Theme: Kobe Bryant Masterclass - hoops moves from all over the floor.
17A. Complete set of recollections : MEMORY BANK. My recollections may be complete, but sometimes my memory bank doesn't want to let me make a withdrawal, at least not without a battle.
26A. Den fixture : TELEVISION SET. This seems archaic, or at a minimum dated. If I walked into Best Buy and asked to look at "television sets" there would probably be some sniggering. That's if I could remember what I went in there for in the first place.
43A. Climber's aid : GRAPPLING HOOK. More the "assault" type of climbing, rather than recreational.
55A. Thrill-seeker's leap : BUNGEE JUMP. I think I'd have a heart attack before I was half-way down if for some reason I was forced to do this.
63A. NBA scoring attempt, which can be preceded by the ends of 17-, 26-, 43- and 55-Across : SHOT. All basketball. Bank shot (off the backboard and into the hoop), set shot (usually a free-throw), hook shot (one-handed aerial move) and jump shot (airborne version of the set shot).
This is one of the most famous jump shots of all time - Christian Laettner's buzzer-beater as Duke edged Kentucky 103-102 in the 1992 NCAA Championship Final.
A Wednesday welcome to you all. Steve here with Michael's hoops-fest, timely as the NBA teams enter the Conference Finals phase of the play-offs. This was pretty much plain sailing for me, a left-to-right, top-to-bottom solve. I didn't look for the theme until I'd finished with the "T" in "SHOT", but I did enjoy the ride.
Let's see what else we've got going on here:
Across:
1. Swerves : ZAGS. Can you zag-zig, or do you always have to zig first?
5. Decorated one : HERO
9. Selects, with "for" : OPTS
13. Hockey violation : ICING. Like offside in soccer, which doesn't really help anyone who doesn't know either sport.
15. 1998 Sarah McLachlan hit : ADIA. A beautiful song, it's worth enduring the 15 seconds of commercials over on YouTube.
16. Pebble Beach cry : FORE. I've never played at Pebble Beach, the green fees are incredibly expensive. I've had my picture taken on the famous 18th green though.
19. Elite Eight letters : NCAA. The term for the last eight teams remaining in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's annual basketball championship.
20. Nile snake : ASP. Run!
21. "__ to please" : I AIM
22. Check : LOOK IN. Don't we need an (on) here?
24. Written words : TEXT
25. Price-regulating blocs : CARTELS
30. Screenplay units : SCENES
31. Extinct flightless bird : DODO
32. Pledge : VOW
35. Start to fall? : PRAT. Pratfall.
36. Olive __ : OYL
37. Spot to grab a bite : DELI
38. South, in Soissons : SUD. Obscure little town in northern France, but the name looks "French enough" for me to not cause any problems.
39. Sweater material : WOOL
41. Fries in a little butter : SAUTÉS. Food! You can sauté in other fats too.
46. Vacation options : CRUISES. I've never been on a cruise, I think I'd feel trapped.
48. Rover exploration site : MARS
49. Bit of fruit in a box : RAISIN. All the raisins produced in the US are grown right here in California. The HQ of Sun-Maid is right up the street from me.
50. Rubberneck : GAPE. A bad California freeway habit.
51. Consumes : HAS
54. Pay for a hand : ANTE. In betting parlance, the price for getting into the card game.
58. Headliner : STAR
59. In unison, on a score : A DUE. Shown on a shared score where both musicians should play the same notes.
60. Steadfast belief : DOGMA
61. __ d'oeuvres : HORS. Food! Finally!
62. Revolutionary sewer : ROSS. Not a sprial waste-water pipe, but needle-wielding Betsy. Nice clue
Down:
1. MillerCoors malt beverage : ZIMA. Never tried one. Never will. It's not sold in the USA any more, but apparently you can still buy it in Japan.
2. High-paid pitchers : ACES
3. Hitch in one's step : GIMP. To be honest, I've only seen this used in a derogatory fashion to describe someone physically handicapped.
4. Winter product prefix : SNO- Food! Here's a Sno:LA frozen yoghurt from the famous Los Angeles Farmer's Market on Fairfax:
5. They can be hard to kick : HABITS
6. Red-wrapped cheese : EDAM. Turning into a food-fest here.
7. __ Tin Tin : RIN
8. One end of California's Bay Bridge : OAKLAND. More California today. The new Bay Bridge is now open, the old one which had a span collapse in the 1989 Lomo Prieta earthquake is being dismantled. Here's the two southern spans side-by-side from San Francisco to Treasure Island:
9. Buzzworthy : OF NOTE
10. Rarely used Oval Office strategy : POCKET VETO. Lovely expression. Basically, the President vetoes a bill by not taking any action - essentially keeping his hands in his pockets.
