Friday, Ocotber 24, 2014, Bruce Haight

Theme: What is funnier than a Latin Pun? "ex nihilo nihil fit."

Those six years of Latin in school certainly paid off today, in this whimsical 'add a letter' theme to get a funny answer to a silly definition. I am not sure if the Latin phrases would be difficult for anyone as they seem fairly known, but I am sure you will let me know. I thought some theme answers were very funny, and other not so much. In each case, the meaning of one of the words in the Latin phrase is preserved with other getting the added letter. Another Friday where we have lots of short fill (sixty-seven 3,4 and 5 letter fill) and only two sparklies, I’M OUTA HERE, HOLY SMOKES, with COE and NAURU being fresh fill. The second LAT puzzle from Mr. Haight, who has 6 NYT publications. He is a mentee of Peter Collins, one of the many constructors I admire. Let's see where he takes us.


17A. Latin for "big idiot"? : MAGNUM DOPUS.(11). Original Latin, Magnum Opus, meaning greatest work. Greatest work ----Greatest idiot. (an echo of magnum opus in the same week, coincidence, no! Or at least Owen says no.)

23A. Latin for "holding a grudge for a long, long time"? : MAD INFINITUM.(12). Ad Infinitum, meaning: to infinity ----Angry forever.

38A. Latin for "fighting over parking spots is not allowed"? : NO LOT CONTENDERE.(15). Nolo Contendere, the guilty plea where one does not admit guilt, but does not 'contest' the charge. This grid spanner might be a seed entry but it confused the crap out of me, as I had an idea with the added D and M, there was going to be some kind of Roman Numeral reveal, appropriate to a Latin based theme, no go. No contest ----No parking lot contest.

47A. Latin for "cheating on one's timecard"? : TEMPUS FUDGIT. (12). Tempus Fugit. Time flies ----Time is fudged (faked).

59A. Latin for "fish trading"? : SQUID PRO QUO.(11). By far my favorite, where Quid Pro Quo gets all tentacles on us. This for that ----fish(sort of) ----for that.

Across:

1. Critters who worshiped C-3PO as a god : EWOKS.

6. Penicillin precursor : SULFA. Being allergic to Penicillin and growing up before the antibiotic explosion, I remember this.

11. Like Beethoven's Second Symphony : IN D. You like this better than the abbreviation?

14. Museum piece : RELIC.

15. Central Florida city : OCALA. Gainesville's bedroom community and great horse country.

16. Wild West : MAE. I got this immediately when I saw it was three letters but still love the clue/fill.

19. "Certainement!" : OUI. Vraiment! Aussi, 66A. Idée sources : TETES. French for heads, from whence we get our ideas.

20. Blotter letters : AKA. Also Known As. It has a cousin, FKA.

21. Good, in Genoa : BUONO. Just the Italian word.

22. Hides in the closet? : FURS. Another witty use of the confusion of the verb really being a noun here.

26. Classic pops : NEHIS. Pop=Soda; easy for those in the Midwest and a clue without Radar.

29. Charles of old mysteries : NORA. Married to Nick and played by Myrna Loy.

30. Bustles : ADOS. A new clue for a crossword staple.

31. Steam table fuel : STERNO. You get a nice ONE but it won't be cheap.

35. "Good" cholesterol initials : HDL. High-density lipoprotein.

41. Adams of "The Muppets" : AMY.

42. Owl, at times : HOOTER. Oh, so they named the restaurant chain after some owls?

43. Turkmenistan neighbor : IRAN.

44. Where change is welcome : SLOT. Though slot machines no longer have slots for change.

46. "Choose taste" sauce brand : PREGO.

53. Son of Aphrodite : EROS.

54. Cell terminal : ANODE. Battery positive, I am positive.

55. Cry made with a raised index finger : AHA!

58. Torah holder : ARK.

62. Journalist William Shirer's alma mater : COE. I remember the MAN well but had no idea where he went to college, nor any real memory of the existence of a Coe College. I read the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich when it came out, but not with....

