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.
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.
