Friday, April 15, 2011, Matt Matera

Theme: Initial names and more. Each theme answer takes the name of a famous person who is known by his initials, and adds a new letter to the end of the initials to create an in the society expression. The answers are pretty cool, and I really was a little taken back by 1A being a theme answer. We have:

1A. Fantasy author and forensic pathologist?: CSI LEWIS. C S Lewis has reached new audiences with the movies made from his Chronicles of Narnia. His life was depicted in one of my all time favorite movies, Shadowlands. It is impossible to have avoided all the CSI shows on television, though it looks like they are finally fading.

22A. Behaviorist and teen confidant?: BFF SKINNER. As a psychology major, there was much debate between ways to modify human behavior; Freud with analysis and B F Skinner who believed you could train humans like rats, simply reward or punish behavior. He was known as the rat psychologist, which did not make him my BFF, BEST FRIEND FOREVER.

33A. Huckster and school supporter?: PTA BARNUM. Phineas T. Barnum was a showman, with little respect for his audience. He probably never went to a Parent Teacher Association meeting.

49A. British novelist and medic?: EMT FORSTER. This author wrote a few very interesting BOOKS , not to be confused with C S Forester who wrote Horatio Hornblower novels. Neither of them were Emergency Medical Techinicians.

63A. Children's author and roadside helper? : AAA MILNE. Mr. Milne was the author of the beloved Winnie the Pooh series (which we read in Latin, Winnie Ille Pu) and like Forster and Lewis a British author. American Automobile Association has been helping drivers for years.

Lemonade here, having horrendous computer problems, having had this post go blooey and redone four times, I am giving up on all the links for this week, perhaps I can get some in during the day. I liked the theme and its consistency, now let's see what else we have hidden to find.

Across:

9. Jah worshipers: RASTAS. The divine being in the Rastafarian religion, the name likely derived from the famous tetragrammaton of Judaism, YHVH, Yahweh.

15. Reason for a pass: LATENESS. I did not get the boys to school late often, but have to go in an get them a pass was always unpleasant.

16. Strike caller: UMPIRE. Balls and strikes.

17. German shepherd: ALSATIAN. Wonderful dogs.

18. Some special forces headgear: BERETS. Who among us did not love the Ballad of the Green Berets.

19. It merged with Kmart in 2005: SEARS. When I was a kid we lived in a town so small all we had was a Sears catalog store. Learned a lot from those catalogs.

20. Hairy: PILAR. Our first Latin of the day, from PILUS meaning hair. You wonder if people like Deion Sanders who married a girl with that name, looks at her and sees  her as hairy?

21. High sch. VIPs: SRS. Seniors.

27. At first blush: INITIALLY. What a quaint little phrase.

30. Teen follower?: AGERS. One of the many ways suffixes are described to confuse.

31. Infer: CONSTRUE. Dictionaries list INFER and IMPLY as synonymous; Nero Wolfe is rolling over in his fictional grave.

32. Indeed: YEA. There really are many 3 letter words in this offering.

38. Toon dynamo, familiarly: TAZ. The Tazmanian Devil, very cute.

41. Inspiration for the Frisbee: PIE PLATE. Since all the flying saucers in the movies in those days were pie plates, this makes lots of sense.

45. Lieu: STEAD. Almost a legal term.

48. Time, for one: DIMENSION. Einstein's theory of relativity made time the 4th dimension.

51. CD-__: ROM. Compact Disc-Read-Only Memory.

52. Droid in every "Star Wars" film: ARTOO. DEETO, the little one.

53. Sweet cake that's an Easter tradition in Eastern Europe: BABKA.

55. Spots: ESPIES.

57. University of Cincinnati team: BEARCATS. One of the many teams beaten by UConn on their most recent trip to the NCAA Basketball championship.

60. Gangster's gun, in old-timey slang: ROSCOE. A gat, a piece and so many more. Has anyone read Hammet and Chandler?

61. Permits: ENTITLES. I had trouble with this thinking in noun.

62. Most people: ASIANS. This was so easy it was hard.

Going...

Down:

1. Thing that endures: CLASSIC. So many good and bad things endure, this was tricky.

2. Port of SW Italy: SALERNO . A very pretty city.

3. "That's just wrong" : IT'S A SIN. A bit strong.

