Saturday, Apr 30th, 2016, Derek Bowman

Theme: 15x16 Triple-stack Debut~!(?)

Words: 75 (Pangram~!)

Blocks: 38

  Quite an effort for a debut (at least a debut for the LA Times).  I did not recognize the author's name, and I do not see his name on the blog list of constructors.  I dove right in and didn't see the triple-stack in the center, but I did sense that the grid was slightly w-i-d-e-r than our normal fare.  And a pangram, to boot~!  I finished under my personal time, but I have to confess two Google look-ups; both proper names.  Oh well, still a good solve, and a fun puzzle as well.  Just a tad too many proper names, I thought.  The triple-stack;

34. Capital near Las Vegas : SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO - it fit, so I went with it, and it was a good guess

41. Popular software for gamers : ADOBE FLASH PLAYER - a bit deceptive, since I am not a gamer, but I need the software to view certain YouTube videos

42. Variety show on which "The Honeymooners" began as a skit : CAVALCADE OF STARS - my house mate Garry was standing over my shoulder while I was solving, and at 69 years old, didn't know this one - until I told him the answer later.  It filled via perp(endicular)s

ACROSS:

1. Protests by not taking any courses? : FASTS - I tried SIT IN, as in students who audit classes, but don't "take" them

6. Floorboard hardware item : BRAD - as a carpenter, I end up using brads in most finishing work

10. Cloaks : VEILS

15. Top dog : ALPHA - my supervisor at UPS is a mere 21 years old, but he's got a need to prove he's the "alpha" male on the line; it's not working for him

16. Western city with an annual balloon race : RENO - filled via perps

17. She slugged a sheriff in "Selma" : OPRAH

18. Pick up : LEARN

19. Big story : EPIC - dah~! Not SAGA

20. With 13-Down, "Unfaithful" Oscar nominee : DIANE; 13. See 20-Across : LANE

21. Waits on hand and foot : CATERS TO - I pondered this, but waited

23. "Pity" : TSK

25. Proof letters : Q.E.D.

26. Not much power : ONE WATT - Garry owned "Go Solar" before retiring; everything is about watts and volts in his business

27. "Never Cry Wolf" author Farley __ : MOWAT - cheat #1; I had MO_AT

29. "__ tree falls ... " : IF A - if a man speaks, and there's no woman around to hear him, is he still wrong~?

30. Significant period : ERA

31. __ moment : A-HA

43. Buddy : MAC - argh~! Not PAL

44. Former court gp. : ABA - American Bar Association; I looked on Wiki, but couldn't find out why it is "former"

45. Big name in outdoor gear : REI - this has become a popular crossword clue/answer

46. Pope John Paul II's given name : KAROL

48. "Ready for business" sign : NOW OPEN

52. Toon that debuted in the 1954 cartoon "Devil May Hare" : TAZmanian Devil

55. "Hyde Park on Hudson" subj. : FDR - the movie starred Bill Murray

56. Peak : HIGH NOTE

57. Hardly warm : ALOOF

59. Comet competitor : AJAX

61. Secretary of war under Teddy : ELIHU - look up #2

62. Language that gives us "mako" : MAORI

63. Accept : TAKE

64. Tears down, in 65-Across : RASES - the British version of RaZes

65. North Sea county : ESSEX - when it's at the bottom of the grid, it's a safe guess to go with ESSEX, which is letter-friendly

66. Inspected : EYED - I'm a licensed Home Inspector, and a free-lance leg inspector....

67. Decorative pitchers : EWERS - another letter-friendly bottom answer

DOWN:

1. Gandolfini's TV wife : FALCO - "The Sopranos", which I didn't watch, but I knew the stars; made me change my NW across answers

