Saturday, Apr 20th, 2013, Barry C. Silk

Theme: Saturday Silkie

Words: 72 (missing Q,V,W,X)

Blocks: 28

 On my way home tonight, I suspected it was time for a Saturday Silkie~!  I am fascinated by how prolific he is with themelesss puzzles.  I actually read the two interviews C.C. had with him, here, and here, just now; I have tried my hand at crossword construction, but to no avail - yet.  My ultimate goal is a themeless; Mr. Silk suggests a lot of solving - well, I am getting there~!!! This one was fun for me; seemed like I was on Mr. Silk's wavelength on half the answers, and the other half were educated guesses.  Just a few W.A.G.s in the middle.  Triple 10's all around today, and a few answers of note;

15A. "My Word Is My Bond" autobiographer : ROGER MOORE - I ran with "James" Bond on this, and threw in the only name that would fit....Connery, Lazenby, Dalton, Brosnan and Craig didn't - gratuitous C.C. link

12D. Breakaway hit? : SOLO RECORD -Who would you argue had the best "after band" solo career?  Lennon? McCartney?  I think Ozzy Osbourne gets my vote - especially since he was kicked out of Black Sabbath

28D. Boston attraction with a permanent Space Race exhibit : JFK LIBRARY - something positive to bring people back to Boston

69. One to horse around with? : STABLE MATE - HAR-HAR~!!!

On Word ~!!!

ACROSS:

1. Place for an old school tie? : ETON COLLAR - man, I was going to throw in "ETON---" because I wasn't fooled by the "tie" misdirection....woulda, coulda, shoulda

11. Data of concern to privacy advocates: Abbr. : SSNs - educated guess

16. __ skirt : HOOP - Mini, Maxi, Hula (I thought, not again~!); gratuitous Splynter links  (Note from C.C.: Splynter has 2 links here. You might encounter a "Forbidden" note when clicking on Splynter. In that case, just copy and paste the URL in a new window. The image will appear.)

17. Ready for anything : ON ONE'S TOES

18. "Being __: A Puppeteer's Journey": 2011 documentary : ELMO

19. Hit home? : SIDE  A - Great clue - the place where you'd find a 'hit'  music single

20. Post : MAIL - How many defs are there for POST?  The wood kind, the blog kind, ah - the sending kind

22. Odist's contraction : O'ER

23. Goes downhill fast : SKIS - I haven't skied in years, but I did like to go fast

26. Scorn : SNEER AT

28. O leaguemate : JAY - I am guessing Oprah, and Jay Leno, are the references here.

31. Major ending? : ETTE - MajorETTE

33. Tyrolean songs : YODELS -

34. Area of concern for FEMA : FLOOD ZONE - A lot of people here on Long Island are fighting their insurance companies to have this required clause removed after Hurricane Sandy - a great many "Flood Zones" did NOT actually flood

37. Li-ion cousin : NiCAD - Nickel Cadmium; I wonder why the Ni has a lower case, but not Cad....

38. Model Heidi who appeared on "Ugly Betty" : KLUM - Crossword friendly name

39. Army leader's nickname : ARNIE - Arnold Palmer's Army, here

41. Newsman's asset? : NOSE - For "sniffing" out the story

42. Rialto sections : LOGES - Rialto - the "theatre district of a city or town, especially the area around Broadway in New York City"

44. Philadelphia's "P" and Denver's "D," e.g. : MINT MARKS

46. Suspects : IS ONTO

48. Test tube fluids : SERA - plural of serum

49. Divided terr. : DAK - North and South DAKota

50. Garment looked after by Alfred : BAT SUIT - I think Bruce believes it's more than a "garment"....

52. Fax button : SEND

54. Biker's hazard : RUT

55. Shapeless thing : BLOB

57. Maples in '90s tabloid news : MARLA

61. Rock 'n' roll middle name : ARON - Thank you, thank you vury muuch....

63. Stretching out : ELONGATION

66. Bum : RUMP - ah, not HOBO - I like the rump kind better anyway~! (see 16A)

67. Put great faith in : RELIED UPON - great fill

68. Strategic river of 1914 : YSER

DOWN:

1. Immortal archer : EROS

2. Singer Basil with the #1 hit "Mickey" : TONI - No WAY I am linking this earworm

3. Hymn starter : O GOD

4. Iberian infants : NENEs

5. Complained underfoot? : CREAKED - another cute clue; floorboards (and joists) that make noise when you step on them

6. Sacred syllables : OMs

7. Garage alternative : LOT - Huh, I was thinking of a "workshop", not a place to park

8. Device with a warp beam and heddles : LOOM - Heddles are the sets of vertical cords or wires

9. Métiers : AREAS - Frawnch

10. Like varnished wood : RESINY - Meh

11. Tongue twister pronoun : SHE - sells seashells by the seashore; hard to type, too

13. Iditarod terminus : NOME, ALASKA - the full name

14. Bureau where stats abound : SPORTS DESK

21. L.L. Bean's first name : LEON - and his middle name is Leonwood....really

24. Chichén __ : ITZA - More here

25. Attack in a big way : STORM

27. Patsy's "Ab Fab" pal : EDINA - I did like to watch this show

29. Extinct carnivore whose name means "different lizard" : ALLOSAURUS

30. 1967 Neil Diamond hit : "YOU GOT TO ME" - I've already selected my music for today's blog....

