google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Mark Feldman

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Showing posts with label Mark Feldman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mark Feldman. Show all posts

Jan 23, 2013

Wednesday Jan 23, 2013 Mark Feldman

Theme: Fun with Fauna, or Fauna-cation

The eight theme answers dotted throughout today's puzzle pair an animal with a noun to come up with a well-known word or phrase.

18A. Animal's paw warmer? : FOXGLOVE. We used to put foxgloves on our fingers as kids and pretend we had purple and green talons.


29A. Animal's hiking gear? : RAT PACK. Was there a rat pack before Sinatra and his cronies? Is "pack" the collective noun for a number of rats? How many more questions can I ask about one clue?

30A. Animal's laundry? : HOGWASH. Hopefully not all of my blog today. Doubtless some of it.

44A. Animal's golf club? : PIG IRON. His partner Fido uses a DOG WOOD.

47A. Animal's undergarment? : COWSLIP. Immediate mental image of the hippos in tutus in Disney's "Fantasia"

54A. Animal's apartment? : MOUSE PAD. The feline who lives in the apartment underneath gets in a CAT FLAP when there's too much noise upstairs.

3D. Animal's timepiece? : DOG WATCH. If you stand the Dog Watch during summer's Dog Days, can you be double-dog dared?

36D. Animal's instrument? : BULLHORN. Bullhorns always seem to crackle, but maybe that's just when someone is quoting cliches through them.

Hi all - Steve here with a fortuitous outing on the day the blog came back from Google's Slough of Despond where it was banished for reasons still unclear. C.C. has been dealing with the bureaucracy that is the Blogger Police Department and deserves a medal and a huge round of applause from everyone for doggedly pursuing justice, freedom and liberty for her blog.

I liked the theme today with eight clues both across and down. Some of the fill was a little scrappy but I'm getting the feeling that's the trade-off you make when you have so many theme answers in a 15x15, but I'm totally out of my depth analyzing puzzle construction and I'll leave that to the experts.

Let's check out the rest:

Across:

1. Exemplar of cruelty : SADIST. The Marquis De Sade's castle is now owned by Pierre Cardin (along with many of the other properties in the village).

7. Approach furtively, with "to" : SIDLE UP

14. Split and united? : ELOPED. Great clue, loved this.

15. 2001 Disney film subtitled "The Lost Empire" : ATLANTIS.

17. Pioneer transports : WAGONS.

19. Boston-to-Providence dir. : SSW I need to brush up on my geography. I pretty well always have to wait for crosses to get these right.

20. Strauss's "__ Rosenkavalier" : DER

21. Neighbor of Ger. : POL. I had "HOL" first and was going to pick nits about Holland not being a country, but then I found out I was wrong. The nits remain unpicked for now.

22. Subject of a China/India/Pakistan territorial dispute : KASHMIR.

26. Tokyo airport : NARITA. My only visits to Japan have been to Narita to change planes. Some day I'll get to stop for longer.

31. Put in a zoo, say : ENCAGE

32. Tippy transport : CANOE. Nice play on Tippecanoe.

33. Suffix like "like" : ISH

34. Sets the pace : LEADS

36. Marcel Marceau character : BIP. M. Marceau is responsible for us all being subjected to watching our friends attempt "man walking against wind" or "man in glass box", always badly.



39. Indian spice : CURRY. Nit Pick alert: "Curry" is a blend of spices.

41. Assistant professor's goal : TENURE.

48. Like some bagels : ONION-Y. My bagels are "everything-y".

49. Undoes, as laws : REPEALS

50. Heart lines: Abbr. : ECG. Electrocardiogram. I thought the "electro" bit was because the monitoring device is electrically-powered, but in fact it measures the electrical activity of the heart muscles.

51. Brief life story? : BIO

52. HEW successor : HHS. I had NO idea about this one. I was trying to think of presidents and eventually the crosses filled it in for me. I went to look it up here.

58. Melodic : ARIOSE. The "R" here was my last letter to complete. I was torn between "RNA" and "DNA" for the down clue, and decided that "ADIOSE" just didn't smell right. WAG'd the R and - Yay!

61. Wet ink concern : SMEARING. When we had to write in pen and ink at school this was truly traumatic. One smear and you start all over again. No UNDO in 1865.

