Theme: NO ZOO
27A: Mechanic: GREASE MONKEY
55A: All-bark-and-no-bite type: PAPER TIGER
81A: Equipment used in an English sport: CRICKET BAT
111A: Intentional out: SACRIFICE FLY
12D: Crop protector: SCARE CROW
15D: Surprise package: TROJAN HORSE
68D: Classroom contest: SPELLING BEE
80D: Street banker: LOAN SHARK
Absolutely, NO ZOO here, just a menagerie of innocuous idiomatic phrases embedded with animal names. It's a real stunner, isn't it? From land animal to sea animal, from wildlife to farm favorite, from giant SHARK to tiny BEE. Simple, colloquial phrases. Beautiful!
I thought of "CROCODILE Tear" this morning, but it did not fit the above theme pattern, did anything interesting pop into your brain?
It looks like I was wrong last time in doubting the authorship of the "PLAY BALL" puzzle. It's indeed Mr. Olschwang's work. Great! I am so tired of his Quip/Quote puzzles. I can not wait to work on his next Sunday offering.
This is the most striking TMS Sunday puzzle I've ever done. So fluid. I did not see any forced fill. Except for clue 121A: "Normal Rae" director (as RAES also appeared as an answer for 58A), I don't have anything else to gripe about. And this small flaw could have been easily smoothed over had our Editor done his job.
I breezed through this puzzle, stalled only at the C.W. MOSS (65D) corner. I had no idea who Pollard was. I've never heard of C.W. MOSS before. URANIC was a complete stranger to me, and it's such a weird looking word. I thought of penning in CURSOR, but CWMOSS just looked so wrong to me. So I needlessly flirted with Google and I regretted immediately.
I also had to check in my dictionary for NONU and PICT. Have never met with them before.
ACROSS:
1A: Gauge face: DIAL
5A: Folk singer Guthrie: ARLO. Oh, the chip off Woody's block!
13A: Ad-ending words: ACT NOW
19A: Eye covetously: OGLE. Want to know how Larry Page got the name "GOOGLE" for his search engine? Read here.
21A: Like Pindar's poetry: ODIC
22A: Singer fired on-air by Arthur Godfrey: LA ROSA (Julius). No idea. I know neither of them. Got it from down clues (after the NONU dictionary check).
23A: High time?: NOON. "High NOON" movie. So so. Not a fan of Gary Cooper.
24A: Tibetan leader: DALAI LAMA. He transcends religion & nationality. A great man.
26A: Words of denial: I DO NOT
29A: Tune again: READJUST
31A: Some TV sets: GES (General Electric).
33A: Iran, once: PERSIA. Changed into Iran in 1935.
34A: Expire: RUN OUT
37A: Dante's love: BEATRICE. I've never known this before. What an inspiring love!
39A: Sign up (var.): ENROL
43A: Concluded: OVER
44A: Zeno's birthplace: ELEA. Alright, Zeno of ELEA, the Greek philosopher. There is also another Zeno, Zeno of Citium (the Stoic).
46A: Violinist Leopold: AUER. The Hungarian violinist. Saw this clue before.
47A: Cling: ADHERE
48A: Intended: MEANT
50A: Swedish physicist Angstrom: ANDERS. Unknown to me. Pieced it together from down clues. Denmark's ANDERS Hensen has to win Masters in order to make his name in the TMS puzzle.
52A: Sailor's admin.: ONI (Office of Naval Intelligence)
58A: Dawn Chong and Carruth: RAES. Heard of Rae Dawn Chong, not Carruth.
59A: Last Mrs. Chaplin: OONA. It's the only Mrs. Chaplin I know.
63A: Contract consummation time: CLOSING
65A: Computer pointer: CURSOR. Could not believe I screwed up here.
69A: Calif. daily: LA TIMES
72A: Not close-minded about: OPEN TO
73A: Prepared a present: WRAPPED
75A: Novelist Morrison: TONI. I've never read any of her book. Know her only because she said Bill Clinton was the "first Black President". She endorsed Obama though.
76A: Ancient Brit: PICT. Unknown to me. I wanted CELT. "One of an ancient people of northern Britain. They remained undefeated by the Romans and in the ninth century joined with the Scots to form a kingdom later to become Scotland." Dictionary says that this word could be from the Latin "picti", meaning painted, pp form).
87A: Scott Turow title: ONE L. It's about the life of a first year law student in Harvard. Very interesting read. A bit too intense for me though.
89A: Fly in an aircraft: AVIATE
91A: Dilettante's paintings: DAUBS
92A: Edges along: SIDLES . I often confuse this word with SADDLE.
