Theme: C.C. and E's Letter addition to the four theme entries to create a new phrase.
17A. Miss America runner-up? : SILVER BELLE. The Silver Bell is a pretty tree from the south-east USA. "Silver Bells" is the movie, and doesn't work with the letter addition.
36A. Passage for the birds? : AVIAN FLUE. Avian flu usually is not transmitted to humans, the virus needs to go through a number of mutations before it becomes a threat.
42A. Little Jack Horner's dream? : LIFE OF PIE. "Life of Pi" was a wonderful book, I didn't see the movie, I couldn't imagine how it could match up to the text.
62A. Emulating the writing style of "The Quiet American"? : GOING GREENE. Kermit's favorite environmental initiative; Graham Greene wrote some of my favorite books.
Here comes C.C. with a letter-addition theme. Simple idea, but the theme entries are fun and it's not easy to find a set of these which don't make you groan. There's a couple of her "trademark" long downs and some solid blocks throughout which make the fill flow. Let's see what else jumps out:
Across:
1. Buccaneers' home : TAMPA. The Bucs haven't exactly lit up the NFL since they won the Superbowl in 2002. They last topped their division in 2007.
6. Silly bird : GOOSE
11. Revolting word? : ICK!
14. Plane read : E-BOOK. I take real books along, but I do have some e-books on my iPad as a backup.
15. Large grouping : ARRAY
16. Pen user : CON. Convict. Penitentiary. I had to stare this one down before the lightbulb clicked on. Very nice.
19. Part of a royal flush : ACE. TEN at the other end of the flush, so wait for a cross.
20. Anastasia __, "Fifty Shades of Grey" character : STEELE. When this book first went viral, it was amazing to see how many people (women!) were reading a book with the front cover removed on the plane.
21. Emergency signal : SOS
22. Frosted flakes : SNOW
23. Called up : RANG
25. "Unsafe at Any Speed" author : NADER
27. Put in order : SORT
30. Fab alternative : ERA. Detergents. Would the FAB ERA be the 1960's?
32. Special Forces trademarks : BERETS. There are Green Berets in both the US and British armies. The British wearers are commandos. The Red Beret is usually worn by airborne forces.
35. Legendary horse tale setting : TROY. The Y was my last fill in the puzzle. I couldn't see past TRON for absolutely no good reason. Sanity prevailed. Those dastardly Greeks, hiding in plain horse.
38. Gold, in Granada : ORO
39. "My bad" : SO SORRY
41. Wartime prez : ABE. The civil war. Sneaky, I was expecting FDR or HST.
44. Proofreading mark : STET. The dots indicate what needs to stay after first being DELE'd
45. Overwhelm : ENGULF
46. Biological building block : DNA
48. Flight-related prefix : AERO-. Cue -Run DMC featuring -smith.
49. Emerged : AROSE
51. Carrier that doesn't fly on the Sabbath : EL AL
53. Order with tzatziki sauce : GYRO. Food! I was getting hungry. I love gyros. The Mad Greek truck stop in Baker on the I-15 between Las Vegas and Barstow has one of the best I've eaten.
55. Some Samsung TVs : HDS
57. "Yay, me!" : I DID IT! Crossword-solvers' cry everywhere.
61. Fishing __ : ROD
64. Weaken, perhaps : AGE
65. Jack's links rival : ARNIE. Nicklaus and Palmer. Along with Gary Player and agent Mark McCormack, they were instrumental in developing the commercial success of the sport.
66. Start a correction process : ERASE.
67. Secret competitor : BAN. Deodorants this time.
68. Bounded : LEAPT
69. Ice cream purchases : PINTS. Way down my list of what I'd be buying in pints.
Down:
1. Hardy heroine : TESS. Cracking read. Here's the Vale of Blackmore where the novel is set.
2. Minimally : A BIT
3. Lawn disruption : MOLE. I went with MOSS first as I had MO__ . That didn't work out so well.
4. "The parent of revolution and crime": Aristotle : POVERTY. I wasn't familiar with this assertion, but it makes perfect sense.
5. Cub Scout leader : AKELA. I was a Cub Scout way back when. "Akela, we will do our best". The significance of the all the "dybbing" and "dobbing" went straight over my head until I went to look it up two minutes ago. Now I find that we were text-speaking in 1965. DYB - Do Your Best. DOB - Do Our Best. Who knew?
