Theme: GLASS (72A: Dinnerware item that can precede the start of 17-, 26-, 38-, 52- or 61-Across)
17A: Paintings and such: WORKS OF ART
26A: Causing heads to turn: EYE-CATCHING
38A: Releasing stress, in a way: BLOWING OFF STEAM
52A: Gungan general of "Star Wars" films: JAR JAR BINKS
61A: Very hard candy: JAWBREAKER
And glass ceiling, glasshouse and glassware. What else?
Dictionary explains GLASS JAW as "a person's jaw, esp. that of a boxer, that is vulnerable to even a light blow". It's a new phrase to me.
I got the unifying answer GLASS quickly, but had difficulty obtaining the last two theme answers. Not a "Star Wars' fan, so JAR JAR BINKS was a total stranger to me. He looks ugly. I've never heard of JAWBREAKER candy either. The name sounds so hard.
Very happy to see MINN (67A: Its state bird is the common loon) in the puzzle. Finally a day to celebrate Minnesota. At last, we have a 2rd senator. Mr. (Al) Franken Goes to Washington. I don't expect one iota of "Mr. Smith" style idealism. What a saga! 8 months' recount and court fight.
Across:
1A: World-weary: BLASE. Oh well, lah-di-dah, lah-di-dah.
10A: Feature of a bad air day: SMOG. Misread the clue as "bad hair".
14A: Bay Area county: MARIN. I got the answer from Down fills. Inside the green zone. Wikipedia says it's across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco.
15A: Fairy tale opener: ONCE. And THE (40D: First word of many titles).
16A: Heart: CORE
19A: Ship of Greek mythology: ARGO. Jason and the Argonauts.
21A: House party convenience: WET BAR
29A: Alimony recipients: EXES. But "All My EX'S Live in Texas".
31A: Negatives: NO'S
32A: Watch readouts: LEDS (Light-Emitting Diodes)
36A: Soup bean: LIMA. I've never made any soup with LIMA bean.
44A: Kinfolk: Abbr.: RELS
45A: A flat counterpart: G-SHARP
46A: Ending letters, in Leeds: ZEDS. Our ZEES.
49A: Suffix with expert: ISE. Hmm, very straightforward cluing. "Verb ending, in Leeds" would be a great clue too. I like our IZE ending though.
56A: Sargasso, for one: SEA. I've never heard of the Sargasso SEA. Dictionary says Sargasso is Portuguese for "seaweed".
57A: Kilimanjaro site: AFRICA. Hope to see Kilimanjaro as answer someday.
58A: River islets: AITS. AIT has the same pronunciation as ATE.
68A: Fourth person: ABEL
69A: Wishful words: I HOPE
70A: Early birds?: EGGS. Nice clue.
Down:
1D: Munich-based automaker: BMW. It owns Rolls-Royce.
2D: __-tze: LAO. The Taoism founder. LAO is literally "old" in Chinese.
4D: Punjab sect member: SIKH. Pronounced the same as "seek". Literally, "disciple".
5D: Happen next: ENSUE
6D: Ease: SOFTEN
7D: "___ clear day ...": ON A
8D: Text-scanning technology, briefly: OCR. No idea. It stands for Optical Character Recognition.
9D: Contents meas.: NET WT
10D: Verbally attack: SCATHE. Oh, this is a new definition to me. So few politicians escapes Maureen Dowd unscathed.
11D: Like fascination with the dark side: MORBID. Woody Allen is half-MORBID.
12D: Instruments with stops: ORGANS
13D: Conductor Szell: GEORG. Nope. Wikipedia says GEORG Szell was born in Budapest and grew up in Vienna. And he served as as Music Director for the Cleveland Orchestra from 1946 to 1970.
18D: Direct ending?: ORY. Directory. IVE is a "Direct ending?" too.
22D: Mercedes sedan category: E-CLASS. Waiting for Dennis to give more information.
