Saturday April 16, 2011 Brad Wilber

Theme: None

Total words: 72

Total blocks: 30

This puzzle is anchored by a grid-spanning 15 crossed by two 10s:

35A. Summertime response to a wave? : HOT ENOUGH FOR YOU? Heat wave.

5D. Puts up gates, say : BABY-PROOFS. I was picturing real gates.

30D. Menacingly complex, as a bureaucracy : KAFKAESQUE. As typified by the works of Franz Kafka.

Today is a good example of how it's the cluing and not obscure words that made a late-week puzzle tough:

14A. Eugene O'Neill character? : CAPITAL O. The O in his name O'Neill. Not any play character.

50D. 2009 U.S. Open champ Glover : LUCAS. "Star Wars" director George would be too easy a clue. Here is our champion Lucas Glover. Ricky Barnes collapsed in the final round.

Lively fill abound in the grid.

Across:

1. Turned to a life of crime : GONE BAD. Figured the end had to be ED. Oops!

8. Become absorbed : OSMOSE. I wanted ENRAPT, which is an adj. Dummy!

15. Scorched : SEARED

16. Order in a preschool classroom : ALPHABET. Of course, I was in the verb "order" line of thinking.

17. NFL coach with the most career postseason wins : LANDRY (Tom). No idea. Longtime Cowboys coach.

18. Grant, for one : LOU. Wanted CIC again, thinking of President Grant.

19. Half of the UAR : SYR. UAR is a union of Syria and Egypt.

20. Surname of 15th/16th-century Pope Alexander VI : BORGIA. Wow, who knows?!

21. Physics units : ERGS. Work units.

23. Not flush : POOR. What kind of flush do you have in mind? Poker? Alignment?

25. Is wistful (for) : LONGS

27. 1959 winner of a record 11 Oscars : BEN-HUR. Brad knows everything about Oscar.

29. Debauchee : RAKE. So is ROUE.

31. In imitation of : A LA

32. Kinsey Institute Library collection : EROTICA. Where is it?

34. Negligible amount : DRIB. Not IOTA.

39. Skeptic's retort : I BET

40. Searched, in a way : FRISKED

41. Six-time Sugar Bowl victors, briefly : LSU. Six-time, is it a record?

42. Literary ID : ISBN

43. Lineups : ARRAYS

47. Preeminent industrialist : TITAN. Would you call Donald Trump a titan?

49. Guernsey, for one : ISLE

51. Citation space-saver : ET AL

52. Sidestepped : DODGED

54. "Royal Pains" network : USA. I've never heard of "Royal Pains".

56. It had a hub at JFK : TWA. Guessed.

57. Took umbrage at : MINDED

58. Familiarize : ACQUAINT

60. Cocktail flavored with orgeat syrup : MAI TAI. Not familiar with the syrup. Wiki says orgreat derived from the Latin hordeata, meaning "made with barley".

61. "Viaducts Break Ranks" painter : PAUL KLEE. Here's the painting. Very abstract.

62. Extra number : ENCORE. Oh, musical number.

63. 6-Down, nowadays : USED CAR. And 6D. Olds introduced in '98 : ALERO.

Down:

1. In abundance : GALORE

2. Call into question : OPPUGN. New word to me.

3. Biomedical research agcy. : NIH

4. Itinerary nos. : ETAs. ETA = Estimated Time of Arrival.

7. Bespeckle : DOT

8. City with the newspaper Aftenposten : OSLO. First encounter with the newspaper.

9. Ambien maker : SEARLE. Also the maker of Celebrex. Now part of Pfizer.

10. Chutney fruit : MANGO. Delicious!

11. Prosaic : ORDINARY

12. Harem : SERAGLIO. Dictionary says it's rooted in Italian serraglio, meaning "animal cage". ODA is Turkish for room.

13. Joseph of ice cream fame : EDY

14. Canaan infiltrator : CALEB. Biblical spy.

20. Big name in candy corn : BRACH'S

22. Word with cake or metal : SHEET

24. Sources : ORIGINS

26. "A Tiger Walks" star : SABU. Was ignorant of film "A Tiger Walks". India-born Actor.

