Hard puzzle today! I think I had more trouble with this one than I did with yesterday's New York Times. With the long phrases and the tough cluing … this one was a real workout. There sure was an awful lot of exclaiming going on in this grid!
1A: "Get going!" ("SNAP TO IT!").
27A: "Oh, sure!" ("I BET!").
2D: "No way!" ("NAH!").
47D: "That's not good!" ("UH-OH!").
I like to imagine some of the other entries as exclaimations too. 19A: Bulbs in the kitchen! LEEKS! 26D: Badge material! TIN!
Many things I didn't know in this puzzle:
9A: Bantam (PETITE). No idea.
15A: Consort of Gustav I (KATARINA). Inferable through crosses.
43A: Gasteyer of "SNL" (ANA). People still watch this show?
56A: Explosive solvent, as it was formerly called (TOLUOL). If you say so.
59A: Versatile auxiliary wind-catcher (STAY SAIL). Had the SAIL part, but can't say that I'm well-versed in my nautical terms.
4D: "Star Trek" character __ Chekov (PAVEL). Or my Star Trek characters.
22D: "The Spirit" comics writer Will (EISNER). Rex probably knew this one.
51D: Tambo Colorado builder (INCA). I'm embarrassed to say I have no idea what "Tambo Colorado" means.
I guess half of those things I didn't know are names so I'm not going to feel bad about that. And I did know both 46D: Laura INNES of "ER"and TAL, the 55D: Chess champion who succeeded Botvinnik. So I've got that going for me.
More:
24A: Contraction of a sort (TIC). I couldn't get away from wanting a word that's a contraction of the words "of a sort." I was so drawn to that idea that I couldn't think of any other meaning of "contraction" for quite some time.
36A: Reservation opening (ON SECOND THOUGHT). I thought this was going to be something like "table for two." But it's a different kind of reservation.
44A: Main call (AHOY). I guess I do know some of my nautical terms though because I caught on to "main" right away.
Everything Else — 16A: Like many barber shops (UNISEX); 17A: "Beats me" ("I HAVEN'T GOT A CLUE"); 20A: Speed (ROCKET); 21A: Wins approval (SELLS); 23A: Fellow (GENT); 25A: Botanical opening (STOMA); 31A: Italian classic (O SOLE MIO); 34A: Many a Middle Easterner (SEMITE); 38A: Arrives at (GETS TO); 39A: Vaulter's target (CROSSBAR); 41A: Cast (THREW); 45A: Points at dinner (TINES); 47A: In the habit of (USED TO); 52A: "And afterward?" ("WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?"); 57A: Some tiny rods and spheres (BACTERIA); 1D: Word with run or jump (SKI); 3D: Regardless of the consequences (AT ALL COSTS); 5D: Poem with the line "Who intimately lives with rain" (TREES); 6D: Pen emission (OINK); 7D: Stats for QBs (INTS.); 8D: Touching game (TAG); 9D: Fake it (PUT ON A SHOW); 10D: Pass (ENACT); 11D: Little sucker (TICK); 13D: Ger. (TEUT.); 14D: Computer filename ending (EXE); 21D: Moe, for one (STOOGE); 23D: Emotionally therapeutic episode (GOOD CRY); 27D: "God's Other Son" radio host (IMUS); 29D: Flammable gas (ETHANE); 32D: "O, swear not by ... the fickle moon ... __ that thy love prove likewise variable": "Romeo and Juliet" (LEST); 33D: Outside: Pref. (ECT-); 37D: Three abroad (TRE); 42D: Shooter's target (HOOP); 44D: Literally, "for this" (AD HOC); 45D: Petulant (TESTY); 48D: Old man of the sea (SALT); 50D: Great achievement (FEAT); 52D: Mg. and kg. (WTS.); 53D: "Frontline" airer (PBS); 54D: Noon indicator (XII).
