Theme: It is a Punderful Presidential Friday. Each of the theme answers is a sound alike pun, clued with the continuing clecho of “Presidential” replacing a word or two in a common phrase with the last name of a president, to make for a silly and humorous new phrase. Interestingly, all but Madison were Republican presidents. I guess in honor of the impending President's Day holiday, we have gone from Presidential Pets to Presidential Puns, put on your seat belts because here we go.
18. Presidential putdown? : GRANT SLAM. (Ulysses S. Grant, our 18th) from the baseball term GRAND SLAM, a bases loaded home run.
23. Presidential advisers?: MADISON CABINET. (James Madison, number 4 and our shortest at 5'4") MEDICINE CABINET.
32. Presidential ATM sign?: FORD DEPOSIT ONLY. (Gerald Ford, number 38) FOR DEPOSIT ONLY, which is what I put on my checks; I never sign them in case they are lost.
48. Presidential university?: COOLIDGE CAMPUS. (Calvin Coolidge, number 30) COLLEGE CAMPUS.
53. Presidential belt-tightening?: NIXON CUTS.
(Richard Nixon, number 37) NICKS AND CUTS.
Happy Friday all, Lemonade here, and I WAS RIGHT, a NADDOR for me and a quintessential example of his wit and skill. We have his recognizable humor, heavy themeage, and fixation with deception both in cluing and using multi word fill; look for the number by each example.
Across:
1. Timeworn observation: ADAGE. Direct from the Latin adagium, meaning proverb.
6. "Pronto!": ASAP.
10. Party person: HOST. C.C, is our party person.
14. Paganini's birthplace: GENOA. I wonder if this reference was deliberate, as the pioneer of the modern style of playing the violin, had at one time as his patron, Mary Louise, Bonaparte's second wife. He was very conceited about his music and wrote his compositions to perform himself; I would say he was a ham, but Jerome would probably threaten me with a salami.
15. One of an historic seagoing trio: NINA. Along with the PINTA and the SANTA MARIA>
16. Not deceived by: ON TO. (1)
17. Los __: city near San Jose: ALTOS. Los Altos a city at the southern end of the San Francisco Peninsula, in the San Francisco Bay Area. The city is in Santa Clara County, California
20. 1926 channel swimmer: EDERLE. GERTRUDE was the first woman to swim the English channel, after only five men had accomplished the feat, and she did it 2 hours faster than any man up to that time.
22. Bernardo's girl in "West Side Story": ANITA. Brilliantly played by RITA MORENO in the movie version.
26. Trademark cousins: PATENTS. Names rather than processes.
27. Trains on supports: ELS. ELevated trains, still popular in Chicago.
28. "Discreet Music" composer: ENO. Brian is my recurring theme this week, as he and his Airport Music were in my recent blog.
29. Movie beekeeper: ULEE. Peter Fonda's gold.
30. People person?: CELEB. Very fun, PEOPLE magazine.
39. "Contact" author: SAGAN. Carl was a very popular scientist who did all he could to bring science to the masses with his books and his Cosmos TV show. He also was involved in SETI. Seeking extra-terrestrial intelligence.
40. "Uh-uh": NOPE.
41. Ex-Saudi ruler __ Saud: IBN. Son of like, Ben.
44. Managed: RAN.
45. Onetime California gubernatorial candidate Huffington: ARIANNA. She is now selling out, by letting AOL purchase her HUFFINGTON POST .
51. Biblical words before and after "for": AN EYE. AN EYE FOR AN EYE, kind of eerie considering my current situation, and the ever present need to atone. (2)
52. Title subject of a G.B. Shaw play: ST JOAN. Jean D'Arc, our favorite military martyr. (3)
56. Blitz attachment: KRIEG. The massive German all out attacks of World War II. Literally lightening war.
59. Prefix with "Language" in a 1993 comedy best-seller: SEIN. Jerry Seinfeld at his best. For example, the number one fear people have is public speaking, with death the number two fear. That means if you are a funeral it is easier to be the corpse than to deliver a eulogy.
60. Gaston's god: DIEU. Oh goody, my Frech lesson, Mon Dieu, that was easy.
61. Perform penance: ATONE. Man, you think because I get this word every time, a higher power is telling me it is time to admit my sins, and change? Nah.
62. Scraps: ORTS.
63. U. of Maryland athlete: TERP. Short for Terrapin.
64. Streisand title role: YENTL. A rare public performance by Barbra at the Grammys.
DOWN. DOWN we go:
1. Turkish honorific: AGA. Not to be confused with the cooker so popular in Europe.
2. Wilmington's st.: DEL. Delaware, the type of Indians near Staten Island, as well.
3. Lover of armies?: ANTEATER. Really fun was to clue the army of ants.
4. Acts of kindness: GOOD DEEDS. (4)
5. Enter cautiously: EASE IN. (5)
6. Americans in Paris, e.g.: ANGLOS. I do not recall hearing this expression from any of my relatives, but hey, maybe because I spoke French with them they were nice.
7. Femme fatale: SIREN. We had SIREN as Vixen recently.
8. Book collector's suffix: ANA. This is used denote a collection of writing by a single author or a single topic, like AMERICANA, or DICKENSIANA. Not a collector like Dennis, but one who puts things together in a single volume.
9. Put down in writing?: PAN. The critics often Pan the blog for too many links.
10. Mubarak of Egypt: HOSNI. Isn’t amazing Dan used fill so current even though this puzzle was written more than one year ago; here is one perception of MUBARAK .
11. Surfing without a board, maybe: ON LINE. Web surfing. (6)
12. New York's __ Island: STATEN. The smallest population of the five boroughs of New York city, this was named Staaten Eylandt (literally "State Island") by Henry Hudson, sailing on behalf of the Dutch government.
13. T in a sandwich: TOMATO. The "T" in BLT.
19. Typewriter feature: TAB SET. (7)
21. Queue after Q: RST. An innovative play on words to spice up the letter string Q R S T.
23. Opposite of bueno: MALO. BUENO=Good, MALO=Bad in Spanish.
24. Psychic couple?: CEES. A new variation, as there are two "C"s in the word.
25. "That's __ ask": ALL I. Yeah right, beware when anyone ever says this to you. (8)
26. Sta-__: fabric softener: PUF. Have not heard of this brand in awhile. Maybe it will be the new Ipana.
30. Hoodwink: CON. From the CONFIDENCE MEN who gain that frompeople and then bilk them.
31. Ruling family name in 19th-century Europe: BONAPARTE. If you want more, I provide this LINK .
33. Connecticut coastal town near Stamford: DARIEN. One of the many small town near Manhattan which attracted the successful New Yorkers looking to escape from the city. The opposite end of the state in every sense from where I grew up.
34. "Yikes!": EGAD. Veddy British, in preparation for RAJ, I guess.
35. Qualm: PANG. Pangs of guilt.
36. Like some workers in an open shop: NON UNION. So Wisconsin people, what do you think of the teacher union stuff? (9)
37. HMO employees: LPNS. Licensed Practical Nurses; one level below Registered Nurses. Sort of like an AA degree compared to a BA.
38. Thumbs-up vote: YEA. Or nay.
41. Response to a doubting Thomas: I CAN SO. (10)
42. More scrawny: BONIER.How many of you thought of this SONG .
43. Prohibitive door sign: NO EXIT. (11)
45. Misbehaves: ACTS UP. (12)
46. British rule in India: RAJ. From this period of BRITISH RULE as we can see from the comments of our now anonymous friend Vidwan, there remain bad feelings among Indian and Pakistani citizens. On a happier note, I strongly recommend the book MAJOR PETTIGREW’S LAST STAND .
47. Post-fall reassurance: I'M OKAY. Not fall autumn, but faw down and go boom fall. (13)
49. Interpol headquarters: LYONS. I was getting psyched for my second French dispute with Dan of the puzzle, when I read the town of LYON (French name, pronounced lee ohn)was anglicized to Lyons. International Police, now with 188 countries signed on.
