Friday, June 11, 2021, Jeffrey Wechsler

Theme: I O I O it's off to work I go!

Well, well; it's another Friday and guess who is our constructor? Why none other than the inimitable Jeffrey Wechsler! I'm beginning to think he has a lock on Friday puzzles, as well as puzzles that are 16x15 in grid size. While many of his offerings have been difficult for this solver, today's was not ... or is that nit?

JW took the "O" from four well-known phrases, and substituted an "I" to firm - no, that's form - a punny phrase. Friday and Saturday puzzles usually take me quite awhile to finish, but today's was surprisingly easy, time-wise. Lots of two-word phrases, and the 16-square width was needed to fill in the two spanners.

Here is how Jeffrey achieved the vowel replacement:

18-Across. Monarch known for her sketches?: MARY QUEEN OF SKITS. Mary, Queen of SCOTS is more familiar. In this "replacement" JW also switched the C in SCOTS to a K in SKITS - but the pronunciation of both the C and K are the same. SKITS are sketches; these are shoes:

28-Across. Lessons in sympathy?: PITY TRAINING. "POTTY TRAINING" is what I'm guessing Jeffrey was making pun of. And while we might feel empathy for parents of toddlers who are going through POTTY training, there's no PITY! Anyone who's had kids has been there, done that! Now, as for a PITY Trainer, how about this dude, seeing as a "T" was missing?

48-Across. "If you hate my work, make your own sweater!"?: LIKE IT OR KNIT. I guess that whatever your thoughts are about today's puzzle, you still solved it, "like it or not" ...

Any knitters among our group of regulars? I don't knit but I am a sweater ... and speaking of sweaters have you ever wondered

62-Across. Like "Ode on an Eaten Apple"?: WRITTEN TO THE CORE. "ROTTEN TO THE CORE" is a known phrase for one who's incorrigible. As well as a 1965 British Movie title, and a song from the Disney film "Desendants". But this clue and answer gave me a Moe-Ku:

Encouraging note
Sent to Marine recruits was
WRITTEN TO THE CORPS

Here is the grid:

On to the rest of the clues ...

Across:
1. Davis with two Oscars: BETTE. GEENA fit too, but I figured BETTE was more likely the one who'd have a pair of Oscars

BETTE Davis won her first Academy Award in 1935, for her role as a troubled young actress in Dangerous. She then appeared in The Petrified Forest with male stars Leslie Howard and Humphrey Bogart in 1937. After a rocky period at Warner Brothers, during which time she was suspended for turning down roles, sued the studio and spent some time in England, she returned to Hollywood, and was offered a higher salary and better choice of roles.

Davis received her second Oscar for her performance as a rebellious Southern belle in 1938's Jezebel. A number of critical and box-office successes followed: She played a heiress coming to terms with mortal illness in Dark Victory and Elizabeth I in The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (both released in 1939), and went on to deliver several well-received performances in films of the 1940s, including The Little Foxes; the comedy The Man Who Came to Dinner; the American drama Now, Voyager; and the drama The Corn is Green. By the time she severed ties with Warner Brothers in 1949, Davis was one of its largest talents. Biography dot com

6. Also says: ADDS. But when it comes to ADS - especially those on most social media platforms and TV shows - wouldn't it be nice if they could "subtract"?

10. Say: UTTER. When you say "UTTER", do some folks think you said "udder"? And if this was a CSO to desper-otto, would this be UTTOR? "Mark" that down!

15. Warranty holders: USERS. USERS also has a connotative definition; that being the persons who "use" illegal drugs. But I don't think illegal drugs come with a warranty

16. Word with life or world: REAL. REAL life; REAL world. Get it?

17. Indication of further installments: PART I . But even this book omitted the "Part I" before the second "installment" was written

21. Gridiron strategy: PUNT. Also used as a metaphor in REAL life

22. It's often filled with things for which it was not intended: GARAGE. Like this perhaps?

23. It has no cutting edge: EPEE. Great clue! A literal, play-on-words; and Moe-ku, Part II:

Allergic fencer
Stores his swords where? Of course, they're
In an EPEE pen

24. Prince in both parts of "Henry IV": HAL. Prince HAL is the standard term used in literary criticism to refer to Shakespeare's portrayal of the young Henry V of England as a prince before his accession to the throne, taken from the diminutive form of his name used in the plays almost exclusively by Falstaff. Wikipedia

26. MGM rival: RKO. RKO Pictures was an American film production and distribution company. In its original incarnation, as RKO Radio Pictures, Inc. (a subsidiary of Radio-Keith-Orpheum, aka: RKO) it was one of the Big Five studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. Google

34. Ownership query word: WHOSE. Or, when you have "auto-correct" activated, it's sometimes spelled "WHO'S"

36. Precipitous: RASH. Our Thesaurusaurus doesn't agree, but if you drill down deep enough, the word "RASH" can be found as a definition for precipitous ...

37. Substantial: MEATY. See 36-Across; maybe because it's Friday, the more familiar synonyms weren't used

40. Sitter's bane: IMP. Bane = pest; pest = IMP. Out of curiosity, what do sitters get paid these days?

41. Starter at some tables: ANTE. There must be a thousand crossword clues for the word "ANTE". Now there's 1,001

42. __ culpa: MEA. Latin, ‘by my fault’. Said during confession

43. Ascend: GO UP. It's GO UP, not GOUP!

45. Egyptian talisman: SCARAB. I had AMULET before correcting to SCARAB. Moe-ku Part III:

Cairo trainer used
Talisman on his stomach.
He wants to SCARAB

47. Bill: BEAK. As in a bird's bill; Bill: the BEAK of a bird, especially when it is slender, flattened, or weak, or belongs to a web-footed bird or a bird of the pigeon family. Google. This?

