Theme: Food! And not just any old food, this food! Chicken and Mushrooms! Cilantro! Pass 
me the chopsticks, I'm all in!
So let's see how we got from a blank grid to dinner:
16A. Melodies for a soothing atmosphere : MOOD MUSIC. Not food music?
22A. Positive energy : GOOD KARMA. My friend Heidi has good parking karma in LA - she prays "Hail Mary, full of grace, help me find a parking space". It pretty much always works!
50A. Pick up momentum : GAIN SPEED.. Downhill and out of control, much like my skiing.
60A. 2002 Jodie Foster thriller : PANIC ROOM. An agoraphobic's cry? Panic! Room!
And the reveal(s)
36A. With 39-Across, convenience that might include the dish spelled out by the first few letters of the answers to 16-, 22-, 50- and 60-Across : CHINESE
39A. See 36-Across : TAKEOUT
Happy Wednesday everyone! Steve here, I just got back to my hotel in San Francisco after a Golden State Warriors basketball game across the bay in Oakland.
What a fun puzzle to find waiting for me - a Don and C.C. charmer (and challenge) and I'm in one of the best places in the world for Chinese food. It's funny how things work out. Take the first three letters of the theme answers and there you have dinner waiting for you.
Let's look at everything else - I found this pretty hard work, I had to pick around the middle for a little while before things started to come easier - rather like eating a lobster with chopsticks (which I did on Wednesday)
Across:
1. Fodder figure? : SILO Hmm - not a fan of this one - a lovely clue, but SILO?
5. First Greek consonant : BETA
9. Antlered grazers : ELKS
13. Australia's national gemstone : OPAL. The power of crosswords. Two years ago I would have had no idea who's gemstone was whose - now it's easy - easier than wondering if I got the apostrophes in the right place in that sentence.
14. Wail : YOWL
15. Winter forecast : SLEET. Done with with for the year, I hope.
18. "Henry's Crime" actor Reeves : KEANU. Did I tell y'all the story about meeting Keanu and having no clue who he was? Stop me if I've told you this, but one day ....
19. College application part : ESSAY. The hardest part.
20. Nothing to suggest, as foul play : NO SIGN OF. I really liked this roundabout, sneak-up-on-it clue.
25. Home of the Ivy League's Bulldogs : YALE BOWL. Those Ivy League folks have a lot to answer for around here - Yalies, Elis, all kinds of odd things coming out of those wonderful schools.
28. Safe havens : SANCTA. Now, come on. Sanctuary, Sanctuaries - I get those. Sancta, and nary a Latin pointer in sight? I think Rich needs to help us out a little more with this one.
32. Lawyers' org. : A.B.A. The wonderful American Bar Association. Long may she litigate.
33. Shopping center? : PEES. A fine job with this clue, let's face it - the alternatives are not attractive.
35. Pooh-pooh : SCORN. And after PEES? Oh goodness.
41. Course's 18 : HOLES. My course has 19, and you play the 19th twice - once before the first, and once after the 18th. That makes 20, but the math is muddy anyway, so who's counting?
42. Sci. class : BIOL. I loved biology. Except when we dissected worms. Then I didn't love biology.
44. Sorority letter : PSI.
45. Black hair and almond-shaped eyes, e.g. : TRAITS. I was so drawn into the Chinese theme by this point that I spent way too long wondering how to fit ASIANS, THAIS, VIETNAMESE, JAPANESE or anything else in here.
47. Certain sail spars : TOP MASTS
52. Tour in a double-decker bus, perhaps : SIGHTSEE. One word or two? Not sure how to put this. Barry G was on one in London - help us out here?
55. Valium maker : ROCHE. One very rich and verrrrry laid-back drug company
59. Southwestern brick : ADOBE. Let's Photoshop some bricks!
63. Deli subs : HEROS
64. Nile slitherers : ASPS. Word of the day. Slitherer. I will use it.
65. Par for the course : NORM. Or 102 on one of my good days.
66. Unwelcome look : LEER
67. Apollo's instrument : LYRE. A learning experience for me - I just had the Y and LYRE went straight in, but now I know that Apollo played one.
