Theme: FULL CALENDAR (Pls let me know if you spot any mistake)
110A: Kevin Kline movie, with "The": JANUARY MAN
89A: Groundhog Day: FEBRUARY SECOND
1A: Step in step: MARCH
33D: Annual fall: APRIL SHOWERS
129A: Chicken Itza man: MAYAN
57A: Followup to 33D: JUNE WEDDING
23A: Summer holiday: JULY FOURTH
44D: "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" playwright: AUGUST WILSON
110A: 1980 Neil Diamond hit: SEPTEMBER MORN
79A: German-American celebration: OCTOBER FEST
48A: Walt Whitman work: NOVEMBER BOUGHS
29A: Spring Byington's TV classic: DECEMBER BRIDE
First of all, I love Sade the beautiful singer, not Sade the sadistic writer. I don't enjoy being tortured. But I was put through a waterboading this morning. It's excruciating! I am certain that some of you will breeze through the puzzle without encountering any bad weather. But for me, it was a stormy and turbulent sailing experience. Oodles of unknown terms like OLEIC, ELASTIN, TETRYL, IATRO. Loads of films, songs, singers, playwright I've never heard of. In fact, I don't remember I've ever spent such an unendurably long time flirting with Google. Painful!
Maybe I should not try Sunday puzzle. It frustrates me and robs me of the precious confidence I've built up during the weekdays. The amount of new information is simply too overwhelming.
I was flustered and paralyzed from the very beginning 1D: Fastfood position (McJOB). I've never, ever heard of this slang. I guess I could've taken a wild stab if 18A: SHANKS (CRURA) was an easily obtainable answer. Alas, it was formidably flinty. I pictured all kinds of shanks in my brain, including the shank shot that hit my right ankle by a stupid golfer. Ouch! Could not think of anything, so I limped away.
I actually figured out the theme very quickly, immediately after I got Y from 4D: Shed Tears (CRY). That enabled me to fill in the beginning MONTH part a few long across theme entries. But, what followed the months (Jan, Sept, Nov. & Dec, Nov) were impenetrable. The down clues were of no help, in fact, they only added to my miseries.
Besides, I self-inflicted myself with some near-fatal wounds. Take 66A: Manufactured baloney? (LIED) for example. I was hellbent to fill in LIES. I wanted a noun and I would not consider any other choice. Then 43D (Mathematical figures of earth) became GEOISS. I checked all the dictionary sources, and could not find any evidence to validate my fill. However, I convinced myself somehow that GEOISS was correct. I thought it was probably another made-up ATIP word by Wiseman (asa as our Editor Williams). So I decided to hammer in this last nail GEOISS on the puzzle and call it a success. Only realized that I was wrong when I tried to type in LIED for the blog entry. Stupid!
Now looking back at this puzzle, it is pretty elegant. It's not an easy task to pull off these 12-month feat in one grid. My only gripe is about the lower right corner. LEMAY (107D) and MAYAN (129A) should not have crossed each other that way. It looks very awkward to me. Besides, the month MAY could've been constructed as an independent entry (just like every other month) rather than embedded in another word.
Some of today's clues are very clever, esp those with question marks. The best is 100A: Roman Crowd?: III (Roman number three. Two's a company, Three's a crowd). Very refreshing.
Grid (21*21): Total letters filled: 369. Total blank squares: 72
Across entries:
6A: Ancient Greek portico: STOA. Plural can be STOAS, or STOAE. OK, Ancient Greek Mall: AGORA, AGORAE. Ancient Greek concert hall: ODEUM, ODEUMS or ODEA.
10A: Bub: FELLA
15A: Lowly NCO: CPL (Corporal)
18A: Shanks: CRURA. Singular form is CRUS.
19A: Greek crosses: TAUS. Greek letter T.
20A: Trojan War epic: ILIAD
21A: American Omegas: ZEES. Omega is the last letter of Greek alphabet.
