Who is Josiah Breward?

Here is an article about today's constructor Josiah Breward. Talk about shock and awe!

For those who are too lazy to go to the link, here is a recap:

Josiah Breward is pseudonym of Mr. Wayne Robert Williams & his brother Thomas Williams.

Willy A. Wiseman is a pseudonym of Wayne Robert Williams himself.

Michael T. Williams, is a real name, he is Wayne Robert Williams’ nephew.

Of course, Wayne Robert Williams is our TMS Crossword Editor. He can be contacted at tmscrosswords@aol.com.

Thanks again NYTanonimo for providing us with this link.

C.C.

Saturday, March 22, 2008 Josiah Breward

Theme: NONE

Another traumatizing experience! I guess my heart just does not belong to any themeless puzzle.

I was stumped from the very beginning of course. Barely heard of Greer Garson. In fact, I was thinking of Garson Kanin when I read the clue. So I jumped around like a squirrel this morning, darting from corner to corner searching for a nut. Never gained any foothold. I was also very bothered by the excessive amount of INGs in the clues/answers.

I think I floundered about 30 minutes, then I decided to quit and started googling. I would not even call today's solving experience as a rigorous workout. It feels like torture.

The author for today's puzzle is the guy who constructed the Going off half-cocked puzzle on March 9, which tormented me for a good 2 hours as I could not understand what's the relationship between the theme entries and the titled theme. I had no idea that "Going off half-cocked" means "act without thinking".

I kind of like today's wide-open grid, which almost mirrors Breward's Feb 23 puzzle. I think I would've enjoyed this puzzle if I were a better solver.

Across entries:

1A: Greer Garson classic: MRS. MINIVER. Garson won an Oscar for this movie.

11A: Low-ish card: TREY. Why ish?

15A: Bouffe: COMIC OPERA. No idea. Never knew that Bouffe has a Buffoon origin. I guess it makes sense now. Does anyone speak French here? Doesn't Bouffe mean 'grub"/"food" in French?

16A: Gambling mecca: RENO

17A: Chiquimula resident: GUATEMALAN. I am not familiar with South American countries. Now I am waiting for the diabolic editor to clue CHIQUIMULA as Guatemala city.

20A: Last of a collection?: ANA. Why? Why last?

21A: The Promised land: CANAAN

23A: Actor Erik: ESTRADA. I googled "Actor Erik", the first page that came up is all about Erik La Salle, who starred in ER. Estrada's mug looks familiar to me, so I must have googled him before. Famed for TV series CHiP.

26A: Hindu title: SRI. It's very fascinating to me that many languages put Sir, or Mr. in front of a name, including this Hindu title SRI. But in Chinese, we put Sir (先生) after the name, for example, we will call Mr. Warren Buffet as "Warren Buffet 先生". I guess Japanese is the same, you put San after some name, as in Ichiro-san.

28A: Campaign contributor: abbr: PAC (Political Action Committee). Remember Senator Rick Santorum (PA) used his PAC money to pay for his Starbucks ($558)?

31A: Hebrew letter: TSADI. Total stranger to me. It could be also spelled as SADHE, SADI, 18th letter of Hebrew alphabet. How many letters are in Hebrew alphabet?

34A: Hanging to one side: A-LOP. This is another ATIP for me. I hate this kind of made-up word more than any obscure actor/actress (dead or alive). Just tell me in which dictionary can I find this word, Mr. Breward? (Update: Feste found this world in the Oxford English Dictionary).

36A: Whimpers: MEWLS. Identical clue on this author's Feb 27 puzzle.

38A: Dunfermline dagger: SNEE. Yep, Keep camouflaging it. You can pick up the remotest town in Scotland and I will still get this word. I am not falling into your trap.

41A: Agave plant: SISAL. Have never heard of this word. Wanted YUCCA.

43A: Former 1/2 Country: GDR (German Democratic Republic - East Germany. Remember their secret police? STASI. West Germany is FRG (Federal Republican of Germany). The unification, oh, no, reunification took place in 1990. First Chancellor: Helmut Kohl. I never liked him.

44A: Maryland player: TERRAPIN. Got it this time.

48A: Type of general: ONE STAR. Just found out that Eric Shinseki was a 4-star general. I always thought he was a 3-star.

49A: Jurisprudence based on precedents: CASE LAW. I was intimidated by the clue. Jurisprudence sound as sophisticated as "Fiduciary duty" to me.

53A: Ethnic: RACIAL. Really? Are these two the same?

56A: Lawyers: abbr. ATTS. I put in ESQS first and I felt so smart for a while.

57A: Outmoded data storage: MICROFICHE. No idea. Here is the definition: "A flat sheet of microfilm in a form suitable for filing, typically measuring 4 by 6 in. (10 by 15 cm) and containing microreproductions, as of printed or graphic matter, in a grid pattern.".

61A: Stretching out: ELONGATION. It would really drive me bananas if the answer turned out to be ELONGATING.

63A: Again and again: REPEATEDLY

Down clues:

1D: "Fibber _ and Molly": MCGEE. Here is the information on this radio show. I would've penned in the answer easily if the clue were The Cremation of Sam ___.

3D: Brainy: SMART. I am NOT. So, anonymous @ 9:11pm March 21, please don't judge me by your standards. Walk in my shoes for 3 miles, then start opining your view. Don't rush into conclusion.

4D: Bishops' toppers: MITERS

6D: Wandering life: NOMADISM

7D: Toothpaste brand: IPANA. How quickly I forgot this name! It was on this constructor's March 9 puzzle.

8D: Constellation near Carina: VELA. Brutal clue. No idea.

10D: Deep-seated ill will: RANCOR. Stupid Arafat, he killed the Oslo Accord. Otherwise, the rancor would not run so deep today! History sometimes is really made by the whims of a few people.

11D: Crossings: TRANSITS

12D: Keeping: RETAINING. I would not type in (hence dignify) this word if not for the vexing ING.

13D: Twisted into a confusing mass: ENTANGLED. I am very confused. Can never tell what distinguishes tangle from entangle, untangle from disentangle.

14D: Kid: YOUNGSTER

25D: Calls a passing ship: HAILS. I put AHOYS first.

27D: Booth or Meese: EDWIN. Knew Meese. Booth, No.

28D: Rural opera: PASTORALE. No idea. It's "a piece of music suggestive of pastoral life." The clue just feels very awkward to me. How about Shepherd's opera?

30D Editor or debugger, e.g.: CORRECTOR. Ugh! Don't like it.

32D: Odin's melieu: AESIR. Nope. According to the dictionary, AESIR is "the principal race of gods, led by Odin and living at Asgard." There is another ealier Norse race called Vanir, who was "first in conflict with the Aesir, later allied with them."

35D: Lasts: PERSISTS

37D: ___ Springs, NY: SARATOGA

42D: Aspin or Brown: LES. My first thought was Dan. The author of The Da Vinci Code.

45D: Golfer Arnie: PALMER. You can come back anytime you like Arnie.

47D: Descendant of Shem: SEMITE. Bible knowledge, my Achilles' heels!

49D: Chili con __: CARNE. Interesting, CARNE means meat in so many languages: Spanish, Romania, Portugest and Italian. Do you know that the word "carnival" also derive from carne?

50D: Intelligible: LUCID. Senator Byrd (WV), 91 years old, still serving. Very impressive.

51D: South African playwright Fugard: ATHOL. Had to google him. He is a South African playwright. Well, if you are enamored with with ING, then clue Doris Lessing (Nobel Literature 2007) in your puzzle.

54D: Old English bard: SCOP. No idea. Learned that this SCOP has something to do with SCOFF, the ones who make mocking, or taunting verse.

59D: Unwanted weight: FAT. Absolutely!

C.C.

Friday, March 21, 2008 Allan E. Parrish

Theme: EATHER (I am sorry for the mistake earlier. I did not know that the phrase I put earlier was a slang).

17A: Prop for Al Roker: WEATHER MAP

29A: Recliner perhaps: LEATHER CHAIR

43A: Tommy Roe hit: HEATHER HONEY

59A: Stripper's accessory: FEATHER BOA

Wow, only one letter (Q) away from being a Pangrammatic Grid (Have all the 26 letters at least once).

Yesterday I was Barbaro at the Preakness, shattered my momentum a few blanks from the starting gate. This morning, I was Smarty Jones at the Belmont Stakes. I came, I saw, and I almost conquered the whole field.

