Wednesday March 25, 2009 Jack McInturff

Theme: RULE (62D: Govern, or word that can follow the first word of the four longest puzzle answers)

17A: Valley girl's "Ick!": GAG ME WITH A SPOON

27A: Cliché framed above many a hearth: HOME SWEET HOME

48A: Spaceflight management center: GROUND CONTROL

64A: Yellow-skinned apple: GOLDEN DELICIOUS

Why "Valley girl" reference for GAG ME WITH A SPOON? The Frank Zappa "Valley Girl" song? HOME RULE is a new term to me.

Did you feel today's puzzle was more difficult than yesterday's? I had lots of wite-outs for the cleverly tricky clues:

21A: Wagon pullers: TEAM. Mine was OXEN.

70A: Play area?: STAGE. Mine was SCENE, which is actually "Play part".

9D: MA and PA: STS (States). I made up my own word PTS (Parents), knowing clearly MA is not Ma, PA is not Pa.

26D: Bank feature: ATM. Mine was DAM, thinking of river bank.

46D: Old French capital?: FRANC. Replaced by Euro in 2001. PAREE sprang to my mind first. FRANC is often clued as "Old/stale French bread?".

49D: Put in stitches: DARN. Mine was SEWN. I figured "Put" might be past tense.

65D: When the French fry?: ETE. What a great clue. Scorching hot! I blanked though. I need a "summer" or "season" to think of ETE.

Our fellow solver Fred, who has had puzzles published by LA Times, mentioned in yesterday's Comments section that "the ramp between Wednesday and Thursday is steep in terms of difficulty". So, be prepared for tomorrow's fight.

On a scale of 1-5, Monday and Tuesday's level of difficulty for our puzzle is 1, Wednesday is 2, Thursday and Friday, 3, Saturday and Sunday 4.

To Star Tribune solvers, if you want LA Times puzzle in our paper, please write to Susan Barbieri (Assistant Features Editor) and let her know your views. I wish they had asked our opinion before they made the switch. Her email address is: susan.barbieri@startribune.com

Across:

1A: Blue or brown follower: EYED. I think I have brown eyes, though my drivers's license says BLK.

15A: Jet-black gem: ONYX. Wikipedia says it could be of other colors too. Greek origion, meaning "claw/fingernail." So called because the mineral's color sometimes resembles that of a fingernail, pink with white streaks.

23A: Donizetti aria "Regnava __ silenzio": NEL. No idea. Here is a clip. I've never heard of Italian composer Zonizetti or "Regnava NEL silenzio" ("Silence Reigned"). So what does NEL mean?

25A: Storyteller: LIAR

33A: Finance major's deg.: BBA (Bachelor of Business Administration). New abbreviation to me. Wish I had attended school when I first arrived here.

35A: When repeated twice, "et cetera": YADA. Always thought it's repeated three times.

43A: Sweater synthetic: ORLON. Clued as "Synthetic fiber" in yesterday's puzzle.

45A: Unheeding: DEAF. Also LEAF (24D: Table section). I like this kind of F or K ending words.

60A: Jacket type worn by several Bond villains: NEHRU. Interesting trivia. I did not know this. I still have not figured out who killed the evil Greene in "Quantum of Solace".

67A: "A cat must have three different names": ELIOT. I don't know this particular poem, but I do know the musical "Cats" is based on his cat poems.

68A: Savings choice: IRAS. The clue needs an abbreviation hint, doesn't it?

69A: Give sparingly: DOLE. Why "sparingly"? The rescue package government DOLEs out is huge. Oh by the way, Linda mentioned last night that "abstemious" and "facetious" are the only two English words with all the vowels in order. She also said "dreamt" is the only English word ending in "mt".

72A: Impressionist: APER. Very unexpected clue.

Down:

3D: Caltech sr.'s goal, often: ENGR. Ah, LA Times, another CA reference. Remember Monday's "Fellow Dodgers, e.g." for TEAMMATE?

4D: Rectangular game piece: DOMINO

5D: Holy animal?: COW

10D: School play prop: PAPER HAT

27D: "They'll Do It Every Time" cartoonist Jimmy: HATLO. Unknown to me, HAT LO, is he very famous? This woman looks very dominating.

29D: Hard-to-find guy of kids' books: WALDO

31D: Land where Moses died: MOAB. East of Dead Sea. In current Jordan.

33D: Internet opinion piece: BLOG. Exactly, "opinion piece", might be wrong. Blog is short for weblog.

34D: 2008 Libertarian presidential candidate: BARR (Bob). I had no memory of this guy at all. Could only think of Ralph Nader.

38D: Elvis classic: HOUND DOG. No idea. Is it really classic? Sounds so repetitive and boring.

41D: Jacques of "Mon Oncle": TATI. Got this French actor's name from across fills. "Mon Oncle"("My Uncle") won an Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 1958, according to Wikipedia.

44D: 22.5 deg.: NNE. See more Compass Points. I drew a blank on this one also. Have never seen NNE clued this way before.

50D: Recognition: CREDIT. How fortunes change for Tim Geithner. March Madness indeed. However, he really should get the CREDIT for Dow's near 500 point soar on Monday.

51D: New York tribe: ONEIDA. Literally "erected stone".

56D: Hip bones: ILIA. Singular Ilium. I often confuse ILIA with ILEA (the ends of small intestines). Its singular form is ileum. They have the same pronunciation, correct?

58D: Prefix with sol: AERO. Aerosol. It's often clued as "Sabb model" in our old puzzle.

63D: Rehab admission: USER. The answer did not come to me readily.

Answer Grid.

C.C.

Wednesday March 18, 2009 Adele Mann

Theme: Natural Elevations

17A: Ancient: AS OLD AS THE HILLS

29A: Candy bar, formally: PETER PAUL MOUNDS

47A: Pennsylvania destination: POCONO MOUNTAINS

60A: Wales: CORDUROY'S RIDGES

Refreshing to see "Wales" as a clue today. Our editor likes to clue WALE as "Corduroy ridge". It's the only gimme theme answer to me. Does the apostrophe bother you?

I've never heard of PETER PAUL MOUNDS. Thought the candy bar might be called Peter, Paul & Mary or something. It seems that both AS OLD AS THE HILLS and "As old as Methuselah" are from the Bible.

I really like the theme entries today. Very consistent. All of them are at the end of the phrases and all in plural forms.

Some of the fills strike me as very obscure. The intersection of CLUJ & JEHU was utterly impossible for me.

Across:

1A: Strasbourg's region: ALSACE. Between France & Germany. ALSACE -Lorraine was annexed by Germany in 1871 after the Franco-Prussian War and returned to France by the Treaty of Versailles (1919).

7A: City in Transylvania: CLUJ. Only till 1974. It's now called CLUJ-Napoca, the third largest city in Romania. Aburdly hard!

11A: Govt. med. grp.: HRA. Health Reimbursement Account/Arrangement. Was this a gimme to you? I really have problem remembering this program.

16A: Greek Aurora: EOS. Goddess of dawn. Sister of Helios (God of sun). Jimmy in S Carolina posted a great poem named "Rosaline" on the blog Comments section last night. Some of the lines are very sensual: "... Her cheeks are like the blushing cloud /That beautifies Aurora's face... Her paps are centres of delight /Her breasts are ORBS of heavenly frame...". Beautiful poem.

