Friday, August 26, 2011 James Sajdak

Theme: Cutting some Zs. Each of the theme answers is a phrase containing the letter "Z" which is removed and is replaced by the pluralized D sound to make a similar sounding but very different phrase, fraught with humor. This is the third James Sajdak puzzle I have had the pleasure of blogging, and like his June 24, 2011 farmhouse puzzle, sound has much to do with the theme. In his interview, Mr. Sajdak, who is an English teacher by trade, emphasized his goal was to entertain, so he fits in perfectly for the Corner and myself. Let's see where he takes us today, P.S., shh but it is Lemonade here as the tour guide today.

20A. Easy-to-use sock drawer organizer?: PEDS DISPENSER. This morphed from PEZ DISPENSER, the famous collectable candy holding toy, into a really nice image of a drawer shooting out little socks, PEDS being footie socks.

28A. Dog show eye-catchers?: COOL BREEDS. COOL BREEZE. As you can see the changed word can be first or second and the replacement is not just D for Z, but to accomplish the sound.

36A. Feline alpha groups?: TOP PRIDES. TOP PRIZE; we know lions come in prides, do other cats?

48A. "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "We Are the Champions" : QUEEN SIDES. QUEEN SIZE. A song on one side of a 45; these are two by the irrepressible late, great FREDDY MERCURY. I wonder where the idea that royalty meant bigger? Why are there no Jack sized beds?

56. Winter Olympics winner's wall hanging?: BLADES OF GLORY. This theme is going out in a BLAZE OF GLORY, unlike the MOVIE, which brought a new dimension to the world of Olympic pairs skating; funny or lame?

Across:

1. Henri's here: ICI. We begin in my wheelhouse with a simple French word, which means "here."

4. Sci-fi psychic: EMPATH. We have had Ms. Troi before.

10. Druid's sacred hill : TARA. This was my LEARNING EXPERIENCE. I only knew GWTW and Sookie's friend on True Blood.

14. What Lin's D.C. wall commemorates: NAM. I was moved to tears when I first went and traced the names of friends who perished. Maya Ying Lin.

15. Craps table tactic: PARLAY. Letting your winnings ride, never have played.

16. Like some terrible reviews: ACID. Acid tongue I know, but this did not come easily.

17. Wee: SMA. We have has this Scottish version of small often, usually with a Robert Burns reference, but not a favorite of Ms. Hearti who spoke out against it earlier this month.

18. Bandit feature?: ONE ARM. Back in the day when you actually had to pull on a lever, this slot machine reference made sense; no longer.

19. Watch lights, briefly: LCDS. Liquid Crystal Displays like the James Bond Pulsar.

23. Emphatic words: I REPEAT.

24. Run-of-the-mill: USUAL.

27. Track position: RAIL. Very important in horse racing; bet on it.

32. Cornerstone abbr : ESTAB. Established.

34. Just outside of: NEAR.

35. Rolls in the grass?: SOD. Very clever picture of rolled up sod.

40. Palm Sunday carrier: ASS. Avoiding religion as a topic, we all must agree there are an awful lot of asses in the Bible.

43. German battleship Graf __: SPEE. The ship is long gone, but it lives on in VIDEO GAMES.

44. 1945 "Big Three" conference site: YALTA. Your HISTORY LESSON.

52. Slangy negatives: NAHS.

53. 14th-century Russian prince: IVAN I. A prince of Moscow. Like the Popes, the "I" makes it hard to parse.

54. Retro tees: TIE DYES. Another difficult to suss letter combination, looking like TIED YES.

60. Prussian pair: ZWEI. Alliteration for the Germanic Two.

62. Stimulate: INCITE. Calm down we are here to entertain, no riots.

63. 36 for nine, often: PAR. There really are many golfers in the puzzle world.

64. Votes for: AYES. A half shout out to our Poet Laureate.

65. Semi-sheer fabrics: VOILES. Back to the French, meaning VEIL. You like?

66. Owner of Abbey Road Studios: EMI. Electrical and Musical Industries, Ltd. is one of the oldest companies in music. They are now wholly owned by Citigroup.

67. Orkin target: PEST.

68. Speak with conviction: ASSERT.

69. Decoding org.: NSA. National Security Agency.

Down:

1. Fire up: INSPIRE. In contrast to the earlier INCITE.

2. Set pieces?: CAMERAS. What you will find on the TV or Movie SET.

3. Cry from one reaching the top: I MADE IT. Also part of my night time ritual for another day.

4. Lyrical poetic form: EPODE. CA, you are on.

5. Zealot-plus: MANIAC.

6. Appearance announcement: PRESTO. What they say when the bunny shows up from the hat.

7. Gain __: get further ahead in the race: A LAP.

8. Empty weight: TARE. We have many clues about ships and LADING.

9. Mass music: HYMN.

10. "Honor Thy Father" author: TALESE. A poor man's Mario Puzo.