I had a crush on NETANYAHU several years ago, so I penned in his name authoritatively. ENYA, AOKI, Shania TWAIN, BORK, BONAPARTE are all gimmes. Thus, the whole grid was opened up to me, and I was able to infer quite a few unknowns.

I spent about 35 minutes on this puzzle, including several short google visits and dictionary checking.

Here we go:

1A: Pipe down! HUSH

5A: Ghana's capital: ACCRA. Ex-UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is from Ghana. Got the wrong idea that Mali musician Ali Farka was born in ACCRA. Wrong.

10A: 21st-century MS product: XBOX

14A: City on the Aker River: OSLO. Is Aker river the same as Akerselva river?

15A: Rights org.: NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People)

16A: Actor Calhoun: RORY. Did not know him. Got his name from down clues.

19A: 1998 animated movie: ANTZ. Celebrity voice-studded (Woody Allen, Sharon Stone, etc.) animation film. From DreamWorks.

20A: Tanning device: SUN LAMPS

21A: Celtic New Age Singer: ENYA. This is my favorite picture of Enya. Beautiful!

25A: Flap lips: GAB. Ben Allfleck, so gifted at gab. never ceases to overawe me with his nuanced take on American politics. He is going to run for the Senate seat in MA, someday, trust me!

26A: Low mil. letters: PFC (Private First Class)

32A: Actor Sal: MINEO. Enough said about him.

35A: Extra NHL periods: OTS (Overtimes)

36A: Kathryn of "Law & Order: Criminal Intent": ERBE. Have never watched any Law & Order spinoff, so I had no idea who she was.

38A: Dickens moniker: BOZ. Vaguely remember it.

39A: Bill of Microsoft: GATES. He probably bribed the constructor to put his XBOX in this puzzle.

40A: Parks oneself: SITS. Wow, I've never parked myself this way.

41A: __ cit.: LOC. What is this?? (Update: Answer from drdad: "I googled the meaning of loc. cit. and it is used like "ibid." as a footnote. The difference is that ibid. refers to the same book reference while loc. cit. refers to the same book and page reference.)

42A: In plain sight: OVERT

48A: Put to: ASK. The dictionary says that "Put to" means "to overburden with work, blame; or take advantage of, cheat". How is it related to ASK?

50A: False face: ACT

55A: Money on the move?: CASH FLOW. I like this clue.

57A: Comet rivel: AJAX. Or Trojan hero.

61A: Eyelid makeup: KOHL. Never knew this. The only Kohl I know is German's Helmut Kohl.

63A: Isao of golf: AOKI. He was inducted into the Golf Hall of Fame in 2004, together with Tom Kite. I do not remember ever seeing AOKI in PGA or Senior PGA tour.

64A: Flu-like feeling: AGUE

66A: Fed. agents: GMEN. Sometimes it's TMEN (Treasury investigator, like Eliot Ness)

Down entries:

1D: Tell me the reason: HOW SO. Hope you guys are not tired of my HOW SO questions.

3D: Particular bias: SLANT. Bias, whether real or imagined, hurts!

4D: Lear sitcom, "___ Baltimore": HOT L. Nope, never heard of it. Here is Dennis' explanation "Hot L Baltimore was a short-lived TV show; opening frames showed a neon sign with the "e" in Hotel burned out, hence the name."

5D: Blood disorder: ANEMIA. Months of bleak economic growth anemia ahead! I am just so worried about this stupid recession that I don't care whether Hillary was in the White House when Bill and Monica trysted. I have absolutely no interest to peek at those newly released paper.

11D: Napoleons' last name: BONAPARTE

13D: Alphabet trio: XYZ. I can not think of a way to clue Exam Your Zipper, can you?

25D: Stan of Jazz: GETZ. He is another crossword stalwart.

27D: Tissue makeup: FIBER

32D: Dayan or Arens: MOSHE. Knew neither of them. Got it from across clues.

34D: Benjamin of Israel: NETANYAHU. Bibi. He graduated from MIT. He is now the Likud leader. He was/still is adamantly against the Gaza Disengagement Plan. He was so eloquent and persuasive that I bought almost all the ideas he was peddling in 2005.

38D: Supreme Court also-run: BORK (Robert). I really like the verbalized usage of bork. Mark Penn is an expert at borking, and barking.

39D: "Faust" poet: GOETHE

41D: Healthful-food claim: LESS FAT. Nothing tastes as good as full fat. So, eat full fat, just eat less.

45D: Spoke grandly: ORATED. Oh the Reagan oratory charm! My favorite: "We will never forget them in this morning as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of God?" (Challenger Disaster speech)

46D: Snacks: NOSHES

50D: "Tuesday with Morrie" writer : ALBOM (Mitch). Unfamiliar to me. Have never heard of the author nor the book/TV.

51D: TV host Alistair: COOKE. No, not a familiar name. Interesting, Wikipedia said that he was only yards away when RFK was assassinated.

52D: Singer Shania: TWAIN. "Man, I feel like a woman!" I actually hate this song.

54D: Hod-rod rod: AXLE. Typo here. Should be Hot-rod rod.

55D: Wag: CARD. According to Dennis, "'card' and 'wag' are rather archaic terms used to describe a jokester.

56D: Kill with a grenade: FRAG

57D: Rap-sheet letters: AKA.

58D: Training run: JOG

I choked on a piece of grape skin earlier this morning while reading yesterday's new comments. Pricelessly entertaining! Oh, by the way, here is what Orange told me about her method in tackling a crossword:

"My own strategy varies depending on the puzzle's difficulty. An easy puzzle, I'll start at 1-A and wind through the grid without stopping. A Saturday NYT, I may be reading a lot of clues, desperately searching for a route into the puzzle (and then trying to build off the entries I've put in the grid by tackling the crossings)."

C.C.

What's Your Crossword Strategy? Poll Result

Question: What's Your Crossword Strategy?

Poll result:

Total votes: 298

1) You fill in all the Across Entries first, then move on to all the Down Entries, in an orderly fashion.

63(21%)

2) You coordinate each across clue with each down clue, and systematically fill in entries from upper left corner to lower right corner.

102(34%)

3) You flit from section to section, filling in whatever know.

116 (38%)

4) Or Else? Other secret weapons?

17 (5%)

Thank you for the participation.

C. C.

Thursday, March 20, 2008 Willy A. Wiseman

Theme: "CHICAGO"

20A: Local poet: CARL SANDBURG

32A: Start of a local sobriquet: CITY OF THE

40A: Part 2 of sobriquet: BIG

43A: End of a sobriquet: SHOULDERS

58A: Local collection: CHICAGO POEMS

First of all, define "local", am I supposed to call a dead Chicago poet as a hometown boy? This puzzle is tailor-made for the Chicago Tribune readers, not for us, Mr. who-cares-what-you-think Editor, you should have done some basic editing before you release it to our syndication papers.

I fought hard with every breath I took for this damned puzzle, and got absolutely no satisfaction after I was done with it, so irked by the unfairness of the clues.

You know what's shocking? I actually breezed through the ever-intimidating upper left corner today without any problem. And I nailed the lower left corner easily. But all the other areas are blanketed with "could be this, could be that" clues. I experienced tremendous difficulties committing answers to quite a few seemingly easy clues.

However, I do love how MOOLA parallels DINAR, and I appreciate the symmetry of LOBAR & INCUS. Nicely balanced. At least, you know the constructor put some thoughts into his work. And there is no obscure actor, or actress, or composer to frustrate me. So, that's good.

I also noticed three Middle East words appear in today's puzzle: UAR, DINAR, EILAT & two Japanese words: SAN & KOBE.

OK, without further ado, here we go:

4A: Fishhook features: BARBS. I enjoy every cutting barb Maureen Daud throws at Hillary.

9A: Wounded by a wasp: STUNG. Why do I have this intense interest in Client No. 9 and his collapse? I guess I am just worried that he might not be an exception but a norm in the upper echelons of our government. He just happened to be caught.

14A: Gun it in neutral: REV. Saw it before, never knew why. Here is Dick's explanation: "The speed of an engine is often defined as revolutions per minute thus the slang REV for speeding up the engine."

15A: Yep!: UH HUH. For a non-native speaker, these simple Uh Uh, Uh-Huh, Uh-Oh can be quite tough to grasp.

