Sunday, April 19, 2015 Tracy Bennett

Theme: - "French Twists" - The last word in each theme entry is replaced by a homophonic word rooted in French.

27A. Testy lover? : CROSS BEAU. Crossbow. *EAU ending is common in French.

29A. Musical work expressing resentment? : BITTER SUITE. Bittersweet.

39A. Napped fabric, without a doubt? : EASILY SUEDE. Easily swayed.

52A. Bridezilla's fabric of choice? : POWER TULLE. Power tool. Fun clue.

72A. Measly computer storage? : PETTY CACHE. Petty cash. The verb is cacher, "hide".

 

85A. Surviving spouse's irritation? : WIDOW'S PIQUE. Widow's peak. New to me. I googled, then found out I don't have "widow's peak". Quite a sad name.

96A. The latest in foal fashions? : ARABIAN CHIC. Arabian sheik.

98A. Beauty needing a lift? : BLUE BELLE. Bluebell.

I had no idea that both SUITE and SUEDE are rooted in French. I guess SUAVE too, the way it's pronounced. SU+ another vowel.

Super smooth grid with only 134 words. It helps that there are only 84 theme squares (minimum for Rich), but this would be a 142 or 144 in my weak hands.

Tracy Bennett is an accomplished crossword constructor. She made the puzzle one for this year's ACPT tournament.

By the way, did you see the picture of the contestant dressed in pope's costume? You can click here for more pictures.  I wish they had captions.

Across:

  

1. Show no humility : BRAG. Boomer bowled no 300 this season. He's stuck at 18.

5. Golf club feature : LOFT

9. Refers (back), as to a prior subject : HARKS

14. Apprehends : GRABS

19. Old wisdom : LORE

20. Transportation network app : UBER. Our first "app" clue for UBER. "Ultra" & "Very"  can take a rest.

21. So long, in Avignon : ADIEU

22. He had a way with words : ROGET.  Indeed.

23. Hops drier : OAST

24. '30s Lorre role : MOTO. Mr. Moto.

25. 1959 Broadway family name : TRAPP.  "The Sound of Music" .

26. Multicolored marble : AGATE

31. Musical symbols : NOTES

32. Ikea offering : SOFA. Have you tried the meatballs in Ikea?

33. Came to fruition : RIPENED

34. Key of Mozart's 40th symphony : G MINOR

36. 'Mongst kin? : TWIXT

38. Cops on base : MPs

41. Camaro __-Z : IROC

43. Southwestern hill : LOMA. I could only think of MESA.

47. Quaker abolitionist Lucretia : MOTT

48. Eagles' 84-Acrosses : AERIES. And 84. Chick's starter home : NEST. "Starter home" makes me smile. Also 77. Latin 84-Across builder : AVIS. Latin for "bird".

49. Bustle : TODO

50. Beyond the horizon : AFAR

51. Wedding followers : TRAINS. Oh, wedding dress trains.

54. Like Catwoman, e.g. : MASKED

58. Less fusty : NEWER

60. City once sought by Sir Walter Raleigh : EL DORADO. At least, he mapped out the Amazon.

61. Revival chorus : AMENSs

62. Primed for a fight : RILED

64. Stimulating nut : BETEL

65. Act without restraint : GO TO TOWN. New meaning to me.

69. Worrywart, at times : PACER

71. One-named Tejano singer : SELENA

74. Sprain application : ICE BAG. Frozen peas work also.

76. Doubting words : I BET

78. Irregular : SPOTTY

79. Brylcreem applications : DABS. Clue echo with 74A.

83. "I'm all __" : EARS

87. Gal follower? : PAL. Gal pal.

88. __ curls : BICEP

89. Sentence component : CLAUSE

90. Citrus refreshment : LIMEADE

94. More than satisfy : SATE

95. Queen of Kings : SHEBA. Queen of Sheba. Books of Kings.

102. Cristiano Ronaldo's longtime jersey number : SEVEN. He's the world's highest paid soccer player. We also have 107. Common fairy tale number : THREE. Mantle & Ruth.