62. Night noises : SNORES. Guilty as charged.

63. One on the lam : ESCAPEE

64. Hot spots : SAUNAS

Down

1. Stitches : SEWS

2. The Palins, e.g. : ALASKANS. My British brain knee-jerked Michael Palin (ex Monty Python) and wondered what his family had done for crossword-recognition.

4. Wall St. debut : I.P.O. Initial Public Offering of part of a company's equity. It used to be done to raise capital for investment, in recent years it's become more of a "cash in your chips" event for the early investors.

5. Obama, before he was pres. : SEN. I was trying to fit "not stressed out".

6. NFL stats : TD'S. Plenty of these in the Conference Championship games on Sunday; let's hope the Superbowl delivers more of the same.

7. More secure : SAFER

8. "Do __ else!" : IT OR. "Please" would be nice.

9. CCLXXX x II : DLX

10. Trail : LAG

11. Lab blowup: Abbr. : ENL. Not the chemistry lab, but a photo enlargement. "Doc" Rees, High School chemistry teacher, bored with tossing little chips of sodium in a beaker of water and watching them catch fire and zip around, went one step beyond on the last day of term and tossed a sizable lump of caesium into the school swimming pool and was lucky not to set fire to us all. Happy Days.

12. Paradise : UTOPIA

13. Turns on one foot : PIVOTS

16. Psalm instruction : SELAH. I'd only ever come across this in the letters of Hunter S. Thompson, it was one of his favorite sign-off lines.

20. Cartoonist Browne : DIK. I had DAN first, it sounded familiar, then it was ohhhh -  no, wait.

23. Health resort : SPA

24. Crone : HAG. "When shall we three meet again?"


25. Neil __, Defense secretary under Eisenhower : MCELROY. Toss-up between this and MCILROY. I guess I've been watching a lot of golf and Rory M. over the last few months.

26. Continuous : NONSTOP. I love nonstop flights, but I'm glad that the pilot decides to break the rules and make one stop.

27. Past : AGO

28. "The American Scholar" essayist's monogram : RWE. One of Emerson's most famous essays. Apparently. (I plead ignorance, I tried to  read "Walden" a number of times and eventually realized that it was going to join "Finnegans Wake"on my shelf of the "will never get past page 20" books.

29. Portuguese king : REI.

30. Swindled : HAD. This is an odd word - I've only heard it in the past tense, and passive at that - "I've been had!"

32. Low islet : CAY

35. Coastal flier : ERN

37. It surrounds the Isle of Man : IRISH SEA. The Isle of Man has no speed limits and hosts a week of motorcycle racing each year on a twisting street circuit around the island. When the racing is finished, the circuit is opened to anyone with a motorcycle and a death wish on a day known as "Suicide Sunday". And yes, people die. Every year.

38. Vigor : PEP

39. Gp. in a 1955 labor merger : C.I.O. Now the AFL/CIO

40. Coffee holder : URN

42. Ram's mate : EWE

43. Ultra-secretive org. : N.S.A. The National Security Agency.

44. Burns bread and butter? : POEMS. Favorite clue of the day. Robert Burns wrote the words to "Auld Lang Syne", mangled by all who sing it today.

45. Tips may be part of it : INCOME. And you must declare these in box something on your tax returns. You promise you will, right?

46. Lively Baroque dances : GIGUES

47. Corp. head honcho : C.E.O.

49. Fingerprint feature : RIDGE. The ridges make up whorls and loops. I don't know anywhere else you find a whorl.


51. Ruination : BANE

53. Cong. meeting : SESS. Congo? Conga? Conger? Ohhhh - Congress - in Session! Gotcha.

55. Anatomical bag : SAC

56. Victorian, for one : ERA

57. Die dot : PIP

58. Donkey : ASS

59. Biological messenger : RNA. Always torn between this and DNA as I mentioned earlier.

60. Debtor's marker : IOU. They don't take these in Vegas, at least not from me. Cash only.

That's it! Have a great day everyone, and Welcome Back Blog! Huzzah!