63. Verve : GUSTO. As a ...

64. Hefty portion : CHUNK. of the book was very upsetting.

65. Shop door nos. : HRS. Hours.

67. Salon and others : E-MAGS. It sounds all POLITICAL so I have never read it.

Down:

1. First name in wit : ERMA. Ms. Bombeck I believe is more famous as fill than as anything else.

2. Watery, as a drink : WEAK. Am I the only one who thought of the talented Molly Sudgen as Mrs. Slocombe telling the men they were "weak as water?" LINK.(2:53).

3. One of Chekhov's "Three Sisters" : OLGA. Called Olya, Maria (Masha) and little Irina.

4. Blood : KIN. I ken kin.

5. Takes a dive? : SCUBAS. Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus.

6. Agreeable words : SO DO I.

7. Sch. originally endowed by the Storrs brothers : UCONN. An ultimate gimme, as it was the place of undergraduate and graduate study for me. Go Huskies!

8. __ luxury : LAP OF.

9. Viral ailment : FLU.

10. Remote power sources : AAS. We get a lot of battery clues to go with our wide feet clues.

11. "See ya!" : I'M OUTA HERE. Not yet,  still working away.

12. Pacific republic near the equator : NAURU. This was hard. LINK.

13. Voltaire's world-view : DEISM.

18. Joe with some oomph : MUD. For those who like Starbucks.

22. Holiday buy : FIR. FUR fits as well, and many a husband is up a tree if all he buys is the tree.

23. Sapporo soup : MISO. Healthy or not. You DECIDE.

24. __ circle : INNER. Fun Jamaican band. Listen.(3:42).

25. "High __" : NOON. Gary Cooper at his best.

26. Family nickname : NANA.

27. Biblical kingdom near the Dead Sea : EDOM.

28. "Yikes!" : HOLY SMOKES. I like this thought I struggled for a bit.

31. Glaswegians, e.g. : SCOTS. I also like this name for those from Glasgow.

32. Furthermore : TOO.

33. Tolkien creature : ENT.

34. Series of turns: Abbr. : RTE. I guess this is accurate, but again not my first thought.

36. Snoozefest : DRAG.

37. 2014 Television Academy Hall of Fame inductee : LENO.

39. Biblical pronoun : THOU.

40. Gossip : DIRT. It would not be worth repeating if it were not a bit 'dirty.'

45. Vinyl spinners : LPS. Long Plays.

46. Go through : PIERCE. Another perfectly correct fill that slowed me.

47. Emulate Anne Sullivan : TEACH. The famous guide to Helen Keller, herself a handicapped person who was taught at the Perkins School for the blind in Boston. In high school I wrestled against one of there students in a tournament.

48. Flub : ERROR.

49. Gounod opera : FAUST. Only 2 hours plus. LINK. (2:19:06).

50. Form an alliance : UNITE.

51. Extinct Mauritian birds : DODOS. A CSO to our dear friend.

52. Econ. stat : GDP. Gross Domestic Product.

55. Blue hue : AQUA.

56. Like curtains : HUNG. So many inappropriate comments come to mind.

57. NASA go-aheads : A-OKS.

59. Friday is one: Abbr. : SGT. Badge 714, hmmmm.

60. Prov. on the St. Lawrence : QUEbec. Is that used in Canada Eh?

61. Electrical unit : OHM. Umm, I guess I am out of power here and must leave for another week. Well as this month comes to an end I have tons of birthdays ahead, including Miss Charlotte. Thanks Bruce and thank you all for stopping by.

Lemonade out.

Thursday, September 4, 2014 Bruce Haight

Theme: HERE We Go!                             

17-Across. Keep one's landlord happy : PAY THE RENT. Even better, pay in cash!

23-Across. Box instruction : OPEN OTHER END. And the instruction there? "Open Other End..."

37-Across. Optional learning : HIGHER EDUCATION. For my sisters and me, it wasn't optional!

46-Across. Usually not a good way to get married : ON THE REBOUND. Uh, not even a good way to date.

57-Across. "You listen to me," and an instruction about what to look for in 17-, 23-, 37- and 46-Across : NOW SEE..."HERE."

HaHa!!  You got me, Bruce!  I had absolutely no clue what the unifier would be, and I chuckled when I finally "saw" it.  I believe this is Bruce's LAT debut, although he has several NYT puzzles under his belt. This was a very typical Thursday solve for me. Some gimmes, some question marks and a couple of "Huhs?"  Let's see how it goes.


