Tuesday, February 23, 2010 Joy C. Frank

Theme: Zany Zealots - Two-word common phrases ending with a synonym of "enthusiast" are humorously reinterpreted and clued as "Devotee of ...".

17A: Devotee of a Sistine Chapel feature?: CEILING FAN

24A: Devotee of green ice cream?: PISTACHIO NUT

44A: Devotee of thunderstorms?: LIGHTNING BUG

54A: Devotee of a classical language?: LATIN LOVER

This puzzle is very similar in concept to Robert Harris' "Imaginary Places", in which familiar phrases ending with "locations" are reinterpreted in correspondence with the "Where ..." clues.

Argyle here.

What is there to say? I've never seen a puzzle less in need of explanations. Take 42A: Capital where "Aida" premiered: CAIRO., for example. Even if you didn't know the story behind the opera "Aida" and why it premiered in Cairo, when the perps revealed the answer, it was like, "OK", not "D'oh". (If you want the story, you can go to Wikipedia.)

I post all the answers and C.C. edits out the ones she feels are unnecessary; I hope there are some left. LOL

Across:

1A: Have status: RATE.

5A: Less adorned, as walls: BARER.

10A: Wordless singing style: SCAT. 50A: In the style of: A LA. Ella Fitzgerald.

14A: Land parcel unit: ACRE.

15A: Big gig venue: ARENA.

16A: Heading for a chore list: TO DO.

19A: Charles Lamb's nom de plume: ELIA.

20A: Sixth sense, briefly: ESP.

21A: Carnival city: RIO. (Rio de Janeiro ("River of January"))

22A: Portage vessels: CANOES. Portage - The carrying of boats and supplies overland between two waterways or around an obstacle to navigation.

27A: Final furniture coat: FINISH.

30A: Round at the tavern: BEERS.

31A: Pennsylvania Dutch group: AMISH.

32A: Buddy of Tom and Dick?: HARRY. The phrase "Tom, Dick and Harry" is used to indicate everyone.

36A: Pop choice: COLA.

37A: Numbers after the decimal point: CENTS.

38A: Top of the glass: BRIM.

39A: __ out: barely make: EKE.

40A: Tadpoles' milieus: PONDS.

41A: Like fresh celery: CRISP.

43A: Trained animal's repertoire: TRICKS.

48A: Idolizes: ADORES.

53A: Hand, in Juárez: MANO.

58A: "Beg pardon": "AHEM".

59A: Express a view: OPINE.

60A: Uncooperative contraction: WON'T.

61A: Annoyed: SORE.

63A: Stopping points: ENDS.

Down:

1D: Meet event: RACE.

2D: Suit toppers: ACES.

3D: Vacation option: TRIP.

4D: Sushi choice: EEL.

5D: Send into exile: BANISH.

6D: Special lingo: ARGOT.

7D: Arbiter with a whistle: REF.

8D: "Bambi" doe: ENA.

9D: Oater landowners: RANCHERS. Oater - Western movie

10D: Workers with pads: STENOS.

11D: Punctuation in play dialogue: COLON.

12D: French farewell: ADIEU.

13D: Best man's offer: TOAST.

18D: Joyce's countrymen: IRISH. James Joyce.

23D: Like a screened porch: AIRY.

24D: Tower city: PISA.

25D: Leave high and dry: ABANDON.

26D: "Two mints in one" sloganeer: CERTS. "A candy mint AND a breath mint."

27D: Confront: FACE.

28D: "No harm done": "I'M OK".

29D: River where baby Moses was found: NILE.

32D: Artist Matisse: HENRI.

35D: Metal band's equipment: AMPS.

37D: Vending machine feature: COIN SLOT.

38D: Place to hold mutineers: BRIG. (On ship)

40D: Cracker spread: PATE.

41D: Inhumane: CRUEL.

42D: Auto trim: CHROME.

43D: Rare orders, perhaps: T-BONES.

44D: Eastern priests: LAMAS.

45D: Potato source: IDAHO.

46D: Casualty: GONER.

47D: Nine-to-five routine, to many: GRIND.

50D: Ringer of many bells: AVON. Ringer of doorbells. Probably the cleverest clue.

52D: Creative fields: ARTS.

55D: Class clown, often: APE. Harsh!

56D: Anchovy holder: TIN.

57D: Be in the hole for: OWE.

Answer grid.

Argyle

Tuesday June 2, 2009 Joy C. Frank

Theme: Triples

17A: Horse racing coup, literally: CROWN CROWN CROWN

23A: Baseball rarity, literally: PLAY PLAY PLAY

46A: Rhythm for waltzing, literally: TIME TIME TIME

54A: Text layout specification, literally: SPACE SPACE SPACE

Is there a jockey who won the Triple Crown by riding three different horses in the same year? Looks like Calvin Borel is going back to Mine That Bird since Rachel Alexandra won't run the Belmont Stakes.

