Thursday April 16, 2009 Don Gagliardo

Theme: GEES (66A: Yegg's thousands)

17A: Toxic defoliant in Vietnam: AGENT ORANGE

27A: 1930s Fred Astaire partner: GINGER ROGERS

38A: Study of rock groups?: GEOLOGY

45A: Show runner: STAGE MANAGER

58A: "Adam Bede" novelist: GEORGE ELLIOT

Plus 23 more theme answers I will list later.

The above 5 long theme answers all have 2 or 3 G's each and are symmetrically placed. GINGER ROGERS is my favorite, the only one with 3 G's. Have never seen her full name in a puzzle before. Looks cool in the grid. GEOLOGY clue is made interesting with a question mark.

Just amazing puzzle! Total 21 G's. NY Times' record is 19. All soft G theme answers are positioned in Across, and hard G' in Down. Out of the 78 words in this puzzle, 28 are theme answers (14 Across and 14 Down). And if I counted correctly, there are only 60 non-theme black squares. That would be 125 theme squares, about 68% of theme fills. Definitely a first for me.

It reminds me of the Sept 19, 2008 Newsday "52 of a Kind" puzzle. Every word in the grid has a letter L, some are long, some are short. I asked Stan Newman if all of them are theme answers. He said yes, but "of course this is a special case".

Very creative puzzle. I enjoyed a lot. I wonder why SOFT G is not clued in the grid. Is it structurally impossible?

OK, here we go, more soft G (Across) theme entries:

4A: Sharp-witted: AGILE. Wrote down ACUTE recklessly.

9A: O. Henry's "The Gift of the __": MAGI. Read this story in Chinese. It's in our high school western literature class.

14A: Taunts: GIBES

16A: Windy City superstation: WGN. Owned by the Tribune Company, which also owns Chicago Cubs, Chicago Tribune, LA Times and of course Tribune Media Services (TMS) which syndicates LA Times and the old TMS Daily puzzle.

32A: Rowlands of "Another Woman": GENA

50A: Golden __: AGERS. Didn't we just see this clue the other day? Time for teen AGERS.

62A: Red-and-white supermarket logo: IGA (Independent Grocers Alliance). Sigh! I can't remember this chain name. It's clued as "Supermarket grp." in early April.

66A: Yegg's thousands: GEES. Feels weird to see G spelled out as GEE.

67A: Letter appearing only in down answers; its opposite appears in across answers: HARD G

68A: Glue is one: GEL

And hard G Down theme entries:

2D: Billiards player's consideration: ANGLE

4D: Tennis great who retired in 2006: AGASSI (Andre). Two-US Open champ, as clued in yesterday's puzzle.

5D: Prefix with hertz: GIGA. Only know gigabyte.

9D: Address to a pal, in Pamplona: MI AMIGO. "My friend" in Spanish. This refers to male friend only, correct?

11D: Satanic nation in Revelation: GOG. No idea. Got it from across fills. Is that how we got AGOG?

20D: '70 Olympics name: OLGA (Korbut). OLGA means "Holy".

29D: Skilled in: GOOD AT

32D: Tenet's CIA successor: GOSS (Porter). Gimme gimme. Leon Panetta is the current boss. Someone just mentioned on the blog yesterday that CIA's nickname is "The Company". NSA's nickname is "The Puzzle Palace".

38D: Donate, in Dundee: GIE. Scottish for "give".

39D: Club appearance: GIG

42D: Overlooks: IGNORES. Overlook is a Janus word. It means IGNORES, but it also means "to watch over".

44D: Logician's connector: ERGO

52D: Antisocial elephant: ROGUE. Is "Antisocial elephant" a slang? I am not familiar with this phrase.

55D: __ Khan: AGA. Sometimes it's clued as "Turkish title". Literally "Lord". Here is Anne Bancroft's "Yma Dream" again. AGA Khan is one of them. AVA Gardner, AVA Gabor, OONA O'Neill, IDA Lupino, Abba EBAN, UTA Hagen, Ida Lupino and most of the crossword stalwarts are in the clip too.

58D: Comical bit: GAG

Non theme fills (Across):

1A: Late-night name: JAY. JAY Leno. Another kind of soft G, right?

13A: Prop extension?: ANE. Propane. I like this clue. Much better than our old "Chemical ending".

15A: Key that often sounds gloomy: MINOR. Oh, I was unaware of this. So MAJOR keys are cheerful?

19A: Charlie Parker's instrument: ALTO SAX. Would not have got the answer without the down fills. I could only think of saxphone.

21A: Novel type: DIME

22A: Sings, so to speak: TELLS. "Where do I begin? To tell the story of how great a love can be?..."

23A: Philosopher __ tzu: LAO. LAO literally means "old" in Chinese. LAO-Tzu is "Old Master". My husband calls me LAO Po, literally "Old wife".

