"The Ess Sense of Questionable New Phrases"
17. Iranian vocal improvisation?: PERSIAN SCAT.
24. Household employee's fraudulent ruse?: NANNY SCAM.
38. Nursery school air fresheners?: DAYCARE SCENTERS.
50. Poem that seemed awfully profound at the bar last night?: PUB SCRAWL.
62. What optical character recognition software often produces?: GARBAGE SCAN.
Across:
1. Show anxiety, in a way: PACE.
5. No good: FUTILE.
11. Prankster's projectile: EGG.
14. Excited response to a cue: I'M ON. It's showtime. Break a leg !
15. Pressed: IRONED.
16. Also: TOO.
19. Primitive dwelling: HUT. The original Pizza Hut:
20. Furniture cleaning brand: ENDUST.
21. Bar __: CAR.
22. Assistant: AIDE.
23. Web address: URL. Uniform Resource Locator
26. Approve: AGREE TO.
29. Put into words: SAY. Phrase.
30. Preface to a conviction: IMO. In My Opinion. A conviction as in a firmly held belief.
31. Product warning: AS IS. I remember one particular auctioneer's call at the start of the auction: "You are buying as is, how is, where is."
34. Sew up again: REHEM.
42. First name in black-and-white photos: ANSEL.
43. Stash: STOW.
44. Cabinet dept.: AGRiculture. "Founded in 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed into law an act of Congress establishing the United States Department of Agriculture. Two and one-half years later, in what would be his final annual message to the Congress; Lincoln called USDA "The People's Department." At that time, about half of all Americans lived on farms, compared with about 2 percent today." USDA.gov/About
45. Born, in Brussels: NEE.
47. Smidge, to a laddie: WEE DROP.
55. Realtor's unit: LOT.
56. Words of understanding: I SEE.
57. Shad product: ROE.
58. Tabloid output: SLEAZE.
61. Catch: NAB.
64. I problem?: EGO.
65. Purpose: INTENT.
66. "This is terrible!": OH NO.
67. Intl. Talk Like a Pirate Day month: SEPtember. Arrgh !
68. Sudden reactions: STARTS. - Start: "...of Germanic origin; related to Dutch storten ‘push’ and German stürzen ‘fall headlong, fling’. From the sense ‘sudden movement’ arose the sense ‘initiation of movement, setting out on a journey’ and hence ‘beginning of a process, etc.’."
69. Crucial things: KEYS. "People say that money is not the key to happiness, but I always figured if you have enough money, you can have a key made." - Joan Rivers.
Down:
1. Plumbing item: PIPE.
2. "So be it!": AMEN.
3. Casual pants: CORDUROYs. The term corduroy comes from an 18th century English word for coarse woolen cloth (duroy) and cord, for the wales.
4. Make certain: ENSURE. Ascertain.
5. Decree: FIAT. Derisively, the car FIAT is an initialism for Failure In Automotive Technology.
6. Item near a sugar bowl, perhaps: URN.
7. Opera about an opera singer: TOSCA. theopera101.com - operas - tosca
8. Peruvian of old: INCAN.
9. Comes to realize: LEARNS.
10. Summer CT clock setting: EDT.
11. Moral principle: ETHIC.
12. Big wheel in delis: GOUDA. This isn't South Holland, Michigan:
18. Hebrides unit: ISLE.
22. So far: AS YET.
24. Pokes (around): NOSES. Into someone else's affairs or belongings. Snoops.
25. Knitter's need: YARN. Hello, Madame Defarge !
26. Opera about an African princess: AIDA. Synopsis of Verdi's Opera, Aida
27. Gangster movie hero, perhaps: GMAN. And 13D. 27-Down's victorious words: GOT 'EM.
28. Sailor: TAR.
32. Follower's suffix: IST.
33. Displeased look: SCOWL.
35. Sad song subject: HEARTACHE.
36. Cogito __ sum: ERGO. I blog, therefore I am.
37. Car sticker amt.: MSRP. Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price. Kelley Blue Book - What is MSRP ?
39. Perfume with myrrh, say: CENSE. Turns out cense is a verb (archaic), therefore, perfume is a verb rather than a noun in this clue. We know the modern word as incense, in both noun and verb forms. And for the second definition of the modern form in past tense, "The rookie solver was incensed with this clue."
40. Actor Guinness: ALEC. Sir Alec Guinness
41. Lamb's dam: EWE. Cute clue !
46. Roaming, like a knight: ERRANT. Errant: 2. - archaic•literary: traveling in search of adventure.
48. Palindromic Parisian pronoun: ELLE.
49. Performs adequately: DOES OK. On the second day in one of my first staff positions early in my career, I was led down the hall by the director who introduced me to the regional vice president. "Middle of the pack is not acceptable" was all he said, meaning doing OK was not sufficient. I guess he wasn't satisfied with the latest numbers that had come in.
50. Longs: PINES. A typically rural and olden usage.
51. Treatment: USAGE.
52. Jazz style: BEBOP. Dizzy Gillespie came to mind.
53. Vital vessel: AORTA. Vessel: 3. - Anatomy•Zoology: a duct or canal holding or conveying blood or other fluid.
54. Barbecue brand: WEBER. This is the design of the original Weber Genesis grill in 1985. I bought a new one in 1989, thinking that the almost $400 price tag was steep, but it is going strong thirty years later, and I've never had to replace a single part. My bottom shelves are composite rather than the wire rack shown.
58. Some NCOs: SGTs. Non Commissioned Officers: Sergeants. Pairs with 62D. Base figs.: GIs. GI is an initialism for either Government Issue or General Issue because of the general items disbursed to soldiers and army airmen. Over time, GI came to mean a soldier.
59. Wacko: ZANY. Not my cuppa for humor.
60. First chimp in orbit: ENOS. "Enos was the second chimpanzee launched into space by NASA. He was the first chimpanzee, and third hominid after cosmonauts Yuri Gagarin and Gherman Titov, to achieve Earth orbit. Enos' flight occurred on November 29, 1961." - Wikipedia.
63. Small colonist: ANT. Easy, but cute.
Check your answers against this grid:
Notes from C.C.:
Just heard from Dennis. He's recovering nicely. Already
off all pain meds. Right now he's in the step-down unit and he hopes to
be home next Monday.
Thanks for the thoughts and prayers.
