Saturday Themeless by Annemarie Brethauer and Katie Hale
Annemarie and Patti's assistant editor Katie's offering on this day that marks the eve of the halfway point of the year, was very doable. Modern slang MKAY was unknown to me but solid crossers and repeating it many times made it a "had to be" fill. OKAY would have given me LOOOS so logical LOOMS took its rightful position.
There were several runs of very easy clue/fills which facilitated a fairly easy solve.
Tomorrow
Across:
1. Lean: LIST - TILT/TAUT worked at 1 Across and 1 Down (LIST/LANK) until they didn't.
5. Comedian profiled in "Last Man Standing": SAHL - Mort abandoned conventional comedy and took on hard issues of the day. The NYT called him, "Mark Twain with fangs".
9. Member-owned shop: COOP - CO-OPs are a big deal in farm communities
13. "Because Freedom Can't Protect Itself" org.: ACLU - Listing their concerns as RTS in yesterday's puzzle was not popular.
14. Abbr. on an ESPN ticker: NCAA.
15. Home country of Olympian Pita Taufatofua: TONGA - Pita was entered in the tae-kwan-do and cross-country skiing in the 2018 Olympics but is more famous for carrying TONGA's flag shirtless.
16. Low-alcohol brews: NEAR BEERS.
18. Something to gain?: ENTRY 😀
19. Random comments online?: KEYBOARD SMASHES - I just did one, "Oaiw 4jfqo;iawfjen"
21. TV planet on which people age backward: ORK - 22. "Make sense?": YOU SEE with Robin Williams anything seems possible
23. Sydney's st.: NSW.
26. Was more than superficial: DUG - Perter, Paul and Mary sang I Dig Rock And Roll Music and I really DUG them!
28. Red choice: MERLOT.
31. "Sorry, can't make it": I HAVE PLANS - "That sock drawer won't sort itself!"
35. "We'll Meet Again" singer Lynn: VERA - An emotional standard of WWII
36. Feed: CATER.
37. Before, previously: ERE.
38. Burton of "Reading Rainbow": LEVAR.
39. Profess: AVER.
40. Finally learns about: GETS WISE TO.
42. Kind of filler: DERMAL.
44. Maroon 5's "__ Will Be Loved": SHE - Maroon 5's lead guitarist, James Valentine, is a proud product of Lincoln Southeast High School and is a former student of my son-in-law.
45. Service call?: LET - 😀 We had this tennis term a few weeks ago
46. Blue choice: COBALT.
49. Many times o'er: OFT.
51. Unnamed informant: ANONYMOUS SOURCE - A famous one
60. "Make sense?": MKAY - Slang for okay heard for "mmm...okay" from Mr. Mackey in South Park
61. Some leafcutters: ANTS.
62. Catherine who is one of the six in Broadway's "Six": PARR - Catherine PARR was the last of Henry VIII's six wives and kept her head!
63. Fed. IDs: SSNS.
64. Blue-bottled vodka: SKYY.
A 40+ yr-old Ad
Down:
1. Lean: LANK - LANKY Cowboy by Trish Stevenson
2. Brand with Blue Lemonade and Blue Vanilla flavors: ICEE - Our crossword stalwart has many flavors and vowels.
3. "You __ me!": SLAY.
4. Lead-in for jet or prop: TURBO - It turns a prop and provides jet propulsion as well
5. Prepare to scare, with "on": SNEAK UP.
6. Big name in gaming monitors: ACER.
7. "Jude the Obscure" author: HARDY - First edition (1896) with an autographed note on the endpaper. $1,450.
8. Role for Sudeikis: LASSO.
9. Saves: CONSERVES.
10. Bona fide: ON THE LEVEL.
11. Scary figure: OGRE.
12. Picks up a bill, or hands a bill: PAYS.
15. Tantalize: TEASE.
17. Frame: BORDER - In 1906, the Countess of Béran gave this portrait its current frame, a Renaissance-era work consistent with the historical period of when it was painted
20. Some British parents: MUMS.
23. Battery acronym: NICAD - Nickel-Cadmium batteries are usually labelled Ni-Cd
24. Show one's face, maybe: SHAVE 😀
25. Medium also known as aquarelle: WATERCOLOR and 33. 25-Down, e.g.: ART.- Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also aquarelle(French: [akwaʁɛl]; from Italian diminutive of Latin aqua "water"). You're welcome.
