Sunday July 11, 2021 Margaret Woodruff

Theme: "It Takes Two" - Theme entries are phrases that can follow the clues once you repeat them.

22A. *Extra: READ ALL ABOUT IT. "Extra! Extra! Read All About it."

32A. *Bad: LEROY BROWN. "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown"  Jim Croce song.

40A. *Liar: PANTS ON FIRE. "Liar, Liar, pants on fire".

65A. *Hail: THE GANGS ALL HERE. "Hail, Hail, the Gang's All Here"

88A. *Ladybird: FLY AWAY HOME. "Ladybird, ladybird fly away home". Boomer thought it's "ladybug".

97A. *Wait: DON'T TELL ME. "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me". Hahtoolah likes the show.

112A. *Hush: SWEET CHARLOTTE. "Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte" 1964 movie. New to me.

 

Looks like another crossword debut. And a Sunday. Amazing. Sunday puzzles are much harder to design and fill, even for a veteran constructors. Congrats, Margaret!

I don't see any extra layer in this theme. You?

Across:

1. Daffy Duck feature: LISP.

5. Throws, as the shot: PUTS. Shot put.

9. Real grind: SLOG.

13. Second most populous city in the Dakotas: FARGO. Sioux Falls has more people. Boomer took me to Corn Palace on our honeymoon.

18. Chip in a chip: ANTE.

19. Brand with a wasabi-flavored variety in China: OREO. Gimme!

20. Necklace-fastening site: NAPE.

21. Most of the Earth's surface: OCEAN.

25. Brought up: REARED.

27. Paint fight sounds: SPLATS.

28. Corned beef concoction: REUBEN. You can spread a tiny bit of wasabi on your bread.

29. Latte maker: BARISTA.

30. 31-Across prefix: TELE. 31. Cruise stopover: PORT.

34. Since: AS OF.

36. Small island: CAY.

38. Afore: ERE.

39. Make out, in Manchester: SNOG.

45. Attends to: MINDS.

47. In an absurd fashion: INANELY.

48. Popular roller coaster name: CYCLONE.

50. Squatters build them: QUADS. This kind of squatter.

55. Saucy: PERT.

56. Big Apple designer initials: DKNY.

58. Choice words?: ORS.

59. Some campus coaches: TUTORS. Hi there, Bill, are you still reading us?

60. Messy room metaphor: STY.

61. Bakery output: PIES.

62. Plot size: ACRE.

64. Intellectual: THINKER. The one.

68. Apollo and Artemis: ARCHERS. Not SIBLINGS.

71. System developed at Bell Labs: UNIX. Does anyone still use Unix?

72. Get rid of: OUST.

73. Banned pesticide: DDT.

76. Whizzes: MAVENS.

77. Waze option: Abbr.: RTE.

78. Ostentation: POMP.

79. Toon explorer with a talking purple backpack: DORA.

80. Like 20 Questions questions: YES-NO.

81. More irritable: FUSSIER.

84. Like a probability distribution with two peaks: BIMODAL. New word to me.

86. Say "I do," maybe: MARRY.

90. Suit in a Spanish deck of cards: OROS. We had this before.

94. Madre's sister: TIA.

95. Mois après avril: MAI. Month after April.

96. "The Big __ Theory": BANG.

100. Burn slightly: CHAR.

102. Air 2 or Pro: iPAD.

106. In general: OVERALL.

107. They're sometimes goodies: OLDIES.

109. Expert advice: PRO TIP.

111. Sympathize: RELATE. Painful reading Picard's post. Boomer did not want a surgery. VA gave Boomer a hernia belt like this one. Tight and uncomfortable to wear, but it eases the pain.

114. Fed settings: RATES.

115. Second half of a children's game: SEEK.

116. Olympian queen: HERA.

117. __ mad: to the max: LIKE.

118. Practices in a ring: SPARS. Boxing ring.

119. Language that gave us "plaid": ERSE.

120. Boundary-pushing: EDGY.

121. Villain in "The Lion King": SCAR.

Down:

1. "Dancer in the Dark" Palme d'Or winner von Trier: LARS. Learning moment for me.

 

2. Clumsy: INEPT.

3. Hardly new: STALE.

4. Item common to bikes and pianos: PEDAL.

5. D.C. bigwigs: POLS.

6. Address without lat. or long.: URL. Web address.

7. Detachable strip: TEAR OFF.

8. Serious: SOBER.

9. Ignore pointedly: SNUB.

10. In recent history: LATELY. Still no police report on our neighbor. We saw a U-Haul truck in front of the house last week.