25A: Chapel Hill inst.: UNC. Mia Hamm's alma mater. The Tar Heels.

28A: Hubbubs: DINS. Instinctively wrote down ADOS.

34A: Defoe character: CRUSOE. Interesting, Wikipedia says "Robinson CRUSOE" is sometimes regarded as the first novel in English. It's published in 1719.

37A: Star Wars letters: SDI (Strategic Defense Initiative). Reagan's program. Have you read anything by Patti Davis? I kind of like her style. Simple & elegant.

39A: Old Turkish title: AGA

43A: Saxophonist Mulligan: GERRY. No idea. Was he the guy who spoke?

54A: Waiting to bat: ON DECK. I mis-read the clue as "Waiting to bait".

66A: Serpent tail?: INE. Serpentine. "Hero tail?" too. The new editor might use the IN E approach.

67A: Paddock papa: SIRE. Don't google, tell me who SIRED War Admiral?

68A: Turkish inn: IMARET. Sigh. How can I remember this word. MARE between IT?

71A: Diarist Pepys: SAMUEL. Often see PEPYS clued as "Diarist Samuel". Anyway, Pepys is pronounced the same as "peeps". He recorded the 1666 London fire in his diary. 1666 is often called Annus Mirabilis (Year of Miracles). I really hope the stock market has reached its bottom and this year will not become an Annus Horribilis for us.

Down:

2D: "__ Girs": LES. See this poster. Got it this time.

4D: Dahl and Francis: ARLENES

5D: USN rank: CMDR. Who does CMDR report to and who reports to him?

7D: Component of some TV: CRT

9D: Shoshones: UTES. They live in Utah and W Colorado. The University of Utah's sports team is called Utah UTES. What are those white stuff on the left of letter U? Feathers? This picture is clearer.

10D: King of Israel (842-815 B.C.): JEHU. No idea, the year range means nothing to me. What was he famous for? Wikipedia says "The speed of Jehu" was once a common idiom in America. Very fast? Very slow? Just right?

11D: Kept back: HELD IN

12D: Dancer Petit: ROLAND. Nope. Don't know this French guy. His lips are so thin, must be a glib talker.

18D: Predatory shorebird: SKUA. Always thought SKUAS live in Arctic. Turns out you can find them in Antarctic too.

19D: Kashmir river: INDUS. Unknown to me. See this map. The River is on the east side of Kashmir. It originated in Tibet, China and flows into the Arabian Sea.

22D: Pet protection grp.: SPCA

26D: Crux: NUB. NUB, nib & neb often confuse me.

27D: Book of "The Alexandria Quartet": CLEA. Gimme for Ink I am sure. She's been reading this Quartet. My answer was COMA.

30D: Al of the '50s Indians: ROSEN. Ah, gimme. Another great old time Jewish baseball player is Dodgers' Sandy Koufax, who refused to pitch for Game 1 of the 1965 World Series (against the Twins) because it fell on Yom Kippur.

31D: Pitcher Martinez: PEDRO. Another gimme. He has won Cy Young. He sucked every time I watched him pitch. Don't know which team he wants to go this year. Indians?

32D: Actress Follows: MEGAN. Got her name from across fills. Have never never heard of this Canadian actress. Interesting "Follows". Is there anyone surnamed Leads?

33D: Pictures of illusions: OP ART. Thought of MIRAGES.

40D: 20% of CCLXV: LIII. Roman 53.

41D: Ms. Rowlands: GENA. I forgot. Which movie is she famous for again?

43D: Hooked by a horn: GORED. Ouch! I really like Borked. If GORED became a real word, what would be your definition?

44D: Mirror image?: YOU. Depends on who is looking at the mirror at the moment.

46D: Layered pavement: MACADAM. This is another word I keep remembering then keep forgetting. It's named after the Scottish engineer John Loudon McAdam who invented this crused stone pavement method. Wonder why they added an extra letter A. Easy to prounounce?

47D: Oracle of Delphi region: PHOCIS. First encounter with this region. Here is the map. It's on the upper right corner. Wikipedia mentions that this region is mainly pastroral, neither rich in material resources nor well placed for commercial enterprise. No large cities grew up within its territory, and its chief places were mainly of strategic importance.

48D: Wife of Paris: OENONE. I could only think of Helen. OENONE is an Oread (mountain nymph). This lady must drink lots of wine, since OENO is the Greek prefix for wine (Vino in Roman).

55D: Crescent end: CUSP. Not familiar with this astrology definition.

58D: "Topaz" author: URIS. See this bookcover. I just realized this morning that some of Leon URIS books have very scrabbly titles: "Exodus", "The Haj" and "QB VIII".

63D: Soviet mil. intelligence: GRU (Glavnoe Razvedyvatel'noe Upravlenie, Russian for (Chief Intelligence Directorate). It appeared in our puzzle before. Wikipedia shows that GRU still exists. And it's Russia's largest intelligence agency. So the clue is not accurate.

C.C.

Wednesday March 11, 2009 Jo Vita

Theme: Crack Up

17A: Broadway moneymaker: SMASH HIT

30A: Blast from the past?: BIG BANG

47A: Soft drink: SODA POP

62A: Launch: BLAST OFF

11D: Bases-loaded homer: GRAND SLAM

35D: Radical food fad: CRASH DIET

Not happy with 30A clue. BLAST is part of the theme answer for 62A. Tell me how you would clue BIG BANG.

The clue for ESS (13D: Part of CBS?) is quite tricky. I thought of SYS first, then EYE. Finally realized ESS refers to the letter S in CBS.

Mary Elson, the Managing Director of Tribune Media Service, emailed me yesterday that TMS will be ending Wayne R Williams syndication puzzle on Sunday March 22, 2009. So, starting on March 23 (Monday) most of the papers that currently have TMS Daily will carry LA Times Daily edited by Rich Norris.

This is a great news for us, as LA Times puzzles are definitely of superior quality. Besides, we can have the same Sunday puzzles to work with. I am aware, however, that some of you might be given a different LA Times Sunday crossword edited by Sylvia Bursztyn. But you can always print out the Rich Norris Sunday puzzle from LA Time's website.

Across:

8A: 1997 20-game winner Denny: NEAGLE. Guessed. Have never heard of this pitcher. He was actually drafted by the Twins in 1989. Wikipedia says his name was mentioned in the Mitchell Report in connection with steroids. Boo!

14A: __ Valley, CA: SIMI. Reagan Library is located here.

19A: Bernhardt and Siddons: SARAHS. SARAH Bernhardt was a French actress nicknamed "The Divine SARAH". SARAH Siddon was a British actress most famous for her portrayal of Lady Macbeth. Of all the SARAHS in the world, our editor wanted these two, absurdly obscure. Boo!

20A: Nautical rescue system: AIR SEA

21A: Cossack chief: HETMAN. No idea. Last time the answer is ATAMAN.

23A: NASA outpost: ISS (International Space Station). Williams like to clue ESA as "NASA's ISS partner".

