Monday, Feb 25, 2008 Josiah Breward

Theme: Common Phrases

17A: Repeatedly: Over and Over

28A: Alternative to cream: Half and Half

46A: Like a tight race: Neck and Neck

63A: Not specified: Such and Such

First of all, if you have not read this post, please have a quick look and let me know what newspaper puzzle you are doing.

Secondly, every comment here is forwarded into my email account, and I read every one of them. So if you are confused about certain clue or could not make any sense of the fill, please always feel free to ask me. If I am not able to answer you, I will post here on my blog.

I felt so happy last Friday when I got several replies regarding the "Span or Brace" clue that appeared on a puzzle 2 weeks ago. I got that question from Curt who was working on his Palm Beach Post crossword. I really like to build up a good community here where information is shared and question is answered.

Now back to puzzle. I struggled again, from the very start. I filled in ADOBE (1A: Homemade brick) and CONTRACTOR (Building Supervisor) easily, having just watched Sidney Poitier's "Lilies of the Field" certainly helped. But I could not get EPARCH for 5D: Eastern Orthodox bishop. Never heard of that word before.

I did not know 34A: Daytona 500 winner Waltrip (DARRELL), could not get ARETE for 31D: Mountain Ridge. Did not know who Lee of Rush (GEDDY) was. Had no idea who was Singer MacKenzie (GISELE). I would have nailed it if it's clued as Supermodel from Brazil, or Tom Brady's date.

My proudest moment today was filled in AZALEA (11D: Decorative bush) and ENGELS (47D: Marx colleague) with authority. I just read Anchee Min's Red Azalea several months ago, and gleaned some nuggets from her book.

I disagreed with the clue for 40D: Break fast? (EAT). Why the question mark? You eat when you break a fast. Unless you want to be cute and misleading, then you should just clue it as "breakfast?" with no space between "break" and "fast". What do you think?

Across entries:

1A: Homemade brick: ADOBE

6A: "___ of God": AGNES. Jane Fonda movie (1985). AGNES could also be clued as "Patron saint of young girls".

11A: Shortened bk.: ABR. Abridged.

14A: Enliven: PEP UP.

15A: Hoof beats on pavement: CLOPS

16A: 26th letter: ZEE

19A: 1/2 of a union merger: AFL (American Federation of Labor). Merged with CIO (Congress of Industry Organization) in 1955.

21A: Kirghiz mountains: ALAI. I filled in ALPS, which fit in perfectly at first, esp because it was a plural form mirroring the plural form of clue mountains nicely.

22A: Part of BS: SCI

23A: Singer MacKenzie: GISELE. Canadian singer. Wikipedia shows that she sang quite often on Jack Benny Program and Ed Sullivan show.

25A: Municipal grp.: DPW (Department of Public Works)

35A: Old Testament book: HOSEA

37A: Miss West: MAE. She is fame-hungry, coming up to crossword again and again.

38A: Conger catcher: EELER. I crave grilled unagi now.

42A: Customers: CLIENTS

45A: Solar period: YEAR

50A: Heaviness meas.: WTS (WEIGHTS)

51A: Harmonized: IN SYNC

55A: Digital data devices: LASERDISCS

62A: 5 scores: CEN (CENTURY).

64A: Wapiti: ELK

65A: Falco and Brickell: EDIES. Falco is in "The Sopranos". Brickell is Paul Simon's wife.

66A: Student at an ecole: ELEVE (French word for student).

67A: Retirement group: SSA (Social Security Agency)

68A: Lee of Rush: GEDDY. Rush is a Canadian rock band.

69A: Anatomical networks: RETIA (single form is Rete).

Down entries:

1D: End of time, brief: APOC (Apocalypse)

2D: "Whip it" group: DEVO. Never heard of this band. Read here for more information.

3D: Exposed: OPEN

4D: Bacharach and Lancaster: BURTS

5D: Eastern Orthodox bishop: EPARCH. Dictionary says it's "the prefect or governor of an eparchy.".

6D: Aussie rockers: AC/DC. A hard rock band from Australia.

