Theme: P Transformation (New word/phrase is formed when you insert letter P in front of letter L)
17A: Cork-based courage?: PLUCK OF THE IRISH (Luck of the Irish)
29A: Jet for honeymooners?: LOVERS' PLANE (Lover's Lane)
46A: Baseball lineup?: PLATE COMERS (Latecomers)
61A: Powerful faction's advocate?: MAJORITY PLEADER (Majority Leader)
A couple of things first:
1) ANENT. Johnboy called it a "pure cruciverbonym" at his 11:20am comment yesterday. In fact, this kind of word is referred to as "CROSSWORDESE" (Words that are often used in crosswords and rarely used in our daily conversation). In her book "How to Conquer the NY Times Crossword Puzzle", Orange gave "PTAH, OONA, ORT and ESNE" as examples.
2) Letters to the Editor: As you all know, I've been very disappointed and angry with the feedback, or rather lack of feedback, from our editor Mr. Williams and his staff. He does not seem to care what we are thinking and he seems to have no desire to improve the quality of the TMS puzzles. I think we deserve better. We deserve a good editor.
Let's write to Mary Elson. She is the Managing Editor of Tribune Media Services. Her email address is MElson@tribune.com. Please, don't be silent any more. We have to voice our opinions if we want quality crosswords like the NY Times'. We deserve a capable editor who is passionate about his/her editing job and care about what we readers think.
Now come back to the puzzle. I had huge problem with my open tee shot today. Except "A Walk in the Cloud", I've never seen any Anthony Quinn movie, so ZORBA was hard for me to get this morning. I guess I've heard of ZORBA the Greek before. I've never heard of ACK-ACK gun. Saw "Presumed Innocent" before, but I did not pay attention to the actor name RAÚL Juliá. And to compound the problem, I penned in SONG rather than SOLO for 20A: Recital piece. So I could not even get my BACON for 4D. A total SNAFU in the first hole! But I did find my swing back quickly and was able to complete the round without getting too frustrated with my clubs.
ACROSS:
1A: Anthony Quinn title role: ZORBA. Here is the original movie poster of "Zorba the Greek".
15A: Jab deliverer: FIST. Ugh, I just can not stand the double appearance of FIST in both the clue and the answers. See 19D.
21A: Ultimate letters: XYZ. I love this clue! ELSE, enjoy your stay in ELBA!
22A: Sheathe: ENCASE
26A: Comic Margaret: CHO. Not my cup of tea.
35A: Classic sitcom mom: HOUSEWIFE
37A: Skater Harding: TONYA. I just can not resist the temptation to put Plushenko's skating video here.
38A: Plugging away: AT IT
38A: Scrawny one: SCRAG
41A: Sporty trucks, briefly: UTES. Utilities.
42A: Olympian's reward: MEDAL
52A: Huge fan: ADORER. Somehow I have problem accepting this word ADORER.
57A: Right on maps: EAST
64A: Aoki of golf: ISAO. Golf Hall-of -Famer. I don't think I've ever seen him playing golf, either at PGA, or Senior PGA. Shingo Katayama & Shigeki Maruyama are probably the only Japanese golfers who are well-known in the PGA tour.
66A: Marshmallowy treat: S'MORE. I've never had this treat before. I don't like marshmallow.
67A: Leveling wedge: SHIM
DOWN:
3D: Actor Julia: RAÚL. Here is more information about him. Is he a gimme for you?
5D: Half an antiaircraft gun: ACK. ACK-ACK derives from A. A. (abbreviation of AntiAircraft.) Wikipedia says ACK- ACK is "WWI phonetic alphabet for AA".
7D: Posh hotel name: RITZ. I like the Z's in today's puzzle. ZIPS, ZORBA, RITZ, XYZ, and the clue 68A Zounds.
10D: Distribute: PARCEL OUT
11D: Inter __ (among others): ALIA
18D: U-shaped river bends: OXBOWS. No idea.
19D: Ham-fisted: INEPT. I've never heard of "Ham-fist" before.
25D: Bring to life: CREATE
26D: Titleholder: CHAMP & 30D: Winner: VICTOR. This CHAMP is a very interesting fill today, as P is indeed part of today's puzzle title.
27D: Red Monopoly piece: HOTEL. Ah the thick and lush Chocolat Chaud in HÔTEL RITZ! Please visit Paris 75001, with your AMIS (52D: Paris pals), have some TÊTE -A- TÊTE (44A: Private chat), heaven!
28D: "A Dog of Flanders" writer: OUIDA. No idea. But it's gettable. OUIDA is the pseudonym of British novelist Maria Louise Ramé. Wikipedia says she derived her pen name from her own childish pronunciation of her given name "Louise".
31D: Violinist Zimbalist: EFREM. EFREM was clued as Zimbalist Jr. of F. B. I. on Tuesday. Father and Son.
33D: Natasha's negatives: NYETS. Whoa, hold on one minute! You don't think "Putin's negatives" mean much after he stepped down 2 days ago? Man, you need to really look at the man in the eye and see his Never-Give-Up-Power KGB soul. I love the alliteration of the clue/answer. Excellent!
36D: Cruise compartment: STATEROOM
40D: Pet in a cage: GERBIL. I've never heard of this animal. Here is a picture. It looks like a mouse to me.
47D: Purplish red: CERISE. I want these CERISE roses and these fresh cherries. CERISE is French for cherry. (Update later: I made a mistake, those flowers are carnations, not roses)
54D: City near Santa Barbara: OJAI. Not familiar to me at all. I got it from across clues.
55D: Banks of talk TV: TYRA. Again? Infatuated with TYRA lately?
56D: Parroted: APED. This is probably related to the puzzle title. I don't know. I am not so sure of my title summery today.