27A: Mil. honor: DSC (Distinguished Service Cross). I wanted DSM. Wikipedia says DSC is "the second highest military decoration that can be awarded to a member of US Army". What is the highest then? Purple Heart? By the way, DSO (Distingushed Service Order) is the "British military award".

33A: Abominable: ACCURSED. New word to me. Same as CURSED?

36A: Vexed: GALLED. His chutzpah used to GALL me.

38A: Myanmar, by another name: BURMA. Capital city: Yangon. Currency: Kyat. Strange country. Governed by those bloody military juntas. Aung San Suu Kyi needs more than just the glibido from the west for her fight.

41A: Employment: USAGE

44A: Representative examples: EPITOMES

49A: Numerical ending: ETH. "Ordinal suffix" to be exact.

51A: C.S.A. soldier: REB. Opposite Yank?

52A: Actress Meyers: ARI. No idea. Thought ARI is man's name. What's her face shape? Square?

55A: Fanning of "Man on Fire": DAKOTA. She grows up quickly. Her interviews are uniformly boring.

58A: Signaled: CUED IN

64A: Lack of vigor: ANEMIA. Dates help. Lots of irons in dates. Nuts stuffed honeyed dates. Delicious!

65A: NRC forerunner: AEC (1946 to 1975)

66A: Heraldic border: ORLE. Learned this word from doing crossword. What's the difference between heraldry and coat-of-arms?

67A: climber's spikes: PITONS

68A: '60 radicals: SDS. Was this a gimme to you? I keep confusing SDS with '70 radicals SLA (Symbionese Liberation Army).

Down:

1D: Very, in music: ASSAI. "Allegro ASSAI" means very fast. Add one letter L, it becomes the "attack vigorously" ASSAIL.

4D: "Beth" singer: KISS. Here is the clip. Definitely not my style. Any KISS collectors there? Do you have the original KISS bobbleheads?

6D: Colonial cuckoo: ANI. Why "Colonial"?

7D: Prot. sect: METH. The same abbreviation as the drug?

8D: Savings: NEST EGG. Dwindling quickly! My GE stock is now traded at $8 per share. Terrible.

18D: Flights to safety: HEGIRAS. No idea. Dictionary also says that HEGIRA refers to the flight of Mohammed from Mecca to Medina in 622 ad. So it's the starting point of the Muslim era.

29D: Aqua and motor endings: CADES. Aquacade is new to me.

32D: Biographer of FDR: ALSOP. Almost every JFK book I've read mentioned Joseph ALSOP. Are you familiar with General Chenault's Flying Tigers? ALSOP served as Chenault's "Staff Secretary" when they trained in Rangoon, BURMA.

33D: Poplar tree: ABELE. I forgot. What's the difference between ABELE and aspen again?

34D: Flat face of a gem: CULET. No idea. See this digram.

43D: Spanish mates: ESPOSAS. Got the answer from across fills. It's Spanish for "wife". I thought it means "Spouse".

45D: Emetine source plants: IPECACS. I can never remember this word. Their roots contain "emetine", whatever it is.

56D: Sphere starter?: ATMO. Atmosphere.

57D: Down with!: A BAS. Know this from the French Revolutionary cry "A BAS le roi!" Our editor used to clue ABAS as "Arab garments".

61D: Verse starter?: UNI. Universe. "Sex starter?" is also good, yes?

C.C.

Thursday March 5, 2009 Ed Voile

Theme: Right on the Money

20A: Start of a quip: MONEY DOES GROW ON

37A: Part 2 of quip: TREES

50A: End of quip: IT IS MADE OF PAPER

During Chinese Spring Festival, native Cantonese always buy a big orange tree, which symbolizes abundant happiness. Some like to hang red money envelopes on the branches, similar to western Christmas tree decoration.

It's fun to spend Chinese New Year in Canton, esp for singles, as it's a custom for married couples to give red envelop to singles, regardless of their age. The amount of money inside varies. Often 8, 88, or 888. Besides Mainland China, Taiwan and Japan, 8 is also considered a lucky number in many Southeast Asian countries. But my lucky number is 3. What's yours?

This puzzle yielded too easily. Kind of bland. No clue struck me as sparkling. Two of the obscure answers (GAVOT & TALA) were all obtainable from crosses. I am not capable of solving NY Times style Friday/Saturday puzzles. But I like grid that offers some resistance. A hard-won battle is more enjoyable.

Our fellow solver Crockett1947 has created a Star Tribune Crossword Corner Google map. Please email him at Crockett1947@comcast.net if you want your name marked in that map.

Across:

1A: Org. of Toms and Tiger: PGA. Here is a picture of David Toms and Tiger Woods chatting during 2006 Ryder Cup. David Toms won 2001 PGA Championship, his only major. He won with his brain, so disciplined in his course management. Handsome too, though not as milliadonis -intensive as Adam Scott.

4A: Weapons of mass destruction: H-BOMB. Thought of A-BOMB first. I don't really know the difference between the two. Both produce mushroom clouds, right?

14A: Rower's requirement: OAR. "Oar holder' is THOLE. Here is Mark in Buenos Aires's comment yesterday: "Re Thole - Is this derived from "the hole". "where shall I put my oar - "put it in th´ ´ole, stupid."

15A: Stan's slapstick partner: OLLIE. I presume OLLIE is a nickname of Oliver?

25A: John __ Passos: DOS. Not familiar with this novelist. Got it from down fills. He wrote The U.S.A. Trilogy, which has made several appearances in our puzzle before.

35A: Gibbon, e.g.: APE. I guessed. Did not know "Gibbon" is a kind of small ape. Does it have 10 fingers as we do?

42A: Diana Ross's group: SUPREMES. Need with "The" in the clue.

45A: Psychic power: ESP. Like the power Oda Mae Brown has in "Ghost"?

56A: Italian poet: DANTE. The "Divine Comedy" sounds quite fascinating to me.

58A: Public square: PLAZA. I often wonder why we have Tiananmen Square rather than Tiananmen PLAZA. Maybe we were just imitating Soviet Union in those earlier days. They have Red Square.

Down:

2D: French peasant dance: GAVOT. Or GAVOTTE. I obtained this GAVOT dance from crossing fills. Last time GAVOTTE was clued as "Old French dance".

6D: Potpourris: OLIOS. I thought OLIO itself is a mix of various things. It has plural form also?

8D: Porgy's girlfriend: BESS. Is the grammar purposely mangled in the song "BESS, You Is My Woman Now"?

10D: Oater bar: SALOON. I just learned honky-tonk a few days ago.

22D: "__ People Play": GAMES. Easy guess. Have never heard of this song.

28D: Judd Hirsch sitcom: TAXI

30D: Escritoire: DESK. It's the only answer that makes sense. I did not know the meaning of "Escritoire". Looks like "Antique Roadshow" stuff. Can you tell Leigh Keno from Leslie Keno? I can't.

40D: Rub over: BESMEAR. Is "Rub over" an idiom? Somehow I wanted ERASE.

43D: Change dimensions: RESIZES. I like this clue. Better than "Estimate again".

46D: Summer or Shalala: DONNA. Know Clinton's DONNA Shalala. Not familiar with singer DONNA Summer. She has very fine LINEAMENTS. What are her signature songs?

