Theme: Gee! RR! (Or what a Texan says when he unexpectedly comes across a railroad). The five two-word theme answers have first word starting with the first two letters of the reveal, the second word commencing with the third (and final) letter of the reveal.
17A. *One to four inches per day, for bamboo : GROWTH RATE. That's fast - how much do Giant Pandas eat to keep it under control?
28A. *Noted scythe bearer : GRIM REAPER. "I'm bored. I think I'll put on a Grim Reaper costume, stand across the street from the nursing home and wave at the old folks" Anon
35A. *1973 Thomas Pynchon novel : GRAVITY'S RAINBOW. Great example of good crosses helping out here. I maybe might have heard of this novel, but it certainly wasn't a title I knew I knew. I got there letter by letter.
43A. *Wrestling style that forbids holds below the waist : GRECO-ROMAN. A learning moment.
59A. *Pearl Jam genre : GRUNGE ROCK. I thought "SEATTLE GRUNGE" at first and then realized that I was being too specific (and it didn't fit either!)
61A. Canine warning that the answers to starred clues have in common, initially : GRR
Happy Wednesday everyone! Steve here with a nice smooth offering from Steve Blais. Some good fun stuff in the theme entries and I had fun with the fill. Let's look at the rest of the puzzle.
Across
1. Hip-hop fan : B-BOY. I knew this, I just couldn't drag the answer out into the light of day. There were quite a few in this Pacific North-West section that were slow coming and the last area to fill.
5. Les __-Unis : ETATS. The French like to say things like "United States" backwards. They are sometimes accused of doing other things backwards, such as advancing on the enemy.
10. Olympian's goal : GOLD.
14. Smidgen : IOTA
15. Chevy Blazer, now : TAHOE
16. Orchestral wind : OBOE
19. Endorse, in a way : SIGN. I think anyone who wants to endorse a candidate in an electoral race should sign their name on them with a Sharpie.
20. Rice-__ : A-RONI. I'm going to try this stuff one day - it crops up in crosswords so often it must be delicious, right?
21. Toga party costume : BED SHEET. It took me a while to get past wanting "TOGA" here. What else could you wear to a toga party? (TLS (Too Literal Steve) again.
23. Take part in a 1920s fad : POLE-SIT. Odd fad. Some people were dancing the jitterbug, ignoring prohibition and generally whooping it up and other folks were sitting on a pole.
26. Like a prof. emeritus : RET'D. A learning moment - I didn't know the professor needed to be retired.
27. Big pitcher : EWER. Initial response: Randy Johnson. I guess Randy is Pitcher Emeritus?
33. Lowly laborer : PEON
34. Goody two shoes : PRUDE
41. Concerning the ears : AURAL. I always enjoyed the fact that aural and oral were homophones. I thought it was great that "aural" had a sound-alike.
42. Japanese noodle : UDON
46. First responders, briefly : EMT'S. I was treated by an Emergency Medical Technician when I tripped going down the stairs of a bar after a Christmas party and knocked myself out on the way down. It's embarrassing to wake up in a pub strapped to an EKG machine with someone asking you who the President is.
50. Cyclotron input : ATOM. Atoms in, Particles out. A bit like a coffee grinder on a smaller scale.
51. Meeting : SESSION. You can have a meeting which is in session, but can you have a session which is in meeting?
53. Eleanor Rigby, for one : SPINSTER. Ear worm alert here!
57. Snorer's problem, perhaps : APNEA. A serious problem for both the sufferer (of Apnea) and the sufferer (of the sufferer of Apnea)
58. Hops drier : OAST, Oast houses were quite common in the area of England where I lived for a while - many are now converted to residences, but I've often wondered where you get the curved furniture to fit inside them.
62. Attend to, as a job opening : FILL
63. Come out with : UTTER. You have to be careful if you come out with "utter rubbish" as you might be accused of repeating yourself.
64. Wrath, in a hymn title : IRAE. Wrath of God, Days of Wrath, plenty of wrathful hymns to get you all fired up. Seems odd.
65. "South Park" co-creator Parker : TREY. Where would my avatar be without Trey and Matt Stone?