16A: Part of the plan: PHASE

17A: Dander: IRE I did not know the meaning of Dander, hence could not get the answer.

18A: Crystal-lined rock: GEODE. Saw it before.

19A: Distinctive atmosphere:s AURAE. The plural form could also be AURAS.

24A: Purify sea water: DESALT

30A: Team charm: MASCOT. I like those old college bobbleheads, 1960s, awesome.

38A: Honshu port: KOBE. Kobe beef is a luxury. Tongue in Kobe is Ichiro (Seattle Mariners)'s favorite food.

39A: Handlelike parts: ANSAE. ANSA is Latin for handle. Another interesting plural form.

41A: Israeli seaport: EILAT. Be careful with this word, as it could be also spelled as ELATH. But I am obsessed with HAIFA. Always want to fill in HAIFA whenever I see an Israeli port clue.

45A: Execrable: CURSED. I did not know the meaning of "Execrable".

49A: Forerunner of the CIA: OSS (Office of Strategic Services). Another repeat offender. But I will let you loose, do not have time to imprison every one of your fame-craved hag.

50A: Wayside shelter: SPITAL. Shelter on a highway. Never heard of it.

60A: Smackers: MOOLA. Have never heard of smackers being slangily used to mean money.

63A: Life and toss: HEAVE. I heaved several heavy groans of hopelessness over this puzzle.

65A: Kuwaiti cash: DINAR. Also the money unit in Iraq, Jordon, Libya, Bahrain, and a few other Middle East countries. Does "Dinar" mean Dollar in Arabic language, anyone?

66A: NYC theater awards: OBIES. Vacillated between TONYS and OBIES until AGAIN revealed itself.

68A: Heavy tread: CLOMP. Clump. Which is more commonly used?

69A: Last movement of sonata: RONDO. It escaped my mind this morning. It's "a work or movement, often the last movement of a sonata, having one principal subject that is stated at least three times in the same key and to which return is made after the introduction of each subordinate theme."

70A: Japanese honorific: SAN. I found out that San is also "a member of a nomadic, racially distinct, short-statured people of southern Africa." or river in Central Europe.

Down entries:

1D: Writer Jong: ERICA. The Fear of Fly author. Never read her books.

4D: Cartoon Bunny: BUGS

5D: Leading: AHEAD OF. I saw AHEAD clued as Leading often. I don't know, shouldn't the clue be reinforced by a preposition also? Or are you guys OK with the clue?

6D: European River: RHONE. Rhone originates from Alps in Switzerland and flows south into the Mediterranean through SE France. Rhine also originates from Alps, but it flows north into North Sea (through Germany and the Netherlands).

7D: Billy and Zola: BUDDS. Here is Zola BUDD the Track & Field sensation, here is Billy BUDD the novela by Herman Melville. I was not acquainted with either of them.

8D: Biblical land: SHEBA. I put SINAI.

9D: Laconian city: SPARTA. Nope. No idea.

11D: Egy.-Syr., once: UAR (United Arab Republic). Gimme for me. Nasser signed the treaty. UAE is United Arab Emirates which consists of Abu Dhabi, Dubai and 5 other states. We have a fellow TMS puzzle solver there in UAE. Hi.

12D: Govt. advisory grp.: NSA (National Security Agency). The eavesdropping agency. This is their insignia which consists of "a bald eagle facing its right, grasping a key in its talons, representing NSA's clutch on security as well as the mission to protect and gain access to secrets." I gather you do not abbreviate National Security Adviser as NSA?

13D: Turn right! GEE. Turn left: HAW

21D: Tripoli populace: LIBYANS. Remember Tripoli is also a seaport in Lebanon.

26D: Of the lungs: LOBAR

31D: Hit the road: SKIDDOO. Not familiar with this slang.

32D: Portland's bay: CASCO. No idea. (Update later: Casco Bay in Portland, Maine)

33D: Ear bone: INCUS. Nope.

34D: Winter Palace rulers: TSARS.

35D: One of Ted's stations: TBS. Does Turner still own this station? I thought he sold his shares of Time Warner long time ago.

36D: Royal address, in brief: HIH (His Imperial Highness; Her Imperial Highness.). I put HRM (Her Royal Majesty).

37D: Psyche part: EGO. Somehow I put ESP here earlier. I must be thinking of the Psychic.

44D: Lonely: UNLOVED. How can "not loved" become "lonely?". "Lonely" means lack of companionship. An army wife might be lonely when her husband leaves her and risks his life in Iraq, but she is not "unloved", isn't she? Did I miss something here?

46D: Also known as F.: E SHARP

47D: Printer letters: DPI (dots per inch)

51D: God's blood: ICHOR. No idea. It's "an ethereal fluid flowing in the veins of the gods." Greek mythology.

52D: Billy Blanks workout: TAE BO. Did not know who was Billy Blanks, and had no idea what was Tae Bo.

55D: clobbers: BELTS. Did not know that Belt could mean "hard blow".

56D: Missouri River port: OMAHA. Only know Omaha, NE. I have an autographed photo of the Oracle of Omaha (Warren Buffett).

60D: Sixteen hundred: MDC. Hmm. Who said "Can't wait til the roman numerals rear their ugly heads'' yesterday? Ha ha.

61D: Tin Man's cure-all: OIL. The Wizard of Oz, who does not like it?

62D: Lennon's Yoko: ONO. Wonder what Yoko is thinking of the $48 million Heather mills milked from Paul McCartney.

It's still dark outside now. And we are on the fringe of another several inches of snow. Please come quickly Spring! Bring me your warm sunshine and the sweet scent of freshly cut grass.

C. C.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008 Philip A. Anderson

Theme: Pulp Fiction

20A: Publishing pulp fiction?: PAGE TURNERS

59A: Real estate pulp fiction?: SPACE OPERAS

11D: Romance pulp fiction?: SOB STORIES

29D: Culinary pulp fiction?: POTBOILERS

I did not know that the plural form of "pulp fiction" is still "pulp fiction", so I was quite bothered in the beginning by the seemingly inconsistent noun forms between the clues and the answers.

I kind of like the topical reference (albeit vaguely) of the theme, given the recent scandal over Penguin's recall of Love & Consequence. There are also 3 Irish related sub-theme in this puzzle, ABIE, LIA Fail (36D: Irish crowning stone) & Stephen REA (an Irish actor). I bemoan the fact that they did not appear on Monday's O themed St. Patrick's Day puzzle. I am happy to find SENATE (24A: Upper house) and CONG (D. C. group) in the same puzzle.

I spent roughly 30 minutes on this puzzle. I was only retarded at the intersection of 34D and 53A (Letter E). I had no knowledge of URIEL, and I simply had no idea who was the former Swedish premier (PALME). I doubt if Annika Sörenstam knows. I would've never put an "E" or any vowel there, as both up & down words seem to be crying for a consonant.

My other SNAFU is the upper right corner. I had no idea who was Irish Rose, I decided that AXIE sounded good for her love. So my 11D became SEX STORIES. Well, romance stories do have lots of sex scenes, don't they? Then I looked at 33A (ATOP). I blushed: what's going on here? But I corrected myself before I became completely flustered.

I am so proud that I filled in OSIER authoritatively. Someone mentioned this word in the Comment section a few weeks ago. I read it and then I absorbed it. Thank you, Oregon!

Across entries:

10A: _ Spumante: ASTI. The sparking wine. Martini & Rossi Asti Spumante. I have no idea why I always associate this wine with Kama Sutra. My mind sometimes works very weirdly.

19A: Irish Rose's love: ABIE. I was actually thinking of Senator Kennedy's mother Rose. She was Irish. Here is more information for Abie's Irish Rose.

20A: Publishing pulp fiction?: PAGE TURNERS. Don't understand the hype and huge followings of Eat, Pray & Love.

35A: Disney frame: CEL

37A: Code of silence: OMERTA. Mafia practice. Don't snitch. I also read Mario Puzo's novel Omerta. It's as bad as The Sicilian. I think I only like the Godfather I.

40A: Roster with assignments: ROTA. No idea. I guessed. Here is the definition: "A round or rotation of duties; a period of work or duty taken in rotation with others". British word.

47A: Beret filler: TETE. French for head. I enjoy watching every mishap made by the current French tete Nicolas Sarkozy.