35A: Place for a stud: LOBE. Stud earrings.

36A: Tribute with a wink: ROAST. Like the annual Gridiron Club Dinner. Obama skipped his this year.

37A: Siouan speaker: OTO. Or OTOE.

40A: Old touring car: REO. The old Olds.

41A: 2005 horror sequel: SAW II. Easy guess. I don't watch horror movies.

43A: Artist who worked on Hitchcock's "Spellbound": DALI. Another guess. I only know the 2002 documentary "Spellbound". I bet those kids are great at solving crosswords. Have never heard of Hitchcock's "Spellbound". DALI was a close friend of Mia Farrow.

44A: O.K. Corral name: EARP. Learned from doing Xword.

48A: Certain, for sure: Abbr.: SYN (Synonym). I don't get this one? What does SYN stand for? (Note: Certain is the synonym of "sure". I am going to bang my head at the wall now.)

49A: LAX tower gp.: ATC. Air Traffic Control. I got the answer from down fills also.

54A: Actress Cusack: JOAN. John Cusack's sister. She is Cynthia in "Working Girl".

64A: "Lovergirl" vocalist __ Marie: TEENA. Here is the clip. I am not familiar with this singer. Wikipedia says she is nicknamed Lady T and her real name is Mary Christine Brockert. Why TEENA intead of Tina then?

65A: Rapa __: Easter Island: NUI. Here is a map. I had no idea that Easter Island is also called Rapa NUI, the Polynesian name meaning "Big Rapa". Wikipedia says it's coined by labor immigrants from Rapa in the Bass Islands, who likened it to their home island in the aftermath of the Peruvian slave deportations in the 1870s. Maybe you can tell me where Bass Islands is.

Non-theme Down:

1D: Scold: JAW AT. Is JAW AT a phrase? I only know JAW.

3D: Streisand title role: YENTL. I still don't know the exact meaning of YENTL. But it's the root word of YENTA.

6D: Alpine goat: IBEX. The wild mountain goat with terrifying horns. Does IBEX shed their horns as buck does with their antlers?

7D: Sportscaster Berman: LEN. Ah me, I forgot his name. I recognized those bobbleheads, so I must have linked this picture before.

8D: More than -er?: EST. Cute clue.

10D: "Archie Bunker's Place" costar: ANNE MEARA. Ben Stiller's mother.

15D: Hospital scanner: MRI

23D: Matt of "Joey": LeBLANC. A rare gimme. Liked him in "Friends". Have never seen "Joey" though.

24D: Anatomical ring: AREOLA. The nipple rings. Are(a) + Ola. The plural is AREOLAE.

26D: "Mr. Triple Axel" Brian: ORSER. Got his name from across fills. A Canadian figure skater. How tall do you think he is?

28D: Marlins' div: NLE (National League East). Braves, Phillies, Mets and the Nationals are the other members. Our Twins belong to ALC (American League Central).

30D: Access ending: ORY. Accessory.

34D: "When pigs fly!": NO WAY JOSE

46D: Nape growth: MANE. The nape of lion/horse.

47D: Livestock identifier: EAR TAG. See this picture. I can almost feel the pain when his ear is pierced.

51D: "Dallas" name: EWING. This has become a gimme. Williams clued EWING as "Adlai Stevenson's middle name" a couple of times.

53D: Slow mollusk: SNAIL

57D: Tegucigalpa's country: Abbr.: HOND (Honduras). Tegucigalpa is the capital city. We just had ESTO clued as "This, in Tegucigalpa" a week ago. But I forgot it completely. New abbreviation to me also.

59D: Summer in the cité: ETE. Rather tepid clue. I like last time's "When the French fry?".

60D: Ordinal suffix: ETH. Sometimes it's clued as "Biblical verb ending".

61D: Meadow: LEA. I've never seen this meadow word in any book, but EWE might have.

Answer grid.

C.C.

Tuesday January 13, 2009 Josiah Breward

Theme: Double Talk

17A: The true state of things: WHAT'S WHAT

26A: Regular guy: MAN'S MAN

36A: Biographical reference book: WHO'S WHO

48A: Up-and-comer: HOTSHOT

55A: Another chore done!: THAT'S THAT

How does HOTSHOT fit in here? Because it has a letter S in the middle? Too flimsy as a theme answer. Besides, HOTSHOT is an ace, and "Up-and-comer" is a rising star, they are not synonymous to me.

MAN'S MAN is a "Regular guy"? Really? Not a rugged macho type he-man?

I did not enjoy this puzzle at all. Yawned all the way through the solving.

I don't know what the heck is happening inside Tribune, but it's not a good sign when we've been offered so many puzzles from Josiah Breward (our editor himself) in the past 2 months. He seems to have stopped accepting new puzzles from our regular constructors. And I expect more Breward puzzles in the future, if there is actually a future with Tribune.

