Friday August 6, 2010 Charles Barasch

Theme: Oh, K! - K is added to the end of C (in one-syllable word), which is preceded by five different vowels (O, U, A, E & I), with pronunciation unchanged.

17A. Pre-1991 Russian veto? : SOVIET BLOCK. Soviet Bloc. Soviet Union dissolved in 1991.

29A. West Florida currency? : TAMPA BAY BUCK. Tampa Bay Buc. Tampa Bay is on the west coast of Florida.

35A. Assault by killer trucks? : BIG MACK ATTACK. Big Mac Attack. Mack Trucks. Here, the middle Mac rather than the end Attack (2-syllables) is in play for the K-addition. Inconsistent with other theme entries. Maybe the constructor can't find a one syllable *AC containing common phrase to play around. Can you?

43A. Construct a microscopic house? : BUILD ON SPECK. Build on Spec.

57A. Jumpy bug? : NERVOUS TICK. Nervous Tic.

Though I am not fond of the odd entry 35A, I did like how the constructor placed it in the middle row (actually, K is in the very center of the grid) and combined the resulting end black squares with those of theme entries 29A and 43A to divide the left and right edges into two rather than our normal weekday three parts, bringing us long paralleled entries in the upper right and lower left corners.

Al mentioned that nearly half of Dan's puzzle yesterday comprises of three- or four-letter entries. This one has 42, out of a total of 74 answers. I am thinking that half of every puzzle is made up these small building units, just like half of every puzzle is consisted of vowels.

Maybe Santa or anyone who is fascinated by grid structure can count the total number of three & four entries and give us a ratio report for a week or two. Then we'll see the pattern.

Across:

1. Like some teeth : GAPPED

7. Recover : HEAL. Comforting word for our sharp-witted shenanigan-maker Lois.

11. WWII Normandy lander : LST (Landing Ship Tank)

14. '60s-'70s San Francisco mayor : ALIOTO (Joseph). Stranger to me. What was he famous for, besides the mayor-ship?

15. Business opening? : AGRI. Agribusiness.

16. National Poetry Mo. : APR.

19. Madre's brother : TIO. Mother's brother = Uncle. In Spanish.

20. Certain cardholder's cry : UNO. Had no idea that the card name is called out during the play.

21. Bit of tryst talk : COO

22. Boot : EJECT

24. Site of some adoptions : PET SHOP

27. Genes responsible for hereditary variations : ALLELES. Also RNA (55. Uracil is one of its basic components ). Both alleles and uracil are new words to me.

31. On __ with : A PAR

33. Reactor safety overseer: Abbr. : NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission). Established in 1974. Succeeded AEC (Atomic Energy Commission)

34. Opposing vote : NAY

40. Equi- ending : NOX. Equinox. Latin for "night".

41. Actress Scala : GIA. First encounter with this actress. Looks pretty.

42. He beat Okker to win the 1968 U.S. Open : ASHE. Not familiar with the Dutch Tennis player Tom Okker.

48. Out there : AT LARGE

49. Occupy : INHABIT

53. Developmental step : STAGE

54. E lead-in : BCD. Alphabetically. BCDE.

56. Chickadee relative : TIT. Oh, the bird.

62. __ Zion Church : AME. I forgot. AME = African Methodist Episcopal.

63. Gunk : CRUD

64. Easter Island attraction : STATUE. Wikipedia says Easter Island (an Polynesian island) is widely famous for its 887 extant monumental statues. Has anyone been there?

65. Not the color of money? : RED. Green is the color.

66. Directors' banes : HAMS. Well, all actors ham, don't they? Just that some are good, some are bad.

67. Respected ones : ELDERS

Down:

1. Get ready to travel : GAS UP

2. All by oneself : ALONE

3. Scissors feature : PIVOT. Always associate pivot with a living being.

4. Islands staple : POI

5. Time to tan in Cannes : ETE. Summer.

6. Web outfit : DOT COM. "Outfit" here means "company", correct?

7. Symbol of virtue : HALO. Raja has the same "halo" connotation, correct, Vidwan?

8. Kind of trip taken by oneself? : EGO. Nice clue.

9. Circle part : ARC

10. Plausible : LIKELY

11. Fashionable repast : LATE LUNCH. Needs a question mark, don't you think? Otherwise, why "fashionable"?

12. Tangy dessert : SPICE CAKE. Have never had this dessert. What makes it tangy?

13. One of the original Politburo members : TROTSKY (Leon). Assassinated in 1940 in Mexico.

18. Comet Hale-__ : BOPP. I am sure it's a gimme for Spitzboov.

23. Bush seen in Florida : JEB. He still lives in Florida?

25. Dateless : STAG

26. Hurt : HARM

27. Incantation beginning : ABRA. The beginning of the word Abracadabra.

28. Milk: Pref. : LACT. Literally ''milk''.

30. Singer Paul and family : ANKAS. OK.

31. "Finally!" : ABOUT TIME. Nice clue/answer.