53A: An archangel: URIEL. It's "one of the archangels named in the Apocrypha and in Hebrew tradition."

58A: "My gal __": SAL. Have never seen it. I don't think I've seen any Rita Hayworth movie.

59A: Real estate pulp fiction: SPACE OPERAS. A subgenre of Science fiction. Not my cup of tea.

66A: Workplace safety grp.: OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration)

71A: Designer Schiaparelli: ELSA. She obviously craves fame, this is her 2rd appearance in the puzzle in a week. And she has been dead for 35 years.

Down entries:

1D: Model's walkway: RAMP. Catwork Ramp.

2D: Zeno's home: ELEA. Learned from crossword. Zeno is the "Greek philosopher who formulated numerous paradoxes that challenged the ideas of pluralism and the existence of motion and change."

6D: Pantomime game: CHARADES. Ben Bradley is good at this game.

7D: Favorite hangout: HAUNT. Mayflower Hotel for Client #9.

11D: Romance pulp fiction?: SOB STORIES. I think the first romance story I've read in English is probably The Bridges of Madison County, and I sobbed a lot. Did not enjoy Clint Eastwood's portrayal of Robert Kincaid though.

12D: Tough fabric: TWILL

13D: Rhone tributary: ISERE. Got it this time.

21D: Mythical beast: UNICORN. Franklin Mint has the best unicorn sculptures.

27D: Zhivago's love: LARA. Let's try Lara Logan of CBS next time. Love her and Nick Robinson. Logan was awarded Glamour Magazine's Women of the Year in 2007.

29D: Culinary pulp fiction?: POTBOILER. "a usually inferior work (as of art or literature) produced chiefly for profit". I would put Denzel Washington's "Déjà Vu" as a potboiler movie. Horrible. What a waste of his talent!

32D: Cyclonic wind: TORNADO

34D: Former Swedish premier: PALME. Olof Palme. Interesting given name. Have to remember it lest the diabolic constructor come up with a Former Swedish Premier Palme ___ clue next time. Strange to see politicians assassinated in Sweden. Their former Foreign Minister Anna Lindh was also stabbed to death in 2003.

36D: __ Fail (Irish crowning stone): LIA. Here is the photo. It's also called Stone of Destiny. It's located in Tara Hill, Ireland.

42D: Plea: ENTREATY. I think I am getting smarter. I filled in this word like it's OREO.

49D: Mount in the Cascades: SHASTA. Unknown to me until today. I get it from down clues. Shasta is an Indian word, meaning what???

53D: Customary practice: USAGE

54D: "Bolero" composer: RAVEL. Nailed it today.

57D: Chutzpah: NERVE. The Audacity. Of hope. "But it is where we start. It is where our union grows stronger. And as so many generations have come to realize over the course of the two-hundred and twenty one years since a band of patriots signed that document in Philadelphia, that is where the perfection begins." Brilliant speech yesterday, Senator Obama!

60D: False front: POSE. What's wrong with NY? The new governor also had an affair? You guys are really good at cultivating a pose as an ordinary family-loving man.

65D: Stephen of "Michael Collins": REA. Have never seen this movie before. Generally I love all IRA related movie. Of course, Stephen REA's The Crying Game is the best.

For keys to today's puzzle, please go to Chicago Tribune's Crossword website.

C. C.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008 Robert H. Wolfe

Theme: Animals

17A: Tuxes: MONKEY SUITS

62A: Orange, spotted flowers: TIGER LILIES

11D: Wrestling holds: BEAR HUGS

12D: Ballroom dances: FOX TROTS

Fauna aplenty. And they are in all plural forms. I really like this consistency. And a new constructor to boot.

But I took a series of flogging today, starting from the very beginning (naturally): I put in FIBIA (confused with FIBULA) for 1A, then I put in FAJITA for 1D. ANGELO Dundee is a total stranger to me, in fact, the only Dundee I knew is the town in Scotland, where people use dirk, snee, dagger, and all sorts of crossword friendly weapons.

I could not squeeze BENGAY out of my brain either, I vaguely remember Johan Santana or some other Twins pitcher touted about this stuff before, but my mind was preoccupied with Tiger Balm & Icy Hot, thanks to Jerry Rice and Shaq O'Neal's aching Radio/Radio commercials. ATELIER was actually not a new word to me, I just forgot how to spell it correctly.

So, I got myself in a SNAFU there, then I moved to the MOSSIER part. Another hard scramble. Could not remember URIAH Heep, struggled with RETARD. I remember a headline of "Demure Condi Rice Demurs" during the Senate hearing 2 or 3 years ago, but I never knew that DEMURE was affectedly modest. I always associated it with reticent and reserved.

Oh, the scourge of the CBS corner: I actually did not fill in SYS blindly for 67A. I glanced at 56D: Small rodents, plural, OK, so it had to be SYS. When I could not extricate any animal whose name ends with a letter C, I was atingle with annoyance (Thanks, William, for this word.), and I quickly darted away. (Note to Huge B: Did I use "atingle" properly here?)

Total time spent: close to 1 hour (including googling)

Across entries:

1A: Leg bone: TIBIA. Plural form is Tibiae. Inner bone. Fibula is outer bone. Plural form is Fibulae. Femur is the largest & longest bone, its plural is either femurs or femora.

6A: Lookout's warning: ALARM. Does the lookout here mean a person, Dennis? I don't quite understand the clue.

14A: __ we all? AREN'T. Since DON'T does not fit.

17A: Tuxes: MONKEY SUITS. A big stumper. No idea.

19A: Org. for DAs: ABA (American Bar Association). Jack McCoy has become a DA, no place for Arthur in Law & Order!. What an anemic effort by the forever languid Fred Thompson in his presidential campaign. Disappointing.

20A: Dundee of boxing: ANGELO. He is a boxing cornerman who has worked with 15 world boxing champions, including Ali, Sugar Ray, George Foreman, etc. (Wekipedia information)

22A: Alphabet trio: RST. I could not find a better way to clue this RST either.

23A: Intros: LEAD-INS

25A: Heep of fiction: URIAH. Have never read David Copperfield, or any Dickens work.

27A: Ending for green or crock: ERY. Knew Greenery. Not crockery (crocks collectively; earthenware.)

35A: Tease: RAG ON. To irritate or provoke. I was in the direction of "come-on".

39A: Umps's cousins: REFS

39A: Lines: RULED. Tough for me. Somehow I was not in the math track. I always pegged RULES with all kinds of regulatory stipulations.

42A: Form a secret merger?: ELOPE. Good clue.

44A: Actress Suzanne: SOMERS. Finally an actress I know. Just saw American Graffiti a few month ago, both SOMERS and RON (31D: Howard of "Happy Days") were in it.

46A: Informal college dances: MIXERS

48A: Simone or Foch: NINA. Not familiar with either of them. Only knew NINA RICCI the fashion designer or the perfume line. For a brief moment, Simone de Beauvoir popped into my head.

52A: Step: TREAD

54A: More clogged, as a delta: SILTIER. I suppose so. I misread as More clogged, as a data.

62A: Orange, spotted flowers: TIGER LILIES. So pretty.

65A: Madonna role: EVITA

66A: "Dallas" matriarch: ELLIE. Have never watched "Dallas". Somehow I heard of Sue Ellen, so I put in ELLEN first.

67A: Part of CBS?: ESS. You can only fool me once!!

68A: Passe: DATED

69A: Sowing items: SEEDS

Down entries:

1D: Mexican menu item: TAMALE. Have never had this dish before. Well, if you grow up during Chinese Cultural Revolution, you do not want to touch corn again, ever!

2D: One with a pressing engagement: IRONER. What? What is an engagement? Not a pressing instrument?

3D: Soothing product: BENGAY. Found out that BENGAY was developed by a French guy named Jules Bengué, hense the name BENGAY.

4D: Signed: INKED. Misread the clue as Sighed.

5D: Artist's workshop: ATELIER. Fancy word for a studio.

6D: _ gratia artis: ARS. Art for Art's sake.

9D: Slow down: RETARD. I think I like this word now, after the excruciating pain to ferret it out.

10D: More antiquated: MOSSIER. Big trouble for me. Only knew moss the noun.

11D: Wrestling holds: BEAR HUGS. Not a wrestling fan, but this word is easily inferable.

18D: Over thar: YONDER. I hated words like Thar, Owly, Atip. You just cannot find them in the dictionary. Thar she blows!