As you know, our Saturday puzzles are typically themeless. I don't think the 15s in this grid are coherent enough to be a theme, but they are certainly related and they are definitely cool:
17A: "I'll do it" ("LET ME HANDLE THIS").
38A: Words of disbelief (YOU'RE NOT SERIOUS).
58A: Words after thanks (I APPRECIATE THAT).
I had to fight this one pretty hard, but I did end up victorious. The bottom fell first, but I struggled a lot with the top. With the entire northwest corner empty, I just decided to start throwing in some down answers that were complete and total guesses. And they turned out to be right. Love when that happens! There were a few answers that meant nothing to me at all, so I think I'll look them up for you.
45A: Telepathy term (PSI). Okay, I thought this was P.S.I. and couldn't figure out what it might stand for. Turns out it's the Greek letter PSI and is simply a term from parapsychology. From a quick skim of the Wikipedia page, it seems the term can mean several different things, but they're all related. That's about as much interest as I can muster for this clue/answer.
8D: Biblical grazers (KINE). An archaic plural for cow.
60D: Some corp. officers (TRS). Can't figure this one out from first few pages of Google results. Anyone?
Other:
20A: WWII soldier in Africa (DESERT RAT). When PuzzleHusband and I lived in New Mexico, we used desertrats as a username on most thing. I do love the desert. Had never heard the term in relation to soldiers though (but I guess it makes sense).
21A: Application datum (SEX). Thought this might just as well be "SSN" or "age" so had to wait for the crosses (which didn't come particularly quickly).
27A: Gave (out) (METED). Here's another one where it could just as easily have been "doled," so I'm looking at the crosses again.
31A: Half a laugh (HEH). I tried "hee" here first, but it worked itself out pretty easily. I actually use just the one HEH quite often. But that's really more of a snicker than a laugh.
40A: Hall of Fame Vikings lineman Carl (ELLER). He happened to be an active player around the time I used to pay attention to football, so I was thankful for the gimme.
61A: Early MTV staple (VIDEO). Remember way back in the old days when MTV played VIDEOs?
1D: Longest note? (SOL). This clue refers to solfège — you know: do, re, mi, etc. All of the notes in solfège are two letters long, except for SOL, which makes it the "longest note." Ouch.
10D: Howard (STERN). Just kidding. The clue isn't really "Howard," it's "Hard," but it could've been "Howard"!
12D: Actor who was born a Leo, as it happens (LAHR). Very tricky (and interesting!) clue on Bert LAHR, who played the Cowardly Lion in "The Wizard of Oz." Get it? Lion? … Leo?
37D: Crash and burn (HIT BOTTOM). You all know the definition of hitting bottom, right? It's when your world is falling apart faster than you can lower your standards.
45D: Pepper picker (PIPER). Tried "Peter" first.
48D: Caroline, to Bobby (NIECE). Kennedys.
54D: H.S. reasoning exam, formerly (SAT I). I think maybe there used to be two parts to the SAT. Yep, SAT I (reasoning) and SAT II (writing). But now it's just one big honkin' test.
Crosswordese 101: There are three EDDS-with-two-Ds that you need to know for crosswords and two of them are in today's clue, 9D: Actor Byrnes and baseball Hall of Famer Roush (the other is "Former 'Tonight Show' announcer Hall"). The baseball player will almost always be clued as a baseball player, hall-of-famer and/or outfielder. The actor is clued with reference to "77 Sunset Strip" or "Grease."
Looks like we're on a pretty good roll here. I found this puzzle very enjoyable. There were a couple things that you just kinda hate to see, but I think the only one worth mentioning is the random alphabet string, 21A: What U can follow (RST). Yuck. And then there are the two complete and total clunkers. I can't decide if they were bad enough to ruin the puzzle for me. I didn't get to them until the very end so I was quite disappointed, but I don't know. I liked it up until then. What am I talking about? Of course: 31A: Dose people? (DEM) and 26D: Like atolls (REEFY). "Dose people"?? Seriously? That's an awfully awkward path to go down for a word that can be clued pretty easily. And REEFY, well. We can all agree that's ugly, right?
