Sunday March 11, 2018 Joe Kidd

(For a correct PDF file of today's puzzle, email me: crosswordc@gmail.com)

Theme: "Commercial Break" - AD is added into each theme entry.

 23A. Skillful adventurers? : ESCAPADE ARTISTS. Escape artists.

 35A. Field for feline frolic? : THE CAT'S MEADOW. The cat's meow.

52A. Speech from a queen, maybe? : PROM ADDRESS. Prom dress.

76A. Unusually vicious nocturnal flier? : SUPER BAD OWL. Super Bowl. This one broke the original word into two.
 
90A. Burned-out hillbilly? : JADED CLAMPETT. Jed Clampett.

107A. Bedtime bugaboo? : LATE NIGHT SHADOW. Late night show.
 
15D. Sun worshiper's seasonal harangue? : WINTER TIRADE. Winter tire.

59D. Megalith inscribed with saws? : ROCK OF ADAGES. Rock of Ages.

Our blog labels shows that this is the debut Sunday for Joe Kidd. Congratulation! Sunday puzzles are that hard to make, and he gave us a 138-worder.

I grokked the gimmick immediately, as Don G and I once did a similar puzzle with AD IN as reveal. But it did not help my solving.

Across:
        
1. Huggers : ARMS. Thought of Lucina and her loving sisters. Here we are at Mall of America, 2012.

C.C., Lucina, Marge, Yoli & Juanita

5. Spectrum maker : PRISM

10. "The Winner Takes It All" group : ABBA

14. React to a pop idol, perhaps : SWOON

19. Haul : LOOT

20. Fall sign : LIBRA

21. They can be calm or rough : SEAS

22. Specialized vocab : LINGO. We have our own Corner lingo.

26. When rights may be prohibited : ON RED

27. Musical clacker : CASTANET. New term to me.

28. Chooser's words : THAT ONE

30. Pro shop buys : TEES Also 110. Golf selection : IRON

31. Attractive pitcher : EWER. Ah, the baseball reference is at  62. Diamond protector : TARP

32. __ Alley, supply source in the Harry Potter universe : DIAGON. Santa knows.

33. Effective use of lang. : RHET. OK, rhetoric.

39. Neck-to-waist body armor : CUIRASS. New to me also.

42. Laid into : HAD AT

43. Vermont tourist destinations : INNS

44. Stooges' specialty : SLAPSTICK. Great fill.

46. Lasting lead-in? : EVER. Everlasting.

47. __-Indian War : SINO. Have you been to China, Picard?

49. Sinus doc : ENT

50. About : IN RE

51. Pro __: for now : TEM

57. Recognize : READ

58. Chicken Little, memorably : ALARMIST

61. Least friendly : ICIEST

63. Granola bar bit : OAT

64. Ocean predators : ORCAS. Thanks for the nice words about my Orca award.

65. Where Tippecanoe Cty. is : IND

66. Ticket abbr. : SECT

68. Hellish : HADEAN. OK, adjective of Hades.

70. Competitions : CONTESTS

75. Savor, with "in" : BASK

78. Saigon holiday : TET. Same day as Chinese Spring Festival.

79. Northeast Nevada city : ELKO

80. Grand __ Opry : OLE

81. She, in Siena : ESSA

82. First name in gossip : RONA

83. "Whatever" : AS IF I CARE. Another great fill.

86. __ bit: slightly : A WEE

88. One with an IRA, say : SAVER

89. Reversible fabrics : DAMASKS

94. Jim Davis canine : ODIE

95. Name on a pricey handbag : HERMES. This is their famous Birkin bag.

96. Some Ivy Leaguers : ELIS

97. Kelly of talk : RIPA

99. Dapper accessory : TIE CLIP

101. Intrasemester exam : UNIT TEST. No such exam in our schools.

105. 1980s-'90s Commodore computer : AMIGA

109. One fit for a queen? : SHEET. Queen bed.

111. Large chamber group : NONET. Group of nine. We also have 5. Member of a noted octet : PLANET

112. Home repair option, briefly : RE-FI

113. Ad hoc hunters : POSSE. I only associate "ad hoc" with committee.

114. French 101 verb : ETRE

115. Hired hoods : GOONS

116. Sweater mishap : SNAG

Down:
  