51. Zodiac symbol: SCALES. LIBRA doesn't fit as an answer, but its symbol is the SCALES. For folks born between September 23 and October 22. The symbol of the SCALES is based on the Scales of Justice held by Themis, the Greek personification of divine law and custom. She became the inspiration for modern depictions of Lady Justice. The ruling planet of Libra is Venus. Libra is the only zodiac constellation represented by an inanimate object; with the other eleven signs represented by either an animal or mythological character. Wikipedia

53. Military bands: SASHES. Not the musical "band"; this:

56. Judge with a bat: AARON. A sports reference. This "judge" - AARON Judge of the NYY. #99 in your scorecard

57. Related groups: SETS. In last Friday's puzzle, the singular of SETS was clued as "A math group"

61. Start a round: TEE UP. As in a "round" of golf. Most courses start with either a Par 4 or Par 5 which would require one to TEE UP their golf ball on a wooden peg. Meh. I would've preferred the clue to have referred to a basketball official assessing a technical foul - AKA - TEE UP

65. Woodworking tool: ADZE. Moe-ku Part IV:

Lowe's fall promotion
Features woodworking tools. It's
Their ADZE ad's campaign

66. One working on the house: ROOFER. SANTA didn't fit

67. Cyclo- suffix: TRON. A cycloTRON is a type of particle accelerator invented by Ernest O. Lawrence in 1929–1930 at the University of California, Berkeley, and patented in 1932. A cyclotron accelerates charged particles outwards from the center of a flat cylindrical vacuum chamber along a spiral path. Wikipedia

68. Having multiple leaders: TIED. A rather deceptive clue, methinks; another sports reference? As in the "leaders" of the ________ league division are TIED with 20 wins apiece

69. "Phooey!": AW NUTS. Not an oft used word phrase in xword puzzles, but effective

70. Part of DOS: Abbr.: SYST. DOS is a platform-independent acronym for disk operating SYSTem which later became a common shorthand for disk-based operating systems on IBM PC compatibles. DOS primarily consists of Microsoft's MS-DOS and a rebranded version under the name IBM PC DOS, both of which were introduced in 1981. Wikipedia

Down:
1. Sign suggesting slowing: BUMP. STOP would've been too obvious; as last Saturday's puzzle revealed, "OH, GOD, NO!" might be my response to seeing this sign, which I'd never encountered before living in both FL and now, AZ

2. Biblical twin: ESAU. OK: what's ESAU's twin's name?

3. Seagull kin: TERN. Unlike Arissa LeBrock, who might be clued as "Seagal" kin

4. "Taste it": TRY THIS. Clecho, PART I

5. Legal honorific: Abbr.: ESQ. An abbreviation for esquire, which is a title used by attorneys in the United States. The term esquire has a different meaning in English Law. It is used to signify a title of dignity, which ranks above gentleman and directly below knight

6. Space: AREA. Or, the final frontier, but that wouldn't fit

7. Woodland grazers: DEER. Slim pickens on the grazing deer cartoons!

8. Fox's partner on "The X-Files": DANA. Hand up if you've never watched "The X-Files". Me! Now THIS DANA was one with whom I'm familiar. Not sure that this kind of comedy would be allowed on today's TV

9. Tough go: SLOG. Kinda like this puzzle for some?

10. DHL alternative: UPS. United Parcel Service is an American multinational shipping & receiving and supply chain management company founded in 1907.

11. "Taste it": TAKE ONE. Clecho Part II. Which brought to mind THIS old commercial

12. Activate, as a switch: TRIP. These rarely "break" anymore

13. Rock ending, in dance: ETTE. As in the RockETTEs. Anyone ever seen them? I did. At Radio City Music Hall in the 1960's. They performed before the showing of the movie, "Wait Until Dark"

14. Shine partner: RISE. RISE and Shine! I'm not sure that I am this perky most mornings

19. Way some situations turn: UGLY. But never these LA Times Crossword Blogs!

20. Seedless plant: FERN. How many seedless plants were featured in this sit com?

25. Wasted, as profits: ATE. Another Friday definition?

27. Kipling title hero: KIM. KIM is set in an imperialistic world; a world strikingly masculine, dominated by travel, trade and adventure, a world in which there is no question of the division between white and non-white.

Two men - a boy who grows into early manhood and an old ascetic priest, the lama - are at the center of the novel. A quest faces them both. Born in India, Kim is nevertheless white, a sahib. While he wants to play the Great Game of Imperialism, he is also spiritually bound to the lama. His aim, as he moves chameleon-like through the two cultures, is to reconcile these opposing strands, while the lama searches for redemption from the Wheel of Life.