Triple play is indeed rare. Twins is the only team in MLB history to turn two triple plays in one game (they still lost to Red Sox 1-0). Wikipedia says triple time is common in formal dance styles like waltz, minuet and the mazurka. What is triple-space? I've never heard of the term.

BOGEY BOGEY BOGEY would be a great theme answer too. Nothing is more frustrating than a triple bogey on a par 3. What other triples can you think of?

Across:

5A: Pub diversion: DARTS

14A: Spots in high school?: ACNE. ACNE has no plural form?

15A: Group cultural values: ETHOS

16A: Funny Bombeck: ERMA. I tend to confuse her with IRMA Rombauer, "The Joy of Cooking" author.

21A: Moo goo __ pan: GAI. Moo goo = mushroom. GAI = chicken. Pan = slices. I bet this plate contains over 800 calories.

22A: Draw a bead on: AIM AT

28A: Strait of Dover port: CALAIS. The French port nearest England.

30A: Prefix with -syncratic: IDIO. Literally "peculiar". Somehow I wrote down IDEO first. It's a prefix for "thought", ideological for example.

38A: Book in a hotel: BIBLE

39A: Apple MP3 player: IPOD. And another Apple products MACS (1D: Computer choices).

40A: Lad's love: LASS. And MOLL (43A: Hood's gal). Nice pair.

49A: Aptly named Renault: LE CAR. Not familiar with this car. Apt name indeed.

62A: Reader of Seventeen: TEEN. Not fond of this clue.

63A: Coasters with runners: SLEDS. Got the answer. Did not know runner can mean "either of the long, bladelike strips of metal or wood on which a sled or sleigh slides".

64A: Ref's fight-ending decisions: TKOS. Boxing.

Down:

3D: Drift removers: SNOWPLOWS

5D: Turns to compost: DECAYS. In the end, everything DECAYS, including culture.

6D: Just free of the bottom, as an anchor: ATRIP

7D: Letter after pi: RHO. Before sigma. The former South Korea president who killed himself over bribery scandal is surnamed ROH (Roh Moo-hyun).

12D: Big name in multilevel marketing: AMWAY. They have big factories in China. So does Avon.

18D: Mystery writer Marsh: NGAIO. How do you pronounce her name? What a weird spelling.

19D: Guitarist's gadget: CAPO

25D: It might be applied while puckering: LIP BALM. I really don't understand the fascination with Angelina Jolie's lips.

26D: German violinist Busch: ADOLF. Easy guess. Just learned that ADOLF means "noble, majestic wolf", a compound word of "adal" (noble) and wolf.

27D: Cry of surprise: YIPE. Oh, I always say "Oh, my goodness".

28D: Prof.'s employer: COLL. Crossing the college town ORONO (31A: University of Maine town).

32D: Garlicky mayo: AIOLI. Provençal words: Ai, garlic. Oli, oil. Looks creamy.

33D: Mouthed sidelines greeting: HI MOM

34D: Brandy distilled from cider: APPLEJACK. Have never had this stuff.

35D: Place for cargo: HOLD

38D: Sponge up: BLOT. Only knew the "stain" meaning of BLOT.

42D: Litmus reddeners: ACIDS. Does blue have a verb form also?

44D: Rides of knights: STEEDS. How do you clue NAGS then? "Rides of whom?"

45D: Home often made of canvas nowadays: TEPEE. Literally, "to dwell" in Lakota language.

46D: Sympathetic words: I CARE. Hmm, "empathy", Sonia Sotomayor.

47D: City SE of Atlanta: MACON. Nicknamed "Heart of Georgia" because it lies near the geographic center of Georgia, according to Wikipedia.

48D: 11th century Spanish hero: EL CID. Literally "the lord".

52D: Canyon rebound: ECHO. It fits in today's theme pretty well.

57D: Civil War nickname: ABE. Wonder how ABE would deal with the Burris case. Oh, well, at least, Illinois has 2 senators. We only have 1. The recount goes on!

59D: Soft touch: PAT. Nice one.

Answer grid.

C.C.

Tuesday April 28, 2009 Joy C. Frank

Theme: And Keep the Wolf (from the door)

20A: Talk aimlessly: SHOOT THE BULL

31A: Blame someone else: PASS THE BUCK

41A: Dress to impress: PUT ON THE DOG

55A: Pass its peak, slangily, as a TV series: JUMP THE SHARK

I hope I got the theme right. They all seem to be idioms consisting of verb + the + animal name. I've never heard of PUT ON THE DOG. It's the only theme entry with a verb phrase.

Is PUT ON a basketball term as well? SHOOT, PASS & JUMP are.

I can't think of another verb + the + animal name common saying, can you? Wikipedia does "Hold the horses" is an alternative of "Hold your horses" though.

Shouldn't the SOOT clue (47A: chimney sweep's sweepings) be in singular form?

Felt today's puzzle is easier than yesterday's.