Steve




Notes from C.C.:

1) So Google (owner of Blogger) wrongly thought we're a spam blog and locked us from Saturday night until early Tuesday night. Here is their answer this morning:

"I wish that it was possible to identify specific characteristics of a given blog, that make it more or less susceptible to spurious spam classification.  Unfortunately, that will never be possible.  Fuzzy spam classification cannot be described, with any certainty, in words. Sorry."


2) In case you missed our puzzle discussions on my Ginger Roots blog, please click here for Sunday post, here for Monday post and here for Tuesday.

3) Captcha will be used in blog Comments section from now on. I know it's hard to recognize those damn letters, but it's a safe measure we need to take. Here are a few tips:

  • Please always save your comments in a Word document or in an email draft. In case you lose your comments to the blog black hole, you can always copy and paste.
  • Argyle discovered that you don't need Captcha to Preview. Captca is involved only when you try to hit the "Publish Your Comment" button.
  • It might take a few tries to get an easy-to-read Captcha. So please be patient. Other bloggers/posters have been using Captcha for a long time. We sure can take up the challenge and overcome this obstacle. This will be a learning experience for all of us.

Thanks again to Husker Gary for taking the time to inform all the regulars in his mailing list about our glitch & move of the blog. Contact him gschlapfer@gmail.com if you want to be included in his list.

Thanks also to TTP for giving me & Argyle detailed explanations about some technical issue. We learned a lot from him.

And to our long-time readers, Thank you so much for your loyalty and support.

May 20, 2011

Friday, May 20, 2011, Mark Feldman

Theme: How to compose a movie pun. Each grid spanning theme answer began its life as a movie title, and by replacing a sound alike word (or words) with the name of a famous composer, a new movie title emerges to the guffaws of many. Having all the theme answers 15 letters obviously took lots of searching of movie titles, as well as undercurrents of more music, more movies and a sub-text of war. Let's see how it all turns out.

17A. Biopic about a time-traveling composer?: BACH TO THE FUTUREJS BACH transforms from the Michael J. Fox series which began with BACK TO THE FUTURE. This one cheated a bit as the sound is off.

27A. Biopic about a composer who is unrecognized in public?: HAYDN PLAIN SIGHT. Another tricky one as you have to know the pronunciation of JOSEPH'S name sounds like HIDE IN PLAIN SIGHT, a James Caan movie that may have started the genre of mysteriously disappearing wives.  The music was the perfect lead into....

48A. Biopic about a composer from a WWII hero's perspective?: SCHINDLER'S LISZT. Where Franz replaces a very moving true story, SCHINDLER'S LIST. To lighten the mood, I suggest this rendition of HUNGARIAN RHAPSODY II.

63A. Biopic about a composer fighting his inner demons?: BATTLE OF BRITTEN.  I was unfamiliar with the work of this British COMPOSER who wrote operas, but I enjoyed the movie BATTLE OF BRITAIN, which had a great CAST.

As you can see we already have direct and indirect references to World War II, and now to continue our tour of duty, corporal Lemonade here as your guide.

Across :

1. Pale: WAN.

4. Mozzetta wearer: ABBOT. This is the little cape worn by the hierarchy of the Catholic Church.

9. Sat: POSED. As in, sat for the portrait.

14. "Exodus" hero: ARI. Played by the late Paul Newman, who many do not know was half Jewish. The war of independence for Israel.

15. Intimate: CLOSE. Well I guess you have to get close to be intimate.

16. Key scene for bursting bombs?: IN AIR. I love this misdirection, with Francis Scott Key and his famous lyric, music bonus #1. More war.

20. "... like __ buzzing in blind fury": Pyle: A BEE. The full quote is, " About every two minutes a wave of planes would be over. The motors seemed to grind rather than roar, and have an angry pulsation, like a bee buzzing in blind fury." Written by the Pulitzer prize winning World War II correspondent ERNIE PYLE who died on the battlefield in Okinawa. More war.

21. Go after: CHASE. Like when you play golf, you go after your ball.

22. Traveling, in a way: ASEA. Our favorite A word.

23. Builder's options: SITES. This actually may mean houses, or we can webify it into websites.

25. __ avis: RARA. Not rare around here, lately.

34. Heavy: SOLEMN. Like certain duty.

35. Rondeaux, e.g.: POEMS. I will let our resident expert CA explain more, but this is a formalized type of poetry. The most famous of which I have any knowledge is In Flanders Fields by John McCrae, which is about World War I.

