Wednesday, Feb 21st, 2024, Natalie Tran & Sean Ziebarth

GREATEST AMERICAN

Suddenly I'm up on top the world....

A fine puzzle that was a good challenge for me with some fresh clues, and nary a name in the mix~!  (OK, there was one*).  I know that the appearance of circles puts a fair number of people off; I'm OK with them - I didn't really notice the circles, but as I got close to finishing, I only had a partial fill for the reveal at 55A. Despite knowing that the word was spelled wrong, I was trying to figure out what "hero(e)s AND _ich" meant.  And then the V-8 can - it needed to be parsed the other way....I believe this may be a debut construction for Natalie Tran.

20. Make a fool of: PUT ONE OVER ON - Neo, hero of "The Matrix" movies

34. Hide-and-seek exclamation: THERE YOU ARE~! - Rey, hero(ine) of the three "Star Wars" second series of sequels, from Disney, not Lucasfilm

42. Determines the age of, as archaeological finds: CARBON DATES - Bond, James Bond - 'nuf said - and a gratuitous image for C.C. of the last actor to portray him....

IMO, he was the best - but I was born 10yrs after the franchise began

55. Sub, and an apt description of 20-, 34-, or 42-Across: HERO SANDWICH - hero, hoagie, grinder, Italian, and a couple I was not familiar with - wedge and spuckie - are alternate names for the submarine "dish", depending on your region

I guess that makes these people the "meat", huh~?

And Away We Go~!

ACROSS:

1. Glow of virtue: HALO

5. Fort Knox supply: GOLD - speaking of Bond, Auric the villain was going to contaminate the GOLD stored at Fort Knox with nuclear fallout in the third installment film "Goldfinger"

9. Wet: RAINY - I like rainy days; we get a LOT of them here in NE CT

14. __ of March: IDES - Iron Maiden would warm up before a concert with this instrumental

The Ides of March

15. 57-Down for a diva: ARIA

16. Run onstage?: EMCEE

17. Some inbox attachments: PDFs - we had this yesterday - Portable Document Format; I thought it was "PRINTable"

18. Change course suddenly: VEER

19. Puts together: MAKES

23. Decline, with "out": OPT

24. Sounds of pain: OWs -and- 46. Sounds of relief: AHs -and- 11D. Grossed-out reaction: ICK -and- 30D. Verbal stumbles: ERs - there's a lot of "noise" in this grid today~!

25. Pencil topper: ERASER

29. Air filter acronym: HEPA - High Efficiency Particulate Air (filter)

31. Christmas poem contraction: 'TWAS

33. Smooching on the kiss cam, say: PDA - Public Display (of) Affection

37. Bae: LUV - cringe - I have gotten "bae" twice now as a guest blogger; I'd rather have "ALOE"

38. Charged particles: IONS

39. Joan of __: ARC - Jane Wiedlin, guitarist from the "Go-Go's", played Joan in "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure"

40. Harmful habit: VICE

41. Big name in anonymity: DOE - Family members John and Jane; they work in the morgue

47. In case that's the case: IF SO

48. Masseur's supply: OILS - How about body paint~?  Look closely; it's two women - let's hope it's acrylic paint~!

Artist Johannes Stötter

49. Astronaut Ellen Ochoa, for one: LATINA

51. Sock part: TOE

52. Seasoned pro: VETeran

59. Wedding figure: GROOM

62. Invalidate: VOID

63. Pasta __ checca: trattoria dish: ALLA

64. Animated British piglet of kid's TV: PEPPA - I knew this - I've watched many an episode with my buddy's two-year old daughter

65. Feminine Spanish pronoun: ELLA

66. Shutter section: SLAT - meh.  Part would have been better

67. Fleming subjects: SPIES - IMHO, "Fleming" makes this a dupe with the theme - anything other than the author of James BOND would have been more appropriate

68. In someone's business: NOSY

69. Loved ones blessed at the Feast of St. Francis: PETS - filled via perps; it was not until I wrote up the blog did I see this clue/answer


DOWN:

1. River-dwelling mammal related to whales and dolphins: HIPPO - I tried OTTER first; Bzzzt~!

2. Tally: ADD UP

3. Flew off on one's own: LEFT THE NEST - Eleven-letter non-theme fill

4. Bone, in Italian: OSSO

5. Collapsed: GAVE WAY

Gallopin' Gertie - The Tacoma Narrows Bridge, 1940 - poor Tubby

6. Double Stuf treats: OREOS - I like these cookies, but my spellcheck doesn't like this plural

*7. Actor Schreiber: LIEV - this guy

8. Be bold enough: DARE

9. Guilty feeling: REMORSE

10. Kitchen appliance brand: AMANA

12. Wedding page word: NÉE

13. "Let's": YES - the "Y" was my last fill - "let us, tomato"

21. "Forget it": "NOPE."

22. Foster: REAR

26. Potential "destination" for a troubled relationship: SPLITSVILLE - now this clue/answer I like; I can't check if this is the first time it's made it into a crossword puzzle - and it's the other 11-letter non-theme fill

27. Elicit: EDUCE - I do the DOWN clues first; tried EVOKE first; 40% correct

28. Gushes: RAVES - not FLOWS; a mere 20%

31. __Tax: Intuit software package: TURBO - 'Tis the season~!

32. City on the Brazos: WACO - Here's a bridge that did NOT collapse

Check out this website

34. Word with pool or basin: TIDAL

35. Ruckus: HOO-HA - ado/to-do/hullabaloo - free-for-all/a rhyme for you~!

36. Dinghy duo: OARS

It's TWO oars, they're just, uh, joined....

40. Actor Kilmer: VAL

42. Projection places: CINEMAS

43. Hardly a hop, skip, and a jump away: AFAR

44. Time when shadows are shortest: NOONDAY - spellcheck thinks this is just fine, but where I'm from, no one says "noonday" - it's just "noon"

45. Petered out: DIED

50. Optimist's words: "I HOPE"

51. Follows surreptitiously: TAILS - Still making my way through the "Nero Wolfe" detective series; about once every other book, Archie, or Saul Panzer, who is the best at it, "tails" some character

53. Brilliance: ÉCLAT - I knew there was a "tk" over a vowel in the word somewhere....

54. Dean Martin's "__ Amore": THAT'S

56. Baker: OVEN - slight misdirection; another clever clue/answer

57. Song for one: SOLO

58. Insect that first appeared in the Jurassic era: WASP - I did not know this

59. Family docs: GPs - General Practitioners; does it bother anyone else that a musician can "perform", while a doctor can only "practice"~?

60. Sales agt.: REP

61. Brand at a nail salon: OPI - becoming a crossword staple that's catching up with "ERA"

Splynter