Theme: Inverted Phrases - The first and third words of common phrases are switched and wackily clued with a "?" indicator. The altered phrases all end with "THE" and a three letter word.
18A. Libertarian slogan?: FIRE THE FED. Libertarians hold that if it is not explicitly provided for in the constitution, that it should not be dealt with or (especially) paid for on a federal level, it is the domain of each individual state to deal with it (or not) instead (as explicitly provided in the Constitution's tenth amendment, State's Rights). /Fed the fire. (What talking about politics will do)
24A. Finish an ascent?: SCALE THE TIP. Climb to the top./Tip the scale.
35A. Tidy up in a wood shop?: DUST THE BIT. Keep your tools clean./Bit the dust. Died.
43A. Floor an oppressive boss?: DECK THE MAN. Punch a jerk./Man the deck. Get to your station on a ship.
51A. Value one's vision?: PRIZE THE EYE. Eye the prize. Keep your eyes on the prize was a 50s/60s folk song during the civil rights movement.
62A. Send a star pitcher for an MRI?: TEST THE ACE. Magnetic Resonance Imaging/Ace the test. Score very highly.
Al here.
Heavy themage today, which didn't help in the least with solving, and no revealing clue was included in the puzzle. It was like solving a second puzzle to suss out what was going on, which was kind of fun, actually. Interesting to see a symmetry with six theme entries. Four or five are more common, with the occasional seven that Dan N. usually provided. A pangram, to boot. The (small) price to pay for XTRA features in the construction is accepting that a few more abbrevs are necessary here and there for fill.
ACROSS:
1. Fat job?: LIPO. Suction.
5. Interstate exit: RAMP.
9. See 12-Down: AFTER. And 12D. With 9-Across, fairy tale ender: EVER. Happily for some. Has anyone read the actual book Wicked (I know, I know, there's a musical), the story from the point of view of the Witch of the West? What if all fairy tales were actually like that?
14. Pararescue gp.: USAF. A division of the US Air Force that does search and rescue missions.
15. Organic compound: ENOL.
16. Hanker for: CRAVE. Probably from Flemish hankeren, related to Dutch hunkeren "to hanker," intensifier of Middle Dutch hangen "to hang." The notion is of "lingering about" with longing or craving.
17. Poet who wrote, about children, "And if they are popular / The phone they monopular": NASH. Ogden. Also the shortest poem ever (about fleas): Adam had 'em.
20. Rich sponge cake: GATEAU. I am now scarred for life from doing a google image search for this, even with safe image search set to moderate.
22. Pithy saying: SAW. An adage, an aphorism, an apothegm, usually terse, i.e., if something can go wrong, it will.
23. NFL game foursome: QTRS. Quarters. There are six referees, so refs didn't work.
27. Buying outing: SPREE. From French: "esprit", lively. This would not be me during shopping.
28. Cones and prisms: SOLIDS. 3-D geometric figures.
33. Farm expanse: LEA. An open field or meadow.
38. Grads: ALUMS.
41. Sandwich request: RYE. My first thought was SUB.
42. Untrusting: LEERY.
46. __ scripta: written law: LEX. Explicitly stated law, as opposed to lex non scripta, common law, set by precedent.
47. It's often served with lemon: ICE TEA. Some day a clever constructor will include the "D" and everyone will all be confused.
48. It can be rolled, pressed or stuffed: SUSHI.
56. Warrior trained by the centaur Chiron: AJAX. If I read it right, the great grandson of Zeus, also the cousin of Achilles.
60. It merged with AT&T in 2005: SBC. Southwestern Bell Corp.
61. Be amazed (at): MARVEL. Shazam!
65. Like pretzels: BENT. Baked in the shape of folded arms. Pretzel traces back to a word for branches.
66. D.C. underground: METRO. A Subway system that branches out to the suburbs above ground..
67. "Rigoletto" highlight: ARIA. Not a happily ever after fairy tale... In this opera a licentious Duke ravishes his jester's daughter; the jester's revenge goes tragically awry with his daughter's death.
68. Concerning: AS TO.
69. Dust crops, e.g.: SPRAY.
70. Certain NCO: MSGT. Master Sergeant.
71. A library book may be on it: LOAN.
DOWN:
1. Airway termini: LUNGS. I was fooled into thinking about airports, not where your bronchi attach.
2. Stern with a Strad: ISAAC. Fiddler behind the scenes...
3. Noodle topper: PASTA SAUCE.
4. Useful: OF HELP. Needed perp help for this.
5. Proved false: REFUTED. The "correct" original meaning of refute. The meaning has been shifting towards "to deny" since the 60's, as used with the word "allegations".
6. "Star Wars" saga nickname: ANI. Anikin Skywalker, Darth Vader, who says "Yippee" in the fourth movie released, which is chronologically the beginning.
7. Code creator: MORSE. Samuel. Co-created "American Morse Code", also called Railroad code, with Alfred Vail. Since 1865, International Morse code has been used instead, with "American" being limited to re-enactments only.
