Words: 70
Blocks: 34
Well,
it certainly looked intimidating, and if it weren't for a few long
answer WAGs, I think I would have never gotten a foothold; as it turned
out, I still had to red-letter one cell in order to complete the grid,
but still, a good mental workout from our regular Saturday constructor.
The big spanners:
29A. Study of change? : NUMISMATICS - the study of collectible coins, or "change"; also paper money and medals, according to the dictionary - might be a wheat penny in my pile....
35A. 1971 crime thriller with four sequels : DIRTY HARRY - "Well, do ya, punk~?" - and a clecho 8D. 35-Across, e.g.: Abbr. : DETective Harry Callahan
40A. Some annual victims : APRIL FOOLS
- the best one on me was when someone, who will remain nameless,
rubber-banded the sprayer on the faucet; I went to make coffee, and....
44A. Rookies : NEW RECRUITS
And two 10-letter climbers;
12D. Show with jumping : FLEA CIRCUS
28D. 1954 film based on the short story "It Had to Be Murder" : REAR WINDOW - Directed by Alfred Hitchcock; strangely, in looking up Farmer's Wife (see 11D.), that, too, was directed by Alfred Hitchcock, too, 1928
On~ward~!
ACROSS:
1. One who heads south for the winter : SNOWBIRD - there are a lot of snowbirds in my 12-step program; most of the ones I know are in Fla right now
9. Try to reach : AIM FOR - started with ATTAIN, then ASK FOR
15. 1959 Mystics song title word repeated before "Oh my darlin' don't you cry" : HUSHABYE - it really is repeated, but not nearly as much as the "oh"s at the beginning
16. Legendary Irish princess : ISOLDE - clued different from what you'd see mid-week
17. Modern means of connecting : ETHERNET - I threw in INTernet, and that was good enough to get going
18. Attach, in a way : GLUE ON - I tried GRAB on, until I got "fleas"
19. Job follow-up? : PSALMS
- ( OK, I cheated, sort of; I have a list of Bible books, and I caught
on to the misdirection "J-oh-B", not "J-ah-B", but can't remember one
book from the 'next' - literally
20. Unvarying : SAME - Had SANE; well, it could be....
21. Pinkish yellow : PEACH
24. "Island in the Sun" novelist Waugh : ALEC
26. ATM initials : NCR
33. Steams : IRES
36. Defunct defense gp. : SEATO
38. Cultural prog. funder : NEA
39. Reduces to bits : RICES - not Dices
43. Romance novel emotion : LUST - what, not "LOVE"~?
46. P and Q, in D.C. : STs - Map, North of the White House
47. __-Z: collectible Camaro : IROC
48. Govt. issue : T-NOTE - not T-BOND
50. Last Stuart queen : ANNE
52. Full-bodied : ROBUST
56. United : WEDDED - not JOINed
59. Shimmer with color : OPALESCE
61. Get excited : AROUSE - been reading those "romance novels" again~???
62. Novelist Chinua Achebe, by birth : NIGERIAN
63. Southern legume : COWPEA - Learning moment
64. Rock from a sock : SEE STARS - Nice rhyme; took me a minute to grasp the idea of rocking from being socked by a punch
DOWN:
1. Old-time bandleader Fields : SHEP
2. "Dang!" : NUTS
3. Org. concerned with whistleblower laws : OSHA
4. Whippersnapper : WHELP
5. They mix well : BARMEN
6. 1930s-'50s Arabian monarch : IBN SAUD
7. Sourdough alternative : RYE
9. Bailed-out insurance co. : AIG
- right after the '08 collapse, my investment club bought into these
guys, and when they got their bail-out money, we benefited, too.
10. Easter, for one: Abbr. : ISLand - I knew this, but my ATTAIN was messing me up
11. Souvenir for the farmer's wife? : MOUSE TAIL - I did not know this - the Wiki
13. NBA forward Lamar __ : ODOM
14. Actress Russo : RENE
22. Key of Beethoven's Fifth : C MINOR - I didn't need "the rules" for this clue; I had -MIN-- to start; still had to wait on the "C", though
23. Work for a fee : HIRE OUT
24. March of fiction : AMY
25. "If I Were King of the Forest" singer : LAHR - The Wizard of Oz
26. Month after Adar : NISAN - Hebrew calendar
27. Party paper : CREPE
30. Yalta conferee : STALIN
31. Wave peak : CREST
32. Methods: Abbr. : SYSTemS
34. Agitated : STIRRED UP
37. Dairy case item : OLEO
41. TV monitor : FCC - Good misdirection; technically, TV is an abbreviation for TeleVision
42. Flash drive function : STORAGE
45. Wraps : STOLES
49. 1975 Pulitzer winner for criticism : EBERT - Roger, the "thumbs up" film critic; more learning for me
50. "Never Wave at __": 1953 film : A WAC - IMDb
51. Poppaea's husband : NERO
53. Former VOA overseer : USIA - United States Information Agency, and the Voice of America - more here
54. Lingering sign : SCAR
55. Second place? : TENS - as in 142,857
57. -speak : ESE
58. Traffic reporter?: Abbr. : DEA - Drug traffic, and the Drug Enforcement Agency - reminds me of this video, which tells a pretty good story
59. Switch positions : ONs
60. Bake-off entry : PIE
Splynter
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