50. Glyceride, e.g.: ESTER. Organic chemistry was impossible for my limited vision; my professor wrote with one hand and erased with the other.
54. Setting on the Mississippi: Abbr.: CDT. Your clock setting, Central Daylight Time. A toughie in February.
55. A lost driver may hang one, briefly: UIE. We have debated the spelling of a U Turn before.
57. M.D.'s specialty: ENT. No, the Doctors do not work on animated trees from Tolkien, but Ear Nose and Throat.
58. Styling stuff: GEL. Hair styling; I am just too lazy.
Well, it has been an up and down week, but it was great to finish with me and Dan trying to entertain. have a great week end, especially those who get President's day off.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Thursday, February 10, 2011
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.
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.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Theme: T party; the letter "T" is inserted into the the first word of a common two word phrase to create a new and humorous new phrase. Each of the first words begin with "S." There is no unifier and no other relationship among the theme answers, but some of the images are creative and amusing.
17. "Oklahoma!" prop?: STAGE BRUSH. Oklahoma is one of the earliest and most successful American Musicals, and I guess there may be a BRUSH used on stage at some point; and SAGEBRUSH (also sage brush) is a shrub which grows freely in the Western US, including Oklahoma, and Canada, but should not be confused with tumbleweed.
21. Time off spent with Rover?: STICK DAY. A SICK DAY is a day off, and playing STICK (also known as Fetch) with your dog can pass the time.
34. Undercover operations where agents can bring guests?: STING ALONGS. We all known SING ALONGS, but if you turn them into a trap for someone where you invite a guest...Did anyone else think of Mitch Miller?
42. Dance for louses?: STINKER BALL. A SINKER BALL is a type of pitch used in baseball to induce a ground ball, and a BALL for STINKERS sounds pretty silly.
52. Taser switch?: STUN DIAL. My favorite of the theme, SUN DIAL becomes the controls to a taser. Don't tase me bro!
61. Fancy shoes for the campaign trail?: STUMP PUMPS. A SUMP PUMP is a common electric pump used to drain basements or other low lying areas. I think it comes from the German SUMPF, which means swamp. The picture of a politician in nice FM Pumps is an appealing image.
Happy Friday, all. Lemonade here and lets go on with the rest of the story.
Across
1. In development, as software: BETA. BETA testing comes after ALPHA testing; seriously, the testing of SOFTWARE is very important in our computer driven world.
5. Ancient meeting place: AGORA. The Greek open assembly areas which became the marketplace, and it is the root word for AGORAPHOBIA, the fear of leaving your home.
10. Bloke: CHAP. The first four letters of last name are CHAP, so in the puzzle I work on and never finish, 1 across is always CHAP, with the last 4 letters the answer to 65 across.
14. School since 1440: ETON. I seem to get this school almost every week; Harrowing.
15. Really enjoy: LAP UP. Which is what Rover does with the attention he gets on Stick Day.
16. Symbolic ring: HALO. This comes from the Latin word for the ring that appears around the sun, which became symbolic of the aura of majesty or glory surrounding a person or thing that is regarded with reverence. Or a very popular video game. Which leads perfectly to 19. Heavenly bodies: ORBS, which is also is from the Latin used to describe the sun and other celestial bodies.
20. Subject of a 2009 national tournament cheating scandal: SUDOKU. I missed this SCANDAL but it dates back to a cheater at a chess tournament.
23. Star car: LIMO. Is anyone else watching the new Showtime series Episodes? I think it is really cute.
25. Downsizing event?: DIET. I am getting used to Mr. Sessa's cluing; he uses many visual misdirections like this where he makes you think about work cuts, and 28A. Fingers: IDS, where you need to relate to the word as verb not a noun. .
26. Extend across: SPAN. Remins me of the old ABC Wild World of Sports, "Spanning the Globe..."
31. Fumble (for): GROPE. Two images, young man encountering a bra, and old man looking for his glasses in the night. The cycle of life. I am sure carol and Lois have different groping images.
37. Tampa NFLer: BUC. A mini-shout out for our left-coast Floridians.
38. Jobs, idiomatically: HATS. This one was tricky, as the phrase "Wearing Many Hats" has gone the way of people actually wearing hats. IMAGE .
39. Tesla, by birth: CROAT. Our friend is back; he was born an ethnic Serb in the village of Smiljan (now part of Gospić), of the Austrian Empire (modern-day Croatia). Tesla was a subject of the Austrian Empire by birth, so this answer while correct is also misleading.
40. Sol lead-in: AERO. Spray cans, and bad for the ozone layer.
41. Creative output: ART.
44. "Beau __": Gary Cooper film: GESTE. The phrase "beau geste" is from the French, meaning "a gracious (or fine) gesture, and the protagonist's name is a foreshadowing of his fate. This movie has been remade many times, first with Ronald Colman, then Gary cooper, with the last one a parody by Mel Brooks starring the incomparable Marty Feldman, who played IGOR in Young Frankenstein.
, which segues to 63. "Young Frankenstein" lab assistant: INGA, who was played by TERRI GARR who should not be confused with
6D. Needle-nosed fish: GAR.
46. Head of government?: GEE. Another, sleight of hand, Government begins with the letter "G."
47. Body shop figs.: ESTS. Estimates, and abbr like figs.
48. Close connection: BOND. Not to be confused with James Bond.
50. Water carrier: DUCT. Another Latin concept, DUCTS are the anatomical descriptions of the channels of the body through which much passes, like tear ducts, lactiferous ducts with the Roman creation of the AQUEDUCT to transport water to allow the irrigation of dry lands, one their greatest achievements.
56. Mickey's "The Wrestler" co-star: MARISA. This was a wonderful MOVIE in which the 40+ Ms. Tomei plays a stripper.
60. "Young" reformer: TURK. There was an actual early 20th century reformer in the Ottoman Empire known as Young Turk.
64. Small thicket: COPSE. If you threw some crackers in the bushes, would you say "Cheese It, the Copse!"
65. Lollipop, for one: SHIP. Some images are FOREVER .
66. Cheers: RAHS. Very literal.
67. Exhaust: SPEND. Not the first word that came to mind, but when you have exhausted your resources, they are spent.
68. A long, long time: EONS. Crosswordese, with or without the A.
Okay, relax , we are getting down now.
Down:
1. "Summertime" singer: BESS. From the Gershwin opera PORGY & BESS .
2. Caeserian rebuke: ET TU. Brute. I love the miniseries Rome on HBO.
3. Warty hopper: TOAD.
4. Luanda natives: ANGOLANS. Luanda is the capital city of Angola, and has been since the Portuguese settled the area in the 1500's, and was the center of the slave trade to Brazil, the largest Portugese colony.
5. Rock collection?: ALBUM. Fooled me again, as I collected rocks as child, polished them and made jewelry.
7. Numbered piece: OPUS. Well, last Friday I linked to the cartoon, so I am not sure why this word is here again, but it is.
8. Sign of age: RUST. Interesting visual, though why people are said to be rusty, which comes from oxidation not age, I do not know.
9. Garden pest: APHID. If I had a nickel for every aphid I plucked from my father's flowers as a child, I would be a nickelonaire.
10. Round jewelry item: CHOKER. How about a nice Heart NECKLACE for V-Day.
11. Not easily topped: HARD TO BEAT.
12. Jessica of "Sin City": ALBA. We seem to have a mini-theme of STRIPPERS ; no nudity, I promise.
13. Bridal accessory: POSY. A different word for bouquet.
18. Scratching (out): EKING. We cannot go two days without some version of this crossword staple, I am ready to scream EEEEEKKKK.
22. Butts: CIGS. With smoking on the decline this will become a difficult clue one day.
24. Deepwater Horizon, for one: OIL RIG. This was the name of the ill fated rig which was the BP Oil spill. It was built in in South Korea by Hyundai.