24D: Skull cavity: SINUS

26D: Build up: AMASS. Feel so sorry for those Bear Stearns employees, all their money are gone! Stupid James Cayne!

29D: Claw: TALON

32D: Two of a penny? ENS. You cannot trap me here.

33D: Regarding: AS PER

36D: "Man on the Moon" group: R. E. M. : Have never heard of this song. Not a fan of the band either. Only knew REM as Rapid Eye Movement.

38D: Ballroom dances: FOX TROTS

40D: Repudiation: DENIAL

43D: Put up: ERECTED

47D: Mouth moisture: SALIVA

49D: Comparative construction: SIMILE

50D: Epic by Virgil: AENEID: Nope. Have never heard of it.

51D: Turning points: CRISES. Why? I don't get it. I only know crisis as in Financial Crisis, did I miss something here?

55D: Veil material: TULLE. Saw this word in the puzzle several weeks ago.

56D: Small rodents: MICE

59D: Rose or Sampras: PETE. I think we have Pete Rose (Charlie Hustle)'s rookie card.

63D: Unit of absorbed energy: RAD (Radiation Absorbed Dose). Pls read drdad's explanation at the Comment section.

C.C.

Monday, March 17, 2008 Ed Voile

Theme: All about "O" (Happy St. Patrick's Day!)

17A: Willa Cather classic: O Pioneers!

26A: 19th Century Italian song: O Sole Mio

37A: Trial-of-the Century name: O. J. Simpson

54A: Gunfight site: O. K. Corral

64A: 1973 Malcolm McDowell film: O Lucky Man!

A few questions for you before I start today's recap.

1) Have any of you constructed a crossword before? I am a bit baffled by the surfeit of "e", "o", "s" carpeting Tribune's Saturday puzzles. Does the lack of theme entail the excessive use of vowels & affixes?

2) To readers in Chicago: What puzzle do you have on your Sunday Tribune? Is it the same as mine? Or are you offered a different plate of puzzle (NY Times/LA Times syndication)?

OK, now back to our O Fest. I had a very sluggish start. Once again, the upper left corner stumped me. The theme was actually crystallized very early on, but I just could not muddle through my way out of SNAFU & the faraway African animals. I spent over 1 hour on this puzzle.

Across entries:

1A: Reach for a pianist: SPAN

9A: "Sweet" river of Robert Burns: AFTON. No idea.

14A: River into the Wash: OUSE. It's in England. Unknown to me.

19A: Mil. mess: SNAFU. "Situation Normal: All Fouled Up"

21A: Hollow part of a bird: AIR SAC

23A: Greek letters: NUS. I waffled between NUS and MUS.

24A: T. S. and George: ELIOTS. Please give Eliot Spitzer a chance!

29A: Riviera resort: SAN REMO. Or Nice.

31A: Noisy insect: CICADA. Indeed, ear-splitting blast.

33A: Broom made of twigs: BESOM. Is that the kind the wicked witch of the west used?

41A: Dutch commune: EDE. My mind somehow jumped to URI (the Swiss canton).

45A: Leaning precariously: ATIP. I salute your ingenuity Mr. Ed Voile. Very creative way to make up a word. See if others care!

49A: Tongue: LINGUA

51A: On the line: At STAKE

57A: Came to a stop: HALTED

58A: E O'Brien film: D.O.A. Well, the movie was titled D. O. A, no need to abbreviate Edmond O'Brien's name on the clue, don't you think so?

61A: Arab cloak: ABA. I am not fond of the image this cloak summons up. Let's try American Banker's Association (ABA). Can not understand how these highly educated guys get us into this subprime loan mess. But what a bargain for JPMorgan! $2 a share. Where else can you find a 93% discount?

66A: V-formation flock: SKEIN. I put GEESE first.

68A: Money factory: MINT. Not surprised that the Zimbabwean Mint is now mothballed, talk about inflation/hyperinflation.

70A: Popeye's charge: _ Pea: SWEE. Boy, those Linemar Popeye wind-up toys can fetch over $1,500 on ebay, esp with the original box.

Down entries:

1D: With the least delay: SOONEST

2D: Of an eye part: PUPILAR

3D: Utterly stupid: ASININE. So many asinine mistakes are made by so many intelligent guys, every day.

4D: Modern prefix: NEO. William Kristol is probably the only Neocon guy I read/listen to.

5D: Generation-based bias: AGEISM

6D: _do-well: NE'ER. That's James Cayne (the ex-CEO of Bear Stearns). This guy played rounds after rounds of golf while his company stock sunk. He actually put his scores on line. Dick, his scores are 96, 97, 98.

8D: Maxwell and Schiaparelli: ELSAS

10D: African fox: FENNEC. Utterly unknown to me. He looks so cute!

11D: Emotional wounds: TRAUMAS

12D: Ahead of the puck: OFF SIDE. Hockey lingo.

13D: Tahlequah, OK school: NSU (Northeastern State University)

14D: Archibald of the NBA: NATE

22D: Chanel and others: COCOS. Or Red Sox center fielder Crisp.

28D: Feed-bag bite: OAT. You've got to try Bear Baked Granola, so delicious!

35D: Pet protection grp.: SPCA (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals). Sometimes it's ASPCA (American SPCA). IGGY, Ellen DeGeneres' dog, knows both them better than I do.

40D: Part of NLCS: NATL. NLCS is National League Championship Series. Rockies is the 2007 NLCS champion.

41D: "Xanadu" grp.: ELO. Learned it from doing crossword.

42D: Small African antelopes: DIK-DIKS. They are herbivores.

43D: Uses a cipher: ENCODES

46D: Japanese mats: TATAMIS. I tried once, did not like it.

47D: Flower arrangement: IKEBANA. It's definitely a high art. I really like the paralleled structure of these 2 Japanese words.

48D: Nit-pickers: PEDANTS

52D: "Growing Pains" star: THICKE (Alan). He is a stranger to me.

53D: Can. province: SASK.

56D: S. Dey series: LA LAW. Why does the editor keep abbreviating actor/actress names this morning? Too tired to write Susan? Or watched too much Bay Hill Invitational yesterday?

63D: Way in: abbr.: ENT. Entry.

65D: Singer Sumac: YMA. She is still alive!

C. C.

Sunday, March 16, 2009 Annabel Michaels

Theme: Oral Exam

25A: Molar collector?: TOOTH FAIRY

67A: Alien language: FOREIGN TONGUE

114A: Car accident rescue device: JAWS OF LIFE

6D: Murderous: CUT THROAT

37D: Pecans, pumpkin, etc.: PIE FILLINGS

40D: Harmonicas: MOUTH ORGANS

82D: Dimple: CONCAVITY

Wow, what a laborious & harrowing solving experience! I struggled hard. The Socio/Ethno/Flenses/Cresset portion of the puzzle was simple too formidable for me. I did not even get the complete theme entries until I read others' comments. I spent 1 1/2 hours on this puzzle. Had 2 big high-carb breakfasts & 1 apple & 1 banana to compensate my rigorous mental workout.

Oh, I have a question for you, what time do you normally get your Sunday paper? Our weekend paper guy is really driving me nuts. He is always unapologetically and unabashedly late. This morning he threw the paper so hard at our garage door that he woke up my husband.

Across entries:

1A: Rite spot: ALTAR

10A: Of people: pref: SOCIO. I flirted with the senseless LOCIO for over 1 hour.

15A: Long nail: CLAW

19A: "Aida" composer: VERDI. "Aida" is the only Verdi piece I know.

20A: Component piece: UNIT

21A: Of a people: pref: ETHNO. I like the way ETHNO parallels with SOCIO.

22A: Scottish lake: LOCH. I am very fond of this crossword clue: Loch without a key: NESS

23A: Objects of devotion: IDOLS

30A: Auberjonois and Descartes: RENES. TMS crossword stalwart.

31A: Hindu priestly caste: BRAHMAN. Not a familiar word to me. I guess I've heard of Brahma, the Creator in Hinduism (Vishu is the preserver and Shiva is the destroyer. Hindu Trinity). My dictionary explains Brahman as the highest of Hindu priestly caste.

33A: Strips blubber: FLENSES. Unknown. Is this a whaler's lingo?

