Fooled me with the first two starred clues. Thought the theme would be Sci-fi related.
18A. *Sci-fi energy ray that grabs ships : TRACTOR BEAM
3D. *Sci-fi classic featuring Robby the Robot : FORBIDDEN PLANET
8D. *Vessels pulling water-skiers : MOTOR BOATS
11D. *Sign outside a new store : OPEN FOR BUSINESS
28D. *Unable to tell red from green, say : COLOR BLIND
Tying the starred clues together, we get a great hint...
59A. Small, influential group ... and a hint to the word hidden in each answer to a starred clue : INNER CIRCLE
We welcome Evan Mahken on his Los Angeles Times Crossword debut ! Read more about Evan in this article. Well done young man !
ACROSS:
1. Sound from Rover : ARF
4. Quite anxious : ALARMED
11. Canada's most populous prov. : ONTario. Help me out here Canadian Eh. According to what I've read on the internet, Ontario has a 2018 population estimate of over 14 million, and half of them are on the 401 at any point in time.
14. Corporate VIP : CEO. Chief Executive Officer.
15. Pudding choice : TAPIOCA. "Thanks, but none for me. Thank you for asking."
16. Canada's least populous prov. : PEI. Prince Edward Island. Approx. 150,000 people in an area of about 2900 sq. miles, which is slightly larger in land area than Delaware. Nearby Naperville, IL has a similar population in about 39 sq. miles. Anonymous T's brother lives in Naperville. Chances are that there are more Crossword Corner followers in Naperville than in P.E.I.
17. Mess up : ERR. ''To err is human, to moo is bovine.'' I'm no Bluehen. I accidentally doused the chicken breasts with balsamic vinegar last week while playing sous chef and prepping for fajitas. The bottle is similar is shape, size, and label colors to our extra virgin olive oil. Blotted the breasts off a bit, put on some olive oil, added the chipotle seasoning and then grilled. That balsamic vinegar definitely added another layer of flavor.
20. Set of guidelines, as for grading papers : RUBRIC. I'll humbly defer, and ask the distinguished educators on this blog to submit an explanation of rubric in the comments section.
22. Big stretch of time : EON
23. Pay to play : ANTE
24. Tattle : SNITCH. "I'm going to tell on you !"
25. Cheer on : ROOT FOR. As Yellowrocks would remind us, our language and usage is fluid. "Who do you root for ?" rolls off the tongue. It is not nearly as formal and stiff sounding as "For whom do you root ?"
27. __ Moines : DES. Iowa's largest city. Went there on business. Nice clean downtown and the people were all friendly. I left with a positive impression.
28. Hailed car : CAB
30. Sign before Virgo : LEO. The Lion. July 22nd to August 22nd. That makes DW a Leo, and I just read that Leo's are compatible with Gemini's (me). Aha ! The pieces of the puzzle are finally coming together. We fit.
31. "Then what happened?" : AND.
33. Sang 29-Down : SOLOED.
35. Tattle : RAT. Clecho with 24A.
38. "Joltin'" DiMaggio : JOE. According to author Richard Ben Cramer, "The most propitious of Joe Dimaggio's nicknames was "Joltin Joe." Another was "DiMag", as Mark McClain taught some of us in February.
39. Puts in new film : RELOADS
40. "Dawg!" : BRO. Randy Jackson explains why he always says "Dawg" as he talks with Oprah Winfrey on an episode of the OWN network's "Where Are They Now ?"
41. Columnist Landers : ANN
42. Sees right through : IS ON TO
43. Salt Lake City athlete : UTE
44. Family cat, e.g. : PET
46. In medias __ : RES. "From the Latin "into the middle of affairs," in medias res refers to a literary technique in which a story begins after the action has already begun and the explanation of plot, character roles, the importance of setting, and so on are left to be revealed via flashback, a character's thoughts or dialogue, or a "reverse chronology" in which the story is told backwards." Chegg.com
47. "Big Brother" channel : CBS
49. Soda can feature : PULL TAB. After the "church key", and before the "Stay-Tab." The Wikipedia article says that they were invented ca. 1950 in Thunder Bay, ONT, but the discussion page calls that claim dubious as Thunder Bay did not exist until 1970.
52. Yacht spot : MARINA
55. Word of lament for "poor Yorick" : ALAS
56. __-pitch softball : SLO
58. The "U" in "MVEMJSUN" : URANUS. My very educated mother just served us nachos. A mnemonic for the acronym to remember the planets. Alas, poor Pluto. Like Yorick, he was a jester, and had us all fooled into thinking he was a planet.