Enough's enough! Hmm, I wonder why he did not use this phrase as his theme answer.

Across:

9A: Climb: SCALE. SCALE a mountain? I've never heard of this usage. SCALE a fish, yes.

15A: Romaine: COS. The Greek island where Romaine lettuce was first introduced is actually KOS.

19A: Inventer Howe: ELIAS. Why "Inventer" instead of "Inventor"? I used to think that Singer invented the sewing machine.

22A: Spaces between leaf veins: AREOLES. The plural can also be AREOLAS, AREOLAE. The singular form is AREOLA. Just had this clue last Sunday.

30A: Hobo's sack: BINDLE. Bundle does not fit. This BINDLE is so small.

31A: Gelling agent: GELATINE. I simply can't stand this 3 letter repetition.

35A: Celtic god of sea: LER. Or Lir. New to me. Only know Roman sea god Neptune. The Greek counterpart is Poseidon, the brother of Zeus/Hades/Hera.

39A: Iranian desert, Dasht-e __: LUT. See this map. Foreign to me. "Dasht" means "desert" in Persian I presume?. Oh by the way, why Iran is not considered an Arab country? What's the difference between an Arab country and an Muslim country?

43A: See through fabric: VOILE. French for "veil".

47A: Apollo 10 astronaut: CERNAN (Eugene). Not a familiar figure to me. Wikipedia says CERNAN is the last man on the moon. Both he and the Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, graduated from Purdue University.

49A: Some postal workers: SORTERS. Does this refer to the people or the machines?

50A: Pugilist's stat: KOS (Knockouts). See TKO more often.

51A: __ En-lai: CHOU. It's Zhou En-Lai to us. Cantonese spelling can be so different. CHOU (Zhou) is also a powerful dynasty in China, with its capital in Xi'An.

62A: Satellite of Jupiter: ELARA. No idea. Easily obtainable though. Wikipedia says it's named after the mother by Zeus of the giant Tityus. Look at this list, Zeus is such a womanizer. And he married his sister Hera. So DF.

64A: Ho or Pardo: DON. Have never heard of the singer DON Ho or TV announcer DON Pardo.

Down:

1D: Partner of hem: HAW. Is teamster here a verb?

2D: Old English letter: EDH. Sometimes the answer is ETH.

9D: "Morning Train" singer Easton: SHEENA. I googled her name. Here is the clip. Also the singer for Bond movie "For Your Eyes Only".

21D: Guitarist Joe: WALSH. Here is his "All Night Long". Saw this clue somewhere before.

27D: Body axis: MIDLINE. Holy moley. I did know know I have a MIDLINE in my body.

28D: Ring-shaped: ANNULAR

41D: Writer Caldwell: ERSKINE. Another google. He is the author of "Tobacco Road".

46D: Certain sandals: THONGS. Or "Certain beachwear". What a perfect body shape!

49D: Snowboarder White: SHAUN. No idea. See this photo cover. Wikipedia says he is known for his shock of red har, for which he has become known as "The Flying Tomato".

53D: Stevedores' grp.: ILA (International Longshoremen's Association)

C.C.

Sunday January 4, 2009 Ed Voile

Theme: Old/New Things

23A: Any date in 2008? OLD YEAR'S DAY (New Year's Day)

25A: Replacement dog?: NEW YELLER (Old Yeller)

40A: City in ancient France?: OLD ORLEANS (New Orleans)

53A: Recently made?: NEW FASHIONED (Old Fashioned)

83A: Past eras in a city near Leeds?: OLD YORK TIMES (New York Times)

98A: Ebonics, e.g.?: NEW ENGLISH (Old English)

111A: Pink slip of a former GM Car?: OLDS PAPER (Newspaper)

116A: Waterway named for Paul?: NEWMAN RIVER (Ol' Man River)

"Ol' Man River" is a new song to me. As for 98A, Wikipedia says Ebonics refers to "Black English" or "African American Vernacular English". Why is it called NEW ENGLISH then? And How is it related to Old English? I guess I don't understand the rationale for his clue buildup.

Very nice and timely theme. Of those 8 theme answers, OLD YORK TIMES is my favorite.

Sunday's puzzle is always intimidating to me. The sheer size is overwhelming. And it often contains a few strange medical/chemical terms and obscure people' names. The difficulty level of NY Times Sunday puzzle is the same as their Thursday's. But our puzzle does not follow their pattern. I would say TMS Sunday is the most difficult, at least for me. I hope I can finish a 21*21 without cheating by the end of 2009.

Across:

11A: Playful troublemakers: SCALAWAGS. A new rascal word to me. Dictionary says that SCALAWAG also refers to "a native white Southerner who collaborated with the occupying forces during Reconstruction, often for personal gain."

