Wednesday May 6, 2009 Mike Peluso

Theme: GALLERY (43D: Anagram of 54-Across's ending that can follow the first word of 20-, 30-, 40-, and 54-Across)

20A: "Kids Say the Darndest Things!" author: ART LINKLETTER

33A: Congressional bone of contention: NATIONAL DEBT

40A: Decide to prosecute: PRESS CHARGES

54A: Food reaction shared by about 3 million Americans: PEANUT ALLERGY

Does NATIONAL GALLERY refer to National Gallery of Art? I did not know that the place occupied by those press corps is called PRESS GALLERY. Always thought it's just press room or press briefing room. Wikipedia says US Senate established its first PRESS GALLERY in 1841. And the White House did not designate a press room until 1902.

PEANUT ALLERGY is a very creative theme entry, with the anagram ending and a word that can precede GALLERY. Peanut is actually not a nut. It belongs to the legume family. I vaguely remember a teenager died after kissing her boyfriend who had been eating peanut butter. Milk, egg and wheat can be life-threatening to some. Many don't tolerate soy/fish/shellfish and other tree nuts. Those eight food account for about 90% of all food allergies.

Once I had a tuna sandwich and I reacted severely. The doctor could not tell whether it's the tuna or wheat that caused my problem.

Smooth sailing this morning. I think I like puzzles with a simple 4 theme entries. Dan Naddor's heavy themage puzzles are awe-inspiring. But they overwhelm me. I guess they are for advanced solvers. This constructor Mike Peluso seems to be fond of word preceding/following theme pattern. Remember his last CAPE grid?

Across:

1A: Underworld VIPS: DONS. I was thinking of Hades' underworld, not the criminal mafia's underworld. I like how it crosses OMERTA (2D: Last book in Puzo's "Godfather" trilogy). The trilogy consists of "The Godfather", "The Last Don" and "OMERTA" (published after he died.) OMERTA, of course, is also the Mafia code of silence. I also like Puzo's "The Sicilian". So good. It's regarded by some as the literary sequel of "The Godfather".

5A: Bench warms: B TEAM

14A: Radiate: EMIT. Thought of BEAM first.

15A: Emmy winner on her 19th try: LUCCI (Susan). She looks very pretty. Beautiful skin. She said she snacks on sardine, which is rich in omega-3 fatty acids. I don't buy her secret though. I tried, it did not work on me.

16A: Guadalajara bread: PESO. Bread is slang for money. I don't think it can fool anyone any more.

17A: City on the Truckee: RENO. I kind of like the "Splitville" clue in our puzzle last time.

23A: "In my opinion...": I THINK. Descartes actually wrote "Je pense donc je suis" before he stated the Latin "cogito ergo sum".

24A: Raise canines?: TEETHE. I was trapped by "canines" again.

28A: Well-bred: GENTEEL. Like Jackie. She did not think "there are any men who are faithful to their wives". I bet every man has been unfaithful to their wife at some time. No? Have you always been faithful to your wife?

32A: Pirate's quaff: RUM. Oh, is it pirate's preferred drink? Not ALE?

38A: Clock-setting std.: GMT (Greenwich Mean Time).

39A: Tracy's Trueheart: TESS. Learned from doing Xword. I like her surname Trueheart, I also like Ada Lovelace.

46A: Uncomfortable spot: HOT SEAT. Aren't you glad you are not A-Rod right now?

49A: Busy pro in April: CPA. I think Doug Peterson is a CPA.

50A: "Boston Legal" actor: SPADER (James). I like him in "The Pentagon Papers".

52A: Atoll encloser: LAGOON. Wikipedia says the word atoll was popularized by Charles Darwin.

58A: Phoenix suburb: MESA. Did you know MESA was founded by Mormon pioneers?

60A: Suffix with hippo-: DROME. Hippodrome is a new word to me. Hippo is from Greek, meaning "horse", like Latin prefix "equi" I suppose. DROME is a combining form meaning “running,” “course,” “racecourse”, says Dictionary.com.

61A: Mower-making giant: TORO. It's based here in MN.

63A: Western: OATER. Occident popped into my mind immediately.

64A: Shortly: ANON. Archaic word, right?

Down:

1D: Foil, as a plan: DERAIL

3D: Jazzy intervals: NINTHS. New definition to me. I only knew the baseball NINTH inning.

4D: Popular vodka, familiarly: STOLI. I've never had STOLI, have you? How about some CORONA (47D: Beer served with a lime)?

5D: Pancake, when holding a sausage: BLANKET. Pig in a BLANKET. Learned this food from Dr. Dad a year ago. This is Cantonese style. The sausage is sweet, so is the bun.