62. Suffix with ranch : ERO. As vaquero is to cowboy, ranchero is to ranch hand. Also the name of the Ford utility vehicle, but then ranch would have been capitalized in the clue.
63. "Norma __": Sally Field film : RAE. Sally Field won her first Academy Award, for Best Actress in a Leading Role.
64. Witty remarks : BON MOTs. Usually one-liners. Often humorous. So many witty people here. Desper-otto makes them all the time. PK commented that she hadn't previously heard the term off-piste and looked it up. D-O replied, "off piste" -- I've usually heard it in reverse -- piste off."
65. ID on a W-9 form : SSN. Social Security Number for our readers in other countries. The IRS Form W-9 is a "Request for Taxpayer Identification and Certification." The most common form of taxpayer identification is the SSN.
66. Concorde, e.g., briefly : SST. The Concorde Supersonic Transport. Faster than the speed of sound. Why We Don’t Have an SST
67. Martyred bishop of Paris : ST. DENIS.
68. "Ha! Told ya!" : SEE. "See, I told ya I was going to tattle on you !"
DOWN:
1. Taiwanese laptops : ACERs
2. Syndicated sitcom, say : RERUN. Friends, MASH, Everybody Loves Raymond, et alii.
4. Top stories : ATTICS. Hot off the press, there's nothing but insulation in my attic.
5. Durable wood : LARCH. A coniferous tree with deciduous tree habits. It sheds its needles in the autumn. "...valued for its tough, waterproof and durable qualities. Top quality knot-free timber is in great demand for building yachts and other small boats..." paraphrased from Wikipedia and Encyclopaedia Britannica.
6. Mental health org. : APA. American Psychiatric Association. My wife's cousin's husband is a psychiatrist. Asks me a lot of leading questions. Makes me uneasy at times.
7. Beans go-with : RICE. Houston's Treebeards restaurant's red beans and rice recipe.
9. Budget, in product names : ECONO. EconoLodge motels, with over 830 locations in the U.S. and Canada, was founded in 1969 in Norfolk, VA. It is the second largest brand for Choice Hotels International, Inc. a hospitality holding corporation based in Rockville, Maryland.
10. Patriotic women's org. : DAR. Daughters of the American Revolution
12. "That's awesome!" : NEATO
13. Sometimes egg-shaped kitchen gadget : TIMER. I wonder ?
19. Diminish : BATE. As many solvers might question, "Wha ? What happened to the A ? Shouldn't that be ABATE ?" Merriam-Webster tells us, "3 - archaic : to lower especially in amount or estimation."
21. Numbered rd. : RTE. Road and route abbreviations.
26. Auto pioneer : OLDS. Ransom E. Olds. Born at Geneva-on-the-Lake, Oh in Ashtabula_County, just across the state line from Abejo's Erie. Ashtabula means "always enough (fish) to go around, to be given away."
29. Without company : ALONE
31. "How to Get Away With Murder" actress __ Naomi King : AJA. I've never seen the program.
32. "Smoking or __?" : NON
33. French "his" : SES
34. Tokyo, once : EDO
36. Word after op or pop : ART. Op(tical) art and Pop art. A brief history of Pop Art from MoMA
37. Foot part : TOE
39. "Hud" director Martin : RITT. Melvyn Douglass and Patricia Neal won an Academy Award for their performances in Hud. Paul Newman and Martin Ritt were nominated. Ritt also directed Norma Rae. "...his surest touch was for movies about little people who went up against the system. "Norma Rae" was probably his most representative film..." Encyclopaedia Britannica, Roger Ebert, IMDb
45. Ultimatum word : ELSE
47. Tender touch : CARESS
48. Sports __ : BRA. Note to self: Do not call it a training bra.
49. Socks from the dryer, hopefully : PAIRS
50. Radii neighbors : ULNAs. Please hover over the figure to get a brief info about the body parts.
51. Fancy neckwear : ASCOT
52. Vitamin prefix : MULTI
53. Rehab center staffer : NURSE. Argyle, we hope you have attentive nurses to help you progress. We all miss you !
54. Synchronously : AS ONE
57. "It's her __": relationship ultimatum : OR ME
60. NFL playmakers : RBs. Running Backs. Penn State's Saquon Barkley is projected to be the first running back picked in the upcoming 2018 NFL draft. Penn State has had a few first-round RB busts, but this guy looks like the real deal. Time will tell.
61. Cheat : CON. Tried to cheat on 20A, and con one of the teachers into explaining rubric. They've seen it all, and assuredly saw through my ruse, but hopefully one or more will offer their thoughts in the comments section.
See all y'all later n'at !
