Our Gainesville, FL constructor who is a teacher that is now taking time to get a Masters gives us a puzzle that was very challenging for this humble solver. My delete key got a real workout in areas where I had confidently put down what turned out to be bad fills.
Across:
1. Hot: AFIRE.
6. III's nickname: TRE - TRE (tray) is a common nickname for someone who has III appended to their name.
9. Nintendo console with a GamePad: WIIU.
13. Waits: BIDES - My first thought was of Irish Miss and this wonderful song:
Oh, Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling
From glen to glen, and down the mountain side.
The summer's gone, and all the roses falling,
It's you, it's you must go and I must BIDE.
14. Huevos __: RANCHEROS - You probably all know huevos is Spanish for eggs
17. Neural transmitters: AXONS.
18. "Both seem fine": EITHER ONE - Tuh MAY tow/Tuh MAH to
19. Lectures featured on NPR's "Radio Hour" podcast: TED TALKS.
21. Some WrestleMania venues: ARENAS - The wrestling is fake but the injuries are real. Google images at your leisure .
22. Afore: ERE.
23. Japanese stir-fried noodles: YAKISOBA.
25. "__ is life": SUCH or
27. Joins the chorus: SINGS.
28. Org. that might need to resolve wedge issues?: 😀 LPGA - Big clubs are important but wedges and putters determine championships.
32. Take turns before everyone else?: PLAYTEST - A new word for me that filled itself. Companies let gamers play new games and report bugs before the release.
34. Koteas of "Chicago P.D.": ELIAS - His IMDB, but I know this better as a middle name
35. Slots: SPACES.
36. Pore (over): OBSESS - Okay, I might do this on these write-ups... 😙
37. Cheers (up): PERKS - One look at our kitty does it for me
38. Some bunk mates: TWIN BEDS 😀
41. Bite one's nails, say: FRET.
42. Designer of Uma Thurman's iconic 1995 lavender chiffon Oscar gown: PRADA.
43. Bye line: TA TA.
45. "You could not be more right!": IT SURE IS and in modern slang: 38. "u right": TRU -Omitting the "E" is a shortcut? and 33. "Right on": YES - Slang of my college years unlike today's "u right".
48. Feature that may be opened with Ctrl+T: TAB - Last Saturday, we had 44. Paragraph opener: TAB.
49. Home of Venta Rapid, Europe's widest waterfall: LATVIA.
52. Mythical birds without feet that fly continuously from birth until death: MARTLETS - Yeah, I knew that. 😙
MARTLET
Heraldic brisure
Description
A martlet in English heraldry is a mythical bird without feet that never roosts from the moment of its drop-birth until its death fall; martlets are proposed to be continuously on the wing.
54. Marketing group: E-MAIL LIST.
56. Eaglet home: AERIE.
57. Right hand: FIRST MATE - If you're a crossword devotee, you know Captain Hook's FIRST MATE
58. Magnate: BARON.
59. Crew: TEAM.
60. Short change?: MOD - MODify
61. In need of recharging: SPENT - My iPhone got to that status too fast and so I got a new battery two weeks ago.
Down:
1. Tapers off: ABATES.
2. Work in progress: FIXER UPPER.
3. "Well, paint me green and call me a pickle!": I DO DECLARE 😀 I love this!
4. Flat fee: RENT - An apartment in Britain that I'm sure comes with a loo and might have a lift to get to that floor.
5. Piece of one's mind?: ESSAY. 😀
6. "Live long and prosper" speaker, perhaps: TREKKIE - An homage to this character. MR SPOCK also fit.
7. Oatmeal topping, perhaps: RAISINS - Now if you want to talk cookies, Joann makes the very best oatmeal RAISIN variety.
8. Larynx-examining doc: ENT- He makes frequent house calls here
9. "Nothing more to do here": WE'RE ALL SET - Lady Mary and Countess Violet probably did not help much here.
10. Hotel room amenity: IRON - Recently this was clued as an original monopoly piece that has been eliminated.
11. Home of the NCAA's Gaels: IONA - A 22 minute drive NE of Yankee Stadium
29. Crash pad?: PIED-A-TERRE -Definition Walt Disney had his own PIED-A-TERRE above the Fire Station in Disneyland. He and his family could "crash" there when they were in the park.
