Theme: 1A. Squish: MASHed up city names. The middle city name uses parts of the end of the first city name and the beginning of the last city name without adding any extra letters. Of all the cities presented, Pierre, SD and Annapolis, MD are the only ones that are state capitals.
20A. Iowa/Arizona/Maryland tri-city area?: AMES ANNAPOLIS. AMES MESA ANNAPOLIS.
32A. Washington/Georgia/ New Hampshire tri-city area?: TACOMA CONCORD. TACOMA MACON CONCORD.
40A. South Dakota/Nevada/ Virginia tri-city area?: PIERRE NORFOLK. PIERRE RENO NORFOLK.
55A. California/Alaska/ Tennessee tri-city area?: FRESNO MEMPHIS.
What a puzzle. I can't imagine what it must have taken to get all four theme entries to all be 13 letters each with overlapping names, and then fit them symmetrically into a grid with eight other non-theme answers having 9 to 10 letters in them. I needed the short ones today just to get enough traction to get started. The crossing of Narz and Lai was just a guess, and the NW and SE corners did not come easily. Lots of music again today.
ACROSS:
5. Flintstone word: DABBA. Yabba dabba doo. Song written and performed by Hoagy Carmichael on the show.
10. Bairn, e.g.: SCOT. Scottish for baby.
14. Pick of the litter?: ALPO. (Dog food) Trademark applied for by Alpo circa 1985: IT'S THE PICK OF VETERINARIANS AND THE PICK OF THE LITTER
15. Stevie Wonder's "My Cherie __": AMOUR.
16. Horse around: PLAY.
17. Zoo retreat: LAIR. The root is in "lie", as "to lie down".
18. Red and yellow but not green: WARM COLORS. This had me thinking about sea names at first.
22. Sing like Slim Clark: YODEL. Not my favorite kind of music, but hey, to each their own. I had never heard of him, but with a name similar to Slim Whitman, it had to be yodeling.
23. Cut from the staff: AXE.
24. Arterial implant: STENT. A rigid tube implanted to hold a (weakened) passageway open.
27. "__ Town Too": 1981 hit: HER. James Taylor.
29. The Concord Sage's monogram: RWE. Ralph Waldo Emerson.
31. My __, Vietnam: LAI. The mass murder conducted by a unit of the U.S. Army on March 16, 1968 of 347–504 unarmed citizens in South Vietnam, all of whom were civilians and a majority of whom were women, children (including babies) and elderly people. While 26 U.S. soldiers were initially charged with criminal offenses for their actions at My Lai, only William Calley was convicted. He served only three years of an original life sentence, spent on house arrest.
36. K-12: EL-HI. Elementary - High School.
38. It may be precious: METAL.
39. Percolate: OOZE. I don't usually think of upwards percolation, but it does happen, and can cause sinkholes.
43. Like some outlet mall mdse.: IRR. Irregular.
44. Quite a long time: EON.
45. Announcer Hall: EDD. Replaced Ed McMahon on the Tonight Show after Johnny Carson retired and Jay Leno took over.
46. Alberta natives: CREES.
48. Anesthesiologists' work sites, briefly: ORS. Had to wait to see whether it would be ERs.
51. Neapolitan song starter: O SOLE. Mio.
58. Soldier who has completed most of his tour of duty: SHORT TIMER. Or an employee who has given two week's notice. Just wishful thinking these days.
60. Drops off: EBBS.
61. Saarinen who designed the Gateway Arch: EERO.
62. Even a little: AT ALL.
63. Passed-down tales: LORE. Related to "learn".
64. Skating maneuver: AXEL. Named for Norwegian figure skater Axel Paulsen.
65. Broadway matchmaker: YENTE. Fiddler on the Roof.
66. Oven cleaner chemicals: LYES. Also Butane, Monoethanolamine, Diethylene Glycol Monobutyl Ether, and Diethanolamine. Wear a mask and don't breathe any of the vapors...
DOWN:
1. Asia's __ Peninsula: MALAY. Southwest of Vietnam.
2. 2007 Enterprise acquisition: ALAMO. (Rent-a-car companies) Enterprise's slogan: "We'll pick you up."
3. Spotted: SPIED.
4. Paintbrush material: HORSE HAIR. Also sable, squirrel, hog, ox, and goat.
5. Become clear to, with "on": DAWN. It took a while for this answer to, um, come to mind.
6. Radarange maker: AMANA. Now owned by Whirlpool.
7. Cleansing agent: BORAX. Anti-microbial, basic pH, buffer, dispersant. But also toxic, especially if ingested, so use it carefully if you choose to do so.
8. Crash course vehicle?: BUMPER CAR.
9. Not pizzicato: ARCO. Return to the usual smooth method of play.
10. Cheerleader's feat: SPLIT. Ouch!
11. More than a glance: CLOSE LOOK.
12. Crew tool: OAR.
13. Cobb et al.: TYS.
19. "The Daily Planet" reporter: OLSEN. Jimmy, Superman's pal.
21. Pianist Templeton: ALEC. Composer, satirist, popularizer of classical music with a jazz feel. Also blind. Died in 1963, and yet there's a Youtube clip...
25. '70s "Concentration" host Jack: NARZ. Former daytime game show host. Needed all perps for this.
26. Ocean phenomenon: TIDE. From Old English tid, a marking unit of time, in the sense of high water time. To "tide you over" is the sense of "to carry, as the tide does". Also tidings, as news, carried on the tide.
28. Lover boy: ROMEO. Always with the male bias. Why isn't there a term for a lover girl called Juliet?
30. Stout hero Nero: WOLFE. Rex Stout, but as played by Robert Conrad, also stout in stature.
32. Start of a conclusion: THEREFORE. Good play on words for the clue.
33. Anabaptist denomination: MENNONITE. All I got out of researching this was they believed in baptizing adults, not babies, then I lost interest.
34. "From __ Zinc": vitamin slogan: A TO. Centrum brand. Do your own research, but you won't catch me taking these.
35. Time to bundle up: COLD SPELL.
36. Like some proportions: EPIC.
37. NYC commuter line: LIRR. Long Island Rail Road.
41. Odometer button: RESET.
42. Blue Moon of '60s-'70s baseball: ODOM. Apparently was round-faced as a child, he got the nickname in grade school from a friend, Joe Morris.
47. Swashbuckler Flynn: ERROL. I can never remember if this is ERROL or EROLL.
49. __ candle: ROMAN. Fireworks, because scented doesn't fit.
50. Silver fish: SMELT. I remember these. Three scoopfuls with a net to fill a wash bucket, 10 minutes tops. Two hours driving round trip. Hours and hours cleaning and bagging to freeze. Pan-fried in oil with flour, salt, and pepper. They were good, but I was kind of glad the run only happened once per year.
52. "Whoopee!": OH BOY.
53. Vers __: free verse: LIBRE. French.
54. Switchback features: ESSES. Hilly roads.
56. Layover: STAY.
57. Contemporary of Rex and Agatha: ERLE. Rex Stout, Agatha Christie, Erle Stanley Gardner. Mystery/murder writers.
58. Something fishy: SEA. Until about 2048 or even sooner, unless commercial fishing is controlled and dumping garbage is stopped.
59. Give the evil eye: HEX. Both hag and hex are shortenings of the same words in Old English: hægtesse or Old High German hagazussa.
Answer Grid
Al
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Thursday, December 23, 2010
LA Times, Thu, Dec 23, 2010 Author: John Lampkin
Theme: Seasonal puns, tipped off by a "?" in the clue. Wackiness ensues. No revealing entry in the grid.
20A. Seasonal cheeses?: SUMMER BRIES. Summer Breeze by Seals and Crofts.
59A. Seasonal seasoning?: WINTER THYME. Wintertime by The Steve Miller Band.
11D. Seasonal smoked salmon?: SPRING LOX. This one puzzled me a bit as to exactly how it fits in with the theme. There are the Soo locks which open in the spring (closed in winter), and there are types of mechanical locks and latches where the bolt is driven home by a spring. Also spring lock washers. I couldn't come up with a musical connection for this like the others.
35D. Seasonal costume?: FALL GUISE. The Boys (guys) of Fall by Kenny Chesney.
Al here, with John Lampkin continuing his streak for a second Thursday in a row, talk about deja vu. Like Melissa yesterday, I saw several music tie-ins, probably unintended. As per John's style, there are clue echoes present, including one (61D) that the answer is ECHO
ACROSS:
1. Ptolemaic constellation that is now divided into Carina (the keel), Puppis (the poop deck) and Vela (the sails): ARGO. That has to be one of the longest clue descriptions for Jason's ship, ever.
5. Utter: SHEER. Used here as an intensifier (utter delight, sheer delight), not "to say out loud".
10. Exxon forerunner: ESSO. Standard Oil, ess oh (S.O.) Along with ENCO, the combined name would have been the 4-letter EXON, but James Exon was governor of Nebraska, so to avoid problems, they added the second X.
14. Miller's product: MEAL. Cornmeal, for example, ground by a milling stone. I really wanted to put BEER instead.
15. Grade leader?: CENTI. Centigrade (100 gradients or degrees) is now called Celsius (after Swedish Astronomer Anders Celcius), because the desire for name recognition is stronger than being reasonable about having an understandable label.
16. Peak: APEX. Latin for top, peak, summit. Can be clued many ways.
17. West Point team: ARMY. U.S. Military Academy.
18A. Mountain nymph: OREAD. Tree nymph: DRYAD Water nymph: NEREID. Along with clecho 61D. Nymph who loved her own voice: ECHO.
19. Hammock support: TREE.
23. Place purveying potent pints: INN. Nice alliteration in the clue. Along with clecho 65A. Potent pints: ALES.
24. Grab from the shelves: SNAP UP.
25. Miller's salesman: LOMAN. Henry Miller's Death of a Salesman, Harry (Hap) Loman.
27. Dickens's Heep: URIAH. Also a 70's rock band.
30. Fried chicken piece: NUGGET. How they're made.
33. Klutzes: OAFS. OAF "a changeling; a foolish child left by the fairies", is related to ELF.
36. "What's cooking?" elicitor: ODOR.
38. Race with batons: RELAY.
39. Finance major's deg.: MBA. Master of Business Administration.
40. Fuming: IN A HUFF.
42. Sitcom planet: ORK. Is Mork & Mindy being rerun on some cable channel lately? It seems to be showing up a lot lately.
43. Pooped: ALL IN.
45. Con __: briskly, on scores: MOTO. Italian musical term.
46. Wheelbarrow feature: AXLE.
47. Empathize: RELATE. As in "I can relate to that".
49. Gallery events: SHOWS.
51. Troll: GNOME. Both are "earth-dwelling spirits", but not really the same. You would get an argument from someone who plays Dungeons and Dragons. Gnomes are small, usually associated with gardens (or Travelocity), and have red pointy hats. Trolls are much larger, hairier, meaner, less intelligent, and seem to densely inhabit blog comment boards.
53. Peak: TIPTOP.
57. Feathered runner: EMU. A ratite (flightless bird) Also related: ostrich, rhea, cassowary, and kiwi. Extinct species: moa and aepyornis.
62. Put down: LAID. Past tense.
64. "__ under pressure": guts, to Hemingway: GRACE.
66. Japanese soup: MISO. Has health benefits due to Omega-3 and vitamin-K content. Tastes good, too.
67. Retirement plans, informally: ROTHS. An individual retirement account, with taxes pre-paid.
68. New kids' block since 1958: LEGO. Examples of Escher structures.
69. Foreshadowing: OMEN.
70. "Cats" poet: ELIOT. T.S. Eliot, Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, which I'll skip any links for.
71. Musical syllables: TRAS.
DOWN:
1. Stockpile: AMASS.
2. Old air fare?: RERUN. Like Mork & Mindy.
3. Kind of ray emitted by a supernova: GAMMA.
4. Greek mount: OLYMPUS.
5. Venomous arachnid: SCORPION. Rock you like a hurricane.
6. It may be medicinal: HERB.
7. Nuke-testing dept.: ENER. U.S. Department of Energy.
8. Much modern business: ETAIL. Love it or hate it as a crossword answer, it's so much more convenient than trying to find a parking spot during the Christmas rush.
9. Continue the journey, oater-style: RIDE ON.
10. Corrode: EAT.
12. Dated: SEEN. Past tense of (I'm seeing her. I'm dating her.) And clecho 26D. Dating concern: AGE.
13. Paired pullers: OXEN.
21. Ger. setting: EUR. Germany, Europe.
22. Blue toon: SMURF. You'd be blue too, if there was only one female (Smurfette) in your entire village.
28. Sixth-day creation: ADAM. And all the creatures of the land.
29. Seasonal rooftop noises?: HO-HOS. I wanted HOOFS at first, but then thought it was the wrong spelling for hooves. Turns out it is a legit alternate form, but still the wrong answer.
31. British nobleman: EARL. Had to wait for perps, could have been DUKE.
32. Kid: TYKE.
33. "Rubáiyát" poet Khayyám: OMAR.
34. One-time pal of Baker and Charlie?: ABLE. Pre-1954 U.S. Navy Radio Alphabet. Replaced with the NATO phonetic alphabet: Alpha Bravo Charlie
37. Pianist Laredo: RUTH. Introduced by Van Cliburn.
40. Like trailers on the road: IN TOW.
41. Ottoman: FOOT REST. More precisely, a couch with no arms or back, for laying on, which was so-named because of the perception of Eastern (Ottoman empire) culture.
44. "At Seventeen" singer Janis: IAN.
46. Cloverleaf cover: ASPHALT.
48. Political refugee: EMIGRE.
50. Cleverness: WIT.
52. Join: ENROL. Seems odd to see only one L, but is a legit alternate spelling.
54. Tippecanoe's partner, in an 1840 campaign: TYLER. Tippecanoe (William Henry Harrison, who died shortly after being elected), and Tyler, too.
55. Last in a series: OMEGA. Last letter of the Greek alphabet.
56. Sonoran smackeroos: PESOS. Mexican Money. See? I can alliterate, too.
57. Saint with a fire: ELMO. An electrical corona plasma discharge.
58. Hurt severely: MAIM. I always hear the sequence from the old Kung-Fu TV series when I see this word: Perceive the way of nature and no force of man can harm you. Do not meet a wave head on: avoid it. You do not have to stop force: it is easier to redirect it. Learn more ways to preserve rather than destroy. Avoid rather than check. Check rather than hurt. Hurt rather than maim. Maim rather than kill. For all life is precious nor can any be replaced.
60. "Mon Oncle" director: TATI.
63. Put on: DON.
Answer Grid
-- Al
20A. Seasonal cheeses?: SUMMER BRIES. Summer Breeze by Seals and Crofts.
59A. Seasonal seasoning?: WINTER THYME. Wintertime by The Steve Miller Band.
11D. Seasonal smoked salmon?: SPRING LOX. This one puzzled me a bit as to exactly how it fits in with the theme. There are the Soo locks which open in the spring (closed in winter), and there are types of mechanical locks and latches where the bolt is driven home by a spring. Also spring lock washers. I couldn't come up with a musical connection for this like the others.
35D. Seasonal costume?: FALL GUISE. The Boys (guys) of Fall by Kenny Chesney.
Al here, with John Lampkin continuing his streak for a second Thursday in a row, talk about deja vu. Like Melissa yesterday, I saw several music tie-ins, probably unintended. As per John's style, there are clue echoes present, including one (61D) that the answer is ECHO
ACROSS:
1. Ptolemaic constellation that is now divided into Carina (the keel), Puppis (the poop deck) and Vela (the sails): ARGO. That has to be one of the longest clue descriptions for Jason's ship, ever.
5. Utter: SHEER. Used here as an intensifier (utter delight, sheer delight), not "to say out loud".
10. Exxon forerunner: ESSO. Standard Oil, ess oh (S.O.) Along with ENCO, the combined name would have been the 4-letter EXON, but James Exon was governor of Nebraska, so to avoid problems, they added the second X.
14. Miller's product: MEAL. Cornmeal, for example, ground by a milling stone. I really wanted to put BEER instead.
15. Grade leader?: CENTI. Centigrade (100 gradients or degrees) is now called Celsius (after Swedish Astronomer Anders Celcius), because the desire for name recognition is stronger than being reasonable about having an understandable label.
16. Peak: APEX. Latin for top, peak, summit. Can be clued many ways.
17. West Point team: ARMY. U.S. Military Academy.
18A. Mountain nymph: OREAD. Tree nymph: DRYAD Water nymph: NEREID. Along with clecho 61D. Nymph who loved her own voice: ECHO.
19. Hammock support: TREE.
23. Place purveying potent pints: INN. Nice alliteration in the clue. Along with clecho 65A. Potent pints: ALES.
24. Grab from the shelves: SNAP UP.
25. Miller's salesman: LOMAN. Henry Miller's Death of a Salesman, Harry (Hap) Loman.
27. Dickens's Heep: URIAH. Also a 70's rock band.
30. Fried chicken piece: NUGGET. How they're made.
33. Klutzes: OAFS. OAF "a changeling; a foolish child left by the fairies", is related to ELF.
36. "What's cooking?" elicitor: ODOR.
38. Race with batons: RELAY.
39. Finance major's deg.: MBA. Master of Business Administration.
40. Fuming: IN A HUFF.
42. Sitcom planet: ORK. Is Mork & Mindy being rerun on some cable channel lately? It seems to be showing up a lot lately.