1. Guinness of "Smiley's People" : ALEC

2. Bill awarded her a Presidential Medal of Freedom : ROSA (Parks)

3. Comfy footwear : MOCS

4. Governor's ride : STATE CAR

6. They're added to bills : RIDERS. Tidy dupe with 4D clue.

7. "Yeah, right!" : I BET

8. Span. title : SRA

9. "The War of the Worlds" attacker : MARTIAN

10. Bagel cheese : ASIAGO. Have any of you tried Super Target's sliced sourdough bread?

 

11. Confers (on) : BESTOWS

12. It's passed in a race : BATON

13. AAA member?: Abbr. : ASSN. Same cluing style as "Part of TBS: Abbr." for SYS.

14. __-mo : SLO

16. How some lawyers are paid : ON RETAINER. We had some disputes with our townhouse association last year. They hired a lawyer. We lost. When we got home, I got a jury duty notice.

17. Double-curve molding : OGEE

18. Auction actions : NODS
 
24. Play with, kitten-style : PAW AT

25. Mississippi senator Cochran and jazz trumpeter Jones : THADS

29. Lets off steam : ERUPTS

32. Luth. or Meth. : DENOM

34. __ Honor : HIS

35. Frat row letter : THETA

36. First president of the Czech Republic : HAVEL

37. Fluid buildup : EDEMA

38. North Dakota's "Magic City" : MINOT. Magic because of what?

39. Art able to : CANST

40. __ metal : SCRAP

41. Brief timetable : SKED. Schedule.

45. Some skinny jeans : LEES. My favorite at the moment is Mudd.

47. Roasting gadget : SPIT

48. Org. with forms : IRS

53. CBS or NBC : AIRER

54. 1983 taxi comedy : DC CAB

55. 20th-century princess : DIANA

56. Hi-__ image : RES

60. Welcoming sight : MAT
 
62. Blow-up aid : TNT

64. Hymn relative : ODE

65. Visiting Hollywood, say : IN LA. Steve hikes to the Hollywood sign from time to time.

66. Lively dance : SALSA

67. Ice cream treats : ESKIMO PIES. Try Nice Cream if you do not tolerate dairy products. Just frozen bananas, a little peanut butter, cocoa powder. Then blend.

68. Dances with graceful gestures : HULAS
 
69. Mimic : APER

70. Trig ratio : COSEC

71. They're rarely heard from skilled carpenters : OWS

72. Cook's need : STOVE. We have a GE stove. The "Hot Stovetop" light stays on forever.  GE used to stand for quality.

73. Bit of dogma : TENET

74. "Boo!" reaction : START. Shock.

75. Bit of sweat : BEAD

76. Place for a plug : SOCKET
 
77. Scouts do good ones : DEEDS

82. Jay-Z and others : RAP STARS

84. "Woe __": 1996 grammar book : IS I

85. Steam engine exhaust system : EJECTOR. Just learned from TTP last week that I had not been ejecting my USB devices properly.

86. Campus bldg. : ADMIN

87. Breaking down : WEEPING

88. Worker in a forge : SMITH. Ah, here is a nice Smith.

91. Garfield's gal pal : ARLENE. The pink cat.

92. Like the pre-Easter season : LENTEN

93. Elite slates : A-LISTS

95. Essence : HEART

97. Gravelly sound : RASP

98. Texting qualifier : IMHO

100. '70s tennis star Nastase : ILIE

101. "Hmm ... I doubt that" : UH NO

102. Churchill's 1955 successor : EDEN

103. Den piece : SOFA

104. Part of a pre-fire pile : TWIG

106. Had lunch, say : ATE

108. Gunk : GOO

C.C.

