Monday April 30, 2018 Matt McKinley

Theme: THIRTY DAYS (58. Feature of the time periods hinted at by the starting letters of 17-, 23-, 38- and 47-Across) - Apr, Jun, Sep and Nov starts each theme answer.

17A. Fruity 12-Down topping: APRICOT JAM.

23A. Craftsperson using scrap metal, glass, etc.: JUNK ARTIST.

38A. Tax filing option for married couples: SEPARATE RETURNS.

47A. Restriction for quarantined patients: NO VISITORS.

Boomer here. And happy good morning to one and all.  I see some month abbreviations, including April.  I am not sorry to say good riddance to April this year.  Not only did the weatherman dump a ton of snow on us, but our Minnesota Twins had 4 games postponed, and managed to lose nine more in a row.  Hello May! Garden fence is ready and the dirt is rejuvenated.  We have yet to see the perennial Asian lily or the rose bush return for the summer.  

Best wishes to Argyle for a speedy rehab recovery.  Now... On with the show!  

Across:

1. Harley rider: BIKER. I had a bike when I was a kid, but it was not a Harley. I always felt that calling a Harley a bike was like calling a battery jumper cable clamp a paper clip.

6. Approved: OK'ED.

10. "The lady __ protest ... ": "Hamlet": DOTH.

14. Where one may be taken for a private word: ASIDE. To the dungeon.

15. Golfer's warning: FORE.  I often wondered where this came from.  I just holler "Look out", and that's before I swing the club.

16. Slender woodwind: OBOE. Well what's new ? A four letter word with three vowels.

19. Drive or reverse: GEAR.

20. The "S" in "CBS": Abbr.: SYST.

21. Little green veggie: PEA. Split 'em and make soup.

22. Vast chasm: ABYSS.

26. "400 Richest Americans" magazine: FORBES. No I am not in there. It's brutal to be 401st in anything. 

30. Nagging troubles: WOES.  Briefly, there is not enough room on the page to list my nagging woes.

31. Nimble: AGILE. Jack be agile, Jack be quick.

32. Stick a toothpick in, as a snack: STAB.  I'm not sure about toothpicks.  I think a knife or fork is more appropriate. 

34. "Bye, Luigi!": CIAO.  My sister has been to Italy a number of times.  She always ends her emails to me with this four letter Italian word (with three vowels).  I think she does the LA Times crossword frequently.

41. High-school kid: TEEN.

42. "On Golden __": POND.  Henry Fonda and his daughter Jane, as well as a star-studded cast.  Fonda sort of reminds me of Walter (Grumpy Old Man) Matthau and his buddy Jack Lemmon.

43. Rodeo lasso: RIATA.

44. Film critic Pauline: KAEL.

46. "Town Without Pity" singer Gene: PITNEY.  It isn't very pretty what a town without PITNEY can do.

51. One who's done for: GONER.

52. Old studio letters: RKO. It's an acronym for Radio-Keith-Orpheum.  What's interesting is downtown Minneapolis had a theatre called RKO Orpheum. Redundant and it's not there anymore.

53. Olympic sword: EPEE. Widely used in crosswords, I suspect because it's a four letter word with three vowels.  Okay, I am boring all.  I won't mention it again.

57. Ridesharing company: UBER. There are 12,000 Uber drivers now in the US.

61. Range in Europe: ALPS.

62. Country's McEntire: REBA.

63. Cove, e.g.: INLET.

64. Viral internet phenomenon: MEME. "Class, Who wants to get out at noon?"

65. Former couples: EXES. Goes first at tic tac toe.

66. Like yesterday's fashions: PASSE. 

Down:

1. Parts of cote tales?: BAAS.

2. Kids' road-trip game: I SPY. Now in a heap of trouble, "I Spy" was Bill Cosby's first TV show with Robert Culp in 1965,  You need to be as old as I to remember it.

