Theme: Beforehand. The three circled words are clued as "synonym" found in "a thing".
17A. Done in a comprehensive plan? : BLANKET COVERAGE. Done as in finished.
35A. Tied up in a government program? : CRIME PREVENTION. Tied up as in evened the score.
55A. Out in a classic sports car? : FORD THUNDERBIRD. Out as in knocked out by anesthetic.
Hi all! Fun theme from Roland, I like the way the circled words are clued. Three full grid-spanners for the theme entries and a very solid-looking grid. I don't know if he was connecting the circled letters as being words that can follow "hand"; that's just my theme title.
Definitely some Thursday-level stuff going on today. Let's see what jumps out
Across:
1. Fish feature : GILL. I never thought of a gill in the singular before.
5. Sporty sunroof : T-TOP
9. Impressionist's métier : APERY.I know it's a word, but this and the related "aper" just don't work for me.
14. Mount between Pelion and Olympus : OSSA. Dug this out of the cranial recesses.
15. Bat mitzvah dance : HORA. Didn't dig this out, thank you crosses.
16. "__ Theme": "Doctor Zhivago" song : LARA'S. Let's hear it from The City of Prague Philharmonic.
20. Primed : SET, as a fuse.
21. Duffers' dreams : ACES. A duffer of a golfer can only dream of a hole-in-one. I've got one which I count as "unofficial" because it was on a par-three course, and it doesn't make me any less of a duffer, believe me. One of my friends got a legitimate one with a club I'd given him the week before, so I claimed the assist.
22. Gamer's game face : AVATAR. You choose an avatar to represent you when playing online video games. Apparently. Here's one of mine from Facebook:
23. Criticize harshly : SLAM
24. Emailed a dupe to : CC'ED
25. Darth, before he turned to the Dark Side : ANAKIN.
28. Postgrad challenge : ORAL EXAM
32. Quarrel : RUN-IN
33. Pit-__: heart sound : A-PAT
34. Target of annual shots : FLU
39. Useful Scrabble tile : ESS. Useful because you can add it to pretty much any existing word on the board.
40. Fairy tale heavy : OGRE
41. Suez Canal ship : OILER. Oil tankers are not the only commercial traffic to use the canal, but oil from the Arab countries is carried through the canal bound for nothern Europe and the U.S. East Coast. As the price of oil has fallen, since 2016 some carriers are choosing to take the longer way around the southern tip of Africa to avoid paying the toll charges for passage through the canal.
42. IBM's chess-playing computer : DEEP BLUE. It could beat me blindfold and with one microchip tied behind its back. I'm a lousy chess player.
45. To a greater degree : MORE SO
46. Singer India.__ : ARIE. Note the period after India - it's part of her name. This is a new name for me, but she's won four Grammys. Crosses filled her in for me. Striking-looking woman.
47. Word with candy or sugar : CANE
48. Book with tablets : EXODUS
51. Candle holder : CAKE
52. The White Stripes, e.g. : DUO. Here's "Seven Nation Army" - drums and guitar. Catchy riff on the base notes.
58. Veil material : TULLE
59. Bolivia neighbor : PERU
60. "It follows that ... " : ERGO. Cogito ergo sum - "I'm pink, therefore I'm Spam" - wait, what?
61. Lid woes : STYES
62. Intervene, with "in" : STEP
63. Some game : DEER
Down:
1. Scads : GOBS. Lots, slangily.
2. Part of a chain : ISLE
3. Atty.-to-be's hurdle : LSAT
4. System of connected PCs : LAN. Local Area Network. My home network has a load of things connected to it, most of which are not PC's. The oddest one is probably my sous-vide immersion cooker which talks to the controller app on my iPhone.
5. Lockup, in slang : THE CAN
6. Carved symbol : TOTEM
7. "Warcraft" killers : ORCS. Never played the game, but didn't take a lot of guessing once the "O" appeared.
8. Kung __ chicken : PAO
9. British school test : A-LEVEL. Funny, I was just talking about these to a friend yesterday. Short for "Advanced Level". I've got a couple in Economics and Computer Science.
10. Annual Macy's tradition : PARADE
11. Q.E.D. word : ERAT. Not "Quod" so you need one cross to be sure. It's not "demonstrandum" either, 'cause that doesn't fit.
12. Indian music style : RAGA. Plenty of opportunity for musical links today. Here's the fantastic closing credits/dance scene from "Slumdog Millionaire".