36. Go astray: SIN. Hey, it was only an extra cookie.

39. Switch words: ON OFF. Simple, but I liked it.

41. Political pacifier: SOP. An old timey word, that I believe fits more than politics.

42. Ruled quarters?: ROOST. King of the hill, hence the name Rooster.

45. Devised, with "up": DREAMT. Like so many schemes in life.

53. Absorbed by: INTO. Dancing with the Stars, American Idol, what is the Corner into these days?

54. Legendary luster: SATYR. Love a good alliterative clue.

55. Tiny amount: IOTA. A Greek letter, which was like our little i, and to signify nothing would be changed, not a single IOTA would be altered.

57. Sting: SMART. This interesting synonym pair can mean both physical and mental pain.

62. Zilch: NADA. Zip, Zero, Nothing, Nil and on and on.

66. Grenoble's river: ISERE. Must for puzzle doing.

67. Put to the test: TRIED. Yes, the product was tried and true.

68. Former transp. regulator: ICC. Interstate Commerce Commission was charged with overseeing the railroads; created under President Grover Cleveland, it later regulated trucking, but it was discarded during the great deregulation wave of the 80's and 90's.

69. Itzhak Perlman choice: STRAD. The great violinist like his Stradivarius, a bonus music.

70. Takes to the cleaners: HOSES. Eh,

71. Canadian LPGA golfer Dawn __-Jones: COE. This was obscure, but very short, so it should not have been a problem.

On to the rest.

Down:

1. Indiana county or its seat: WABASH. Interestingly, the home of one of the rail companies regulated by the ICC, and the name of a famous train of song, the Wabash Cannonball.

2. Where Mecca is: ARABIA. Where the pilgrimage ends.

3. Civilized feature: NICETY. Yes, let us all play together and observe the niceties.

4. Put-on: ACT. The put-on, like Andy Kaufman, or Cliff Arquette as Charlie Weaver used to be more popular.

5. Alliance: BLOC. For example, the now defunct Soviet bloc.

6. This and that: BOTH. Another simple, but deceptive little clue.

7. Pub. of a "Distracted Driving" brochure: OSHA. Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

8. Some shirts: TEES. Remember when they were just undershirts and not shirts?

9. More, in music: PIU. More bonus music, I wish I were JzB, but I think it just means more, like PIU Allegro, would mean faster.

10. Where London is: ONTARIO. Very nice, as Canada has its own London near Toronto.

11. Some links: SAUSAGES. I wanted a golf course, especially since there are so many links courses in....

12. Limerick land: EIRE. Ireland.

13. "The Sopranos" actress __ de Matteo: DREA. The poor waitress who hooks up with Chris, becomes a government spy and pays the ultimate price- working on a sitcom with Matt LeBlanc.

18. Doesn't ignore: HEEDS.

19. Spore producer: FERN. Ah, spring and Allegra not allegro.

24. Cat lead-in: SNO. Geez, again?

26. Old Egyptian symbol: ASP. This snake is back.

28. Abbas's gp.: PLO. Mahmoud Abbas took over the Palestine Liberation Organisation upon the death of Yasser Arafat, and won't let go, causing another rift between Fatah and Hamas.

29. He appeared in eight consecutive U.S. Open finals: LENDL. Ivan, a Czech star who along with countryman Petr Korda has raised a daughter who is looking to play professional golf.

30. Love overseas: AMORE. Sounds more romantic doesn't it.

31. Figure: INFER. Another stretch here, but I figured it out from the clue.

32. Ins. plan: HMO. Health Maintenance Organisation

33. 1/48 cup: Abbr.: TSP. When you read the recipe and it says a cup of sugar, remember it is 48 teaspoons.

36. Yearbook sect.: SRS. Seniors.

37. Games org.: IOC. International Olympic Committee.

38. Historic game: NO HITTER. usually a shut out as the opposition has no hits, from baseball where we also get, 47D. Three-time A.L. shutout leader of the '60s-'70s: TIANT. Luis, who had the unnerving motion where he completely turned his back to the plate before delivering the ball, making the batter wonder where it might come from, and maybe they did not sit comfortably as he pitched for the Indians and the Red Sox when they almost won. 60D. Sluggers' stats: RBIS. Which nobody gets if there is a shut out.