4. "That way madness lies" speaker: LEAR. No, I will weep no more. In such a night,

To shut me out? Pour on; I will endure.

In such a night as this? O Regan, Goneril!

Your old kind father, whose frank heart gave all—

O, that way madness lies; let me shun that;

No more of that.

5. Tolkien's Skinbark and Leaflock, e.g.: ENTS. JRR Tolkein was a close friend of C S Lewis, they both taught at Oxford and wrote fantasy novels. I see a sub-theme with British authors who wrote for younger readers.

6. China's Northern __ Dynasty, 386-534 AD: WEI. Interesting history.

7. First of the Maj. Prophets: ISA. Major Prophets, Isaiah.

8. Three-part fig. SSN. Social Security Number.

9. Creator of a popular six-color puzzle: RUBIK. The cube, many man hours lost on that baby.

10. First name in aviation: AMELIA. Not sure why she is first, but Ms. Earhardt is a continuation from last week.

11. Paid (for): SPRANG. Yes, I sprang for lunch last Friday.

12. Maura of "ER": TIERNEY. I enjoyed her in NEWS RADIO

13. Lost __ : ART. Letter writing is a lost art.

14. Paris possessive: SES. Wake up Lolita, our French lesson; SON means his/ hers of a singular item, SES is his/hers for a plural item. LEURS is for theirs.

20. Adler's subj.: PSY. More abbreviations and more psychology and Alfred Adler a disciple of Freud.

22. Theda of silents : BARA.

23. Bungle: FLUB. Makes me think of FLUB a DUB in the tub.

24. Run-down theater : FLEA PIT. I have heard of Flea bag hotels.

25. Before, in verse : ERE.

26. Where Mandela was pres.: RSA. The Republic of South Africa provided another Masters' champion this past weekend. And, 46D. Lesotho's home: AFRICA. A little landlocked country in the middle of RSA.

28. Dosage abbr.: TSP. Teaspoon.

29. Babbling Addams character: ITT. Their PILAR cousin.

34. Coleridge work: RIME. Of the Ancient Mariner, and Epic Poem.

35. __-do-well: NEER. Another great old phrase.

36. Network that merged with The WB: UPN. United Paramount Network.

37. David Beckham's org.: MLS. Major League Soccer.

38. Half a fly:TSE. Really, we have not seen this stinker in a while.

39. Withdrawal aid, briefly: ATM. Becoming a gimme.

40. Fraternity founded at New York University in 1847: ZETA PSI. Really obscure, but there are not that many greek letters.

42. Hoops embarrassment: AIRBALL. When the shooter in basketball, misses everything, does not hit the basket, the backboard, just air.

43. Caught one's breath: TOOK TEN. I never got more than 5.

44. As one : EN MASSE. French, in a single mass.

47. Spoil rotten : DOTE ON. I love them babies.

48. Brit. military award : DSO. Distinguished Service Order.

50. Lover's gift : ROSES. 20 million red roses are given on Valentine's Day in the US, or so they say. I like other roses better if you were planning on sending me some.

53. Boater's edge: BRIM. Well the brim is everyone's edge, fill it to the brim. Brim are also bait fish? (Note: Boater hat).

54. When Tony sings "Maria" : ACT I. West Side Story.

55. Time often named : ERA. Huh?

56. Under-the-sink brand : SOS. We were a Brillo family.

57. Arthur of "All in the Family" : BEA. Where she played Maude, a liberal who infuriated Archie and who ended up with her own series.

58. Spain's Queen Victoria Eugenia, familiarly: ENA. The grand daughter of Queen Victoria.

59. ___snail's pace: AT A. which is how this puzzle was for me, not hard, just a real slog. Between vision and computer problems, a long night. Enjoy the upcoming holidays whatever your persuasion, and see you next time.

Answer grid.

Lemonade

Friday, March 4, 2011, Matt Matera

Theme: Playing with your food again? Four common phrases have one word replaced with a breakfast food item, to create an amusing sound alike phrase, clued in a witty fashion. No unifier today; a day to work hard for our solutions.

20A. Halloween breakfast pastry?: CREEPY CRULLER. CREEPY CRAWLER is the base phrase, a toy from Mattel, I think, where you make cute worms.

33A. Lone breakfast pastry?: CRUMPET SOLO. TRUMPET SOLO; I am sure JzB wishes there were more Trombone solos.