3. White wine apéritifs: KIRS.

4. Cut and paste, e.g.: EDIT.

5. Word with room or center: REC.

6. Plenty of times: OFTEN.  OFTEN is a lot.  One OF TEN, not so much

7. TV cop with a lollipop: KOJAK. Telly Savalas played detective Kojak.  His first name was Theo, which I always considered it to be half a name.  Then along came Andy Sipowicz  who named his kid Theo.

8. Big Band __: ERA.

9. Rep.'s opponent: DEM. Politics, - Elephants and Donkeys

10. Bone-shaped treat: DOG BISCUIT.

11. Follows orders: OBEYS. If someone ORDERS a PIZZA, I might follow it out to the table.

12. Browned bread: TOAST. Ein Prosit.  "Here's to the guy who couldn't think small. Here's to the biggest embezzler of all..."  I am sure Tom can name that tune.

13. Word sewn on a towel: HERS.

18. Composer's work: OPUS.  This is interesting.  There is a business complex called OPUS in the city where I grew up.  So I googled Opus and sure enough it's a commercial real estate conglomerate.  Not sure about the composer clue.

22. Dined: ATE. Unscramble the letters and you have EAT.  A lot of people ATE between seven and nine.  

23. Spectator's bit of disapproval: JEER. Add a "T" in the middle and you have shortstop Derek, who was seldom Jeered at Yankee Stadium.

24. Tony or Hugo: AWARD.

25. Judge's apparel: ROBE. New York Yankee Aaron does not wear a robe, but when he comes to bat, the fans "All Rise".

26. Like greyhounds: FAST.

27. S-shaped molding: OGEE.

28. Ready on the vine: RIPE. The garden is coming soon.  How do you tell if green beans are ripe?

29. Poetry that doesn't rhyme: BLANK VERSE.

32. Popular vodka, popularly: STOLI.

33. Square root of 100: TEN. O GEE Whatever happened to Bo Derek ?

35. Persia, today: IRAN.

36. Required poker bet: ANTE.

37. "__, can you see ... ": O SAY. I believe the correct spelling is "OH SAY" - can you see?

39. Zoo primates: APES.

40. "Divergent" films heroine: TRIS.

45. Oxygen is about 21% of it: AIR. In large cities, I think the rest is smog.

46. Luther's sect: Abbr.: PROT.

47. Duke or earl: NOBLE.

48. Hr. after noon: ONE PM. Eleven on the West Coast.

49. Many a casino-owning group: TRIBE. We have several Native American casinos in Minnesota and they do very well.  I don't go too often because I think the house percentage is much higher than Nevada.  But one of the casinos has 24 bowling lanes.  Been there, done that.

50. Gumbo vegetables: OKRAS.

51. U.S. island territory: GUAM.

53. Author Ferber: EDNA.  A name from the roaring twenties.  She wrote at least two books that were made into movies.  If you can name them, you are older than I.

54. Buddies: PALS.

55. Seers?: EYES.  I like SNAKE ____.  (A roll of 2 at the craps table).

56. Ninety degrees from norte: ESTE.

58. Luigi's three: TRE. The second appearance of Luigi in the clues today.  Isn't he Mario's buddy ?

59. Whammy: HEX. This crossword clue has a hundred different answers.  Hope you had the ACROSS before you got to it.

60. Cry from a pup: YIP.

Boomer

Notes from C.C.:

Spitzboov (Al) and his wife Betty visited dear Argyle on Saturday April 28, 2018. Spitzboov brought this great Marine "At Their Core" to Santa, who was a Marine.

Click here to see Spitzboov's write-up. Thank you, Spitzboov and Betty,  for visiting Argyle and letting him know that he's sorely missed. 

Please continue keeping Argyle in your thoughts and prayers. Please send cards to below address. Argyle's friend Jennifer wanted me to tell you that "he enjoys the cards that everyone sends especially with notes in them".

D. Scott Nichols

Room #219
Wesley Health Care Center
131 Lawrence St.
Saratoga Springs, NY 12866

Argyle