Theme: A Body of Work - The first word of each theme entry can precede BODY.
18A. *Handycam project : HOME MOVIE. This phrase seems almost quaint in these days of YouTube and cameras on every phone.
23A. *Graduates' burdens : STUDENT LOANS. You're saddled with these even if you don't graduate!
34A. *Marshall Plan subject : FOREIGN AID. Specifically, US financial assistance to Western European countries after the end of World War II.
42A. *Frustrating call response : BUSY SIGNAL. I realize it's been a long time since I heard one of these; even when someone's making a HOME MOVIE on their phone you go to voicemail.
50A. *Cornerback's responsibility : WIDE RECEIVER. Football-speak: The cornerback's job is to break up a deep pass thrown to a wide receiver.
and the unifier:
60A. Physiques, and what the starts of the answers to starred clues are : BODY TYPES.
Steve here with your Wednesday offering from Mark. I needed quite a lot of help from crosses to solve this, and therefore had a lot of learning moments making this a very enjoyable puzzle. I thought I'd eventually run into a natick, but everything worked out in the end. I liked the theme and definitely needed the unifier to tie everything together.
Across:
1. Salon chorus : SNIPS. I read "saloon" and wanted "Cheers!" or "NORM!" Not a good start!
6. Modern wall hanging : HDTV
10. Grilling occasions, briefly : BBQS. It won't be long until the weather's good enough for a barbecue. Or bar-b-q. Or a BBQ!
14. White-and-yellow lily : CALLA. Lovely.
18A. *Handycam project : HOME MOVIE. This phrase seems almost quaint in these days of YouTube and cameras on every phone.
23A. *Graduates' burdens : STUDENT LOANS. You're saddled with these even if you don't graduate!
34A. *Marshall Plan subject : FOREIGN AID. Specifically, US financial assistance to Western European countries after the end of World War II.
42A. *Frustrating call response : BUSY SIGNAL. I realize it's been a long time since I heard one of these; even when someone's making a HOME MOVIE on their phone you go to voicemail.
50A. *Cornerback's responsibility : WIDE RECEIVER. Football-speak: The cornerback's job is to break up a deep pass thrown to a wide receiver.
and the unifier:
60A. Physiques, and what the starts of the answers to starred clues are : BODY TYPES.
Steve here with your Wednesday offering from Mark. I needed quite a lot of help from crosses to solve this, and therefore had a lot of learning moments making this a very enjoyable puzzle. I thought I'd eventually run into a natick, but everything worked out in the end. I liked the theme and definitely needed the unifier to tie everything together.
Across:
1. Salon chorus : SNIPS. I read "saloon" and wanted "Cheers!" or "NORM!" Not a good start!
6. Modern wall hanging : HDTV
10. Grilling occasions, briefly : BBQS. It won't be long until the weather's good enough for a barbecue. Or bar-b-q. Or a BBQ!
14. White-and-yellow lily : CALLA. Lovely.
15. Requiem Mass hymn word : IRAE. From the Latin phrase "Dies Irae", Judgement Day.
16. Riga resident : LETT. Alternative to "Latvian". I knew this from the novel "One Day in the life of Ivan Denisovich", the inmate who sold tobacco to Ivan is identified as "The Lett" by Solzhenitzyn.
17. Spanish waters : AGUAS. I had a little moment of wondering how "Mediterranean" or "Bay of Biscay" could be squeezed into five letters, then more rational thoughts prevailed.
20. Maritime special ops force member : NAVY SEAL. An acronym from SEa, Air and Land; the US Navy obviously don't like to be pigeonholed regarding their area of operations.
22. Suez Canal locale : EGYPT. "A man, a plan, a canal - Zeus". No, wait, that's wrong.
26. Ames sch. : I.S.U. Graduates of Iowa State University must repay their loans just like anyone else.
27. Mao's gp. : P.L.A. Zedong's People's Liberation Army.
28. "Boardwalk Empire" airer : HBO. The channel is owned by Home Box Office Inc.
31. Picture problem : BLUR. A Steadicam handily takes care of this issue.
38. Vital artery : AORTA.
40. "Let __ Cry": Hootie & the Blowfish hit : HER. A real ear worm even without me posting a link, but this is a wonderful acoustic version from Darius.
41. Word with bald or sea : EAGLE
45. Sounds of disapproval : TSKS. Can sometimes be heard from this blog if the puzzle doesn't seem up to standard. None of these today, at least not from me.
46. LAX calculation : E.T.A. As usual, I need to wait for the cross to decide whether we're estimating the time of arrival or departure.
47. Jeanne d'Arc, e.g.: Abbr. : STE. St. Joan of Arc, en Français
48. Pick, with "for" : OPT. Can you opt against? You can opt in or opt out, so if you can opt for ...
56. Cover : ALIAS
59. React to an unreasonable boss, perhaps : UNIONIZE. I loved this - I had to fill it letter by letter, even when I had ??IONIZE I still didn't see it.
