Saturday, October 7, 2023, Jenna LaFleur

 Themeless Saturday by Jenna LaFleur

Jenna's NW corner had plenty of road blocks for me for some reason but eventually they were put in my rearview mirror. She wrote:

-I’m 24 years old right now, but I’ll be turning 25 shortly before the puzzle comes out.

-I live in D.C. - Besides crosswords, my hobbies include playing the drums and listening to podcasts. - I mostly do online gig work - audio transcription, data entry, and the like.

Jenna said that her kitty's name is Fig. So this is either a picture of Fig with Jenna in the foreground or of Jenna with Fig in the background.

Across:

1. Common: CRASS - Crude was close but...

6. "Got other plans, sorry": CANT.

10. Low pair: TWO'S.

14. Knew the answer: HAD IT.

15. Drink mentioned in the Walker Hayes song "Fancy Like": OREO SHAKE.

Yeah, we fancy like Applebee's on a date night

Got that Bourbon Street steak with the OREO SHAKE

17. Detroit __: stratified automotive paint polished and cut for jewelry: AGATE -Paint that the spray leaves on the frame or track piles up. It can be cut, baked and cut into pieces.

18. Reptile at Kélonia aquarium in Saint-Leu, Réunion: SEA TURTLE - The arrow points to this small island.

19. Spotify playlist that calls itself "the most influential playlist in hip-hop": RAP CAVIAR.

21. Trial versions: BETAS.

22. Jazz dance: STOMP.

23. Key st.?: FLA 😀

24. "Jeopardy!" champion with the show's second-longest win streak: AMY SCHNEIDER - The answer that stumped Schneider was about countries of the world: Answer: "The only nation whose name in English ends in an “h” and which is also one of the 10 most populous" (the correct question is at the bottom*) 39. Many a Wiki article: BIO - Amy Schneider's Wikipedia BIO 26. So: HENCE - Amy missed on a Final Jeopardy, HENCE, she lost.

30. Speeds: JETS - both as verbs

32. Sphere: REALM.

33. Gesture that means "no" in some cultures: NOD - as in Bulgaria

35. Lennox of R&B: ARI.

36. Element in the tale of Sleeping Beauty: SPINDLE - She was put into an "ageless" sleep by pricking her finger and could only be awakened by the kiss of her true love. In the Brother's Grimm version she pricked her finger on the SPINDLE of an enchanted spinning wheel.

38. Glop: GOO.

40. Home of the Kaaba: MECCA - Kaaba is the Arabic word for cube. It is the holiest of Muslim shrines and what Muslims pray toward.

41. Knack: GIFT - What our constructors have for word play

42. Interior support structure: ENDOSKELETON.

Morrill Hall on the UNL
campus has many examples

46. __-weekly: ALT - Take your pick for ALTernate points of view

  
47. Reclusive sort: LONER.

49. Like the smell of burning plastic: ACRID 

52. Instrument for Seiichi Tanaka or Eitetsu Hayashi: TAIKO DRUM - Always a highlight of my many trips to EPCOT.

56. Laxity: LOOSENESS.

58. Yankees manager Aaron: BOONE - Aaron's place in MLB history is cemented by this walk-off home run that sent the Yankees to the World Series in 2003.

59. Like someone on the stand: UNDER OATH.

60. Vocally: ALOUD.

61. Private dinner?: MESS 😀 - In M*A*S*H it was a MESS tent where all ranks ate, including privates

62. __ gin: SLOE.