28. Catering dispenser : URN

33. Murky : TURBID

34. Frequent producer for Eminem : DR DRE

35. Highest degree : HILT. To the hilt.

36. Volcanic glass : OBSIDIAN. Also a new word to me.

37. Frankfurter adjective : TEUTONIC

38. "Not stepping __ the bounds of modesty": Juliet : O'ER

42. Ready to roll : IN GEAR

44. Fifth-century invader of Gaul : ATTILA. The Hun.

45. Hardly a moving picture? : YAWNER. Tricky clue.

46. Group of candidates : SLATE

48. Augment : ADD TO

53. Eva Marie's "On the Waterfront" role : EDIE. Stumper for me.

55. Word heard after a countdown : AULD. "Auld Lang Syne". New Year count.

57. Nice address: Abbr. : MME (Madame). Nice the City in France.

58. "The Simpsons" Squishee seller : APU. The shopkeeper.

59. Pedigree-tracking org. : AKC (American Kennel Club)

Answer grid.

Happy 83rd Birthday to our fellow LA Times solver Dot! And a belated Happy 97th  Birthday to her husband Irv! Hi there Andrea & Kazie.

C.C.

Friday, April 15, 2011, Matt Matera

Theme: Initial names and more. Each theme answer takes the name of a famous person who is known by his initials, and adds a new letter to the end of the initials to create an in the society expression. The answers are pretty cool, and I really was a little taken back by 1A being a theme answer. We have:

1A. Fantasy author and forensic pathologist?: CSI LEWIS. C S Lewis has reached new audiences with the movies made from his Chronicles of Narnia. His life was depicted in one of my all time favorite movies, Shadowlands. It is impossible to have avoided all the CSI shows on television, though it looks like they are finally fading.

22A. Behaviorist and teen confidant?: BFF SKINNER. As a psychology major, there was much debate between ways to modify human behavior; Freud with analysis and B F Skinner who believed you could train humans like rats, simply reward or punish behavior. He was known as the rat psychologist, which did not make him my BFF, BEST FRIEND FOREVER.

33A. Huckster and school supporter?: PTA BARNUM. Phineas T. Barnum was a showman, with little respect for his audience. He probably never went to a Parent Teacher Association meeting.

49A. British novelist and medic?: EMT FORSTER. This author wrote a few very interesting BOOKS , not to be confused with C S Forester who wrote Horatio Hornblower novels. Neither of them were Emergency Medical Techinicians.

63A. Children's author and roadside helper? : AAA MILNE. Mr. Milne was the author of the beloved Winnie the Pooh series (which we read in Latin, Winnie Ille Pu) and like Forster and Lewis a British author. American Automobile Association has been helping drivers for years.

Lemonade here, having horrendous computer problems, having had this post go blooey and redone four times, I am giving up on all the links for this week, perhaps I can get some in during the day. I liked the theme and its consistency, now let's see what else we have hidden to find.

Across:

9. Jah worshipers: RASTAS. The divine being in the Rastafarian religion, the name likely derived from the famous tetragrammaton of Judaism, YHVH, Yahweh.

15. Reason for a pass: LATENESS. I did not get the boys to school late often, but have to go in an get them a pass was always unpleasant.

16. Strike caller: UMPIRE. Balls and strikes.

17. German shepherd: ALSATIAN. Wonderful dogs.

18. Some special forces headgear: BERETS. Who among us did not love the Ballad of the Green Berets.

19. It merged with Kmart in 2005: SEARS. When I was a kid we lived in a town so small all we had was a Sears catalog store. Learned a lot from those catalogs.

20. Hairy: PILAR. Our first Latin of the day, from PILUS meaning hair. You wonder if people like Deion Sanders who married a girl with that name, looks at her and sees  her as hairy?