30. Place to get some air: GAS STATION 😀 It isn't always free.
31. Donkey: ASS.
34. Motion of the ocean: EBB.
35. Coverage plan abbr.: SPF.
36. For all to hear: ON AIR - ALOUD? Not so much.
39. Comes around on: WARMS TO - Our kitty will welcome you to pet her if she WARMS TO you.
40. Cooked up: IDEATED - A familiar cwd entry I have never heard/used.
42. Mass number: PSALM - CHANT? Not so much.
44. Neither here nor there: ABSENT.
46. Tip: TILT.
47. Wild guesses: STABS.
49. Not right?: LEFT.
50. Cognac confidante: AMIE - Cognac is a town in SW France.
51. Stanford basketball coach VanDerveer: TARA.
53. Logical omission: LEAP - Hasty vs timid
55. [Raises hand]: I AM - Who is eating lunch at school today?
First off, there won't be 27 Moe-kus today; not even close. Unlike the last puzzle (and blog) that was a bit "Gross", today's offering from Ms Hale and Ms Deitmer is squeaky clean. In keeping with the trend of Friday misdirection themes, today's "reveal" says all we need to know about how this puzzle works:
40 across.Staple legumes, or parsed differently, what 16- and 24-Across did for 51- and 63-Across: LENTILS / LENT "ILS". Very clever! But if you're still a bit confused, allow me to explain:
16 across."Alert: Yo-Yo's here!"?: "YOU'VE GOT MA__!". The more common phrase is: "You've got mail!", and I suspect that if Yo-Yo Ma is an AOL user, he hears this all the time
...
This clue "lent" its "IL" to 51 across. Really hot person in the cockpit?: MELTING P(IL)OT. The airline profession, though, is not a "MELTING POT" of demographics. According to a recent article in the [Chicago Sun*Times], "When you hear 'this is your captain speaking' on an airline flight in the United States, more than 90% of the time, the speaker is a white male. Just 3.4% of U.S. airline pilots are Black, 2.2% are of Asian descent, and a paltry 0.5% are Hispanic or Latino. Women make up just 4.6%. Here is an article that shows more diversity among PILOTS in the world
The next "lending pair" are:
24 across. Machines used on a peacock farm?: FEATHER PLOWS. If you add an "IL" to PLOWS, it becomes FEATHER PILLOWS. Fun Fact: The difference between a down and a feather pillow? According to [sleepfoundation dot org] "Sleepers who move around throughout the night often favor down pillows because they mold to their movements. Side sleepers may prefer feather pillows because they can easily fold to fit under the neck. You should fluff either type of pillow regularly, but feather pillows may need extra attention to maintain their loft
So where did the "IL" from PILLOW go? Why to 63 across. Wooden model of an Italian city?: STICK M(IL)AN. [according to Google] "MILAN, a metropolis in Italy's northern Lombardy region, is a global capital of fashion and design. Home to the national stock exchange, it’s a financial hub also known for its high-end restaurants and shops. The Gothic Duomo di Milano cathedral and the Santa Maria delle Grazie convent, housing Leonardo da Vinci’s mural “The Last Supper,” testify to centuries of art and culture"
A STICK MAN (or STICKMAN) might mean two different things, as depicted in the images below:
As you will notice from the next image (the grid) I had one hiccup in the last entry: I originally typed in STILT MILAN in 63-across, so this was "officially" a FIW for the Chairman. I did solve it in about 12 minutes though, so the difficulty was easy/medium ... about a 4.4 on the MOES hardness scale ...
5. Recipient of a half-hearted gift?: BFF. I had no clue about the clue; still, I was able to figure it out from the perps. As I got to this entry in the blog, I googled: "BFF Half Heart" ... and here is an image that describes the clue perfectly
8. "I'm all __": EARS.
12. Encouraging start: ATTA. As in, "ATTA boy" or "ATTA girl". Notice that the same ending vowel (A) is used whether it's referring to a male or female. If this was a Spanish word, would one be ATTO and the other ATTA???!!!
13. Square footage: AREA. Probably more clues for this word than any other in the Crossword Puzzle Dictionaries
15. Understood: KNEW.
19. Peak near Catania: ETNA.
20. Book end, perhaps: INDEX. "They lived happily ever after" didn't fit
23. Game, __, match: SET. Tennis term; and one I am sure that was heard quite often by this author/athlete as indicated in (69-across. Arthur who authored "A Hard Road to Glory":) ASHE.