63. Checks: DAMPS - In physics we graphed oscillations that DAMPED out or checked themselves 

Down:

1. Red-bellied trout: CHAR - I used this picture for the 9/23/23 puzzle

2. Some improvisation in Hindi cinema: RAGAS - (in Indian music) a pattern of notes having characteristic intervals, rhythms and embellishments used as a basis for improvisation. Yeah, I knew that! 😚

3. 2002 meta dramedy starring Nicolas Cage as the film's screenwriter: ADAPTATION - Cage plays himself and his twin brother

4. Light shows?: SITCOMS 😀 - Yeah, they're usually not too intellectually hefty

5. Hot and heavy: STEAMY - Jack and Rose getting STEAMY in the car in the hold of the Titanic

6. Mozart's "__ fan tutte": COSI - Can you dig out Mozart's name?

7. Vicinity: AREA.

8. In the vicinity: NEAR.

9. Little one: TOT.

10. Fine line: THREAD 😀

11. One joule per second: WATT - By definition 

12. Great Plains st.: OKLA - Where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain

13. Catches: SEES - Can you SEE the ringed planet inside below by gently crossing your eyes?

16. Stunning: SUBLIME.

20. Biden and Harris, initially: VPS  - At different times

23. Toppled: FELL.

25. Pain in the neck: CRICK - Kramer's cure starting at 1:00

27. First man to complete tennis's Surface Slam: NADAL - Rafael won the U.S. Open on hard surface, the French Open on clay and Wimbledon on grass.

28. Shipping center?: ENGINE ROOM 😀

29. Top: ROOF - What VB fans yell when their team makes a block at the net

 

30. Poke: JAB.

31. Historical allies of the Huron: ERIE - Four letter tribe near the Great Lakes, hmmm...

34. Point: DOT.

36. Burn slowly: SMOLDER - Don't walk away too soon

37. Nuisance: PEST.

41. Slopes conveyance: GONDOLA.

43. Spots for roasters and toasters: DAISES.

44. Large deer: ELK.

45. "Them's the breaks": TOO BAD.

48. Preparatory period: RUN UP - The RUN UP to the next election will be full of truths, half-truths and outright lies

49. Grad: ALUM.

50. Retinal cell: CONE 51. Retinal cells: RODS - It's very cool to see them together in a puzzle

52. Marsh duck: TEAL.

53. Apropos of: AS TO - Feel free to comment AS TO your feelings about Jenna's puzzle

54. "Who __ kidding?": IS HE.

55. Scrip orders: MEDS - Short for preSCRIPtionS.

57. Anti bloc: NOS.

*Amy missed "What is Bangladesh?" on Jeopardy 

Addendum: Here is constructor Jenna finishing third in an ACPT event. The video is 10 minutes long but it shows

1) How the competition chooses a champion

2) How very skilled solvers attack a puzzle

3) What some of the fill was on this puzzle constructed by Kameron Austin Collins

Friday, October 6, 2023 - Ruth Bloomfield Margolin

Theme: Ooh, that's GROSS!!

Puzzling thoughts:

Well, well, well ... today marks my 75th recap here at The Corner, and what a fitting puzzle "theme" to have ... it's all about the (64-across. Measure of grossness avoided in the answers to the starred clues?:) ICK FACTOR.

Those of you who have followed Chairman Moe over the past few years will know how the word "gross" connects to him. And though the Chairman grew up in the (61-down. Eventful times:) ERAS where "gross" meant large, great, and 12 dozen (144), the generations that followed came to know "gross" as being, well, ICKY.

Today's offering is by Ruth Bloomfield Margolin. Ruth celebrates her LA Times puzzle debut today while managing to find three phrases that can be sussed with or without the word (letters) ICK. How, you ask?

For starters, we have: 17-across. *Litter collection vehicles?: P(ICK)UP TRUCKS. One of a litter of dogs is called a PUP. Additionally, a vehicle that might be used to collect litter (aka "trash") is a PICKUP TRUCK ... what does a PUP PICKUP TRUCK look like? This!!

Next, Ruth gave us: 24-across. *Malcolm's status at the end of "Macbeth"?: ALIVE AND K(ICK)ING. I had to dig through Google to confirm that Malcom was indeed both KING as well as being "ALIVE AND KICKING" at the play's end. What does a KICKING KING look like?

