Saturday, June 18, 2022, Adrian Johnson and Brad Wilber

Saturday Themeless by Adrian Johnson and Brad Wilber 

Two familiar constructors collaborate today on a puzzle where the SW corner challenged me. It appears that EDAM is not the only four-letter cheese and AVIAS are not the only five-letter sneakers. Coupled with my "shouldn't have been that hard" AGUA FRESCA, whatever TACOS those were and TANSY not PANSY it made it interesting but I "got 'er done".
                                                     

Across:

1. Concern when merging: BLINDSPOT.

10. Texas river diverted into the Red Bluff Reservoir: PECOS.

15. Museum download: AUDIO TOUR - At the Louvre 

16. Dippy: INANE.

17. Stranger in many a family holiday photo: MALL SANTA - I recall one who was in Miracle On 34th Street

18. Cake made from ground nuts: TORTE - A Martha Stewart TORTE with almonds, walnuts and hazelnuts

19. "While I Was Gone" novelist Miller: SUE.

20. Becomes, finally: ENDS UP.

22. "High Anxiety" actress: KAHN - A true comedic genius

23. Say further: ADD.

24. Corps member: MARINE.

26. Metered fleet: CABS.

29. Treatment plant input: SEWAGE - My dad worked at our town's STP (SEWAGE Treatment Plant) and gave me a visual and olfactory tour. 36. "Jinkies!": YIKES.

32. "The Cube" network: TBS - Hit Play at this link for a sample of this game

34. Delighted toddler's demand: AGAIN - I got tired before my daughters did 

37. Time worth studying: ERA.

38. Gruff prescription for a minor injury: RUB SOME DIRT ON IT - "Suck it up and keep playing!" A familiar refrain in my yute.

41. "Glad to hear it!": YAY.

42. Aspect: FACET.

43. Branch of Islam: SUNNI.

44. Org. whose members take hikes?: NFL - BSA? Wrong hikes.

45. Mets slugger Pete who holds the record for most home runs by a rookie: ALONSO - He broke Aaron Judge's record

47. Benefit: SAKE.

48. Irredeemable: ROTTEN.

50. Word of invitation: SIT.

52. Cheese paired with kalamata olives: FETA.

53. Do more than listen: STEP IN.

56. __ diavolo sauce: FRA - (Brother Devil) "FRA diavolo sauce is an Italian classic sauce made with juicy tomatoes and fiery chili flakes, perfect for seafood and pasta."

59. #LiveUplifted sneakers brand: ASICS - Here ya go

61. Arthroscopic procedure that may follow an MRI of the knee: ACL REPAIR.

63. McNairy of "Halt and Catch Fire": SCOOT - Saturday-obscure cluing for a common word

64. Ride between runs: CHAIR LIFT - Oh, ski runs!

65. Button-like flower: TANSY - Sounds like PANSY but doesn't look like one

66. Setting for some unboxing videos: TOY STORES - This man makes a living shooting unboxing videos and posting them on YouTube. 

Down:

1. Some carpentry noises: BAMS.

2. Party with poke: LUAU - Poke is Hawaiian for "chunk"

3. Between jobs: IDLE.

4. Bupkis: NIL.

5. Gave a shot, say: DOSED - We have been correctly DOSED and shot three times

6. Efforts at resistance: STANDS - Custer's last one was a disaster for him and his men

7. Spot for a koi or a decoy: POND.

8. Ballpark figure: OUTS.

9. Emergency gear: TRAUMA KITS.

10. Depression: PIT.

11. Miso soup mushroom: ENOKI - From C.C.'s June 12 write-up

12. Road show necessity?: CAR ANTENNA - Or dual ones

13. Flirting with: ON THE BRINK - Top 10 animals ON THE BRINK of extinction 

14. Camille Pagán's "Woman Last __ in Her Thirties": SEEN.

21. "Your table's ready" device: PAGER 

23. Warts and all: AS IS.

25. Relies (on): RESTS.

26. Whoopi's birth name: CARYN.

27. Drink often flavored with hibiscus: AGUA FRESCA -(Spanish for Fresh Water) - "AGUA FRESCA is a light fruit drink popular throughout Mexico. It's simply made by blending fruit with water, a bit of sugar and a little lime juice." You're welcome.

