Words: 72 (missing J,Q,Z)
Blocks: 30
The return of a Saturday duo - the last time we saw these two constructors was back in April of this year. That puzzle featured a 15-letter spanner with a central climber of 13 letters. Today we have 9-letter corners in the across, a pair of 10-letter climbers in the down, and a smattering of 8-letter fill elsewhere. I moved through this grid as smoothly as the one from April, did not get stalled on the proper names, but I have to admit I did not get my "ta-DA~!" - turns out I went with BETAS and not BETHS, and should have known better with the crossing down. Oh well. Some of the longer fill;
15. Only pitcher whose jersey number was retired by the Mets : TOM SEAVER - I'm from L.I., NY, so I had a pretty good idea who this was
12. 2013 literature Nobelist : ALICE MUNRO - her Wiki
66. Bright one in a school : NEON TETRA
27. Smartphone notification : EMAIL ALERT
How 'bout this one~?
ONWARD@Splynter.com~!ACROSS:
1. Sole proprietor? : SHOE STORE - since I was 'hip' to the "?", it would have been in my best interest to try filling in SHOE somewhere, but I left it blank on the first past
10. Spiffy : SMART
16. Certain internet chatter : AOLer
17. Headache source : EYESTRAIN
18. Lopez who played Jiminez in "The Dirty Dozen" : TRINI - got it from perps, but should have been a logical guess in the first place - so would that be a L.A.G.~? The "Logical-Ass Guess"~?
19. Bear fruit : PAN OUT - watermelon didn't fit....
Get it~? "Bear" fruit~? C'mon, that's funny
22. One of the gang : PAL
24. Get the word out? : ERASE - har-har
25. "Wrong call, I suppose" : "GUESS NOT."
30. Test ban subjects : A-BOMBS - I dropped an "A" bomb at 18a.
33. Coloratura Gluck : ALMA
34. Crow heard on tracks : SHERYL - not fooled - I know who Sheryl Crow is
36. Keats wrote on one : URN - "Ode on a Grecian..." I believe
37. Mount, as a comeback : STAGE
39. Santa __ winds : ANA
40. The blahs : ENNUI
42. New England sch. in Kingston : URI - University of Rhode Island
43. 1980 film with the #1 hit "Magic" : XANADU - I remember the title track from star Olivia Newton-John, but never saw the movie - it was a flop, but the soundtrack did well
46. Like the Kara Kum : ARID - a WAG, but it sounded like a desert
47. Goddess on whose bust Poe's raven perched : PALLAS - mostly perps
49. Droning : MONOTONE
51. Target : AIM AT
53. Bad check letters : NSF - @#$Z&%~! I paid Geico on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, got email confirmation, then paid my credit card bill in full on Black Friday - and received notice from my bank Saturday that I had -$147 in my checking account - Geico posted late. The negative balance included the Non-Sufficient Fund charge of $38. Like they don't have enough of my money....
54. It takes a licking : LOLLIPOP - There's a girl at UPS who used to come by with a big bag of lollipops for me once a month. (lollipops is a word you can type with one finger in the top right of the keyboard - try it.)
Umm, not the girl from UPS
57. Bargain for : PLAN ON - I plan on getting a cel phone remote car starter, but wanted to ask those here at the blog for any input they can offer on best brands or functions
62. Canceled a reservation, maybe : ATE IN
63. Tossing and turning : WIDE AWAKE - I hear all the rookies at UPS complaining about trying to get to sleep for a 12am-10am shift for the Christmas peak season. If I have to, I will take some non-alcoholic night-time sleep aid, just to get over the "switch"
65. Death in Venice : MORTE - I figured it was Italian for "death", but was not sure of the spelling
67. Hebrew letters : BETHs - Dah~! Not BETAs
68. Montana's has a plow, a pick and a shovel : STATE SEAL - oops, I went with STATE FLAG
- shout out~!
DOWN:
1. Pedometer unit : STEP - I used to have a step-counter on my cel phone, and it recorded something like 20,000 steps while working at UPS one morning - and I got nowhere; I was still standing between the slide and four trucks....
2. Georgetown newspaper, with "The" : HOYA
3. Sign : OMEN
4. Brand on the Alcan Highway : ESSO
5. Stings : SET-UPS
6. Tam patterns : TARTANS
7. Some gametes : OVA
8. Journalist Whitelaw __ : REID
9. Orange half of a comic duo : ERNIE - Bert and Ernie
10. Like some appetites : SATIABLE - reminds me of that funny story with the "prefix-less" words; see here
11. To a greater extent : MORE SO
13. Eye care brand : RE۰NU
14. Touch off : TRIP
21. Letter between Whiskey and Yankee : X-RAY - I once worked for an architect who owned his own 4-seater plane (Dudley~!), so know my pilot's alphabet, which may be why I screwed up my Hebrew one
23. "Herbie: Fully Loaded" star : LOHAN
25. Get ready to hit the road : GAS UP - had the "S", so this worked for me
26. Modern opening? : ULTRA
28. Sink : SAG
29. Latish wake-up time : TEN AM
31. TD Garden skater : BRUIN - I know my hockey teams
32. Snarky : SNIDE
35. Odorless gas : RADON
38. Scrutinizes : EXAMINES
41. Styron's Turner : NAT - nearly duplicated at; 59d. Electoral analyst Silver : NATE
44. Hustler's request : ASAP
45. Still saved : UNSPENT
48. Demon of Semitic lore : LILITH
50. In recent times : OF LATE
52. Stops on a commuter train : TOWNS
54. Souvlaki choice : LAMB
55. Plains native : OTOE
56. Painter Mondrian : PIET
58. Dazzles : AWES
60. Cajun staple : OKRA
61. Sci-fi author Stephenson : NEAL
64. 1988 film noir remake : D.O.A. - well, I looked at both films (1950)-(1988), and they do not feature the same characters, nor the same plot, so I am not wholly convinced that the later one could be considered a "remake". Besides, I would have gone with the Van Halen song....
For the guitar players out there try this link,
watch the fills & the whammy bar work -
the player in this video hits the mark -
and they're not easy
Y'all tried the "LOLLIPOP" thing, didn't you....
Splynter