21. High sch. VIPs: SRS. Seniors.

27. At first blush: INITIALLY. What a quaint little phrase.

30. Teen follower?: AGERS. One of the many ways suffixes are described to confuse.

31. Infer: CONSTRUE. Dictionaries list INFER and IMPLY as synonymous; Nero Wolfe is rolling over in his fictional grave.

32. Indeed: YEA. There really are many 3 letter words in this offering.

38. Toon dynamo, familiarly: TAZ. The Tazmanian Devil, very cute.

41. Inspiration for the Frisbee: PIE PLATE. Since all the flying saucers in the movies in those days were pie plates, this makes lots of sense.

45. Lieu: STEAD. Almost a legal term.

48. Time, for one: DIMENSION. Einstein's theory of relativity made time the 4th dimension.

51. CD-__: ROM. Compact Disc-Read-Only Memory.

52. Droid in every "Star Wars" film: ARTOO. DEETO, the little one.

53. Sweet cake that's an Easter tradition in Eastern Europe: BABKA.

55. Spots: ESPIES.

57. University of Cincinnati team: BEARCATS. One of the many teams beaten by UConn on their most recent trip to the NCAA Basketball championship.

60. Gangster's gun, in old-timey slang: ROSCOE. A gat, a piece and so many more. Has anyone read Hammet and Chandler?

61. Permits: ENTITLES. I had trouble with this thinking in noun.

62. Most people: ASIANS. This was so easy it was hard.

Going...

Down:

1. Thing that endures: CLASSIC. So many good and bad things endure, this was tricky.

2. Port of SW Italy: SALERNO . A very pretty city.

3. "That's just wrong" : IT'S A SIN. A bit strong.

4. "That way madness lies" speaker: LEAR. No, I will weep no more. In such a night,

To shut me out? Pour on; I will endure.

In such a night as this? O Regan, Goneril!

Your old kind father, whose frank heart gave all—

O, that way madness lies; let me shun that;

No more of that.

5. Tolkien's Skinbark and Leaflock, e.g.: ENTS. JRR Tolkein was a close friend of C S Lewis, they both taught at Oxford and wrote fantasy novels. I see a sub-theme with British authors who wrote for younger readers.

6. China's Northern __ Dynasty, 386-534 AD: WEI. Interesting history.

7. First of the Maj. Prophets: ISA. Major Prophets, Isaiah.

8. Three-part fig. SSN. Social Security Number.

9. Creator of a popular six-color puzzle: RUBIK. The cube, many man hours lost on that baby.

10. First name in aviation: AMELIA. Not sure why she is first, but Ms. Earhardt is a continuation from last week.

11. Paid (for): SPRANG. Yes, I sprang for lunch last Friday.

12. Maura of "ER": TIERNEY. I enjoyed her in NEWS RADIO

13. Lost __ : ART. Letter writing is a lost art.

14. Paris possessive: SES. Wake up Lolita, our French lesson; SON means his/ hers of a singular item, SES is his/hers for a plural item. LEURS is for theirs.

20. Adler's subj.: PSY. More abbreviations and more psychology and Alfred Adler a disciple of Freud.

22. Theda of silents : BARA.

23. Bungle: FLUB. Makes me think of FLUB a DUB in the tub.

24. Run-down theater : FLEA PIT. I have heard of Flea bag hotels.

25. Before, in verse : ERE.

26. Where Mandela was pres.: RSA. The Republic of South Africa provided another Masters' champion this past weekend. And, 46D. Lesotho's home: AFRICA. A little landlocked country in the middle of RSA.

28. Dosage abbr.: TSP. Teaspoon.

29. Babbling Addams character: ITT. Their PILAR cousin.

34. Coleridge work: RIME. Of the Ancient Mariner, and Epic Poem.

35. __-do-well: NEER. Another great old phrase.

36. Network that merged with The WB: UPN. United Paramount Network.

37. David Beckham's org.: MLS. Major League Soccer.

38. Half a fly:TSE. Really, we have not seen this stinker in a while.

39. Withdrawal aid, briefly: ATM. Becoming a gimme.

40. Fraternity founded at New York University in 1847: ZETA PSI. Really obscure, but there are not that many greek letters.

