Tuesday, Jun 26, 2018 Mike Peluso

"FINAL APPROVAL"

20. "Fast Times" school (Japan): RIDGEMONT HIGH.    Hai  はい

35. 2014 U.S. Women's Open champion (France): MICHELLE WIE.  Oui

42. North Atlantic stretch with no land borders (Mexico): SARGASSO SEA.  Sí

56. Permission from the big boss ... and a hint to the ends of 20-, 35- and 42-Across (in the country indicated): FINAL APPROVAL.

You have permission.  

Across:

1. Tug or ark: BOAT.

5. First assembly instruction: STEP A.  Aren't assembly instructions most often numbered ?

10. Mt. Rushmore's state: S. DAK.

14. Gas brand on the Trans-Canada Highway: ESSO. This one is in Ladysmith, BC.

 15. Word before basin or wave: TIDAL.

16. Actress Taylor: LILI.

 Lili Taylor at IMDb

17. "Now!" letters: ASAP.

18. Summer month in Argentina: ENERO.   January.  "Argentina is in the southern hemisphere, thus the seasons occur during the opposite months from Europe and North America. Spring arrives around November; January and February mark the peak summer months and March is the end of summer when children return to school." - Bradt Travel Guides.

19. "__ something I said?": IS IT.

23. South Korean capital: SEOUL.

24. Bootlegger's gin container: BATHTUB.  Bootleggers, bathtub gin, and grape bricks during the Prohibition....   "One wine brick company, with a barely disguised hint, wrote on the packages of its product: “After dissolving the brick in a gallon of water, do not place the liquid in a jug away in the cupboard for twenty days, because then it would turn to wine.” 

27. Drag racer's fuel, briefly: NITRO.  Nitromethane.  World's fastest 1/4 mile Top Fuel speed:


31. Do penance: ATONE.

32. Actress Thurman: UMA.

38. Hip-hoppers Salt-N-__: PEPA.

40. Two under par: EAGLE.

41. Dexterous: DEFT.  Neatly skillful and quick in one's movements.  Origin: Middle English: variant of daft, in the obsolete sense ‘meek’. - Oxford Dictionaries.    

"Apparently, deft and daft shared a sense of "gentle, and becoming" in Old English. Their different pronunciations (which only later formalized into spellings) experienced different metaphorical extension in Middle English. Deft continued to develop the meaning of "skillful".
But daft seems to have experienced systematic semantic deterioration from "mild-mannered" (1200), to "dull and awkward" (1300), and eventually to "foolish and crazy" (1500) under the added influence of the third word daffy. "  - English Stack Exchange

45. Fleur-de-__: LYS.

46. Ohio natives: ERIEs. 

47. Skin care prefix: DERMA.

49. Counts up: TALLIES. 

"...Since fingers are somewhat limited to 10 , a new invention was introduced – the tally system (earliest known proof of that is from around 35 000 B.C.). The tally system revolves around scratches on sticks, rocks or bones. The number of scratches represents the number of items counted – five birds would be represented by five scratches, seven mammoths would be represented by seven scratches etc. The “modern” tally system, which we’re still using in this day and age, organizes the scratches (tallies) into groups of five – four vertical scratches and one diagonal (that is drawn across the vertical ones). Eventually, tallies were replaced with more practical symbols – numerals (1, 2, 3, 4, 5,...) – which are in wide use today." Mathemania -Counting

52. Thinning atmospheric layer: OZONE.

60. "Let's go!": C'MON.

62. "Chicago" actress Zellweger: RENEE.

63. Crass: RUDE.

64. Arctic chunk: FLOE.

65. News article intros: LEDES.  Origin in the 1950s as an alteration of lead, first used in instructions to printers, in order to distinguish the word from text to be printed.  Now lede is mainly journalism jargon for the introductory portion of a news story—or what might be called the lead portion of the news story.  We've had LEDE before in the LA Times crossword puzzles. Once.  Sept 22nd, 2017. Irish Miss was the only one of the regulars that knew it.  Did you remember it from last time ?

66. Tiger Woods' ex: ELIN.

67. Frying liquids: OILS.

68. Prefix with foam: STYRO.

69. Vaccine fluids: SERA.

Down:

1. Chicago NFL team: BEARS.   99 seasons.  Record (W-L-T): 749-579-42.   New head coach Matt Nagy and quarterback Mitch Trubisky are looking to lead the Bears to an NFC North title and the playoffs.  Their biggest rivalry is with the Green Bay Packers, who currently have the lead at 96–94–6.  It is the longest rivalry in the NFL, having started in 1921.  

2. Actor Davis: OSSIE.

3. Pollo __: Latin American grilled chicken dish: ASADO.

4. Cruise/Kilmer action film: TOP GUN.

5. Education acronym for four fields of study: STEM. Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.

6. Ex-Yankee Martinez: TINO.  Constatino.  

A key component of the 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2000 NY Yankees World Series Championship teams.  They lost in Game 7 of the 2001 World Series to the Arizona Diamonbacks, or he would have garnered a 5th World Series ring.

7. Genesis garden: EDEN.

8. Medicare option: PART B.

9. Honolulu hello: ALOHA.

10. Snubbed: SLIGHTED.

11. Kitchen cloth: DISH TOWEL.

12. Boxer Laila: ALI.

13. Do-it-yourselfer's buy: KIT.

21. Single __: tournament format, briefly: ELIM. Single Elimination.  The loser of the match or game is out.  The NCAA's "March Madness" tournament is an example.

22. Slanted type: Abbr.: ITAL.

25. Bring together: UNIFY.

26. Sugar sources: BEETS.

28. Deadlocks: TIES.

29. Some TVs: RCAs.

30. 1977 George Burns film: OH GOD.

32. Unexpected victory: UPSET.  Happens fairly frequently in the early rounds of the single elimination March Madness basketball tournament.

33. Stiller's comedy partner: MEARA.


34. Springtime prank: APRIL FOOL.

36. Ultimatum word: ELSE.

37. Sideways glance: LEER.

39. Facial wrinkles: AGE LINEs.

43. F-foxtrot link: AS IN.

44. Latin love: AMOR.

48. Islands west of Portugal: AZORES.  "The Azores, an autonomous region of Portugal, are an archipelago in the mid-Atlantic. The islands are characterized by dramatic landscapes, fishing villages, green pastures and hedgerows of blue hydrangeas."

Guide to the Azores

50. British peers: EARLs.

51. Icy winter weather: SLEET.

53. Developing egg: OVULE.

54. Apex's opposite: NADIR.

55. Kagan of the Supreme Court: ELENA.  She was also an answer in Saturday's LA Times Crossword.  The clue was "John Paul's successor."   Saturdays can be so tough.

57. Mayberry's Sheriff Taylor: ANDY.

58. Look intently (at): PEER.

59. Durango dinero: PESO.


60. Corp. money manager: CFO.  Chief Financial Officer.  What is a 'Chief Financial Officer - CFO' ?  - Investopedia

61. Mid-11th century year: MLI.  M = 1000,  L = 50,  I = 1,  thus MLI  =  mid-11th century year 1051.   Viking descendant William of Normandy was building and consolidating powers at the time, and strategically married the more noble Matilda of Flanders.   In 1066, he conquered England, became known as William the Conqueror and was the first Norman King of England.  Two of their sons - William II and Henry I - ascended to the throne as King of England.   The English word for agreement at the time was yea, and before the 1600s,  yes was often used only as an affirmative to a negative question.

That's a wrap.  Wait, one more link: How to say yes in many different languages.