68. "Don't move, Spot!" : STAY
Down:
1. Unspecified amount : SOME
2. Wall St. events : I.P.O.S Another punctuation nightmare, these Initial Public Offerings. Hands up who wished they'd subscribed to Microsoft, Apple, Google and all the rest
3. Landlocked Asian republic : LAOS. Aha! I said, the only landlocked Asian republic is LAOS .. we all know that!
4. Gerontologist's study : OLD AGE.
5. Mitt Romney's alma mater: Abbr. : B.Y.U. Has anyone seen "The Book of Mormon" on Broadway? I hear it's very fair towards Brigham Young. He did found a fine school. (Note to the editor - can I say "found a fine"?) (From C.C.: Fine with me. Let's see what BYU graduate Barry G has to say.)
6. Homer's saffron-robed goddess : EOS. Or Marge in a new nightgown?
7. Star shine : TWINKLE
8. Big name in foil : ALCOA, Aluminum Company of America. The British would introduce unnecessary syllables and name it the Aluminium Companium of Americanium.
9. Refined and discriminating taste : ELEGANCE.
10. Low in fat : LEAN. Not me right now, I quit smoking three months ago and I count a pound of weight gain a week. The tough part is over, now I just need to shed the extra padding.
11. Numbers game : KENO. Nice neighbor to KEANU, that was nice.
12. Double __ Oreo : STUF.
15. Alpine competitor's protection : SKI MASK. We called it a "balaclava" back in England, but back then we didn't ski, we wore it as a steel-knit armored protection against French archers. OK, that was in 1854, but still.
17. "Don't interfere," briefly : MYOB. I prefer BYOB, but that's just me.
21. Grads-to-be: Abbr. : SRS. No guarantee the Seniors will still make it to graduation, there's still plenty of time to make a mess of things!
23. "My bad!" : OOPS as the senior who didn't get to graduate said ..
24. Dork : DWEEB. I love this word, I want to know how it came about - anyone?
25. Harbor party site : YACHT. BOSTON or TEA QUAY didn't work.
26. Can't stomach : ABHOR
27. Ali who retired with a perfect 24-0 record : LAILA. Muhammad's daughter, she's becoming famous around these parts.
29. Clucking quarters : COOPS
30. Faith : TRUST. This caused me conniptions for a while - I had T...T and happily filled in TENET. That was very bad.
31. Opposition group : ANTIS
34. Brownstone hangout : STOOP
37. Dennis, much to Mr. Wilson's dismay : NEIGHBOR
38. Will subjects : ESTATES
40. Mont Blanc, par exemple : ALPE. I've skied down this, fast and out of control. Help!
43. "Piece of cake!" : IT'S EASY
46. Bro's playmate : SIS
48. Grand Marquis, for short : MERC. I'd like some help with this one too - I think I can see what's needed here, but the languages don't gel? Am I wrong seeing "Mercedes Benz" for short and "Grand Marquis" in French for the clue?
49. Decks out : ADORNS
51. Landlocked Asian republic : NEPAL. This brought me up short. Full stop, period kind of short, having happily filled in LAOS as the "only" landlocked Asian republic. There's two? What the heck?!!!
52. Satirist Mort : SAHL
53. Nantes notion : IDEE. If this were not all capitals, we must add an acute accent to the first E.
54. Reason for an R rating : GORE. Poor Al, his campaign speeches were not THAT bad.
56. Odd old fellow : COOT. Not fair, Al was not old.
57. Wedding dance : HORA
58. Award for "Modern Family" : EMMY. An award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. My friend Michael Diederich won one for Best Original Animation, and we were all stunned. Oops - let me be clear - we were stunned by how big and heavy these things are, not by the fact that Mike won one!
61. "Fresh Air" airer : NPR
62. Sussex suffix : ISE. Help! I got this with crosses, but I have no idea at all what Sussex-ise means - any idea? Anyone? Lemonade?
Answer grid.
Signing off! Confused on a Wednesday!
Steve
1) Note from C.C. & Don:
Don cooked up this theme idea. We originally had MOOD ENHANCEMENT as #1 theme entry, and CHINESE TAKE-OUTS as a unifier. Rich felt the plural was contrived and suggested we split up CHINESE TAKEOUT in the middle.
2) If you're looking for an creative Mother's Day gift, please click here to see a 3-puzzle package Don and I created.
3) Happy Birthday to dear Kazie (with husband Barry, son David & 2 Racing Sausages at Brewers' game last August.). Kazie has been with the blog for almost 4 years and I have benefited greatly from her linguistic talent and friendship. Thanks for being here, Kay!