42. Hoops embarrassment: AIRBALL. When the shooter in basketball, misses everything, does not hit the basket, the backboard, just air.

43. Caught one's breath: TOOK TEN. I never got more than 5.

44. As one : EN MASSE. French, in a single mass.

47. Spoil rotten : DOTE ON. I love them babies.

48. Brit. military award : DSO. Distinguished Service Order.

50. Lover's gift : ROSES. 20 million red roses are given on Valentine's Day in the US, or so they say. I like other roses better if you were planning on sending me some.

53. Boater's edge: BRIM. Well the brim is everyone's edge, fill it to the brim. Brim are also bait fish? (Note: Boater hat).

54. When Tony sings "Maria" : ACT I. West Side Story.

55. Time often named : ERA. Huh?

56. Under-the-sink brand : SOS. We were a Brillo family.

57. Arthur of "All in the Family" : BEA. Where she played Maude, a liberal who infuriated Archie and who ended up with her own series.

58. Spain's Queen Victoria Eugenia, familiarly: ENA. The grand daughter of Queen Victoria.

59. ___snail's pace: AT A. which is how this puzzle was for me, not hard, just a real slog. Between vision and computer problems, a long night. Enjoy the upcoming holidays whatever your persuasion, and see you next time.

Answer grid.

Lemonade

Thursday, Apr 14, 2011 Daniel A. Finan

Theme? The clue is a part of the answer... The three theme answers all end with a word that indicates a fraction of a whole, and the clue word is contained as part of each of the first words.

20. Pan?: COMPANION PIECE. PAN is a PIECE of the word COMPANION. A companion piece is one work that compliments another, like the two movies: Letters from Iwo Jima and Flags of Our Fathers, each tells the "same" story from a different perspective. 

33. With 44-Across, ten?: SENTENCE.  44. See 33-Across: FRAGMENT.  TEN is a FRAGMENT of the word SENTENCE.  I accidentally the whole thing.

54. Kin?: SMOKING SECTION. KIN is a SECTION of the word SMOKING. Is this subject still a hot button for an argument about rights?  The statement I remember setting off a war was something like this: Having a smoking section in a restaurant is like having a peeing section in a pool.

Hi all, Al here.  I finally saw the light... Only three theme answers. They all left me puzzled, and didn't help with solving.  No unifier clue anywhere, either. The clue words are contained in position 4-6 of all the answer words. The parts given as the clues all end with an "N", preceded in order by a vowel, in order, A,E,I.  I was pulling out the last of my hair trying to see what was right in front of me.  At first, I noticed that of the three, only smoking -kin = smog made another word, sence might make sense if you're British, and comion isn't a word, so it didn't appear to be letter drops in common. So how are the clues related to the answers? Argyle finally gave me the clue I needed from an interview that Daniel had given Sept 3, 2009:

 "To me the perfect puzzle is a simple, elegant, and subtle gimmick puzzle. I really like the crosswords that have a metapuzzle. For example, with some (themed) puzzles, I can fill in the entire grid, and I still don't "get it." So I have to really dig deep to find the theme... it's then that I get that satisfying "Aha!" moment. I wonder how many people miss the whole point of subtle puzzles like that."

I went back and re-read the whole  interview, and he had talked about PARTS of speech as the theme from another of his puzzles, and suddenly the light came on...

ACROSS:

1. Flying group: CREW. Captain and crew on an (air) ship.

5. Comic Johnson: ARTE. Soundbite from Laugh-in: "Very interesting."

9. Hyphenated dessert name: JELL-O.

14. Half dodeca-: HEXA. Prefixes for 12 and 6, respectively.

15. Liner danger: BERG. Ocean liner, ice berg.

16. Hater of David, in Dickens: URIAH. Heep.

17. Theater giant?: IMAX. As Ed Sullivan might say, a really big shoe. 70 mm film instead of the standard 35 mm and 300 foot screens.