43. Pooped: ALL IN.
45. Con __: briskly, on scores: MOTO. Italian musical term.
46. Wheelbarrow feature: AXLE.
47. Empathize: RELATE. As in "I can relate to that".
49. Gallery events: SHOWS.
51. Troll: GNOME. Both are "earth-dwelling spirits", but not really the same. You would get an argument from someone who plays Dungeons and Dragons. Gnomes are small, usually associated with gardens (or Travelocity), and have red pointy hats. Trolls are much larger, hairier, meaner, less intelligent, and seem to densely inhabit blog comment boards.
53. Peak: TIPTOP.
57. Feathered runner: EMU. A ratite (flightless bird) Also related: ostrich, rhea, cassowary, and kiwi. Extinct species: moa and aepyornis.
62. Put down: LAID. Past tense.
64. "__ under pressure": guts, to Hemingway: GRACE.
66. Japanese soup: MISO. Has health benefits due to Omega-3 and vitamin-K content. Tastes good, too.
67. Retirement plans, informally: ROTHS. An individual retirement account, with taxes pre-paid.
68. New kids' block since 1958: LEGO. Examples of Escher structures.
69. Foreshadowing: OMEN.
70. "Cats" poet: ELIOT. T.S. Eliot, Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, which I'll skip any links for.
71. Musical syllables: TRAS.
DOWN:
1. Stockpile: AMASS.
2. Old air fare?: RERUN. Like Mork & Mindy.
3. Kind of ray emitted by a supernova: GAMMA.
4. Greek mount: OLYMPUS.
5. Venomous arachnid: SCORPION. Rock you like a hurricane.
6. It may be medicinal: HERB.
7. Nuke-testing dept.: ENER. U.S. Department of Energy.
8. Much modern business: ETAIL. Love it or hate it as a crossword answer, it's so much more convenient than trying to find a parking spot during the Christmas rush.
9. Continue the journey, oater-style: RIDE ON.
10. Corrode: EAT.
12. Dated: SEEN. Past tense of (I'm seeing her. I'm dating her.) And clecho 26D. Dating concern: AGE.
13. Paired pullers: OXEN.
21. Ger. setting: EUR. Germany, Europe.
22. Blue toon: SMURF. You'd be blue too, if there was only one female (Smurfette) in your entire village.
28. Sixth-day creation: ADAM. And all the creatures of the land.
29. Seasonal rooftop noises?: HO-HOS. I wanted HOOFS at first, but then thought it was the wrong spelling for hooves. Turns out it is a legit alternate form, but still the wrong answer.
31. British nobleman: EARL. Had to wait for perps, could have been DUKE.
32. Kid: TYKE.
33. "Rubáiyát" poet Khayyám: OMAR.
34. One-time pal of Baker and Charlie?: ABLE. Pre-1954 U.S. Navy Radio Alphabet. Replaced with the NATO phonetic alphabet: Alpha Bravo Charlie
37. Pianist Laredo: RUTH. Introduced by Van Cliburn.
40. Like trailers on the road: IN TOW.
41. Ottoman: FOOT REST. More precisely, a couch with no arms or back, for laying on, which was so-named because of the perception of Eastern (Ottoman empire) culture.
44. "At Seventeen" singer Janis: IAN.
46. Cloverleaf cover: ASPHALT.
48. Political refugee: EMIGRE.
50. Cleverness: WIT.
52. Join: ENROL. Seems odd to see only one L, but is a legit alternate spelling.
54. Tippecanoe's partner, in an 1840 campaign: TYLER. Tippecanoe (William Henry Harrison, who died shortly after being elected), and Tyler, too.
55. Last in a series: OMEGA. Last letter of the Greek alphabet.
56. Sonoran smackeroos: PESOS. Mexican Money. See? I can alliterate, too.
57. Saint with a fire: ELMO. An electrical corona plasma discharge.
58. Hurt severely: MAIM. I always hear the sequence from the old Kung-Fu TV series when I see this word: Perceive the way of nature and no force of man can harm you. Do not meet a wave head on: avoid it. You do not have to stop force: it is easier to redirect it. Learn more ways to preserve rather than destroy. Avoid rather than check. Check rather than hurt. Hurt rather than maim. Maim rather than kill. For all life is precious nor can any be replaced.
60. "Mon Oncle" director: TATI.
63. Put on: DON.
Answer Grid
-- Al
Thursday, December 16, 2010
LA Times, Thu, Dec 16, 2010 Author: John Lampkin
Theme: Classical puns. Beethoven-related subject matter with naughty (altered) meanings. 62A. Naughty—and with 63-Across, composer Beethoven? (born 12/16/1770): LEWD. 63A. Toupee: WIG. (Ludwig)
20A. Naughty object of Beethoven's affections?: IMMORAL BELOVED. Immortal beloved is the name used in three love letters composed by Beethoven.
38A. Beethoven's naughty opus?: EROTICA SYMPHONY. The Eroica (heroic) symphony was originally dedicated to Bonaparte while the revolution was on and idealistic, but when NB later declared himself Emperor, Beethoven became disgusted and went to the table where the completed score lay. He took hold of the title-page and scratched the name Bonaparte out so violently with a knife that he created a hole in the paper and later renamed it.
53A. Where to hear Beethoven's naughty music?: BANNED CONCERTS. Band concerts like JZB performs in? Jazz, do you play any "improved" classical works?
Hi all, Al here.
Well, John has managed to blend a little bit of English (cryptic) clue phrasing into today's puzzle. A word like "naughty" can simply mean that the words or the arrangement of letters in a word are not behaving correctly, or can be a play on words. Also scattered throughout the puzzle are some additional bonus clue references to Ludwig Van (which, incidentally, is what we named our first Dodge Caravan, oh, so many years ago).
ACROSS:
1. A whale has a long one: JAW. Yeah, right, his jaw was the first thing that came to mind.
4. Short pencil: STUB.
8. Sign of military respect: SALUTE.
14. Tokyo-born artist: ONO. That kind of blends together, doesn't it? Tokyoko.
15. Lake Titicaca is partly in it: PERU. The rest is in Bolivia, where the city of Copacabana also lies.
16. Previously, previously: ERE NOW.
17. Pure: VIRGINAL. Not naughty.
19. Nursery rocker: CRADLE.
22. X rating in old Rome?: TEN. A naughty Roman numeral. At least it wasn't a math problem.
23. Cringe: COWER. Actually unrelated to "coward", which comes from Old French coart. Cower comes from German kuren or kauren "lie in wait", or similar Scandanavian words kura, kure, to squat and to doze.
24. Dollar bills, e.g.: CASH. Sigh, had ONES at first.
27. Choir male, often: TENOR. As in the finale to Beethoven's Symphony No. 9.
30. Mil. honors: DSMS. Distinguished Service Medals.
33. Ding Dong relatives: HOHOS.
35. Yoga position: LOTUS. It's not only a yoga position.
37. Swipe: COP. Northern British dialect, "to seize, to catch," possibly from Latin capere "to take".
41. Agcy. concerned with fraud: FTC. Federal Trade Commission.
42. Malaise symptom: NO PEP.
43. __-ground missile: AIR-TO.
44. Nordstrom rival: SAKS. Started in Tennessee, now owns McRae’s, Parisian, Younkers, Herberger's, and Carson Pirie Scott & Co. which included Bergner's and Boston Store.
46. Biblical beasts: ASSES. Sampson slew an entire army with only the jawbone of an ass. Hmmm, isn't that what Congress does?
48. Romeo or Juliet, e.g.: TEEN. Hormones are wasted on the young.
49. Semi-sheer curtain fabric: VOILE. Apparently it can be used for more than just curtains. Ok, this is just wrong...
51. Doctrine: ISM. In Latin a doctor was a "religious teacher, adviser, scholar".
59. ::: COLONS. A colon is Latin for "part of a poem". Meaning evolved from "independent clause" to the punctuation mark that sets it off.
60. Parker and Roosevelt: ELEANORS.
61. "CBS Evening News" anchor: COURIC. Katie. I think someone must have said "Could you turn that up? I can't hear you."
64. Anxiety: UNEASE.
65. Dieter's triumph: LOSS. Clever meaning reversal clue.
66. Boozer: SOT.
DOWN:
1. Rocker Bon __: JOVI. It takes a certain kind of confidence to sing a duet with Luciano Pavarotti.
2. Lively, to Beethoven: Abbr.: ANIM. Animato
3. Low life?: WORM.
4. High point?: SPIRE. From Old English spir "sprout, shoot, stalk of grass. A spear of asparagus.
5. High-rise occupant: TENANT. Apartment dweller.
6. River through southern Russia: URAL.
7. Socket insert: BULB. I confidently entered BALL for this first...
8. Novus ordo __: Great Seal phrase: SECLORUM. Translated, means "A new order of the ages". It was meant to signify the beginning of the new American era, beginning in 1776. The symbolism of the Great Seal explained.
9. Cupid's missile: ARROW. Eros, Amor. Son of Venus (and Mars). With Psyche, had a daughter named Roman: Voluptas (voluptuous) or Greek: Hedone (from which we get hedonism).
10. Like trees in summer: LEAVED. I had to hesitate whether it should be an F or a V.
11. Sign of stress?: UNDERSCORE. Underlined text to be stressed, or emphasized. Also italics or bolding.
12. Squealed: TOLD. Ratted on.
13. She used to be a lambkin: EWE. A pet name perhaps, John?
18. Began to win a lot: GOT HOT.
21. Environmental subgroup: ECOTYPE. a genetically distinct geographic variety, population or race within species, which is adapted to specific environmental conditions.
24. Toque wearers: CHEFS.
25. Heart line: AORTA.
26. Provocation potential, as of a Howard Stern segment: SHOCK VALUE.
28. Passed, as time: ELAPSED.
29. Busybodies' active organs?: NOSES.
31. Three-card con: MONTE.
32. Watch, secret agent-style: SPY ON. Used here as a verb, not James Bond's Rolex 1016 Explorer.
34. Transgression: SIN. Like being naughty...
36. Steamy resort: SPA.
39. Come together: COALESCE.
40. Scary contract hirees: HITMEN.
45. State bordering Arizona: SONORA. Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora in Mexico.
47. Tendons: SINEWS.
50. Longtime civil rights leader Roy: INNIS. National Chairman of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) since 1968.
52. A plethora: SCADS. Cornish name for a type of fish abundant on the British coast; perhaps a variant of shad. From Late Latin, plethora "fullness" originally a medical word for "excess of body fluid".
53. Timely benefit: BOON.
54. Pocket vibrator, at times: CELL. They might sell more if they had an intensity setting in place of volume.
55. Dairy bar: OLEO. In the dairy case, I suppose, but since it is mostly trans-fat, you shouldn't really eat it.
56. Garden lines: ROWS.
57. Beethoven's "Archduke," for one: TRIO. Piano Trio No. 7 Op. 97 in B-flat major. It was dedicated to the amateur pianist and composition student of Beethoven, Archduke Rudolph of Austria.
58. High-ranking NCO: SSGT. Staff Sergeant.
59. Hosp. heart ward: CCU. Coronary Care Unit. Could also be Critical Care Unit.
Answer Grid
Along with today's puzzle, John has provided some more samples of his photographic composition work. You can see them here.
Al
20A. Naughty object of Beethoven's affections?: IMMORAL BELOVED. Immortal beloved is the name used in three love letters composed by Beethoven.
38A. Beethoven's naughty opus?: EROTICA SYMPHONY. The Eroica (heroic) symphony was originally dedicated to Bonaparte while the revolution was on and idealistic, but when NB later declared himself Emperor, Beethoven became disgusted and went to the table where the completed score lay. He took hold of the title-page and scratched the name Bonaparte out so violently with a knife that he created a hole in the paper and later renamed it.
53A. Where to hear Beethoven's naughty music?: BANNED CONCERTS. Band concerts like JZB performs in? Jazz, do you play any "improved" classical works?
Hi all, Al here.
Well, John has managed to blend a little bit of English (cryptic) clue phrasing into today's puzzle. A word like "naughty" can simply mean that the words or the arrangement of letters in a word are not behaving correctly, or can be a play on words. Also scattered throughout the puzzle are some additional bonus clue references to Ludwig Van (which, incidentally, is what we named our first Dodge Caravan, oh, so many years ago).
ACROSS:
1. A whale has a long one: JAW. Yeah, right, his jaw was the first thing that came to mind.
4. Short pencil: STUB.
8. Sign of military respect: SALUTE.
14. Tokyo-born artist: ONO. That kind of blends together, doesn't it? Tokyoko.
15. Lake Titicaca is partly in it: PERU. The rest is in Bolivia, where the city of Copacabana also lies.
16. Previously, previously: ERE NOW.
17. Pure: VIRGINAL. Not naughty.
19. Nursery rocker: CRADLE.
22. X rating in old Rome?: TEN. A naughty Roman numeral. At least it wasn't a math problem.
23. Cringe: COWER. Actually unrelated to "coward", which comes from Old French coart. Cower comes from German kuren or kauren "lie in wait", or similar Scandanavian words kura, kure, to squat and to doze.
24. Dollar bills, e.g.: CASH. Sigh, had ONES at first.
27. Choir male, often: TENOR. As in the finale to Beethoven's Symphony No. 9.
30. Mil. honors: DSMS. Distinguished Service Medals.
33. Ding Dong relatives: HOHOS.
35. Yoga position: LOTUS. It's not only a yoga position.
37. Swipe: COP. Northern British dialect, "to seize, to catch," possibly from Latin capere "to take".
41. Agcy. concerned with fraud: FTC. Federal Trade Commission.
42. Malaise symptom: NO PEP.
43. __-ground missile: AIR-TO.
44. Nordstrom rival: SAKS. Started in Tennessee, now owns McRae’s, Parisian, Younkers, Herberger's, and Carson Pirie Scott & Co. which included Bergner's and Boston Store.
46. Biblical beasts: ASSES. Sampson slew an entire army with only the jawbone of an ass. Hmmm, isn't that what Congress does?
48. Romeo or Juliet, e.g.: TEEN. Hormones are wasted on the young.
49. Semi-sheer curtain fabric: VOILE. Apparently it can be used for more than just curtains. Ok, this is just wrong...
51. Doctrine: ISM. In Latin a doctor was a "religious teacher, adviser, scholar".
59. ::: COLONS. A colon is Latin for "part of a poem". Meaning evolved from "independent clause" to the punctuation mark that sets it off.
60. Parker and Roosevelt: ELEANORS.
61. "CBS Evening News" anchor: COURIC. Katie. I think someone must have said "Could you turn that up? I can't hear you."
64. Anxiety: UNEASE.
65. Dieter's triumph: LOSS. Clever meaning reversal clue.
66. Boozer: SOT.
DOWN:
1. Rocker Bon __: JOVI. It takes a certain kind of confidence to sing a duet with Luciano Pavarotti.
2. Lively, to Beethoven: Abbr.: ANIM. Animato
3. Low life?: WORM.
4. High point?: SPIRE. From Old English spir "sprout, shoot, stalk of grass. A spear of asparagus.
5. High-rise occupant: TENANT. Apartment dweller.
6. River through southern Russia: URAL.
7. Socket insert: BULB. I confidently entered BALL for this first...
8. Novus ordo __: Great Seal phrase: SECLORUM. Translated, means "A new order of the ages". It was meant to signify the beginning of the new American era, beginning in 1776. The symbolism of the Great Seal explained.
9. Cupid's missile: ARROW. Eros, Amor. Son of Venus (and Mars). With Psyche, had a daughter named Roman: Voluptas (voluptuous) or Greek: Hedone (from which we get hedonism).
10. Like trees in summer: LEAVED. I had to hesitate whether it should be an F or a V.
11. Sign of stress?: UNDERSCORE. Underlined text to be stressed, or emphasized. Also italics or bolding.
12. Squealed: TOLD. Ratted on.
13. She used to be a lambkin: EWE. A pet name perhaps, John?
18. Began to win a lot: GOT HOT.
21. Environmental subgroup: ECOTYPE. a genetically distinct geographic variety, population or race within species, which is adapted to specific environmental conditions.
24. Toque wearers: CHEFS.
25. Heart line: AORTA.
26. Provocation potential, as of a Howard Stern segment: SHOCK VALUE.
28. Passed, as time: ELAPSED.
29. Busybodies' active organs?: NOSES.
31. Three-card con: MONTE.
32. Watch, secret agent-style: SPY ON. Used here as a verb, not James Bond's Rolex 1016 Explorer.
34. Transgression: SIN. Like being naughty...
36. Steamy resort: SPA.
39. Come together: COALESCE.
40. Scary contract hirees: HITMEN.
45. State bordering Arizona: SONORA. Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora in Mexico.
47. Tendons: SINEWS.
50. Longtime civil rights leader Roy: INNIS. National Chairman of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) since 1968.
52. A plethora: SCADS. Cornish name for a type of fish abundant on the British coast; perhaps a variant of shad. From Late Latin, plethora "fullness" originally a medical word for "excess of body fluid".
53. Timely benefit: BOON.
54. Pocket vibrator, at times: CELL. They might sell more if they had an intensity setting in place of volume.
55. Dairy bar: OLEO. In the dairy case, I suppose, but since it is mostly trans-fat, you shouldn't really eat it.
56. Garden lines: ROWS.
57. Beethoven's "Archduke," for one: TRIO. Piano Trio No. 7 Op. 97 in B-flat major. It was dedicated to the amateur pianist and composition student of Beethoven, Archduke Rudolph of Austria.
