Theme: TRIPLE LETTERS
23A: Gridiron group: FOOTBALL LEAGUE
40A: Past tolerance: ONCE TOO OFTEN
50A: Play by Shakespeare: RICHARD III
65A: Duel: CROSS SWORDS WITH
86A: Leaves in the direction of: SETS OFF FOR
92A: Best type of voting: FREE ELECTION
116A: 18th-century British statesman: PITT THE YOUNGER
A ho-hum puzzle. The theme entries are very dreary, or rather monotonous. TROIKA is a rare spark. Too many suffixes: S, ED, RE and ER. But LOIS, you are one, twice, three times a lady today.
I got very bored and annoyed by these ER's:
36A: Procrastinators: DELAYERS
22A: Ogler: STARERS
124A: Iron wielders: PRESSERS
71D: Doctor, often: DOSER
97D: Compliant one: OBEYER
And EERIER, DIRER, RERUN, REDRY. Very lazy construction.
I do like how TROIKA parallels HORSE, and I am happy to see ONE and UNE (83A: One of the Parisians), NAH and NOS appear in one puzzle. Interesting to see BARE, BATHS (56D: Tubbings), IN A TUB, STEAMS & REDRY (54D: Tower off again) in one grid.
Dislike HONAN (107A: Chinese Province). It sounds so aged. Please clue it as either HENAN or HUNAN next time. And for 123A: British political party: LABOR. I suggest we call Gordon Brown and see if he accepts this American spelling.
ACROSS:
1A: Jonathan Swift or Mark Twain, for example: SATIRIST. Is Mark Twain a SATIRIST?
9A: Spherical: ORBED
20A: Opera-like musical composition: ORATORIO. Saw this clue before.
21A: __Adams (actress/wife of Steve McQueen): NEILE. Nope, I've never heard of her name before. Is she a well known name?
27A: Splits: RIVES
32A: Old sub: U- BOAT
34A: Stat start: RHEO. My first thought was those baseball stats.
45A: Radio host Don: IMUS. "Imus in the Morning". Not my cup of tea.
56A: Naked: BARE. I love this John Collier's Lady Godiva painting. Gorgeous!
59A: Music from the West Indies: REGGAE. Let's Stir it Up with Bob Marley.
70A: Words of wisdom: ADAGE
74A: Column in a wall: PILASTER. Unknown to me. Here is the definition from Wikipedia.: "A pilaster is a slightly-projecting flattened column built into or applied to the face of a wall." See this photo.
78A: Like Silver's rider: LONE. "The LONE Ranger".
79A: Opens an envelope, furtively: STEAMS
82A: Yiddish thief: GANEF. A new word for me. Why don't they spell it as SCHANEF then?
96A: Kennedy insider TED: SORENSEN. I like his book Kennedy.
101A: Joining: UNION
103A: Flex: BEND. I like how it crosses FEND.
114A: Writer Jong and others: ERICAS. Fear of Flying author. I was shocked the other day when I came across her blog, I thought she was dead.
119A: Adventurous rogue: PICARO. Unknown to me. Spanish origin.
121A: Skyrocketing: METEORIC. Hmm, Up and Up.
DOWNS:
4D: Addams Family cousin: ITT. Cousin ITT from The Addams Family. Learned it from doing crossword. ITT Sheraton (Beijing, 1985) was the first foreign hotel chain to operate a hotel in China. Just learned this morning that Sheraton was also the first hotel chain to be listed in NYSE.
5D: Whiskey cocktail: ROB ROY. Named after the Scottish folk hero Rob Roy. Did not know that there was a ROB ROY movie also. In fact, ERIC (106D: Actor Stoltz) had a supporting role in it.
6D: Aggressive poker table comment: I RAISE
7D: Cloud lining: SILVER. Needs to rework on 78A clue: Like Silver's rider (LONE)
8D: Lacquered metalware: TOLE. I like this floral TOLE tray.
11D: Whopper's rival: BIG MAC. No BIG MAC after "Super Size Me"
12D: Solution extracted using a solvent: ELUATE. No idea. The verb is ELUTE.
16D: Letter-directing words: CARE OF
17D: Coloratura's piece: ARIA. Did not know the meaning of "coloratura". Pieced this word together from across clues.