A celebration of their friendship in a beautiful but often hostile environment, 'Kim' captures the opulence of India's exotic landscape, overlaid by the uneasy presence of the British Raj. Goodreads dot com

28. Make big, in a way: POPULARIZE. POPULARIZE: to cause (something) to become generally liked. "his books have done much to popularize the sport"

29. "Last Call" singer Braxton: TRACI. TRACI Renee Braxton, is an American singer, reality television personality and radio personality. She is the younger sister of American R&B singer Toni Braxton. In 2011, Braxton reunited with her sisters for the WE tv reality show Braxton Family Values. Wikipedia

30. Charged: RAN AT. Only because "SWIPED" wouldn't fit

31. Minute Maid Park athlete: ASTRO. CSO to Dash T, our resident 'Stro's fan

32. "They say ... ": I HEAR. Another of the many two-word answers

33. Study applicable to many sciences: GAME THEORY. Business Insider lists 7 strategies on how to use GAME THEORY to make your life better

34. Freak (out): WIG. This WIG freaks ME out

35. Med. care provider: HMO. Health Maintenance Organization. In the United States, an HMO is a medical insurance group that provides health services for a fixed annual fee

38. Bubble __: TEA. All perps. Never heard of it. Bubble TEA is a tea-based drink that originated in Taiwan in the early 1980s. It most commonly consists of tea accompanied by chewy tapioca balls, but it can be made with other toppings as well. Wikipedia

Place of origin: Taiwan

Alternative names: Boba; Pearl milk tea; Boba milk tea; Boba tea; Boba nai cha; Tapioca tea

Main ingredients: Tapioca, milk, creamer, brewed tea, sugar, flavorings

39. Babble: YAK. The hairy animal clue would've been too easy for a Friday puzzle

44. Took the lead: PILOTED. PILOTED; piloting; pilots. Definition of pilot (Entry 2 of 3) transitive verb. 1 : to act as a guide to : lead or conduct over a usually difficult course. 2a : to set and conn the course of pilot a ship.

45. French "his": SES. I "eat" and "drink" French, but don't speak it. Perps to the rescue!

46. Lib. contents: BKS. As in books found in a library - in the abbreviation form

47. Divides equally: BISECTS. To divide in two

49. Daily Planet reporter: KENT. Clark KENT. The alter ego for Superman

50. Silver with stats: NATE. Nathaniel (NATE) Read Silver is an American statistician and writer who analyzes baseball, basketball, and elections. He is the founder and editor-in-chief of FiveThirtyEight and a Special Correspondent for ABC News. Wikipedia

51. Noticed attending: SAW AT. I SAW by friend Paul AT the meeting

52. Rap's __ B: CARDI. Belcalis Marlenis Almánzar, known professionally as CARDI B, is an American rapper. Born and raised in New York City, she became an Internet celebrity by achieving popularity on Vine and Instagram. Wikipedia. Her nickname Cardi B is short for Bacardi. But the famed Cardi B stage name didn't actually originate from the rapper's birth name, Belcalis Almanzar. In an interview with Jimmy Fallon, Cardi B explained that her title is actually short for Bacardi (the rum). Interesting

54. Roman bills: EUROS. Or coins. Good misdirection

55. Used up: SPENT. I am usually SPENT after doing these blogs!

57. TV screen spots: SNOW. Wow! Here is a throw-back to the old days. This?

58. Prestigious English school: ETON. Or, a collar; or, James Bond's alma mater

59. Vegan staple: TOFU. TOFU, also known as bean curd, is a food prepared by coagulating soy milk and then pressing the resulting curds into solid white blocks of varying softness; it can be silken, soft, firm, extra firm or super firm. Beyond these broad textural categories, there are many varieties of tofu. Wikipedia. Sounds "dee-lightful"!

60. [Ignore that dele]: STET. An editor's term for "let it stand"

63. Distinctive period: ERA. What, no baseball reference to a pitcher's stat??

64. PO door posting: HRS. PO as in Post Office. Do they have banker's HRS??

That's all I got! Hope you'll add your comments below. Enjoy your weekend! Thanks again, Jeffrey Wechsler for another challenging Friday "flummox"!

Thursday June 10, 2021 Michael Paleos

 

Twilight Zones

Today's puzzle leads us into other dimensions of reality.  Our captain for this journey will be Michael Paleos, an LA Times veteran who last published here on Thursday March 12th 2020.  He has also been published at least twice by the NY Times.  This is what Will Shortz had to say about him for his Sunday puzzle debut on October 27, 2019:
 

Michael Paleos, of Oyster Bay, N.Y., is chief of staff at a major investment bank. He started solving crosswords at a young age, but only got hooked on them after discovering the archive of puzzles in the New York Times app. "After doing enough of them, I started wondering what it would take to make one, and down the rabbit hole I went." [my emphasis]

In this puzzle Michael leads us to close encounters with holes you don't go down, but go through, and come out the another side!

I'll start by highlighting a key piece of information by showing a blank grid:

You will notice that there are what appear to be four circles.  If your publisher didn't include these, then the deep dive I'm about to take is not going to make a lot of sense.  I'm not sure I'm going to make sense anyway, as this is the most convoluted theme I've had to explain ...

First I made the mistake of assuming that the circles actually were circles, but that's not what they really are.  Next I have to admit that this was the first puzzle that I've blogged that I DNF.  I expected that the circles contained letters that could somehow be joined together to reveal the theme.  And after it was clear to me that I had reached a dead end, I had to resort to reading the clue/answer file bloggers receive that contains all the answers.  Normally I only read this file after solving the puzzle just to verify my solution. 