103. Doth proceed : GOETH

104. Olympic event involving runners : LUGE. Did not know those blades are called runners.

105. Calendar col. : TUES

106. Still : INERT

108. Swing and others : ERAS

109. City whose name differs by one letter from a nearby volcano : ENNA. Etna.

110. Micronite filter cigarettes : KENTS

111. Monastery sights : HOODS

112. Hurston's "Their Eyes __ Watching God" : WERE

113. Pepper and Stubby: Abbr. : SGTs. Never heard of Stubby. Turns out he's a dog.

Down:

1. Allied voters : BLOC

2. 2013-'14 Katy Perry hit : ROAR

3. One with a burning passion : ARSONIST. You nailed it, right?

4. Wastes no time : GETS ON IT

5. Place for cutting boards : LUMBERYARD

6. Orchestral winds : OBOES

7. Vegan Greek salad omission : FETA. I admire those vegans. I don't eat dairy products (few Chinese do), but seafood is too tasty to give up.

8. Slangy slacks : TROU

9. Cloche carriers : HAT BOXES

10. Out of control, at sea : ADRIFT

11. Rodeo catcher : RIATA

12. Wouldn't surrender : KEPT

13. Big one on a runway : SUPER MODEL. Gisele remains my all-time favorite. Still can't believe my Gisele/Giselle goof last time.

14. Apprehends : GRASPS

15. Rapscallion : ROGUE

16. "There you go __": Reagan : AGAIN

17. Davis of "Dead Ringer" : BETTE

18. "... a __ flying fearless and fleet": Longfellow : STEED

28. Small one on a runway, briefly : STOL (Short TakeOff and Landing)

30. Chute mechanism : RIPCORD. New word to me.

32. Glancing blow : SIDESWIPE

34. Little shiner : GEM

35. "Women hold up half the sky" proclaimer : MAO. Gimme.

36. Winter Olympics host before Vancouver : TURIN

37. "Mad Men" creator Matthew : WEINER. Gimme. No relation to Carlos Danger.

40. Diver's milieu : SEA

41. Olympian Midori : ITO

42. Investment firm T. __ Price : ROWE

43. Victory emblem : LAUREL

44. Recently : OF LATE

45. "The Streets of San Francisco" co-star : MALDEN (Karl). Stumper. OK, another police drama. Nothing beats "NYPD Blue". Sipowicz, LaLalinda!

46. Iris ring : AREOLA. It's back.

51. Ready to snap : TESTY

52. Steep cliff : PRECIPICE

53. "Ain't Too Proud __": Temptations hit : TO BEG. Got via crosses.

54. Chatty flier : MAGPIE

55. Pond protozoan : AMOEBA

56. Popular gundog : SETTER

57. Fife player : KNOTTS (Don). Barney Fife.

59. That woman, in Brasilia : ELA. Also 101. Those women, in Bolivia : ESAS

63. Solve, in a way : DECODE

66. It precedes Oilers games : O CANADA

67. Kindred spirits are often on the same one : WAVELENGTH. I'm seldom on the same wavelength with those Saturday constructors.

68. CBS maritime drama : NCIS

70. Pave anew : RE-TOP

71. Obeys a shooter : SAYS CHEESE

73. Post-FDR prez : HST

75. Texter's afterthought intro : BTW

78. Alternates : SWITCHES

79. Hyperglycemia cause : DIABETES. High blood sugar. Poor Boomer has to poke his finger every day.

80. Apparatus co-invented by Cousteau : AQUALUNG. Lovely entry.

81. Do diner work : BUS

82. "… blind, but now I __" : SEE

86. Roman commoner : PLEB

87. Oils, e.g. : PAINTS. Oh, oils is a verb here then.

88. Tempted : BAITED.  And 99. Tempt : LURE

90. Type of refractive surgery : LASIK. Who on our blog had LASIK surgery?

91. Sherlock's adversary Adler : IRENE

92. Connoisseur : MAVEN

93. His final blog post closes with "I'll see you at the movies" : EBERT

94. Courageous woman : SHERO. Never heard of this word before. Looks like a combo of She & hero.

95. Sweets-lover's craving : SUGAR. I learned from Barry G. It's key to good pasta sauce.

97. Pacific salmon : COHO

98. Erupted : BLEW

100. Forgoing time : LENT

I'm sad to learn from Lucina that we lost Dodo (Dorothy Dodson, hence Dodo) last Thursday. Dodo was very active on the blog for a few years. Very loving and caring. Our Californian Coven (Chickie, JD and Garlic Gal) visited Dodo every year when Lucina traveled to California. Chickie talked to Dodo from time to time. Dodo would be 90 years old this Oct. 

