Friday, November 19, 2010 Daniel A. Finan

The theme is CLUELESS: with 61A. Like five answers in this puzzle, literally and figuratively: CLUELESS. Very tricky puzzle, you see un-clued fill, but there is the dash. So the five answers were without clues, and the five answers were all synonyms for CLUELESS, meaning not very smart. I was an pea brain, airhead for a while, sorting this one out.

17A. -: PEA BRAIN. This is one of the more obvious expressions, coming from the idea of one who has brain the size of a pea does not know much.

28A. -: DINGBAT. None more famous than EDITH . Nobody seems to know where this term comes from.

46A. -: AIRHEAD. Also, pretty self explanatory, if all that is between your ears is AIR, you are not likely to be smart.

11D. -: NINCOMPOOP. A really evocative word, I have heard my entire life, but again, nobody knows why it means what it means.

27D. -: SPACE CADET. This comes from someone who has his head in the sky, with no touch with normal thought.

Well, hello all, it is Lemonade here with your Friday report, and this was a very complicated effort, with pitfalls everywhere. It is my second Daniel A. Finan puzzle to blog, the last being the incredible anagram pangram in August. Once again his approach to theme is new, leaving out clues as clues. So, let’s go…

Across:

1. "When I __ kid ...": WAS A. I put it in but wondered if there was more to it. Is this referring to the Bill Cosby comedy album?

5. Colorado NHLers: AVS. National Hockey League. The Avalanche; they began as the Quebec Nordiques, but were too close to Montreal, and finally moved to Colorado, where they won the Stanley Cup their first year, beating the Florida Panthers.

8. They may be surrounded at parties: PIANOS. Lovely clue, really nice imagery.

14. Set up: Abbr.: ESTD. Established.

15. Acqua Di __: Armani cologne: GIO. My cologne of choice; ladies?

16. Like a maelstrom: ASWIRL. Ah, an “A” word, what fun.

19. Cash in Nashville: JOHNNY. Did you hesitate and think about Money?

20. Rolls to the gate: TAXIES. What planes do after landing.

21. Colorful cats: CALICOS. So many different color COMBINATIONS .

22. Pitts of early cinema: ZASU. An old favorite from the Tribune puzzles, but we have not seen her lately; I remember her from OH SUSANNAH where she was Gale Storm’s sidekick.

24. Retired New York senator Al D'__: AMATO. As a Senator, he was more famous for controversy and long filibusters; now retired he is 73 and has 2 children, a 2 year old, and a 1 year old. Man must be crazy.

25. Hi-__: FIS. Stands for High Fidelity.

30. Second degree?: MBA. Fooled me completely first time through, but after you get your Bachelor’s , you do get a second degree.

33. In spades: AMPLY. Phrase in spades "in abundance" first recorded 1929 (Damon Runyon), probably from bridge, where spades are the highest-ranking suit.

35. It's usually four: PAR. Though generally there also par 5’s and par 3’s; no record of how 4 became the standard, or even why 18 HOLES . We also have, 34. Golfer's concern: LIE indicating where your ball lies.

36. Former 56-Across team: EXPOS. The Montreal EXPOS went bankrupt, and major league baseball moved the franchise to Washington, D.C., where they are now the Nationals. 56A. Baseball div.: NL EAST. Had to guess.

38. Cuisine that includes phanaeng: THAI. I enjpy THAI food, but most restaurants refer to it as PANANG CURRY.

39. "Entourage" agent Gold: ARI. Played ever so hatefully by Jeremy Piven.

40. English walled city: YORK. A fun tour of Europe is to see the WALLED CITIES .

41. Guard dog command: SIC EM. No doubt from ‘seek them’.

43. "__ be a pleasure!": ITD.

44. O3: OZONE. If I had not gotten this one, I would never have finished, it opened up the whole south for me.

45. Unlock'd: OPE. I ‘ope not again, soon.

49. Place for flock members: PEW. Very cute, I can picture all the sheep in church.

50. "I __ your long lost pal": Paul Simon lyric: CAN BE. This was part of his work with African music and musicians, with American LYRICS .

52. Salon sound: SNIP. Snip, snip go the scissors, a word many men associate with vasectomy.

54. Given, as custody: AWARDED. I hated divorce work, and quit after the old man pulled gun on me in the hall outside my office; criminals were much safer.