Okay, so here are the themers, in which some of the letters appear to abruptly end or begin out of nowhere. These are indicated by white letters CIRCLED IN RED  in the text that follows.*  Answers with these circles are connected to other answers on the grid in temporal order, i.e. the order in which they will occur, or have occurred in historical time:

In the not too distant future:

7A 22-Across captain: KIRK.  Obviously a clue to the unfinished answer at 22A ...
22A Classic sci-fi name: STARSHIP  🅔  Where is this taking us?  To 56A via a 38A?
56A -: 🅝TERPRISE  The clue "-" indicates that this answer continues from a previous clue, but there is no indication of which one.
The preceding three clues are all related to the voyages of the STARSHIP 🅔🅝TERPRISE which will begin when she is commissioned in 2245, in the EARTH's near future.  She will first be captained by Robert April, then by Christopher Pike, and finally will be turned over to James Tiberius KIRK.

And "A long long, time ago in a galaxy far, far away​...."

71A. 18-Across captain: SOLO.  Obviously a clue to the unfinished answer at 18A ...
18A Classic sci-fi name: MILLENN🅘  Where is this taking us? To 62A  via a 38A?
62A. -: 🅤M FALCON.   The clue "-" again indicates that this answer continues from a previous clue, but there is no indication of which one.
The preceding three clues are related to the voyages of the MILLENN🅘🅤M FALCON,  captained a long, long time ago by that irascible STAR WARS rogue HANS SOLO and his wookie companion CHEWBACCA

And the reveal, dead center in our puzzle universe, tells us the real meaning for the "circles":

38A. Theoretical shortcuts ... or what the four circles in this puzzle represent: WORM HOLES. 

Are these WORM HOLES simply direct shortcuts from two parts of the puzzle to two others, or are they more than that, intended as actual shortcuts thru interstellar space and time?  The first possibility is pretty straightforward.  An exploration of the latter possibility would require a deep dive down the rabbit hole of interstellar physics that is beyond the space and time of this review.

* The circled red letters are unavoidably shifted up a bit due to the Unicode font I had to use to generate them.

The final grid might help clear up any confusion you might have, if that's possible!

Now let's get down to EARTH:

Across:
1. "The Devil Wears Prada" co-star: STREEP.  I have not seen this movie, but apparently Meryl presents another powerful performance as one of the greatest actresses of our time.  My indelible memory of STREEP was her incredible portrayal of Zofia Zawistowski in the 1982 film Sophie's Choice, based on the novel by William Styron.  Here are two reviews of this 1982 film -  The first was written by the late Roger Ebert, when the film was first released.  The second is from the (SPOILER ALERT) Wikipedia.  If you haven't seen this film and plan to, read Ebert's review first, see the movie, then read the Wiki review.

11. Some notebooks: PCS.

14. Pirouettes: TWIRLS.

15. Be in store: LIE AHEAD.

17. Not in a good way: POORLY.

19. Zeno's followers: STOICS.  Zeno was also known for his formulation of a series of PARADOXES, that is apparently self-contradictory propositions.  I recall being taught about the DICHOTOMY PARADOX in HS Math: "suppose someone wishes to walk to the end of a path. Before she can get there, she must get halfway there. Before she can get halfway there, she must get a quarter of the way there. Before traveling a quarter, she must travel one-eighth; before an eighth, one-sixteenth; and so on", the implication being that she'll never get there. 

Our Math teacher Mr. Fritz refuted it thusly: "Suppose we put all of the girls on one side of the room and all of the boys on the other.  Each side starts by walking a 1/2 of the way to the middle, and then 1/4, then 1/8th, and so on.  They may never get to the middle, but pretty soon they'd be close enough for all practical purposes."

21. Have a little lamb, say: YEAN.  My favorite clue.  I've heard of calving (something ELSIE might do - see 44A below), but I didn't know there was a verb specifically for giving birth to a lamb.

25. Andean grazer: LLAMA.  I wonder if they give birth by LLAMINATION?

28. Gumshoe: TEC.

29. Keep in inventory: STOCK.

31. Vote of dissent: NAY.

32. "The Jungle" author Sinclair: UPTON.  Sinclair was born right here in Baltimore in 1878, the son of an alcoholic father and a teetotaling Episcopalian mother.  At the time he wrote The Jungle (awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in  1943) he was best known for his muck-raking novels and his socialist leanings, but we owe the beginnings of the Food and Drug Administration to him.

35. Popular Halloween costume: SKELETON.

41. Was superficially polite: MADE NICE.

44. Commercial mascot with an honorary Doctor of Bovinity degree: ELSIE.  ELSIE was and still is  the original spokes COW for Borden's line of dairy products.  And she really does have a "degree" in BOVINITY.

48. Function: USE.

49. It's often eaten with a fork and spoon: PASTA.  Didn't know you needed a spoon.  Given the number and shapes of different pasta varieties I suppose you might need a spoon for some, e.g DITALINI (not sure what you'd do with the fork though):
 

Ditalini Pasta

52. 292.5 deg., on a compass: WNW.

53. Blueprint info: SPECS.  I used to have to worry about those kind of SPECS.  Now that my license is up for renewal I might have to worry about these:
 

59. Entreaty: PLEA.

61. Boatload, say: AMOUNT.

66. Scrabble coups: BINGOS.  Never heard this term, which gets you 50 extra points for using all of your letters.

Scrabble is like a "moveable crossword puzzle" that you make up as you go along.  I used to play it a lot with my with my youngest sister before I left for college.  I was always looking for clever words but she played for blood, consistently scoring higher than me.  Here's a good Scrabble resource with lots of words for getting BINGOS, including would you believe it: BOVINITY?