29D: Horse-drawn vehicle: TROIKA. I suppose it's Russian for threesome. Here is a Russian TROIKA.
33D: Plural of bonus: BONI. I always thought the plural is bonuses.
35D: Trigger, for one: HORSE. Roy Roger's horse. Trigger and SILVER, where is Mr. ED? Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses?
42D: Dick of the funnies: TRACY
43D: High nest: var.: EYRIE. Can also be EYRY. A variation of AERIE. I did not know it.
47D: Berlin ice: EIS. Somehow I can never remember this E IS (for Evidence) word.
52D: Collection biz: REPO
53D: Shannon and Crandall: DELS. I know neither of them. I got it from across fills.
62D: MacDonald's sleuth Travis: McGEE. No, not familiar with him. I do know Willie McGee though.
67D: Forceful flows: SPATES
68D: Sports column: WINS
69D: Intestinal prefix: ILEO. Comes from Ileum I suppose.
72D: Cavern, in poetry: ANTRE. It derived from Latin "antrum". I had no idea. ANTRE is French for "den".
75D: Clumps of hair: TUFTS
76D: Modern mail: ENOTE. Is there a ELOVE?
80D: Make off with, biblically: TAKETH
86D: Chinese leader?: SINO. I filled in INDO first, had to scrap it quickly as letter N would not work for 90A: PILE. SINO derived from Qin, the Qin Dynasty. The pronunciation of "Qin" is similar to the phonetic "cheen" (or chin), which is considered by many experts as the root of the word "China". For your information, both Zhou & Qin dynasties had their capital in Xi'An.
89D: Dance wear: LEOTARD. Here is a crew neck sleeveless style.
90D: Indicate: POINT TO
94D: Mississippi city: TUNICA. No, I've never heard of it. Is it well-known?
95D: Where to find 3 men?: IN A TUB
106D: Isinglass: MICA. Got it this time.
111D: Shrek, for one: OGRE. I like how it parallels with ORCS (113D: Tolkien baddies). Here is Enya's May it Be (Lord of The Rings). Enjoy!
C.C.
23A: Gridiron group: FOOTBALL LEAGUE
40A: Past tolerance: ONCE TOO OFTEN
50A: Play by Shakespeare: RICHARD III
65A: Duel: CROSS SWORDS WITH
86A: Leaves in the direction of: SETS OFF FOR
92A: Best type of voting: FREE ELECTION
116A: 18th-century British statesman: PITT THE YOUNGER
A ho-hum puzzle. The theme entries are very dreary, or rather monotonous. TROIKA is a rare spark. Too many suffixes: S, ED, RE and ER. But LOIS, you are one, twice, three times a lady today.
I got very bored and annoyed by these ER's:
36A: Procrastinators: DELAYERS
22A: Ogler: STARERS
124A: Iron wielders: PRESSERS
71D: Doctor, often: DOSER
97D: Compliant one: OBEYER
And EERIER, DIRER, RERUN, REDRY. Very lazy construction.
I do like how TROIKA parallels HORSE, and I am happy to see ONE and UNE (83A: One of the Parisians), NAH and NOS appear in one puzzle. Interesting to see BARE, BATHS (56D: Tubbings), IN A TUB, STEAMS & REDRY (54D: Tower off again) in one grid.
Dislike HONAN (107A: Chinese Province). It sounds so aged. Please clue it as either HENAN or HUNAN next time. And for 123A: British political party: LABOR. I suggest we call Gordon Brown and see if he accepts this American spelling.
ACROSS:
1A: Jonathan Swift or Mark Twain, for example: SATIRIST. Is Mark Twain a SATIRIST?
9A: Spherical: ORBED
20A: Opera-like musical composition: ORATORIO. Saw this clue before.
21A: __Adams (actress/wife of Steve McQueen): NEILE. Nope, I've never heard of her name before. Is she a well known name?
27A: Splits: RIVES
32A: Old sub: U- BOAT
34A: Stat start: RHEO. My first thought was those baseball stats.
45A: Radio host Don: IMUS. "Imus in the Morning". Not my cup of tea.
56A: Naked: BARE. I love this John Collier's Lady Godiva painting. Gorgeous!
