Wednesday, May 10, 2017, Agnes Davidson and C.C. Burnikel

TITLE: MUSH!

Our own Irish Miss and C.C. have doggedly produced a lovely Wednesday puzzle that provided a fun exercise for me while their theme escaped my blood hound instincts. There was also just enough challenge to make my solving experience enjoyable.

What these ladies did was to supply five two-word theme answers wherein both words can serve as a "LEAD" for the word DOG. This is all tied up in their theme reveal:

37. Iditarod front-runners ... or what both parts of the answers to starred clues can do? : LEAD DOGS - As you can see by the picture here, being the LEAD DOG does have its advantages!

The previous puzzle I blogged was last Wednesday's where the phrase OUT OF could precede each word in a two word phrase to give two new phrases and so there was some similarity. 

Now let's take a look at the theme fills, some of which are canine related and some not so much:

18. *Suffering harsh criticism : UNDER ATTACK which yields

55. *Highway patrol group : STATE POLICE and we also get

 3. *Deep trouble : HOT WATER 

6. *Member of a 1960s Chinese paramilitary group : RED GUARD

36. *Hard-to-control blaze : WILD FIRE where Agnes and C.C. also give us

Let's see what else is in their, anything but shaggy, dog story:

Across

1. __ Wednesday : ASH - The day after Mardi (Tuesday) Gras (Fat)

4. Rock of comedy : CHRIS

9. Miata automaker : MAZDA - The star of the movie Husker Gary's Midlife Crisis

14. 6-Down leader : MAO

15. Moocher : LEECH

16. Cannes concepts : IDEES - En France, les bonnes IDEES peuvent impliquer des vin (In France, good ideas can  involve wine)

17. CPR pro : EMT

20. Attach, as a patch : SEW ON 

22. All skin and bones : GAUNT

23. See 39-Down : LEE 39. With 23-Across, "Life of Pi" Oscar winner : ANG - ANG LEE - Lots of CGI required

24. Put up, as wallpaper : HANG

25. Fleecy boot brand : UGGS - Tom Brady was a spokesperson at one time

26. Word on a sample check : VOID

27. Sneaky guy? : PETE

28. Charlotte of "The Facts of Life" : RAE

29. Lawman Earp : WYATT

31. Portable gifts for book lovers : E READERS - Do you like turning the pages like I do?

33. Very long spell : EON

34. Part of mph : PER - Do you really want to get your 'vette going this fast?

35. Exchange rate abbr. : USD - Your Canadian loonie is worth about .73 USD

36. Like some smiles : WRY

37. NYC airport code : LGA

40. Cat, often : PET - We have one of those

LILY

41. Clam : SIMOLEON - Ah, the euphemisms abound

43. "Sailing to Byzantium" poet : YEATS - I did better understanding calculus and relativity

45. Where LeBron plays home games, on scoreboards : CLE - Has any athletes ever meant as much to one city as LeBron has to CLEveland?

46. Yin partner : YANG

47. Standard : NORM

48. Passed down, as folk mus. : TRAD - I didn't understand TRAD until I saw mus. Hence TRADtional music

50. Antique shoppe adjective : OLDE

51. Wilder's "__ Town" : OUR

52. "Mrs. Dalloway" novelist : WOOLF - I ain't afraid of her

53. Bicycle part : PEDAL - Once you attach your foot to the PEDAL there could be issues

58. Have debts : OWE

59. Ancient Aegean region : IONIA


60. Bugs of crime : MORAN - George "Bugs" MORAN was on his way to the garage on Valentine's Day 1929. Good thing he was late.

61. Came down with : GOT

62. Chopper blade : ROTOR  - One horizontal and one vertical

63. Gushes : SPEWS

64. Caution to drivers : SLO 



Down - Picture seemed appropriate here with the clue direction and the theme...

