Thursday, July 18, 2013 Julian Lim

Theme: "You asked for it, you got it." Ear worm, but hilarious scene from "Forget Paris." 1:10

And that brings us to the unifier today:

54A. Ignore warnings, say...and a hint to the last words of the answers to starred clues : ASK FOR IT.

17A. *"Press Your Luck" contestant's cry : BIG MONEY. Never watched the show, so this was my first glitch. But looking it up, I think they usually say "big bucks"??? Did you ever have to ask for money from your friends?

19A. *What sputtering might indicate : ENGINE TROUBLE. Or, or, or, er....er...er...wife trouble?? ("Honest, honey, uh, uh, er, er, I was with the guys playing poker all night!") I bet more than one of you has asked for trouble in your life!

34A. *Aid for the short? : DEBT FORGIVENESS. Because "stilts" was too short. After the husband stays out all night "playing poker," he will probably have to ask for forgiveness.

47A. *Glee club on "Glee" : NEW DIRECTIONS. Would you believe, I actually knew this one? William McKinley High glee club. (No, I am not a gleek!!) OK, show of hands: how many guys out there have actually stopped and asked for directions?

Interesting grid design, with two pair of themers overlapped.  Nice work, and wow, two weeks in a row I get an interesting interview with the constructor. So thanks, C.C.!! 

Across:

1. Israel's Barak : EHUD. Oh-oh, trouble right off the bat.

5. Half an S-curve : ZAG. "ZiG" got me into more trouble.

8. Carol beginning : ADESTE. Ok, I got this one!

14. Honeymooner's island destination : BORA BORA.

16. Juice for Zeus : NECTAR.

18. Bronx-to-Coney Island subway : D TRAIN. Not the A-Train? 6:08

21. Dr.'s specialty : ENT. Ear, Nose and Throat

22. Not just centuries : EONS.

23. Big name in smooth jazz : KENNY G. Really smooth.

27. ___ Nui: Easter Island : RAPA.

28. Netherlands carrier : KLM. Oops, filled in "SAS" too soon!

31. Melville novel : OMOO.

32. Card for tomorrow? : TAROT. Nice clue for "foreseeing" the future with TAROT cards.

33. Big Apple sch. : NYU. New York University.

38. Chase Field team, on scoreboards : ARI.zona. Hi Lucina!

39. Betelgeuse's constellation : ORION.

40. Plenty : A LOT. "Tons" would also fit...just sayin'!!

41. "The Spanish Tragedy" playwright Thomas : KYD. No idea about this guy. I bet Yellowrocks knows him!

42. Nippon noodle : UDON. C.C., I think they have these in China, also? Except they are called 烏冬 (wūdōngmiàn), correct? I remember you once ate only rice for an entire month. Maybe UDON noodles would have been a welcome change! (From C.C.: Udon is distinctively Japanese. wūdōngmiàn is just Chinese translation of "Udon noodle". Mian (Mandarin) & Mein (Cantonese, as in Lo Mien) both mean "Noodle". Chinese has a similar style thick noodle, but it has no flavorful broth as Udon. Seafood Udon is heaven!)

43. Immunity agents : T-CELLS. A gimme, for me.

45. Vermeer's "Girl With ___ Hat" : A RED. Vermeer liked to title his works as "Girl With...," like "Girl With a Pearl Earring," etc. Not to be confused with "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo."

46. Sale abbr. : IRR.egular.

53. San ___, Argentina : ISIDRO. Oops -  I spelled it "ySIDRO" at first, until I realized that "NyBS" was probably not the correct spelling.

57. "Father of American Universalism" Hosea ___ : BALLOU. Why the "___" in the clue???

58. Close way to fight : TOE TO TOE.

59. Mum : SILENT.

60. Dash lengths : ENS. EM-dashes are double the width of EN-dashes. Can you guess why?

61. "Critique of Pure Reason" philosopher : KANT. Nailed it!

Ouch - power went out twice already. Must be all the ACs running overtime today. Mid-nineties, and humid here. Ugh!  So I will make the rest brief, and fill in later if I still have power!