20A: Unit of loudness: SONE. About 40 decibels.

21A: Civil War battle site: SHILOH. I was not familiar with Battle of SHILOH. What's so siginificant about it?

26A: Rocket launcher: BAZOOKA. OK, here is a picture. It's a portable. Topps also manufactures BAZOOKA baseball card.

27A: School in Sandhurst. Eng.: RMA (Royal Military Academy)

31A: Spaces between leaf veins: AREOLES. Can also be spelled AREOLAS, AREOLAE. The singular form is AREOLA. This is the only diagram I could find. And obviously they are not "Spaces between leaf veins".

35A: Chloroform discoverer: LIEBIG. OK, I checked, it's not a BIG LIE. This guy LIEBIG is indeed the discoverer of Chloroform, whatever it is. Wikipedia also says that he is known as the "father of the fertilizer industry" for his discovery of nitrogen as an essenitial plant nutrient.

45A: Wilson and Mulroney: BRIANS. Wilson is the lead singer for The Beach Boys. And Mulroney was the Canadian Prime Minister from 1984 to 1993. I knew neither of them. Easy guess though.

52A: Gust of wind: SCUD. I always associate SCUD with ballistic missile.

63A: Arlene or Roald: DAHL. Arlene DAHL is an actress. Roald DAHL is the author of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory". Both unknown to me.

67A: Isl. of Australia: TAS. I wish it were clued as "Prof's aides".

69A: Current flow restrictors: DIODES. No idea. This is too complicated for me to understand.

75A: "The Conformist" writer Moravia: ALBERTO. I googled his name.

79A: Destitute class: HAVE-NOTS

86A: Climb (a rope): SHINNY. New to me. Looks like an adjective.

96A: Mutation: FREAK. How so?

102A: Capital of ancient Lydia: SARDIS. See this map. Way obscure to me.

104A: "Roberta" star: ASTAIRE. Alright, here is the clip. I've never heard of "Roberta".

109A: Cooking sticks: SKEWERS

120A: Seaport in the Philippines: ILOILO. I forgot. Saw this clue before. Here is the map again. The spelling reminds of the African fly TSETSE.

124A: Scott of a famous case: DRED. Was he a gimme to you? I could only picture Scott Peterson in my mind. What a awful man he is.

Down:

4D: Milne character: EEYORE. Learned from doing Xword. How to pronounce EEYORE again?

6D: Racing org.: NHRA (National Hot Rod Association)

10D: Aromatic fungicide: THYMOL. THYME & OL (suffix for alcohol). Unknown to me. How can fungicide be "Aromatic"?

19D: Old pol. unit: SSR (Soviet Socialist Republic). Pre-1991 obviously.

31D: Slow musical passages: ADAGIOS

34D: Sergeant fish: SNOOK. Had zero familiarity with this giant fish.

36D: Italian bowling: BOCCI. Or BOCCE. Yet another unknown. Looks like they are having fun.

37D: Pelvic bone: ILIUM. Also the Latin name for ancient Troy.

45D: Actor De Wilde: BRANDON. Another google. Which movie is he famous for?

47D: Mountain nymph: OREAD. Echo is an OREAD in Greek mythology.

50D: FDR or JFK: DEM. BHO is a DEM too. Weird, isn't it? Obama sounds so much better.

52D: Blues or Cardinals: ST. LOUIS

53D: Pres. advisory grp.: NSC (National Security Council). James Jones will be Obama's National Security Advisor.

59D: Love potion, in Britain: PHILTRE. Holy smoke. Really? How come I've never heard of this word? It's rooted in Greek philos, love. I suppose PHILTER is "Love potion, in America". Maybe I need to learn how to brew PHILTER.

68D: Ratfink: STOOLIE

77D: Mass calendars: ORDOS. Latin for "order". I have no doubt that I won't be able to remember this word next time the clue comes up.

80D: Director Kurosawa: AKIRA. I recognized his Japanese name when I googled. What a brilliant career!

84D: Hebrew letter: KOPH. 19th letter of Hebrew alphabet. I got it from the across fills. It's pronounced the same as cough.

90d: Master of a ship SKIPPER. I always thought Joe DiMaggio's nickname is Yankee SKIPPER rather than Yankee Clipper.

93D: "Falconer" writer: CHEEVER (John). Here is the bookcover. Is it worth reading? Have never heard of this writer.

94D: Earthly: TERRENE. Only knew terrain.

95D: Blows a gasket: SEES RED. And HUFFS (79D: Blows hard). Someone is mad.

97D: "__ Fideles": ADESTE. Semper came up first.

105D: Austrian article: DER. Never know when to put DER, when to put DAS.

110D: Macrame feature: KNOT. I did not know the meaning of Macrame.

111D: Archaic: abbr.: OBS (Obsolete). Where can you find this abbreviation?