25A: Stallone persona: RAMBO
26A: Asian inland sea: ARAL. Saw it clued as "Shrinking Asian Sea" before.
27A: Eng. honor: OBE (Order of British Empire). Thought Tina Brown received an OBE. Wrong. She received a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire), which is higher than OBE.
32A: Theda of silents: BARA. Not familiar with this name. Interesting, Wikipedia says her name is an anagram of "Arab Death". No wonder she was cast as "Cleopatra".
34A: Sparta site: LACONIA
37A: Like a little Glaswegian: WEE. How so? Doesn't Wee also mean "a little bit" in American English?.
38A: Fraction of a rupee: PAISA. Well, I suppose if you are from Indian or Pakistan, this is a gimme for you. I have no idea.
40A: Pass slowly: DRAG
43A: "I Can't Make You Love Me" singer: RAITT. Not familiar with the song.
45A: Actor McGavin: DARREN. Nope. Another stranger.
53A: Acid in soap: OLEIC. No idea. Totally beyond my ken.
55A: Pigeon talk: COOING. Could've, should've got this one, but I did not. I was thinking a real noun, not a fake ING verb-noun.
56A: Window part: SILL. Put PANE first of course.
60A: Various functions: USES
64A: Collected: AMASSED. 2 other SS in today's puzzle: UMASS, PUSS.
66A: Manufactured baloney?: LIED. Couldn't believe that I was snagged here for so long.
67A: Refuges: ASYLA. Plural of Asylum. An insanely difficult answer for a simple clue.
68A: 1977-to-2005 Missouri congressman: GEPHARDT (Dick). Shouldn't the c in Congressman should be capitalized? Or is it just another Obama Democrat/democrat thing? My husband likes Gephardt a lot. Me, lukewarm toward him.
70A: Lively dance: JIG
71A: Ghostly: SPECTRAL
74A: CNN correspondent David: ENSOR. I tend to confuse him with Jamie McIntyre (CNN Pentagon reporter). They don't even look alike.
75A: Coup d'_: ETAT. I want Zimbabwe army to have a Coup d'ETAT, NOW. Mugabe has to go.
77A: Remove snarls: UNTWIST. Sounds good to me, though I've never used this word before.
78A: Goulash or slumgullion: STEW. Slumgullion sounds so unappealing to me. Slum...
84A: Former Peruvian currency: INTI. The insanity goes on! Had_ _ _ I sitting there for over 30 minutes.
85A: Slope of a rampart: ESCARP. Nope. It's "a steep artificial slope in front of a fortification''.. Derived from French "escarper" (to cut).
87A: St. Louis bridge: EADS. Vaguely heard of it.
88A: City in Scotland or Illinois: ELGIN
94A: Barrymore film, "__ Lupin": ARSÈNE. No idea.
95A: New England sch. UMASS (University of Massachusetts)
96A: Vega's constellation: LYRA
97A: Medical: pref.: IATRO. Big stumper for me. I have IATROPHOBIA. I am skeptical of most of the doctors who try to foist new medicines/procedures on patients. US Health Care system, in Dennis' military term, is totally FUBAR (Fouled up beyond all recognition). Oh, by the way, "Iatro" is a Greek word, meaning physician. Here is an example: IATROGENIC: "a disease or problem caused, or made worse by a physician, surgeon or by medical treatment or diagnostic procedures."
99A: Snoop: SPY
103A: Graphite removers: ERASERS
106A: Workers' rights. grp.: NLRB (National Labor Relations Board)
114A: Ref. set: OED (Oxford English Dictionary)
117A: Switch addition?: EROO (Switcheroo).
118A: Very, in music: ASSAI. Allegro assai is very quick.
122A: Alphabetize: SORT
124A: Saucers without cups?: UFOS. Good clue too.
125A: Noted violin maker: AMATI. Or STRAD (AMATI's student)
127A: Insinuating: SNIDE
128A: Stock shade: NUDE
Down clues:
1D: Fastfood position: McJOB. Slang for "a low-paying, low-prestige job that requires few skills and offers very little chance of intracompany advancement". Is it a gimme for you?