7D: Language: suff: GLOT. According to the dictionary, glot is" a combining form with the meanings “having a tongue,” “speaking, writing, or written in a language” of the kind or number specified by the initial element: polyglot."

8D: Porto ___, Benin: NOVO. Here is the map for you. Very close to Gulf of Guinea.

9D: Big centerpiece: EPERGNE. Did not know. I always call a centerpiece a centerpiece.

11D: Decorative bush: AZALEA. Very pretty.

12D: Come to pass: BEFALL

13D: Government aid: RELIEF

18D: River nymph: NAIAD. Greek mythology. Wood nymph is Oread or Dryad.

21D: Welsh designer Laura: ASHLEY. Well, she died 23 years ago. Time for Ashley Judd & Ashley Olsen.

25D: Morse symbol: DAH. The spoken representation of a dash in radio and telegraph code.

26D: Niner or Buc: PRO. I put in NFL first. Niner refers to San Francisco 49ers, and Buc is the Tempa Bay Buccaneers.

29D: Hobbled: LAMED

30D: Mary of "Newhart": FRANN. Unknown to me.

31D: Mountain crest: ARETE. Paul of the Crosswordese will be very disappointed at me. ARETE was his Word of the Day a few weeks ago I think. And he attached a very nice picture of how arete looked like. I just forgot it completely. If you have not, please subscribe to his free daily word of day. He puts lots of effort and thoughts in his daily delivery.

33D: Sharp and Thatcher: BECKYS. Unknown to me. Becky Sharp is a "Vanity Fair" character, Becky Thatcher is from "Tom Sawyer".

36D: Alda or King: ALAN

39D: Hoad of tennis: LEW

40D: Break fast? EAT.

41D: B & O and others: RRS (Railroads). B & O refers to Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.

43D: Consist of: INCLUDE

44D: Disdain: SCORN

46D: Some kin: NIECES

47D: Marx colleague: ENGELS. Basically he financed most of Karl Marx's writing.

48D: Former Dolphin running-back: CSONKA (Larry). No memory of him.

49D: Actress Margot: KIDDER. She played Lois Lane in Superman movies in 1970s and 1980s.

53D: Strong thread: LISLE

56D: LSD, to users: ACID. Slang word for LSD.

57D: Molt: SHED

60D: Fifth of MXXX: CCVI (1/5 of 1030 is 206).

61D: New York stadium: SHEA

63D: Module: abbr. SEG (Segment).

Oh, one more thing, my predictions for Oscar at my yesterday's blog: I was right on Best movie and best director (Cohen brother's No Country for Old Men), Original Screen Play (Diablo Cody, Juno), and Ratatouille for animated feature. Wrong on all the others.

I could not believe they awarded best actress to the girl who played Edith Piaf on "La Vie en Rose". She lip-synced all the songs in the movie. Julie Christie was incredible in her role (Away from Her). I thought Cate Blanchett did a great job in "I am not there", much better than her portrayal of Katharine Hepburn in "the Aviator", which brought her an Oscar.

Have a good week everyone.

C. C.

Saturday, Feb 23, 2008 Josiah Breward

Theme: NO

I often find a themeless puzzle more intimidating. You can not take a wild guess at some quotation/quip, or spot a bogey-par-birdie or the broken-heart pattern and fill in lots of blanks. This themeless is a true test of your range of knowledge and solving ability. I am just not up for it.

But I am getting better, I used to really like lots of s, es, ed, er, est, ing in the clues, now I don't. I've learned that that was bad and lazy construction.

Today I spent about 35 minutes on the puzzle before I started googling. I did not know 27A: "Punking out" Group (RAMONES). I never heard of the Ramones. I kept thinking of Ashton Kutcher's Punk'd. I did not know the Artis of the NBA (GILMORE), and never heard of ALWORTH (39D: Lance of the NFL). That gave me lots of trouble in the lower middle part.

OK, here are the across entries

1A: Territory's future, perhaps: STATEHOOD

10A: Knight's mail: ARMOR. I got this from the down clues. I was baffled after I reviewed my finished puzzle and could not understand why armor was a mail. Then found out that mail has another meaning of "flexible armor of interlinked rings'.