40. Musical syllables: FAS. More music.

43. 1953 Best Supporting Actor Oscar winner: SINATRA. Wow, music and war and another movie, all in one clue. FROM HERE TO ETERNITY  is a very powerful war movie with another great cast.

44. Big bang producer: TNT. Not the CBS TV show after all, Penny and Raj! Shocking!

46. L.A. Galaxy's gp.: MLS. Major League Soccer; sort of like Charlie Sheen's Baseball movie.

49. Pharmacy concern: DOSE. and DESE, and DEM.

50. Trouble: STATIC. People used to say, "don't give me any static", I wonder if it was because they listened to the radio so much.

51. Louisiana folk music: ZYDECO. More music, Hahtool, you want to explain,as this was my learning moment as I did not know this STYLE.

52. Daze: TRANCE.

55. Wading bird: IBIS. Mascot for the Miami Hurricanes, why?

56. Brewery feature: OAST. Another recent regular clue.

58. Evening flier: MOTH. I do not believe Florida is a healthy climate for moths.

59. Full do: AFRO. Hairdo.

61. Corner: TREE. Hunting dogs often chase their prey up a tree; dogs are not great in trees.

64. Brought: LED. You got me supply your own explanation.

65. Some tags: IDS.


Well like I said this is Lemonade, back in the saddle, or the tank turret,  after a week off when I left poor Marti with the whole blogging world in tatters. I do not know if that was fate protecting me, or teasing her, but I expect to be back again, you all take care.

Notes from C.C.:

1) Happy 50th Wedding Anniversary to Linda.

2) Happy Birthday to the wicked fun guy Mainiac & a belated Happy Birthday to Grumpy & M.J.

3) Safe travels, Dennis. Don't stray from the blog too long.

Nov 30, 2010

Tuesday, November 30, 2010 Mark Feldman

Theme: While You Slept - Occupations you might want to be kept in the dark about?

20A. One debating the unpopular side: DEVIL'S ADVOCATE

31A. Healer using magic: WITCH DOCTOR

41A. Uncredited author: GHOST WRITER

55A. Wee-hours work period for 20-, 31- and 41-Across?: GRAVEYARD SHIFT

Argyle here.

Not too sure of the theme since none of the three entries necessarily work at night. Oh well, not many names today. Good solid corners on the grid. Long entries. On the whole, I liked it.

Across:

1. Roe source : SHAD

5. Scrape, cat-style : CLAW

9. 100 kopeks : RUBLE and 6D. Turkish bread? : LIRA. Russian bread and Turkish bread. No euros yet.

14. Geographical extremity : POLE

15. Little suckers : LICE. 16. Matriculate : ENROL. 23. Washing aid for pupils : EYE CUP. 11D. Sassy kid : BRAT. The clues all made me think of students.

17. Turow memoir subtitled "The Turbulent True Story of a First Year at Harvard Law School" : ONE L

18. The "Habanera" from "Carmen," e.g. : ARIA.
Clip.(4:14)

19. Blunt, as reality : STARK

24. Blood bank fluid : SERUM

25. "Hold on __!" : A SEC

27. Stew : SEETHE

36. "Man oh man!" : "WOW!"

37. Out of kilter : AWRY

38. Dove murmur : COO

39. About 1,609 meters : MILE

40. Game system played with gestures : Wii. Nintendo's spelling of "Wii" with two lower-case "i" characters is meant to resemble two people standing side by side, representing players gathering together. So they say. The big thing is it gets people off the couch to play.

45. Long-haired cat : ANGORA

47. Part of a family business title : SONS

48. Pitching miscues : BALKS

51. Where AMZN stock is traded : NASDAQ. Amazon.com, Inc. / "NASDAQ" originally stood for "National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Systems," but the exchange's official stance is that the acronym is obsolete.

58. Japanese cartoon genre : ANIME

59. Oklahoma tribe : OTOE. They're out there somewhere. The tribe got moved around a lot and you can't be sure from where they might be clued.