47D: Disney World attraction: EPCOT. I only learned this morning that EPCOT stands for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow.

49D: Move as a throng: TROOP. Any Eagle Scout there?

51D: Samoan currency: TALA. The answer revealed itself. Here is a two TALA bank note. Samoa capital is APIA. Pago Pago is the capital of American Samoa, which has American DOLLAR as their currency of course.

C.C.

Wednesday March 4, 2009 Josiah Breward

Theme: Bar Hop

17A: "Frasier" location: CAFE NERVOSA

56A: "Family Guy" location: DRUNKEN CLAM

11D: "Friends" location: CENTRAL PERK

24D: "I Love Lucy" location: BABALOO CLUB

Of the above 4 sitcom locations, CENTRAL PERK was the only gimme to me. "Friends" was a very popular show when I lived in Guangzhou (Canton). I had difficulty adjusting to the English dialogues when I first moved here. Had been so used to their Cantonese conversations.

Easy solving though. Lots of gimme 3-letter words are structured in the grid to help. If the constructor Josiah Breward (aka Willy A Wiseman, alias name of our editor Wayne R. Williams) wanted this puzzle to be more difficult, he would have reclued many entries. Take DCCI (54D) for example. He used the most straightforward number clue 701. "Start of the 8th century" would be very hard, and "First year of John VI's papacy" would be very very hard if not impossible. I really think a puzzle should be made more difficult by tough cluing rather than putting in some obscure or imagined words.

Some extra notes:

Due to the increase of the posters in the past two days, I've decided to lift the 100 comments limit I imposed a few months ago. But the 5 posts/per day/per person rule still applies. I would appreciate your efforts in sticking to that. I am very interested in a detailed first post of your crossword solving experinces, but please keep your post #2 to #5 concise and succinct.

Also, you might have noticed, I've been less involved in Comments section as I once was. I simply don't have the time/access to the computer. If you need an immediate answer to a crossword clue or want a prompt reply to some question, please ask Dennis. He has agreed to help me responding to the inquiries, which means he obviously won't be bound by the 5 post limit.

As I said before, every comment is forwarded into my mail box. So I will still read every one of them in the evening time. And I will address the unanswered questions on the next morning. I won't be able to thank each of you for the great answers you provide to me on the blog or via private mails, but I am truly grateful for your help. Every bit of information/post is valued, including the negative remarks.

I will try my best to make my main blog entry as informative as possible. And I need your active participation to make this crossword corner vibrant and entertaining. Serious crossword discussions are welcome, so are simple poems, sports talk, music links, jokes, movie star gossips, favorite food, etc.

Please join the fray and let's entertain ourselves, esp when the puzzle gets very boring. Let's Nero-fiddle and leave the burning Rome to those ELECTED (53A: Chosen by vote). Let's have some fun.

Across:

1A: Humbles: ABASES. Nothing ABASES the pachydematous Rod Blagojevich, who just signed a 6-figure book deal to expose "the dark side of politics". Is that a doctored photo?

25A: Break in the audience: AISLE

26A: __ diem (seize the day): CARPE. The late Twins great Kirby Puckett used to say "Don't take anything for granted, because tomorrow is not promised to any of us." This motto originally came from Horace's poem: CARPE diem quam minimum credula postero (Seize the day and place no trust in tomorrow). "Seize the day tomorrow" is "CARPE diem cras". How to say "Seized yesterday" then?

29A: Letter after zeta: ETA. Greek H. Or "JFK infor" occasionally.

30A: Asta's mistress: NORA. Nice to see Asta as a clue rather than answer. NORA Ephron is a great candidate for NORA clue too. I like her "Sleepless in Seattle". Have to admire Carl Berstein for not revealing the Deep Throat secret to Ephron while they were married.

31A: Facing the pitcher: AT BAT. Always fun for me to see NL pitchers AT BAT. But I kind of like AL's DH too. I wonder who first thought of this DH idea.

40A: Valuable dental items: GOLD TEETH. Any diamond teeth?

42A: At bay in a bay: TREED. I don't get this. Does the second bay refer to bay tree?

46A: Indy-winner Luyendyk: ARIE. Learned his name from doing Xword. He is a two-time Indy 500 winner. Is ARIE Dutch for Ari? It sounds like a nickname to me.

47A: Oar holder: THOLE. What kind of wood is THOLE made of?

65A: Mark of infamy: STIGMA. Good clue. I wanted ANTONY. Mark Antony & Cleopatra. Also thought of the Watergate Deep Throat Mark Felt.

Down:

5D: Nine: pref.: ENNEA. I've never used a word with ENNEA as a pref.

6D: Wonder of Motown: STEVIE. Who is the singer at 0:58?

7D: Actor Telly: SAVALAS. All Greek words of male gender end with letter S. That's why we always see S at the end of those Greek male surnames.

8D: Substitute for soap: AMOLE. This word has appeared in our crossword so often that it's become a gimme to me, though I have no idea what exactly is AMOLE.

18D: Put on a revival: RESTAGE. And RERENT (14A: Find a new tenant). There should be a limit on these prefixes.

21D: Feldon of "Get Smart": BARBARA. Pure guess. Have never heard of "Get Smart".

30D: Bk. after Ezra: NEH. Before Esther.

34D: Bit of clowning: SCHTICK. Very nice word, 5 consonants. Vowels are boring!

38D: Napoleon's marshal: NEY. Marshal Michel NEY, "bravest of the brave". He was arrested, tried and executed after the Waterloo.

47D: Two toppers: TREYS. Crockett's "Deuce toppers" is better.

56D: Fly-fishing action: DAP. Not a familiar "action" to me.

58D: USN big shot: ADM. Thought of Obama's Security Adviser James Jones immediately. Forgot he was a Marine general. Both ADM and general are 4-star ranks.

Dennis flitted occasionally to my blog in Feb, 2008. But a year ago today, he started his daily morning comment and I could count the days when he was missing. Thanks for the interesting information & humor you bring to us every day, Dennis. To quote Xchefwalt, "you are the funniest guy I've never met".

C.C.

Wednesday February 25, 2009 Annabel Michaels

Theme: "Pulp" Art

17A: Accordion: SQUEEZE BOX

26A: Broadway moneymaker: SMASH HIT

32A: 1977-79 Broncos' nickname: ORANGE CRUSH

41A: Crash protection space: CRUMPLE ZONE

50A: Whiskey ingredient: SOUR MASH

61A: When push comes to shove: CRUNCH TIME

I think we've done two similar themed puzzles before, though neither contained so many theme answers.

What exactly is SOUR MASH? I got the answer from down fills. ORANGE CRUSH was an easy guess. I don't even know why Vikings were called "Purple People Eaters" in 1970's. Who cares! They want to move to Los Angeles anyway.

There should be a "briefly" with the clue for TKOS (60A: Fight stoppers). Otherwise, no twisty clues. Solvable if you are not PRESSed for time.

Across:

1A: Tessie or Milo: O'SHEA. Not familiar with Welsh actress/singer Tessie O'SHEA. She sounds like genuinely funny. Wikipedia says she was on "The Ed Sullivan Show" the same day when the Beatles made their first appearance.

10A: Sphere starter?: ATMO. Atmosphere.

