Theme: Canine Collection
32A: Simpson's pooch: SANTA'S LITTLE HELPER
50A: Disney pooch: OLD YELLER
82A: Comic strip pooch: MARMADUKE
103A: Roy Rogers' pooch: BULLET THE WONDER DOG
7D: Cartoon pooch: DOGGIE DADDY
24D: Silver screen pooch: RIN TIN TIN
69D: Cartoon pooch: AUGIE DOGGIE
71D: Animated pooch: SCOOBY- DOO
Scroll down the first page to read Argyle's post on Barry's special puzzle for us.
Our TMS crossword superstars ASTA and LASSIE are missing.
I had never heard of DOGGIE DADDY or AUGIE DOGGIE or MARMADUKE. But they were quite inferable. The upper right corner where CALX /HRA/GORE-TEX intersect was impossible for me.
I also went through huge trouble filling in CROTON. I wonder why the constructor did not pick up Peggy NOONAN for clue 110A ("Gentleman prefer Blondes" co-star). Is Tommy NOONAN a very famous name? All I could think of is Marilyn Monroe. I like Peggy NOONAN. Bush's former speech writer Michael Gerson also writes very well-reasoned piece, though I often disagree with what they say.
I think "Ancient" needs to be added to the EDOM clue (55A: Dead Sea kingdom). I also disliked the clue for DIA (101A: Dist. across). It should be "Dist. across a circle".
Across:
15A: Shamus: TEC. Did not know "Shamus" is a slang for detective.
21A: Old-time actress Menken: ADAH. She was in our puzzle yesterday. Dumas' love interest.
22A: Govt. med. grp.: HRA (Health Reimbursement Accounts). Not a familiar grp. to me. I wanted HMO.
23A: Pat who shot Billy: GARRETT. Unknown figure. A real photo of Billy the Kid with gun is probably very valuable now.
31A: Waterproof fabric: GORE-TEX. I forgot. It appeared in our puzzle before. Used in raincoat I suppose.
28A: Xmas honcho: ST. NICK
35A: Sahl and Drucker: MORTS. MORT Drucker is the MAD cartoonist.
38A: Laura of LPGA: DAVIES. Here is Laura Davies with John Daly. Funny pair. I've seen her several times in person. She never uses tee. She just kicks in the ground with her shoes and forms a little bulge to put her ball on. There is another Laura in LPGA, Laura Diaz. She used to be very good.
44A: Lower layer of Earth's outer crust: SIMA. Silica and Magnesium. I forgot of course.
46A: McKellen and McShane: IANS. Did not know the English actor IAN McShane.
48A: Strasbourg's region: ALSACE. The pink area: ALSACE-Lorraine. I think the food there is very German.
57A: Shinto gateway: TORII. TORII gate. I finally remember this name because of Angels' TORII Hunter (ex-Twin).
60A: Violin-maker Amati: ANDREA. Good to know. AMATI if often clued as "Valuable violin".
68A: __ buena: YERBA. Not a familiar herb to me. Kind of mint.
73A: Comic Crosby: NORM. I wanted BING. Have never heard of NORM Crosby.
77A: Come to pass: OCCUR
96A: Lay it on thick: BEDAUB. Besmear. What a waste of two letter BE.
99A: Danube tributary: ISAR. OK, see here. Click on it, the map will enlarge. The river flows through Munich.
102A: Floral clusters: CYMES. No idea. My goodness, so many names for flower clusters.
107A: Skip like a stone: SKITTER. Did not like the SKI repetition.
112A: Long-haired felines: PERSIANS
114A: Space juice?: TANG
115A: __ de Saint-Exupery: ANTOINE. No idea. He was a French author. His image was on France's 50-franc note before Euro.
117A: Noninvasive med. exams: MRIS
118A: 2501: MMDI
120A: "Born on the Bayou" grp.: CCR (Credence Clearwater Rivival). Here is the song.
125A: J. J. Pershing's troops: AEF (American Expeditionary Force). Was this a gimme to you? I've never heard of General Pershing or his WWI troops.
Down:
2D: Reaches base after a bunt: BEATS OUT. Nick Punto needs to learn how to bunt. He is just awful.
3D: O'Higgins of Chile: BERNARDO. Another google. His position sounds like that of our second President John Adams, right?
5D: Alaska city on Baranof Island: SITKA. This has become a gimme. Largest city in the US by area.
11D: Brits. flyboys: RAF (Royal Air Force). Churchill had a famous saying about RAF: "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few." History has really been made by a few.
13D: Macmillan or Wilson: HAROLD. Both served as Prime Minister of the UK.
14D: Everest guide: SHERPA
15D: Franz Kafka novel: THE TRIAL. Know the book. Have never read it though.
16D: First name in mysteries: ERLE. ERLE Stanley Gardner.