94: Christie of fiction: ANNA. Did not know this. Eugene O'Neil play. Looks like Mr. Olschwang likes O'Neil and his daughter OONA. I bet he likes baseball too. SACRIFICE FLY is awesome.
96A: Govt. training leg.: CETA (Comprehensive Employment and Training Act)
98A: Negri of the silents: POLA. Know her name from doing crossword.
99A: Thin curtain: SCRIM. Saw this clue before.
100A: Gets cozy: SNUGGLES
102A: Stephen of the Supreme court: BREYER. Gimme for me. He is often on the liberal side.
107A: 2005 AL MVP: AROD. When are you going to clue the 2006 AL MVP Justin Morneau?
108A: Inscription on a statute: EPIGRAPH
116A: Legal profession: THE BAR. And ONE L. a bit of Law sub-theme here.
117A: Protein builder: AMINO ACID
119A: Gumshoe's lead: CLUE
120A: Prove oneself capable of coping with: RISE TO
121A: "Norma Rae" director: RITT (Martin). Got it from down clues. Not familiar with RITT.
122A: U.S. legislative body: CONG. And Let me see the latest approval rating for the Congress... 23% (AP/Ipsos)? Wow, that's a big improvement over last Sept's 11%. But what the heck have they done to improve that number?
123A: Tropical nut tree: KOLA
124A: High regard: ESTEEM
125A: Intimate greeting: KISS. Cheek? Or where? How intimate? Do you like "KISS"? I don't. They are too wild for me. I have my own KISS Principle (Keep it Sweet & Simple).
126A: Patella's place: KNEE
127A: Cowboy's prod: SPUR
DOWN:
1D: Bell sound: DONG
2D: Frankensetein's goer: IGOR. Or "Composer Stravinsky".
4D: "Stormy Weather" singer: LENA HORNE. Don't know the song. Know the author. Alicia Keys is going to play LENA HORNE in the upcoming biopic.
5D: One way to cook pasta: AL DENTE. It's the only way I cook mine.
7D: Composer Schifrin: LALO. Saw his name before. The Argentine-American composer. What does "LALO" mean?
8D: Summer time refresher: ORANGEADE. I've never had it.
9D: Polaris: POLE STAR. Don't like the clue.
10D: Singer Anita: O'DAY. No idea. She is dead.
14D: Carried the club: CADDIED. Ahh, the always cool Steve Williams.
16D: Polynesian tree: NONU. Also known as NONI, NONO. Wikipedia says its fruit has a very pungent odor, also called "Cheese Fruit". Looks ugly, doesn't it? Here is a NONU tree.
17D: Spanish bears: OSOS. ORO is gold in Spanish. So how do you say Jack Nicklaus' nickname "Golden Bear" in Spanish then?
18D: Unit of power: WATT
25D: Home decor company: IKEA
28D: Old French coin: SOU. Sometimes it's ECU.
34D: Cavort: ROMP
35D: Iris part: UVEA
36D: Quarterly-moon tide: NEAP
37D: Bay of __: BENGAL. Here is the map.
38D: USSR hub: RUS. I was initially thinking of Sov or Soc as the two SS in USSR.
41D: Familiarize with new conditions: ORIENT
42D: Shall we be off?: LET'S GO
45D: Reclined: LAIN. (Update later: Sorry about the LAID mistake earlier). I truly like this Monet's Olympia painting, let's show again.
47D: Spacecraft antechamber: AIRLOCK. No idea.
49D: Group of soldier: TROOP
51D: Muse of poetry: ERATO. Alright, let's delve into Greek mythology muses. Their parents are Mnemosyne (Goddess of memory,that's how we get Mnemonic I suppose), and Zeus (father of other god, son of Rhea, brother of Hera, etc). The 9 muses are: Calliope (epic poetry), Clio (history), Erato (lyric poetry), Euterpe (music), Melpomene (tragedy), Polyhymnia (religious music), Terpsichore (dance), Thalia (comedy), and Urania (astronomy). Hard, isn't it?
53D: Sony rival: NEC (Nippon Electric Company). I like their TV ads.
56D: Bullfighters: TOREROS. The matador. TORERO is from Latin "taurus" meaning bull.
62D: Italian friends: AMICI. Singular is AMICO (masculine form). The feminine form is AMICA, AMICHE is the plural form. OK, a bit Chinese for you: "女朋友" is girlfriend, and "男朋友" is boyfriend. "I love you" is "我爱你"(pronounced like Wo Ai Ni). What else do you need to know?
