December 17, 2010, Paul Curedon

THEME: Take your CUe from Paul. The letters CU, which are the atomic symbol for Copper, text speak for See You, and the first two letters of constructor Paul’s last name, are added to one word of a common two word expression to convey a different but witty new phrase. There is some symmetry with the first and last CU added to the second word, and the CU added to the first word in the middle two.

18A. Raised to the ninth power?: DOUBLE CUBED. Your DOUBLE BED becomes a mathematics riddle, a cube cubed is 3 x 3 = 9.

24A. Poison literature? : CURARE BOOKS. Our RARE BOOKS dealer is closing after 40 years in Fort Lauderdale. I like the idea of the poison pen implication.

50A. Most adorable flier?: CUTEST PILOT. I wonder what John Glenn thinks of this? We are nearing the 50th anniversary of the first humans to orbit the earth, Yuri Gagarin in April and Alan Shepard in May.

55A. Original Anglican assistant priest?: FIRST CURATE. A CURATE is a clergy who assists the rector or vicar, particularly in the English Church. It comes from the same stem as “cure” and “curator,” Medieval Latin cūrātus, from cūra: spiritual oversight. Was this a First Rate Clue?

47D. Element whose chemical symbol is used in this puzzle's theme: COPPER. Did this help anyone?

I do not know Mr. Cureton (if that is a real person) and find it either brilliant or troubling that the first two letters of his name are the key to the theme. I found most of the fill very straightforward, so the theme jumped out at me when I had CURARE BOOKS, though the start with AZTEC and BEIRUT was not an encouraging beginning.

Lemonade here, ready to lead you to the promised land of a finished Friday.





Across:

1. Iron pumper's pride: ABS. Not to niggle, but the pumpers care about their pecs and lats and bis and tris; abs are for everyone. Neeedless to say, this was my slow period.

4. Some macaroni: ELBOWS. Okay, I was at the store today, and almost bought ELBOWS, opting instead for tri-color rotini. Now I am cooking.

10. Fosbury's high-jumping technique: FLOP. What? I just had this Dick (Fosbury) in a puzzle I blogged; you saw the link, so I will not repeat myself.

14. Zuider __: ZEE. One of my favorites from childhood, the sound of these Dutch words just pleased my ear. The ZUIDER ZEE (South Sea) was an inlet off the North Sea, where oil is now being drilled. The Dutch dammed the sea so it no longer exists.

15. One who may need technical terms explained: LAYMAN. When a doctor uses the phrase, “Let me put this to you in layman’s terms“ it is not a good sign. But, it also has religious meaning, like 4D. Respected one: ELDER. Also, a church term, for a layman who participates in services etc.

16. Like much early TV: LIVE. Oh for the fun of it all. Sid Caesar, George Burns, Milton Berle….

17. Element in pewter: TIN. Which is why they share the gray color.

20. Weather, in a way: ERODE. I understand this but it was not the first to come to mind. I would have gotten weathered and eroded more easily.

22. Little bit: TAD. Little bit made me think of these two, who just opened on BROADWAY .

23. Washday brand: ERA. Whatever happened to the Equal Rights Amendment?

28. "Bad" cholesterol letters: LDL. Low Density, as opposed to good, High Density Lipo proteins.

29. "__ tuned!": STAY. Right next to one of my favorite silly British comedians: 30. Hill on British TV: BENNY. Who does not get in a better mood when listening to his theme Yakity Sax by Boots Randolph, or his silly SKITS .

31. Total amount bet: POOL. This comes from horse racing where the wagering pool determines the final odds and payouts.

32. See 44-Across: GABLES. 44A. With 32-Across, feature of a noted New England home: SEVEN. This novel was Hawthorne’s follow up to The Scarlett Letter and is based on a real house still in SALEM which Hawthorne visited often as it was owned by a cousin. There is speculation he wrote the book out of sadness for his ancestors’ part in the killing of the Salem “witches.” Interestingly, Patricia Cornwell, has set much of her latest Scarpetta novel Port Mortuary in Salem.

34. Do some gardening: PRUNE. I grew up learning gardening from my father, who grew roses, peonies and had many flowering bushes and trees, so we were forever PRUNING which is a bit harder than it looks. Not to be confused with making plums into prunes, or having your fingers wrinkle in the pool.

35. They may be noble or precious: METALS. All you need to KNOW about the difference.

38. Waited: PAUSED.

39. Skill determinants: EXAMS. Personally, I think they measure skill at taking tests.

40. Madagascar mammals: LEMURS. . Did you watch any of the MOVIES ?

43. Learning method: ROTE. My favorite was KYLE ROTE who like another SMU star, Don Meridith, died this year. His son, Kyle, Jr., eschewed football, to become a soccer star (football?).

45. Alveoli, e.g.: SACS. The tiney air sacs in your lungs.

49. Monitor, for short: CRT. Cathode Ray Tube. Being phased out by plasma, LCD and LED. 64A. Watch displays, briefly: LEDS. LEDs--Light Emitting Diodes, were first made famous in the watch worn by James Bond in the ‘70s. They are not to be confused with LCDs-Liquid Crystal Display, though they both use liquid gel.