Across

1. Gusto : ZEST. Elan? (Check perps: has to start with "Z.") Zing? (Nah, that doesn't work with EL AL...) Z-E-al?  (Nah, the 4-letter vodka has to be SKYY...) Z-E-S-... (Bit of ink? Hmmm...) AHA! TAT!!  Z-E-S-T.  And so it went...

5. Reynolds Wrap maker : ALCOA. Gimme.

10. Reptile house attractions : BOAS. Asps? (Check perps: Has to start with "B"...)

14. __-Seltzer : ALKA.

15. Luxury hotel with a YouFirst rewards program : LOEWS. Tough one. There are only 20 locations in the US and Canada, so it might not be the first hotel that solvers would think of.

16. Nothing but : ONLY.

19. Cross the threshold : GO IN.

20. Tricky : SLY.

21. Big name in dangerous stunts : EVEL. Knievel, the late motorcycle daredevil. You'd think he would have died in one of those crazy stunts. But no, he died of pulmonary fibrosis at the age of 69.

22. Sierra follower, in the NATO alphabet : TANGO.

26. Not familiar with : NEW AT.

29. Staff symbols : RESTS.

30. Part of Q.E.D. : ERAT. Quod Erat Demonstrandum.

31. __ Belt : ORION'S. Were the pyramids purposely situated to align with it?

Orion Correlation Theory

34. Jan. honoree : MLK. Martin Luther King.

40. Suffix with concert : INO. Hands up for filling "ina" at first?

41. "__ Fideles" : ADESTE.

42. Back in the day : ONCE. upon a time...

43. They may be counted : NOSES.

45. Golden number? : OLDIE. Great clue!

51. Exposed : BARED.

52. Film with talking bugs : ANTZ. It's the only movie with Woody Allen (the voice of "Z") that I ever enjoyed.

53. NFL's Jaguars, for short : JAX. Jacksonville, FL.

56. "The Year of Magical Thinking" author Didion : JOAN. It won the Pulitzer prize for autobiography. It chronicles her grief during the year following her husband's death in 2003.  It is a heart-wrenching account, and a must-read for anyone grieving the loss of a loved one. Her only daughter died in 2005, and led to a second book, "Blue Nights."

60. Qatari bigwig : EMIR.

61. Chicago's __ Planetarium : ADLER. America's first planetarium.

62. Roughage source : BRAN.

63. Facetious nickname for a big guy : TINY.

64. Gnocchi topping : PESTO.

Looks terrible - tastes great!

65. Kan. neighbor : OKLA.


Down

1. Prepares, as leftovers : ZAPS.

2. Mideast airline : EL AL. It means "To the Skies," which is a great lead-in for the the next answer:

3. Absolut rival : SKYY. Vodka. Cheers, Tin!

4. Bit of ink : TAT.

5. Naproxen brand : ALEVE.

6. "Two Women" Oscar winner : LOREN.

Sophia

7. "Fool for You" Grammy winner Green : CEE LO. No clue. 4:06

8. Have : OWN.

9. PEI hours : AST. Prince Edward Island. Atlantic Standard Time.

10. "The African Queen" co-star : BOGART. Husker Gary, I know you nailed this one!

11. Under consideration : ON ONE'S MIND.

12. Straighten : ALIGN.

13. Church council : SYNOD.

18. Oct- minus one : HEPT. Huh? Prefixes for eight and seven.

22. "The Gondoliers" girl : TESSA. Gilbert and Sullivan Opera. Nailed it!

23. Four-letter word : OATH. HaHa...not what I had in mind.

24. Rainbow __ : TROUT.

Hatchery Image

25. As a result : HENCE.

26. Fruity soda : NEHI.

27. Yeats' home : ERIN. Ireland, to natives.

28. Top-rated evening TV show of 1961-62 : WAGON TRAIN. My parents used to love this show. Me, not so much...

31. Turkey on rye, e.g. : ORDER.

32. Actress Witherspoon : REESE.  She's such a cutie.

33. Some badges : IDs.

35. Centers of activity : LOCI.

36. Seat for a dummy : KNEE. Dummy, as in Mortimer Snerd.

38. Relaxed : EASED.

39. Ratted (on) : TOLD.

44. Literary award named for a writer : O'HENRY.

45. Dix et un : ONZE. 10 + 1 = 11 in French.  (Funny...it adds up to the same thing in English!)

46. __ d'art : OBJET. More French.

