Theme: Dance Moves
I've highlighted the four dances in the grid for you in case you didn't see them during your solve. The reveal rather painfully spells out what to look for, I'd have been inclined to leave out the row numbers and just let the solver go dance-hunting.
Let’s go clue-hunting!
Across:
1. [This is so frustrating!]: ARGH! Not the best of starts
5. Ceiling: LIMIT
10. Mail often diverted to a separate folder: SPAM. Microsoft's spam filter gets a little over-enthusiastic, I make a point to check my junk mail every couple of days, there's often something in there I should read. I had a couple of emails from Lemonade a few weeks ago that got the Microsoft treatment and he probably wondered why I was ignoring him.
14. Sainted pope called "the Great": LEO I. There were 13 Popes Leo, therefore ending with Leo XIII. All sorts of opportunity there for crossword compilers stuck for an entry. If you think about it, Leo I would never have heard the term. By the time there was a II, the original had joined the choir celestial a good couple of hundred years before.
15. Modern Persian: IRANI. I want the next pope to style himself "IRAN I" just to cause confusion.
16. Celestial bear: URSA
17. Mosque bigwig: IMAM, "I, Mam" the sequel to "I, Carly", featuring her mother.
18. Daring move: BOLD STROKE
20. Barnyard mom: SOW
21. Bath-loving Muppet: ERNIE
22. Priest's robe: ALB
23. KITT on "Knight Rider": TRANS-AM. Not necessarily. There are two KITT characters, the first from the original 1982 series which is a Trans-Am, and the second from the 2008 TV pilot for the series reboot which was a Ford Shelby GT500. This is the kind of obfuscation that causes fights during trivia contests.
25. Hanging Gardens site: BABYLON
29. "You can tell me": SAY IT
30. Inhabitants of a myrmecologist's farm: ANTS
32. Big time: ERA
33. Thompson of "Thor: Ragnarok": TESSA. Who knew? Not me.
35. Getty and Rockefeller: OIL MEN. Because "CENTERS" doesn't fit.
38. Street moves since the '70s ... and what the black squares on rows 3, 5, 11 and 13 do: BREAK DANCES. Remember "b-boys" from a couple of weeks ago?
40. Unfolds: BLOOMS
42. Pertaining to the small intestine: ILEAC. A bit odd really, as the ileum is one of three sections of the small intestine.
43. Chest bone: RIB
44. Fling: HURL
46. Hardship: RIGOR
50. Judicial self-disqualification: RECUSAL
53. Zoe of "Avatar": SALDANA. I had a sulk around this section. The mess of SALDANA, ILIAC, ICARLY, LECID, ATNOS and AMATO seemed very clumsy, and just inviting cries of "Natick Foul".
55. Genetics lab material: RNA
56. Ragged: TATTY
58. Floral garland: LEI
59. Three-flavor block: NEAPOLITAN. This was such a treat when we were kids. Chocolate, strawberry and vanilla ice cream ALL AT THE SAME TIME! I think we had to go to confession after eating it and plead forgiveness.
62. Mount Olympus group: GODS
63. "You Needed Me" singer Murray: ANNE. Thank you, crosses.
64. REO Speedwagon guitarist Dave: AMATO. Ditto
65. One is often hard to resist: URGE
66. Site in a Steinbeck title: EDEN
67. Network points: NODES
68. Financial aid criterion: NEED
Down:
1. Top celebrity groupings: A-LISTS. A-LISTER last week, A-LISTS today. Can be tricky to parse, especially in the downs.
2. Ride-hitching fish: REMORA
3. "Scram!": GO AWAY!
4. Word for a guy: HIM
5. Scales aloft: LIBRA
6. Facial apparatus in a Dumas novel: IRON MASK
7. Neighbor of Mauritania: MALI
8. Behind on bills: IN DEBT
9. Poetic contraction: 'TIS
10. Like a sourpuss: SURLY
11. Math test parts: PROBLEMS
12. Inquire or require: ASK
13. Novelist Rita __ Brown: MAE
19. File folder feature: TAB
21. Prize: ESTEEM
24. Explosion maker, briefly: NITRO
26. Not separately: AS ONE
27. Mine find: ORE
28. A Bobbsey twin: NAN
31. Rock bottom: NADIR
34. "Rizzoli & Isles" actress Alexander: SASHA
36. Nickelodeon sitcom starring Miranda Cosgrove: I, CARLY
37. Massenet opera about a Spanish hero: LE CID
38. "Hogan's Heroes" star: BOB CRANE
39. Auto insurance giant: ALLSTATE
40. Cold call?: BRR!
41. Fabrication: LIE
45. In the prior month: ULTIMO. Instant and proximo are its temporal cousins.
47. In great numbers: GALORE
48. Stressed out: ON EDGE
49. Elevated: RAISED
51. Let loose, as hogs: UNPEN
52. __ Tomé and Príncipe: SÃO. I discover this island nation is located off the central equatorial coast of west Africa. I was guessing that they were two islands off Brazil or Portugal. Wrong!
54. Chem. class data: AT. NOS. Atomic Numbers, apparently. I thought the Atomic Number abbreviation was simply "AN" but that appears to have been a figment of my chemistry teacher's imagination.
57. Not very much: A TAD
59. Rob Roy's refusal: NAE. When Kirkintilloch founded their football (fitba') team in 1878, they named themselves "Kirkintilloch Rob Roy" in his honor, and are still known thusly today, which I find rather splendid.
60. Boundary: END
61. PC-to-PC hookup: LAN
62. Rev: GUN. As in engine. If my last name were Gunn I'd become a preacher just so I'd be called "Rev Gunn". Or Counter. "The sermon was given by Rev. Counter".