23D: LPGA star Karrie: WEBB. I have several of her autographed items. She is in golf Hall of Fame.
24D: Skating maneuver: AXEL. Named after Paulsen AXEL who popularized the maneuver.
25D: Part of a rep's spiel: DEMO. And GLIB (39D: Smooth-talking).
27D: Gigantic statues: COLOSSI. Or colossuses.
28D: "Like, no way!": AS IF
34D: Respiratory cavity: AIR SAC. For bird, right? I obtained the answer from Across fills.
35D: Dir. from Wichita to Omaha: NNE
37D Factory work: Abbr.: MFG. OK, MFG stands for"manufacturing" and MFR stands for "manufacturer".
41D: Vittles: EATS. Anyone likes Alton Brown's "Good EATS"?
42D: 18th century composer Thomas: ARNE. The composer for "Rule, Britannia".
43D: Film-rating org.: MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America)
46D: Alluringly plump: ZAFTIG. New word to me. Dictionary says it's Yiddish for "juicy, succulent". Betty Grable's picture showed up when I googled ZAFTIG. to me, she is not plump at all. Just perfect.
48D: Islamic genies: DJINNS. I only know the other spelling: JINNI. It's literally "demon".
52D: "My Name is Earl" Emmy winner Pressly: JAIME. New actress to me. Very interesting name. J'aime is literally "I love" in French.
53D: Indian prince: RAJAH
54D: Cassis cocktail: KIR. Named after Félix KIR (1876–1968), mayor of Dijon, who allegedly created the recipe, according to Dictionary.com. I've never had it. It's made of crème de cassis (blackcurrant liquor) & white wine.
55D: "Shrek" author Williams: STEIG. Don't know the author. Shrek looks ugly too.
63D: Unseld of the NBA: WES. Sometimes it's clued as "Director Craven".
64D: Campground org.: KOA (Kampgrounds of America). Unknown to me.
65D: Mini-albums, briefly: EPS (Extended Plays). Also new to me.
66D: Legal thing: RES. Latin for "thing".
Answer grid.
C.C.
17A: Paintings and such: WORKS OF ART
26A: Causing heads to turn: EYE-CATCHING
38A: Releasing stress, in a way: BLOWING OFF STEAM
52A: Gungan general of "Star Wars" films: JAR JAR BINKS
61A: Very hard candy: JAWBREAKER
And glass ceiling, glasshouse and glassware. What else?
Dictionary explains GLASS JAW as "a person's jaw, esp. that of a boxer, that is vulnerable to even a light blow". It's a new phrase to me.
I got the unifying answer GLASS quickly, but had difficulty obtaining the last two theme answers. Not a "Star Wars' fan, so JAR JAR BINKS was a total stranger to me. He looks ugly. I've never heard of JAWBREAKER candy either. The name sounds so hard.
Very happy to see MINN (67A: Its state bird is the common loon) in the puzzle. Finally a day to celebrate Minnesota. At last, we have a 2rd senator. Mr. (Al) Franken Goes to Washington. I don't expect one iota of "Mr. Smith" style idealism. What a saga! 8 months' recount and court fight.
Across:
1A: World-weary: BLASE. Oh well, lah-di-dah, lah-di-dah.
10A: Feature of a bad air day: SMOG. Misread the clue as "bad hair".
14A: Bay Area county: MARIN. I got the answer from Down fills. Inside the green zone. Wikipedia says it's across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco.
15A: Fairy tale opener: ONCE. And THE (40D: First word of many titles).
16A: Heart: CORE
19A: Ship of Greek mythology: ARGO. Jason and the Argonauts.
21A: House party convenience: WET BAR
29A: Alimony recipients: EXES. But "All My EX'S Live in Texas".
31A: Negatives: NO'S
32A: Watch readouts: LEDS (Light-Emitting Diodes)
36A: Soup bean: LIMA. I've never made any soup with LIMA bean.
