Wednesday, April 13, 2022, Joe Deeney

15. Test format with options: MULTIPLE CHOICE.

21. Dojo move: KARATE CHOP.

47. Nocturnal bird that woke up Vinny in "My Cousin Vinny": SCREECH OWL.

55. Cocoa butter confection: WHITE CHOCOLATE.

33. Bat specialty, and what you need to find in four long answers: ECHO LOCATION.

Melissa here. The word ECHO is split across each two-word phrase, in the same way - E-CHO - thus ECHO LOCATION. This is the final Wednesday puzzle edited by Rich Norris. It has been quite a run, hasn't it?

Across:

1. L.A. Rams' __ McVay, youngest head coach to win the Super Bowl: SEAN.

5. Fly high: SOAR. The clue is making me hear the theme from Rocky, 'Gonna Fly Now,' in my head.

9. Old NCAA football ranking sys.: BCS. Tricky for people who aren't sports fans. The Bowl Championship Series (BCS) system was in place for the 1998 through 2013 seasons and in 2014 was replaced by the College Football Playoff.

12. Regarding: AS TO.

13. Limerick's land: EIRE.

14. Coagulate: CLOT.

18. Grassland: PRAIRIE.

19. Using pointe shoes: ON TOE. Literal translation from French is cutting edge.

20. Didn't stick around: RAN. Great clue, I bet it's Rich's.

24. Card game requirement, maybe: ANTE.

26. __-pitch: SLO. Hm. Well again, not being a sports fan, I'm not sure if this refers to the variety of softball in which the ball is pitched with an underhand motion at moderate speed in an arc that rises at least six feet above the ground, because I don't usually see it spelled without the W, or the Canadian TV Show that IS spelled that way. What do you think?

27. Farm female: HEN. Not ewe!

28. Roman who defeated Hannibal: SCIPIO. Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus was a Roman general and statesman, most notable as one of the main architects of Rome's victory against Carthage in the Second Punic War. Who knew this? I needed perps.

31. Triage areas: Abbr.: ERS. Emergency Rooms.

38. Name in "Kill Bill" credits: UMA. Uma Thurman.

39. Military jeep successor: HUMVEE. The High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV; colloquial: Humvee) is a family of light, four-wheel drive, military trucks and utility vehicles.

41. Aid for the lost: MAP. Haha.

44. They're not from around here, briefly: ETS. Extraterrestrials. Originating, existing, or occurring outside the earth or its atmosphere

46. Lowly worker: PEON.

51. Messenger __: RNA. Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is a molecule similar to DNA.

52. As is fitting: APTLY.

53. 41-Across, e.g.: DIAGRAM.

58. Golfer's pocketful: TEES.

59. Sell on the street: HAWK. Hawk vs. hock.

60. Series finale: Abbr.: ET AL. Latin phrase meaning “and others.”

61. "__ the ramparts ... ": O'ER. Contraction of over.

62. Dire March time: IDES. But why?

63. Slithery swimmers: EELS.

Down:

1. Longtime Agassi rival: SAMPRAS. Pete Sampras held the Open Era record of six year-end No. 1 rankings—all earned consecutively, from 1993 to 1998.

2. Online GEICO alternative: ESURANCE.

3. Brit's pond: ATLANTIC. The Atlantic Ocean borders on North America, South America, Europe, and Africa. It is the world's second largest ocean, while the Pacific Ocean is the largest. Interesting facts.

4. "It wasn't me": NOT I.

5. Photo tint: SEPIA. A reddish-brown color, named after the rich brown pigment derived from the ink sac of the common cuttlefish. The word sepia is the Latinized form of the Greek σηπία, sēpía, cuttlefish.

6. Persian Gulf ships: OILERS. In the United States Navy, an Oiler is a Combat Logistics ship that replenishes other ships with fuel and in some cases food, mail, ammunition and other necessities while at sea, in a process called Underway Replenishment or UNREP.

7. Word shortened to its middle letter, in texts: ARE. How r u?

8. "Parks and __": REC. NBC TV series from 2009 - 2015.

9. Devil-may-care: BLITHE.

10. Protective covering: COCOON. Chrysalis vs. cocoon.

11. So inclined?: STEEP. Another great clue.

14. Large sea snail: CONCH.

22. Jack Ryan portrayer before Harrison: ALEC. Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford - in the Tom Clancy books-turned-movies.

23. Holy scroll: TORAH. First five books of the Hebrew Bible.

25. Book after Galatians: Abbr.: EPH. New Testament, Ephesians.

29. Chit: IOU. Phonetic acronym of the words "I owe you," refers to a document that acknowledges the existence of a debt

30. Ancient Mesoamerican: OLMEC. The Olmecs are best known for the statues they carved: 20 ton stone heads, quarried and carved to commemorate their rulers. The name Olmec is an Aztec word meaning the rubber people; the Olmec made and traded rubber throughout Mesoamerica.

 35. Little terror: IMP.

36. Give credit where credit isn't due: OVERRATE.

37. Like early childcare: NEONATAL. Newborn.

40. Glossy coats: ENAMELS.

41. "Scorpion" co-star Katharine: MCPHEE. Also, runner-up on the fifth season of American Idol.

 42. More pretentious: ARTIER.

43. Pummels with snowballs: PELTS.

45. "Us, too": SO DO WE.

47. Handled: SAW TO.

48. Watch closely: EYE.

49. Candlemaker's supply: WICKS.

50. Mekong Valley language: LAO. Sometimes referred to as Laotian, it is spoken in Laos, where it is the official language for around 7 million people, as well as in northeast Thailand, where it is used by around 23 million people

54. Musical series set at McKinley High: GLEE.

56. City with two MLB teams: CHI. Cubs and White Sox. Why two?

57. Possessed: HAD.