Theme: "hashtag"
Words: 70 (missing Q,W,X,Z)
Blocks: 32
HA~!!! This one was looking bleak for the longest time, with a lot of proper names and vague clues, but I surprised myself by getting it done with nary a single cheat, Google, or red-letter peek. And within my personal allotted time, as well. The puzzle itself had to be a truly difficult one to construct, with triple spanners crossing triple climbers, in a "#"-like pattern. Very clever. I have to admire constructors who can pull this off without "meh" fill. In retrospect there was a lot of 'crosswordese' which I have seen before, including a repeat of last week's 'keeping it real'. The long fills;
20. Quantum mechanics symbol : SCHRODINGER'S CAT - I've posted a link to this before, and the more I try to understand it, the more my brain hurts. I get it, but the more I read, the more I don't get it
37. Herbie and Christine : SELF-DRIVING CARS
- one friendly, one no so friendly; Christine was one of the first
'adult' books I ever read, and as a result, the Buick Cutlass Supreme
Brougham that I was driving at the time earned the name "Christine"; the
new Dodge is "Daphne"
52. Game with a disc : ULTIMATE FRISBEE - my first thought was Frisbee, but the 'ultimate' part eluded me
4. Like the Toyota Prius : ENERGY EFFICIENT - a"repeat" from last week
7. Gadget affected by waves : SOUND LEVEL METER
10. Like some aquariums : CLOSED ECOSYSTEM
ACROSS:
1. Spent : JADED - there are days when I am definitely "jaded" at UPS
6. Wine city SSE of the Matterhorn : ASTI - looking back, I shoulda recognized this as merely Saturday cluing for a common crossword fill
10. Pasta alle vongole ingredient : CLAM - no clue; had two crossings, and the other two letters were WAGs
14. 1955 Dior innovation : A LINE - I remembered this from previous puzzles, too, but I needed two crossings to jog my memory
6. Wine city SSE of the Matterhorn : ASTI - looking back, I shoulda recognized this as merely Saturday cluing for a common crossword fill
10. Pasta alle vongole ingredient : CLAM - no clue; had two crossings, and the other two letters were WAGs
14. 1955 Dior innovation : A LINE - I remembered this from previous puzzles, too, but I needed two crossings to jog my memory
15. Create, in a way : COIN
- one of the line supervisors claims to have "coined" the term DERP,
which ended up being the route name of one of my UPS trucks - until the
driver looked it up, and said he didn't like the name anymore; so we changed the name of the route to DOUG
16. Actress Loughlin : LORI - I thought it was SARA - and of course, I had the "R" in place
17. Plague : BESET - "beset" always reminds me of the Pulp Fiction scene where Jules recites Ezekiel 25:17 - with a little embellishment from Quentin, naturally
18. Vintage vessels : TUNS - dah~! Not URNS nor TUGS
19. Silver sources : ORES
23. __ wire : GUY - the sound effects guys on Star Wars used one to create the sound of the lasers in the movie
24. "Piece of cake!" : "DEAD EASY~!"
25. Be true to oneself : STAY REAL - another 'repeat' from last week
29. Poor, as an excuse : SAD
30. Roast runner : EMCEE
31. Dramatic start? : MELO - melodramatic
33. Place with Sundance : ETTA - crafty - I did not know Etta Place was Sundance Kid's wife - the Wiki
16. Actress Loughlin : LORI - I thought it was SARA - and of course, I had the "R" in place
17. Plague : BESET - "beset" always reminds me of the Pulp Fiction scene where Jules recites Ezekiel 25:17 - with a little embellishment from Quentin, naturally
18. Vintage vessels : TUNS - dah~! Not URNS nor TUGS
19. Silver sources : ORES
23. __ wire : GUY - the sound effects guys on Star Wars used one to create the sound of the lasers in the movie
24. "Piece of cake!" : "DEAD EASY~!"
25. Be true to oneself : STAY REAL - another 'repeat' from last week
29. Poor, as an excuse : SAD
30. Roast runner : EMCEE
31. Dramatic start? : MELO - melodramatic
33. Place with Sundance : ETTA - crafty - I did not know Etta Place was Sundance Kid's wife - the Wiki
40. Adequate, in texts : ENUF
41. Tablet operator : USER
42. Capital at the foot of Vitosha Mountain : SOFIA - Saturday cluing
43. Network with a lot of reruns : ION - they started running Burn Notice, which I got hooked on - glad I have a Firestick so I can watch the episodes in sequence now
Love the sunglasses
45. End of the line : LAST STOP
47. Shore scavenger : BEACH BUM - I was thinking "birds" for some reason
51. Crowbar, e.g. : PRY
57. Architect Mies van der __ : ROHE - knew it, just couldn't remember how to spell it
58. Big name in credit : CITI
59. It's quite a blast : N-TEST
60. Reinterpret : SPIN
61. "Ad Parnassum" painter : KLEE - again, no clue. WAG
uh-huh....
62. Pass without flying colors : GET a C
63. __ dress : TENT - not as appealing as an A LINE dress, IMHO
64. Vassal : SERF semi-clecho with; 53d. Vassal's venue : FIEF
65. Line drive, say : SMASH - baseball
DOWN:
1. Sharp criticisms : JABS
2. Smart guy? : ALEC - har-har
3. Bobby Flay creation : DISH - a blank WAG on my part, and clearly a good one
5. Avoided traffic, perhaps : DETOURED
6. When Valjean is released from prison : ACT I - I have learned how to interpret clues like this; fill in "ACT" and wait; it was most likely going to be "I". From Les Misérables, which I know little about
8. Soupçon : TINGE
9. Like Halloween pumpkins : IN SEASON
11. "Oda a Salvador Dalí" poet García __ : LORCA - no clue again
12. Domains : AREAS
13. Indistinct : MISTY
21. Batik need : DYE
22. Dietary no. : RDA
25. Zaire's Mobutu __ Seko : SESE - got it because it's crosswordese again
26. Counterfeit cops? : T-MEN - Treasury agents
28. Nice friends : AMIs - Frawnche
32. Late Ottoman currency : LIRA - I first read this as "LIKE", not "LATE", so I didn't get it
34. Chief justice before Hughes : TAFT
35. Small club group : TRIO
36. "Pronto!" : ASAP
38. Football plays with special teams : RUNBACKS
39. D neighbors on most guitars : G-STRINGS - because the "other" G-string definition is unacceptable here
46. Easter time: Abbr. : SPRing
47. Star or cloud follower : BURST -Starburst, cloudburst; we had plenty of that here Tuesday
48. Cut out for a union? : ELOPE - ah, that kind of union
49. Walk __ line : A THIN
50. Handy : UTILE
54. Test release : BETA
55. Those, in Tenerife : ESAS
56. Permanently mark : ETCH - oops, not SCAR
Splynter