2. "Yond Cassius has __ and hungry look" : A LEAN

3. Sudden rush : SPATE

4. Obeyed a fishing regulation : THREW IT BACK

5. Marin County seat : SAN RAFAEL

6. Football's Favre : BRETT

7. Tow job, for short : REPO

8. Singer DiFranco : ANI

9. BBC hero since 1963 : DOCTOR WHO

10. Screwdriver part : VODKA - I went with "BLADE" - the tool, not the drink. 

11. Commercial prefix with Pen : EPI - EPIpen

12. Big oil exporter : IRAQ

14. Lose : SHED - like pounds; today I'm at 180, about the lowest I've been in 25 years - lost the long hair, too

22. It may be swiped at work : STAFF CARD - I have an ID card to get on the UPS property, but I don't swipe it

24. Lowland amphibian : SWAMP FROG

27. 1980s attorney general : MEESE

28. Attorney's specialty : TAXATION LAW

32. Simple greeting : "HI-YA~!"

33. Big name in PCs : ACER

34. Ink __ : SAC - took too long to dawn on me

35. Actor Driver of "Girls" : ADAM - my mind was stuck on Minnie

36. Salmon choice : NOVA

37. Involved : ELABORATE - the adjective; this is an involved construction

38. Athlete known as "The King of Clay" : NADAL - I knew we were looking for a tennis star, but I don't watch enough to know which one is the 'king of clay'

39. Absent : ELSEWHERE

40. Logical operators : ORs

47. Pin, say : AFFIX - the verb

48. Rejected : NIXED

49. Self-confidence : POISE

50. Wild blue yonder : ETHER

51. City across the Rhine from Düsseldorf : NEUSS

52. Hardly boundary-pushing : TAME

53. "Poor me!" : ALAS

54. Places with exhibits : ZOOS

56. Cod relative : HAKE

58. Mt. Hood setting : OREgon

60. Colorful flier : JAY

Splynter

Saturday, Apr 23rd, 2016, Doug Peterson & Patti Varol

Theme: DP & PV

Words: 70 (missing J,Q,V,X,Z)

Blocks: 32

  It's like déjà vu all over again~!  This duo had a Saturday offering just three weeks ago.  When it came up today, I thought I signed in to the wrong date.  Unlike that last grid, this has only one spanner, plus a 13-letter climber, four 10-, and two 9-letter fills as well.  I also smoked through this one in near record time, and without any look-ups or red-letter cheats.  The long answers;

35a. Side with waves : CRINKLE-CUT FRIES - I like my fries close to burned

15d. Bug on the road : CLASSIC BEETLE

sha-na-nOn-WARD~!

ACROSS:

1. Loves to solve, say? : ANAGRAM - excellent way to start off a crossword puzzle - we all loves to solve, don't we~?  I got the misdirection immediately

8. Mavens : SHARKS

14. Sudden and swift : METEORIC - like a rise to fame

16.* Company that annually honors "Women of Worth" : L'OREAL

17. Batter's dream : MEAT BALL - never heard the term; I am sure C.C. knows all about this

18.* 2015 World Golf Hall of Fame inductee : O'MEARA

19. Action figures? : ODDS - har-har

20. 1954 film based on the short story "It Had to Be Murder" : REAR WINDOW

22. Four-time Australian Open winner : AGASSI

24.* LBJ theater : 'NAM - a few apostrophe answers this week *

25. Key of Mozart's Symphony No. 39 : E FLAT - ha-HA~!  I put in " _ FLAT" and waited on perps~!

27. Fix, as a toy : SPAY - oh, clever.  I went with MEND, but this refers to the 'toy' dog

29. Kisser : YAP - not GOB

32. Weapon with a nock : ARROW

33. Subatomic particle : PION - I WAGed MUon, and that was 100% 50% correct

34. Former Italian statesman Moro : ALDO - perps and WAGs

38. Rapper Nate : DOGG - According to Wiki, he's a cousin of "Snoop"

39. Obligation : DEBT

40. Copious : AMPLE

41. Second-century date : CLI - well, I threw in "C", and waited

42. Sister of Dakota : ELLE - filled in via perps; I know Dakota was the little girl in the remake of "War of the Worlds", but forgot she was the little girl in "Man on Fire", too.  She's grown up....

43. Got up : AROSE

44. Dig for hard-to-get clams? : DUN - I gotta tell ya, I just don't get this.  I thought "ATM" was a clever answer, but no

46. Harder to hold : EELIER - and then I nailed this one

48. "Ocean's 11" co-star : DEAN MARTIN - ah, the original.  I am a big fan of the remake, personally

51. Dog with a typically blue-black tongue : CHOW - I knew this because my room-mate in Cincinnati Ohio had one - the dog, that is....

