1940s British guns / MON 12-5-16 / Are able, biblically / Native Israelis / One-named R&B singer who won a Grammy for his 2014 album "Black Messiah"

Happy finals season! (It's Annabel Monday again. )

Constructor: NED WHITE

Relative difficulty: HARD (for a Monday, but still, whew!)



THEME: HEAD TO TOE — Theme answers are in the form of a phrase starting with a body part, beginning with HAIR and going all the way down to ANKLE. (They also all end in "er.")

Theme answers:

• HAIR RAISER (17A: Something scary)
• NECK SNAPPER (27A: It grabs one's attention)
• CHEST BEATER (38A: Boastful sort)
• KNEE SLAPPER (31A: Really good joke)
• ANKLE BITER (61A: Rug rat)

Word of the Day: WORD (CLUE) —

Aga Khan (Persian: آقاخان‎‎; also transliterated as Aqa Khan and Agha Khan^[1]) is a name used by the Imam of the Nizari Ismailis. The current user of the name is Shah Karim who is the 49th Imam (1957–present), Prince Shah Karim Al Husseini Aga Khan IV (b. 1936)..

The title is made up of the titles agha and khan. The Turkish "agha" is "aqa" (Āqā) in Persian. The word "agha" comes from the Old Turkic and Mongolian "aqa", meaning "elder brother",^[2][3] and "khan" means king, ruler in Turkic and Mongolian languages.^[4]

Whew, this one was seriously a toughie for me!! Not only were some of the clues a little weird (I knew NARCOTIC, but how is OTIC a suffix?), many new-to-me words (however embarrassing that may be). AMPERE? ABNER? And what the heck is a CERT? Maybe those of you from a different generation can fill me in on that one - the only mints I eat are Mentos and Lifesavers. Maybe it's this geology class I'm taking, but I just kept thinking of CHERT. Also, I have a sneaking suspicion that Ned White is a bit of a techie...who else calls a mouse or keyboard PERIPHERALS?

The theme was pretty fun, although some of the phrases were definitely a bit of a stretch - NECK SNAPPER? I had NECK TURNER there for the longest time because at least it sounded more like HEAD TURNER, which is an actual saying that people actually say! It was still cool though. I didn't even notice that it went down from head to ankles until my mom pointed it out!

Bullets:

• EMO (64A: Rock genre) — Ahhh, just this clue takes me back to middle school. I always wanted to shop at renowned EMO store Hot Topic, but I could never afford any of the ridiculously expensive corsets or black lipstick or whatever else it was they sold, because I was twelve. I guess that just gave me one more thing to be EMO about. *Evanescence songs playing in the distance*
• FILL (58D: Complete, as a crossword grid) — Fourth-wall humor in a crossword puzzle! Love it!
• SABRAS (47A: Native Israelis) — My mother was VERY offended that I didn't get this clue right away. In my defense, it's kind of an obscure word? Maybe?
• REM (20A: Rock band fronted by Michael Stipe)— Please listen to this. Trust me.

Signed, Annabel Thompson, tired college student.

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