While the puzzle was mostly enjoyable, there was some cluing I didn't care for. Other things I remember from my childhood: Dungeons & Dragons ( 34A: Dungeons & Dragons race = OGRES) and the 1984 Olympics ( 52D: Twins' name at the 1984 Olympics = MAHRE). I haven't heard the SPAGHETTIOS jingle or seen an ad in what feels like two decades, but it's indelibly imprinted on my brain from my childhood. I somehow got the answer off of just the final few letters (figuring that "refrain" must be the word affected by the "?").
Got both 15-letter answers easily today: CHAMPAGNE BOTTLE was nice, but UH OH, SPAGHETTIOS is some kind of genius ( 61A: Refrain from eating pasta?). Finally changed RIT to RAT and finished, but I was not at all sure I had everything right. grads everywhere are chirping with dorky glee, but I really have to wonder (out loud) if this is xword-worthy. Somehow, some way, I was able to coax AMATOL out of my brain ( 32A: Bygone explosive), but I spelled it AMITOL, so at the end I was left with BRASS RIT for the most enigmatic and loopy (to my mind) of all today's answers: BRASS RAT ( 3D: M.I.T.'s class ring, familiarly). KNACK was very vaguely clued ( 6D: Touch - I wanted SMACK), while ATM was very absurdly clued ( 4D: Long green box? - when's the last time someone referred to money as "long green?" I'm not that thrilled about the "box" part, either). As far as I was concerned US BANK ( 1A: Los Angeles's _ Tower) and NORTON ( 15A: Alaska's _ Sound) could have been anything. Getting CHAMPAGNE BOTTLE ( 17A: What a toaster may hold) very early didn't help much - not as much as I thought it would. Couldn't get into the NW, so went down and polished off the SW (the second-hardest part of the puzzle), and then went back and scratched and clawed my way to the end. APPLE PIE ( 16A: Mom's partner?) was the first thing that went in the grid, and from there it was a smooth progression from the NE down to the SE, then back up toward the NW. I think the puzzle was mostly Easy-Medium or Medium - until the NW, where I had to fight like hell to get real traction.
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