47. Wynonna's mom : NAOMI. The Judds.

48. Cries : BAWLS.

49. Commencement : ONSET.

50. In __: unborn : UTERO.

53. Sudden movement : JERK.

54. __ Sea : ARAL.

55. Lawless character : XENA. Lucy Lawless, that is.

57. Go out in the afternoon? : NAP.

58. Keats poem : ODE.

59. "The Leftovers" airer : HBO. No clue.  Oh, I see that it just premiered on June 29th, and "The Leftovers" are those people left after the "rapture" took 2% of the world's population.

That's it for this week!

Marti

Friday, March 6, 2014, Bruce Haight

Theme: NO "E"s? EZ?

Like the recent Paul Hunsburger puzzle written up by marti, this puzzle is its own theme. In a wonderful blend of visual (the big "E" created by the black squares, and the really difficult task of cluing AND filling a puzzle without ever using the most COMMON letter in the alphabet, the e.  To do both is awesome. This is Bruce's first LAT publication, his NYT debut in January of 2013, was with 4 "1"s made of the blocks, then his second recently on Valentine's Day that created a little KERFUFFLE , and finally another grid theme Tuesday in the NYT as a collaboration with Peter Collins. The fill includes every other letter and some really sparkly fill including three grid spanners, PHOTOGRAPH ALBUM, PSYCHOANALYZING and TOTALITARIANISM. Also a slew of nice nine letter fill, ALAN ARKIN, CANADIANA,  COSTA RICA,  DRAMATICS, HAND HOLDS and PUSSYCATS, and really fun triple 7 stacks top and bottom. I am really curious as to what everyone thought of this and whether you will grade it an A or an F. Is there a theme, or is it a themeless without any E?

The reveal:

65A. What this grid's big symbol is, Across and Down : MISSING.

(Note from C.C.: The Saturday we had a while ago is a themeless puzzle without E in the clue or grid. Also, today's grid features a  Top to Bottom symmetry.)

Across:

1. Small amount : JOT. I get my J right away.

4. WWII MIA location : POW CAMP. Missing In Action (not Miami). Prisoner Of War. Stalag 13 (0:51)?

11. NFL captains : QBS. QuarterBacks. A very misleading and not necessarily true clue.

14. __ Jima : IWO. Back in "WWII, the big one". What 1950's TV show is that line from?

15. High-class tobacco products : HAVANAS.

16. Samovar : URN. not an expert, other than from my Russian grandmother

17. GPS finding : LATitude. A CSO to the Times?  Or maybe Jimmy B. (3:28)

18. Good chap : OKAY GUY. Not sure why, but I really liked this fill.

19. Nonpro sports org. : AAU. Amateur Athletic Union. Has a storied but controversial HISTORY in American amateur sports.

20. Plot : TRACT. Land not a story.

22. Providing with a transcript, possibly : CCING. Another CSO?

24. __-tzu : LAO. Father of TAO.

25. Climbing aids : HAND HOLDS. Nice  alliterative fill. Many resorts and cruise ships are offering climbing places.

29. Arm support : SLING.

31. Viral chorus? : ACHOOS. Really another very fun clue that is Friday fair; that talent is nothing to sneeze at.

32. Turkic Russian : TATAR.

33. Histrionic display : DRAMATICS. I think every family has at least one Drama Queen.

37. Roast, in a Baja dish : ASADA. Thank you Taco bell for teaching me this one.

38. Stuck : IN A RUT.

39. __ mining : STRIP.

40. "Argo" actor : ALAN ARKIN. Still have not seen that movie, though Arkin was great in Catch-22.

43. NBA coach Thomas : ISIAH. Sports trivia are tough on many solvers, especially when you are using a great player who had a very short coaching CAREER.

44. Historic town in Lazio : TIVOLI. Really obscure, even if the garden is famous. VIEW. (1:09)

45. Santa __ winds : ANA.

46. Innocuous sorts : PUSSYCATS. Not my first thought but in hindsight it works, usually with Big and baby talk.

50. Way to find out what you know : FINAL. Exam.

52. 3-D graph part : Z-AXIS. To join the x and y to get the third dimension.