60. Naysayer : ANTI

61. Deadly : FATAL

62. Zip (along) : TEAR

63. Chick's sound : PEEP

64. Head lock : TRESS. Had me thinking wrestling move for awhile.

65. At __: arguing : ODDS. This idiom uses odds in the sense of "a condition of being unequal or different," and transfers it to a difference of opinion, or quarrel.

66. Messes up : ERRS

Down:

1. Fine porcelain : SPODE. Named for Josiah Spode who developed the manufacturing of bone china with blue glaze, based in Stoke-on-Trent, England.
Image. I think porcelain and bone china aren't exactly the same but I'll read the Wikipedia article later.

2. Sweetheart : HONEY

3. Naproxen, commercially : ALEVE.
Image.

4. Epicurean delight : DELICACY

5. Held firmly : CLASPED

7. Fatty __ : ACIDS

8. Make, as baskets : WEAVE

9. Fireman, sometimes : RESCUER

10. Wild : UNTAME. More familiar with untamed.

12. Folk tales and such : LORE

13. "Benevolent" fraternal member : ELK. Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (BPOE)

21. Having abundant vegetation : LUSH

22. Thereabouts : OR SO

26. Chanel of fashion : COCO

28. Nincompoop : TWIT

29. Burrow indicator : HOLE

30. Pretty pitcher : EWER. Pretty alliteration.

31. Guitar effect : WA-WA

32. Triumphant cry : "I WIN!"

33. Math course : TRIG

34. Business orgs. : COs.

35. Little ones : TOTS

39. Form incorrectly : MISSHAPE

41. Covers, as a driveway : GRAVELS

42. Robust : HALE. NYT Sunday puzzle once had this clue for HALE: Sarah Josepha ___, who wrote "Mary Had a Little Lamb". Can you say obscure?

43. Worldly seven : WONDERS

44. Messenger molecules : RNAs. These little molecules are everywhere.

46. White House family : OBAMAs

49. Onetime capital of Japan : KYOTO. Kyoto was Japan's capital and the emperor's residence from 794 until 1868. The city in the central part of the island of Honshu, southwest of Tokyo.

50. Filled up : SATED

52. Restaurant patron : DINER

53. Following : AFTER

54. Wax removers : Q-TIPS

55. Growl : GNAR. Add an 'L' at the end and it becomes a tree knot.

56. Ceremony : RITE

57. Country way : ROAD

58. Toward the rudder : AFT

Answer grid.

Argyle

Jun 25, 2010

Friday June 25, 2010 Mark Feldman

Theme: Food Pun - The first word of each two-word familiar food item is substituted by a city, whose country is given in the corresponding clue.

20A. Swiss poultry dish?: BASEL CHICKEN. Basil Chicken. Basel is a city in Switzerland.

27A. Korean menu listing?: SEOUL FOOD. Soul Food. I do love Seoul food. Hot!

35A. Indian lunch fare?: DELHI SANDWICH. Deli Sandwich. Do Indians use naan as sandwich wrap?

43A. Moroccan hearty meal? RABAT STEW. Rabbit Stew. Rabat is the capital of Morocco.

52A. Meccan omelet ingredient? JEDDAH CHEESE. Cheddar Cheese. I've never heard of Jeddah, a port city in Saudi Arabia. Near Mecca indeed. The only theme entry with a city rather than a country as clue hint.

All of the theme answers are punning on the first word. I like the consistency.

Some more food/drink references:

17A. 2006 farce involving a drinking contest: BEER FEST. Total four 8-letter entries today.

48A. Fare that's filled and baked: MEAT PIE

63A. Fruitcake: NUT. OK, not really food.

49D. __ four: PETIT

50D. Bean products?: IDEAS. Nailed it. The question mark told me it's not sprouts. I have stir-fried bean sprouts every Tuesday.

We don't often see four clusters of four black squares in a puzzle. It sure increases the total black square count in a hurry (Total 42 in today's grid).

My favorite clue (I presume Seen's too) is RED (43D. Bench, once). Johnny Bench. Cincinnati Reds. Dennis told me about a card show near our home a few months ago and I was able to see Bench in person. Pete Rose was there too.

Across:

1. A.L. East team: BOS. Boston Red Sox. Quite a few abbr. in this grid.

4. 1960 Olimpiadi host: ROMA. The Italian clue suggests the answer will be in Italian.