1. Iowa college town : AMES

2. "One for me, too" : SAME HERE

4. Held tightly (to) : CLUNG

5. Coop resident : HEN

7. Glacial periods : ICE AGES

8. Show of indifference : SHRUG

9. Baker's accessory : MITT


10. Electronic security corp. : ADT - The telephone ran them out of their original business

11. Fanatic : ZEALOT

12. Duplicity : DECEIT

13. Posed a question : ASKED

19. Mom's demand for an explanation : ANSWER ME - Been there, heard that!

21. Top draft status : ONE-A - This IV status card was "found" on him on 11/22/63 using an alias

26. Moving vehicle : VAN

27. __ rally : PEP 

28. Road trip convenience : REST STOP


30. Go up and down : YOYO - A lot of this motion is NOT up and down

32. Tune for two : DUET

38. Left base illegally : GONE AWOL

40. Kitchen spray : PAM

41. Edible mollusk : SCALLOP

42. Country singer Lovett : LYLE - Yeah, I know who he was married to for two years and I don't know why either

43. "Right back atcha" : YOU TOO

44. Off the mark : ERRANT - William Tell pulled two arrows and told Gov. Gessler that the second arrow would have been for Gessler if the first shot was ERRANT and had killed his son and then... 

47. Respectful refusal : NO SIR

49. Destinations in Clue : ROOMS - The original ROOMS

50. Pops the cork from : OPENS

52. Be dressed in : WEAR

54. Jared of "Suicide Squad" : LETO

56. Juan's uncle : TIO - An Almost Perfect Uncle

57. Bit of cornfield cacophony : CAW

Now, after my DOG and pony show, let's have some good comments 

THE GRID

Wednesday, May 3, 2017, Thomas Takaro

Title: I CAN'T GET NO... 

Thomas has given us a fun mid-week puzzle which was a pleasure to solve. However, like the cartoon below, the gimmick evaded me and then hit me OUT OF left field!

Every starred answer was a two word phrase to which OUT OF can be added to either word and make two more common phrases. Very nice.

The fill went very smoothly with only this proper noun speed bump on the way

11. Tony-winning actress for "Miss Saigon" : LEA SALONGA - A name we had recently and I had already forgotten but it solved itself.

THEME ANSWERS, (plus adding OUT OF to first word):

18. *Cubicle, e.g. : WORK SPACE - becomes OUT OF WORK and OUT OF SPACE. - Conducting research while OUT OF WORK?

27. *Singing skill that enables good phrasing : BREATH CONTROL - OUT OF BREATH and OUT OF CONTROL - Breath holding is now a sport called Static Apnea. Here German Tom Sietas beats Brazilian Ricardo Bahia

45. *Number after a circled "c" : COPYRIGHT DATE - OUT OF COPYRIGHT and OUT OF DATE - In Canada, books are OUT OF COPYRIGHT 50 yrs after the author's death. That's January, 2015 for Ian Fleming

60. *Unobstructed view : SIGHT LINE - OUT OF SIGHT and OUT OF LINE - Less is more.

...and the reveal

69. Lacking, and what can go with each word in the answers to starred clues : OUT OF - This silly 1920's song tells of the vendor who is OUT OF bananas!

Now, before I am OUT OF time...

Across

1. Greek played by Anthony Quinn : ZORBA

6. Small plateau : MESA

10. Slick-talking : GLIB - Have I got a lemon car for you!

14. "That is to say ... " : I MEAN

15. Channel showing many games : ESPN

16. Sommelier's prefix : OENO - What he probably won't tell you

17. Incessantly : NO END

20. Kids' racing vehicles : GO KARTS

22. Chicken __ king : ALA - A high school favorite of mine when served on homemade biscuits

23. Prefix with pass or plus : SUR

24. Cultural funding org. : NEA

25. Mottled : PIED

26. MGM motto word : ARS

32. Get an __: ace : A ON

33. Casino gratuity : TOKE - Short for TOKEN of appreciation

34. Overseer : BOSS - The dealer above must call out "TOKE for the dealer" and tap the table to satisfy the pit BOSS that he or she is not stealing.