55. They often drive people home : RBI MEN - more baseball

56. Leave alone : LET SLIDE - I parsed this as Lets Lide, and it didn't jive

58. Check : ARREST

59. Tangled up : ENSNARED - clecho with; 42. Tangle up : ENMESH - having the answers both be "EN" words seems a bit borderline

60. Sturm und Drang novelist : GOETHE - I was curious; the Wiki

61. Fusible alloys : SOLDERS - I am constructing a bathroom in the house, complete with Jacuzzi.  Nice.  I am going to build a copper manifold - using solder.  After I install that in the crawlspace, I'm running PEX to the fixtures.  So far, so good.

Not me

DOWN:

1. Shell collection : AMMO - well, I had the "A", so I went with this, tho I do not see an abbrvtn in the clue

2. Grant factor : NEED

3. Ever so slightly : A TAD

4. Plays nice : GETS ALONG

5. Deprive : ROB

6. Dormant Turkish volcano : ARARAT - I knew it was the landing site of Noah's Ark, but not that it was a volcano

7. Quite a distance : MILES - great name for your chauffeur, too

8. Yawn-inducing : SLOW

9. Corny stuff : HOMINY

10. Staples Center, e.g. : ARENA - home of the LA Kings from the NHL

11. Statement before taxes are dealt with? : READ MY LIPS - and a direct quote in this song from Megadeth;

George Bush @ 2:42

12. Pecan pie syrup : KARO - I got this - and I don't bake

13. Popular side : SLAW

21. Remove roughly : RIP OUT - like, say, splynters~!!!

23. Rubberneck : GAWK - viz. 15d.

25. Tasmanian-born Flynn : ERROL - first Flynn I thought of

26. Appliance brand owned by Electrolux : FRIGIDAIRE - didn't know this fact, but the word fit....

28. Pangolin snack : ANT - whoa~!  I have never heard of or seen this animal before - now I want one - and we have an ant problem in the house, too

30. Oscar winner for "Skyfall" : ADELE - gratuitous image for C.C.

31. Ask : POSE

32. "Rock or Bust" band : AC/DC - perps got me A - - C; pretty much a gimme for me

33. Kitchen tool : PEELER

34. Like jousters : ARMOR-CLAD

36. Cholesterol letters : LDL

37. What's on the menu : FARE

43.* "You're lyin'!" : AIN'T SO

45. Yet to be fulfilled : UNMET

47. Legal claims : LIENS

48. Main __ : DRAG - Squeeze and Street didn't fit

49. The Aragón feeds it : EBRO - see map, below

50. It may precede a deal : ANTE

52. Bring on : HIRE

53. River to the Baltic : ODER - see map, below

 and nearly another anagram, too

54. Forms a union : WEDS

57. Show with Kenan Thompson, briefly : SNL

Splynter

Saturday, Apr 16th, 2016, Debbie Ellerin

Theme: Debut~!

Words: 70 (missing F,J,Q,Z)

Blocks: 31

  This is Debbie Ellerin's debut Saturday puzzle for the LA Times, as far as I can tell.  She has had two other puzzles, one duo with Jeff Chen on a Sunday, and a solo effort on a Monday - which to me seems to be the hardest day to construct a puzzle; there has to be a simple theme, simple answers, and simple clues.  I have tried my hand at construction; it's a lot harder than you think earlier in the week.  This one looked a bit daunting at the outset, but then a few solid fills led me to finish in half my personal allotted time.  A pretty pinwheel grid today with triple 9's and almost triple 9's - and nothing longer than that.  And a gratuitous shout-out to yours truly at 46d.~!  Debbie is already in my good books~!

17a. Agitated : STIRRED UP - I had stEAMed up at first

13d. They're turnoffs : EXIT LANES - oooh, so close with EXIT RAMPS

52a. Vanity case? : EGOMANIAC

28d. Sci-fi emergency vehicle : ESCAPE POD - my first experience with an 'escape pod';

oNEW-WARD~!