35A: Angel dust: abbr: PCP (Phencyclidine). I wonder who first called this awful drug "Angel dust?" Maybe he experienced some hallucination and delusions from dosing on this drug and saw angels?

38A: Divest: STRIP

39A: Relative of a flambeau: CRESSET. I did not know the meaning of flambeau, and I've never heard of cresset. I just learned that flambeau derived from old French flambe (flame). I think that's where we get this word flamboyant.

40A: Brit. electees: MPS (Members of Parliament). I just finished Josephine Hart's Damage, in which an upcoming brilliant British MP had a steamy affair with his son's girlfriend. I don't know where I got this notion that MP stood for Minister of Parliament. Louis Malle made this into a film, starring Jeremy Irons and Juliette Binoche. It's pretty good.

43A: Explorer Ericson: LEIF. Here is more information about him. Have never heard of him before.

45A: Hawaiian acacia: KOA. Acacia koa. Unknown to me.

49A: South Pacific region: OCEANIA. Does it include Australia?

51A: Censor's inserts: BLEEPS

54A: Safe: SECURE

55A: Boldly resisting: DEFIANT. That's the oddball lunatic Kim Jong-Il.

56A: Bitingly cold: RAW

57A: Social follower?: ITE. My first instinct was ism, or ist.

59A: Number stamper: DATER. What?

61A: Wife of a rajah: RANI. Rani = Ranee; Rajah = Raja.

62A: Word with prayer and throw: RUGS

64A: Afterwards: THEN. I put SOON first.

65A: Actor Linden: HAL. He is a stranger to me.

71A: Keats verse: ODE

74A: Part of NLCS: NATL (National League Champions Series). Twins belong to the ALC.

75A: Practical jokes: GAGS

76A: Rabbit's title: BR'ER. My husband helped me with this one.

78A: Top social category: A LIST

80A: __ de mer: MAL. French for seasickness.

81A: Wildebeest: GNU. Wildebeest is not listed in my Webster's dictionary.

82A: Informing: CUING.

85A: Hindu mystic writings: TANTRA. Tantra, mantra, both Hinduism terms.

87A: Admonish: REBUKE

89A: While performing: ON STAGE

90A: Cleanliness: HYGIENE

92A: Tumor: suff.: OMA. Fibroma, Melanoma.

93A: Tropical cuckoo: ANI. Learned this bird from doing crossword.

96A: Feudal tenants: VASSALS. Big stumper. I only knew ESNE.

99A: One hundred: pref.: HECTO. I simply forgot.

101A: AARP members: SRS

102A: Tex and Thelma: RITTERS. Complete strangers to me.

103A: Part of the Arctic Ocean: KARA SEA. On the east of Barents Sea. Look at this map.

105A: One more time: AGAIN

108A: QED part: ERAT. I am tired of this cluing.

109A: Norwegian king: OLAV

110A: Makes insensitive: NUMBS

116A: High: pref: ALTI. Altitude or what?

117A: Window on a corbel: ORIEL. It looks like this.

118A: Hog-wild: AMOK. Can also be spelled as amuck.

119A: Of an arm bone: ULNAR

120A: Spoils taken: LOOT

121A: Cooper's Bumppo: NATTY. No idea.

124A: Skewed: AWRY

125A: __ Park, CO: ESTES

Down entries:

1D: Rara __: AVIS. A rare bird, Latin. That's Sade. Don't know where she is now. Sade and her sister used to frequent a bar in Southern Spain operated by my ex-boss.

2D: Mother of Castor and Pollux: LEDA. The Swan Lady.

3D: Walked (on): TROD

4D: Impromptu: AD LIB. The impressive Mike Huckabee! He is so good at ad lib.

5D: Staircase elements: RISERS

7D: Blood deficiency: ANAEMIA. I always spell it as Anemia. Don't eschew the R word, W, this economy is anemic.

8D: Irregular stone foundation: RIPRAP. Here is a picture for you.

9D: Drinking vessel: STEIN

10D: Looses: SETS FREE. I penned in LETS FREE, thus could not get SOCIO for 10A.

11D: "My fair Year" star: O'TOOLE. Never saw this movie.

12D: Routine duties: CHORES

13D: Deeply felt: INTENSE

14D: La-la lead-in: OOH. I put in TRA first.

15D: Sculptor Oldenburg: CLAES. Another stranger.

18D: Reasons: WHYS

26D: Worried: FRETTED

32D: Rowan, a.k.a. Mr. Bean: ATKINSON. Poor guy. He will always be Mr. Bean.

34D: Earthly seven: SEAS. I loathe the clue.

35D: Proceed slowly but surely: PLOD

36D: Gospel singer Winans: CECE

39D: Wrigley's and Doublemint: CHEWING GUMS

41D: Liquefied: PUREED. Don't like anything pureed either. I need to see clearly what I am eating.

42D: "Tristram Shandy" author: STERNE. Have never read the book, do not know the author either.

48D: Beat it: SCAT

50D: Childlike person: NAIF

52D: dugout canoe: PIROGUE. I want to be in this boat.

53D: Knocks for a loop: STUNS

58D: Coop item: EGG. Have you ever taken a fresh warm egg from a coop?

61D: Make road repairs: RETAR

63D: Minor divisions: SUBUNITS. This word posed quite a bit of problem for me.

68D: Battering device: RAM. It's in last Sunday's puzzle.

69D: 31-syllable Japanese poem: TANKA. I only know Haiku.

70D: Greek goddess of discord: ERIS. She is the sister of Ares (God of War). Troubled siblings.

73D: Italian wine center: ASTI

77D: Ways in: abbr.: ENTS. Entries I suppose?

79D: Golfer from El Paso: TREVINO (Lee). Great guy. Very funny too. But I was actually thinking of Crenshaw (Ben). I did not know that Trevino is from Texas. Golfer Justin Leonard is from Texas too.

83D: Borodin's prince: IGOR

88D: Long, narrow cushions: BOLSTERS

91D: Actress Parson: ESTELLE. Nope. Have never heard of her.

93D: Aquarium requirement: AERATOR. My husband filled this for me.

97D: Old World finches: SERINS

98D: Former PLO leader: ARAFAT

99D: Revere: HALLOW. I think Abe Lincoln used "hallow" as a verb twice in his Gettysburg Address.

100D: Wife of Paris: OENONE. Only knew Helen.

103D: Australian marsupial: KOALA

104D: Invisible emanations: AURA

106D: Willing: GAME. I don't think I am game for another Sunday puzzle, this is too tough for me.

107D: Gone GI: AWOL

112D: __ noire (bugbear): BETE

C. C.

TMS Daily Crossword On Line

Just for your information, Chicago Tribune carries TMS Daily Crossword on line (Monday - Saturday), you can click here if you want to solve it on line or try to find the key/keys to the puzzle.

C. C.

Saturday, March 15, 2008 Tom Pruce

Theme: NONE

Hmm, Ides of March, beware! Et tu, Brute? A REPROBATE?

Even though I spent more than 45 minutes plowing and harrowing this puzzle, I still like it. There are no obscure actress/actor/author names or American slangs to bother me, so the ground is not frozen, and I enjoyed my tilling and digging.

I also like the open structure of the upper left and lower right corners, and I like how 13D: FIERCER and 14D: TENSEST are paralleled in a gradual "er, est" fashion.

I only visited google 3 times, irritated a bit by the SAGITTA/REGINA intersection. Neither of the words are familiar to me. I also had problem committing AVATAR to 45A.

Here are the across entries:

1A: Morally unprincipled person: REPROBATE. Jack Abrafmoff, Duke Cunningham, Bob Ney, too many.

10A: Working copy: DRAFT

15A: Fell to pieces: UNRAVELED. Really painful to watch such a brilliant, dazzling Presidential Material Mr. Clean fall down to disgrace so swiftly. I also look at Spitzer's career "with a sense of what might have been".

16A: Unearthly: EERIE

17A: Gossip channel?: GRAPEVINE. E! All I thought was the gossipy E! channel.

18A: City on the Ruhr: ESSEN

20A: Scout's job, briefly: RECON (Reconnaissance)

21A: Jury makeup: PEERS.

25A: Medium meeting: SÉANCE

26A: Asian peninsula: KOREA. I thought of Malay Peninsula at first.

28A: Mommie's sisters: AUNTIES

29A: Must haves: ESSENTIALS. I am so proud that I filled in this word with only one E penned in priorly.

