Wednesday, January 11th, 2012 Don Gagliardo and C.C. Burnikel

 Theme: Strong Current. Adding "Flow" to the last word in each of the theme entries creates a new word or phrase.

17A. Online data movement : INTERNET TRAFFIC. This blog generates plenty of that.

22A. "Man in Black" singer : JOHNNY CASH. As I write this, "Folsom Prison Blues" is playing on my iPod, now that's weird.

36A. Symphony or sonata : MUSICAL WORK. Does anyone write sonatas anymore?

46A. Pending : UP IN THE AIR. Just like all my deadlines.

And the unifier:

56A. Conforms, or what each last word of 17-, 22-, 36- and 46-Across
literally does : GOES WITH THE FLOW

Sweet puzzle from Don & C.C. The theme took quite some time to come kicking and screaming into the light, I had all kinds of hare-brained ideas before it all became clear with the unifier. 

Across:

1. Seller's caveat : AS IS

5. Whistle blower : REF

8. Fight : OPPOSE

14. Congeniality : BONHOMIE. What a great word! I resolve to use it at least once a week.

16. Edit : REDACT

19. Extinguish : DOUSE

20. Clinch a deal, in slang : ICE IT

21. Thing to do on the cautious side? : ERR. Great fresh clue for this old stalwart.

27. Tempt with, as a carrot : DANGLE

30. "Typee" sequel : OMOO. Herman Melville made very little money from any of his novels, especially this one.

31. Highfalutin : LA-DI-DA

35. Steak order : T-BONE

38. High-tech party notice : EVITE

40. Jungle queen : SHEENA

41. Enjoy a 10-course Chinese meal : DINE. I'm going to Hong Kong shortly, Cantonese Food!

42. Categorize : ASSORT. This usage was new to me, I'd only known "assorted", which I take to mean "uncategorized". Nice learning moment.

52. VCR button : REW. I always have to wait for the cross to decide on REC or REW

53. Big name in transmission repair : AAMCO

54. Cardio-boxing workout regimen : TAE-BO

61. Intensely devoted : ARDENT

62. Shanghai setting : EAST ASIA. Mini-theme emerging here?

63. Woody's wife : SOON-YI Previn, married to Mr. Allen.

64. Mar.-to-Nov. setting : D.S.T. You never really save any daylight, you just move it around.

65. Count (on) : RELY

Down:

1. Put up with : ABIDED

2. Arizona neighbor : SONORA. South of the border, down Mexico way.

3. How board game players play : IN TURN. In my house my Mom always asked us to play nicely. The she told us. Then we were sent to our rooms.

4. Ladies : SHES

5. First pres. to visit China while in office : R.M.N. Richard Milhous Nixon, World Traveler.

6. Farm song refrain : E-I-E-I-O

7. Sell for : FETCH

8. Hatch on the Hill : ORRIN. He's a 59D. He plays sonatas too!

9. Boglike : PEATY

10. Adobe file format : PDF. Portable Document Format if you want to get your geek on.

11. Bungler : OAF

12. Lab subj. : SCI.

13. And so forth: Abbr. : ETC.

15. Valuable rock : ORE. I confidently filled in GEM first.

18. Top rating : TEN.

22. Yoda, notably : JEDI

23. Venomous snakes : COBRAS

24. Wild way to run : AMOK

25. Numbered Chan relative : SON. From the Charlie Chan movies. Buffs will know how many sons there were, I just count "lots".

26. Groundbreaking tool : HOE

28. Protein in wheat products : GLUTEN

29. Zap : LASE

32. Suffix with tact : ICS. Hmmm. A suffix? Need to be convinced about this one.

33. Code word : DAH. We had SOS yesterday, three DITs, three DAHs, three DITs in Morse Code.

34. Draft choice : ALE

35. A whole bunch : TONS

36. Former iPod model : MINI

37. Sport : WEAR. You can sport sportswear!

38. Academic Web letters : EDU

39. Bigwig : VIP. Very Important Person (such as Orrin Hatch?)

43. End of a threat : OR ELSE

44. Heat again, as water for tea : REBOIL

45. Like most streets : TWO-WAY

47. Lion-colored : TAWNY. Some of our regulars would prefer "Port-colored" here.

48. French-speaking republic : HAITI

49. CPR expert : EMT

50. Was sore : ACHED

51. Smidgens : IOTAS

54. First day of spring, to Vietnamese : TET

55. Miles away : AFAR

56. Total blast : GAS.

57. Au, on a Spanish periodic table : ORO. With luck your 15D has gold in it.

58. Tokyo, once : EDO

59. Bigwig on the Hill: Abbr. : SEN.

60. Post-WWII pres. : H.S.T.  Harry S. Truman. No use looking up his middle name, the "S" doesn't stand for anything.

That's all  from me!

Steve