Saturday, March 1, 2014

Saturday, Mar 1st, 2014, Mark Bickham

Theme: None

Words: 72 (missing J,Q,Z)

Blocks: 30

    Eerie - I sensed we were getting a Mark Bickham puzzle yesterday....and he did not disappoint~!  This one was another white-wash to start (and hopefully not an omen to us NE dwellers come Monday), but in the 'hunt and peck' style of crossword solving, I got through to the "Ta-DA~!" in just over my allotted time.  Two grid-climbers paired with two 11-letter climbers, two triple-10 corners, and two inner triple 10's, to boot~!   Phew~!  Some of our longer fill:

1a. Title puppet dragon of '60s-'70s kids' TV : H.R. PUFNSTUF - a children's show just before my time, from Sid & Marty Krofft; they also produced the Krofft Supershow, which IS what I watched on Satuday mornings; it featured a segment called Wonderbug, which featured a character named C.C.~! (OK, it was a guy, but....)

3d. Chevrolet Camaro cousin : PONTIAC FIREBIRD - the Flaming Chicken, and one of my all-time favorite cars - the '77 version - I think it had the coolest rims, ever. And I grew up with Knight Rider, not Smokey and the Bandit~!


11d. Party person : POLITICAL LEADER - ah, not the "PAR-TAY" kind of party

12d. To summarize : IN A NUTSHELL

22d. It precedes the late news : PRIME-TIME TV

29d. Fictional threat to secret-keeping : X-RAY VISION - I did not give enough weight to the "fictional" part of the clue; I stared at -RAY-ISION (and in the down, it's even harder) for way too long; it's only when I tried TEX at 28a. that the V-8 can nearly clubbed me

63a. Highly rated individuals? : LOAN SHARKS - HAR-HAR~!! - I've seen enough TV crime drama to know that the interest is usually usury

ONWARD  rabbit  ONWARD  rabbit  ONWARD  rabbit  ONWARD
bunny bunny foot foot ONWARD

ACROSS:

11. Trading place : PIT

14. Supercilious : ABOVE IT ALL

15. Angular : BONY - I was going to link a picture of a skinny model, but they're too disturbing, even for me

16. Ristorante offering : MINESTRONE

17. Words after take or gain : A LAP - my first guess, but "take a lap" didn't seem right to me

18. Experience slightly : TASTE

19. Senseless : ASININE

21. Bee: Pref. : API - as in APIarists, also known as a beekeepers


23. One-eighties : UIES - short for U-Turns, but oh, which spelling to go with? I tried UEYS to start - BZZZT~!

25. Back porch luxury : HOT-TUB - I have been in a back porch hot tub; the porch was part of a house on a ski resort; quite an experience to relax outside at night surrounded by snow AND in your swim suit

26. Lady's love : TRAMP - the Disney movie

28. Bandleader Beneke : TEX - I went down the alphabet list; teD, tiM, toM, but stopped....

30. Ravel's "Gaspard de la __" : NUIT

31. Tiny parasites : LICE - nice - the plural got me; I went with NITS, but that's a crossword parasite

32. Alarms : SCARES

34. Oshkosh hrs. : CST - Winnebago county, Wisconsin and Central Standard Time - for another week, then it's CDT

36. Alternative to satellite : AM/FM

37. Name of eight popes : URBAN - and one New Zealand-born country music star

38. Lionized actor? : LAHR - Bert Lahr, who portrayed The Cowardly Lion

39. 30% of venti : SEI - A WAG, but I did know it was foreign numbers

40. Characteristic of some jacks : ONE-EYE

41. Zeno's home : ELEA

42. Hunter's setting : TRAP

44. "Slumdog Millionaire" star __ Patel : DEV - the "V" was my last fill

45. Comeback : RALLY

46. Frank : WIENER

48. In __: unmoved : SITU

50. 2002 British Open champion : ELS

51. Words spoken while stretching, perhaps : I'M BORED - ah, that type of stretching; I do healthy stretches before work and playing hockey

53. Old Toyota model : SUPRA

55. Tara of "American Pie" : REID - I thought it was this girl, but she's Alyson Hannigan


56. Great Plains dweller : PRAIRIE DOG - all I needed was the "G" at the end to make an 'educated' WAG

60. Raison d'__ : ÊTRE

61. Historical transition point : END OF AN ERA

62. Movie format : DVD

DOWN:

1. Omelet ingredient : HAM - Mark BickHAM~?!?

2. Diamond stat : RBI - for some reason, I was looking for a pitcher's stat on this clue, but 'diamond' refers to anything baseball; I know there are a few of you out there who are keyed up for the new season

4. Iris holder : UVEA - DAH~!!! The eye part, not a VASE for the flowers (and that's fl-OW-ers, not Fl-OH-ers)

5. Spill the beans : FESS UP

6. Tucci's "Road to Perdition" role : NITTI - all PERPS

7. Rep in the city : STREET CRED - REPutation, and CREDibility

8. Eastern path : TAO

9. Prismatic bone : ULNA

10. Bygone Crayola shade : FLESH

13. Laid-back : TYPE-B - I'm OK with NOT being "Type-A"

15. Xhosa's language group : BANTU - complete WAG; well, I did have the "T"

20. Accelerator particles : IONS

21. Country album? : ATLAS - cute; no music here

24. "Can Do!" group : SEABEES - from the US Navy's Construction Battalion, or "CB"s
27. Part of an org. : MEM

32. Overhead light? : SUN - D-oh~!!! This took WAY too long for me to fill in


33. From Okla. City to Tulsa : ENE

35. Airline conveniences : TRAYS

38. Pastoral place : LEA

40. Letters under TUV, perhaps : OPERator, on the old dial phones

43. Battery post : ANODE

45. Indonesian currency : RUPIAH - OK, I cheated - I have a MONEY table in my dictionary, and since I had R-P--H, I looked, and there it was - and yes, from Indonesia, no less~!

46. Condé Nast technology magazine : WIRED


47. Sicken : REPEL

49. Bailiwicks : TURFS - my one 'meh' answer for the day; I would have preferred some vague clue about artificial grass

52. Popular 1958 spy novel : DR. NO

54. "General Hospital" Emmy winner Sofer : RENA

57. Nabokov novel : ADA

58. Where "Shazbot!" is a curse : ORK - from the TV show Mork & Mindy

59. Natural __ : GAS

Splynter Splynter Splynter Splynter Splynter Splynter Splynter

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