Tuesday, September 6, 2011 Peter Koetters

Theme: Swine Fever - The first word of the starred clue answers can follow(tail) the word PIG to form a common phrase.

18A. *Typical Valentino roles : LATIN LOVERS. An actor in silent films in the '20s, Rudolph Valentino (Image) became a sex symbol known as the "Latin Lover". His sudden death at age 31 caused mass hysteria among his female fans, propelling him into icon status. PIG LATIN - ig-pay atin-lay.

59A. *Cold War symbol : IRON CURTAIN. As a it related to the Cold War, the term became famous from Winston Churchill's speech in Fulton, Missouri, March 5, 1946. The concept of the phrase goes back much further. "Even an iron barrier cannot separate [the people of] Israel from their heavenly father".- Babylonian Talmud. PIG IRON - The intermediate product of smelting iron ore and shipped in this form for remelting and refining later. Wiki article.

3D. *Quaint means of communication? : PEN AND PAPER. PIGPEN.

5D. *Was in charge of : HEADED UP. PIG HEADED - Stupidly stubborn. (From the notion that pigs are immovable and seemingly stubborn.)

26D. *To whom "Howdy, stranger" is often said : OUT OF TOWNER. PIG OUT - To overeat; to overindulge in food or drink.

40D. Girlish hairstyle (and what the starts of the answers to starred clues are?) : PIGTAILS. "Who you calling 'girlish'?", Willie.

Argyle here. I have trouble with the unifier because it usually is all one word and to work here, it should be two words, IMO. Some clunky clues but enough cute ones to make up for it. A strong lay-out, a decent Tuesday.

Across:

1. Tuck's partner : NIP. From cosmetic surgery.

4. Carpet type : SHAG

8. Summer brew : ICE TEA

14. Stuff to be smelted : ORE

15. Grape grower's prefix : OENO

16. "It's unnecessary" : "NO NEED"

17. Word with marked or masked : MAN

20. Declared : STATED

22. Itch scratchers : NAILS

23. Full sets of chromosomes : GENOMEs. A genome is the entirety of an organism's hereditary information.

25. Potpie piece from a pod : PEA

26. Western treaty gp. : OAS. The Organization of American States is the world’s oldest regional organization, dating back to the First International Conference of American States, held in Washington, D.C., from October 1889 to April 1890. Their site.

29. It's up when you're angry : DANDER. It has little to do with dandruff but probably from Spanish, redundar "to overflow". American English,(1831) "temper," originally (W.Indies) "fermentation of sugar."

31. Safe and sound : UNHURT

33. Race circuits : LAPS

35. __ Mountains: Eurasian border range : URAL

37. Mozart's "Cosi fan __" : TUTTE. Clip.(3:04)

38. Med school subj. : ANAT.

39. Cheesecake on a wall : PIN-UP

41. Crane component : BOOM

42. Conveyed, as water through a main : PIPED

44. Centers of attention : FOCI

45. Corp. money VIPs : CFOs. Chief Financial Officer.

46. Audiophile's setup : STEREO

48. Bothers persistently : NAGS AT

50. Musical ability : EAR

51. English channel, briefly : BBC. The Beeb or Auntie Beeb.

53. Swing by for a visit : STOP OFF

56. Former CBS News anchor Couric : KATIE

58. Response : ANSWER

63. Org. for piece lovers? : NRA. National Rifle Association, 'piece' is a fire arm.

64. Poses (for) : MODELS

65. Wheel attachment : AXLE. Or, more commonly, an AXLE attachment is a wheel. In any case, they're attached.

66. Aussie runner : EMU

67. Pint-size : PEE-WEE

68. For fear that : LEST

69. Free (of) : RID

Down:

1. Chinese menu assurance : NO MSG

2. Hopping mad : IRATE

4. Like vows : SOLEMN

6. Picnic crasher : ANT

7. Enter : GO IN

8. Taking the place (of) : IN LIEU

9. Car radiator need : COOLANT

10. They may be self-sealing: Abbr. : ENVs. Envelope.

11. Kickoff aid : TEE

12. Suffix with musket : EER

13. Spots on TV : ADS

19. Cat's pause? : NAP

21. Place for Pop-Tarts : TOASTER

24. Letter flourish : SERIF

27. Threepio's buddy : AR-TOO

28. What keeps bloomers up? : STEMS

30. Talked a blue streak : RAN ON

32. Wheel covers : HUBCAPS. How to spot a police car; they have hubcaps in lieu of wheel covers. The spot light is a give-away, too. Image

33. Run out, as a subscription : LAPSE

34. Santa __ racetrack : ANITA. Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif.

36. "Star Wars" mastermind : LUCAS. George Lucas.

