Theme: QUIP
17A: Start of a quip: PROVIDENCE
24A: Part 2 of quip: GIVETH AND
40A: Part 3 of quip: THE
52A: Part 4 of quip: INCOME TAX
63A: End of quip: TAKETH AWAY
And America giveth and Murdoch taketh away. This guy is a genius. He knows so well that Grove giveth and Gates taketh away (Bob Metcalfe's quip on Wirth's Law). He swallowed MySpace, gobbled up Wall Street Journal, and now ready to wolf down Yahoo as desserts. America is beautiful, isn't it?
A LA Mr. Olschwang, however, France is more glamorous (total 7 French words). MANET's "Olympia" is more seductive, CLAUDE Debussy's music is more captivating, even the gelatin ASPIC is more tantalizing on a French menu. The ugly Sartre and his existentialistic NAUSEA are probably not BETE-noires to French ÉLÈVES. To me, they are intolerable!
David Sedaris (Me Talk Pretty One Day) will probably enjoy this puzzle very much. He is an avid crossword solver, and I think he does Chicago Tribune Puzzle on line, from Paris.
I would have finished this puzzle unassisted if not for the stupid "J" in the upper right corner. I had F_ORDS (10D) and _ILT (16A) sitting there staring at me forever. I have never heard of "JILT". In fact, I wanted it to be RILT, as FRORDS looked like a sensible word to me. I would NEVER put a "J" there. FJORDS just looked so ridiculously wrong. Had to flirt with Mr. Google to get this letter, a very expensive visit.
Grid: Total letters filled: 189. Total blank squares: 36
Across clues:
1A: __ firma: TERRA. Do you know where the Terra Cotta Warriors Museum is?
14A: Projecting bay window: ORIEL. Here is a picture for you.
16A: Leave at the altar: JILT. Julia Roberts' The Runaway Bride is too much of an overkill. Don't like it.
19A: Earthen ware crock: OLLA. Native American Pottery OLLA can be breathtaking. Look at this one.
20A: Erhard' s program: EST (Erhard Seminars Training). Werner Erhard. Unknown to me. I got it from down clues.
21A: _ noire (bugbear): BÊTE
22A: Entryway: PORTAL
26A: St. Francis' place: ASSISI
29A: Way back when: AGES AGO
34A: Antiseptic pioneer: LISTER (Joseph). Hence the brand name Listerine.
41A: Part of a flight: STAIR
43A: Ames inst. : ISU (Iowa State University).
44A: Composer Debussy: CLAUDE. Impressionist composer (La Mer). Of course, CLAUDE can also be clued as Painter Monet.
47A: Ruffle feathers: RILE
48A: Commuter's lane: CARPOOL
55A: Sartre novel: NAUSEA. La Nausée. Again, I don't understand, how come the translation is not "The Nausea"? Why is his "Le Mur" translated as "The Wall" then? I am very confused about English article "the".
58A: Arab garments: ABAS
62A: Force out: OUST. Ugh, pay attention to this small details please! Try "Supplant" next time.
66A: Eins, zei, __: DREI. I suppose this is German one, two, three.
67A: Continuously: EVER
68A: Ecole attendee: ÉLÈVE. French for pupil.
69A: English title: EARL
70A: Pub projectile: DART
71A: Took the plunge: DARED
Down clues:
1D: Shark type: TOPE. Here is a picture.
4D: Gun it in neutral: REV
5D: Cover stories: ALIBIS. Good clue.
6D: Narrow mountain ridge: ARETE
7D: "Olympia" painter: MANET. So serene & sensual & defiant. I don't think this picture is in Musée D'Orsay though. Lunch on the Grass is there. The audacious, unabashed nudeness, "come on and dare me"!
9D: Amount of ooze: SEEPAGE
10D: North sea inlets: FJORDS. Also spelled as Fiord. "A long, narrow, deep inlet of the sea between steep slopes".
11D: Happy song: LILT. Don't like it's intersection of JILT.
23D: Lulus: ONERS
24D: Pith: GIST
25D: Despised: HATED. Are they the same? I thought "despise" means "scorn".
26D: Meat stock jelly: ASPIC. I have to show this picture again. I just love it. It has wasabi & pistachio in it.
27D: Chip dip: SALSA. ASPIC tastes very good with SALSA too.
28D: Scrub extra hard: SCOUR
30D: With one's might: AMAIN. No idea, got it from across clues.
32D: Jury's determination: GUILT. I wanted GUILTY or VERDICT, but neither fit.
32D: Baddies: OGRES
35D: Author Calvino: ITALO. Never heard of him.
36D: Old Chinese kingdom: SHU (蜀). Technically there was never a SHU kingdom, only Former SHU ( 前蜀) and Later SHU (後蜀). Both located in today's Sichuan Province. Hot, spicy food there.
39D: Tea treat: SCONE. American BISCUIT (mostly sweet). British BISCUIT is American COOKIE. I think British also call crackers are biscuits. Not very sure. Maybe our fellow solver Littlelj (British) will jump in later today to confirm (Hi there, great cherry blossom pictures by the way!).
42D: Chicago's Sue: T REX. Plenty of photos here.
45D: Placed: LOCATED
46D: Bother: EAT AT
49D: Flower part: PISTIL. No idea. I got it from across clues. It's "the ovule-bearing or seed-bearing female organ of a flower, consisting when complete of ovary, style, and stigma."
51D: Cut deeply: GASHED
54D: Chicago movie critic: EBERT (Roger)
55D: Protuberance: NODE
59D: Water vessel: EWER
60D: Church section: NAVE (sorry for the mistake earlier).
61D: Soaked in anil: DYED
C.C.