ACROSS:

1. Ring pairs : TAG TEAMS - on the first pass, I was not sure if this was wedding rings or boxing rings - turned out to be wrestling

9. Result of hitting the bar? : SPACE - I thought we might be looking for something like DRUNK

14. Some strays : ALLEY CATS

16. Plant from the Greek for "flame" : PHLOX - the clue led me to discover this interesting reading

18. Garlicky sauce : AIOLI - my first fill; crossword staple

19. Present, say : TENSE - ah.  Took too long to see this definition of "present"

20. One to keep closer? : ENEMY - one only keeps the friends "close"

22. Setting for a Det. Tigers game : EDT - Went with CST - central standard time; of course, the baseball season is only during Daylight time, and Detroit is not that far from the east coast, really

23. Designer of many Harper's Bazaar covers : ERTE

24. Golden Horde members : TATARS - learning moment for me

25. Dancer Chmerkovskiy of "Dancing With the Stars" : VAL

26. Rutabagas, e.g. : TUBERS - nailed it

27. Chicago Cubs' spring training city : MESA - filled via perps

28. Squired : ESCORTED

32. Lethal phosphorus compound : SARIN

one can just look this up these days

33. Lose control, in a way : SPIN OUT

34. Grind : RAT RACE

36. Evasive : CAGEY

37. Epitome of slowness : MOLASSES - "AS A SNAIL" did cross my mind

38. Parted sea : ARAL - I thought it was the "RED" sea, but in today's geography, this sea has split

39. "Rent" Pulitzer-winning dramatist : LARSON - half crossings, half WAG

41. __ se : PER 

42. Fortune : KISMET - ah, fate, not riches

43. Private dining room? : MESS - clever

47. "Yada yada yada" letters : etc.

48. Place to get clean : REHAB - BT, DT.

49. "Affliction" Oscar nominee : NOLTE - did not see the movie

50. Key location : PIANO - I was trying to be overly clever and pondered Florida; it was only after I came here that I see the answer filled itself in

54. Bean seen on-screen : ORSON

55. "Aha!" : "NOW I GET IT~!"

56. Many a combine model : DEERE

57. Some seniors : OLDSTERS

DOWN:       

1. Kind of buds? : TASTE - I tried BOSOM to start

2. Size up, maybe? : ALTER - tailoring humor

3. Sparkle : GLINT

4. Far from flowery : TERSE

5. Title narrator in an 1847 novel : EYRE

6. Deck top : ACE - ah.  Cards, not carpentry

7. Entered the pool? : MADE A BET

8. Hindered the development of : STUNTED

9. Fixes : SPAYS

10. Golden ratio symbol : PHI - φ

11. Some succulents : ALOE VERAS

12. Frigid : COLD AS ICE - look away Tin~!  Look away~!

15. Stick a fork in : SPEAR - "me...I'm done"

21. "__ Robinson" : MRS.

24. Peace Nobelist of 1984 : TUTU - Desmond

26. Metal-measure word : TROY - precious metals; the Wiki

27. Men's home? : MARS - the women from Venus

29. Fifth wheel : SPARE TIRE - ah, the actual definition, not the guy who tags along on a double date

30. Cuban home? : CIGAR CASE - I'm a cigar smoker ( not Cubans, mind you ), and so this one was sort of a gimme

31. Law school newbie : ONE-L

32. Kenton of jazz : STAN - filled via perps

34. Bruins' home : ROSE BOWL - I was of course, in an NHL Boston Bruin's mindset - this is UCLA

35. Beaucoup, with "of" : A LOT - "I made beaucoup bucks betting on the game last night"

37. Onetime Sterling Optical spokesman : Mr. MAGOO - seemed logical to me

39. Piece of fiction : LIE

40. Beyond the pale? : ASHEN - cute.  Skin tone

42. Scandinavian capital : KRONE - dah~!  Fell into the trap; not Oslo, Stockholm, nor Helsinki - the money kind of capital