28. Aveeno product: BABY LOTION.

30. Peer-to-peer sharing?: EYE CONTACT - You peer at me and I peer at you.

31. Add capacity to, in a way: WIDEN.

33. French composer who influenced Ravel: SATIE.

Debussy                Ravel               Satie

35. Diet food choice: NO FAT.

39. Some mechanical connectors: MALES.

40. Dethrone: OUST.

46. Egyptian god invoked in "The Magic Flute": OSIRIS.

49. __ al pastor: TACOS - "Al pastor (from Spanish, "shepherd style"), also known as TACOS al pastor, is a taco made with spit-grilled meat."

51. Disinclined to form compounds: INERT - Chem 101

52. Media __: unplugged period: FAST  - How long could you go?

54. Sign of hollowness: ECHO - That barrel must be empty

55. "Proof" or "Doubt": PLAY - New to me but "had to be"

56. "Point taken": FAIR.

57. Abounding (with): RIFE.

58. Review-heavy newspaper section: ARTS.

60. Trough spot: STY. - Fun clue

62. Gp. central to the 1993 Oslo Accords: PLO - A smiling PLO leader Yassar Arafat shaking hands with a reluctant prime minister of Israel Yitzhak Rabin 

Friday, June 17, 2022, Amie Walker

 Title: G where did you come from?

Amie comes to us from Idaho; oh I mean I don't know. The theme is a very classic Friday add a letter to a L-starting phrase, clue to the new meaning and let the hilarity ensue. My new computer and I have been disagreeing all week so I have no idea what you will get as the final blog but again, it should be fun. 

18A. Protection from bright flashes of light?: GLINT SCREEN (11). Lint screens do protect, add a G and you are safe from the flashes. 

26A. Sparkly insects?: GLITTER BUGS (11). The fireflies light the way to pick up all the garbage.

44A. Sign on a sauna door?: GLISTEN HERE (10). The spa will tell you that you will shine from your sweating.

57A. Entry on a dating site for fireflies?: GLOW PROFILE (11). Well not a dupe but a description of the joy of dating someone who is not a loud mouth. 

Across:

1. "The Magic School Bus" airer: PBS. This has been around for many years, and has a classic theme song by a Star.

4. "Let's take it down a notch": NOW NOW. I can picture HG telling his class to settle down.

10. Dropbox files, informally: DOCS. Dropbox is a file hosting service operated by the American company Dropbox, Inc., headquartered in San Francisco, California, U.S. that offers cloud storage, file synchronization, personal cloud, and client software. Wikipedia.

14. Clickable link: URL. Just as buildings and houses have a street address, webpages also have unique addresses to help people locate them. On the Internet, these addresses are called URLs (Uniform Resource Locators).

15. Green, maybe: UNRIPE. Unripe can be good, especially for some olives, though not Ms. Oyl.

16. "Ocean to Ocean" singer Tori: AMOS. This is the title of both an album and a song. I think I will link the album. Not. Surprisingly bad language. LYRICS.

17. Issa of "The Lovebirds": RAE. Issa has kicked Norma to the curb.

20. Caustic solution: LYE. No, it is the truth. 

21. Philanthropist Melinda: GATES. The ex, now disposing of a tiny part of her fortune. It...

22. Tears: RENDS. ...at my heart strings. 

23. Amanda Gorman, for one: POET. We were inaugurated along with her and Joe.

                                        

25. Support: AID.

31. Puppy noise: YIP. I first read puppy nose and was quite confused. But it did not lead to any...

34. Many tweetstorms: RANTS. ...as I don't tweet, though I can ramble.

35. Actress Skye: IONE. Wow, she and Issa in a single puzzle!

36. Couch: SOFA. Sometimes they must give you one easy fill. 

37. "Bus Stop" playwright: INGE. Man, another four letter proper name starting with "I." Are there more? 

38. Takes for a ride: SCAMS. A major problem for the elderly in South Florida. 

39. Shades: HUES. But no cries.

40. Not biased: FAIR. This our goal as bloggers, and as people.

41. Decent plot: ACRE. I personally believe a book needs more of a plot than just land...oh that kind of plot.

42. Blot gently: DAB AT. 
                                                       

43. Spam holder: TIN. Fooled you, except for our Hawaiian solvers.

46. Droid: BOT. Robots.

47. Observe Ramadan: FAST. This is a part of what is the Islamic ritual celebrated in the  ninth month of the Islamic calendar, observed by Muslims worldwide as a month of fasting, prayer, reflection and community. Wikipedia. More DETAIL.