68. Spice that gives yellow curry its color: TURMERIC.  Poor man's saffron.  This looks like a good recipe for what DW and I used to call "Dal and potato stew".  The website says it all: "yummy!".

69. Balinese, e.g.: ASIANS.  The aspect of Balinese culture that I'm most familiar with is their distinctive music: Gamelan, also spelled gamelang or gamelin, is the indigenous orchestra type of the islands of Java and Bali, in Indonesia, consisting largely of several varieties of gongs and various sets of tuned metal instruments that are struck with mallets.
 

70. Eponymous ice cream maker: EDY.  Add a D and you've got EDDY and a clecho to 14A.

72. One exchanging dollars for quarters?: RENTER.  Clever misdirection.  Hands up if you thought this was for playing the slots.

Down:
1. Big racing sponsor: STP.

2. Texas dance: TWO STEP.

3. Cautionary reading?: RIOT ACT.  No comment.

4. "404 Not Found," e.g.: ERROR.  Generated by HTTP when it cannot locate the specified URL you are trying to reach on the Internet.

5. New York Harbor's __ Island: ELLIS.  Used as a gateway to the US for immigrants. Here is their story.

6. Inspires, with "up": PSYCHS.

7. Dutch carrier: KLM.  KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (in Dutch Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij) N.V., is the flag carrier airline of the Netherlands.

8. Sundial marking: III.  Not XII or VII.

9. Depend: RELY.

10. Superman, on Krypton: KALEL.  The first of the super heroes, an extensive mythology has arisen about Superman: his past, his upbringing, and his raison d'être.  Superman still "fights a never ending battle for truth, justice, and the American Way."

11. Baseball championship emblem: PENNANT.

12. Preserve, in a way: CAN.  A great way to preserve garden vegetables.  We still CAN tomatoes, salsa verde (tomatillos), and pickles.  The Ball Blue Book is the authoritative source on canning :
 

13. '80s missile prog.: SDI.  Often referred to as "Star Wars", a riff on the movie series and a clecho to 3 of our themers.  A lot of missiles were loosed in the series.

16. Get better: HEAL.

20. Obedience school command: SIT.  Obedience training is really all about training pet OWNERS,  but it didn't SIT too well with us.  DW took both our dogs to obedience training.  Our Black Lab, NEPTUNE, didn't pass.  Our Yellow Lab, JUPITER, was the "most improved" and excelled while attending the class, but forgot it all as soon as he got back home.  They are both romping in DOG HEAVEN now!.

22. R-V man's name?: STU.  Clever clue, with the answer embedded in the alphabet range.

23. Most elegant: POSHEST. 

24. Marc of fashion: ECKO.  Here's his story.
 

26. Red Guard leader: MAO.  Chairman MAO ZEDONG was the founder of the Chinese communist party and a distant relative of our very own Chairman MOE.  MAO also features as a character in the opera Nixon in China by composer John Adams.  The opera presents the events surrounding Nixon's historic visit to China in 1972.  Here is an outtake from one of the scenes in opera called The Chairman Dances, a foxtrot for orchestra that is performed much more frequently than the opera.  Performance by Cole Conservatory Symphony Orchestra at CSU Long Beach, Johannes Müller-Stosch, Music Director:

27. Objectivist Rand: AYN.  Here is the Wikipedia's explanation of Objectivism. I agree with some of what Rand espouses, particularly the existence of an objective reality that we can contact directly with our senses and use to guide our behavior.  [BEGIN RANT] But I'm disturbed by the parts that seem to derive from Nietzsche's concept of the Übermensch or "Superman", the heroic figures that Rand places at the centers of her novels.  The milieu of Superman is a mythological world (10D) and my perception of the real world is that, while it has many heroic figures, those figures are ultimately dependent on the vast interwoven network of all humanity to accomplish what they will.  To the extent that they exploit this humanity for their own purposes I think they are not only wrong, but ultimately foolish.  [END OF RANT]. 

30. Kenan's one-time comedy partner: KEL.  I have not seen Kenan and Kel, an American sitcom created by Kim Bass. A kid's show, it originally aired on the Nickelodeon network for four seasons, from August 17, 1996, to July 15, 2000. Set in Chicago, Illinois, the series follows Kenan Rockmore (Kenan Thompson) and best friend Kel Kimble (Kel Mitchell), who go on a number of misadventures. 
 

33. Run a tab, say: OWE.

34. Fiction opening?: NON.

36. Big name in denim: LEE.

37. Au pair's subj.: ESL. An Au Pair is defined as a young person (between the ages of 18-30), who goes abroad to live with a native family and learn (or perfect) a language in exchange for childcare.   As distinct from a Nanny who provides child care for a salary.

39. Criticize: RIP.

40. Big name in shoes: MCAN.

41. Lambda followers: MUS.

42. Nile menace: ASP.  According to Plutarch, Cleopatra tested various deadly poisons on condemned people and concluded that the bite of the asp (from aspis—Egyptian cobra, not European asp) was the least terrible way to die; the venom brought sleepiness and heaviness without spasms of pain.  Apparently she was doing contingency planning.  She chose this method to commit suicide to avoid the humiliation of being paraded as a prisoner in a Roman triumph celebrating the military victories of Octavian, who would become Rome's first emperor in 27 BC and be known as Augustus. 

