17A Legend with an ax: PAUL BUNYAN. I had JOHN at first (confusing my ax-men and my medieval preachers) and obviously this meant the NW corner took a little longer than it should.
23A Legend with a clarinet: BENNY GOODMAN. The "King of Swing"
36A Legend with a vine: TARZAN OF THE APES: Burrough's tale first appeared in All-Story Magazine in 1912 before being published two years later in book form.
46A Legend with a bat: MICKEY MANTLE. Yankees Hall of Fame center fielder.
57A Legend with a bathrobe: HUGH HEFNER. I'll spare you the visual.
and the hint
65A Important word for 17-, 23-, 36-, 46- and 57-Across: SWING
Happy Wednesday everyone! Steve here with a really nice construction job from Victor Barocas. Five long theme entries, one a grid-spanner and an additional hint with the final Across entry. Some smooth fill tying together those theme entries. A really good job!
(Bonus points if you can name the British rock band associated with the theme title).
Let's look at the rest:
Across:
1 Saw point: TOOTH. Nice play on words in the clue here.
6 Etching fluid: ACID
10 Touches affectionately: PATS
14 Prenatal exam, for short: AMNIO. Amniocentesis, for long.
15 Body part that smells: NOSE. All kinds of possibilities here, but thankfully not one of the "ewww" ones.
16 Jump in a skater’s short program: AXEL. Could it not be a jump in the long program too?
19 Actress Hayworth: RITA
20 Dinner pair?: ENS
21 Like cough syrup: ORAL
22 Indigenous New Zealander: MAORI. You most definitely do not want to mess with these guys.
26 Alcove: RECESS
29 Not at all well-done: RARE. Food! In "how do you like it cooked" terms, there's one more "rarer" designation which the French call "bleu". The meat is briefly seared on each side and that's it.
30 “Let’s Get __”: Marvin Gaye hit: IT ON
31 Udder parts: TEATS.
33 Jamaican genre: SKA. This musical style boomed in the UK in the late 70's. Check out the aptly-named Madness in this goofy music video.
40 Animal on Michigan’s state flag: ELK
41 Coffee shop cupful: LATTE
42 Fishing tool: LURE
43 “Your Majesty”: SIRE
44 It includes a bit of France: IBERIA. A very petit peu indeed - French Cerdagne comprises 210 square miles out of Iberia's total of more than a quarter-million.
51 Betting every last chip: ALL-IN
52 Hat-borne parasites: LICE. That's why you never buy a hat at a yard sale. Eeew. They're pretty horrific magnified, so I'll spare you that.
53 Toward the rudder: AFT
56 Charlatan, e.g.: LIAR
60 Sour: TART
61 Actor Morales: ESAI. I have a mental block with this actor - I always have to get it through the crosses.
62 Dutch pianist Egon who taught Victor Borge: PETRI. Talented chap, didn't he invent the dish for growing gross things in the biology lab?
63 Lime beverages: ADES
64 Holiday song: NOEL
Down:
1 Packer’s need: TAPE. Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers might think they need a wide receiver and a running back more than tape. Oh! Mover's tape! Forget what I just said.
2 Arab League member: OMAN
3 Burden: ONUS
4 Up to, briefly: 'TIL. Briefly, and poetically.
5 Bindle carriers: HOBOES
6 Former U.N. chief: ANNAN. Thank you, crosses.
7 How some flirt: COYLY.
8 Life-cabaret link: IS A. Liza Minnelli singing this classic in the movie
9 Place to relax: DEN. Not if it's a lion's den it's not.
10 Where to see floats: PARADE
11 Self-evident truth: AXIOM
12 Flashy tank swimmer: TETRA. Looks more like a neon "eat me" sign to any self-respecting predator.
13 Like many characters in Shakespeare’s dramas: SLAIN
18 Catering hall dispensers: URNS
22 Dashing inventor?: MORSE. I loved this - great clue.
23 1885 Motorwagen maker: BENZ. Note the German reference in the clue.
24 Reduce to small pieces: GRATE. I had GR so needed to wait for crosses to determine GRATE/GRIND
25 Inauguration Day pledge: OATH. The other type of oath is when the President-elect drops the Bible on his toe.
26 Customary observance: RITE
27 Reference list abbr.: ET AL. This is interesting in that the unabbreviated form can be one of three different ones depending on the gender of the items in the list: Et alii for masculine, Et aliae for feminine and Et alia for neuter. Those languages with noun genders really do cause lots of trouble (especially for 11-year old schoolboys like me learning Latin).
28 Bulletin board material: CORK
31 Icon on a pole: TOTEM
32 Immature newt: EFT. I never remember this one either. They are cute-looking though.
33 Goad: SPUR
34 “Felicity” star Russell: KERI
35 Like the Flying Dutchman: ASEA. Because "Ghost ship doomed to sail the seven seas for all eternity" doesn't fit.
37 “In space no one can hear you scream” film: ALIEN. If you magnify one of our head-scratching friends from 52A you get something pretty similar to this chap.
38 Not, quaintly: NARY. I've used this to mean "not even"; I didn't realize it actually meant "not".
39 On the safer side: ALEE. A sailboat should pass a sizeable object (like an island, a reef, a much bigger boat) on the lee side - there's no risk of being blown onto the danger.
43 Bypasses: SKIRTS
44 Chickenpox symptom: ITCH
45 Expletive replacements: BLEEPS. Tom Hanks sidestepped the bleep machine recently on Good Morning America and woke up the audience with a F-bomb. Ooops.
46 Sicily neighbor: MALTA
47 Epic that ends with Hector’s funeral: ILIAD. Homer's 8th Century BC Trojan War bestseller. Scribes managed to turn out three copies a year or something close to that.
48 County on the River Shannon: CLARE. Ireland's longest river reaches the Atlantic Ocean at Carrigaholt in Co. Clare.
49 Pond plants: ALGAE
50 Zero, to Nero: NIHIL
53 Prefix with war or hero: ANTI-. I'm not sure I've ever heard the term "anti-hero" before. Now I have.
54 Forest floor flora: FERN
55 High school math class: TRIG. Trigonometry for Farmers: Swine and Coswine.
57 Feathery layer: HEN. Lay-er. Another nice clue - had me head-scratching (no, not 52A!) for a moment. We had the plural in yesterday's puzzle.
58 Club for GIs: U.S.O. United Service Organizations. A non-profit, not a government agency.
59 “... but __ are chosen”: FEW. Or a bad day at the ice-cream cake factory - "Many are cold, but few are frozen"
I think I'd better call it a day after that! Have a great one!
Steve