15A: Long-time New Yorker cartoonist: PETER ARNO. Never heard of him. Got it from down clues. He had a great quote: "Tell me about yourself - your struggles, your dreams, your telephone number."

16A: Use a razor: SHAVE

17A: Peculiar deviations: ANOMALIES

20A: Lillian or Dorothy: GISH. They are pretty sisters. Wow, I found out that Lillian lived until 99 years old.

23A: Pique performance: SNIT

24A: Madame Curie: MARIE

25A:Gillette blade: ATRA

27A: "Punking Out" group: RAMONES. See here for more information. I don't think I want to listen to their music. I just don't like rock, punk, or rap. OK, one exception. I like Pink's Let's get the Party Started.

30A: Viewing twins?: SEEING DOUBLE

32A: Selling feature: ASSET

35A: Highland hillsides: BRAES. Anther repeat offender.

36A: Repeatedly: TIME AND AGAIN

43A: Staggering: REELING

44A: Commercial bits: ADS

47A: Canasta combination: MELD. Did not know this one, in fact, I did not know the meaning of Canasta. It's a card game.

49A: Singer Lou: RAWLS. Frank Sinatra said he had "the classiest singing and silkiest chops in the singing game." He was once called "The funkiest man alive". I figure Samuel Jackson must love his music.

50A: From _ to stern: STEM. From one end to another.

51A: Man or Capri: ISLE

53A: Earth model: GLOBE. I botched this one. I was trapped into thinking that earth model might refer to a Korean car model. Could not get any assistance from the down clues.

54A: Wading bird: STILT. Never heard of this bird. The only wading birds I know are Egret, heron and crane.

56A: Like wind and rain: EROSIONAL

58A: Saw's cutters: TEETH

59A: Most peculiar: STRANGEST

60A: Spindrift: SPRAY. I was imaging cotton being processed and lots of fiber drifting.

61A: Rabble: THE MASSES. I got _ _ _ masses, then I thought the constructor was looking for a Latin word which means lower class people. Did not even think of putting a "the" there. Besides, I did not know the NBA/NFL guys' name, so could not get any help from the down clues.

Down entries:

1D: Scanty: SPARSE

2D: Renter: TENANT

4D: Entice: TEMPT

6D: Kubrick's computer: HAL. Learned this from doing crossword.

7D: Artful paper-folding: ORIGAMI. My Grandma was very good at this.

8D: Long golf club: ONE IRON. When I started playing golf in 2001, the only clubs I used were 7-iron & my putter. I used it for drive, fairway/rough shot, bunker shot & chip.

9D: Flopping in London: DOSSING. Sleeping. Unknown to me. I did not even know "flop" can mean sleep, not to mention the British word for it.

10D: One Wednesday: ASH

11D: Valerie Harper sitcom: RHODA

12D: Most easterly Prairie Province: MANITOBA

13D: Use veto power: OVERRULE. Star Tribune cover page this morning: Pawlenty veto sets up fight over transportation bill. Lots of rumors are swirling around that our Governor Tim Pawlenty will be McCain's running mate.

14D: Says over: RESTATES

21D: Listen to: HEED. I put "hear" first, then corrected myself quickly.

24D: Astronaut Jemison: MAE. First black woman to travel in space.

27D: Make roof repairs: RETAR

28D: Edna Ferber novel: SO BIG. She won Pulitzer for this book.

30D: Bishopric: SEE

31D: Container with a tap: URN

32D: Followers on an ancient Greek theory: ATOMISTS. Unknown to me. I wanted it to be Sto__ists, you know, like stoic something. That's the only greek theory I knew.

33D: Evade: SIDESTEP

34D: More rank: SMELLIER. Like a rank cigar, having an offensive strong smell.

37D: Soft-toy stuff: NERF

38D: Mommie's last name?: DEAREST. I was thinking of the Scarlett's nanny in Gone with the Wind. I thought she called her Mommie. Did not know that Mommie Dearest was a book, written by Joan Crawford's daughter.

39D: Lance of the NFL: ALWORTH. Unknown to me. Even if he is in Hall-of-Fame.