58. High-ranking NCO: SSGT. Staff Sergeant.
59. Hosp. heart ward: CCU. Coronary Care Unit. Could also be Critical Care Unit.
Answer Grid
Along with today's puzzle, John has provided some more samples of his photographic composition work. You can see them here.
Al
Thursday, December 9, 2010
LA Times, Thu, Dec 9, 2010 Author: Kurt Mueller
Theme: Add a letter. Not to the answer, but to each successive clue.
16. M: JAMES BOND'S BOSS. Sir Miles Messervy, as per The Man With the Golden Gun.
25. Ma: MRS KETTLE.
37. Max: PHYSICIST PLANCK. The founder of quantum theory.
51. Maxi: LONG SKIRT. You have to be a special kind of person to pull this off.
62. Maxim: PITHY PRINCIPLE. Because "men's magazine" didn't fit...
Hi all, Al here.
A tough theme to continue, I could only go two more steps without resorting to plurals:
Maxima: Nissan Model
Maximal: BeastWars Transformer
I found this puzzle both fun and entertaining, almost Naddoresque in places for the choice of answers like JIM DANDY, CHEAPO, TRIKE, and ZANIER. Also clues that tied together like "little wood", "little butt", "little rascal", and other misdirections. There did seem to be a few names, most not too bad, but the cross of AFT and FROMM did make me have to guess at first, not being one to read classified ads.
ACROSS:
1. Magic: MOJO. Originally meant a lucky charm in the shape of a hand, often worn between the legs, by gamblers and by women (against infidelity). It may derive from the West African Fula word moco’o, a medicine man, or from Gullah moco, meaning witchcraft or magic.
5. Time in a classified ad: AFT. Afternoon, I'm guessing...
8. Syrian president: ASSAD.
13. Surrounded by: AMID.
14. Bud: BRO. Pal, chum, homey, cuz.
15. Little wood: COPSE. Shortening of "coppice", which also has the same meaning: a small grove of trees planted specifically for cutting.
19. So-so connection?: AND. The original use was just to indicate something that is unspecified: "If I want to do so and so, then that's my business!" A similar phrase is "such and such". It has evolved into a euphemism for something unmentionable due to common use, thus acquiring a negative connotation itself: "You dirty so and so!" .
20. __ forces: ARMED. The notion of arms seems to be "that which is fitted together." Meaning "heraldic insignia" (in coat of arms, etc.) originally displayed on shields of fully armed knights or barons.
21. Senate majority leader Harry: REID.
23. Baseball stat.: AVG.
28. More clownish: ZANIER. Originally Zanni, Venetian dialect variant of Gianni, pet form of Giovanni "John." A stock character in old comedies, he aped the principal actors.
31. Doesn't try to reach the green, in golf: LAYS UP. For a safer next shot, use one instead of losing two. Unless you're like me and lose the next two in the pond anyway.
32. Current letters: AC-DC. Also an Aussie hard rock band.
33. Less taxing: EASIER. Like this clue.
43. Most tender: SOREST. I had wondered about the use of "sore" in a few old movies as meaning "very" (I am plumb sore wore out), until the eytmology dictionary pointed out the related German word "sehr", which, oddly enough, means "very".
44. Pace: GAIT. "A walking, or departure", related to gate, from Old Norse gata, a way or path.
45. Low-quality: CHEAPO. Brings to mind bad-smelling cigars.
49. Sumatran swingers: ORANGS.
55. Site of a 1981 sitcom honeymoon: ORK. Mork & Mindy. We've been seeing a lot of them lately.
56. Minute amount: IOTA. The Greek letter "i", which is the smallest letter, so literally the least part of anything.
57. __ badge: MERIT.
59. "Big Blue": IBM. Perhaps the logo, suits, mainframe color, or a combination of all three.
66. Old number?: ETHER. Not a counting number, but to numb your senses, an anesthetic.
67. Instrument on which Jake Shimabukuro can play "Bohemian Rhapsody": UKE. Jake is simply awe-inspiring. I may have also linked his version of Harrison's WMGGW before, but I'm doing it again, just because I think it would have been an even better choice for the clue.
68. Kind of officer or shark: LOAN.
69. Meg and Robert: RYANS.
70. __ Perce tribe: NEZ.
71. Asian beef source: KOBE. Kobe beef fat will actually begin dissolving at 77F degrees, which means the meat will literally melt in your mouth. If prepared as steak, kobe beef cannot be cooked more than medium rare, as it would otherwise liquefy.
DOWN:
1. Goya subject: MAJA. Two paintings, same model and pose, one clothed, one nude.
2. Yemen neighbor: OMAN.
3. Crackerjack: JIM DANDY.
4. Poetic tribute: ODE. From Late Latin, a "lyric song".
5. Common crossword clue letters: ABBR. Why does the word abbreviate need to be so long?
6. "The Art of Loving" author: FROMM. Erich, who presents love as a skill that can be taught and developed. I thought that book was called the Kama Sutra...
7. Cartridge filler: TONER. I started thinking gunpowder, then ink.
8. Coolers, briefly: ACS. Recently saw this clue for air conditioners.
9. One may be choked back: SOB. There, there, just let it all out.
10. Stylish: SPORTY. Concerning cars, I guess.
11. They may be liquid or frozen: ASSETS.
12. Original "Star Trek" studio: DESILU. Was owned by Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball.
17. Wise one: SAGE. Also an acoustic performance by Greg Lake of ELP.
18. Driller's deg.: DDS. Doctor of Dental Surgery.
22. Bank acct. entry: DEP. Deposit. Could have been INT.
24. Morrow and Damone: VICS.
26. One who lifts a lot?: KLEPTO. Lifting as slang for theft, not like these people.
27. '50s-'60s chief justice Warren: EARL.
28. Microwave: ZAP.
29. Cologne cry: ACH. German interjection. Lieber Augustin was a popular street musician, who, according to legend, fell into a pit filled with bodies of plague victims, late at night when he was drunk. Assuming that he was certain to catch the disease they left him for dead. Augustin did not contract the disease, which may have been owed to the influence of the alcohol. That sounds like a story for Ripley's Believe it or Not...
30. Boil over?: RECOOK. Over as "again", not as spilling onto the stove.
34. __ Jordan: Nike brand: AIR. I tend to avoid celebrity-endorsed products. Does that make me a hipster?
35. Vane dir.: SSE.
36. Part of TGIF: ITS. Thank God It's Friday. A mantra to take you to a happy place.
38. AOL et al.: ISPS. Internet Service Providers. It was pretty short-sighted to call it America on line, but the internet was young and hadn't taken over the world yet, I guess.
39. Culture medium: AGAR. They don't call it "smelly lab" for nothing... Not the agar itself, but the bacteria that gets grown on it.
40. Lover of Yum-Yum in "The Mikado": NANKIPOO.
41. Little butt?: CIG. Abbreviation for cigarette.
42. Gold meas.: KTS. Karats are the purity proportion. Carats are weight.
45. Second-century date: CLI. Well, it had to start with a C. After that, hope for perps.
46. Barrel worker: HOOPER. Someone had to make those metal bands that held the staves together.
47. Thing: ENTITY. That which is. Related to the crosswordese Latin word ESSE: "to be"
48. Hercule's creator: AGATHA. Hercule Poirot, Christie's Belgian detective with the active "little grey cells". David Suchet is my favorite portrayer.
50. Uniformed campus gp.: ROTC. Reserve Officers' Training Corps. I kept reading this as un-informed for some reason.
52. Little rascal: IMP. Originally just meant a shoot or graft of a plant, then transferred to human form with the sense of "newness". Pejorative association with phrases like "imp of Satan" gives us the present day meaning.
53. Chance to see what you missed the first time: RERUN.
54. Early mode of transportation: TRIKE. Cute clue. Early, meaning young, not ages ago. I wanted something else at first, like a horse.
58. Powerful 1966 hurricane: INEZ. Because the date was given to be in 1966, just find a female name that fits the perp letters and move along without further comment.
60. Yak: BLAB.
61. Word on a biblical wall: MENE. The idiom "The writing on the wall", to be able to foresee doom approaching, is a biblical story in the book of Daniel. King Belshazzar and his court praise the gods of gold and silver, brass, iron, wood, and stone. A disembodied hand appears and writes "Mene, Mene, Tekel u-Pharsin" on the wall. Daniel interprets this to mean God is displeased, and the end of the kingdom is at hand. Sure enough, the king is slain that night. You really had to be careful what you said to people back then, I guess...
63. Cock's mate: HEN. I've never heard it called that before...
64. Jr. and sr.: YRS. School years.
65. Type: ILK. Same. Related word: like
16. M: JAMES BOND'S BOSS. Sir Miles Messervy, as per The Man With the Golden Gun.
25. Ma: MRS KETTLE.
37. Max: PHYSICIST PLANCK. The founder of quantum theory.
51. Maxi: LONG SKIRT. You have to be a special kind of person to pull this off.
62. Maxim: PITHY PRINCIPLE. Because "men's magazine" didn't fit...
Hi all, Al here.
A tough theme to continue, I could only go two more steps without resorting to plurals:
Maxima: Nissan Model
Maximal: BeastWars Transformer
I found this puzzle both fun and entertaining, almost Naddoresque in places for the choice of answers like JIM DANDY, CHEAPO, TRIKE, and ZANIER. Also clues that tied together like "little wood", "little butt", "little rascal", and other misdirections. There did seem to be a few names, most not too bad, but the cross of AFT and FROMM did make me have to guess at first, not being one to read classified ads.
ACROSS:
1. Magic: MOJO. Originally meant a lucky charm in the shape of a hand, often worn between the legs, by gamblers and by women (against infidelity). It may derive from the West African Fula word moco’o, a medicine man, or from Gullah moco, meaning witchcraft or magic.
5. Time in a classified ad: AFT. Afternoon, I'm guessing...
8. Syrian president: ASSAD.
13. Surrounded by: AMID.
14. Bud: BRO. Pal, chum, homey, cuz.
15. Little wood: COPSE. Shortening of "coppice", which also has the same meaning: a small grove of trees planted specifically for cutting.
19. So-so connection?: AND. The original use was just to indicate something that is unspecified: "If I want to do so and so, then that's my business!" A similar phrase is "such and such". It has evolved into a euphemism for something unmentionable due to common use, thus acquiring a negative connotation itself: "You dirty so and so!" .
20. __ forces: ARMED. The notion of arms seems to be "that which is fitted together." Meaning "heraldic insignia" (in coat of arms, etc.) originally displayed on shields of fully armed knights or barons.
21. Senate majority leader Harry: REID.
23. Baseball stat.: AVG.
28. More clownish: ZANIER. Originally Zanni, Venetian dialect variant of Gianni, pet form of Giovanni "John." A stock character in old comedies, he aped the principal actors.
31. Doesn't try to reach the green, in golf: LAYS UP. For a safer next shot, use one instead of losing two. Unless you're like me and lose the next two in the pond anyway.
32. Current letters: AC-DC. Also an Aussie hard rock band.
33. Less taxing: EASIER. Like this clue.
43. Most tender: SOREST. I had wondered about the use of "sore" in a few old movies as meaning "very" (I am plumb sore wore out), until the eytmology dictionary pointed out the related German word "sehr", which, oddly enough, means "very".
44. Pace: GAIT. "A walking, or departure", related to gate, from Old Norse gata, a way or path.
45. Low-quality: CHEAPO. Brings to mind bad-smelling cigars.
49. Sumatran swingers: ORANGS.
55. Site of a 1981 sitcom honeymoon: ORK. Mork & Mindy. We've been seeing a lot of them lately.
56. Minute amount: IOTA. The Greek letter "i", which is the smallest letter, so literally the least part of anything.
57. __ badge: MERIT.
59. "Big Blue": IBM. Perhaps the logo, suits, mainframe color, or a combination of all three.
66. Old number?: ETHER. Not a counting number, but to numb your senses, an anesthetic.
67. Instrument on which Jake Shimabukuro can play "Bohemian Rhapsody": UKE. Jake is simply awe-inspiring. I may have also linked his version of Harrison's WMGGW before, but I'm doing it again, just because I think it would have been an even better choice for the clue.
68. Kind of officer or shark: LOAN.
69. Meg and Robert: RYANS.
70. __ Perce tribe: NEZ.
71. Asian beef source: KOBE. Kobe beef fat will actually begin dissolving at 77F degrees, which means the meat will literally melt in your mouth. If prepared as steak, kobe beef cannot be cooked more than medium rare, as it would otherwise liquefy.
DOWN:
1. Goya subject: MAJA. Two paintings, same model and pose, one clothed, one nude.
2. Yemen neighbor: OMAN.
3. Crackerjack: JIM DANDY.
4. Poetic tribute: ODE. From Late Latin, a "lyric song".
5. Common crossword clue letters: ABBR. Why does the word abbreviate need to be so long?
6. "The Art of Loving" author: FROMM. Erich, who presents love as a skill that can be taught and developed. I thought that book was called the Kama Sutra...
7. Cartridge filler: TONER. I started thinking gunpowder, then ink.
8. Coolers, briefly: ACS. Recently saw this clue for air conditioners.
9. One may be choked back: SOB. There, there, just let it all out.
10. Stylish: SPORTY. Concerning cars, I guess.
11. They may be liquid or frozen: ASSETS.
12. Original "Star Trek" studio: DESILU. Was owned by Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball.
17. Wise one: SAGE. Also an acoustic performance by Greg Lake of ELP.
18. Driller's deg.: DDS. Doctor of Dental Surgery.
22. Bank acct. entry: DEP. Deposit. Could have been INT.
24. Morrow and Damone: VICS.
26. One who lifts a lot?: KLEPTO. Lifting as slang for theft, not like these people.
27. '50s-'60s chief justice Warren: EARL.
28. Microwave: ZAP.
29. Cologne cry: ACH. German interjection. Lieber Augustin was a popular street musician, who, according to legend, fell into a pit filled with bodies of plague victims, late at night when he was drunk. Assuming that he was certain to catch the disease they left him for dead. Augustin did not contract the disease, which may have been owed to the influence of the alcohol. That sounds like a story for Ripley's Believe it or Not...
30. Boil over?: RECOOK. Over as "again", not as spilling onto the stove.
34. __ Jordan: Nike brand: AIR. I tend to avoid celebrity-endorsed products. Does that make me a hipster?
35. Vane dir.: SSE.
36. Part of TGIF: ITS. Thank God It's Friday. A mantra to take you to a happy place.
38. AOL et al.: ISPS. Internet Service Providers. It was pretty short-sighted to call it America on line, but the internet was young and hadn't taken over the world yet, I guess.
39. Culture medium: AGAR. They don't call it "smelly lab" for nothing... Not the agar itself, but the bacteria that gets grown on it.
40. Lover of Yum-Yum in "The Mikado": NANKIPOO.
41. Little butt?: CIG. Abbreviation for cigarette.
42. Gold meas.: KTS. Karats are the purity proportion. Carats are weight.
45. Second-century date: CLI. Well, it had to start with a C. After that, hope for perps.
46. Barrel worker: HOOPER. Someone had to make those metal bands that held the staves together.
47. Thing: ENTITY. That which is. Related to the crosswordese Latin word ESSE: "to be"
48. Hercule's creator: AGATHA. Hercule Poirot, Christie's Belgian detective with the active "little grey cells". David Suchet is my favorite portrayer.
50. Uniformed campus gp.: ROTC. Reserve Officers' Training Corps. I kept reading this as un-informed for some reason.
52. Little rascal: IMP. Originally just meant a shoot or graft of a plant, then transferred to human form with the sense of "newness". Pejorative association with phrases like "imp of Satan" gives us the present day meaning.
53. Chance to see what you missed the first time: RERUN.
54. Early mode of transportation: TRIKE. Cute clue. Early, meaning young, not ages ago. I wanted something else at first, like a horse.
58. Powerful 1966 hurricane: INEZ. Because the date was given to be in 1966, just find a female name that fits the perp letters and move along without further comment.
60. Yak: BLAB.
61. Word on a biblical wall: MENE. The idiom "The writing on the wall", to be able to foresee doom approaching, is a biblical story in the book of Daniel. King Belshazzar and his court praise the gods of gold and silver, brass, iron, wood, and stone. A disembodied hand appears and writes "Mene, Mene, Tekel u-Pharsin" on the wall. Daniel interprets this to mean God is displeased, and the end of the kingdom is at hand. Sure enough, the king is slain that night. You really had to be careful what you said to people back then, I guess...
63. Cock's mate: HEN. I've never heard it called that before...
64. Jr. and sr.: YRS. School years.
65. Type: ILK. Same. Related word: like
Thursday, December 2, 2010
LA Times, Thu, Dec 2, 2010 Author: Pancho Harrison
Theme: Wacky business slogans. In each theme answer, a pun is made about a type of business or job activity. No unifier clue.
17. "So I hear your job as exercise class instructor is __": WORKING OUT.
29. "So I hear your job as a burlesque dancer is __": TAKING OFF.
46. "So I hear your trash removal business is __": PICKING UP.
62. "So I hear your scuba diving business is __": GOING UNDER.
This was kind of fun. I couldn't find one, but there must be a name for these, right? I hear running your muffler business is exhausting. I hear the awning business is kind of shady. I hear the window business is kind of a pain. I hear that sod farm salesmen are easy to get a lawn with.
