Thursday, October 18, 2012 Rich Mausser

Theme: Going in circles.

Extremely elegant puzzle, but I wonder how many will catch on to the nuances here?

18. Congregational divide : CHURCH AISLE.

24. "Inside the NBA" analyst Barkley, familiarly : SIR CHARLES.

40. Fix-it guide : REPAIR CHECKLIST.

52. Wooly garment : MOHAIR COAT.

And the unifier:

63. Office purchase, and in a way, what can be seen in this puzzle's sequence of circles : SWIVEL CHAIR.

At first, I thought it was just anagrams of the word CHAIR.  "Ah, but look closer Grasshopper, and you will see that the 'chair' swivels one letter at a time":

r - chai

ir - cha

air - ch

hair - c

And did I mention? It is a pangram, to boot! Fantastic execution! And very timely, because I am in the process of re-doing my office, complete with new office chairs...

Marti here, to look at the rest of the entries with you.

Across:

1. Browns' org. : NFL. National Football League. Or "Cle," on scoreboards.

4. Twine material : SISAL

9. Come-ons : LURES

14. SS supplement, for some : IRA. Individual Retirement Account.

15. Golfer who was #1 when she retired in 2010 : OCHOA . Mexican-born Lorena OCHOA Reyes, who was the top women's golfer from 2007-2010. She won her first state event at the age of five! (How's that make you feel, HG?)

16. Missouri's ___ Mountains : OZARK . Map.

17. TUMS target : GAS . I wanted "acid," but it wouldn't fit.

20. Modern address starter : HTTP . Hypertext transfer protocol. Who comes up with these names, anyway?

22. Spirited mount : STEED

23. Do a hatchet job : HEW

28. Burning rubber sound : SQUEAL

30. Decorous : PROPER

34. Green hole : CUP . The hole on the green that OCHOA hits more often, with less strokes, than I!

35. Wings it, musically : VAMPS . Trust me, I read more about VAMP than I ever care to remember while looking this one up. So let's just go to an example. 4:21

39. Heavenly bear : URSA. Major or minor?

44. Like many eBay items : USED

45. Tuscany city : SIENA. Another map.

46. Hum attachment? : VEE . This vehicle.

47. Fable messages : MORALS

50. Manually : BY HAND

56. He voiced Elmer : MEL. Blanc. The man of a thousand voices.

59. Sweethearts maker : NECCO . New England Confectionery Company.

60. Leap in a tutu : JETE

67. Fish lacking pelvic fins : EEL. It does, however, have a dorsal fin.

68. Aptly named bug spray : REPEL. Never heard of the brand, so this was a WAG.

69. New product div. : R AND D. Research and Development. Also abbreviated R&D, RND or simply R-D.

70. Holiday tuber : YAM. It's getting to be that time of year.

71. Surrogate : PROXY . This evening, we spotted a small kitten in our yard that had a collar. It ran right up to us and mewled loudly.  Unfortunately, there was no ID tag on the collar, so we took her in, gave her food & water, a litter box, and a pillow for a bed out in the Florida room.  I put up posters with her picture throughout the neighborhood. But I think I have become her surrogate mother. Tomorrow I will call the animal control officer and the local pet shelter to see if anyone has reported a missing cat. Anyone have any other ideas of how I can find her owners?

72. Out of port : AT SEA

73. "Strange Magic" rock gp. : ELO . Electric Light Orchestra.  Here it is. 4:24

Down:

1. Soon to happen : NIGH

2. Its name usually has only two or three letters : FRAT . Alpha Tau Omega, or Delta Phi, for example. Not to be confused with 37 Down. Part of PBK : PHI . Phi Beta Kappa, the honor society.

3. DaVinci masterpiece, with "The" : LAST SUPPER. I used to take my lunch and sit on the bench in front of it when I worked in Milan.

4. Humanities maj. : SOC. Sociology.

5. Einstein's "I" : ICH . German.

6. Complaint about a library volume? : SHUSH . Fun clue. I was thinking in terms of books as volumes, not sound.

7. Primary artery : AORTA

8. One working on a punch, perhaps : LACER . Well I guess if you have to include a word like "lacer", then at least the clue can be fun! It refers to the one with the pint of vodka, spiking the punch at the senior prom.  Sound like anyone you know??

9. Dump truck adjunct : LOADER .  Or the one who gets 11 Down?

10. Israeli arms expert ___ Gal : UZI . Israel...arms...has to be UZI, right?

11. Diaper woe : RASH .

12. Gardner who invented cases : ERLE . We know him from his "Perry Mason" series.

13. Depict unfairly : SKEW . Did I ever tell you about the course I took in college, called "Lying With Statistics"? It gave me a permanently skeptical view of anything published with graphs...