48. Just not done: TABOO. Each religion has its taboos, as do almost all organizations and groups.

51. Behavior pattern: HABIT. This is often influenced by what we are taught by organizations and groups.

54. Short-term sculpture material: ICE. If you do it right you could melt his/her/their heart.

59. Machine part: COG. 

60. Just chilling: IDLE.

61. Course requirements?: PLATES. The trickiest of the clue/fills for me, as you need new plates (dishes) to serve each new course of a meal. Bravo.

62. Commotion: ADO.

63. Chow: FOOD.

64. Least significant: MEREST. 

65. Take home: NET. Straight forward if you know we are talking about pay.

Down:

1. Pixar short about a ball of yarn: PURL. Purl is the first short of Pixar's Spark Shorts program, in which employees at Pixar are given six months and limited budgets to produce short animated films. The film is about a pink ball of yarn which is discriminated against because of her upbeat and cheerful attitude.

2. Heehaw: BRAY. Say it out load, then laugh.

3. Not setting an alarm, say: SLEEPING IN. This may be a debut for this phrase in the LAT. 

4. Denver team: NUGGETS. There was gold in them thar hills. 

5. Airing in the wee hours: ON LATE. See Leno infra.

6. Judicial order: WRIT. Most are just orders.

7. "Enough" number of women justices on the Supreme Court, per Ruth Bader Ginsburg: NINE. She was priceless.

8. Decides: OPTS. In or out.

9. "Rushmore" director Anderson: WES. Wesley Wales Anderson is an American filmmaker. His films are known for their eccentricity and unique visual and narrative styles. Wiki. He is only 53. My computer has decided to stop playing trailers, so you are on your own. 

10. Had the nerve: DARED. 

11. Itchy ears, to some: OMEN. I have heard of itchy palms, not ears.

12. Like many dorms: COED. So many adventures never would have been adventures.

13. IRS IDs: SSNS.

19. NFL analyst Collinsworth: CRIS. He has moved to ESPN to do Monday night football. A fellow Florida graduate.

24. Critter that eats while floating on its back: OTTER.

25. Range listed on board games: AGES.

26. Take for a ride: GRIFT. A random G to spoil the perfection? No, as said, a needed G.

27. Island west of Maui: LANAI.

28. Christina of "Yellowjackets": RICCI.

29. Wild hogs: BOARS. I saw many of those in Georgia. 

30. Yet to be fulfilled: UNMET.

31. "Count on me!": YOU BET I CAN. Did you know Jay Leno is doing Groucho's show on the CW?

32. Lead-in to bad news: I FEAR. There are at least 16 more clues to solve.

33. Fake jewelry: PASTE.

36. "__ of Sunset": reality series featuring Persian Americans in Beverly Hills: SHAHS. I don't watch fake reality series.

38. Brine ingredient: SALT.

42. Genealogy aid: DNA TEST. I have met quite few previously unknown relatives; I think it is cool.

44. Mucky stuff: GOOP. Is it GOO and POOP? Either way...

45. Goes paperless at tax time: E-FILES.

46. Bent in the wind: BOWED. We get a lot of that from June through November.

48. "Yay, the weekend!": TGIF. Boring, oops I mean Thank G-d It's Friday.

49. Montreal-based shoe brand: ALDO. This fill has appeared before as Canadian shoe brand but I have no idea who wrote this clue, Patty, Christina or Amie.

50. String tie: BOLO. Boring, oops I mean bolo.

51. "Celebrity Skin" rock band: HOLE. It is both a song and an album, how about a picture?

                                                        

52. Miles off: AFAR. Far better thing I do...

53. Take the bait: BITE. The word bait "food put on a hook or trap to attract prey," c. 1300, from Old Norse beita "food, bait," especially for fish which led to the fish biting which led to anyone being hooked into something they did not want to do.