And the rest:
ACROSS:
1. Thread bearer: SPOOL.
6. Classic name in shoes: MCAN. Thom. Now owned by CVS/Caremark but sold at Kmart (which is owned by Sears) and Wal-mart.
10. Dressed: CLAD. Past participle of clothe.
14. Aquarium concern: ALGAE.
15. Fabled craft: ARGO. Jason and the Argonauts
16. Old: YORE. Related word: year.
19. Word with belly or blast: BEER. Cerveza, (spanish for beer), sounds so much more refined, doesn't it?
20. "Forget it, comrade!": NYET.
21. Ancient Andean: INCA. From Quechea: "lord, king." Technically, only of the high Inca, but it was used widely for "man of royal blood."
22. Davenport shopper, probably: IOWAN. Right across the river from Moline, Illinois. There are also cities named "Couch" in TX, FL, WV, and MO.
23. Artist Magritte: RENE. Surrealist.
25. Branch honcho: Abbr.: MGR. Manager, as in a bank.
26. Pops (out): FLIES. Baseball?
35. Choice: SELECT. Used in the sense of "quality" (select cuts of meat), not the sense of "option" as it appears, because that would have to be "selection".
37. Big, outmoded piece of equipment: DINOSAUR.
38. Paris pronoun: TOI. You.
39. Accountant, at times: AUDITOR. From Latin, "a hearer", related to audience, "a hearing". Auditing was formerly done and vouched for orally.
41. Airport safety org.: TSA. Transportation Security Administration.
42. Carousing: ON A SPREE. Likely from French esprit, lively.
44. Shiny fabric: SATEEN.
48. Revenge seekers in a 1984 film: NERDS.
49. Dollar sign shape: ESS.
50. Baltic resident: LETT. Of Latvia. The other Baltic states are Lithuania and Estonia.
52. Early afternoon hr.: ONE PM.
55. Disease attacker: DRUG.
57. Helps out: AIDS.
61. Demagogue's delivery: RANT.
64. Wine region south of the Matterhorn: ASTI.
65. "Got it, Daddy-o!": I DIG. Peter, Paul, and Mary.
66. Party person: GUEST.
67. DEA agent: NARC. Because NARCO was too long an abbreviation for narcotics agent.
68. Frosty's button: NOSE. With a corncob pipe and a button nose...
69. Honshu city: OSAKA.
DOWN:
1. Felled, in a way: SAWN.
2. Queen sacrifice in chess, e.g.: PLOY.
3. Shrek or Fiona: OGRE.
4. Yellow ribbon site of song: OAK TREE. Obligatory link.
5. Island welcome: LEI.
6. Lodestone: MAGNET. From Greek Magnes lithos (Magnesian stone). Magnesia, region of Thessaly where magnetized ore was obtained.
7. Hook nemesis, for short: CROC. Characters in Peter Pan.
8. Monterrey water: AGUA. Spanish.
9. "__ a chance!": NOT.
10. Bionic beings: CYBORGS. Portmanteau of "cybernetic organism" could explain how this is possible.
11. MGM co-founder: LOEW. Marcus. On November 3, 2010, MGM filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
12. Field of expertise: AREA.
13. "Coming Home" actor: DERN. Bruce. OK, now I recognize who this is.... He always seemed to play the nut-job character.
18. "Delta of Venus" author: NIN. Angela Anaïs Juana Antolina Rosa Edelmira Nin y Culmell
22. "Everybody is __, only on different subjects": Will Rogers: IGNORANT. I never read a Will Rogers quote I didn't like.
24. Watching "Avatar," say: ESCAPISM. The blue guy (Sam Worthington) without makeup.
25. Cretan king of myth: MINOS.
26. SLR setting: F-STOP. Single Lens Reflex (camera). The F-number indicates "speed". The larger the number, the longer you need for exposure. An F number twice as large as another one takes four times as long to get enough light.
27. Téa of "Spanglish": LEONI.
28. Of a pelvic bone: ILIAC.
30. Gascony good-bye: ADIEU. Gascony, France.
31. Caboodle partner: KIT. The whole thing, tools and possessions. Likely why we have the word "oodles".
32. Lash LaRue film, e.g.: OATER. Alfred (Lash) Larue, a Western film star in the 40s and 50s. He was very skilled with a bull whip, thus "Lash".
33. Joined by melting: FUSED. Parts is parts, Wendy's commercial. Fused at about :23 in.
34. Artist __ Hals: FRANS. Dutch Golden Age painter, mostly portraits.
36. Parts of directions: TURNS. Google maps makes a funny at the driving directions for step 17 of this route. You need to scroll down to see it.
40. MBA, for one: DEG. Master of Business degree.
43. One looking askance: SKEPTIC. "Skeptic does not mean him who doubts, but him who investigates or researches as opposed to him who asserts and thinks that he has found." [Miguel de Unamuno, "Essays and Soliloquies," 1924]
45. Lockjaw: TETANUS. More properly, trismus, which can be caused by tetanus, but also by MDMA, Meth, Ritalin, radiation therapy, infection, anesthesia, needle prick, several other diseases and drugs.
47. Drop dramatically: PLUNGE. Like a neckline.
51. Breakfast fare: EGG. Only humans habitually eat specifically designated foods at different times of the day.
52. Algerian port: ORAN. Across from Spain.
53. Apollo 13 gp.: NASA. National Aeronautics and Space Administration
54. __'acte: ENTR. Between the acts, as during a play. Could be an intermission or just an interlude piece of music.
55. Bygone bird: DODO. Another shout-out to our bloggers?
56. Teddy Roosevelt biographer: RIIS. Jacob. A Danish American social reformer, muckraking journalist, and documentary photographer. Was dedicated to helping the impoverished in NY City.
58. "I have an __!": IDEA.
59. Student's spot: DESK.
60. Arg. miss: SRTA. Argentina, senorita.
62. Cry while showing one's cards: GIN. Rummy.
63. Actor Tognazzi: UGO. I'm not sure a crossword answer gets any more obscure than this, an Italian actor. The only movie I recognized was La cage aux folles, but he was in a lot of films.
Answer Grid.
Al
17. "So I hear your job as exercise class instructor is __": WORKING OUT.
29. "So I hear your job as a burlesque dancer is __": TAKING OFF.
46. "So I hear your trash removal business is __": PICKING UP.
62. "So I hear your scuba diving business is __": GOING UNDER.
This was kind of fun. I couldn't find one, but there must be a name for these, right? I hear running your muffler business is exhausting. I hear the awning business is kind of shady. I hear the window business is kind of a pain. I hear that sod farm salesmen are easy to get a lawn with.
And the rest:
ACROSS:
1. Thread bearer: SPOOL.
6. Classic name in shoes: MCAN. Thom. Now owned by CVS/Caremark but sold at Kmart (which is owned by Sears) and Wal-mart.
10. Dressed: CLAD. Past participle of clothe.
14. Aquarium concern: ALGAE.
15. Fabled craft: ARGO. Jason and the Argonauts
16. Old: YORE. Related word: year.
19. Word with belly or blast: BEER. Cerveza, (spanish for beer), sounds so much more refined, doesn't it?
20. "Forget it, comrade!": NYET.
21. Ancient Andean: INCA. From Quechea: "lord, king." Technically, only of the high Inca, but it was used widely for "man of royal blood."
22. Davenport shopper, probably: IOWAN. Right across the river from Moline, Illinois. There are also cities named "Couch" in TX, FL, WV, and MO.
23. Artist Magritte: RENE. Surrealist.
25. Branch honcho: Abbr.: MGR. Manager, as in a bank.
26. Pops (out): FLIES. Baseball?
35. Choice: SELECT. Used in the sense of "quality" (select cuts of meat), not the sense of "option" as it appears, because that would have to be "selection".
37. Big, outmoded piece of equipment: DINOSAUR.
38. Paris pronoun: TOI. You.
39. Accountant, at times: AUDITOR. From Latin, "a hearer", related to audience, "a hearing". Auditing was formerly done and vouched for orally.
41. Airport safety org.: TSA. Transportation Security Administration.
42. Carousing: ON A SPREE. Likely from French esprit, lively.
44. Shiny fabric: SATEEN.
48. Revenge seekers in a 1984 film: NERDS.
49. Dollar sign shape: ESS.
50. Baltic resident: LETT. Of Latvia. The other Baltic states are Lithuania and Estonia.
52. Early afternoon hr.: ONE PM.
55. Disease attacker: DRUG.
57. Helps out: AIDS.
61. Demagogue's delivery: RANT.
64. Wine region south of the Matterhorn: ASTI.
65. "Got it, Daddy-o!": I DIG. Peter, Paul, and Mary.
66. Party person: GUEST.
67. DEA agent: NARC. Because NARCO was too long an abbreviation for narcotics agent.
68. Frosty's button: NOSE. With a corncob pipe and a button nose...
69. Honshu city: OSAKA.
DOWN:
1. Felled, in a way: SAWN.
2. Queen sacrifice in chess, e.g.: PLOY.
3. Shrek or Fiona: OGRE.
4. Yellow ribbon site of song: OAK TREE. Obligatory link.
5. Island welcome: LEI.
6. Lodestone: MAGNET. From Greek Magnes lithos (Magnesian stone). Magnesia, region of Thessaly where magnetized ore was obtained.
7. Hook nemesis, for short: CROC. Characters in Peter Pan.
8. Monterrey water: AGUA. Spanish.
9. "__ a chance!": NOT.
10. Bionic beings: CYBORGS. Portmanteau of "cybernetic organism" could explain how this is possible.
11. MGM co-founder: LOEW. Marcus. On November 3, 2010, MGM filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
12. Field of expertise: AREA.
13. "Coming Home" actor: DERN. Bruce. OK, now I recognize who this is.... He always seemed to play the nut-job character.
18. "Delta of Venus" author: NIN. Angela Anaïs Juana Antolina Rosa Edelmira Nin y Culmell
22. "Everybody is __, only on different subjects": Will Rogers: IGNORANT. I never read a Will Rogers quote I didn't like.
24. Watching "Avatar," say: ESCAPISM. The blue guy (Sam Worthington) without makeup.
25. Cretan king of myth: MINOS.
26. SLR setting: F-STOP. Single Lens Reflex (camera). The F-number indicates "speed". The larger the number, the longer you need for exposure. An F number twice as large as another one takes four times as long to get enough light.
27. Téa of "Spanglish": LEONI.
28. Of a pelvic bone: ILIAC.
30. Gascony good-bye: ADIEU. Gascony, France.
31. Caboodle partner: KIT. The whole thing, tools and possessions. Likely why we have the word "oodles".
32. Lash LaRue film, e.g.: OATER. Alfred (Lash) Larue, a Western film star in the 40s and 50s. He was very skilled with a bull whip, thus "Lash".
33. Joined by melting: FUSED. Parts is parts, Wendy's commercial. Fused at about :23 in.
34. Artist __ Hals: FRANS. Dutch Golden Age painter, mostly portraits.
36. Parts of directions: TURNS. Google maps makes a funny at the driving directions for step 17 of this route. You need to scroll down to see it.
40. MBA, for one: DEG. Master of Business degree.
43. One looking askance: SKEPTIC. "Skeptic does not mean him who doubts, but him who investigates or researches as opposed to him who asserts and thinks that he has found." [Miguel de Unamuno, "Essays and Soliloquies," 1924]
45. Lockjaw: TETANUS. More properly, trismus, which can be caused by tetanus, but also by MDMA, Meth, Ritalin, radiation therapy, infection, anesthesia, needle prick, several other diseases and drugs.
47. Drop dramatically: PLUNGE. Like a neckline.
51. Breakfast fare: EGG. Only humans habitually eat specifically designated foods at different times of the day.
52. Algerian port: ORAN. Across from Spain.
53. Apollo 13 gp.: NASA. National Aeronautics and Space Administration
54. __'acte: ENTR. Between the acts, as during a play. Could be an intermission or just an interlude piece of music.
55. Bygone bird: DODO. Another shout-out to our bloggers?
56. Teddy Roosevelt biographer: RIIS. Jacob. A Danish American social reformer, muckraking journalist, and documentary photographer. Was dedicated to helping the impoverished in NY City.
58. "I have an __!": IDEA.
59. Student's spot: DESK.
60. Arg. miss: SRTA. Argentina, senorita.
62. Cry while showing one's cards: GIN. Rummy.
63. Actor Tognazzi: UGO. I'm not sure a crossword answer gets any more obscure than this, an Italian actor. The only movie I recognized was La cage aux folles, but he was in a lot of films.
Answer Grid.
Al
Thursday, November 25, 2010
LA Times, Thu, Nov 25, 2010 Author: Don Gagliardo
Theme: It's electrifying. 7D. What the perimeter answers in this puzzle literally create: ELECTRIC CIRCUIT. All the edge answers can be preceded by the word "ELECTRIC" and they make a complete CIRCUIT around the puzzle.
1A. Racer's privilege: POLE. Pole position: at the start of a race, the leading car on the inside. Electric pole: (+) or (-) as on a battery.
5A. Group of contestants: FIELD. Electric field: a point in space with an electric charge that will exert a force on other electrically charged objects.
10A. Heart, basically: PUMP. Electrical pump, such as a sump pump instead of a mechanical hand pump.
71A. Spelunker's aid: LAMP. Electric lamp, as opposed to a gas or kerosene lamp.
72A. Rhythmic element: METER. Poetic or musical meter. An electrical device to measure volt, watts, amps, etc.
73A. Make it official: SIGN. Electric sign: neon, lit up, moving, or a combination.
1D. Brahms's instrument: PIANO. They have electric pianos now that look, feel, sound and have action just like a mechanical one. Why bother? Well, they never go out of tune, and you don't need gravity to play them.
13D. Kind of nap or tie: POWER. After you: 24A. Had too much of: ODED ON turkey, then comes the tryptophan loss of consciousness.
32D. Summer cooler: FAN. As opposed to a Japanese hand fan. Overly enthusiastic "fans" of Japanese manga and anime (from an earlier puzzle) are referred to as "otaku". It has the sense of geek or nerd or even worse.
39D. Common observer: EYE. Electric eyes are used to open doors, and for burglar alarms.
52D. Machine with bits: DRILL. Does anyone still use a hand drill? Back in high school shop class we had to learn all the hand tools before being allowed to use the power ones.
58D. Bach's instrument: ORGAN. Organs also can be steam powered, like 54D. Locomotive propeller: STEAM.
Hi all, Al here. Don't really expect to see much turnout today as everyone clusters around their families for the holiday. Thankfully, yesterday more than made up for it.
Quite the construction today, like the "buffalo gals" of square dancing (the theme goes 'round the outside). 12 theme answers plus the unifier, which vertically splits the puzzle. 12 "regular" answers were longer than all the theme answers. It didn't seem all that difficult for a Thursday, but the fun construction more than made up for it. I only remember one other puzzle theme pattern done similar to this, but can't seem to find it.
ACROSS:
14. Victor's claim: I WIN. Nobody likes "that" kind of winner.
15. China's Zhou __: EN LAI.
16. "Bug off!": SHOO. From an instinctive exclamation, German: schu, Italian: scioia.
17. Tiny colonists: ANTS. And 23D. Queen's offspring: BEES. Bees and ants in the same puzzle. Either answer could fit both clues.
18. "Camelot" composer: LOEWE, Frederick and Lerner, Jay.
19. "Camelot," e.g.: SHOW.
20. The Wallendas don't use one: NET. The Flying Wallendas, circus trapeze and high wire artists.
21. Prog. discontinued at some campuses during the Vietnam War: ROTC. Reserve Officers' Training Corps
22. Insensitive: OBTUSE. Latin obtusus, blunted, dull. ob "against" + tundere "to beat".
26. Adjust, as wheels: TRUE. An alignment allows tires to run true.
28. Sailor's pronoun: HER. Traditionally, ships are feminine rather than neuter. A whole load of political correctness on the subject.
29. Designer Gernreich: RUDI. Designer of the topless swimsuit. ;-)
30. Church observances: RITES.
32. Watch pockets: FOBS. Low German fobke "pocket"
34. "Hulk" star Bana: ERIC. Also played Nero, the antagonist Romulan in the recent Star Trek reboot movie.
36. Three-time U.S. Women's Open champ Berning: SUSIE. Unknown to me.
40. Lie alongside: ABUT.
41. Ali G portrayer __ Baron Cohen: SACHA. I don't understand why some movies ever get made.
43. Depend: RELY.
44. Bruce who played Dr. Watson: NIGEL. He's too famous to make me fall for the first name as last name trick.
46. Bakery curlicue maker: ICER.
47. Perry's creator: ERLE. Stanley Gardner, Perry Mason.
48. Martini's partner: ROSSI. Primarily known for the Martini brand of vermouth
50. Unlike Miss Manners: RUDE.
52. Baseball SS's stats: DPS. Short Stops, Double Plays.
55. Copycat: APER.
56. Former NBAer Mourning: ALONZO. "ZO" played mostly for the Miami Heat.
59. Sanction: RATIFY.
61. Red amount?: CENT. The original 1793 penny.
63. Like BMWs: Abbr.: GER. Bavarian Motor Works, headquartered in Munich, Germany.
64. March time: IDES. The 15th. Any musicians out there momentarily want to put FOUR in there, like 4/4 time for a march?