43. Fiasco : DEBACLE

47. More than right, in triangles : OBTUSE. Less than a right angle, acute.

49. Shakespearean verse : SONNET

52. Columbus in N.Y.C. or DuPont in D.C. : CIRcle. The DuPont. The Columbus.

54. Nuclear pioneer Enrico : FERMI

55. Hoax : FRAUD

56. Was aware : KNEW

57. List-ending abbr. : ET AL.

59. Little devil : IMP

60. Microsturgeons? : ROE. Gets my vote for the cutest of the cute clues.

61. Poem of praise : ODE

62. Logger's tool : AXE

Answer grid.

Argyle

Friday, May 6, 2011, Peter Koetters

Theme: Double ZZs top double DDs - DD in the first part of well-known phrases are changed into ZZs. A somewhat new fun way to do a "replace the letter" puddle, I mean puzzle. We do not need any pics of double ZZs, do we?

More specifically:

17A. Moving like a dog in a narrow tube?: MUZZLING THROUGH. MUDDLING THROUGH, is where you plod along.

27A. Dud sparklers?: FIZZLE STICKS. FIDDLE STICKS probably originated from the violin playing in the street, which did not include high class music. It is why we have fiddling around.

41A. One solving several crosswords simultaneously?: PUZZLE JUMPER. PUDDLE JUMPER is an expression for a plane which goes on a short flight.

50A. Brilliant bees?: BUZZING GENIUSES. BUDDING GENIUSES, is used to describe young people who show extreme potential early in life.

Hi everyone, lemonade back with another new constructor, who has given us a puzzle with a little bit of everything, puns, tricks, obscurities, music and more.

So let's see what Peter picked....

ACROSS:

1. Make sound: HEAL. Boom we start with trickery, sound not being related to noise, but to hale and hearty. Nice.

5. Fictional elephant: BABAR. Aww, and I get my favorite elephant again this week; read the books to your grandkids.

10. Pine: ACHE. Deception number two, not a tree, but pining away, extra nice.

14. Capital at the foot of Mount Entoto: ADDIS ABABA. We have often discussed this Ethiopian CAPITAL at the base of Mount Entoto, which is not to be confused with the dog, or the BAND which did have a song about Africa.

16. Gambler's marker: CHIT. The sophisticated IOU.

19. Spots on cartes: ILES. Okay Jeannie, we get our French lesson today- cartes= maps and iles=islands.

20. Straight opening?: ORTHO. My favorite clue, because it is a double cross, unlike all of our other opening clue, which means you are to create a word beginning with the clue, this is the literal definition of Ortho, which is a prefix meaning STRAIGHT, like ORTHODONIST, tooth straightener.

21. Kennel worker: GROOMER. Well, you hope they keep the big sweeties groomed.

25. Greek sphinx, from the neck down: LIONESS. This is as opposed to the Egyptian Spinx, which is masculine and nice, the Greek being feminine and nasty. If you want more information you can read this LINK.

29. Good for growing, as soil: LOAMY. Nice black dirt, unlike the sand we have in Florida.

30. Traps: WEBS. Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.

31. Pick up: GET. When you are the store, I need some milk.

34. Razor brand: ATRA. There you go, last week's AFTA has morphed into the razor, everyone happy?

35. Contempt: ODIUM. A simple Latin word meaning hate.

37. Stadium level: LOGE. We have had this recently; just think sky boxes at the ball park.

38. Sigh relative: TSK. Oh goody, our word of the week, with yet a different slant.

39. Othello, for one: MOOR. Speaking of deceit, poor moor.

40. Wonder Woman weapon: TIARA. She had her lasso, her wrist bands and her invisible plane.

44. Anniversary gala: JUBILEE.

47. Häagen-Dazs array: SORBETS. Of course this is accurate, but not my first thought; by now I assume everyone knows this company was from Brooklyn and used the fancy foreign name to justify their higher prices.

48. Words after take or save: A SEAT. back to the ball park, go marlins.

49. Z-zebra link: AS IN. Z as in Zebra.

57. Performer of many Dylan songs: BAEZ. I have seen her perform at Woodstock, in Lennox Mass., many times, and always loved her VOICE

58. San Diego Zoo attraction: GIANT PANDA.

59. __ breve: ALLA, means all brief or quick in Italian (like our word brevity), and in musical notation I believe means a faster tempo, but I will defer to JzB to give you the full scoop on this one.

