03.25 Fri

F R I D A Y
March 25, 2011
John Lampkin

Theme: Half-Baked Ideas — Theme answers are familiar phrases that begin with a repeated first word, but the repeated word is only used once.

Theme answers:

• 17A: 61-Across Asian appetizer? (PU PLATTER).
• 21A: 61-Across cheer? (HIP HOORAY).
• 37A: 61-Across musical? (BYE BIRDIE).
• 55A: 61-Across gag? (KNOCK JOKE).
• 61A: Not well thought out (HALF-BAKED).

Wow. Really, really enjoyed this puzzle! Great theme, tricky cluing, lively fill — this puzzle has it all. I had trouble in two areas. In the southwest corner I wouldn't let go of DER for 50A: Hamburger's article, but the correct answer is EIN. I think I was just excited about the opportunity to post a picture of Kevin Der again, which is what I do every time the word DER appears in the puzzle. In fact, just last weekend at the ACPT I told Kevin about how I do that. He doesn't read the blog so he didn't know. Ha! Well now that I've talked about him for so long, I'll go ahead and use his picture. Should I use the same one I've been using all along from two years ago or should I update to the one I just took this past weekend? Decisions, decision!

Anyway, the other place I had trouble was in the Texas area because I had MANTA where SKATE was supposed to go (53D: Ray in the sea), leading me to believe the reveal answer would be ONE-something, which seemed totally reasonable. I also had MONITER for MONIKER (43D: Handle) even though it kinda seemed like it was spelled wrong. I figured it all out eventually and must say I enjoyed the challenge.

PuzzleSon was "helping" me with this puzzle and when he saw KNOCK JOKE he goes, "But those aren't even funny." Ha! Unfortunately, I spent a lot of time last night on my ACPT recap (scroll down to the next post to read it) so I'm pretty much out of time. I'll just hit the highlights real quick and then I'm off to work.

Bullets:

• 19A: Class figs. (PROFS.). Wanted this to be something to do with numbers, like GPA or something.

• 29A: Select, in a way (SCREEN). Remember back in the old days when you SCREENed your calls by listening to the answering machine? Or waaaay back when SCREENing your calls wasn't even possible?!
• 36A: Ballet __ (RUSSE). I don't believe I've ever heard this phrase and I don't know what it means.
• 67A: Fishhook connector (SNELL). Don't know this one either.
• 69A: Highland tongue (ERSE). We've covered ERSE in Crosswordese 101 in the past.

• 5D: Square on the table? (PAT). Not the proverbial square meal, but the literal square PAT of butter.
• 9D: Chow chow (ALPO). Food (sometimes called chow) for a dog (which might be the type of dog known as a chow).
• 31D: Nice street (RUE). The first word of this clue refers to the French city of Nice. And the French word for "street" is RUE. We talked about this cluing trick back in the Crosswordese 101 entry for ÉTÉ.
• 40D: Title savant in a 1988 Oscar-winning film (RAINMAN). I'm an excellent driver.
• 63D: Danish capital? (DEE). Another tricky clue that we've covered in Crosswordese 101.

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Everything Else — 1A: Work on a batter (STIR); 5A: Grandly appointed (POSH); 9A: Stand for (ABIDE); 14A: Strong-spined volume (TOME); 15A: Forte (AREA); 16A: "I __ Piano": Irving Berlin hit (LOVE A); 20A: Bleak (GRIM); 23A: Spine movement? (SHIVER); 25A: Code-cracking gp. (NSA); 26A: Chatspeak qualifier (IMO); 27A: Batter's supply (PINE TAR); 32A: "Then again ..." ("YET …"); 33A: Doglike carnivore (HYENA); 39A: Ashes, e.g. (TREES); 42A: Geometry basic (AXIOM); 43A: Animal's gullet (MAW); 46A: Personally give (HAND TO); 48A: Meadow bloomer in the buttercup family (ANEMONE); 51A: A.L. rival of N.Y. (BOS); 54A: Flashes (GLINTS); 59A: Seed coating (ARIL); 60A: Inspire profoundly (IMBUE); 64A: Great Lakes explorer La __ (SALLE); 65A: Convenient abbr. (ET AL.); 66A: "Pretty Woman" actor (GERE); 68A: Disallow (DENY); 1D: Letters at Indy (STP); 2D: Head-scratcher (TOUGHIE); 3D: Fossil indentation (IMPRINT); 4D: Be haunted by, perhaps (RELIVE); 6D: Sports MD's specialty (ORTH.); 7D: Greet warmly (SEE IN); 8D: Dwells incessantly (on) (HARPS); 10D: Town name ending (BORO); 11D: They don't laugh when they're tickled (IVORIES); 12D: Discredits (DEFAMES); 13D: Hardly a head-scratcher (EASY ONE); 18D: Purple hue (AMETHYST); 22D: Eats (HAS); 23D: Code user (SPY); 24D: Comedic actress Martha (RAYE); 28D: 1988 self-titled C&W album (REBA); 30D: FBI facility since 1932 (CRIME LAB); 34D: Disallow (NIX); 35D: Diva's moment (ARIA); 37D: Daffodils' digs (BED); 38D: Bell sound (DONG); 39D: 1889 work of art deemed unsuitable for general display at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair (THE KISS); 41D: Dignify (ENNOBLE); 44D: Pair in a rack (ANTLERS); 45D: Horror filmmaker Craven (WES); 47D: Gram. case (OBJ.); 49D: Illusion (MIRAGE); 52D: Gasped in delight (OOHED); 56D: Select (CULL); 57D: Sailing stabilizer (KEEL); 58D: Vigorous style (ELAN); 62D: Annoying buzzer (FLY).