65. Connie of "Weekends With Maury and Connie": CHUNG. Married to Maury Povich.
67. Cold water hazard: BERG.
68. Party with ukes: LUAU.
69. Take for __: fool: A RIDE.
70. Agora portico: STOA. Greek columned corridor.
DOWN:
2. Finished paying off: OWNED.
3. Scofflaw of a sort: LITTERBUG. From scoff + law. The winning entry in a national contest during Prohibition to coin a word to characterize a person who drinks illegally, chosen from more than 25,000 entries.
4. Dinner duo?: ENS. Two letter "N"s in dinner.
5. Serious crimes: FELONIES.
6. Trying to settle a score, for short?: IN OT. Overtime, playing past the regulation time limit to break a tie game.
8. __ of averages: LAW.
9. Fade to nothing: DIE OUT.
10. Sound made with a cupped hand: PSST. Made along with, behind your hand.
11. Compliant sound: UH-HUH. Slangy yes.
12. Bullwinkle J. __: MOOSE. And Rocket (Rocky) J. Squirrel. The "J" in both names was for Jay Ward, the producer.
21. Fishing tool: ROD.
25. Sporty '70s Plymouth: DUSTER. A past friend of mine bought one with a 340 engine that was fully tricked out. That car used to scare the s*** out of me.
27. Nouveau __: RICHE. French for new rich. In these times, many unfortunate working stiffs are noveau pauvre.
31. "And how!": SURE DO. Idioms for "yes, I like it, or would like to, very much".
33. __-Wan Kenobi: OBI. Star Wars Jedi master, played by Ewan McGregor and Sir Alec Guinness
35. Bring up: RAISE. Rear, see to.
37. Tanzania wildlife reserve: SERENGETI. 12,000 sq. miles, only about the size of Maryland, a tiny fraction of Tanzania (362,340 sq. mi.), which in turn is dwarfed by the total size of Africa, which is over 11 billion sq. miles. You could fit the entire US, including Alaska, plus Europe and China into Africa.
38. Bad: ILL. Ill originally meant morally evil or malevolent in the 13th century. It later became associated with sickness in the sense of "it is bad to me" by the mid 15th century. It still retains the "bad" meaning in hyphenated words like ill-informed, or ill-willed.
42. Orchestrator, perhaps: ARRANGER. Rossini was the Lone Arranger of the William Tell Overture.
45. Rye buy: LOAF.
49. Cloak-and-dagger gadget: SPYCAM.
51. Nth: Abbr.: ULT. The nth degree is the utmost or ULTimate extreme.
53. "The Taming of the Shrew" setting: PADUA. Italy.
57. Cause of some floating, briefly: ZERO-G.ravity Weightlessness as in space, or free-fall.
60. "Your time __!": IS UP.
62. German fantasy author Michael: ENDE. Most famous, The Neverending Story, which was made into a movie.
66. Charlemagne's realm: Abbr.: HRE. Holy Roman Empire.
67. Undergrad degs.: BSS. Bachelors of Science.
Don sent along some constructor notes to C.C.:
“Electric Circuit”
Earlier this year we needed to have some electrical work done. The electrician searched literally high and low for the offending circuit problem. Three hours later and about that many hundred dollars, the offensive connection was found. I figured I should get something out of that experience, and came up with this puzzle. ELECTRIC CIRCUIT fits nicely in the center, I reasoned, but the theme words that follow ELECTRIC had to be carefully arranged to meet at the corners and cross ELECTRIC CIRCUIT. I got lucky. Rich approved the idea, and at least I partially compensated my electric service call.
Answer Grid
Al
1A. Racer's privilege: POLE. Pole position: at the start of a race, the leading car on the inside. Electric pole: (+) or (-) as on a battery.
5A. Group of contestants: FIELD. Electric field: a point in space with an electric charge that will exert a force on other electrically charged objects.
10A. Heart, basically: PUMP. Electrical pump, such as a sump pump instead of a mechanical hand pump.
71A. Spelunker's aid: LAMP. Electric lamp, as opposed to a gas or kerosene lamp.
72A. Rhythmic element: METER. Poetic or musical meter. An electrical device to measure volt, watts, amps, etc.
73A. Make it official: SIGN. Electric sign: neon, lit up, moving, or a combination.
1D. Brahms's instrument: PIANO. They have electric pianos now that look, feel, sound and have action just like a mechanical one. Why bother? Well, they never go out of tune, and you don't need gravity to play them.
13D. Kind of nap or tie: POWER. After you: 24A. Had too much of: ODED ON turkey, then comes the tryptophan loss of consciousness.
32D. Summer cooler: FAN. As opposed to a Japanese hand fan. Overly enthusiastic "fans" of Japanese manga and anime (from an earlier puzzle) are referred to as "otaku". It has the sense of geek or nerd or even worse.
39D. Common observer: EYE. Electric eyes are used to open doors, and for burglar alarms.
52D. Machine with bits: DRILL. Does anyone still use a hand drill? Back in high school shop class we had to learn all the hand tools before being allowed to use the power ones.
58D. Bach's instrument: ORGAN. Organs also can be steam powered, like 54D. Locomotive propeller: STEAM.
Hi all, Al here. Don't really expect to see much turnout today as everyone clusters around their families for the holiday. Thankfully, yesterday more than made up for it.
Quite the construction today, like the "buffalo gals" of square dancing (the theme goes 'round the outside). 12 theme answers plus the unifier, which vertically splits the puzzle. 12 "regular" answers were longer than all the theme answers. It didn't seem all that difficult for a Thursday, but the fun construction more than made up for it. I only remember one other puzzle theme pattern done similar to this, but can't seem to find it.
ACROSS:
14. Victor's claim: I WIN. Nobody likes "that" kind of winner.
15. China's Zhou __: EN LAI.
16. "Bug off!": SHOO. From an instinctive exclamation, German: schu, Italian: scioia.
17. Tiny colonists: ANTS. And 23D. Queen's offspring: BEES. Bees and ants in the same puzzle. Either answer could fit both clues.
18. "Camelot" composer: LOEWE, Frederick and Lerner, Jay.
19. "Camelot," e.g.: SHOW.
20. The Wallendas don't use one: NET. The Flying Wallendas, circus trapeze and high wire artists.
21. Prog. discontinued at some campuses during the Vietnam War: ROTC. Reserve Officers' Training Corps
22. Insensitive: OBTUSE. Latin obtusus, blunted, dull. ob "against" + tundere "to beat".
26. Adjust, as wheels: TRUE. An alignment allows tires to run true.
28. Sailor's pronoun: HER. Traditionally, ships are feminine rather than neuter. A whole load of political correctness on the subject.
29. Designer Gernreich: RUDI. Designer of the topless swimsuit. ;-)
30. Church observances: RITES.
32. Watch pockets: FOBS. Low German fobke "pocket"
34. "Hulk" star Bana: ERIC. Also played Nero, the antagonist Romulan in the recent Star Trek reboot movie.
36. Three-time U.S. Women's Open champ Berning: SUSIE. Unknown to me.
40. Lie alongside: ABUT.
41. Ali G portrayer __ Baron Cohen: SACHA. I don't understand why some movies ever get made.
43. Depend: RELY.
44. Bruce who played Dr. Watson: NIGEL. He's too famous to make me fall for the first name as last name trick.
46. Bakery curlicue maker: ICER.
47. Perry's creator: ERLE. Stanley Gardner, Perry Mason.
48. Martini's partner: ROSSI. Primarily known for the Martini brand of vermouth
50. Unlike Miss Manners: RUDE.
52. Baseball SS's stats: DPS. Short Stops, Double Plays.
55. Copycat: APER.
56. Former NBAer Mourning: ALONZO. "ZO" played mostly for the Miami Heat.
59. Sanction: RATIFY.
61. Red amount?: CENT. The original 1793 penny.
63. Like BMWs: Abbr.: GER. Bavarian Motor Works, headquartered in Munich, Germany.
64. March time: IDES. The 15th. Any musicians out there momentarily want to put FOUR in there, like 4/4 time for a march?
65. Connie of "Weekends With Maury and Connie": CHUNG. Married to Maury Povich.
67. Cold water hazard: BERG.
68. Party with ukes: LUAU.
69. Take for __: fool: A RIDE.
70. Agora portico: STOA. Greek columned corridor.
DOWN:
2. Finished paying off: OWNED.
3. Scofflaw of a sort: LITTERBUG. From scoff + law. The winning entry in a national contest during Prohibition to coin a word to characterize a person who drinks illegally, chosen from more than 25,000 entries.
4. Dinner duo?: ENS. Two letter "N"s in dinner.
5. Serious crimes: FELONIES.
6. Trying to settle a score, for short?: IN OT. Overtime, playing past the regulation time limit to break a tie game.
8. __ of averages: LAW.
9. Fade to nothing: DIE OUT.
10. Sound made with a cupped hand: PSST. Made along with, behind your hand.
11. Compliant sound: UH-HUH. Slangy yes.
12. Bullwinkle J. __: MOOSE. And Rocket (Rocky) J. Squirrel. The "J" in both names was for Jay Ward, the producer.
21. Fishing tool: ROD.
25. Sporty '70s Plymouth: DUSTER. A past friend of mine bought one with a 340 engine that was fully tricked out. That car used to scare the s*** out of me.
27. Nouveau __: RICHE. French for new rich. In these times, many unfortunate working stiffs are noveau pauvre.
31. "And how!": SURE DO. Idioms for "yes, I like it, or would like to, very much".
33. __-Wan Kenobi: OBI. Star Wars Jedi master, played by Ewan McGregor and Sir Alec Guinness
35. Bring up: RAISE. Rear, see to.
37. Tanzania wildlife reserve: SERENGETI. 12,000 sq. miles, only about the size of Maryland, a tiny fraction of Tanzania (362,340 sq. mi.), which in turn is dwarfed by the total size of Africa, which is over 11 billion sq. miles. You could fit the entire US, including Alaska, plus Europe and China into Africa.
38. Bad: ILL. Ill originally meant morally evil or malevolent in the 13th century. It later became associated with sickness in the sense of "it is bad to me" by the mid 15th century. It still retains the "bad" meaning in hyphenated words like ill-informed, or ill-willed.
42. Orchestrator, perhaps: ARRANGER. Rossini was the Lone Arranger of the William Tell Overture.
45. Rye buy: LOAF.
49. Cloak-and-dagger gadget: SPYCAM.
51. Nth: Abbr.: ULT. The nth degree is the utmost or ULTimate extreme.
53. "The Taming of the Shrew" setting: PADUA. Italy.
57. Cause of some floating, briefly: ZERO-G.ravity Weightlessness as in space, or free-fall.
60. "Your time __!": IS UP.
62. German fantasy author Michael: ENDE. Most famous, The Neverending Story, which was made into a movie.
66. Charlemagne's realm: Abbr.: HRE. Holy Roman Empire.
67. Undergrad degs.: BSS. Bachelors of Science.
Don sent along some constructor notes to C.C.:
“Electric Circuit”
Earlier this year we needed to have some electrical work done. The electrician searched literally high and low for the offending circuit problem. Three hours later and about that many hundred dollars, the offensive connection was found. I figured I should get something out of that experience, and came up with this puzzle. ELECTRIC CIRCUIT fits nicely in the center, I reasoned, but the theme words that follow ELECTRIC had to be carefully arranged to meet at the corners and cross ELECTRIC CIRCUIT. I got lucky. Rich approved the idea, and at least I partially compensated my electric service call.
Answer Grid
Al
Thursday, November 18, 2010
LA Times, Thu, Nov 18, 2010 Author: John Doppler Schiff
Theme: Happy endings. All the two word theme entries are changed by ending with an "O", and are clued in a wacky manner as indicated by the (?).
17A. Marx as a Druid?: CELTIC HARPO. Druids were an ancient order of Celtic priests in the societies of Western Europe, Britain and Ireland + Harpo Marx. Here's a Celtic (folk, lever or Irish) harp with a little bit of Led Zeppelin.
55A. Well-dressed Swedish actress?: FORMAL GARBO. Greta Garbo, in formal wear never said "I want to be alone." She said she wanted to be left alone, while on vacation. A common celebrity complaint with all the paparazzi fuss today.
11D. Godfather portrayer turned shop owner?: STORE BRANDO. Marlin Brando + store brand. Like Roundy's green beans. Those are also called "private label" brands by the packaged goods industry.
25D. Beatle in a bout?: BOXING RINGO. I can picture Ringo Starr in a grudge match with Yoko Ono.
Al here.
Nice to see a pinwheel theme formation in a weekday grid, and not too many names other than the theme, which did help me get the "ending with O" parts of two answers. I found this easier than yesterday's for some reason.
ACROSS:
1. Encircled by: AMONG. Related word: mingle.
6. Persian faith: BAHAI.
11. One with a cover: SPY. Like 61A. Bullwinkle nemesis: BORIS. Badenov and Natasha Fatale. The cartoon spies from Pottsylvania always making trouble for Rocky and Bullwinkle.
14. More of a novice: RAWER. As with a raw recruit. Latin novus: new.
15. Lunch hr. end, often: ONE PM.
16. A victory may break one: TIE.
19. Rio hello: OLA. Portuguese, not Spanish.
20. PD precinct boss: CMDR. Police Department, Commander.
21. Chants of a lifetime?: MANTRAS. Not sure whether Rich or John were trying to be clever with the clue, a play on "chance", but this book actually exists: Chants of a Lifetime is a collection of stories, teachings, and insights from Krishna Das, who has been called "the chant master of American yoga".
23. Works: LABORS. The simple answer this time. Was caught trying to figure out an art or music related answer.
26. Cell component: BAR. A Jail cell. Anyone else thinking biological cell at first? Maybe it refers to a cell phone, but one bar isn't very good, right?
27. Lift with effort: HEFT.
28. Win by __: A NOSE.
29. Built up charges: RAN A TAB. Glad it wasn't "staticy" charges.
31. Parts of personal music libraries: MIX TAPES. I used to make mix tapes from my LPs in the 70's, but does anyone even use cassettes anymore? For that matter, 18D. Vinyl successors, briefly: CDS are probably on their way out as well, with ipods, cell phones and computers storing and playing digital music.
33. Musical intervals: THIRDS. Fifths and sixths would also fit.
36. ASCAP rival: BMI. American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers vs. Broadcast Music Incorporated. Music rights groups that collect license fees and distribute them as royalties. Maybe SESAC, the third such US-based organization, will be in a puzzle someday. I doubt it, though, probably too obscure.
37. First rabies vaccine creator: PASTEUR. Also largely responsible for hand and equipment sanitization for doctors before operations. Prior to Pasteur few doctors bothered to wash their hands. If you listen to some nurses stories, they still don't...
39. Interior decorator's concern: ART.
40. Classic breath freshener: SEN-SEN. Licorice flavored.
42. Certain counter's woe: INSOMNIA. Counting sheep.
44. Iron supplement brand: GERITOL. A marketing ploy, named to sound like "geriatric", and originally targeted towards older people with "tired blood". Unless an actual condition of anemia exists, it is not needed by women past a certain age, and not by men at all. Over-consumption of iron can cause hemochromatosis, a serious condition which needs to be treated by bloodletting.
46. Spread out: WIDEN.
47. Memo opener: IN RE. Latin "in the matter of", form of "res", commonly seen in puzzles clues as "thing, in law".
49. Bengals, on scoreboards: CIN.cinatti football team.
50. Noble address: MILORD.
51. Question of advisability: DO I DARE.
53. There are pins at the end of one: LANE. Bowling.
54. Columnist Landers: ANN.
60. Biker's chopper: HOG. A Harley Davidson motorcycle.
62. Stravinsky and a lab assistant: IGORS.
63. Barcelona bear: OSO. Spanish.
64. Bright: SMART.
65. Not schooled in: NEW AT.
DOWN:
1. Ring piece: ARC. Briefly wanted GEM, but decided to wait and see a perp first.
2. West of Hollywood: MAE. Come up and see me sometime. Called Charlie McCarthy (Edgar Bergen's ventriloquist dummy) "all wood and a yard long".
3. Athena's attendant: OWL. She is the goddess of wisdom (and war, civilization, strength, justice, etc.) In Homeric poetry, Athena is most often referred to with bright or gleaming eyes, like owls that can see in the dark, and was often pictured with an owl. The evolution of this constant association is why owls became associated with wisdom.
4. Discounted price: NET COST.
5. Antonius Block's chess opponent in Bergman's "The Seventh Seal": GRIM REAPER. There's an abbreviation used in internet chat rooms and message boards: "tl;dr" (too long; didn't read) for something that you can't be bothered with or get too bored to read all the way through. To me, that's this wiki article on this play, but I linked it just in case you're curious.
6. Nuclear Nobelist Niels: BOHR.
7. Prefix with gram: ANA. Jerome's favorite wordplay: anagrams.
8. Author Wouk: HERMAN. Among other books, The Caine Mutiny, The Winds of War, and War and Remembrance
9. Paraphernalia: APPARATUS. From Latin prefix "ad-" meaning: to + parare: make ready.
10. "That's my cue!": I'M ON. Show biz.
12. Dinner side, perhaps: PILAF. Rice boiled with broth, often with meat. Turkish pilav, from Persian pilaw.
13. It can raise dough: YEAST. And that can be used in a bake sale to raise dough...
22. Chiang Mai resident: THAI.
23. Ewe kids: LAMBS.
24. Asian cartoon genre: ANIME. Animation, usually adapted from Manga, which is the printed form, somewhat like a comic book.