17D: Crumbly metal residue: CALX. Struggled mightily with this weird word. It just looks so wrong, with LX together.
27D: Granary pests: WEEVILS
29D: Indians' third baseman of the 1950's: AL ROSEN. I have this card (reprint). He once said: "The greatest thrill in the world is to end the game with a home run and watch everybody else walk off the field while you're running the bases on air. "
34D: Lincoln's V.P.: HAMLIN. No idea. I thought it's Andrew Johnson. Why did President Lincoln ditch him after the first term then?
51D: Noted drama school: YALE. Easily inferable. Who are the famous YALE drama graduates?
52D: Catcher Howard: ELSTON. First African-American to play for the Yankees.
54D: Brown shade: SIENNA
60D: Agamemnon's father: ATREUS. Had to google again. Agamemnon is the brother-in- law of Helen of Troy. Obviously he played a huge role in the Trojan War. When he returned home, he and his concubine Cassandra were killed by his wife, who was then murdered by their son, who was being pursued by Erinyes (the three Furies) in this picture I linked a few months ago.
63D: Def. mil.grp.: TAC (Tactical Air Command). SAC is Strategic Air Command. Both are unfamiliar abbreviations to me.
76D: Group fund: TONTINE. No idea. What is it?
78D: Two dots over vowels: UMLAUTS. Like the two dots above Häagen-Dazs.
84D: Cardinals: RED BIRDS
86D: Mortarboard tosser: GRAD. These guys.
88D: Daryle of gridiron: LAMONICA. Sigh. Maybe Daryle LAMONICA can send me his autographed card. Then I will remember him. La Monica, what a strange name.
93D: Gandhi's title: MAHATMA. The title was given to him by Tagore.
97D: Last syllable of a word: ULTIMA. The next to last syllable is penultima.
98D: Vaguely outlined: BLEARY
100D: Make over: REVAMP
102D: New York reservoir: CROTON. This word gave me the most trouble. I stared at ?R??ON there forever. Have never heard of the CROTON Reservoir.
104D: Banks of Wrigley: ERNIE. This is his rookie card. He is a HOFer of course. 1954 is also Hank Aaron's rookie season.
108D: Berry and Norton: KENS. Easy guess. KEN Norton is multi-time world champion heavyweight boxer. Ex-Marine. Three KEN Berry's here, I don't know which one the constructor was thinking.
C.C.
32A: Simpson's pooch: SANTA'S LITTLE HELPER
50A: Disney pooch: OLD YELLER
82A: Comic strip pooch: MARMADUKE
103A: Roy Rogers' pooch: BULLET THE WONDER DOG
7D: Cartoon pooch: DOGGIE DADDY
24D: Silver screen pooch: RIN TIN TIN
69D: Cartoon pooch: AUGIE DOGGIE
71D: Animated pooch: SCOOBY- DOO
Scroll down the first page to read Argyle's post on Barry's special puzzle for us.
Our TMS crossword superstars ASTA and LASSIE are missing.
I had never heard of DOGGIE DADDY or AUGIE DOGGIE or MARMADUKE. But they were quite inferable. The upper right corner where CALX /HRA/GORE-TEX intersect was impossible for me.
I also went through huge trouble filling in CROTON. I wonder why the constructor did not pick up Peggy NOONAN for clue 110A ("Gentleman prefer Blondes" co-star). Is Tommy NOONAN a very famous name? All I could think of is Marilyn Monroe. I like Peggy NOONAN. Bush's former speech writer Michael Gerson also writes very well-reasoned piece, though I often disagree with what they say.
I think "Ancient" needs to be added to the EDOM clue (55A: Dead Sea kingdom). I also disliked the clue for DIA (101A: Dist. across). It should be "Dist. across a circle".
Across:
15A: Shamus: TEC. Did not know "Shamus" is a slang for detective.
21A: Old-time actress Menken: ADAH. She was in our puzzle yesterday. Dumas' love interest.
22A: Govt. med. grp.: HRA (Health Reimbursement Accounts). Not a familiar grp. to me. I wanted HMO.
23A: Pat who shot Billy: GARRETT. Unknown figure. A real photo of Billy the Kid with gun is probably very valuable now.
31A: Waterproof fabric: GORE-TEX. I forgot. It appeared in our puzzle before. Used in raincoat I suppose.
28A: Xmas honcho: ST. NICK
35A: Sahl and Drucker: MORTS. MORT Drucker is the MAD cartoonist.
38A: Laura of LPGA: DAVIES. Here is Laura Davies with John Daly. Funny pair. I've seen her several times in person. She never uses tee. She just kicks in the ground with her shoes and forms a little bulge to put her ball on. There is another Laura in LPGA, Laura Diaz. She used to be very good.
