Theme: Add a silent K. Rather than giving you a long explanation, I'll let Marina Orlova explain it.
17A. Tough handicap to overcome in a joust?: KNIGHT BLINDNESS. Nyctalopia may exist from birth, or be caused by injury or malnutrition, for example, a lack of vitamin A. The opposite is hemeralopia.
22A. Hoopster featured in a news magazine?: KNICK OF TIME. Possibly from an old custom of recording time as it passed by making notches on a tally stick.
39A. What "purls of wisdom" is an example of?: KNITWIT. Nit, from nix, a variant of nichts (German for nothing).
51A. Was familiar with Britain?: KNEW ENGLAND. Not in the biblical sense, I hope...
59A. Bow tied by mortal hands?: KNOT OF THIS WORLD. The nautical unit of measure is from the practice of attaching knotted string to the log line. The ship's speed can be measured by the number of knots that play out while the sand glass is running. The distance between knots is 1/120 of a mile.
Hi all, Al here. If it's Thursday, it must be obfuscated clue day, and there sure were plenty that took a second or third thought.
ACROSS:
1. Volkswagen model since 1979: JETTA.
6. Stare: GAWK.
10. Charm: MOJO.
14. Unit of capacitance: FARAD. Named for Michael Faraday. A capacitor that can store one FARAD would have to be somewhere between the size of a tuna can up to a one liter soda bottle. To store the total energy that a single AA battery can deliver, a capacitor would have to be of over 10,000 times larger than that.
15. "Would __?": I LIE.
16. Baseball's Moises: ALOU. Son of Felipe, also associated with baseball. You could see either name for this bit of crosswordese.
20. Words after post or suffer: A LOSS.
21. Beginning: ONSET.
26. Leo, for one: SIGN. All the focus on Astrology lately, but the dates aren't going to be changed.
27. Manhattan neighborhood acronym: NOHO. NOrth of HOuston St.
28. Ready to serve: DONE.
32. Uncertain concurrence: I GUESS.
35. Gave a buzz: RANG. Telephone.
37. Snaps: PIX.
38. Mineo of "Rebel Without a Cause": SAL.
41. HBO competitor: TMC. Home Box Office, The Movie Channel. For once it wasn't SHOwtime, but same difference, really.
42. __ king: ALA. Cooked in a cream sauce with green pepper or pimiento and mushrooms.
43. Hokkaido native: AINU. Indigenous people of Japan, conceptually like Native Americans here, the Maori of New Zealand, or Australian Aboriginal people.
44. Shoot for, with "to": ASPIRE. Associated with the concept of excitement, heavy breathing (inspiration, expiration), not the spire of a tall building.
46. Old Italian bread: LIRA. This bread/money misdirection shouldn't catch you off guard late in the week.
48. Puts on: DONS. Contraction of "do on", the original sense of "do" was "put". Contrast with doff, as with removing your hat in the presence of a lady.
50. Biol. branch: ECOL. Living organisms (biology) being optimized to suit their environment (ecology).
55. Unlikely lint-gatherer: OUTIE. This article about a collector is probably: 61D. "I didn't need to know that!": TMI.
58. Without delay: APACE.
65. Pinup Hayworth: RITA. Margarita Carmen Cansino. Died of Alzheimer's. Her case, and Ronald Regan's years later, were instrumental in bringing this problem to light, not just to hide it away.
66. Pianist Gilels: EMIL. Rachmaninoff. Not a lot of other music references today, an unknown for me. Lots of youtube vids though.
67. Church parts: NAVES. Winchester Cathedral.
68. They have heads and handles: AXES.
69. Mug imperfections: ZITS. Facial acne. Again, probably TMI.
70. Symbol of strength: STEEL. Superman.
DOWN:
1. LaGuardia alternative, familiarly: JFK. Yesterday's Google banner paid tribute to Kennedy's inaugural speech. "Ask not..."
2. Suffix with Caesar: EAN. There are etymology stories that attribute naming of c-sections to his birth, but this is unlikely because his mother lived to see his triumphs, and those would have been fatal in that day and age. More likely the name comes directly from Latin caesus past participle of caedere "to cut."
3. Like jibs: TRIANGULAR. Sails.
4. Movie poster words: TAGLINE. Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water.
5. For a specific purpose: AD HOC. This clue is as direct of a translation from Latin as they come.
6. Big name in guitars: GIBSON. Also MARTIN, TAYLOR, FENDER, IBANEZ, SUZUKI... There are a lot of six letter guitar manufacturer names is what I'm saying. I only have two of those, neither of which is today's puzzle answer.
7. Pledge of Allegiance ender: ALL. Congress recently read the constitution out loud. If that wasn't just a stunt, they should pay equal attention to the words in the pledge, too. "Indivisible"? Not for lack of trying.
8. November 2006 Nintendo release: WII. The two lower case letter "i"s in Wii symbolize two people standing together playing. Pronounced "we".
9. Barbie's beau: KEN. According to Mattel, they broke up in February of 2004...
10. Took one's place at, as a post: MANNED.
11. Cries following charges: OLES.
12. __ Cuervo tequila: JOSE.
13. Remove from office: OUST.
18. Sound of reproach: TSK.
19. End for free: DOM.
22. Capital of Rwanda: KIGALI. Geography lesson of the day.
23. Cookie information, perhaps: FORTUNE. Oh, the archaic kind of cookie, not something that your web browser saves your ADDRESS in... Speaking of which, if you are concerned about privacy, you might want to visit this site and opt out of letting them show (and sell) your personal information.
24. Relax, as tense relations: THAW.
25. Ancient Aegean region: IONIA.
26. Cordage fiber: SISAL. Rugs, mats, dartboards. Versatile.
29. Retina-brain link: OPTIC NERVE.
30. Jerk: NIMROD. A word that has flipped it's original meaning. Originally "great hunter" (Biblical reference to the son of Cush). Speculation (lets leave it at that) on the reason for the reversal has Bugs Bunny ironically referring to Elmer Fudd as a poor little nimrod. It may be that over the course of history among "manly" hunters, it started to be used in a sarcastically mocking fashion, and the popularity of Bugs gave it an extra boost, but I wouldn't go so far as to claim that to be the true etymology. Makes for a good story, though.
31. Stand out: EXCEL. Or a Microsoft spreadsheet program.
33. Calypso offshoot: SKA. Reggae relation.
34. Like ugly remarks: SNIDE.
36. Fast sports cars: GTS. Gran turismo, Grand tourer.
40. "__ pronounce you ...": I NOW.
45. Naval attire: PEACOAT. Originated from the Dutch or West Frisian word pijjekker, in which pij referred to the type of material used, a coarse kind of twilled blue cloth with a nap on one side.
47. Loyal Japanese dogs: AKITAS.
49. Sluggards: SNAILS. As in "sluggish", I guess.
52. "The Matrix" hero: NEO. Whoa! Keanu Reeves.
53. Modern dash-mounted device: Abbr.: GPS. Global Positioning System.
54. Croquet venues: LAWNS.
55. Creole vegetable: OKRA.
56. Windows alternative: UNIX. Unless you want to play a few certain specific games with certain video cards, that is. With Ubuntu you can do just about everything else.
57. Handy bag: TOTE.
60. Casbah headgear: FEZ. Also, the 11th Doctor (Who) thinks they're cool.
62. Best seller: HIT.
63. General at Antietam: LEE.
64. Step up from dial-up: DSL. Digital Subscriber Line. Cable is faster still.
Answer Grid.
Al
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