Theme: NONE
An uphill battle today, brutal! Without a theme guidance, I felt like I was playing golf under foggy (and cold) weather. I could not see the fairways clearly, not to mention the pin positions. I was in the rough on almost every hole.
To make things worse, I kept wanting AVE, HEXAGON and ORT to be merged and form an open parallel to balance 20A and 53A. This needless mental knot caused me quite a few strokes.
My first several tee shots were actually perfect, right down in the middle. But I could not follow through. Had no idea how to chip and where to land the ball on the green.
Take the lower right corner for example: I got SONICS for 49A, then I wrote down OWED (confused it with owned) for 61A: Have, in the past, and I filled in DOES for 64A: Unnamed others, thinking of John/Jane DOE. I had no idea what was Knicks coach Thomas' given name. I did not know the meaning of "thurible", imagining it was a kind of sewing tool like thimble. Have never heard of actress Gershon. So, a bloody mess there. I could not even get AT NIGHT for 41D. Stupid! What can I say?
Except the ugly double appearances of STAIR (20A & 11D) & HAMMER (53A & 54D), this puzzle was very well designed and constructed. Lots of quality fills. I think I would've enjoyed it were I a better solver.
Grid: Total letters filled: 193. Total blank squares: 32
FRONT NINE:
1A: Bungle: FLUB
5A: Gem weight: CARAT
10A: Flat-topped rise: MESA. OK, a non-MESA related question for you: Are you or anyone of your family a MENSA member? Send me a private email if you do not want go public with this information.
14A: Mrs. Chaplin: OONA. O'Neill's daughter. But what an enviable & magical marriage they forged! 35 years. Incredible. By the way, Oona's daughter Geraldine Chaplin played Tonya in Dr. Zhivago.
15A: Florida citrus city: OCALA
16A: Dog-eared: USED
17A: Marketed: SOLD. Really? I thought marketing was different than selling. (Update: drdad says they are the same)
18A: Upstairs storage room: ATTIC
19A: Former "SNL" rival: SCTV (Second City TV). Wikipedia says it's a "Canadian TV sketch comedy show offshoot from Toronto's The Second City troupe thatran between 1976 to 1984". Is it well-known?
20A: Lighthouse feature, often: SPIRAL STAIRCASE
23A: Condition of life: ESTATE. Not aware of this meaning of ESTATE. I might have penned in STATE if the clue was asking for a 5-letter fill.
24A: Outstanding: STELLAR. That's Johanna Santana. So weird to see him in Mets uniform.
25A: Green sauce: PESTO. Wasabi is green too, but I guess you call it condiment. My husband simply can not stand wasabi. He gets all teared up just by looking at it.
28A:Does field work: REAPS
29A: Mason totes: HODS
32A: Occult doctrine: CABALA. Or KABALA. Madonna spent over $12,000/month just for her Cabala water. Crazy! She is one mystifying bird: She does Yoga, she lives on a Microbiotic diet, and she practices CABALA. They are of totally different religious concept.
35A: Skater Babilonia: TAI. Did not know her before.
36A: Old-style greeting: AVE. Only in old Rome I suppose. Latin for "hail". Would be very nice if the A here intersect with the A in SALVO.
37A: Honeycomb shape: HEXAGON. Have never seen a honeycomb in my life. So I have no idea what's the shape.
40A: "I, Robot" author: ASIMOV. Have you seen the movie (Will Smith)?
42A: Shift or sack: DRESS
46A: Low-altitude cloud: STRATUS. Plural is STRATI. I guess it would be STRATA if not for STRATUM.
48A: Military tribute: SALVO
49A: Seattle team, informally: SONICS. SuperSonics. Does Seattle Mariners have a nickname also?
53A: Rodin implements: HAMMER AND CHISEL
56A: X or Y line: AXIS
57A: Sound loudly: BLARE
58A: Actress Gerson: GINA. No idea. She looks pretty.
59A: Numbers game: KENO. Have never played this game.
60A: Birdlike: AVIAN
61A: Have, in the past: HAST. Could be clued in better way. I don't like the HA repetition.
62A: British PM Anthony: EDEN. Much better than Eve's garden clue.
63A: Nick of the screen: NOLTE. Repeat offender! How proper!