(For a correct PDF file of today's puzzle, please email me: crosswordc@gmail.com)

Saturday, March 10, 2018, Daniel Nierenberg

A THEMELESS SATURDAY FROM DANIEL NIERENBERG

Daniel's pleasant Saturday offering was fun to do and provided a nice learning moment for landlocked Husker Gary! I had never heard of a 13. Boat-lifting device : DAVIT before but I found this picture of several DAVITS that were attached to lower the too few lifeboats on the Titanic. White Star had installed extra DAVITS for when rules were changed to require more lifeboats but those extras were empty on this maiden voyage of this "unsinkable" vessel. 

Let's see what else Daniel has for us on National Pack Your Lunch Day! I'll trade you my Fritos for a Hostess Cupcake! Across

1. Oceanic ecosystem : MARINE BIOME - Here's some biodiversity in a MARINE BIOME. There is probably no 46. Deep-water fish : OPAH in here

12. Common intruders : ADS - They not only interrupt the Super Bowl, they cost millions to air

15. Mexican sugar substitute : AGAVE NECTAR - There's something besides tequila made from Agave plants. Who knew?

16. Home Depot purchase : SAW 

17. Black-necked flier : CANADA GOOSE - Our golf course is rife with them and they are aggressive in the spring when their goslings are running around 

18. Knoxville energy agcy. : TVA - Part of FDR's alphabet programs that supplies power to parts of Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi,Kentucky, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia.

19. Sportscaster Andrews : ERIN - Andrews 

20. Bradlee in "The Post" : BEN - A movie with some people  named Hanks, Streep and Spielberg

21. 2013 Culinary Hall of Fame inductee : EMERIL

23. Key used in shortcuts : ALT- Here's what I get when I hit the ALT/Option key with each letter of the alphabet on my MacBook Pro - å∫ç∂´ƒ©˙ˆ∆˚¬µ˜øπœ®ß†¨√∑≈¥Ω

24. Word of warning : PRIVATE - PRIVATE Property

25. Downer at a party? : DEBBIE - An unfortunate alliteration for all DEBBIES

29. Waterside accommodations : BOATEL - Someone has turned 7 defunct boats into floating accommodations  just south of NYC

30. Not dense, in a way : RURAL - Once you get past Omaha and Lincoln in my state, things really thin out

31. Lindy relative : JITTERBUG

34. Deuterium discoverer Harold : UREY - Deuterium was first known as heavy hydrogen but now we call it an isotope. TMI?

35. They usually have spines : CACTI

36. Ornate metalware : TOLE - My first thought was of trays like this

37. Spots for sports stands : GOAL LINES - Perhaps the most famous GOAL LINE STAND was in the 1967 "Ice Bowl" between the Cowboys and the Packers. Game time temp was -15˚F. Bart Starr followed a Jerry Kramer block on Jethro Pugh into the end zone for a Packer win

39. Forks over, formally : CEDES

40. Collaborate : TEAM UP

41. "Even so ... " : AND YET - Rex Harrison sings, "I know that I could always be that way again , AND YET..." Next line and song's title?

42. "Thunderball" setting : BAHAMAS

44. Try hard (for) : GUN - Every college class I took had a hated GUNNER. "Sir you forgot to give us an assignment!"

45. Had taken, as a portrait : SAT FOR

46. Tagged, perhaps : OUT - Got 'em! The shortstop started celebrating before he even made the tag.

47. Territorial marking : POST - Yeah, I thought of another way to mark territory too

51. It may build up gradually : IRE

52. Skeet participant : TRAP SHOOTER - As done north of the border at the right? 😜

55. Styling creations : DOS - HAIRDOS that is

56. Italian cooking staple : TOMATO PUREE

57. Tolkien creature : ENT

58. Mall attraction : ANCHOR STORE - Brick and mortar stores are under assault by technology these days


'Down


1. Medieval weapon : MACE 

2. Seaweed product : AGAR - A gelling agent seen at the top of this recipe

  3. Indian palace resident : RANI

4. One of the Karamazovs : IVAN - Ivan Fyodorovich Karamazov and Alexi Fyodorovich Karamazov 

5. "Deliverance" co-star of Jon, Burt and Ronny : NED - The less said about poor NED Beatty's fate the better!