26. Disconcerting look: STARE. Well sometimes, stares are nice.
27. Penguins' home: PITTSBURGH. The hockey team lead now by Sidney Crosby.
29. Blackmore heiress: DOONE.Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor was an early historical romance.
30. Took a sinuous path: SNAKED. And, 59D. Slithery threats: ASPS.
32. Knitting stitches: PURLS. When I was little I heard a joke where the punch line was Knit 1, Purl 2 and there was an old song, but no one ever explained either, but I think it has to do with reversing the knitting action.
33. Sci. concerned with biodiversity: ECOL. Ecology,
34. Thick carpet: SHAG. Does anyone have any left in their homes? I wonder if this pair was an homage to Austin Powers who loved to SHAG , and to tell people to 35D. Behave: ACT.
36. Co. that merged into Verizon: GTE. General Telephone and Electric, one of the baby bells.
40. Clear as mud: ABSTRUSE. Oh what a wonderful word, also from Latin.
42. Texting button: SEND.
43. Newscast segment: RECAP.
45. Mighty Dump Trucks, e.g.: TONKAS. Hasbro's biggest seller still, trucks and trains.
49. Saucers and such: DISCS. Yes, especially the flying kind of UFOs.
51. Made lots of calls, in a way: UMPED. Tricky, an umpire calls balls and strikes, safe or out; I told you Ed using visual deception.
52. Mix: STIR.
53. Hip Charlie, in ads: TUNA. Who does not love a wise guy talking FISH .
54. At the peak of: ATOP. On top of old smokie...
55. "Kick, Push" rapper __ Fiasco: LUPE. No clue, don't listen if you are offended by these LYRICS .
57. "As I see it," online: IMHO. In My Humble Opinion, really why humble? not likely.
58. Go a few rounds?: SPIN. The wheels on the bus go round and round...
62. Co. with a butterfly logo: MSN. Micro Soft Network; they want to take over the world.
17. "Oklahoma!" prop?: STAGE BRUSH. Oklahoma is one of the earliest and most successful American Musicals, and I guess there may be a BRUSH used on stage at some point; and SAGEBRUSH (also sage brush) is a shrub which grows freely in the Western US, including Oklahoma, and Canada, but should not be confused with tumbleweed.
21. Time off spent with Rover?: STICK DAY. A SICK DAY is a day off, and playing STICK (also known as Fetch) with your dog can pass the time.
34. Undercover operations where agents can bring guests?: STING ALONGS. We all known SING ALONGS, but if you turn them into a trap for someone where you invite a guest...Did anyone else think of Mitch Miller?
42. Dance for louses?: STINKER BALL. A SINKER BALL is a type of pitch used in baseball to induce a ground ball, and a BALL for STINKERS sounds pretty silly.
52. Taser switch?: STUN DIAL. My favorite of the theme, SUN DIAL becomes the controls to a taser. Don't tase me bro!
61. Fancy shoes for the campaign trail?: STUMP PUMPS. A SUMP PUMP is a common electric pump used to drain basements or other low lying areas. I think it comes from the German SUMPF, which means swamp. The picture of a politician in nice FM Pumps is an appealing image.
Happy Friday, all. Lemonade here and lets go on with the rest of the story.
Across
1. In development, as software: BETA. BETA testing comes after ALPHA testing; seriously, the testing of SOFTWARE is very important in our computer driven world.
5. Ancient meeting place: AGORA. The Greek open assembly areas which became the marketplace, and it is the root word for AGORAPHOBIA, the fear of leaving your home.
10. Bloke: CHAP. The first four letters of last name are CHAP, so in the puzzle I work on and never finish, 1 across is always CHAP, with the last 4 letters the answer to 65 across.
14. School since 1440: ETON. I seem to get this school almost every week; Harrowing.
15. Really enjoy: LAP UP. Which is what Rover does with the attention he gets on Stick Day.
16. Symbolic ring: HALO. This comes from the Latin word for the ring that appears around the sun, which became symbolic of the aura of majesty or glory surrounding a person or thing that is regarded with reverence. Or a very popular video game. Which leads perfectly to 19. Heavenly bodies: ORBS, which is also is from the Latin used to describe the sun and other celestial bodies.
20. Subject of a 2009 national tournament cheating scandal: SUDOKU. I missed this SCANDAL but it dates back to a cheater at a chess tournament.
23. Star car: LIMO. Is anyone else watching the new Showtime series Episodes? I think it is really cute.
25. Downsizing event?: DIET. I am getting used to Mr. Sessa's cluing; he uses many visual misdirections like this where he makes you think about work cuts, and 28A. Fingers: IDS, where you need to relate to the word as verb not a noun. .
26. Extend across: SPAN. Remins me of the old ABC Wild World of Sports, "Spanning the Globe..."
31. Fumble (for): GROPE. Two images, young man encountering a bra, and old man looking for his glasses in the night. The cycle of life. I am sure carol and Lois have different groping images.
37. Tampa NFLer: BUC. A mini-shout out for our left-coast Floridians.
38. Jobs, idiomatically: HATS. This one was tricky, as the phrase "Wearing Many Hats" has gone the way of people actually wearing hats. IMAGE .
39. Tesla, by birth: CROAT. Our friend is back; he was born an ethnic Serb in the village of Smiljan (now part of Gospić), of the Austrian Empire (modern-day Croatia). Tesla was a subject of the Austrian Empire by birth, so this answer while correct is also misleading.
40. Sol lead-in: AERO. Spray cans, and bad for the ozone layer.
41. Creative output: ART.
44. "Beau __": Gary Cooper film: GESTE. The phrase "beau geste" is from the French, meaning "a gracious (or fine) gesture, and the protagonist's name is a foreshadowing of his fate. This movie has been remade many times, first with Ronald Colman, then Gary cooper, with the last one a parody by Mel Brooks starring the incomparable Marty Feldman, who played IGOR in Young Frankenstein.
, which segues to 63. "Young Frankenstein" lab assistant: INGA, who was played by TERRI GARR who should not be confused with
6D. Needle-nosed fish: GAR.
46. Head of government?: GEE. Another, sleight of hand, Government begins with the letter "G."
47. Body shop figs.: ESTS. Estimates, and abbr like figs.
48. Close connection: BOND. Not to be confused with James Bond.
50. Water carrier: DUCT. Another Latin concept, DUCTS are the anatomical descriptions of the channels of the body through which much passes, like tear ducts, lactiferous ducts with the Roman creation of the AQUEDUCT to transport water to allow the irrigation of dry lands, one their greatest achievements.
56. Mickey's "The Wrestler" co-star: MARISA. This was a wonderful MOVIE in which the 40+ Ms. Tomei plays a stripper.
60. "Young" reformer: TURK. There was an actual early 20th century reformer in the Ottoman Empire known as Young Turk.
64. Small thicket: COPSE. If you threw some crackers in the bushes, would you say "Cheese It, the Copse!"
65. Lollipop, for one: SHIP. Some images are FOREVER .
66. Cheers: RAHS. Very literal.
67. Exhaust: SPEND. Not the first word that came to mind, but when you have exhausted your resources, they are spent.
68. A long, long time: EONS. Crosswordese, with or without the A.
Okay, relax , we are getting down now.
Down:
1. "Summertime" singer: BESS. From the Gershwin opera PORGY & BESS .
2. Caeserian rebuke: ET TU. Brute. I love the miniseries Rome on HBO.
3. Warty hopper: TOAD.
4. Luanda natives: ANGOLANS. Luanda is the capital city of Angola, and has been since the Portuguese settled the area in the 1500's, and was the center of the slave trade to Brazil, the largest Portugese colony.
5. Rock collection?: ALBUM. Fooled me again, as I collected rocks as child, polished them and made jewelry.
7. Numbered piece: OPUS. Well, last Friday I linked to the cartoon, so I am not sure why this word is here again, but it is.
8. Sign of age: RUST. Interesting visual, though why people are said to be rusty, which comes from oxidation not age, I do not know.
9. Garden pest: APHID. If I had a nickel for every aphid I plucked from my father's flowers as a child, I would be a nickelonaire.