34A: Khrushchev and others: NIKITAS. Hugo Chavez's "The Devil came yesterday" speech in 2006 has put Khrushchev's shoe-pounding incident to shame.

36A: Rolling stone's lack: MOSS (A rolling stone gathers no moss). Or ex-Viking's "I Play when I want to Play" wild receiver Randy. Had Packers signed Randy Moss in 2007, Brett Favre would not have retired today. Poor Cheeseheads!

40A: Of plane navigation: AERONAUTIC. No problem.

45A: Virtual reality folk: AVATAR. I only knew this word as Hindu incarnation of God.

47A: Maine town: ORONO. The college town. Learned it from doing crossword.

48A: Saskatchewan capital: REGINA. Did not known this before.

49A: Cut the greens: MOW. Thick rough, narrow fairway, stupid bunkers, impossible pin positions, shame on you USGA.

52A: Cape Kennedy org.: NASA

53A: Salty: BRINY. I was on the wrong direction, thinking of Senator McCain's snappy, pungent and salty jokes.

54A: No-frills: BASIC

56A: Dressing outfit, casually: TUX

57A: Stop gripping: LET GO

58A: Pen: ENCLOSURE. Oh I felt so smart this morning. Filled it in like it's ALOE.

61A: Stuttering speaker: STAMMERER. Alliteration, J'adore.

62A: Extended gaze: STARE.

63A: Stately court dances: SARABANDS. Have never heard of it before. It's "a slow, stately Spanish dance, esp. of the 17th and 18th centuries, in triple meter, derived from a vigorous castanet dance." SARABAND is also Ingmar Bergman's last movie (2003).

Down clues:

1D: Quality of a cheap toupee: RUGLIKE. Is it even a word?

2D: Caruso and Fermi: ENRICOS. Knew Caruso, not Fermi.

3D: Babblers: PRATERS

4D: Utter sharply: RAP

5D: Beyond: OVER. I put AFAR first.

6D: Angle maker: BEVEL. This small English word posed some problem for me. I kept asking myself "What's the English word for 斜边?"

8D: Mortise's partner: TENON. See this picture. It will show you which one is which.

10D: Dig more: DEEPEN

7D: Carroll's heroine: ALICE. Have never read Alice in Wonderland.

11D: Ushers after the interval: RESEATS. What's the matter with Florida? Every 4 years! Do you know that it's against Florida law to authenticate voters' signatures? The mail-in do-over primary will only invite more troubles. I would not SEAT, or RESEAT any of Florida/Michigan delegate.

12D: Host Hall: ARSENIO. Knew him only because Clinton played "Heartbreak Hotel" on the saxphone on his show in 1992. It's the coolest TV moment, for me. I used to love that man, Mr. Clinton.

13D: More violent: FIERCER

14D: Most on edge: TENSEST

25D: Dey of "The Partridge Family": SUSAN. Only knew her as the LA Law actress.

27D:_ - Margret: ANN. Unknown to me. I got it from across clues. I think I hated this clue. That "-" makes it look like a treaty's name. It should be clued as Swedish actress/singer _ -Margret.

28D: Countertenor: ALTO

31D: Eisenhower and others: IKES. Besides Ike the President and Ike Turner, who else is named Ike?

35D: _ Tome and Principe: SAO. Lots of oil in this small African country, shall we go?

36D: Lose one's _: MARBLES. Better not to go, need to have all our marbles together. Let Chevron and ExxonMobile spread our democracy and capitalism there.

37D: Stuff oneself: OVEREAT. It intersects with 60A: EATEN. But I am not fond of 2 EATs in one puzzle.

38D: Constellation near Aquila: SAGITTA. No idea.

39D: Brandy cocktail: STINGER. No idea, my husband probably knows.

42D: Perfectly: TO A TURN. Have never heard of this phrase. Only knew "to a tee".

44D: Wheedlers: COAXERS. Pas de problème here.

49D: Marine ray: MANTA. Got it. A reverse of yesterday's clue.

51D: Mrs. Fred Flintstone: WILMA. Unknown to me. I just guessed.

54D: Porgy's love: BESS. Funny, I read this clue as Porky's love, so I could not figure out why his girlfriend was not Petunia Pig any more. By the way, I have never heard of Porgy & Bess the opera.

55D: Search carefully: COMB

59D: Galilee or Marmara: SEA. Marmara sea is here. See Istanbul?

Have a great weekend.

C. C.

Newspaper Updates

We have a total of 56 different newspapers carrying the Tribune Media crossword: 1 in Thailand, 3 in Canada, all the other 52 are inside the US.

It seems that no newspaper in Alaska, Indiana and Wyoming has the TMS syndication.

To readers in Arizona, Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, New Mexico, North Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont: Would you please let me know your paper name? Thank you.

A short message to S Scott. I accidentally deleted your email this morning, so I could not email you the blog entry today. Pls send me your email address again.

C. C.

Friday, March 14, 2008 Diane C. Baldwin

Theme: To Get What You Want

20A: Use one's influence: Pull Some Strings

37A: Ask nicely: Say Pretty Please

48A: Influence under the table: Grease a Few Palms

I screwed up the upper left corner again. Purely self-inflicted wounds. I mis-read Humdinger as Harbinger, so I was adamant about my OMEN fill. The fact that I could not dislodge ORAL from my dense brain this morning for _Roberts U only exasperated me further. I remember the improper use of fund scandal by Richard Roberts last year, but I just could not summon up his father's/his university's name.

I filled in "pretty" for the theme entry 37A very early on, and I had "some" already penned in for 20A, so naturally I wanted it to be "handsome", briefly flirting with the idea that the theme might be handsome -pretty-ravishing or something like that.

After a great "O" (I counted 11 O) feast, I managed to piece everything together in 30 minutes (including google). And it looked like a good puzzle, esp the crossing of 47A: FLU and 47D: FEVER. I start to appreciate this kind of effort the constructor puts in.

Across entries:

1A: Viscous clump: GLOB. Not a good image to evoke the first thing in the morning.

3A: Evil spell: CURSE

14A: Ambiance: AURA. I still insist that, oratory skill aside, Obama has the RFK (not JFK) aura. Have to disagree with Ted Sorensen.

16A: In seventh heaven: ON AIR

17A: Take-out side order: SLAW. 4-letter word, what else could it be?

18A: Indonesian island: BALI. Or Java sometimes.

19A: Fetch: BRING

24A: Jazz piece: RAG. Have no knowledge of jazz, don't know what exactly is a rag.

25A: River swirls: EDDIES. Could never fill in this word without thinking of Eddie Guardado.

29A: Gay Nineties and the like: ERAS.

31A: Jiffy: SEC. Could not recall if JIFF as a brand was ever clued in a TMS puzzle.

34A: Bakery come-on: AROMA. I can smell it.

35A: Course culmination: EXAM. Not fond of this clue.

36A: Paparazzi prey: STAR. Depending on what the meaning of "IS" is. OK, isn't Meryl Streep a bigger star than fame-craved Lindsey Lohan? Paparazzi never preys on her (Streep).

42A: Gutter side: EAVES. I was thinking of bowling.

43A: Novelist Deighton: LEN

44A: Work the soil: TILL. Interesting information: "Till" is also a popular song recorded by quite a few artist. Unknown to me. By the way, "Till" can also mean "unstratified, unsorted, glacial drift of clay, sand, boulders and gravel".

45A: Bear witness: ATTEST. Oh, "Kristen". I still could not understand how Eliot Spitzer tossed away his career just like that.

47A: Respiratory malady: FLU. I tend to associate "flu" with fever, headache, can not think of any respiratory involvement. "Asthma" is a big respiratory problem.

57A: English aristocrats: LORDS

58A: Classic Chevy model: NOVA. Got it from down clue. Unknown to me. Not a car fan.

59A: Fossil fuel: COAL

60A: Au revoir!: ADIEU. I hear "à bientôt" or "salut" more often. But I never lived in Paris before. Could not tell for sure.

61A: Low card: TREY. Learned from doing crossword. Never play any card game.

63A: Slow-witted: DENSE. Slower than that, it will be imbecilic.

64A: Otologist's focus: EAR. I like the clue, first time I saw "Otologist", tired of of Ear-related OTO though.

Down entries:

2D: Humdinger: LULU. Doozy.