55. System of rules: CODE. This was derived from the Latin CODEX,  a term which originally denoted a systematic collection of statutes made by Justinian or any of the later Roman emperors. See behavior and taboo supra.

56. Four-award acronym: EGOT. The Emmy Grammy Oscar Tony acronym was coined by actor Philip Michael Thomas in late 1984, when his role on the then new hit show Miami Vice brought him instant fame, and he stated a desire to achieve the EGOT within five years. Thomas has never been nominated for any of the EGOT awards.

58. Turntable letters: RPM. Revolutions Per Minute and a nice historical place for me to spin away. I hope you all enjoyed the concert brought to you by the concerted effort of Amie who has been ready and Lemonade who is me. Thank you all who read, write and pray for Boomer.

Thursday, June 16, 2022, Robert Wemischner & Mark McClain

 

Good Morning Cruciverbalists.  Malodorous Manatee here with the Thursday recap.  Our Princess of Power friend She-Ra, above, is having a tough time.  We all know what that can be like.  That said, the fact that this puzzle seemed to be a bit more difficult to solve than most Thursday puzzles is certainly a "first-world" problem.  I will try to remember to point out the ROUGH PATCHes that I encountered as we go along.

Today's puzzle is a collaborative effort from Mark McClain and Robert Wemischner.  Mark's first puzzle was published in the LAT in October, 2014.  Robert had a puzzle reviewed here in February 2020.  There may have been others too, and you can find several of his puzzles listed on the Crossword Fiend site.

Let's begin with the themed entries - all of which were starred for our convenience.   At four places within the grid, the puzzle-setting team has placed answers within which can be found adjacent, scrambled letters that form the word PATCH when they are unscrambled.

 18 Across:  *Supply on a gift wrap station: SCOTCH TAPE.  Often use it.

27 Across:   *Messaging app: SNAPCHAT.  Never use it.

39 Across:  *"Some Enchanted Evening" musical: SOUTH PACIFIC.  They don't seem to make 'em like this anymore.  Okay, so it's not the best version of the song, but did you know that Jay & The Americans (Western Union, She Cried) recorded it in 1965?  This rendition is from 2019:

Jay & The Americans

54 Across:  *Second game of a doubleheader: NIGHTCAP.  NIGHTCAP, obviously, has a couple of other meanings, too.

The reveal comes at:

66 Across:  Difficult time, or what is hidden in each of the answers to the starred clues?: ROUGH PATCH.  I suppose that we are supposed to interpret ROUGH to mean something along the lines of "approximation".  In this context I find ROUGH to be a bit of a stretch.   But, hey, we're talking crossword puzzles, here.   We're not drafting legislation.  Hmm, perhaps the pols should consult puzzle creators for editing assistance.

Here is how this looks in the completed grid:

 . . . and here are the rest of the clues and answers:

Across:

1. Fountain output: SODAS.  Not the Trevi Fountain or something similar.

6. Basics: ABCS.  Today's "let's pass on the Jackson 5" moment.

10. Cause a scene: ACT UP.

15. Join forces: UNITE.

16. Bring (out): TROT.

17. Old Scottish landholder: THANE.  We've seen it before but it was still a bit of a rough PATCH.

20. Cancels: VOIDS.

21. As suggested by: PER.  ALA, anyone?

22. Cratchit boy: TINY TIM.  A Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol reference.  God bless us, every one.

God Help Us, Every One

24. Drink that may cause brain freeze: ICEE.

25. Go by: ELAPSE.  From Casablanca, "As Time ELAPSEs".  Play it, Sam.

29. Verne captain: NEMO.  He preceded the clownfish.

30. "Lion" Oscar nominee Patel: DEV.  DEV has been visiting us often recently.

33. Zesty Twirls maker: ORE-IDA.

34. Constellation near Ursa Minor: DRACO.  A rough PATCH for this solver.  Some familiarity with the word DRACO helped.  Most of that familiarity came from a dive into the history of Vlad (The Impaler) Dracul.  Dracula = son of Vlad the Dragon.

36. Chicago suburb: CICERO.  The site of a race riot in 1951.

43. Mato __: third-largest state of Brazil: GROSSO.  A rough PATCH for this solver.  "Largest" helped.  A bit of Romance Language knowledge helped.