59A: Music from the West Indies: REGGAE. Let's Stir it Up with Bob Marley.
70A: Words of wisdom: ADAGE
74A: Column in a wall: PILASTER. Unknown to me. Here is the definition from Wikipedia.: "A pilaster is a slightly-projecting flattened column built into or applied to the face of a wall." See this photo.
78A: Like Silver's rider: LONE. "The LONE Ranger".
79A: Opens an envelope, furtively: STEAMS
82A: Yiddish thief: GANEF. A new word for me. Why don't they spell it as SCHANEF then?
96A: Kennedy insider TED: SORENSEN. I like his book Kennedy.
101A: Joining: UNION
103A: Flex: BEND. I like how it crosses FEND.
114A: Writer Jong and others: ERICAS. Fear of Flying author. I was shocked the other day when I came across her blog, I thought she was dead.
119A: Adventurous rogue: PICARO. Unknown to me. Spanish origin.
121A: Skyrocketing: METEORIC. Hmm, Up and Up.
DOWNS:
4D: Addams Family cousin: ITT. Cousin ITT from The Addams Family. Learned it from doing crossword. ITT Sheraton (Beijing, 1985) was the first foreign hotel chain to operate a hotel in China. Just learned this morning that Sheraton was also the first hotel chain to be listed in NYSE.
5D: Whiskey cocktail: ROB ROY. Named after the Scottish folk hero Rob Roy. Did not know that there was a ROB ROY movie also. In fact, ERIC (106D: Actor Stoltz) had a supporting role in it.
6D: Aggressive poker table comment: I RAISE
7D: Cloud lining: SILVER. Needs to rework on 78A clue: Like Silver's rider (LONE)
8D: Lacquered metalware: TOLE. I like this floral TOLE tray.
11D: Whopper's rival: BIG MAC. No BIG MAC after "Super Size Me"
12D: Solution extracted using a solvent: ELUATE. No idea. The verb is ELUTE.
16D: Letter-directing words: CARE OF
17D: Coloratura's piece: ARIA. Did not know the meaning of "coloratura". Pieced this word together from across clues.
29D: Horse-drawn vehicle: TROIKA. I suppose it's Russian for threesome. Here is a Russian TROIKA.
33D: Plural of bonus: BONI. I always thought the plural is bonuses.
35D: Trigger, for one: HORSE. Roy Roger's horse. Trigger and SILVER, where is Mr. ED? Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses?
42D: Dick of the funnies: TRACY
43D: High nest: var.: EYRIE. Can also be EYRY. A variation of AERIE. I did not know it.
47D: Berlin ice: EIS. Somehow I can never remember this E IS (for Evidence) word.
52D: Collection biz: REPO
53D: Shannon and Crandall: DELS. I know neither of them. I got it from across fills.
62D: MacDonald's sleuth Travis: McGEE. No, not familiar with him. I do know Willie McGee though.
67D: Forceful flows: SPATES
68D: Sports column: WINS
69D: Intestinal prefix: ILEO. Comes from Ileum I suppose.
72D: Cavern, in poetry: ANTRE. It derived from Latin "antrum". I had no idea. ANTRE is French for "den".
75D: Clumps of hair: TUFTS
76D: Modern mail: ENOTE. Is there a ELOVE?
80D: Make off with, biblically: TAKETH
86D: Chinese leader?: SINO. I filled in INDO first, had to scrap it quickly as letter N would not work for 90A: PILE. SINO derived from Qin, the Qin Dynasty. The pronunciation of "Qin" is similar to the phonetic "cheen" (or chin), which is considered by many experts as the root of the word "China". For your information, both Zhou & Qin dynasties had their capital in Xi'An.
89D: Dance wear: LEOTARD. Here is a crew neck sleeveless style.
90D: Indicate: POINT TO
94D: Mississippi city: TUNICA. No, I've never heard of it. Is it well-known?
95D: Where to find 3 men?: IN A TUB
106D: Isinglass: MICA. Got it this time.
111D: Shrek, for one: OGRE. I like how it parallels with ORCS (113D: Tolkien baddies). Here is Enya's May it Be (Lord of The Rings). Enjoy!
C.C.