28. Caribbean island with the Pitons: ST LUCIA. According to [nationsonline dot org]: "The Caribbean is home to thirteen sovereign island nations: Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago". Here is a brief video of a plane landing at the George F.L. Charles Intl. Airport
31. Tylenol target: PAIN. I use ADVIL for PAIN (or its generic, ibuprofen)
32. Piggy bank addition: COIN. Do kids even have Piggy banks anymore??
33. __ bunny: DUST. When DU came up as the first two letters (via the perps) I tried DUNE before DUST. Anyone else make this error?
36. Performed a saut de chat, e.g.: LEAPT. As with 5-across, the word filled in via perps; not via my knowledge of what a "saut de chat" is. Once again, Google to the picture rescue:
39. Director Lee: ANG. ANG is officially now, "crossword-ese" IMO
42. Like some larb: LAO. These look like the lettuce wraps I've ordered at P.F. Chang
43. Maestro Zubin: MEHTA. [wikipedia] "Zubin Mehta (born 29 April 1936) is an Indian conductor of Western classical music. He is music director emeritus of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO) ... I wonder ... if the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra went public, would their broker issue an IPO IPO??
45. Tit for tat, maybe: TYPO. Hmm ... tempting as it is, I won't regurgitate the old limerick that begins: "There was once a young girl who begat ..."
46. Ages and ages: EONS. Billions and billions of years. Incomprehensible
47-across. Reusable 5-Down: TOTE, which complements (5-down. Groceries carrier: BAG). This one is even labeled for easy identification:
49. Goes deep: PLUNGES. There's a limit to "how deep" when you use this for your PLUNGES:
55. Prof's email ender: EDU.
56. Philip Marlowe genre: NOIR.
57. Story with a lesson: FABLE.
61. Ruckuses: DINS.
66. Uncomfortable sensation: ITCH, and its "clecho" (67. Uncomfortable sensation:) ACHE.
68. Ilsa __: "Casablanca" heroine: LUND. Somehow I remembered this without having any perp letters to help me. An all time classic movie and role:
70. Dark side of a notable pair: YIN.
71. Chocolate brand owned by Berkshire Hathaway: SEE'S.
Down:
1. Question of permission: MAY I?
2. So much: A TON. I had ALOT before correcting it to A TON
3. Poker variety: STUD. Moe-ku:
Poker entrant used His STUD earrings as ante For seven-card STUD
4. "Live it up!": HAVE FUN!. My "go to" birthday greeting is: "Celebrate in style"
6. To, the contrary: FRO. As in "to and FRO"??
7. "Go get it," to a dog: FETCH. Where in the world did the word FETCH originate you ask? [wikionary]: "The verb FETCH is derived from Middle English fecchen (“to get and bring back, fetch; to come for, get and take away; to steal; to carry away to kill; to search for; to obtain, procure”) [and other forms], from Old English feċċan, fæċċan, feccean (“to fetch, bring; to draw; to gain, take; to seek”), a variant of fetian." And now you know
8. Just scrape (out): EKE. Funny; the other day I just scraped out the last bit of peanut butter from the jar and heard Margaret yell "EEK"!!
9. Picnic snack that appears to have picnic invaders: ANTS ON A LOG. Speaking of peanut butter ... BTW, this entry also showed up in a similar position of the puzzle on August 30 of this year
10. Not allow to expire: RENEW. I originally misspelled this as RENUE. My spelling has gotten much worse the older I get ...
11. Goes after a fly: SWATS. One of two solutions for this clue ... in baseball you can also SWAT a fly (as in hit a ball into the air), and then an outfielder could CHASE it (goes after a fly) ... we have an interesting language
14. Tahiti sweetie: AMIE. Cute clue. Frawnch is the official language of Tahiti; hence the use of the word AMIE for sweetie
17. Board VIP: EXEC.
18. Org. with sponsored Medicare plans: AARP. October 15 was the date the period began to enrol into a new Medicare plan. So many choices. If your plan doesn't change and/or your needs don't change, you don't have to do anything. It will automatically RENEW
22. Australian gems: OPALS.
25. Many a "Veep" role: AIDE.
26. Say "neener neener," say: TAUNT. Really? "Neener neener"?? Help me, Google. Ok; two for the price of one. First is an image that mirrors the clue; second is a musical piece by the name "Neener Neener". Enjoy!
30. Small salad and half a sandwich, say: LIGHT LUNCH. Will still probably cost you just shy of $20 in a restaurant these days ... which in my way of thinking is (54. A bit steep:) PRICY.
