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Mar 19, 2009

Thursday March 19, 2009 Willy A. Wiseman

Theme: None or a Farewell Message?

Well, I was expecting a coup de grĂ¢ce quip/quote today. Did not expect such a short two line "parting words" from our editor Wayne R. Williams (aka Willy A. Wiseman/Josiah Breward).

A themed puzzle should have at least three entries, but I only found two:

31A: Start of parting words: SEE YOU IN THE

40A: End of parting words: FUNNY PAPERS

So, technically this is a themeless. I've never heard of the above idiom before. Does it really carry an air of "mild contempt"?

The clue for NOUVEAU (5D: Word with riche or cuisine) is simply wrong. Cuisine is a feminine noun, so the adjective is nouvelle, not NOUVEAU. Haute cuisine, not "haut" cuisine. "Word with riche or art" would be OK.

Across:

1A: Novice reporter: CUB. Surprised that Wiseman did not use "Chicago pro" clue in his last puzzle to pay tribute to his major audience, the Chicago Tribune solvers.

4A: Preserved for later: ON ICE

15A: Musical wrap-ups: CODAS

18A: City on the Arkansas: TULSA. See this map. I got the answer from down fills. Wikipedia says "For most of the 20th century, the city held the nickname "Oil Capital of the World". Which city holds the title now? Riyadh (Saudi Arabia)?

23A: Stuck around: WAITED

26A: Nobleman: EARLS. Thought of PEERS first, then LORDS, then EARLS.

28A: Established in office: INSTATED. One more blank, the answer would be INSTALLED.

44A: Powers of "Hart to Hart": STEFANIE. New actress to me. Often see girls named Stephanie. Wikipedia says "Hart to Hart" was created by Sidney Sheldon. I like his "Rage of Angels".

46A: New Haven alum: ELI. How many of our presidents graduated from Yale? I only know Bush 41, Clinton & Bush 43.

47A: Artifact: RELIC. This word always reminds me of Agatha Christie. She left the comfort of England and accompanied her archaeologist husband to the extremely tough-to-live Iraq exploring those digs. Yet he still cheated on her. Why are most men unfaithful?

48A: Theater section: BALCONY. The answer is often LOGE.

57A: Above it all: ALOOF. I like this quote: "Anger, ego, jealousy are the biggest diseases. Keep yourself ALOOF from these three diseases".

61A: Miller's product: FLOUR. "Milliner's product" will be HAT. I can never understand the rage about that hat.

63A: Clay or Frick: HENRY. No idea. According to Wiki, HENRY Clay was more than any other individual responsible for the War of 1812. And he was greatly admired by Lincoln and JFK. Henry Clay Frick was an industrialist and art patron, once known as "America's most hated man". Why was he hated so much?

64A: Rhythm of activity: TEMPO

Down:

2D: Detach: UNFIX

9D: Fertility goddess: ASTARTE. I forgot. Could only think of the "Egyptian goddess of fertility" ISIS. ASTARTE is the ancient Semitic goddess, worshiped by both Phonicians and cannanites.

10D: Australian lass: SHEILA. Kazie says this is an outdated Aussi slang.

11D: Ohio school: KENT STATE. Lou Holtz' alma mater. Here is their Golden Flashes logo.

13D: Scott of a famous case: DRED. I blanked again. Could only think of Scott Peterson.

21D: Nymph chaser: SATYR. See this picture. Very ugly libertine. Part-man, part-horse. The Roman equivalent is Fauns.

23D: Dry streambed: WASH. Have never heard of Dry WASH before.

26D: Portal: ENTRY

28D: Vacuous: INANE

31D: Black and White: SEAS. I've heard of White SEA, but I forgot where it's located. Do those purple colored areas all belong to Norway?

33D: Duck product: EIDERDOWN

34D: Type of Greek column: IONIC. This is quite tricky, as DORIC almost fits in too. See this D.I.C picture (Thanks, Kazie). I don't believe we had Corinthian in our puzzle before.

38D: Pizazz: SPICE. Pizazz, pizzaz, pizzazz. So many different spellings.

40D: In error: FALSELY

41D: Detachment: UNIT. Why? I was thinking of aloofness.

42D: London fog: PEA SOUP. Have never been to London. Does the fog really look like PEA SOUP?

45D: Tributary: FEEDER

49D: "La Boheme" or "The Girl of the Golden West": OPERA. Both by Puccini. I am not familiar with "The Girl of the Golden West".

50D: Peter and Franco: NEROS. Peter NERO is an American pianist. He appeared in our puzzle before. Franco NERO is an Italian actor, husband of Vanessa Redgrave (the girl on his left). Redgrave is the mother of Natasha Richardson, who died last night after suffering a head injury from a skiing accident. Natasha is the wife of Liam Neeson ("Schindler's List"). He is going to play Abe Lincoln in Spielberg's biopic. Too much information?

51D: "The Shadowy Waters" poet: YEATS. Got the answer. Have never heard of the poem. Does not look interesting to me. YEATS won Nobel in 1923.

54D: Cosmo competition: ELLE. The girl on this ELLE China is Zhang Ziyi, probably the most influential Chinese actress right now. She played Sayuri in "Memoirs of a Geisha", a role should have been given to a Japanese actress in my opinion.

C.C.