Down:

1. Diminish : EBB.

2. ___ polloi : HOI.

3. Drive : URGE.

4. Denounce : DAMN.

5. Urban planner's concern : ZONING.

6. "___ you clever!" : AREN'T.

7. "Mercy Mercy Me" singer : GAYE. Great song. About the environment, not about asking for FORGIVENESS!

8. Longest-serving KGB chairman (1967-'82) : ANDROPOV. Huh? Who? (All perps!)

9. Go boom : DETONATE. Loved the clue!

10. Neutral paint colors : ECRUS.

11. Wild guess : STAB.

12. Shadow : TAIL.

13. Ballyshannon's river : ERNE. Not a shore bird?

15. Tiger's concern : BOGEY. I thought of the golfer immediately.

20. Enter hurriedly : TEAR IN.

23. Brand for shooters : KODAK. Fun clue!

24. Polishing agent : EMERY.

25. "I pass" : NO BID.

26. "Kidding!" : "NOT!"

27. Make fun of : RAG ON.

28. Lugubrious chime : KNELL. Lugubrious = dismal, mournful, sad, melancholy.

29. Antibacterial brand : LYSOL.

30. They're not optional : MUSTS.

32. Transistor's forerunner : TRIODE. and 43-Down. Kids' rides : TRIKES. Did three kids TRIODE TRIKES?

35. Longish club : FOUR IRON. Rich is a big golf fanatic.

36. Call for a pizza, say : ORDER OUT. I started filling "ORDER in," but didn't have enough letters!

37. "___ wind, ___ rain -- ___ golf!": Scottish adage : NAE. NAE. NAE. Apropos, since the Scottish Open was last weekend and it was pretty windy and rainy.  How can you have golf in Scotland without wind and rain?

44. Lara of "Tomb Raider" : CROFT. Nailed it!

45. Mystify : ADDLE.

46. "This means war!" : "IT'S ON!"

47. His ___: big shot : NIBS. (Not "nybs." See 53-Across.)

48. Morales of "Caprica" : ESAI.

49. It deals with what's left : WILL. Fun clue for a gloomy subject!

50. Actress Blanchett : CATE. I loved her depiction of Katherine Hepburn in "The Aviator."

51. Kindle competitor : NOOK. Nope, I have an iPad. So does Dudley!

52. Mex. miss : SRTA. Señorita.

55. K+, e.g. : ION. K = Potassium. If it loses an electron, it becomes the positively charged potassium ion. In a bunsen burner, potassium emits a beautiful lilac hue!

56. Asian holiday : TET.

That's it, until next week!

Marti

Thursday, Jun 13 2013, Julian Lim

Theme: STAGE DIRECTIONS : Each theme clue has two parts - the first part clues the "stage" upon which a particular athlete plays a sport, the second part is a straight definition and the two-word answer forms a new noun.

17A Tennis player’s meal request? : COURT ORDER

20A Ping-Pong player’s etiquette? : TABLE MANNERS

36A Runner’s music choice? : TRACK RECORD. I thought at first that this was a little too close to the sport in the clue, but then realized that if you use the "body of work" definition of the phrase it fits perfectly well with the rest of the theme.

53A Golfer’s bank advance? : COURSE CREDIT

58A Football player’s map? : FIELD GUIDE

Hi Gang - Steve here, pinch-hitting for Marti who is saying "Buon giorno, Italia!" today. There wasn't much of a musical nature in the puzzle today, so I'll use Marti's Italian trip as an excuse to post today's ear worm!

Nice work here from Julian, five snappy theme entries with the top and bottom pair partially stacked - I always find that impressive! Some nice long downs too, so plenty to like. Let's get started!

Across:

1 Desktop offering an AppleCare warranty : iMAC

5 Man of la casa : SEÑOR. I know that in French you don't use diacriticals on capital letters, but I'm not sure if the same rule applies in Spanish. Throwing the tilde in here just in case.

10 Chew : GNAW

14 Wine lover’s destination : NAPA.  If you've not seen the movie "Bottle Shock", it's definitely worth checking out - it's based on the true story of the "Judgment of Paris" competition that put Napa wines on the international map. Very entertaining.