44. Flower holders: STEMS.  Hand up for first going with VASES.  Commander Cody would not have made that mistake.

Asbury Park, New Jersey - August 5, 1977

47. First name in mysteries: AGATHA.  AGATHA Christie, nee Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller.

51. GPS heading: ENE.  East North East.  The answer to this type of clue can be any one of the many secondary intercardinal directions denoted by the first letter of North, South, East and West.

53. Congeal: CLOT.

57. Stick (to): ADHERE.  I tried to start the Church of Teflon . . . but I couldn't find any adherents.

59. "Thanks for explaining": I SEE.  "I SEE," said the blind man as he spit into the wind.  "It's all coming back to me now."

60. Barbecue spot: TERRACE.  A rough PATCH.  PATIO was too short.  I guess that I will have to move to a high-rise condo.

63. The way things are usually done, for short: SOP.  Standard Operating Procedure.

64. Learned league?: MENSA.  A rough PATCH.  Would they revoke one's membership for being stymied here for a while?

68. Wood used in guitar-making: ALDER.  Many other types, too.

69. Beachy vacation spot: ISLE.  Beachy?  That's almost as bad as PROSY.

70. Minimal amount: TRACE.  Rough PATCH.  Hand up for LEAST, initially.  It would have gone well with 71 Across.

71. Paper for a pad: LEASE.  Cute.  Pad as in beatnik slang for the place where you live.

72. Examined: EYED.

73. Sports: HAS ON.  As in wears.

Down:

1. Hang: SUSPEND.  SUSPEND me from the highest tree?

Roger Miller - 1978

2. "The Lorax" voice role for Ed Helms: ONCE-LER.  A rough PATCH.  Thanks, perps.  I know some of Geisel's characters but not this one.

3. Grade school exhibits: DIORAMAS.  Three-dimensional models.

4. NFL passing stat: ATT.  ATTempts.  At least it wasn't pluralized.

5. Splinter groups: SECTS.

6. Env. directive: ATTN.  ATTeNtion.

7. Sound like an ass: BRAY.  After watching too much TV leading up to last Tuesday's primaries, my mind initially went in a different direction.

8. Egyptian Christians: COPTS.  The largest Christian denomination in Egypt and the Middle East.

9. Biergarten vessel: STEIN.  A German theoretical physicist walks into a bar.  He orders himself ein stein.

10. Off-rd. rig: ATV.  All Terrain Vehicle

11. First-class: CHOICE.

12. "Meditation in motion" discipline: TAI CHI.  I wanted to do TAI CHI but I ended up with chai tea.

13. Like zombies: UNDEAD.  I prefer this type of Zombie:

2019 Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony

14. Coin replaced by the euro: PESETA.  Spanish.  Neither Pound nor Franc nor Lira was going to fit.

19. Made haste: HIED.

23. Haka dancers of New Zealand: MAORI.

Kapa Haka

26. A bit, in music: POCO.  Italian. . . or . . .

2015 Colorado Music Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony

28. Faculty figs.: PROFS.  PROFessorS.  Not the worst plural-y abbreviation that we have come across.

31. Amazon gadget: ECHO.  Amazon's smart speaker.

32. Celebs given the red-carpet treatment: VIPS.

35. Should, with "to": OUGHT.  What did the librarian say when the books were in a mess?  We OUGHT to be ashamed of our shelves.

37. Word in many Encyclopedia Brown titles: CASE.  The boy detective series of books.

38. MBA course: ECON.  ECONomics.  B'school reference.  UCLA GSM class of '79, here.

40. Piece of land: TRACT.  "Sherlock, what do you know about the gastrointestinal tract?"  "It's alimentary, my dear Watson."

41. Hankering: ITCH.  URGE?  

42. Keyboard instruments that sound like glockenspiels: CELESTAS.  A rough PATCH.  Thanks, perps.

45. "Casablanca" setting: MOROCCO.

46. Composer Sondheim: STEPHEN.

47. Twisted balloon shape, often: ANIMAL.

48. Supermodel Bündchen: GISELE.  A bit of a rough PATCH.  Thanks perps.

49. Board meeting outline: AGENDA.

50. Dissertations: THESES.

52. Per item: EACH.

55. American Eagle Outfitters loungewear brand: AERIE.  A rough PATCH.  Usually clued with an avian reference.  Thanks perps. 