15A: Corduroy rib: WALE. Faintly remembered the term corduroy WALE.

22A: French floor: ETAGE. The bric-a-brac shelf ETAGERE is rooted in ETAGE.

28AL Czech Republic region: MORAVIA. No idea. I could only think of Bohemia. Here is the map. Madeleine Albright is probably the most famous Czech American. She could, if she would, have become Czech's President in 2002.

31A: Balanced conditions: STASES. Singular is STASIS. Can you make a sentence for me? I've never used this word before. Equilibriums, yes.

35A: Wall upright: STUD. Very unfamiliar definition to me. Dictionary explains STUD as "an upright post in the framework of a wall for supporting sheets of lath, wallboard, or similar material."

36A: Moon car, briefly: LEM. To an untrained eye, this Apollo 11 Eagle looks ugly and junky. Who is that astronaut?

45A: Greek letters: THETAS. The 8th of Greek alphabet (total 24). Consonant. Interesting how Egyptian hieroglyph has 24 glyphes, but no vowel. I like that "tongue" (mdw).

49A: Wise king: SOLOMON. OK, the first paragraph here: "I've been staring at this Academy Award ballot for the past 20 minutes. The decisions! Now I know how SOLOMON felt." What does "The decisions! Now I know how SOLOMON felt" mean?

66A: "Bellefleur" writer: OATES. Probably our editor's favorite OATES book. He keeps using the same clue. Have you read Sylvia Plath's "The Bell Jar"? Joyce Carol OATES said it's a "near perfect work of art".

67A: Unfledged bird: EYAS. Uh-uh, nope, this is an imagined word.

69A: City on the Adige: TRENT. Called TRENTO in Italy. Adige River seems to be a branch of that unnamed river that runs through Trento, doesn't it?

Down:

2D: Roman acronym: SPQR. Senatus Populusque Romanus (the Senate and the people of Rome). I can only remember "pigs". Maria mentioned last time that Italians call SPQR "Sono Porci Questi Romani", loosely translated as "These Romans are Pigs".

3D: Soccer mom in Munich?: HAUSFRAU. It's just German for "housewife", right, Kazie? I don't know what's so fun about this clue.

5D: Peer Gynt's mother: ASE. I can never remember this lady's name. Nor can I commit the African bushy-tailed fox ASSE into my memory. Can anyone who has read this Ibsen play give us a short summary of what "Peer Gynt" is about?

6D: Bedside pitcher: EWER. No EWER on my bedside table. Never. What's on your bedside? EWER?

9D: Put forth flowers: BLOOM. "Put forth" sounds so laborious. Most flowers "Burst through". The clue reminded me of this Anais Nin quote: And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.

11D: Synagogue scrolls: TORAHS. Does synagogue allow non-Jewish people in?

12D: Actress Smith: MAGGIE. She is so old. Time to clue MAGGIE Q, the hottest MAGGIE on earth.

18D: Yikes!: ZOWIE. I need to use this word often.

34D: Pitch callers: UMPS. Cute, so cute. Can't find an UMP bobblehead. Has to be 1960's & Made in Japan to be valuable.

37D: Black Sea arm: AZOV. I was unaware of Sea of AZOV.

45D: Pestilent fly: TSETSE. Have you heard of blow-fly? Wikipedia says it belongs to the same family as TSETSE fly does.

47D: Satellite of Jupiter: EUROPA. Galileo must be very versed in Greek mythology. Otherwise, he would not have named this moon as EUROPA.

52D: Noon and midnight, e.g.: HOURS. Boy, I felt dense. This did not come to me readily at all.

61D: 905: CMV

C.C.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009 Josiah Breward

Theme: Go, Sow Your Wild Oats

17A: Show: FINISH THIRD

60A: Slow: REDUCE SPEED

11D: Snow: WINTER WHITE

24D: Stow: PACK TIGHTLY

If you have a better theme title, please come to the Comments section. I first wrote down "Go with the Flow" as all the theme clues rhyme with "Flow", but they are quite strict, all starting with letter S and ending with OW.

WINTER WHITE sounds strained to me. Besides, it's clued as a noun while the other three are all verb phrases. I dispute the clue for YEASTY (49D: Like bad bread). It's simply not true. Or should I say "a lie" given the lively blog discussions on TRUER yesterday.

This puzzle is a Hydra monster to me. I struggled hard.

Barry Silk has constructed a special puzzle for us. Click on iPaper and then print it out. Argyle will blog this puzzle on Sunday Feb 22. I hope you save it and solve it only on Saturday evening or Sunday morning.

Across:

6A: Jazz pianist Jankowski: HORST. Stumper immediately. Have never heard of this German pianist.

15A: City southeast of Rome: UTICA. No idea. Here is a map. I can't find UTICA. (Addendum: This is the correct map. It's in NY State. I was thinking of Italy.)

19A: Born in Boulogne: NEE. Another alliteration, the same with "Born in Bordeaux".

20A: Bishop's district: DIOCESE. ARCHDIOCESE is the district of Archbishop, who reports directly to the cardinal, right?

22A: Angel dust, abbr.: PCP. I forgot. It's still an illegal drug, isn't it?

25A: Willie Wonka's creator: DAHL(Roald). His name simply escaped me. Have you watched the Johnny Depp movie?

30A: Hope/Crosby co-star: LAMOUR (Dorothy). Here they are, "Road to Bali". I have never seen any of their "Road to ... " film.

32A: Athletic org.: YMCA. Penned in NCAA first. Can't seem to associate YMCA with "Athletic org.". My friend Linda goes to Y for workout sometimes.

40A: Game bird: WOODHEN. New bird to me. It's a flightless bird of the rail family. They look very dumb. So, the male of WOODHEN should be woodcock then. Oh, no, woodcock is a different bird of wading species. WOW (11A: Holy cow!), What do you call female woodcock then?

48A: __ Beach, S.C.: MYRTLE. I love the golf courses there. And the seafood.

50A: Cartwright or Down: ANGELA. Easy guess. I know neither of them. Who is ANGELA Down?

56A: Jellyfish: MEDUSAS. Nope. Here is a red MEDUSA. Named after the ugly Gorgon MEDUSA I suppose. Don't look at her too long, you don't want to be turned into a stone.

59A: U.S. dance grp.: ABT (American Ballet Theatre). First encounter with this abbreviation.

64A: __ Paese cheese: BEL. This cheese appeared on a Sunday TMS puzzle before. I like the package. So green. Poor dairy cows. So many of them have been turned into hamburgers.

65A: Pipe material: BRIAR. Thought that's how we got BRIAR Pipe. It turns out that I was wrong.

66A: Roofing material: TERNE. No idea. This roofing is TERNE metal coated.

68A: Cordage fibers: ISTLE. This word just looks so wrong. I tried to associate it with thISTLE and whISTLE when it appeared in our puzzle last time. But obviously it did not work. I forgot the damned word completely.

69A: Streisand movie: YENTL

Down:

2D: Fauna starter?: AVI. Prefix for bird.

5D: Football kick: ONSIDE. Not familiar with this football term. Only know PAT value is ONE.

6D: Rabbit residence: HUTCH. Good to know. Could only think of the briar patch.