Back nine:
1D: "Cabaret" director: FOSSE (Bob). He won Oscar for this movie in 1972. I've never seen the movie. The only Liza Minnelli movie I've seen is New York, New York.
2D: Aerial stunts: LOOPS
4D: Undeserved imputations: BAD RAPS
5D: Comes together: COALESCES. I am so proud that I filled in this word without looking at other across clues after I got letter C from CARAT and O from OCALA.
7D: "Round and Round" band: RATT. No, not familiar with the band or the song.
8D: Miscreant's dodge: ALIAS. Did not know the meaning of "miscreant", but the word itself looks very bad to me, you know, with "mis", so I made an educated guess.
10D: Brawn: MUSCLE
11D: Moving stairway: ESCALATOR
12D: Distinguishes: SETS APART. I start to really like this kind of adverb/preposition embedded answer. Crossword is made more challenging NOT by MOSSY obscure words, but by intelligent cluing, in my view.
13D: Hard times: ADVERSITY
21D: Bolted down: ATE. Did not know that "bolt" can mean "eat' before. I don't think I want to bolt down any food. I am a slow picky eater.
22D: Put on once again: RERAN. I was in the direction of "put on weight" or "put on clothes".
26D: Hack: TAXI
27D: Illinois democrat: OBAMA. democrat, not Democrat? Shouldn't the D be capitalized?
29D: Deal clincher, perhaps: HANDSHAKE
30D: Given too much work: OVERTAXED
31D: Figure out: DETERMINE
33D: Highly worked up: AGOG
34D: Romance movie staple: LOVE SCENE
37D: Undue speed: HASTE
41D: When star comes out: AT NIGHT
43D: Biblical strong man: SAMSON
45D: Japanese stage offering: NOH. From Nogaku. Japanese musical drama (masked). No/Noh means talent, "gaku" means music.
47D: Type of renewal or sprawl: URBAN
50D: Knicks coach Thomas: ISIAH. Wow, looks like he has had a illustrious career. Sorry for my ignorance Sir!
51D: Use a thurible: CENSE. This word "thurible'" just looks so wrong to me. Weird spelling.
52D: Bluish-gray in color: SLATY. Did not know that "SLATY" also mean slate-like color.
C.C.
An uphill battle today, brutal! Without a theme guidance, I felt like I was playing golf under foggy (and cold) weather. I could not see the fairways clearly, not to mention the pin positions. I was in the rough on almost every hole.
To make things worse, I kept wanting AVE, HEXAGON and ORT to be merged and form an open parallel to balance 20A and 53A. This needless mental knot caused me quite a few strokes.
My first several tee shots were actually perfect, right down in the middle. But I could not follow through. Had no idea how to chip and where to land the ball on the green.
Take the lower right corner for example: I got SONICS for 49A, then I wrote down OWED (confused it with owned) for 61A: Have, in the past, and I filled in DOES for 64A: Unnamed others, thinking of John/Jane DOE. I had no idea what was Knicks coach Thomas' given name. I did not know the meaning of "thurible", imagining it was a kind of sewing tool like thimble. Have never heard of actress Gershon. So, a bloody mess there. I could not even get AT NIGHT for 41D. Stupid! What can I say?
Except the ugly double appearances of STAIR (20A & 11D) & HAMMER (53A & 54D), this puzzle was very well designed and constructed. Lots of quality fills. I think I would've enjoyed it were I a better solver.
Grid: Total letters filled: 193. Total blank squares: 32
FRONT NINE:
1A: Bungle: FLUB
5A: Gem weight: CARAT
10A: Flat-topped rise: MESA. OK, a non-MESA related question for you: Are you or anyone of your family a MENSA member? Send me a private email if you do not want go public with this information.
14A: Mrs. Chaplin: OONA. O'Neill's daughter. But what an enviable & magical marriage they forged! 35 years. Incredible. By the way, Oona's daughter Geraldine Chaplin played Tonya in Dr. Zhivago.
15A: Florida citrus city: OCALA
16A: Dog-eared: USED
17A: Marketed: SOLD. Really? I thought marketing was different than selling. (Update: drdad says they are the same)
18A: Upstairs storage room: ATTIC
19A: Former "SNL" rival: SCTV (Second City TV). Wikipedia says it's a "Canadian TV sketch comedy show offshoot from Toronto's The Second City troupe thatran between 1976 to 1984". Is it well-known?
