Sunday July 18, 2010 Corey Rubin

Theme: Not I - You! Long U sound (in various spellings) is added to consonant-beginning parts of common phrases, the resulting theme phrases, some of which experience spelling changes, are then humorously clued.

23A. Organize guards? : UNITE WATCHMEN. The base phrase is nightwatchmen.

31A. How the Knicks of 1985-2000 may have rested their hopes? : ON A EWING AND A PRAYER. On a wing and a prayer. Patrick Ewing.

43A. Where the Oregon swim team practices? : EUGENE POOLS. Gene pools.

59A. Backlash from a Canadian territory? : THE WRATH OF YUKON. The Wrath of Khan.

68A. Reverse course against one's better judgment? : TAKE A U-TURN FOR THE WORSE. Take a turn for the worse. Perfect grid spanner.

78A. Answer to "Man, where can I find good music videos online?" : TEST YOUTUBE, BABY. Test tube baby.

95A. Grateful words for a delivery company? : UPS I LOVE YOU. P.S. I Love You. Very sappy movie.

103A. Headline about declining sales of Nesquik? : YOOHOO'S LAUGHING NOW. Who's laughing now? I've never heard of Nesquik or Yoohoo chocolate milk. Don't eat any dairy products.

121A. Card in the game Car Flop Monopoly? : DO NOT PASS YUGO. Do not pass go. Yugo is the worst car in history, isn't it?

The constructor covered all the possible spellings for the long U sound, no? U, EW, EU, YU, YOU & YOO. Rather exhaustive.

Amusing theme. Heavy themage too. Nice & long theme entries. I like the title too.

Also a pangram. And no cheater square. Very John Lampkin like. But I spotted no cross-reference or clue echos, which are heavily featured in John's puzzles.

Across:

1. To blame : AT FAULT. He's to blame/AT FAULT.

8. Porch tune, maybe : CAROL. The "tune" is a duplication with the answer TUNE in 2D.

13. Spa treatment : MASSAGE. Hi, Melissa.

20. Washington's coin : QUARTER

21. Yoga posture : ASANA. Thought of Lucina and her always cheerful posts!

22. Fancy furs : ERMINES

25. Friday show? : DRAGNET. Sergeant Friday.

26. Prefix with plane : AERO. Aeroplane.

27. Lavish affection : DOTE

28. Roman's 103 : CIII

30. Oenophile's concern : NOSE. Oenophile = One who loves wine.

37. Take a shot : TRY

40. Post-OR area : ICU

41. Caspian feeder : URAL. Tried ARAL first.

42. Major ISP : AOL

48. Auto designer Ferrari : ENZO. He has become a gimme.

50. Chat room "Incidentally ..." : BTW. Needs to be reclued to avoid the "chat" duplication with the answers IDLE CHAT (29D. "Nice weather we're having" and the like).

53. Was too sweet : CLOYED

54. Meter opening : ODO. Opening for the word odometer. The clue needs a question mark. To be consistent with 92A.

55. Lab animals : MICE

57. Not stuffy : AIRY

58. Roll call response : HERE

63. Agt. under Ness : T-MAN

66. Retailer with blue-and-yellow megastores : IKEA

67. Lure sneakily : ROPE IN

75. Set straight : ORIENT

76. Execute perfectly : NAIL

77. Hun king of myth : ATLI. Same as Attila the Hun.

83. Ernest's unseen friend, in films : VERN. No idea. What film?

87. Chop finely : HASH

88. Mineo and a mule : SALS. Fun clue. A man and a mule.

89. Resistance unit : OHM

90. Andy's deputy : BARNEY. "The Andy Griffith Show".

92. Mock ending? : ERY. Ending for the word mockery.

93. McGregor of "Star Wars" films : EWAN

97. Maker of Good Grips kitchen tools : OXO. Annette was just talking about Oxo products.

98. College srs.' tests : GRES. Foreign students take GRE too, if they want to study for Masters in the US.

101. A, in Avignon : UNE. Alliteration.

102. Set, as a price : ASK

111. Summer quaffs : ADES. Can picture the groan in Barry G's face.

112. Navigate : WEND

113. Jumble wordplay: Abbr. : ANAG. Man, we really have some anagram experts on the blog. Awesome blossoms!

114. In __: stuck : A JAM

118. Rise again : RESURGE

125. Bridge call : NO TRUMP

126. Papal garment : ORALE. The cape over his vestments.

127. Fail : GO UNDER

128. Show contempt for : SNEER AT

129. Normand of silents : MABEL. Her name escaped me. Saw this clue before.

130. Reagan A.G. : ED MEESE

Down:

1. Turquoise hue : AQUA

2. Use a fork, in a way : TUNE. Tuning fork?

3. Off the foul pole, e.g. : FAIR. Baseball.

4. Threepio's pal : ARTOO. Stumper. "Star Wars" droid.

5. Salt Lake City athlete : UTE

6. "Ben-Hur" author Wallace : LEW. Stranger to me.

