Wednesday November 12, 2008 Edgar Fontaine

Theme: TERROR TRAIN (55A: Film starring first names of 21A, 33A and 42A)

21A: "The Naked Chef": JAMIE OLIVER

33A: "The Father of Radio": LEE DE FOREST

42A: "Old Iron Pants": CURTIS LEMAY

Boy, I was not familiar with any of those nicknames. I recognized JAMIE OLIVER's face when I googled his name. I must have seen him on "Iron Chef America" or some other Food Network program.

I was stumped last time when LEMAY was clued as "Wallace’s running mate". But I never bothered to read details of the Wikipedia entry. "Old Iron Pants", what a strange nickname! Have never heard of LEE DE FOREST either. I always thought Edison or Tesla is "The Father of Radio".

Easy puzzle though. Most of the unknowns were obtainable from crossing fills. I really like the clue for I DO (41A: Rite answer?"). Yesterday's "Union Contract?" is great too. ASIA is the answer for 66A: One side of the Urals, so to avoid any kind of remote duplication of clue/answer, I would have clued ABACI (2D: Asian calculations") as "63A counters" (63A: Sphere of sweat: BEAD)

The clue for EDGAR (67A: Degas or Bergen) made me laugh. Way to go, Mr. EDGAR Fountaine.

Across:

15A: Gag reflex?: HAHA. Funny clue.

16A: Waterfall fallout: SPRAY. The clue reminds me of "Deliverance", with those dangerous stretches of rapids.

18A: Joie de vivre: ELAN. I love Frédéric Fekkai's "A Year of Style". I like his view on "Joie de vivre".

19A: Irregularly notched: EROSE. Probably only a crossword word, isn't it?

23A: Mythical mariner: SINBAD. I wonder if SINBAD worshipped Poseidon/Neptune as his god of sea. Or do Arabs have their own sea god?

29A: Jodie of "The Accused": FOSTER. She won an Oscar for "The Accused". I've never seen it. I don't like her movies. "The Silence of the Lambs" is very scary.

39A: Gen. Arnold's nickname: HAP. I forgot. He is a five-star general. Was he as famous as Gen. Omar Bradley/George Marshal?

46A: Sagan series: COSMOS. I guessed. I've never heard of Carl Sagan or COSMOS.

48A: Bounding main: OCEAN. I know "main" can refer to "sea", but why "Bounding"? Or is it a common phrase?

49A: Greek god of war: ARES. It's Mars for the Romans. Do you also think that Americans are from Mars, Europeans are from Venus?

65A: Singer Simone: NINA. Nope, I've never heard of her name before. Which song(s) is she famous for?

Down:

1D: "Gigi" setting: PARIS. "Thank Heaven for Little Girls". I like the happy ending. "We will always have PARIS" at the end of "Casablanca" is so sad.

3D: Neighbor of Oman: YEMEN. It's also the "Neighbor of Saudi Arabia". San'a, strange capital name.

4D: Indy 500 sponsor: STP. Often clued as "The Racer's Edge".

9D: "The Waste Land" poet: T. S. ELIOT. Here is the poem. Why "For Ezra Pound" in the upper left corner? Hmmm, "April is the cruelest month...". I disagree.

11D: Part of Can.: PROV. I was thinking of the actual name of the provinces.

21D: Green shade: JADE. Ersatz JADE can bring you bad luck.

22D: Lummoxes: OAFS. Add one letter F, we have "flummox". English can be very confusing.

24D: Summoned: BADE

27D: Quantum theorist Niels: BOHR. He won Nobel in 1922. His son Aage Niels BOHR also received the Nobel Physics in 1975.

28D: Muse of verse: ERATO. "Muse of Love or Erotic verse", to be exact. "Muse of epic poem" is Calliope, and "Muse of lyrical poem" is Euterpe.

34D: Japanese novelist Shusaku: ENDO. I guessed. Have never heard of him. Wikipedia says his most famous work is "Silence" and Martin Scorsese "announced his intention to shoot a film based on the book in summer 2008".

35D: Cain's nephew: ENOS. Also HOF Slaughter.

47D: Tomei of "In the Bedroom": MARISA. Have you seen "In the Bedroom"? Is it good? I only saw her "My Cousin Vinny".