40D: Artis of the NBA: GILMORE. Nicknamed "A-Train". I know the "Big Train" Walter Johnson. I ruined my Walter Johnson bobblehead by using Mr. Eraser to clean a small blemish on his lower left chin. My God, the blemish was gone, but his chin became horribly white. Just awful!

41D: Response to a ques.: ANS

44D: Expiates: ATONES

45D: Cheapen: DEBASE

46D: Refines ore: SMELTS. The word in my mind was "Assay". Did not know that besides fish, "smelt" can mean refine metal by fusing.

48D: Mississippi triangle: DELTA

50D: Works hard: SLOGS. That's how I do my puzzle every day.

53D: Actress Lollobrigida: GINA. Vaguely remembered her name.

55D: "Hallowed by _ name...": THY

57D: Nunn or Donaldson: SAM. Gimme for me. Thought you might like this tidbit that I lifted from Wikipedia:

"On August 2, 2006, during the last White House Press conference in the briefing room before undergoing major renovations, Donaldson shouted, "Mr. President, should Mel Gibson be forgiven?", referencing reports of the actor/producer's alleged anti-Semitic remarks.

Bush laughed and looked up to see who had asked the question. Bush joked, "Is that Sam Donaldson? Forget it ... you're a 'has-been'! We don't have to answer has-beens' questions." To which Donaldson retorted "It's better to be a has-been than a never-was!"

I don't think Bush came back with an equally sparkling repartee. I never saw the interview, but I could picture him grinning his way out, jaw agape. God, that smirk!

Enjoy your weekend everyone.

C. C.

Sunday, Jan 27, 2008 Josiah Breward

Theme: People Persons

23A: Dean: College Officer
37A: Don: Oxford Fellow
97A: Mark or patsy: Swindler's Sap
116A: Dick: Hotel Detective
17D: Earl: British Nobleman
44D: Victor: Successful Rival

I worked my tail off (as Ron Gardenhire often says), still could not figure the upper right and lower left.

Now I need your help.

14A: Eleventh Greek Letter: LAMBDA.
22A: Common mushroom: AGARIC
25A: Poughkeepsie: MARINT. Is it right? VASSAR is the only one I know. (Updates: This college should be MARIST)
19D: Moss Hart's autobiography: ACT ONE

Here is the problem with 40A: Swiss city on the Rhine: Basee? What happens to BASEL? (Update: The correct answer should be BASLE, Swiss variant on Basel)

Lower left corner:

107A: Extremely scanty: EXIGUOUS
115A: Experts: MAVENS (Updates: the correct answer should be MAVIN, alt spelling for Maven)
120A: Old French card game: ECA_TE (ECARTE is the correct answer)
123A: Timothy who was James Bond: DALTON
96D: Mexican tourist destination: OAXACA

What is 108D: Encircle: GE_T (Correct answer should be GIRT, another spelling of GIRD)

Updates later:

I zipped through the upper left corner (The clues down made it easy) and felt very smart, for about half a minute, then my old self came back.

Here are some summaries:

6A: William Shatner series: Star Trek. No idea. Never watched Star War or Star Trek.

14A: Eleventh Greek Letter: LAMBDA, impossible for me. Had to cheat to find it out. The spelling is so weird.

22A: Common Mushroom: AGARIC. The only common mushroom is the white button mushroom sold at Rainbow. Morel is another mushroom that appeared in the Star Tribune crossword last week.

25A: Poughkeepsie college: MARIST.

33A: Guitarist Flatt: LESTER. Don't know this guy.

40A: Swiss City on the Rhine: BASLE.

42A: "Les Preludes" composer: LISZT

45A: Scuffle: TUSSLE

48A: Burden of proof: ONUS. This word and ONEROUS keep making appearances.

49A: Never existed: WASNT. Boomer helped me with this one. I left lots of space empty in the middle part of the puzzle.

53A: Pampas plain: LLANOS. I was not sure of the plural S initially. But decided that 55D: Went up and down has to be SEESAWED, like Dow last Wednesday, 625 points of swing.

56A: Fed. transport agcy: ICC. for what?

62A: Sensed by touch: TACTUAL. I knew Tactile.