63. Varnish ingredient : RESIN
64. "__ further reflection ..." : UPON
65. Kaneohe Bay locale : OAHU
66. "__ a Letter to My Love": 1980 film : I SENT. Completely unknown to me, which is rather apt as the original French title is "Chère Inconnue", or "Unknown Darling" in my rough translation.
67. Marketing prefix : TELE
68. M.'s counterpart : MLLE. Another head-scratcher for me. I was on a wild "James Bond" goose chase wondering what code name the Russian intelligence service assigned to their chief until the Monsieur/Mademoiselle penny (centime?) dropped.
69. Hauling team : ASSES. I chuckled when I saw that "hauling asses" could describe the speed at which a sprint team runs.
Down:
1. Some hospital procedures : SCANS
2. Bedevil : NAG AT
3. Candy heart message : I LUV U. Hands up who rearranged the contents of the tube so that the object of your affections got the "right one" when you offered them around?
4. Be unsportsmanlike : PLAY DIRTY. Boo!
5. Talks back to : SASSES.
6. Drummer's pair of cymbals : HI-HAT. I think it's hyphenated - we have experts here who will confirm or deny.
7. Waggish : DROLL
8. Skye cap : TAM. A slick way of describing the Scottish hat you'd wear on this particular Hebridean isle.
9. Sign of a winner : VEE. Make sure you hold your palm outwards in the UK if you do this, otherwise you might find yourself sending a quite different message.
10. They may involve rants : BLOGS. Never! Well, not here! Well, not that often here! Next!
11. Flock of quail : BEVY. I never knew this specifically referred to quail. Now I do!
12. Aural hygiene item : Q-TIP. Isn't it borderline illegal now to hold a Q-Tip anywhere near your ear?
13. Editor's mark : STET. More Latin, actually - "let it stand".
19. __ à trois : MENAGE. Absolutely no comment; whatever I say will only get me in trouble.
21. Sufficient, in slang : ENUF. Enuf said 'bout 19D.
24. "Lohengrin," for one : OPERA. Even if you think you know nothing about this Wagner work, you know this.
25. "The Louisville Lip" : ALI. My favorite line from the Champ (before the 1965 Floyd Patterson bout) was "I'll beat him so bad he'll need a shoehorn to put his hat on" and I've still absolutely no idea what it means!
28. Fairy tale baddies : HAGS
29. Con : BILK
30. Horace works : ODES. One of the Latin poets we studied in school.
31. Woods denizen? : BABE. I wanted BEAR first, and couldn't shake the idea for quite some time.
32. Ill-mannered sort : LOUT
33. Celestial bear : URSA. Odd, but the BEAR idea for 31D didn't come from here!
35. "Golly!" : OH GEE. I watched "Fargo" a couple of nights ago, and I think "Oh Gee" accounted for about half the dialog.
36. Friend of Stimpson J. Cat : REN. I never knew that "Stimpy" had a full name - now I do!
37. Fop's characteristic : NATTINESS. What a great word! I vow to use "nattiness" in a sentence today.
39. Court statistic : ASSIST. I went down the legal path first, and with ASS??? was wondering if ASSIZES had something to do with the answer. Considering it's "March Madness" basketball time and I've seen most of the games, I had no excuse.
43. "__ be an honor" : IT'D. It would indeed.
44. Sets of points, in math : LOCI. The plural of "locus". I think it's Latin day today; thank goodness for all those Horace poems we had to translate.
49. Illinois county or its seat : PEORIA. This town has made it onto my bucket list of places to visit simply because of crosswords!
50. Revolutionary general known as Mad Anthony : WAYNE. Complete unknown, crosses all the way for me. I now know that Fort Wayne is named for him.
51. Oscar winner Mercedes : RUEHL. All crosses required! Movies aren't my strong suit as you might gather. Maybe I should watch more HBO and less ESPN.
52. Come after : ENSUE
53. Carpentry tools : VISES. I'd never really considered a vise a tool, more part of the workbench.
54. Cybermag : E-ZINE. Have you noticed that an E-MAG is a cyberzine?
55. Lets out : RENTS. Another giggle for me here - should he let out his pants before he rents them bending over?
56. Border on : ABUT.
57. Easy gait : LOPE. Wolves walk like this - with a lupine lope.
58. Hollywood favorite : IDOL
61. Hebrew day : YOM. I know Yom Kippur; I never knew Yom meant "Day". Now I do!
62. Bud : PAL
And that's it. I'm in Arizona today, and took some photographs of an aloe vera plant (that wonderful crossword staple) which I'll post when I get a convenient excuse. I didn't know it was a cactus - now I do!
Note from C.C.:
Here is a great picture of Steve. Don't we have the coolest bloggers here at the Corner, Irish Miss?
