill of the day. Personally, I'd have tried to fill this section differently to avoid it.
61. "I am a very foolish fond old man" speaker : LEAR. King Lear, Act 4 Sc vii. Crosses filled this in for me, then I was thinking it might refer to Edward, master of the nonsense verse.
They dined on mince, and slices of quince,
Which they ate with a runcible spoon;
And hand in hand on the edge of the sand,
They danced by the light of the moon.
From The Owl and the Pussycat by Edward Lear
62. Comfort : EASE
63. "Fore!" : DUCK! One of my golfing buddies once hit a screamer of a drive that didn't get two inches off the ground - it hit one of the ladies' tee markers and came back at us so fast that no-one had a chance to do anything except dive for cover.
66. Sun or moon : ORB
That's about it from me. As Yoda would say: "A wrap, it is". Heeere's the grid.
Steve