118D:Wire measure: MIL. It's about .001 inch. Saw this clue before.

C.C.

Sunday November 9, 2008 Robert H. Wolfe

Theme: Selective Collective

27A: Group of pooches: OODLES OF POODLES

120A: Group of tropical fish: MASSES OF WRASSES

16D: Group of swine: SCORES OF BOARS

34D: Group of food fish (var.): SCADS OF SHADS

37D: Group of jumpers: LOADS OF TOADS

39D: Group of jumpers, briefly: SLEWS OF ROOS

59A: Group of male donkeys: STACKS OF JACKS

I've never heard of the tropical fish WRASSES (120A). Why there is a "var." mark for 34D?

What a puzzle! Now I feel like a raisin in the morning sun, not dried up and not plump either. I think I still have some moisture left.

I've never filled in so many blanks on a Sunday puzzle. The simple rhyming theme certainly helped. And there was no obscure medical/chemical term intersecting one another to frustrate me.

Had to do a few googling and a few V-8 moment wite-outs in the end. But today's efficient solving makes me feel rather smart. Not much to complain except the clue for SASH (86A: Pageant ID). The abbreviated ID is asking for an abbreviated answer. A simple "Pageant wear" will do the job.

Across:

9A: Type of committee: AD HOC. And another Latin phrase: HIC (77A: __ jacet).

21A: Dentition: TEETH. Dention and teething are synonymous, not TEETH, right?

25A: Mediterranean island nation: MALTA. Its capital is Valletta.

26A: Parkinson's medication: L-DOPA. I forgot. It appeared in our puzzle before.

32A: Gang follower?: STER. Gangster, mobster, teamster, etc.

36A: Kind of tea or remedy: HERBAL

60A: "__ the Explorer": DORA. Lovely DORA bedding set for a small girl.

80A: Switched switch: OFF ON. I don't understand the grammar of the clue.

88A: Both haves of a fly?: TSES. Tsetse. I guess there is no other better way to clue TSES.

89A: "The Right Stuff" org.: NASA. Pure guess. I've never heard of the movie "The Right Stuff" .

92A: Prairie coverage: OAT GRASS. Oh, I did not know that this grass is called OAT GRASS. So different from wheatgrass.

95A: Swanson of Hollywood: GLORIA. She appears in almost every JFK biography due to her affair with Joe Kennedy Sr.

97A: Disney World attraction: EPCOT. Have you been to EPCOT Center?

107A: Everett of "Citizen Kane": SLOANE. I googled his name. I found the movie hard to follow.

111A: such being the case: AS IT IS

123A: Plant with two seed leaves: DICOT. No idea. See this Monocot vs DICOT link. What are "two seed leaves"?

128A: Century plant: AGAVE. The fiber AGAVE yields is called sisal hemp.

132A: Desert traveler: NOMAD

133A: DOD part: DEPT. DOD is Department of Defense.

Down:

1D: Poetic stanza: STROPHE. I would not have got this word without the across fills.

2D: Spaces between leaf veins: AREOLES. The singular form is AREOLA, which was clued as " Ring around the pupil" last time.

4D: Space station of old: SKYLAB. From 1973-1979. MIR was de-orbed in 2001.

6D: New bread abroad: EUROS. I like this clue.

9D: Start of sphere: ATMO. Atmosphere.

10D: View from Mount Pisgah: DEAD SEA. Where is Mount Pisgah? I only see Mount Nebo.

15D: Capp of comic strips: ANDY. Hmm, I'd love the clue to be ANDY Garcia related.

17D: Long-snouted animal: TAPIR. He is ugly, like a pig. I did not know his name before.

28D: Day's march: ETAPE. Again, without the adjacent fills, I would not have obtained this word. I don't think I understood "Day's march" last time when we had the discussion.

29D: Bay window: ORIEL. See this link.

45D: Animal fat: LARD. It's pork fat. Suet is beef/mutton fat.

47D: Thin wdt.: NAR. Narrow? What is "wdt"? Width?

50D: Defeat decisively: TROUNCE

51D: Bombing runs: SORTIES

52D: Corey of "Murphy's Romance": HAIM. Another google. Have never heard of Corey HAIM or "Murphy's Romance" before.

53D: Silents star Theda: BARA. The Vamp. I often confuse her with the "It" girl Clara Bow.

55D: Oscar winner Kedrova: LILA. She won Oscar for "Zorba the Greek".

63D: Supreme Court Justice Black: HUGO. What case is he famous for?

74D: Far from the flock: LOST

94D: Diamond of "Night Court": SELMA. Is she the pretty girl on the front row? I've never heard of her name before.

96D: Fretting: IN A STEW

98D: Tapioca source: CASSAVA. Have you had fresh CASSAVA before?