42A. Cherished breakfast pastry?: THE BUN I LOVE. Maybe you remember this song, THE ONE I LOVE my favorite theme answer.

56A. Ones hooked on breakfast pastry? : THE SCONEHEADS. The SNL creation with Dan Ackroyd and Larraine Newman, the Coneheads. I am on a big scone eating kick these days, mostly orange cranberry; I think it is because I am reading too many British mysteries and need my elevenses.

Lemonade here.

This was a fun Friday, with some very hard parts, from a fairly new constructor, who had his solo debut here in October,  He is a friend of Joon Pahk, another young gun. I thought the theme was amusing, and it being a 4 pronged mini-clecho added to the challenge. Let us see what else Matt had up his number 2 pencil, which made me work very hard.

Across:

1. The word?: MUM. Once you see the answer and picture the phrase, "Mum's the word," this is easy, but there are so many words. Shakespeare said in Henry VI, part II, "Seal up your lips and give no words but mum."

4. You might need to watch yours: STEP. Wow, another idiomatic phrase, this could be a long night.

8. Like some Disneyland passes: TWO DAY. I have only been to Disneyland once, and it was quite small. I moved to Florida just before they opened Disney-world, so I was spoiled. How many have been to both? No more E tickets anyway.

14. Downed: ATE. I may have to eat my words if this does not get easier.

15. __ bene: NOTA. Oh goody, Latin and a common legal term; this phrase, usually abbreviated (NB) means pay special attention to this area. Literally to note well.

16. It may involve an exaggerated age: FAKE ID. Another legal (okay illegal) concept. The greatest one being this ID .

17. With 19-Across, serious warnings: RED. 19. See 17-Across: ALERTS. The highest level; Homeland Security advises we are at Yellow alert today.

18. Not much: A BIT. Another idiom in the first ten clues.

23. 1938 "The War of the Worlds" broadcast, for one: HOAX. Do you think Orson Wells could pull off this in modern times?

24. Keystone enforcer: KOP. Mack Sennet's bumbling bobbys appeared with another crossword favorite Mable Normand.

25. Blazing: AFIRE. Oh, the obligatory A word.

28. Go-aheads: ASSENTS.

32. __'acte: ENTR. My French lesson of the day, ENTRE means between, but French loves elision, so the last E is removed to make one sound for the phrase meaning intermission, or between the act(s).

37. Garden product word: GRO. Scott's bought Sterns Miracle-Gro Products, Inc for their very successful Miracle Gro line of fertilizers. They work, though some say with side effects.

38. Attacks: RUNS AT. Another phrase, but not such a popular one.

39. Igloos and yurts: ABODES. Most of us are familiar with the Igloo, but not a YURT .

41. Sch. attendance notation: ABS. No ladies, not an excuse to show some guy with great abdominal muscles, an abbreviation for ABSENT.

46. End of a boast: VICI. More Latin, just to appease me; VENI, VIDI (I came, I saw) before I conquered.

48. Got for nothing: SPONGED. Well I know sponging off people means getting for nothing, but the tenses made this difficult, especially as the perps were not gimmes.

49. Make official: ENACT. Make into law.

51. Newspaper supply: INK. Don't you just hate the ink all over your hands when you finish reading the paper? Why do I hear Andy Rooney saying that in my head?

52. Islamic leader: IMAM. There is a tremendous variance between Sunni Imam and the Shi'a Imam, with the Sunni, it is more leadership like a Rabbi, and more religious with the Shi'a.

60. Type of sauce served with falafel: TAHINI. This wonderful, creamy garlicky sauce uses the sesame paste as its central ingredient, but many other flavors are mixed in to blend with chicken and other bland food.

62. Gaucho's weapon: BOLA. As kids, my brothers and I tried to make our own BOLAS but we did not have any tall animals, except each other, on whom to practice.

63. Homework amount?: TON. Aww, mom I have a TON of homework!

64. Puck's king: OBERON. More Shakespeare, Midsummers Night Dream, and the Queen was...?

65. "Dulce et Decorum est" poet Wilfred __: OWEN. A much respected but not widely known poet from WWI, who died 7 days before Armistice Day, but did have his thoughts on war preserved and published. Here is more information on him in this LINK .