And last but not least we have: 52-across. *Source of friction when a messy person lives with a neatnik?: ST(ICK)Y SITUATION. While the phrase "STY SITUATION" seemed a bit forced, the "ICK" fits, as this messy roommate might indeed cause a source of friction. I immediately thought of:

In what seems to be a common Friday event, today's crossword puzzle adds/subtracts a word to create a grouping of punny entries. It wasn't what I'd call "Friday tough"; and honestly, I wondered if Patti had this queued up just for me, given the "gross" connection ... but it may have been coincidental 😉

The grid, and then a new twist (for at least half of my bi-weekly recap):

Across:
1. Rum mixer: COKE.

Unlike SNL
Skit, the Billy Goat Tavern
Serves COKE; no Pepsi

5. Tarot suit: CUPS.

We heard there's a bar
Where the patrons play Tarot.
They're all in their CUPS

9. Destructive bug: BORER.

Tahitian island
Has destructive bugs. It's now
Called: BORER BORER

14. Receptive: OPEN. A brief pause from Moe-ku's, as this word was somewthat uninspiring

15. Draft choice: ONE A.

Army needed a
Steak sauce. They held a draft and
A.1. was ONE A

16. New car option: LEASE. Not every entry in today's puzzle will be a Moe-ku, (see 23-, 31-, 32-, and 41-across for the continuation of this sentence)

19. Laudatory poet: ODIST.

Orchestra hired
Wind player who wrote poems:
ODIST oboist

20. First baseball team to play in a dome: ASTROS.

Original name
For this team was floral-based.
Was called: "ASTER-ROSE"

21. "Birthplace of Aviation": OHIO.

Dayton was the home
Of Orville and Wilbur Wright
The Founders of Flight

Fun Fact: Chairman Moe's birthplace is also OHIO

23. __ salt: SEA. and not all will be winners 😜

27. Writer who populated the Hundred Acre Wood: A. A. MILNE. Home of Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore, et al

30. Shade in four-color printing: CYAN.

Japanese printers
Bid farewell to blue when they
Said:"CYAN-ara"

31. Actor Reeves: KEANU. and once in awhile I will just toss in a photograph;

32. Mission control org.: NASA. or maybe a simple link,

35. Scale abbr.: LBS..

Mormon Church scales have
Weird measurements. Not LB'S;
They're in LDS

37. Fish sticks fish: COD.

In Massachusetts
There are special fishing "sticks"
Called "rods for a COD"

38. *"Arf" or "meow"?: PET LINE.

A retractable
Leash for barking dogs is called
A PET LINE zipline

41. "Tubular!": RAD. because even MOE needs a break during his recaps

43. Trawling need: NET. You know, when I started this recap, I really thought it would be cool to "Moe-ku" each and every entry ... [continued in 45-across]

45. Future atty.'s exam: LSAT. but I am nearly 2 hours into blogging, and have only completed about 1/4 of it ...

46. Quick-as-lightning Bolt: USAIN. Another Moe-ku "break" ... the capital letter "B" in "BOLT" gave this away

48. City near the heel of Italy's boot: BARI. A CSO to my fellow Friday blogger, Malodorous Manatee who was in BARI on the day I was writing my recap

50. Supplementary items: ADDENDA.

How you terminate
"Legal dispute"? It's simple.
You just ADD "END A"

Get it?? END A legal dispute ...

56. __-di-dah: LAH. Or what (LAH-di-dah) Moe's puns are, mostly

57. See 26-Down: PENN. (26-down. With 57-Across, co-star in the "Harold & Kumar" film series:) KAL.

58. Regret not wearing a coat, say: FREEZE. A Moe-l'ick for a change:

When the man saw the snow-covered trees,
He decided to do as he please.
He said, "I am a Czech!"
And besides, what the heck,
He went coatless, 'cause Czechs never FREEZE

62. Degrade: ABASE. Another "break in the action" ... I left this one for Ray-O-Sunshine to pun!

66. Forbidden things: NO-NO'S.

When cramming for test
Use caffeine to stay awake.
NoDoz aren't NO-NO'S

67. "America the Beautiful" pronoun: THEE. This entry was not meant to be parodied. THEE appears @2:19

68. "Frozen" princess: ANNA.