34. Pig pad: STY.
35. Actress Hedren: TIPPI. [wikipedia] "Nathalie Kay "Tippi" Hedren is a retired American actress. Initially a fashion model, appearing on the front covers of Life and Glamour magazines, Hedren became an actress after she was discovered by director Alfred Hitchcock while appearing on a television commercial in 1961." She is also the mother of Melanie Griffith and grandmother of Dakota Johnson
37. Window section: PANE.
38. Lob: TOSS.
40. Exempli gratia, e.g.: LATIN. Excellent clue!! Not only is exempli gratia LATIN, it means: "Once again, e.g. is short for exempli gratia, a Latin phrase that means “for the sake of example.” As you may guess, you use it to introduce one or more examples"
41. Relax: LOLL. Can you LOLL and LOL at the same time?
44. Ore-Ida offering: TOT. A potato that is about 1 to 1-1/2 years old
46. Requires: ENTAILS. Writing these blogs ENTAILS a lot of time and knowledge of how to use HTML; but it is great fun and we do it for YOUR pleasure! 😉
48. Son of Seth: ENOS. [wikipedia] "Enos or Enosh is a figure in the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible. He is described as the first son of Seth who figures in the Generations of Adam, and is also referred to within the genealogies of 1 Chronicles. According to Christianity, he is part of the genealogy of Jesus as mentioned in Luke 3:38"
50. Sch. with a Twin Cities campus: U OF M. Folks in Coral Gables, FL would argue that there is only ONE U of M. This U of M is short for University ofMinnesota
51. Marshall McLuhan focus: MEDIA. A CSO to CanadianEh! ... [wikipedia] "Herbert Marshall McLuhan CC was a Canadian philosopher whose work is among the cornerstones of the study of media theory. He studied at the University of Manitoba and the University of Cambridge"
52. Uses Photoshop: EDITS. Oddly that is one part of blogging that I don't do. I am quite limited in my usage of photo editing aside from an occasional cropping or re-sizing
53. Bhagavad-__: GITA. A partial description from [yogananda dot org] "What is the main message of the Bhagavad Gita?
The Hidden Truths in the Bhagavad Gita | Self-Realization ... The timeless message of the Bhagavad Gita does not refer only to one historical battle, but to the cosmic conflict between good and evil: life as a series of battles between Spirit and matter, soul and body, life and death, knowledge and ignorance, health and disease, changelessness and transitoriness ..."
58. Word with blood or moon: BLUE. The phrase "once in a BLUE moon" refers to the rare times when two full moons occur in the same calendar month. This happens about once every two to three years, on average. The last was on August 30, 2023. Seasonal BLUE moons are when there are four full moons during one of the four seasons. The next one of those will be August 19, 2024. Due to the moon's cycle (approx 29-1/2 days) there can be no BLUE moon in February. And if there is no full moon at all in the month of February it's called a "Black Moon" [space dot com]
59. Rural road: LANE. And many of them are but one LANE in width
60. Finishes: ENDS. Only three more to go before today's blog ENDS!
62. Pronoun option: SHE. or HER; unless THEY identify as a THEY/THEM or HE/HIM. I just go by "Moe"
64. Flat-iron brand: CHI. No longer a Greek letter? Once again, Google to the rescue. Moe wouldn't know the first thing about this; I think Margaret has one but I doubt it's a CHI
65. 2023 role for Ryan, Simu, Kingsley, and others: KEN. For those who haven't seen "Barbie, the Movie", here is the clue's reference
Comments are always welcome ... as are visits from the constructor(s)
Today's constructors are David Distenfeld and
Seth Weitberg. David's
December 10, 2020
puzzle is the first one I ever reviewed for C.C. See if you
Dr. Who fans can spot the mistake I made on the very first page.
And here's a capsule bio from
Husker's review of David's first LAT themeless. And today Seth Weitberg is making his LAT debut.
Today David and Seth give us 4 theme clues about the different kinds of
WORK that aspiring sports pros have to take on to support themselves
while they're waiting for their big break, while still aggressively
staying at the top of their game. Sometimes in order to make it they have to
team up with a buddy, and sometimes, as we see in this
Siskel and Ebert review of a film about a basketball star who
partners with a martial arts expert things don't WORK out too well (Tomato Meter 11%) ...
Here
Roger's review
in writing. Not to keep you in suspense any longer here's the reveal. I think this week's theme is a slam dunk (I hope! 😀)
...
