Theme: Diamonds Are Forever
17A: Start of a quote: I NEVER HATED A MAN
41A: Quote, part 2: ENOUGH TO GIVE HIM
64A: End of a quote: HIS DIAMONDS BACK
And ZSA ZSA (72A: Speaker of the quote, familiarly). Nice addition to the quote.
Zsa Zsa Gabor also said: I am a marvelous housekeeper. Every time I leave a man I keep his house. I wonder how many diamonds/houses she has obtained through this strategy.
This is our first Quote/Quip themed puzzle since the LAT switch, correct? I polished it off rather quickly, with a few errors. The quote itself was very familiar, so I was able to fill in plenty of blanks without the normal Titanic Friday struggle.
My favorite clue today is OBI (61A: Band from the East?). I was picturing a music band not the kimono band. I also like the clue for DELETE (69A: Takeout order?). Thought it might have something to do with the takeout food order or gang's order to kill someone.
Across:
1A: Tolkien's Legolas: ELF. Legolas is portrayed by Orlando Bloom in the movie.
10A: Striker's bane: SCAB. Reminds me of the SNAFU (54A: Messy scenarios) during 1989 Tiananmen Square Incident. Many of the SCABS were actually conscientious workers.
16A: __ stick: POGO. I rather like "We have met the enemy and he is us" speaker clue for POGO.
20A: Shivering fit: AGUE. See, English is weird, words ending in AGUE (plague, vague, league, etc), have completely different pronunciations.
21A: State until 1991: Abbr.: SSR (Soviet Socialist Republic). Every time I see this clue, I see the birthmark on Gorbachev's bald head. Do you have birthmark also? Gorbachev's Nobel Peace is probably well-deserved.
22A: Part of a woodlands stash: ACORN. I still can't believe people once drank ACORN coffee.
23A: 1519 Yucatán arrival: CORTEZ. According to Wiki, Hernando CORTEZ's arrival caused the fall of the Aztec empire and started the first phase of the Spanish colonization of the Americas. I obtained the answer from Down fills.
26A: Remote function: PAUSE
28A: "Rubáiyát" poet: OMAR. Wow, I just found out the OMAR means "first born son" in Arabic. No wonder so many people are called OMAR.
30A: "Star Trek" weapon: PHASER. Like this. Saw this clue before.
34A: Apple pie go-with?: MOM. Why? I wanted baseball, hot dogs or Chevrolet. None fits.
37A: Alcohol-based solvent: ACETAL. ACET(o) +AL(cohol). Perfume ingredient.
40A: Palestinian city: GAZA. GAZA Strip. Controlled by Hamas.
45A: Arrival: ADVENT
47A: Plane site: HANGAR. I don't think they will find the blackbox of that Air France Airbus. Quite a few conspiracy stories have been swirling around.
51A: Rolls partner: ROYCE. Rolls -ROYCE.
58A: Go furtively: SNEAK
63A: Radius neighbor: ULNA
68A: Mont Blanc, par exemple: ALPE. Mont Blanc is the highest peak of the Alps.
71A: Make (one's way): WEND. New word to me.
73A: Scout units: Abbr.: TPS (Troops). Which one is the eagle scout pin? Awesome collection.
Down:
1D: Pioneering computer: ENIAC. Developed in 1946.
2D: Shop talk: LINGO. Sometimes the answer is ARGOT.
3D: Lilas or tulipe: FLEUR. French for flower. The real flower. Not Rich Norris' fake Seine flow-er.
4D: Miler Sebastian: COE. He headed the London bid for the 2012 Olympics.
5D: Boston Garden legend: ORR (Bobby). Easy guess. I've never heard of Boston Garden.
8D: Violet lead-in: ULTRA. Misread the clue as "Violent lead-in".
9D: Manhattan liquor: RYE. I like Long Island Iced Tea.
10D: Period that started with Sputnik: SPACE AGE. In 1957.
11D: How, in Jerez: COMO. The answer would be "COMMENT" in Paris.
12D: Bio lab gel: AGAR. Food thickener as well. Made from seaweed.
13D: Former European capital: BONN. Capital of West Germany (1949-1990).
18D: Put the kibosh on: VETO. Latin for “I forbid”. The Sicilian ETNA volcano is literally "I burn".
19D: Recipe bit: DASH
24D: Salon or Slate, briefly: E-MAG. Eliot Spitzer is now a columnist for Slate.com. Too bad, he only writes financial stuff.
25D: Millard's predecessor: ZACHARY (Taylor). I can never remember the exact order.
27D: Earth-to-satellite connections: UPLINKS. Data path from earth to satellite. Opposite DOWNLINKS, data path from satellite to earth. Both new words to me.