Other than that, though, this seemed like a pretty typical end-of-the-week (themeless) solve for me. Not quite as difficult as a New York Times puzzle, of course — with those I usually feel completely discouraged after one pass through the clues. But tricky enough that it kept my brain cells hopping. I had the most trouble in the NE corner where I plopped in shine for SHEEN (11D: Polish). I got ESTOP and ETHNO- pretty easily (10A: Bar at the bar / 10D: Centric leader) so I thought the 23A: White House nickname might be JOE for Joe Biden, which I thought was a little weird because usually a "White House" clue is referring to a president and not a VP. As it turns out, it's also dumb because, sure, JOE is a nickname, but it's not like he's ever called anything else. I also tried peel for PARE (14D: Skin) at first, so, yeah, it took a while to sort all that out.
The 15s are all really cool:
17A: Daydreams (CASTLES IN THE AIR). For some reason, this phrase always always always makes me think of "Islands in the Stream." What the heck is that about??
38A: Reaction to a coincidental entrance (SPEAK OF THE DEVIL). Kinda sorta wanted "Look what the cat dragged in," but this is very cool.
58A: Declaration that's from hunger (I COULD EAT A HORSE). Ha! I wonder why the clue wasn't simply "Declaration of hunger," but whatever. Still a great entry.
More:
1A: "Something's Got a Hold on Me" singer, 1962 (ETTA JAMES). I always like it when a person's whole name is in the puzzle. I feel like I just said that a couple posts ago. … Yep, it was back on May 13 when JET LI was in the puzzle.
24A: Musician nicknamed "Sugar Lips" (HIRT). Here's another guy who sometimes gets his whole name in the puzzle. And that's an awesome nickname.
36A: Uncle equal? (I GIVE). Did you get this one? It's like how "saying 'uncle'" is the same as saying "I give."
42A: Hampshire's home (STY). I hope a Hampshire is a type of pig.
55A: "Verily, thou __ God that hidest thyself" (Isaiah) (ART A). I was chatting with a friend who thought this was the worst answer in the grid. I admit, it's not great, but come on! — Verily!
63A: Glacial ridge (ESKER). Ne-Ever seen this word before.
5D: First name in sci-fi (JULES). As in JULES Verne. Around the World in Eighty Days is a book I've always wanted to read.
57D: Land of plenty? (ASIA). Love this clue. It reminds of a clue I saw once for ASIAN: "Like most people." Kinda pulled me right out of my little ethnocentric bubble.
Crosswordese 101: Is it possible we haven't covered ÉTÉ yet? It's pretty easy to remember. It's simply the French word for summer, but the clues for it can be really tricky. Today's clue, 39D: Soissons seasons, is pretty straightforward. Even if you don't know what Soissons is, you can kind of guess that it's French. But sometimes, instead of Soissons, they use Nice! That's a place in France, you know. It's pronounced like niece, but it looks like the English word nice so it can really throw you off if you're not careful.
Other crosswordese in this puzzle that we've already covered includes:
1A: "Something's Got a Hold on Me" singer, 1962 (ETTA JAMES).