62A. Guard aggressively, and an apt description of 18-, 24-, 38-,
and 50-Across: DOUBLE TEAM. Double teaming is most often used against high scoring players,
but it can have its disadvantages. For all of you basketball noobs (e.g.
MOI)
here is an explanation of double teaming.
And of course it's an APT description of the themers, because the
fill for each clue consists of DOUBLETEAMnames ... 18A.
Works as a decoy vendor?: HAWKS DUCKS. The Atlanta HAWKS are an NBA basketball team.
This was a deceptively simple theme, but I'm sure it wasn't so easy to pull off.
Here's the grid ...
Here's the rest.
Across:
1. Improvise: AD LIB.
6. Woodstock supergroup, briefly: CSNY. Crosby, Stills &
Nash (CSN) was a folk rock supergroup made up of American
singer-songwriters David Crosby, Stephen Stills, and English
singer-songwriter Graham Nash. When joined by Canadian singer-songwriter
Neil Young as a fourth member, they were called Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (CSNY).
They are noted for their intricate vocal harmonies and lasting
influence on American music and culture, as well as their political
activism and often tumultuous interpersonal relationships. Here's the
title track for their album Déjà Vu. You've probably heard it before ...
10. Where to find bands on bands: RADIO. Here's the band for WBJC 91.5 FM. They don't play much band music, but they did once play the overture to the soundtrack for The Last Emperor which was written by David Byrne of the new wave bandThe Talking Heads ...
15. Whooping __: CRANE. For 50 years the USGS Patuxent Wildlife
Research Center in Maryland ran a captive breeding program to help save
Whooping CRANES
from extinction. We learned in school that they migrated every year to
Texas. We never saw them in Maryland, but were able to catch glimpses of
them in a birding trip to the marshes of the
Aransas National Wildlife Refuge
in Texas near the San Antonio Bay.
Young Whooping Crane
16. Next in line: HEIR.
17. Like most Ken dolls: BLOND.
18. [Theme clue]
20. Fielder's need: GLOVE. Teri and I are both left handers and
my son is a right hander. Only
one of my grandchildren is left handed and she is into sports. As a
result of attending several Oriole games this past season she developed
an interest in baseball. She had a birthday recently, so we bought her
this left-handed fielder's GLOVE ...
Left handed fielder's glove
21. Aliens, for short: ETS.
22. Layered dessert: TORTE.
23. Mineral deposits: ORES. Not all mineral deposits are ORES, but ORES
contain mineral deposits.
24. [Theme clue]
28. Meat and potatoes, often: ENTREE.
31. __ canto: BEL. Today's Italian lesson, BEL canto
translates as "beautiful singing". It designates an opera style
characterized by a relatively small dynamic range, an exact control of
the intensity of vocal tone, a demand for vocal agility, and clear
articulation of notes and enunciation of words. The three Bel canto
composers par excellence are Gioacchino Rossini (1792-1868), Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848) and Vincenzo Bellini (1801-1835). Here's soprano Anna Netrebko showing us how it's done with Norina's aria Quel guardo il cavaliere ("That I look at the knight") from Donizetti's Don Pasquale ...
32. Sch. group: PTA.
33. Snoozer: BORE. I hope Anna didn't BORE you with her vocal antics. 😀
34. "I feel you": SAME HERE.
38. [Theme clue]
43. Set of promotional materials: MEDIA KIT.
44. Dory pal: NEMO. His name of course comes from the intrepid Captain NEMO, commander of the Nautilus submarine in Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, the basis for this thrilling 1954 movie ...
45. Fender accessory: AMP.
47. World's second-tallest bird: EMU. The EMU belongs to a group of flightless running birds known as ratites, the most primitive of the modern bird families. The ratite family includes the kiwi, ostrich, cassowary, and rhea,
all birds found only in the Southern Hemisphere. The emu is the
second-largest living bird in the world (the ostrich is the largest).
Emu Dromaius, novaehollandiae
48. Souped-up ride: HOT ROD. Hot Rod is also the name a 2007 American comedy film directed by Akiva Schaffer (in his directorial debut) and written by Pam Brady. The film stars Andy Samberg as amateur stuntman Rod Kimble, whose stepfather, Frank
(Ian McShane), continuously mocks and disrespects him. When Frank
becomes ill, Rod raises money for his heart operation by executing his
largest stunt yet. It scored only 39% on the Tomatometer, but I linked
this because I'm a big fan of Ian McShane.