8. Fabric fold: PLEAT. Also a flounce, apparently.
9. Günter's gripe: ACH. German Oh! An interjection.
10. Radio abbr.: FREQ.uency.
11. 300-pound president: TAFT. William Howard. 27th president and later the 10th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. The only person to have served both offices.
13. Great American Ball Park team: REDS. Cincinnati.
19. Checker's dance: TWIST. Chubby Checker (Ernest Evans). It was a cover of the B-side song by R&B artist Hank Ballard. Popularized thanks to Dick Clark and American Bandstand.
21. Flying prefix: AER. Latin air.
25. One of 24 in un jour: HEURE. French, 24 hours in a day.
26. Sci-fi writer Frederik: POHL. Prolific author and editor.
29. Sheltered side: LEE. So odd to see it without the "A".
30. "That's my take": I BELIEVE SO.
31. Desperate: DIRE. As in circumstances.
32. Charon's river: STYX. Don't pay the ferryman until he gets you to the other side.
33. __-da: pretentious: LA-DI.
34. Juice: Abbr.: ELEC.tricity
36. Orch. work: SYM. Orchestra, symphony.
37. Flirt: TEASE. One who does, is.
39. NYSE, e.g.: MKT. New York Stock Exchange, Stock Market.
40. Stride: STEP.
44. Caustic: HARSH. I had BASIC in there briefly because lye is a very strong base. Caustic lye is the opposite of acid, but no less destructive. Sort of like the two-party system. If you try to mix the two extremes together, sparks really fly and everything in between gets hurt.
45. Edible part of a pecan: NUTMEAT. Pecan, a word from our crossword friends, the Cree: pakan, hard-shelled nut. So, how do you say it? PEEcahn, payKAHN, or PEE-CAN?
49. Doo-wop syllable: SHA. A blast from the past.
50. Like some supplements: HERBAL.
52. Building girder: I-BEAM. Guessed _beam right away, and 53D. Many Nissan autos: Z-CARS. Similarly got _cars, but had to wait for the leading letters for both. Which was tough because the theme perp wasn't helping.
54. Busybody: YENTA. From Yente Telebende, comic strip gossip in 1920s-30s writing of Yiddish newspaper humorist B. Kovner (pen-name of Jacob Adler).
55. John with Grammys: ELTON. Who else could it be?
56. Green dispensers: ATMS. Not fooled this time, filled immediately.
57. Wrangler, for one: JEEP. An SUV or UTE.
58. Copernicus's sci.: ASTR. Science, astronomy.
59. Bonus, in adspeak: XTRA.
63. Peke, e.g.: TOY. Pekingese dog, toy breed.
64. One might be bummed, briefly: CIG.arette
Answer grid.
Al
18A. Libertarian slogan?: FIRE THE FED. Libertarians hold that if it is not explicitly provided for in the constitution, that it should not be dealt with or (especially) paid for on a federal level, it is the domain of each individual state to deal with it (or not) instead (as explicitly provided in the Constitution's tenth amendment, State's Rights). /Fed the fire. (What talking about politics will do)
24A. Finish an ascent?: SCALE THE TIP. Climb to the top./Tip the scale.
35A. Tidy up in a wood shop?: DUST THE BIT. Keep your tools clean./Bit the dust. Died.
43A. Floor an oppressive boss?: DECK THE MAN. Punch a jerk./Man the deck. Get to your station on a ship.
51A. Value one's vision?: PRIZE THE EYE. Eye the prize. Keep your eyes on the prize was a 50s/60s folk song during the civil rights movement.
62A. Send a star pitcher for an MRI?: TEST THE ACE. Magnetic Resonance Imaging/Ace the test. Score very highly.
Al here.
Heavy themage today, which didn't help in the least with solving, and no revealing clue was included in the puzzle. It was like solving a second puzzle to suss out what was going on, which was kind of fun, actually. Interesting to see a symmetry with six theme entries. Four or five are more common, with the occasional seven that Dan N. usually provided. A pangram, to boot. The (small) price to pay for XTRA features in the construction is accepting that a few more abbrevs are necessary here and there for fill.
ACROSS:
1. Fat job?: LIPO. Suction.
5. Interstate exit: RAMP.
9. See 12-Down: AFTER. And 12D. With 9-Across, fairy tale ender: EVER. Happily for some. Has anyone read the actual book Wicked (I know, I know, there's a musical), the story from the point of view of the Witch of the West? What if all fairy tales were actually like that?
14. Pararescue gp.: USAF. A division of the US Air Force that does search and rescue missions.
15. Organic compound: ENOL.
16. Hanker for: CRAVE. Probably from Flemish hankeren, related to Dutch hunkeren "to hanker," intensifier of Middle Dutch hangen "to hang." The notion is of "lingering about" with longing or craving.
17. Poet who wrote, about children, "And if they are popular / The phone they monopular": NASH. Ogden. Also the shortest poem ever (about fleas): Adam had 'em.
20. Rich sponge cake: GATEAU. I am now scarred for life from doing a google image search for this, even with safe image search set to moderate.