60. Mel Gibson persona: MAD MAX. This was Mel Gibson’s break out hit MOVIE .

63. Ring of color: AREOLE. Alas, C.C., I defer to you.

64. "Popeye" surname: OYL. The hot chick the men had to fight over, Olive.

65. Shell's shell, e.g.: LOGO. Like the clue, simple but effective.

66. Aquarium denizens: TETRAS. A fancy word for resident.

67. "Bottle Rocket" director Anderson: WES. This was his first movie, which he did with the Wilson brothers, with whom he forged a long relationship and did other movies such as The Royal Tenebaums he also directed the fable The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and to show our puzzles all make sense, and fit together, the recent Fantastic Mr. Fox .

68. Colony workers: ANTS. Ant colony, not Americans working for the Brits.

DOWN:

1. Showed relief, in a way: WEPT. Tears of?

2. Deported?: ASEA. Oh oh, another “A” word.

3. Vintage R&B record label: STAX. Despite 30+ years representing musicians, I did not remember this LABEL but then I do rock and roll, not R & B.

4. Madison Ave. symbolizes it: ADBIZ. The home of MADMEN and crazy America, my favorite about Madison avenue was the movie CRAZY PEOPLE with Dudley Moore and Daryl Hannah.

5. Court star with the autobiography "Open": AGASSI. Andre was perhaps a bit too Open in his book, discussing his drug usage, etc.

6. Sundial number: VII. A new way to slip in a Roman Numeral.

7. One learning about the birds and the bees?: SON. My father’s entire speech was, “If you like big breasts, go be a farmer because cows have the biggest; and quality over quantity.” Edited for publication.

8. Kind of party: PAJAMA. Ah, we are back with Dennis at the Slumber party in his PJ’s and once again there is a recurring theme.

9. Get away from the others: ISOLATE.

10. In the slightest: A WHIT. Many a wit has realized all the nice things A WHIT rhymes with, but most of us do not give a …..

12. "Yes __?": OR NO. Damn, that was too easy.

13. Stallone and Stone: SLYS. SLY and the Family Stone; was this their biggest HIT ?

18. Set: READY. How can this be synonymous, when you have to be READY< SET < GO!

21. Stand offerings: CAB RIDES. Taxi stand.

23. Odd, as a sock: UNPAIRED.There is some rich creature somewhere with a bazillion single socks.

25. 1980 DeLuise film: FATSO. A rather sad and poignant movie.

26. "Can you dig it?" response: IM HIP. Sadly, we actually talked like that.

29. "Wayne's World" co-host: GARTH. Dana Carvey to Mike Myers’ Wayne/

31. Shouldered: BORNE.

32. Out of line: ASKEW. An “A” word.

37. ___ Affair: 1798-1800 France/USA dispute: XYZ. Did anyone watch the HBO series about JOHN ADAMS , he was the president who had to deal with this problem.

42. Hindu meditation aid: MANDALA.Now we hit my weak part of the puzzle, as I did not know this DESIGN , nor

44. "Swan Lake" maiden: ODILE.I never was much on ballet, and only ODETTE came to mind.

47. Wild goats with recurved horns: IBEXES. They do have interesting HORNS .

48. Makes void: ANNULS. More divorce work, bleh.

51. Gladiator's defense: ARMOR. I liked the movie with Russell Crowe.

53. Window-making giant: PELLA. Never heard of them either, but the perps finally got me home.

54. Word in a basic Latin conjugation: AMAT. AMO, AMAS, AMAT; I love, you love, he/she/it loves; when I was in 6th grade, we studied Latin and I was conjugating and said the last one too fast…

55. Tupper ending: WARE. Burp?

57. Many millennia: AEON. Fancy spelling for EON (again a new recurring theme) and a movie showcasing a delightful CHARLIZE THERON .

58. Certain NCO: SSGT. Staff Sergeant.

59. General __ chicken: TSOS.

61. Tipping target, so it's said: COW. Yep, the old sport of COW TIPPING .

62. Drano component: LYE. I would not lie to you about this either.

Well another challenge, conquered, almost a pangram (Q short) with so many new words and clues; thanks Mr. F., and to rest of you , have a great week end, and a better Monday.