2D: Orangjestad's land: ARUBA
3D: Sovereign: RULER
5D: Weapon handle: HAFT
6D: Buddhist shrines: STUPAS. Did not know this word. I only knew PAGODAS. What's the difference between these two? (Update from drdad: Stupa is a mound like structure containing relics of Guatama Buddha (founder of Buddhism). Pagoda is a tiered tower found in may parts of Asia and also commonly dealing with Buddhism. I guess the mound vs. the tower is the key.)
8D: Better: OUTDO
10D: Gun: FIREARM
11D: NFL kicker Jason: ELAM
12D: Tree branch: LIMB
13D: Tag: LABEL
15D: Russian ruler: CZAR. No!! It's "Former Russian ruler". Right now, Putin is the man, as he has been since 1999, at least, until May 2008. Secondly, there should be a "Variant" mark besides the clue, as TSAR is more common.
16D: Hairpiece: PERIWIG
17D: "He __ me beside the still waters": LEADETH
24D: Singer K. T. __: OSLIN. Nope, no memory of this singer at all. Here is more information about her.
30D: Killing: suff: CIDE (Homicide, e. g.)
35D: Religious law: CANON
39D: NRC forerunner: AEC (Atomic Energy Commission). NRC is Nuclear Regulatory Commison.
41D: First letters: ABCDE
42D: Mathematical figures of Earth: GEOIDS. Another stumper. It's "an imaginary surface that coincides with mean sea level in the ocean and its extension through the continents.". "Geo" is earth earth obviously, "oid" means "like", as in ellipsoid. Factoid has the same root I think. OK, so the adjective for "Geoid" is a "Geoidal".
45D: Medicinal quantities: DOSAGES
46D: Sustenance: ALIMENT. A new word for me. But ALIMENT looks like something stunting rather than nourishing. Maybe because of AILMENT? Spelling is almost the same.
47D: Blackslide: RELAPSE. So easy to go astray in life.
51D: Silver or Wood: RON. I made a blind-squirrel guess and RON happened to the right acorn.
52D: Expansive: BIG
54D: Melville novel: "Billy __": BUDD
57D: O. T. book: JER (Jeremiah)
58D: High society: ELITE. I like of like "High Society" the movie. It's the only Bing Crosby work I've seen.
61D: Shot putter?: SYRINGE. Another stumper. I misread the clue as "Short Putter"?. So I was walking on the green of "Yip" and "Gimme", all those golf terms. When I realized it's "Shot", I marveled at the cleverness of the clue. Hope you did not go to the "Shot Put" the athletics term. But you doctor/nurse INJECTS shot, NOT puts shot into your body, don't they?
62D: Ligament substance: ELASTIN. No idea. It's " a protein constituting the basic substance of elastic tissue.".
63D: Type of cracker: SALTINE
65D: Patriotic men's org: SAR (Sons of the American Revolution). DAR is Daughters of American Revolution.
67D: Do one's part?: ACT. Act one's role. In fact, the clue is sufficient without the question mark, don't you agree?
69D: Detonator stuff: TETRYL. No idea. I was exploded at this point of my solving. The suffix "YL" looks so crazy. Oh, "yl" is a suffix used to "form the chemical names of organic compounds when they are radicals (parts of larger compounds), such as ethyl and phenyl." Who cares!
70D: Straight punch: JAB
72D: Mug or kisser: PUSS
73D: Tolkien tree: ENT. Tolkien baddie is ORC. That's all I know. Somehow "Lord of the Ring" has never caught my fancy.
76D: Electrocuted elephant: TOPSY. Was not aware of this event. A bit disturbing to me.
79D: Andean tuber: OCA. It looks like this.
82D: Wind machine: FAN. Should have a question mark after this clue I think.
83D: Jockey Arcaro: EDDIE. The Master of Triple Crown!