7D: The Moor of Venice: OTHELLO. IAGO was clued as "Othello conniver" yesterday.

8D: Journalist Jacob August: RIIS. Googled this journalist. Very strange surname. He wrote a biography on TR, the 4th greatest American president, according to the latest C-span survey.

10D: Abe Lioncoln's boy: TAD. Nice trivia.

21A: Quito's country: ECUADOR. Their monetary unit is SUCRE, which was clued as "One of Bolivia's capitals" yesterday.

22D: "The Silver Streak" co-star: PRYOR. Got the answer from intersecting clues.

23D: Comet heads: COMAE. Plural of COMA. Brutal clue. I've never heard of Comet COMA before.

31D: Element fig: AT WT. Always want AT NO.

34D: __ majesty: LESE. High treason. Learned from doing Xword. What is the French root word for LESE?

41D: Pass through a membrane: OSMOSE

44D: Occurring in small stages: GRADUAL. I don't get this one.

47D: Dubbers: NAMERS. Annoy ERS repetition.

53D: Ill-gotten profit: LUCRES. I wanted LOOTS. Definitely need a "filthy" hint for LUCRES.

63D: Dolores __ Rio: DEL. Oh dear, I thought it's river. Have never heard of this Mexican actress. She looks so beautiful. I would say 999 millihelens, enough to launch 999 ships.

C.C.

Wednesday February 11, 2009 Josiah Breward

Theme: The Scarlet Letters

17A: John Cougar Mellencamp hit: CHERRY BOMB

26A: Hit by the Psychedelic Furs: PRETTY IN PINK

43A: Hit by Chris DeBurgh: THE LADY IN RED

58A: Hit by Sting: DESERT ROSE

Why not "Hit by John Cougar Mellencamp" for 17A? It would be more consistent with the other three clues.

An odyssey for me this morning. The center grid where NUBIA/OMBRE/PRAIA intersects one another is very hard. As for the theme entries, I've heard of LADY IN RED and DESERT ROSE. Have forgotten all about CHERRY BOMB, I think someone linked that song before. PRETTY IN PINK is new to me. What a weird band name: The Psychedelic Furs.

There should be a "var." mark with the clue for TABU (9D:Prohibited). I have zero familiarity with SENSORIA (39D: Human CPUs), but "CPUs" should not be part of the clue, as it indicates an abbreviated answer.

Across:

1A: Collier's access: ADIT. Often clued as "Mine entrance". Coal + ier = Collier (coal miner)

15A: Snorer's peril: APNEA. What caused this sleep order?

19A: U.S. weather grp.: NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). New to me.

20A: Diarist Pepys: SAMUEL. Pepys has the same pronunciation as "peeps". His diary recorded the Great Fire of London (1666). Funny how that year is called "Annus Mirablis". It's a perfect "Annus Horribilis". Why do all those Latin words end in letter s?

34A: Women's Lib opponent, perhaps: MCP (Male Chauvinist Pig). Know the phrase, but the abbreviation did not come to me readily.

38A: Three-player card game: OMBRE. Or OMBER. From Spanish hombre (man). It's "a card game popular in the 17th and 18th centuries and played, usually by three persons, with 40 cards." Completely unknown to me.

41A: Cape Verde capital: PRAIA. No idea. See this map. Does it belong to Africa then? Wikipedia says Cape Verde was a Portuguese colony until 1975. About 71% of the population is Creole of mixed black African and Portuguese descent. And more than 85 percent of the population is Roman Catholic. Most of the Africans are Muslims, right?

53A: Ancient region in Asia Minor: AEOLIS. Or Aeolia. Another unknown to me. All I could think of is Ionia. Well, look at here, I was not that far off. I don't understand this part. How is Odysseus' Aeolus island connect with AEOLIS? Are they the same?

60A: Artist Mondrian: PIET. The Dutch painter famous for his "Composition with Yellow, Blue and Red". Also see this PIET Mondrian inspired Nike shoe.

61A: Anaheim player: ANGEL. Awkward Los Angels Angels of Anaheim. Yesterday's Rod Carew (7-time A.L batting champ) finished his career with the Angels.

Down:

4D: Maneuvering rocket: THRUSTER. I don't know. Like this?

10D: "Where the Wild Things Are" writer: SENDAK. I googled this author. Not familiar with the book.

11D: To have: Fr.: AVOIR. Santa, Je veux AVOIR this for Christmas.

18D: Right-hand page: RECTO. Reminds me of Barry G's outburst over RECTI (clued as "Belly muscles"). The singular form is rectus. RECTI is the same as abs, aren't they?

27D: Apple choice: ROME. Here is a clip for those who love the real ROMA.

29D: Nile region: NUBIA. No idea. Here is a map. Wikipedia says "most of NUBIA is situated in Sudan with a quarter of its terriory in Egypt. And in ancient times it was an independent kingdom." Why does this word sound so DF to me?

36D: Cowboy's chum: PARD. Short for Parter. Is it a common slang? I've never heard of it before.

46D: Sun: pref: HELIO

56D: Meeting: abbr.: SESS. This S-laden word is often found either at the bottom or the rightmost edge of the grid.

C.C.

Wednesday February 4, 2009 Adele Mann

Theme: "No" Songs For You

17A: 1986 hit by Heart: NOTHIN' AT ALL

41A: 1963 hit by the Orlons: NOT ME

65A: 1984 hit by Berlin: NO MORE WORDS

11D: 1966 hit by the Beatles: NOWHERE MAN

30D: 1981 hit by Elton John: NOBODY WINS

I have never heard of The Orlons or the Heart bands. And the only Berlin song I am familiar is "Take My Breath Away". Nevertheless, all the theme answers are very easy to obtain.

Excellent theme. I also love Annie Lennox's No More "I Love You's". The video is a bit weird, but the song is beautiful.

I think this is the 4th or 5th time I saw WEN in a TMS puzzle. Every time it's clued as "Sebaceous cyst". Where is the creativity? The WEN Ho Lee nuclear espionage scandal is well known, right? I heard of it when I still lived in China.

I just mentioned two days ago that I wanted WEN clued as "Chinese Premier __ Jiabao". And yesterday someone threw a shoe at him when he was delivering a speech in Cambridge. That despicable protester is completely ignorant of China and the democracy movement there. He has no idea what kind of positive role WEN played during Tiananmen Square Incident. He has no knowledge of how WEN handled the Sichuan earthquake disaster. WEN is the most well respected Chinese leader inside and outside China, among us Chinese.

Across:

1A: Spill the beans: BLAB. Reminds of yesterday's ONAN (Judah's son). He "spills his seeds" on the ground. Might be a waste, but sure not a sin to me. Just learned Onanism from Barry G /Lemonade yesterday.

5A: Japanese entertainer: GEISHA. Here is a modern day GEISHA. The same article says there are now only 1,000 GEISHA left in Japan (compared with 80,000 in 1928) and they are not allowed to marry. “Memoirs of a GEISHA" is a fascinating read.

39A: River of Hamburg: ELBE. Literally "river". Wikipedia says "ELBE was recorded by Ptolemy as Albis, Germanic for "river". Here is the map again. It originates in Czech and flows northwest across German to the North Sea.