11. Way to ski : TRAIL
12. Connery and Penn : SEANS
14. Feel the pain of a loss : GRIEVE
18. Graph line : Y-AXIS. I vaguely remember being taught which direction this axis goes, but it's deep in my MEMORY BANK and not easily found.
23. Thereabout : OR SO
24. Camping shelter : TENT
25. "Sweet!" : COOL
26. Recipe amts. : TSPS. I rarely measure any more, although I cooked a recipe from an English website the other day that confused the heck out of me as it was all metric. I now know that 15g is roughly a large tablespoon, 5g is roughly what we have here, a teaspoon.
27. Color similar to sand : ECRU
28. Rock band soloist : LEAD GUITAR. Hmmm. I'd say that Keith Richard is lead guitarist with the Rolling Stones, he plays lead guitar. Would you say that The Edge is U2's lead guitar? What do you all think? While you're pondering that, let's rock the first track on U2's Joshua Tree album
29. Rustic writing : IDYLL
33. Faux butter : OLEO. I always like seeing this as it reminds me of the time C.C. first taught me the difference between OLEO and OLIO.
34. Tide rival : WISK
36. "Careless me!" : OOPS
37. "Stupid me!" syllables : DUHS. I had a minor misstep with DOHS first, quickly corrected.
39. "What __ thinking?" : WAS I
40. Holiday party perk : OPEN BAR
41. Hogwarts potions master : SNAPE. Played by Alan Rickman in the movies.
42. Settled : AGREED
44. Steplike platforms : RISERS
45. Computer desktop array : IMAGES
46. Computer headache : CRASH
47. Totaled : RAN TO
50. Bearded antelopes : GNUS. A gnu is an antelope designed by a committee.
51. Romcom actor Grant : HUGH. I think he's pretty typecast at this point, he does always seem to play the same role.
52. BBs, e.g. : AMMO
53. Trivial tiff : SPAT
56. Japanese salad veggie : UDO. Final Food! reference today. I'm replete.
57. "__ Boys": "Little Men" sequel : JO'S
Here's the grid, and that's it from me!
Steve
17A. Complete set of recollections : MEMORY BANK. My recollections may be complete, but sometimes my memory bank doesn't want to let me make a withdrawal, at least not without a battle.
26A. Den fixture : TELEVISION SET. This seems archaic, or at a minimum dated. If I walked into Best Buy and asked to look at "television sets" there would probably be some sniggering. That's if I could remember what I went in there for in the first place.
43A. Climber's aid : GRAPPLING HOOK. More the "assault" type of climbing, rather than recreational.
55A. Thrill-seeker's leap : BUNGEE JUMP. I think I'd have a heart attack before I was half-way down if for some reason I was forced to do this.
63A. NBA scoring attempt, which can be preceded by the ends of 17-, 26-, 43- and 55-Across : SHOT. All basketball. Bank shot (off the backboard and into the hoop), set shot (usually a free-throw), hook shot (one-handed aerial move) and jump shot (airborne version of the set shot).
This is one of the most famous jump shots of all time - Christian Laettner's buzzer-beater as Duke edged Kentucky 103-102 in the 1992 NCAA Championship Final.
A Wednesday welcome to you all. Steve here with Michael's hoops-fest, timely as the NBA teams enter the Conference Finals phase of the play-offs. This was pretty much plain sailing for me, a left-to-right, top-to-bottom solve. I didn't look for the theme until I'd finished with the "T" in "SHOT", but I did enjoy the ride.
Let's see what else we've got going on here:
Across:
1. Swerves : ZAGS. Can you zag-zig, or do you always have to zig first?
5. Decorated one : HERO
9. Selects, with "for" : OPTS
13. Hockey violation : ICING. Like offside in soccer, which doesn't really help anyone who doesn't know either sport.
15. 1998 Sarah McLachlan hit : ADIA. A beautiful song, it's worth enduring the 15 seconds of commercials over on YouTube.
16. Pebble Beach cry : FORE. I've never played at Pebble Beach, the green fees are incredibly expensive. I've had my picture taken on the famous 18th green though.
19. Elite Eight letters : NCAA. The term for the last eight teams remaining in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's annual basketball championship.
