Daily Beast, 11/6/09

Time - 8:46
Hello possums!
You’re late!

You should have been here an hour ago. Didn’t you remember to fall back on November 1? Matt Gaffney remembered, and that’s the 50D: [Crossword puzzle feature] – THEME of this week’s Daily Beast puzzle, "Daylight Savings”.
All the theme answers had to be pushed back one hour. Isn’t that 53D: [Underhanded] – SNEAKY? Not so much to me as I got this on the title and 1 Across, so a very fast solve. Nevertheless, some fun clues and answers as we have come to expect from Marvellous Matt.
1A & 5A: [Gary Cooper Western, as of 11/01/09?] – High Noon gets pushed back to HIGH ELEVEN.
23A: [Facial growth, as of 11/01/09?] – (Five) FOUR O’CLOCK SHADOW.
54A: [Dolly Parton movie, as of 11/01/09?] – Double switch from Nine to Five to EIGHT TO FOUR
71A: [1933 John Barrymore movie, as of 11/01/09?] – DINNER AT SEVEN (Eight).
89A: [Pot smoker’s favourite time, as of 11/01/09?] – (Four) THREE TWENTY. This one needs some explaining. Mr Wiki?
420, 4:20 or 4/20 (pronounced four-twenty) refers to consumption of cannabis and, by extension, a way to identify oneself with cannabis drug subculture. The term originated from a group of teenagers at San Rafael High School in California in 1971. The teens would meet after school at 4:20 p.m. to smoke marijuana. April 20 (4/20) has evolved into a counterculture where people gather to celebrate and consume cannabis.
It is held in Victoria in a park right by my bus stop home from work. Since I usually leave around four, I arrived last April 20 at the stop to a gathering crowd that clearly didn’t include many crossword solving accountants. I walked to the next bus stop.
122A: [Count Basie classic, as of 11/01/09?] – (One) TWELVE O’CLOCK JUMP.
16D: [1961 #1 hit for Gary “U.S.” Bonds, as of 11/01/09?] – QUARTER TO TWO (Three).
65D: [Best Picture of 1969, as of 11/01/09?] – (Midnight) ELEVEN COWBOY.
Other cool stuff:
21A: [Dame] EDNA. Here “she” is performing in Montreal.
44A: [Whiz] – ACE. Wrong. PEE. There goes Matt again.
60A: [One-third of a WWII movie] – TORA. The other thirds are tora and tora, respectively.
75A: [Moo goo gai pan pan] – WOK. Three-letter word madness!
88A: [Olympic great Ray] – EWRY. Who? Raymond "Ray" Clarence Ewry was an American track and field athlete who won 8 gold medals at the Olympic Games This puts him among the most successful Olympians of all time. This guy could Jump!
95A: STEELY [Dan]
110A: [Constellation component] – B STAR . Also known as random letter star.
128A: [Belgian beer, for short] – STELLA Artois. Marlon Brando was ordering a beer in “A Streetcar Named Desire"?
129A: [Maker of the Ektorp chair] – IKEA. Four letters, furniture, IKEA.
2D: [“Young Frankenstein” role] – IGOR. What hump?
10D: [Cup Noodles company] – NISSIN. I don’t think we have this in Canada.
41D: [“Into the GROOVE” (Madonna hit].
66D: [Toronto landmark] – CN TOWER. Popular in puzzles lately.
84D: [This clue has four] – SYLLABLES. Were you thinking, “words” won’t fit?
106D: [Fiona’s guy] – SHREK. As in green ogre.
107D: [“A Confederacy of Dunces” author John Kennedy TOOLE].
115D: [“Africa” band] – TOTO.
120D: [Expectorated] – SPAT.
124A: [“Bravissimo!”] – OLE, Matt!

See you next week, possums.