7. Switch to a better model : TRADE UP

8. Saguaros : CACTI. They are in Gunghy's photos.

9. Visibly terrified : ASHEN

10. Try to sink, maybe : RAM. OK.

11. Like a family sharing a vehicle : ONE CAR

12. Pacific weather phenomenon : LA NIÑA

13. TV and radio : MEDIA

14. Sheet music abbr. : ARR. Arranged?

15. "'S a __ request": Burns : SMA. Better than the "Wee" clue yesterday.

16. Cell user's need : SIGNAL. Cellphone.

17. Tee off : ANNOY

18. Canada __ : GEESE

19. Perfumer's compound : ESTER

24. Drag : TOW

32. Number of Dvorák symphonies : NINE. Needed crossing help.

33. Breezed through : ACED

34. Astronaut Grissom : GUS

35. Guerra's opposite : PAZ. Spanish for "Peace". Guerra is "war". Got me.

36. Milne tyke : ROO. Kanga's kid in "Winnie-the-Pooh".

37. PC troubleshooter : TECH

38. Have power over : RULE

39. Lab assistant in a 1939 film : YGOR. Or IGOR.

44. Some canines : EYE TEETH

45. "Impressive!" : OOH

46. Work of Sappho : ODE. Sappho is the Greek poet. A Lesbian. The word "lesbian" is derived from her birthplace island Lesbos.

47. In a funk : LOW

49. "The Matrix" hero : NEO

50. Helmet wearer : BIKER

51. Mousquetaires count : TROIS. Three. Did not know Mousquetaires = Musketeers in French. 'The Three Musketeers".

52. Crossword inventor Arthur : WYNNE. In 1913.

55. Hammerhead cousin : MAKO

56. Anatomical passage : ITER

57. Way to make steak : AU POIVRE. Poivre is French for "pepper".

59. Demolition supply : TNT

60. Biathlete's gear : RIFLE

61. Agonize : FRET

62. Cry of distress : YOWL

64. Umpteen : MANY

65. Self starter? : AUTO. Like autograph/autobiography. "Self" prefix. Somehow I am not fond of this clue.

68. "__ moon, Alice!": Gleason catchphrase : TO THE

69. Toward the back : AREAR. I checked. It's in the dictionary.

70. Inviting, as lips : KISSY. Only know kissable.

71. Straighten out : UNTANGLE

72. Brother of Fidel : RAUL. The Castros.

73. Birds' bills : NIBS

74. Stable staple : HAY. Nice alliterative & rhyming clue.

79. Dream Team's team : USA

80. Gillespie's genre : BOP

81. Doctors hear a lot of them : AHS

82. ASCAP competitor : BMI. Broadcast Music Incorporated. New abbr. to me.

84. "The Council of Elrond" singer : ENYA

85. Flying Clouds, e.g. : REOS. Had this identical before.

86. Syllable from Curly : NYUK. Nyuk, Nyuk, Nyuk. Three times.

90. Beethoven's birthplace : BONN

91. Chevy subcompact : AVEO. What's the name origin, Santa?

93. Prefix with skeleton : EXO. "Outside" prefix.

94. Court : WOO

95. Pres. before RBH : USG. Ulysses S. Grant. RBH = Rutherford B. Hayes. Blank spots for me.

96. Carousel sight : LUGGAGE. Carousel is the revolving belt in the airports.

97. "Yeah, right!" : OH SURE

99. Like coin flips : RANDOM

100. Author Welty : EUDORA. Peeked at the answer sheet.

103. Fish stories : YARNS

104. Cinema name : ODEON

105. Compass dirección : OESTE. "West" in Spanish.

106. Took four of four, say : SWEPT

107. Oahu outsider : HAOLE. Just remember it as A HOLE.

108. Drone's gathering, briefly : INTEL. Intelligence.

109. Be off one's guard : NAP

110. __ Manor: "Batman" mansion : WAYNE. Learning moment.