43. "Bouquet of Sunflowers" painter : MONET - I had the "M", so it was an "A" or "O" WAG for the artist - I got it

44. Choice : ELITE

45. Flight segment : STAIR - my lovely Siberian friend got sticker shock when she discovered how much it would cost to come to America

46. Splinter groups : SECTS - I am a part of a lot of groups; this blog is one (LOL)

49. Badgers or hounds : NAGS

51. Negative link : NOR

53. Prefix with life or wife : MID - mid-life, midwife

Splynter

Saturday, Apr 9th, 2016, Ed Sessa

Theme: None

Words: 72 (missing G,K,Q,X)

Blocks: 30

  Normally it's hit or miss for me with Ed Sessa's puzzles, but today I couldn't enter the answers fast enough.  I just happened to be in a WAGing mood, and threw in what I thought was the most logical solution, and quite a few were good.  No Google, no red letter, and got my ta-DA~! in less than half my personal allotted time.  Triple 10-letter Downs, and nearly triple 10's in the Across, and another pair of 11-letter climbers towards the center;

5. Catkin bearer : PUSSY WILLOW - the Wiki

I found this, too

25. Went ballistic : LOST CONTROL

 o o o o o O O O ONNN WA A A aa aa rr dd d  d   d  ~ ~ !!

ACROSS:

1. Heart : CORE - A Wild-Ass Guess ( tho educated ) to start; all my other W.A.G.s are "*", whether they were good or bad

5*. JFK Library architect : PEI

8. "The Well-Tempered Clavier" composer : J.S. BACH - I knew this, but failed to consider the "J.S." part

14. "C'mon, be __!" : A PAL

15. In abundance, in slang : UP THE WAZOO

17. Data lead-in : META

18. Flowerlike marine creature : SEA ANEMONE

19*. Latin 101 word : ERAT - ah, not AMAS

20*. Bear's call : SELL - stock market reference

21*. Worked on the road : PAVED

22*. Nowadays : LATELY - I went with "AS LATE"

24. Mine yield : SALT - rather specific

26*. Tails : SHADOWS - dah~! Not FOLLOWS

28*. Most lemony : SOUREST - dah~! Not TARTEST

33. Word with air or bed : HOT - I could only think of BUG and PAN, and neither worked with air

34. Ammo for Moe : PIES - Three Stooges reference

36. Peloponnesian War side : SPARTA - about the only WAG I did not throw in; the Wiki

37. One on a lot : AUTO

39. Didn't reach logically, with "to" : LEAPT

41. "Downton Abbey" title : EARL - a gimme for those commenters that watch

42*. "City of the Beasts" author Allende : ISABEL - a semi-WAG since I had "I--B-L"

44. Dissenting group : SECT

46. Tommy Pickles' younger brother on "Rugrats" : DIL - shows up often in crosswords, and I can never recall the name right away

47. Vitamin A form : RETINOL

49. Infect with the T-virus, in "Resident Evil" films : ZOMBIFY

51. Things that come in pairs : TWOS - like these~!

53*. Melody and Millie, to Minnie Mouse : NIECES

54*. Earth pigment : OCHRE

58. Jargon : CANT - new to me; straight definition (3) - here

60*. Wood strip : LATH - a WAG only because I thought SLAT might work, too

61. Focus of 1972 environmental legislation : CLEAN WATER

63. Stub __ : A TOE

64. "Yikes!" : "HOLY TOLEDO~!"

Die Hard with a Vengeance

65. No more than : MERE - ooops, went with LEST

66*. Bad temper : SPLEEN - I tried RANCOR

67. High-speed letters : DSL - internet service

68. Ain't right? : ISN'T - the correct pronunciation/spelling

DOWN:

1. Clothing material for John the Baptist : CAMEL'S HAIR

Heavy Metal Camel

2. Marx Brothers setting : OPERA HOUSE

3. Rapping sound : RAT-A-TAT-TAT - I wasn't sure of the spelling this time

4. Carried away : ELATED

6. Near-pointless swordplay? : ÉPÉE - fencing weapon

7. Romans and countrymen: Abbr. : ITALianS

8. Brad's ex : JEN - Pitt and Aniston

9. Suddenly involved (in) : SWEPT UP

10. 2016 College Football Playoff champ : 'BAMA - don't watch, don't follow, but this is a common abbreviation in crosswords

11. Sea of __, south of Ukraine : AZOV - dah~! Not KIEV; my green-eyed friend lives in a town w-a-y north and east of Moscow; we've been sharing emails for three weeks now; she's 1372 miles from this sea; it is one vast country....