86D: "Calvin and Hobbes" girl: SUSIE. Another stranger. But it's inferable.
89D: Botherations: FUSSES. Does the word "bothers" bother you, Editor? Why bent so far for "Botherations"?
90D: Kind of penguin: EMPEROR
91D: Long Island hamlet: BAYPORT
92D: Recluse: EREMITE
93D: Dear Italian: CARO. OK, so it's "Dear" in Italian: mia caro, mia cara. Same with French mon chéri, ma chérie. Want to learn a bit Chinese? It's "Qin Ai De" ("亲爱的"). And it does not have femininity or masculinity difference.
101D: Mosque officials: IMAMS. I tend to confuse Somalia Supermodel IMAN with this IMAM.
102D: "Peer Gynt" dramatist: IBSEN. Got it this time.
104D: Indian golfer Atwal: ARJUN. Nope, not familiar with him. He spent way too long at the Asian/European Tour I suppose.
105D: Military muddle: SNAFU (Situation Normal, All Fouled UP). This word brings smile to my face. I remember I was very shocked when Dennis first explained the sanitized version of SNAFU on a March puzzle.
107D: Wallace's 1968 running mate: LeMAY (Curtis). A total stranger to me. But who can remember a vice presidential candidate's name? LeMay, hmm, not a familiar surname to me at all. He had to have some French heritage I suppose.
108D: Rodeo rope: REATA
109D: Nigeria's neighbor: BENIN. Porto Novo is Benin's Capital. I don't think any other Capital City in this world has 4 Os in its name.
112D: Actor Morales: ESAI. Enough said about this NYPD Blues guy.
114D: "Atlas Shrugged" author: RAND (Ayn). That's why it's so hard to parse what on earth Greenspan tried to say. He was way too influenced by RAND. So was Mark Cuban, who had a crush on Rand and her "The Fountainhead".
115D: Whiskey shot: DRAM
120D: Land of sleep: NOD. Land of NOD, the "mythical land of sleep".
121D: Singer Sumac: YMA.
C.C.
110A: Kevin Kline movie, with "The": JANUARY MAN
89A: Groundhog Day: FEBRUARY SECOND
1A: Step in step: MARCH
33D: Annual fall: APRIL SHOWERS
129A: Chicken Itza man: MAYAN
57A: Followup to 33D: JUNE WEDDING
23A: Summer holiday: JULY FOURTH
44D: "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" playwright: AUGUST WILSON
110A: 1980 Neil Diamond hit: SEPTEMBER MORN
79A: German-American celebration: OCTOBER FEST
48A: Walt Whitman work: NOVEMBER BOUGHS
29A: Spring Byington's TV classic: DECEMBER BRIDE
First of all, I love Sade the beautiful singer, not Sade the sadistic writer. I don't enjoy being tortured. But I was put through a waterboading this morning. It's excruciating! I am certain that some of you will breeze through the puzzle without encountering any bad weather. But for me, it was a stormy and turbulent sailing experience. Oodles of unknown terms like OLEIC, ELASTIN, TETRYL, IATRO. Loads of films, songs, singers, playwright I've never heard of. In fact, I don't remember I've ever spent such an unendurably long time flirting with Google. Painful!
Maybe I should not try Sunday puzzle. It frustrates me and robs me of the precious confidence I've built up during the weekdays. The amount of new information is simply too overwhelming.
I was flustered and paralyzed from the very beginning 1D: Fastfood position (McJOB). I've never, ever heard of this slang. I guess I could've taken a wild stab if 18A: SHANKS (CRURA) was an easily obtainable answer. Alas, it was formidably flinty. I pictured all kinds of shanks in my brain, including the shank shot that hit my right ankle by a stupid golfer. Ouch! Could not think of anything, so I limped away.
I actually figured out the theme very quickly, immediately after I got Y from 4D: Shed Tears (CRY). That enabled me to fill in the beginning MONTH part a few long across theme entries. But, what followed the months (Jan, Sept, Nov. & Dec, Nov) were impenetrable. The down clues were of no help, in fact, they only added to my miseries.