6D: Plastic surgery procedure: TUCK. The answer revealed itself. I've never heard of tummy TUCK or any other TUCK surgery.

7D: Green sci.: ECOL (Ecology)

9D: Herbal beverage: MINT TEA

10D: Binge: SPREE

11D: Partridge's home: PEAR TREE. My husband writes "The Twelve Day of Christmas" for his bowling column every year. I've never been amused. I don't know. Many times I don't understand the fun.

13D: Barber's challenge: MOP. No idea. Why challenge? Hard to cut?

25D: O'Hare and JFK: HUBS

26D: Initial response team, initially : EMTS. Needs "briefly" as hint. (Note: My bad. I did not notice "initially" earlier).

29D: When bats fly: NIGHT. I always want to add a prepositon (at) to this kind of fill.

30D: Inquisitor __ de Torquemada: TOMAS. No idea. Wikipedia says this guy spearheaded the Spanish Inquisition. TOMAS is Spanish for Thomas, right?

31D: __nous: ENTRE. "Between us". Debra Ollivier titled her book as ENTRE nous. Quite interesting read.

33D: Bahamas airport code: NAS. No idea. Maybe the rapper NAS knows. It's the code name for Nassau Interntional Airport.

34D: Sot's shake: DTS. DT is Delirium Tremens.

35D: Bldg. units: APTS

36D: Golf lesson subject: GRIP. Just had STANCE the other day. What next? Posture? Here are some simple tips on GRIP. It's actually not that easy to have a light grip pressure.

37D: Gets worse after getting better: RELAPSES

41D: Old Mets home: SHEA. Mets are now playing at Citi Field now. What's the name of that bridge on their logo? Here is my favorite METS player (Johan Santana).

42D: Deep-fried frank: CORN DOG. Have never had a CORN DOG before.

44D: List ender: ET AL

48D: "Fiddler on the Roof" fear: POGROM. I like "Fiddler on the Roof" a lot.

49D: Memorable repeated question by the economics teacher (played by Ben Stein" in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off"): ANYONE. All right, forward to 0:48. Probably the longest clue I've ever seen in a LAT puzzle so far. I like it.

51D: Meted (out): DEALT

53D: Insinuate: GET AT. New phrase to me.

55D: River to the Caspian: URAL. See this map. The one on the right is the shrinking Aral Sea.

56D: Dorothy's dog: TOTO. Surprising. "The Wizard of Oz" is listed as #3 Top Musicals in Ameria.

57D: NAFTA part: Abbr.: AMER

59D: Outer: Pref.: EXO. "Inner: prefix" is ENTO.

Answer grid.

C.C.

Wednesday April 22, 2009 Mike Peluso

Theme: CAPE (66A: Action hero's garb, and what each first word in this puzzle's four longest answers is.)

20A: Cornucopia: HORN OF PLENTY

34A: Supplement that some claim eases arthritis: COD LIVER OIL

43A: Texas governor before George W. Bush: ANN RICHARDS

56A: 1973 Erica Jong novel: FEAR OF FLYING

I used to confuse CAPE HORN with CAPE of Good Hope, which is in the southern tip of Africa. Learned CAPE COD from reading various JFK biographies. Saw CAPE ANN in a puzzle before. CAPE Fear (bottom) is new to me. It's on the coast of North Carolina, jutting into the Atlantic Ocean. Why Fear? Prone to shipwrecks?

Easy solving this morning. This puzzle makes me feel smart. All of the theme entries were gimmes to me. COD LIVER OIL has concentrated amount of Omega-3 fatty acids. Good for arthris, good for heart too. ANN RICHARDS once described President Bush as "born with a silver foot in his mouth".

Here is a list of Clever Clues of the Month from Crosswordese.com. You can also click here for the complete list of Word of Day. They are in alphabetical order. Every one of them has a great picture and lots of other interesting information. Send Paul an email if you want his free word-of-the day delivery. Today his word is ORT (70A: Morsel).

Across:

1A: Aquanaut's workplace: SEALAB. First time I met aquanaut. Whom does he work for? US Navy?

7A: Arabic for "son of": IBN. Like the former Saudi king IBN Saud. Same as the Scottish Mac. BIN is also "son of", right? Like Osama BIN Laden.

10A: Software prototype: BETA. Alpha is for the internal software testers.

14A: "1984" author: ORWELL. Just realized this morning that George ORWELL is his penname. His real name is Eric Arther Blair. Do you know what Cary Grant's real surname is? Leach! Archibald Alec Leach.

16A: Campground arrival, briefly: RVER. Many PGA golfers travel in RV. I've never seen them called as RVer though.