43. Prepare, as tempura: DEEP FRY.  A Japanese dish, consisting of thin slices or strips of vegetables or seafood that are dipped in the batter, then briefly deep-fried in hot oil. Vegetable oil or canola oil are most common; however, tempura was traditionally cooked using sesame oil.  Vegetarian Indian cooking has a similar dish called pakoras, deep fried vegetables or paneer (an Indian cheese) using peanut oil.  I think both of these dishes are best suited for serving at restaurants, as they use a lot of oil.

45. Attempt to hit: SWING AT.  Sums up my career in little league baseball.

46. Permanently: IN STONE.  Not necessarily.  This statue of the Pieta by sculptor Michelangelo, which resides in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome was severely damaged by a mentally ill vandal named Laszlo Toth in 1972.  It has since been restored, but is now behind protective glass:
 

47. Sheep that sounds like a pronoun: EWE. And they YEAN little sheep!

50. London hot spot?: TEA.  "A spot of tea anyone?"  Alternately, "Would you like a cuppa'?"

51. Hand-to-hand combat maneuver: ARM BAR.  I hope you never need this ...
 

54. Half-shell serving: CLAM.  À la Clams Casino.
 

55. Monica of tennis: SELES.  MONICA SELES is a retired professional tennis player, who represented Yugoslavia and the United States. She was born and raised in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia (now Serbia) to an ethnic Hungarian family. She became a naturalized American citizen in 1994 and also received Hungarian citizenship in June 2007. A former world no. 1, she won nine Grand Slam singles titles, eight of them as a teenager while representing Yugoslavia, and the final one while representing the United States.

57. Grace under fire: POISE.  Not the "fire" of war, which takes fearlessness.  Rather the stresses of everyday life.  Has anyone seen this series?
 

58. Quarrel: RUN IN.

60. Start to bat?: ACRO.

62. Beehive State athlete: UTE.  The UTES are the University of Utah Football Team, named for the Ute Indian tribe.  In case anyone is wondering: On Mar 4, 2020, the University of Utah and the Ute Indian Tribe announced a renewal of their agreement, or “memorandum of understanding,” to use the name “Utes” as part of the athletics program for the next five years.

The Ute are the indigenous people of the Ute tribe and culture among the indigenous peoples of the Great Basin. They have lived in the regions of present-day Utah and Colorado in the Southwestern United States for many centuries. The state of Utah is named after the Ute tribe.

Utah's nickname is the Beehive State, due to its original title of “State of Deseret.” Deseret, meaning honeybee in the Book of Mormon. ... Also tying in with Utah's roots, the beehive is a symbol of industry, which is the state motto.  This is the state seal:
 

63. Word with wrestling or pie: MUD.

64. Artist's medium: OIL.

65. Sgt., for one: NCO.

67. Abbr. on a pre-1991 map: SSR.  If you want to see what the world was like circa 1935, I'd recommend a visit to the 3D Mapparium at the Christian Science Museum in Boston, where you can walk inside a giant glass globe of the world:

Mapparium

A WORM HOLE back to a different time on EARTH.

waseeley

Cheers,
Bill

And kudos to DW for proof reading and for the dog obedience story!

Wendesday June 9, 2021 Julian Lim

Theme. SURRENDER[S.]  The second word of each two word theme fill is a synonym for capitulation. There's a flaw in the unifier though, as we shall soon see.  

17. *"Rockin' the Suburbs" alt-rocker: BEN FOLDS.  A person's proper name becomes a verb. 

Moderately amusing, but Cf 33D

To FOLD is to capitulate.

24. *"Anything wrong?": WHAT GIVES?  You OK?  Inquiry into someone's general well being.

To GIVE [up or in] is to capitulate.  A different sense of the verb GIVE.

36. *Not much interest: LOW YIELDS. Not much return on investment, like T-bonds and money markets these days.

To YIELD is to capitulate. The noun YIELD becomes a verb, just like magic!.

52. *Ursine dens: BEAR CAVES. Where they spend the winter.

To CAVE is to capitulate. Another noun to verb transition.  Lots of grammatical alchemy going on here.

60. Concede ... or a hint to the last words of the answers to starred clues: CRY UNCLE.

Another way to capitulate.

 

But, you'll notice that the theme fill all end in "S," while the corresponding verb in the unifier does not. The latter represents the base form of the verb in present tense, as used in first and second person.  The added "S" indicates third person.  For example, I sleep and you sleep, vs he/she/it sleeps.  This may be a niggling little quibble, but I find the inconsistency to be troubling, and am issuing a citation.

Hi gang.  Jazzbumpa here, evidently in critical mode.  Let's see what else gives. I will not capitulate!

Across:

1. Twistable container part: CAP. A type of removable top for a bottle or jar.

4. Stark daughter on "Game of Thrones": ARYA.  The deeply troubled middle child of Ned And Catelyn [Tulley] Stark.  If you are familiar with her, no more explanation is needed.  If not, neither of us has enough time.  Read about her here.

8. "__ tardes": BUENAS.  Good Afternoon in Madrid.

14. Kwik-E-Mart owner: APU.  From The Simpsons

15. Spell the end of: DOOM.  Seal the fate of.

16. "Bewitched" witch: ENDORA.  Samantha's mother.

19. Periods of duty: STINTS.  As defined.

20. 38th-parallel land: KOREA.  Approximately the border between North and South Koreas.