63D: Expressed a preference: OPTED
65D: Pollard in "Bonnie and Clyde": C.W. MOSS. Big stumper for me. Michael J. Pollard played CW MOSS in "Bonnie and Clyde".
66D: Celestial: URANIC. Unknown to me. It's from the Greek word "ouran" (heaven).
67D: Like a movie for person over 17: RATED R
71D: Treats with malice: SPITES. I learned a new phrase this morning: "Cut off one's nose to spite one's face". Very interesting way to "create a disadvantage to oneself through one's own spiteful action."
77D: "Rhyme Pays" rapper: ICE T. Don't know the song, know ICE T though.
82D: Tout's hangout: RACE TRACK
83D: Cassette players: TAPE DECKS
84D: Channel marker: BUOY
85D: Willing companion?: ABLE. Willing and Able: Not reluctant.
89D: "Brokeback Mountain" director Lee: ANG. "I wish I knew how to quit you."
90D: Wandering bums: VAGRANTS. Thought of VAGABOND. Discarded the idea quickly.
93D: UAE constituent: EMIRATE. It's a country full of EMEER, AMEER, EMIR & AMIR I suppose.
97D: Shorten: ABRIDGE
100D: Cal. abbr.: SEP. Add one S, you've got one deadly SEPS snake (thanks for the picture link drdad). To those Sunday-only solvers, this lethal SEPS was clued "Numidian serpent" on Tuesday April 23 and it stumped many of us.
101D: Wacko: LOCO
103D: Mythical bird: ROC. The giant bird. The mythical elephant eater.
105D: Billiards shot: CAROM
107D: Kern tune"___ Romance": A FINE. I've never heard of it. With no KISSES? Doesn't sound romance to me. "A Fine Romance" is also a movie (Judi Dench).
108D: To be, in Toulouse: ETRE. Now I know why the constructor always picks up "Toulouse": for the sole purpose of alliteration. Je m'ennui! The same with "Sapporo sash" for OBI. It gets insufferably boring after awhile.
113D: Dud: FLOP
114D: Humdinger: LULU. I tend to confuse this "humdinger" with "harbinger".
115D: Twelvemonth: YEAR
118D: DI times II: MII (501*2=1,002)
C.C.
27A: Mechanic: GREASE MONKEY
55A: All-bark-and-no-bite type: PAPER TIGER
81A: Equipment used in an English sport: CRICKET BAT
111A: Intentional out: SACRIFICE FLY
12D: Crop protector: SCARE CROW
15D: Surprise package: TROJAN HORSE
68D: Classroom contest: SPELLING BEE
80D: Street banker: LOAN SHARK
Absolutely, NO ZOO here, just a menagerie of innocuous idiomatic phrases embedded with animal names. It's a real stunner, isn't it? From land animal to sea animal, from wildlife to farm favorite, from giant SHARK to tiny BEE. Simple, colloquial phrases. Beautiful!
I thought of "CROCODILE Tear" this morning, but it did not fit the above theme pattern, did anything interesting pop into your brain?
It looks like I was wrong last time in doubting the authorship of the "PLAY BALL" puzzle. It's indeed Mr. Olschwang's work. Great! I am so tired of his Quip/Quote puzzles. I can not wait to work on his next Sunday offering.
This is the most striking TMS Sunday puzzle I've ever done. So fluid. I did not see any forced fill. Except for clue 121A: "Normal Rae" director (as RAES also appeared as an answer for 58A), I don't have anything else to gripe about. And this small flaw could have been easily smoothed over had our Editor done his job.
I breezed through this puzzle, stalled only at the C.W. MOSS (65D) corner. I had no idea who Pollard was. I've never heard of C.W. MOSS before. URANIC was a complete stranger to me, and it's such a weird looking word. I thought of penning in CURSOR, but CWMOSS just looked so wrong to me. So I needlessly flirted with Google and I regretted immediately.
I also had to check in my dictionary for NONU and PICT. Have never met with them before.
ACROSS:
1A: Gauge face: DIAL
5A: Folk singer Guthrie: ARLO. Oh, the chip off Woody's block!
13A: Ad-ending words: ACT NOW
19A: Eye covetously: OGLE. Want to know how Larry Page got the name "GOOGLE" for his search engine? Read here.
21A: Like Pindar's poetry: ODIC
22A: Singer fired on-air by Arthur Godfrey: LA ROSA (Julius). No idea. I know neither of them. Got it from down clues (after the NONU dictionary check).