10. Round jewelry item: CHOKER. How about a nice Heart NECKLACE for V-Day.
11. Not easily topped: HARD TO BEAT.
12. Jessica of "Sin City": ALBA. We seem to have a mini-theme of STRIPPERS ; no nudity, I promise.
13. Bridal accessory: POSY. A different word for bouquet.
18. Scratching (out): EKING. We cannot go two days without some version of this crossword staple, I am ready to scream EEEEEKKKK.
22. Butts: CIGS. With smoking on the decline this will become a difficult clue one day.
24. Deepwater Horizon, for one: OIL RIG. This was the name of the ill fated rig which was the BP Oil spill. It was built in in South Korea by Hyundai.
26. Disconcerting look: STARE. Well sometimes, stares are nice.
27. Penguins' home: PITTSBURGH. The hockey team lead now by Sidney Crosby.
29. Blackmore heiress: DOONE.Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor was an early historical romance.
30. Took a sinuous path: SNAKED. And, 59D. Slithery threats: ASPS.
32. Knitting stitches: PURLS. When I was little I heard a joke where the punch line was Knit 1, Purl 2 and there was an old song, but no one ever explained either, but I think it has to do with reversing the knitting action.
33. Sci. concerned with biodiversity: ECOL. Ecology,
34. Thick carpet: SHAG. Does anyone have any left in their homes? I wonder if this pair was an homage to Austin Powers who loved to SHAG , and to tell people to 35D. Behave: ACT.
36. Co. that merged into Verizon: GTE. General Telephone and Electric, one of the baby bells.
40. Clear as mud: ABSTRUSE. Oh what a wonderful word, also from Latin.
42. Texting button: SEND.
43. Newscast segment: RECAP.
45. Mighty Dump Trucks, e.g.: TONKAS. Hasbro's biggest seller still, trucks and trains.
49. Saucers and such: DISCS. Yes, especially the flying kind of UFOs.
51. Made lots of calls, in a way: UMPED. Tricky, an umpire calls balls and strikes, safe or out; I told you Ed using visual deception.
52. Mix: STIR.
53. Hip Charlie, in ads: TUNA. Who does not love a wise guy talking FISH .
54. At the peak of: ATOP. On top of old smokie...
55. "Kick, Push" rapper __ Fiasco: LUPE. No clue, don't listen if you are offended by these LYRICS .
57. "As I see it," online: IMHO. In My Humble Opinion, really why humble? not likely.
58. Go a few rounds?: SPIN. The wheels on the bus go round and round...
62. Co. with a butterfly logo: MSN. Micro Soft Network; they want to take over the world.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Theme: I’m from Boston, and er, ah, you like how I pahk my cah? You take a phrase in the language and change the ER ending into A so it might sound like said by a Bostonian, but transforming the answer into a new and witty sound alike. Wicked cool. As a born and bred New Englandah, I enjoyed the theme, though I struggled with the first entry.
20A. Heavy metal mimic?: HARD ROCK MYNA, anyone ready to hear my story about the bird who sang like Pavorotti again? Did you know MYNAS (or MYNAHS) are members of the starling family? There really is a type of mining done by a HARD ROCK MINERS which I did not know.
28A. Nickname for a pharmaceuticals czar?: PILL PAPA. Sadly, we probably all know a PILL POPPER.
20A. Heavy metal mimic?: HARD ROCK MYNA, anyone ready to hear my story about the bird who sang like Pavorotti again? Did you know MYNAS (or MYNAHS) are members of the starling family? There really is a type of mining done by a HARD ROCK MINERS which I did not know.
28A. Nickname for a pharmaceuticals czar?: PILL PAPA. Sadly, we probably all know a PILL POPPER.
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Theme:
No SAINTS (STs) allowed; the abbreviation for Saint (ST) is removed from the first word of a common two-word phrase to reveal a new and humorous two-word phrase.
17. Conger's protection?: EEL HELMET. STEEL HELMET> Cute pun, but I did not remember this species of eels so it did not fall quickly.
26. Tracker of bauxite thieves?: ORE DETECTIVE. STORE DETECTIVE. This is where I got going, as Bauxite is the ore from which aluminum is extracted.
43. Roadie, after a gig?: AMP COLLECTOR. STAMP COLLECTOR. A nice reminder of the days riding on a tour bus, watching the roadies load and unload from city to city.
58. Diamond oration?: UMP SPEECH. STUMP SPEECH. The term is from the literal delivery of political speeches while standing on a sawed off tree to allow the candidate to be seen and heard.
The unifier: 41D. Hardly a model of perfection, and a hint to how this puzzle's theme puns are derived : NO SAINT.
Lemonade here, and I found the theme easily, without the unifier, and all the answers are nice symmetrical 9 12 12 9 with the unifier adding 7 more letters. I liked each of the puns, with AMP COLLECTOR my favorite; overall this was the hardest puzzle for me that I have blogged. It is however a nice honor to prepare the final blog of 2010.
Across:
1. Blows: BOPS. Man was this corner a struggle for me; I know a BOP where you strike someone is a BLOW, but BLOW was so many meanings. Down Lois and Carol. This crossing with BEECH did not help.
5. Open some: AJAR. Whew, an easy one.
9. "The Remains of the Day" author __ Ishiguro: KAZUO. Followed by more difficulty, for while I recalled the wonderful movie version starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson, I did not have any memory of this transplanted Japanese AUTHOR .
14. Sweeping story: EPIC. My FAVORITE .
15. Like some walls: BARE. Well that id depressing.
16. Collectively: IN ALL.
19. Figured (out), slangily: DOPED. Yes, we all doped out this answer, though would n’t slang been enough?
20. __-Magnon man: CRO. This is no longer a politically correct term, as scientists now believe the skeletons which were found in this region, and so named, are sufficiently like we HOMO SAPIENS to be called EMH, Early Modern Human.
21. '60s quartet member: MAMA. And the biggest of them all MAMA CASS.
22. Times for cool heads: CRISES. Yes, they prevailed when my computer was fighting me earlier.
23. 6 7/8, e.g.: HAT SIZE. I wear a 7 ½ which would be okay except I am pretty short. Of course some of us will speculate on body correlations, but that cannot be helped. I am sure there are research volunteers.
25. __ Age: IRON. I could not think of any other four letter ages, ICE, STONE, BRONZE?
31. Latin Quarter site: PARIS. This area on the left bank of the SEINE got its name not from any Hispanic influence, but because it is the educational center of Paris where reading, understanding Latin was important.
34. Soup vegetable: LEEK. A cousin of the onion and garlic.
35. "X-ing" one: PED. Pedestrian crossing, a cross walk. Jaywalking is taken very seriously in parts of the country, as a result drivers must brake to allow people to cross if they are in a designated area. Muhammed Ali almost ran me down in his Rolls while I was at LAX.
36. Space-saving abbr.: ET AL. My law use of the week. When you sue a bunch of people, you have to list all of them in the initial complaint. The part with the names is the caption. Once the original is filed, e.g., Lemonade vs. Dennis, Windhover, Barry G., Jeannie, Sallie and Dodo, the later pleadings will all be Lemonade vs. Dennis et al.
37. Seriously impairs: MAIMS. Yes, maiming is a specific crime, defined as injure, disable, or disfigure, usually by depriving of the use of a limb or other part of the body.
39. Loud, ringing sound: BONG. Am I the only one who thought of Michael Phelps?
40. Barnyard male: TOM. Tom Turkey? Tom Cat?
41. Lofgren of the E Street Band: NILS. He has played his GUITAR with Springsteen and Neil Young among others.
42. Flooded field: PADDY. Rice can be grown on dry land, but most of it is done underwater, in paddies.
47. Sailing, say: ASEA.
48. Alluring tops: HALTERS. Is this what you thought of for this style TOP.
52. Sign with an arrow: ONE WAY. I love this clue, so simple, but very visual.
55. Like falling off a log: EASY. A simile that always puzzled me as a child, because it is hard to get on a log.
56. Snap: PIC. Does anyone call them snaps anymore?
57. Alp-Öhi's granddaughter in an 1880 novel: HEIDI. Never read the book, but I have a close friend with the name.
60. Dum-dum: MORON. You may not know this, but this was a valid psychology term to describe mild retardation, but obviously, it has fallen out of favor. But you can still take the TEST .