19. Common menu option : HELP

21. À la mode serving : PIE

25. Sitarist Shankar : RAVI

26. Woodwind instr. : CLAR. inet.  I totally missed the abbr. of "instr." and automatically filled in "oboe" at first.

27. Franklin's genre : SOUL. Aretha, not Benjamin!

28. Rugby tussle : SCRUM . Don't ask me how I knew this, but it filled automatically.

29. Mexican cheese : QUESO

31. Magnum, for one : PRIVATE EYE . '80's TV show called "Magnum, P.I."

32. Krupp Works city : ESSEN. Not to be confused with the coffeemaker family "Krups."

33. Did Ebert's job : RATED . Formerly partnered with Siskal, in a show where they reviewed movies and gave them either a thumbs up or a thumbs down. "Two Thumbs Up" would indicate a real "must-see."

36. Roast hosts, for short : MCS . Master of Ceremony(s). Masters of Ceremony. Master of Ceremonies. Let's just go with "emcees," OK?

38. Understand : SEE. See?

41. First family member? : ADAM . (Because Barack, Michelle, Malia or Sasha wouldn't fit.)

42. "Mad Money" channel : CNBC . Never saw it. Know it from crosswords.

43. Put on the canvas : KAYO. K-O, or "knock-out," in boxing.

48. Desolate : LONELY.

49. Poet Silverstein : SHEL. "Uncle Shelby" to his fans. I miss ClearAyes, so here's one of his poems in her memory.

There is a place where the sidewalk ends

And before the street begins,

And there the grass grows soft and white,

And there the sun burns crimson bright,

And there the moon-bird rests from his flight

To cool in the peppermint wind.

Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black

And the dark street winds and bends.

Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow

We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,

And watch where the chalk-white arrows go

To the place where the sidewalk ends.

Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,

And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,

For the children, they mark, and the children, they know

The place where the sidewalk ends.

51. Pilgrimage to Mecca : HAJ

53. Ghana's capital : ACCRA. Another map.

54. Apple messaging tool : iCHAT

55. Horses with interspersed colored and white hairs : ROANS.

56. Amt. you don't expect to pay : MSRP. Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price.

57. Wide-mouthed pourer : EWER.

58. Slimming choice, briefly : LIPO . I'll go with Windhover's method, thank you.

61. Marsh duck : TEAL . Lovely!

62. Sailor's patron : ELMO . "St. Elmo's Fire" is a weather phenomenon in highly charged atmospheres. It would appear as a luminous glow on the ends of the ship's masts, and was regarded by sailors with religious awe.

64. Plague : VEX

65. Ending with fluor- : IDE

66. Nutritional stat : RDA . Recommended Dietary Allowance replaced the older term "Recommended Daily Allowance."

That's all for now. 'Til next week!

Hugs,

Marti

Late addition: Anyone know whose cat this is?

Thursday, February 23, 2012 Rich Mausser

Theme: Travelocity.   Car makers' brands are combined into fun vacation trips. Let's see what they are...

16A. Joint Chevrolet/Kia vacation package? : VENTURE TO SEDONA. Well, I would VENTURE to say, that a trip to SEDONA, AZ would be a relaxing vacation.

23A. Joint GMC/Hyundai vacation package? : SAFARI TO SANTA FE. I don't know how many wild beasts I might find on this SAFARI, but SANTA FE is certainly a wild place.

41A. Joint Ford/Chrysler vacation package? : ESCAPE TO NEWPORT. I love to ESCAPE for a weekend in NEWPORT, visiting all the mansions of Astor and Vanderbilt.

56A. Joint Dodge/Toyota vacation package? : JOURNEY TO TACOMA. I guess I could visit the Museum of Glass on my JOURNEY to TACOMA, WA.

In the center of grid: DROVE (36. Took the wheel).  See 19A...Yes, I DROVE the Mercedes on the autobahn.

Hearti here, with this week's Thursday exploration. Another fun theme from Rich - I do hope he will drop in to say hello today! So, on to the rest of the fill:

Across:

1. Payment option : CASH. I don't carry much CASH these days...debit cards are so much more convenient.

5. The Arthur Ashe Award for Courage is one : ESPY. Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly Awards, part of the ESPN team and individual athletic achievement awards.

9. Detergent target : DIRT. 

13. Peek-__ : ABOO. ("I see you!")

14. One-named singer of "Rolling in the Deep" : ADELE. OK, you know this one...rock on!!

15. Creepy lake? : ERIE. "Eerie" sounding lake.

19. Burns rubber : STEPS ON IT. DH is terrified to be a passenger when I drive.  I can't understand why...I had a great time on the autobahn last December!!

