Theme: FRUIT COLORED WORDS
17A: Purple creeper?: GRAPEVINE
56A: Green illumination?: LIMELIGHT
10D: Red explosive?: CHERRY BOMBS
24D: Reddish-yellow waterway: ORANGE RIVER
Hmm, how about LEMON GRASS, APPLE PIE, STRAWBERRY JAM, and OLIVE BRANCH? What else?
Another TV guide style puzzle, heavily blanketed with Show biz personality' names, highly inferable though. Great grid structure, very balanced theme entries. The word CELEB is perfectly anchored in the middle of the puzzle. The only flaw with the theme entries is the plural form of CHERRY BOMBS, all the other 3 are in singular form.
I was a venturesome solver this morning. I willfully took a few bold guesses at those dreadful Movie/TV star names, and was stunned again that they turned out to be the correct fills. McCOY, O'SHEA, ETHEL & KOPELL all yielded so easily to me. And I knew none of them. Wow, I've been so encouraged by my recklessness in crossword solving lately.
I did not finish the puzzle though. Could not close the deal on the upper left corner. I simply forgot ALGER, had no idea who was Uncle Miltie, did not know that ABATE can be transitive verb, and I put PAT instead of TAP for "Touch lightly".
ACROSS:
1A: Moderate: ABATE. Always thought ABATE as an intr v.
6A: Sine __non: QUA. Latin: Without which not. Basically it refers to something essential and indispensable. Is this blog a sine qua non to your daily happiness?
9A: "Bones" of "Star Trek": McCOY. No idea. Ferreted out the name by down fills.
14A: Type of pad or brief: LEGAL
15A: WWW address: URL (Uniform Resource Locator)
23A: Pierre Auguste and Jean: RENOIRS. Have never heard of Jean RENOIR. The painter RENOIR, yes. Saw several of his pieces at Musée D'Orsay, did not like any. Not to my taste.
25A: Scorch: CHAR
27A: Shirley Temple movie: CURLY TOP. Oh, Shirley Temple, how do I love thee! Adorable.
31A:Musician Hayes: ISAAC. Stranger to me. Easy gettable though.
35A: Cylinder diameter: BORE. Unknown to me before.
37A: Show biz personality: CELEB. Need to reword the clue due to 46A answer (For SHOW).
38A: Muscat's land: OMAN. Muscat is also a kind of grape.
39A: __-pong: PING. Also a huge golf equipment brand. PING sponsors Solheim Cup.
40A: Place for cargo: HOLD. "The entire cargo space in the hull of a vessel."
41A: Fuse, as ores: SMELT
42A: Makes glossy: SLEEKENS. A new verb to me.
44A: Catch red-handed: NAB
46A: Diana of the Supremes: ROSS. Again?
46A: Just to keep up appearances: FOR SHOW
50A: Play lines: SCRIPT
55A: Popeye's honey: OLIVE (Oyl)
58A: Ring-shaped roll: BAGEL. Hmm, BAGEL + cream cheese + lox, sandwich in heaven!
60A: Singer Merman: ETHEL. Unknown to me. I strung it together by down clues.
61A: Comb stopper: SNARL
63A: School paper: ESSAY
DOWN:
1D: Horatio of fiction: ALGER. Clued as "Ragged Dick" author on last Friday's puzzle. I just forgot. I will probably forget it again in 2 hours.
2D: Uncle Miltie: BERLE. Stumper here. Is it gimme to you?
4D: Touch lightly: TAP
5D: Funereal: ELEGIAC. Too sorrowful a word to see so early in the morning.
6D: Witty remarks: QUIPS
7D: Diner brewers: URNS. Another dreadful word to look at despite the cheerful clue.
9D: Fatal: MORTAL. Alright, I got it. ELEGIAC, URN & MORTAL. All Memento MORI.
13D: Poisonous evergreens: YEWS. Did not know that they are poisonous.
22D: Decorative plant: SHRUB
25D: Made well: CURED. I like how CURED intersects with CELEB. Want to cure your drug/alcohol addition? Do crosswords!
29D: Kind of thermometer: ORAL. See 49D.
34D: Lowly workers: PEONS. Spanish for peasants.
37D: Storage box: CHEST
41D: Bakery products trade name: SARA LEE
43D: "Love Boat" co-star: KOPELL (Bernie). Unknown to me. The clue for 17A: Purple Creeper & this "Love Boat" reminded me of our purple Vikings' Love Boat Party Scandal.
47D: Downs and Grant: HUGHS. Adore HUGH Grant, have never heard of HUGH Downs.
44D: Musical symbol: NOTE. Has anyone seen HUGH Grant and Drew Barrymore's " Music & Lyrics"?
48D: Actress Tessie: O'SHEA. Stranger to me. Where is Milo? Wikipedia says that Tessie O'SHEA was a guest on the "The Ed Sullivan Show" the night Beatles made their debut.
49D: How a water balloon impacts: WETLY. Hmm, it's an ART to put ORAL & WETLY in the same puzzle, so close to each other, isn't it?
53D: Critical: DIRE. Ugh, this "Silent Tsunami" food crisis. Scary.
57D: "___ Not Unusual": ITS. Tom Jones' song. Not familiar to me. Here is my favorite.