15 Micronesian nation once called Pleasant Island : NAURU. I confuse my Micronesian islands and my Indian Prime Ministers, so I wait for the perps.

16 San __, Italy : REMO

19 Announce assuredly : AVER

22 Worshipers of Quetzalcoatl : AZTECS. Of course they are. And OLMECS doesn't fit.

25 Fry’s former BBC comedy partner : LAURIE. Hugh appeared with Stephen both in their own show, and with Rowan Atkinson and Tony Robinson in one of the funniest comedy series - "Blackadder". It was odd at first to see him playing a straight role in "House".

26 Renaissance painter Uccello : PAOLO. Crosses and more crosses.

27 Genuine article? : THE. Great clue!

30 Close of “Albert Nobbs” : GLENN

31 Coin first minted in 13th-century France : ECU

32 Movie trainer of Daniel-san : MIYAGI. The "G" here was the last letter to fall - the cross with EGEST didn't help at all - I'd never seen that word before. Something of a WAG between G and K.

35 Clause joiners : ANDS

39 Grammy winner Erykah : BADU. Crosses again!

41 Corners : HEMS IN

42 Producer of wall flowers : IVY. Nice cluing again, and it made me revisit my assumption that all ivy is green and non-flowering.

45 Area of activity : ARENA

47 Old speedster : SST. Sadly, I never got to fly on Concorde, the Supersonic Transport jointly developed by the British and the French. I heard it plenty of times though - I used to live under the flight path into London's Heathrow Airport and Concorde was LOUD!

 

48 Bath-loving Muppet : ERNIE

50 Make even smoother : RE-SAND

52 Span that can’t be shrunk : AGE GAP. This caused me some confusion - I had 44D as YES and was scratching my head wondering what the heck an AGEGAS was.

57 Ovid’s others : ALII Needed to fish in my Latin memory banks. We studied Ovid back in High School - his poems were pretty racy; there's nothing like a bit of sex and sizzle to get schoolboys concentrating on their translations! Caesar's "Conquest of Gaul" was another one to get the adolescent attention - that seemed to be all battlefields and sex.

62 “Oh, criminy!” : RATS

63 Totally enjoy something, with “up” : EAT IT

64 Muddy up : ROIL. I didn't know that this specifically meant "muddying the waters" - I always thought roiling waters were simply turbulent. Nice learning moment for me.

65 Quest after : SEEK

66 Event with buckjumpers : RODEO. Another new term for me. Is this the same as a bucking bronco?

67 “__ said!” : 'NUFF

Down:

1 IRS concern : INC. I wish they weren't so concerned about my income and let me keep more of it.

2 Familiar face in Tiananmen Square : MAO. The square itself is enormous and Mao's portrait looks down from the northern side at the entrance to the Forbidden City. When I visited in 2008 I was intrigued by the presence of a green Astroturf basketball court located through the arch below Mao. I think it must be the only turf court in the world and the location is certainly incongruous!

3 Homer’s doughnut supplier : APU. Proud owner of Springfield's Kwik-E-Mart and purveyor of the finest victuals to the Simpson family.

4 Trustbuster’s target : CARTEL

5 High-horse sorts : SNOBS

6 Rank above viscount : EARL

7 Feature of Manet’s “The Luncheon on the Grass” : NUDE. I wasn't sure why the title of the painting was translated, but realized that French in the clue would imply a French answer, and that's not what's needed here. I found this version which made me laugh:

Translations: "Hey boys! Come and see all these magic mushrooms!" - "Cool! Here, take the weed, it's kick-ass" - "Sheesh, this is it - I'm stoned" and finally "I think I forgot something - but what?"

(Note from C.C.: I don't get the joke. What made Steve laugh?)

8 Provo neighbor : OREM

9 Bucolic : RURAL. Nice tie-in with 7D

10 Like table salt : GRANULAR

11 Interminable : NEVER-ENDING

12 Language family spanning two continents : AMERIND. This came together on its own - it's not a term with which I'm familiar. It appears to be something of a discredited theory that the individual languages can actually be grouped together in a formal way.