23A: High time?: NOON. "High NOON" movie. So so. Not a fan of Gary Cooper.
24A: Tibetan leader: DALAI LAMA. He transcends religion & nationality. A great man.
26A: Words of denial: I DO NOT
29A: Tune again: READJUST
31A: Some TV sets: GES (General Electric).
33A: Iran, once: PERSIA. Changed into Iran in 1935.
34A: Expire: RUN OUT
37A: Dante's love: BEATRICE. I've never known this before. What an inspiring love!
39A: Sign up (var.): ENROL
43A: Concluded: OVER
44A: Zeno's birthplace: ELEA. Alright, Zeno of ELEA, the Greek philosopher. There is also another Zeno, Zeno of Citium (the Stoic).
46A: Violinist Leopold: AUER. The Hungarian violinist. Saw this clue before.
47A: Cling: ADHERE
48A: Intended: MEANT
50A: Swedish physicist Angstrom: ANDERS. Unknown to me. Pieced it together from down clues. Denmark's ANDERS Hensen has to win Masters in order to make his name in the TMS puzzle.
52A: Sailor's admin.: ONI (Office of Naval Intelligence)
58A: Dawn Chong and Carruth: RAES. Heard of Rae Dawn Chong, not Carruth.
59A: Last Mrs. Chaplin: OONA. It's the only Mrs. Chaplin I know.
63A: Contract consummation time: CLOSING
65A: Computer pointer: CURSOR. Could not believe I screwed up here.
69A: Calif. daily: LA TIMES
72A: Not close-minded about: OPEN TO
73A: Prepared a present: WRAPPED
75A: Novelist Morrison: TONI. I've never read any of her book. Know her only because she said Bill Clinton was the "first Black President". She endorsed Obama though.
76A: Ancient Brit: PICT. Unknown to me. I wanted CELT. "One of an ancient people of northern Britain. They remained undefeated by the Romans and in the ninth century joined with the Scots to form a kingdom later to become Scotland." Dictionary says that this word could be from the Latin "picti", meaning painted, pp form).
87A: Scott Turow title: ONE L. It's about the life of a first year law student in Harvard. Very interesting read. A bit too intense for me though.
89A: Fly in an aircraft: AVIATE
91A: Dilettante's paintings: DAUBS
92A: Edges along: SIDLES . I often confuse this word with SADDLE.
94: Christie of fiction: ANNA. Did not know this. Eugene O'Neil play. Looks like Mr. Olschwang likes O'Neil and his daughter OONA. I bet he likes baseball too. SACRIFICE FLY is awesome.
96A: Govt. training leg.: CETA (Comprehensive Employment and Training Act)
98A: Negri of the silents: POLA. Know her name from doing crossword.
99A: Thin curtain: SCRIM. Saw this clue before.
100A: Gets cozy: SNUGGLES
102A: Stephen of the Supreme court: BREYER. Gimme for me. He is often on the liberal side.
107A: 2005 AL MVP: AROD. When are you going to clue the 2006 AL MVP Justin Morneau?
108A: Inscription on a statute: EPIGRAPH
116A: Legal profession: THE BAR. And ONE L. a bit of Law sub-theme here.
117A: Protein builder: AMINO ACID
119A: Gumshoe's lead: CLUE
120A: Prove oneself capable of coping with: RISE TO
121A: "Norma Rae" director: RITT (Martin). Got it from down clues. Not familiar with RITT.
122A: U.S. legislative body: CONG. And Let me see the latest approval rating for the Congress... 23% (AP/Ipsos)? Wow, that's a big improvement over last Sept's 11%. But what the heck have they done to improve that number?
123A: Tropical nut tree: KOLA
124A: High regard: ESTEEM
125A: Intimate greeting: KISS. Cheek? Or where? How intimate? Do you like "KISS"? I don't. They are too wild for me. I have my own KISS Principle (Keep it Sweet & Simple).
126A: Patella's place: KNEE
127A: Cowboy's prod: SPUR
DOWN:
1D: Bell sound: DONG
2D: Frankensetein's goer: IGOR. Or "Composer Stravinsky".
4D: "Stormy Weather" singer: LENA HORNE. Don't know the song. Know the author. Alicia Keys is going to play LENA HORNE in the upcoming biopic.
5D: One way to cook pasta: AL DENTE. It's the only way I cook mine.
7D: Composer Schifrin: LALO. Saw his name before. The Argentine-American composer. What does "LALO" mean?
8D: Summer time refresher: ORANGEADE. I've never had it.
