Beasts (and Burdon)

by Marcia Brott and George Barany

This "mid-week level" puzzle was added in Winter 2014 for the edification and enjoyment of this website's solvership. We hope you like it!

There are two ways to solve this puzzle:

Method 1 (with six audio theme clues): Click here to printout a blank numbered grid, in PDF format. Then read or listen to the clues off your computer.

Method 2 (for those who are unable to play the audio clips on this page): Click here to view or download the puzzle in PDF format; here to download it as a puz file; here to download it as an ipuz file [requires the free Puzzazz app to solve]; here to solve the puzzle interactively (thanks to Jim Horne).

Regardless of which method you used, click here for the solution, and here for our "midrash" which provides more detailed information, including full YouTube links to all theme entries.

If you want to tell others about this particular page, refer them to
http://tinyurl.com/beastspuz

More puzzles here (all), here (music), and here (tributes).

E-mail barany@umn.edu to be added to a bcc distribution list.

Across

1 Signs of shock

6 Tennis do-overs

10

14 Little bird of prey

15 Right now, to a CEO

16 2012 Best Picture winner

17

19 Smart, funny folks

20 Steno tablet

21 Rebounding sounds

23 Org. that sued Napster for copyright infringement

24 Double ___ (Oreo variety)

25

30 Pig sniffers?

31 Bard's above

32 Kyoto currency

34 "That's swell!"

35 Uplifting piece

36 Hub of Royal Jordanian Airlines

38 Middle Earth menace

39 Children's writer/illustrator Asquith

40 Slip away, as time

41

45 Snappish

46 Ex-Senator Long of Hawaii

47 ___ silk (2 words)

49 Paycheck extras

53 Hep, as cats

54 Group who recorded the following song, and uniting theme of 10-Across, 17-Across, 25-Across, 41-Across, and 59-Across:

56 Word that's a homophone of its antonym

57 Hammer or hacksaw

58 Like some proverbial milk

59

60 Mimicked mockingly

61 Scrabble squares

Down

1 Impressive dress

2 "Horton Hears ___!"

3 Slight opening

4 Dwindle to nothing

5 Fill, as someone else's shoes

6 Martin of "Mission Impossible"

7 ___-Pekka Salonen of the Los Angeles Philharmonic

8 Enjoys an afternoon break, perhaps

9 Ghostly apparition

10 Took to the airport, say

11 Fort Presque Isle site

12 Ten percenters: Abbr.

13 Andalusian article

18 Foreign cars now made by G.M.

22 Heston role Ben-___

25 Like noble gases

26 Kind of motel

27 Neck-to-waist area

28 Kind of node or gland

29 What matzoh is missing

30 ___-Cat (winter vehicle)

33 Opposite of SSW

35 They'll fix a frame or delete a ding

36 19th-century shrink

37 TV premiere of 12/11/80

39 Yachting event

40 Infamous bankruptcy filer of 2001

42 Involuntary response

43 Augusta Aug. setting

44 Shed from the head

47 Fly sky-high

48 Move like lava lamp contents

50 Compete in a 39-Down, perhaps

51 "Vogue" rival

52 Atlantic crossers, once

53 Flat-screen predecessor, for short

55 Unbiased hirer, in ads