50. [Theme clue]
55. Capital once called Christiania: OSLO. New to me.
56. Gas up?: BLOAT.
57. Sport with takedowns, for short: MMA. Mixed Martial Arts.
60. Horned herbivore: RHINO. Don't let one catch you eating any of their herbs!
Rhinoceros
62. [Theme reveal].
64. Toy truck brand: TONKA. My youngest grandson is crazy about them.
Tonka Mighty Dump Truck
65. Ski town outside Salt Lake City: ALTA.
66. Step in the shower?: RINSE.
67. Promise: SWEAR.
68. Cond. once called shell shock: PTSD. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Very clinical sounding. "Shell shock" is a much more vivid term. My
father was shell shocked during WWII. Afterwards he was electro-shocked
by "therapists". He never talked about the war.
69. Car rental choice: SEDAN.
Down:
1. Icy Hot target: ACHE.
2. "Darn!": DRAT.
3. Statutes: LAWS.
4. Tats: INK.
5. Principal pal: BESTIE.
6. Boor: CHURL.
7. Religious divisions: SECTS. Revisions to ISMS.
8. Kicks with swooshes: NIKES.
9. Mos. and mos.: YRS.
10. "Notorious" SCOTUS justice: RBG. Ruth Bader Ginsburg was"notorious" for being a formidable opponent in the court room.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
11. Participate in a meting?: ALLOT. You can ALLOTA LOT, but not an ALOT.
12. Garage convenience: DOOR OPENER. Our "convenience" no longer opens and it's on my to do list to fix. Fortunately it was stuck CLOSED, not OPEN!
13. Flip: INVERT.
14. "Friday Night Lights" city: ODESSA. Friday Night Lights is a 2004 American sports drama film co-written and directed by Peter Berg. The film follows the coach and players of a high school football team in the Texas city of ODESSA. The book on which it is based, Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream (1990) by H. G. Bissinger, followed the story of the 1988 Permian High School Panthers football team as they made a run towards the state championship ...
19. Big name in bananas: DOLE.
24. Musical equivalent of two whole notes: BREVE. In music, a double whole note (American), BREVE, or double note
lasts two times as long as a whole note (or semibreve). It is the
second-longest note value still in use in modern music notation. The
longest notated note is the longa, which could be double or triple the length of a breve, although its use is most commonly found in early music.
Alternative Breve notations
25. Film critic Roger: EBERT. See theme introduction.
26. Classic grape soda: NEHI.
27. Oscar winner Guinness: ALEC. Sir Alec didn't win it for this film. At this point he was still waiting for a promotion ...
28. Abate: EBB.
29. 55-Across's country: Abbr.: NOR. Its capital is 55A.
30. Helpful item when it's time to bounce?: TRAMPOLINE.
34. Sheep in the "Wallace and Gromit" franchise: SHAUN. Wallace and Gromit is a British stop-motion animated comedy franchise created by Nick Park and produced by Aardman Animations. It's an acquired taste. Here they are ...
Wallace and Gromit
The spinoff SHAUNthe Sheep
is about an ovine who doesn't follow the flock - in fact, he leads them
into all sorts of scrapes and scraps, turning peace in the valley into
mayhem in the meadow (not unlike Wallace). In this episode from Season 1 entitled Snore Worn Shaun he has to deal with Shirley's sleep APNEA (counting sheep doesn't seem to help) ...
35. Puffin kin: AUK. An AUK or alcid is a bird of the family Alcidae in the order Charadriiformes. The alcid family includes the murres, guillemots, auklets, puffins, and murrelets. The family contains 25 extant or recently extinct species that are divided into 11 genera.
Auks
Apart from the extinct Great Auk, all auks can fly, and are excellent swimmers and divers (appearing to "fly" in water), but their walking appears clumsy.
36. X-ray kin: MRI. Magnetic Resonance Interferometer and a CSO to our magnetic Ray - O. When he gets here he can PUNish us with an outlandish explanation for this complicated device.
37. Goes on and on: RANTS.
39. Paradise: EDEN.
40. Virtual people in a video game: SIMS.
41. Dashboard Confessional genre: EMO. Here's Meatloaf back by popular demand ...
42. Square in a yard: SOD.
45. Cancels, as a launch: ABORTS.
46. 1990s series starring David Cross and Bob Odenkirk:
MR SHOW. Mr. Show with Bob and David, also known as MR SHOW, is an American sketch comedy series starring and hosted by Bob Odenkirk and David Cross.