61. Hook's mate: SMEE. Man, my first thoughts crook and ladder, luckily they had too many letters.
62. Appear: SEEM.
63. Hägar's dog: SNERT. Snot Nosed Egotisical Rude Teen.
64. Event with gowns: BALL. I wanted Prom.
65. __ buco: OSSO. Literally bone with a hole, the veal shank.
Okay, suck it up we are halfway home.
Down:
1. Tree with edible nuts: BEECH. There were so many, Pecan also has 4 letters.
2. "What's __, Doc?": Classic "Looney Tunes" short: OPERA. Cartoons give us so much CULTURE , of course I could tell my Pavarotti bird joke again.
3. Joystick user: PILOT. Too many video games around me for this to be as easy as it really was.
4. Univ., e.g.: SCH.
5. Burning: ABLAZE. The class A word.
6. Improvised, in a way: JAMMED. A shout out for our own JzB, the tremulous trombonist.
7. Zone: AREA.
8. Soak flax: RET. I never heard of this process of using water and the organisms to break down the fiber in flax.
9. "Devil Without a Cause" musician: KID ROCK. Be careful of the lyrics in this VIDEO .
10. Baptize with oil: ANOINT. There was lots of anointing in the bible, but I did not associate it with baptism.
11. Sci-fi effects: ZAPS. Pretty tame now that we have CG.
12. Fonda title role: ULEE. The gold was in the honey, honey.
13. Cutlass maker: OLDS. We have a zillion different ways to clue this car maker, now dead and defunct.
18. Mideast bigwigs: EMIRS.
22. First Nations members: CREES. We just had Cree but there is so much more to the indigenous of CANADA .
24. Muddy: SOIL. Oh I get it, MUDDY as a verb, not anadjective.
25. News __: ITEM.
27. Beethoven dedicatee: ELISE. Lots of this and Eroica these days.
28. Product with earbuds: IPOD. Amazing how Apple has dominated so much electronics.
29. Push, so to speak: VEND. Street vendors as pushers? Seems harsh.
30. Avant-garde: EDGY. Oh perfect for the students in the Latin Quarter.
31. Org. where fur doesn't fly?: PETA. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, often forgetting we too are animals
32. Splitting it releases energy: ATOM. More bombs
33. Modeling milieu: RAMP.Runway, not clay.
37. Cyrus who plays Hannah Montana: MILEY. She is studying the Lindsay Lohan from child star to slut handbook.
38. __ breve: ALLA. Musical terminology for which I will defer to out musicians
39. One of TV's Mavericks: BART. Jack Kelly; James Garner as Bret and Roger Moore as cousin Beau.
42. Sea anemone, e.g.: POLYP.
44. Macbeth's thanedom before he became king: CAWDOR. Another very difficult name to remember; his patch before he had a kingdom, his feudallordship.
45. Vegas drive-through: CHAPEL.
46. Fez feature: TASSEL. Has anyone seen BURLESQUE ?
49. Blunted swords: EPEES.
50. Prepares potatoes, in a way: RICES. We get rice twice, it’s nice.
51. Jerk: SCHMO. I see SCHMOs as more harmless than jerks.
52. Resistance units: OHMS.
53. Its atomic number is 10: NEON.
54. Name on some neutral WWII ships: EIRE.
55. Jane Austen opus: EMMA.
58. PC port for a flash drive: USB.Universal Serial Bus.
59. Spanish pronoun: ESO. Like the song says…
Well another year in the record books, and my first as an organized contributor, I want to thank C.C., Rich, all the great constructors and all of you who have been here and who comment regularly or once in a while. Happy and wonderful new year for all and special wishes to those who need them.
Lemonade out, see you next year….
No SAINTS (STs) allowed; the abbreviation for Saint (ST) is removed from the first word of a common two-word phrase to reveal a new and humorous two-word phrase.
17. Conger's protection?: EEL HELMET. STEEL HELMET> Cute pun, but I did not remember this species of eels so it did not fall quickly.
26. Tracker of bauxite thieves?: ORE DETECTIVE. STORE DETECTIVE. This is where I got going, as Bauxite is the ore from which aluminum is extracted.
43. Roadie, after a gig?: AMP COLLECTOR. STAMP COLLECTOR. A nice reminder of the days riding on a tour bus, watching the roadies load and unload from city to city.
58. Diamond oration?: UMP SPEECH. STUMP SPEECH. The term is from the literal delivery of political speeches while standing on a sawed off tree to allow the candidate to be seen and heard.
The unifier: 41D. Hardly a model of perfection, and a hint to how this puzzle's theme puns are derived : NO SAINT.
Lemonade here, and I found the theme easily, without the unifier, and all the answers are nice symmetrical 9 12 12 9 with the unifier adding 7 more letters. I liked each of the puns, with AMP COLLECTOR my favorite; overall this was the hardest puzzle for me that I have blogged. It is however a nice honor to prepare the final blog of 2010.
Across:
1. Blows: BOPS. Man was this corner a struggle for me; I know a BOP where you strike someone is a BLOW, but BLOW was so many meanings. Down Lois and Carol. This crossing with BEECH did not help.
5. Open some: AJAR. Whew, an easy one.
9. "The Remains of the Day" author __ Ishiguro: KAZUO. Followed by more difficulty, for while I recalled the wonderful movie version starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson, I did not have any memory of this transplanted Japanese AUTHOR .
14. Sweeping story: EPIC. My FAVORITE .
15. Like some walls: BARE. Well that id depressing.
16. Collectively: IN ALL.
19. Figured (out), slangily: DOPED. Yes, we all doped out this answer, though would n’t slang been enough?
20. __-Magnon man: CRO. This is no longer a politically correct term, as scientists now believe the skeletons which were found in this region, and so named, are sufficiently like we HOMO SAPIENS to be called EMH, Early Modern Human.
21. '60s quartet member: MAMA. And the biggest of them all MAMA CASS.
22. Times for cool heads: CRISES. Yes, they prevailed when my computer was fighting me earlier.
23. 6 7/8, e.g.: HAT SIZE. I wear a 7 ½ which would be okay except I am pretty short. Of course some of us will speculate on body correlations, but that cannot be helped. I am sure there are research volunteers.
25. __ Age: IRON. I could not think of any other four letter ages, ICE, STONE, BRONZE?
31. Latin Quarter site: PARIS. This area on the left bank of the SEINE got its name not from any Hispanic influence, but because it is the educational center of Paris where reading, understanding Latin was important.
34. Soup vegetable: LEEK. A cousin of the onion and garlic.
35. "X-ing" one: PED. Pedestrian crossing, a cross walk. Jaywalking is taken very seriously in parts of the country, as a result drivers must brake to allow people to cross if they are in a designated area. Muhammed Ali almost ran me down in his Rolls while I was at LAX.
36. Space-saving abbr.: ET AL. My law use of the week. When you sue a bunch of people, you have to list all of them in the initial complaint. The part with the names is the caption. Once the original is filed, e.g., Lemonade vs. Dennis, Windhover, Barry G., Jeannie, Sallie and Dodo, the later pleadings will all be Lemonade vs. Dennis et al.
37. Seriously impairs: MAIMS. Yes, maiming is a specific crime, defined as injure, disable, or disfigure, usually by depriving of the use of a limb or other part of the body.
