07.13.07 -- Friday the 13th

Lightning in the SONORAN (12D Southwest Arizona's..........Desert)
Puzzle by Manny Nosowsky, edited by Will Shortz
Across:
1. "On the other hand..." 8. Quaint cry from a caught crook, with "The"
15. Between here and there.
16. Hot
17. Go for, as a ball
18. Film director's discovery
19. Powwow place
20. Wrong
22. Town outside Harrisburg
23. Topless?
24. "Le Bon Bock" artist
26. Times on the History Channel?
27. Cusp
28. Sony debut of 1979
30. Swallowed the bait?
31. Spandex and Lurex
33. Hurt
35. Works with
36. "What's the ____?"
37. Seashell hues
40. 1940s fashion
44. Smart figures?
45. 1`938 Daphne du Maurier novel
47. Layer
48. Neighbor of Mex.
50. Ohio city whose name means "hospitality" in Greek
51. Dog
52. High country
54. Popular ISP
55. Slog
56. Wrong
58. Natural gas components
60. "______ Place"
61. Be at rest
62. One who tries
63. Bawls out
Down:
1. Favorite
2. Backtrack on, as a rug
3. Certain multiscreen cinema
4. Quieted (down)
5. Overwhelming
6. Viscosity symbol, in physics
7. Figure on which royalties are based
8. What to do if you can't beat the suckers
9. Night spot
10. Thomas ____, last royal governor of Massachusetts
11. 1919 Broadway musical that set a record for most performances up to that time
12. Southwest Arizona's _____ Desert
13. Howl
14. Content
21. Puts one's John Hancock on
24. What X + Y signifies
25. Cassava product
28. Having learned a lesson
29. Mex. is in it
32. Port pusher
34. Hypotheticals
36. How most farm animals behave
37. Very much
38. Zebras, e.g.
39 "_______ Daughter," 2003 Judi Hendricks novel
40. Greek philosopher who founded Stoicism
41. High-elevation areas
42. 1983 Randy Newman song
43. Ready to be proofed
46. Carrier
49. Earth, in sci-fi
51. Grain threshing tool
53. Legendary siege site
55. Author Silverstein
57. Saccharide suffix
59. 7-up, e.g.
If a crossword puzzle could assume the guise of a human being, this one would definitely be antisocial. Divided into four little puzzles, up left, up right, down left, and down right, with two entrances each into a central meeting hall that constitutes a fifth. Nothing much in any one of the five mini-puzzles gives help to solving another, so it’s very much akin to working five short puzzles. Every letter in the alphabet is used at least once, as follows:
Manny’s ABC’s:
ATE -- just fill, I mean puzzle-wise
BEARER -- a near rhyme of its clue
C - See REBECCA -- do two C’s, make up for no C-starter ?
DIFF -- no one’s going to like this reference
ENOLA -- Backwards, ALONE (in a
small town in Pennsylvania)
FLOP and FLAIL -- dog and thresh?
GAGE -- used earlier in the week, different clue
HUGE -- Overwhelming? Subjective.
IQS and INERROR -- They go together.
JOINEM and JIGISUP -- so do these
K - See WALKMAN -- the lone K
LIEIDLE
-- when the Yankees fortunes turned -- sp. LIDLE
MALESEX -- as opposed to? and with who?
NAFTA -- no more NAFTA, please
ONAROLL -- clued as hot, could be a sandwich or tissue
PAINED -- this puzzle did
Q - See IQS -- smart figures?
REBECCA --
great Hitchcock film, please use that reference next time
SIN and SLAVE -- ooooh, now these do fit
TRIPLEX and TERRA with a bent TERROR -- little tangled mess, could be TRIPLE X, and then down left with TERRA, take a right turn on the first R, you’ll get TERROR
UNWEAVE -- no one will like this either
V - See UNWEAVE -- and this as a consequence
WALKMAN -- only for the W and the K
XENIA -- “hospitality” in Greek, but in America?!
YELLSAT -- just walk away!
ZENO and
ZOOTSUIT -- Zeno in Xenia in a zoot suit, zounds!
The New York Times Crossword Puzzle solution above is by the author of this blog and does not guarantee accuracy. If you find errors or omissions, you are more than welcome to make note of same in the Comments section of this post -- any corrections found necessary will be executed promptly upon verification.
Puzzle available on the internet at
THE NEW YORK TIMES -- Crossword Puzzles and Games
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