Saturday, Sep 9th, 2017, C.C. Burnikel

Theme: C.C.C.W~!

Words: 70 (missing J,Q,X,Z)

Blocks: 31

Does it seem like the puzzles get harder as the year moves along the same as the week goes~?  This was the second Saturday puzzle in a row that beat me up, and this one feels a little harsher, like being attacked by friendly fire, coming from our hostess C.C.  In fact, I've gone so far as to coin a new term; STOG.  That is, I went Straight TO Google for several answers, as the cluing today was, at least for me, rather vague.   Oh well.  Red-letters, too.  C.C.'s last LA Times Saturday construction, back in June, was doable, at least.  Nothing intimidating about the grid, with two 11-letter spanners and two 15-letter climbers;

7. "Way to go!" : "NOW YOU'RE COOKING~!" - Quite a few "quote"(*) clues in today's grid, too

8. Dancers seen in strips? : THE CHIPPENDALES - har-har~!

for the ladies

take it all Off WARD~!

ACROSS:

1. End with force : STAMP ON - RAID kills bugs dead, too

8. Percussion instrument : TIMPANI - instrument heard here in a John Bonham drum solo from Led Zeppelin's CODA album; the pedal timpani is a tune-able drum

starts @ 0:42

15. Contemporary of Plácido : LUCIANO - Domingo, and Pavarotti, two-thirds of The Three Tenors; I can never remember the third guy....him

16. Went deep : HOMERED - no C.C. crossword is complete without a baseball reference

17. Agitated : IN A STEW - my NW was blank, so I tried "-ED" at the end.  Bzzzt.

18. Like the flame at Graceland : ETERNAL

19. Singing voice, informally : PIPES - I exercised my pipes at karaoke two weeks ago

20. Workout spot : YMCA - gritted teeth.  I really hoped this was not going to be "YOGA", as I had the Y--A, but when it filled I thought we needed an abbr. somewhere for Y.M.C.A

22. Ax : FIRE

23. Quick-footed : SPRY

24*. "I'm amazed!" : "OOH~!" - not "WOW~!"

25. Springfield bar : MOE'S - 'Simpsons' clue. 

26. Traditional March 14 servings : PIES - totally stumped me at first; it's not the Ides - the 15th, and not St. Pat's - the 17th.  It was only when I mentally pictured the date as 3.14 that "Pi" hit me like the V-8 can

27. Venus, when appearing as the morning star : LUCIFER - learning moment.  I did not know this was a translation of a Biblical reference, here

Venus is part of a planetary alignment 23 sep 2017

29. Paradise in "On the Road" : SAL - Jack Kerouac

30. Minor employment needs, in some places : WORK PERMITS - I had to get a work card at 16yrs old to go to work at the now defunct Grossman's lumber company

34. Longtime NBC hit : SNL - I'd like to thank everyone who enjoyed picking up on my mistake regarding last week's "SNL" clue

35. Blow away : AWE

36. Pittsburgh's __ Park : PNC

37. Thanksgiving, e.g.: Abbr. : THUrsday - yup.  I figured HOLiday was not good enough today

38. Helpful program for frequent fliers : TSA PRE-CHECK

41. Give under pressure : SAG - I pondered BOW

42. Joan of Arc, for one : HEROINE - I filled in HERETIC for some reason

43. Fill up : SATE

44. Close buds : BROS - not PALS

46. Hardly fresh : OLD

47. Father's ceremony : MASS - that kind of father

48. The first "A" in A.A. Milne : ALAN - Alexander is the second "A"

49. Great Plains st. : OKLAhoma

50. Maestro Doráti : ANTAL - first totally STOG clue

52. Trattoria staple : RAVIOLI

54. Theater originally lit with oil lamps : La SCALA

56. Enter covertly : CREEP IN - I had SNEAK to start

57. Self-gratifying pursuit : EGO TRIP - had EGOTISM to start - that's 5/7ths 4/7ths correct....phew

58. Picking up : SENSING - I'm sensing it's time for a pic for the guys

59. Law groups : SENATES

DOWN:

1. Space for a ship : SLIP - I could not get BERTH out of my head; PIER and DOCK seemed off

2. They started the Arab Spring : TUNISIANS - More recent than I realized

3. Like Pentatonix performances : A CAPPELLA - totally STOG.  I know what pentatoniC means, but I had to look up this group

4. Unlikely GoFundMe supporters : MISERS

5. One taking a fall : PATSY

6. Table for __ : ONE - I of course, went with TWO.  God help me, the blue-eyed girl has come back into my life, once again....WC might understand my dilemma

9. Little bit : IOTA

10. Fr. title : MME

11. Put on : PERFORM

12. Jack's links rival : ARNIE - golfers.  I have not gotten out since the one time I played on vacation in three weeks - and it showed

13. Almost reaches : NEARS

14. Like some chatter : IDLE

21. Ridicule : MOCK

25. Pharmaceutical giant : MERCK

26*. Whisper from a cheater, maybe : "PSST~!"

27. Decrease : LOWER

28. Place for the undecided? : FENCE - clever.  I went with LIMBO.  Really.

30. Hawked stuff : WARES

31*. "Good first step" : "IT'S A START."

32*. "Not true!" : "THAT'S A LIE~!"

33. Knight who co-founded Death Row Records : SUGE - totally STOG, but it filled via perps

39. Impostors : PHONIES

40. Barrier for Sisyphus : HILL - the name to me always implies a female, though I know the -US ending in Latin is masculine.  Ergo, I did not recall this classic myth

43. Safe havens : SANCTA - dah~! Another ending that was not the typical plural "S", which fooled me

44. Play loudly : BLARE

45. "Ungainly fowl" of poetry : RAVEN

47. __ jar : MASON - dah~!  Not SWEAR, not JELLY

48. Lob paths : ARCS - made me change my SNEAK IN at 56a.

49. Lena of "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" : OLIN

51. Napkin holders? : LAPS - cute

53. Coty subsidiary that makes nail polish : OPI - never heard of this; another STOG had it not filled via perps

55. Brandy statistic : AGE

Splynter