Chiquita opted
To name fruit for a princess:
ANNA's banana

69. Beckett title character who is not in the cast: GODOT.

Beckett was seeking
A new sour bread starter:
Looking for GODOT??

70. Rise sky-high: SOAR.

An injured eagle
Continued his lofty climb
Yes, he would SOAR sore

71. Fifth Avenue retailer: SAKS.

Big Apple merchant
Decides it would be clever
To call their bags SAKS

OK, before we transition to the "down" clues/entries, Moe realizes that he has spent nearly three hours coining these punny -Ku's. There might be few more, but his creativity tank is on empty ...

Down:
1. __ Mundial de Fútbol: COPA. COPA in Spanish means "CUP" - as in a drinking vessel or trophy (the meaning in today's clue)

2. Major work: OPUS. Beethoven's Magnum OPUS (Symphony No 9 in D minor, Opus 125, also known as Beethoven's Ninth) is an hour and a half long performance. Here is a 3 minute clip:

3. Maintained: KEPT. This definition of KEPT is not one that is used as much anymore

4. Board, in a way: ENTRAIN.

Could we honestly
Say that Moses did this? He
ENTRAINed the entrails

5. Reunion attendee: COUSIN; with (6-down. 5-Down's dad, for short:) UNC. Was her dad a Tar Heel perhaps??!

7. Tea type: PEKOE.

What kind of tea do
Ghosts drink? Why of course you would
Call it PEKOE boo

8. Obama daughter: SASHA. With sister Malia

9. __ Mary: BLOODY. I like mine with LOTS of additives

10. Wordsmith's ref.: OED. Oxford English Dictionary

11. Post production?: RAISIN BRAN. Very clever clue! Post is the company that produces RAISIN BRAN, along with Kellogg's

12. Steel city north of Cologne: ESSEN. The word "ESSEN" in German means to eat or munch

13. Put on sale, say: RE-TAG. So in the childhood game, would this mean that if you "RE-TAG", the new "IT" person is marked down??!

18. Arrive, as in a limo: ROLL UP. I had ROLL IN before the perps fixed it

22. Like some ancient Peruvian pottery: INCAN.

Potter from Lima
Decided to repackage
Ancient pots IN CAN

25. Air ducts: VENTS. Another pun opportunity for R-O-S??

27. Pedigree registry since 1884: Abbr.: AKC. American Kennel Club

28. Long, long time: AEON. Fun fact: an AEON and an EON are the same length of time [a billion years]. AEON is used more by the British; we Colonists prefer EON

29. Like all ancient Peruvian pottery: MADE BY HAND. Almost a clecho to 22-down

33. In the style of: A LA.

What's "the style of"
Called in S. California?
It's A LA L.A.

34. Occupy, as a desk: SIT AT. "WORK FROM" didn't fit

36. "__ no one ever": SAID. Chairman Moe might be the one exception to this statement ...

39. Top-tier: ELITE.

Monospaced typeface
Was disliked by other fonts;
Was just too ELITE

40. Author Welty: EUDORA. The Optimist's Daughter won her a Pulitzer Prize

Thursday, October 5, 2023,Barbara Lin

 

 The Wood Wide Web

In 1995 ecologist Suzanne Simard discovered that trees communicate with one another via a vast underground network of FUNGI.  Recently cruciverbalist and engineer Barbara Lin* has discovered that trees actually have FUN while they're doing this. Apparently they exchange PUNNY homophones to amuse themselves while they carry out their essential work of world-wide photosynthesis.  Their real favorites of course are Stupid Ent Jokes 😀.  
 
To construct this puzzle Barbara simply pressed her ears firmly to the ground and picked up these four themers -- exchanges of tree root straight lines and pun responses ...

17A. Evergreen seedlings?: FIR BABIES.  I announced recently that one of my grandchildren's cats had seven kittens.  I believe some are still available for adoption ...