13. North Sea feeder : YSER. Crossword staple. Here it is flowing past the village of Roesbrugge in Belgium.
18. Tigers Hall of Famer Al : KALINE. No clue. Solid crosses to the rescue again.
19. Move out : VACATE
23. 1% alternative : SKIM. I saw "fat-free half-and-half" in the market last week. Doesn't that completely defeat the purpose?
24. Have a jones for : CRAVE
25. Like football passes : ARCED. I tried AIRED first as in the QB "airing out" the ball, but it turned out I was 40% wrong.
26. "Scrubs" extra : NURSE
27. Herbal flavor similar to licorice : ANISE
28. __ citato: in the work cited : OPERE. Usually abbreviates to Op. Cit.
29. Case for Scully : X-FILE. Clever singular form.
30. Leafy healers : ALOES
31. Canadian Alice with a Nobel Prize : MUNRO. Fiction writer. Her Nobel Prize in Literature is as a "master of the contemporary short story".
33. Tell it to the judge : ARGUE. I'm not sure I'd want to be arguing with the judge. I assume you're arguing your case.
36. Refinement : POLISH
37. Lunchtime tryst : NOONER
38. Run out of gas : TIRE. When you run out of tire, you're on your rims.
43. Get the canoe going : PADDLE. I saw a bumper sticker on a truck in northern Georgia near where "Deliverance" was filmed. It read "Paddle faster, I hear banjos".
44. Savages : BRUTES
45. Bury the hatchet : MAKE UP
47. Tight-knit group : CADRE
48. Young newts : EFTS
49. Cross off : X-OUT
50. Alternative to de Gaulle : ORLY. Parisian airports. ORY used to be the main airport until CDG was opened.
51. Tech news site : CNET. The name doesn't seem to be an acronym for anything.
52. Desperate : DIRE
53. Sugar craving, say : URGE
54. Wrinkled-nose cause : ODOR
56. Co. with brown trucks : UPS. My brother drives for UPS in England. Our own Splynter takes the wheel here in the US.
57. Place to plant : BED. Flower bed. Here's a pretty one in the English countryside.
And with that, I think my work here is done. Salut!
Steve
17A. Done in a comprehensive plan? : BLANKET COVERAGE. Done as in finished.
35A. Tied up in a government program? : CRIME PREVENTION. Tied up as in evened the score.
55A. Out in a classic sports car? : FORD THUNDERBIRD. Out as in knocked out by anesthetic.
Hi all! Fun theme from Roland, I like the way the circled words are clued. Three full grid-spanners for the theme entries and a very solid-looking grid. I don't know if he was connecting the circled letters as being words that can follow "hand"; that's just my theme title.
Definitely some Thursday-level stuff going on today. Let's see what jumps out
Across:
1. Fish feature : GILL. I never thought of a gill in the singular before.
5. Sporty sunroof : T-TOP
9. Impressionist's métier : APERY.I know it's a word, but this and the related "aper" just don't work for me.
14. Mount between Pelion and Olympus : OSSA. Dug this out of the cranial recesses.
15. Bat mitzvah dance : HORA. Didn't dig this out, thank you crosses.
16. "__ Theme": "Doctor Zhivago" song : LARA'S. Let's hear it from The City of Prague Philharmonic.
20. Primed : SET, as a fuse.
21. Duffers' dreams : ACES. A duffer of a golfer can only dream of a hole-in-one. I've got one which I count as "unofficial" because it was on a par-three course, and it doesn't make me any less of a duffer, believe me. One of my friends got a legitimate one with a club I'd given him the week before, so I claimed the assist.
22. Gamer's game face : AVATAR. You choose an avatar to represent you when playing online video games. Apparently. Here's one of mine from Facebook:
23. Criticize harshly : SLAM
24. Emailed a dupe to : CC'ED
25. Darth, before he turned to the Dark Side : ANAKIN.
28. Postgrad challenge : ORAL EXAM
32. Quarrel : RUN-IN
33. Pit-__: heart sound : A-PAT
34. Target of annual shots : FLU
39. Useful Scrabble tile : ESS. Useful because you can add it to pretty much any existing word on the board.
40. Fairy tale heavy : OGRE
41. Suez Canal ship : OILER. Oil tankers are not the only commercial traffic to use the canal, but oil from the Arab countries is carried through the canal bound for nothern Europe and the U.S. East Coast. As the price of oil has fallen, since 2016 some carriers are choosing to take the longer way around the southern tip of Africa to avoid paying the toll charges for passage through the canal.
