Monday, June 3rd, 2024, Renee Thomason & Zhouqin Burnikel

 DUCK TEST~?  Bzzzt~!

Splynter, stepping in for sumdaze, as she ascends to the headline of today's puzzle as constructor, along with our well-published blog creator/host C.C.  Way to go~!  Such an honor to be asked to do the summary, so I will do my best to engage & entertain.  A smooth, satisfying solve for yours truly (moi~?), within my typical time limit, at what felt like an "olden days" Monday-level difficulty.  No personal names, yet several geographic ones, and no reveal for our theme in a standard 15x15 grid - hey, that's been unusual for me lately.  Two eleven- and two twelve-letter spanners, each ending with one word and its secondary, three-dimensional definition.  Easy as 1-2-3, or maybe 6Across~?  Here is the "shape of things";

18. What sounds like a disk, but isn't a disk?: FACT CHECKER

28. What sounds like a cube, but isn't a cube?: WRITER'S BLOCK

49. What sounds like a circle, but isn't a circle?: FAMILIAR RING

63. What sounds like a sphere, but isn't a sphere?: CHARITY BALL

That's NO Sphere Moon, It's A...Oh Wait....

And Away We Go~!

ACROSS:

1. __ and flow: EBB

4. Gathers from the field: REAPS

A breakdown of the Blue Öyster Cult classic "(Don't Fear) The Reaper"

9. Braid: PLAIT

14. Language of Southeast Asia's only landlocked country: LAO - Geographic #1

15. HS class for aspiring premeds, perhaps: AP BIO - Advanced Placement

16. Stranger, slangily: RANDO - 21st century language - but we've seen it in crosswords

17. Bing's web portal: MSN - I use Mozilla's Firefox

20. Cabinet part: SHELF

22. Backed (away from): SHIED

23. Frito-__ snacks: LAY - which is your favorite~?

I'd go Doritos or Cheetos

24. Lean a bit: TILT

26. Gets up: ARISES - I put in AWAKES first, did not quite jibe, but 50% correct~!

32. Rowboat blade: OAR

33. Like limes: SOUR - and - 7D. White part of citrus fruit: PITH - I did not know this

34. Squads: TEAMS - MY two teams are out of the Stanley Cup playoffs - but go Panthers~!

38. Squeaked (by): EKED

40. Spanish "I love you": "TE AMO"

43. England's largest all-boys boarding school: ETON - Geographic~?

44. Passover meal: SEDER - learned by doing crosswords

46. Uterus: WOMB

48. Barnyard baby sound: MAA - that's the calf, not the lamb, correct~?

53. Unhelpful RSVPs: MAYBES

55. Flatbread served with chana masala: NAAN - Ektorp~?

56. Louisville Slugger product: BAT - wouldn't be a C.C. puzzle without some baseball

57. Real gem: BEAUT

60. "All good on my end": "I'M SET."

66. Wedding words: I DO - whether you DO or you DON'T ....

Georgia Satellites - Keep Your Hands to Yourself

this is my "warm-up" karaoke song

67. Diamond unit: CARAT - "no hug-gee no kiss-see...until I get a wedding RING" - the other def.

68. Republic in the Himalayas: NEPAL - Geo #2

69. Duck sauce for egg rolls, e.g.: DIP - if it looks, swims and quacks like a duck sauce. . . .

70. Minor mistakes: SLIPS

71. Speechify: ORATE

72. UFO pilots: ETs


DOWN:

1. Shade trees on the National Mall: ELMS - I'm scheduled to transport some of the pipe organ pipes back from the Washington National Cathedral at the end of the month

Tapered Wood Pipes - about 32ft long - look closely; they're mitered, too.  Phew~!

2. Big party: BASH - GALA, FETE, had to wait

3. Exhausted to the core: BONE TIRED

4. Fundraisers with tickets: RAFFLES - Charity Ball~!

5. Clean energy org.: EPA - Environmental Protection Agency

6. Pre-K song subject: ABCs - NOT the Jackson 5 version

8. __ butterfly: one with a busy calendar: SOCIAL - I dream of being a social butterfly, but today I am merely anti-social

9. Give a weather report, essentially: PREDICT - I had a good friend from High School go on to be the TV weatherman in Richmond, VA.

10. Fond du __, Wisconsin: LAC - Geo #3

11. Lower leg joint: ANKLE

12. Mental flashes: IDEAS

13. Parliament conservative: TORY - British politics - some info here

19. Big sandwich: HERO

21. Not dark: LIT - or NOT sober, too

25. Relaxed gait: TROT

27. Trademark in an arcade game name: SKEE

28. Trials and tribulations: WOES

29. Leaf-gathering tool: RAKE - we had LEAF__ on Saturday - all I could think of was "RAKING"

30. Take to court: SUE - what if you were on a date~?  Would that be "courting Sue"~?

31. Barroom fight: BRAWL

35. Welcome sign at a cash-only market: ATM INSIDE - nice to see more than just " A-T-M "

36. Complain: MOAN

37. Minor holdup: SNAG

But a major tragedy

39. Refuse to obey: DEFY

41. "Who, me?": "MOI~?" - Frawnche

42. Saudi Arabia neighbor: OMAN - Geo #4

45. Cottontails: RABBITS

47. Alphabet read with the fingers: BRAILLE - Also Frawnche - the Wiki

50. Come together: MEET

51. "Thumbs down from me": "I SAY NO."

52. Ewe's mate: RAM

53. Taj __: MAHAL - Geo #5 - I bought this sign for my dad's shed(s) - now it hangs in my garage

And I figured out how to do 'side-by-side' images~!

54. Pong Quest maker: ATARI - never heard of this; it's like Pong on steroids

56. Covertly includes on an email: BCCs - Blind Carbon Copies

58. Lyft rival: UBER

59. Spanish appetizer: TAPA - frequent crossword visitor, but today I did some research

 

See someone's comment below~!

61. Correct a verb tense, perhaps: EDIT

62. Dreidels, e.g.: TOPS

64. Knock sharply: RAP

65. Long. crosser: LATitude - Geographic bonus~!

And a comment from out debut constructor~!

Hi everyone! I'll be riding my bike and eating TAPAs in the Pyrenees when this puzzle comes out. I just wanted to thank C.C. and the LAT editors for making this happen! My favorite answer is WRITER'S BLOCK. That was C.C.'s idea – so brilliant! Thanks, also, to Splynter for today's blog! I look forward to reading it when I return.

~ sumdaze

Splynter