Besides, I self-inflicted myself with some near-fatal wounds. Take 66A: Manufactured baloney? (LIED) for example. I was hellbent to fill in LIES. I wanted a noun and I would not consider any other choice. Then 43D (Mathematical figures of earth) became GEOISS. I checked all the dictionary sources, and could not find any evidence to validate my fill. However, I convinced myself somehow that GEOISS was correct. I thought it was probably another made-up ATIP word by Wiseman (asa as our Editor Williams). So I decided to hammer in this last nail GEOISS on the puzzle and call it a success. Only realized that I was wrong when I tried to type in LIED for the blog entry. Stupid!
Now looking back at this puzzle, it is pretty elegant. It's not an easy task to pull off these 12-month feat in one grid. My only gripe is about the lower right corner. LEMAY (107D) and MAYAN (129A) should not have crossed each other that way. It looks very awkward to me. Besides, the month MAY could've been constructed as an independent entry (just like every other month) rather than embedded in another word.
Some of today's clues are very clever, esp those with question marks. The best is 100A: Roman Crowd?: III (Roman number three. Two's a company, Three's a crowd). Very refreshing.
Grid (21*21): Total letters filled: 369. Total blank squares: 72
Across entries:
6A: Ancient Greek portico: STOA. Plural can be STOAS, or STOAE. OK, Ancient Greek Mall: AGORA, AGORAE. Ancient Greek concert hall: ODEUM, ODEUMS or ODEA.
10A: Bub: FELLA
15A: Lowly NCO: CPL (Corporal)
18A: Shanks: CRURA. Singular form is CRUS.
19A: Greek crosses: TAUS. Greek letter T.
20A: Trojan War epic: ILIAD
21A: American Omegas: ZEES. Omega is the last letter of Greek alphabet.
25A: Stallone persona: RAMBO
26A: Asian inland sea: ARAL. Saw it clued as "Shrinking Asian Sea" before.
27A: Eng. honor: OBE (Order of British Empire). Thought Tina Brown received an OBE. Wrong. She received a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire), which is higher than OBE.
32A: Theda of silents: BARA. Not familiar with this name. Interesting, Wikipedia says her name is an anagram of "Arab Death". No wonder she was cast as "Cleopatra".
34A: Sparta site: LACONIA
37A: Like a little Glaswegian: WEE. How so? Doesn't Wee also mean "a little bit" in American English?.
38A: Fraction of a rupee: PAISA. Well, I suppose if you are from Indian or Pakistan, this is a gimme for you. I have no idea.
40A: Pass slowly: DRAG
43A: "I Can't Make You Love Me" singer: RAITT. Not familiar with the song.
45A: Actor McGavin: DARREN. Nope. Another stranger.
53A: Acid in soap: OLEIC. No idea. Totally beyond my ken.
55A: Pigeon talk: COOING. Could've, should've got this one, but I did not. I was thinking a real noun, not a fake ING verb-noun.
56A: Window part: SILL. Put PANE first of course.
60A: Various functions: USES
64A: Collected: AMASSED. 2 other SS in today's puzzle: UMASS, PUSS.
66A: Manufactured baloney?: LIED. Couldn't believe that I was snagged here for so long.
67A: Refuges: ASYLA. Plural of Asylum. An insanely difficult answer for a simple clue.
68A: 1977-to-2005 Missouri congressman: GEPHARDT (Dick). Shouldn't the c in Congressman should be capitalized? Or is it just another Obama Democrat/democrat thing? My husband likes Gephardt a lot. Me, lukewarm toward him.
70A: Lively dance: JIG
71A: Ghostly: SPECTRAL
74A: CNN correspondent David: ENSOR. I tend to confuse him with Jamie McIntyre (CNN Pentagon reporter). They don't even look alike.
75A: Coup d'_: ETAT. I want Zimbabwe army to have a Coup d'ETAT, NOW. Mugabe has to go.