9D: Polaris: POLE STAR. Don't like the clue.
10D: Singer Anita: O'DAY. No idea. She is dead.
14D: Carried the club: CADDIED. Ahh, the always cool Steve Williams.
16D: Polynesian tree: NONU. Also known as NONI, NONO. Wikipedia says its fruit has a very pungent odor, also called "Cheese Fruit". Looks ugly, doesn't it? Here is a NONU tree.
17D: Spanish bears: OSOS. ORO is gold in Spanish. So how do you say Jack Nicklaus' nickname "Golden Bear" in Spanish then?
18D: Unit of power: WATT
25D: Home decor company: IKEA
28D: Old French coin: SOU. Sometimes it's ECU.
34D: Cavort: ROMP
35D: Iris part: UVEA
36D: Quarterly-moon tide: NEAP
37D: Bay of __: BENGAL. Here is the map.
38D: USSR hub: RUS. I was initially thinking of Sov or Soc as the two SS in USSR.
41D: Familiarize with new conditions: ORIENT
42D: Shall we be off?: LET'S GO
45D: Reclined: LAIN. (Update later: Sorry about the LAID mistake earlier). I truly like this Monet's Olympia painting, let's show again.
47D: Spacecraft antechamber: AIRLOCK. No idea.
49D: Group of soldier: TROOP
51D: Muse of poetry: ERATO. Alright, let's delve into Greek mythology muses. Their parents are Mnemosyne (Goddess of memory,that's how we get Mnemonic I suppose), and Zeus (father of other god, son of Rhea, brother of Hera, etc). The 9 muses are: Calliope (epic poetry), Clio (history), Erato (lyric poetry), Euterpe (music), Melpomene (tragedy), Polyhymnia (religious music), Terpsichore (dance), Thalia (comedy), and Urania (astronomy). Hard, isn't it?
53D: Sony rival: NEC (Nippon Electric Company). I like their TV ads.
56D: Bullfighters: TOREROS. The matador. TORERO is from Latin "taurus" meaning bull.
62D: Italian friends: AMICI. Singular is AMICO (masculine form). The feminine form is AMICA, AMICHE is the plural form. OK, a bit Chinese for you: "女朋友" is girlfriend, and "男朋友" is boyfriend. "I love you" is "我爱你"(pronounced like Wo Ai Ni). What else do you need to know?
63D: Expressed a preference: OPTED
65D: Pollard in "Bonnie and Clyde": C.W. MOSS. Big stumper for me. Michael J. Pollard played CW MOSS in "Bonnie and Clyde".
66D: Celestial: URANIC. Unknown to me. It's from the Greek word "ouran" (heaven).
67D: Like a movie for person over 17: RATED R
71D: Treats with malice: SPITES. I learned a new phrase this morning: "Cut off one's nose to spite one's face". Very interesting way to "create a disadvantage to oneself through one's own spiteful action."
77D: "Rhyme Pays" rapper: ICE T. Don't know the song, know ICE T though.
82D: Tout's hangout: RACE TRACK
83D: Cassette players: TAPE DECKS
84D: Channel marker: BUOY
85D: Willing companion?: ABLE. Willing and Able: Not reluctant.
89D: "Brokeback Mountain" director Lee: ANG. "I wish I knew how to quit you."
90D: Wandering bums: VAGRANTS. Thought of VAGABOND. Discarded the idea quickly.
93D: UAE constituent: EMIRATE. It's a country full of EMEER, AMEER, EMIR & AMIR I suppose.
97D: Shorten: ABRIDGE
100D: Cal. abbr.: SEP. Add one S, you've got one deadly SEPS snake (thanks for the picture link drdad). To those Sunday-only solvers, this lethal SEPS was clued "Numidian serpent" on Tuesday April 23 and it stumped many of us.
101D: Wacko: LOCO
103D: Mythical bird: ROC. The giant bird. The mythical elephant eater.
105D: Billiards shot: CAROM
107D: Kern tune"___ Romance": A FINE. I've never heard of it. With no KISSES? Doesn't sound romance to me. "A Fine Romance" is also a movie (Judi Dench).
108D: To be, in Toulouse: ETRE. Now I know why the constructor always picks up "Toulouse": for the sole purpose of alliteration. Je m'ennui! The same with "Sapporo sash" for OBI. It gets insufferably boring after awhile.
113D: Dud: FLOP
114D: Humdinger: LULU. I tend to confuse this "humdinger" with "harbinger".
115D: Twelvemonth: YEAR
118D: DI times II: MII (501*2=1,002)
C.C.
