Friday Feb 11, 2011, James Sajdak

Theme: "D" mand you do better than a D PLUS; the letter "D" is attached at the beginning of the first word of a grid spanning phrase to create a new and humorous new phrase which is signaled with a "?" to let the solver know a play on words is involved. In the 4th theme answer, the first word and the third word are the same word, so both have the D added.

17. Soundly defeat by cheating?: DRUB THE WRONG WAY. A drubbing is a beating, and likely comes from an Arabic word that transliterates as DARB. No one would ever accuse our Dfettes of rubbing the wrong way.

24. Gloomy Cuban?: DOUR MAN IN HAVANA. What is particularly intriguing about this clue is the Graham Greene novel, and subsequent MOVIE starring among others Alec Guiness and the incomparable Ernie Kovacs, is a dark comedy poking fun at British Intelligence/ Green was a member of MI5, the place from whence James Bond was born. The movie was also filmed in Cuba, with the approval of then newly empowered Fidel Castro.

46. Discerning pub competitor ?: DART CONNOISSEUR. More little javelins, this week, and a word with Latin, cognoscere "to know, to become well_acquainted with, and some French history.

59. What loving couples exchange?: DEAR TO DEAR GRINS. Certainly a more romantic concept than xxxx eating grins.

And the unifier,
37. Grade that describes this puzzle’s theme: D PLUS. Well, it is almost a C-

An ambitious use of 4 grid spanning entries, tied together solely by the added "D." The sound of the theme is very entertaining, and there are some nice entries, but overall, I found myself lost in places. Maybe it is just me, as this has been a very hard week.

Well lets look at what has been wrought.


Across
1. Part of the deal: HAND. We begin with some nice misdirection, as a hand of cards is part of what is dealt.

5. Little pieces, idiomatically: DRABS. Dribs and drabs is the full phrase, with the speculation it was created for the sound, like helter skelter or hurly burly. DRIBS likely comes from DRIPS.

10. Benevolent group: ELKS. BPOE, the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks; not to be confused with the Moose Lodge.

14. Great Plains tribe: OTOE. This Siouxan tribe was part of the buffalo hunting nomadic Indians of Missouri and Oklahoma. And, 41A. Iroquois enemies: ERIES.

15. Amazing!: OH WOW.

16. House leader during Bill’s presidency: NEWT. Mr. Gingrich is back politicking to be president. He has written 23 books, and overcome being known as NEWT.

20. Henri’s health: SANTE. An alliterative introduction to our French lesson, A votre sante, is the common French toast, "to your health."

21.Critical: DO OR DIE. One of those odd combination of letters which must be parsed as more than one word, or you just sit and stare at the gird. This also brings to mind the Tennyson POEM .

22. Lummox: OAF.

24. Maker of the LX 150 scooter: VESPA. I know no other scooter maker, so this had to be easy.

32.Photo finish?: OPS. Another word play, and what every politician wants.

33. Birthplace of seven presidents: OHIO. Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, McKinley, Taft, Harding; second only to Virginia’s 8 presidents

34. Drive off: REPEL. So many meanings, from warding off, to going down the mountain side.

35. Ardor: ZEAL. Who is your favorite Zealot in history?

40. "James and the Giant Peach" writer: DAHL. Roald, one bizarre mind.

43. Start of Durante refrain: INKA. Fine childhood memories of listening to this SONG .

45. Olympics participant since 1992, to the IOC: CRO. Croatia after the break up of the slavic countries.

50.Cheerios: TA TAS. Just for Nice Cuppa, we have a little British wordplay on departing; not to be confused with TATAS, or any cereal products.

51 Music store section: POP. Nuff said.

52. Martyred first Bishop of Paris: ST. DENIS. A complete unknown HISTORY .

55. Notable early student of Bela: NADIA. Nadia Comaneci and Bela Karolyi, the wonderful Romanian gymnastic student and teacher.

63. ___ à feu: ARME. Literally a firearm.

64. Carnival dance: SAMBA. Not the one with cotton candy, but from Brazil, with passion. You too can learn to DANCE .

65. Unite after a break, in a way: KNIT. When a bone breaks, it heals by knitting itself back together.

66. Caring: KIND. Very literal.

67. Magazine for horse owners: EQUUS. Latin for Horse.

68. Sherpa sighting: YETI. The famous mountain guides see a little abominable snow man?

Time to go down:

Down:
1. Mortar carriers HODS. They actually are used to carry the bricks and the mortar.

