Theme: Hey, MICKEY, you're so fine. 52D.When spelled out, word that follows the beginnings of the starred answers in a memorable kids' show theme song: MOUSE.
20A. *13th in a literary series of 26: M IS FOR MALICE. Along with 42A. Author Grafton who wrote 20-Across: SUE.
29A. *Me.-to-Fla. route: I NINETY-FIVE. Interstate highway from Maine to Florida.
35A. *Benjamin: C-NOTE. It's all about the Benjamins. My daughter is getting sick of hearing me say "follow the money" whenever she asks me why someone did something.
39A. *Blue Light Specials store: K-MART. Now owned by Sears.
43A. *The Boss's backup: E STREET BAND. Bruce Springsteen.
53A. *All men have them: Y CHROMOSOMES.
Hi all, All here. Did anyone else get anything more complex for the theme? Seemed a bit simple for a Thursday. (Note from C.C.: Looks simple, but it's tough to find familiar phrases where the first word is an English letter, not to mention in equal length for symmetry.)
ACROSS:
1. Nile reptile: CROC. In it's natural habitat.
5. Dance in Rio: SAMBA. Brazilian dance of African origin, Zemba, from Portugese samba, shortened form of zambacueca, a type of dance, probably altered (by influence of zamacueco "stupid") from zambapalo, the name of a grotesque dance, itself an alteration of zampapalo "stupid man," from zamparse "to bump, crash."
10. Net info sources: FAQS. Frequently Asked Questions.
14. Make over: REDO.
15. Dwindling Alaskan tribe: ALEUT.
16. It runs in Juarez: AGUA. Spanish water.
17. Copycat: APER.
18. Horn without keys: BUGLE.
19. Place to brood: COOP. Old English brod "brood, fetus, hatchling "that which is hatched by heat." The verbal figurative meaning ("to incubate in the mind") is from the notion of "nursing" one's anger, resentment, etc.
23. Glucose regulator: INSULIN. From Latin insula "island," so called because the hormone is secreted by the islets of Langerhans in the pancreas.
24. Winter phenomenon, commercially: SNO.
25. Diary of a sort: LOG.
28. Cultural org. since 1965: NEA. National Endowment for the Arts. PBS sponsor.
Al
32. Actress Gardner: AVA. Husbands and lovers include Mickey Rooney, Howard Hughes, Artie Shaw and Frank Sinatra.
33. Party invite inits.: BYO. Bring Your Own beverage.
34. "So be it!": AMEN. From Hebrew for "truth".
38. "__ to him who believes in nothing": Hugo: WOE. From Les Mis�rables.
40. Bats: LOCO. Daft, nuts.
41. "Platoon" setting, briefly: NAM.
46. Basic resting spot: COT. Basic training.
49. "So that's it!": OHO.
50. Where kronor are spent: Abbr.: SWEeden.
51. Cooks quantity?: TOO MANY. Cooks spoil the broth. Many hands make the work light. Make up your mind...
55. Bunker smoother: RAKE. Golf sandtrap.
58. Give __: inspire: A LIFT.
59. Capable of: UP TO.
60. Cell impulse transmitter: AXON. Nerve ending.
61. Blakley of "Nashville": RONEE. Unknown to me.
62. Put in stitches: SEWN. Expecting something funny here.
63. "I Love Lucy" producer/writer Oppenheimer: JESS. If you say so.
64. Tipped at the casino: TOKED. Never been to Vegas, but makes sense, I guess.
65. Winged archer: EROS. Greek God of love, Roman counterpart: Cupid.
DOWN:
1. Fill snugly with: CRAM IN.
2. Complain: REPINE. Old English pine (pain, torture) with intensifier "re-", to cause pain.
3. Potemkin mutiny city: ODESSA. The Battleship Potemkin, a propaganda film. The Tsar's Cossacks in their white summer tunics march down the Odessa steps in a rhythmic, machine-like fashion firing volleys into a crowd.