29D: Like many Ariz. residents: RETD (Retired). More in Florida, right?
31D: Satirical Mort: SAHL. He is still alive.
32D: He played Emile in "South Pacific": EZIO (Pinza). Oh, the Broadway "South Pacific". I kept picturing the Emile in the film "South Pacific". EZIO Pinza won Tony for the role.
35D: __ Day: dietary supplement brand: ONE A. Wish those multivitamin pills are smaller.
36D: Maker of ShowHouse faucets: MOEN
38D: "Mazel __!": TOV. Hebrew for "Congratulations". I should say this to our Elissa for her HOURGLASS FIGURE. Hell will freeze over before I get a 24" waist.
39D: "The African Queen" co-screenwriter: AGEE. Katherine Hepburn has some fun description of the shooting of "The African Queen" in her biography. Amazing amount of alcohol were drunk everyday. The excuse was that the water there was unsafe.
42D: Went for more memory, say: UPGRADED. Computer memory.
43D: Dodge Viper engine: V-TEN. Easy guess. I did not really know the engine for Dodge Viper.
48D: 2004 World Golf Hall of Fame inductee Isao: AOKI. Just look at those highlighted green letters, you should be able to remember his name. One starts with I, one ends with I; One ends with AO, one starts with AO.
50D: Slap on: DAUB
53D: Virus named for an African river: EBOLA. Nice trivia. The river is in Congo.
55D: Bluegrass great Lester: FLATT. What's the technical name for their hats?
56D: Open, in a way: UNCAP
58D: "Arms and the Man" playwright: SHAW. I guessed. Have never heard of this play. I only know SHAW's "Pygmalion".
59D: Shade of green: NILE. Is it somehow related to the river? You would think NILE is "Shade of blue". Thought of LIME.
60D: What many jocks watch: ESPN. I like this clue.
62D: Don Juan's mother: INEZ. Spanish for Agnes, "pure"/"chaste".
65D: Cooper's tool: ADZ. Ha ha, I thought of the handsome Anderson Cooper (CNN) immediately.
66D: Consequence of getting bombed too often?: DTS (Delirum Tremens). "Bombed" is slang for drunk.
67D: Wet expanse: SEA. MER in French and MAR in Spanish.
Answer grid.
C.C.
17A: Start of a quote: I NEVER HATED A MAN
41A: Quote, part 2: ENOUGH TO GIVE HIM
64A: End of a quote: HIS DIAMONDS BACK
And ZSA ZSA (72A: Speaker of the quote, familiarly). Nice addition to the quote.
Zsa Zsa Gabor also said: I am a marvelous housekeeper. Every time I leave a man I keep his house. I wonder how many diamonds/houses she has obtained through this strategy.
This is our first Quote/Quip themed puzzle since the LAT switch, correct? I polished it off rather quickly, with a few errors. The quote itself was very familiar, so I was able to fill in plenty of blanks without the normal Titanic Friday struggle.
My favorite clue today is OBI (61A: Band from the East?). I was picturing a music band not the kimono band. I also like the clue for DELETE (69A: Takeout order?). Thought it might have something to do with the takeout food order or gang's order to kill someone.
Across:
1A: Tolkien's Legolas: ELF. Legolas is portrayed by Orlando Bloom in the movie.
10A: Striker's bane: SCAB. Reminds me of the SNAFU (54A: Messy scenarios) during 1989 Tiananmen Square Incident. Many of the SCABS were actually conscientious workers.
16A: __ stick: POGO. I rather like "We have met the enemy and he is us" speaker clue for POGO.
20A: Shivering fit: AGUE. See, English is weird, words ending in AGUE (plague, vague, league, etc), have completely different pronunciations.
21A: State until 1991: Abbr.: SSR (Soviet Socialist Republic). Every time I see this clue, I see the birthmark on Gorbachev's bald head. Do you have birthmark also? Gorbachev's Nobel Peace is probably well-deserved.
22A: Part of a woodlands stash: ACORN. I still can't believe people once drank ACORN coffee.
23A: 1519 Yucatán arrival: CORTEZ. According to Wiki, Hernando CORTEZ's arrival caused the fall of the Aztec empire and started the first phase of the Spanish colonization of the Americas. I obtained the answer from Down fills.
26A: Remote function: PAUSE
28A: "Rubáiyát" poet: OMAR. Wow, I just found out the OMAR means "first born son" in Arabic. No wonder so many people are called OMAR.
30A: "Star Trek" weapon: PHASER. Like this. Saw this clue before.