32. Town north of Shannon Airport : ENNIS - map

35. Signs : OMENS

36. Beethoven's "some" : EINES

40. Raison d'__ : ETRE - Frawnch

43. Short piece : STUB

45. Not natural : MAN-MADE - do any of you know where to find a TRUE 90° angle in nature?

47. Persian Gulf fleet : OILERS

51. Property manager's sign : TO LET

53. Factoid : DATUM

56. Weighted weapon : BOLA

58. 2012 TV Land Awards host : RIPA - Kelly

59. Hot stuff : LOOT - Dar~!!! Not LAVA

60. Youngest Brontë : ANNE

62. "Weekend Edition" airer : NPR

64. Tip for a writer? : NIB

65. Become more solid : GEL

Today would have been my dad's 73rd birthday; we are going to the memorial park to select a headstone.

Splynter

Friday, April 19, 2013 Gareth Bain

THEME: I swear, I am so mixed up.

The second word of a fairly clued two-word phrase is chopped up (anagram-med) into a mild curse, which is revealed in the middle of the across clues. What makes this so impressive is even knowing more than 50 cuss words, I could not come up with another anagram, heck I tried.  RATS I so wanted that gold STAR. A workout by one of regular young constructors  our South African veterinarian friend Gareth Bain, who doubles as a blogger of the LAT on Amy Renaldo's Crossword Fiend site. The anagrams were simple, except 59A, which took a bit because it is not 4 letters like the others. It begins as a geography-centric puzzle, which is always hard for Americans. Tricky, but lots of short words and lots of blocks and even a J. I always have a good time with a GB original.

18A. *Celebrating the big five-oh, say : MIDDLE AGED.(10) Anagrams to EGAD.

23A. *Small museum piece : OBJET D'ART.(9) Becomes DRAT. A little American French.

53A. *Dancer with many fans : SALLY RAND. (9)  DARN. She appears in many of Max Allen Collins historical mysteries, along with her famous fans, as opposed to her many fans. Love the play on words.

59A. *Profit factors : COST PRICES.(10). The tricky one because it is not 4 letters, CRIPES, and the fill does not roll off my tongue.

and the unifier:

37A. What the answers to the starred clues end in, in more ways than one. MINCED OATHS. (11). Minced meaning chopped, which like twisted and many others is the sign that an anagram is required.

Across:

1. Their first parts are geog. indicators : SSNS.  If you did not know, the first three of the Social Security Number is based on where it was issued.

5. Her last film was "Two-Faced Woman" : GARBO.

10. Newspaper page : OP-ED. I am not opening this controversial door again.

14. Injure, in a way : CLAW. I am not sure our vet friend had cats in mind,  and I bet you all have been clawed..

15. ___ dome : ONION. An obvious architectural TERM, but one I did not know I knew.

16. Denpasar's island : BALI. It is the site of their airport.

17. ___ mentality : HIVE. We must learn from the honey BEES.

20. ___-Locka, Florida : OPA. The also have an airport.

21. Sum, sometimes : I AM. (Soom), the Latin for I am.

22. Country across the sea from Eritrea : YEMEN. Across the Red Sea (happy belated Passover) before you get to Ethiopia.

27. Oil-rich African country : GABON. One of the surviving pieces of French Equatorial Africa, a small rich place.

29. City on the Rhone : LYONS. More geography, it is called  LYON in French which made this extra hard, though the clue was in English, so....

30. "___ Theme": "Doctor Zhivago" song : LARA'S. Very pretty TUNE (3:18).

32. Tram contents : ORE. As it is taken from the mine, they load the trams.

33. Hog : sow :: rabbit : ___ : DOE. Reminds me of the LSAT. A word animal clue.

35. Freak (out) : WIG.

36. Court cry : OYEZ. Also sometimes, OYER et TERMINER. It stems from the old days when judges travelled to the courts and the people had to be advised the court was there. More law stuff, 46D. Put forth without proof : ALLEGE. Sounds bad, but you allege what the facts are in a complaint and then prove them at trial.