27. Jane Lynch series: GLEE - She's the P.E. teacher in this ensemble picture
29. Give a skilled delivery: ORATE.
30. Allegorical cards: TAROT.
32. Ben or Jerry, notably: VERMONTER - The entrance to their facility in St. Alban, VT. It employs 200 people and runs 24 hrs/day producing over 500,000 pints of ice cream per day
34. Wit's end?: NESS and 38. Try to protect, in a way: LIE FOR.
40. T. Rex rock style: GLAM.
41. "Is that so?": WHO SAYS.
43. Vast chasm: ABYSS.
47. Rises into view: LOOMS - A legendary (if unsteady) Earth rising shot by Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders on Christmas Eve 1968.
48. Warthog pair: TUSKS 😳
50. Low winds: TUBAS - Dean Hansen's Polka Band from Wahoo, NE is a favorite of my MIL and the TUBA is its heart and soul.
51. Urgent letters: ASAP.
52. Character voiced by Moira Kelly and Beyoncé: NALA.
53. Read quickly: SCAN.
54. Putrid: RANK.
55. Lincoln or Jackson: CITY - The capitals of Nebraska and Mississippi respectively
Theme: Re-Unit - Units of various measurements are re-imagined with witty clues.
16A. Loudness of a kiss?: PECK VOLUME. A peck is a unit of dry capacity. In the US it is equivalent to 8 dry quarts. We all knew that, didn't we?
27A. Attraction to certain electric cars?: TESLA MAGNETISM. The international measure of magnetism with the SI symbol T, named for the physicist Nikola Tesla, as was the car.
44A. Number of times one rents a car?: HERTZ FREQUENCY. The ISO measure of frequency with the symbol Hz. I have President's Circle status with Hertz. No idea what that means, I still get the Ford Focus or whatever that I booked.
60A. Quantity of dirt displaced by a burrowing garden pest?: MOLE AMOUNT. A mole is used to measure how many molecules there are in a thing, and is roughly equivalent to 600 sextillion molecules which in an 'eck of a lot! Also known as the Avogadro number after the chap who came up with it. Not to be confused with the Avocado Constant, named by me, which is the number of avocados in a bowl of guacamole.
I loved the theme - it too a while to emerge but great when it did and helped me through the rest of the solve. There seemed to be a few "stretch" three-letter abbrevisions (I'm particularly looking and you RTS so stop skulking in the corner. I can see you.)
Let's go for a wander around the rest of the puzzle if you're ready?
Across:
1. Group with a Brain Training app: MENSA.
6. "Mic Drop" K-pop band: BTS. Amazing how quickly a K-pop band becomes a crossword staple. I think I read recently they are taking a break from recording/touring because they have to do their military service.
9. Secure: SAFE.
13. Advanced HS English course: AP LIT. Not sure I like "Advanced" in the clue here; AP stands for "Advanced Placement" so it's something of a repeat.
14. Minor disruption: BLIP.
15. Secure: SNUG.
18. Volcano on Sicily: ETNA.
19. Casual meeting: SESH.
20. Cosmetics giant that annually honors "Women of Worth": L'ORÉAL.
22. Place to retire: INN.
23. Parrot in Disney's "Aladdin": IAGO. New to me, but when the crosses filled "IAG" it was obvious.
25. Captain America co-creator Jack: KIRBY.
32. Dated telecommunication request: FAX ME. Who bought the first fax machine? That's some salesmanship right there. "Well, you can send letters over the phone. When someone else buys one. That you want to send letters to."
33. Sign of summer?: LEO.
34. Annual presidential address, for short: SOTU. State of the Union. I'm not sure I've seen it abbreviated before.
35. Web gateway co.: ISP.
36. Omega-shaped curve in a river: OXBOW. Eventually the river breaks through the meander and leaves behind an oxbow lake. In Australia they're called billabongs, in case you wondered what the jolly swagman sat beside in "Waltzing Matilda".