21. Covered, as with sugar: COATED.

22. Novel makeup: PROSE.  Not unusual cosmetics; instead, it's normal written language, as opposed to poetic verse.

27. Responsibility: ONUS.  A duty or responsibility.

28. Aviation pioneer Sikorsky: IGOR. [1889 - 1972] Influential in the development of both helicopters and fixed wing aircraft.

29. Bottle part: NECK.  Located just below the CAP.

30. Like many MLB players: LATINO.  Many from the Dominican Republic.

32. Sun and Sky org.: WNBA. Chicago Sky and Connecticut Sun are teams in the Women's National Basketball Association.

35. Cowboy Rogers: ROY.  Leonard Franklin Slye [1911-1998] was an American singer, actor, and television host. Following early work under his given name, first as co-founder of the Sons of the Pioneers and then acting, the rebranded Rogers then became one of the most popular Western stars of his era.

39. Do sum work: ADD.  +1 for this nice word play.

42. Southwest art hub: TAOS. In New Mexico.

43. Low-tech travel guide: AAA MAP.  Paper map from the American Automobile Association.

47. The "F" in UHF: Abbr.: FREQ.  Frequency - the vibration rate of a wave.  For Ultra High Frequency [UHF] the range is 300 MHz to 3 GHz.

49. "Not happenin'": UH-UH.  Nope.  No go.

51. YouTube vote: LIKE. Thumbs up.  You could give one to Ben Folds.  [I didn't] 

55. Really cold: POLAR.  Relating to the north and south poles, or weather patterns that come from those directions.

56. Riverdale High redhead: ARCHIE.  From the comic books.  Archie first appeared in Pep Comics #22 in 1941 and soon became the most popular character for the comic. Due to his popularity, he was given his own series which debuted in winter 1942 titled Archie Comics. 

57. Tablet download: E BOOK.  Reading material, usually in PDF format.

59. "All set here": I'M GOOD.  

63. Epicure: FOODIE.  One with a particular interest in food and its preparation

64. Actor Brad: PITT.  William Bradley Pitt is an American actor and film producer. He has received multiple awards, including two Golden Globe Awards and an Academy Award for his acting, in addition to another Academy Award, another Golden Globe Award and a Primetime Emmy Award as a producer under his production company, Plan B Entertainment.

65. 62-Down homonym: AIR.  They sound alike, and no mistake.

66. Astronomer Celsius: ANDERS. [1701-1744] He was a Swedish astronomer, physicist and mathematician.

67. Lemon drinks: -ADES.  They are helpful in hot weather.

68. "Fresh Air" network: NPR.  National Public Radio.

Down:

1. Semi driver's spot: CAB. 

2. Impersonate: APE.  Mimic.

3. Quit like a wimp: PUNK OUT.  I'm not familiar with the phrase, but it's easy enough to suss

4. Love to bits: ADORE.

5. One played on stage: ROLE.  By an actor

6. "'Sup, bro?": YO DAWG.  Slangy greetings.

7. Alarm-setting hrs.: AMS. In the morning.

8. Make smitten: BESOT.  Quaint ways of falling in love.

9. De-identify, as an Insta photo: UNTAG.  Disassociate the picture from a name, as on FaceBook.

10. Add, as to text: EDIT IN.

11. "Ain't gonna happen": NO, NEVER. Dream on.  Cf 40D.

12. Like many Miami Beach structures: ART DECO.  Read about it here.

13. Airline to Sweden: SAS.  Scandinavian Airlines System or legally Scandinavian Airlines System Denmark-Norway-Sweden.

18. Kind of fuel: FOSSIL. a fuel formed by natural processes, such as anaerobic decomposition of buried dead organisms, containing organic molecules originating in ancient photosynthesis that release energy in combustion.  Mainly oil and natural gas. 

21. __ asada: CARNE.  Roasted meat at your local restaurante mexicano.

22. Campaign pro: POL.  Politician.

23. Genetic letters: RNA.  Ribo Nucleic Acid

25. "My guy doing okay, doc?": HOW IS HE.  Inquiry into his physical or mental condition

26. What's up to you?: SKY.  Where the stars are all aglow

28. Illinois neighbor: IOWA.  Flyover country.

31. "That's __ fair!": NOT.  Play nice, now.

33. Lackluster: BLAH.  Meh!

34. Crest box abbr.: ADA. American Dental Association.

37. "__ been served": YOU'VE.   What did I get?

38. Spot for a Wild West brawl: SALOON.  Cliche scene.

39. Langley, e.g.: Abbr.: AFB.  Air Force Base.

40. "Like that'll ever happen": DREAM ON.

 

 41. Response to awful news: DEAR GOD.  Oh, my.

44. Dairy container: MILK CAN.

45. Letters before a pen name: AKA.  Or alias: Also Known As.

46. Each: PER.

48. Scanned black-and-white image: QR CODE.  This thing.

50. Online handle: USER ID.

53. Group with scores: CHOIR.  Musical scores to sing from.

54. Senate staffers: AIDES.

55. Mopes: POUTS.  

58. Data storage unit: BYTE.  The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable unit of memory in many computer architectures.

59. "__ tree falls ... ": IF A.  Yes, it makes a sound.  Physics does not care where you are.

60. Tax pro: CPA.  Certified Public Accountant.

61. Sassy reaction: LIP.  Disrespectfully talking back.

62. Misspell a word, say: ERR.  Any sort of mistake.

With no further mistakes, we've completed another Wednesday.  Hope you didn't have to capitulate.

Cool regards!