I've highlighted the four dances in the grid for you in case you didn't see them during your solve. The reveal rather painfully spells out what to look for, I'd have been inclined to leave out the row numbers and just let the solver go dance-hunting.
Let’s go clue-hunting!
Across:
1. [This is so frustrating!]: ARGH! Not the best of starts
5. Ceiling: LIMIT
10. Mail often diverted to a separate folder: SPAM. Microsoft's spam filter gets a little over-enthusiastic, I make a point to check my junk mail every couple of days, there's often something in there I should read. I had a couple of emails from Lemonade a few weeks ago that got the Microsoft treatment and he probably wondered why I was ignoring him.
14. Sainted pope called "the Great": LEO I. There were 13 Popes Leo, therefore ending with Leo XIII. All sorts of opportunity there for crossword compilers stuck for an entry. If you think about it, Leo I would never have heard the term. By the time there was a II, the original had joined the choir celestial a good couple of hundred years before.
15. Modern Persian: IRANI. I want the next pope to style himself "IRAN I" just to cause confusion.
16. Celestial bear: URSA
17. Mosque bigwig: IMAM, "I, Mam" the sequel to "I, Carly", featuring her mother.
18. Daring move: BOLD STROKE
20. Barnyard mom: SOW
21. Bath-loving Muppet: ERNIE
22. Priest's robe: ALB
23. KITT on "Knight Rider": TRANS-AM. Not necessarily. There are two KITT characters, the first from the original 1982 series which is a Trans-Am, and the second from the 2008 TV pilot for the series reboot which was a Ford Shelby GT500. This is the kind of obfuscation that causes fights during trivia contests.
25. Hanging Gardens site: BABYLON
29. "You can tell me": SAY IT
30. Inhabitants of a myrmecologist's farm: ANTS
32. Big time: ERA
33. Thompson of "Thor: Ragnarok": TESSA. Who knew? Not me.
35. Getty and Rockefeller: OIL MEN. Because "CENTERS" doesn't fit.
38. Street moves since the '70s ... and what the black squares on rows 3, 5, 11 and 13 do: BREAK DANCES. Remember "b-boys" from a couple of weeks ago?
40. Unfolds: BLOOMS
42. Pertaining to the small intestine: ILEAC. A bit odd really, as the ileum is one of three sections of the small intestine.
43. Chest bone: RIB
44. Fling: HURL
46. Hardship: RIGOR
50. Judicial self-disqualification: RECUSAL
53. Zoe of "Avatar": SALDANA. I had a sulk around this section. The mess of SALDANA, ILIAC, ICARLY, LECID, ATNOS and AMATO seemed very clumsy, and just inviting cries of "Natick Foul".
55. Genetics lab material: RNA
56. Ragged: TATTY
58. Floral garland: LEI
59. Three-flavor block: NEAPOLITAN. This was such a treat when we were kids. Chocolate, strawberry and vanilla ice cream ALL AT THE SAME TIME! I think we had to go to confession after eating it and plead forgiveness.
62. Mount Olympus group: GODS
63. "You Needed Me" singer Murray: ANNE. Thank you, crosses.
64. REO Speedwagon guitarist Dave: AMATO. Ditto
65. One is often hard to resist: URGE
66. Site in a Steinbeck title: EDEN
67. Network points: NODES
68. Financial aid criterion: NEED
Down:
1. Top celebrity groupings: A-LISTS. A-LISTER last week, A-LISTS today. Can be tricky to parse, especially in the downs.
2. Ride-hitching fish: REMORA
3. "Scram!": GO AWAY!
4. Word for a guy: HIM
5. Scales aloft: LIBRA
6. Facial apparatus in a Dumas novel: IRON MASK
7. Neighbor of Mauritania: MALI
8. Behind on bills: IN DEBT
9. Poetic contraction: 'TIS
10. Like a sourpuss: SURLY
11. Math test parts: PROBLEMS
12. Inquire or require: ASK
13. Novelist Rita __ Brown: MAE
19. File folder feature: TAB
21. Prize: ESTEEM
24. Explosion maker, briefly: NITRO
26. Not separately: AS ONE
27. Mine find: ORE
28. A Bobbsey twin: NAN
31. Rock bottom: NADIR
34. "Rizzoli & Isles" actress Alexander: SASHA
36. Nickelodeon sitcom starring Miranda Cosgrove: I, CARLY
37. Massenet opera about a Spanish hero: LE CID
38. "Hogan's Heroes" star: BOB CRANE
39. Auto insurance giant: ALLSTATE
40. Cold call?: BRR!
41. Fabrication: LIE
45. In the prior month: ULTIMO. Instant and proximo are its temporal cousins.
47. In great numbers: GALORE
48. Stressed out: ON EDGE
49. Elevated: RAISED
51. Let loose, as hogs: UNPEN
52. __ Tomé and Príncipe: SÃO. I discover this island nation is located off the central equatorial coast of west Africa. I was guessing that they were two islands off Brazil or Portugal. Wrong!
54. Chem. class data: AT. NOS. Atomic Numbers, apparently. I thought the Atomic Number abbreviation was simply "AN" but that appears to have been a figment of my chemistry teacher's imagination.
57. Not very much: A TAD
59. Rob Roy's refusal: NAE. When Kirkintilloch founded their football (fitba') team in 1878, they named themselves "Kirkintilloch Rob Roy" in his honor, and are still known thusly today, which I find rather splendid.
60. Boundary: END
61. PC-to-PC hookup: LAN
62. Rev: GUN. As in engine. If my last name were Gunn I'd become a preacher just so I'd be called "Rev Gunn". Or Counter. "The sermon was given by Rev. Counter".
