Saturday, Sep 14th, 2013, Barry C. Silk

Theme: Saturday Silkie

Words: 72 (missing J,X,Z)

Blocks: 30

    Well it was about time I got beaten up by a Silkie ( or any ) puzzle, and it's no surprise that it comes on "Saturday, the 14th"; typically, I fair worse in "luck" today than on Friday, the 13th.  Mr. Silk got me with too many proper names; people places AND things.  One grid climber today:

7. Collective feeling of oppression : BUNKER MENTALITY

and two 11's crossing two 12's;

3D. Hunter with a distinctive cry : SCREECH OWL

 

22A. Special screening : SNEAK PREVIEW - I tried PREMIERE SHOW, which fit - it's what we called the viewing of the made-for-TV movie we did in 1997 for cast and crew only

46A. Where funnels are often seen : TORNADO ALLEY - Funny, but my brother tells me after hockey this past Wed. that he is planning on going as the Tin Man for Halloween - so I was thinking that a funnel would be 'seen' on the head

 

....anyway, this crossed another weather-related phrase;

28D. It may precede a cold front : SQUALL LINE - Thunderstorm, which is two letters too long, so I couldn't make it fit, but there's three "L"s in a line~! My friend Matt from high school wanted to be a weatherman since the day I met him, and he succeeded - clip

...and upward~! acrosswards and downwards~!

stop by the Corner to check on your answer(d)s

ACROSS:

1. __ shirt : MUSCLE - yeah, this took a while, since I don't own one

7. Catholic pilgrimage destination : BASILICA - was looking for a city with a proper name, like "VATICAN"

15. Written to last : ETCHED - A lot of people have been asking about the new UPS driving position, and all I have been able to say is "...so far, nothing is carved in stone" - I'm thinking about starting a blog when I do go - call it "Driving Brown"

16. Member of DC Comics' Legion of Super-Heroes : ULTRA BOY - yeah, um, didn't know about him - I had SUPERMAN, then SUPERBOY, and (ahem) ULT-imately, ULTRA BOY

17. Coliseum team, once : L.A. RAMS - 'round here, Coliseum means Nassau, and the NY Islanders hockey team - NHL training camps have begun~!

18. March Madness event : NCAA GAME - Basketball; interferes with my hockey viewing

19. What busy people are on? : THE GO - "always on the go..."

20. WBA decisions : TKOs - Technical Knock-outs

21. Dos' followers : REs - Musical scale

26. Trauma sufferer's goal : CLOSURE - good clue; took me a while

27. Yellowstone grazer : BISON

31. Comic who wrote jokes for Kennedy : SAHL - Nope, not a clue - BMT ( Before My Time )

33. Start of a response to a brainteaser : Hmm.... - what else is Mr. Silk going to get me with?

34. Language "jai alai" comes from : BASQUE - well, here's one that got me

35. Latin 101 word : AMO - Orthorunica amo - "I love crosswords"

36. Jersey Shore resort : CAPE MAY

38. Nautilus letters : U.S.S. - two weeks in a row with this answer

39. Show deference : KOWTOW - I spelled it wrong, went with a "C"; it must be late....

41. 7 and 11: Abbr. : NOs - numbers, deceptively simple

42. Stuffing material : BATT

43. Mullah's faith : ISLAM

44. Regular guest on "The O'Reilly Factor" : STOSSEL - John; I have not seen him since his days on Ch. 7 here in NYC

50. Spot at the bridge table : PIP - on the non-face cards; learning moment for me

53. Slick : OILY

54. Its capital is Valletta : MALTA - OK, OK, I cheated, and Googled this one

55. Big name in racing : ANDRETTI - I got this one

58. "Turn Me Loose" singer, 1959 : FABIAN - and then I was back to Google - BMT

59. Cut across : TRANSECT

60. Double-edged : IRONIC

61. 1980 hit with the line "I longed to speak but did not dare" : HE'S SO SHY - The Pointer Sisters, and this IS my time - I grew up with the video on MTV, when it was a video showing channel

62. Just : BARELY - I had LIE for FIB, so I thought EVENLY was good here - Bzzzt~!

DOWN:

1. Softens : MELTS

2. Pioneer Day celebrant : UTAHN - seen this before; one from UTAH

4. 1963-'64 painter of the Paris Opera ceiling : CHAGALL

5. 1937 title gangster Pépé : le MOKO - I bet Mr. Silk is glad there's names like this one out there for crossword construction

6. Life support syst.? : EDs - Editors of Life magazine

8. Recess : ALCOVE

9. East German secret police : STASI

10. Portfolio element : IRA - retirement portfolio

11. Fail to keep up : LAG

12. Structural beam : I-BAR

13. Canine order : COME - OK, I gotta link this - adult content~!

14. Some votes : AYES

20. Ranking suit : TRUMP

23. "Bah!" : "PSHAW~!"

24. Selling point? : eBAY and; 48D. Net biz : ETAIL

25. Ill. neighbor : WISconsin; I almost decided to take the train to go to the Will Shortz presentation this past Thursday, but my supervisor screwed me out of my vacation.  I had a hockey game on Wed., too, so....maybe I visit C.C. this winter?

29. Kick out : OUST

30. Emulate bees : NEST - meh, but I was not fooled with "BUZZ", as I had USS crossing earlier

31. "The Storyteller" storyteller : SAKI - another proper name, crossing SAHL, that did me in - some Wiki

32. Book by a prophet : AMOS - and another

34. Low man : BASSO - low vocal man

36. Interrogación word : COMO - I know ¿Cómo estás?, "How are you?", and depending on WHO is asking, I might consider it to be an interrogation....

37. Hardly chipper : MOODY

40. Use a shuttle : TAT - I was on this wavelength, and started with SEW; TAT, back-fromed from Tatting, to make a kind of knotted lace of cotton or linen thread with a shuttle.

42. Over-explain : BELABOR

44. Rat : SNITCH

45. City on the Volga : SAMARA - another proper name that got me

47. Basic teaching techniques : ROTES - gritting my teeth on this one

49. '50s TV adventurer __ Derringer : YANCY

50. Way : PATH

51. Dictator's phrase : IN RE - Also Latin, "in the matter of"

52. Modern info holders : PDAs - I tried DVDs first.  I went for a test drive in the new Dodge Dart, and the CD player is in the center arm rest, along with the mp3 jack; I remember when an anti-theft pull-out cassette deck AM/FM radio was THE most advanced auto audio you could buy

56. BP checkers : RNs - Blood Pressure, and Registered Nurses

57. That, in Tijuana : ESO

58. Bit of fiction : FIB - ah, not LIE

 Splynter