4. Argonauts' island refuge: CORFU.
5. Kate's "Charlie's Angels" role: SABRINA. Charlie's Angels.
6. Some booster club members: ALUMNI. Latin alumnus "a pupil," literally "foster son", from a word meaning "to nourish".
7. Byte beginning: MEGA. Prefix meaning one million.
8. Dartboard area: BULLS-EYE.
9. Diminished slowly: ATE INTO.
10. Watch part: FACE. Band, dial, hand, stem, gear, lots of choices.
11. Back in time: AGO.
12. Status __: QUO. "The state in which", so existing state of affairs.
13. Deplete: SAP. "weaken or destroy insidiously," originally "dig a trench toward the enemy's position", from M.Fr. saper, from sappe "spade," from Latin sappa "spade". The sense of "weaken" on the notion of "draining the vital sap from."
21. Martini garnish: OLIVE.
22. Demure: COY. from Old French coi, earlier quei "quiet, still, placid, gentle," ultimately from Latin quietus "resting, at rest".
25. Andean bean: LIMA. Simmonds' "Dictionary of Trade" (1858) describes it as "esteemed," but it has the consistency of a diseased dog kidney.
26. Done: OVER.
27. Mannerly fellow: GENT.
30. Nuclear radiation weapon, for short: N-BOMB. The neutron bomb was supposed to kill people but leave buildings intact.
31. Popularity: FAME.
32. Comment end?: ATOR. Commentator
35. Mark's love: CLEOpatra.
36. Chips and dip, say: NOSH. From Yiddish nashn "nibble,"
37. Twice quadri-: OCTO.
38. Decisive downfall: WATERLOO.
39. Praise: KUDOS. Greek.
41. 1980s sitcom set in rural Vermont: NEWHART. Hi, I'm Larry. This is my brother Darryl and this is my other brother Darryl.
42. Acted snobbishly toward: SNOOTED.
44. PC key: ESC. I use it all the time with my favored Unix text editor. Really messes me up when I have to switch back to using Windows though.
45. Payment for cash?: ATM FEE. I remember when these were first being pushed to be accepted to lower your account fees because banks would save money not having to pay a teller for mundane tasks. They seem to have lost sight of that...
46. Boy scout, at times: CAMPER.
47. Fight combo: ONE TWO. Boxing. Give 'im the ol' one-two, along with 57D. Haymaker consequences: KOS. Knock-outs.
48. Boxer Mike et al.: TYSONS. Hmmm, I think one of those is enough...
53. Desires: YENS. Earlier yin "intense craving for opium", from Chinese (Cantonese) yan "craving," or from a Beijing dialect word for "smoke." Reinforced in English by influence of yearn.
54. Pen call: OINK.
55. British rule in India: RAJ. From Hindi raj "rule, kingdom" c.f. Rajah.
56. Bush whacker?: AXE. The spelling ax is better on every ground, of etymology, phonology, and analogy, than axe, which became prevalent during the 19th century; but it is now disused in Britain. [OED] (but then it wouldn't fit in a LAT crossword puzzle).
Notes from C.C.:
1) I'd like to share with you a baseball themed puzzle Don G made for my birthday. Click here for Across Lite file and here for PDF version. The clues are original & tough. When you're done, click here to see the layered gimmicks. I only got half of the tricks.
2) Here are a few cool pictures from Marti & Dudley's lunch meeting yesterday. Marti has more detailed captions on her photos. Unfortunately they don't show well in the pictures.
1) I'd like to share with you a baseball themed puzzle Don G made for my birthday. Click here for Across Lite file and here for PDF version. The clues are original & tough. When you're done, click here to see the layered gimmicks. I only got half of the tricks.
2) Here are a few cool pictures from Marti & Dudley's lunch meeting yesterday. Marti has more detailed captions on her photos. Unfortunately they don't show well in the pictures.
