Joe And Linda

@JR An “old SAW” refers to a well known saying or phrase that usually conveys some advice or knowledge. “Haste makes waste” comes to mind.

@Mean Old Lady - (TIL) a quick Wikipedia search reveals that Classical art shows Atlas holding the celestial spheres or heavens, not the terrestrial earth. Depictions such as the Farnese Atlas shows a marble Atlas holding a sphere which at first glance appears to be the earth but is actually meant to represent the celestial sphere.

@McFly No it isn’t. But a TOE is!

@Bruce that’s for male graduates, I believe, though my high school Latin classes were over XXX years ago. For female graduates, alumna for singular and alumnae for plural grads.

@Mean Old Lady We too found this easy and was done about the same time we finished our coffee. The volume you reference would be the one penned by Louisa May Alcott? Having never read it but seen several theatrical versions I have sometimes wondered how she came up with the title.

@alchemist Slew is akin to host as in a slew of cicadas. Or he asked me a slew of YESNO questions.

@Nancy While I have little experience feeding babies I’ve seen enough relatives do it to feel qualified to answer your query. The airplane is a euphemism - I think that’s the right word - for the spoon that delivers the food to the reluctant baby’s mouth as it “flies” from the food container to the sometimes persistently closed baby’s mouth. The goal, I think, is to amaze the child with the airplane/spoon - often accompanied by sound effects - so the baby opens its mouth in awe of the approaching “plane” and the food is safely delivered. TADA!

@Francis - while tense is a very important thing to pay attention to while solving another thing to keep in mind - at least in this case - is word duplication. SENSE is in the puzzle at 13D so it shouldn’t appear again. The fourth crossword commandment, I believe, is “Thou shalt not have the same word twice in thy crossword puzzle”. I believe this is written on a stone tablet somewhere :)

@Mean Old Lady, MOCAP I believe stands for MOtion CAPture, e.g. Andy Serkis portraying the Gollum character in the LOTR films.

@Down_Home I usually solve Tuesday puzzles downs first from the bottom up…then crosses from the top down. Today I started on the downs from the top down. Had a few things to erase like “best of luck” instead of LOTS; aRf instead of GRR; and ROam instead of ROVE. If the answer is longer than 4 letters and I’m not sure I’ll skip it and wait for a determining crosser. But that’s just me…YMMV.

@minimum As Mr. Ancona mentioned, likely a typo. Faced with a similar situation I start with 1D and go through each down answer one by one. If I’ve fat-fingered an entry it usually shows up…eventually…sometimes more than once. Good luck!

I pondered the same thing, Nancy. But if it’s one word then the answer to 19A is our, not AGO. So I figured it must be two words, not one.

@ad absurdum had no idea. On Mondays I solve bottom up on the downs only…then crosses from the top down. So I didn’t get to the revealed until after I’d filled in the other theme entries. Not a big Pokeman fan but I’d heard the phrase before. Good AHA moment!

@Alex I spent several of my earliest years living in the Kaiserslautern area of the country. While growing up back here in the states I was more familiar with Prost but every once in a while my Dad would break out into song with the popular Oktoberfest song “Ein Prosit”. So, once I saw the length of the clue’s answer, I naturally entered the longer word.

@Murgatroid Try rereading the clue to 61A. The first word of the answer is counting the syllables in the second word of the answer.

@LJ Would you prefer ONO? At least ORA has two different vowels….

@Steve L LOL…true! Though a few of my NYC friends have a more generous opinion of Mme. Ono’s talent.

@LJ Understandably! Unlike Saturday’s puzzle at least the crosses were much more gettable. And I’ve found those edges can move around from time to time….

@Nancy I also wondered about the UPS left turn aversion. Three right turns would possibly be needed to avoid a left. If I was driving up 6th Ave and wanted to avoid making a left onto 57th say I could make a right on 58th, right on 5th Ave then a right on 57th and drive straight across 6th. Seems like a lot to avoid a left - not even sure if you can legally make a left onto 57th from 6th…it’s been more years than I care to recall since I worked in that neighborhood. As for tater tots as a palatable side dish…there’s a restaurant/bowling alley in Trumansburg, NY that serves a quite yummy tater tot side dish which includes bacon, cheddar cheese, scallions, jalapeno with lime crema drizzled on top. YMMV