It aired on HBO from November 3, 1995, to December 28, 1998. These
guys are very funny, but a little edgy. This skit is called "Lie
Detector"... One thing I learned from this clue was how to beep out words that Margaret wouldn't approve of 😀
48. Make good as new: HEAL.
49. River rompers: OTTERS.
51. Wilder role: WONKA. Pure Imagination ...
52. Curved fastener: U BOLT. Not the sprinter, but one of these ...
46. Run errands during a bad storm, say: BRAVE THE ELEMENTS.
52. Heart of an operation, and a hidden feature of 20-, 26-, and 46-Across: COMMAND CENTER.
These seemingly unrelated phrases contain a hidden canine command in the center. Such a tight theme that each hidden word is exactly in the middle of the phrase - same number of letters on either side. Too perfect to be a coincidence.
20 - (5) SIT (5)
26 - (6) DOWN (6)
46 - (6) HEEL(6)
Melissa here, good morning everyone. I confess it took some time to reason this one out. I knew we were looking for something in the center, but with no clue as to how they were related and no circles ... the aha moment came slowly.
Across:
1. Galaxy body: STAR. A galaxy is a system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, and dark matter bound together by gravity.
5. Fellow: CHAP. Chum. Bloke. Mate.
9. Mezcal base: AGAVE. Wikipedia: Mezcal, sometimes spelled mescal, is a distilled alcoholic beverage made from any type of agave. The word mezcal comes from Nahuatl mexcalli, which means "oven-cooked agave," from metl and ixcalli.
14. Sharpen: HONE.
15. Chicago airport: O'HARE.
16. Mortal danger: PERIL. What song from recently-departed folk singer included lyrics: "The captain wired in he had water comin' in, and the good ship and crew was in peril?"
17. Like Scotch: AGED.
18. Flat-bottomed ship: BARGE.
19. Third-stringers: C TEAM. Makes sense but not sure I've ever heard the term. Is it common?
23. "Monsters, __": INC. Disney movie.
24. Like most of Nunavut's population: INUIT.
34. Solitary: LONE.
35. Ill-advised action: NONO.
36. Terse summons: SEE ME. Sounds ominous.
37. Climbing greenery: IVY.
38. Economist and social reformer Webb who coined the term "collective bargaining": BEATRICE. Glad to learn about her.
41. Sushi spheres: ROE.
42. Bronze, e.g.: MEDAL. Don't normally see bronze used as a noun.
44. European capital west of Helsinki: OSLO.
45. Rain buckets: POUR. Verb, not noun.
50. "Ouch!": YOWIE.
51. "Arrested Development" narrator Howard: RON.
59. Take the top off: UNCAP. Flash?
62. Coast: SHORE.
63. Bryant of "Human Resources": AIDY. About 1:30 she talks about the show, with a clip.
64. Garden tool: SPADE.
65. Tiny bits: IOTAS.
66. Grand opening?: MEGA. Help me out here. If it means 'Mega grand,' is that a phrase? I know Mega Millions, as in the lottery. There's a Grand Mega resort (but wouldn't that be Mega opening?) Or am I over-thinking it?
27. Be overattentive, as a waiter: HOVER. Don't remember what store had a solution to that. Different color shopping carts or bags - one for 'I'm open to receiving help,' and another for 'Leave me alone.'
28. Sometime soon: ANY DAY. Looking at it that way, it's saying any is the same as soon, but it isn't really. Any day could literally be any day, even a year from now. Maybe I'm overthinking again ;).
29. Classic film noir about a man investigating his own murder: DOA.
54. Staff member?: NOTE. Nice clue. Musical notes. Wikipedia: In Western musical notation, the staff or stave is a set of five horizontal lines and four spaces that each represent a different musical pitch or in the case of a percussion staff, different percussion instruments.
55. "Dagnabbit!": DRAT.
56. Like a game headed to overtime: TIED.
57. Rim: EDGE. Both words can be verb or noun.
58. Actor Gosling: RYAN.
59. Mex. neighbor: USA.
60. Video game figure not controlled by a human: Abbr.: NPC. A non-player character (NPC), or non-playable character, is any character in a game that is not controlled by a player.
Our Gainesville, FL constructor who is a teacher that is now taking time to get a Masters gives us a puzzle that was very challenging for this humble solver. My delete key got a real workout in areas where I had confidently put down what turned out to be bad fills. 
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