102D: Yellowstone attraction: GEYSERS. Great picture.

108D: Eviction: OUSTER

109D: Trooper's gun: RADAR. Or the Nehi drinker (M*A*S*H).

119D: Vincent Lopez theme song: NOLA. I could only find this theme music clip, not the song.

C.C.

Thursday, March 27, 2008 Alan P. Olschwang

Theme: Quip

20A: Start of the Evan Esar quip: TO THE NIGHT OWL

37A: Part 2 of quip: IT'S ALWAYS BETTER

57A: End of a quip: LATE THAN NEVER

Technically, Esar quipped "To a night owl, it's always better than never". It seems a bit arbitrary and capricious for a constructor to alter someone's original quip at his own convenience to construct a crossword grid, don't you think so? My nerve is a bit chafed by this granular unevenness in an otherwise very pleasing, smooth & Monday-like puzzle.

If not for the upper left corner AREOLE snag, I would have reached the Emerald city and seen the great Wizard of Oz unaided! I found my yellow brick roads very early on, after 37A revealed itself to me. I easily hoed patches and patches of the loose fields, and I did not really find any hard clumps of dirts, all easily crushable.

On a non-crossword related issue, I think I tend to bristle at things that might not raise your ire at all. Take Clinton's explanation for her Bosnia sniper fire faux pas for example, she said: "I say a lot of things - millions of words a day - so if I misspoke, that was a just a misstatement." Many pundits and reporters pounced on her faulty memory blips.

I actually believe that people do misspeak for things that they may not have experienced. I know I would not even consider venturing to Bosnia under that risky situation. I am, however, bothered by her "millions of words a day". How could that be? At what speed? Faster than an auctioneer?

Someone actually counts the amount of word an auctioneer speaks per minute, and it will take Hillary 40 hours talking non-stop to reach a million word. Is she so privileged that her day is consisted of more than 24 hours? I tend to take the meaning of words very literally due to my lamentable lack of understanding of American idioms and slangs and the habitual exaggeration of certain stuff in American culture.

Now back to today's puzzle, the Grid structure is : 15*15

187 filled squares, 38 blank squares, total words 76 (Across 35, Down 41). Maximum word account for Monday-Friday puzzle is 78 in case you have not paid attention to it.

Here we go:

1A: Valise: BAG. La valise, the suitcase.

4A: Earthquake: SEISM

9A: Car lifts: JACKS

15A: Banks of baseball: ERNIE. Or Els of PGA (or South African golfer Els, Big Easy Els, etc)

16A: Square: UNHIP

17A: Salton or Sargasso: SEA

18A: Face the day: RISES

19A: Saturn or Mercury: DEITY. Both Roman Gods.

23A: Jumble: OLIO. This is a typical Crosswordese (words that only appear in Crosswords). ORT, ETUI, ALEE are of the same ilk.

24A: Turns right: GEES. Enough left and right turns (HAWS)! Try something else. Please jump into the Comment section and share with us if you have a better clue for GEE/GEES.

28A: Cowboy movie: WESTERN

31A: Lay waste to: DESPOIL. Learned this word in 2003 when the rampant looting took place in Iraq and some of the museum pieces were despoiled. But to borrow a line from Rumsfeld: "Stuff happens, democracy is messy, freedom is untidy."

34A: The best __ plans...: LAID

36A: Designer Ashley: LAURA. Never heard of her, a pure guess.

43A: Actress Witherspoon: REESE. I like her "Walk the Line" & "Sweet Home Alabama" only.

48A: Comebacks: RETORTS. I was on the wrong train, putting RETURNS first.

53A: Seine: NET. Got it this time.

54A: Unsolicited ms. encl. SASE (self-addressed stamped envelope).

56A: Viral lump: WART

62A: Bloodsucker: LEECH

64A: Transmitter: RADIO

65A: Drs.' group: AMA (American Medical Association). I am very impressed by the extensive work DWB (Doctors Without Border) has done so far, very far reaching.

69A: Overbearing: BOSSY

70A: Bubbly: PERKY. Want the old effervescent Katie Couric back.

71A: Big Band, for one: ERAS

Down entries:

1D: Confer: BESTOW

2D: Interstice of a leaf: AREOLE. I think I saw this word in TMS puzzle before. Maybe it's AREOLA. Not sure.

3D: Free of charge: GRATIS

4D: Desiccated: SERE

5D: Poetic name for Ireland: ERIN. Good to see ERIN and EIRE (26D: Emerald Isle) in the same puzzle.

6D: Badge of honor: INSIGNIA

7D: Blockade: SIEGE

8D: Interlocked: MESHED

9D: Self-defense system: JUDO. Putin's favorite sport. He is a black belt.

11D: Cool it!: CHILL OUT

12D: Set of a part: KIT

13D: Mata Hari, for one: SPY. A femme fatale.