Across:

9A: Succeed: GO FAR. Multiple word answer still gives me trouble.

14A: Widespread: RIFE. Always clued as "Teeming (with)" in our old puzzle.

15A: Made fun of, in a way: APED. Only in crossword.

16A: Prefix meaning "vinegar": ACETO. Dictionary gives acetometer as an example. It's an instrument for measuring the amount of acetic acid present in a solution. I wanted acid? something. The bitter word ACRID is rooted in acid.

17A: Where the steeple is, vis-a-vis the church: ATOP. This simple word stumped me, as I had CRUDE rather than CRASS for 1D: Boorish.

18A: Composer Édouard: LALO. Got his name from the down fills. Found out that LALO is boy name meaning "To sing a lullaby". No wonder this guy was a composer.

19A: In-your-face challenge: SUE ME. Intersects FEE (11D: Lawyer's charge).

24A: Opposite of "All rise": BE SEATED

28A: Snowfall unit: INCH. One blank short for my FLAKE. I like the clue. "Rainfall unit" too.

30A: Ex-quarterback Dan: MARINO. Learned this guy's name from the Nutrisystem weight loss commercial. Oh, Wikipedia says he spent his whole career with the Dolphins, holding or having holding all kinds of records. Is MARINO pronounced the same as the sheep merino?

37A: MD's calendar listing: APPT

38A: Traveler's choice: AIR. Not BY AIR?

39A: Fluids in shots: SERA. Reminds me of Swine Flu. I suppose there is no such epidemic in those Arab countries?

40A: Brazilian port: RIO. Do you think the Brazil supermodel Adriana Lima is beautiful?

45A: Space along the page border: MARGIN

48A: Old things: ANTIQUES. Have to be at least 100 years old. Between 20 to 100, they are called vintage I think.

57A: Margaret Mead subject: SAMOA. I forgot who Margaret MEAD is. It's clued as "Mead's milieu" in Argyle's puzzle. She wrote "Coming of Age in SAMOA". Those girls remind me of Bloody Mary of "South Pacific".

66A: Where Homer drinks Duff Beer: MOE'S. Learned this name from doing Xword.

67A: Insect repellent ingredient: DEET. Oh, it actually stands for DT (Diethyl Toluamide). I did not know that.

Down:

2D: Supple: LITHE. Thought of limber.

3D: What the game is, to Holmes: AFOOT. No idea. "The game is AFOOT" originally came from Shakespeare's "King Henry IV".

4D: One hiring relatives: NEPOTIST. Had difficulty obtaining this word. I actually knew the meaning of nepotism.

5D: Pasadena science institute, familiarly: CALTECH

6D: Colorful fish: OPAH. Also called moonfish.

7D: Fanzine focus: CELEB. This word appears so often in Xword. Have only seen CALEB the Biblical spy once.

8D: Hacienda brick: ADOBE. You won't find ADOBE in tropical area, right? Since they are built of clay.

9D: Dangerous pipe problem: GAS LEAK. I was thinking of water pipe.

10D: Of the eye: OCULAR. Got it with adjacent help.

12D: Place to get bucks fast, briefly: ATM. Good clue.

22D: "Semper fi" military org.: USMC. Once a Marine, Always a Marine. I read somewhere that Army actually has the best equipment.

26A: Año starter: ENERO. Had no idea that ano and año are vastly different.

27D: Rapper's cap: DO-RAG. Learned from doing Xword as well. Wikipedia says a popular folk etymology claims that the term derives from Drive-On RAG, a term first used by U.S. soldiers during the Vietnam War to refer to amuslin bandage often used as a head covering.

29D: Oven output: HEAT. I was picturing fresh bread.

31D: Italian city known for its cheese: PARMA. Ham too.

32D: Like beehives: APIAN. Wanted HOLED.

33D: Baseball or golf: SPORTS. Is this clue written for me?

34D: Much of an obit: BIO

35D: Java holders: URNS. Thought of Java Island. Can Java be clued as "Jakarta holder"?

39D: Adjust for daylight saving time: SET AHEAD. No daylight saving time in China. We only have one time zone. Beijing Time is the standard time.

41D: Pleasingly pungent: PIQUANT. Ha ha, I filled in this word immediately and surprised that it's actually correct.

43D: Bullfighters: TOREROS. Same as matador, correct?

46D: Military action toys: G.I. JOES. Manufactured by Hasbro. The original 1964 figures must cost a lot of money now, like the original 1959 barbie.

49D: English Derby site: EPSOM. Why most of the major horse races are for 3-year-old?

50D: Dictator's aid: STENO

52D: Mexico meat: CARNE. Same root as carnal?

53D: Cliched: TRITE

54D: Shooting contest with traps: SKEET. Got the answer from across fills. I did not know what kind of equipment is involved in SKEET shooting. It's actually an Olympic event.

57D: "By the way...": SAY

Answer grid.

C.C.