56. Unlike poetry: PROSY.  We kinda guessed that PROSE would be a likely jumping off point but PROSY?

58. Pool statistic: DEPTH.

61. Wear the crown: RULE.

62. Like some dried meats: AGED.

65. "__ you decent?": ARE.

"Me?  Sure, I'm decent."

67. Coach Parseghian: ARA.  University of Notre Dame Head Football Coach from 1964 to 1974 and occasional visitor to our puzzles.

That wraps things up for today.  May your day be without much in the way of rough spots.

Robert and Mark, you are invited to post anything you'd like to share about this puzzle, its evolution, the theme, or whatever in the Comments section.  We'd love to hear from you.

____________________________________________________________

Wednesday, June 15, 2022, Rebecca Goldstein

Theme: LOOSE ENDS

17. *Close contest: TIGHT GAME. TIGHT END / ENDGAME

25. *Good thing to go out on: HIGH NOTE. HIGH END / ENDNOTE

50. *Area with no cell service: DEAD ZONE. DEAD END / END ZONE

59. *Military academy on the Hudson: WEST POINT. WEST END / ENDPOINT

36. Get by ... or what the answers to the starred clues literally do: MAKE ENDS MEET.

Melissa here. How many ENDS can you cram in one puzzle? Can you see past the END of your nose? Would you go to the ENDS of the earth to finish this puzzle?  To the bitter END? Or did you get the short END of the stick?  Don't go off the deep END. There are at least ten more END idioms, but I'm going to spare you - so it's not the END of the world. Sorry. Let's get on with it ...

Across:

1. Anti-art art movement: DADA. Dada was an art movement formed during the First World War in Zurich in negative reaction to the horrors and folly of the war. The art, poetry and performance produced by dada artists is often satirical and nonsensical in nature.

5. Israeli diplomat Abba: EBAN. Foreign minister of Israel (1966–74) whose exceptional oratorical gifts in the service of Israel won him the widespread admiration of diplomats and increased support for his country from American Jewry. See here.

9. "Jack Ryan" actress Cornish: ABBIE. I don't know anything about this show ... but I found this: The character was never written out of the show, she just disappeared. There was not a single reference of her throughout Season 2, and the only clue given was Ryan (John Krasinski) sleeping with another woman early on in the season, and then later on saying he's single. Then there's this: Abbie Cornish will be returning for the fourth season of popular Amazon show "Jack Ryan." The spy thriller series, based on the character from several Tom Clancy novels, was recently renewed for a fourth season.

14. Massive: EPIC.

15. __ monster: GILA.

16. Dern of "Big Little Lies": LAURA. Love her.

19. Hub: CENTER.

20. Remote possibilities?: AAS. What? Does it mean remote learning? As in AA degree?

21. Boring gadgets: AWLS. Haha, good one. 

22. Knock on: RAP AT.

23. Peanut butter choice: CRUNCHY.

28. LPN's needle: HYPO. Hypodermic. "Relating to the region immediately beneath the skin."

29. Has had enough: IS DONE.

31. From the top: ANEW.

32. Tater morsel: TOT. Taco Time calls their tater tots "Mexi fries." Funny. There's nothing Mexican about tater tots.

34. Horned buglers: ELK. Well this stumped me for a bit as I saw "Horned burglers."

35. Urchin's stinger: SPINE. Yee-ouch! The attack of the sea urchin.

39. Many Dubai residents: ARABS.

41. Compete: VIE.

42. Slack-jawed state: AWE.

43. The Big Easy, for short: NOLA. New Orleans.

44. "One Day More" musical, to fans: LES MIZ.

46. Pool regimen: LAPS. In common usage, a “lap” means a completion of the course. In a pool, the “course” is the pool itself, from one end to the other. Therefore, a lap is one length. Some people think a “lap” is two lengths of the pool.

52. With no chill: TENSELY. Chill - relaxed or easygoing.

54. Feudal domains: FIEFS. The estate or domain of a feudal lord.

55. Reebok competitor: FILA.

56. Sprint: RUN.

57. Betwixt: AMIDST. In the space separating two people or things; in between.

61. 59-Across student: CADET.