17A: Start of a quip: PROVIDENCE
24A: Part 2 of quip: GIVETH AND
40A: Part 3 of quip: THE
52A: Part 4 of quip: INCOME TAX
63A: End of quip: TAKETH AWAY
And America giveth and Murdoch taketh away. This guy is a genius. He knows so well that Grove giveth and Gates taketh away (Bob Metcalfe's quip on Wirth's Law). He swallowed MySpace, gobbled up Wall Street Journal, and now ready to wolf down Yahoo as desserts. America is beautiful, isn't it?
A LA Mr. Olschwang, however, France is more glamorous (total 7 French words). MANET's "Olympia" is more seductive, CLAUDE Debussy's music is more captivating, even the gelatin ASPIC is more tantalizing on a French menu. The ugly Sartre and his existentialistic NAUSEA are probably not BETE-noires to French ÉLÈVES. To me, they are intolerable!
David Sedaris (Me Talk Pretty One Day) will probably enjoy this puzzle very much. He is an avid crossword solver, and I think he does Chicago Tribune Puzzle on line, from Paris.
I would have finished this puzzle unassisted if not for the stupid "J" in the upper right corner. I had F_ORDS (10D) and _ILT (16A) sitting there staring at me forever. I have never heard of "JILT". In fact, I wanted it to be RILT, as FRORDS looked like a sensible word to me. I would NEVER put a "J" there. FJORDS just looked so ridiculously wrong. Had to flirt with Mr. Google to get this letter, a very expensive visit.
Grid: Total letters filled: 189. Total blank squares: 36
Across clues:
1A: __ firma: TERRA. Do you know where the Terra Cotta Warriors Museum is?
14A: Projecting bay window: ORIEL. Here is a picture for you.
16A: Leave at the altar: JILT. Julia Roberts' The Runaway Bride is too much of an overkill. Don't like it.
19A: Earthen ware crock: OLLA. Native American Pottery OLLA can be breathtaking. Look at this one.
20A: Erhard' s program: EST (Erhard Seminars Training). Werner Erhard. Unknown to me. I got it from down clues.
21A: _ noire (bugbear): BÊTE
22A: Entryway: PORTAL
26A: St. Francis' place: ASSISI
29A: Way back when: AGES AGO
34A: Antiseptic pioneer: LISTER (Joseph). Hence the brand name Listerine.
41A: Part of a flight: STAIR
43A: Ames inst. : ISU (Iowa State University).
44A: Composer Debussy: CLAUDE. Impressionist composer (La Mer). Of course, CLAUDE can also be clued as Painter Monet.
47A: Ruffle feathers: RILE
48A: Commuter's lane: CARPOOL
55A: Sartre novel: NAUSEA. La Nausée. Again, I don't understand, how come the translation is not "The Nausea"? Why is his "Le Mur" translated as "The Wall" then? I am very confused about English article "the".
58A: Arab garments: ABAS
62A: Force out: OUST. Ugh, pay attention to this small details please! Try "Supplant" next time.
66A: Eins, zei, __: DREI. I suppose this is German one, two, three.
67A: Continuously: EVER
68A: Ecole attendee: ÉLÈVE. French for pupil.
69A: English title: EARL
70A: Pub projectile: DART
71A: Took the plunge: DARED
Down clues:
1D: Shark type: TOPE. Here is a picture.
4D: Gun it in neutral: REV
5D: Cover stories: ALIBIS. Good clue.
6D: Narrow mountain ridge: ARETE
7D: "Olympia" painter: MANET. So serene & sensual & defiant. I don't think this picture is in Musée D'Orsay though. Lunch on the Grass is there. The audacious, unabashed nudeness, "come on and dare me"!
9D: Amount of ooze: SEEPAGE
10D: North sea inlets: FJORDS. Also spelled as Fiord. "A long, narrow, deep inlet of the sea between steep slopes".
11D: Happy song: LILT. Don't like it's intersection of JILT.
23D: Lulus: ONERS
24D: Pith: GIST
25D: Despised: HATED. Are they the same? I thought "despise" means "scorn".
26D: Meat stock jelly: ASPIC. I have to show this picture again. I just love it. It has wasabi & pistachio in it.
27D: Chip dip: SALSA. ASPIC tastes very good with SALSA too.
28D: Scrub extra hard: SCOUR
30D: With one's might: AMAIN. No idea, got it from across clues.
32D: Jury's determination: GUILT. I wanted GUILTY or VERDICT, but neither fit.
32D: Baddies: OGRES
35D: Author Calvino: ITALO. Never heard of him.
36D: Old Chinese kingdom: SHU (蜀). Technically there was never a SHU kingdom, only Former SHU ( 前蜀) and Later SHU (後蜀). Both located in today's Sichuan Province. Hot, spicy food there.
39D: Tea treat: SCONE. American BISCUIT (mostly sweet). British BISCUIT is American COOKIE. I think British also call crackers are biscuits. Not very sure. Maybe our fellow solver Littlelj (British) will jump in later today to confirm (Hi there, great cherry blossom pictures by the way!).
42D: Chicago's Sue: T REX. Plenty of photos here.
45D: Placed: LOCATED
46D: Bother: EAT AT
49D: Flower part: PISTIL. No idea. I got it from across clues. It's "the ovule-bearing or seed-bearing female organ of a flower, consisting when complete of ovary, style, and stigma."
51D: Cut deeply: GASHED
54D: Chicago movie critic: EBERT (Roger)
55D: Protuberance: NODE
59D: Water vessel: EWER
60D: Church section: NAVE (sorry for the mistake earlier).
61D: Soaked in anil: DYED
C.C.
