March Madness

Who ever said March goes out like a lamb was wrong. It was a very rainy and wet weekend, and the lousy weather continues this morning with more SNOW!!!

Speaking of the "End of March," that's the name of today's puzzle by Sally R. Stein. The theme answers are below. Notice the consistent use of the digraph "ch."

16A: Gravy thickener (CORN STARCH). There are many uses for corn starch, including removing stains, making shampoo, polishing your silver, unsqueaking your floor, soothing irritating skin, and removing unpleasant odors.
24A: Roosting, as a rooster (ON A PERCH)
39A: 63 Across Used for Canoes (BIRCH), as in the tree.
48A: Room getting lots of light (SUN PORCH)
61A:  Attend Mass, for example (GO TO CHURCH)

Animal Farm:

4A: Sheep's babies (LAMBS). How ironic that this answer is in the puzzle, considering today's weather.
26A: Very fast African feline (CHEETAH)
21D: Gorillas, for instance (APES)

Made to measure:

1D: Ankle's locale (FOOT)
46A: Measures of current (AMPERES)
40D: Popular candy-box size (ONE POUND)

Alphabet soup:

20A: Cpl. or sgt.: NCO
8D: Coll. or acad.: SCH
13D: Liquid measure amts.: CCS
34D: West Coast coll.: UCLA

Also, March Madness in the NCAA is almost over, and the Final Four will be the Florida Gators vs. the UCONN Huskies and the Wisconsin Badgers vs. the Kentucky Wildcats

Today's cryptoquote is by Cassius Clay, who is better known as Muhammad Ali ("The Greatest"). He says:

Don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.

Sometimes Ali's theatrics were almost as entertaining as his boxing skills. Here is the video that coined his self-proclaimed nickname:

All those blows to his head, have unfortunately contributed to his Parkinson's Syndrome. It's so sad to see him these days. :-(

The picture for the JUMBLE takes place at a comedy club (yay!). The waitress is screwing up the patrons' order big time. The caption reads: "The service at the comedy club was so bad that it was ______."

Word list:

THABC = BATCH
ZALEG = GLAZE
DEOLDO = DOODLE
SACCUT = CACTUS

Scrambled solution: BHGLALEAU
Solution: LAUGHABLE (ha, ha)

That's all for today, my friends. When I went out for lunch, the snow was finally gone and the sun was shining. It's off to the gym tonight.

Till tomorrow. . . .

Signing off,
The Puzzlechick