44A: Infamous Helmsley: LEONA. The "Queen of Mean". She left millions of trust fund for her dog Trouble when she died. The Helmsley Foundation is the No. 1 charitable giver in 2008 though. Total $5.2 billion commitment. Mayor Bloomberg is the biggest living doner. Strange that the Gates did not make the list.

56A: Legendary archer: TELL. Or "Spill the beans" again.

68A: Barnyard layer: HEN. It's also "Female lobster/octopus/salmon".

70A: Brightest star in Lyra: VEGA. Here is the diagram. Wikipedia says "VEGA was the first star, other than the Sun, to have its photograph taken and the first to have its spectrum photographed" (1850).

Down:

6D: Hurler's stat: ERA. Louis mentioned several days ago about Cleveland's saying "If a Feller has a Lemon He-gan Waynn". I thought that's a great line. Bob Lemon, Jim Hegan or Early Wynn were obscure to me. But Bob Feller is a big potato, HOFer. I thought his name "Feller" could be a great misleading clue. "Feller's start" for ERA sounds good to me.

37D: Pianist Thelonious: MONK. His middle name is Sphere, one of the most influential jazz greats of the 50's and 60's, according to Seattle John.

45D: Fact book: ALMANAC. I wonder how much this original book costs in this condition. Does anyone collect first edition books? I traded my first edition "Godfather" (1969) for some baseball cards several years ago.

50D: City near Rawalpindi: LAHORE. Here is the map. LAHORE is the second-largest city in Pakistan after Karachi. I got the answer, but did not really know where Rawalpindi is. Wikipedia says it's the military headquarters of the Pakistan Armed Forces and and also served as the nation's capital while Islamabad (10th largest city in Pakistan) was being constructed in the 1960s.

55D: Geneva's lake: LEMAN. Here is the name origin. LPGA holds its Evian Masters every year on the southern shore of Lac LEMAN. The golf course looks breathtaking on TV. Big purse, second only to US Open I think.

61D: Three-spot: TREY. No idea. It's always clued as "Low card".

Boomer bowled a 300 last night, his 5th perfect game.

C.C.

Wednesday January 28, 2009 Ed Voile

Theme: Dee-lightful

17A: Small gray-and-black songbird: CHICKADEE

31A: "The Four Seasons" composer: VIVALDI

49A: Restaurant employee: MAITRE D'

66A: "Gidget" star: SANDRA DEE

11D: Miscellany: SALMAGUNDI

30D: One of two rivals: TWEEDLE DEE

I have never heard of SALMAGUNDI before. Thought it would be the same as the Swedish smörgåsbord. But Dictionary says it's a kind of "salad of chopped meat, anchovies, eggs, and onions, often arranged in rows on lettuce and served with vinegar and oil." Doesn't sound good to me. Right now, I am hankering for some French toast drizzled with maple syrup and slices of fresh strawberries.

I solved this puzzle the way John Roberts administered Obama's swearing-in. It looked quite simple yet I still botched a few spots. Interesting theme concept, but I felt the constructor overdid the theme entries. Six is a lot for a weekday puzzle.

I would have picked up one DEE ending, one DI ending, and add a DY ending and worked out a puzzle with four theme answers (together with MAITRE D'), or simply a puzzle with all DEE ending theme entries. I don't know, let me have your opinion.

Across:

14A: Anthracite, e.g.: COAL. I forgot the meaning of "Anthracite", thinking of the dreadful anthrax.

20A: Shinto temple gateway: TORII. Like this one. TORI means "bird", the last I is from Iru meaning "To dwell". Japanese kanji 鳥居 literally means "Bird's Dwelling". Wikipedia says it's originally designed as a large bird perch. In Shintoism, "birds are considered messengers of the gods". I wonder how Angels' TORRI Hunter got his name. People often misspell his name as Tori.

25A: Verbena plant: LANTANA. Very pretty. Wikipedia says "LANTANA berries are edible when ripe though though like many fruit are mildly poisonous if eaten while still green." I stopped picking up and sampling exotic wild berries after watching the movie "Into the Wild".

35A: Ayres and Wallace: LEWS. Both were unknown to me. My answer was ELIS.

38A: Phony: PSEUDO. Adjective here?

41A: Game similar to keno: BEANO. Have never played BEANO or bingo.

43A: Nabokov novel: PNIN. I suppose letter P is silent? "Nabokov novel" answer is always "Ada", "PNIN" or "Lolita".

44A: Audience loudmouth: JEERER. Sounds like a made-up word.

46A: D.C. old-timer: POL. This "old-timer" confuses me. Now, if Minnesota recount mess clears up and Al Franken becomes our senator, he will be a POL, but he won't be a "D.C. old-timer", right? He will simply be a "D.C. newcomer".

47A: Rehan and Huxtable: ADAS. ADA Rehan was an actress. ADA Huxtable won Pulitzer in 1970, and is currently the architecture critic for "The Wall Street Journal". Both were unknown to me.

53A: Henry VIII's court painter: HOLBEIN. No idea. Strange necklace. Is S a special symbol for something? (Addendum: The painting is Thomas More. Here is HOLBEIN's self-portrait).

57A: Profit makers: EARNERS. What do you think of the clue/answer?

64A: Arboreal lemur: INDRI. You should eat worms if you miss this answer again.

Down:

1D: $ in the bank: ACCT. I was thinking of amount.

6D: Focal point: NODE. Is this a math term? I am not familiar with this definition.

9D: Pairs of twins: GEMINIS

22D: Polliwogs: TADPOLES. Last time TADPOLE is clued as "Frog of the future".

24D: Cerebrum's neighbor: MIDBRAIN. I guessed. I don't know anything about my brain structure.

27D: King in "The Tempest": ALONSO. I only knew King Lear.

28D: Biblical prophet: ELIJAH. "According to the Bible, he did not die but was carried skyward in a chariot of fire." Does it mean that other "Biblical prophets" all died?

29D: Moon: pref.: SELENO. New prefix for me, though I do know the Greek goddess of moon is Selene.

36D: Former Sov. unit: SSR

39D: Reg. agcy.: EPA. Luckily I got the crossing PNIN, otherwise, this would be an impossible for me. The clue is so vague.

50D: Having actual existence: Lat.: IN ESSE. Opposite IN POSSE.

54D: Actor Bostwick: BARRY. I googled his name, then I realized who he is. "Bostwick" sounds Scottish.

56D: Praise: EXALT. Extol also has 5 letters.

63D: Broadcast: SENT. I often forget that the past tense of "Broadcast" is still "Broadcast".

C.C.

Wednesday January 21, 2009 Willy A. Wiseman

Theme: NN-ending Famous Names

17A: "Songcatcher" co-star: AIDAN QUINN

36A: Former Georgia Senator: SAM NUNN

56A: "Little Big Man" director: ARTHUR PENN

11D: "Death in Venice" author: THOMAS MANN

27D: Star of "Captain Blood": ERROL FLYNN

*ANN, *ENN, *INN, *UNN, *YNN, the only one missing is *ONN. I bet Wiseman searched hard for an *ONN ending famous name but came up with nothing. He did compensate this with BONN (6A: Beethoven's birthplace).