37. Harbor protectors : JETTIES - The Bussleton JETTY in Western Australia is well over a mile long and has its own railroad

39. "Vitruvian Man" artist : DA VINCI - Robert and Sophie find her dead grandfather in the Louvre posed as the Vitruvian Man at the beginning of The DA VINCI Code

42. Pacific Rim continent : ASIA

43. Mozart's "__ fan tutte" : COSI - "All women behave the same"

44. Jupiter or Mars : GOD

50. EPA pollution std. : AQI

52. Wetland plant : REED

53. Capri suffix : OTE - CAPRIOTE - A resident of the beautiful island of Capri or a conical hat worn by Spanish Clerics. Yeah, I know what they look like.

54. Bit of wordplay : PUN

55. Aviation stat. : ALT - At an ALT of ~50 miles, the sky starts to turn black and you are on the threshold of space


56. "Flags of Our Fathers" setting : IWO JIMA - The Marine Memorial is a sculpture of the raising of the flag on IWO JIMA's Mt. Suribachi and is just "a stone's throw" north of Arlington National Cemetery

63. Inn postings : RATES

64. Cosmopolitan rival : ELLE

65. Gold diggers' objectives : ORES

66. First in a line of Russian princes : IVAN I - 14th century Grand Duke Of Moscow

67. River crossed by Charon : STYX

68. Old or Wild follower : WEST - A 9-part series that tells all you need to know about The West and how it was won/stolen. It may not make you feel very proud.

Down

1. Zest : ZING - "ZING, ZING, ZING went my heartstrings"

2. Melville novel set on Tahiti : OMOO - His second novel - a sequel to Typee and four years before the one about that big fish, uh, mammal

3. Really stink : REEK

4. Split fruit? : BANANA - ~800cal but...

5. Mario who won IndyCar races in four different decades : ANDRETTI

6. Sussex stable area : MEWS - A row of houses or apartments converted from stables. Now you know as much as I do.

7. Anka's "__ Beso" : ESO - This has been a frequent visitor this spring


8. Common sports injury : SPRAIN - The Morris Boot is a way to ice 'em down and still be somewhat mobile

9. Short sock : ANKLET - When you don't need the boot

10. Rep. group : GOP

12. Run up, as debts : INCUR - $19,000,000,000,000 and counting here in the U.S.A. Your share is ~ $61,290.

13. Afrikaans speakers : BOERS

19. Iraq's __ City : SADR

21. Western border lake : TAHOE - Or a humongous SUV




25. "The Purloined Letter" writer : POE - Dupin replaces The Purloined Letter with a fake

27. Westernmost Mexican state, familiarly : BAJA - BAJA California is the home of my best friend from school (I'd say ELHI if I didn't despise that word)

28. Small deer : ROES - A Eurasian deer

29. With allure : ENTICINGLY

30. Bank statement listings: Abbr. : CKS - I can't be out of money, I still have some CKS!

31. Japanese sash : OBI


35. Edinburgh native : SCOT - Edinburgh native Stu Sutcliffe quit the Beatles to pursue an art career. They did however, picture him on this famous cover - Far left, third row from the top. I doubt that he got any royalties.

36. Agree (with) : SIDE

38. Eastern spiritual path : TAO

39. One may be fetching : DOG

40. __ of hands : A SHOW

41. Director De Sica : VITTORIO - Did you see his academy award winner Il Giardinao dei Finzi-Contini? Me either.

43. Spanish hero El __ : CID

46. Start to fall? : PRAT - A PRAT fall by Patrick Swayze in Ghost

47. Soccer penalty card color : YELLOW

48. Make more time for hobbies, say : RETIRE - Yeah, like crossword puzzles

49. "Here we go again" feeling : DEJAVU - Didn't I just blog a puzzle recently...