2. Handle for a little shaver?: ATRA. Handle meaning name, cute clue.

3. Animal, vegetable or mineral: NOUN. We had this clue before.

4. Unsettled one?: DEBTOR. People are said to settle their debts when they resolve them.

5. Head-slapper’s cry: DOH. Most of us at one time or another and Homer.

6. Scoreboard initials: RHE. Runs, hits and errors at a baseball game. This was a clue in the first puzzle I blogged.

7. How adorable!: AWW. Exactly how a feel baout new grand nephew and niece.

8. Big name in Dairy: BORDEN. I do not believe the company was named after Lizzie.

9. Sports logs since 1972: SWOOSH. The Nike logo, made famous by Mr. Jordan.

10. Like cameos: ENGRAVED. I had a hard time with this one, as I was thinking about brief appearance in a film, not the jewelry. I am not sure all cameos are engraved.

11. Lascivious: LEWD. In the law these two words go together.

12. Title river in a 1957 film that won 7 Oscars: KWAI. Love the MOVIE . Once again Alec Guiness performs.

13. Eyelid malady: STYE. Yes, those of us with eye problems wish all we had to deal with were
styes, or hordeolum, small bumps that can appear on the outside or inside of the eyelid.

18. Latin lover’s declaration: TE AMO. Real Latin, not Hispanic, I love you.

19. Stock term: NO PAR. We have had this many times, it just means the stock has no intrinsic value.

23. Saudi royal name: FAHD. The son of the founder of the country who ruled until his death in 2005; also another Arabic word, meaning courageous, fierce.

24. Talking Heads song, "Sax and ____": VIOLINS. Another SONG .

25. Missed out maybe: DOZED. I never saw this clue, but I guess it personifies if you snooze, you lose.

26. Met tragedy, perhaps?: OPERA. The question mark tells you it is the Metropolitan Opera, many of which are tragedies like OTELLO.

27.It merged with Piedmont in 1989: US AIR. Deregulation leads to consolidation. Not to ne confused with 58D. Piedmont wine region: ASTI. Where Italian sparkling wine is made.

28. Playful bite: NIP. Many puppies and a few babies I know.

29. Swiftly: APACE. The dreaded "A" word.

30. Jacket style popular with 60's rockers: NEHRU. The man, and his influence.

31. Words that lead to nothing: ALL OR. Very cute, all or nothing.

36. Educated: LETTERED. The original studies were of letters.

38. Game based on crazy eights: UNO. Once again, this game in my blog, and once again, we played SkipBo to please Ma Grand-Mère. And 39D. Card in 38-down: SKIP.

42. Meager: SCANT. For our Norwegian contingent, from Old Norse SKAMPT.

44. Words after play or for: A SONG. No money, just some singing.

47. Idle: OTIOSE. Our five dollar word of the day, taken directly from the Latin otiosis. American IDLE, where the OTIOSE become OBESE.

48. Where GOOG is traded: NASDAQ.GOOG is the stock symbol for GOOGLE, which is traded on the Over the Counter Market, National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations" controlled neither by the New York nor American Stock Exchange. It is now the largest market of listed companies.

49. Canine mascot of the National Fire Protection Society: SPARKY. A post Smokey rip off, but you gotta love a dog in a yellow slicker IMAGE .

52. Badlands Natl. Park site: S DAK. The abbreviation of NATL tells you the answer will be an abbreviation also.

53. Dustin’s "Tootsies"co-star: TERI. These puzzles haunt me, as dear Teri Garr appears again on my blog day.

54. Denounce: DAMN. Another reminder of Rhett and Scarlett.

56. Wine partner: DINE. The old dating tradition of wining and dining, to replaced with the post honeymoon whining and shopping.

57. Down but not out: IN IT. If you are not out, you are in.

60. Bird in the bush: EMU. A call out to our transplant from OZ, Kazie, where these flightless but low in cholesterol birds roam.

61. ___Dhabi: ABU. Part of the UAE and home for a new golf course and golf tournament, owned by Martin Kaymer.

62. ___Tafari: RAS. Ras Tafari Makonnen was crowned Haile Selassie I, the 225th Monarch of the Solomonic Dynasty in Ethiopia in November of 1930. He also was the prophet of the RASTAFARIAN movement which emerged in Jamaica. He claimed to be a direct descendent of King Solomon, and therefore of Moses.


Well, that was fun, and next week, I should be back to whatever normal is for me; bec areful out there especially on Valentine's Day; thanks Mr. Sajdak and all the corner.