32. Slightly eccentric : PIXILATED. Another new word. It's made of pix(ie) and (tit)illated.

36. Worked up : AGOG

37. Art film theater : CINE

38. Driver's gadget, for short : TACH. Thought of golfer "driver" first.

39. "May I __ favor?" : ASK A. Total 6Ks in the grid.

40. Magic, at one time : NBA STAR. Oh, Magic Johnson.

44. Hang back : LAG

45. Soak : DRENCH

46. Trillionth: Pref. : PICO. I forgot also. Al gave us a list last time.

47. Ultimate purpose : END USE

50. Shiny, in product names : BRITE. Bright.

51. Bring upon oneself : INCUR

52. Directors' units : TAKES. I like this noun clue.

54. Some underwear : BVDS

58. Notable period : ERA

59. Mai tai ingredient : RUM

60. Cardinal's letters : STL. St Louis Cardinals.

61. Pinch : TAD. A pinch/tad of. Not Tinbeni's sunset toast Pinch!

Answer grid.

Here is a recent photo of our irreplaceable and inimitable MOREL guy Dennis, who has been unfailingly supporting & helping me since the start of this blog and has been brightening our mornings with his consistently informative and entertaining comments. Thanks, Dummy!

C.C.

Wednesday October 14, 2009 Charles Barasch

Theme: Them Bones - Two-word familiar phrases are playfully reinterpreted as related to the musical instrument trombones.

20A: Big Southwestern trombones?: TEXAS LONGHORNS. Cattle, and that's no bull. Or some football team. Or these guys.

37A: Refined trombones?: POLISHED BRASS. Decorative and utilitarian metal hardware. Or those who sound like Kai Winding - my idol as a kid.

54A: Continuously playing trombones?: SUSTAINED WINDS. The wind speed obtained by averaging the observed values over a one minute period. I'll bet you didn't know that. Opinions vary on proper trombone technique.

Hi, gang. Jazzbumpa here. Some things are so good, you just can't plan for them: like learning that honey is rich in B vitamins. Or that, on this, of all nights, the guest blogger would be your humble trombonist. Do I need to add how much I love this puzzle? Weird, no? Like, wow!

A fine pangram, all of the 26 letters are used at least once. Two Z's, one X/Q/J and several K's.

I worked this in Across Lite in 12:33, which is about my average for this time of the week. But I seldom have such a silly grin plastered on my embouchure (that's brass musician talk for chops.) while doing so. And once again, talk about it one day, it shows up the next. Buckeye just asked me about trombone playing. This is an omen Buck. Go for it!

Across:

1A Made a disapproving sound: TSKED

6A Witticism: JEST

10A Highlander: SCOT

14A Cop _______ : bargain in court: A PLEA

15A Healing plant: ALOE. SENNA is the healing medicinal shrub.

16A Oregon Treaty President: POLK. His middle name is KNOX, which appears in our puzzle from time to time.

17A Trembling: SHAKY

18A Having all one's marble: SANE

19A Word processing reversal: UNDO

23A Ending for ranch: ERO. I'm not in love with the either the clue or the fill, but having it snugger up against Texas helps. Tfrank - are you out there amigo?

24A Neither Rep nor Dem: IND (Independent). I'll stop now. No politics!

25A Thing: ENTITY

27A Madame in Madrid: SENORA. Or, more properly, señora, if you want to be persnickety. I never noticed the custom of alliteration in clues for foreign words until C.C. pointed it out.

30A Wide shoe size: EEE.

31A Geese flight pattern: VEE. It's time to start thinking about migration.

32A Actress Greer who received five consecutive Oscar nominations: GARSON. She won the Best Actress Oscar in 1942 for Mrs. Minver. A bit before my time. Bette Davis is another actress who received five consecutive Oscar nominations.

35A At the ready: ALERT. Bad JEST ALERT: Be A LERT - America needs more LERTS!

40A Made on a loom: WOVEN. Like Navajo rugs. If there is a flaw in this fill, I can't find it.

41A Imitation: ERSATZ. The word is imported from Germany. Here it usually means an inferior imitation.

42A Med or law lead in: PRE. The eponym for all prefixes.

43A Command ctrs.: HQS. Headquarters. Or hind quarters, depending on the quality of the commands. All things considered, I prefer DQS.

45A Musical Beat: RHYTHM. Or family planning for Catholic trombonists. Or a reporter's job covering Birdland in the 40's.

49A Well's "The Island of Dr. _______________": MOREAU. Never saw the movie. I read the book when I was about 12, and it scared the hell out of me. The good Dr. was a vivisectionist whose experiments transformed wild animals into sentient manimals. For a while. I still remember, "That is the law. Are we not men?" (Shudder.) And so close to bed time. (It is now 11:40 p.m.) Here is a better (and apparently not doctored) Moreau image.