New mom Fizzy and two of her
FUR BABIES

27A. Shade tree that's been pruned too severely?: TOPLESS BEECH. 

Topless beach voting

46A. Fruit tree in the royal orchard?: PEAR OF QUEENS.

A trio actually
with her 2nd and 3rd runner up

62. Recently developed conifer cultivar?: THE NEW YEW.

So how far are you going to take
this new year, new ewe resolution?

Here's the grid, sans reveal, sans stars, and sans circles (I hope at least one person is happy 😀) ...
 

Here's the rest ...

Across:

1. Marketing target for K'nex Mighty Makers: GIRL.  Targeted toys to get girls interested not just interested in STEM, but STEAM, with the inclusion of ARTS.  I'd add to that ENGLISH and ETHICS.  Creation is after all, a multi-disciplinary endeavor.

Intro to Structures
K’NEX Education

5. Mass transit option: RAIL.

9. Immature beetles: GRUBS.

14. Notion: IDEA.

15. White-bellied mammal: ORCA.  ORCAS love to gobble up the cruciverbalist's other favorite white-bellied mammal, the Sea OTTER.

Sea Otter

16. Send in: REMIT.  In addition to sending in a payment the word REMIT has several other meanings.  To the British it means "the task or area of activity officially assigned to an individual or organization", e.g. "the committee was becoming caught up in issues that did not fall within its remit".  Here are some others ...

17. [Theme clue]

19. Meaningless, as a gesture: EMPTY.

20. Tangled: SNARLED.

21. Scratch (out): EKE.

23. __-Mex: TEX.  My best friend lived in Texas for over 20 years and we visited him often.  It was there that we first had Fajitas (yummy!).  Here's a recipe ...

Steak Fajitas

24. Nearly invisible pest: GNAT.

25. Medal metal: BRONZE.

27. [Theme clue]

32. Accords, e.g.: CARS.  The CARS was also the name an American new wave band formed in Boston in 1976. Emerging from the new wave scene in the late 1970s, they consisted of Ric Ocasek (rhythm guitar), Benjamin Orr (bass guitar), Elliot Easton (lead guitar), Greg Hawkes (keyboards), and David Robinson (drums). Ocasek and Orr shared lead vocals, and Ocasek was the band's principal songwriter and leader.  Here's My Best Friend's Girl (lyrics):

35. Irish __: SEA.  A CSO to Agnes.

36. Writer Dillard: ANNIE.  ANNIE Dillard (née Doak; born April 30, 1945)[1] is an American author, best known for her narrative prose in both fiction and non-fiction. She has published works of poetry, essays, prose, and literary criticism, as well as two novels and one memoir. Her 1974 work Pilgrim at Tinker Creek won the 1975 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. From 1980, Dillard taught for 21 years in the English department of Wesleyan University, in Middletown, Connecticut.  Here's some of her advice on writing.

Annie Dillard

37. Pie __ mode: ALA.

38. Cook quickly: STIR FRY.  A year or so back a picture in one of C.C.'s reviews inspired me to come up with this recipe of a :Pine nut and Corn stir fry.  It cooks quickly, but the prep time is about an hour.  The recipe is still available on C.C.'s Ginger Roots blog.

Pine nuts and Corn Stir Fry

41. Smidgen: TAD.

42. Part of a network: MODEM.  A MODulator-DEModulator or MODEM is a computer hardware device that converts data from a digital format into a format suitable for analog transmission over a medium such as telephone, radio (WIFI), coaxial cable, or fiber optic cable (see 8D).  They are most often used at the end-points of router networks (i.e. the Internet backbone) to connect to local area networks (LANS) in offices and homes.  The first time I ever accessed a remote computer from my home was via an acoustically coupled MODEM, connected directly to the earpiece/speaker of an analogue phone.  It was running at speed of 300 bits/sec (approximately 33 bytes/sec with parity checking).

Acoustically coupled
MODEM

44. "What are you doing!?": HEY.