42. IBM's chess-playing computer : DEEP BLUE. It could beat me blindfold and with one microchip tied behind its back. I'm a lousy chess player.
45. To a greater degree : MORE SO
46. Singer India.__ : ARIE. Note the period after India - it's part of her name. This is a new name for me, but she's won four Grammys. Crosses filled her in for me. Striking-looking woman.
47. Word with candy or sugar : CANE
48. Book with tablets : EXODUS
51. Candle holder : CAKE
52. The White Stripes, e.g. : DUO. Here's "Seven Nation Army" - drums and guitar. Catchy riff on the base notes.
58. Veil material : TULLE
59. Bolivia neighbor : PERU
60. "It follows that ... " : ERGO. Cogito ergo sum - "I'm pink, therefore I'm Spam" - wait, what?
61. Lid woes : STYES
62. Intervene, with "in" : STEP
63. Some game : DEER
Down:
1. Scads : GOBS. Lots, slangily.
2. Part of a chain : ISLE
3. Atty.-to-be's hurdle : LSAT
4. System of connected PCs : LAN. Local Area Network. My home network has a load of things connected to it, most of which are not PC's. The oddest one is probably my sous-vide immersion cooker which talks to the controller app on my iPhone.
5. Lockup, in slang : THE CAN
6. Carved symbol : TOTEM
7. "Warcraft" killers : ORCS. Never played the game, but didn't take a lot of guessing once the "O" appeared.
8. Kung __ chicken : PAO
9. British school test : A-LEVEL. Funny, I was just talking about these to a friend yesterday. Short for "Advanced Level". I've got a couple in Economics and Computer Science.
10. Annual Macy's tradition : PARADE
11. Q.E.D. word : ERAT. Not "Quod" so you need one cross to be sure. It's not "demonstrandum" either, 'cause that doesn't fit.
12. Indian music style : RAGA. Plenty of opportunity for musical links today. Here's the fantastic closing credits/dance scene from "Slumdog Millionaire".
13. North Sea feeder : YSER. Crossword staple. Here it is flowing past the village of Roesbrugge in Belgium.
18. Tigers Hall of Famer Al : KALINE. No clue. Solid crosses to the rescue again.
19. Move out : VACATE
23. 1% alternative : SKIM. I saw "fat-free half-and-half" in the market last week. Doesn't that completely defeat the purpose?
24. Have a jones for : CRAVE
25. Like football passes : ARCED. I tried AIRED first as in the QB "airing out" the ball, but it turned out I was 40% wrong.
26. "Scrubs" extra : NURSE
27. Herbal flavor similar to licorice : ANISE
28. __ citato: in the work cited : OPERE. Usually abbreviates to Op. Cit.
29. Case for Scully : X-FILE. Clever singular form.
30. Leafy healers : ALOES
31. Canadian Alice with a Nobel Prize : MUNRO. Fiction writer. Her Nobel Prize in Literature is as a "master of the contemporary short story".
33. Tell it to the judge : ARGUE. I'm not sure I'd want to be arguing with the judge. I assume you're arguing your case.
36. Refinement : POLISH
37. Lunchtime tryst : NOONER
38. Run out of gas : TIRE. When you run out of tire, you're on your rims.
43. Get the canoe going : PADDLE. I saw a bumper sticker on a truck in northern Georgia near where "Deliverance" was filmed. It read "Paddle faster, I hear banjos".
44. Savages : BRUTES
45. Bury the hatchet : MAKE UP
47. Tight-knit group : CADRE
48. Young newts : EFTS
49. Cross off : X-OUT
50. Alternative to de Gaulle : ORLY. Parisian airports. ORY used to be the main airport until CDG was opened.
51. Tech news site : CNET. The name doesn't seem to be an acronym for anything.
52. Desperate : DIRE
53. Sugar craving, say : URGE
54. Wrinkled-nose cause : ODOR
56. Co. with brown trucks : UPS. My brother drives for UPS in England. Our own Splynter takes the wheel here in the US.
57. Place to plant : BED. Flower bed. Here's a pretty one in the English countryside.
And with that, I think my work here is done. Salut!
Steve