Everything Else — 15A: It "ain't what it used to be": Yogi Berra (THE FUTURE); 16A: Birch of "Alaska" (THORA); 19A: Cry of exhilaration (WHEE); 20A: Like an irritated person's teeth? (SET ON EDGE); 27A: Try to jab (HIT AT); 34A: Like the Indian rhino (ONE-HORNED); 40A: Upholstery adornments (TUFTS); 41A: Plant grafting component (ROOT STOCK); 43A: 1966-67 AFL rushing leader Jim (NANCE); 44A: DOJ employee (ATTY.); 45A: 'Enry's abode ('OME); 47A: Ink __: octopus defense (SAC); 49A: Alfalfa locales (HAYFIELDS); 61A: It may be metered (VERSE); 62A: Above (AFORESAID); 64A: Doesn't draw (STANDS PAT); 1D: Inclusive abbr. (ETC.); 2D: Cold war abatement (THAW); 3D: Radio host John (TESH); 4D: Then (AFTER THAT); 6D: Took in (ATE); 7D: Tousle (MUSS); 8D: Ohio tribe (ERIE); 9D: Directed (SENT); 12D: Loathsome sort (TOAD); 13D: Copier insert: Abbr. (ORIG.); 18D: Actionable offense (TORT); 22D: During, old-style (THRO); 24D: Armies (HOSTS); 25D: Data, often (INPUT); 28D: Red head? (INFRA-); 29D: Dakota dialect (TETON); 30D: For this purpose (AD HOC); 31D: Displacement from a club (DIVOT); 32D: Force out (EVICT); 33D: Braves outfielder Cabrera (MELKY); 35D: Blesses (OKS); 36D: They may be checked at the door (IDS); 37D: Be convincing about (GET ACROSS); 43D: Requirement (NEED); 45D: Not worthless (OF USE); 46D: Sebastian Coe, e.g. (MILER); 48D: Sounded amazed (AAHED); 49D: Swarming spot (HIVE); 50D: They can be high or low (ACES); 51D: Walled English city (YORK); 52D: Where cows chow down (LEAS); 53D: Bats (DAFT); 54D: Acropolis sight (STOA); 56D: Under-the-sink item (TRAP); 59D: Hal Foster prince (ARN); 60D: Summer hrs. at MIT (EDT).
THEME: No theme today—It's a themeless puzzle, just like every other Saturday.
With a 4:06 finish, we remain in the Thursday/Friday NYT difficulty zone.
Nothing particularly grabbed me in this one. Nor did anything repulse me. The puzzle's sort of just there for me. Let's check out the content:
1A: [Beachgoer's pursuit] clues a SUNBATH. Very few people say that a sunbather is taking a SUNBATH.
8A: [A film may be shown in it] clues THREE-D. Yep, it looks like the mysterious THREED in the grid. ONED and TWOD confuse people even more. The World's Best Movie Critic, Roger Ebert, has been vocal in his opposition to slapping 3-D on too many movies for inorganic reasons. I love his enthusiastic embrace of Twitter. If you're on Twitter, you should follow @ebertchicago.
25A: [Trois counterpart] is DREI. Weird to use a French word in a clue for a German one. Trois and drei both mean three.
35A: [Mobile home site] isn't a TRAILER PARK here but a TRAILER CAMP, which is a term that I don't recognize but my kid says he knows it. I don't know how that can be!
38A: [Actress Benaderet who first voiced Granny in Tweety cartoons] is the hard way to clue BEA. The more accessible pop-culture route is Bea Arthur, and there's also the two-word partial approach (BE A).
39A: ["Count on me"] is an awkward clue for "I WON'T LET YOU DOWN," necessitated because the word "you" can't appear in both the clue and the answer.
43A: [Sound of locks being changed?] is the SNIP of a hairdresser or barber's scissors.
47A: ["Flash of Genius" actor] is ALDA. Alan? Did anyone see this movie? I remember hearing nothing about it. Alda plays a supporting role. This, I say, is not a great way to clue ALDA. Luckily, the crossings aren't obscure names.
49A: ["I ran away from you once. I can't do it again" speaker] is ILSA Lund in Casablanca. She's not in this scene:
50A: [Russian emperor after Catherine II] is PAUL I. Who?
53A, 1D: [Pops] means DAD and [Pop] is SODA.
23D: [Forward raises strengthen them] clues your DELTS. I don't know what "forward raises" are. My physical trainer has spared me that.
30D: [Scale notes, e.g.] are an OCTET. Do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti, do = 8.
34D: [Aster family plant] is a TANSY, rhymes with pansy.
