Theme: None
Words: 72 (missing J,Q,Z)
Blocks: 29
Phew~!!!
I thought I was going snowblind on the first two passes through this
grueling grid. Mr. Skoczen is back for the fourth time in three months, with lots of vague clues, a few proper names that I knew but not
through the reference in the clues, and one or two "meh" answers. Yet I
prevailed, with only one (and a half) cheats; had to look up one word
in the dictionary that has never appeared in any reading I have done,
and then I did a red-letter check to see if I gaffed something - and I
did. Oh well. Still, came in under my personal allotted time, and I
would say I "broke even". Four 7-letter corners and 9-letter fills crossing paired 10's and
11's;
4d. Opera originally titled "Violetta" : La TRAVIATA - by "Joe Green" (Victor Borge humor)
the aria from "Rigor Mortis"
24. Phone accessory banned at Disney parks : SELFIE STICK
ACROSS:
1. It's commonly read by waiters : TABLOID - Wait-ers, on the supermarket line
8. Place to meet : HALF WAY
15. 1992 Mamet play : OLEANNA - perps
16. Cork holder : IRELAND - #$%^&*~! My first thought was the city/county of the country, but I was expecting a "?" in the clue
17. Enterprise enterprise : RENTING - dah~! I put in rentALS, and that screwed me up
18. They're usually kept : GIGOLOS - I went with MEMOIRS; bzzzt. I did not get this reference until I looked up gigolo on Wiki - but I do know the David Lee Roth remake
19. 1976 Sports Illustrated Sportswoman of the Year awardee : EVERT
20. E major scale note : G SHARP - I knew enough to put "-SHARP" in, and then waited
22. Hawthorne cover image : RED A - The Scarlet Letter
23. Quiet : SETTLE - ah, the verb, not the noun
24. Ben, to Jerry : SON - the comedians, not the Ice Cream guys
27. Truce emblem source : OLIVE TREE - the "branch" comes from the tree
29. John Paul's successor : ELENA
- dah~! I tried PIUS I, figured we were talking Popes; nope - the US
Supreme Court; it's OK, my knowledge of both groups is "A-Paul-ing"....
31. Movie : CINÉ - the dictionary says cin-ee is "extracted" from cinema
32. Pollutant banned by Cong. in 1979 : PCB
34. Sights from la mer : ILES - Le Frawnche
35. Subjects of family disputes : ESTATES
38. Erupted : HAD A FIT
40. Call to a line : "NEXT~!"
41. __-Man : PAC
43. Singer Lovato : DEMI - hah~! I knew this one
44. Renée Fleming et al. : DIVAs
46. Great extent : LARGENESS - OK, use this in a sentence which doesn't sound contrived....
50. Fed. assistance program : SSI - Supplemental Security Income - never heard of it
51. Conniving, with "in" : LEAGUE - reminds me of a line from a Robert Plant song
my love is....
53. Durango demonstrative : ESTA
54. __ camera : HIDDEN - not CANDID
55. Shares, with "out" : METES - not DOLES
56. Where to hear a lot of talk : AM RADIO
59. Rayed flowers : DAISIES
61. Bond choice : MARTINI - D'oh~! JAMES Bond
62. Charlie McCarthy feature : MONOCLE - I know this "character", but not the answer until perps
63. Significant supply : ARSENAL - I tried "---FUL" at the end, and it was not working
64. Sounded like a flute duet? : CLINKED - clever. Flutes, the glasses
DOWN:
1. One facing charges? : TORERO - thought this was the answer, but I had some bad crossings to start
2. Two-part British academic exam : A LEVEL
3. Noted 2013 resignee : BENEDICT XVI - oh NOW we get the Pope clue....
5. "Doing that right now!" : ON IT - dah~! I read this as "DO that right now", so I had ASAP, then STAT
6. Where there may be no room : INN - timely
7. Typographical symbol : DAGGER - did not know that this † symbol, tho I have seen it, is called a 'dagger'
8. Modern, in a way : HIGH TECH
9. Font choice : ARIAL - had it in, took it out, because of MEMOIRS
10. 1852 literary villain : LEGREE - I did not know him; filled via perps, and then I looked him up - Wiki
11. Turn preceder, in Texas Hold 'em : FLOP
- followed by the River; last weekend I went in with a full house, 10s
over 9s, lost to 10s over Queens - those are the hands that really hurt
12. Popular store opening? : WAL-mart, har-har.
13. Periodo de tiempo : ANO
14. NFL stats : YDs
21. Small distance : STEP
23. Higher than you might have hoped : STEEP
25. "That's __ haven't heard" : ONE I
26. Cartoon award eponym : NAST - mostly perps, N-ST, and then it hit me
28. Sinusitis-treating MD : ENT
30. 1993 "Ethan Frome" star : LIAM NEESON
33. It can get you in : BADGE
35. Extreme pair : ENDS - oops, not ACES; too much poker playing these days, I guess
36. Paquete de __: cerveza purchase : SEIS - a six-pack of beer down Mexico way
37. Iceberg topper : SALAD OIL - my first thought, but it was dressing, not OIL
39. One of Donald's pair : DEE - DonalD
42. Pen : CAGE - ah, the animal confines, not the writing implement
45. Tried to make it home : SLID IN - meh. Don't like the 'two word' association to baseball
47. Hip-hop group at Live Aid's 1985 Philadelphia concert : RUN-DMC
48. Holt's detective partner in '80s TV : STEELE - the 'other' James Bond - Pierce Brosnan, that is - in his TV role
49. Mouthed off at : SASSED
52. Minneapolis suburb : EDINA - I'm sure C.C. knew this one
54. Execrate : HATE - OK, the word I looked up. From the Latin "sacrare", as in consecrate
55. Revealing garb : MINI - yep.
56. Chicago-based professional org. : AMA - Saturday cluing
57. Warp, e.g. : MAR - ugh. I was thinking "speed" as in Star Trek, and "defect", as in wood boards
58. Board game spots with nine sqs. between them : RRs - Monopoly board
60. Moviefone owner : AOL
Splynter