20A: Lighthouse feature, often: SPIRAL STAIRCASE
23A: Condition of life: ESTATE. Not aware of this meaning of ESTATE. I might have penned in STATE if the clue was asking for a 5-letter fill.
24A: Outstanding: STELLAR. That's Johanna Santana. So weird to see him in Mets uniform.
25A: Green sauce: PESTO. Wasabi is green too, but I guess you call it condiment. My husband simply can not stand wasabi. He gets all teared up just by looking at it.
28A:Does field work: REAPS
29A: Mason totes: HODS
32A: Occult doctrine: CABALA. Or KABALA. Madonna spent over $12,000/month just for her Cabala water. Crazy! She is one mystifying bird: She does Yoga, she lives on a Microbiotic diet, and she practices CABALA. They are of totally different religious concept.
35A: Skater Babilonia: TAI. Did not know her before.
36A: Old-style greeting: AVE. Only in old Rome I suppose. Latin for "hail". Would be very nice if the A here intersect with the A in SALVO.
37A: Honeycomb shape: HEXAGON. Have never seen a honeycomb in my life. So I have no idea what's the shape.
40A: "I, Robot" author: ASIMOV. Have you seen the movie (Will Smith)?
42A: Shift or sack: DRESS
46A: Low-altitude cloud: STRATUS. Plural is STRATI. I guess it would be STRATA if not for STRATUM.
48A: Military tribute: SALVO
49A: Seattle team, informally: SONICS. SuperSonics. Does Seattle Mariners have a nickname also?
53A: Rodin implements: HAMMER AND CHISEL
56A: X or Y line: AXIS
57A: Sound loudly: BLARE
58A: Actress Gerson: GINA. No idea. She looks pretty.
59A: Numbers game: KENO. Have never played this game.
60A: Birdlike: AVIAN
61A: Have, in the past: HAST. Could be clued in better way. I don't like the HA repetition.
62A: British PM Anthony: EDEN. Much better than Eve's garden clue.
63A: Nick of the screen: NOLTE. Repeat offender! How proper!
Back nine:
1D: "Cabaret" director: FOSSE (Bob). He won Oscar for this movie in 1972. I've never seen the movie. The only Liza Minnelli movie I've seen is New York, New York.
2D: Aerial stunts: LOOPS
4D: Undeserved imputations: BAD RAPS
5D: Comes together: COALESCES. I am so proud that I filled in this word without looking at other across clues after I got letter C from CARAT and O from OCALA.
7D: "Round and Round" band: RATT. No, not familiar with the band or the song.
8D: Miscreant's dodge: ALIAS. Did not know the meaning of "miscreant", but the word itself looks very bad to me, you know, with "mis", so I made an educated guess.
10D: Brawn: MUSCLE
11D: Moving stairway: ESCALATOR
12D: Distinguishes: SETS APART. I start to really like this kind of adverb/preposition embedded answer. Crossword is made more challenging NOT by MOSSY obscure words, but by intelligent cluing, in my view.
13D: Hard times: ADVERSITY
21D: Bolted down: ATE. Did not know that "bolt" can mean "eat' before. I don't think I want to bolt down any food. I am a slow picky eater.
22D: Put on once again: RERAN. I was in the direction of "put on weight" or "put on clothes".
26D: Hack: TAXI
27D: Illinois democrat: OBAMA. democrat, not Democrat? Shouldn't the D be capitalized?
29D: Deal clincher, perhaps: HANDSHAKE
30D: Given too much work: OVERTAXED
31D: Figure out: DETERMINE
33D: Highly worked up: AGOG
34D: Romance movie staple: LOVE SCENE
37D: Undue speed: HASTE
41D: When star comes out: AT NIGHT
43D: Biblical strong man: SAMSON
45D: Japanese stage offering: NOH. From Nogaku. Japanese musical drama (masked). No/Noh means talent, "gaku" means music.
47D: Type of renewal or sprawl: URBAN
50D: Knicks coach Thomas: ISIAH. Wow, looks like he has had a illustrious career. Sorry for my ignorance Sir!
51D: Use a thurible: CENSE. This word "thurible'" just looks so wrong to me. Weird spelling.
52D: Bluish-gray in color: SLATY. Did not know that "SLATY" also mean slate-like color.
C.C.