20. Sources of inspiration : LUNGS. HaHa, funny clue. "in-spiration" - (breathing "in")

21. Spy novelist Deighton : LEN. Famous for his novel, "The Ipcress File", which was made into a movie starring Michael Caine.

22. Pres. before RWR : JEC. Ronald Wilson Reagan, James Earl Carter.

32. Sheepshank, e.g. : KNOT. This one. Boy Scouts and sailors in our group will recognize it, right?

33. Cleveland's Quicken Loans __ : ARENA. Did not know about this venue for the Cleveland Cavaliers. And then we have 1D. Cleveland cagers : CAVS

34. Blend : MIX

35. Elihu for whom an Ivy is named : YALE. You are all on a first-name basis by now, right?

37. Colada fruit : PINA. In English, "pineapple".

38. Sidewall letters : PSI. Pounds per Square Inch. (Why not "PPSI"?)

39. Glistened : SHONE. Shined, glared, flashed...none fit. What did you come up with?

40. Feature of American panneling, but not British? : ONE L. In the UK  they spell it "panelling". Devious clue.

45. Chap : LAD

46. ICU workers : RNS. Registered Nurses in the Intensive Care Unit.

47. Two-time loser to Ike : ADLAI. Stevenson.

50. Sought at auction : PUT A BID ON. Tough to parse this one...not a common expression.

58. Clock radio letters : AM/PM. Anyone else want AM/FM???

59. Colleague of Thomas : ALITO. Supreme Court Justice nominated by George W. Bush in January 2006. And 18 D. Colleague of Clarence : ELENA. Clarence Thomas and Elena Kagan, associate justices of the Supreme Court.

60. Pale-green moth : LUNA.  HaHa, I just used this one as part of a clue to a theme entry I am working on today! 

61. Homer's tavern : MOE'S. The Simpsons, never watched it.

62. Legendary Brazilian footballer : PELE

63. Celtic land : ERIN

and now we go...

Down:

2. Contribute to, as a crime : ABET

3. Sound measure : SONE

4. Portable cooker : HOT PLATE

5. Site of an early exile : EDEN

6. Space exploration org. : SETI. Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence. Why don't we just search for  intelligence in our own senate?

7. It's hatched : PLOT

8. Ja or da, stateside : YES. "Ja", in German and "Da", in Russian mean "Yes", in English

9. Take off, as a discount : DEDUCT

10. Malleable metal : IRON

11. Thieves' group : RING

12. Earl Grey et al. : TEAS. I like NesTEA Raspberry flavor.

14. Rice-__ : -A-RONI, the San Francisco treat...

17. App downloader : USER. I have tons of apps on my iPhone. But I love playing scrabble with my friends, best!

22. Dick's partner : JANE. Click on my avatar...they got me started!

23. Internet telephony provider : SKYPE

24. Jawbone of __: Samson's weapon : AN ASS

25. Type of acid found in veggies : FOLIC. One of the important B-Vitamins. And don't forget the 29D. Essential acid : AMINO

26. Mystic's medium : TAROT

27. Home to Maine's Black Bears : ORONO

28. Lowest card in klaberjass : SEVEN. OK, so this was a new one to me, but with a W.A.G. and some perps, I got it right. Maybe Hahtool knows the game? Lemonade tells me that the game is played with a French-suited Piquet deck, which was used to tell fortunes. It's a skill he learned from his grandmother!

30. Of a higher quality : FINER

31. Praise : EXALT

36. Played, but not in the field, briefly: DH'ED. Refers to "Designated Hitter"? So, played as a DH, or "DH'ed"? Boy, I needed all perps for this one!

37. Ice cream truck offering : POPSICLE. Yummm!

39. 1992 Summer Olympics country : SPAIN

42. Roosters, at times : ALARMS

43. Lyre-playing Muse : ERATO

44. Ladies' court gp. : WNBA. Women's National Basketball Association.

47. Stuck, after "in" : A JAM

48. Major-__ : DOMO. Interesting explanation of the term on wiki.

49. Rapper __ Fiasco : LUPE. He's in to skateboarding...

50. Pulitzer-winning WWII journalist : PYLE. Ernie, not Gomer!

51. $150 Monopoly prop. : UTIL. ity

52. Carry : TOTE

53. Gloomy : DOUR

54. Present opening? : OMNI-present.  According to Eastern Christianity, God is present everywhere.

55. Asian flatbread : NAAN. This stuff:

57. "The Purloined Letter" monogram : EAP. Edgar Allen Poe. One of three detective stories in a series. The other two were (the more well-known?) "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" and (the less-known?) "The Mystery of Marie Rogêt". Hmmmm...I think I have to go get out my EAP books!

Answer grid.

That's it for tonight, folks. See you on the "other side" of midnight!

Hugs,

Marti