Left to right: Chickie, Lucina, Garlic Gal, JD, and Dodo, June 4, 2014

C.C.

Wednesday, July 2nd 2014 Tracy Bennett

Theme: I yam what I yam! Popeye's fans sign on to Twitter.

Hola all! Steve here - I'm in Mexico for a week, and this time it's vacation, not business, so I can really focus on the World Cup! Olé Olé Olé! Great effort by the USA. Let's look forward to Russia in 2018!

OK, fan-fest over. let's focus on Tracy's puzzle for today. I think it's her LAT debut, but a rummage around the interwebs will reveal she's been concentrating on "themeless" offerings for the Washington Post and the NYT. She might rethink her focus. This theme I  loved. It's a challenge sometimes to come up with a title in the blog for such a great idea, and I'm sure I'm a country mile away from the best offering. So let's move on to the expo instead. Here we have first-name nicknames applied to an occupation, all of which produce .... umm .. things in themselves. Yep, I can't even elegantly describe such an elegant idea! So let's get into the details ...

21A. Apt username for John, the labor organizer? : UNION JACK. The British flag, and John, who became Jack. All my explanations for the evolution of the nicknames are credited. They're certainly not mine! John = Jack

One of the most famous bearers of this name, John F. Kennedy, was known to friends and family as "Jack." But I wonder if he knew how much history that name had? John is a name with history stretching back far into Biblical times. However, during medieval times, the name John was altered slightly in the Germanic tongues to Jankin or Jackin. Out of that, we get the nickname Jack.

OK, July 4th is coming .. I'm slipping this one in early

41A. Apt username for Catherine, the handywoman? : DO-IT-YOURSELF KIT

I've just realized that if I reposted and credited every researcher cited for each nickname you'd have a blog longer than any other. I encourage you all to Google and enjoy the wordplay. Catherine = Kit

56A. Apt username for Margaret, the geometry teacher? : SQUARE PEG. What about an octagonal hole? Dang! Margaret = Peg

4D. Apt username for Dorothy, the Oktoberfest accordionist? : POLKA DOT. "We're not in Kansas anymore!" Toto! We're in Munich! Oh My! Dorothy = Dot

43D. Apt username for William, the rural worker? : FARM BILL Why did I think of apples on heads? William = Bill

So the theme was split between acrosses and downs, and five entries and no asterisks means that there's not a lot of leeway for the fill. No asterisks means no regular entry longer than a theme one. The fill had some sparkles and few, if any, clunkers. Bravo!

Here's Asterix the Gaul to celebrate France's win on Monday in the World Cup and to teach us all how to pronounce and spell "Asterisk".

Across

1. Sprang : LEAPT. Would you ever use "sprang" over "leapt"? Style guide experts, please help ...

6. "Black __": 2010 Natalie Portman film : SWAN. Nothing to see here, move along.

10. Inseam unit : INCH. I've got 32 of 'em. One of the reasons I don't play basketball (the other big reason is a complete lack of talent for the game).

14. Yoke attachment : OXBOW.

15. Tuscan river : ARNO

16. Writer Ephron : NORA

17. Authoritative reference book : BIBLE. Because "OED" or "Roget's Thesaurus" are either lacking or wildly excessive in the letter count department.

18. Protestant denom. : METH. 

19. Don't have to guess : KNOW

20. Gambler's fund : STAKE. I love the proximity to 23A but to me, a gambler's fund is a stash, or a bankroll. The stake is part of the stash.

23. Gambler's payment : ANTE

25. Misery : WOE

26. Fez bearer : HEAD. Great, wanted "Richie's Dad in Happy Days."

Mr. Cunningham didn't fit

29. Chamonix peak : ALPE

The biggest one you can see from Chamonix is called Mont Blanc. The biggest one you can't see is Alpe D'Huez.

32. ESPN data : STATS. Underpinnings of the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network. Thank goodness for ESPN - it was United States 101 when I first moved here. I can parrot those statistics until you all fall asleep. (Anyone awake?)