21D: Steaming: HOT. I kind of like the almost intersection of HOT and NIGHT.

27D: Winged: ALAR. Wing parts are ALAE. Ala is Latin for wing.

29D: Actress Barkin: ELLEN. Not impressed by her role in Ocean's 13.

38D: Beret filler: TETE. Tired of this clue too. Let me see... Port City in Mozambique, no, I don't like it. Don't like French head either. I can not think of anything else.

38D: Resident of a new region: SETTLERS

39D: Tempe sch.: ASU (Arizona State University).

41D: Spatula: SPREADER

47D: Petty dictator: SATRAP. Identical clue on Feb 27 puzzle.

50D: Devastate: RAVAGE

51D: Nervous vibration: TREMOR

52D: Horizontal layers: STRATA

55D: Sedimentary rock: SHALE. Filled in from the down clues. It's "a rock of fissile or laminated structure formed by the consolidation of clay or argillaceous material."

60D: Small notch: NICK

C.C.

Sunday, March 9, 2008 Josiah Breward

Theme: Going Off Half-cocked (Acting Prematurely)

23A: Revealing intentions: Tipping One's Hand

39A: Bridge tactic: Preemptive Bid

62A & 74A: Getting ahead of oneself: Putting the Cart before the Horse

99A: Beginning too soon: Jumping the Gun

17D: Scaring folk for nothing: Crying Wolf

72D: Do-over's cause: False Start

Another miserable Sunday for me. I had 3 breakfasts while solving this puzzle, my record.

I had a very shaky start, and never really gained any momentum. The only bright spot was the upper right corner. I was proud of myself for filling in NERVA for 16D: Emperor before Trajan. I also conquered the lower middle part without encountering much resistance.

But everywhere else was rife with knobby problems. So many intimidating unknowns: actress, actor, singer, athlete, author, & liquid measure. I had no idea what "Quinine" means in 41D. I filled in "Preempting Bid" instead of "Preemptive Bid" for 39A, misguided by the "ing"pattern I spotted from the other theme entries. Had no idea that foxtail was a kind of brush. Misread 36A "Battering equipment" as "Batting Equipment". Without Richard's help, I would never have solved this puzzle today.

Here are the across entries:

1A: Landing strip surface: TARMAC

7A: Lines for the theatre: DIALOGUE. I like the clue, esp the British spelling of "theater".

15A: Remove a lid: UNCAP

20A: Ring around the pupil: AREOLA. Got it from the down clues. It also means "colored circle around a nipple".

21A: In the file: ON RECORD

22A: Impudent boldness: NERVE

25A: "The Silver Streak" co-start: PRYOR (Richard). Never heard of Pryor, nor saw the movie. Don't want to be bored.

26A: Moses or Felipe of baseball: ALOU

29A: Experts: MAVINS. Or MAVEN.

30A: Spanish rice entree: PAELLA. The main ingredients are rice, olive oil & saffron, in case you want to make it yourself.

33A: French-American dialect: ACADIAN. Same as Cajun I suppose?

36A: Battering equipment: RAM. Why? I don't get it. (UPDATE: Pls read Comments Section for explanation).

43A: Test for coll. seniors: GRE (Graduate Record Exam)

46A: Newspaper honcho: EDITOR

48A: College organization: SORORITY

49A: "The Virginian" writer Wister: OWEN. Here is more information about him.

50A: Small taxi: MINICAB. I put in Minicar first.

52A: Sailor's grp: ONI (Office of National Intelligene)

56A: Seemingly forever? AEON. Why the question mark? Aeon means seemingly forever, no?

57A: Gradient: INCLINE

61A: Brand name on cakes: SARA LEE

66A: Trumped: RUFFED. New word to me.

67A: Sheriff's band of the Old West: POSSE

68A: Unrestrained breaks of violence: RIOTS

70A: Full-length tunic: CAFTAN. I had CAF_ _ forever. Had big problems with the down clues.

82A: Stritch and Boosler: ELAINES. Nailed this one today.

84A: Gathered: RAKED IN

85D: Duck feathers: DOWN

86A: Sequence verifier: COLLATOR. Never used this word before.

88A: Army rcts: GIS

89A: Was contrary to: OPPOSED

92A: MIT part: INST (Institute).

93A: Masculinity: MALENESS. Is this even a word? He is so male?

97A: City on the Rio Grande: LAREDO. Never heard of it.

98A: T-shirt size: LGE

103A: Small upright pianos: SPINETS

105A: Glossy type of paint: ENAMEL

107A: Senility: DOTAGE

109A: T or F, eg: ANS: True or False, Answers.

112A: NYC gambling center: OTB (Off-Track Betting)

113A: Spheres: ORBS

117A: Diet guru Jenny: CRAIG. They just sacked Kristie Alley.