38. Tyke: TOT.
39. Education acronym: STEM. Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics program. Add Arts to the program and it becomes a STEAM.
41. Extra charge: FEE. Weird clue. Why "extra"?
42. France's longest river: LOIRE. Famous for the wonderful châteaux along its length. The Tour de France is starting soon and there are many aerial shots of them when the tour runs through the region.
48. Member of the underground economy?: MINER.
49. Sephora rival: ULTA. Thank you, crosses
50. Sticky situation: JAM.
51. Lap top protector: NAPKIN. Nice clue
54. Tear: RACE.
58. Furniture chain that is developing a 3D-printed meatball: IKEA. Now there's a phrase you would not have even imagined seeing a few years ago. Isn't it easier to roll them between your hands anyway?
62. 36-Across, e.g.: BEND. I didn't see this while I was solving the puzzle, the crosses must have filled it in for me.
63. Ode creator: POET.
64. Not as current: OLDER.
65. Mex. title: SRTA. Señorita. Lots of diacriticals today. By the way, ñ is a distinct letter in Spanish (enye), it's not "en-tilde". There was an LAT crossword a few years ago where the then editor Rich Norris allowed that as fill which quite surprised me.
66. Feminine pronoun: SHE.
67. Best of the best: ELITE.
Down:
1. Diagrams on golf score cards, often: MAPS. Hole-by hole diagram on the back of the card.
2. Pentathlon sword: EPÉE.
3. MLB semifinal: NLCS. National League Championship Series in Major League Baseball. The Cubs and the Cardinals played a two-game series at the weekend in London. Both games sold out and were watched by more than 100,000 spectators, expat Americans, UK baseball fans and a whole lot of people who couldn't understand why the ball wasn't red, the bat wasn't flat and there were no wickets to be seen.
4. Religion based on the spiritual teachings of Guru Nanak: SIKHISM.
8. Third studio album re-released as a "Taylor's Version": SPEAK NOW. Not entirely accurate as of today; it hasn't yet been released. The release date is July 7th. Taylor Swift's own "director's cut" of her 2010 release.
9. Baltimore-to-Ocean City dir.: SSE. (Insert other Cities/Towns/States/Countries here)
10. Penicillin, for one: ANTIBIOTIC.
11. "You'll get a kick out of this ... ": FUNNY STORY.
12. "The Candy House" novelist Jennifer: EGAN.
14. Flower: BLOOM.
17. Kurylenko of "Black Widow": OLGA.
21. Falsehood: LIE.
24. Ginger __: ALE.
26. ACLU focus: RTS. What? This is awful. I would not in a million years have allowed myself to use this in a puzzle.
27. Fashion arbiter: TASTE MAKER.
28. "Bill Nye the Science Guy" staple: EXPERIMENT.
29. "Seascape" playwright: ALBEE.
30. Prefix with political: GEO.
31. Zoom meeting option: MUTE.
32. __ and chips: FISH. The best Fish and Chips I know come not from the UK, but from The Original Fish Company in Los Alamitos here in California. Amazingly good. Run down there. You want the halibut, not the cod.
36. Cloverleaf segments: OFF RAMPS.
37. Gen __: X-ER.
40. Any of the Tetons: Abbr.: MTN. Ugh
42. Give permission: LET.
43. Hot: ON A ROLL.
45. Serene: ZEN.
46. Serene: QUIET.
47. Arm bone: ULNA.
50. Triangular sails: JIBS.
52. Milne bear: POOH. Here's the proper Pooh and Piglet drawn by E.H. Shepard, not the dreadful Disney versions.
53. Swiss artist Paul: KLEE.
55. German auto: AUDI. Auto Union. Here's the logo from the 30's.
This marks the 12th appearance on the Corner for constructor
Hoang-Kim Vu. For a bio-bit on Vu I refer you to Husker's
March 18th 2023 review. His collaborator Jasper Davidoff is making his LAT debut but
he has had at least one other puzzle published in
Universal Crosswords
on June 25, 2021.