8. Padlocked, perhaps: HASPED

14. Glob suffix: ULE

15. Receptive: OPEN

16. More gray: ASHIER

19. "Magic Hour" author": ISAACS (Susan). Don't know the author or the book. What's it about?

22. Memo abbr.: ATTN

23. Move beyond: OUTGROW

32. Frost: HOAR

33. Fast horse: ARAB

34. Frayed: TATTY

40. Certain Net user: AOLER. Net is capitalized.

41. '60s Mod staple: MINI

42. Letters that come at the end of the week: TGIF. We also have FRI (29D. It can be casual: Abbr.). Not fond of the two in the same grid.

51. Race: TEAR. Did not leap to me readily.

57. All one had: ESTATE. Great clue.

60. Transfers again, as computer files: RECOPIES

61. Hungary neighbor: SERBIA

62. Barrie Newfoundland: NANA. The dog in "Peter Pan".

64. Is out there: EXISTS

65. African antelope: ORYX. It has long, straight-horns, Lois!

66. Rte. finder: GPS

Down:

1. Good ol' boys: BUBBAS

2. Fatty acid salt: OLEATE. Ate is a suffix for "salt".

3. Handles: SEES TO

4. Texter's response to a hilarious joke: ROFL

5. Crude org. : OPEC. Crude oil.

6. Interlock: MESH

7. Boycotting, perhaps: ANTI

8. Basho's forte: HAIKU. Have never heard of Basho, a Japanese 17th century poet known for Haiku poems.

9. Black listing?: ASSET. Awesome clue.

10. City near the Yangtze River: SHANGHAI. No, not "near". It's at the mouth of the Yangtze River. I worked in Shanghai for some time.

11. Emmy-winning news anchor Lindström: PIA. No idea. She's Ingrid Bergman's daughter.

12. Common Mkt.: EEC

13. "ER" extras: DRS

18. Contact lens solution brand: RENU. The only brand I know.

21. Cape __ : COD

24. VMI program: ROTC. VMI = Virginia Military Institute. New to me.

25. Bit of irreverence: OATH

26. Twisted: WRY

28. Lionized actor?: LAHR (Bert). The Cowardly Lion in "The Wizard of Oz".

30. Treaty gp. since 1948: OAS

31. President with two Grammys: OBAMA. Loved Lemonade's Palin palindrome comment yesterday. John's SEXES clue is awesome too. I think I mentioned on the blog before. Japanese say "I am going" to mean "I am coming".

34. Fool: TWIT

35. Old Venetian judge: DOGE

36. "The Praise of Chimney-Sweepers" essayist: ELIA

37. Right crosses may follow them: LEFT JABS. Needed crossing help.

38. Point: NIB

39. Stranded material: DNA

40. 20s provider, for short: ATM

44. Dance move: STEP

45. Elevating, in a way: TEEING. Various balls.

46. Relax: EASE UP

47. Takes by force: WRESTS

53. Cartoonist Peter: ARNO. Total stranger to me.

54. When repeated, word of agreement: HEAR

55. Manhattan sch.: CCNY (City College of NY)

56. Piltdown man, e.g. : HOAX

57. Language suffix: ESE

58. Bio datum: SEX

59. Head of state?: TRI. I don't get this one. Wanted ESS, the starting letter of the word state.

Answer grid.

Welcome back Kazie! You were dearly missed.

C.C.

Dec 11, 2009

Friday December 11, 2009 Mark Feldman

Theme: DOUBLE PLAY (37A. Baseball coups, and a hint to the homophonic relationship in the sequence of first words in 18-, 24-, 54- and 61-Across).

18A. Barely came out on top: WON BY A NOSE. Won = One.

24A. Overly taxing: TOO MUCH TO HANDLE. Too = Two.

54A. Temporarily: FOR THE TIME BEING. For = Four

61A. Really enjoyed something: ATE IT UP. Ate = Eight.

Great puzzle, isn't it? Such a innovative theme. Lively, natural theme phrases. And nicely "doubled up" sequential order.

All the theme clues are quite straightforward. And I grokked the theme early on. So, a rare smooth Friday for me.