12. Ice cream parlor purchase : CONE

13. Worked in a bed : HOED - oh, uh, a garden bed, I knew that....

16. Immortal Bears coach : HALAS - filled in via perps

23. Prune : LOP

27. Get it : SEE - ah.  "Now I get it (see)."

29. Singer Carly __ Jepsen : RAE - and a semi duplicate at; 57D. Comical Martha : RAYE

30. Uproots : ERADICATES - I think of 'uproots' as having to move abruptly; I don't necessarily think it means to utterly eliminate

31. In a state of endless conflict : STRIFE-TORN

32. You can count on it : TALLY SHEET

35*. Flier to Sundsvall : SAS - seen this Scandinavian airline enough to guess

38. Eastern sash : OBI - sort of too easy for Saturday

40. Loadable confections : PEZ

43. International accord : ENTENTE - I had DEtente

45. "More than I care to know" : TMI - textspeak for Too Much Information

48. Subway option : LOCAL - vis-à-vis express; I pondered TOKEN, but 'local' made more sense

50. Guy de Maupassant novel : BELAMI - again, filled via perps

52. Stuffed : SATED

54. "Draft Dodger Rag" folk singer : OCHS

55. Western sound effect : CLOP - my soon to be "eradicated" marriage featured my ex-wife's son clopping two coconut halves together, as I rode in on an imaginary Monty Python horse

I am about 60lbs lighter today

56. Inferno : HELL

59. "__ Declassified School Survival Guide": 2000s Nickelodeon sitcom : NED'S - never heard of this show; crossing "Jargon" at 58A., the "N" was a complete unknown/natick

62. Persuaded, with "over" : WON

Splynter

Saturday, Apr 2nd, 216, Patti Varol & Doug Peterson

Theme: Two Double Stacks

Words 68 (missing J,Q,X,Z)

Blocks: 27

Phew~!  This one was a toughie, yet upon reviewing it, there really wasn't a lot that couldn't be worked out - but I have to admit to one Google - the crossing of two proper names and some other vagueness in the SW slowed me down tremendously.  Nearly blank on the first passes, but a few educated WAGs at some longer fills gave me some toe-holds, and I was able to hammer out the remainder.  Two double stack spanners, tied to 11-letter fills, and a couple of paired 8's in the Down;

15. Like many a Beverly Hills party-goer :  

FASHIONABLY LATE - I think she's going to be fashionably late

17. Heeds sound advice : LISTENS TO REASON

46. Bird named for its large-scale migrations :  

PASSENGER PIGEON - I was curious, so I looked it up; I did not know they were extinct

49. DVD special feature, perhaps : ALTERNATE ENDING - I wanted alternatIVe, but the double "E" was messing me up; I couldn't see it for a while

~!

ACROSS:

1. Law school accrediting org. : ABA - looking back, this should have been a gimme (American Bar Association)

4. Current information source : TWITTER FEED - I am not on Twitter, nor Facebook - I get my news the old-fashioned way; rumor

18. Former seniors : ALUMS

19. Points for a piano tuner? : TINES - ugh.  The tool, not the person

20. "Murder in the First" airer : TNT

21. Crossword legend Reagle : MERL - should have gotten this on the first pass

22. Primed : READY

23. "Hogan's Heroes" setting, briefly : WWII - the show was before my time; I have been watching some "World War II in color" history on the AHC channel

24. Word with wash or wear : EYE - eyewash, eye wear

25. Zen teaching techniques : KOANS - I WAGed the "K"

26. "Aw, mom!" sound : GROAN

27. Zsa Zsa's older sister : MAGDA

28. "I think you'll like it!" : "TRY ONE~!"