I've never heard of "Songcatcher", "Litttle Big Man" or "Captain Blood", but the theme answers were not difficult to obtain, given the easy crossings and self-evident theme.

I dislike the clue for SOWED (60A): Scattered (seeds) since SEED POD is the answer for 42D: Vanilla bean. Also, why "Vanilla bean" for SEED POD? I don't get it.

Across:

15A: Half of CXIV: LVII. Roman 57. I am so happy that I am not a Roman. I don't think I can calculate without first converting those Roman numerals into Arabic numbers first.

16A: Auto-racing org.: NHRA (National Hot Rod Association)

21A: Kern and Robbins: JEROMES. JEROME Kern composed "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes". JEROME Robbins won an Oscar for directing "West Side Story". I knew neither of them.

24A: Argentine port: PARANA. See this map. I've never heard of PARANA River/port. My wrong guess was MARANA.

33A: Municipal grp.: DPW (Department of Public Works)

38A: Islands of Indonesia: ARU. Here is ARU Islands again (lower right corner).

39A: NHL coach Bowman: SCOTTY. Wow, 11 Stanley Cups, very impressive. Too bad, his name means nothing to me.

45A: Some changes: CENTS

49A: Peace pipe: CALUMET. No idea. Dictionary says CALUMET is "a long-stemmed sacred or ceremonial tobacco pipe used by certain Native American peoples." Native Indians seem to love feathers for decorations.

51A: Bay of Alaska: PRUDHOE. Have never heard of PRUDHOE Bay. Easy inference though.

Down:

8D: Martial arts masters: NINJAS. It's rooted in Chinese 忍者. Nin is "endure". Ja is "person". I know the name, did not know that they are "Martial arts masters".

9D: SF gridder: NINER. Wikipedia says San Francisco 49ers have won 5 Super Bowls, and they "share the Super Bowl win record with the Dallas Cowboys and the Pittsburgh Steelers". For another 10 days?

12D: Art Deco artist: ERTE. "Symphony in Black" is probably ERTE's most famous image.

24D: Platte River valley people: PAWNEES. New word to me. Does PAWNEE have any special meaning in their own language? Can't be PAWN related.

25D: Canton folk: SWISS. Good clue. I was thinking of those folks I left behind in Canton (Guangzhou), China. Did anyone think of those football Hall-of-Famers in Canton, OH?

26D: Stupor: pref.: NARCO

37D: Ref's cohort: UMP. Look at this guy's impressive bobblehead collection. I wonder if he has a 1960' UMP nodder.

40D: Screes: TALUSES. I did not know the meaning of "Scree". Checked the dictionary and it explains "scree" as TALUS, broken rock debris at the base of a cliff.

44D: Gas in Glasgow: PETROL. Good alliteration.

52D: Shaped with an ax: HEWN

50D: First-class: A ONE. And ONE A (53D: SSS class)

C.C.

Wednesday January 14, 2009 Barry Silk

Theme: SETTLED THE SCORE (61A: Took revenge)

17A: Manassas conflict: BATTLE OF BULL RUN (Baseball)

23A: Meal container: PICNIC BASKET (Basketball)

38A: Calculus calculation: INFLECTION POINT (Football)

51A: Future target: LONG-TERM GOAL (Hockey)

What is INFLECTION POINT? Sounds like an abstract term to me.

Considering the basketball theme today, I wonder why MVP (44A: Letters for baseball's best) is not clued as "Letters for basketball's best". NBA does have MVP award, right? (Addendum: My bad. I misunderstood the theme this morning.)

The clue for ATF (21A: Booze, butts and bullets bureau) definitely needs an abbreviation hint. It should be "Org." rather than "bureau". I love the clue for ATTIC (3D: Top story?). Very clever.

Barry Silk mentioned last time that he is going to hold a presentation on crossword in D.C. (Tysons-Pimmet Regional Branch of the Fairfax County Library) on Jan 17 Saturday. Has anyone registered yet? I hope you can take pictures of Barry and share with us next week.

Across:

1A: Wild hogs: BOARS. Do you think "Hogs wild?" will be a good clue for BOARS?

6A: "Pygmalion" dramatist: SHAW. I wonder why the musical/film was renamed "My Fair Lady" later on. I rather like the mythological aura of the original title.

10A: Spiced tea beverage: CHAI. Rooted in Chinese Cha, meaning "Tea". Strange to see people put sugar, or milk, or spice in tea. Loose leaves and hot water, that's all you need for a perfect tea.

14A: John of the keys: ELTON. I like his "Can You Feel the Love Tonight".

16A: Sources of online help: FAQS (Frequently Asked Questions)

22A: Bother greatly: EAT AT

29A: The Sweetest Place on Earth: HERSHEY. Ha, this is new to me. I did not know that HERSHEY is actually a town in PA. Thought it's only the brand name of the chocolate. I like M & M anyway. Look at this cute dispenser.

46A: Computer model: DESKTOP

56A: Do-it-yourself mover: U-HAUL

69A: Vaio maker: SONY. I don't think this is Barry's original clue. I am not familiar with Vaio notebook.

Down:

1D: Jazz style: BEBOP. What on earth is BEBOP style? Fast? Slow? Broody? Romantic?

2D: Norwegian king (995-1000): OLAV I. I guessed. It could only be OLAV I, OLAV V or OLAV X. Oh, I checked, there is no OLAV X.

6D: Passed quickly: SHOT BY

7D: Vanished union boss: HOFFA (Jimmy). Read stories about this guy in various JFK/RFK books. Very intriguing case. His son James HOFFA is currently the president of Teamsters.

9D: Sch. in Pullman: WSU (Washington State University). I guessed. Have never heard of Pullman. Is it named after the railroad sleeping car guy Pullman?

10D: Some major scales: C-FLAT

11D: Poet Crane: HART. New poet to me. Interesting name. How did his friend address him when they wrote him letters then? Deer HART?

12D: Lung opener?: AQUA. Is AQUA-lung a familiar diving equipment to you? I've never heard of it before. Hmmm, interesting, Dennis might like this one: "Marine opener?"

13D: Ain't correct?: ISN'T

33D: Multicolored: PIED. It's clued as "__ -a-terre" in Barry's last puzzle.

34D: Gender-biased suffix: ENNE. Like trix.

35D: Old-time postal rtes.: RFDS (Rural Free Deliveries)

42D: NASA unit: ONE G. There is no G in outer space, right?

47D: Like an oaf: KLUTZY

49D: Female peasant: PEAHEN. Funny how PEAHEN looks so different from peacock.

50D: English composer: ARNE (Thomas). Often clued as "Rule, Britannia" composer. I look forward to a "Secretary of Education Duncan" clue for ARNE after Jan 20.

53D: Threatened layer: OZONE. I don't understand the clue. Why "Threatened"?

55D: Loamy soil: LOESS. I can never remember this word.

58D: Egyptian god: ATEN. Or ATON. The Egyptian sun god. There is no vowel in Egyptian hieroglyphs, hence various variations in Egyptian God/Goddess names later on, including ATEN and ATON.

64D: The Racer's Edge: STP. Very strange brand name: Son of a Gun!.

65D: Disney collectible: CEL. Remember these three Disney "Snow White" CELS on Antiques Roadshow? Amazing price.

C.C.