26. Fortification: BASTION. Middle French bastillon from Old French bastille, literally fortress, stronghold.
29. Musical seconds: RES. Right after Do, a deer.
30. Not charging for: THROWING IN. But wait, there's more!
32. Safe place with a counterintuitive name: PANIC ROOM. A 2002 thriller movie starring Jody Foster.
34. Less soggy: DRIER.
35. Stop asking for cards: STAND. Poker.
38. Like a USN volunteer: ENL. Enlisted in the US Navy.
41. Parakeet's eats: SEED.
43. Distance on a tank: MILEAGE. Not the army tank.
45. __ del Fuego: TIERRA. Spanish for "Land of fire", named by Magellan. The southernmost tip of South America.
47. Its southern border is about seven times longer than its northern one: IDAHO. Borders six other states + Canada. Name the three states with more state borders.
48. Prohibitions: NO-NOS.
50. Bad start?: MAL. Prefix.
52. HQs for B-2s: AFBS. Air Force Bases.
53. Not leading anyone: LAST.
56. Highest Russian territory, once?: MIR. The former space station. Not an acronym, but a Russian word for (peace, world, society).
57. Kerfuffle: ROW. Spat, ADO, a fight.
58. Grille cover: BRA. A "bug" shield.
59. From Essen to Leipzig, locally: OST. German for east.
Answer Grid
Al
17A. Marx as a Druid?: CELTIC HARPO. Druids were an ancient order of Celtic priests in the societies of Western Europe, Britain and Ireland + Harpo Marx. Here's a Celtic (folk, lever or Irish) harp with a little bit of Led Zeppelin.
55A. Well-dressed Swedish actress?: FORMAL GARBO. Greta Garbo, in formal wear never said "I want to be alone." She said she wanted to be left alone, while on vacation. A common celebrity complaint with all the paparazzi fuss today.
11D. Godfather portrayer turned shop owner?: STORE BRANDO. Marlin Brando + store brand. Like Roundy's green beans. Those are also called "private label" brands by the packaged goods industry.
25D. Beatle in a bout?: BOXING RINGO. I can picture Ringo Starr in a grudge match with Yoko Ono.
Al here.
Nice to see a pinwheel theme formation in a weekday grid, and not too many names other than the theme, which did help me get the "ending with O" parts of two answers. I found this easier than yesterday's for some reason.
ACROSS:
1. Encircled by: AMONG. Related word: mingle.
6. Persian faith: BAHAI.
11. One with a cover: SPY. Like 61A. Bullwinkle nemesis: BORIS. Badenov and Natasha Fatale. The cartoon spies from Pottsylvania always making trouble for Rocky and Bullwinkle.
14. More of a novice: RAWER. As with a raw recruit. Latin novus: new.
15. Lunch hr. end, often: ONE PM.
16. A victory may break one: TIE.
19. Rio hello: OLA. Portuguese, not Spanish.
20. PD precinct boss: CMDR. Police Department, Commander.
21. Chants of a lifetime?: MANTRAS. Not sure whether Rich or John were trying to be clever with the clue, a play on "chance", but this book actually exists: Chants of a Lifetime is a collection of stories, teachings, and insights from Krishna Das, who has been called "the chant master of American yoga".
23. Works: LABORS. The simple answer this time. Was caught trying to figure out an art or music related answer.
26. Cell component: BAR. A Jail cell. Anyone else thinking biological cell at first? Maybe it refers to a cell phone, but one bar isn't very good, right?
27. Lift with effort: HEFT.
28. Win by __: A NOSE.
29. Built up charges: RAN A TAB. Glad it wasn't "staticy" charges.
31. Parts of personal music libraries: MIX TAPES. I used to make mix tapes from my LPs in the 70's, but does anyone even use cassettes anymore? For that matter, 18D. Vinyl successors, briefly: CDS are probably on their way out as well, with ipods, cell phones and computers storing and playing digital music.
33. Musical intervals: THIRDS. Fifths and sixths would also fit.
36. ASCAP rival: BMI. American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers vs. Broadcast Music Incorporated. Music rights groups that collect license fees and distribute them as royalties. Maybe SESAC, the third such US-based organization, will be in a puzzle someday. I doubt it, though, probably too obscure.
37. First rabies vaccine creator: PASTEUR. Also largely responsible for hand and equipment sanitization for doctors before operations. Prior to Pasteur few doctors bothered to wash their hands. If you listen to some nurses stories, they still don't...
39. Interior decorator's concern: ART.
40. Classic breath freshener: SEN-SEN. Licorice flavored.
42. Certain counter's woe: INSOMNIA. Counting sheep.
44. Iron supplement brand: GERITOL. A marketing ploy, named to sound like "geriatric", and originally targeted towards older people with "tired blood". Unless an actual condition of anemia exists, it is not needed by women past a certain age, and not by men at all. Over-consumption of iron can cause hemochromatosis, a serious condition which needs to be treated by bloodletting.
46. Spread out: WIDEN.
47. Memo opener: IN RE. Latin "in the matter of", form of "res", commonly seen in puzzles clues as "thing, in law".
49. Bengals, on scoreboards: CIN.cinatti football team.
50. Noble address: MILORD.
51. Question of advisability: DO I DARE.
53. There are pins at the end of one: LANE. Bowling.
54. Columnist Landers: ANN.
60. Biker's chopper: HOG. A Harley Davidson motorcycle.
62. Stravinsky and a lab assistant: IGORS.
63. Barcelona bear: OSO. Spanish.
64. Bright: SMART.
65. Not schooled in: NEW AT.
DOWN:
1. Ring piece: ARC. Briefly wanted GEM, but decided to wait and see a perp first.
2. West of Hollywood: MAE. Come up and see me sometime. Called Charlie McCarthy (Edgar Bergen's ventriloquist dummy) "all wood and a yard long".
3. Athena's attendant: OWL. She is the goddess of wisdom (and war, civilization, strength, justice, etc.) In Homeric poetry, Athena is most often referred to with bright or gleaming eyes, like owls that can see in the dark, and was often pictured with an owl. The evolution of this constant association is why owls became associated with wisdom.
4. Discounted price: NET COST.
5. Antonius Block's chess opponent in Bergman's "The Seventh Seal": GRIM REAPER. There's an abbreviation used in internet chat rooms and message boards: "tl;dr" (too long; didn't read) for something that you can't be bothered with or get too bored to read all the way through. To me, that's this wiki article on this play, but I linked it just in case you're curious.
6. Nuclear Nobelist Niels: BOHR.
7. Prefix with gram: ANA. Jerome's favorite wordplay: anagrams.
8. Author Wouk: HERMAN. Among other books, The Caine Mutiny, The Winds of War, and War and Remembrance
9. Paraphernalia: APPARATUS. From Latin prefix "ad-" meaning: to + parare: make ready.
10. "That's my cue!": I'M ON. Show biz.
12. Dinner side, perhaps: PILAF. Rice boiled with broth, often with meat. Turkish pilav, from Persian pilaw.
13. It can raise dough: YEAST. And that can be used in a bake sale to raise dough...
22. Chiang Mai resident: THAI.
23. Ewe kids: LAMBS.
24. Asian cartoon genre: ANIME. Animation, usually adapted from Manga, which is the printed form, somewhat like a comic book.
26. Fortification: BASTION. Middle French bastillon from Old French bastille, literally fortress, stronghold.
29. Musical seconds: RES. Right after Do, a deer.
30. Not charging for: THROWING IN. But wait, there's more!
32. Safe place with a counterintuitive name: PANIC ROOM. A 2002 thriller movie starring Jody Foster.
34. Less soggy: DRIER.
35. Stop asking for cards: STAND. Poker.
38. Like a USN volunteer: ENL. Enlisted in the US Navy.
41. Parakeet's eats: SEED.
43. Distance on a tank: MILEAGE. Not the army tank.
45. __ del Fuego: TIERRA. Spanish for "Land of fire", named by Magellan. The southernmost tip of South America.
47. Its southern border is about seven times longer than its northern one: IDAHO. Borders six other states + Canada. Name the three states with more state borders.
48. Prohibitions: NO-NOS.
50. Bad start?: MAL. Prefix.
52. HQs for B-2s: AFBS. Air Force Bases.
53. Not leading anyone: LAST.
56. Highest Russian territory, once?: MIR. The former space station. Not an acronym, but a Russian word for (peace, world, society).
57. Kerfuffle: ROW. Spat, ADO, a fight.
58. Grille cover: BRA. A "bug" shield.
59. From Essen to Leipzig, locally: OST. German for east.
Answer Grid
Al
Thursday, November 11, 2010
LA Times, Thu, Nov 11, 2010 Author: Don Gagliardo
Theme: Childish behavior. With a HINT (32A) from 56A. Admonition to one acting out the starts of 17-, 23-, 34- and 48-Across: MIND YOUR MANNERS.
17A. Battle of the Bulge air assault division: SCREAMING EAGLES. The Army 101st Airborne Division. Timely clue related to Veterans day, today.
23A. Doppelgänger: SPITTING IMAGE. In fiction and folklore, your evil double. Also considered bad luck, or even an omen of death, to see one.
34A. It's hard to get romantic with one: NAGGING HEADACHE. This is probably worse. One percent of the population, really?
48A. Reason to see a mechanic: WHINING ENGINE.
Al here.
Not too much to say about the puzzle construction itself. Not a pangram, missing six letters, no helper squares, better than average theme, and a few clever clues. Parts of the theme did help me for once, the "ing" letters filled in a few spots. So, on with the answers. Don included a note to C.C. about the puzzle, which is included at the end of the write-up.
ACROSS
1. U.S. dept. with a Race to the Top reform prog.: EDUC.ation.
5. Iconic rings: HALOS.
10. Lock style: COIF. Lock of hair. Coif from old French for a skull cap worn with headgear, as under a helmet.
14. JV team member, perhaps: SOPH. Junior Varsity, Sophomore. A second year student, literally an "arguer". From sophume, variant of sophism (specious, fallacious argument).
15. Warning: ALERT. From Italian all'erta "to the height," from erta "lookout, high tower".
16. Back in the day: ONCE.
20. Willows for weavers: OSIERS.
21. Cause to suffer: AIL. What ails you? What is causing you to suffer? Never having looked it up before, I never realized the word had this meaning, but just thought that it referred to a state of health not being good. Even knowing that, I still wouldn't ever say "A cold ails me".
22. Word with meal or cake: OAT. I've never heard of oatcakes (similar to pancakes but with a lot of fiber), most references I found seem to be from the UK. Must be more common there?
27. Name on an airport shuttle: AVIS. They try harder.
29. Incarnation of Vishnu: RAMA.
30. Alice's workplace: DINER. Mel's Diner in the TV series, with Alice played by Linda Lavin. There's also Alice's Restaurant, the spoken "song" by Arlo Guthrie, based on a true story and made into a movie.
31. Yang's partner: YIN. Male/female, day/night. The concept of balance in all things. You cannot have a back of your hand without there being a front.
32. Clue: HINT. From old English hentan "to seize", related to hunt.
33. Cul-de-__: SAC.
40. Important no. to most car buyers: MPG. Miles per gallon.
41. Coastal raptor: ERNE. The "sea eagle".
42. It starts with "http": URL. Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol, Uniform Resource Locator.
43. Sheer: STEEP.
46. Desertlike: ARID.
47. Teeny: ITSY. Could have been itty too.
51. Reservoir borders?: ARS. The letter "R" begins and ends the word reservoir.
52. Besides: TOO.
53. __ Tunes: LOONEY. Warner Bros animation.
60. Court entry: PLEA.
61. Shopping list entries: ITEMS.
62. "Woe __!": IS ME.
63. Some shooters, briefly: SLRS. Single Lens Reflex cameras.
64. Mythical animal kingdom ennead: LIVES. Ennead: "group of nine". A reference to cats.
65. Peter or Paul, but not Mary: TSAR. There were tsarinas named Maria, though. A diversion kind of clue to get you thinking MALE, or folk music instead of rulers.
DOWN
1. Gas acronym: ESSO. Standard Oil initials: SO (say it out loud)
2. Holliday and others: DOCS. The two "L"s were a giveaway to look deeper than calendar dates.
3. Revolting situation: UPRISING. Punny.
4. Nest chorus: CHEEPS.
5. Target of pre-race stretching: HAMSTRING.
6. "__ Baba Bunny": classic Bugs cartoon: ALI.
7. Hall of Fame quarterback Dawson: LEN.
8. Leia's last name: ORGANA. One of her last names... The Star Wars universe. Born Leia Amadala Skywalker, daughter of Darth Vader. Hidden and adopted by Bail Organa, a royal family on Alderan. Also Mrs. Solo after being married.
9. "Shrek!" author William: STEIG.
10. Minor player: COG. Just a nameless tooth on a gear that keeps the wheel turning.
11. Checked out, as a book: ON LOAN.
12. Cooling-off period?: ICE AGE.
13. Uncle at 0001 Cemetery Lane, in '60s TV: FESTER. The Addams Family.
18. First name in shipping: ARI. Aristotle Onassis, Greek shipping magnate.
19. Angular measurement device used in surveying: ALIDADE. Many different types.
24. Bite: TANG. "Serpent's tongue" (thought to be a stinging organ), later "sharp extension of a metal blade", then "sharp taste" followed later.
25. "Count me in!": I'M THERE.
26. Mineral with basal cleavage: MICA.
27. Writer Rand: AYN. Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead.
28. Routing word: VIA. Latin, by way of.
32. __ Hop: bouncing ball brand: HIPPITY.
33. Time-measuring device: SANDGLASS. During the voyage of Ferdinand Magellan around the globe, his vessels kept 18 hourglasses per ship. It was the job of a ship's page to turn the hourglasses and thus provide the times for the ship's log.
35. Feds: G-MEN.
36. "__ go bragh!": ERIN.
37. Kitten's quality: CUTENESS.
38. Retail posting: Abbr.: HRS. Open hours.
39. Callaway of golf equipment fame: ELY. The founder and also the stock ticker name.
43. Overwhelms: SWAMPS.
44. Rollercoaster ride, e.g.: THRILL.
45. Former Disney chief: EISNER. Michael.
46. Rainforest rodent: AGOUTI.
47. Part of a conspiracy: IN ON IT. From prefix com- (together) + spire (breathe), so, to breathe together.
49. Kind of salad dressing: NO OIL. I may have mentioned before that you need (the right) oil to properly absorb the phytochemicals from plants, like carotene, lutein, and various flavenoids.
50. Charged particle: ION. A Greek word meaning "go" adapted by Michael Faraday to label particles that move towards an electrode of opposite charge.
54. Columnist Bombeck: ERMA.
55. Nieuwpoort's river: YSER. Belgium.
57. Courtroom VIPs: DAS. District Attorneys.
58. Test, as an engine: REV.
59. Sra.'s neighboring counterpart: MME. Senorita, mademoiselle. Spanish and French for miss.
Note from Don about today's theme:
"I think secretly that everybody finds a bratty kid more interesting than a thoroughly well-behaved angel. I found some words that describe the bratty behavior, and put them into phrases, wondering when the solver would catch on. It is not the usual kind of puzzle theme, which might make it more of a surprise when the solver comes to the last theme answer. I felt fortunate to find a 15-letter phrase to tidy it up. Next time someone says, “Mind your manners”, you can say “That’s a 15-letter phrase that addresses bratty behavior!"
Puzzle Grid
Al
17A. Battle of the Bulge air assault division: SCREAMING EAGLES. The Army 101st Airborne Division. Timely clue related to Veterans day, today.
23A. Doppelgänger: SPITTING IMAGE. In fiction and folklore, your evil double. Also considered bad luck, or even an omen of death, to see one.
34A. It's hard to get romantic with one: NAGGING HEADACHE. This is probably worse. One percent of the population, really?
48A. Reason to see a mechanic: WHINING ENGINE.
Al here.
Not too much to say about the puzzle construction itself. Not a pangram, missing six letters, no helper squares, better than average theme, and a few clever clues. Parts of the theme did help me for once, the "ing" letters filled in a few spots. So, on with the answers. Don included a note to C.C. about the puzzle, which is included at the end of the write-up.
ACROSS
1. U.S. dept. with a Race to the Top reform prog.: EDUC.ation.
5. Iconic rings: HALOS.
10. Lock style: COIF. Lock of hair. Coif from old French for a skull cap worn with headgear, as under a helmet.
14. JV team member, perhaps: SOPH. Junior Varsity, Sophomore. A second year student, literally an "arguer". From sophume, variant of sophism (specious, fallacious argument).
15. Warning: ALERT. From Italian all'erta "to the height," from erta "lookout, high tower".
16. Back in the day: ONCE.
20. Willows for weavers: OSIERS.
21. Cause to suffer: AIL. What ails you? What is causing you to suffer? Never having looked it up before, I never realized the word had this meaning, but just thought that it referred to a state of health not being good. Even knowing that, I still wouldn't ever say "A cold ails me".
22. Word with meal or cake: OAT. I've never heard of oatcakes (similar to pancakes but with a lot of fiber), most references I found seem to be from the UK. Must be more common there?
27. Name on an airport shuttle: AVIS. They try harder.
29. Incarnation of Vishnu: RAMA.
30. Alice's workplace: DINER. Mel's Diner in the TV series, with Alice played by Linda Lavin. There's also Alice's Restaurant, the spoken "song" by Arlo Guthrie, based on a true story and made into a movie.
31. Yang's partner: YIN. Male/female, day/night. The concept of balance in all things. You cannot have a back of your hand without there being a front.