Crosswordese 101: COTE is clued here as 56D: [Dove shelter]. Maybe the rest of you are more involved with doves and sheep in your daily lives, but I seldom encounter COTE outside of crosswords. Other common clues: sheep shelter, pigeon coop, farm shelter. It's also CÔTE, French for "coast," as in Côte d'Ivoire in Africa and Côte d'Azur of the South of France.
Everything Else — 1A: Beachgoer's pursuit (SUNBATH); 8A: A film may be shown in it (THREE-D); 14A: Like some bandits (ONE-ARMED); 16A: Item in the news, perhaps (COUPLE); 17A: "Be realistic" ("DON'T KID YOURSELF"); 19A: "I'd hate to break up __" (A SET); 20A: Salon stuff (GEL); 21A: Thin piece (SHEET); 22A: She played Carmela in "The Sopranos" (EDIE); 25A: Trois counterpart (DREI); 27A: Return recipient (SENDER); 30A: Dedicated verse (ODE); 31A: Influential Harper's Weekly cartoonist (NAST); 35A: Mobile home site (TRAILER CAMP); 38A: Actress Benaderet who first voiced Granny in Tweety cartoons (BEA); 39A: "Count on me" ("I WON'T LET YOU DOWN"); 41A: Lip (RIM); 42A: Promotional campaigns (SALES DRIVES); 43A: Sound of locks being changed? (SNIP); 45A: "Unlikely!" ("NOT!"); 46A: Queen of fiction (ELLERY); 47A: "Flash of Genius" actor (ALDA); 49A: "I ran away from you once. I can't do it again" speaker (ILSA); 50A: Russian emperor after Catherine II (PAUL I); 53A: Pops (DAD); 55A: Some mil. personnel (NCOS); 59A: "Who knows?" ("IT'S A MYSTERY TO ME"); 63A: Put (together) (PIECED); 64A: Arrive, with some difficulty (MAKE IT IN); 65A: Highlight (STRESS); 66A: "Ozymandias" et al. (SONNETS); 1D: Pop (SODA); 2D: Ones in Madrid (UNOS); 3D: Island goose (NENE); 4D: Driven home (BATTED IN); 5D: Chest with tablets (ARK); 6D: "More than I need to know!" ("TMI!"); 7D: Waffle (HEDGE); 8D: Fort Worth sch. (TCU); 9D: Dressage trainee (HORSE); 10D: Raid the joint, say (RUSH IN); 11D: Olympics weapon (ÉPÉE); 12D: Cosmo rival (ELLE); 13D: Handy (DEFT); 15D: Color (DYE); 18D: Past (OLD DAYS); 23D: Forward raises strengthen them (DELTS); 24D: Cork's place (IRELAND); 26D: Do over (REMODEL); 27D: Moves slightly (STIRS); 28D: "Desert Fox" Rommel (ERWIN); 29D: Woman in the Book of Ruth (NAOMI); 30D: Scale notes, e.g. (OCTET); 32D: Over (ABOVE); 33D: Escape site in "Les Misérables" (SEWER); 34D: Aster family plant (TANSY); 36D: Puts in a new clip (RELOADS); 37D: Knitting stitches (PURLS); 40D: Anticonvulsive drug (DILANTIN); 44D: Regal residence (PALACE); 48D: Bartender's supply (LIMES); 49D: They can be bright (IDEAS); 50D: Card marks (PIPS); 51D: Busy (AT IT); 52D: __ ID (USER); 54D: Cash source, briefly (ATM); 56D: Dove shelter (COTE); 57D: Cut (OMIT); 58D: D.C. VIPs (SENS.); 60D: NFL gains (YDS.); 61D: Old MGM rival (RKO); 62D: Hunger (YEN).
THEME: No theme today—It's a themeless/freestyle puzzle
Usually I use Across Lite with the timer running, but I solved this puzzle on a clipboard during my son's aikido class. My hunch is that many people will find it a little tougher than usual for a Saturday L.A. Times crossword. Yea? Nay?