39. Loud, ringing sound: BONG. Am I the only one who thought of Michael Phelps?
40. Barnyard male: TOM. Tom Turkey? Tom Cat?
41. Lofgren of the E Street Band: NILS. He has played his GUITAR with Springsteen and Neil Young among others.
42. Flooded field: PADDY. Rice can be grown on dry land, but most of it is done underwater, in paddies.
47. Sailing, say: ASEA.
48. Alluring tops: HALTERS. Is this what you thought of for this style TOP.
52. Sign with an arrow: ONE WAY. I love this clue, so simple, but very visual.
55. Like falling off a log: EASY. A simile that always puzzled me as a child, because it is hard to get on a log.
56. Snap: PIC. Does anyone call them snaps anymore?
57. Alp-Öhi's granddaughter in an 1880 novel: HEIDI. Never read the book, but I have a close friend with the name.
60. Dum-dum: MORON. You may not know this, but this was a valid psychology term to describe mild retardation, but obviously, it has fallen out of favor. But you can still take the TEST .
61. Hook's mate: SMEE. Man, my first thoughts crook and ladder, luckily they had too many letters.
62. Appear: SEEM.
63. Hägar's dog: SNERT. Snot Nosed Egotisical Rude Teen.
64. Event with gowns: BALL. I wanted Prom.
65. __ buco: OSSO. Literally bone with a hole, the veal shank.
Okay, suck it up we are halfway home.
Down:
1. Tree with edible nuts: BEECH. There were so many, Pecan also has 4 letters.
2. "What's __, Doc?": Classic "Looney Tunes" short: OPERA. Cartoons give us so much CULTURE , of course I could tell my Pavarotti bird joke again.
3. Joystick user: PILOT. Too many video games around me for this to be as easy as it really was.
4. Univ., e.g.: SCH.
5. Burning: ABLAZE. The class A word.
6. Improvised, in a way: JAMMED. A shout out for our own JzB, the tremulous trombonist.
7. Zone: AREA.
8. Soak flax: RET. I never heard of this process of using water and the organisms to break down the fiber in flax.
9. "Devil Without a Cause" musician: KID ROCK. Be careful of the lyrics in this VIDEO .
10. Baptize with oil: ANOINT. There was lots of anointing in the bible, but I did not associate it with baptism.
11. Sci-fi effects: ZAPS. Pretty tame now that we have CG.
12. Fonda title role: ULEE. The gold was in the honey, honey.
13. Cutlass maker: OLDS. We have a zillion different ways to clue this car maker, now dead and defunct.
18. Mideast bigwigs: EMIRS.
22. First Nations members: CREES. We just had Cree but there is so much more to the indigenous of CANADA .
24. Muddy: SOIL. Oh I get it, MUDDY as a verb, not anadjective.
25. News __: ITEM.
27. Beethoven dedicatee: ELISE. Lots of this and Eroica these days.
28. Product with earbuds: IPOD. Amazing how Apple has dominated so much electronics.
29. Push, so to speak: VEND. Street vendors as pushers? Seems harsh.
30. Avant-garde: EDGY. Oh perfect for the students in the Latin Quarter.
31. Org. where fur doesn't fly?: PETA. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, often forgetting we too are animals
32. Splitting it releases energy: ATOM. More bombs
33. Modeling milieu: RAMP.Runway, not clay.
37. Cyrus who plays Hannah Montana: MILEY. She is studying the Lindsay Lohan from child star to slut handbook.
38. __ breve: ALLA. Musical terminology for which I will defer to out musicians
39. One of TV's Mavericks: BART. Jack Kelly; James Garner as Bret and Roger Moore as cousin Beau.
42. Sea anemone, e.g.: POLYP.
44. Macbeth's thanedom before he became king: CAWDOR. Another very difficult name to remember; his patch before he had a kingdom, his feudallordship.
45. Vegas drive-through: CHAPEL.
46. Fez feature: TASSEL. Has anyone seen BURLESQUE ?
49. Blunted swords: EPEES.
50. Prepares potatoes, in a way: RICES. We get rice twice, it’s nice.
51. Jerk: SCHMO. I see SCHMOs as more harmless than jerks.
52. Resistance units: OHMS.
53. Its atomic number is 10: NEON.
54. Name on some neutral WWII ships: EIRE.
55. Jane Austen opus: EMMA.
58. PC port for a flash drive: USB.Universal Serial Bus.
59. Spanish pronoun: ESO. Like the song says…
Well another year in the record books, and my first as an organized contributor, I want to thank C.C., Rich, all the great constructors and all of you who have been here and who comment regularly or once in a while. Happy and wonderful new year for all and special wishes to those who need them.
Lemonade out, see you next year….
Thursday, December 23, 2010
December 24, 2010, Kenneth Berniker
Theme: Y me? The letter Y is added to a phrase in common usage to create a new phrase which is quite punny. A very simple theme (add a “Y”) executed to entertain. This is only our second puzzle from Mr. Berniker, who brought us the What’s in a Name Puzzle (WOODY, ROCKY and SANDY) back in April, though this emergency room physician has had a number of NYT and other puzzles published, the theme is simple and clean.
17. Those who outwit safecrackers?: YEGG BEATERS. The lazy man’s egg product, meets a safecracker, better known as a YEGG. YEGG has been in detective fiction from the early 1900’s, but no one is quite sure where it came from.
26. 1945 view for Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin?: YALTA VISTA. YALTA was the site of the second of three wartime conferences between the leaders of Great Britain, Russia and the US. Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt, were present, and the meeting took place on the black sea because the powerful dictator Stalin was afraid to fly. ALTA VISTA was one of the very early search engines for the world wide web, which like LYCOS, faded away under the Google onslaught.
39. Chronologists?: YEAR SPECIALISTS. Chronology is the study of the sequence of events, and I bet you all know what an Ear Specialist is.
50. Core of the dark side?: YIN ESSENCE. I really like this multi level clue, as it teases us with Star Wars like reference to the dark side, while literally meaning just dark. We recently discussed YIN being the shadowy side and YANG being the bright side, and of course, the essence of something is its core.
60. Paradise brewing aid?: YEAST OF EDEN. Okay, I cannot help it, these puzzles just seem to hone in on me and my family, especially now that they both are beer maestros, with yeast the key to fermenting combined with the John Steinbeck novel East of Eden (which was made into a motion picture with James Dean) transformed into some biblical yeast to make great beer. Since beer predates wine, I guess it all makes good sense. When CAIN was exiled, it was to the east of Eden, to the land of Nod, which I mention since the book is sort of a retelling of that story. It is rumored a remake of the movie is in the works.
Lemonade here, and I enjoyed the cluing, lots of literary references with some deception and wit, for example:
33A. Bucks: BREAD. As the old joke goes, “What is a buccaneer? A really high price for corn.”
71A. Parts of pig tales: OINKS. The tails – tales reference is cute.
My favorite, 31D. Paper cutters, briefly?: EDS. Newspaper editors, tipped off by the “?” and the briefly…
38D. Lamb piece: ESSAY. Wonderful, no baa baa, but, the writer CHARLES LAMB who wrote as Elia, and had a very tragic life.
Also, in keeping with Friday and my blogging day, there are many law related references:
15A. Accustom: ENURE. We love this word, used in describing rights which enure to the benefit of someone.
16A. Its law sch. is in Concord: UNH. University of New Hampshire Law School is in “Cahncahd.”
23A. Law school standards-setting org.: ABA. American Bar Association.
56A. Auspices: AEGIS. Like ENURE, a favorite word in legal writing.
Well, enough of that, on with the show:
Across:
1. '50s headline event: A TEST. What is it with the fascination with A bombs and H bombs lately? We also have the tie in with President Eisenhower from the 50’s.
6. Architectural style: TUDOR. One of the long lasting results of the BRITISH ROYAL FAMILY.
11. Status follower: QUO. This is an Anglicization of the Latin STATU QUO, which the state in which.
14. Princess Toadstool's rescuer: MARIO. Which was played on 65D. Old console using Game Paks: NES. My boys came along just in time for me to learn all about those wacky brothers Mario and Luigi.
19. "__ Believer": I'M A. I am sure most remember this SONG but for my fellow Connecticut followers, I remind everyone Peter Tork is the son of a UConn professor (Nee Thorkelson) and Peter now lives in Storrs.