45. Stern greeting?: AHOY.

46. [Theme clue]

50. Easy-to-wash carpet: RAG RUG.

51. Gumbo pod: OKRA.

54. Ctrl-__-Del: ALT.

56. As well: TOO.

57. "How We Do (Party)" singer: RITA ORA.  Girls just want to have fun ...

Lyrics

60. Clean out: PURGE.

62. [Theme clue]

64. Checkups: EXAMS.

65. Help when one shouldn't: ABET.  Not all such help is criminal, but it may still be harmful, e.g.when playing a game of  I'm only trying to help you!

66. Proactiv target: ACNE.

67. Last stop, often: DEPOT.

68. "Star Wars" film starring Alden Ehrenreich: SOLO.  Han looks a lot different since I saw him last, but Chewbacca hasn't changed a bit ...

69. Pro choices?: YEAS.

Down:
 
1. Some embedded images: GIFS.  The Graphics Interchange Format (GIF; /ɡɪf/ GHIF or /dʒɪf/ JIF, see pronunciation) is a bitmap image format that was developed by a team at the online services provider CompuServe led by American computer scientist Steve Wilhite and released on June 15, 1987.  This one makes the World go round ...

2. Checking the age of, say: IDING.  Three syllable word.

3. Aired again: RERAN.

4. Research subjects with whiskers: LAB RATS.  MICE didn't perp.

5. Garment that may match slippers: ROBE.

6. Like Death Valley: ARID.  But not as ARID as the Atacama Desert in Chile and the McMurdo Dry Valleys in Antarctica, at least according to this article about all things dry.

Chalbi Desert, North Kenya
(not the driest)

7. Old fashioned rocks?: ICE.  A CSO to our friend Tinbeni

8. Elements of fiber optic communications: LASERS.  An acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.  Fiber optic communications make use of fiber optic modems  to transmit digital information via light pulses.  I think Barbara is showing her engineering chops in this clue and 42A.

9. NFL city with the smallest population: GREEN BAY.  GREEN BAY, Wisconsin, with a population of 107,395, home of the NFL Green Bay Packers.  And here's where they play (looks like the whole town was there that night) ...

Lambeau Field

10. Sleep cycle: REM.  Also a rock band.  R.E.M. was from Athens, Georgia, and was  formed in 1980 by drummer Bill Berry, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills, and lead vocalist Michael Stipe, who were students at the University of Georgia.  Here's Everybody Hurts from their 1992 album Automatic for the People ...

11. Indefinite ordinal: UMPTEENTH.  I think this is the UMPTEENTH time we've had REM in an LAT puzzle.

12. Sharp quality: BITE.

13. "Mr. Roboto" band: STYX.  Here's their Come Sail Away ...

 

18. Quartet member: ALTO.  Here's ALTO Barbara Streisand all by herself with The Music That Makes Me Dance (lyrics) ...

22. Levels, briefly: KOS.

25. Tight squeeze: BEAR HUG.

26. __ garden: ZEN.  What are they and how can you create one?
 

Zen Garden
No Koi allowed

28. Rose Parade setting?: PST.  Pacific Standard Time.

29. Island floral arrangement: LEI.

30. "Later!": CIAO.

31. Lamarr in the National Inventors Hall of Fame: HEDY.  Austrian actress HEDY Lamarr and her musician friend George Antheil were awarded a patent for an early form of encrypted radio communication that led to their posthumous induction in the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2014.

Hedy Lamarr

Antheil's music was modernist and he liked to style himself as The Bad Boy of Music (the title of his memoir) -- e.g. at solo performances he would pull a revolver out of his pocket and lay it on his piano!.  Here's his Airplane Sonata, which doesn't sound all that bad compared with much modern music ...