118A: Edgar Allan Poe story, with "The": PREMATURE BURIAL. Never read it.

123A: Judy of "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-in": CARNE. She was married to Burt Reynolds for a short time.

124A: Wakayama farewell: SAYONARA. Japanese for good-bye. Also a Marlon Brando movie (1957).

125A: Cantankerous: ORNERY. It crumbled easily for me.

126A: Action or change starter: INTER

127A: Repeats: ITERATES

128A: Combine together: BLENDS

Down entries:

2D: Seed coat: ARIL. Learned it from doing crossword.

3D: Collection biz: REPO. Also a 2008 movie.

4D: Tidy loose ends: MOP UP. I put Sew Up, but quickly corrected myself.

6A: Australia capital: CANBERRA

7D: Casual drawings: DOODLES

8D: Quaint quarters: INN. I've seen this clue several times. Why is Inn quaint? Holiday Inn, Baymont Inn are all very modern.

11D: Protest-singer Phil: OCHS. Never heard of him. The only Ochs I knew is Adolph Ochs, the former owner of NY Times.

12D: Tibetan gazelle: GOA. I put Yak, which is actually an ox.

13D: Large vase: URN

14D: Actor Byrnes: EDD. Nope, did not ring a bell.

15D: Still owing: UNPAID

16D: Emperor before Trajan: NERVA. It appeared on Friday March 7 's puzzle.

18D: English river: AVON

19D: Individual: abbr: PERS (Personal).

29D: 1501: MDI. I cannot help you if you cannot commit Roman numerals to your memory.

31D: Bk. of Revelation: APOC (Apocalypse)

32D: Latin lesson word: AMO

33D: Fauna starter: AVI. Have to thank Richard for the help. I put ANI there initially thinking it means Animal.

34D: Govt. training leg.: CETA (Comprehensive Employment and Training Act.)

35D: Vast chasm: ABYSS

36D: Revise charts: REMAP

38D: North Dakota city: MINOT. Known as the Magic City. Never been there.

40D: Worker: PROLE. Unknown to me. It stems from "proletarian".

41D: Quinine water: TONIC. I did not know the meaning of Quinine.

42D: Privalova or Vorobyeva: IRINA. Never heard of them.

44D: Taylor or Adoree: RENEE

47D: Trace of color: TINT

49D: Norwegian saint: OLAF

51D: Major Leagues, casually: BIGS

54D: Writer Bret: HARTE. I got him today!

55D: Rah!: CHEER

58D: Plain crush grp.: NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board)

63D: Toothpaste brand: IPANA. What? All the 5 letter toothpaste brands I can think of are Crest, Oral B, Reach and Gleem. Never heard of Ipana.

64D: Song for nine: NONET

65D: S. Amer. monkey: TITI. Hated the clue. It should not be abbreviated. Misleading.

69D: Cry of distress: OH NO

70D: De Mille of movies: CECIL. A prolific director.

71D: As company: ALONG

73D: Pinball goof: TILT

75D: Steely Dan Singer: FAGEN (Donald). Here is more information on this band.

76D: Giving the nod to: OKING

77D: Bowler's button: RESET

78D: Nose alert: ODOR

79D: Fragrant beds: ROSES

80D: Stockholm native: SWEDE. Some people also call "rutabaga" as "swede".

81D: Provide with property: ENDOW

83D: Amiens river: SOMME. In France. It flows into the English Channel.

87D: Spellbound: RAPT

90D: Vertical line: PLUMB BOB. I only knew plummet.

91D: Fleur-de_: LIS. French for Flower of Lily.

95D: "__ Loves you": SHE. Beatles' song.

96D: Ladies of Seville: SENORAS

99D: Liquor measure: JIGGER. My dictionary says it's a small cup/glass to measure liquor, containing usually 1 1/2 ounces.

100D: One of the French: UNE

101D: Entryway: GATE

106D: Actor GREENE: LORNE. He was in Bonanza.

107D: Fifth of MMMDV: DCCI (1/5 of 3505=701)

108D: Algerian city: ORAN. Gulf of Oran city.

109D: God of love: AMOR. or Cupid, the Greek equivalent is EROS.

111D: Wendy's dog: NANA. Who is Wendy? I thought Nana is Peter Pan's dog.

111D: RBI or ERA: STAT (Statistics)

114D: Nice nothing? RIEN. French word for nothing.

115D: Exalted poet: BARD. Robert Bly has just become MN's first Poet Laureate.

116D: Stone and Stallone: SLYS. Knew Stallone, never heard of Sly Stone though.

119D: Stoolie: RAT

120D: Scope out: EYE. I misread the clue as "Scoop out" and wasted my time in vain.

121D: End of post: URE. Posture

122D: Internet add.: URL (Uniform Resource Locator)

Finally I am done!

C. C.