It didn't take me long to recognize it, though. I knew that 31A: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee known as the White Lady of Soul was Dusty Springfield. I just didn't know how to make it fit in the grid. My first guess was that RING would fit in one square, but the downs didn't cooperate. I had the BI in place at 2D: Went kaput...and then I saw it. Bit the dust! By the way, there's a lot more to Dusty Springfield's career than You Don't Have to Say You Love Me or Son of a Preacher Man. You can read more about her here.
Other theme answers are:
4A: Medevacs, in military slang (dustoffs), with 4D: Quarrel (dust up). Lucky guesses on both.
9A: Shop coat? (sawdust), with 12D: Furniture protector (dust cover).
37A: Nebulous stuff (interstellar dust), with 42D: Black & Decker offering (Dustbuster).
43D: Classroom sneeze elicitor (chalk dust), with 62A: Janitorial tool (dustmop). I had dustpan, dustbin...who'd have thought there would be so many janitorial tools with dust in the name?
57D: Cleaning product with the slogan "It's that fast" (Endust)...I know the product but have never heard the slogan...with 63A: Big band era standard (Stardust). That reminds me of a great tearjerker...Queen of the Stardust Ballroom, starring Maureen Stapleton and Charles Durning. I should probably watch it again and see if I still like it as much as I think I do.
Things I didn't know:
15A: Officer slain in the Old Testament (Uriah). The only Uriah I know is Uriah Heep.
21A: City of canals (Osaka). I think I may have seen this before...but when I think of city of canals, I think of Venice.
29A: Cow (hector). I had to look this up to see the connection. I'd never heard it used that way.
51A: Food whose name is Italian for "feathers" (penne). I know the word, just didn't know its Italian meaning. In just one week, we know sleeves (manicotti) and feathers.
37D: Metal in the points of gold pens (iridium). If I've heard it before, I've forgotten it, although I was able to get it from crosses.
I was delighted to see 1D: Half of a 1970s-'80s comedy duo (Cheech). We spent far too many nights listening to Cheech and Chong. "Dave's not here!" was classic, but Sister Mary Elephant was also a favorite...maybe because I spent seven years in Catholic school.
Multiple word answers include 10D: very, very hot (at a boil), 25D: Absorbed (sopped up), 48D: Get divorced (end it), 46A: Billboard listing (hit tune), 49A: Puts together in a hurry (whips up).
I usually second-guess myself when I see a long answer that ends in I. They didn't trip me up at all this time, though, with 22D: It contains the elastic clause (Article I). It's also known as the necessary-and-proper clause. You can read more about it here.
They did trip me up with 27A: Kind of therapy. I thought of mental therapy, marital therapy, equine therapy, art therapy, everything but hormone therapy...can't see the forest for the trees, I guess.
44A: People people (celebs) was a good clue, and it's a good answer. But it seems as though there should have been an indication that the answer was abbreviated in some way...maybe adding "briefly" to the clue.
Don't know why I knew 50A: Wood smoother (adz), but I did. And it's a very cool word. A three-letter word with a Z? It doesn't get any better than that.
So here's the grid.
I wonder why I wrote the "dust" in Stardust top to bottom, when all the others were written bottom to top?
That's all for tonight. See you tomorrow.
Linda G
