Holiday Shopping
By Graham Meyer
Across
1. Squeakers?
5. “Over the Rainbow” composer Harold
10. Black ice concern
14. Sea near the Caspian
15. Dens
16. Long
17. Advice on a gift for one’s spouse, part 1
19. Old Norse epic poem
20. SNL alum Gasteyer
21. Hearty accompaniment?
22. Held the deed to
23. Gnat
25. Confuse
28. Firefighter’s door opener
29. Advice, part 2
32. Yale campus tree
33. Book-display word
34. Act like a mortgage company
35. Like 31 percent of flights out of O’Hare in 2006
39. Pirate accessories
41. Dynasties, often
42. VI x XVII
44. Lucy of Charlie’s Angels
45. Advice, part 3
51. Chemical suffix for many sugars
52. Possible transportation in Rome
53. Zora ___ Hurston
54. “Falcon Crest” star Lorenzo
56. Elvis’s middle name
58. Louis XVI, par exemple
59. “Yeah, sure.”
60. Advice, part 4
63. Louver part
64. Photographer Adams
65. Grammarian’s entrance line
66. She played Delilah in DeMille’s Samson and Delilah
67. Reporter’s question, among others
68. Bathroom-fixture brand
Down
1. Black book owners
2. Like rain on your wedding day, according to Alanis Morissette
3. Land of 30,000 lakes
4. “Hold on Tight” band, to fans
5. Fungus’s partner in a lichen
6. Inveigh against
7. Occupied, as a house
8. Preposition for Napoleon, supposedly
9. Code-breaking org.
10. Expel, as lava
11. Patty Hearst, notably
12. Numbering for future reference
13. Obstacles to navigation
18. 1986 Geena Davis-Jeff Goldblum thriller
22. “. . . ___ the ramparts . . .”
24. Diner staple
26. Like the Marianas trench
27. 2007 World Series MVP
30. Grable’s Moon Over Miami costar
31. Make reference (to)
35. Reduce to smithereens
36. Like some ink
37. Largest manmade reservoir in the U.S.
38. Sputters to a halt
40. Designer Versace
43. Logjam
46. Tubes
47. It’s sometimes tossed at a wedding
48. Be so bold
49. Plaza resident of children’s books
50. Hold one’s horses?
55. Law & Order fig.
57. Leer at
60. Chat
61. Inst. an hour from both Boston and Portland
62. Energy
Putting together this puzzle while putting together my Christmas shopping, I found myself coming back to the same ideas as usual. Candles, bath soaps, gift certificates . . . Sometimes you need something more creative. I came up with an idea, which is embedded, in loose, letter-count-restricted doggerel in the grid. I hope this brainstorm brings you and your significant other great happiness for the holidays and a peaceful New Year.
Answers on Page 22