29. Sweat inducer : SCARE

31. Desolate tract : WILDS

32. One good at figures? : SKATER - figure skater; I was on that wavelength

nice figure

33. Sea : BRINY - nope, not OCEAN

35. Mirren of "The Hundred-Foot Journey" : HELEN - this was my only ACROSS fill on the first pass

36. Thugs : GOONS - hockey players, in some instances

37. BART stop : SFO - OK, I took a stab at this one on the first pass, too; San Fransisco Airport on the Bay Area Rapid Transit

40. Hard to grasp : EELY - I went with this, then OILY came to mind

41. Complex : DENSE - I had TENSE; that's 100% 80% correct

42. Dutch word meaning "farmer" : BOER

43. Triple Crown stat : RBI - ooops, I was thinking horse racing, not baseball

44. "Tequila Sunrise" writer/director Robert : TOWNE - no clue, and the "W" was my last fill - but the "ta-DA~!" was there~!

45. Beverly Hills retreat : VILLA

50. Time for fluff pieces : SLOW NEWS DAY - I always find it a little contradictory when the 6 o'clock news spends 22 minutes talking about terrorist attacks, floods, riots, wages going down, taxes and gas prices going up, and then 2 minutes on the cute puppy that chases its own tail....

51. Soapmaker's supply : LYE - OK, I got this one on the first pass, too

DOWN:       

1. Lit : AFLAME

2. Castle wall : BAILEY - So glad I am a huge castle person; I knew this

It's hiding - think courtyard

3. Promise : ASSURE

4. All scores? : TIES

5. Wooed successfully : WON

6. Rather : INSTEAD

7. "Orphan Black" star Maslany : TATIANA - I really wanted to try this show out, but never got a chance to watch

nice figure

8. Govt. obligations : T-BONDS - another good guess

9. __ de los Timbales: Tito Puente's nickname : EL REY - I figured it was "king", but forgot the "El" part

10. Bakery output : RYES

11. Where Hollywood is: Abbr. : FLA - oh, that one - I'm sure a lot of our regulars got it

12. "American Sniper" director : EASTWOOD - I did not remember Clint did this one as well

13. Many British prime ministers : ETONIANS - graduates of Eton school

14. Tooth layer : DENTINE - ENAMEL was too short

16. Web page standard : HTML

22. "I copy" : "ROGER." - we were just talking about "Airplane~!" at the restaurant yesterday

23. Not straight, in a way : WRYLY - like some humor

25. Black on screen : KAREN - Before my time; I would have known Karen ALLEN

"We...are...not...thirsty"

26. They can be silly : GRINS

27. Bristol bro : MATEY - I am reading P.G. Wodehouse, a prolific writer his whole life, with a focus on English life - so this word pops up frequently.  I love his writing.

28. Interlace : TWINE - dah~! Not WEAVE

29. Its first national tournament was held in 1932 in Atlantic City : SKEE-BALL - I did not know this, but I tried "-BALL" at the end, and that helped hugely

30. Nymph who ultimately became the stars of Ursa Major : CALLISTO - I had an A - INSTEAD (6d.) - of O at the end; also a moon of Jupiter

32. Hillary aides : SHERPAS - oh. that Hillary.  The explorer, not the candidate - my housemate is tuned in to CNN 24/7 right now, and it's a bit much

33. Tied hats : BONNETS

34. Snow-White's sister, in Grimm : ROSE RED - found this; Disney making a movie

36. Trifle : GEWGAW - this has appeared in crosswords before, but it was just not coming to me

37. Été blazer : SOLEIL - Le Frawnche sun

38. Grand theft auto, e.g. : FELONY - since it's not capitalized, it's not the video game

39. Santa Ana's county : ORANGE

41. "Holy Sonnets" poet : DONNE - my Google - the Wiki

42. City NNE of San Antone : BIG D - Dallas, TX (colloquial names) Hi there, D-Otto~!

44. Arctic-to-Antarctica migrating bird : TERN - good guess off the "R"

45. Like clematis : VINY - I knew this was going to be something like "VINED"

47. Needle : SEW

48. Gravel designation : PEA - sizing

Splynter