Title: Up, Up and Away!
Hi, after only a two day respite - it's Husker Gary again! Bruce and Gail LIFT our winter spirits with a fun Wednesday puzzle featuring variations of the word LIFT as a single clue. The fill on this amusing theme resulted in top and bottom grid spanners and a thirteen-letter entry gracing the middle. WINGTIP INSERT, BARBELL ACTIVITY and CAFFEINE EFFECT didn't make the cut.
First the theme answers:
17. Lift : SKIERS TRANSPORT - Or WEDDING PARTY TRANSPORT to this summer event on a mountain in Aspen
38. Lift : BRIT'S ELEVATOR - A Cheshire-based British company called LIFTstyle is marketing these for around £13,000
61. Lift : HITCHHIKERS RIDE - All right, would you or wouldn't you give this hitchhiker a LIFT
Across:
1. Roasting bird : CAPON
1. Roasting bird : CAPON
6. Kennel racket : ARFS
10. Doze, with "out" : ZONK
14. How writers often work : ALONE - I can't blog unless I am ALONE
15. NATO alphabet ender : ZULU - Her latest movie uses the NATO alphabet and stands for...
16. Ancient Andean : INCA
20. Bar sing-along : KARAOKE - Yeah, that's what I was just thinking about you
21. Quasi-convertible option : T-TOP
22. Rock gp. with winds and strings : ELO
23. Mil. training site : OCS - Zac Mayo getting harassed in Office Candidate School by Gunnery Sgt. Foley. BTW, do you remember the wonderful song from this movie with LIFTs in the title?
25. Pizzeria attractions : AROMAS
29. Nervous giggle : TITTER
32. "Cure Ignorance" online reader : UTNE - I have never UTNEd
34. Glamorous Gardner : AVA - Mrs. Frank Sinatra II, Mrs. Mickey Rooney I and Mrs. Artie Shaw V
35. Windy-day window noise : RATTLE
37. Strummed strings : UKES
42. Linen fiber source : FLAX
43. Newspaper space measurement : LINAGE - alt. Lineage. Is this replacing LINAGE?
44. So last week : OUT
45. Take in the wrong way? : OGLE - What's the time limit before a peek becomes an OGLE?
47. Split with the band : GO SOLO - How'd that Ross girl's career work out after she left The Supremes?
51. Pet shelter mission : RESCUE - Bless shelters for the work they do. Joann'd take all the kitties home.
53. Apt name for a cook? : STU
55. Put the cuffs on : NAB
56. Does one's part? : ACTS
58. Elves, at times : HELPERS - Will Stockdale line: "It's just that the infantry is the real soldiers, and the Air Force ain't nothin' but HELPERS." And, for the game, the movie is...
65. Curved entrance adornment : ARCH
66. Drop : OMIT
67. Nautical table listing : TIDES - The Navy wanted low TIDES on D-Day to see the beach obstacles for its LST'S and other ships and the Army wanted high TIDES to lessen the distance men had to run on the beach. They compromised on 1 - 3 hrs after low TIDE
68. "Okay, granted" : TRUE
69. "Bossypants" memoirist Fey : TINA- See her new movie at 15 Across
70. Mail-order-only company until 1925 : SEARS - Alvah Roebuck never said publicly he regretted the fortune he missed by leaving the business he helped found
Down:
1. Small jewelry box : CASKET - Bigger than a box, smaller than a chest
2. Acid neutralizer : ALKALI - Adding ALKALI to acidic soil to "sweeten" it
3. "Little grey cells" detective : POIROT - A Netflix BBC addiction of mine
4. Draft category : ONE-A - A dreaded 60's - 70's classification
5. "Quo Vadis" emperor : NERO - "Where are you going?" A film showing NERO's Rome vs Christians
6. Tenochtitlán native : AZTEC
8. Like much desert : FLAT
9. Acquisition on a blanket, perhaps : SUNTAN
10. Brand with a flame over the "i" in its logo : ZIPPO - ZIPPO Ad
11. Artist Yoko : ONO
12. Big name in bar code scanners : NCR
13. Dennings of "2 Broke Girls" : KAT - It took me 60 seconds to get a sense I didn't like this show where wit is replaced by crudity. Different strokes...
18. Hybrid tennis attire : SKORTS - With an improvised storage area
19. Ticked off : SORE
24. Besmirches : SULLIES
26. Powerful shark : MAKO - MAKO is Maori for "shark" or "shark's tooth"
27. Say with certainty : AVER
28. Carrier to Oslo : SAS
30. Cereal "for kids" : TRIX
31. Work on a course : EAT
33. Many a "Hunger Games" fan : TEEN
36. Bluffer's giveaway : TELL - In M*A*S*H, Winchester whistles arias while playing poker and the louder he whistles, the more he is bluffing. He gets wiped out!
37. Colorado natives : UTES
38. Cobalt __ : BLUE
39. "Aw, shucks!" : RATS
40. Harder to see, as shapes : VAGUER
41. Have-at link : A GO - I had A GO at unicyling once. Yikes!
42. Voting yes on : FOR
45. "That stings!" : OUCH
46. Hit a winning streak : GET HOT - Some Super Bowl winners just GET HOT at the end of the season
48. New York lake near Utica : ONEIDA - After 9/11 ONEIDA Mfg. lost $25M after the airlines discontinued flatware on planes
49. Pantry : LARDER
50. Dominate the thoughts of : OBSESS - Michael Douglas and OBSESSED Glen Close have a steamy LIFT scene in Fatal Attraction
52. Hidden stockpile : CACHE
54. Iota preceder : THETA - ...zeta, eta, THETA, iota...
57. California's __ Valley : SIMI - A beautiful place to visit at 40 Presidential Drive, SIMI Valley CA. 93065
59. D-Day transports : LSTS
60. __-dieu: kneeler : PRIE - Literally "Pray God". Here are two at JFK's casket in White House East Room
61. New Year's party handout : HAT
62. Clearance rack abbr. : IRR
63. Fort Worth sch. : TCU
64. Many holiday guests : KIN - After two days, guests and fish...
Let's hope all of you can raise the level of discourse here to a higher level than I just did -
