Theme: Hit the idioms. Spelled out in the clues for 22D HIT and 42D THE which reference each other: Words that can precede the answers to starred clues.
Notes from Don Gagliardo about today's puzzle:
"HIT THE __"
This is one of those puzzles where you are going along in conversation, you hear something that sounds interesting, and you go, “What was that that sounded so interesting?” You need to carry a notebook to catch these. I thought HIT THE ____ was an interesting idiom that should be explored. I was pleased to cram in as many theme words as I did, as usual giving myself fits trying to fill around them. One lucky insight that I had was to put HIT THE down the middle, divided by a black square. I don’t think that is something solvers see very often, and I thought it would be fun. I hope you all enjoyed it.
1. *Bag: SACK. Hit the sack: Go to bed.
5. *Pump output: GAS. Hit the gas: Step on it.
8. *Follow: TRAIL. Hit the trail: Take a hike.
16. *Road surface: PAVEMENT. Hit the pavement: Get lost.
18. *Holdup causes?: BRAKES. Hit the brakes: Cut it out.
28. *Rain protection: ROOF. Hit the roof: To the moon, Alice!
44. *Grilling site: DECK. Hit the deck: Duck!
59. *Cola holder: BOTTLE. Hit the bottle: Get drunk.
60. *Range target: BULLSEYE. Hit the bullseye: Right on.
64. *Warehouse aids: SKIDS. Hit the skids: Bottom out.
65. *Guinea pig food: HAY. Hit the hay: Get some sleep.
66. *Location: SPOT. Hit the spot: I'm stuffed.
Al here today. Wow, 14 theme entries in a weekday puzzle, (including the two tip off down clues). Pretty impressive effort to squeeze that many in. There are probably a few more answers that might work: books, bricks, road, lights, floor, wall...how many more can you come up with? I found solving this one pretty easy, more like a Tuesday perhaps. I didn't officially time myself, but I know it was well under 10 minutes, and I didn't even see several of the clues until I added them here.
ACROSS:
13. Longtime portrait studio __ Mills: OLAN. I wonder if they use 36A. Like many cameras: DIGITAL.
14. Strasbourg street: RUE. French city, french word for street.
15. For this reason: HENCE. Sounds like a word you would hear in ye olde shoppe.
19. More than frown on: SNEER AT. Billy Idol.
20. Morrie Turner comic strip about ethnically diverse kids: WEE PALS.
21. D-Day carrier: LST. Landing Ship, Tank.
22. "__ Tonic": 1945 Bugs Bunny title: HARE. I see the pun you made there...
23. Green source, briefly: ATM. Green = money from an automated teller machine. And 2D. Greenspan concerned with green: ALAN. once again, green = money. The chairman of the Federal Reserve until 2006.
26. Give as a task: ASSIGN. From Latin ad signare/signum (to make a mark or a sign).
32. Southern stretch?: DRAWL. To draw out (lengthen) or protract.
34. Yours, in Tours: ATOI. French city, french word.
35. On Vine St., say: IN LA. Los Angeles. Hollywood and Vine is the center of the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
38. Retailer offering video streaming: NETFLIX. I have an internet-ready blue-ray player. I may use it for downloading movies some day if I ever catch up on the backlog on my DVR...
40. Legendary work, often: EPIC.
41. Miller __: LITE. Or Park, or Time.
43. Emit, as a sigh: HEAVE. That's a heavy sigh.
45. Musical satirist Tom: LEHRER. You don't hear much about National Brotherhood Week any more.
47. "Indubitably!": YES. Yogi Bear said this all the time. Comic books and cartoons were a big source of vocabulary when I was young.
48. D-Day month: JUNE.
49. Pep: VIM.
51. To some degree: OF A SORT.
55. Bridge supports: PILINGS.
61. __ ease: ILL AT.
62. Braves, on scoreboards: ATL. Atlanta
63. 1998 skating gold medalist Lipinski: TARA. Won at the age of 15, remains the youngest ever to win gold.
DOWN:
1. Cleans (up) using Bounty: SOPS. The quicker picker-upper.
3. Batman's hideout: CAVE.
4. Get down to earth?: KNEEL. Literally.
5. Immortals: GREATS.
6. Patty or Selma, to Lisa Simpson: AUNT.
7. Combo's group of numbers: SET. Musical numbers. And 8D. Number in a combo, maybe: THREE.
9. Collect: REAP. As in harvest.
10. "My Way" lyricist: ANKA. Paul.
11. Eyjafjallajökull's country: Abbr.: ICEL. Iceland, with the unpronounceable volcano name.
12. More, some say: LESS. Less is more. Minimalism.
17. Shaker on the kids' show "Blue's Clues": MR SALT. A talking salt shaker, married to Mrs Pepper, with a child named Paprika.
18. Convicted Ponzi schemer Madoff: BERNIE.
20. Western driver: WAGONER.
23. Said further: ADDED.
24. Rubbish: TRIPE. Tripe is "entrails used as food". Considered worthless to some, the meaning spread to anything deemed unworthy of having, and even what others may have said.
25. Orlando cagers: MAGIC. Basketball.
27. Conspicuous: SALIENT. Something that jumps out at you. "Leaping," a heraldic term, from Latin salientem/salire "to leap".
28. All over: RIFE. Old English for "abundant".
29. Dental restoration: ONLAY. Both inlays and onlays are fillings, but an onlay replaces part of a cusp. A crown covers the entire surfaces.
30. Martini garnish: OLIVE. Or onion.
31. Many business letters: FAXES.
33. Oil lamp feature: WICK. Keep your lamp trimmed and burning.
37. Siren quality: ALLURE. Oh Brother Where Art Thou.
39. It might be cheap: THRILL. Old English þyrlian, from þyrel "hole", originally meant to pierce, penetrate. To give a shivering, exciting feeling was a metaphoric notion of being pierced with emotion.
46. How villains laugh: EVILLY.
48. Throws for a loop: JOLTS.
50. Waters gently: MISTS.
51. Asian sashes: OBIS.
52. Acoustic guitar genre: FOLK.
53. Hun king, in Scandinavian legend: ATLI. Attila. He appears under the name Etzel in the Nibelungenlied and under the name Atli in Icelandic sagas
54. Dutch town: STAD. German stadt. The name for a place or a standing. Related words: steadfast, and once again our crosswordese friend STET (let it stand).
55. "__ lid on it!": PUT A.
56. Minimum-range tide: NEAP. A tide that occurs when the difference between high and low tide is least; the lowest level of high tide.
57. Lamb sandwich: GYRO. Modern Greek "gyros" (the word is singular) for a circle, the way the meat is cut from a rotating spit.
58. Usher's find: SEAT. From Latin ostiarius "door-keeper," from ostium "door, entrance," related to os "mouth." You can pick your friends, and your seat, but you can't pick your friend's seat.
60. Part of a legendary Christmas complaint: BAH. Humbug. Scrooge, from A Christmas Carol by Dickens.
Answer Grid
Al
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