11. Offer a view: OPINE.

12. "__ Out": 2017 Jordan Peele film: GET.

13. Made inroads: FORAYED.

14. Biting, as wit: ACERB.

15. Shows over: RE-AIRS.

16. Actress Greer with the longest-ever Oscar acceptance speech: GARSON. Google shows that the speech lasted seven minutes.

17. Kind of punch: ONE TWO.

23. Order to relax: AT EASE.

24. Verbal protest: OUTCRY.

26. Freaking: DANG. OK, like "dang cute".

29. Carried: BORNE.

31. Quarter barrels for a beer bash: PONY KEGS. Wiki info: "A quarter barrel, more commonly known as pony keg, is a beer vessel containing approximately 7.75 gallons of fluid. It is half the size of the standard beer keg and equivalent to a quarter of a barrel."

33. Controlling power: REINS.

35. Perseveres, with "on": SOLDIERS.

37. Old nuclear agcy.: AEC. Atomic Energy Commission.

40. Dicey spots?: PIPS. Dice-y. Spots on  dice.

41. Working without __: A NET.

42. Not, quaintly: NARY.

43. Explosive stuff: TNT.

44. Like some roads and receptions: ICY.

45. Gourmet mushroom: MOREL. Never saw fresh morels in our store. Always dried.

46. Pipsqueak: SQUIRT.

49. Seuss character who "speaks for the trees": LORAX.

51. Alternative media namesake: UTNE.

52. Perfectly fine: A-OK.

53. __ Johnson, Anthony Anderson's "Black-ish" role: DRE.

54. Pre-1991 Georgia, e.g.: Abbr.: SSR.

57. DOD intel arm: NSA.

59. Dramatic artist: THESPIAN.

61. Whiz kid: PHENOM.

62. Choreographer de Mille: AGNES. And our sweet Irish Miss.

63. TV franchise with a Vegas spin-off: CSI.

64. Digital conflict?: THUMB WAR. That digit.

65. Before ... or after: THEN.

66. Wacko: NUTSY.

67. Head of MI6?: LOO. Good old clue.

68. Senator Klobuchar: AMY. Our senator.

69. Issa of "Insecure": RAE.

70. Papers in a job recruiter's office, briefly: CVS.

73. Bird last seen in 1662: DODO. Here's our Dodo.

L to R: Chickie, Lucina, Garlic Gal, JD, and Dodo 2014

74. Apothecary's weight: DRAM.

75. Story: TALE.

77. Urban opposite: RURAL.

78. Nose (into): PRY.

79. "I'm so dense!": DOH.  If you cut the top of your chicken package off too deep, you'll never find out the Tyson chicken establishment code. I was focusing on the bottom UPC and later the USDA mark at Spitzboov's suggestion.

81. Purely decorative detail: FRILL.

82. "__ body meet ... ": IF A. Unfamiliar with this reference.

83. Bring forth: ELICIT.

85. The Temptations' first #1 single: MY GIRL.

87. Dieted: ATE LESS. Boomer eats super light these days. Here's his Friday dinner: raw cauliflower & watermelon. Odd combo, but that's what he wanted. No minis for us, Agnes, Boomer only likes big watermelons.

89. Embarrassed: ABASHED.

90. Reason for shoe inserts: ODOR.

91. Perseverance and Curiosity: ROVERS.

92. Track's 400 meters: ONE LAP.

93. Layers: STRATA.

95. Free-for-alls: MELEES.

98. Where a tot might come from?: TATER. Another cute clue.

99. Grass accessory: MOWER.

101. Anne of "Psycho" (1998): HECHE.

103. Aquatic arenas: POOLS.

104. Bertha was locked in one in "Jane Eyre": ATTIC. Bertha is the mad wife of Mr Rochester.

105. Chicago Bears' Super Bowl XX winning coach: DITKA (Mike)

108. Denzel's role in "The Little Things" (2021): DEKE. Nope. No idea.

109. Beseech: PRAY.

110. __ pressure: PEER.

112. Dir. the Kings travel to play the Lakers: SSE.

113. Tango's co-birthplace: Abbr.: ARG. Argentina.

 

Happy birthday to CanadianEh!, who joined our corner in 2012. I always enjoy her insightful puzzle observations and other life-related comments.

C.C.