13 Declines : WORSENS

18 Washington city : TACOMA. I first came to know of Tacoma by way of a physics lesson and the Tacoma Narrows bridge breaking up due to resonance at a certain wind speed.

21 Badger : NAG

22 Copycat : APE

23 Tween heartthrob Efron : ZAC. More crosses! I excuse my ignorance of Mr. Efron's first name, I'm a little older than his fans.

24 Immediately : TOUT DE SUITE. This foxed me for a little while - for some reason I had TOUTE SUITE stuck in my brain and couldn't figure out why it wasn't going to work when I had TOUT already filled in from crosses.

27 Little ones : TYKES

28 Damages : HARMS

29 Spew out : EGEST. New word for me, and as previously noted the G was my last letter fill due to the MIYAGI perp at 32A

33 Freud’s I : ICH. It's a good job I already had the "I", otherwise I'd have confidently filled in EGO and left myself with a mess to fix. German, Latin, Spanish, French and English today.

34 Fifi’s here : ICI. More French on our pentalingual Thursday.

37 Gamble : RUN A RISK

38 Small flash drive capacity : ONE GIG. I guess "gigabyte" doesn't need an abbreviation indication in the clue as the contraction is so common now.

39 Where some commuters unwind : BAR CARS. I used to commute on a train with a bar car and it was full of regulars. Sometimes I'd purposely miss my station because I was enjoying the company and get the next train back.

40 Biological rings : AREOLAE. Yay! I get to post the blog's famous (and quite delightful) link. In the meantime here's a teaser ..

43 Flight connection word : VIA

44 “Sure thing!” : YEP

46 A or B on a test, maybe: Abbr. : ANS is the answer you're looking for.

[A style question for the constructors amongst us - do you prefer to clue without using the "Abbr." clarification? Something along the lines of  "A or B on the CSAT, maybe:"? The same question for 55D - maybe "Like so many Fla. snowbirds:"?]

49 E-filed document : RETURN. Sent to my good friends at 1D.

51 Shelve : DEFER

52 Increase : ADD TO.

54 “Later!” : CIAO

55 Like many snowbirds: Abbr. : RETD. I guess you can't use AARP in the clue as "Retired" is part of the acronym?

56 Wiesel who wrote “The Night Trilogy” : ELIE

59 Promising paper : IOU I enjoyed this one!

60 Brief dissimilarity : DIF, as in difference. As an ex-computer coder, this one came naturally - we used to 'DIF' two versions of a program to find the changes made in the newer version. It sounds about as exciting as it was.

61 Brownie, for one : ELF

I think that's a wrap - thanks to Marti for traveling today and giving me a bonus Thursday to write up!

Steve

Saturday, May 18th, 2013, Julian Lim

Theme: None

Words: 70 (missing Q,V,Z)

Blocks: 34

   We have us a non-Saturday looking grid today - but there was a grid climber in the center, which I did not see at first glance.  I actually worked this one faster than yesterday's, which is unusual, since I have been historically stumped by Mr. Lim's end-of-week bruisers.  So, to the long fills;

7D. Words of dread : I SHUDDER TO THINK

26A. Impatient cry : I CAN HARDLY WAIT

42A. Order in an oater : REACH FOR THE SKY - Oater being a Western "shoot 'em up" flick

On-Ward~!

ACROSS:

1. Faraday's field: Abbr. : ELECtricity - Good start, if you knew the scientist; I bought one of these flashlights for Christmas - no batteries~!

5. Paris is in it : ILIAD - Not France, or any other location; the character

10. __ champêtre: garden party : FETE - seems logical, now that the perps filled it in

14. Love letters? : XOXO - Found at the bottom of Valentine's cards, etc

15. Exploits : CASHES IN ON

17. Bali specification : C-CUP - Nailed it - even the cup size, for some reason

18. It's more acceptable when it's self-mocking : ETHNIC JOKE - "How do you get a...." -HEY- not here....too 'blue' (see below)