22. Pithy saying: SAW. An adage, an aphorism, an apothegm, usually terse, i.e., if something can go wrong, it will.
23. NFL game foursome: QTRS. Quarters. There are six referees, so refs didn't work.
27. Buying outing: SPREE. From French: "esprit", lively. This would not be me during shopping.
28. Cones and prisms: SOLIDS. 3-D geometric figures.
33. Farm expanse: LEA. An open field or meadow.
38. Grads: ALUMS.
41. Sandwich request: RYE. My first thought was SUB.
42. Untrusting: LEERY.
46. __ scripta: written law: LEX. Explicitly stated law, as opposed to lex non scripta, common law, set by precedent.
47. It's often served with lemon: ICE TEA. Some day a clever constructor will include the "D" and everyone will all be confused.
48. It can be rolled, pressed or stuffed: SUSHI.
56. Warrior trained by the centaur Chiron: AJAX. If I read it right, the great grandson of Zeus, also the cousin of Achilles.
60. It merged with AT&T in 2005: SBC. Southwestern Bell Corp.
61. Be amazed (at): MARVEL. Shazam!
65. Like pretzels: BENT. Baked in the shape of folded arms. Pretzel traces back to a word for branches.
66. D.C. underground: METRO. A Subway system that branches out to the suburbs above ground..
67. "Rigoletto" highlight: ARIA. Not a happily ever after fairy tale... In this opera a licentious Duke ravishes his jester's daughter; the jester's revenge goes tragically awry with his daughter's death.
68. Concerning: AS TO.
69. Dust crops, e.g.: SPRAY.
70. Certain NCO: MSGT. Master Sergeant.
71. A library book may be on it: LOAN.
DOWN:
1. Airway termini: LUNGS. I was fooled into thinking about airports, not where your bronchi attach.
2. Stern with a Strad: ISAAC. Fiddler behind the scenes...
3. Noodle topper: PASTA SAUCE.
4. Useful: OF HELP. Needed perp help for this.
5. Proved false: REFUTED. The "correct" original meaning of refute. The meaning has been shifting towards "to deny" since the 60's, as used with the word "allegations".
6. "Star Wars" saga nickname: ANI. Anikin Skywalker, Darth Vader, who says "Yippee" in the fourth movie released, which is chronologically the beginning.
7. Code creator: MORSE. Samuel. Co-created "American Morse Code", also called Railroad code, with Alfred Vail. Since 1865, International Morse code has been used instead, with "American" being limited to re-enactments only.
8. Fabric fold: PLEAT. Also a flounce, apparently.
9. Günter's gripe: ACH. German Oh! An interjection.
10. Radio abbr.: FREQ.uency.
11. 300-pound president: TAFT. William Howard. 27th president and later the 10th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. The only person to have served both offices.
13. Great American Ball Park team: REDS. Cincinnati.
19. Checker's dance: TWIST. Chubby Checker (Ernest Evans). It was a cover of the B-side song by R&B artist Hank Ballard. Popularized thanks to Dick Clark and American Bandstand.
21. Flying prefix: AER. Latin air.
25. One of 24 in un jour: HEURE. French, 24 hours in a day.
26. Sci-fi writer Frederik: POHL. Prolific author and editor.
29. Sheltered side: LEE. So odd to see it without the "A".
30. "That's my take": I BELIEVE SO.
31. Desperate: DIRE. As in circumstances.
32. Charon's river: STYX. Don't pay the ferryman until he gets you to the other side.
33. __-da: pretentious: LA-DI.
34. Juice: Abbr.: ELEC.tricity
36. Orch. work: SYM. Orchestra, symphony.
37. Flirt: TEASE. One who does, is.
39. NYSE, e.g.: MKT. New York Stock Exchange, Stock Market.
40. Stride: STEP.
44. Caustic: HARSH. I had BASIC in there briefly because lye is a very strong base. Caustic lye is the opposite of acid, but no less destructive. Sort of like the two-party system. If you try to mix the two extremes together, sparks really fly and everything in between gets hurt.
45. Edible part of a pecan: NUTMEAT. Pecan, a word from our crossword friends, the Cree: pakan, hard-shelled nut. So, how do you say it? PEEcahn, payKAHN, or PEE-CAN?
49. Doo-wop syllable: SHA. A blast from the past.
50. Like some supplements: HERBAL.
52. Building girder: I-BEAM. Guessed _beam right away, and 53D. Many Nissan autos: Z-CARS. Similarly got _cars, but had to wait for the leading letters for both. Which was tough because the theme perp wasn't helping.
54. Busybody: YENTA. From Yente Telebende, comic strip gossip in 1920s-30s writing of Yiddish newspaper humorist B. Kovner (pen-name of Jacob Adler).
55. John with Grammys: ELTON. Who else could it be?
56. Green dispensers: ATMS. Not fooled this time, filled immediately.
57. Wrangler, for one: JEEP. An SUV or UTE.
58. Copernicus's sci.: ASTR. Science, astronomy.
59. Bonus, in adspeak: XTRA.
63. Peke, e.g.: TOY. Pekingese dog, toy breed.
64. One might be bummed, briefly: CIG.arette
Answer grid.
Al