6. Allow : ENABLE - Last week a former student invited us to see him work as a "bull fighter" at a PRCA Rodeo in Council Bluffs, IA.  We saw him ENABLE a lot of cowboys to get away from some very nasty animals! What a way to make a living. He did get a bad sprained ankle that night but the show had to go on then and the next night also as the cowboys really depend on him and his partner.

7. Cause : BEGET - Some books of the Bible recount a lot of BEGETTING

8. Small program opener : ICON - On all our electronic desktops

9. Plains tribe : OTO

10. Classy wheels : MASERATI - You can drive this off the Omaha MASERATI lot today

11. Religious recluse : EREMITE - Merriman Webster - One that retires from society and lives in solitude especially for religious reasons. You're welcome. 

12. Vehicle for some spiritual experiences : ASTRAL BODY - Google if you're interested

14. Depressed area : SWALE

22. Turned inside out : EVERTED - The most common ankle injury is an inversion not an EVERSION

23. Not feel well : AIL

24. Mrs. __, head of the kitchen in "Beauty and the Beast" : POTTS - Literally a Tea POT voiced by Angela Lansbury

25. Numb, in a way : DRUG

26. Marseilles money : EURO -  €1,00 = $1.25

27. Erratic driver's comeuppance, perhaps : BREATH TEST

28. Pungent spice : BAY LEAF - Here seen adorning a Margherita Pizza

29. __ tendinitis: arm muscle ailment : BICEP - If it hurts, STOP!

31. Two-faced deity : JANUS

32. 1997 film character getting a lot of buzz? : ULEE - (Short for Ulysses) Our cinematic bee keeper Peter Fonda

33. Heroic adventure : GEST - Gary Cooper played one of the three GESTE brothers in this film and he does carry out a BEAU GESTE to protect his aunt's reputation 

35. 1931 Oscar-winning Western based on an Edna Ferber novel : CIMARRON - Two very different posters for the same movie

38. "Raging Bull" boxer : LAMOTTA - A 1980 role for Robert DeNiro portraying Jake LAMOTTA

39. "Wolf" channel : CNN - Wolf Blitzer. Tricky, tricky!


41. Mailer, for one : AUTHOR - Norman Mailer - This NASA guy would really like to read Mailer's article that postdates the Moon landing by a month. YES, we really went!!

42. Something in back of a hit? : B-SIDE - Elvis and the Beatles had lots of A and B Sides that were both hits

43. Packer quarterback Rodgers : AARON

44. Feature of Sousa's music : GUSTO - The March King was the "Rock Star" of his era

47. Sulk : POUT

48. Catchall survey opción : OTRO - Other in Spanish 

49. Carnival draw : SEER - Do you remember the Tom Hanks movie where Zoltar was the carnival SEER?

50. Street adornment : TREE 

53. "Preacher" network : AMC - Make you wanna tune in?

54. Black __ : OPS

DA GRID

What say you?

Friday, March 9, 2018, Alex Bajcz

Title: Sounds like fun.

Alex B. makes his second 2018 appearance and his first Friday since his debut in 2013. That one also had sound alike fill. Here the premise is simple - one word in a known phrase is replaced with its homonym and clued for maximum comedic effect. Unlike some puzzles depending on pronunciation, there really should not be any regional complaints about the word choices. I enjoyed the choices and the rest of the puzzle.

20A. What Darwin did aboard the Beagle? : WRITE OF PASSAGE (14). RITE of passage,  a French term innovated by the ethnographer Arnold van Gennep in his work Les rites de passage, "The Rites of Passage." The Beagle is particularly notable for carrying the naturalist Charles Darwin on her second voyage. The voyage played a pivotal role in the formation of Darwin's scientific theories on evolution and natural selection. Wiki et al.