44A: Lower layer of Earth's outer crust: SIMA. Silica and Magnesium. I forgot of course.
46A: McKellen and McShane: IANS. Did not know the English actor IAN McShane.
48A: Strasbourg's region: ALSACE. The pink area: ALSACE-Lorraine. I think the food there is very German.
57A: Shinto gateway: TORII. TORII gate. I finally remember this name because of Angels' TORII Hunter (ex-Twin).
60A: Violin-maker Amati: ANDREA. Good to know. AMATI if often clued as "Valuable violin".
68A: __ buena: YERBA. Not a familiar herb to me. Kind of mint.
73A: Comic Crosby: NORM. I wanted BING. Have never heard of NORM Crosby.
77A: Come to pass: OCCUR
96A: Lay it on thick: BEDAUB. Besmear. What a waste of two letter BE.
99A: Danube tributary: ISAR. OK, see here. Click on it, the map will enlarge. The river flows through Munich.
102A: Floral clusters: CYMES. No idea. My goodness, so many names for flower clusters.
107A: Skip like a stone: SKITTER. Did not like the SKI repetition.
112A: Long-haired felines: PERSIANS
114A: Space juice?: TANG
115A: __ de Saint-Exupery: ANTOINE. No idea. He was a French author. His image was on France's 50-franc note before Euro.
117A: Noninvasive med. exams: MRIS
118A: 2501: MMDI
120A: "Born on the Bayou" grp.: CCR (Credence Clearwater Rivival). Here is the song.
125A: J. J. Pershing's troops: AEF (American Expeditionary Force). Was this a gimme to you? I've never heard of General Pershing or his WWI troops.
Down:
2D: Reaches base after a bunt: BEATS OUT. Nick Punto needs to learn how to bunt. He is just awful.
3D: O'Higgins of Chile: BERNARDO. Another google. His position sounds like that of our second President John Adams, right?
5D: Alaska city on Baranof Island: SITKA. This has become a gimme. Largest city in the US by area.
11D: Brits. flyboys: RAF (Royal Air Force). Churchill had a famous saying about RAF: "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few." History has really been made by a few.
13D: Macmillan or Wilson: HAROLD. Both served as Prime Minister of the UK.
14D: Everest guide: SHERPA
15D: Franz Kafka novel: THE TRIAL. Know the book. Have never read it though.
16D: First name in mysteries: ERLE. ERLE Stanley Gardner.
17D: Crumbly metal residue: CALX. Struggled mightily with this weird word. It just looks so wrong, with LX together.
27D: Granary pests: WEEVILS
29D: Indians' third baseman of the 1950's: AL ROSEN. I have this card (reprint). He once said: "The greatest thrill in the world is to end the game with a home run and watch everybody else walk off the field while you're running the bases on air. "
34D: Lincoln's V.P.: HAMLIN. No idea. I thought it's Andrew Johnson. Why did President Lincoln ditch him after the first term then?
51D: Noted drama school: YALE. Easily inferable. Who are the famous YALE drama graduates?
52D: Catcher Howard: ELSTON. First African-American to play for the Yankees.
54D: Brown shade: SIENNA
60D: Agamemnon's father: ATREUS. Had to google again. Agamemnon is the brother-in- law of Helen of Troy. Obviously he played a huge role in the Trojan War. When he returned home, he and his concubine Cassandra were killed by his wife, who was then murdered by their son, who was being pursued by Erinyes (the three Furies) in this picture I linked a few months ago.
63D: Def. mil.grp.: TAC (Tactical Air Command). SAC is Strategic Air Command. Both are unfamiliar abbreviations to me.
76D: Group fund: TONTINE. No idea. What is it?
78D: Two dots over vowels: UMLAUTS. Like the two dots above Häagen-Dazs.
84D: Cardinals: RED BIRDS
86D: Mortarboard tosser: GRAD. These guys.
88D: Daryle of gridiron: LAMONICA. Sigh. Maybe Daryle LAMONICA can send me his autographed card. Then I will remember him. La Monica, what a strange name.
93D: Gandhi's title: MAHATMA. The title was given to him by Tagore.
97D: Last syllable of a word: ULTIMA. The next to last syllable is penultima.
98D: Vaguely outlined: BLEARY
100D: Make over: REVAMP
102D: New York reservoir: CROTON. This word gave me the most trouble. I stared at ?R??ON there forever. Have never heard of the CROTON Reservoir.
104D: Banks of Wrigley: ERNIE. This is his rookie card. He is a HOFer of course. 1954 is also Hank Aaron's rookie season.
108D: Berry and Norton: KENS. Easy guess. KEN Norton is multi-time world champion heavyweight boxer. Ex-Marine. Three KEN Berry's here, I don't know which one the constructor was thinking.
C.C.