19. Danish director von Trier : LARS - IMDb

20. NBC's usual "Must See TV" night : THUrsday

21. Flight segment : RISER - stairs, that is - the vertical board between treads

22. Clerical garment : ALB

23. Way to spread the green? : SEEDAGE - yeah, but I wanted SEEDING, and a clecho -

31. Green : MONEY

32. Shade tree : ELM - especially when it's "green"

33. About, legally : IN RE

35. Single __: tournament type : ELIMination - It's best-of-seven in the NHL

36. Kinky dos : AFROs

38. LaBeouf of "Holes" : SHIA - Didn't see this movie, but I did like Eagle Eye

39. Mollycoddle, with "on" : DOTE

40. Code word : DIT

41. United nations, perhaps : BLOCS - meh

46. Bleep, say : EDIT OUT

47. Stew staple : PEA - any other three-letter ingredients you can think of?

48. 5-Across poet : HOMER

52. "... by good __, yonder's my lord": "Timon of Athens" : HAP

53. Isn't serious : KIDS

54. Started to shoot : OPENED FIRE

57. Crowning : ATOP

58. Conversation barrier : BUSY SIGNAL

59. Hana Airport's island : MAUI - detailed map; airport code HNM

60. Federal inspection org. : OSHA - Occupational Safety and Health Administration

61. Invite for : ASK TO

62. Old, in Oldenburg : ALTE

DOWN:

1. Hollered : EXCLAIMED

2. Regional asset : LOCAL COLOR - the local color of today's blog is, um, red....

3. One with a long commute, probably : EXURBANITE

4. Arresting characters : COPS

5. Poolside refresher : ICE TEA - not gonna say it....

6. Form foam : LATHER - DAH~!  I plan to build my own home using Insulated Concrete Forms, and so I was stuck in that frame of mind to start

8. Philip __, first Asian-American film actor with a Hollywood Walk of Fame star : AHN - IMDb #2

49. With 9-Down, conspiratorial group in "The Da Vinci Code" : OPUS  9. See 49-Down : DEI - you either knew this, or you did not read Dan Brown; when his next book, "Angels & Demons", again with 'Robert Langdon' as the main character came out, I made this; there is another movie coming out for "Lost Symbol"

10. Vanua Levu's archipelago : FIJI - map

11. Slaughter with a bat : ENOS

12. Vegas tip : TOKE - straight up definition, but not the one I'M familiar with

13. Cabinet dept. with an Office of Science : ENERgy - WAG

16. Bad thing to have loose : SCREW - Thought about "CANNON", too

23. Recoil : SHY

24. Prefix meaning "other" : ALLO - we just had Allosaurus

25. Treadmill settings : GYMS - ah, not RPMs, which didn't seem 'right' to me; we need the actual setting for the piece of equipment

27. Valley where Hercules slew a lion : NEMEA

28. Where fliers walk : AISLE - the aisle in an airplane, that is

29. Recuperating at the Royal London : IN HOSPITAL - my mom was just "in hospital", as she had a stomach virus, and needed IV FLUIDS - hey, that would make a good fill....

30. Covered in bling, say : TRICKED OUT - usually in reference to one's 'ride'

34. "No sweat!" : EASY AS PIE - lots of multi-word answers today

36. Child psychologist's concern, briefly : ADHD - here's the Wiki; if you ask me, this modern sound-byte, smart phone, subliminal advertising, video game world we live in is the direct cause of the 'disease'

37. Minnie Mouse's peke : FIFI

41. Antioxidant food preservative : BHT -for the scientific mind

43. Demeter's Roman counterpart : CERES - Goddess of agriculture/grain crops - hence, 'cereal'

44. Find hilarious : ROAR AT

45. Swamp tree : TUPELO - here I thought it was a city in Mississippi

48. Down Under swagman, in the States : HOBO - learning moment for me

50. Fit well : MESH - I had MELD to start

51. "Oíche Chiún" singer : ENYA - upon re-reading the clue, with EN-A filled in, seems pretty obvious now

53. Hindu god of desire : KAMA - as in the Kama Sutra - and C-cups....

55. Miércoles, por ejemplo : DIA - Spanish "day", Wednesday, by example

56. Three-pt. plays : FGs - Field Goals, and if I am not mistaken, this is in both football and basketball

Splynter