32. Sleep in a tent: CAMP.

33. Lotion additive: ALOE.

34. Where a zipper may get caught?: RADAR TRAP.  Clever clue!

38. Exhaust-ive check?: SMOG TEST.  The SMOG coming out of your car's tailpipe during an emissions TEST? 

39. Charge: FEE.

40. Whiskey choice: RYE.

43. MLB stat that's good when it's low: ERA.

45. "Glad to take questions": ASK AWAY.  But please wait until after the review is finished ... 😀

47. To counterpart: FRO.

48. Target numbers: QUOTAS.

49. Bill: NOTE.

52. British automaker who partnered with Charles Rolls: ROYCE.  How Rolls met Royce.

53. Olympic venue: ARENA.

54. Mirrored: APED.

55. Fancy-schmancy: LUXE.

57. Film spool: REEL.

58. Excited about: INTO.

59. Floors: AWES.

61. Frankenfood initials: GMO.  Genetically Modified Organisms.   The clue implies that foods containing GMOs are monsters.  There is considerable controversy over GMOs, especially with regard to their release outside laboratory environments. The dispute involves consumers, producers, biotechnology companies, governmental regulators, non-governmental organizations, and scientists. Many of these concerns involve GM crops and whether food produced from them is safe and what impact growing them will have on the environment. 

I'm not taking sides on this issue, but I'm reminded of this refrigerator magnetic that one of my granddaughters gave us ...

63. "Curb Your Enthusiasm" network: HBO.  I'm not enthusiastic about this show.
 
That's it for the clues, but you're not out of the woods yet ...
 

Cheers,
Bill
 

And as always, thanks to Teri for proof reading and for her constructive criticism.

waseeley

*I once subbed for חֲתוּלָה for a Barbara Lin puzzle.  She's a constructor to keep an eye on.  There is a very brief bio on Barbara you can search for on the Inkubator site.

Wednesday, October 4th, 2023, Matt Forest

 THEME: RECYCLE~!

   This one had me stumped at first; I simply could not see a connection between the answers - and then I realized the answers had nothing in common - other than starting and ending with the same three letters.  ah-HA~!  The "clue" was not much help for me, TBH.  A very quick solve for me, felt like a Monday level puzzle - but it took two extra minutes for me to find out why I did not get the ta-DA~! at the end; 46d crossing 69a, Latin vs. Spanish, so I was a little disappointed.  And no Frawnche, either.  Here are the theme answers, as indicated with the "*" and referred to as the "starred" clues:

17. *Synthetic pump: ARTIFICIAL HEART - ART to ART

26. *Cheap shot: LOW BLOW - LOW to LOW

50. *Regional collective pronoun: ALL Y'ALL - ALL to ALL - quite popular this week

61. *"There really is a wolf now!": "I MEAN IT THIS TIME~!" - IME to IME

And the central reveal....

33. With 43-Across, "When one door closes, another door opens," and an apt description of the answers to the starred clues: THE END IS JUST

43. See 33-Across: THE BEGINNING

And Around We Go~!

ACROSS:

1. Formula One event: RACE

5. Prep, as onions: CHOP - I took Husker G up on his "offer" Saturday, and made a tater tots casserole

 

Yummy~!

9. __ bean: PINTO

14. Machine that helps with 51-Down: CPAP  = Continuous Positive Airway Pressure, which I'd heard of, but never knew what it stood for; and; 51d. Sleeper's problem: APNEA

15. [Snicker]: HE-HE

16. Trapshooting: SKEET

20. General on American Chinese menus: TSO - my 'go-to' dish when I order

21. Asian country divided in 1945: KOREA

22. __-la-la: TRA

23. Meaning of an unlit "vacancy" sign: NO ROOM

28. Kept cold: ICED

29. Chicken __ king: A LA

32. Vega's constellation: LYRA

38. Cruelty-free lip balm brand: EOS

39. Secret spots?: ARMPITS - best. clue. ever.  Secret, the deodorant

40. That guy's: HIS

45. Bangers partner: MASH - not "head" Bangers - the old MTV metal hours late on Saturday nights, but the British dish

48. Foreign policy org. chaired by the president: NSC - National Safety Council - we had OSHA in the grid earlier this week, and I am required to finish their 30-hr course in order to work at the Washington National Cathedral - I am about 20 hours in

49. "Grand slam" awards acronym: EGOT - when I stopped blogging Saturdays five years ago, this was not a crossword fill at all; Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony awards; more here.

