12.12.14 — The Friday Crossword

Macaulay Culkin, “Home Alone”, 1990

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Friday, December 12, 2014

Puzzle by Erin Bornholm / Edited by Will Shortz

Obscurity and cutesy clues dominate this unfriendly Friday crossword:

Across — 1. Person at the top of the order, ABBESS; 7. Excited, AMPED UP; 14. Fan’s output, COOL AIR; 16. Brand behind the mouthwash Plax, COLGATE; 17. Tex-Mex item, TOSTADA; 18. Robert Goulet, e.g., CROONER; 19. Annual event held in the Theresienwiese, OKTOBERFEST; 21. Certain tube filler, NEON; 22. Slangy goodbye, KEEP IT REAL; 27. Relative of a harrier, ERN; 28. All hits all the time?, FIGHT; 29. Reply on the radio, WILCO; 30. Person with important clerical duties, VICAR; 31. Tuber grown south of the border, JICAMA; 32. Tomfoolery, HIJINKS; 35. Ones trying to prevent stealing, BASEMEN; 36. Stud muffin, ADONIS; 37. Certain branches, SECTS; 38. The tropics and others, ZONES; 39. Uses maximally, MILKS; 43. Influential figure in upward mobility?, ELISHA OTIS; 45. YULE Ball (event at Hogwarts during the Trinidad Tournament); 46. Their best-selling (23x platinum) album had no title, LED ZEPPELIN; 48. Series of drug-related offenses?, THE WIRE; 52. Politico who wrote “The Truth (With Jokes)”; FRANKEN; 53. Skin cream ingredient, RETINOL; 54. Square snack, SALTINE; 55. Licensing requirement, maybe, EYE TEST; 56. Wee, TEENSY.

Other — 1. Start to play?, ACT ONE; 2. Talk show V.I.P., BOOKER; 3. Common ground?, BOSTON; 4. John in a studio, ELTON; 5. 9-5, e.g., SAAB; 6. Talk show V.I.P.’s, SIDEKICKS; 7. Put up with, ACCEPT; 8. Mohamed MORSI, Egyptian president removed from power in July 2013; 9. Thickening agents?, PLOT TWISTS; 10. Psych 101 subject, EGO; 11. Judo ranking, DAN; 12. Trojan competitor, UTE; 13. So says, PER; 1`5. 21-Across, e.g., RARE GAS; 20. N.H.L. players’ representative Donald REHR; 23. Reduces to bits, RICES; 24. Land east of Babylonia, ELAM; 25. Fictional corporation that made a jet-propelled unicycle, ACME; 26. It has points of interest, LOAN; 28. This is the end, FINISH LINE; 30. Tree huggers?, VINES; 31. Half a nursery rhyme couple, JACK SPRAT; 32. Run through the gantlet, say, HAZE; 33. Pop IDOL; 34. Iowa politico Ernst JONI; 35. Credo, BELIEFS; 37. SITZ bath; 39. Car modified for flying n “The Absent-Minded Professor”, MODEL T; 40. “Home Alone” star, 1990, CULKIN; 41. Time Lords on “Doctor Who,” e.g., ALIENS; 42. Big name in retail, PENNEY; 44. Planes, quaintly, AEROS; 45. Broadway character who sings “The Rumor, YENTE; 47. Not that bright, PALE; 48. Number of weeks in il Giro d’Italia, TRE; 49. “Stop right there!”, HEY; 50. When le Tour de France is held, ETE; 51. Romeo’s was “a most sharp sauce”, WIT.

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Puzzle available on the internet at
THE NEW YORK TIMES — Crossword Puzzles and Games.

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