A quick return visit to Friday from Mr. Wechsler, with another punny effort. This effort is a classic looking Friday with word count down and average word length in excess of 5.5 letters. Lots of original fill, with the NW corner featuring a beautiful stack of three new fill for the LAT (A TALL ONE, TIE BOLTS and SCRUPLES) crossing ALBUMEN. The SE has the new JOY OF SEX, little used ABORTIVE and YOU DA MAN, crossing the brand new GOLF TAN. To fill a grid with this much originality must be a dramatic amount of work. The theme fill are all amusing to funny and the visual look of the puzzle, which has many blocks also has lots of open squares. He does use two cheater squares to accommodate the two 14 letter themers in the 10-14-14-10 pattern, rather than the more common 10-13-13-10. He includes fill from many generations,
18A. Chorus of cows? : MOOED MUSIC (10). (MOOD Music). You think they practice in unison?
25A. Environmentalist priests? : COLLARED GREENS (14). (COLLARD Greens). A stretch but I really like the play on COLLARD.
41A. Assessed penalties against nonconformists? : FINED THE WAYOUT (14). (FIND the WAY OUT). The trickiest, because you have to parse WAYOUT as defining a an unconventional person.
53A. Barbie after a bit too much bubbly? : WINED UP TOY (10) (WIND-UP Toy). I am familiar with liquored up, not so much wined up, but then I might have been more impatient in my youth.
Across:
1. H.S. concerns : SATS. Scholastic Achievement Tests. I think the world is finally getting away from the idea that standardized tests are a predicter of anything.
5. Place to pick up a kitten : SCRUFF. I will leave the experts to pick the link of the mother carrying her baby by the scruff of the neck.
11. "Raiders of the Lost Ark" threat : ASP.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClwIj3x24Q4
14. Psych ending : OTIC. Just what the clue tells you-psychotic.
15. They may be seen on slides : AMEBAE. Many ways to spell this crossword staple.
16. Black __ : SEA.
17. He dethroned Carnera in 1934 : BAER. Max, who along with brother Buddy was a successful fighter. Max is probably more famous for losing to James J. Braddock, the Cinderella Man
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlbHzcH4VJY
20. Egg component : ALBUMEN. Reminds me of the old FOLK, POLK joke.
22. Make : REALIZE. I guess he means profit.
23. Relaxed pace : LOPE.
24. Cubist Fernand : LEGER. I am not familiar with this ARTIST.
31. Way to get a deal started : ANTE. card deal.
32. Cajuns' 18th-century ancestors, for example : EXILES.
33. Disarray : MESS.
34. Burkina Faso neighbor : BENIN. One of many African nations I have ehard the name and know precious little else.
35. Noisy nesters : JAYS. Blue Jays are amazing.
39. Apologia's opposite : TIRADE.
40. Mitch Miller's instrument : OBOE. From the early 60's, did you SING-A-LONG?
45. Rio Grande feeder : PECOS. Rivers, the pecos being famous from all the oaters we see in puzzles.
46. "Suit the action to the __ ... ": Hamlet : WORD.
47. Slightly : A LITTLE.
50. Shade on the links? : GOLF TAN. Fun clue, and if you look at the farmer's tan both the men and womenb golfers have, you can enjoy this clue/
55. __ Valley: Reagan Library site : SIMI.
56. H.S. subject : ENGlish.
57. Like some Olympics milieus : ALPINE.
58. Actor Peters of "American Horror Story" : EVAN. The only character is all of the EPISODES. Never seen it.
59. Paris' Pont __ Arts : DES. French - PONT Italian PONTE. Both mean bridge. The Paris one is a pedestrian bridge and the des just means of.
60. PLO chairman before Mahmoud : YASSER. ABBAS succeeded ARAFAT.
61. Spinoff of TV's "Hercules" : XENA. People love her for her X.
Down:
1. Buckwheat noodle : SOBA. Use your noodle in cooking NOODLES.
2. Bar order : A TALL ONE. I used to order these all of the time. LINK.
3. Industrial fasteners : TIE BOLTS.
4. What con artists lack : SCRUPLES.
5. " __ thing" : SAME.
6. "Seriously?!" : C'MON.
7. __ Speedwagon : REO.
8. Outstanding, in slang : UBER.
9. Lose energy : FADE.
10. The Muses, e.g. : FEMALES.
11. Give, as a job : ASSIGN.
12. Captures : SEIZES.
13. Bankers Life Fieldhouse athlete : PACER. More basketball for you marti; they did not make the playoffs this year.
19. To whom Chance said, "You're not workin' as many bees these days" : ULEE.
21. __ culpa : MEA.
25. Rotating piece : CAM.
26. Bridge call : REBID.
27. Apply : EXERT.
28. Shore seen on TV : DINAH.
29. Ice-skate, say : GLIDE.
30. Fix up : RENEW.
35. 1972 Alex Comfort best-seller, with "The" : JOY OF SEX.
36. Unsuccessful : ABORTIVE.
37. "Awesome job, bro!" : YOU DA MAN.
38. Wimbledon unit : SET.
39. High school concern : TEST DAY.
41. Like Lewis' Aslan : FELINE.
42. Baker's variety : ICINGS.
43. Importance : NOTE.
44. Punching tool : AWL.
45. Emulated a 41-Down : PAWED.
48. 2003-'11 Brazilian president, familiarly : LULA. hard to comment with no politics, but LINK a can.
49. "House" actor : EPPS.
50. Out of the park : GONE. Baseball, it's going, going, gone! A homerun!
51. Open hearing, in law : OYER. Still heard in some courtrooms.
52. Historic voyager to Hispaniola : NINA. Ah, Chris Columbus and his ships.
54. "__ the gift to be simple ... ": Shaker song : 'TIS.
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