54. Decade following Y2K: AUGHTS - 00's

56. Regret: RUE - OR - a Frawnche Canadien street~!

57. Marshmallowy Easter treats: PEEPS - I am not a fan - sorry; my thing is the Cadbury eggs

60. Mouse site: PAD - cute.

66. Painful turning point?: ANKLE - clever, but my "ETA" at 62d messed me up - I do the DOWNS to start, so that the theme answers ( usually in the across ) are half-filled by the time I get to them

67. Primary: MAIN

68. Necessary __: EVIL

69. "__ mañana": HASTA - Spanish for "see you tomorrow" (?)

70. "SportsCenter" network: ESPN - I have Hulu with Disney and ESPN, and the price goes up in one week - and I am thinking it's time to ditch Disney - I have seen all the 4d I think I care to see - and I am a HUGE fan

71. Swabbing spot: DECK - Aye, matey


DOWN:

1. TV pioneer: RCA

2. Fourth mo.: APRil

3. Towers that may have scratching posts: CAT TREES - I knew what we were looking for, but didn't know they were called "TREES"; my brother has a cat named Ashes - guess what color....

4. "Star Wars" installment: EPISODE - Episode IV, A New Hope changed my life - I was six years old, and decided right then that I was going to make movies....didn't quite work out the way I had planned

5. Greek X: CHI - I WAGed this, and was correct

6. "What the __!?": HECK - The "censored" answer

7. Home state of the Reds and the Browns: OHIO - and the Bengals, I might add - but then again, their record in relation to their QB, the highest paid player in the history of the NFL....

8. Gem from a mollusk: PEARL

9. "Balderdash!": "PSHAW~!"

10. Barinholtz of "The Mindy Project": IKE - no idea; filled via perps

11. In a tidy way: NEATLY

12. Paralyzing fear: TERROR - I tried PHOBIA first

13. Home of Canada's Parliament Hill: OTTAWA - nailed it; hockey starts soon~!

18. __ Fighters: Dave Grohl's band: FOO - I liked Nirvana - Dave's first band; the Foo, not so much

19. Astrological cat: LEO

23. Nick at __: NITE - Nickelodeon TV channel after 9pm

24. Dos y seis: OCHO - more Spanish, two and six = eight

25. Spanish parent: MADRE - and yet more Spanish

27. Classic sammie: BLT - sammie being an abbreviation of sandwich ( my word is "sa'mich" ), we get the Bacon Lettuce & Tomato short answer

30. Support for a tire swing: LIMB

31. Colorado ski town: ASPEN

34. Casual rejection: NAH....

35. Joyful dances: JIGS

36. Erie Canal city: UTICA - I could not answer this one; it just means I have moved that much further away from New York, and I am not looking back.

37. Tax ID: SSN

40. Compete in a dramatic event at the World Aquatics Championships: HIGH DIVE

41. Playing to break a tie, briefly: IN OT

42. Some NCOs: SGTs

43. Quaker pronoun: THY

44. Canceled out: NEGATED

45. Singer Carey: MARIAH

46. College grad: ALUMNA - I had ALUMNI, which is the plural form

47. Makes glossy, as hair: SLEEKS

52. Floral wreath: LEI

53. "I can do that": "LET ME"

55. FedEx rival: UPS - ah, me, back in the day....

58. School gps.: PTAs

59. Use 55-Down, say: SHIP

62. Flying fig.: ALTitude - not "ETA"

63. Quaint lodging: INN

64. Need for playing Rock Band, for short: MIC - Rock Band is the "expanded" version of Guitar Hero, adding in drums and vocals

65. Great Plains grazer: ELK - Giraffe didn't fit - har har har har . . . .

Splynter