20. Artist Matisse: HENRI. He was featured in a recent puzzle, and was a master of color and a friend and rival of Picasso.
21. Regarding: AS PER. Okay, also used by lawyers but I do not want to overdo.
29. Beef: RED MEAT. I quoted Clara Peller last week, remember?
32. Really riles: IRES. A real crossword word.
34. See 51-Down: IKE. And, 51D. With 34-Across, '50s slogan: I LIKE. My earliest memory was when Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart came to my small home town, campaigning for Adlai Stevenson, and my father met them at the train station and took them to meet the mayor etc.
35. Zap with a weapon: TASE. And this VIDEO was a proud University of Florida moment.
43. Asian wrap: SARI. Cute, made you think of food didn’t he?
44. TV world: ORK. Enough already, is Robin Williams paying the constructors?
45. Chimú conquerors: INCAS. Last week I had the Aztecs now the Incas and the CHIMU .
46. Light bites: NIPS. Why many people do not like little dogs, who are yippy and bite.
48. Botanical cavity: ALVEOLA. We also had this as the cavity in the lungs, for example, but it is the same in Botany and Zoology.
54. Miss Pym's creator: TEY. How timely, as Fermatprime brought her up Wednesday; Elizabeth MacIntosh produced only ten or twelve books under various pseudonyms, but did line into her 50s, and is said to have influenced all the great cozy writers like Agatha Christie. Martha Grimes recently paid tribute to her The Daughter of Time in two Inspector Jury novels.
55. Woman in a "Paint Your Wagon" song: ELISA. I love the version sung by CLINT EASTWOOD ; where is our author Elissa?
59. Do some bartending: MIX. Yes, a bar, that is what my oldest and my nephew want to open in Buffalo.
66. Squeeze (out): EKE. The second of this puzzles tired but needed crosswordese.
67. Ranch wanderer: STRAY. Why do I picture a loose crouton trying to escape my fork? kinda goes with 64D. Forest ranger?: ELK. Well, luckily there are not many three lettered animals in the forest.
68. Boosted: STOLE. This comes from the organized shoplifters, who used a booster box, a device with a false bottom, which would be placed on top of merchandise, which would then get taken out. The store detective never saw the perp touch the merchandise.
69. Neighbor of Homer: NED. Not the author, but the Simpson, and the religious Mr. Flanders.
70. Newbery Medal winner for "Island of the Blue Dolphins": ODELL. Never heard of the BOOK or Mr. O’Dell. Whew, we are thru the acrosses.
Down:
1. Etiquette guru Vanderbilt: AMY. With a name like Vanderbilt (you all should tour the home in Newport, R.I.) who would not read this TOME .
2. Inventing initials: TAE. Thomas Alva Edison. The wizard of Menlo Park.
3. Fraction of a joule: ERG. All you need to know about ENERGY .
4. [I give up]: SIGH. Come on, no time to quit now, we are going to finish.
5. Start of a classic question: TO BE.Or not to be, that is the question; in my all boys high school, I played Gertrude in our production of Hamlet; the rest were too insecure.
6. Claw: TEAR AT. This too is timely, if you have ever seen a rabid group of children and their presents on Christmas morning.
7. Up to: UNTIL. The punch line, “Up to now, everything was okay.” The joke?
8. Anticipated: DUE.
9. Boston sports legend: ORR. Another New England reference.
10. Back up anew: RESAVE.
11. Marx forte: QUIPS. Karl? Groucho? Both?
12. Like certain expectations: UNMET. Life unfulfilled desires, also apt at Christmas as we see bonuses dwindling, presents shrinking…
13. "Pal Joey" author: O'HARA. Another author and a contemporary of John Steinbeck. When Steinbeck won the Pulitzer prize O’Hara sent him a telegram saying, he could only think of one other author who deserved the prize. O’Hara was great with dialogue, I still read his books.
18. "A Day Without Rain" musician: ENYA. Our new age queen is back.
22. __ Chapel: SISTINE. Another ceiling reference?
23. Fast food chain known for roast beef: ARBYS. One of many food chains that began in Ohio, the name is not RB for Roast Beef, but RB for Raffel Brothers, the founders. They were the first chain to ban smoking in their facilities.
24. First multiracial coed college in the South: BEREA. The history of this COLLEGE is amazing, but I will leave the details to our own Windhover.
25. "Be __ ...": A DEAR. And get me a beer while you are up. Or take out the garbage.
27. Kind of torch: TIKI. Very big in south florida.
28. Gazetteer figure: AREA. Gazetteer is an atlas including information like population and area.
30. Quantico inhabitants: MARINES. A shout out to our soon to be traveling and resting Dennis.
34. Opposite of "Yum!": ICK. Recall this MOVIE ?
36. English racing town: ASCOT. Next year will be the 300th anniversary of the world’s most famous horse race course.
37. Old hat: STALE. Not a fedora, or the race track Derby.
40. Opens, as a hood: POPS. Okay buddy, pop open the hood and lets see what’s making that noise.
41. Gaelic tongue: ERSE. This is the root word for what we now call IRISH.
42. Tyler of "The Incredible Hulk": LIV. Poor CHILD started out thinking she was Liv Rundgren, Todd’s daughter.
47. Words after "Because": I SAY SO. The magic words of parenting, changed my life.
48. Like a vinegar radical: ACETYL. ACETUM is the Latin word for vinegar, which is a weak acid produced by fermentation like alcohol.
49. One of more than 245,000 in a Christmas tree at a California theme park: LEGO. TREE .
50. Oman neighbor: YEMEN. Ah back in Oman.
52. Put the kibosh on: NIXED.Pronounced KIE bosh, likely from Hebrew which oddly does not use vowels.
53. Like a cold sufferer's voice: NASAL. SOUND .
57. "Say that's true ...": IF SO. Hmm, lawyers and logiicans use this…
58. "The X-Files" gp.: SETI. Searh for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence.
61. LAX listing: ETD. If it is an airport, it is going to be ETA or ETD A=Arrival, D= Departure.
62. Exist: ARE.
63. Tough boss: DON. The Godfather .
17. Those who outwit safecrackers?: YEGG BEATERS. The lazy man’s egg product, meets a safecracker, better known as a YEGG. YEGG has been in detective fiction from the early 1900’s, but no one is quite sure where it came from.
26. 1945 view for Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin?: YALTA VISTA. YALTA was the site of the second of three wartime conferences between the leaders of Great Britain, Russia and the US. Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt, were present, and the meeting took place on the black sea because the powerful dictator Stalin was afraid to fly. ALTA VISTA was one of the very early search engines for the world wide web, which like LYCOS, faded away under the Google onslaught.
39. Chronologists?: YEAR SPECIALISTS. Chronology is the study of the sequence of events, and I bet you all know what an Ear Specialist is.
50. Core of the dark side?: YIN ESSENCE. I really like this multi level clue, as it teases us with Star Wars like reference to the dark side, while literally meaning just dark. We recently discussed YIN being the shadowy side and YANG being the bright side, and of course, the essence of something is its core.
60. Paradise brewing aid?: YEAST OF EDEN. Okay, I cannot help it, these puzzles just seem to hone in on me and my family, especially now that they both are beer maestros, with yeast the key to fermenting combined with the John Steinbeck novel East of Eden (which was made into a motion picture with James Dean) transformed into some biblical yeast to make great beer. Since beer predates wine, I guess it all makes good sense. When CAIN was exiled, it was to the east of Eden, to the land of Nod, which I mention since the book is sort of a retelling of that story. It is rumored a remake of the movie is in the works.
Lemonade here, and I enjoyed the cluing, lots of literary references with some deception and wit, for example:
33A. Bucks: BREAD. As the old joke goes, “What is a buccaneer? A really high price for corn.”
71A. Parts of pig tales: OINKS. The tails – tales reference is cute.
My favorite, 31D. Paper cutters, briefly?: EDS. Newspaper editors, tipped off by the “?” and the briefly…
38D. Lamb piece: ESSAY. Wonderful, no baa baa, but, the writer CHARLES LAMB who wrote as Elia, and had a very tragic life.
