Wednesday, December 23, 2015, Jeff Stillman

Theme: The EYES have it!

Jeff "only has EYES" for us today. His Christmas Eve, Eve (can I say Christmas here?) offering has him dropping the word EYE behind two and into two "in the language" phrases to produce some amusing new verbiage. Jeff is back in the lineup six days after his fun "Magazine-themed" offering from last Thursday where I was in the THROEs of despair for one bad cell.  I'll bet most of you are carrying an "all-seeing EYE" theme symbol with you right now:

Theme Answers:

18. "The 11:00 p.m. flight is now boarding"? : REDEYE ALERT - Emergency or when you absolutely, positively have to be there overnight 

28. Inconsolable freshwater fish? : WAILING WALLEYE - The WAILING WALL in Old Jerusalem or the WALLEYE that required a Cree guide to take off my hook

47. Fearful Iowan? : CHICKEN HAWKEYE - Three species of North American HAWKs or The HAWKEYE team across the Muddy Mo with whom Huskers have a mostly good relationship

62. Fictional sailor's pies? : POPEYE TARTS - What many think is junk breakfast food or pastries for Olive Oyl's main squeeze

Let's look at Jeff's "easy on the EYE" (there's a bottomless pit of variations) puzzle:

Across     

1. Dictionary abbr. : ADJ - I know one ADJECTIVE I feel is way over-used today

4. Pests repelled by cedar : MOTHS

9. Give birth to : SPAWN - These Brown Bears are EYEING SPAWNing Salmon

14. __ Kappa Epsilon: U.S./Canada frat with more than 250 chapters : TAU

15. Skylab's path : ORBIT - When Skylab fell out of ORBIT in 1979, most of it landed in sparsely populated SW Australia. A motel in Balladonia, Australia (pop. 20) used some reclaimed parts of for a "museum" (back right in photo)

16. Impish type : PIXIE

17. Out of the ordinary : ODD

20. Rabies victim : MAD DOG

22. Org. making raids : DEA - After proclaiming his innocence for years, AROD finally admitted to years of PED use to the DEA last year. 

23. Fruity coolers : ADES

24. Capital near the Gulf of Tonkin : HANOI - Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) has 3x the population  

26. Figure out : GET

34. Trac II cousin : ATRA

35. "Frasier" sibling : NILES - The episode where they take an Auto Shop class is my favorite

36. Out of use : OLD

38. "The Shoop Shoop Song (__ His Kiss)": Cher hit : IT'S IN - I'll take Betty Everett's '64 version everytime

40. Suffix with chlor- : IDE - See Sodium ChlorIDE in 9 Down and 39 Down

41. Lexus competitor : ACURA

43. Personal quirk : TIC - Can also be a poker "tell"

44. __ in the right direction : A STEP

46. Rock 'n' roll middle name : ARON - Not what Vernon had put on his son's grave

51. Stallone nickname : SLY

52. More resentful : SORER

53. Star with tons of fans : IDOL

56. Darling : PET 

59. Go kicking and screaming : RESIST - Rage, Rage!!

65. "I'm impressed!" : GEE

66. Speak from a podium : ORATE - T'will soon be everywhere! 

67. Zagreb native : CROAT

68. Whammy : HEX - "Big bucks, no Whammy's!"

69. Party dip : SALSA

70. Laughs heartily : HOWLS

71. Rubble creator : TNT - Hey, Rubble's creator was Hannah Barbara!

Down

1. Tiny power source : ATOM

2. Cry from a crib : DADA - DADA getting top billing for a change

3. Two-time Emmy winner for "Taxi" : JUDD HIRSCH

4. Capital of the Comoros : MORONI - If you knew this, you're a better geographic man than I am Gunga Din!

5. Its state tree is the Douglas fir : OREGON

6. Up in the air, on a sched. : TBD

7. Hurried, old-style : HIED - A word of Shakespearean times - "Hie thee hence, or lose your life!" i.e. "Get outta here or you're dead!"

8. Case for an ophthalmologist : STYE - Aha, another EYE reference

9. Salt scrub venue : SPA - I may "go gently into that good night" before I get one of these 

10. "Ecce homo" speaker : PILATE - "Behold the Man. Hey, I'm just the Roman Prefect here..."

11. Cut down : AXED - NOT the past tense of ASK!

12. Toaster-to-plug link : WIRE

13. Brooklyn hoopsters : NETS - NBA team formerly of New Jersey. As of yesterday they were 8 - 20

19. Bald __ : EAGLE - BALD EAGLEEYE - Yul Bryner with great vision?

21. __ Lama : DALAI - I shopped an H around trying to spell this first

25. Start to burn : IGNITE

27. Disney queen who sings "Let It Go" : ELSA - Dylan Thomas would beg to differ

28. "Let me catch up!" : WAIT - Uh, never mind, go ahead!

29. Web site : ATTIC - CobWEBS that is

30. Spread out : WIDEN 

31. Talmud letters : ALEPHS - Can you find one in this Hebrew Word Search?

32. "Couldn't agree more" : YOU'RE RIGHT

33. Jetson who attends Little Dipper School : ELROY - From the same peeps that created Rubble

37. Hamlet or Ophelia : DANE

39. Component of ocean H2O : NACL - Harvesting Sea Sodium ChlorIDE in Thailand

42. Bakery display : CAKES - Our Cross-EYEd Dave's electronic specialty

45. Video calling option : SKYPE - SKYPING grandkids from Long Beach, CA impressed us more than it did them.

48. Fiji's 500-plus : ISLETS

49. Like some matters of the heart? : AORTAL

50. Forcibly removes : WRESTS

53. NYSE debuts : IPOS - Largest Intial Public Offerings 

54. Cartoon explorer with a talking backpack : DORA - I wonder if she ever bumps into Carmen San Diego

55. October birthstone : OPAL

57. Make a lasting impression? : ETCH

58. Hawaiian starch source : TARO - I suspect our Chef Wendy in Kauai is an expert

60. Not overlooked : SEEN

61. Smartphone message : TEXT - Not quite getting it yet, are you Dad?

63. Word of support : YEA

64. Chairs may be arranged in one : ROW - Not important in C.C.'s flower garden :-) 

EYE'll bet there'll now be a lot of EYE-opening comments to follow although some of us won't see EYE to EYE (All right EYE quit)! 

Husker Gary

 (Thanks for the Answer Grid, Owen!)