53D: Post sans postage: EMAIL

54D: Knobby: NODAL

59D: Pisa's river: ARNO. Or "Florence's river". A 4-letter Italian river has to be ARNO.

C.C.

Tuesday November 11, 2008 Barry Silk

Theme: Hits for the Cycle

20A: Mom or pop, but not both: SINGLE PARENT

34A: Two fold setback: DOUBLE WHAMMY

44A: Three-pronged attack: TRIPLE THREAT

60A: "Breezing Up" painter: WINSLOW HOMER

Wow, a cycle, and a natural cycle! Wikipedia says "There have been 14 natural cycles in the major leagues." And the last player to hit for the natural cycle is Brad Wilkerson of Montreal Expos (June 24, Expos versus the Pirates).

I am not familiar with "Breezing Up" or WINSLOW HOMER. I only wish that the entry for 60A started with HOMER* to be consistent with other theme answers.

I don't like the clue for EARNS (9D: Takes home) due to HOMER. I hope it's a SILKY (25A: Soft and lustrous) puzzle to you. The intersection of AQI & AQUINO gave me lots of trouble. And I struggled with lower right corner.

Across:

8A: Mock: JEER AT

14A: EPA pollution measure: AQI (Air Quality Index). Barry crossed AQI with AQABA (Red Sea gulf) in his last puzzle. Really hard crossing with AQUINO (2D: Woman of the Year). Corazo AQUINO succeeded Marcos and she was Time's 1986 Woman of the Year.

16A: Mexican state on the Pacific: OAXACA. Have you been here before? What's the origin of this name OAXACA?

19A: Scandinavian coins: KRONER. Of Denmark and Norway. Singular form: KRONE.

23A: Hydroxyl-carbon compound: ENOL. I am used to the "Organic compound" clue.

29A: Bandanna: DO-RAG. Interesting word origin from Wikipedia: "A popular folk etymology claims that the term derives from drive-on rag, a term first used by U.S. soldiers during the Vietnam War to refer to a mulim bandage often used as a head covering."

50A: Heat-resistant glass: PYREX. I always wonder why Corning did not sue Anchor Hocking for its Fire-King brand. PYREX is Greek for Fire-King after all.

54A: Coral segment: POLYP. New to me. Which segment is POLYP? Is it edible?

63A: Kyoto garment: KIMONO

66A: Supercomputer maker: CRAY. I forgot. CRAY appeared in our puzzle before.

67A: Mystery man: MR. X

71A: Weekend follower: MONDAY. Ah, "MONDAY MONDAY".

Down:

1D: Ran out: LAPSED

3D: Sicilian sir: SIGNOR. It's Xian Sheng in Chinese.

7D: Talk of Toledo: ESPANOL. See this Top 30 Languages of the World. #2 for ESPANOL.

10D: Unusual stuff: EXOTICA. So close to EROTICA.

22D: Like some films: RATED R

26D: __ Linda, CA: LOMA. New to me. See this map. What is it famous for?

27D: J-O connection: KLMN. I suppose there is no other way to clue to this string of letters.

28D: "Divine Secrets of the __ Sisterhood": YAYA. Have you seen the movie?

32D: Too, too cute: TWEE. No idea. It does not sound "Too, too cute" to me. In fact, it does not sound cute at all.

45D: Layered board: PLYWOOD. I don't know much about PLYWOOD. Is it cheaper than plain wood? Can you make PLYWOOD out of walnut/cherry trees?

46D: Grumman fighter plane: HELLCAT. Here is a picture. I've never heard of it before.

53D: Persian victor at Thermopylae: XERXES. XERXES I to be exact. I am not familiar with him or the Battle of Thermopylae, which is "one of history's most famous last stands" according to Wikipedia. General Patton did mention this battle in the movie "Patton", but I did not pay attention to it.

55D: Nina's sister ship: PINTA. And Santa Maria.

63D: Rudyard Kipling novel: KIM. I got it from across fills. Have never heard of this novel before. More than 1/5 of Koreans have KIM as their surname, including Kim Jong-il.

64D: Union contract?: I DO. I like this clue. I DO.

C.C.