62. __ Domini: ANNO. Latin for "in the year of the lord," refering specifically to the birth of Jesus Christ.

63. Genre featuring sitars: RAGA. A raga or raag is a melodic framework for improvisation akin to a melodic mode in Indian classical music.

64. Regions: AREAS.

65. Set at a sports bar: HDTV. High Definition Television is a television display technology that provides picture quality similar to 35 mm. movies with sound quality similar to that of today's compact disc.

66. Soccer star Morgan on the San Diego Wave: ALEX. CONCACAF Player of the Year in the years 2013, 2016, 2017, and 2018. In 2019, Alex was awarded the Silver Boot after her team, the US Women's soccer team, won the 2019 World Cup. In addition, Alex has earned a gold medal at the Summer Olympic Games in 2012.

Down:

1. Take off: DETACH.

2. Beekeeper's setup: APIARY. A location where beehives of honey bees are kept. Apiaries come in many sizes and can be rural or urban depending on the honey production operation. Below is the largest apiary in NYC.

3. Unearths: DIGS UP.

4. Hamburger beef?: ACH. Ohhhhh. A German expression of annoyance.

5. Omelet specification: EGG WHITE.

6. Flat rolls named for a Polish city: BIALYS. A Yiddish word short for bialystoker kuchen, from the city of Białystok in Poland, is a traditional bread roll in Polish Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine. Unlike a bagel, which is boiled before baking, a bialy is simply baked, and instead of a hole in the middle it has a depression. Before baking, the depression is filled with diced onion and other ingredients, sometimes including garlic, poppy seeds, or bread crumbs. Everything you need to know about the bialy (including a recipe).

7. Donations: ALMS. Something (such as money or food) given freely to relieve the poor.

8. "You wish, laddie!": NAE. Scottish form of no.

9. Hebrew letter before "beth": ALEPH.

10. Skins that can be marinated and fried to make vegan "bacon": BANANA PEELS. The best banana peel bacon.

11. "Zip your lip": BUTTON IT.

12. Wrath: IRE.

13. Unit of maize: EAR. Corn.

18. Tic-__-toe: TAC.

19. Shark diver's enclosure: CAGE. No thank you.

22. Roller derby spots: RINKS.

24. "That just might work!": NOT A BAD IDEA.

25. Poker variety: HOLD'EM. Texas hold 'em is one of the most popular variants of the card game of poker. Two cards, known as hole cards, are dealt face down to each player, and then five community cards are dealt face up in three stages. The stages consist of a series of three cards, later an additional single card, and a final card.

26. Point value of "five" in Scrabble: TEN. The face value of Scrabble tiles.

27. Woolly mama: EWE.

30. Role for Lena on "Master of None": DENISE. Wikipedia.

33. Greenlights: OKS.

35. Make use of a Singer: SEW. Singer sewing machine (brand).

36. In bad faith, in legal jargon: MALAFIDE. Carried out in bad faith or with intent to deceive.

37. Makes level: EVENS.

38. Cry heard after stomping on a glass: MAZEL TOV. Jewish phrase used to express congratulations for a happy and significant occasion or event.

39. "What's more ... ": AND.

40. Sushi topper: ROE.

44. Industrial apartment style: LOFT. A loft apartment is a large, open space with very few (if any) interior walls. It's very similar to a studio apartment, as neither have a separate bedroom, but lofts tend to be much larger — 1,000-2,000 square feet, as opposed to a studio's average of 600 square feet.

45. "You're wrong about that": IT ISN'T. The Podcast That Explains Why We’re All Wrong.

47. Like drone footage: AERIAL.

48. Polar __: wintertime fundraiser: PLUNGE. A polar bear plunge is an event held during the winter where participants enter a body of water despite the low temperature. In the United States, polar bear plunges are usually held to raise money for a charitable organization. In Canada, polar bear swims are usually held on New Year's Day to celebrate the new year.

49. Linguistics subject: SYNTAX. The arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language.

51. Grates, as citrus: ZESTS. Verb.

 
53. Drop off for a bit: NAP.

55. Ward (off): FEND.

57. 2010 health law, for short: ACA. Affordable Care Act.

58. Damage: MAR.

59. Sob syllable: WAH.

60. Rita featured on Iggy Azalea's "Black Widow": ORA.