32. Clue: HINT. From old English hentan "to seize", related to hunt.
33. Cul-de-__: SAC.
40. Important no. to most car buyers: MPG. Miles per gallon.
41. Coastal raptor: ERNE. The "sea eagle".
42. It starts with "http": URL. Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol, Uniform Resource Locator.
43. Sheer: STEEP.
46. Desertlike: ARID.
47. Teeny: ITSY. Could have been itty too.
51. Reservoir borders?: ARS. The letter "R" begins and ends the word reservoir.
52. Besides: TOO.
53. __ Tunes: LOONEY. Warner Bros animation.
60. Court entry: PLEA.
61. Shopping list entries: ITEMS.
62. "Woe __!": IS ME.
63. Some shooters, briefly: SLRS. Single Lens Reflex cameras.
64. Mythical animal kingdom ennead: LIVES. Ennead: "group of nine". A reference to cats.
65. Peter or Paul, but not Mary: TSAR. There were tsarinas named Maria, though. A diversion kind of clue to get you thinking MALE, or folk music instead of rulers.
DOWN
1. Gas acronym: ESSO. Standard Oil initials: SO (say it out loud)
2. Holliday and others: DOCS. The two "L"s were a giveaway to look deeper than calendar dates.
3. Revolting situation: UPRISING. Punny.
4. Nest chorus: CHEEPS.
5. Target of pre-race stretching: HAMSTRING.
6. "__ Baba Bunny": classic Bugs cartoon: ALI.
7. Hall of Fame quarterback Dawson: LEN.
8. Leia's last name: ORGANA. One of her last names... The Star Wars universe. Born Leia Amadala Skywalker, daughter of Darth Vader. Hidden and adopted by Bail Organa, a royal family on Alderan. Also Mrs. Solo after being married.
9. "Shrek!" author William: STEIG.
10. Minor player: COG. Just a nameless tooth on a gear that keeps the wheel turning.
11. Checked out, as a book: ON LOAN.
12. Cooling-off period?: ICE AGE.
13. Uncle at 0001 Cemetery Lane, in '60s TV: FESTER. The Addams Family.
18. First name in shipping: ARI. Aristotle Onassis, Greek shipping magnate.
19. Angular measurement device used in surveying: ALIDADE. Many different types.
24. Bite: TANG. "Serpent's tongue" (thought to be a stinging organ), later "sharp extension of a metal blade", then "sharp taste" followed later.
25. "Count me in!": I'M THERE.
26. Mineral with basal cleavage: MICA.
27. Writer Rand: AYN. Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead.
28. Routing word: VIA. Latin, by way of.
32. __ Hop: bouncing ball brand: HIPPITY.
33. Time-measuring device: SANDGLASS. During the voyage of Ferdinand Magellan around the globe, his vessels kept 18 hourglasses per ship. It was the job of a ship's page to turn the hourglasses and thus provide the times for the ship's log.
35. Feds: G-MEN.
36. "__ go bragh!": ERIN.
37. Kitten's quality: CUTENESS.
38. Retail posting: Abbr.: HRS. Open hours.
39. Callaway of golf equipment fame: ELY. The founder and also the stock ticker name.
43. Overwhelms: SWAMPS.
44. Rollercoaster ride, e.g.: THRILL.
45. Former Disney chief: EISNER. Michael.
46. Rainforest rodent: AGOUTI.
47. Part of a conspiracy: IN ON IT. From prefix com- (together) + spire (breathe), so, to breathe together.
49. Kind of salad dressing: NO OIL. I may have mentioned before that you need (the right) oil to properly absorb the phytochemicals from plants, like carotene, lutein, and various flavenoids.
50. Charged particle: ION. A Greek word meaning "go" adapted by Michael Faraday to label particles that move towards an electrode of opposite charge.
54. Columnist Bombeck: ERMA.
55. Nieuwpoort's river: YSER. Belgium.
57. Courtroom VIPs: DAS. District Attorneys.
58. Test, as an engine: REV.
59. Sra.'s neighboring counterpart: MME. Senorita, mademoiselle. Spanish and French for miss.
Note from Don about today's theme:
"I think secretly that everybody finds a bratty kid more interesting than a thoroughly well-behaved angel. I found some words that describe the bratty behavior, and put them into phrases, wondering when the solver would catch on. It is not the usual kind of puzzle theme, which might make it more of a surprise when the solver comes to the last theme answer. I felt fortunate to find a 15-letter phrase to tidy it up. Next time someone says, “Mind your manners”, you can say “That’s a 15-letter phrase that addresses bratty behavior!"
Puzzle Grid
Al
Thursday, November 4, 2010
LA Times, Thu, Nov 4, 2010 Author: Allan E. Parrish
Theme: "You have to find the key" to unlock this puzzle. The reveal entry was no help: 50D. Clue for 20-, 32-, 39- and 48-Across: LOCK.
20. See 50-Down: CERTAIN WINNER. "It's a lock." A Dutch book is a set of odds and bets which guarantees a profit to the bookmaker no matter what happens in the contest.
32. See 50-Down: HAIR CLUSTER. A tress, curl or ringlet. A common superstition is to keep a lock of hair from a baby's first haircut, for luck.
39. See 50-Down: CANAL DEVICE. Lock, in the sense of a barrier or an enclosure on a waterway.
48. See 50-Down: WRESTLING HOLD. Headlock, hammerlock, etc.
Al here.
This was tough, and a catch-22 at that. You needed the clue to get the theme, but you needed to solve the theme answers to figure out the clue. I think I spent close to 40 minutes on this one picking away a few letters at a time, some guesses, then looking away and seeing how to make words out of the few perps I could manage. The last letter to fall was the C at the cross of Cozened and Canal device. Imagine how that across word looked with the beginning letter missing... The three and four letter answers were outnumbered today: only 33, compared to 39 answers of five letters or longer.
ACROSS:
1. Home of Brigham Young University: PROVO. Utah.
6. __ Mahal: TAJ.
9. Fat substitute brand in some potato chips: OLEAN. A brand name for olestra, a fat substitute, infamous for its unpleasant side-effects, such as reduced digestive absorption of fat-soluble vitamins, and steatorrhea (I leave looking up this word to you). Although, to be fair, it can also bind with dioxins, the same as normal fat, and so might be useful someday to treat victims of dioxin poisoning.
14. Not loaded: SOBER. Misdirected to think of firearms and ammunition, so EMPTY came to mind.
15. Ambient music pioneer: ENO. Such works as "Music for Airports". It might make you sleepy and miss your flight...
16. Swindler with a scheme named for him: PONZI. A fraudulent scheme of paying investors a little from what is collected from continuous new investors. Bernie Madoff ran the largest one in history.
17. Hemlock, for one: EVERGREEN. An interesting choice for a clue. They do belong to the family of evergreens, but hemlock needles turn yellow and fall off just like deciduous trees, so they are not always green year-round.
19. Grain disease: ERGOT. Mainly affecting the rye family of grains, alkaloids are produced that if eaten can cause convulsions and even gangrene.
22. Covet: ENVY.
23. Battery, bond or baseball club designation: AAA. An AAA bond rating means the company issuing it is extremely credit-worthy, i.e. prime. BBB or lower are considered "junk" bonds. They go down to D or "in default". AAA minor league players can be invited up to play in the majors.
24. Belgrade's land: SERBIA. A portion of what was formerly Yugoslavia.
27. Libel and slander disputes are part of it: CIVIL LAW. A legal system inspired by Roman law, the primary feature of which is that laws are written into a collection, codified, and not (as in common law) determined by judges.
34. Brit. record co.: EMI. Electric & Music Industries, Ltd.
35. Spanish pronoun: ESTA.
36. Restful resort: SPA. Name taken from a mineral springs resort in Belgium. Waloon for spring, fountain.
37. Prayer opener: O GOD.
38. Old-fashioned get-together: BEE. As in the sense of social insects working busily together in a common cause.
43. "Beanz meanz Heinz," e.g.: AD SLOGAN. From Gaelic sluagh-ghairm, a battle cry used by Scottish Highland or Irish clans," from sluagh "army, host, slew" + gairm "a cry".
45. Truck capacity: ONE TON. Guessed at the TON ending, but had to wait for at least one perp for the rest.
46. AIDS-fighting drug: AZT. Azidothymidine.
47. __ dire: juror examination: VOIR. From O.Fr. voir “true” + dire “to say.”
54. Foreign: ALIEN. Xenophobia is the irrational fear of foreigners.
56. "The Dick Van Dyke Show" regular: ROSE MARIE. Her role was a comedy writer, Sally Rogers along with Buddy Sorrell, played by Morie Amsterdam.
57. __ Nast: CONDE. Worldwide publisher of such magazines as Vogue, Allure, Golf Digest, Wired, many others.
58. Winter hazard: ICE. Can't argue with that. Although, I wouldn't want to be out in this hailstorm in Georgia, and that's nothing to do with winter. If you click it, watch for at least 25 seconds.
59. Family nickname: AUNTY. Hubby? Wifey? Sissy?
60. Tolerated: STOOD. "That's all I can stands, I can't stands no more." ala Popeye the sailor.
61. Gives the go-ahead: OKS. A long explanation and debunking of other explanations: oll korrect, a deliberate misspelling.
62. Tart fruit: SLOES. They do look like little plums.
DOWN:
1. Minute segment of a min.: PSEC. Picosecond. That is one trillionth, or 0.000 000 000 001 seconds. A picosecond is to one second as one second is to 31,700 years.
2. Wander: ROVE.
3. Upper, in Ulm: OBER. German city, word for over, as in above.
4. Spinal column component: VERTEBRA.
5. Like some farming: ORGANIC.
6. Minute: TEENY.
7. Fresh way to start: ANEW.
8. "Help Me" vocalist Mitchell: JONI.
9. Alfresco: OPEN AIR. Confusingly, al fresco also means "painted on plaster that is still wet".
10. Maker of EverPure shampoo: LOREAL.
11. Former Caltech sr., perhaps: ENGR. Senior in college, Engineer abbrevs.
12. __ dye: chemical coloring: AZO. JZB just explained this the other day.
13. Little thing to pick: NIT. I always wonder why this has a bad connotation. Seems like a useful service. I wouldn't to leave them on me.
18. Competitor: RIVAL. Latin rivalis originally, "one who uses the same stream" (or "one on the opposite side of the stream"), from rivus "brook" The notion is of the competitiveness of neighbors.
21. Basilica section: NAVE. The main portion of a church, connected with naval from Latin navis "ship" based on some vague resemblance.
24. Ancient queendom: SHEBA.
25. Let up: EASED.
26. Customary ceremonies: RITES.
27. It covers the Hill: C-SPAN. Live TV coverage of the House of Representatives. C-Span2 covers the Senate. If Brian Eno's ambient music was being played on either station, you'd never wake up...
28. Da Vinci's lang.: ITAL.ian
29. On the up and up: LEGIT.
30. It started as Standard Oil of Indiana: AMOCO. American Oil Co, now merged with British Petroleum.
31. Expand: WIDEN.
33. John McCain's alma mater: Abbr.: USNA. United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD.
37. Revamp: OVERHAUL. Originally nautical, "pull rigging apart for examination," which was done by slackening the rope by pulling in the opposite direction to that in which it is pulled in hoisting.
39. Hoodwinked: COZENED. Uncertain origin, but perhaps from French cousiner "cheat on pretext of being a cousin;" or from Middle English cosyn "fraud, trickery"
40. "The X-Files" extras: Abbr.: AGTS. FBI agents and extra terrestrials. What's not to love? The truth is out there.
41. Ridd's love, in a Blackmore romance: DOONE. Lorna.
42. They're hard to figure out: ENIGMAS. Riddles. Same length, too.
44. Rio Grande city: LAREDO. Texas.
47. Workshop gadgets: VISES.
48. Skid row figure: WINO.
49. Charlie's Angels, e.g.: TRIO. Tricky, since there were six of them, just not all at the same time.
51. "Deal __ Deal": OR NO. Howie Mandel's game show. Wishful thinking. For the money, of course; what did you think I meant?
52. Lo-cal: LITE.
53. Bygone Tunisian rulers: DEYS. "Title of a military commander in Muslim north Africa," from Turk. dai "maternal uncle," a friendly title used of older men, especially by the Janissaries of Algiers of their commanding officers.
54. Summer coolers, briefly: ACS. Air conditioners.
55. Used car site: LOT.
Answer Grid
Al
20. See 50-Down: CERTAIN WINNER. "It's a lock." A Dutch book is a set of odds and bets which guarantees a profit to the bookmaker no matter what happens in the contest.
32. See 50-Down: HAIR CLUSTER. A tress, curl or ringlet. A common superstition is to keep a lock of hair from a baby's first haircut, for luck.
39. See 50-Down: CANAL DEVICE. Lock, in the sense of a barrier or an enclosure on a waterway.
48. See 50-Down: WRESTLING HOLD. Headlock, hammerlock, etc.
Al here.
This was tough, and a catch-22 at that. You needed the clue to get the theme, but you needed to solve the theme answers to figure out the clue. I think I spent close to 40 minutes on this one picking away a few letters at a time, some guesses, then looking away and seeing how to make words out of the few perps I could manage. The last letter to fall was the C at the cross of Cozened and Canal device. Imagine how that across word looked with the beginning letter missing... The three and four letter answers were outnumbered today: only 33, compared to 39 answers of five letters or longer.
ACROSS:
1. Home of Brigham Young University: PROVO. Utah.
6. __ Mahal: TAJ.
9. Fat substitute brand in some potato chips: OLEAN. A brand name for olestra, a fat substitute, infamous for its unpleasant side-effects, such as reduced digestive absorption of fat-soluble vitamins, and steatorrhea (I leave looking up this word to you). Although, to be fair, it can also bind with dioxins, the same as normal fat, and so might be useful someday to treat victims of dioxin poisoning.
14. Not loaded: SOBER. Misdirected to think of firearms and ammunition, so EMPTY came to mind.
15. Ambient music pioneer: ENO. Such works as "Music for Airports". It might make you sleepy and miss your flight...
16. Swindler with a scheme named for him: PONZI. A fraudulent scheme of paying investors a little from what is collected from continuous new investors. Bernie Madoff ran the largest one in history.
17. Hemlock, for one: EVERGREEN. An interesting choice for a clue. They do belong to the family of evergreens, but hemlock needles turn yellow and fall off just like deciduous trees, so they are not always green year-round.
19. Grain disease: ERGOT. Mainly affecting the rye family of grains, alkaloids are produced that if eaten can cause convulsions and even gangrene.
22. Covet: ENVY.
23. Battery, bond or baseball club designation: AAA. An AAA bond rating means the company issuing it is extremely credit-worthy, i.e. prime. BBB or lower are considered "junk" bonds. They go down to D or "in default". AAA minor league players can be invited up to play in the majors.
24. Belgrade's land: SERBIA. A portion of what was formerly Yugoslavia.
27. Libel and slander disputes are part of it: CIVIL LAW. A legal system inspired by Roman law, the primary feature of which is that laws are written into a collection, codified, and not (as in common law) determined by judges.
34. Brit. record co.: EMI. Electric & Music Industries, Ltd.
35. Spanish pronoun: ESTA.
36. Restful resort: SPA. Name taken from a mineral springs resort in Belgium. Waloon for spring, fountain.
37. Prayer opener: O GOD.
38. Old-fashioned get-together: BEE. As in the sense of social insects working busily together in a common cause.
43. "Beanz meanz Heinz," e.g.: AD SLOGAN. From Gaelic sluagh-ghairm, a battle cry used by Scottish Highland or Irish clans," from sluagh "army, host, slew" + gairm "a cry".
45. Truck capacity: ONE TON. Guessed at the TON ending, but had to wait for at least one perp for the rest.
46. AIDS-fighting drug: AZT. Azidothymidine.
47. __ dire: juror examination: VOIR. From O.Fr. voir “true” + dire “to say.”
54. Foreign: ALIEN. Xenophobia is the irrational fear of foreigners.
56. "The Dick Van Dyke Show" regular: ROSE MARIE. Her role was a comedy writer, Sally Rogers along with Buddy Sorrell, played by Morie Amsterdam.
57. __ Nast: CONDE. Worldwide publisher of such magazines as Vogue, Allure, Golf Digest, Wired, many others.
58. Winter hazard: ICE. Can't argue with that. Although, I wouldn't want to be out in this hailstorm in Georgia, and that's nothing to do with winter. If you click it, watch for at least 25 seconds.
59. Family nickname: AUNTY. Hubby? Wifey? Sissy?
60. Tolerated: STOOD. "That's all I can stands, I can't stands no more." ala Popeye the sailor.
61. Gives the go-ahead: OKS. A long explanation and debunking of other explanations: oll korrect, a deliberate misspelling.
62. Tart fruit: SLOES. They do look like little plums.
DOWN:
1. Minute segment of a min.: PSEC. Picosecond. That is one trillionth, or 0.000 000 000 001 seconds. A picosecond is to one second as one second is to 31,700 years.
2. Wander: ROVE.
3. Upper, in Ulm: OBER. German city, word for over, as in above.
4. Spinal column component: VERTEBRA.
5. Like some farming: ORGANIC.
6. Minute: TEENY.
7. Fresh way to start: ANEW.
8. "Help Me" vocalist Mitchell: JONI.
9. Alfresco: OPEN AIR. Confusingly, al fresco also means "painted on plaster that is still wet".
10. Maker of EverPure shampoo: LOREAL.
11. Former Caltech sr., perhaps: ENGR. Senior in college, Engineer abbrevs.
12. __ dye: chemical coloring: AZO. JZB just explained this the other day.