77A: Remove snarls: UNTWIST. Sounds good to me, though I've never used this word before.
78A: Goulash or slumgullion: STEW. Slumgullion sounds so unappealing to me. Slum...
84A: Former Peruvian currency: INTI. The insanity goes on! Had_ _ _ I sitting there for over 30 minutes.
85A: Slope of a rampart: ESCARP. Nope. It's "a steep artificial slope in front of a fortification''.. Derived from French "escarper" (to cut).
87A: St. Louis bridge: EADS. Vaguely heard of it.
88A: City in Scotland or Illinois: ELGIN
94A: Barrymore film, "__ Lupin": ARSÈNE. No idea.
95A: New England sch. UMASS (University of Massachusetts)
96A: Vega's constellation: LYRA
97A: Medical: pref.: IATRO. Big stumper for me. I have IATROPHOBIA. I am skeptical of most of the doctors who try to foist new medicines/procedures on patients. US Health Care system, in Dennis' military term, is totally FUBAR (Fouled up beyond all recognition). Oh, by the way, "Iatro" is a Greek word, meaning physician. Here is an example: IATROGENIC: "a disease or problem caused, or made worse by a physician, surgeon or by medical treatment or diagnostic procedures."
99A: Snoop: SPY
103A: Graphite removers: ERASERS
106A: Workers' rights. grp.: NLRB (National Labor Relations Board)
114A: Ref. set: OED (Oxford English Dictionary)
117A: Switch addition?: EROO (Switcheroo).
118A: Very, in music: ASSAI. Allegro assai is very quick.
122A: Alphabetize: SORT
124A: Saucers without cups?: UFOS. Good clue too.
125A: Noted violin maker: AMATI. Or STRAD (AMATI's student)
127A: Insinuating: SNIDE
128A: Stock shade: NUDE
Down clues:
1D: Fastfood position: McJOB. Slang for "a low-paying, low-prestige job that requires few skills and offers very little chance of intracompany advancement". Is it a gimme for you?
2D: Orangjestad's land: ARUBA
3D: Sovereign: RULER
5D: Weapon handle: HAFT
6D: Buddhist shrines: STUPAS. Did not know this word. I only knew PAGODAS. What's the difference between these two? (Update from drdad: Stupa is a mound like structure containing relics of Guatama Buddha (founder of Buddhism). Pagoda is a tiered tower found in may parts of Asia and also commonly dealing with Buddhism. I guess the mound vs. the tower is the key.)
8D: Better: OUTDO
10D: Gun: FIREARM
11D: NFL kicker Jason: ELAM
12D: Tree branch: LIMB
13D: Tag: LABEL
15D: Russian ruler: CZAR. No!! It's "Former Russian ruler". Right now, Putin is the man, as he has been since 1999, at least, until May 2008. Secondly, there should be a "Variant" mark besides the clue, as TSAR is more common.
16D: Hairpiece: PERIWIG
17D: "He __ me beside the still waters": LEADETH
24D: Singer K. T. __: OSLIN. Nope, no memory of this singer at all. Here is more information about her.
30D: Killing: suff: CIDE (Homicide, e. g.)
35D: Religious law: CANON
39D: NRC forerunner: AEC (Atomic Energy Commission). NRC is Nuclear Regulatory Commison.
41D: First letters: ABCDE
42D: Mathematical figures of Earth: GEOIDS. Another stumper. It's "an imaginary surface that coincides with mean sea level in the ocean and its extension through the continents.". "Geo" is earth earth obviously, "oid" means "like", as in ellipsoid. Factoid has the same root I think. OK, so the adjective for "Geoid" is a "Geoidal".
45D: Medicinal quantities: DOSAGES
46D: Sustenance: ALIMENT. A new word for me. But ALIMENT looks like something stunting rather than nourishing. Maybe because of AILMENT? Spelling is almost the same.