Today they invite us to
three different types of celebrations and they've eavesdropped on the
types of conversations we're likely to hear at each, as revealed by
...
59A. Political platforms, and an apt title for this puzzle?:
PARTY LINES.
... the clue"political platforms" has nothing to do with politics, --
rather it's a metaphor for the theme clues, each of which describe 2
snippets of conversation, which are then filled by a typeof PARTY and typical LINES that you might hear at each:
17A. "Pour the tea!" and "Let's pick a new topic of conversation!"?:
SOCIAL CUES. An informal gathering, with the first snippet being slang
for "let's gossip!" and a second snippet perhaps resulting from getting
"too much information" in response to the first!
27A. "Would you pin on my corsage?" and "May I have this dance?":
FORMAL REQUESTS. Two requests made nervously at a prom or a high school
dance. Satisfying the first requires a steady hand!
46A. "They're going to make such good parents!" and "What a cute onesie!"?:
SHOWER THOUGHTS. Comments one is likely to hear at a wedding or baby shower.
This
topic also suggests the celebrations that we Cornerites participate in
immediately following each puzzle review, beginning early in the morning and
often lasting until late at night. We call these comment fests the
AFTER PARTY and we hear strange snippets like
"FIR", "FIW", "DNF" and "GRR ...!" -- kudos to
the constructor, kudos to the reviewer, (grumbles about the editor!), how we
did, what went wrong, what we liked, and what we didn't like.
On a personal note: I've been involved with social media, both as a
participant and as
an implementer, since the early 1980's, and I find the fact that
this celebration of words has been going onfor over 15 years to be truly remarkable! In my experience most social media experiments come and go, lasting at
most a few years. I attribute the longevity of this particular celebration to
the good will of all our word lovers: the solvers, the constructors, (the
editor!), the reviewers, but most especially to our kind and fearless leader
C.C. Burnikel!
Here's the grid ...
Here's the rest ... Across:
1. Emails discreetly: BCCS.
5. __ Villa: Premier League team: ASTON.
Aston Villa Football Club, commonly referred to as Villa, is a professional football club based
in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the
Premier League, the top tier of the English football league system.
Here's their website.
10. Phenomena in "Mars Attacks!" and "Arrival," briefly:
UFOS.
UFOS are very much in the news these days. Mars Attacks!
is a 1996 American comic science fiction film directed by
Tim Burton. The film features an ensemble cast consisting of
Jack Nicholson (in a dual role), Glenn Close,
Annette Bening, Pierce Brosnan, Danny DeVito,
Martin Short, Sarah Jessica Parker, Michael J. Fox, and
lots and lots of little green men.
Arrival OTOH, is a more serious 2016American science fiction drama film directed by
Denis Villeneuve (of Dune fame). The film stars Amy Adams as
Louise Banks, a linguist enlisted by the United States Army to discover how to
communicate with the very different kinds of extra-terrestrials who have arrived on
Earth before tensions lead to war.
14. MLB family name: ALOU. The
Rojas family, more commonly known in English-speaking America by their matronym,
ALOU, is a prominent Major League Baseball family from the
Dominican Republic.
21. Dresses up for a fan convention, say: COSPLAYS.
COSPLAY, a portmanteau of "costume play", is an activity and performance art in which
participants called cosplayers wear costumes and fashion accessories to
represent a specific character.
Cosplayers at Yukicon 2014, a fan convention in Finland
26. Asia's vanishing __ Sea: ARAL.
It's still vanishing. I wonder if constructors will still clue it after it's completely
gone?
27. [Theme clue]
32. Willie who broke the NHL's color barrier: OREE.
Willie O’Ree
(William O’Ree), (born October 15, 1935, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada),
the first Black hockey player to play in a National Hockey League (NHL)
game. He debuted with the Boston Bruins against the
Montreal Canadiens at the Montreal Forum on January 18, 1958.
37. Groovetastic: RAD. Last week it was "Cool, man". Now
which is it!?
38. "__ a trap!": ITS.