66. Nonlethal weapon : TASER. It might be non-lethal, but it's certainly not non-painful judging by the many YouTube examples.
67. Recipe amts. : TSP'S. Teaspoons. There are 16 teaspoons in 1/3 of a cup. I'm sure you'll be glad you learned that today.
Down
1. Oaf : BIG APE
2. Take for a time : BORROW
3. "Becket" star : O'TOOLE. Very dapper, was Peter.
4. No page-turner : YAWNER. Hopefully not this blog!
5. Ordinal suffix : ETH. "TH" which we spell "ETH"
6. Roofer's goo : TAR
7. Obsessed fictional captain : AHAB. The skipper of the whaling ship Pequod in Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick. Ahab was obsessed with the eponymous whale, his First Mate Starbuck was obsessed with cappuccino.
8. For the full nine months : TO TERM. Many expectant mothers would prefer they do not have to go the full term.
9. Garden apparatus : SEEDER
10. Dad-blasted : GOSH DARN. Loved this. My dad had two blasters - the first when my mom was in earshot (dagnabbit) and the other for when she wasn't (@#$*&$##@#$#@!!!!!!!)
11. Drama award : OBIE. I didn't know what one looked like, but now I do:
12. Theater section : LOGE
13. It might be pounded out : DENT. TUNE was my first thought here
18. "True dat," quaintly : 'TIS. A contraction of "It Is"
22. Do more than listen : STEP IN. I wasn't a big fan of this one - I can see it, but ....
24. "__ Around": Beach Boys hit : I GET
25. "Iliad" setting : TROY. Home of Helen, her face "launched a thousand ships". We use a bottle of champagne nowadays. Did Helen wear a helmet with a facemask?
29. "Recapping ..." : IN SUM
30. Pint seller : PUB. A couple of these might be the reason for my visit from the EMT in 46A
31. Old Japanese capital : EDO
32. Remote button : REW. This might actually be "old remote button" - don't they all just have "<<" on them now?
33. Test showings : PILOTS. Took me a couple of beats to see that this relates to TV shows, not airplanes.
35. Silence : GAG. A bad gag is received in silence too, and many a stand-up can attest.
36. Robot play : R.U. R. This is one of those words that I just cannot remember. When it comes up I'm always oh - it's ..... um .... GOSH DARN
37. "Now We __ Six": Milne : ARE. A great excuse to post one of E. H. Shepard's wonderful illustrations before Disney made a mess of the whole thing:
38. Thoughtless way to stare : VACANTLY. Took me a while to get off the RUDELY or OGLE track. Nice!
39. Nutritional figs. : RDA'S. One's recommended daily allowances. What's the RDA for PINTS?
40. First-class : A-ONE
44. Lousy liquor : ROT GUT. RDA - zero.
45. Mobster's code of silence : OMERTA. I can't tell you how I know this - I'm sworn to secrecy.
46. Lively wit : ESPRIT
47. They may have fake IDs : MINORS.
48. Work boot feature : TOECAP. I wish I was wearing these when I dropped a blender on my foot.
49. Treacherous types : SNAKES. Some creatures get a bad rap - just because Adam couldn't keep his hands of the apples in the Garden of Eden shouldn't reflect on the entire serpent population.
52. Freelancer's encl. : SAE. What happened to the stamp on the Self Addressed Stamped Envelope? Actually, in the UK this is a Stamped, Addressed Envelope. It's assumed that you put your own address on it rather than someone else's.
53. Like fuzzy slippers : SOFT
54. Poker holding : PAIR. Not a particularly good holding, but sometimes it pays off.
55. Cruise destination : ISLE. Now, believe it or not, the Church of Scientology (you see how I got started here) actually has a cruise ship named Freewinds.
56. Wearying routines : RUTS
60. Once known as : NEE
And that's it from me!
Steve
Notes from C.C.:
Meet Avg Joe, who has one of the funniest avatars on the blog. Like
Windhover/Spitzboov/PK/Argyle, Joe knows a lot about farming and lives in his own
farm (I think). Joe took this picture 2 days ago. Look, he also likes "The Princess Bride".
