Thursday November 27, 2008 Alan P. Olschwang

Theme: The Pains of Parenthood

18A: Start of a quip: IT IS HARD TO

27A: Part 2 of quip: RAISE A FAMILY

44A: Part 3 of quip: ESPECIALLY IN

59A: End of quip: THE MORNING

Also an avian sub-theme:

32A: Everglades wader: EGRET

31D: Extinct bird: MOA. It's native to New Zealand and extinct at the end of 18th century. Daunting size. Those Maoris look fearless though

38D: Bird of prey: RAPTOR

Don't you wish there is a TURKEY somewhere in the middle of the grid? I was rather disappointed by the theme. Was expecting a puzzle stuffed with cranberry sauce, green beans and apple pies.

My husband has to have rutabaga and wild rice for Thanksgiving. What's on your table today?

Easy puzzle. Nothing to rave about.

Across:

1A: By way of, briefly: THRU. Did you notice that there are always more consonants in the first row and the first column? I suppose most of the languages start with consonants. Should you have extra time, you can count the total vowels in today's grid. They normally take up 50% of the total fills.

21A: Italian noble: CONTE. I don't understand this one, is it Italian for "Count"?

25A: Planets: WORLDS. I was thinking of EARTHS.

42A: Eagles hit, "___ it Easy": TAKE. I guessed. Not familiar with this song.

43A: Trunk artery: AORTA. Crossword constructors love A*A: ATRA (Gillette razor); ASTA (The Thin Man dog); ASTRA (Latin stars); ATRIA (Skylit courts); ALTRIA (Parent company of Kraft Foods), ALCOA, Jessica ALBA, ABBA, ASIA, ASEA, etc. Oh, don't forget Barry Silk's AQUA.

50A: Skidded: SLID. I don't like those letter repetitions. "Lost traction" would be fine.

51A: Woman alone on stage: SOLA. "Man alone on stage" is SOLUS.

52A: Actor Davis: OSSIE. Only know him as Ruby Dee's husband. Have no idea what film he was in.

61A: Mine entrance: ADIT. And ORE (60D: Mine find).

62A: Trevanian's "The ___ Sanction": EIGER. I forgot. Saw this clue before. Have you seen the film?

63A: Utah ski resort: ALTA. Another A*A word.

65A: "Charlie's Angels" co-star: DOYLE (David). I guessed. I only know the new "Charlie's Angels".

Down:

2D: Cup on a green: HOLE. Have any of you shot HOLE-in-one before?

3D: Pride signal: ROAR. Good clue. A pride of Lion. I also like the clue for ADAM (56D: First grandfather).

7D: Land of Blarney and Killarney: ERIN. Killarney is foreign to me. What is it famous for? Another stone?

9D: Reggae's cousin: SKA

10D: Charging shout: WAR CRY

11D: "Rush, Rush" singer Paula: ABDUL. Here is the song. ABDUL means "servant of the..." in Arabic.

19D: Doing a hatchet job?: HEWING

29D: Former Curtain: IRON. I like this clue too. IRON Curtain sounds very ancient now, doesn't it?

40D: Type of type: BOLDFACE

42D: "The Waste Land" auth.: TSE. Good. I've had enough "Half African fly".

44D: Glossy paint: ENAMEL

45D: Digs: IS INTO

46D: Sour brew: ALEGAR. Got this word from across fills.

47D: You in Juarez: USTED. I am surprised that the clue is not "You in Yucatan". Our editor loves alliteration.

48D: Rockefeller's 1870 company: SOHIO (Standard Oil of Ohio). Now BP. I googled this one.

49D: Lyric lamentation: ELEGY

57D: Unless, in law: NISI. Learned from doing Xword. I've never seen NISI used in any newspaper or magazine.

Happy Thanksgiving!

C.C.

Wednesday November 26, 2008 Barry Silk

Theme: MIDDLE EARTH (58A: Tolkie place... or this puzzle's theme)

18A: Dispel differences: CLEAR THE AIR

28A: Like some good food?: HEART-HEALTHY

44A: Woomera, e.g.: SPEAR THROWER

I did not know the meaning of "Woomera", and I heedlessly filled in SEPTET instead of HEPTAD for 46D: "Seven Dwarfs, e.g." and ZEST instead of ZEAL for 53D: "Enthusiasm". So I made a mess at the lower middle section.

I really don't know much about crossword construction, but I do know it's not easy coming up with two J's (JUJUBE) and two Z's (ZZ TOP) in one fill. Barry Silk is unbelievable. I am always impressed by his repeated efforts in coming up with scrabbly grids, so effortlessly.