40. Pigeon-loving Muppet : BERT. I missed this whole phase.

42. Fjord cousin : RIA. Bodies of water.

43. ___ Victor : RCA. Do you recall his name?

44. Bargainer with GM : UAW. United Auto Workers.

45. LeVar's "Roots" role : KUNTA. Kinte.

47. Bender : BINGE.

51. Icky coating : GRIME.

55. Its young are called crias : LLAMA.  Gotta love the CAMELIDS. Our vet always gets some of his specialty in the puzzles. Also, 6D. Member of a large kingdom : ANIMAL.

57. Rock's ___ Lobos : LOS. Sing along,  LA BAMBA.(3:05). (More animals, wolves here).

58. Touch clumsily : PAW. So when she said he was pawing her, it was the clumsiness that mattered. (Animal paw?).

62. Siouan tribe : IOWA.

63. ___ d'amore : OBOE. I do not know much of the OBOE of LOVE. JzB? LINK. (2:49).

64. Terse observation : ADAGE. Interesting clue, as I think of the word like aphorism, apothegm, axiom, maxim, proverb, not just terse. Terse seems unfriendly.

65. W.S. winner in four of the last five years : NLER. baseball World Series being dominated by the National League, lately.

66. Flex : BEND.

67. Leafy recess : BOWER.

68. Pirate played by Laughton : KIDD. He played the CAPTAIN.(3:17) He seemed a bit foppish to be blood thirsty.

Down:

1. Art movement : SCHOOL. Like the Pointillists.

2. Elude : SLIP BY. His youth eluded him.

3. Code talkers' tribe : NAVAJO. Did you all see/like this MOVIE? (2:19).

4. 5-Across's home: Abbr. : SWEden.

5. Lose it : GO MAD.

7. Clear : RID.

8. Spa specimen : BOD. y?

9. Lacking siblings : ONLY. Child?

10. President with a B.A. from Columbia : OBAMA.

11. Shoulder-length hair styles : PAGEBOYS. Like this?

12. The "you" in the 1968 lyric "Gee I think you're swell" : ELENORE. The spelling gave away this TUNE.(2:32)

13. Imitated : DID. Frank Caliendo did John Madden so well. Sorry to hear that Pat Summerall died.

19. Brain tests, briefly : EEGS. ElectroEncephaloGramS.

21. "Put up your dukes, then!" : IT'S ON.

24. Break up : END IT.

25. Statistician's input : RAW DATA. GIGO.

26. Common folk group : TRIO. Kingston anyone?

28. ___ Perce tribe : NEZ. Not related to the eye glasses.

31. Seaweed extract : AGAR. A wonder of the world for cooks and scientists LINK.

34. Beige relative : ECRU. Can any of the guys tell them apart?

36. Atheist activist Madalyn Murray ___ : O'HAIR. She was always being talked about when I was young as the founder of the first organized Atheists. She led to the banning of prayer in schools and was eventually murdered. LINK  (2:21). We will not talk religion or politics here, but when she died my father's words rang in my head during her funeral. "All dressed up and no place to go."

37. Dennis the Menace neighbor : MR. WILSON. Now living somewhere in Boca Raton.

38. German opener : EINS. One in German.

39. Super Fro-Yo sellers : TCBYS. This Can't Be Yogurt.

40. Eat at : BUG. This clue irritated me. In fact it 49D. Ate (at) : GNAWED at me. A tense clecho.

41. Drop zone? : EAR LOBE. OK GB, explain this one, drops meaning earrings?

45. Dole's running mate : KEMP. Former Buffalo Bill quarterback Jack. Lots of athletes make it to politics. How many do you know?

48. City SE of Roma : NAPOLI. Italian for Naples.

50. "___ Scissorhands" : EDWARD. Johnny Depp, ladies? No, okay NOT JOHNNY DEPP.(3:29).

52. Checked for the last time? : MATED. I am not sure if this is a pun on the state of matrimony, or just a reference to the game.

54. Like one who is 52-Down : LOSER. I repeat, I don't know....

56. Fast horse : ARAB.

59. Pen's mate : COB. (oops, don't we have MATED above?) Of course he is speaking of swans

 

where the adult male is a COB and the female is a PEN.  He then ends with. 62A. Pen filler: INK. to enhance the confusion, I love it.

60. Brief commitment : I DO. With such a high divorce rate, brief may be the operative concept.

61. Crow's croak : CAW. And alliteration clue to fill, nice.

Well it is great to be back to Friday, even though blogging marti is always a treat. Gareth is also much fun and a very pleasant young man, willing to answer questions. While you are reading this, I am getting ready to get on airplane to Buffalo  which to me is now Charlotte's ville, current home of my granddaughter. See you all next week.

Lemonade out.