C.C.
17A: Purple creeper?: GRAPEVINE
56A: Green illumination?: LIMELIGHT
10D: Red explosive?: CHERRY BOMBS
24D: Reddish-yellow waterway: ORANGE RIVER
Hmm, how about LEMON GRASS, APPLE PIE, STRAWBERRY JAM, and OLIVE BRANCH? What else?
Another TV guide style puzzle, heavily blanketed with Show biz personality' names, highly inferable though. Great grid structure, very balanced theme entries. The word CELEB is perfectly anchored in the middle of the puzzle. The only flaw with the theme entries is the plural form of CHERRY BOMBS, all the other 3 are in singular form.
I was a venturesome solver this morning. I willfully took a few bold guesses at those dreadful Movie/TV star names, and was stunned again that they turned out to be the correct fills. McCOY, O'SHEA, ETHEL & KOPELL all yielded so easily to me. And I knew none of them. Wow, I've been so encouraged by my recklessness in crossword solving lately.
I did not finish the puzzle though. Could not close the deal on the upper left corner. I simply forgot ALGER, had no idea who was Uncle Miltie, did not know that ABATE can be transitive verb, and I put PAT instead of TAP for "Touch lightly".
ACROSS:
1A: Moderate: ABATE. Always thought ABATE as an intr v.
6A: Sine __non: QUA. Latin: Without which not. Basically it refers to something essential and indispensable. Is this blog a sine qua non to your daily happiness?
9A: "Bones" of "Star Trek": McCOY. No idea. Ferreted out the name by down fills.
14A: Type of pad or brief: LEGAL
15A: WWW address: URL (Uniform Resource Locator)
23A: Pierre Auguste and Jean: RENOIRS. Have never heard of Jean RENOIR. The painter RENOIR, yes. Saw several of his pieces at Musée D'Orsay, did not like any. Not to my taste.
25A: Scorch: CHAR
27A: Shirley Temple movie: CURLY TOP. Oh, Shirley Temple, how do I love thee! Adorable.
31A:Musician Hayes: ISAAC. Stranger to me. Easy gettable though.
35A: Cylinder diameter: BORE. Unknown to me before.
37A: Show biz personality: CELEB. Need to reword the clue due to 46A answer (For SHOW).
38A: Muscat's land: OMAN. Muscat is also a kind of grape.
39A: __-pong: PING. Also a huge golf equipment brand. PING sponsors Solheim Cup.
40A: Place for cargo: HOLD. "The entire cargo space in the hull of a vessel."
41A: Fuse, as ores: SMELT
42A: Makes glossy: SLEEKENS. A new verb to me.
44A: Catch red-handed: NAB
46A: Diana of the Supremes: ROSS. Again?
46A: Just to keep up appearances: FOR SHOW
50A: Play lines: SCRIPT
55A: Popeye's honey: OLIVE (Oyl)
58A: Ring-shaped roll: BAGEL. Hmm, BAGEL + cream cheese + lox, sandwich in heaven!
60A: Singer Merman: ETHEL. Unknown to me. I strung it together by down clues.
61A: Comb stopper: SNARL
63A: School paper: ESSAY
DOWN:
1D: Horatio of fiction: ALGER. Clued as "Ragged Dick" author on last Friday's puzzle. I just forgot. I will probably forget it again in 2 hours.
2D: Uncle Miltie: BERLE. Stumper here. Is it gimme to you?
4D: Touch lightly: TAP
5D: Funereal: ELEGIAC. Too sorrowful a word to see so early in the morning.
6D: Witty remarks: QUIPS
7D: Diner brewers: URNS. Another dreadful word to look at despite the cheerful clue.
9D: Fatal: MORTAL. Alright, I got it. ELEGIAC, URN & MORTAL. All Memento MORI.
13D: Poisonous evergreens: YEWS. Did not know that they are poisonous.
22D: Decorative plant: SHRUB
25D: Made well: CURED. I like how CURED intersects with CELEB. Want to cure your drug/alcohol addition? Do crosswords!
29D: Kind of thermometer: ORAL. See 49D.
34D: Lowly workers: PEONS. Spanish for peasants.
37D: Storage box: CHEST
41D: Bakery products trade name: SARA LEE
43D: "Love Boat" co-star: KOPELL (Bernie). Unknown to me. The clue for 17A: Purple Creeper & this "Love Boat" reminded me of our purple Vikings' Love Boat Party Scandal.
47D: Downs and Grant: HUGHS. Adore HUGH Grant, have never heard of HUGH Downs.
44D: Musical symbol: NOTE. Has anyone seen HUGH Grant and Drew Barrymore's " Music & Lyrics"?
48D: Actress Tessie: O'SHEA. Stranger to me. Where is Milo? Wikipedia says that Tessie O'SHEA was a guest on the "The Ed Sullivan Show" the night Beatles made their debut.
49D: How a water balloon impacts: WETLY. Hmm, it's an ART to put ORAL & WETLY in the same puzzle, so close to each other, isn't it?
53D: Critical: DIRE. Ugh, this "Silent Tsunami" food crisis. Scary.
57D: "___ Not Unusual": ITS. Tom Jones' song. Not familiar to me. Here is my favorite.
C.C.