50. Cathedral areas : APSES 

51. Blanket that's often hand-sewn : QUILT

56. Superlative suffix : IEST

57. "Do __ once!" : IT AT


58. Less, musically : MENO - With (Un) slightly (poco) less (MENO) motion (mosso) as you see here

59. "Not a chance!" : AS IF - AS IF I knew what Un poco meno mosso meant!

61. Bad spell : HEX

62. Game console letters : NES


Now for some comments from you that hopefully are not OUT OF whack:

The Grid

Wednesday, April 26, 2017, Bill Zagozweski

Title: COMPLETE THE PHRASE

Husker Gary here to fill in the blanks on Bill's very clever puzzle. If you knew going in that every themer had the word BLANK in it and that the actual single clue word had to be mentally placed in/over that BLANK, it would have made for a faster solve. It worked that way for me after I got the gimmick. What a hoot!

As you can see in the grid at the right, I have put the Clue word over (rather than in) the BLANK and that generates a familiar phrase.

I thought INCUS and BALATA were mighty meaty words for a Wednesday and I had to research PET and SHIN used in unfamiliar contexts, but learning is an great adjunct to these daily exercises. Opposed to popular opinion, I am trainable.

Now before I BLANK out, lets examine what the theme fills, one layer at a time.

20. NOTHING : BLANK BUT NET - NOTHING fills in for BLANK and we get NOTHING BUT NET which is a baseball phrase shown here in a fun way

56. NAUGHT : ALL FOR BLANK - NAUGHT fills in for BLANK to give us ALL FOR NAUGHT. Like when Andy Hawkins threw a no-hitter for the Yankees but got beat because of errors

11. SPACE : OPEN BLANK -Drop SPACE in the BLANK and you get OPEN SPACE. Tom Lehman took the OPEN SPACE of Nebraska's Sand Hills and built the 35th best public golf course in America.

31. EMPTY : BLANK NEST - EMPTY fills in the BLANK to give us EMPTY NEST. We at least waited two days before we moved the computer desk into her room and to make it an office.

38. Provide missing info ... and what four clues do to their answers : FILL IN THE BLANKS - A round of Mad Libs:

FILL IN THE BLANKS: This was a(n) ADJECTIVE puzzle that gave me ADJECTIVE NOUN. I thought it was ADVERB ADJECTIVE for a Wednesday because the fill was ADVERB ADJECTIVE than usual. 

My answers - Wonderful, Great Joy, Particularly Difficult, More Challenging


Now you get to read my ADJECTIVE review/exposition 

Across

1. Reduce drastically : SLASH

6. Skyscraper girder : I-BEAM - They just pulled up an I-BEAM for lunch 

11. Bobby on the ice : ORR

14. Willowy : LITHE

15. Impudent : NERVY

16. Baltimore Ravens mascot named for an author : POE - Baltimore? Ravens? Makes perfect sense!

17. Attendant who invites Hamlet to duel Laertes : OSRIC - Peter Cushing playing OSRIC to Olivier's Hamlet

18. Blubbers : CRIES

19. Potato part : EYE

22. "Stillmatic" rapper : NAS - His lyrics ain't exactly Gershwin

23. Equinox mo. : SEP - On or about the 21st




24. Secure at the pier : LASH - Bill Murray had to be LASHED to the mast to overcome his fear of sailing in this hilarious film

25. Small bite : NIBBLE

27. Sulky state : PET - There it was, it had to be, but wha...? My research showed it as a shortened form of in a PETulant mood. Sample: Bill is really in a PET today.