11. Grows: ACCRUES. The interest in your account.

12. Purged: RID.

13. Spots with slogans: ADS. I wonder when they started calling radio and TV ads, spots?

21. Egg toss miss indicator: SPLAT. Very nice visual clue. You were supposed to catch the egg Jeannie not sell it to BK.

22. Light carriage: SURREY. My mind went immediately to the FRINGE.

25. Flap: ADO. A new clue for an old fill.

26. Dr. Leary's turn-on: LSD. Turn on, tune in and drop out.

29. No right __ : ON RED. I was shocked when I moved to Florida and you could turn right at a red light.

30. Jasmine neckwear, perhaps: LEI. Hawaii people, do they have Jasmine on the island?

31. Wicked: BAD. As opposed to Massachusetts, where wicked is good.

33. Sarajevo's region: BOSNIA.

37. Forgetful writer's letters?: PPS.

38. Louvre Pyramid designer: PEI. I M impressed, two famous designer in one puzzle.

39. Subj. of an '80s-'90s financial crisis: S AND L. Savings & Loan, a tough one to see.

40. EPA concern: AQI. We are getting acronym intensive, Air Quality Index.

41. Toyota RAV4, e.g. : SUV. Sport UtilityVehicle.

42. Navy builders: SEABEES. The name comes from a pun on Construction Battalion. Like all our service men, they should be HONORED.

45. Expose: LAY OPEN. Wow, talk about your DF, getting laid out in the open; oh, you mean lay bare!

46. St. Louis team, familiarly: THE RAMS. Football team that moved from LA, after starting originally in Cleveland.

47. Ancient kingdom on the Tigris: ASSYRIA. Modern Iraq.

49. Sign on: ENLIST. We daily bloggers enlist, after we are drafted.

50. Star of France: ETOILE. Just another lesson, STAR = ETOILE.

51. Bakery utensil: SIFTER. Must get the flour flowing.

55. Discharge: EGEST. From the Latin gerere to carry, with the prefix E, which means from; so literally to carry from. A fancy way of saying pooping. DIgest goes in, Egest goes out.

57. Price or Battle: DIVA. Opera stars Leontyne and Kathleen.

58. Genesis grandson: ENOS. More Bible, a son of Seth, the third child of Adam and Eve.

59. H.S. courses: SCIS. Sciences.

60. Cook quickly, in a way: ZAP. Microwave mania.

61. Three-switch railroad track section: WYE. The word is very descriptive of the tracks coming together, and featured in this MOVIE, which was suspenseful, but like the blog has a happy ending (or does it?). I finished another Friday, did not hurt myself and get to watch Devin and his band play again tonight. They had four paying gigs this month, the most yet. Have a great week end and celebrate, and for those in the path of Irene, we pray the cold front pushes her out to sea. Take care.

Answer grid.

Lemonade

Friday, June 24, 2011 James Sajdak

Theme: Farmhouse homilies from Brooklyn. Each of the theme phrase are sound-a-likes for in the language expressions which are reclued from an animal perspective.  A very fun concept and the second of Mr. Sajdak's puzzles which I have had the pleasure of blogging. The theme answers take the common two 13 and two 14 letter fills, and the rest of the puzzle seems straightforward for a Friday, with many short fill, but some new stuff and onward and upward we go.

20A. Thoroughbred farm slur?: SO'S YOUR MUDDER. "So's your mother" are often the fighting words in response to a particularly nasty and graphic insult. A mudder is a horse which does well on a wet and sloppy track, like the recent Belmont Stakes.

29A. Dairy farm proverb?: BE KIND TO UDDERS. While I get, "Be kind to others," I am not getting a great visual of how to follow this advice. I need help from our experts, Carol and Lois....

46A. Cattle farm commandment?: HONOR THY FODDER. My favorite, especially so close to father's day. If  you are a city person, the chopped up hay to feed the animals etc. is FODDER.

56A. Clydesdale farm boast?: HEAVY BREEDERS. Heavy breathers. Clydesdales are the huge horses from the Budweiser commercials; I am unfamiliar with their breeding prowess, though I have received too many invitations to go to watch the girls play on the farm.

Heigh ho, it is I, Lemonade, and it is off to work we go.

Across :

1. Drops a fly, say: ERRS. Baseball reference; at least I know 1A.

5. Web code: HTML. Hyper Text Markup Language; almost all regular posters have learned how to link using this code.

9. Patio parties, briefly: BBQS. Nice alliteration, no grilling allowed on my patio; don't you love condos?

13. Fiefdom, e.g.: REALM. From the old French reaume, kingdom.

15. Recitative follower: ARIA. I am not an expert on opera stuff, but it is like what happens in between the big songs, so the audience can follow the plot. LISTEN .

16. "For sure!": YEAH.

17. Test: ASSAY. back in the old westerns, they were forever going to get their gold tested at the ASSAY office.

18. "The Case for Public Schools" author: MANN. A trained attorney who was instrumental in free non-sectarian schooling for all. He was an interesting MAN .

19. Nice head: TETE. No one should be falling for thise French city anymore; and we have had TETE often.

23. Schubert's "The __ King": ERL. A sad story of a boy snatched by an evil elf, but the MUSIC is lovely.

24. '70s radical gp.: SLA. Symbionese Liberation Army, the crazies who snatched and brainwashed Patty Hearst. The names from the word symbiotic. And a mini-leftist theme with 48D. SDS co-founder Tom: HAYDEN. Students for a Democratic Society, who became a Senator and married Jane Fonda.

25. "Eternally nameless" principle: TAO. The constructors favorite Eastern Philosophy.

26. Fancy pond swimmer: KOI.

33. Words before "Gave proof through the night": IN AIR. Sing everyone, "The bombs bursting...."

34. It has pedals and stops: ORGAN. Not a bicycle, or a body part.

35. Tub filler: LARD, an insult when I was growing up.

38. Loses interest: SOURS. Maybe that is where they have all gone.

41. European capital: OSLO. A nice shout out to our Norwegian contingent.

42. Sweat: EXUDE. She was actually glowing...

44. Half a "Star Wars" character: DETOO.  R2.

51. Ruling party: INS. Not the outs, the ins. I saw I N S first.

52. "Jane Eyre" star Wasikowska: MIA. The little girl from Oz who starred in the Alice in Wonderland remake is all GROWN UP .

53. Business __: END. Like when you point a gun.

54. Valuable Ming: YAO. poor guy, has not been able to play basketball in two years; feet were not meant for 7'6" bodies.

60. Drop a line, in a way: MOOR. Tying up a boat.

62. Some tributes: ODES.

63. Capital at the foot of Mount Vitosha: SOFIA. Bulgaria; one of my associates has been to the palace there and says it is lovely.

64. Shared currency: EURO.

65. Time to give up: LENT. I like this misdirection.

66. Body: TRUNK.  Very tricky also, meaning like torso.

67. Things to pick: NITS. A shout out to Marti?

68. Eating up: INTO. He was really eating up her line of bull, not realizing all she wanted was his money.

69. Part of many a snail's diet: ALGA. Good to know, I was worried I would not know what to serve if any came to visit, but if one is enough!

Okay, no rest for the weekend, on we go.

DOWN:

1. Rub out: ERASE. Cool, clecho alert! 4D. Rub out: SLAY. Two ways to say goodbye.

2. Suck up again: RESORB. before you all get on your high REABSORB horses, this is actually correct, directly from the Latin resorbere which derives from sorbere "to suck."

3. Fight in the boonies: RASSLE. I hope you did not have to wrestle with this clue long.

5. Shortwave medium: HAM RADIO. In this world of cellphones, they still hang in.

6. Car for the pits?: TRAM. They use trams underground in the mines to transport whatever is being mined. need a gold mine? Limestone?

7. Hora part: MINUTO. This reference to the Spanish for hour and minute would have been so easy, but for the dance the HORA, oh well it did not take to long to see where I was wrong.

8. "Ed Wood" Oscar winner: LANDAU. This wonderful actor came to my attention in Mission Impossible but his work as BELA LUGOSI in this movie was fabulous.

9. Memory unit: BYTE.

10. Microbrewery stock: BEER KEGS. Only two weeks after Marti used this shout out to my bubbly brewing boys.

11. African evergreen whose leaves are chewed as a narcotic: QAT. Once upon a time I had a girlfriend who loved playing scrabble who bought a dictionary chock full of real words like this so she could stomp me. It is loaded with amphetamine.

12. Pirate's pronoun: SHE. Arrg, and she is a fine vessel.

14. Muscle-contraction protein: MYOSIN. And why should we know about this SCIENTIFIC MINUTIAE ? The link was chosen as a shout out our RPI brethren.

21. They articulate with radii: ULNAS. Oh goody, anatomical puns, very humerus.

22. Doofus: DODO. Hello our darling D.

27. Spoken: ORAL.

28. Money-object connection: IS NO. Reminds me of Richard Attenborough running around during Jurassic Park saying. "Spared no expense." Then I saw the movie 41 times....

30. Man-to-boy address: KIDDO. In what century was that?

31. Former Jerry Marcus comic strip: TRUDY. One of the many family comics of the sixties, before the revolution.

32. Dickens's Edwin: DROOD. Dickens last novel, which was unfinished at his death. It reads that way.

35. City near Provo: LEHI, We recently had this referencing the Mormon prophet for whom this city is named. Our first siting was in the birthday puzzle our fearless leader created for Dennis. Wherefore art thou brother?

36. Neural transmitter: AXON. Who is our neurology expert?

37. Not have enough: RUN SHORT.  Some double words to confuse us, they never seem to run short of these.

39. Mentions: REFERS TO. You all know what I am referring to.

40. One may be skipped: STONE. I really like this clue, there is even a word for this pastime.

43. Big name in household humor: ERMA. Bombeck.

45. Most curious: ODDEST. Not curious like nosy, but curious and curiouser.

47. Denmark's __ Gardens: TIVOLI. The beautiful and amazing home of the second oldest AMUSEMENT PARK in the world.

49. Hottie: EYEFUL. Please do not go to this link if you are offended J LO  and a bit of nudity.

50. Ready and eager: RARING. Well I am actually fading, I hope you all have had a nice ride.

55. Yodo River city: OSAKA. Geography lesson.

57. Winged god: EROS. Also called Cupid, stupid.

58. Out of shape?: BENT. Come on, just relax I know it all goes too fast.

59. "Cannery Row" restaurant owner __ Flood: DORA. If you have never read any John Steinbeck, he really had a great sense of this country in the depression, I suggest you read this NOVEL  though do not be shocked because Dora is much more than a restaurant hostess.

60. Rooks, for example: MEN. Chessmen to be more accurate.

61. Overseas agreement: OUI, yes, more French for the finish. Until next time, take your vitamins, drink your juice and be good to each other.

Answer grid.

Lemonade

Note from C.C.:

Here are a few great photos of our secretive CA Coven Gathering yesterday. Click pictures for enlargement. Nice to finally see you, Garlic Gal!

Thursday, June 9, 2011, James Sajdak

Theme: End for end. Suffixes are swapped between the two words of the answers to wackily change their meanings.

20A. Choir members during the sermon?: SINGERS WAITING. Singing waiters. Restaurant gimmick.

24A. Grocery employee dealing with a shortage of shelf space?: STOCKER STUFFING. Stocking Stuffer. Christmas.

47A. Top sellers sealing the deal?: CLOSERS PITCHING. Closing pitchers. Baseball.

53A. News hound's sign-off?: ROVER REPORTING. Roving reporter.

Hi all, Al (mostly) here again.  A pretty solid Thursday puzzle overall, I liked seeing SNORKEL and some of the clever clues.  Not much else jumped out and grabbed me, but I could just be sleepy yet.  On with the analysis then...

ACROSS:.

1. Sieben und eins: ACHT. German: seven and one macht eight.

5. Roe source: SHAD. Caviar.

9. Finish the doughnuts?: GLAZE. Wisconsin is down to one remaining Krispy Kreme. That wave sure peaked and receded quickly.

14. New York restaurateur: SHOR. Toots. Apparently a big deal with celebs. Anyone not from NY ever heard of him?

15. Not, some time back: NARY. Shortening of "never a".

16. "The Kiss" sculptor: RODIN. A depiction of illicit love taken from Dante's Inferno.

17. Certain conic sections: PARABOLAS.

19. Gladiator's milieu: ARENA.  From Latin harena "place of combat," originally "sand, sandy place"  The central stages of Roman amphitheaters were strewn with sand to soak up the blood.

22. Reaction to one who's revolting: ICK.  That's sick.

23. Palais denizen: ROI. French: palace, king.

33. Neighbor of Arg.: URU. Argentina, Uruguay.

34. Evoke gaiety with gags at a gig: SLAY. Overwhelm.

35. He shared the peace prize with Shimon and Yitzhak: YASIR. Peres, Rabin, Arafat, 1994, the Oslo Accords.

36. "Do the __": MATH. An alternate idiom for "It doesn't add up"

38. Male sovereigns' address: SIRES. From Latin "senior" for elder.

41. Polynesian pendant: TIKI. Carved image of the creator-ancestor of Maoris and Polynesians.

42. Lent a hand: AIDED.

44. __ Jackson, Fonda title role: ULEE. I only got this because of how often it appears with Fonda's name in these crosswords.

46. One of the 10 lowest digits?: TOE. This one shouldn't have tricked me, but it did. Looking at too many numbers lately.

51. Monodrama about Capote: TRU.

52. Toy magnate __ Schwarz: FAO. Frederick August Otto Schwartz.

61. Anglo-__: SAXON.

62. Road safety feature: GUARDRAIL.

63. Throw out: EJECT. Literally in Latin: Ex- prefix(out) jacere (to throw).

64. Once, once: ERST. Earliest.

65. Make eyes at: OGLE. Low German oglen from oege, meaning eye.

66. Indian noble: RANEE.

67. "He __ not sleep": Shelley: DOTH. Adonaïs: An Elegy on the Death of John Keats.

68. Pill bottle instruction: DOSE.

DOWN:.

1. Some cobras: ASPS.

2. Spiced tea: CHAI.

3. Cape __: HORN. Chile. Not quite the lowest tip of South America, named for the city of Hoorn in the Netherlands.

4. Disastrous: TRAGIC. Tragedy is apparently literally "goat song," from tragos "goat" + oide "song." The connection may be via satyric drama, from which tragedy later developed, in which actors or singers were dressed in goatskins to represent satyrs.

5. Reef exploration gear: SNORKELS. From German navy slang Schnorchel "nose, snout," related to schnarchen "to snore". So called from its resemblance to a nose and its noise when in use.

6. Dutchman who painted "Gypsy Girl": HALS. Cleavage...

7. Got __ deal: A RAW.

8. "L.A. Law" actor: DYSART. Richard. I didn't recognize any characters even after I saw all the pictures...

9. Please: GRATIFY.

10. Actress Loughlin: LORI. I did recognize "Jessie's Girl" though.

11. Yemeni port: ADEN. Today's geography lesson.

 

12. Sock it to: ZING. "High pitched sound," of echoic origin.

13. Faline's mother, in Salten's "Bambi": ENA.

18. Bremen brew: BECKS. Imported bier aus Deutchland.

21. Pot marker: IOU.  Big Julie: "IOU one thousand --signed X."  Nathan Detroit: "How is it you can write one thousand, but not your name?"  Big Julie: "I was good in arithmetic, but I stunk in English."

24. Poison __: SUMAC. Three of a kind.

25. Hiker's route: TRAIL.

26. Best: OUTDO.

27. Heyerdahl craft: RA I. A papyrus craft that broke apart, but RA II made of Totora reeds survived his journey and proved that ancient mariners could have crossed the Atlantic using the Canary Current.

28. Corn product: SYRUP.

29. Budgetary waste: FAT. Oh how conceptions change over time starting with one flawed study by Ancel Keys... fat used to mean the "best or most rewarding" part.

30. Last Supper question: IS IT I. Mark 14:18-21 The passage about betrayal.

31. Maker of Coolpix cameras: NIKON.

32. "Peer Gynt Suite" composer: GRIEG.  In the Hall of the Mountain King.

37. Boys and men: HES.

39. Lilly of pharmaceuticals: ELI.

40. Outline, as a plan: SET FORTH.

43. International thaw: DETENTE. Related to the catch on a crossbow you use to relax the string, or the detent catch used to regulate a clock's action.

45. Convenient greeting: E-CARD. When you don't care enough to send the very best.

48. Sch. basics: RRR. The three "R"s. Spelling must not have been emphasized.

49. Progressed in waves: SURGED.

50. Dragster's wheels: HOT ROD.

53. Indian noble: RAJA.

54. Paddy team: OXEN.

55. Viva __: VOCE. Literally "with living voice" but usually translated as "by word of mouth".

56. Cannes cash: EURO.

57. Tense time?: PAST.

58. Emilia's husband: IAGO. The villain who thought Othello was sleeping with his wife.

59. Lofgren of the E Street Band: NILS.

60. TV show about a high school choir: GLEE.

61. Rev.'s speech: SERmon

Answer Grid.

Al

Note from C.C.:

Happy Birthday to our always cheerful and caring Annette!

Wednesday, March 30, 2011 James Sajdak

Theme:   Welcome to LA-LA Land.  Or LA-LA-LA-LA, I can't hear you.  Or maybe it's L.A. LAW.  Sometimes it's hard to come up with a theme title.  Maybe I should have saved these for when I need them, but instead you get multiple choice today.  Both words of two-word theme answers begin with the letters "LA"  Hence the LA-LA, who was also a Teletubbie.

17A. Whip-cracking cowboy of old films : LASH LARUE.    I remember this guy from comic books. 

21A. Ethel, to Lucy : LAND LADY.   Lucy and Dezi rented a brownstone on E. 68th St. from Fred and Ethyl Mertz, played by William Frawly and Vivian Vance, who hated each other in real life.

35A. Sky blue : LAPIS LAZULI.   This is an intensely colored blue gem stone, or the ultramarine pigment extracted from it.  Also, a cloned daughter of Lazarus Long in Heinlein's epic novel, TIME ENOUGH FOR LOVE.  I'm delighted to tell you my daughter is not my clone.

51A. Wax-filled illumination : LAVA LAMP.   The heat generated by the lamp bulb caused thermal currents in two viscous immiscible liquids, which would flow through and around each other. Since I remember the 60's, it's clear I did not experience them.

56A. Victor's chuckle : LAST LAUGH.  Indeed. He who laughs last, laughs best. 

And the unifier.  29 D . '80s-'90s legal drama, and this puzzle's title : L.A. LAW.  One more immensely popular T.V. show that I never watched. 

Hi, gang, Jazzbumpa here - your tour guide through LA-LA Land.  Let's set out and see what we can discover.

Across:

1. Beginning for the birds? : AVI.  A prefix indicating birds, or, more generally, flight, from the Latin avis = bird.

4. Shaq on the court : O'NEAL.  Needs no introduction.  OK. Famous basketball player.

9. Beat __ to one's door : A PATH.  This is what people are supposed to do if you invent a better mouse trap

14. Vietnam Veterans Memorial architect : LIN.  Maya LIN was a student at Yale when she designed the memorial.  It is very moving.

15. Ramadi resident : IRAQI.  Ramadi is the capital of Al Anbar province in central IRAQ.

16. Local cinemas, colloquially : NABES.  Derived from neighborhood.  News to me.

19. Weight room sound : GRUNT.  As in GRUNTS and groans from performing hard labor.

20. Venetian arch shape : OGEE.  An arch formed by two symmetric S-curves.  I like the looks of this one.  Also, "Oh, gee, Arch!" was occasionally GRUNTED by the Meathead.

23. Canyon-crossing transport : TRAMWAY.  You go on ahead.  I'll wait here.

26. Fridge raider : NOSHER.  To NOSH (v) is to have a NOSH (n) - a light meal or snack.  This comes to us from the German, by way of Yiddish.

28. Hong Kong harbor craft : SAMPAN.  This boat name is common across parts of Asia.  SAMPANS come in many designs.  

29. Field for the fold : LEA.  A grassy meadow where one may find sheep, cows, and increasingly common crossword fill.

31. Remote power sources? : AAA'S.  Can't fool me.  Batteries.

32. Thing to blow off : STEAM.  Blowing off steam is a tension release outlet for people who do not have access to trombones.

34. Sign before Scorpio : LIBRA.  Zodiac signs. The sign of  LIBRA (or perhaps Le Bra) is the symbol of balance.

38. Postgrad hurdle : ORALS.  ORAL examinations are part of the arduous trek to a PhD.  Post Docs are apprentice academic positions for recent PhD recipients. 

40. "Cosmos" host : SAGAN.  "Cosmos"  was a 13-part TV series, first aired on PBS in 1980.  It was all about  life, the universe, and everything.

41. Lotto relative : KENO.  I don't know a thing about it.

42. Assure, with "up" : SEW.  To SEW something  up, is to complete or control it, presumably without leaving any loose ends.

43. Titan is its largest moon : SATURN.  SATURN is the sixth planet of our system - the one with the rings and the red spot.  Though it is the largest one we have, it is only a tiny part of the cosmos.

48. Most foxy : SLYEST.  Easy fill, but not what I had in mind.

50. Landmass encompassing the Urals : EURASIA. This is the totality of Europe and Asia.  It's always been a mystery to me why this one big continent was considered to be two.

54. Bombast : RANT.  Interesting that bombast, meaning pretentious or inflated language comes from the Middle English word for cotton padding.  RANT is more of a tirade.  I don't see the equivalence.

55. Artist's topper : BERET. I'm not sure what sort of art this is.

59. Conductor Previn : ANDRE.  He was also a composer, and learned to passably play each orchestra instrument so he could write properly for them.  Mia Farrow was the 3rd of his five wives.  He was her 2nd husband. Beyond that, things get a bit dicey.

60. Came up : AROSE. 

61. Sargasso or Coral : SEA

62. Parks and others : ROSAS.  She also needs no introduction. OK.  Famous bus rider, and 60A near-sound-alike.

63. Zellweger of "Chicago" : RENEE.   I know, she's no K-Z-J.

64. Prince Valiant's son : ARN.  From the comic strip which has been going strong since 1937.  Aleta still looks marvelous. 

Down:

1. Doles out : ALLOTS.

2. Cialis competitor : VIAGRA.  You don't need the details.  One of my friends remarked: "I don't need it, but just knowing it's out there makes me feel better."

3. Tailor's measure : INSEAM.  Leg length from crotch to ankle. 

4. Van Gogh work : OIL.  Vincent's paintings were done in oil based paints.  I guess that makes this an oil on water.

5. Gun lobby org. : NRA.  National Rifle Association.  Guns don't kill you, bullets do.

6. Ahead of time : EARLY

7. Shade in the Caribbean : AQUA.  This refers to the color of the water, under the sunny LAPIS LAZULI sky.

8. Bank holding : LIEN.  Per Wikipedia, "a form of security interest granted over an item of property to secure the payment of a debt or performance of some other obligation."  Ultimately from the Latin ligare, to bind.

9. Saxon start : ANGLO.   ANGLO-Saxons, the melding of Agles, Saxons, and Jutes (who get short shrift in the nomenclature,) tribes of Germanic peoples who migrated from western EURASIA to the British Islands starting in the 5th century, and became the English.  I'm not sure what they did to deserve it.

10. Chute above the beach : PARASAIL.  I was thinking along the lines of Chutes and ladders, not parachutes.

11. Persian Gulf emirate : ABU DHABI.  The capital and second largest city of the  United Arab Emirates.  The name means "Father of the Gazelle," and is fun to say.

12. Like some mortgages : TEN YEAR.  Many versions are available.  I guess a mortgage is a variety of LIEN

13. DDE predecessor : HST.  Harry S (for nothing) Truman, and Dwight David Eisenhower, U.S. Presidents.

18. Rope fiber : HEMP.  Hemp is the fiber of cannabis plants.  There's something about the 60's that I can't quite recall . . .

22. Paternity proof, briefly : DNA.  Deoxyribonucleaic acid.  Genetic material.

24. Mud nest builders : WASPS.  They come in many shapes, sizes, and colors.

25. Naysayer : ANTI.  Those who are against - aka "nattering nabobs of negativism" - William Safire.

27. It surrounds Lesotho: Abbr. : RSA.  Lesotho is a land-locked country, completely surrounded by The Republic of South Africa.

30. The Daily Beast, e.g. : E-MAG.  Electronic magazine.

33. To be, to Brutus : ESSE.  More Latin

34. Like the Islamic calendar : LUNAR.  Based on the periods of the moon, rather than the sun.  So is the Jewish calendar, I believe.

35. Refs' whistle holders : LANYARDS.  These are cords worn around the neck to carry something.

36. Natural burn balm : ALOE VERA.  Nice to see the whole plant.

37. Pitts of "The Gale Storm Show" : ZASU. The correct spelling is ZaSu, and pronunciation is "Say-Zoo."  She was a silent film actress who went on to vaudeville, talkies, radio, and TV.

38. Signs off on : OKS.  Gives the OK - approval - to something.

39. Chile __: stuffed Mexican dish : RELLENO.  Literally "stuffed chili."  Usually a mild poblano pepper stuffed with cheese or meat, then battered and deep fried.

42. N.L. team managed by Tony La Russa since 1996 : ST. L.  The St. Louis Cardinals

44. Scarlett's home : TARA.  The plantation from Gone With The Wind.

45. World Cup chant : USA! USA!  I'll bet there are others.

46. Horseshoes feat : RINGER.  This is a horseshoe that surrounds, or "rings" the stake.

47. Revolutionary Hale : NATHAN.  He was a volunteer for the Continental (American, not Eurasian) Army who was captured by the British and hanged.  He is famous for saying,  "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country." 

49. Fully fills : SATES.  

50. Hewlett-Packard rival : EPSON.  Printers.

52. Banned orchard spray : ALAR.  This was a plant growth enhancer, sprayed on fruit, primarily apples, to regulate size and color, and make harvesting easier.  It was used form 1963 until 1989, when it was voluntarily withdrawn from the market as the EPA was proposing a ban.

53. Full-grown filly : MARE.   Horse girl and lady.

55. Setting for many a joke : BAR.  Guy walks into a bar.  The bartender says, "Knock-knock . . ."

57. Taoist Lao-__ : TSE  He was the first Taoist philosopher.

58. Majors in acting : LEE.  Nice misdirection.  He played The Six Million Dollar Man on TV.

Answer grid.

Well, there you have.  A nice Wednesday puzzle, and a journey across space and time, around the planet, the solar system, and even the Cosmos.  There's more to LA-LA land than you thought.

Cheers!

JzB

Interview with James Sajdak

Some constructors specialize in earlier week puzzles, some focuses on themeless. James Sajdak is one of the very few who have delighted us with both. I always like James's grid layouts because they often feature long, lively non-theme entries.

James only started construction in 2005, but he has been published by LA Times, NY Sun, NY Times. 

Hope you enjoy this nugget-filled interview. I certainly did.

What's your background and how did you get into crossword construction?

I remember watching my father solve the Chicago Daily News puzzle after dinner (pen solver) back in the 1960s. During college, a couple of friends and I did the Chicago Tribune puzzle in the Student Union every morning before classes. My wife Kathy and I moved to Canada where we got busy raising a family, a big garden and chickens. Puzzles, except for the Sunday NY Times puzzle, were put on the back burner. After we moved back to our Midwest roots, I returned to the UW Madison, got a degree in English linguistics and began teaching English as a Second Language in Madison, Wisconsin. I got bit again by the puzzle bug in the ‘90s and in 2005 I felt an urge to try to make a puzzles of my own. My first two were published by Wayne Williams, then I was lucky enough to work with editor Peter Gordon, who shepherded me through an A, E, I, O, U puzzle and I was hooked. Peter, and then Rich Norris, taught me much about theme selection and constructing that I was unaware of. I thank them dearly. They each have their own editorial hand and both gave me an education into what goes into a well-crafted crossword.

How would you describe your puzzle style? I noticed that your grids often feature plenty of long non-theme answers.

Longer fill generally makes for a good puzzle. It opens up the grid so solvers don’t get stuck in a corner that has only one way in, usually through a theme entry. Secondly, longer entries offer many more options in selecting colorful words and phrases that evoke amusing, bizarre or endearing pictures in the mind. The short stuff is limited, so you end up with a lot of unwelcome abbreviations and crosswordese. Of course, as a constructor, I’ve sometimes bitten the bullet and used a less than desirable entry to aid in making the rest of the puzzle better.

Style-wise, I feel like I’m pretty open to anything, but I like feel-good, fun puzzles. For example, BABY GRAND, SWEETHEART DEAL, HONEY TREE, and SUGAR PLUM FAIRY. I love a good love theme and dislike war references. I make a conscious effort to avoid things like A TEST, N TEST, DESERT STORM and other militaristic references.

Which part do you normally spend the most time on, in the construction process: theme brainstorming, gridding or cluing?
 
Theme brainstorming is always a catch-as-catch-can affair. I might go a month without a clever theme idea. Then, in a week, I might come up with a couple of sparkly ideas. I have notebooks and scraps of paper with half-finished, or half-baked, theme ideas. They come from everywhere, but I don’t generally use reference books in adding to my “seed” theme entries. The most in-the-language theme entries come from things I hear, see or read as I go through the day.

Coming up with a decent grid can be a bear when I have a large number of theme letters in a puzzle. And making an acceptable grid for an eight or ten theme Sunday puzzle can be murder.

Cluing, for me, is the most creative part of the whole process. A good mix of straight, humorous, gimme (you’ve got have a way in) and ornery clues is what I like in puzzles I solve. That’s what I strive for when I write clues.
 
You've been constructing both themed and themeless puzzles. Which ones do you enjoy more? And what are the major differences in your approach?

For me, a cool theme is hard to beat and challenges me to place theme entries just-so to allow for a smooth grid. Cluing theme entries is the most satisfying part of constructing. I try to make myself laugh, a first step to making editors and solvers laugh too.

I will often work on a themeless puzzle when the theme muse is busy elsewhere (other contructors?). I keep a list of eight- to fifteen-letter special phrases I have encountered, especially those with a scrabbly quality. I’m not a master of the low word count themeless puzzles or stacked 15 letter entries. When I do a themeless, I try to remember that the whole puzzle is fill, so I’m always looking for colorful shorter fill as well. There’s not going to be any humor added by a set of related theme entries, so the amusement must come from all the entries. I have done a couple of themeless puzzles with “mini-themes,” (GIRL FROM IPANEMA, TOWN WITHOUT PITY, for example, with two balancing song titles) and I like these hybrid types.

What kind of reference books/websites do you use for theme entry selection assistance and clue accuracy checks?

As I said, I try to avoid reference books when I’m coming up with theme entries, since it adds some iffy stuff to my possibilities and takes my mind out of the language as we speak and hear it. Once I do have theme entries, I look for Google hits and check Cruciverb.com website for previous usage. Cruciverb.com is a great site to see if a theme idea has already been done. Google is also good to find some lesser known fact to use in a clue (crosswords as an educational tool.) I use Wikipedia only for broad overviews of a topic or entry.

My go-to dictionary is Random House Unabridged. I also love to dig into my atlas to find geographical names to create alliterative clues. (Barcelona bloom) FLOR.

I read blogs like yours and Amy Reynaldo’s to see how my and fellow constructor’s puzzles are received by our audience. That can be either an ego-boosting or humbling experience, but I think it keeps me from being complacent in making puzzles.

You've been quite prolific since you had your first puzzle with the NY Sun in 2006. Where do you find your theme inspirations and how do you maintain such productivity and originality?
 
Prolific, perhaps, but names like Patrick Berry, Dan Naddor and lately, John Lampkin pop up so frequently that I can’t think of myself as particularly prolific. Theme inspirations may visit anytime and anyplace, and, when they do I gather them in.

What kind of puzzles do you solve every day and which constructors do you find most inspiring?

I solve the LAT and NYT every day. On Sunday, I might also try Merl Reagle or the Boston Globe, but that’s a lot of boxes to fill in. I also really like what Patrick Berry is doing in his Friday Chronicle of Higher Education puzzles. I probably solve about 15 to 20 puzzles a week. I am not a speed solver, to say the least.

As for constructors, Patrick Berry has a combination of innovative theme ideas, constructing skill and precision in cluing that’s hard to beat. I like Joe DiPietro and have admired his clever style for many years. Bob Klahn’s clues are to die (laughing) for. Liz Gorski’s grid ideas are out of this world. There are another dozen or more constructors, both those who have been creating for many years and the new generation, that I really admire and would like to emulate.

Besides crosswords, what else do you do for fun?

We’re outdoorsy types. My wife Kathy and I do a lot of hiking and biking. We’re birders, snorkelers, and we’ve even tried snowshoeing (after all, we live in Wisconsin.) Reading, of course, is a big part of our leisure time (after all, we live in Wisconsin—long winters!) I listen to a lot of music, don’t watch much TV.

Finding laughs in everyday life, bizarre news stories and even on the mainstream news is an ongoing goal in my life. Humor is a healing force in our tough times and, I hope, in my puzzles.

Thanks for the opportunity to share my philosophy of constructing (and life) on your blog.