34A: Apple pie go-with?: MOM. Why? I wanted baseball, hot dogs or Chevrolet. None fits.
37A: Alcohol-based solvent: ACETAL. ACET(o) +AL(cohol). Perfume ingredient.
40A: Palestinian city: GAZA. GAZA Strip. Controlled by Hamas.
45A: Arrival: ADVENT
47A: Plane site: HANGAR. I don't think they will find the blackbox of that Air France Airbus. Quite a few conspiracy stories have been swirling around.
51A: Rolls partner: ROYCE. Rolls -ROYCE.
58A: Go furtively: SNEAK
63A: Radius neighbor: ULNA
68A: Mont Blanc, par exemple: ALPE. Mont Blanc is the highest peak of the Alps.
71A: Make (one's way): WEND. New word to me.
73A: Scout units: Abbr.: TPS (Troops). Which one is the eagle scout pin? Awesome collection.
Down:
1D: Pioneering computer: ENIAC. Developed in 1946.
2D: Shop talk: LINGO. Sometimes the answer is ARGOT.
3D: Lilas or tulipe: FLEUR. French for flower. The real flower. Not Rich Norris' fake Seine flow-er.
4D: Miler Sebastian: COE. He headed the London bid for the 2012 Olympics.
5D: Boston Garden legend: ORR (Bobby). Easy guess. I've never heard of Boston Garden.
8D: Violet lead-in: ULTRA. Misread the clue as "Violent lead-in".
9D: Manhattan liquor: RYE. I like Long Island Iced Tea.
10D: Period that started with Sputnik: SPACE AGE. In 1957.
11D: How, in Jerez: COMO. The answer would be "COMMENT" in Paris.
12D: Bio lab gel: AGAR. Food thickener as well. Made from seaweed.
13D: Former European capital: BONN. Capital of West Germany (1949-1990).
18D: Put the kibosh on: VETO. Latin for “I forbid”. The Sicilian ETNA volcano is literally "I burn".
19D: Recipe bit: DASH
24D: Salon or Slate, briefly: E-MAG. Eliot Spitzer is now a columnist for Slate.com. Too bad, he only writes financial stuff.
25D: Millard's predecessor: ZACHARY (Taylor). I can never remember the exact order.
27D: Earth-to-satellite connections: UPLINKS. Data path from earth to satellite. Opposite DOWNLINKS, data path from satellite to earth. Both new words to me.
29D: Like many Ariz. residents: RETD (Retired). More in Florida, right?
31D: Satirical Mort: SAHL. He is still alive.
32D: He played Emile in "South Pacific": EZIO (Pinza). Oh, the Broadway "South Pacific". I kept picturing the Emile in the film "South Pacific". EZIO Pinza won Tony for the role.
35D: __ Day: dietary supplement brand: ONE A. Wish those multivitamin pills are smaller.
36D: Maker of ShowHouse faucets: MOEN
38D: "Mazel __!": TOV. Hebrew for "Congratulations". I should say this to our Elissa for her HOURGLASS FIGURE. Hell will freeze over before I get a 24" waist.
39D: "The African Queen" co-screenwriter: AGEE. Katherine Hepburn has some fun description of the shooting of "The African Queen" in her biography. Amazing amount of alcohol were drunk everyday. The excuse was that the water there was unsafe.
42D: Went for more memory, say: UPGRADED. Computer memory.
43D: Dodge Viper engine: V-TEN. Easy guess. I did not really know the engine for Dodge Viper.
48D: 2004 World Golf Hall of Fame inductee Isao: AOKI. Just look at those highlighted green letters, you should be able to remember his name. One starts with I, one ends with I; One ends with AO, one starts with AO.
50D: Slap on: DAUB
53D: Virus named for an African river: EBOLA. Nice trivia. The river is in Congo.
55D: Bluegrass great Lester: FLATT. What's the technical name for their hats?
56D: Open, in a way: UNCAP
58D: "Arms and the Man" playwright: SHAW. I guessed. Have never heard of this play. I only know SHAW's "Pygmalion".
59D: Shade of green: NILE. Is it somehow related to the river? You would think NILE is "Shade of blue". Thought of LIME.
60D: What many jocks watch: ESPN. I like this clue.
62D: Don Juan's mother: INEZ. Spanish for Agnes, "pure"/"chaste".
65D: Cooper's tool: ADZ. Ha ha, I thought of the handsome Anderson Cooper (CNN) immediately.
66D: Consequence of getting bombed too often?: DTS (Delirum Tremens). "Bombed" is slang for drunk.
67D: Wet expanse: SEA. MER in French and MAR in Spanish.
Answer grid.
C.C.