Also, in keeping with Friday and my blogging day, there are many law related references:
15A. Accustom: ENURE. We love this word, used in describing rights which enure to the benefit of someone.
16A. Its law sch. is in Concord: UNH. University of New Hampshire Law School is in “Cahncahd.”
23A. Law school standards-setting org.: ABA. American Bar Association.
56A. Auspices: AEGIS. Like ENURE, a favorite word in legal writing.
Well, enough of that, on with the show:
Across:
1. '50s headline event: A TEST. What is it with the fascination with A bombs and H bombs lately? We also have the tie in with President Eisenhower from the 50’s.
6. Architectural style: TUDOR. One of the long lasting results of the BRITISH ROYAL FAMILY.
11. Status follower: QUO. This is an Anglicization of the Latin STATU QUO, which the state in which.
14. Princess Toadstool's rescuer: MARIO. Which was played on 65D. Old console using Game Paks: NES. My boys came along just in time for me to learn all about those wacky brothers Mario and Luigi.
19. "__ Believer": I'M A. I am sure most remember this SONG but for my fellow Connecticut followers, I remind everyone Peter Tork is the son of a UConn professor (Nee Thorkelson) and Peter now lives in Storrs.
20. Artist Matisse: HENRI. He was featured in a recent puzzle, and was a master of color and a friend and rival of Picasso.
21. Regarding: AS PER. Okay, also used by lawyers but I do not want to overdo.
29. Beef: RED MEAT. I quoted Clara Peller last week, remember?
32. Really riles: IRES. A real crossword word.
34. See 51-Down: IKE. And, 51D. With 34-Across, '50s slogan: I LIKE. My earliest memory was when Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart came to my small home town, campaigning for Adlai Stevenson, and my father met them at the train station and took them to meet the mayor etc.
35. Zap with a weapon: TASE. And this VIDEO was a proud University of Florida moment.
43. Asian wrap: SARI. Cute, made you think of food didn’t he?
44. TV world: ORK. Enough already, is Robin Williams paying the constructors?
45. Chimú conquerors: INCAS. Last week I had the Aztecs now the Incas and the CHIMU .
46. Light bites: NIPS. Why many people do not like little dogs, who are yippy and bite.
48. Botanical cavity: ALVEOLA. We also had this as the cavity in the lungs, for example, but it is the same in Botany and Zoology.
54. Miss Pym's creator: TEY. How timely, as Fermatprime brought her up Wednesday; Elizabeth MacIntosh produced only ten or twelve books under various pseudonyms, but did line into her 50s, and is said to have influenced all the great cozy writers like Agatha Christie. Martha Grimes recently paid tribute to her The Daughter of Time in two Inspector Jury novels.
55. Woman in a "Paint Your Wagon" song: ELISA. I love the version sung by CLINT EASTWOOD ; where is our author Elissa?
59. Do some bartending: MIX. Yes, a bar, that is what my oldest and my nephew want to open in Buffalo.
66. Squeeze (out): EKE. The second of this puzzles tired but needed crosswordese.
67. Ranch wanderer: STRAY. Why do I picture a loose crouton trying to escape my fork? kinda goes with 64D. Forest ranger?: ELK. Well, luckily there are not many three lettered animals in the forest.
68. Boosted: STOLE. This comes from the organized shoplifters, who used a booster box, a device with a false bottom, which would be placed on top of merchandise, which would then get taken out. The store detective never saw the perp touch the merchandise.
69. Neighbor of Homer: NED. Not the author, but the Simpson, and the religious Mr. Flanders.
70. Newbery Medal winner for "Island of the Blue Dolphins": ODELL. Never heard of the BOOK or Mr. O’Dell. Whew, we are thru the acrosses.
Down:
1. Etiquette guru Vanderbilt: AMY. With a name like Vanderbilt (you all should tour the home in Newport, R.I.) who would not read this TOME .
2. Inventing initials: TAE. Thomas Alva Edison. The wizard of Menlo Park.
3. Fraction of a joule: ERG. All you need to know about ENERGY .
4. [I give up]: SIGH. Come on, no time to quit now, we are going to finish.
5. Start of a classic question: TO BE.Or not to be, that is the question; in my all boys high school, I played Gertrude in our production of Hamlet; the rest were too insecure.
6. Claw: TEAR AT. This too is timely, if you have ever seen a rabid group of children and their presents on Christmas morning.
7. Up to: UNTIL. The punch line, “Up to now, everything was okay.” The joke?
8. Anticipated: DUE.
9. Boston sports legend: ORR. Another New England reference.
10. Back up anew: RESAVE.
11. Marx forte: QUIPS. Karl? Groucho? Both?
12. Like certain expectations: UNMET. Life unfulfilled desires, also apt at Christmas as we see bonuses dwindling, presents shrinking…
13. "Pal Joey" author: O'HARA. Another author and a contemporary of John Steinbeck. When Steinbeck won the Pulitzer prize O’Hara sent him a telegram saying, he could only think of one other author who deserved the prize. O’Hara was great with dialogue, I still read his books.
18. "A Day Without Rain" musician: ENYA. Our new age queen is back.
22. __ Chapel: SISTINE. Another ceiling reference?
23. Fast food chain known for roast beef: ARBYS. One of many food chains that began in Ohio, the name is not RB for Roast Beef, but RB for Raffel Brothers, the founders. They were the first chain to ban smoking in their facilities.
24. First multiracial coed college in the South: BEREA. The history of this COLLEGE is amazing, but I will leave the details to our own Windhover.
25. "Be __ ...": A DEAR. And get me a beer while you are up. Or take out the garbage.
27. Kind of torch: TIKI. Very big in south florida.
28. Gazetteer figure: AREA. Gazetteer is an atlas including information like population and area.
30. Quantico inhabitants: MARINES. A shout out to our soon to be traveling and resting Dennis.
34. Opposite of "Yum!": ICK. Recall this MOVIE ?
36. English racing town: ASCOT. Next year will be the 300th anniversary of the world’s most famous horse race course.
37. Old hat: STALE. Not a fedora, or the race track Derby.
40. Opens, as a hood: POPS. Okay buddy, pop open the hood and lets see what’s making that noise.
41. Gaelic tongue: ERSE. This is the root word for what we now call IRISH.
42. Tyler of "The Incredible Hulk": LIV. Poor CHILD started out thinking she was Liv Rundgren, Todd’s daughter.
47. Words after "Because": I SAY SO. The magic words of parenting, changed my life.
48. Like a vinegar radical: ACETYL. ACETUM is the Latin word for vinegar, which is a weak acid produced by fermentation like alcohol.
49. One of more than 245,000 in a Christmas tree at a California theme park: LEGO. TREE .
50. Oman neighbor: YEMEN. Ah back in Oman.
52. Put the kibosh on: NIXED.Pronounced KIE bosh, likely from Hebrew which oddly does not use vowels.
53. Like a cold sufferer's voice: NASAL. SOUND .
57. "Say that's true ...": IF SO. Hmm, lawyers and logiicans use this…
58. "The X-Files" gp.: SETI. Searh for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence.
61. LAX listing: ETD. If it is an airport, it is going to be ETA or ETD A=Arrival, D= Departure.
62. Exist: ARE.
63. Tough boss: DON. The Godfather .
Golly, the year is almost done, I do not expect many will have time to comment today, but I wish you a very happy holiday week, until next time.
Thursday, December 16, 2010
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!
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!
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Taylor Johnson
Title: After Thoughts Welcome back Taylor to the LAT where we just solved your Saturday themeless collaboration with your mentor, the prolif...
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Title: After Thoughts Welcome back Taylor to the LAT where we just solved your Saturday themeless collaboration with your mentor, the prolif...
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These: Where did you hide all of the Holes? Keeping to our bi-weekly schedule, we have Jeffrey back this time with a missing word puzzle. ...