36. Equanimity : APLOMB. Word of the Day. I always show this when I go through the security checkpoint.

38. "Orinoco Flow" singer : ENYA. Funnily enough, I was debating recently whether "New Age" music is old enough to make the tag a misnomer. No issue with this clue.

40. Gun lobby gp. : NRA

44. False front : ACT

45. Goofball : DORK

46. Aquanaut's station : SEALAB. I wanted all kinds of stuff here - "Stingray", "20.000 Leagues under the Sea" but ahhh well. Here's the amazing Troy Tempest and Princess Maaaaarrrrrinnnnnaaaaa

Sealab? That's too deep. We are mere puppets.

47. "God helps __ ..." : THOSE ... who help themselves? Great, let me go nuts in the buffet line.

49. Rhône city : LYON. If you want to find out how I woke up in a tent in the middle of a roundabout on the outskirts of Lyon on a Thursday morning, let me know. I'll  be happy to tell y'all. It ended well.

51. Fall back (on) : RELY

52. La Brea muck : TAR

54. Ian of "The Hobbit" : HOLM. It's hard to know how you'll be remembered as an actor. Personally, I prefer his role as the "professional" athletic coach in "Chariots of Fire". Now, he's a halfling. Oh well,

61. Honolulu-born president : OBAMA. He really was. 'nuff said.

65. Reunion guest : AUNT

66. Gucci of fashion : ALDO

67. Watchful attention : VIGIL

68. Windy day toy : KITE

69. "Superman" woman : LOIS

70. Escape cleverly : ELUDE

71. Preppy shirt brand : IZOD, That makes me "preppy" - who'd a thunk it?

72. Legend : MYTH

73. Done in : SLAIN. I'm almost "done in" with 73 clue/answers! Girding my loins and off to the downs:

Down:

1. Alternatives to passing shots, in tennis : LOBS. Timely reference to "The Championships, Wimbledon". Note the "d", not a "t". Now you know how to pronounce Wimb-el-Don". Thank you.

2. Walk out : EXIT

3. Agnetha, Benny, Björn, and Anni-Frid, collectively : ABBA. Fresh clue to an old favorite. Lovely.

5. Many a middle schooler : TWEEN

6. With 28-Down, justice since 2006 : SAMUEL

7. Birdhouse warbler : WREN

8. Con : ANTI

9. In any way : NO HOW

10. Canon product : INK-JET. I wanted cameras ... this one look a little while.

11. Actress Gaye of "Ali" : NONA. Crosses all the way. I'll pay attention next time ...

12. Swamp beastie : CROC. I'm not convinced that crocodiles hang around in swamps. Gators, for sure.

13. Peddle : HAWK

22. Old cash register key : NO SALE

24. It's off-limits : TABOO

26. Really dug into : HAD AT

27. Prominent period : EPOCH

28. See 6-Down : ALITO

30. Chipper : PERKY

31. Type widths : ENS. Why do I always put in "ELS" and then go back and change it?

33. Bracelet spot : ANKLE. Funny that the reason for having to wear one is imediately below.

34. Courtroom event : TRIAL

35. Didn't do anything : SAT BY

37. Last thing Rhett called Scarlett : MY DEAR. Rhett's under-his-breath "last thing" might not have been so printable.

39. Kind of question : YES/NO

42. Clickable link : URL. A Uniform Resource Locator on the World Wide Web, as well all know so well.

48. Made explicit : STATED

50. "Gee whillikers!" : OH GOSH!

53. Royal domain : REALM

55. Treasures : LOVES

56. Munro pen name : SAKI

57. One may be popped in class : QUIZ

58. Passé preposition : UNTO 

59. Tricky maneuver : PLOY

60. Make less explicit, perhaps? : EDIT

62. Madrid water : AGUA

63. Skirt length : MIDI Fill  in M__I and wait for the N, D or X.

64. Chrysler Building architect William Van __ : ALEN. I posted a great view of this iconic building one Wednesday that I blogged from NYC in January. I might have to dig the picture out again.

That's about it. No food! and no music links that I can see. HG and Marti can fill in my blanks! I'm wallowing in the land of tequila, huaraches and futbol! I'll be checking in from the pool.

Steve.

Oh - here's the grid!