JzB

Tuesday, June 8, 2021 Jeff Stillman

Crazy Relations:  The word "sister" can be found "twisted" in the circles.

20-Across. Prime time for vacationers: TOURIST SEASON.  Webster's defines Tourist Season as "the time when many people go to visit places as tourists."

29-Across. Work out of the office?: BUSINESS TRIP.  Webster's defines a Business Trip as "a visit made to a place for work purposes, typically one involving a journey of some distance."

46-Across. Pacific spot named for the day it was discovered: EASTER ISLAND.  Easter Island a territory of Chile.  It's native name is Rapa Nui and it is known for its monumental statues of oversized heads.

56-Across. '80s hard rock quintet, and what's literally found in each set of circles: TWISTED SISTER.  I'll spare your ears.

Across:

1. Welsh dog: CORGI.  A favorite of the Queen.

6. Voice mails: Abbr.: MSGs.  As in Messages.

10. Heed: OBEY.

14. Atom with a negative charge: ANION.

15. German mark successor: EURO.  Each country that uses the Euro can have one side of the coin depict a design symbolic of its nation.  You can see the German national side of the Euro here.

16. Very hot state: RAGE.

17. Works on a keyboard: TYPES.

18. Mideast's Gulf of __: ADEN.

19. __ job: deception: SNOW.

23. Informal affirmative: YUP.

24. Small amount: TAD.

25. Weep: CRY.

26. Childcare writer LeShan: EDA.  Eda LaShan (June 6, 1922 ~ Mar. 3, 2002).  She visited us just last Sunday.  

32. King's rabid dog: CUJO.  Cujo was the subject of a novel by Stephen King (b. Sept. 21, 1947).

35. Laugh sound: HEE.

36. Like some waves: TIDAL.

37. Chevy subcompact: AVEO.

38. Basic building blocks: ATOMS.

41. Half of Mork's sign-off: NANU.  A reference to the 1980s sit-com, Mork and Mindy.

42. Greek cheeses: FETAs.  Almost everything you wanted to know about Feta Cheese, but didn't know to ask.  Feta is a Protected Designation of Origin product, so technically only the cheese made in some areas of Greece can be called Feta.

44. Washington NLer: NAT.  As in the Washington Nationals, the Major League Baseball team.

45. Cavefish's functionless parts: EYES.  Some of these fish barely even have eyes.  Cavefish is actually a generic term for fish that have adapted to living in caves and underground habitats.  Some fish have no eyes altogether, other fish have vestige eyes.

50. Chicago-to-Miami dir.: SSE.  South-SouthEast.

51. Elton's "Rocket __": MAN.

52. Prior to, poetically: ERE.  A crossword staple.

53. Baglike structure: SAC.

60. Lightsaber wielders: SITH.  Think of the Star Wars movies.

62. Dove's home: COTE.

63. Wavy pattern: MOIRE.

64. __ socks: KNEE.

65. Beheaded Boleyn: ANNE.  Anne Boleyn (1500s ~ May 19, 1536) was the 2nd of Henry VIII's wives.  She was also the mother of Elizabeth I, Queen of England.

66. Kate's TV sidekick: ALLIE.  Kate & Allie was a sit-com from the 1980s.  Kate was played by Susan Saint James (b. Aug. 14, 1946) and Allie was played by Jane Curtain (b. Sept. 6, 1947).

67. Legal memo phrase: IN RE.

68. Cordelia's father: LEAR.  A reference to a play by Willie the Shakes.

69. Prominent: NOTED.

Down:

1. Like a remark evoking a "Rowr!": CATTY.

2. "The joke's __!": ON YOU.

3. Make into confetti: RIP UP.

4. Active type: GOER.

5. At its original position: IN SITU.  Today's Latin lesson.

6. Carnivore's regimen: MEAT DIET.

7. Frothy water: SUDS.

8. 776 BC Olympics locale: GREECE.  And home of Feta Cheese.

9. Undersea trackers: SONARS.  Sonar is short for Sound Navagation and Ranging.  

10. -ish, numerically: OR SO.

11. Time to celebrate: BANNER DAY.

12. Vanity: EGO.

13. Fine-grained wood: YEW.

21. Nickname for Alexandra: SASHA.

22. Part of GPS: Abbr.: SYST.  As in the Global Positioning System.

27. "Cheers" server: DIANE.  Diane was played by Shelley Long (b. Aug. 23, 1949).

28. Top mark: A PLUS.

29. Hiss, as a villain: BOO AT.

30. Vegas lights: NEONS.

31. Pronged: TINED.

32. Bookstore eateries: CAFÉs.

33. Eye parts with irises: UVEAS.

34. Traveler in life's fast lane: JET SETTER.

39. Stag: MALE DEER.  //  And 59-Down: Stag: SOLO.

40. Paparazzi targets: STARS.

43. Interstate hauler: SEMI.

47. Mischief-maker: RASCAL.

48. Emulate the Gregorians: INTONE.

49. Upscale retailer __ Marcus: NEIMAN.  Affectionately known as Needless Markup.

53. Clown's heightening prop: STILT.

54. Falcon's nest: AERIE.

55. 2015 "Rocky" films sequel: CREED.

57. Amusement park cry: WHEE!

58. Highest Italian peak south of the Alps: ETNA.  It's the volcano on Sicily.

60. Schuss, e.g.: SKI.

61. Lodging with a "keeper": INN.

Here's the Grid:

חתולה