Theme: Magic Transformations, spelled out in 15A and 17A, illusionist's act, and this puzzle's title. Words associated with a magic presentation are paired with an anagrammed form to make a wacky new phrase.
26A and 28A: "Presenting: Info!": TA-DA DATA.
47A and 49A: "Presenting: Instrument!": VOILA VIOLA.
56A and 57A: "Presenting: Wall hanging!": PRESTO POSTER.
Hi all, Al here.
Tricky today, last to fall for me was the SE corner, mostly due to stubbornness. This puzzle has an odd symmetry from left to right, folded like a book, but not top to bottom or diagonally. John has been really productive lately, conjuring up puzzles for three of the last five Thursdays.
ACROSS:
1. Hand mop?: SWAB. For cleaning a ship's deck
5. Siren, for one: ALARM.
10. Sound rebound: ECHO.
14. Corny state?: IOWA. Heywood Banks.
16. Unit of loudness: PHON. One SONE = 40 PHONs. They are subjective measures of perceived loudness. A decibel is the actual measured sound pressure and can be the same as a phon at times, but at different frequencies, the same pressure can seem to be louder or softer.
20. Playwright's device: ASIDE. Breaking the fourth wall by directly addressing the audience.
21. Sib, either way: SIS. Palindromic sibling.
22. Coincide: AGREE. I agree, when it snows as much as it has been lately we should all coincide and stay warm.
23. Turn in: RETIRE. The sooner, the better...
25. Most dependable: SUREST. Sure from Old French seur from Latin securus (secure).
29. Track figures: ODDS. Likeliest explanation is that odd meant "constituting a unit in excess of an even number", and odds followed with the general meaning of "amount by which one thing exceeds or falls short of another".
32. Start of a confession, maybe: I LIED.
34. Waste time, with "around": MUCK. I had _ _ C K staring at me for the longest time. A few other words came to mind first, but there was no way...
38. Louvre Pyramid architect: PEI. Ieoh Ming (I.M.)
39. Aptly named lab apparatus: BELL JAR.
41. Zip: NIL. Nada, zilch, naught.
42. '80s-'90s entertainment combo: TV-VCR. Convenient for small spaces, but inconvenient if the VCR needed to be fixed, then you were without the TV, too.
44. Gp. with big busts: DEA. Drug busts, Drug Enforcement Administration. This kind of bust comes from the word burst. The partial statue and f. anatomy meaning from Italian busto, upper body, which oddly comes from Latin bustum, a funeral monument or tomb...
45. Aptly named girder: H-BEAM.
51. Holy: SAINTLY. With clecho 46D. Holy: BLESSED.
53. Experience: UNDERGO.
58. Approximately: OR SO.
59. Mountain air: YODEL. Air (from Italian "aria") in the sense of a "song". Putting on airs (aura)
63. Wood site: SHED. I wanted to make GOLF or HOLE work here somehow.
64. Julia in films: RAUL. Best known for playing Gomez in the Addams Family movies.
65. Clinton Cabinet member Shalala: DONNA. Secretary of Health and Human Services.
66. Further: ELSE. I really didn't want to give up ALSO for this one.
67. Kind: TYPE.
68. Not on the level: SHADY.
69. Batik artist: DYER. Linen soaked in wax, then scratched with a sharp tool to allow limited areas to be dyed. Slightly akin to tie-dying.
DOWN:
1. George Harrison played one in "Norwegian Wood": SITAR. Couldn't find actual (real) live footage, so here's the Rock Band game version.
2. In a sorrier state: WORSE.
3. Be ready for: AWAIT.
4. Desperados: BANDITS. Banditos, outlaws, related word: banish.
5. Bowling initials: AMF. American Machine and Foundry. Competition: Brunswick.
6. China neighbor: LAOS. Landlocked between Thailand and Vietnam.
7. Cultural opening?: AGRI. Opening = prefix.
8. Rounded edges, usually: RIMS.
9. Label for many Tom Petty hits: MCA. Music Corporation of America.
10. Dorothy Parker forte: EPIGRAM. Short pithy, usually snide "verbal wallops" like: "Brevity is the soul of lingerie" or "Look at him, a rhinestone in the rough!"
11. Job: CHORE.
12. Perfects: HONES. As in "sharpens ones skills".
13. Advent: ONSET. Start up.
18. Day's "will be": SERA. Que Sera, Sera. Doris Day.
19. Stretched tight: TAUT. (for the ladies)
24. Pop singer Brickell: EDIE. What does she mean?
25. Emmy winner Thompson: SADA.
27. From dawn to dusk: ALL DAY.
28. Illusion of familiarity: DEJA VU.
29. Back (out): OPT.
30. Part of R&D: Abbr.: DEV. Research and Development.
31. Distributes, as the loot: DIVVIES UP.
33. Land in la mer: ILE. French: sea, island
35. Ethereal: UNEARTHLY.
36. Org. with covert ops: CIA.
37. It merged with Air France in 2004: KLM. Royal Dutch Airlines: Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij
39. Bond girl Ekland: BRITT. Mary Goodnight.
40. Rose: Pref.: RHODO. Directly from Greek rhodon for rose.
43. Give comfort to: CONSOLE.
48. Insurer at One Lime Street, London: LLOYDS.
50. Needing to be fielded, as a baseball: IN PLAY. Partial clecho with 51D. Baseball, for one: SPORT.
52. Striking grouping: ARRAY.
54. Sixth-day Christmas gift: GEESE. a-laying. The price index for all 12 days: currently $96,824
55. It might be tall: ORDER. Tall is a funny word that has evolved through many meanings over time. In Old English, it meant: prompt, active. It changed to mean brave, valiant, seemly, proper, and then to more than average height. From there it was extended to mean something grandly exaggerated, or lofty, and then to a general purpose intensifier as in tall tales or stories, and this clue: a tall order.
60. "Nice!": OOH.
61. "CSI" sample: DNA. DeoxyriboNucleic Acid
62. You've just reached it: END.
Answer Grid
Al
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