60. Folklore threats: OGRES. They get such a bad rep, but Shrek is a pussycat, sort of.

61. Not at all bleak: ROSY. Just like this puzzle, not at all bleak, but rather fun so far, no big holes.

Okay on to part two!

DOWN:

1. It may be glazed: HAM. Or my eyes after doing the blog.

2. URL ending: EDU.

3. Woodworking tool: ADZ. This is the second puzzle which I blogged with lots of ZZZZZs.

4. Songwriter Phair: LIZ. One of many female singers who started about the same time, but I do not think she ever sang at the Lilith FAIR

5. One holding property in trust: BAILEE. Out token legal term, used for the hat check girl, the parking attendant and the pawn shop

6. Li'l __: old-themed restaurant: ABNERS. Never heard of this chain.

7. Traveling companions?: BAGS. Nice misdirection here as well, and those of you with mothers in law, be nice it is Mother's Day Sunday.

8. NYC dance co.: ABT. AMERICAN BALLET THEATER . Where they teach dancers to 28D. Pirouette: TWIRL.

9. Word of support: RAH. Rah rah sis boom bah. Rah Rah ree, kick em in the knee, Rah Rah rass, kick em in the other knee.

10. Cache crop?: ACORNS. Nice cash/cache sound alike.

11. Laundry conveyor: CHUTE. I have never had a laundry chute, only garbage ones.

12. Good times: HIGHS. Well, what a controversial clue, I mean admittedly lots of people smoke pot, but...oh he just means emotional highs. Never mind.

13. Group values: ETHOS. A bit more Greek today.

15. By a narrow margin: SLIMLY. A bit of a stretch as a word, but I guess better than nonely.

18. Rank and file movers: ROOKS. A nice chess clue, describing the movement of the piece.

21. Key of Schubert's Impromptu Op. 90, No. 3: G FLAT. If it has five letters it will be something flat, then wait and see the perp.

22. Popular party people: RIOTS. Oh man get a couple of drinks in him, and he is a riot!

23. Arkansas's ___ National Forest: OZARK.

24. Baum princess: OZMA. Many of you may not know how many books Mr. Baum wrote about OZ, and all of the characters not in the movie, but they even have their own wiki sight where you can learn. PS welcome back KAZIE.

25. Stead: LIEU. These days in my world, this attached DEED IN....

26. Warhead vehicle, briefly: ICBM. InterContinentalBallisticMissile.

31. Blow one's top: GO APE. I seldom see this without a third word modifier.

32. Coastal wader: EGRET. They love Florida.

33. They may signify joy: TEARS. But not when you have to sign the DEED IN LIEU.

35. Exude: OOZE. Seems like it fits with this puzzle, which is oozing zzzz.

36. Nap: DOZE. Hopefully no one is sleeping through my efforts.

37. Branch: LIMB.

39. Media lead-in: MULTI. See, there is the standard cluing for an opening or lead-in.

40. Source of some greens: TURNIP. For Thelma and the other Southern Belles who cook with Turnip Greens.

41. Italian square: PIAZZA. Not to be confused with the ex-Met Mike, who was Italian, but fairly hip, though the bleach blond look was not a good move.

42. Ascetic of yore: ESSENE. A biblical reference, appropriate for this season.

43. Articulations: JOINTS. More confusion, and the less common use of articulation, not words, but separations.

44. Sluglike alien strangled by Leia: JABBA. Yes, she was ANGRY

45. Standard: USUAL.

46. Chisel's edge: BEZEL. Sounds so much like Bevel and they are related.

49. Bacteriologist's supply: AGAR. For their Petri dishes.

51. IHOP '__: takeout food program: N'GO. Well I already told my IHOP wrestling story, so it is up to you to comment, though if only this had been worked into the ROO puzzle....

52. Short job: GIG. Devin's band played a GIG at Uncle Lou's; he did not want me to go, because the place was a little sketchy, Great to be a dad.

53. Syr. seceded from it in 1961: UAR. United Arab Republic; not much on being united.

54. __-cone: SNO. Don't eat the yellow ones.

55. Money VIPs: EDS. Cannot fool me twice, the magazines editors! Ha!

56. Mention: SAY. Say good night Gracie. Good night Gracie.

Answer grid.

Lemonade