66. Flow out: EBB. Our Crosswordese 101.

67. Henry VIII et al.: TUDORS. The Welsh family which ruled great Britain until they died out when Elizabeth I had no children, and her cousin, James the VI of Scotland became the King, and the first in the house of Stuart. The Showtime series is interesting, though quite explicit.

68. Hitch: SNAG. Another tricky one, as the dictionary has seven meanings for the noun HITCH, plus more for the verbs.

69. Wall St. monitor: SEC. Securities and Exchange Commission.

I would not have been able to finish if it were not for the downs, so we better get going.

Down:

1. Orderly movement: MARCH. I hope these memories are all happy ones Dennis, it is time for MUSIC .

2. Nirvana #1 album "In __": UTERO. And more MUSIC ; I never go into this.

3. Scorned lover of Jason: MEDEA. But I surely love my namesake appearing, even if it is a reminder of the Biatch Medea murdering my poor children in a jealous rage. hey, boys must be boys.

4. Lose it: SNAP. You could say Medea just snapped.

5. Michael's nemesis on "The Office": TOBY. Never have watched the OFFICE .

6. Boarding pass generator: ETICKET. And now our obligatory E word.

7. Sponsors: PATRONS. This was a more meaningful clue when rich people were the Patrons who sponsored artists and musicians, so they could concentrate on their art and not have to worry about working.

8. Brand of nonstick cookware: TFAL.Also known as TEFAL; you think the TE comes from TEFLON?

9. Half a city: WALLA. WALLA WALLA, Washington is where the tribe of native Americans known as the Walla Walla lived before the Whitman family arrived.

10. Michael of "Caddyshack":O'KEEFE. As a young man, he played the caddy who defeated Ted Knight for the club championship in the movie. However, he recently played Wally Wandell in Brothers & Sisters which sounds like Walla Walla. Coincidence?

11. Gallantry: DERRING DO. I wonder if the history of the word relates to DERRINGER or perhaps DERRIERE, both of which can be quite dangerous in the wrong hands?

12. River island: AIT. An ait (or eyot) is a small island. It is especially used to refer to islands found on the River Thames and its tributaries in England. The words "ait" and "eyot" are not common in modern English, although a few famous writers have used it, including J. R. R. Tolkien in his Lord of the Rings books, and Charles Dickens in Bleak House. It is also used by Thackeray in Vanity Fair. or so says Wiki. I never would have gotten this, but for perps.

13. NFL stat: YDS. Yards.

21. Show-what-you-know chances: EXAMS. I started with TESTS, but eventually worked my way out.

22. Machinating: UP TO. Another perfectly common word, used in a tense that was confusing. His machinations are deceptive.

26. Prelate's title: Abbr.: RT REV. we had a nice long discussion of Right Reverent some time ago.

27. Unevenly worn: EROSE. Oh, like the AIT which can disappear in the river.

29. Cross words: SPAT. Oh how very punny!

30. Actors Rogen and Green: SETHS. Both started out as child actors, Rogen in Freaks and Geeks and Green in a million guest parts. Rogen appeared in SUPERBAD which I linked above.

31. Big gun or big cheese: SLANG. Completely fooled me for a while, especially another food clue.

33. Desire and then some: CRAVE. Like my wanting some breakfast pastry NOW!

34. Clinton Treasury secretary: RUBIN. Robert Rubin; do we care? How about now, I will give you a hint, his initials are T G.

35. In one piece: UNSCATHED. I love this word, but I did not make it through this puzzle unscathed.

36. Award with a Sustained Achievement category: OBIE. The off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway Awards; a show that makes it up as it goes along; a product of the Village Voicenewspaper.

40. "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini," for one: OLDIE. An oldie but a goodie.

43. Broad: EPIC. Huh? I have known some wonderful women, but EPIC?

44. Endangered great apes: BONOBOS. Am I the only one who completely missed out this entire species of CHIMPANZEE .J. Fred Muggs, help me!

45. x, at times: UNKNOWN. In all forms of mathematics, a symbol for the unknown.

47. Baseball star who reportedly said, "I think there's a sexiness in infield hits": ICHIRO. Mr. Suzuki, who came to the US after 9 years of professional baseball in Japan, has had at least 200 hits in each of his 10 seasons, a record, and had 262 one year, another record.

