Wednesday, November 15, 2023, Barbara Lin & Carly Schuna

Theme: In the style of the old game show $20K Pyramid game show: Things that can be ripped.

20. Present surroundings?: WRAPPING PAPER. Great clue.

29. Audio cassette successor: COMPACT DISC. No one uses CDs any more. When you RIP music from a CD, you're copying songs from an audio CD to your PC.

36. Jeans option: DISTRESSED DENIM. 

44. One with pressing needs?: BODY BUILDER. Another good clue - press as in bench press.

55. Shredded, or an apt description of 20-, 29-, 36-, and 44-Across: TOTALLY RIPPED.

Melissa here. Theme-heavy with a grid-spanner at 36A, and no real troubles today. Some will be pleased with the few proper nouns. Once the long answers filled in the rest just fell into place. How'd everyone else do?

Across:

1. Crunchy sandwiches with mayo: BLTS. Make my bacon chewy, please.

5. Prepare, as avocados for guacamole: MASH.

9. Impulsive speed: HASTE.

14. Uncommon: RARE.

15. __ gobi: vegetarian curry dish: ALOO. Cauliflower & potato curry.

16. Grouch on TV: OSCAR.

17. Off-Broadway award: OBIE. The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards given since 1956 by The Village Voice newspaper to theatre artists and groups involved in off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway productions in New York City.

18. Prefix with second or bot: NANO. Unit prefix meaning one billionth.

19. Beach shoe: THONG. Flip-flop.

23. Taco topping: SALSA.

24. Lav: LOO. The Difference Between Bathroom, Restroom, Washroom, Toilet, Lavatory & More

25. Faux __: PAS. Faux pas is a loan phrase from French that’s been used in English since the seventeenth century—the 1670s, to be more precise. The two words that constitute the phrase are faux, which means “false,” and pas, which means “dance step.” Over time, faux has also acquired the meaning “fake,” which is the sense we’re familiar with from the phrase faux fur. But in faux pas, it means false, and the whole phrase means “false step,” or “misstep.” Faux Pas: Definition and Examples 

 

28. Sci-fi aviators: ETS. Extra terrestrials.

34. Common __: SENSE. Not so common.

35. Little bit: IOTA.

42. Away from shore: ASEA.

43. Nose-in-the-air type: SNOOT. 5 Great Snoots of the Animal Kingdom

 48. Fuss: ADO.

51. Horn-heavy genre: SKA.

52. Communication syst. in which an ILY gesture means "I love you": ASL. American Sign Language.

53. Rubber-__ shoes: SOLED.

60. Slacks alternative: SKIRT.

62. Sweetheart: BEAU.

63. Ductwork sealer: TAPE.

64. Frenemy, maybe: RIVAL.

65. Start of a German count?: EINS. Ein, Eine, and Einen – What is the difference?

66. Decorates, as cookies: ICES.

67. "Hello" Grammy winner: ADELE.

68. Film scene shot without interruption: TAKE.

69. Amazon icon: CART.

Down:

1. Window-shop: BROWSE.

2. Animal in many 3-Down: LAB RAT.

3. Experiments: TRIALS.

4. Trickles (in): SEEPS.

5. Finger painting, for short?: MANI. Nice clue. Manicure.

6. Ruck of HBO's "Succession": ALAN. He also played Cameron Frye in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

7. "Hello," for one: SONG. Lots of famous Hello songs besides Adele's. Neal Diamond, Lionel Ritchie, Louis Armstrong, The Doors, and The Beatles, to name a few.

 8. Hullabaloo: HOOPLA.

9. Communal Asian meal with simmering broth: HOT POT.

10. Tennis legend Arthur: ASHE.

11. Desert stinger: SCORPION.

12. Beach tone: TAN.

13. Unit of energy: ERG. The erg is a unit of energy equal to 10⁻⁷ joules.

21. Indiana cager: PACER. Basketball.

22. NYC rep since 2019: AOC. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, is U.S. representative for New York's 14th congressional district since 2019.

26. Italian wine region: ASTI.

27. Bamboozle: SCAM.

30. Four quarters: ONE.

31. Bks. in progress: MSS. Manuscripts.

32. "Special Topics in Calamity Physics" novelist Marisha: PESSL. “Part Huck Finn, part Holden Caulfield, part Fran Leibowitz, and part Nora Ephron.” - Harper’s

 33. Food plan: DIET.

34. Airbnb visit, say: STAY.

36. Finger-paints, perhaps: DABS.

37. Doesn't seem to be hurt: IS OK.

38. Tranquilizer: SEDATIVE.

39. Cut off: END.

40. Mama deer: DOE.

41. Latissimus __: back muscle: DORSI.

 45. Skirmish: BATTLE.

46. Team with four Women's World Cup titles: USA.

47. "Yeah, right!": I'LL BET.

48. Vicuña descendant: ALPACA. Vicuna Vs Alpaca (8 Main Differences And Similarities!)

49. More meaningful: DEEPER.

50. Most peculiar: ODDEST.

54. Eye-related: OPTIC.

56. __ history: ORAL.

57. A Skywalker twin: LEIA.

58. Hard pull: YANK.

59. Subterfuge: RUSE.

60. Mme., in Madrid: SRA.

61. Minor character?: KID. Nice.