40. Country where Etihad Airways is HQ'd: UAE.
Etihad Airways
is the national airline of the United Arab Emirates and one of the
country's two major airlines (the other being Emirates). Its head office
is in Khalifa City, Abu Dhabi, near Abu Dhabi International Airport.
Etihad commenced operations in November 2003. It is the second-largest airline
in the UAE after Emirates. The name Etihad is Arabic for 'Union'.
41. Quick way to Excel?: MACRO. Here's a quick start to
creating macros in Excel. Begin Rant: Excel is a very powerful tool. It can be used to create very complex information systems, upon which organizations can become very dependent.
Professional developers document the requirements, designs, and
detailed specifications for the systems they write, order to make them
maintainable by others when they leave. In my experience Excel
developers rarely do this (their systems are "one man shows"). When
they leave the organization, the system leaves with them. Here's a link suggesting some ways to document spreadsheets. :End Rant.
51. Andrew Miller novel about an Italian adventurer:
CASANOVA. Casanova the novel is based on the memoir Histoire de Ma Vie (History of My Life) written by the Italian adventurer Giacomo Girolamo Casanova
(2 April 1725 – 4 June 1798). As the manuscript of the latter was
about 3700 pages long, it's likely that the novel leaves out quite a few
of the juicy bits.
Giacomo Casanova by his brother Francesco Casanova circa 1750–1755
54. App for pix: INSTA. INSTAGRAM. Precisely tailored to the attention span of its users.
58. Oodles: A LOT. The opposite of 60D.
59. [Theme reveal]
62. Stuff to stick with?: GLUE.
63. "Enigma Variations" composer: ELGAR. The Enigma Variations put ELGAR
on the map, establishing him as the greatest English composer of the
19th Century. It consists of 14 variations on an original theme
(although there has been much speculation that the germ for it might be a
well-hidden popular theme). Here is Variation IX, the most often played, entitled Nimrod ...
64. Many a fan mag: ZINE.
65. Grub: EATS.
66. Ingredients in garden "bombs": SEEDS. New to me. SEED bombs, also known as earth balls or seed balls,
have roots in classical Egyptian agricultural practices. The method
may have been widespread in the ancient world as an efficient way to sow
large amounts of seed quickly, with minimal tools, especially after
floods and other disruptions.
67. Jazz great James: ETTA. Here she is with Something's Got a Hold on Me ... Down:
1. Hit hard: BASH.
2. Be overly sweet: CLOY.
3. __-Cola: COCA.
4. "That works!": SUITS ME.
5. Ga. airport: ATL. A CSO to ATLGranny! I'm writing this just after I read your 6/22 announcement of your successful cataract surgery. Congratulations!
6. "Just a __": SEC.
7. Cab driver?: TRUCKER. The TRUCKER sits in the CAB of the TRACTOR that pulls the TRAILER (aka the SEMI) ...
8. Nabisco cookie: OREO. A constructor's delight, with three delicious vowels and a letter to end a comparative adjective!
9. Long Island county: NASSAU. NASSAU County is an affluent inner suburban county located on Long Island, immediately to the east of New York City.
As of the 2020 United States census, Nassau County's population was
1,395,774, making it the sixth-most populous county in New York State.
Nassau County
10. Open, as a necklace: UNCLASP.
11. Last bit of decoration: FINAL TOUCH.
12. "__-dokey!": OKEY.
13. Tennis units: SETS.
18. Naan flour: ATTA. You can buy ATTA flour at your local Indian grocery or from Amazon and make your own Naan:
Naan
22. Juice extractor: PRESS.
24. Merediz of "In the Heights": OLGA. In the Heights is a 2008 Broadway musical with concept, music, and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda and a book by Quiara Alegría Hudes. The story is set over the course of three days, involving characters in the largely Dominican American neighborhood of Washington Heights in Upper Manhattan, New York City. OLGA Merediz
originated the role "Abuela" Claudia (“abuela" means "grandmother" in
Spanish), the loving matriarch of the barrio who is like a grandmother
to all. Here she sings "Paciencia y Fe" ("Patience and Faith") ...
