Sitting short and sweet in the center of the puzzle...34D: Handheld computer, or holding hands (PDA)...setting the stage for the two long theme answers.3D: With 6-Down, 34-Down / 6D: See 3-Down (public display of / affection)
11D: With 35-Down, 34-Down / 35D: See 11-Down (personal digital / assistant)
That was some feat of construction! I'll be the first to admit that I groaned when I saw those clues. I just ache all over from coughing so much, and I'm feeling on the grumpy side...and I just didn't want to deal with clues I couldn't figure out. So I skipped them and just started working what I could...adding a few letters here and there...until it became apparent.
Other good long answers...21A: They really get steamed (espressos), 23A: Red River area (Indochina), 54A: What a solid yellow line may indicate (no passing), and 58A: "Be right there!" (in a moment). Two of them were gimmes, one took a couple of letters to guess...the third eluded me for far too long. I'll leave it to you to guess which was which.
Spicy fill and/or cluing at 14A: Take over (usurp), 17A: Free, in France (libre), 20A: Michael of "Monty Python" (Palin), 36A: Red Sea's Gulf of __ (Aqaba), 42A: Dutch beauty (tulip)...mine are up and looking gorgeous, 43A
: "Hungaria" composer (Liszt), 44A: Graham of rock (Nash)...a favorite of mine in the seventies, 47A: Round end (peen), 68A: "It Don't Come Easy" was his first solo hit (Starr)...had Ringo at first, 13D: Chasers in a saloon, perhaps (posse)...clever cluing, 37D: Place for a body to repose (bier)...in the summer, my body frequently reposes in a beer, 48D: Polite turndown (no ma'am)...the older I get, the more I dislike being called ma'am, 50D: Unwelcome end, with "the" (kibosh), and 61D: "Shall We Dance?" star, 2004 (Gere).38D: Place for some icons (apse) is the best clue I've seen for a word that appears with some frequency.
66A: Zodiac symbol (lion)...both that and Leo are fairly common crossword fare, but I'm sure that fellow blogger Donald will be happy to see it nonetheless.
63A: "Paint the Sky With Stars: The Best of __" (1997 album) (Enya). She has the right combination of letters to make it into the grid fairly often. I haven't heard this one, but I just love the back of this CD.Spend enough time doing crossword puzzles and you'll never stumble on 10A: Per (a pop), 64A: Met highlight (aria), 65A: Western (oater) or 26D: Uzbek sea name (Aral).
I liked seeing 49A: Put out (irk) and 51A: W. Eur. country that does not belong to NATO (Ire) side by side...even if they didn't have similar meanings in this case.
Don, the lover of all things ketchup, will like the clue at 32A: Move like ketchup (ooze). As a lover of Z, I like the answer.
That's it for tonight. Here's the grid...
...and I'll see you tomorrow.
Linda G
8 comments:
Loved this. Not as on the ball as you, so I wasn't close to understanding what was wanted in the grouped clues. I didn't see the additive-yet-not-not implication of the clue series at first. I had PDA, but I also had Heel for PEEN, so my first long answer was PUBLIC DISH LAY OF, or so I thought, and wondering what in the hell that was supposed to mean. But I sorted it out eventually.
I also had RINGO and have the same aversion to being called MA'AM. When did we cross over into that category, with our youthful good looks? Bleah.
POSSE had the funnest clue. And a shout-out to Graham NASH! If you're so inclined, visit my blog and you can hear a great song of his.
I was on a good wave length this moring so the theme answers came easily...however could someone explain CAPOS as neck attachments...I know Capo means head in Italian, buthow would you know there are looking for an Italian word?
Bob - A CAPO is also a device that is placed across the neck of a guitar to change the tone. Perhaps that's the intent of the clue
JL, thanks...I was as clueless as Bob on that one.
Wendy, can't wait to check out your Graham Nash song. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it's one of my favorites.
Thanks JL..I am sure that is what he meant...Linda, glad that I was not the only one confused!
No fair,Linda! The clue for 8D was Prm Parts which I had as RADII (Lat. Pl. of radius - an arm bone).
The Carpals are WRIST bones! Shows you you can be too smart for your own good :-)
DrBob
Personally, I think the ooze factor of ketchup/catsup should be scientifically increased.
DrBob, I did the same thing with radii...fortunately, I'm not too smart for my own good ; )
KarmaSartre, when Don retires, I think the two of you should spearhead that effort.
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