23A. Not a waste of time carving? : WORTH THE WHITTLE. Worth the while.
36A. Tinker Bell's blabbing? : FAIRY TATTLES. Fairy tales.
60A. Municipal mascot? : TOWN CRITTER. Town crier.
87A. Pane in an infested attic? : BATTY WINDOW. Bay window.
108A. Lollipop for a dog? : SETTER SUCKER. Seer sucker.
127A. Butterfly? : FREQUENT FLITTER. Frequent flier.
15D. Duke's Droid? : PATTY PHONE. Pay phone.
78D. Where smoking remnants are stored? : BUTTS DEPOT. Bus depot.
This is our first encounter with Joel D. Lafargue. Google shows has quite a few puzzles in the Simon & Schuster series, apart from his NY Times in 1997.
This puzzle is a pangram, e.g., every letter is used at least once in the grid. It has a total 96 theme squares. Rich's minimum is 84. Gridding gets more challenging if you have over 100 theme squares. Very often you end up with way too many 3-letter words, hence more abbrs & undesirble fill. This grid has 24 3-letter words. Sometimes we get this many in a 15*15 grid.
Across:
1. Pay to see cards : CALL
5. He played Senator Vinick on "The West Wing" : ALDA (Alan)
9. "Ma! (He's Making Eyes __)": 1921 song : AT ME. Easy to get. Don't know the song.
13. Urge forward : IMPEL
18. B&O part : OHIO
19. Mistake : FAULT
21. Marina feature : PIER
22. Mazda two-seater : MIATA
26. Anti-apartheid author Alan : PATON. No idea. He wrote this book: "Cry, the Beloved Country".
27. Art in a park : STATUE
28. Noticed : SEEN
29. Union chapter : LOCAL
31. "Star Trek" spinoff, briefly : TNG (The Next Generation)
32. Alway : E'ER
33. Jupiter, to Saturn : SON. Not the planets I was picturing.
34. Tendency toward disorder : ENTROPY. We used to have a poster using this as his avatar name.
42. Screenplays : SCRIPTS
45. "Not __ eye in ... " : A DRY. 2D. "There'll be __ time ..." : A HOT. 37D. Like __ in the headlights : A DEER. 39. In __: miffed : A PET. 59D. __ the finish : IN AT. 5 partials. 1 more than Rich's Sunday limit.
46. Busy IRS mo. : APR
47. __ Team : DREAM
50. Frome of fiction : ETHAN. Edith Wharton's "Ethan Frome".
51. Farm spread : LEA
52. Type of daisy : OXEYE
54. Be of use : AVAIL
57. Name whose Japanese symbols mean "ocean child" : YOKO. I mentioned this on the blog before.
58. Foul-smelling : FETID
64. Revival prefix : NEO
65. Political theorist Hannah : ARENDT. Well, she does have the political look. Stranger to me.
67. First skipper? : NOAH. Clever clue.
68. Run-down urban dwelling : TENEMENT
70. Not quite closed : AJAR
72. Blade : KNIFE
75. Sushi bar soup : MISO. A little Tofu, a few sprinkles of green onion. Simple & perfect.
76. Amount so far : SUBTOTAL
80. Whom Cordelia called "As mad as the vex'd sea" : LEAR. Cordelia is King Lear's youngest.
82. "Maybe later" : NOT NOW
86. It has a Bklyn. campus : LIU (Long Island University). Splynter knows. He attended RPI though. Same as Spitzboov.
91. 27-day pope of 1605 : LEO XI. Such a short reign.
92. __'acte : ENTR
94. Range rover : STRAY. Nice clue.
95. Blue shoe material of song : SUEDE
97. Limo passenger, often : VIP. We saw a beat-up limo in flea market last week.
98. Place and Kett : ETTAs
100. Flight units : STEPS
103. Moo goo __ pan : GAI. Literally "Chicken" in Cantonese. Mandarin is "Ji". Quite different. "Ye Ji" means "wild chicken", slang for "hooker".
104. "Smooth Operator" singer : SADE. So, Grumpy, what kind of music do you like?
105. Eponymous microbiologist Louis : PASTEUR
111. Most cherished : DEAREST
114. "Norma __" : RAE
115. Previously : AGO
116. "Color me surprised" : GEE
118. Airbus A380, vis-à-vis most other planes : WIDER
119. Bond foe : DR NO
121. Clumsy mistakes : BLOOPS
125. Breakfast cereal prefix : ALPHA. Alpha-Bits.
130. Franny's title brother, in a Salinger novella : ZOOEY."Franny and Zooey". Learning moment for me. I think it's time to put Zooey Deschanel on the clue map. She's everywhere now.