25. More rough: CRUDER.
27. Latte topper: FOAM.
28. Marine predators: ORCAS. The OREOS of the oceans.
60. Skosh: TAD. From the Japanese word Sukoshi, meaning "a little" ...
61. Century divs.: YRS.
Cheers, Bill
And as always, thanks to Teri for proof reading and for her constructive criticism.
waseeley
Notes from C.C.:
Happy
57th birthday to Barry G, a regular on our blog in the earlier days.
Barry, we miss you and your comments. Here's a picture of Barry, his son Joshua and his wife, who's from Tianjin, China. I clearly need an updated picture, Barry!
I found this on the tougher side for a Wednesday puzzle, and I needed my thinking cap. Not a lot of unknowns, but clued so I had to work for some of the answers. Nice theme, each a common phrase with a double meaning.
17. Recap of the biopic "Walk the Line"?: CASH ACCOUNT. A cash account with a brokerage firm requires that any securities transactions be payable in full from funds in the account at the time of the settlement. Also, Walk the Line was first a (1956) hit song, then a (2005) movie about Johnny Cash, his rise to fame as a beloved country music singer and his 35-year marriage to June Carter Cash. Story Behind the Song: “I Walk the Line” by Johnny Cash.
26. Recap of an anatomy lesson?: ORGAN RECITAL. Thirty-minute organ recitals are given each day by Tabernacle and Temple Square organists and guest organists. An alternative meaning would be bodily organs, such as the liver, pancreas, and spleen.
47. Recap of the rise and fall of Peloton?: SPINNING YARN. "Spinning a yarn," is slang for telling a long, imaginative story. Also, Peloton is a brand that makes exercise equipment, notably stationary bikes. The bikes are used for "spinning" classes in trendy gyms but are also available for home purchase, along with a monthly subscription for streaming and on-demand classes. After reports of falls and injuries, millions of models were recalled.
61. Recap of a dollar bill's journey from the mint to a wallet?: SINGLE STORY. Common phrase meaning a building that has only one level. Also, a one-dollar bill is called a "single." I know someone who wrote his name on every $5 bill he ever had, as an experiment to see how often the same bills came into his hands. Learning moment: In her TED Talk The Danger of a Single Story, Adichie describes the effects that labels can have on how we think about ourselves and others.
Across:
1. Update a cartographer's work: REMAP. A person who draws or produces maps.
6. With 8-Down, "The Simpsons" character in a rhinestone suit: DISCO.
11. Plant, as seeds: SOW.
14. The first "A" in CAT scan: AXIAL. CAT stands for “computed axial tomography” and CT is simply “computed tomography.” CAT scan was the first of the two terms to be used; CT scan has become more common in recent years. These two procedures are the same, though.
15. In the lead: ON TOP.
16. Vietnamese soup: PHO. Phở is a Vietnamese soup dish consisting of broth, rice noodles, herbs, and meat.
19. Before now: AGO.
20. Fire dept. volunteer, perhaps: EMT. Emergency Medical Technician.
24. Newborn horse: FOAL. Male foals are called colts and female foals are called fillies. When a mare (female adult horse) has her baby, we say she has foaled. When foals turn one year old, we no longer call them foals but instead we call them yearlings.
25. Dance versions of songs, e.g.: REMIXES.
30. "The Golden Girls" city: MIAMI.
31. Take steps: ACT.
32. Cornerstone abbr.: ESTD. A cornerstone (or foundation stone or setting stone) is the first stone set in the construction of a masonry foundation. All other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entire structure. See it there on the right?
36. Apple Watch med. app: ECG. Apple Watch Series 4 and later has an electrical heart rate sensor that, along with the ECG app , allows you to take an electrocardiogram (or ECG).
45. Glitch: ERROR. Anyone else having a sudden glitch with Apple saying you are out of space but you're not? I even bought more to buy myself some time while I figured it out, but it didn't help.
51. High-jumping antelopes: IMPALAS. I always remember Poet Rainer Maria Rilke's vivid description about gazelles (a group of related antelope) in a 1907 letter to his wife: "Their legs are like rifles, from which leaps are fired."