20. Nile snake : ASP. Run!
21. "__ to please" : I AIM
22. Check : LOOK IN. Don't we need an (on) here?
24. Written words : TEXT
25. Price-regulating blocs : CARTELS
30. Screenplay units : SCENES
31. Extinct flightless bird : DODO
32. Pledge : VOW
35. Start to fall? : PRAT. Pratfall.
36. Olive __ : OYL
37. Spot to grab a bite : DELI
38. South, in Soissons : SUD. Obscure little town in northern France, but the name looks "French enough" for me to not cause any problems.
39. Sweater material : WOOL
41. Fries in a little butter : SAUTÉS. Food! You can sauté in other fats too.
46. Vacation options : CRUISES. I've never been on a cruise, I think I'd feel trapped.
48. Rover exploration site : MARS
49. Bit of fruit in a box : RAISIN. All the raisins produced in the US are grown right here in California. The HQ of Sun-Maid is right up the street from me.
50. Rubberneck : GAPE. A bad California freeway habit.
51. Consumes : HAS
54. Pay for a hand : ANTE. In betting parlance, the price for getting into the card game.
58. Headliner : STAR
59. In unison, on a score : A DUE. Shown on a shared score where both musicians should play the same notes.
60. Steadfast belief : DOGMA
61. __ d'oeuvres : HORS. Food! Finally!
62. Revolutionary sewer : ROSS. Not a sprial waste-water pipe, but needle-wielding Betsy. Nice clue
Down:
1. MillerCoors malt beverage : ZIMA. Never tried one. Never will. It's not sold in the USA any more, but apparently you can still buy it in Japan.
2. High-paid pitchers : ACES
3. Hitch in one's step : GIMP. To be honest, I've only seen this used in a derogatory fashion to describe someone physically handicapped.
4. Winter product prefix : SNO- Food! Here's a Sno:LA frozen yoghurt from the famous Los Angeles Farmer's Market on Fairfax:
5. They can be hard to kick : HABITS
6. Red-wrapped cheese : EDAM. Turning into a food-fest here.
7. __ Tin Tin : RIN
8. One end of California's Bay Bridge : OAKLAND. More California today. The new Bay Bridge is now open, the old one which had a span collapse in the 1989 Lomo Prieta earthquake is being dismantled. Here's the two southern spans side-by-side from San Francisco to Treasure Island:
9. Buzzworthy : OF NOTE
10. Rarely used Oval Office strategy : POCKET VETO. Lovely expression. Basically, the President vetoes a bill by not taking any action - essentially keeping his hands in his pockets.
11. Way to ski : TRAIL
12. Connery and Penn : SEANS
14. Feel the pain of a loss : GRIEVE
18. Graph line : Y-AXIS. I vaguely remember being taught which direction this axis goes, but it's deep in my MEMORY BANK and not easily found.
23. Thereabout : OR SO
24. Camping shelter : TENT
25. "Sweet!" : COOL
26. Recipe amts. : TSPS. I rarely measure any more, although I cooked a recipe from an English website the other day that confused the heck out of me as it was all metric. I now know that 15g is roughly a large tablespoon, 5g is roughly what we have here, a teaspoon.
27. Color similar to sand : ECRU
28. Rock band soloist : LEAD GUITAR. Hmmm. I'd say that Keith Richard is lead guitarist with the Rolling Stones, he plays lead guitar. Would you say that The Edge is U2's lead guitar? What do you all think? While you're pondering that, let's rock the first track on U2's Joshua Tree album
29. Rustic writing : IDYLL
33. Faux butter : OLEO. I always like seeing this as it reminds me of the time C.C. first taught me the difference between OLEO and OLIO.
34. Tide rival : WISK
36. "Careless me!" : OOPS
37. "Stupid me!" syllables : DUHS. I had a minor misstep with DOHS first, quickly corrected.
39. "What __ thinking?" : WAS I
40. Holiday party perk : OPEN BAR
41. Hogwarts potions master : SNAPE. Played by Alan Rickman in the movies.
42. Settled : AGREED
44. Steplike platforms : RISERS
45. Computer desktop array : IMAGES
46. Computer headache : CRASH
47. Totaled : RAN TO
50. Bearded antelopes : GNUS. A gnu is an antelope designed by a committee.
51. Romcom actor Grant : HUGH. I think he's pretty typecast at this point, he does always seem to play the same role.
52. BBs, e.g. : AMMO
53. Trivial tiff : SPAT
56. Japanese salad veggie : UDO. Final Food! reference today. I'm replete.
57. "__ Boys": "Little Men" sequel : JO'S
Here's the grid, and that's it from me!
Steve