My feelings about the puzzle are encapsulated by the first of the 15-letter answers: 17A: YOU CAN'T WIN 'EM ALL (Words of consolation). Wolfe wins big with the three 15s and racks up some other wins with assorted clues and fill, but then there are a few clunkers and a whole corner (the upper right) of badness. First up, the other winners:
The remaining 15s: 36A: "Don't cry over spilt milk" (WHAT'S DONE IS DONE) and 54A: Sassy reply to criticism (IT'S A FREE COUNTRY). These, like 17A, are fantastic. They're all things we say colloquially, and you can hear a "hey" or "ya know" preceding all of 'em.
20A: Día de San Valentín sentiment (TE AMO). I think the L.A. Times crossword requires a little more Spanish familiarity than the New York–based puzzles do, which makes sense because there's so much Spanish spoken in California. I've never seen "St. Valentine's Day" rendered in Spanish, but it's not too hard to work it out.
45A: Good thing to be up to (SNUFF). Other clueing options include the verb (negative, snuffing out) and the tobacco (bleh). "Up to SNUFF" is great, and the clue can lead you astray in a good Saturday-puzzle way. Up to no good, up to your ears, up to par, up to the challenge—are there any other 5-letter answers that make sense that you tried here?
4D: Bounce (RICOCHET). Cool word. You ever get Augusto Pinochet mixed up with RICOCHET? No? Me, neither.
I like the clue in 23D: Arm holder? (HOLSTER). Not that kind of arm.
55D: Old-fashioned word of disapproval (FIE). I'm bringin' it back! Join me, won't you?
Fie on the northeast corner of the grid. TRIPS gets a great verb clue (9A: Activates), and PILOT (12D: Fly) and SEPIA (16A: Brownish pigment) are fine, but the rest of the fill there is...ouch. Nothing that's a complete deal-breaker in isolation, but they're all jumbled together in a heap of "meh." Boring crosswordese ENOL and boring unfamiliar T-PLATE run across. In the down direction, we get authorial monogram TSE (T.S. Eliot), the RE- word REMELT, erstwhile toothpaste brand IPANA (known to people under 50 primarily as crosswordese), and the French word SALLE.
There were some other spots that grated:
39A: Fish tales (TALL STORIES). Wait, don't we call 'em "fish stories" and "tall tales"? TALL STORIES sound like the upper floors in a highrise.
48A: Wasn't true (LIED). I'm not convinced there's true equivalency here. If you LIED about something, it's not that you yourself weren't true—it's that what you said wasn't true. The thing that isn't true is the lie, not the liar. Yes? No?
61A: View for 6-Down (TREETOPS). 6D is SANTA. If you had the TOPS part of this answer, did you want ROOFTOPS rather than TREETOPS? Does anyone picture Santa flying over (and looking at) treetops? I would've clued this without a cross-reference to Santa, who isn't closely associated with treetops.
18D: Out of the running (NOT IN IT). At first I really liked this answer. But then I got to thinking, is this used in the negative? Sports teams and candidates can definitely be still "in it," with a chance to win. Does anyone say NOT IN IT? "Sadly, the Bears are NOT IN IT."
And now, a musical interlude, courtesy of 52D: Welk's upbeat (A-TWO). Would you believe that The Lawrence Welk Show, which was already outdated in the '70s, is still aired on Milwaukee's public television station? I caught a couple minutes over Thanksgiving in 2009.
Then there's Frankie VALLI (58A: Big name in falsetto) and the Four Seasons. In 1975, my sister and I bought the 45 of this song, so I'm partial to it even though "Sherry" and "Walk Like a Man" display the falsetto more acutely.