115. Hardy's "obscure" stonemason : JUDE. Hardy's novel "Jude the Obscure". Too obscure a clue for me.

116. Seemingly forever : AGES

117. Greedy cry : MORE

119. 1921 Capek play : R.U. R. Where the word "robot" was first used.

120. ABC talk show, for short : GMA

122. Put the cuffs on : NAB

123. Grass in strips : SOD

124. Bottom line : SUM

Answer grid.

Here is Part VIII of Kazie's Oz series. Various Sydney Harbour pictures. Brilliant night shots. The last installment of her trip will appear tomorrow.

C.C.

PS: I have a question for Firefox Browser users: Do the links today appear in blue color in your screen? They look gray in my computer, but blue when I go to Internet Explorer.

Saturday August 15, 2009 Corey Rubin

Theme: None

Total blocks: 32

Total words: 72

All those triple stacks of 10-letter fills in upper right corner and lower left corner consist of two words. Fantastic! I love SWING STATE (5A: Purple region, on some maps) and TROOP SURGE (59A: Bush announcement of 2007) the most.

Then you add UN-PC (15A: Like many -ess words nowadays) and NEO (33D: Conservative leader? - Neoconservative), voila, a great Saturday puzzle for a news junkie. Somehow I thought the SURGE decision was made immediately after the 2006 election though, after Rumsfeld was fired.

Very enjoyable puzzle, full of lively fills. The grid is not that intimidating and most of the multiple-word answers are workable. I still had my normal struggle. But "rarely is the questioned asked: Is our children learning?" I think I am.

Across:

1A: __d'Orsay: Seine site: QUAI. Left bank of the Seine. Very close to my beloved Musée d'Orsay. The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs is located here. QUAI is just French for quay (wharf).

16A: It's measured in hits: WEB TRAFFIC. Yep, our blog traffic is measured by hits.

17A: 2002 Eddie Murphy/Owen Wilson film: I SPY. Not a familiar movie to me. Somehow I've never liked Owen Wilson. Clive Owen, yes, definitely.

18A: Play honors: OBIE AWARDS. Or Tony Awards.

19A: End of a series: ZEE. Last letter of English alphabet.

20A: Like galas: DRESSY

21A: Café addition: LAIT. French for "milk". Café au LAIT.

22A: More dry and crumbly: MEALIER. Wanted FLAKIER.

24A: It's taken in spots: TEA. Dictionary explains "spot" as "a drink", chiefly British, informal. then it gives an example: a spot of TEA. New to me.

26A: Like Beethoven's Seventh: IN A. No idea. But I knew the clue is asking for a IN? answer.

27A: Physicist Fermi: ENRICO. Nobel Physics winner, 1938. Learned his name from doing Xword. ENRICO is Italian for "Ruler of the Household".

28A: Largest of Dodecanese: RHODES. Oh, this is where the Colossus of RHODES is located then. So close to Turkey. I was stumped. Have never heard of Dodecanese, literally ""twelve islands" in Greek.

30A: Didn't delete: LEFT IN. My initial answer was KEPT IN.

34A: Minx: HUSSY. New word to me.

37A: Aspect: FACET

39A: How - __: TOS

40A: "Some Like it Hot, " for one: FARCE. Oh, I mixed "Some Like it Hot" with "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof".

42A: Like Beethoven's Ninth: CHORAL. I am a classic music idiot. So, no idea. Wikipedia says The Symphony No. 9 (CHORAL) is Beethoven's last symphony.

44A: Seat of Texas's Ector County: ODESSA. Al's 9:31am post yesterday was in play here. Simple guess. Ector County means nothing to me.

46A: Native Midwesterners: OSAGES. Oh, Native Indians.

50A: Island party music source: UKE. Hawaii.

51A: Challah need: EGG. I've never had challah, does it taste like brioche?

53A: Extinguished: BLEW OUT

54A: Dairy prefix: LACT. Latin "milk". As in lactose. Lactose intolerance. I like seeing LAIT and LACT in one grid.

56A: Ring of color: AREOLA. AREa+ OLA. Just like this.

58A: Airport near Forest Hills, N.Y.: LGA (La Guardia Airport). Another guess. JFK did not even come to my mind.