25A. London supermarket sections? : BRITISH AISLES (13). British ISLES birthplace of our Steve, Nicecuppa, Truebrit and others at the corner. There are MANY.

48A. Tie shoes professionally? : KNOT FOR PROFIT (13). NOT for profit, the silliest one. I suppose a manservant -valet - might be one who knots for profit.

55A. Lacking a critical watch-making supply? : OUT OF HOUR HANDS (14). Out of OUR hands, the most clever as you need both minute hands and hour hands to make an analog watch.

There is a boatload of sparkly fill, CHAFE AT,  LAFITTE , MODULES,  NOT NICE, AIR LANES, TEST RIDE, GREAT STUFF and ICE SKATING. Let us solve/

Across:

1. In need of mopping: SPILT. My childhood refrain from the sweet boys at school:
Hasten Jason, Get the basin. Oops slop, get the mop. There is more to the song.

6. Apple app mostly replaced by Messages: i CHAT. iChat is a discontinued instant messaging software application developed by Apple Inc. for use on its Mac OS X operating system

11. Clock std. : GST. Not sure about this one; maybe Greenwich Standard Time?

14. Some plankton: ALGAE. Yummy for a whale tummy.

15. Iconic Vivien Leigh role: O'HARA.

16. 2014 World Cup Final host: RIO. The site of the World Cup and the Olympics.

17. Bungles: GOOFS.

18. Stable moms: MARES. Really fun misdirection.

19. "What is THAT?" : EEK. A mouse. HMM.

23. Far from fresh: TRITE.

24. Reduced to crumbs, perhaps: EATEN.

30. Behaved like a lovestruck heart: RACED.

31. Lakeside temperature gauge? : TOE. Also useful in catching water mocassins.

32. End: STOP.

35. Love interest for WALL-E: EVE.

36. Word that may follow a president's name: ERA.

39. Carrier merged with Delta since 2010: NWA.

41. Game with Reverse cards: UNO. My grandmother loved playing cards, cribbage when I was young, and as she got older she fell in love with UNO.

42. '50s sitcom name: DESI. Arnaz.

44. Something to wrestle with: ARM. You want to WATCH.

46. Figure out: INFER.

52. Walking aid: STAFF. We have so many here with canes or sticks, including yours truly, I use
a collapsible tartan cane.

54. Distributed: DEALT.

60. Hitter's stat: RBI. Runs Batted In.

61. Sometimes plucked instrument: CELLO. Clecho- 8D. Plucked instrument: HARP.

62. Dorothy, to Em: NIECE. Aunty 'Em.

64. Common base: TEN.

65. Impulses: URGES.

66. Showman's talent: ECLAT. This back, can ELAN be far behind?

67. Braz. neighbor: ARGentina.

68. Flirt: TEASE.

69. "Voting Rights Trail" terminus: SELMA. Want to read this STORY.

Down:

1. Sink: SAG. Two weeks in a row.

2. Slam (into) : PLOW.

3. Movie lab helper: IGOR.

4. Battle of New Orleans pirate: LAFITTE.

                                                                          Laffite

5. Short Golf drive? : TEST RIDE. The Volkswagon model.

6. Insect with eyespots on its wings: IO MOTH. I hope John Lampkin stops by with insight.

7. Be irritated by: CHAFE AT.

9. Region: AREA.

10. Academic hanger : TASSEL. Cute clue.

11. "Nice work!" : GREAT STUFF.