17A: Pleasure dome site of verse: XANADU. From Coleridge's poem "Kublai Khan". Xanadu is a very exotic way to spell Shangdu, the summer palace of Kublain Khan. It's located in current Inner Mongolia in north China. China has the shape of a rooster. Our administrative division is called PROV (47A: Ont. or Que.) too.

18A: Most energetic: PEPPIEST. And LOOSER (23D: Not as tight). I bet we won't see more than two Er, est suffixes in a Rich Norris puzzle.

25A: Via: BY WAY OF

29A: Poivre partner: SEL. French for salt. Poivre is French for pepper.

38A: "Bali __": HAI. Here is the clip. Bloody Mary sang it to Lieutenant Cable to lure him to into Bali HAI to become her son-in-law. Her daughter Liat is very pretty.

39A: Italian cheese: ASIAGO. Named after the Italian region where the cheese originated.

40A: Tender poultry: CAPONS. I don't think I've had CAPON before. Sounds cruel to castrate chickens just for their meat.

42A: Stereotypical pirate leg: PEG. I suppose this refers to Long John Silver of "Treasure Island".

50A: Former big name on "The View": ROSIE (O'Donnell). She is too much for me. I only like her in "Sleepless in Seattle".

55A: Mag. employees: EDS. I think Anna Wintour is the coolest editor of any magazine.

61A: Crooner Julio: IGLESIAS. Father of Enrique IGLESIAS, who is married to Anna Kournikova.

62A: What pupils do in the dark: DILATE

67A: Lunes, por ejemplo: DIA. Lunes is Spanish for Monday. French Monday is lundi.

69A: Prolific autho.?: ANON. Yes, indeed. I like this clue.

71A: Grand Prix site: LE MANS. Learned where LE MANS is last time when MLLES was clued as "Le Mans lasses". Quite close to Paris.

Down:

1D: White __: SOX. And ERA (2D: Pitching stat). I like how they parallel.

3D: Barley bristle: AWN

4D: Sister of Rachel: LEAH. Both are Jacob's wives. LABAN was often clued as "Father of Leah and Rachel" in our old puzzle.

6D: Book jacket promo: BLURB. Crossword sub-title is also called a BLURB. Right, Fred?

7D: Running the country: IN POWER

8D: Hybrid meat: BEEFALO. Beef & buffalo. Also called cattalo (cattle & buffalo). Completely new to me.

9D: Dover diaper: NAPPY. The answer reviewed itself. I don't know British call diaper as NAPPY. The constructor picked up the seaport Dover for alliteration purpose.

10D: Boxer's alternatives: BRIEFS

21D: Org. at 11 Wall St.: NYSE. Oh well, what else could it be?

22D: Daisy Mae's creator: AL CAPP

24D: Spectrum color: INDIGO. Reminds me of the INDIGO Girls. They love crossword also. You should see "Wordplay" if you have not.

27D: She, in Lisbon: ELA. Ha ha, no more "Guido's high note" any more.

28D: Latvian capital: RIGA. The Latvian chess master Mikhail TAL is called "The Magician from RIGA".

31D: First words of the "Mr. Ed" theme: A HORSE. Anther easy guess. I've never seen "Mr. Ed".

32D: "___ Camera": CANDID

35D: From, in German names: VON. Same as French de and Italian da. How about Greta VAN Susteren? Hers is VAN.

36D: Former transp. regulator: ICC (Interstate Commerce Commission). 1887-1996. Learned from doing Xword.

37D: Cowardly lion portrayer: LAHR. Just found out this morning that Bert LAHR's original name is Irving Lahrheim.

45D: Lays into: RAILS AT. "Lay into" is a new phrase to me.

48D: "Pippin" Tony winner Ben: VEREEN. He looks awfully familiar. I must have googled him before.

53D: "Don't mind __": IF I DO. I got the answer. Have no idea what it means. Sounds self-conflictory.

56D: Pay stub abbr.: FICA

57: Alaska's first governor: EGAN. Gimme. Learned this fact long time ago. William Allen Egan was the first (1959 to 1966) and 4th governor (1970-1974) of Alaska.

58D: Brand for Fido: ALPO

60D: Get hold of, with "onto": GLOM. The past tense is GLOMMED. A new word I learned from T. Frank.

63D: Altar in the sky: ARA. See this diagram. ARA is Latin for Altar.

64D: Former Opry network: TNN. Another easy guess. Wikipedia says TNN changed into Spike in 2003. Owned by Viacom.

65D: Alpine curve: ESS. Not much wordplay today.

Answer grid.

C.C.