51A Fill with wonder: AWE. Hold the shock.

53A Jr.'s son: III, Eye-yi-yi. Pretty lame.

58A Clenched weapon: FIST. A velvet fist in an iron glove. Or is it the other way around?

59A Mechanical memorization: ROTE. Or a quarterback from by-gone days for the Lions, Packers, and Chargers.

60A Remark to the audience: ASIDE. Or the song people wanted to hear. Perhaps that is B side the point.

61A To ________: perfectly: A TEE. Don't ask me. I gave up golf years ago, and experienced an immediate improvement in my quality of life. (I wouldn't TEES about something so serious.)

62A Sporty sunroof: T-TOP. For a car. Or on foot.

63A Baseball card brand: FLEER. Gone in 2007. Only Topps and Upper Deck are "Baseball card brands", Topps being the official MLB one. To double your pleasure, chewing gum.

64A Wall St's Big Board: NYSE. New York Stock Exchange.

65A Clownish: ZANY. Like a trombonist.

66A Shore birds: TERNS. Bad JEST ALERT. A very determined boy went to the shore to throw rocks at the birds. He was so thorough, he left no TERN unstoned.

Down:

1D Samples a bit of: TASTES.

2D Ball: SPHERE. A perfectly symmetric round object. Also, Thelonious Monk's middle name.

3D Loud auto honker of yore: KLAXON. The poor (pronounced pewer) man's trombone. Also, this nice march by Henry Fillmore. A favorite a Summer park concerts.

4D "______ mouse": EEK A. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get Mickey to fit. But it's a reggae guy. Who knew?

5D Weekly septet: DAYS. Or nights, depending on how you shift it. If I don't cut back on the link, I'll never get to bed.

6D Argonaut's leader: JASON. From Greek Mythology. Their ship is called Argo. Also a song that contains the words "manimals" and "buying knives."

7D Large antelope: ELAND. This guy, a savannah and plains antelope found in East and Southern Africa.

8D Tune: SONG. A melody, with words. They can be about the most unlikely subjects.

9D Dainty laugh: TEEHEE. Or a mini Minnie laugh.

10D Sudden gushing: SPURT. A drip under pressure.

11D Conspires with: CONNIVES. From the Latin for closing ones eyes. I'm getting sleepy.

12D Octogenarians, for example. OLDSTERS. My mom and M-I-L are octogenarians.

13D Boxing Ref's decision: TKO. Technical knock out. The referee stops the fight, judging that the bout is a mis-match or somebody is about to get hurt.

21D Whopper creators: LIARS. I wanted Burger King.

22D Lord's Prayer words following "Thy will be done.": ON EARTH, as it is in heaven. I'll stop now. No religion!

26D Thus far: YET. There was a story on the news about a woman who got shot last week and the bullet is in her YET. I skipped anatomy class the day we were supposed to learn where that is. Also forgot the bad JEST ALERT. Lo siento.

28D Eye unsubtly: OGLE. A crossword stalwart.

29D Drizzly day chapeau: RAIN HAT. An article of practical apparel.

30D Above in poems: O'ER. Contraction of over. Never in my poems. (It's Wednesday.)

33D Women: SHES. Sure. It's getting to late to argue.

36D Slow moving, as a river: LAZY From the song "Up a Lazy River."

37D Penetrable quality of skin: POROSITY. The fraction of a surface that is filled with holes. The unbearable lightness of not-being.

38D Makes a cliche of, say: OVERUSES. Pretty straight-forward.

39D Exposed: BARED. I'm done linking. Use your imagination.

40D Typist's stat.: WPM. Words per minute. Mine is in single digits (from typing with just one finger.)

44D Crystalline material: QUARTZ. Pretty much pure silica. Higher melting than glass.

46D More petite: TINIER. Like my little Em.

47D Like eggs in an Easter hunt: HIDDEN. Outa' sight, man!

48D Skinflints: MISERS. Penny pinching, greedy hoarders, like Ebenezer Scrooge.

50D Big name in Perfumery: ESTEE. Lauder, I presume.

51D Dramatist Chekhov: ANTON. Some Russian guy. Chekhov's "Three Sisters" (Olga, Masha, and Irina) pop into LA Times occasionally.

52D Tearful: WEEPY. Rhymes with sleepy.

55D Letter after Theta. IOTA. About how much I care, at this point. Knew it wasn't Alpha.

56D Drift, as an aroma. WAFT. What you can experience when walking past a bakery.

57D Shipwreck Site: ISLE. The Isle of Capri sounds romantic. Somehow, though, Goat Island doesn't.

58D Air move: FAN. Also, I'm a fan of this puzzle.

Over and out, kids. This took me three hours.

Cheers!

Answer grid.

Jazzbumpa