64A: Cure starter?: EPI. I could only think of manicure and pedicure.

67A: Correct text: EMEND. Put Amend first.

68A: Feign: DISSEMBLE

72A: Psychologist Havelock: ELLIS. I remember googling his name before, then I forgot quickly. I will probably forget again. Is he very famous?

75A: President's financial grp.: CEA (Counsel of Economic Adviser). Ben Bernanke used to be Bush's CEA head.

76A: Panamanian dictator: NORIEGA. He is still alive.

78A: Hosp. intake locations: ERS. I put in ICO hastily in the beginning. Did not pay attention to the plural form.

84A: Beam supporting a pitched roof: RAFTER

94A: Like Rattan furniture: CANED. Had to check the dictionary to see what's the meaning of Rattan. Kind of Malay palm used for wickerwork and cane. Yesterday it's NIPA for Malay Thatch. Must be the climate there, conducive to all kinds of palms.

95A: Chan's Portrayer: TOLER. Sidney Toler.

97A: Mark or Patsy: Swindler's Sap. Learned something new today.

107A: Extremely scanty: EXIGUOUS. Never heard anyone using this word before.

120A: Old French card game: ECA_TE. What is it?

121A: Sort of: In a Sense

122A: God of east wind: EURUS. And God of west wind is Zephyrus. God of north wind is Bureas, God of south wind Notus. And God of winds is AEOLUS. If you want more information on their Roman equivalent, Here is more information.

123A: Timothy who was James Bond: DALTON. I like the current Bond: Craig, Daniel Craig.

124A: Zero option: No Escape.

Down Clues:

8D: _-Romeo: ALFA

11D: AAA in the UK: RAC. What does that stand for?

13D: Horny: pref: KERATO. I want it to be rhino something.

18D: Of the back of a tooth: DISTAL.

29D: Whimper: MEWL.

38D: Stupid ones: DUNCES. Next time I will remember.

43D: Judges chambers: In Camera. Heard "In Chambers" often on Law & Order.

49D: Depression agcy: WPA (Works Project Admin)

52D: Sora: RAIL. Bird. Note for myself: The Italian word for evening is Sera.

60D: Actress Vaccro: BRENDA. Doesn't ring a bell.

70D: Servile: MENIAL.

71D: No-good-nik: BADDIE.

80D: Spruce stuff: RESIN. Not the stuff to spruce you up.

94D: Medical insignias: CADUCEI. Almost impossible for me to infer. According to Greek Mythology, Cadueus is "A winged staff with two serpents twined around it, carried by Hermes." according to Greek Mythology. Now it's "a representation of this staff used as an emblem of the medical profession and as the insignia of the U.S. Army Medical Corps."

96D: Mexican tourist destination: Oaxaca. Never heard of it. Anyone been there before?

99D: Hindu ritual suicide: Suttee. The clue scared me. Hindu & suicide, a ritual? The dictionary explains Suttee as "The now illegal act or practice of a Hindu widow's cremating herself on her husband's funeral pyre in order to fulfill her true role as wife.". Good! It is also spelled as Satis. Maybe the clue should reflect this past practice.

102D: Al of Indians: ROSEN. My husband knows almost everything about baseball.

112D: Writer Buchanan: EDNA. A crime fiction writer. I don't read crime fiction.

118D: Menlo Park initials: ALVA. I can never remember Edison's middle name.

That's all.

C. C.

Monday, Jan 21, 2008 Josiah Breward

Theme: Dry

17 A: Stranded: HIGH AND DRY
37A: Rehearsals: DRYRUNS
59 A: Fearless, in the house?: NOT A DRY EYE
11D: Ginger ale maker: CANADA DRY
33D: Sober refrain: HOWDRYIAM (never heard of this word before)

A bit tough for me to chew on a Monday.

6 Across: Cuddly George Lucas creature: EWOK. Never watched Star Wars. I did easily get EWO_ easily from down clues, and could not figure out the last letter.

9 Down: type of electron tube: KLYSTRON.

Comics John BYNER (34D: Comic John) and ROSEANNE (38D: Single-Name comic) made appearances also.

C. C.