131. Support girder : I-BAR
132. Yes-Bob link : SIREE
133. Italian peak : ETNA. In Sicily.
134. Pre-deal round : ANTES
135. Silent yeses : NODS
136. Comes out with : SAYS
137. Retinal cells : RODS
Down:
1. Intimidates : COWS
3. Old Sicilian coin : LIRA
4. Hard-to-win game : LOTTERY. Our neighbor Dwayne won $100K some time ago. Now he lost his house.
5. Like net income : AFTER TAX
6. __-di-dah : LAH
7. Club charges : DUES
8. Angels' div. : AL WEST. Pujols is heating up.
9. On-target : APT
10. Best-seller list datum : TITLE
11. Juicy gourd : MELON. I love seedless mini watermelons. You? I wish I could grow them in MN.
12. Raises : ERECTS
13. Plead with : IMPLORE
14. "O patria __": "Aida" aria : MIA
16. Thames school : ETON
17. Kent's Smallville sweetie : LANG (Lana)
20. It's periodically rung out : THE OLD. [Deskpalm!]
24. "The Kingfish" Long of early 20th-century politics : HUEY (Long). For Haltool. I thought his nickname is "The King" due to "All the King's Men".
25. __ tube : INNER
30. Circle piece : ARC
35. Sympathetic sorrow : PITY
36. Farmer Al __: Paul Terry toon : FALFA. Did you nail this, eddyB? I drew a blank.
38. Boiling : IRATE
40. Check for fit : TRY ON
41. Burn the surface of : SEAR
43. Hoodwinked : TAKEN
44. Schnozzola : SNOOT
48. Prefix with fauna : AVI
49. Quarterback Hasselbeck : MATT. For the Titans.
52. Pin money source : ODD JOB
53. Furry sci-fi creature : EWOK. "Star Wars".
55. Gossip page pair : ITEM
56. Colleague of Trotsky : LENIN. "Colleague" struck me as funny. I guess I'm used to the "Comrade" address.
61. Turkic flatbread : NAN
62. Hot dog topping : CHILI. Recipe for disaster.
63. Do some cobbling on : RESOLE
66. Cheerios : TA TAS
69. Dust speck : MOTE
71. Band with the 2010 album "Infestation" : RATT. Very helpful clue.
73. Wetland : FEN
74. St. Louis's __ Bridge : EADS. Named after its designer Eads.
76. Catch some z's : SLEEP
77. Utah's __ Mountains : UINTA. I can never remember this name.
79. P.O. deliveries : LTRS
81. Coloring cosmetic : ROUGE
83. Evans's news partner : NOVAK (Bob). Heavily involved in the Valerie Plame leak scandal.
84. Nitrous __ : OXIDE
85. Drop remover : WIPER
88. China's Sun __-sen : YAT. Chiang Kai-shek succeeded him. They were brothers-in-laws.
89. Forks in the road : WYES
90. Have on : WEAR
93. Assess : RATE
96. Neutralizes, as a bomb : DISABLES
99. Shipping routes : SEAWAYS
101. Hidden : PERDU. I thought it's "Lost" due to English translation of Proust's "A la Recherche du temps perdu".
102. Rude looks : STARES
104. Moped's cousin : SCOOTER
106. Rhody the Ram's sch. : URI (University of Rhode Island)
107. Brightly colored perch : REDFIN. OK, makes sense.
109. Court activity : TENNIS. Not judge's court.
110. Fruit with a wrinkly rind : UGLI. Quite juicy and sweet.
112. __-Croatian : SERBO
113. Traction aid : TREAD
116. Mideast strip : GAZA
117. Tar Heel State university : ELON. I bet Jayce has a better & topical clue for ELON.
120. Another, in Ávila : OTRA
122. Bart and Lisa's bus driver : OTTO. "The Simpsons".
123. Await judgment : PEND
124. Ladies in Mex. : SRAS
126. Half a bray : HEE. Hee-haw.
128. PT separators : QRS. Man, alphabet. P Q R S T.
129. Enchanted : FEY. JFK once described Jackie's style as "fey". That's how I learned this meaning.
Answer grid.
C.C.