12. Onslaught: SIEGE.

13. Symbolic yet insubstantial: TOKEN.

21. München cubes: EIS. Even in German it probably upsets Tin.

22. RSVP holders: SAES.  I know it as SASE. But I guess they are not providing any stamp.

25. Word after well or ill: BRED.

26. Techno club event: RAVE. I never understood the rave; wrong generation.

27. Winter recreation: ICE SKATING. I enjoyed the skating this year at the winter Olympics.

28. Solar wind particle: ION.

29. Use a needle: SEW.

33. R.E.M.'s "The __ Love" : ONE I.

34. Cargo pickup site: PORT.

37. Ubiquitous rodent: RAT. I hope not.

38. Warning sound, perhaps: ARF.

40. Southwest routes: AIRLANES. The Luv airline.

43. Recon target: INFO. I wanted INTEL.

45. Interchangeable components : MODULES.

47. Mean: NOT NICE.

49. Lumber remnant, in Liverpool: OFFCUT. Definition of offcut. chiefly British. : something that is cut off (such as a waste piece of lumber).

50. Ascended again: REROSE. Meh.

51. "Blast it!" : PAH. Definition: an exclamation used to express disgust or contempt.

52. Wavering word: SORTA.

53. Potato or yam: TUBER.

56. "Try this": HERE.

57. Contemporary of Nadia : OLGA. Korbut.

58. Computer giant: DELL.

59. In retrospect, it may have sounded too good to be true: SCAM. If it does it is.

63. SFO posting : ETA. Airport code for San Francisco.

Do not forget to change your clocks Sunday and enjoy the extra sunshine. At least those who live in sunny climes. Thank you Alex and all who read. Lemonade out.

Thursday March 8th 2018 Brian Thomas

Theme: The Shape of Water - Best Picture Oscar shout-out! H₂O is the theme, the entries moving from "H" to "O", left-to-right.

18A. *Hobbyist's broadcasting equipment : HAM RADIO "describes the use of radio frequency spectrum for purposes of non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, private recreation, radiosport, contesting, and emergency communication." So now we know, which just begs the question - what is "radiosport"?

27A. *Drama in the Nielsen top 10 four times during the '70s : HAWAII FIVE-O. "Book 'em Danno. Murder One". Here are the opening credits, containing at least two continuity goofs.

47A. *Ball of fire : HUMAN DYNAMO. I don't think this comic book character scaled the dizzy heights of the other superheroes from Marvel and D.C. Comics:

60A. *"Oh boy, it's starting!" : HERE WE GO! British soccer fans would sing this to the tune of "Stars and Stripes Forever". "Here we go, here we go, here we go, here we go, here we go, here we go-oh". Repeat ad nauseam.

69A. Liquid whose chemical formula is a homophonic hint to the answers to starred clues : WATER

Neat puzzle today from Brian - one of those simple yet satisfying themes which almost make you wonder why you didn't think of it yourself. The theme entries are nice and fresh, and there are some lovely longer entries in the downs which I always enjoy. Let's explore the fill:

Across:

1. Vaccine pioneer Salk : JONAS. I confidently had JONAH, which had me wondering what "HIN" was doing when that showed up.

6. Biblical verb : HATH. Went with HAST. Should have waited.

10. Sever, with "off" : LOP

13. "The Good Wife" wife : ALICIA. Thank you, crosses. I'm hopeless with most TV and movie-related fill.

15. Irrawaddy River locale : ASIA. Myanmar, formerly Burma. My father was posted to Burma for part of WWII, he spoke fondly about the country, even though he wasn't there in exactly the best circumstances.

16. Hubbub : ADO

17. Grilled sandwich : PANINI. Panini are also a company that publishes sports stickers and trading cards. I'm not quite sure how, but I got sucked into collecting all the players, badges and stadia of the last soccer World Cup in 2014. It became quite an adventure.

20. Checked out : EYED

21. Gather : REAP

23. Domestic sock eater? : DRYER. I've got one brown sock sitting lonely and forlorn on the top of my dresser right now. I didn't even know I had brown socks.

24. Storied climber : JILL. Heading up the hill with her compadre Jack. I'm still confused as to why you would head up a hill to collect water, surely you're more likely to find it in the valley below? The things that keep me awake at night ..