50. Caruso, for one: TENOR. Enrico the singer, not David the whiner.

53. A couple: MATES. Why does that word always make me hear in Australian? Kazie?

54. Acrobat developer: ADOBE. Which is an anagram of ABODE. See above.

55. Rachel Maddow's station: MSNBC. I have never watched this NEWSPERSON .

57. Serious lapses: SINS. Now we are talking, that is all it was, a little lapse on my part.

58. Zeno's home: ELEA.Zeno of Elea was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher of southern Italy and a member of the Eleatic School founded by Parmenides. Aristotle called him the inventor of the dialectic. He is best known for his paradoxes. Paradoxically, I have never heard of him either.

59. Dangle: HANG. How they dangling just does not have the same ring to it.

60. Tater __: TOT. Finally, a food gimme for ORE-IDA.

61. __ Simbel, site of Ramses II temples: ABU. Can you believe they moved these TEMPLES to make room for the Asswan Dam?

Answer grid.

This was a difficult puzzle for me, maybe my eyes failing gives me an excuse, but it is mostly stuff I did not know and had to sneak up on, and make logical guesses. I hope you enjoy March.

Lemonade

Thursday October 14, 2010 Matt Matera

Theme: Aye-Aye, Sir - Various ways to answer in the affirmative appear at the starts of the answers to starred clues, with different language bracketed at the end of each clue as a hint. Tip off in the clue for 66A. Parliamentary votes : YEAS.

1A. *Hip-hopper who married Beyoncé (German): JAY-Z. Symmetrically placed with YEAS.

20A. *Old stories (English): YESTERDAY'S NEWS.

28A. *Inferred cosmic substance (Russian): DARK MATTER. Matter that cannot be detected directly, but "must" exist because "something" massive is interacting with the observed gravitational behavior of the matter that can be detected.

44A. *Séance device (French): OUIJA BOARD. Actually, the trademarked name comes from combining two "yes" words, OUI and JA. That makes this answer stand out a bit from the others.

51. *Fatal problem in Genesis (Spanish): SIBLING RIVALRY. Cain v. Abel.

Al here.

A fairly "agreeable" puzzle today, no? A pangram. Kind of slow starting, but once it got going, it filled in faster for me than yesterday's. More than a few obscure names and places make this a Thursday puzzle, though.

ACROSS:

5. Sturdy fabric: DENIM. From French serge de Nîmes, cloth from a town in southern France.

10. Delhi wrap: SARI. Women's wear in India. Also has an alternate of spelling saree. A seemingly infinite variety of styles.

14. Movie apiarist: ULEE. Peter Fonda's character in Ulee's Gold was a beekeeper.

15. Like sandalwood leaves: OVATE.

16. Green Zone site: IRAQ. A heavily fortified central portion of Baghdad that contained several palaces of Saddam Husein. The International Zone. Also a recent movie about the same starring Matt Damon.

17. Gets into: DONS. Puts on clothing.

18. Brewers' kilns: OASTS.

19. Things you saw while out?: LOGS. Sawing logs, slang for snoring.

23. "Paris, je t'__": 2006 film: AIME. (Paris, I love you) a film made up of 18 short stories, and had 22 directors.

24. Charged particle: ION.

25. Nashville awards gp.: CMA. Country Music Awards.

33. Mythological ride: CARPET. Close your eyes, girl, or if you prefer, don't you dare close your eyes.

35. Derisive cry: YAH. If you say so, I guess.

36. Pivotal part: CRUX. Latin for "cross".

38. Bug, perhaps: ERROR. Latin errare, wander, go astray.

39. Hottie: FOX. Obligatory pic. Just don't google images for her with the word "thumbs"...

40. Easternmost state: MAINE. Ayuh is another way to say yes.

41. "Don't touch that __!": DIAL.

42. Body art, in slang: TAT. Tattoo.

43. High-speed raptor: FALCON. Raptor (Latin) and rapid are related words. To call a raptor high-speed is sort of redundant.

47. Former World No. 1 tennis player Ivanovic: ANA. What is it that draws attractive women to tennis?

48. With 6-Down, one in fear of an audit: TAX. and 6. See 48-Across: EVADER.

49. "Dagnabit!": RATS. Charlie Brown's second-favorite interjection, especially at Halloween. "Rats, another rock."