13. Little thing to pick: NIT. I always wonder why this has a bad connotation. Seems like a useful service. I wouldn't to leave them on me.
18. Competitor: RIVAL. Latin rivalis originally, "one who uses the same stream" (or "one on the opposite side of the stream"), from rivus "brook" The notion is of the competitiveness of neighbors.
21. Basilica section: NAVE. The main portion of a church, connected with naval from Latin navis "ship" based on some vague resemblance.
24. Ancient queendom: SHEBA.
25. Let up: EASED.
26. Customary ceremonies: RITES.
27. It covers the Hill: C-SPAN. Live TV coverage of the House of Representatives. C-Span2 covers the Senate. If Brian Eno's ambient music was being played on either station, you'd never wake up...
28. Da Vinci's lang.: ITAL.ian
29. On the up and up: LEGIT.
30. It started as Standard Oil of Indiana: AMOCO. American Oil Co, now merged with British Petroleum.
31. Expand: WIDEN.
33. John McCain's alma mater: Abbr.: USNA. United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD.
37. Revamp: OVERHAUL. Originally nautical, "pull rigging apart for examination," which was done by slackening the rope by pulling in the opposite direction to that in which it is pulled in hoisting.
39. Hoodwinked: COZENED. Uncertain origin, but perhaps from French cousiner "cheat on pretext of being a cousin;" or from Middle English cosyn "fraud, trickery"
40. "The X-Files" extras: Abbr.: AGTS. FBI agents and extra terrestrials. What's not to love? The truth is out there.
41. Ridd's love, in a Blackmore romance: DOONE. Lorna.
42. They're hard to figure out: ENIGMAS. Riddles. Same length, too.
44. Rio Grande city: LAREDO. Texas.
47. Workshop gadgets: VISES.
48. Skid row figure: WINO.
49. Charlie's Angels, e.g.: TRIO. Tricky, since there were six of them, just not all at the same time.
51. "Deal __ Deal": OR NO. Howie Mandel's game show. Wishful thinking. For the money, of course; what did you think I meant?
52. Lo-cal: LITE.
53. Bygone Tunisian rulers: DEYS. "Title of a military commander in Muslim north Africa," from Turk. dai "maternal uncle," a friendly title used of older men, especially by the Janissaries of Algiers of their commanding officers.
54. Summer coolers, briefly: ACS. Air conditioners.
55. Used car site: LOT.
Answer Grid
Al
Thursday, October 28, 2010
LA Times, Thu, Oct 28, 2010 Author: Jascha Smilack
Theme: Inverted phrases. The first and third words of common phrases are switched and wackily clued with a "?" indicator. The altered phrases all end with "THE" and a three letter word.
18A. Libertarian slogan?: FIRE THE FED. Libertarians hold that if it is not explicitly provided for in the constitution, that it should not be dealt with or (especially) paid for on a federal level, it is the domain of each individual state to deal with it (or not) instead (as explicitly provided in the Constitution's tenth amendment, State's Rights). /Fed the fire. (What talking about politics will do)
24A. Finish an ascent?: SCALE THE TIP. Climb to the top./Tip the scale.
35A. Tidy up in a wood shop?: DUST THE BIT. Keep your tools clean./Bit the dust. Died.
43A. Floor an oppressive boss?: DECK THE MAN. Punch a jerk./Man the deck. Get to your station on a ship
51A. Value one's vision?: PRIZE THE EYE. Eye the prize. Keep your eyes on the prize was a 50s/60s folk song during the civil rights movement.
62A. Send a star pitcher for an MRI?: TEST THE ACE. Magnetic Resonance Imaging/Ace the test. Score very highly.
Al here.
Heavy themage today, which didn't help in the least with solving, and no revealing clue was included in the puzzle. It was like solving a second puzzle to suss out what was going on, which was kind of fun, actually. Interesting to see a symmetry with six theme entries. Four or five are more common, with the occasional seven that Dan N. usually provided. A pangram, to boot. The (small) price to pay for XTRA features in the construction is accepting that a few more abbrevs are necessary here and there for fill.
ACROSS:
1. Fat job?: LIPO. Suction.
5. Interstate exit: RAMP.
9. See 12-Down: AFTER. And 12D. With 9-Across, fairy tale ender: EVER. Happily for some. Has anyone read the actual book Wicked (I know, I know, there's a musical), the story from the point of view of the Witch of the West? What if all fairy tales were actually like that?
14. Pararescue gp.: USAF. A division of the US Air Force that does search and rescue missions.
15. Organic compound: ENOL.
16. Hanker for: CRAVE. Probably from Flemish hankeren, related to Dutch hunkeren "to hanker," intensifier of Middle Dutch hangen "to hang." The notion is of "lingering about" with longing or craving.
17. Poet who wrote, about children, "And if they are popular / The phone they monopular": NASH. Ogden. Also the shortest poem ever (about fleas): Adam had 'em.
20. Rich sponge cake: GATEAU. I am now scarred for life from doing a google image search for this, even with safe image search set to moderate.
22. Pithy saying: SAW. An adage, an aphorism, an apothegm, usually terse, i.e., if something can go wrong, it will.
23. NFL game foursome: QTRS. Quarters. There are six referees, so refs didn't work.
27. Buying outing: SPREE. From French: "esprit", lively. This would not be me during shopping.
28. Cones and prisms: SOLIDS. 3-D geometrric figures.
33. Farm expanse: LEA. An open field or meadow.
38. Grads: ALUMS.
41. Sandwich request: RYE. My first thought was SUB.
42. Untrusting: LEERY.
46. __ scripta: written law: LEX. Explicity stated law, as opposed to lex non scripta, common law, set by precedent.
47. It's often served with lemon: ICE TEA. Some day a clever constructor will include the "D" and everyone will all be confused.
48. It can be rolled, pressed or stuffed: SUSHI.
56. Warrior trained by the centaur Chiron: AJAX. If I read it right, the great grandson of Zeus, also the cousin of Achilles.
60. It merged with AT&T in 2005: SBC. Southwestern Bell Corp.
61. Be amazed (at): MARVEL. Shazam!
65. Like pretzels: BENT. Baked in the shape of folded arms. Pretzel traces back to a word for branches.
66. D.C. underground: METRO. A Subway system that branches out to the suburbs above ground..
67. "Rigoletto" highlight: ARIA. Not a happily ever after fairy tale... In this opera a licentious Duke ravishes his jester's daughter; the jester's revenge goes tragically awry with his daughter's death.
68. Concerning: AS TO.
69. Dust crops, e.g.: SPRAY.
70. Certain NCO: MSGT. Master Sergeant.
71. A library book may be on it: LOAN.
DOWN:
1. Airway termini: LUNGS. I was fooled into thinking about airports, not where your bronchi attach.
2. Stern with a Strad: ISAAC. Fiddler behind the scenes...
3. Noodle topper: PASTA SAUCE.
4. Useful: OF HELP. Needed perp help for this.
5. Proved false: REFUTED. The "correct" original meaning of refute. The meaning has been shifting towards "to deny" since the 60's, as used with the word "allegations".
6. "Star Wars" saga nickname: ANI. Anikin Skywalker, Darth Vader, who says "Yippee" in the fourth movie released, which is chronologically the beginning.
7. Code creator: MORSE. Samuel. Co-created "American Morse Code", also called Railroad code, with Alfred Vail. Since 1865, International Morse code has been used instead, with "American" being limited to re-enactments only.
8. Fabric fold: PLEAT. Also a flounce, apparently.
9. Günter's gripe: ACH. German Oh! An interjection.
10. Radio abbr.: FREQ.uency.
11. 300-pound president: TAFT. William Howard. 27th president and later the10th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. The only person to have served both offices.
13. Great American Ball Park team: REDS. Cincinnati.
19. Checker's dance: TWIST. Chubby Checker (Ernest Evans). It was a cover of the B-side song by R&B artist Hank Ballard. Popularized thanks to Dick Clark and American Bandstand.
21. Flying prefix: AER. Latin air.
25. One of 24 in un jour: HEURE. French, 24 hours in a day.
26. Sci-fi writer Frederik: POHL. Prolific author and editor.
29. Sheltered side: LEE. So odd to see it without the "A".
30. "That's my take": I BELIEVE SO.
31. Desperate: DIRE. As in circumstances.
32. Charon's river: STYX. Don't pay the ferryman until he gets you to the other side.
33. __-da: pretentious: LA-DI.
34. Juice: Abbr.: ELEC.tricity
36. Orch. work: SYM. Orchestra, symphony.
37. Flirt: TEASE. One who does, is.
39. NYSE, e.g.: MKT. New York Stock Exchange, Stock Market.
40. Stride: STEP.
44. Caustic: HARSH. I had BASIC in there briefly because lye is a very strong base. Caustic lye is the opposite of acid, but no less destructive. Sort of like the two-party system. If you try to mix the two extremes together, sparks really fly and everything in between gets hurt.
45. Edible part of a pecan: NUTMEAT. Pecan, a word from our crossword friends, the Cree: pakan, hard-shelled nut. So, how do you say it? PEEcahn, payKAHN, or PEE-CAN?
49. Doo-wop syllable: SHA. A blast from the past.
50. Like some supplements: HERBAL.
52. Building girder: I-BEAM. Guessed _beam right away, and 53D. Many Nissan autos: Z-CARS. Similarly got _cars, but had to wait for the leading letters for both. Which was tough because the theme perp wasn't helping.
54. Busybody: YENTA. From Yente Telebende, comic strip gossip in 1920s-30s writing of Yiddish newspaper humorist B. Kovner (pen-name of Jacob Adler).
55. John with Grammys: ELTON. Who else could it be?
56. Green dispensers: ATMS. Not fooled this time, filled immediately.
57. Wrangler, for one: JEEP. An SUV or UTE.
58. Copernicus's sci.: ASTR. Science, astronomy.
59. Bonus, in adspeak: XTRA.
63. Peke, e.g.: TOY. Pekingese dog, toy breed.
64. One might be bummed, briefly: CIG.arette
Answer grid.
Al
18A. Libertarian slogan?: FIRE THE FED. Libertarians hold that if it is not explicitly provided for in the constitution, that it should not be dealt with or (especially) paid for on a federal level, it is the domain of each individual state to deal with it (or not) instead (as explicitly provided in the Constitution's tenth amendment, State's Rights). /Fed the fire. (What talking about politics will do)
24A. Finish an ascent?: SCALE THE TIP. Climb to the top./Tip the scale.
35A. Tidy up in a wood shop?: DUST THE BIT. Keep your tools clean./Bit the dust. Died.
43A. Floor an oppressive boss?: DECK THE MAN. Punch a jerk./Man the deck. Get to your station on a ship
51A. Value one's vision?: PRIZE THE EYE. Eye the prize. Keep your eyes on the prize was a 50s/60s folk song during the civil rights movement.
62A. Send a star pitcher for an MRI?: TEST THE ACE. Magnetic Resonance Imaging/Ace the test. Score very highly.
Al here.
Heavy themage today, which didn't help in the least with solving, and no revealing clue was included in the puzzle. It was like solving a second puzzle to suss out what was going on, which was kind of fun, actually. Interesting to see a symmetry with six theme entries. Four or five are more common, with the occasional seven that Dan N. usually provided. A pangram, to boot. The (small) price to pay for XTRA features in the construction is accepting that a few more abbrevs are necessary here and there for fill.
ACROSS:
1. Fat job?: LIPO. Suction.
5. Interstate exit: RAMP.
9. See 12-Down: AFTER. And 12D. With 9-Across, fairy tale ender: EVER. Happily for some. Has anyone read the actual book Wicked (I know, I know, there's a musical), the story from the point of view of the Witch of the West? What if all fairy tales were actually like that?
14. Pararescue gp.: USAF. A division of the US Air Force that does search and rescue missions.
15. Organic compound: ENOL.
16. Hanker for: CRAVE. Probably from Flemish hankeren, related to Dutch hunkeren "to hanker," intensifier of Middle Dutch hangen "to hang." The notion is of "lingering about" with longing or craving.
17. Poet who wrote, about children, "And if they are popular / The phone they monopular": NASH. Ogden. Also the shortest poem ever (about fleas): Adam had 'em.
20. Rich sponge cake: GATEAU. I am now scarred for life from doing a google image search for this, even with safe image search set to moderate.
22. Pithy saying: SAW. An adage, an aphorism, an apothegm, usually terse, i.e., if something can go wrong, it will.
23. NFL game foursome: QTRS. Quarters. There are six referees, so refs didn't work.
27. Buying outing: SPREE. From French: "esprit", lively. This would not be me during shopping.
28. Cones and prisms: SOLIDS. 3-D geometrric figures.
33. Farm expanse: LEA. An open field or meadow.
38. Grads: ALUMS.
41. Sandwich request: RYE. My first thought was SUB.
42. Untrusting: LEERY.
46. __ scripta: written law: LEX. Explicity stated law, as opposed to lex non scripta, common law, set by precedent.
47. It's often served with lemon: ICE TEA. Some day a clever constructor will include the "D" and everyone will all be confused.
48. It can be rolled, pressed or stuffed: SUSHI.
56. Warrior trained by the centaur Chiron: AJAX. If I read it right, the great grandson of Zeus, also the cousin of Achilles.
60. It merged with AT&T in 2005: SBC. Southwestern Bell Corp.
61. Be amazed (at): MARVEL. Shazam!
65. Like pretzels: BENT. Baked in the shape of folded arms. Pretzel traces back to a word for branches.
66. D.C. underground: METRO. A Subway system that branches out to the suburbs above ground..
67. "Rigoletto" highlight: ARIA. Not a happily ever after fairy tale... In this opera a licentious Duke ravishes his jester's daughter; the jester's revenge goes tragically awry with his daughter's death.
68. Concerning: AS TO.
69. Dust crops, e.g.: SPRAY.
70. Certain NCO: MSGT. Master Sergeant.
71. A library book may be on it: LOAN.
DOWN:
1. Airway termini: LUNGS. I was fooled into thinking about airports, not where your bronchi attach.
2. Stern with a Strad: ISAAC. Fiddler behind the scenes...
3. Noodle topper: PASTA SAUCE.
4. Useful: OF HELP. Needed perp help for this.
5. Proved false: REFUTED. The "correct" original meaning of refute. The meaning has been shifting towards "to deny" since the 60's, as used with the word "allegations".
6. "Star Wars" saga nickname: ANI. Anikin Skywalker, Darth Vader, who says "Yippee" in the fourth movie released, which is chronologically the beginning.
7. Code creator: MORSE. Samuel. Co-created "American Morse Code", also called Railroad code, with Alfred Vail. Since 1865, International Morse code has been used instead, with "American" being limited to re-enactments only.
8. Fabric fold: PLEAT. Also a flounce, apparently.
9. Günter's gripe: ACH. German Oh! An interjection.
10. Radio abbr.: FREQ.uency.
11. 300-pound president: TAFT. William Howard. 27th president and later the10th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. The only person to have served both offices.
13. Great American Ball Park team: REDS. Cincinnati.
19. Checker's dance: TWIST. Chubby Checker (Ernest Evans). It was a cover of the B-side song by R&B artist Hank Ballard. Popularized thanks to Dick Clark and American Bandstand.
21. Flying prefix: AER. Latin air.
25. One of 24 in un jour: HEURE. French, 24 hours in a day.
26. Sci-fi writer Frederik: POHL. Prolific author and editor.
29. Sheltered side: LEE. So odd to see it without the "A".
30. "That's my take": I BELIEVE SO.
31. Desperate: DIRE. As in circumstances.
32. Charon's river: STYX. Don't pay the ferryman until he gets you to the other side.
33. __-da: pretentious: LA-DI.
34. Juice: Abbr.: ELEC.tricity
36. Orch. work: SYM. Orchestra, symphony.
37. Flirt: TEASE. One who does, is.
39. NYSE, e.g.: MKT. New York Stock Exchange, Stock Market.
40. Stride: STEP.
44. Caustic: HARSH. I had BASIC in there briefly because lye is a very strong base. Caustic lye is the opposite of acid, but no less destructive. Sort of like the two-party system. If you try to mix the two extremes together, sparks really fly and everything in between gets hurt.
45. Edible part of a pecan: NUTMEAT. Pecan, a word from our crossword friends, the Cree: pakan, hard-shelled nut. So, how do you say it? PEEcahn, payKAHN, or PEE-CAN?
49. Doo-wop syllable: SHA. A blast from the past.
50. Like some supplements: HERBAL.
52. Building girder: I-BEAM. Guessed _beam right away, and 53D. Many Nissan autos: Z-CARS. Similarly got _cars, but had to wait for the leading letters for both. Which was tough because the theme perp wasn't helping.
54. Busybody: YENTA. From Yente Telebende, comic strip gossip in 1920s-30s writing of Yiddish newspaper humorist B. Kovner (pen-name of Jacob Adler).
55. John with Grammys: ELTON. Who else could it be?
56. Green dispensers: ATMS. Not fooled this time, filled immediately.
57. Wrangler, for one: JEEP. An SUV or UTE.
58. Copernicus's sci.: ASTR. Science, astronomy.
59. Bonus, in adspeak: XTRA.
63. Peke, e.g.: TOY. Pekingese dog, toy breed.
64. One might be bummed, briefly: CIG.arette
Answer grid.
Al
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