61A: Anglo __ War (1899-1902): BOER. BOERS is derived from Dutch "boor" (peasant).

62A: In-line pickup?: IMPULSE BUY. I don't know the meaning of "In-line". Stand in-line at the check-out?

63A: Francis of Hollywood: ANNE. Unknow to me. Wikipedia says ANNE Francis is perhaps best known for her role as Altaira in the significant Sci-Fi classic "Forbidden Planet".

64A: It'll cost you to go in them: PAY TOILETS. Stymied, though I've used them. Toilets should always be free.

65A: Like most whiskey: AGED. My first thought is OAKY.

Down:

1D: College study group request: QUIZ ME. No idea. Have never attended a school here.

2D: Like radio waves: UNSEEN. And APPEAR (3D: Cease being 2-Down). Nice intersection with I SPY.

4D: Distant: ICY

5D: Quit for good: SWORE OFF

6D: "Der Freischütz" composer: WEBER. Stranger to me. Wikipedia says his full name is Carl Maria von WEBER, and his mastery of the orchestra was equalled in his time only by Beethovena nd Schubert. "Der Freischütz" is usually translated as "The Marksman" or "The Freeshooter".

7D: Head of the Egyptian god Thoth: IBIS. Gimme. IBIS is considered sacred bird for those ancient Egyptians. THOTH is Egypitan god of wisdom. See the IBIS on his head?

8D: Subject of the 2005 opera "Doctor Atomic": N-TEST

9D: Aging, maybe: GRAYER. I am aging. I am GRAYER. OK.

10D: Dated: SAW. A-Rod is dating Kate Hudson. A-Road and Kate Hudson are seeing each other.

11D: Nonstick cookware brand: T-FAL. The brand I use. Short for Teflon & aluminium.

12D: "Yes, sorry to say": AFRAID SO

13D: Desirable trait in a roommate: TIDINESS

14D: No mere joy: ECSTASY

20D: They're rolled on tables: DICE. Nailed it immediately.

23D: Spring bloomers: LILACS

25D: Rubbing reaction: AHH

29D: Western staple: OUTLAW. Wanted OATER.

31D: Toe preceder?: TAC. Tic-TAC-Toe. Got me.

32D: Ego, to Freud: ICH. German for "I", as in JFK's "ICH bin ein Berliner". I wanted IDS. Neat to have ICH right in the heart of the grid.

35D: No-goodnik's accumulation: BAD KARMA. Mine was MAD KARMA, as I filled in MFA rather than BFA ( (Bachelor of Fine Arts) for 35A: Deg. for theater types: BFA.

36D: Infomercial come-on: FREE COPY

38D: Chicago Surface Lines transports: TROLLEYS. Wikipedia says the Chicago Surface Lines was operator of the street railway system of Chicago from 1913 to 1947. Unknown to me.

40D: Barely struck strike: FOUL TIP. I love the clue. FOUL TIP is always counted as a strike.

41D: Computer ending: ESE. Computerese. I was thinking of EXE, the computer file name extension.

43D: Sailing: ASEA

45D: Winner of eight Grand Slam tournaments: AGASSI

47D: Passing order? GO LONG. Stumped. American football term?

48D: Home of the Oregon Ducks: EUGENE. University of Oregon home.

49D: Was wide-eyed: STARED

52D: Bland breakfast: GRUEL. Sometimes my breakfast is just millet/rice GRUEL. I like sprinkle dried fruits and toasted nuts in them.

53D: Australian cager Andrew who was selected first overall in the 2005 NBA draft: BOGUT. No idea. Andrew BOGUT was drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks and he is still playing for them.

55D: Ballyhoo: TOUT

57D: Kathryn of "Law & Order: C.I.": ERBE. German name, meaning "inheritance". It rhymes with "Herbie". Don't confuse her name with the German river ELBE.

60D: Gaza Strip gp.: PLO. Hamas controls West Bank. (Note: I was wrong. Hamas controls Gaza Strip.)

61D: Shropshire sound: BAA. Did not know Shropshire is a breed of English sheep. Hey, ewe!

Answer grid.

Picture of the Day: The always graceful and gracious beauty Clear Ayes & her Golf-Addicted-Husband (G-A-H in her daily comments). She said "Obviously my husband likes to be Santa Claus for the kids. I hope Argyle doesn't get jealous!"

C.C.