Favorite clues today:

29A. Group with a lot of hits?: MOB

53A. Caligula's card count?: LII. 52 cards in a deck. LII is Roman numeral 52.

44D. They can be offensive: LINEMEN

Across:

1. Young ones: LADS. Are you bothered by "ones" in the clue?

5. Court smash: SPIKE. Volleyball.

14. Attending to the assignment: ON IT

15. "Alas": SO SAD. Now I won't be able to eat my Larabars without thinking of "hair of the dog". Awful Dennis/Buckeye!

16. Biblical twin: ESAU. Jacob's twin.

17. Check out: CASE. Before the heist.

20. How some bonds are bought: AT PAR

22. John abroad: LOO. In Britain. Toilet "john".

23. Irked: RILED

27. Some dashes: EMS. Or ENS.

28. Farm cry: BAA. MAA too.

30. Series opener?: ESS. The opening letter of Series is letter S.

33. "Kidnapped" author's monogram: RLS (Robert Louis Stevenson)

35. Big cheese: VIP. Normally there's no abbr. hint for VIP.

43. You might make one with a Hamilton Beach DrinkMaster: MALT. Had trouble obtaining the answer. Thought Hamilton Beach DrinkMaster is like my Jack Lalanne veggie/fruit juicer.

46. Classical dance gp.: ABT (American Ballet Theatre). Simply forgot.

58. Achille __: hijacked ship: LAURO. Was unaware of this hijacked event in 1985.

59. Ivy League nickname: ELI. Yale.

60. No spendthrift: SAVER. The clue seems to be asking for an adjective, doesn't it? "Not a spendthrift" would be a noun.

64. Lansbury Broadway role: MAME. Auntie Mame.

65. Dole: METE

66. Soft fleece: LLAMA. And SUEDES (13D. Soft leathers). I kept reading "Soft fleece" as "Soft cheese".

67. Hot times in Paris: ETES. French for "summer".

68. Winged god: EROS. Cupid.

69. Another name for hopscotch: POTSY. New to me.

70. Kerry and Kirk of Mass., e.g.: SENS (Senators). Paul Kirk is taking the seat of Ted Kennedy.

Down:

2. Gray topic: ANATOMY. The TV series "Grey's Anatomy" is derived from "Gray's Anatomy". And DYED (31A. No longer gray, say). Nice "gray" echo in the crossing.

3. Inclined (to): DISPOSED. Just had INDISPOSED yesterday.

4. Iron horse power: STEAM

5. Vienna-to-Rome dir.: SSW

7. Playground comeback: IS NOT

8. Comics explosion: KABOOM

9. Joseph of ice cream fame: EDY. Easy guess.

10. Russian revolutionary: LENIN. Big hero when I grew up.

11. She had a tryst with Tristan: ISOLDE. Love the alliterativeness of "tryst" and "Tristan".

19. Mecca's peninsula: ARABIA. This one connects three theme entries. So does its symmetrical partner UPSHOT (38. Result).

21. Obstacle: RUB. "Ay, there's the rub", Melissa!

25. Semiautomatic rifle: CARBINE (KAHR-been). Not in my vocabulary. He looks like a good sniper.

26. It's reserved for ones in a pool: HOV LANE. Carpool. HOV = High-Occupancy Vehicle. Not fond of duplication of the clue "pool" and answer POOL HALL (6D. Place to find cues).

34. Match unit: SET. Tennis match.

36. British novelist Barbara __: PYM. Nope. Total stranger to me.

39. Coverage charges: PREMIUMS

40. Show great anticipation, informally: SALIVATE. Great fill.

45. Jungle female: TIGRESS

46. Burning: AFLAME. Did anyone try ON FIRE first?

47. Traditional barbershop quartet hat: BOATER. Mine was BOWLER.

48. Honest with: TRUE TO

50. Opera with the aria "Qui trarrò Cassio": OTELLO. Verdi's opera based on Shakespeare's "Othello". Stumper for me.

52. Baby docs: OBS (Obstetricians)

56. __ ease: ILL AT

57. Chair designer Charles: EAMES (Eemz). I can never remember this guy's name.

62. Matterhorn, e.g.: ALP. Had no idea that Matterhorn is a mountain on the border of Switzerland and Italy.

Answer grid.

Ming tian jian!

C.C.