Theme answers:
- 17A: "I Dream of Jeannie" star (BARBARA EDEN).
- 28A: WWII aircraft carrier nicknamed "Tokyo Express" (USS SHANGRILA).
- 44A: 1928 #1 song heard in a 1990 Steve Martin film of the same name (MY BLUE HEAVEN).
- 58A: Narrator in Kerouac's "On the Road" (SAL PARADISE).
It seems like I've seen this theme before, but a quick scan through the database only shows one CrosSynergy puzzle from 2006. And today's puzzle is better so we're just going to focus on that! I think this is a perfect Tuesday puzzle. Not a lot of crosswordese, but plenty of easy stuff to get a foothold. The cluing is straightforward and there's nothing super super sparkly about the fill, but there are a few things you don't see every day that liven up the grid a little. Like, CHIRP and DINGO and MOSEY. Aaaand.... That's as far as I got last night before I decided I'd finish up in the morning. Then when I woke up we had no power. It finally just came back on but it's time for me to get the kids to camp and myself to work, so this is the best I can do for you today.Why don't you all go ahead and chat it up in the comments![Follow PuzzleGirl on Twitter.]
Everything Else — 1A: Sells for (COSTS); 6A: In any way, shape or form (AT ALL); 11A: Word with legal or lily (PAD); 14A: Fur tycoon John Jacob (ASTOR); 15A: Wild Australian dog (DINGO); 16A: Census datum (AGE); 19A: CD-__ (ROM); 20A: Flu-like symptom (AGUE); 21A: Lifesaving technique: Abbr. (CPR); 22A: Slangy starting point (GIT GO); 24A: "Dig in!" ("LET'S EAT!"); 26A: Bike without pedaling (COAST); 32A: Cricket call (CHIRP); 35A: Type of sax (ALTO); 36A: Steamed up (MAD); 37A: Solitary (LONE); 38A: Mag with a "Bachelor of the Year" contest (COSMO); 40A: Libraries do it (LEND); 41A: Menu catchphrase (A LA); 42A: Crate component (SLAT); 43A: Merchandise (WARES); 48A: Sequence with a Y, sometimes (AEIOU); 49A: Spouse's resigned assent (YES DEAR); 53A: Taxpayer's dread (AUDIT); 55A: Take in, as a movie (SEE); 56A: Ultimatum end (ELSE); 57A: Incidentally, in online shorthand (BTW); 62A: Plea from a lea (MAA); 63A: Walk leisurely (MOSEY); 64A: Scammed (HOSED); 65A: Inclined to avoid the spotlight (SHY); 66A: Give the slip (ELUDE); 67A: Unable to sit still (ANTSY); 1D: Conspiring group (CABAL); 2D: Oklahoma native (OSAGE); 3D: Pompous gait (STRUT); 4D: "Without a doubt!" ("TO BE SURE!"); 5D: Mme. in Madrid (SRA.); 6D: Copes with change (ADAPTS); 7D: Wedding cake layer (TIER); 8D: "Furthermore ..." ("AND …"); 9D: Part of XL: Abbr. (LGE.); 10D: In olden days (LONG AGO); 11D: Many a McDonald's worker (PART-TIMER); 12D: Psyched up (AGOG); 13D: Test-driven car (DEMO); 18D: Some HDTVs (RCAS); 23D: Jerusalem is its cap. (ISR.); 25D: Eerie ability, briefly (ESP); 26D: Pre-storm period (CALM); 27D: Savvy about (ONTO); 29D: Too big a hurry (HASTE); 30D: Co-worker of Kent and Olsen (LANE); 31D: Mixes in (ADDS); 32D: Be silent, with "up" (CLAM); 33D: Fit for sainthood (HOLY); 34D: Really hurting (IN A BAD WAY); 38D: Egyptian played by Liz (CLEO); 39D: Diamond Head's island (OAHU); 40D: Stopped at, as a board game square (LANDED ON); 42D: "Sounds good" ("SUITS ME"); 43D: "Scream" director Craven (WES); 45D: Luau wreath (LEI); 46D: Salt's assent (AYE AYE); 47D: Avoid a pothole, say (VEER); 50D: Mass-mailing tool (E-LIST); 51D: Pompous types (ASSES); 52D: Like a bassoon's sound (REEDY); 53D: Aerial defense weapons, for short (ABM'S); 54D: Bryce Canyon's state (UTAH); 55D: Exceeded the limit (SPED); 59D: IM provider (AOL); 60D: Baton Rouge sch. (LSU); 61D: "Solved it!" ("AHA!").
I’m starting to like Gail Grabowski’s puzzles… they really GRAB me!
ReplyDeleteJust the right amount of CW101 to make it easy for early week fare, but they still have good solid grids with clever themes. I liked the PARADISE theme… I’m sitting in my little screened gazebo in my garden thinking “I am in my own little EDEN right now!”
OSAGE Orange is also the name of a common tree here in the Great Plains states (Maclura pomifera). Because it had stout thorns, it was used by the early settlers to provide a natural fence for cattle, predating barbed-wire. The name of the tree comes from the OSAGE tribe, which lived near the home range of the tree, and the aroma of the fruit after it is ripe. Find one of the fruit that has been sitting in the sun on a balmy Indian Summer day and notice the pleasant, orange-peel smell of the skin.
But, when I was a kid, their fruit became summertime substitutes for snowballs. Heheh!
There’s that old AEIOU vowel run again.