47D: Blackslide: RELAPSE. So easy to go astray in life.
51D: Silver or Wood: RON. I made a blind-squirrel guess and RON happened to the right acorn.
52D: Expansive: BIG
54D: Melville novel: "Billy __": BUDD
57D: O. T. book: JER (Jeremiah)
58D: High society: ELITE. I like of like "High Society" the movie. It's the only Bing Crosby work I've seen.
61D: Shot putter?: SYRINGE. Another stumper. I misread the clue as "Short Putter"?. So I was walking on the green of "Yip" and "Gimme", all those golf terms. When I realized it's "Shot", I marveled at the cleverness of the clue. Hope you did not go to the "Shot Put" the athletics term. But you doctor/nurse INJECTS shot, NOT puts shot into your body, don't they?
62D: Ligament substance: ELASTIN. No idea. It's " a protein constituting the basic substance of elastic tissue.".
63D: Type of cracker: SALTINE
65D: Patriotic men's org: SAR (Sons of the American Revolution). DAR is Daughters of American Revolution.
67D: Do one's part?: ACT. Act one's role. In fact, the clue is sufficient without the question mark, don't you agree?
69D: Detonator stuff: TETRYL. No idea. I was exploded at this point of my solving. The suffix "YL" looks so crazy. Oh, "yl" is a suffix used to "form the chemical names of organic compounds when they are radicals (parts of larger compounds), such as ethyl and phenyl." Who cares!
70D: Straight punch: JAB
72D: Mug or kisser: PUSS
73D: Tolkien tree: ENT. Tolkien baddie is ORC. That's all I know. Somehow "Lord of the Ring" has never caught my fancy.
76D: Electrocuted elephant: TOPSY. Was not aware of this event. A bit disturbing to me.
79D: Andean tuber: OCA. It looks like this.
82D: Wind machine: FAN. Should have a question mark after this clue I think.
83D: Jockey Arcaro: EDDIE. The Master of Triple Crown!
86D: "Calvin and Hobbes" girl: SUSIE. Another stranger. But it's inferable.
89D: Botherations: FUSSES. Does the word "bothers" bother you, Editor? Why bent so far for "Botherations"?
90D: Kind of penguin: EMPEROR
91D: Long Island hamlet: BAYPORT
92D: Recluse: EREMITE
93D: Dear Italian: CARO. OK, so it's "Dear" in Italian: mia caro, mia cara. Same with French mon chéri, ma chérie. Want to learn a bit Chinese? It's "Qin Ai De" ("亲爱的"). And it does not have femininity or masculinity difference.
101D: Mosque officials: IMAMS. I tend to confuse Somalia Supermodel IMAN with this IMAM.
102D: "Peer Gynt" dramatist: IBSEN. Got it this time.
104D: Indian golfer Atwal: ARJUN. Nope, not familiar with him. He spent way too long at the Asian/European Tour I suppose.
105D: Military muddle: SNAFU (Situation Normal, All Fouled UP). This word brings smile to my face. I remember I was very shocked when Dennis first explained the sanitized version of SNAFU on a March puzzle.
107D: Wallace's 1968 running mate: LeMAY (Curtis). A total stranger to me. But who can remember a vice presidential candidate's name? LeMay, hmm, not a familiar surname to me at all. He had to have some French heritage I suppose.
108D: Rodeo rope: REATA
109D: Nigeria's neighbor: BENIN. Porto Novo is Benin's Capital. I don't think any other Capital City in this world has 4 Os in its name.
112D: Actor Morales: ESAI. Enough said about this NYPD Blues guy.
114D: "Atlas Shrugged" author: RAND (Ayn). That's why it's so hard to parse what on earth Greenspan tried to say. He was way too influenced by RAND. So was Mark Cuban, who had a crush on Rand and her "The Fountainhead".
115D: Whiskey shot: DRAM
120D: Land of sleep: NOD. Land of NOD, the "mythical land of sleep".
121D: Singer Sumac: YMA.
C.C.