Crosswordese 101: Today's lesson is about numerals that get spelled out as words pretty much only in crosswords. This puzzle has 47D: Rte. through six Eastern state capitals (U.S. ONE)—you know, U.S. 1? It's a convention of crosswording that a number can be spelled out in the grid regardless of how it appears in real life. Thus, we get answers like ONED, TWOD, and THREED (1D, 2D, 3D, speaking dimensionally). Not to mention the draft status ONEA (1-A). The flying BTWO (B2 bomber), which is not what's next in the series after Lawrence Welk's ATWO. And, heaven help us, UTWO (the rock band U2). I'm not sure if anyone actually likes such entries. Sure, they help constructors get their fill to work, but they fly in the face of common usage and routinely vex crossword solvers who aren't expecting them. Google traffic to crossword blogs shoots up whenever ONED or TWOD shows up in the grid, as solvers are confronted with what appears to be a 4-letter word that isn't in their dictionary. So be ready for the spelled-out number nonsense, people. It will return.
See you on Wednesday.
Everything Else — 1A: Cellbound? (IN PRISON); 9A: Activates (TRIPS); 14A: Sanctioned (VALIDATED); 16A: Brownish pigment (SEPIA); 17A: Words of consolation (YOU CAN'T WIN 'EM ALL); 19A: Group with PCPs (HMO); 20A: Día de San Valentín sentiment (TE AMO); 21A: Carbon compound (ENOL); 22A: Boardroom illustration (CHART); 24A: Letter-shaped hardware used to strengthen joints (T-PLATE); 26A: Fish also called a blue jack (COHO); 28A: Bravo maker (FIAT); 29A: See a pro, say (TAKE LESSONS); 33A: __ blue (SKY); 36A: "Don't cry over spilt milk" (WHAT'S DONE IS DONE); 38A: Vague quantity (ANY); 39A: Fish tales (TALL STORIES); 40A: Chilean bread (PESO); 41A: Submit formally (FILE); 42A: Back on the water (ASTERN); 45A: Good thing to be up to (SNUFF); 48A: Wasn't true (LIED); 49A: __ Peters, author of Brother Cadfael mysteries (ELLIS); 51A: Intercepting device (TAP); 54A: Sassy reply to criticism (IT'S A FREE COUNTRY); 58A: Big name in falsetto (VALLI); 59A: Street hazard (OPEN SEWER); 60A: Take out, in a way (ERASE); 61A: View for 6-Down (TREETOPS); 1D: Creeper (IVY); 2D: Sodium hydroxide, in chem class (NAOH); 3D: Juicy fruit (PLUM); 4D: Bounce (RICOCHET); 5D: State with a panhandle: Abbr. (IDA.); 6D: Flier over 61-Across (SANTA); 7D: Web-footed mammal (OTTER); 8D: Not experienced in (NEW AT); 9D: Literary monogram (TSE); 10D: Do a foundry job (REMELT); 11D: Old toothpaste with a spokesbeaver (IPANA); 12D: Fly (PILOT); 13D: Maison room (SALLE); 15D: Not too smart (DIM); 18D: Out of the running (NOT IN IT); 23D: Arm holder? (HOLSTER); 25D: Falsely present (as) (PASS OFF); 26D: Four-time Oscar-winning lyricist (CAHN); 27D: Fine (OKAY); 28D: Antagonists (FOES); 29D: Defunct carrier (TWA); 30D: "Roots" Emmy winner (ED ASNER); 31D: Helpless? (SOLO); 32D: NBC hit since '75 (SNL); 33D: Land (SOIL); 34D: Joint with a cap (KNEE); 35D: "Works for me" (YES); 37D: Fisherman's aid that floats with the current (DRIFT NET); 40D: Rides on a path, perhaps (PEDALS); 42D: Full of energy (ALIVE); 43D: Indian strings (SITAR); 44D: Magnetic induction unit (TESLA); 45D: Nodded (SLEPT); 46D: More pleasant (NICER); 47D: Rte. through six Eastern state capitals (US ONE); 50D: Fifth sign (LEO); 52D: Welk's upbeat (A-TWO); 53D: __ school (PREP); 55D: Old-fashioned word of disapproval (FIE); 56D: Deploy (USE); 57D: Vintage nos. (YRS.).