62: Yank hard: TUG
C.C.
17A: Cork-based courage?: PLUCK OF THE IRISH (Luck of the Irish)
29A: Jet for honeymooners?: LOVERS' PLANE (Lover's Lane)
46A: Baseball lineup?: PLATE COMERS (Latecomers)
61A: Powerful faction's advocate?: MAJORITY PLEADER (Majority Leader)
A couple of things first:
1) ANENT. Johnboy called it a "pure cruciverbonym" at his 11:20am comment yesterday. In fact, this kind of word is referred to as "CROSSWORDESE" (Words that are often used in crosswords and rarely used in our daily conversation). In her book "How to Conquer the NY Times Crossword Puzzle", Orange gave "PTAH, OONA, ORT and ESNE" as examples.
2) Letters to the Editor: As you all know, I've been very disappointed and angry with the feedback, or rather lack of feedback, from our editor Mr. Williams and his staff. He does not seem to care what we are thinking and he seems to have no desire to improve the quality of the TMS puzzles. I think we deserve better. We deserve a good editor.
Let's write to Mary Elson. She is the Managing Editor of Tribune Media Services. Her email address is MElson@tribune.com. Please, don't be silent any more. We have to voice our opinions if we want quality crosswords like the NY Times'. We deserve a capable editor who is passionate about his/her editing job and care about what we readers think.
Now come back to the puzzle. I had huge problem with my open tee shot today. Except "A Walk in the Cloud", I've never seen any Anthony Quinn movie, so ZORBA was hard for me to get this morning. I guess I've heard of ZORBA the Greek before. I've never heard of ACK-ACK gun. Saw "Presumed Innocent" before, but I did not pay attention to the actor name RAÚL Juliá. And to compound the problem, I penned in SONG rather than SOLO for 20A: Recital piece. So I could not even get my BACON for 4D. A total SNAFU in the first hole! But I did find my swing back quickly and was able to complete the round without getting too frustrated with my clubs.
ACROSS:
1A: Anthony Quinn title role: ZORBA. Here is the original movie poster of "Zorba the Greek".
15A: Jab deliverer: FIST. Ugh, I just can not stand the double appearance of FIST in both the clue and the answers. See 19D.
21A: Ultimate letters: XYZ. I love this clue! ELSE, enjoy your stay in ELBA!
22A: Sheathe: ENCASE
26A: Comic Margaret: CHO. Not my cup of tea.
35A: Classic sitcom mom: HOUSEWIFE
37A: Skater Harding: TONYA. I just can not resist the temptation to put Plushenko's skating video here.
38A: Plugging away: AT IT
38A: Scrawny one: SCRAG
41A: Sporty trucks, briefly: UTES. Utilities.
42A: Olympian's reward: MEDAL
52A: Huge fan: ADORER. Somehow I have problem accepting this word ADORER.
57A: Right on maps: EAST
64A: Aoki of golf: ISAO. Golf Hall-of -Famer. I don't think I've ever seen him playing golf, either at PGA, or Senior PGA. Shingo Katayama & Shigeki Maruyama are probably the only Japanese golfers who are well-known in the PGA tour.
66A: Marshmallowy treat: S'MORE. I've never had this treat before. I don't like marshmallow.
67A: Leveling wedge: SHIM
DOWN:
3D: Actor Julia: RAÚL. Here is more information about him. Is he a gimme for you?
5D: Half an antiaircraft gun: ACK. ACK-ACK derives from A. A. (abbreviation of AntiAircraft.) Wikipedia says ACK- ACK is "WWI phonetic alphabet for AA".
7D: Posh hotel name: RITZ. I like the Z's in today's puzzle. ZIPS, ZORBA, RITZ, XYZ, and the clue 68A Zounds.
10D: Distribute: PARCEL OUT
11D: Inter __ (among others): ALIA
18D: U-shaped river bends: OXBOWS. No idea.
19D: Ham-fisted: INEPT. I've never heard of "Ham-fist" before.
25D: Bring to life: CREATE
26D: Titleholder: CHAMP & 30D: Winner: VICTOR. This CHAMP is a very interesting fill today, as P is indeed part of today's puzzle title.
27D: Red Monopoly piece: HOTEL. Ah the thick and lush Chocolat Chaud in HÔTEL RITZ! Please visit Paris 75001, with your AMIS (52D: Paris pals), have some TÊTE -A- TÊTE (44A: Private chat), heaven!
28D: "A Dog of Flanders" writer: OUIDA. No idea. But it's gettable. OUIDA is the pseudonym of British novelist Maria Louise Ramé. Wikipedia says she derived her pen name from her own childish pronunciation of her given name "Louise".
31D: Violinist Zimbalist: EFREM. EFREM was clued as Zimbalist Jr. of F. B. I. on Tuesday. Father and Son.
33D: Natasha's negatives: NYETS. Whoa, hold on one minute! You don't think "Putin's negatives" mean much after he stepped down 2 days ago? Man, you need to really look at the man in the eye and see his Never-Give-Up-Power KGB soul. I love the alliteration of the clue/answer. Excellent!
36D: Cruise compartment: STATEROOM
40D: Pet in a cage: GERBIL. I've never heard of this animal. Here is a picture. It looks like a mouse to me.
47D: Purplish red: CERISE. I want these CERISE roses and these fresh cherries. CERISE is French for cherry. (Update later: I made a mistake, those flowers are carnations, not roses)
54D: City near Santa Barbara: OJAI. Not familiar to me at all. I got it from across clues.
55D: Banks of talk TV: TYRA. Again? Infatuated with TYRA lately?
56D: Parroted: APED. This is probably related to the puzzle title. I don't know. I am not so sure of my title summery today.
62: Yank hard: TUG
C.C.