44A: Kinfolk: Abbr.: RELS
45A: A flat counterpart: G-SHARP
46A: Ending letters, in Leeds: ZEDS. Our ZEES.
49A: Suffix with expert: ISE. Hmm, very straightforward cluing. "Verb ending, in Leeds" would be a great clue too. I like our IZE ending though.
56A: Sargasso, for one: SEA. I've never heard of the Sargasso SEA. Dictionary says Sargasso is Portuguese for "seaweed".
57A: Kilimanjaro site: AFRICA. Hope to see Kilimanjaro as answer someday.
58A: River islets: AITS. AIT has the same pronunciation as ATE.
68A: Fourth person: ABEL
69A: Wishful words: I HOPE
70A: Early birds?: EGGS. Nice clue.
Down:
1D: Munich-based automaker: BMW. It owns Rolls-Royce.
2D: __-tze: LAO. The Taoism founder. LAO is literally "old" in Chinese.
4D: Punjab sect member: SIKH. Pronounced the same as "seek". Literally, "disciple".
5D: Happen next: ENSUE
6D: Ease: SOFTEN
7D: "___ clear day ...": ON A
8D: Text-scanning technology, briefly: OCR. No idea. It stands for Optical Character Recognition.
9D: Contents meas.: NET WT
10D: Verbally attack: SCATHE. Oh, this is a new definition to me. So few politicians escapes Maureen Dowd unscathed.
11D: Like fascination with the dark side: MORBID. Woody Allen is half-MORBID.
12D: Instruments with stops: ORGANS
13D: Conductor Szell: GEORG. Nope. Wikipedia says GEORG Szell was born in Budapest and grew up in Vienna. And he served as as Music Director for the Cleveland Orchestra from 1946 to 1970.
18D: Direct ending?: ORY. Directory. IVE is a "Direct ending?" too.
22D: Mercedes sedan category: E-CLASS. Waiting for Dennis to give more information.
23D: LPGA star Karrie: WEBB. I have several of her autographed items. She is in golf Hall of Fame.
24D: Skating maneuver: AXEL. Named after Paulsen AXEL who popularized the maneuver.
25D: Part of a rep's spiel: DEMO. And GLIB (39D: Smooth-talking).
27D: Gigantic statues: COLOSSI. Or colossuses.
28D: "Like, no way!": AS IF
34D: Respiratory cavity: AIR SAC. For bird, right? I obtained the answer from Across fills.
35D: Dir. from Wichita to Omaha: NNE
37D Factory work: Abbr.: MFG. OK, MFG stands for"manufacturing" and MFR stands for "manufacturer".
41D: Vittles: EATS. Anyone likes Alton Brown's "Good EATS"?
42D: 18th century composer Thomas: ARNE. The composer for "Rule, Britannia".
43D: Film-rating org.: MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America)
46D: Alluringly plump: ZAFTIG. New word to me. Dictionary says it's Yiddish for "juicy, succulent". Betty Grable's picture showed up when I googled ZAFTIG. to me, she is not plump at all. Just perfect.
48D: Islamic genies: DJINNS. I only know the other spelling: JINNI. It's literally "demon".
52D: "My Name is Earl" Emmy winner Pressly: JAIME. New actress to me. Very interesting name. J'aime is literally "I love" in French.
53D: Indian prince: RAJAH
54D: Cassis cocktail: KIR. Named after Félix KIR (1876–1968), mayor of Dijon, who allegedly created the recipe, according to Dictionary.com. I've never had it. It's made of crème de cassis (blackcurrant liquor) & white wine.
55D: "Shrek" author Williams: STEIG. Don't know the author. Shrek looks ugly too.
63D: Unseld of the NBA: WES. Sometimes it's clued as "Director Craven".
64D: Campground org.: KOA (Kampgrounds of America). Unknown to me.
65D: Mini-albums, briefly: EPS (Extended Plays). Also new to me.
66D: Legal thing: RES. Latin for "thing".
Answer grid.
C.C.