18. In __: confused: A FOG.

19. High humor?: JINKS.  Hijinks. From an old party game where guests threw dice to determine who would perform some silly task or down a large drink. Either outcome would cause amusement to everyone present. Kind of like truth or dare, but with drinking instead of truth.

23. Relative of -like: OID. Suffixes for similar. For example, android means human-like. (Greek "andro" means "human".)

24. Wine bar offerings: PORTS. From the Portugese city of Oporto (the port). Less-known 4-letter wines: Hocks (German Hochheim region), Tents (Spanish reds "tinta"), and Sacks (Spanish white, a precursor to Sherry).

25. Moshe Dayan's "oxygen of the soul": FREEDOM.

29. Guff: GAS. Empty noise, nonsense. Oh, you're just a bag of gas.  Guff, like a puff of air, vaguely onomatopoetic.

30. Moo chew?: CUD. Come to Wisconsin and smell our dairy air.

35. Change genetically: MUTATE.

37. Former lover of Riker on "Star Trek: T.N.G.": TROI. in "The Next Generation" of Star Trek, Marina Sirtis played Deanna Troi, an empath who was the ship's counselor. William Riker, played by Jonathan Frakes, was the first mate to Patrick Stewart's Captain Jean Luc Picard.

38. Pontiff's wear: ALB.

40. Foreshadowing: OMEN.

41. Service station vessel: OIL CAN. That takes me back.  All I have seen for a long time now are plastic bottles.

47. Org. whose members are concerned with lies: PGA. Ask not where your ball lies. And don't tell any lies about it, either.

48. Birling roller: LOG. The lumberjack contest to see who can stay upright longest on a spinning log.

50. Radius, e.g.: ARM BONE. Along with the ulna and the humerus.

51. San __: San Francisco Bay city: MATEO.

53. Airline to Copenhagen: SAS. Scandinavian Airlines System.

60. Centipede maker: ATARI. One of the early 8-bit video arcade games with a tracking ball instead of a joystick.

61. Spice: ELAN.

62. Yes-__ question: OR NO.

63. Veal piccata ingredient: LEMON. Veal sliced, sautéed, and served in a sauce containing lemon, butter, and spices, usually parsley.

64. Part of Caesar's boast: VENI. vidi vici. I came, I saw, I conquered.

65. N.L. East squad: NATS. National League Baseball, the Washington Nationals.

66. Country sound: TWANG.

67. Golden Fleece vessel: ARGO. From "The Odyssey", Jason's ship.

68. Sin in the film "Se7en": ENVY. The "deadly" sin that the killer was guilty of.

DOWN:

1. Very smart: CHIC. Fashionably smart.  Meaning "sharp, severe, stinging," related to  "quick, active, clever" probably from the notion of "cutting" wit, words, etc. expanded to the meaning of "trim in attire".

2. San __: REMO. On the Italian Riviera.

3. Student's stressor: EXAM.

4. Emulate Cyrano: WAX POETIC. In Edmond Rostand's highly fictionalized play, Cyrano was the source of the love poems for his romance to Roxanne through the handsome but less articulate Christian.

5. It may be reckless: ABANDON.

6. Update mtge. terms: REFI.nance a mortgage.

7. Band: TROOP.

8. Quaff garnished with nutmeg: EGG NOG. Quaff perhaps from Low German quassen "to overindulge (in food and drink)," with -ss- misread as -ff-.

9. Technique of ancient samurai: JU JITSU. The gentle, or yielding art.  The (mostly) weaponless technique of using an opponent's own momentum against them using balance and leverage, because that was more effective than trying to simply hit someone wearing armor.

10. Some native New Yorkers: ERIES.

11. Afro-sporting "Mod Squad" character: LINC. Three young people in trouble with the law are allowed to avoid jail in exchange for infiltrating the counter-culture and exposing bad guys.