54. Mad (at): SORE. Seen mostly in books and crosswords.
57. Studio with a lion mascot: MGM. MGM (acquired by Amazon in 2021) was formed in 1924 by Marcus Loew by combining Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures, and Louis B. Mayer Pictures into one company. In November 2010, after MGM Studios filed for bankruptcy, MGM Resorts released a statement MGM Studios is a completely separate entity with no common ownership," and "The filing has no impact whatsoever on MGM Resorts International."
67. Beginning and end of a phoenix: ASH. The phoenix is a mythical golden bird associated with renewal and regeneration. Rising from the ashes of its previous life, the phoenix is a symbol of hope, of life and of better things to come, born from the knowledge and experience of difficult times and challenging circumstances.
68. Tennis star Agassi: ANDRE.
69. __-pop: electronic music genre: SYNTH.
Down:
1. 10K, for one: RACE.
2. Academic hurdle: EXAM.
3. Waterfall spray: MIST.
4. "I needed that!": AAH.
5. Nonromantic, as a friendship: PLATONIC.
6. Unlikely to bite: DOCILE.
7. Privy to: IN ON.
8. See 6-Across: STU.
9. Parade shower: CONFETTI.
10. Former name of Kia's K5 sedan: OPTIMA. In 2021, Kia dropped the “Optima” name and renamed the model in the U.S. to feature the same name it carries in South Korea, “K5.”
26. Comet, to some: OMEN. "Comets have a long history, usually as omens and bearers of bad news," says Woody Sullivan, professor of astronomy. "But on the other hand, the death of Julius Caesar was marked by a comet and this was taken by the Romans as a sign of his divinity.
27. Risotto grain: RICE. From Bon Appétit: Risotto is like a clingy baby. You can’t put it down, you can’t walk away from it, and you can’t ignore it. Its needs are straightforward; it just wants all of you. And if you give it all your patient attention, it will transform into a puddle of love. Here's a recipe.
28. "Bad Romance" singer Lady __: GAGA.
29. Board game with settlers: CATAN. Previously known as The Settlers of Catan or simply Settlers, is a multiplayer board game first published in 1995 in Germany. The object is to grow your small island town into a flourishing city.
33. "Nobody doesn't like __ Lee": SARA.
34. Son of Odin: THOR. Norse gods. As well as thunderstorms, Thor is associated with oak trees, and is said to protect mankind.
35. "Phooey!": DARN.
38. Earhart's field: AVIATION. Amelia Mary Earhart was an American aviation pioneer and writer. In 1932, Earhart became the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. In an attempt to fly 29,000 miles around the world, with only 7,000 miles to go, she and her navigator Fred Noonan took off from (now) Papua New Guinea on July 2, 1937, at 12:30 a.m., heading toward tiny Howland Island. They were never seen again.
39. Containers in a British pantry: TINS. Better known in the states as "canned food."
40. Support for calves, but not cows: LEG RESTS.
43. Old Russian ruler: TSAR.
46. Pastrami bread: RYE. On my bucket list: Eat a Rueben at Zingerman's Deli.
48. Blood bank supply: PLASMA.
49. Tristan's beloved: ISOLDE. Lovers in a medieval romance based on Celtic legend. The hero Tristan goes to Ireland to ask the hand of the princess Isolde for his uncle, King Mark of Cornwall. On their return the two mistakenly drink a love potion prepared for the king and fall deeply in love.
50. Not any: NONE.
51. Country whose national anthem is "Jana Gana Mana": INDIA. (Lit. 'Thou Art the Ruler of the Minds of All People.')
52. Poetic dawns: MORNS. Noun, not verb. Short for mornings.
53. "Ha! You believed me!": PSYCH.
56. Golden __: AGER. Used euphemistically or humorously to refer to a senior citizen.
57. Bellyache: MOAN.
58. Sandpaper coarseness measure: GRIT.
59. Bit of folklore: MYTH. Stories that are based on tradition. Some may have factual origins, while others are completely fictional.
