Theme: You've got a lot of nerve! Revealed in 60A. Part of an axon (and what 17-, 28- and 46-Across each has?): NERVE ENDING. The last word of the three theme answers are all synonyms for Chutzpah.
17A. Marinara, for one: TOMATO SAUCE. Salty or heavily seasoned, saucy. Related: sass.
28A. Pentagon bigwigs: MILITARY BRASS.
46A. Not serious: TONGUE IN CHEEK. If you have cheek, you probably mouth off a bit.
Hi all, Al here.
Good puzzle for a Thursday. Some answers I didn't know, like LODZ, or NERI, but everything eventually fell with the perps for me today, no lookups. I think my favorite word was INEXORABLE; I want to be more like that. Other than a few, I thought all the answers were pretty easy. Some of the clues, though, were not...
ACROSS:
1. Techie talk, e.g.: JARGON. Argot is specifically the jargon of rogues and thieves. Jargon comes from Old French, literally a chattering of birds, unintelligible.
7. They have guards on both sides of them: Abbr.: CTRS. Centers and guards, football players.
11. Roman sun god: SOL.
14. Nine follower?: ONE ONE. The emergency number, spelled out.
15. Menageries: ZOOS. From French ménagerie "housing for domestic animals". Zoo from Greek zoion "animal".
16. Worldwide workers' gp.: ILO. International Labour Organization. A UN agency.
19. Marked, in a way: XED.
20. Winter coat: SNOW. Or blanket. Nice misdirection.
21. Pusher pursuer: NARC.
22. The gamut: A TO Z. Originally the lowest note in the medieval musical scale "gamma ut", it came to mean the whole scale and from there expanded to mean the entire range of anything.
23. __ II, king who founded Borg (now Sarpsborg): OLAF.
25. Moor: HEATH. Swamp.
32. Swindle: CON.
33. Philip __: 16th-century Italian saint: NERI. If you say so...
34. Only just: BARELY.
36. Cheri who played Gail Hailstorm in "Scary Movie": OTERI. SNL alumna, list of characters including Ross Perot...
38. First person in Berlin?: ICH. Es gibt kein Ich im Team. Unless you look closely.
40. Yearned: PINED. Pine from Old English pineon "pain, torture, punishment".
41. Reliant Stadium NFL team: TEXANS. Houston. Unlike the Metrodome, this stadium roof won't collapse under the weight of snow. :-)
43. Latin quarters?: CASA. Spanish is a romance language derived from Latin. The clue may also mean Latin America.
45. French possessive: SES. His or her (things), plural form. Singular would be "son".
49. Artful dodges: RUSES. A clue reference to the artful dodger, who was a pickpocket in the Dickens novel Oliver Twist.
50. Mention with an ulterior motive: DROP.
51. Finish shooting: WRAP. The meaning of ending a filming session only is traced back to 1974...
53. Eldest Younger gang member: COLE. A play on the name Younger. Associated with Jesse James, and the James-Younger gang.
55. Louisville's river: OHIO.
59. Air base?: HUB. Like FedEx, I guess, a central location.
63. Feverish, say: ILL.
64. Natural balm: ALOE.
65. Browbeat: COERCE. Browbeat: to bear down with fierce or arrogant looks.
66. One of a jazz duo?: ZEE. Two letter "Z"s in the word jaZZ
67. It's often seen under a cap: GOWN. Graduation.
68. Swindle: HUSTLE.
DOWN:
1. Scribbles: JOTS.
2. Soon, poetically: ANON.
3. San __: REMO. On the Italian Rivera.
4. Commit a service infraction: GO AWOL. Absent without leave. Attempted misdirection towards a sport that has a central net, like a tennis fault.
5. Toronto's prov.: ONT.ario
6. Nursery arrival: NEONATE. Anyone else put NEWBORN at first?
7. Winter Palace figure: CZAR. The CZ spelling instead of TS for once. It was almost a welcome change.
8. Sensitive: TOUCHY.
9. "One Thousand and One Nights" bird: ROC. Associated with the story of Sinbad the Sailor.
10. GPS heading: SSE. Directional clues have apparently been updated for the digital age.
11. Intuition: SIXTH SENSE.
12. Spread on the table: OLEO.
13. One of Poland's three most populous cities: LODZ.
18. Exotic honeymoon, perhaps: SAFARI. This idea would never have crossed my mind. Heat, bugs, dust, rain, sleeping on cots in tents? Not so romantic to me. I could have the wrong impression, I suppose. Do they have safaris available using air conditioned travel trailers now?
22. Asteroids maker: ATARI. Early arcade video game.
24. Winter coat features: LININGS. Clecho with 20A.
26. Withdraw: EBB.
27. Wyoming tribe: ARAPAHO.
28. Choral piece: MOTET.
29. Unyielding: INEXORABLE. Like the martians in Jeff Wayne's musical War of the Worlds.
30. "Monster" (2003) co-star: RICCI. Christina.
31. Streamlined: SLEEK.
32. No-frills bed: COT.
35. NFL gains: YDS.
37. What the mouse did clockwise?: RAN UP. Hicory Dickory Dock.
39. Radio moniker: HANDLE. CB radio name.
42. Take to court: SUE.
44. Collision preceder: SCREECH. And here I was, trying to think of a prefix. I wonder if this was from the tires or from the passengers?
47. Money set aside: ESCROW. From Old French escroue "scrap, roll of parchment", originally a deed held by a third person until a debt was paid.
48. Lyric poems: EPODES. The third part of an ode, which followed the strophe and the antistrophe, and completed the movement.
51. Crackerjack: WHIZ.
52. Run the show: RULE.
54. Bakery appliance: OVEN.
56. "Cotton Candy" trumpeter: HIRT. A top 10 hit in 1964.
57. Not left out: Abbr.: INCL.uded
58. Curved molding: OGEE.
60. Henpeck: NAG.
61. "Strange Magic" band: ELO. Electric Light Orchestra.
62. __-turn: NO U.
Answer Grid
Al
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