12. Vacation location: LAKE.

13. Cries of understanding: OHS.

21. Hill worker: AIDE. Capitol Hill, not an ant hill.

22. Buggy relative: PRAM. A baby buggy.

25. Depth-of-field setting: F-STOP. Camera terms.

26. Outfit again: RE-RIG.

27. __ Gay: ENOLA. The B29 that dropped "little boy" on Hiroshima, named for the pilot's mother, Enola Gay (Tibbits).  Pilot: Paul Tibbits.

28. George Strait label: MCA. Music Corporation of America.

30. Actor's day job?: CAMEO. Because waiter was too long.

31. SEC school that retired Peyton Manning's number: U TENN. South Eastern Conference, University of Tennessee.

32. Pasta al __: DENTE. "to the tooth", just a little chewy.

34. Santa's 21-Down: ELF.

36. O.K. Corral town: TOMBSTONE.

39. It's usually uplifting: BRA.

42. Diced and served in a mushroom cream sauce: ALA KING.

43. "Don't look at me!": NOT I.

45. Hall of fame: ARSENIO. Hall as a famous last name, not as a place of recognition.

46. Ally Financial Inc., formerly: GMAC. General Motors Acceptance Corporation.

49. City on the Rhone: GENEVA. Today's geography map.

51. Jerk: MORON. American English carnival slang, perhaps from jerkwater town, where a steam locomotive crew had to take on boiler water from a trough or a creek because there was no water tank. This led to an adj. use of jerk as "inferior, insignificant." Moron is directly from Greek for "foolish, dull". Still, connotatively, these don't really feel synonymous to me...

52. Stare master?: OGLER. A play on words for stair master exercise equipment.

54. Ratatouille, for one: STEW. The full name of the dish is ratatouille niçoise. It originated in the area around present day Occitan Provença and Niça (French: Nice). Derived from ratouiller and tatouiller, two expressive forms of of the French verb touiller, meaning to stir up.

55. Doll's word: MAMA. You'd say mama too, if someone kept tipping you upside down until you made noise.

56. Did some selling out: SANG. Ratted on. Snitched.

57. Mashhad is its second-largest city: IRAN.

58. Airing: ON TV.

59. Intrusive: NOSY.

60. PC key: ALT. Used to change (alternate) the function of other pressed keys. Most computers today use the ASCII character set, which only needs 7 of the 8 bits in one byte to represent all the numbers and letters, both upper and lower (and punctuation, plus certain special signal sequences).  The ALT key was originally used to set the "extra" 8th bit so an extended value could be entered, but because of the requirements of internationalization of character sets, it no longer works that way, but instead alters what other keys do depending on the program being used at the time.  TMI, right?

Answer Grid.

Al

Wednesday, April 13 2011, Michael Blake

Theme: Pay the Piper. each theme answer is a phrase beginning with a synonym for bill.

20A. Unable to reach a human, no matter which buttons one presses : IN VOICE MAIL JAIL.  anymore, that describes pretty much every call to any business. when i have to call my son's school it takes several minutes just to get to the part where i can push a button. if i need to actually talk to someone at the bank ... i need to take the afternoon off.

25A. Word processor setting : TAB ALIGNMENT. remember physically setting the sliding tabs on ibm typewriters?

42A. 1791 legislation : BILL OF RIGHTS. first ten amendments of the us constitution.

48A. Verify ahead of time, and a hint to what 20-, 25- and 42-Across have in common : CHECK BEFOREHAND. beforehand = in advance. i wonder why no one says afterhand? 

fun, just-right wednesday level puzzle, with two grid-spanning theme answers, and some fresh and fun clueing. we've seen michael blake twice before here at the corner. he had a perfect score at the 2008 silicon valley puzzle day.  i found this article, and this image.

melissa blogging.

Across:

1. Explorer Vasco da __ : GAMA. Had no clue (yuk yuk). Portuguese navigator who led an expedition at the end of the 15th century that opened the sea route to India by way of the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa.

5. Political channel : C-SPAN

10. Blabbers : GABS. too short to be a plural noun, had to be a verb.

14. Actor Sharif : OMAR. holds a degree in mathematics and physics from cairo university. best known for playing sherif ali in lawrence of arabia (1962) and the title role in doctor zhivago. 