6D: Crockett's last stand: ALAMO (Davy). Where have you been, crockett1947?

7D: Man or Dogs: ISLE. Never heard of Isle of Dogs. But I like the clue.

8D: Clark's gal: LOIS. Superman girl.

9D: Hooded vipers: COBRAS. Anyone read Michael Gordon's Cobra II? By the way, COPRA is coconut meat, dried.

10D: Take down the sails: UNRIG. I wanted DE RIG.

12D: Tell at: SING. Never knew that "Sing" can mean "to rat".

13D: Work units: ERGS. Here is the definition I lifted from the dictionary: "The unit of energy or work in the centimeter-gram-second system, equal to the force of one dyne over a distance of one centimeter. This unit has been mostly replaced by the joule."

21D: Promise solemnly: SWEAR

22D: Vagabond: TRAMP. Hobo. Could not see any beauty in those hobo bags.

25D: Art supporter: EASEL. I was on the wrong track, thinking of those Broadway backer angels and Art Gallery patrons.

26D: Mallard mister: DRAKE. Mallard is wild duck. Drake is a male duck. What is a female duck then, a hen?

27D: Group's senior member: DOYEN. Unknown to me. Got it from across clues. "The senior member, as in age, rank, or experience, of a group, class, profession, etc." French origin.

30D: Mantas: RAYS. The fish. No idea. In fact, I mis-read it as "Mantra", so I was chanting in my head.

31D: Barrel piece: STAVE

33D: Wave top: CREST

35D: List end, sometimes: ET AL. Abbreviation of 'et alii' (masculine plural) or 'et aliae' (feminine plural) or 'et alia' (neuter plural).

36D: Pants part: SEAT. I put SEAM first. Did not know Seat-of-the-Pants slang until this morning.

38D: Cream of the crop: ELITE. I toyed with A LIST for a brief second, then quickly dismissed it after filling in LIT for 46A: Brightened up.

39D: Abate: LET UP

44D: Paper hankie: TISSUE. Bounty, only Bounty.

45D: Without fail: ALWAYS

46D: Fills the hold: LADES

47D: Temperature: FEVER. Don't like this clue either.

50D: Celtic land: ERIN. Ireland. What distinguishes Erin from Eire? So confusing for me.

52D: Open discussions: FORA. Never knew that the plural for Forum is Fora.

53D: One litmus test conclusion: ACID

54D: Word with star or ranger: LONE. Lone Star yes, but isn't it "the Lone Ranger"?

55D: Either one of a pair: MATE

56D: Swine's supper: SLOP. This puzzle starts with GLOB, ends with SLOP. Perfect!

C. C.

What's Your Crossword Strategy?

On yesterday's (March 12 Wednesday) Comment section, MH mentioned about taking a poll on different strategies we each employ in solving the crossword.

So, let's take a poll then. Here are 4 choices:

1) You fill in all the Across Entries first, then move on to all the Down Entries, in an orderly fashion.

2) You coordinate each across clue with each down clue, and systematically fill in entries from upper left corner to lower right corner.

3) You flit from section to section, filling in whatever know.

4) Or Else? Other secret weapons?

Please share with us.

Thank you.

C. C.

Thursday, March 13, 2008 Alan P. Olschwang

Theme: Quote

17A: Start of Will Durant quote: No man who's

40A: Part 2 of quote: In a hurry is quite

66A: End of quote: Civilized

Great haste makes great waste, take your time, "slow down, I just wanna get to know you...".

But it's a bit overkill to categorize people in a hurry as uncivilized. Who is not in a hurry these days? However, when you consider that Durant and his wife spent 40 years writing The Story of Civilization, it's not that a far-fetched concept. Their life is the greatest love story I've ever heard (a marriage that lasted 69 years). They died within 2 weeks of each other. NPR did a great piece on them 2 years ago I think.

A few thorny spots for me today, but I managed to get away relatively unscathed. Oh, I started from the upper left corner again, could not break my old habit.

Across entries:

5A: New entrant into society: DEB (Debutante). Do you know that the columnist who named Jackie Kennedy (then Jacqueline Bouvier) Deb of the Year in 1947 is Oleg Cassini's brother? Oleg of course later became Jackie's favorite couturier.

9A: Of the Vatican: PAPAL. I blushed when I read excerpts of Pope Benedict's first encyclical - Deus Caritas Est. It's just a bit overwhelming to hear a Pope's reflection on Eros.

14A: Ecole attendee: ELEVE. French word for student.

16A: European river: RHONE

20A: Muffled crash: THUD

21A: Sighting: ESPIAL. Tiger Woods has won an amazing 18 ESPY Awards.

23A: Cool dude: CAT. How I miss Ed Bradley! He is a real cool cat. Scott Pelley starts to grate on my nerve now.

24A: Islamic women's quarters: HAREMS. Often see Oda clued as Harem room. Seraglio carries the same meaning - a sequestered area for wives. Hijab is the headscarf Muslim women wear. Houri is the beautiful virgin promised to those faithfuls in their Koranic paradise.

30A: Dozen: TWELVE

33A: Studio letters: MGM

44A: Zhivago's love: LARA. Dr. Zhivago is Omar Sharif's best movie in my view. Juliet Christie's performance was also impeccable. This movie made living in cold freezing Minnesota very romantic. By the way, this movie is also the favorite of our Chief Justice John Roberts.

45A: "Olympia" painter: MANET. OK, MANET painted beautiful women, MONET painted beautiful scenery.

46A: Bert's twin: NAN. Bobbsey twins. I had no idea. Only knew Nan (or sometimes Naan) as Indian bread.

47A: Kept looking: STARED

50A: Make booties, e. g. : KNIT. I always thought baby's shoes are Bootees, different spelling, no?

52A: Choir section: TENORS

55A: Scant: SPARSE

59A: Last of a log: ASH. I groaned at this clue.

61A: Actress Sobieski: LEELEE. This girl does look like Helen Hunt.

63A: Frozen fail: HAIL

64A: Tea of "Spanglish": LEONI. She is in A League of Their Own too.

70A: Heating apparatus: STOVE

73A: Even more calamitous: DIRER. That's what I feel about Bernanke's rather innovative rescue package. I mean, the plan allows the banks to use their risky home-loan securities as collateral. It does not make much sense to me, but what do I know? At least, the market did not retreat much yesterday.

Down entires:

3D: Madagascar primate: LEMUR. It looks like this. Indri is a short-tailed Lemur.

4D: Ducks and dodges: EVADES. Is duck and dodge (together) a phrase? Only knew Mitt Romney ducks, and he dodges.

6D: Morse dashes: DAHS. Unknown, dots and dits are familiar to me, though I have no idea what distinguishes "dot" from "dit".

9D: Undergraduate courses: PRE-LAW

11D: China: PORCELAIN

12D: Actress Paquin: ANNA. She won an Oscar for Piano, when she was only 11 years old. Interesting: Shirley Temple is not the youngest Oscar winner. She was only given an honary Oscar for achievemetns when she was 6. Taturn O'Neal was the youngest, age 10, for Paper Moon. Never seen it.

18D: Certain strong wind: WESTER. Wind or storm coming from the west.

27D: Andean country: PERU. It's due south of Florida, not California. Learned something from the uppish Alex Trebeck yesterday.

31D: "La dolce ___": VITA. Never saw the movie (The Sweet Life)

33D: Wire measures: MILS

34D: Biting insect: GNAT

35D: Long runs: MARATHONS

37D: Hand-woven rug: RYA. It's "a handwoven Scandinavian rug with a thick pile and usually a strong, colorful design."

42D: Judo teacher: SENSEI. "Sen" means first, "sei" means giving birth. Together, Sensei means teacher. It might sound too much of a stretch to you, but it's a gimmie for me. Cultural thing I think.

43D: Trademark swab: Q TIP

48D: Sign up: ENLIST

51D: Pacific destination: TAHITI. Look at this Gauguin's Tahitian Women on the Beach.

54D: Shift out of place: SLIDE

56D: Stubble cutter: RAZOR

57D: Sifting utensil: SIEVE

59D: Ray of "Battle Cry": ALDO. Repeat offender.

67D: Leary's drug: LSD (Lysergic acid diethylamide). The Acid.

I am very interested in the time you spent on today's puzzle, so please chime in on the Comment section. Also congratulations to Dennis for his "a bit over 5 minutes" record today.

C. C.