Nowadays many a college graduate becomes a McDonald’s PART TIMER… a sad commentary on our country’s economy.
Something to make us ROFLMAO !…
COSMO Kramer
LET’S EAT Breakfast!
A solid, straight-forward Tuesday puzzle. I liked it even though I didn't see the theme until I got here.
ReplyDeleteHmmm, do people ever see LGE as an abbreviation for large? I see it occasionally in crossword puzzles but everywhere else it's always LG.
ReplyDeleteJust bugs me, that's all ...
chipper week we've got going here. what's tomorrow's theme going to be, i wonder? sunshine and freshly-baked cookies?
ReplyDeleteThis had some nice stuff -- MOSEY, GITGO, YESDEAR, DINGO. I wanted cricket call to be "leg before wicket" but I guess that wouldn't work so well for this audience.
ReplyDeleteI said this once before: when I was but a tot, I was taught that cows go MOO and sheep go BAA. I simply refuse to acknowledge that there is any animal that goes MAA. I don't care what sort of freaky cow-sheep-goat thingies you have in California. It just ain't right.
@davidl--
ReplyDeleteYou're right! No maa! No maa!
What a FUN Tuesday.
ReplyDeleteHad the theme with BARBARA EDEN, the other three were "how fast can I write."
Liked the OAHU & LEI, also CALM & CLAM.
The stack: STRUT, IN A BAD WAY.
MOSEY, what a great word. I think I'll mosey on down to the drug store and get a soft drink.
It even had the AHA! moment. YES DEAR, the first thing every new husband should learn if he wants his marriage to last.
Good job Gail!
If you ever watched this movie, you would know very well that sheep go MAA and not baa.
ReplyDeleteBABE
@Ratty: Agreed.
ReplyDelete@David L, @jazz: I'm with you. Maybe sheep go MAA somewhere in the world; when I was a kid, a teacher told us that Hungarians think cows go "boo". (I assume that one's native language affects the phonemes one attributes to non-language sounds.) Not in English though, whatever some committee of Hollywood screenwriters might think. As the late Ian Dury might have put it: nice clue, shame about the answer.
So, what twisted ASSES would name an aircraft carrier Shangri La?!? A naval vessel's pretty much the antithesis of paradise for the crew, not to mention the enemy!
Good quasi-theme OAHU and LEI in the fill.
It's a perfect day for this theme, too; I'm heading out this afternoon for my own version of EDEN ... well, except for the weather, which tends to be more like what NOAH had to contend with :-/ (It's half an hour from Lake ERIE and a thousand feet up; lots of orographic rainfall.) See y'all in a couple of weeks.
(Capcha: "slard". It ain't a word, but it should be! :-))
Pretty smooth...my only quibble is that AGOG doesn't mean "psyched up." It describes being amazed, not excited.
ReplyDeleteSo, what twisted ASSES would name an aircraft carrier Shangri La?!?
ReplyDeleteIt's actually one of the few instances of a military joke of sorts. USS Shangri-La was named in honor of the recently sunk USS Hornet. Hornet was best known as the launching ship of the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo, but at the time that was a military secret so when a reporter asked FDR where the attack had originated he cheekily replied "Shangri-La". The Navy was tight on class names (lots of light carriers went into service in WWII) so they just played along with the joke.
3:32
ReplyDeleteSolid. Never heard of the USS whatever it is, but I like the triple-S it provides to the grid.
rp
@Tuttle. Your knowledge of Navy operations is impressive. Does your first name happen to be Jerry?
ReplyDelete@Ratty - that's the one! LRG is today's LEADY.
ReplyDeleteStill haven't studied Hawaii, but got OAHU on crosses. I promise you Prez, I will study your state. I understand that it's almost HEAVEN, as opposed to W.Va which is too humid. I live somewhere East of EDEN.
@John - interesting about your OSAGE orange. Too bad they don't grow up North. My NY native, the trumpet vine, is growing nicely and blooming now, quite under control, like a small tree. Down South, it's a weed. It has these little feet that will attach themselves to things, it you let it. Hmm, might be an invention there, like Velcro?
Also, agree that it's sad. I graduated from college in '66, and never had anything but professional jobs. On the other hand, I was told at Utica Mutual that "We don't hire women as programmers." My son worked at Arby's, Sears, etc. until he moved to Boston.
On another puzzle, w/o a blog, I'm looking at "copradio" and say, "What? Under God, in Italian?" No, it's "cop radio."
Elizabeth Taylor as CLEOpatra was ridiculous, especially when she said to her hubster at the time, "Come here YOU, I'm not through with YOU." This is the Queen of Egypt? This is the same part she played in Taming of the Shrew or Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf. Don't watch it. Plus, we still need a Black CLEO!
My Early Dutch fur trapper/trader, Jansen, never got rich like ASTOR, but I discovered I was related to one of my best friends through him.
didn't know swabbies were salt?
ReplyDelete@McNulty - check out the Free Dictionary, et al
ReplyDeleteold salt - a sailor - other less obvious synonyms: tar, Jack, Jack-tar, sea dog, gob.
I have noticed one clue for SALT is "tar."
This from land locked, but pneumatic (fat or hot air) enough to float w/o effort and with family roots in the Nordsee. Indeed, Grossvater Fritz Drees was working on the SS Kronprinzessin Cecilie when he and the others were able to make their break.
@Sfingi
ReplyDeleteI love TRUMPET VINES... they get humongous, as you can see at The Morton Arboretum (where I work).