6. Yak : GAB
7. Miner matters : ORES
8. DuPont acrylic : ORLON
9. Mexican buffet feature : SALSA BAR. I went to a very different salsa bar when I was in Hong Kong - a great bar in Lan Kwai Fong where the music was all Latin ballroom. There were some great dancers among the customers. I was not one of them, but that did not deter me. It was July 4th, and there was drink taken, in my defense.
10. Contact's spot : EYE
11. "Tell me about it" : I CAN RELATE
12. Nickname for late-night host O'Brien : COCO. New to me. Giving Ms. Chanel the day off cluing duty.
13. Didn't just think : KNEW
18. Russo of "The Intern" : RENE
22. Feudal grunt : SERF. Low man on the totem pole in Medieval England.
24. Comprehend : GRASP
26. Shoot down : DENY. As rumors.
27. Ripped off : STOLE
28. Longtime Utah senator Hatch : ORRIN
29. Area for urban growth : ROOF GARDEN. Nice.
31. Get around : AVOID
33. Potato, e.g. : TUBER. If you go green, you'll be growing these in your roof garden.
34. Look after : SEE TO
37. Goddess of peace : IRENE. I need to file this away for future recall. I must have seen this before but it was crosses all the way for me today.
39. Red cup brand : SOLO. Those ubiquitous party cups.
40. Like some oil rigs : OFFSHORE
43. Mark's successor : EURO. German (and Austrian) currency.
44. "Amadeus" narrator : SALIERI
47. Eccentric Sacha Baron Cohen persona : ALI G. This was his original alter ego, and his best as he was completely unknown at the time.
50. Twin Cities suburb that hosted the 2008 U.S. Women's Open : EDINA. In C.C's neighborhood.
52. Madison Ave. agent : AD REP
53. Snatch : GRAB
54. Discipline with poses : YOGA
56. Cut : SNIP
58. Big man on campus : DEAN
59. Caltech, e.g.: Abbr. : INST.
60. Golf tournament souvenirs : TEES. Tees like this?
or like these?
62. Country miss : GAL. She may belong to FarmersOnly.com, a website which I was convinced was a hoax when it first started airing ads.
63. Comprehend : GET. Got it!
And I think I've run out of runway, so that's it from me. Here's the grid!
Steve
17A. Miss America runner-up? : SILVER BELLE. The Silver Bell is a pretty tree from the south-east USA. "Silver Bells" is the movie, and doesn't work with the letter addition.
36A. Passage for the birds? : AVIAN FLUE. Avian flu usually is not transmitted to humans, the virus needs to go through a number of mutations before it becomes a threat.
42A. Little Jack Horner's dream? : LIFE OF PIE. "Life of Pi" was a wonderful book, I didn't see the movie, I couldn't imagine how it could match up to the text.
62A. Emulating the writing style of "The Quiet American"? : GOING GREENE. Kermit's favorite environmental initiative; Graham Greene wrote some of my favorite books.
Here comes C.C. with a letter-addition theme. Simple idea, but the theme entries are fun and it's not easy to find a set of these which don't make you groan. There's a couple of her "trademark" long downs and some solid blocks throughout which make the fill flow. Let's see what else jumps out:
Across:
1. Buccaneers' home : TAMPA. The Bucs haven't exactly lit up the NFL since they won the Superbowl in 2002. They last topped their division in 2007.
6. Silly bird : GOOSE
11. Revolting word? : ICK!
14. Plane read : E-BOOK. I take real books along, but I do have some e-books on my iPad as a backup.
15. Large grouping : ARRAY
16. Pen user : CON. Convict. Penitentiary. I had to stare this one down before the lightbulb clicked on. Very nice.
19. Part of a royal flush : ACE. TEN at the other end of the flush, so wait for a cross.
20. Anastasia __, "Fifty Shades of Grey" character : STEELE. When this book first went viral, it was amazing to see how many people (women!) were reading a book with the front cover removed on the plane.
21. Emergency signal : SOS
22. Frosted flakes : SNOW
23. Called up : RANG
25. "Unsafe at Any Speed" author : NADER
27. Put in order : SORT
30. Fab alternative : ERA. Detergents. Would the FAB ERA be the 1960's?
32. Special Forces trademarks : BERETS. There are Green Berets in both the US and British armies. The British wearers are commandos. The Red Beret is usually worn by airborne forces.