52. Eldridge Cleaver's "Soul on __": ICE. I read this in college, a very interesting book.

53. More than plan: ACT. Like Nike says, just do it!

54. Hoarse: RASPY. Anyone want to hear my hoarse joke again? Damn, no reason to get nasty!

60. Spring mo.: APR. Bring May showers…

61. Manual reader: USER. Not in my family; we have not met a manual that inspired anyone to read yet.

62. Dome opening, in architecture: OCULUS. At first, I was confused by the extra CU, and since I am not familiar with this TERM but figured this was a shout out to me, since it means EYE in Latin. Always amazed how Rich know which puzzles I blog.

63. Corp. bigwig: CEO.

65. Prepares for the next turn in the alley: RESETS. The first of mini-sports corner, a shout out to bowling. Then baseball, 21D. Any Wrigley Field contest until 1988: DAY GAME. Golf: 34D. Hole number?: PAR. Football, 38D. Football play: PUNT. And, weight lifting: 51D. Lift in a gym: PRESS. Like a bench, or military press. I use dumbbells now.

66. Directional ending: ERN. Eastern, western etc.

Down:

1. Tlaxcalteca enemies: AZTECS. Had no idea, but when letters finally came, it looked like it belonged with “teca.”

2. Cedar Revolution city: BEIRUT. Not all familiar with the NAME though I was aware of the struggle against Syria, as I had friend from Lebanon. memories, a nice Jewish boy and a girl from Lebanon; my great aunt married a man from there, and father would always ask him what is was like to be a Lesbian. Our family gatherings were always fun.

3. Lady of Spain: SENORA. Our Spanish lessons revisited. And our tricky Spanish, 42D. Mayo, e.g.: MES. Mayo, the month of May, Mes. Months in Spanish.

5. Film doctor with 7 faces: LAO. A wonderful movie with TONY RANDALL .

6. LDS-owned school: BYU. Latter day Saints, or better known as Mormons.

7. Fed. number-crunching gp.: OMB. Office of Management and Budget.

8. '70s-'80s TV family: WALTONS. A very successful family series based on a book and movie that ran during the ‘70s also.

9. Deceitful: SNEAKY.

10. Word after blue or bird: FLU. Blue Flu being the term used to describe work absences by police,, who are forbidden to strike for pay raises, but who developed flu symptoms to not work and force the cities to pay them more.

11. Defamatory: LIBELOUS. I am beginning to think there really is a conspiracy, since we have this again, and last time I was accused of giving legal advice by defining the term; you are all on your own.

12. Cooked really well?: OVERDONE. Like THIS ?

13. Biked, in Bristol: PEDALLED. Ah ha, Bristol England, not the one in Connecticut where ESPN was born, because the British use two “L”s where we Americans think one will do. Travelled etc.

19. S&L offerings: CDS. Certificates of Deposit, not Compact Discs.

25. Falls back: EBBS.and flows; you all still with me?

26. __ Air: Los Angeles community: BEL. And a great Chevy in the ‘50s.

27. It's next to nothing: ONE. Well a tricky clue, I like it.

31. Frederick the Great's realm: PRUSSIA. I always had trouble with the geography and politics of Germany and Russia and this Kingdom which annexed 46D.French border region: ALSACE. Along with LORRAINE, one of the French provinces which was part of the Franco-Prussian War.

33. Gore and Franken: ALS. To democrat liberals are we. The poor girl on Jeopardy did not know George H. W. Bush called Gore the Ozone man.

35. Forgiving: MERCIFUL. Which sits perfectly with 36D. Deal with, as demons: EXORCISE.Certainly a merciful act.

37. Ragged: TATTERED.

40. Romaine, e.g.: LETTUCE. Why are there now choices of 17 different lettuces? And that is only at McDonalds!

41. Anticipatory time: EVE. Erev in Hebrew, and a perfect clue with the 24th fast approaching.

44. Aid: SUCCOR. Another English word directly from Latin.

48. "Sophie's Choice" author: STYRON. A powerful novel, with the movie heralded as Meryl Streep’s best acting performance, for which she won an Oscar. Not a happy film.

50. Jazz lover: CAT. Hep Cat, Cool Cat.

56. Most coll. applicants: SRS. Seniors in high School

57. Toys __: R US. Gee, it isn’t backwards.

58. Samuel Adams Summer __: ALE. Oh, and we finish with the shout out to my craft brewing, beer swilling children who are headed home for the holiday. Love you boys. Thanks Paul. Sam Adams is the first American micro-brewery to become macro, and the beer is onot bad.

59. Boy king: TUT. Well, my grandmother used ot look at me and go, Tut, Tut all the time, so I guess it time for me to go.

A reasonable Friday, mostly easier, but lots of new stuff. Thank you for welcoming me into your homes, I like many of the new avatars and the new voices, as well as the old ones, so keep up the good work. In the meantime COOKIE!