I hope you enjoyed his pangram today. This is probably my favorite Barry Silk puzzle. I love the theme. I think I am getting better understanding his mind. I filled in AQI (14A: EPA pollution measure) like it's a OREO cookie. Can you believe a year ago I did not even know what ORT is? My first ever crossword fill is SOSA. What about you?

Across:

4A: One way to fall: APART. Fall APART. Good clue.

15A: Film version: MOVIE. What's the difference between Film and MOVIE?

16A: Articles of faith: CREDO. Without ADIOS (12D: Spanish ta-ta), I would probably have penned in CREED. Or should it be the plural CREEDS?

23A: Brief expert: PROS. I was picturing James Bond in "Brief" (Daniel Craig in "Casino Royale"). I wish the clue were "Experts, briefly".

24A: Infomercial knife: GINSU. OK, here is the original GINSU ad.

32A: Like Rembrandt: DUTCH

37A: Corner aloft: TREE. I think the best TREE clue I've seen is "Leaves home?".

41A: Columnist Marilyn __ Savant: VOS. Her name came to me via the adjacent fills. I am not familiar with this columnist. She has a IQ of 228, "the highest ever recorded", according to Wikipedia.

42A: Composer Thomas: ARNE. The composer for "Rule, Britannia".

47A: Chewy candy: JUJUBE. Chinese date is called JUJUBE also. But I've never heard of KIWI (56D) being called "Chinese gooseberry". Is gooseberry edible? I used to binge on mulberry.

51A: Words before end or angle: AT AN. I don't like this clue. You either clue it as "AT AN angle" or "AT AN end". Dennis probably wants to "Get A TAN".

52A: "Legs" band: ZZ TOP. Here is the song. Those beards are too long for my taste. Interesting, Wikipedia says Frank Beard, "Ironically, in spite of his own surname", almost always "sports just a mustache".

55A: "Lonely Boy" singer Paul: ANKA. Look at those girls, they are all chewing bubblegum. Baseballcards came with the bubblegum in 1959, right? This Mickey Mantle Topps 1959 was sold for $2.850 at an auction.

61A: Fort __, NJ: DIX. Learned it from doing Xword.

62A: Sheep peep: BLEAT. BLEAT always reminds of "The Silence of the Lambs". I wish I had never seen it. What a nightmare!

63A: How some stocks sell: AT PAR

66A: Yorkshire city: LEEDS. Mark Knopler, who scored "The Princess Bride", graduated from the University of Leeds.

67A: Milwaukee's st.: WIS. I misread "st" as "street" first.

Down:

1D: Bit of reality: FACT

2D: Pastel hue: AQUA. It's a shade of cyan, so is teal.

3D: Mr. Microsoft?: BILL GATES. It's symmetrical partner is BAY WINDOW (34D: Oriel). Nice to see "Oriel" as the clue rather than the answer. I like seeing GATES, WINDOW and JAMBS (47D: Doorframe parts) in one puzzle.

4D: All-films stn.: AMC. So is TMC.

5D: Buff: POLISH. I misread the clue as "Bluff", so I was picturing the bluffs above Omaha Beach and Reagan's D-Day speech. That's a strange memory statue, isn't it?

6D: Line of inquiry: AVENUE. I was stumped, how so? What is "Line of inquiry"?

7D: Iranian cash: RIAL. It's the money unit of Yemen, Oman and Iran.

8D: Trillion: pref.: TERA. I would not have got this one without the across fills. See this list. Barry can clue PETA as "Quadrillion" prefix rather than "Animal rights grp." next time. I cannot count above a million.

11D: Tripper Timothy: LEARY. The LSD guy.

13D: Body of art: TORSO. Venus de Milo is probably the most famous "Body of art".

19D: Conway of country music: TWITTY. Here is his Hello Darlin'. Sounds so sad. I obtained his name from across fills.

21D: "Odyssey" sorceress: CIRCE. Siren does not fit and sirens don't really appear in "Odyssey", right?

38D: Zephyr: BREEZE

39D: __ roll (streaking): ON A. Strange that Williams allows partial fill from time to time.

44D: Ice cream treat: SUNDAE. I wish there were no whipped cream in SUNDAE. I also don't like icing on the cake.

45D: 1912 Olympian: THORPE. My first thought was Jesse Owens, who was a 1936 Olympian. Here is a picture of Jim THORPE at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics. I vaguely remember one of his game worn jerseys was sold over half a million at an auction several years ago.

49D: Word-weary: JADED

57D: Lumber camp stack: AXES

59D: USPS piece: LTR. Lots of three-letter words in today's grid.

60D: "48 __": HRS. New film to me. Is it good?

C.C.