28. L.A.'s region : SOCAL - SOuthern CALifornia 

29. Jessica of "Fantastic Four" films : ALBA - Let me get this straight. You give her this special power? Really? 

32. Waimea Bay island : OAHU

35. First sound of the day, for many : ALARM - Mine is a hungry kitty

41. Author Asimov : ISAAC

42. Ratio phrase : IS TO

43. Boxing stats : TKO'S

44. Explosive experiment : N-TEST - Here's one on Bikini Atoll with some VIP observers miles away

46. Vote for : YEA - An important prop in the play 1776

48. "I wanna go too!" : TAKE ME

50. "Psst!" kin : AHEM

52. These, in Nantes : CES - CES croissants sont délicieux 

55. Roadside respite spot : INN

59. Word with Iron or Bronze : AGE

60. Enter on a laptop : KEY IN

61. Tropical porch : LANAI - Where I first heard the word

62. Hi-__ image : RES

63. Año Nuevo month : ENERO - El desfile de las rosas es el 1 de ENERO. (Desfile = Parade)

64. Ham it up : EMOTE

65. Cockpit abbr. : ALT

66. Building leveler, to a Brit : RASER - Wait a minute, we're going to RASE that barn that grandpa helped RAISE?

67. Like horses : MANED - Farrah's coiffure was described as a feathered MANE in this picture

Down

1. Neatniks' opposites : SLOBS

2. Stocking thread : LISLE - How many times did I have to see this before I wrote it in right away today?

3. "It's __!": "They tricked us!" : A TRAP - Admiral Ackbar's warning

4. Climb, in a way : SHIN - This ranks right up there with the obscure (to me) usage of PET above. From dictionary.com 

5. Badger from the bleachers : HECKLE - I saw an umpire take off all his equipment and throw it down in front of a HECKLER in the bleachers and say, "You do it!" He declined and shut up.

6. Anvil-shaped ear bone : INCUS - Thar she blows in the canal!

7. Ocean bed? : BERTH - It costs extra if you have a porthole or a balcony

8. Burnett of CNN : ERIN

9. ACTIVE NATURALS skin care brand : AVEENO

10. Otherworldly : MYSTICAL

12. Fit for a queen : ROYAL

13. Piece maker? : REESE - Mars Candy rued the day they turned down the tie-in with M&M's because they thought, "Who'd want to see a movie about an alien adopted by a lonely kid." Turns out, millions did. Hershey gladly cashed in with this blockbuster movie.

21. It may be passed : BATON

26. Golf ball material : BALATA - The sap harvested as you see here from these Central/South American trees was formerly widely used for a golf ball covers. Pros could control these balls better but amateurs just kept cutting them.

27. Sense of taste : PALATE

28. Bird feeder food : SUET - Part of our bird buffet

29. John Williams won its 2016 Life Achievement Award: Abbr. : AFI - American Film Institute

30. Fleur-de-__ : LIS

33. Busy, busy, busy : AT IT - After giving an assignment, I usually said, "Now, get AT IT!"

34. Dept. that oversees the FDA : HHS

36. "Citizen Kane" studio : RKO - William Randolph Hearst was so incensed at this movie that used him as a model, he leaned on Hollywood to make sure this "greatest American movie ever made" lost the Oscar to How Green Was My Valley in 1942

37. Ed.'s backlog : MSS - An Acquisition Editor with a backlog of unsolicited ManuScriptS

39. Fridge feature that needs water : ICE MAKER - Didn't you just hate wrestling with ice trays?

40. Bergman's "Gaslight" co-star : BOYER

45. Title Tejano singer in a 1997 biopic : SELENA

47. Starbucks' mermaid, e.g. : EMBLEM

48. Sparkly crown : TIARA

49. Broadway backer : ANGEL - The premise for making money in The Producers was Max Bialystock bilking money out of his stable of elderly ANGELS

50. Blazing : AFIRE

51. Roll out the red carpet for : HONOR

52. Pachelbel work : CANON - His CANON (a repeating melody) has graced many a wedding - I paid for two of them 

53. Related on mom's side : ENATE

54. Hit the slopes : SKIED - I would hit the slopes hard if I SKIED! 

57. Caustic cleaners : LYES

58. Tibetan spiritual adviser : LAMA - Carl (Bill Murray) was a looper (caddy) for the LAMA and admired his golf game in Caddyshack

Now it's time for your ADVERB  ADJECTIVE comments: