Wednesday, February 22, 2017 Jascha Smilack

Theme: THE COLOR OF ANGER.  Each theme fill entry is two words, the first of which is a color. Notably, one color is missing from this exposition, but shows up both in the unifier, and elsewhere, as we will see - in disguise.

20 A. *Fictional road material : YELLOW BRICK.   From the Wizard of Oz, of course.

57 A. *Cola flavor : BLACK CHERRY.

Sugary

10 D. *One with noble lineage : BLUE BLOOD.  Presumably because, since they never had to do manual labor and led an indoor existence, their pale skin allowed the blue of veins to show through.

14 D. *Floral papal ornament : GOLDEN ROSE.  Despite growing up Catholic, I know nothing of this tradition.

26 D. *Chard, by another name : SILVER BEET.  I knew this was a green leafy plant in the beet family, but didn't know about the silver part, which refers to the white stalk.

33 D. Angrily ignoring the first half of the answers to starred clues? : SEEING RED.  Well, ignoring all the other colors somehow equates to seeing RED, but not GREEN nor VIOLET.  But, OK, let's just go with it.  The color of Magic, BTW, is Octarine.

UPDATE: As Owen pointed out in comments, each of the 2nd words in the theme describes a shade of RED, a subtlety that I completely missed.  This, to hijack a phrase, really ties the puzzle together, and adds an element of elegance.  Well done, Jascha!

High gang, JazzBumpa here to guide you through a late winter color tour.  Let's see if we can get through it without too much rancor.

Across

1. Spot for an AirPod : EAR.   Wireless headphone parking place.

4. Chowder morsel : CLAM.  Soup ingredient.

8. Moscow currency : RUBLE.  The Russian monetary unit for the last 500 years.  Currently equal to about 1.7 US cents.

13. Slept like __ : A LOG.  I wonder how that feels?

15. Color in a Spanish rainbow : ROJO.  Red, of course.  Irritably missing from the theme, but we have it here.

No es un arco iris

16. Religion of Basra : ISLAM.  Basra is a city in Iraq whose local economy is largely dependent on petroleum.

17. Corn Belt tower : SILO.  Here's an example in Maumee, a suburb of Toledo.

Not for sale

18. Latin I verb : AMAT.  Do I love this entry?  No, I do not.

19. Riyadh resident : SAUDI.  The capital and most populous city in the country.

23. Bookshelf bracket shape : ELL.  The "L" you say!

24. Of a battery terminal : ANODAL.  Specifically, the positive one.  Would it be an anodyne to say I'm positive?

25. Necessity for a game of Ultimate : FRISBEE.  This is the trademark for a flying disc, owned by the Wham-O toy company.  Points are scored by passing the disc to a team mate in the opponent's end zone

27. History class assignment : ESSAY.  A written paper on a specific topic.

30. Elec. or water : UTILity.

31. __ a clue : HASN'T.  I tried HADN'T first.  HAVEN'T also does not work.

34. Slangy pounds : QUID.  British money.  Even before Brexit they opted out of using the Euro.

36. Financial help : LOAN.

39. End __ : USER.

40. Tomato product : PUREE.

41. Preference indicator : VOTE.

42. Religious prefix : THEO-.

43. Grub : EATS.  Unattractive sounding vernacular.

44. Brought about : LED TO.  Preceded and caused whatever then ensued.

45. Tenerife, por ejemplo : ISLA.  Spanish Island.

47. Take the helm : STEER.  Direct the movement of a vehicle, in this case a ship.

49. Surface layers : VENEERS.   Generally decorative, as a fine wood over a less elegant wood.

52. Clogs from France : SABOTS.  Each one hollowed out of a single piece of wood.  Hence the word sabotage, meaning to wreck something by kicking with sabots.   I read once somewhere that the Luddites sabotaged weaving machinery by throwing sabots into the works, but that might be apocryphal.

56. Neurologist's order, briefly : EEG. The ElectroEncephaloGram detects electrical activity in the brain.

60. Pop-up foul-up : ERROR.  Baseball boo-boo, dropping a short fly ball.

62. Stereotypical family spoiler : NANA.  Grandmother, or, as some in our clan say, "Grandmom."

63. Pulitzer-winning novelist Jennifer : EGAN.  In 2011 her novel A Visit From The Goon Squad won the Pulitzer prize for fiction.

64. Renaissance painter __ della Francesca : PIERO.  Many of his paintings are on religious themes.

Discovery and Proof of the True Cross c. 1466 (160 Kb)

65. Minute quantity : DROP.  A drib, a drab or a TRACE.

66. Fish __ : TACO.   I had one once.  It was OK.

67. Family car : SEDAN.  Typical 2 or 4 door auto with front and rear seats.

68. __-Coburg: former Bavarian duchy : SAXE.  Read all about it.

69. Homer's neighbor : NED.  Flanders from the Simpsons.  

Not Eddard Stark

Down

1. Class requiring little effort : EASY A.

2. Distant and then some : ALIEN.  Beyond the pale, perhaps.

3. Pal of Nancy, in comics : ROLLO.

Bushmiller

4. Barely advances : CRAWLS.  Makes slow, possibly steady progress. 

5. Big name in vision care : LOMB.  Along with Bausch.

6. Slightly open : AJAR. When is a door not a door?  When it is a jar.

7. Recurring theme : MOTIF.  As in music, literature or visual design.

8. Go out on a limb : RISK IT. Take a chance.

9. Stars and Stripes land: Abbr. : USA.  Mandatory.

11. Crock-Pot server : LADLE. For soups and stews.

12. French novelist Zola : EMILE. [1840-1902] Also a playwright, journalist and contributor to literary and theatrical realism.  Also a major figure in the exoneration of wrongly accused and convicted military officer Alfred Dreyfus.

21. Brewery kiln : OAST.  A drying oven.

22. Input for a refinery : CRUDE.  Petroleum.

28. Marine shade : AQUA.   Ocean blue - a hue tinged with green.

29. Portable Mongolian dwellings : YURTS.  Collapsable circular tents used by nomads.

31. Simple dwelling : HUT.  A simple, single-story dwelling, perhaps a step up from a YURT. 

32. Shade of gray : ASH.  Not all grays are created equal.  

35. Luck, pluck or duck ending : IEST.  Modifier degrees are positive, comparative, and superlative.  This illustrates the latter.

37. Part of D.A.: Abbr. : ATT.  District ATTorney.  Typically, a prosecutor.

38. Prefix with con : NEO-.  Referring to NEO-conservatism, which is distinguished by aggressively interventionist foreign policy, strong support for Israel, and hostility toward other middle-eastern regimes.

40. Shade of gray : PEARL.  A gray shade tinged with blue or green, having a pearlescent luster.

44. Jacob's wife before Rachel : LEAH.  Jake got snookered by Lebon, his mother's brother into marrying LEAH, Lebon's older daughter, when he was expecting to marry the younger sister Rachel, whom he loved.  Eventually he married Rachel as well.  Both of them bore him children, as did Zilpah, a servant that Leban had given to Leah.  

46. James with three NBA titles : LEBRON.  Not to be confused with Lebon, he was first loved and then hated by Cleveland fans.  Not sure what his status is now.

  

48. Tunnel out, maybe : ESCAPE.  As from prison or a PoW camp.

49. Many future presidents, as it turned out : VEEPS.   Vice Presidents.

50. Like "Stranger Things," e.g. : EERIE.  Weird and/or spooky.  The show is a Netflix original series concerning the searches for a 12- year-old boy who disappeared amid supernatural occurrences.

51. Metaphorical moments of time : SANDS.

53. Skin, but not bones : ORGAN.   A body part with a distinct structure that performs a specialized task.  From my brief on-line research, it seems that bones are considered to be organs.  Hmmmm  .  .  .

54. Kind of evidence : TRACE.  Some small incriminating quantity - only a DROP, perhaps.

55. Ecclesiastical council : SYNOD.  In modern usage, the governing body of a particular church.

58. Word of amore : CARA.  Italian term of endearment.

59. Fort with billions in bullion : KNOX.  Located near the Ohio River, south-west of Louisville.  

61. "... man __ mouse?" : OR A.  Challenging words.

That wraps it up.  We had some religion and politics in the fill, so please don't go there in the comments. Also, some colors outside the theme fill.  Did you color within the lines?  Hope after all this, you're not seeing RED.

Cool regards!
JzB

Friday, November 20, 2015, Jascha Smilack

Theme: Re-imagine and laugh

It has been five years since we last saw this Harvard grad here at the corner. I did not remember much except his distinctive name. His two publications in the LAT back in 2010 were both add on themes, but this is played strictly for laughs with three phrases clued with amusing recasting of the meaning of the words. There are only three themers so there is room for some other long fill, but instead Jascha chose to create a Friday pangram. We do have fresh fill like BURQUA, QUOTABLE,  WIZARDRY ARCSIN, SPUDS, HYPOS,  JARGON. If you get the humor you will have fun.

20A. One keeping tabs on the best man? : TOASTER TIMER (12). Best man proposes a toast....the phrase sounds a bit forced.

36A. Portrait artist at a gym? : SWEATER DRAWER (13). The guy with his pad watch the people sweat and making pictures.

53A. Coach for a newspaper employee? : PRINTER TONER (12). Back in the gym getting the little printer in shape.

Across: 

1. Traditional Islamic garment : BURQA. No politics.

6. Big fish : OPAH. We had this fish in a Bruce Haight in October that I blogged.

10. Literary group? : ARTS.

14. On the bad side (of) : AFOUL. He ran afoul of his in-laws.

15. Brazos River city : WACO. Two weeks in a row.

16. Skin malady : CHAP. Half a shout out to me.

17. Primus or Helena, in a classic play : ROBOT. Another R.U.R. reference.

18. Tan relative : ECRU.

19. Cord for Ford, perhaps : TYPO. Cute and much better than an old Gerald campaign slogan.

23. Preserve, in a way : ENCASE.

26. Strict : SEVERE.

27. Feed, but not food : VERB.Really nice misdirection.

28. Ready to pick : RIPE.

32. Court period: Abbr. : SESSion.

33. Abbr. in a footnote : ET AL.

34. Of a battery terminal : ANODAL. Cathodal?

41. Tank type : SEPTIC.

42. Optimist's words : I CAN.

44. Frequent fliers : JETS.

47. Where to see decorative nails : TOES.

48. Defense choice : ZONE. This answer works both for football and basketball.

49. Biblical prophet : SAMUEL. WIKI.

51. Roma's home : ITALIA.

57. Jamaican fruit : UGLI.

58. Bucks' pursuits : DOES. A little sex for a Friday as the deer become dear.

59. Augment : ADD TO.

63. Off : DO IN.

64. Impedes, with "up" : GUMS. a four letter word!

65. Haunted house sound : CREAK.

66. Start of a run, maybe : SNAG. Nylons not exercise.

67. Big show : EXPO.

68. Sources of shots : HYPOS. Hypodermics.

Down:

1. Shut out : BAR.

2. Mars rover? : UFO.

3. Fleece : ROB. Golden?

4. Like Twain and Wilde, e.g. : QUOTABLE. Nice misdirection.

5. Chorus section : ALTOS.

6. Is short : OWES. I am short.

7. Agreement : PACT.

8. One of 640 in a square mile : ACRE. How many in a section?

9. Quite a while : HOURS. Eh.

10. Prone to heavy market trading : ACTIVE. Stock market.

11. Poet's stock-in-trade : RHYMES. Shout out to Owen and where are you Chairman?

12. Narrows : TAPERS.

13. Fern seed : SPORE.

21. Gas up? : AERATE. AIR

22. Palo Alto-based automotive company : TESLA. Go SEE.

23. First lady? : EVE. Used before but cute.

24. Has left to spend : NETS. Not gross.

25. Dad or fish preceder : CRAW. Very southern.

29. Clumsy : INEPT.

30. City south of Lisboa : PORTO.

31. Murphy who voices Donkey in "Shrek" : EDDIE.

35. Inverse trig function : ARCSIN.

37. Plus : ASSET.

38. Potter's specialty : WIZARDRY. Not ceramics but Harry.

39. Earth sci. : ECOLology.

40. Indian royal : RANI.

43. "Great Public Schools for Every Student" gp. : NEA.

44. Tongue : JARGON.

45. Victim of Iago : EMILIA. Her maid, his wife. Our Friday Shakespeare.

46. What some forks are used for : TUNING. Nice deception.

49. Taters : SPUDS.

50. Overhang : LEDGE.

52. Show : TEACH. We have many here at the Corner.

54. Béchamel base : ROUX. For all our cooks and Louisiana denizens.

55. Sub : TEMP. HG is our resident expert at working as a SUBstitute teacher.

56. Bone, to Benito : OSSO. Straight Italian

60. Bank statement abbr. : DEPosit.

61. Lao Tzu principle : TAO. We have discussed before but if you want you can READ.

62. Sanctions : OKS. The nice meaning of the word,

Sorry, still dealing with sick brother. Remember thanksgiving is coming and let's take time to thank C.C.  for the Corner and the joys of life. Lemonade out.

Thursday October 28, 2010 Jascha Smilack

Theme: Inverted Phrases - The first and third words of common phrases are switched and wackily clued with a "?" indicator. The altered phrases all end with "THE" and a three letter word.

18A. Libertarian slogan?: FIRE THE FED. Libertarians hold that if it is not explicitly provided for in the constitution, that it should not be dealt with or (especially) paid for on a federal level, it is the domain of each individual state to deal with it (or not) instead (as explicitly provided in the Constitution's tenth amendment, State's Rights). /Fed the fire. (What talking about politics will do)

24A. Finish an ascent?: SCALE THE TIP. Climb to the top./Tip the scale.

35A. Tidy up in a wood shop?: DUST THE BIT. Keep your tools clean./Bit the dust. Died.

43A. Floor an oppressive boss?: DECK THE MAN. Punch a jerk./Man the deck. Get to your station on a ship.

51A. Value one's vision?: PRIZE THE EYE. Eye the prize. Keep your eyes on the prize was a 50s/60s folk song during the civil rights movement.

62A. Send a star pitcher for an MRI?: TEST THE ACE. Magnetic Resonance Imaging/Ace the test. Score very highly.

Al here.

Heavy themage today, which didn't help in the least with solving, and no revealing clue was included in the puzzle. It was like solving a second puzzle to suss out what was going on, which was kind of fun, actually. Interesting to see a symmetry with six theme entries. Four or five are more common, with the occasional seven that Dan N. usually provided. A pangram, to boot. The (small) price to pay for XTRA features in the construction is accepting that a few more abbrevs are necessary here and there for fill.

ACROSS:

1. Fat job?: LIPO. Suction.

5. Interstate exit: RAMP.

9. See 12-Down: AFTER. And 12D. With 9-Across, fairy tale ender: EVER. Happily for some. Has anyone read the actual book Wicked (I know, I know, there's a musical), the story from the point of view of the Witch of the West? What if all fairy tales were actually like that?

14. Pararescue gp.: USAF. A division of the US Air Force that does search and rescue missions.

15. Organic compound: ENOL.

16. Hanker for: CRAVE. Probably from Flemish hankeren, related to Dutch hunkeren "to hanker," intensifier of Middle Dutch hangen "to hang." The notion is of "lingering about" with longing or craving.

17. Poet who wrote, about children, "And if they are popular / The phone they monopular": NASH. Ogden. Also the shortest poem ever (about fleas): Adam had 'em.

20. Rich sponge cake: GATEAU. I am now scarred for life from doing a google image search for this, even with safe image search set to moderate.

22. Pithy saying: SAW. An adage, an aphorism, an apothegm, usually terse, i.e., if something can go wrong, it will.

23. NFL game foursome: QTRS. Quarters. There are six referees, so refs didn't work.

27. Buying outing: SPREE. From French: "esprit", lively. This would not be me during shopping.

28. Cones and prisms: SOLIDS. 3-D geometric figures.

33. Farm expanse: LEA. An open field or meadow.

38. Grads: ALUMS.

41. Sandwich request: RYE. My first thought was SUB.

42. Untrusting: LEERY.

46. __ scripta: written law: LEX. Explicitly stated law, as opposed to lex non scripta, common law, set by precedent.

47. It's often served with lemon: ICE TEA. Some day a clever constructor will include the "D" and everyone will all be confused.

48. It can be rolled, pressed or stuffed: SUSHI.

56. Warrior trained by the centaur Chiron: AJAX. If I read it right, the great grandson of Zeus, also the cousin of Achilles.

60. It merged with AT&T in 2005: SBC. Southwestern Bell Corp.

61. Be amazed (at): MARVEL. Shazam!

65. Like pretzels: BENT. Baked in the shape of folded arms. Pretzel traces back to a word for branches.

66. D.C. underground: METRO. A Subway system that branches out to the suburbs above ground..

67. "Rigoletto" highlight: ARIA. Not a happily ever after fairy tale... In this opera a licentious Duke ravishes his jester's daughter; the jester's revenge goes tragically awry with his daughter's death.

68. Concerning: AS TO.

69. Dust crops, e.g.: SPRAY.

70. Certain NCO: MSGT. Master Sergeant.

71. A library book may be on it: LOAN.

DOWN:

1. Airway termini: LUNGS. I was fooled into thinking about airports, not where your bronchi attach.

2. Stern with a Strad: ISAAC. Fiddler behind the scenes...

3. Noodle topper: PASTA SAUCE.

4. Useful: OF HELP. Needed perp help for this.

5. Proved false: REFUTED. The "correct" original meaning of refute. The meaning has been shifting towards "to deny" since the 60's, as used with the word "allegations".

6. "Star Wars" saga nickname: ANI. Anikin Skywalker, Darth Vader, who says "Yippee" in the fourth movie released, which is chronologically the beginning.

7. Code creator: MORSE. Samuel. Co-created "American Morse Code", also called Railroad code, with Alfred Vail. Since 1865, International Morse code has been used instead, with "American" being limited to re-enactments only.

8. Fabric fold: PLEAT. Also a flounce, apparently.

9. Günter's gripe: ACH. German Oh! An interjection.

10. Radio abbr.: FREQ.uency.

11. 300-pound president: TAFT. William Howard. 27th president and later the 10th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. The only person to have served both offices.

13. Great American Ball Park team: REDS. Cincinnati.

19. Checker's dance: TWIST. Chubby Checker (Ernest Evans). It was a cover of the B-side song by R&B artist Hank Ballard. Popularized thanks to Dick Clark and American Bandstand.

21. Flying prefix: AER. Latin air.

25. One of 24 in un jour: HEURE. French, 24 hours in a day.

26. Sci-fi writer Frederik: POHL. Prolific author and editor.

29. Sheltered side: LEE. So odd to see it without the "A".

30. "That's my take": I BELIEVE SO.

31. Desperate: DIRE. As in circumstances.

32. Charon's river: STYX. Don't pay the ferryman until he gets you to the other side.

33. __-da: pretentious: LA-DI.

34. Juice: Abbr.: ELEC.tricity

36. Orch. work: SYM. Orchestra, symphony.

37. Flirt: TEASE. One who does, is.

39. NYSE, e.g.: MKT. New York Stock Exchange, Stock Market.

40. Stride: STEP.

44. Caustic: HARSH. I had BASIC in there briefly because lye is a very strong base. Caustic lye is the opposite of acid, but no less destructive. Sort of like the two-party system. If you try to mix the two extremes together, sparks really fly and everything in between gets hurt.

45. Edible part of a pecan: NUTMEAT. Pecan, a word from our crossword friends, the Cree: pakan, hard-shelled nut. So, how do you say it? PEEcahn, payKAHN, or PEE-CAN?

49. Doo-wop syllable: SHA. A blast from the past.

50. Like some supplements: HERBAL.

52. Building girder: I-BEAM. Guessed _beam right away, and 53D. Many Nissan autos: Z-CARS. Similarly got _cars, but had to wait for the leading letters for both. Which was tough because the theme perp wasn't helping.

54. Busybody: YENTA. From Yente Telebende, comic strip gossip in 1920s-30s writing of Yiddish newspaper humorist B. Kovner (pen-name of Jacob Adler).

55. John with Grammys: ELTON. Who else could it be?

56. Green dispensers: ATMS. Not fooled this time, filled immediately.

57. Wrangler, for one: JEEP. An SUV or UTE.

58. Copernicus's sci.: ASTR. Science, astronomy.

59. Bonus, in adspeak: XTRA.

63. Peke, e.g.: TOY. Pekingese dog, toy breed.

64. One might be bummed, briefly: CIG.arette

Answer grid.

Al

Friday July 9, 2010 Jascha Smilack

Theme: Give 'em H, Harry - Letter H is inserted after letter S, in an orderly A, E, I, O, U pattern. Total 28 Hs in the puzzle, a record!

17A. "The herring ate my homework," e.g.? : SHAD EXCUSE. Sad Excuse. I had no idea that shad belongs to the herring family.

24A. Number on a bag of walnuts? : SHELL-BY DATE. Sell-By Date.

35A. Stumbling block for a beauty pageant contestant? : DEADLY SHINS. Deadly Sins.

48A. Really needing to do laundry? : OUT OF SHORTS. Out of Sorts.

58A. Reason to eat lunch alone? : MIDDAY SHUN. Midday Sun.

H is inserted into the first word in the first two theme entries, and the second word in the last three. Today's theme title came from Argyle. I've never heard of the slogan: Give 'em Hell, Harry!

No single black square in this puzzle. Quite unusual. Also, same as the Dan Naddor puzzle yesterday, the constructor divided his left and right edges into 2 rather than our normal 3 sections, resulting in several paralleled long entries, which always please Dennis/Clear Ayes, and a total low themeless-like 72 word count .

Several math references today:

21A. Cubic meter : STERE

52A. Highest degree : NTH

32D. H.S. math course : ALG

44D. Greek mathematician : EUCLID

Across:

1. Command, to Shakespeare : HEST. Only know "behest". Wanted BIDE.

5. Drei doubled : SECHS. German for 6. Drei = 3. I am sure it's a gimme for Kazie/Spitzboov. I was lost.

10. __ money : HUSH

14. Lit. collection : ANTH (Anthology)

15. Comment before a swim, maybe : I'M HOT. I don't swim. Afraid of water.

16. Yours: Fr. : A TOI. Jerome, the surprising cook on our blog, was just asking for the validity of this fill some time ago.

19. Restraining order : HALT

20. Role for Harrison : HAN (Solo)

22. "Say what?" : HUH

23. Like Brahms's Symphony No. 3 : IN F. Came with crossers.

28. Cases (out) : SCOPES

30. "My Fair Lady" lyricist : LERNER. Alan Jay Lerner.

31. Frequently embroidered pronoun : HERS

32. Pilot : AVIATE. Verb "Pilot".

39. Linguistic habits : USAGES

40. Hunk of tobacco : CHAW. PLUG too.

43. Like some collisions : HEAD-ON

46. Much of Libya : SAHARA

53. Pres. during the 1929 market crash : HCH (Herbert Clark Hoover). Did not know his middle name.

54. A, in Israel : ALEPH. Followed by Beth.

55. Letters seen next to a 4 : GHI. On a phone.

56. Maker of Regenerist skin products : OLAY. I am using Regenerist. Anti-aging.

60. Rear : HIND

61. Inuit relative : ALEUT

62. Hopping game? : HARE. Game here refers to "hunter's game". Nice clue.

63. Handicapper's concern : ODDS

64. Hyssop and catnip, e.g. : HERBS

65. Sign of a leak : HISS

Down:

1. Hemp extract : HASHISH. New word to me. Drug?

2. Heighten : ENHANCE

3. Silicon Valley school : STANFORD. JimmyB just mentioned Stanford yesterday.

4. Ecclesiastical deg. : TH. D. Doctor of Theology.

5. Some pizza slices : SIXTHS

6. Host : EMCEE

7. Rude dude : CHURL. Rhyme.

8. Golf club socket : HOSEL. See this diagram. Jazzbumpa is going to sink some putts today. Hope they are for birdies.

9. __-Thérèse, Quebec : STE

10. Taunting laugh : HAH

11. Hatch in the Senate, e.g. : UTAHAN. Orrin Hatch.

12. The sugar in your latte, say : SOLUTE. Also a new word. Same root as "solution" I suppose.

13. "Hie thee __, / That I may pour my spirits in thine ear": "Macbeth" : HITHER. I just hate Shakespeare quote clues. Never know what the dude wanted to say.

18. Being, to Ovid : ESSE. Latin.

25. Humdrum : BLAH

26. Hairy Asian giant : YETI. The Abominable Snowman.

27. Bathe, as in sunlight : DRENCH. Hot here.

29. False start? : PSEUDO. As in pseudoscience.

33. "The Return of the Native" vamp Eustacia __ : VYE. Means nothing to me. "The Return of the Native", novel by Thomas Hardy.

34. Edition: Abbr. : ISS (Issue)

36. Starting from : AS OF

37. Rather and others : DANS. Dan Rather.

38. Kidnap, in a way : SHANGHAI

41. 1880s first family : ARTHURS. Chester Alan Arthur (1881-1885). Another mysterious middle name!

42. Some surfers : WAHINES.

43. Words after "jolly," in an old jingle : HO HO HO. The Jolly Green Giant jingle. I saw the Green Giant statue when we traveled by. Ho Ho Ho!'

45. Nearby : AT HAND

46. Parade occasion, for short : ST PATS

47. Hardly healthy-looking : ASHY

49. Selassie of Ethiopia : HAILE

50. Having gone around the block more : OLDER. Thought it means "more experienced", not necessarily older.

51. Provide a new soundtrack for : REDUB

57. NFL stat : YDS

58. __-jongg : MAH. So noisy.

59. "Zip it!" : SHH. This last entry made me have an extra look at the plethora of letter Hs.

Answer grid.

Pictures of the Day: Here are a few great pictures Kazie took during her trip to Alice Springs, Northern Territory. Click each one. The photo will enlarge. Thanks for the captions, Kazie!

If you want to be included in our Crossword Corner map, please email Crockett. His address is crockett1947@comcast.net

C.C.

Thursday April 8, 2010 Jascha Smilack

Theme: HORSE (67A. Word to add to 20-, 37- and 54-Across to make sense of the answers) - Horse needs to be fastened to the end of each common phrase to make sense of all the "uneasy" clues.

20A. Uneasy about a farm team member?: DODGING THE DRAFT(horse). Farm team member = Draft horse.

37A. Uneasy about a long shot?: AFRAID OF THE DARK(horse). Dark horse = Long shot. Nyctophobia refers to fear of darkness. I used to sleep with our closet light on all night.

54A. Uneasy about an aquarium fish?: CHICKEN OF THE SEA(horse). Aquarium fish = Seahorse. Used in Chinese herbal medicine.

We also have a cross-referenced SENATE (50A. Where Caligula reputedly tried to seat his 67-Across). A fact I was unaware of. But Galigula was an eccentric weirdo, so no real surprises.

A unique spin of our normal change letter string theme, in which the theme phrases often induce groan and only make sense when the letter string is dropped/added/substituted. Today, all the grid-spanning 15-letter theme entries are perfectly fine common phrases. You just need to tag HORSE to make horse sense of the clues. Loved the "uneasy" tie-in.

Also loved the side-by-side placement of GOLF (12D. Go for a Masters?) and SYST (13. CBS part). Golf fans all know that CBS has been covering the Saturday/Sunday Masters tournaments for years. But why "Go for a Masters" instead of "Go for Masters"? Why extra "a"?

Google shows that today's constructor Jascha Smilack is a Ph.D student in Chinese literature in Harvard. This seems to be his crossword debut. Gong Xi, Gong Xi!

Across:

1. Must: HAS TO

6. "Iron Chef America" chef Cat __: CORA. Needed crosses for her name. I did enjoy the few episodes of "Iron Chef America" I saw. Liked the Japanese flavor.

14. Dickens's mysterious Mr. Drood: EDWIN. Easy guess. I've never heard of "The Mystery of Edwin Drood", Dickens' final novel.

15. Fidel's successor: RAUL. The Castro brothers. Quite a few names in this puzzle.

16. "__ Named Sue": A BOY. And A DROP (2D. __ in the bucket). Partials.

17. Israeli ambassador Moshe: ARENS. Again, his name emerged itself. Not familiar with this guy at all. When was he the ambassador?

18. Like some profs.: ASST (Assistant)

19. Web links: URLS

23. Michael Phelps sponsor: SPEEDO. OK, for Jeannie. Phelps survived his drug scandal quite well.

24. "Dies __": IRAE. "Dies Irae", the Latin hymn. Literally "Days of Wrath". Dies = Day. Irae = Wrath.

25. Humble: DEMEAN

28. Play footsie, say: FLIRT. Directly above TOE TAP (36. Shoe part for Astaire).

32. It may be up: JIG. The jig is up. Rich used the identical clue a while ago, still got me. Lethologica!

41. Maps: CHARTS. Verb.

42. Fair-hiring abbr.: EOE (Equal Opportunity Employer). EEO = Equal Employment Opportunity.

43. Hi or lo follower: RES (Resolution)

44. "Flowers for Algernon" author Daniel: KEYES. Rang a faint bell. See the book cover.

45. "Analyze That" star: DE NIRO

48. Top-shelf: A ONE

59. Winery prefix: OENO. Oeno is Greek goddess of wine.

60. Casual top: POLO

61. Stock phrase: AT PAR

62. Exploit: DEED

63. Etonic competitor: AVIA

64. Peachy: SWELL

65. Wood shaper: ADZE. Or adz.

66. Appear dramatically: LOOM. I associate loom with ominously rather than dramatically.

Down:

1. Call before the game: HEADS. "Heads or tails?". We had this clue before.

3. Stockholm native: SWEDE

4. Colored a bit: TINGED. Wrote down TINTED first.

5. Like some daring football kicks: ONSIDE

6. Steep outcropping: CRAG. The rugged rock.

7. Brewery feature: OAST

8. Act like fools?: RUSH IN. Fools rush in. Nailed it today.

9. Let out, say: ALTER. Oh, the hemline. Nice clue.

10. Honored with a crown of foliage: LAURELED.

11. Start of a spell: ABRA. The start of Abracadabra.

21. Roaming types: NOMADS

22. Green Goblin portrayer in Spider-Man films: DAFOE (Willem). I only remember Tobey Maguire.

26. Rock producer Brian: ENO

27. Newspaper revenue component: AD FEE

29. __-Tass: news agency: ITAR (Information Telegraph Agency of Russia).

30. Red inside: RARE

31. I-90 in Mass. et al.: TPKS (Turnpikes)

32. Magic harp thief: JACK. From "Jack and the Beanstalk" the fairy tale. I peeked at the answer sheet.

33. "__ hollers, ...": IF HE. "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe, /Catch a tiger by the toe./If he hollers let him go..."

34. __ matter: GRAY. Felt silly not getting this one immediately.

36. Believer: THEIST

38. First three numbers, in some directories: AREA CODE

39. "Not a problem!": IT'S OK

40. Cargo unit: TON

45. Again, to Gaius: DE NOVO. Latin for "From the beginning".

46. Talk out again: REHASH

47. "Old" punches?: ONE-TWO. One-two punch. Why "old"?

49. High country: NEPAL. High in the Himalaya. I hope you were not thinking of Tibet, because it's not a country. It's part of China.

51. According to: AS PER

52. Dabbling ducks:: TEALS. Teals belong to the dabbling ducks, which feed by dabbling in the shallow waters.

53. Bogart's "High Sierra" role: EARLE. No idea. I've never seen the movie.

54. Musical ending: CODA

55. Follow: HEED. As advice.

56. Don Juan's mother: INEZ. Spanish for Agnes, meaning "pure".

57. Random collection: OLIO

58. Fire suppressant: FOAM

Answer grid.

C.C.