Theme: Add a letter. Not to the answer, but to each successive clue.
16. M: JAMES BOND'S BOSS. Sir Miles Messervy, as per The Man With the Golden Gun.
25. Ma: MRS KETTLE.
37. Max: PHYSICIST PLANCK. The founder of quantum theory.
51. Maxi: LONG SKIRT. You have to be a special kind of person to pull this off.
62. Maxim: PITHY PRINCIPLE. Because "men's magazine" didn't fit...
Hi all, Al here.
A tough theme to continue, I could only go two more steps without resorting to plurals:
Maxima: Nissan Model
Maximal: BeastWars Transformer
I found this puzzle both fun and entertaining, almost Naddoresque in places for the choice of answers like JIM DANDY, CHEAPO, TRIKE, and ZANIER. Also clues that tied together like "little wood", "little butt", "little rascal", and other misdirections. There did seem to be a few names, most not too bad, but the cross of AFT and FROMM did make me have to guess at first, not being one to read classified ads.
ACROSS:
1. Magic: MOJO. Originally meant a lucky charm in the shape of a hand, often worn between the legs, by gamblers and by women (against infidelity). It may derive from the West African Fula word moco’o, a medicine man, or from Gullah moco, meaning witchcraft or magic.
5. Time in a classified ad: AFT. Afternoon, I'm guessing...
8. Syrian president: ASSAD.
13. Surrounded by: AMID.
14. Bud: BRO. Pal, chum, homey, cuz.
15. Little wood: COPSE. Shortening of "coppice", which also has the same meaning: a small grove of trees planted specifically for cutting.
19. So-so connection?: AND. The original use was just to indicate something that is unspecified: "If I want to do so and so, then that's my business!" A similar phrase is "such and such". It has evolved into a euphemism for something unmentionable due to common use, thus acquiring a negative connotation itself: "You dirty so and so!" .
20. __ forces: ARMED. The notion of arms seems to be "that which is fitted together." Meaning "heraldic insignia" (in coat of arms, etc.) originally displayed on shields of fully armed knights or barons.
21. Senate majority leader Harry: REID.
23. Baseball stat.: AVG.
28. More clownish: ZANIER. Originally Zanni, Venetian dialect variant of Gianni, pet form of Giovanni "John." A stock character in old comedies, he aped the principal actors.
31. Doesn't try to reach the green, in golf: LAYS UP. For a safer next shot, use one instead of losing two. Unless you're like me and lose the next two in the pond anyway.
32. Current letters: AC-DC. Also an Aussie hard rock band.
33. Less taxing: EASIER. Like this clue.
43. Most tender: SOREST. I had wondered about the use of "sore" in a few old movies as meaning "very" (I am plumb sore wore out), until the eytmology dictionary pointed out the related German word "sehr", which, oddly enough, means "very".
44. Pace: GAIT. "A walking, or departure", related to gate, from Old Norse gata, a way or path.
45. Low-quality: CHEAPO. Brings to mind bad-smelling cigars.
49. Sumatran swingers: ORANGS.
55. Site of a 1981 sitcom honeymoon: ORK. Mork & Mindy. We've been seeing a lot of them lately.
56. Minute amount: IOTA. The Greek letter "i", which is the smallest letter, so literally the least part of anything.
57. __ badge: MERIT.
59. "Big Blue": IBM. Perhaps the logo, suits, mainframe color, or a combination of all three.
66. Old number?: ETHER. Not a counting number, but to numb your senses, an anesthetic.
67. Instrument on which Jake Shimabukuro can play "Bohemian Rhapsody": UKE. Jake is simply awe-inspiring. I may have also linked his version of Harrison's WMGGW before, but I'm doing it again, just because I think it would have been an even better choice for the clue.
68. Kind of officer or shark: LOAN.
69. Meg and Robert: RYANS.
70. __ Perce tribe: NEZ.
71. Asian beef source: KOBE. Kobe beef fat will actually begin dissolving at 77F degrees, which means the meat will literally melt in your mouth. If prepared as steak, kobe beef cannot be cooked more than medium rare, as it would otherwise liquefy.