26. Little limb : TWIG

32. Special __ : OPS

35. Mets modifier of 1969 : AMAZIN' They won the World Series in only their eighth season as a Major League Baseball franchise. I was at MLB HQ last week - here's part of the main lobby:

36. Noggin : BEAN

37. Case in Lat. grammar : DAT. Dative. In order - nominative, vocative, accusative, genitive, dative, ablative. Thank you, grammar school Latin class.

38. Twit : DITZ

39. Cuts and pastes, say : EDITS

41. Trellis climber : VINE

42. Corner PC key : ESC Didn't even have to look! What does a Mac have in the corner?

43. Expert : WHIZ

44. Mysterious girl on "Stranger Things" : ELEVEN. Thanks again, crosses.

46. "Zip it!" : SHH!

49. "No __!": "Sure!" : PROB!

51. Lose one's coat : SHED

52. Moves to the melody : SWAYS

54. "__ Encounter": SeaWorld show : ORCA. A somewhat discredited destination now.

56. Shakespearean "You as well?" : ET TU? Brutus becomes Brute in the vocative. Latin class today.

62. First words : INTROS

64. Muffin grain : OAT

65. Believe : HOLD

66. Wind farm blades : ROTORS

67. Like some grins : WRY. Also broad grins. Any other offers of grin descriptors?

68. People : ONES. What? This is obscure, to say the least.

Down:

1. Zinger : JAPE

2. Body wash brand : OLAY. I didn't know this was a body wash, I only know the brand for face cream.

3. Largest single-digit square : NINE. One, four and nine.

4. Genre incorporating elements of funk and hip-hop : ACID JAZZ. New to me. Fresh fill to the LAT.

5. Transgression : SIN

6. "LOL" : HA HA

7. "Right away!" : ASAP!

8. Dickens boy : TIM. Tiny Tim, a character in the novel "A Christmas Carol".

9. Taxing and successful : HARD WON

10. Coventry rider : LADY GODIVA. Here's a statue representing the legendary ride in the city itself.

11. Dog that licks Garfield : ODIE

12. Low-quality : POOR

14. Where many missed connections occur : AIRLINE HUB. I''m generally pretty lucky making my connections. I came close to missing my flight to Delhi last month, my inbound from LAX to Newark arrived almost 90 minutes late, eight of us were running through the airport from one end of Terminal C to the other. No chance of that today, I'm on an up-and-back to San Francisco.

19. MLB's D-backs : ARI. Arizona on scoreboards.

22. 2003 holiday film : ELF

25. IV lead? : III. Roman numeral progression, I, II, III, IV. Nice clue.

26. Bouffant feature : TEASED HAIR

27. Flame-haired villain in Disney's "Hercules" : HADES. More help from the crosses.

28. Mennonite sect : AMISH

29. Super Bowl gathering, e.g. : WATCH PARTY. I think this expression is new to me. I've heard of a gamewatch event, but not a watch party. Fresh fill, this hasn't been used in the LAT before.

30. Mediterranean vacation island : IBIZA. A popular destination beginning in the 80's for house music aficionados. Most of the nightclubs play house.

31. Zoo doc : VET

33. "The Hunger Games" land : PANEM. Thank you, crosses.

34. __ pad : STENO

40. Barely lit : DIM

41. Blood feud : VENDETTA

43. List of notables : WHO'S WHO. Most industries have a "vanity" Who's Who publication that you can pay a fee to have your profile included.

45. Soap chemical : LYE

48. Defense advisory gp. : N.S.C. National Security Council.

50. __ whiskey : RYE

52. Thing to put on : SHOW

53. Put on : WEAR

54. Look bad? : OGLE. Fun clue. I think I might have written it as "Bad look".

55. Slender cylinders : RODS

57. Budweiser Clydesdales' pace : TROT

58. Shredded : TORE

59. TASS country : USSR. The news agency TASS from the now-defunct USSR

61. Many years : EON

63. "Spring the trap!" : NOW!

I think that's it from me today. I just need to post the grid and I'm finished!

Steve