35. Legendary horse tale setting : TROY. The Y was my last fill in the puzzle. I couldn't see past TRON for absolutely no good reason. Sanity prevailed. Those dastardly Greeks, hiding in plain horse.
38. Gold, in Granada : ORO
39. "My bad" : SO SORRY
41. Wartime prez : ABE. The civil war. Sneaky, I was expecting FDR or HST.
44. Proofreading mark : STET. The dots indicate what needs to stay after first being DELE'd
45. Overwhelm : ENGULF
46. Biological building block : DNA
48. Flight-related prefix : AERO-. Cue -Run DMC featuring -smith.
49. Emerged : AROSE
51. Carrier that doesn't fly on the Sabbath : EL AL
53. Order with tzatziki sauce : GYRO. Food! I was getting hungry. I love gyros. The Mad Greek truck stop in Baker on the I-15 between Las Vegas and Barstow has one of the best I've eaten.
55. Some Samsung TVs : HDS
57. "Yay, me!" : I DID IT! Crossword-solvers' cry everywhere.
61. Fishing __ : ROD
64. Weaken, perhaps : AGE
65. Jack's links rival : ARNIE. Nicklaus and Palmer. Along with Gary Player and agent Mark McCormack, they were instrumental in developing the commercial success of the sport.
66. Start a correction process : ERASE.
67. Secret competitor : BAN. Deodorants this time.
68. Bounded : LEAPT
69. Ice cream purchases : PINTS. Way down my list of what I'd be buying in pints.
Down:
1. Hardy heroine : TESS. Cracking read. Here's the Vale of Blackmore where the novel is set.
2. Minimally : A BIT
3. Lawn disruption : MOLE. I went with MOSS first as I had MO__ . That didn't work out so well.
4. "The parent of revolution and crime": Aristotle : POVERTY. I wasn't familiar with this assertion, but it makes perfect sense.
5. Cub Scout leader : AKELA. I was a Cub Scout way back when. "Akela, we will do our best". The significance of the all the "dybbing" and "dobbing" went straight over my head until I went to look it up two minutes ago. Now I find that we were text-speaking in 1965. DYB - Do Your Best. DOB - Do Our Best. Who knew?
6. Yak : GAB
7. Miner matters : ORES
8. DuPont acrylic : ORLON
9. Mexican buffet feature : SALSA BAR. I went to a very different salsa bar when I was in Hong Kong - a great bar in Lan Kwai Fong where the music was all Latin ballroom. There were some great dancers among the customers. I was not one of them, but that did not deter me. It was July 4th, and there was drink taken, in my defense.
10. Contact's spot : EYE
11. "Tell me about it" : I CAN RELATE
12. Nickname for late-night host O'Brien : COCO. New to me. Giving Ms. Chanel the day off cluing duty.
13. Didn't just think : KNEW
18. Russo of "The Intern" : RENE
22. Feudal grunt : SERF. Low man on the totem pole in Medieval England.
24. Comprehend : GRASP
26. Shoot down : DENY. As rumors.
27. Ripped off : STOLE
28. Longtime Utah senator Hatch : ORRIN
29. Area for urban growth : ROOF GARDEN. Nice.
31. Get around : AVOID
33. Potato, e.g. : TUBER. If you go green, you'll be growing these in your roof garden.
34. Look after : SEE TO
37. Goddess of peace : IRENE. I need to file this away for future recall. I must have seen this before but it was crosses all the way for me today.
39. Red cup brand : SOLO. Those ubiquitous party cups.
40. Like some oil rigs : OFFSHORE
43. Mark's successor : EURO. German (and Austrian) currency.
44. "Amadeus" narrator : SALIERI
47. Eccentric Sacha Baron Cohen persona : ALI G. This was his original alter ego, and his best as he was completely unknown at the time.
50. Twin Cities suburb that hosted the 2008 U.S. Women's Open : EDINA. In C.C's neighborhood.
52. Madison Ave. agent : AD REP
53. Snatch : GRAB
54. Discipline with poses : YOGA
56. Cut : SNIP
58. Big man on campus : DEAN
59. Caltech, e.g.: Abbr. : INST.
60. Golf tournament souvenirs : TEES. Tees like this?
62. Country miss : GAL. She may belong to FarmersOnly.com, a website which I was convinced was a hoax when it first started airing ads.
63. Comprehend : GET. Got it!
And I think I've run out of runway, so that's it from me. Here's the grid!
Steve