53. "It's just __ thought ..." : AS I.

54. "South Pacific" song : BALI HAI. It has been linked many times, again?

60. Highway or city stat : MPG. Miles Per Gallon.

61. "Illmatic" rap star : NAS.

62. Mythical symbol of purity : UNICORN. Purity, really? I did not know this.

63. Fitting : APT.

64. Room with hoops : GYM. I guess a basketball court is a room, and I like the hoops misdirection.

66. Albany is its cap. : NYS. I understand this must stand for New York State but I find this a real stretch as NY is the state where Albany is the capital.

Down:

1. Dump : JILT. Originally a word for harlot, it became just a deceiver in love. Probably from a woman named Gillian or Jill. So maybe that is why they went up the hill.

2. Man __ : O'WAR. What a random and challenging fill in the blank. A great racehorse.

3. Autocratic approach : TOTALITARIANISM. This was a big word I heard often while I was growing during the Cold War.

4. Book with shots : PHOTOGRAPH ALBUM. Really nice clue/fill, especially bracketing a nine letter fill.

5. Poison __ : OAK. Ivy, Oak and Sumac, the poison sisters.

6. Morgantown's st. : WVA. West Virginia whose basketball team in 31-0 this season, only undefeated team.

7. Low island : CAY. We have lots of Cays and Keys in our area.

8. Afr. country : ANGola.

9. If said again, group in a 1950s African uprising : MAU. You can draw your own conclusions, but this was talked about when I was very little. HISTORY.

10. Studying on a couch? : PSYCHOANALYZING. My favorite Psyc professor was a Neo-Freudian.

11. Draw back with alarm : QUAIL.

12. Stock mark : BRAND. Nicely done, a mark on the livestock.

13. Curls up : SNUGS. verb (used without object), snugged, snug·ging. to lie closely or comfortably; nestle. Meh.

21. Books about Toronto and Ottawa, say : CANADIANA. Like Americana, *CSO to Eh!.

23. Country abutting Nicaragua : COSTA RICA, where everyone goes for inexpensive plastic surgery.

25. Put away : HAD. I had 3 pieces of Papa John's.

26. Not down: Abbr. : ACRoss. Context.

27. FDR loan org. : NHA. The National Housing Act was a landmark in the residential buying experience in the US. LINK. Much of what I do these days relates to closings, and foreclosures.

28. Papa John's rival : DOMINOS. All pizza no matter how you slice it.

29. GDR spy group : STASI. German Staatsicherheit meaning State Security. You can READ all about it.

30. Holds up : LASTS.

34. Annoy : IRK.  Is it coincidence this rhymes with jerk?

35. __ bono: "Who stands to gain?" in law : CUI.

36. B&O stop : STN. We know it is station, but is it STA or STN?

40. Org. for Nadal and Djokovic : ATP. Association of Tennis Professionals.

41. Lucy of "Kill Bill" : LIU. Elementary anyone?

42. Colorado NHL club, to fans : AVS. The rather depressing nickname, the Avalanche.

47. Band guitarist, in slang : AXMAN. The axman from AXE, BOBBY BARTH. (2:48)

48. Lacking stability : TIPPY. A stretch for me; that table was tippy? No Hedren or Walker?

49. Army squad NCOs : SSGTS. Staff sergeants?

50. Sharp tooth : FANG, So as a vampire, you name your bar Fangoria.

51. Words from Watson : I SAY. All I think of was Nigel Bruce, " I say, HOLMES".(1:09).

55. Buy from Sajak : AN I. Apparently Pat sold all the Es.

56. Paris lily : LIS. You all know 'Fleur de Lis.'

57. Suffix with tact : ICS. So this is ok fill because it is clues properly, but would tact ending be ok?

58. __ polloi : HOI. Literally "The people" in Greek, hoi means "the" so do not say 'the hoi polloi'. Has come to have derogatory connotations.

59. Valiant's son : ARN. The young prince.

I am neither young nor a prince,  but I had a royal good time with the grid and all the fresh fill. It seemed oddly easy after all, but I cannot imagine the work needed to avoid a single "e" in fill and clues.  Get ready for more daylight and less sleep. Turn the clocks ahead; reporting from Ocho Rios, Lemonade out.