DOWN:
1. Goya subject: MAJA. Two paintings, same model and pose, one clothed, one nude.
2. Yemen neighbor: OMAN.
3. Crackerjack: JIM DANDY.
4. Poetic tribute: ODE. From Late Latin, a "lyric song".
5. Common crossword clue letters: ABBR. Why does the word abbreviate need to be so long?
6. "The Art of Loving" author: FROMM. Erich, who presents love as a skill that can be taught and developed. I thought that book was called the Kama Sutra...
7. Cartridge filler: TONER. I started thinking gunpowder, then ink.
8. Coolers, briefly: ACS. Recently saw this clue for air conditioners.
9. One may be choked back: SOB. There, there, just let it all out.
10. Stylish: SPORTY. Concerning cars, I guess.
11. They may be liquid or frozen: ASSETS.
12. Original "Star Trek" studio: DESILU. Was owned by Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball.
17. Wise one: SAGE. Also an acoustic performance by Greg Lake of ELP.
18. Driller's deg.: DDS. Doctor of Dental Surgery.
22. Bank acct. entry: DEP. Deposit. Could have been INT.
24. Morrow and Damone: VICS.
26. One who lifts a lot?: KLEPTO. Lifting as slang for theft, not like these people.
27. '50s-'60s chief justice Warren: EARL.
28. Microwave: ZAP.
29. Cologne cry: ACH. German interjection. Lieber Augustin was a popular street musician, who, according to legend, fell into a pit filled with bodies of plague victims, late at night when he was drunk. Assuming that he was certain to catch the disease they left him for dead. Augustin did not contract the disease, which may have been owed to the influence of the alcohol. That sounds like a story for Ripley's Believe it or Not...
30. Boil over?: RECOOK. Over as "again", not as spilling onto the stove.
34. __ Jordan: Nike brand: AIR. I tend to avoid celebrity-endorsed products. Does that make me a hipster?
35. Vane dir.: SSE.
36. Part of TGIF: ITS. Thank God It's Friday. A mantra to take you to a happy place.
38. AOL et al.: ISPS. Internet Service Providers. It was pretty short-sighted to call it America on line, but the internet was young and hadn't taken over the world yet, I guess.
39. Culture medium: AGAR. They don't call it "smelly lab" for nothing... Not the agar itself, but the bacteria that gets grown on it.
40. Lover of Yum-Yum in "The Mikado": NANKIPOO.
41. Little butt?: CIG. Abbreviation for cigarette.
42. Gold meas.: KTS. Karats are the purity proportion. Carats are weight.
45. Second-century date: CLI. Well, it had to start with a C. After that, hope for perps.
46. Barrel worker: HOOPER. Someone had to make those metal bands that held the staves together.
47. Thing: ENTITY. That which is. Related to the crosswordese Latin word ESSE: "to be"
48. Hercule's creator: AGATHA. Hercule Poirot, Christie's Belgian detective with the active "little grey cells". David Suchet is my favorite portrayer.
50. Uniformed campus gp.: ROTC. Reserve Officers' Training Corps. I kept reading this as un-informed for some reason.
52. Little rascal: IMP. Originally just meant a shoot or graft of a plant, then transferred to human form with the sense of "newness". Pejorative association with phrases like "imp of Satan" gives us the present day meaning.
53. Chance to see what you missed the first time: RERUN.
54. Early mode of transportation: TRIKE. Cute clue. Early, meaning young, not ages ago. I wanted something else at first, like a horse.
58. Powerful 1966 hurricane: INEZ. Because the date was given to be in 1966, just find a female name that fits the perp letters and move along without further comment.
60. Yak: BLAB.
61. Word on a biblical wall: MENE. The idiom "The writing on the wall", to be able to foresee doom approaching, is a biblical story in the book of Daniel. King Belshazzar and his court praise the gods of gold and silver, brass, iron, wood, and stone. A disembodied hand appears and writes "Mene, Mene, Tekel u-Pharsin" on the wall. Daniel interprets this to mean God is displeased, and the end of the kingdom is at hand. Sure enough, the king is slain that night. You really had to be careful what you said to people back then, I guess...
63. Cock's mate: HEN. I've never heard it called that before...
64. Jr. and sr.: YRS. School years.
65. Type: ILK. Same. Related word: like
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