15. Broom rider of comics : HILDA. coincidentally, blake used this same clue/answer in one of his two previous puzzles blogged here (by c.c.). in the comic, broom hilda is atilla the hun's ex-wife.  kazie commented before: an obvious play on the name Brunhilde from the legend on which Wagner based his "Der Ring des Nibelungen" opera, and provided this link.

16. Brother of Daniel, William and Stephen : ALEC

17. Titanic bane : BERG. images of the actual iceberg that sunk the titanic. roughly only 8%-11% of an iceberg is visible above the surface of the ocean - thus the phrase 'tip of the iceberg.'

18. Alaskan native : INUIT

19. "Battle for __": Peter Yates WWII book : ST. LO

23. Highest ordinal number? : NTH

24. Changed course : VEERED

31. Ryder rival : U-HAUL.  i just drove a 14-foot one in february. 350 miles. in the snow. little scary.

32. Screech owls don't make them : HOOTS. cute.

33. 'Hood pal : BRO

36. It may be put in a washer : BOLT

37. Bingo relative : LOTTO

38. Pet plaint : MEOW

39. Observe : EYE

40. First of 12 popes : PIUS I. don't know my popes.

41. Bed that can be stored during the day : FUTON. 

44. Prison in 1971 headlines : ATTICA. new york. riot based in part upon prisoners' demands for better living conditions.

47. Some pop-ups : ADS. some are not ad-related ...

55. Skye of film : IONE

56. Mythical weeper : NIOBE. queen of thebes, one of the more tragic figures of greek mythology. after her husband and 14 children were slain she turned to stone, and a stream (the Achelous) formed from her ceaseless tears. She became the symbol of eternal mourning.

57. Baking soda target : ODOR

58. Let go : DROP

59. Swashbuckling Flynn : ERROL

60. Mosaic piece : TILE

61. Without : SANS

62. Type in again : RE-KEY

63. White man's makeup? : SNOW. snowman.

Down:

1. Mongolian desert : GOBI

2. Congregational yes : AMEN

3. Wonderful, in slang : MARV. marvelous.

4. Mythical sailor : ARGONAUT

5. Affectedly elegant : CHI-CHI. hm. i'm guessing this is pronounced "shee-shee," perhaps based on chic. i work at a chi-chi-foo-foo spa. pronounced a different way, it means something entirely different.

6. Trig function : SINE

7. Fellow suspect of Mustard : PLUM. from the board game clue.

8. 1998 Sarah McLachlan hit : ADIA

9. Hailing from : NATIVE TO

10. Stove nozzle : GAS JET

11. Hitching post? : ALTAR. great clue.

12. Prove false : BELIE

13. Bawl out : SCOLD

21. "__ have to do" : IT'LL. what'll i do?

22. Camera eye : LENS

25. Poster mailer : TUBE

26. Greeting from a deck : AHOY

27. Hayride seat : BALE. who's been on a hayride?

28. Grave robber : GHOUL

29. False : NOT SO

30. Theme : MOTIF

33. Sister of Meg, Jo and Amy : BETH. little women.

34. Carrot or cassava : ROOT

35. Has title to : OWNS

37. Tiny Yokum's big brother : LI'L ABNER

38. Pictures of perps : MUG SHOTS. 

40. Elect : PICK

41. Bona __ : FIDE. latin. "in good faith."

42. Curl beneficiary : BICEPS. cute.

43. Hardly ever : RARELY

44. Etching supplies : ACIDS

45. Birch of "American Beauty" : THORA

46. Mortise's mate : TENON

49. Galway's land : EIRE. in my high-tech days we had a site in galway - always liked working with them just to hear the accent.

50. Driver's decision point : FORK. pssst - take the one less traveled by.

51. Bassoon kin : OBOE

52. Server's edge, in tennis : AD IN

53. Court plea, for short : NOLO. nolo contendere. lemonade and/or hahtool can expain better than i.

54. Depicted : DREW

Answer grid. 

melissa