58. Colombia neighbor: PERU.

59. Funnel-shaped: CONED.

60. Architect Mies van der __: ROHE. Father of "modern" architecture. i.e. big square buildings with lots of glass. Also tubular steel furniture.

61. Animal shelter: LAIR. Related to "lie", as in lie down.

62. Gather: AMASS.

63. Intuited: KNEW. Not quite the same? My sense of the word is to perceive or guess immediately without thinking, but without knowing beforehand. Maybe I'm wrong.

64. About: OR SO.

65. Greet respectfully: BOW TO.

DOWN:

1. Kids' author Blume: JUDY.

2. Succulent plant: ALOE.

3. Dieters may fight them: YENS.

4. Keebler cracker: ZESTA. Saltines competition.

5. Pushover: DOORMAT.

7. Org. with rovers: NASA. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Rover as a remote exploration vehicle, not a dog. SPCA for first thoughts anyone?

8. __-bitty: ITTY.

9. Handel bars?: MESSIAH. Cute musical pun, bars of music, Handle's Messiah. (famously, the Hallelujah chorus)

10. '20s White House nickname: SILENT CAL. Coolidge. 30th president. A possibly apocryphal story has it that Dorothy Parker, seated next to him at a dinner, said to him, "Mr. Coolidge, I've made a bet against a fellow who said it was impossible to get more than two words out of you." His famous reply: "You lose."

11. ... ducks in __: A ROW. Explanations from decorative plaster ducks on the mantle in the 70's, to shooting galleries, are everywhere, but the likely origin is much simpler, think of the image of a mother duck leading her ducklings across a pond, which could have been observed ever since there were ducks.

12. Poverty, in metaphor: RAGS. From rags to riches.

13. Brightness nos.: IQS. I wanted something to do with lumens, or other light sources.

21. Down source: EIDER. Harvested from nests after the ducklings mature and leave it.

22. "Kidding!": NOT! Popularized by Wayne's World skits and movies (from SNL).

25. Included in the e-mail chain: CCED. Carbon Copied, a holdover from business snail mail. You can still buy carbon paper, but why?

26. Video game plumber: MARIO. Nintendo's go-to guy has appeared in over 200 games since 1981 where he was "jumpman" in the Donkey Kong arcade game.

27. Pianist Claudio: ARRAU. From Chile, which also neighbors 58A. Peru. Moonlight Sonata.

29. Honshu city: KYOTO. The Koyoto Protocol on greenhouse gas emission reduction (the US has refused to participate) was first adopted there. And 45D. Airline to 29-Down: JAL.

30. Top limit: MAX.

31. Actress Durance who plays Lois on "Smallville": ERICA. On the one hand it wasn't clued with (Erica) Jong. On the other, hand, if you're not into comic book heroes made into TV shows, you're unlikely to have heard of her. This year is the last season for Smallville, which has been somewhat more soapy than super. We don't know yet if Ms. Durance has a fear of flying yet, as the red and blue blur has not figured out how to do it yet in this alternate Superman story line.

32. Bad sentence: RUN ON.

34. Former Kremlin policymaker: POLITBURO.

37. TV princess: XENA. Lucy Lawless.

39. Terrif: FAB.

40. Former sketch comedy that used Don Martin cartoons: MAD TV.

42. Hailed ride: TAXICAB.

43. "I wish 'twere otherwise": 'FRAID SO.

46. Slap the cuffs on: ARREST.

50. Like a biting remark, in British slang: SARKY. Sarcastic.

51. Burn slightly: SEAR.

52. Novelist Murdoch: IRIS. Apparently one of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945. Sorry to say her work is completely unknown to me.

53. Pitcher Hideo: NOMO. First Japanese major leaguer to relocate to US MLB (Dodgers).

54. Chew: GNAW. Sort of an onomatopoetic word.

55. Unaccompanied: LONE. Had SOLO at first.

56. Flightless bird: RHEA. Finally. Something other than EMU. Not new to crosswords, though.

57. Trees used to make longbows: YEWS. Foliage is poisonous, especially to horses. Rare to poison humans, unless you're like Euell Gibbons and eat everything in the forest. (Actually, that's not true. Euell died of a complications due to a genetic disorder, not from eating pine trees.)

58. Abbas's gp.: PLO. Palestine Liberation Organization. Mahmoud Abbas succeeded Yasser Arafat.

Answer Grid.

Al