Theme: Live and Learn (Evan Esar Quip)
17A: Start of a quip: IT'S NEVER TOO
24A: Part 2 of a quip: LATE TO LEARN
37A: Part 3 of quip: AND
46A: Part 4 of quip: IT'S NEVER TOO
57A: End of quip: EARLY EITHER
Sub-theme: Golf
1A: Monroe's successor: ADAMS. Nice looking ADAMS' golf bag. Is anyone playing with their Tom Watson wedge set?
20A: Heads, slangily: NOODLES. Maxfli NOODLE, Long & Soft.
36A: Best of the best: ELITE. Here is a box of Wilson Staff 's True Tour ELITE golf balls. Too much spin on Maxfli ELITE.
25D: Zero in golf: EVEN PAR. What??? Have you ever carded a "zero"? Ridiculous clue.
I did not know that every QUIP themed puzzle has its own specific title until I solved Alan P. Olschwang "Young Adults" QUIP last Sunday. Live and Learn, indeed.
Nothing scintillating about this puzzle. The clues/answers are way TOO (4 TOO's embedded in the grid) ordinary, there is no "extra", if any, flashes of brilliance to make it extraordinary. This constructor really needs to DEVIATE (41D: Go off course) from his annoying QUIP rut and create some quality puzzles for TMS solvers.
ACROSS:
6A: Timex rival: CASIO. And another watch brand is OMEGA (43A: Final Greek letter).
15A: Robbery: HEIST. Gene Hackman's HEIST is pretty good.
33A: Candler or Gray: ASA. And another palindromic word CIVIC (38A: Municipal).
53A: "Great" czar: PETER I (from 1682-1725).
54A: Jazz devotee: HIPSTER. Always thought HIPSTER refers someone who is hip. Had no idea that HIPSTER can also mean a jazz fan.
60A: Mexican Mrs.: SRA (Señora). And her top curve is TILDE (26D: Diacritical mark).
62A: French student: ELEVE. "Nice pupil"!
64A: Play tricks on: TEASE. "...The way you talk, the way you TEASE, right now I think you see, there Ain't Nothing 'Bout You that don't do something for me..."
DOWN:
1D: Nitrogen compound: AMINE. Learned this chemical compound word from doing Xword.
2D: Artoo's last name: DETOO. No idea. Got it from the perps. This is how R2-D2 looks like.
5D: Star-shaped: STELLATE. New word to me. Only know "Stellar".
7D: __ Lingus (Irish airline): AER. And another Irish reference is actor REA (58D: Stephen of "Fear Dot Com"). I've never seen "Fear Dot Com" (FeardotCom). Just saw his Prêt-à-Porter a few days ago.
9D: Some crustaceans: ISOPODS. Another new word to me. Dictionary defines ISOPODS as "Any of numerous crustaceans of the order Isopoda, characterized by a flattened body bearing seven pairs of legs and including the sow bugs and gribbles." How strange! Where can you find 7 in the word ISOPODS? Shouldn't it be HEPTAPOD, like "Four: prefix" TETRA (47D: Colorful tropical fish) in TETRAPOD?
10D: "The Stunt Man" star: O'TOOLE (Peter). I've never seen the movie, have you?
11D: Bara of the silents: THEDA. BARA was clued as Theda of the silents on a TMS puzzle before. Wikipedia says her name is an anagram of "Arab Death". She did not look wild to be Cleopatra, did she? So easy to confuse her with the IT girl CLARA Bow.
12A: Boring tool: AUGER. AUGER in action. I had no idea that this tool is called AUGER, which looks so similar to AUGUR.
13D: Irriatation: THORN
22D: Keanu in "The Matrix": NEO. I really like Keanu's role in "Something's Gotta Give", don't you? Which is your favorite Keanu movie?
32D: Measuring instrument: GAUGE
38D: Four-poster covers: CANOPIES
45D: Peau de __: SOIE (soft silk). Lime Peau de SOIE. SOIE is silk in French, peau is skin. "MAL (27A: __de Mer) dans sa peau" means "ILL as ease" (39D).
46D: "No bid": I PASS
49D: Soup herb: THYME. I never sprinkle THYME in my soup. I do like roasted asparagus with fresh THYME.
50D: One Barrymore: ETHEL. Unknown to me. I only knew DREW Barrymore and LIONEL Barrymore, who was also a very talented painter. I am surprised that this Wikipedia bio did not mention any of his artwork.
C.C.
17A: Start of a quip: IT'S NEVER TOO
24A: Part 2 of a quip: LATE TO LEARN
37A: Part 3 of quip: AND
46A: Part 4 of quip: IT'S NEVER TOO
57A: End of quip: EARLY EITHER
Sub-theme: Golf
1A: Monroe's successor: ADAMS. Nice looking ADAMS' golf bag. Is anyone playing with their Tom Watson wedge set?
20A: Heads, slangily: NOODLES. Maxfli NOODLE, Long & Soft.
36A: Best of the best: ELITE. Here is a box of Wilson Staff 's True Tour ELITE golf balls. Too much spin on Maxfli ELITE.
25D: Zero in golf: EVEN PAR. What??? Have you ever carded a "zero"? Ridiculous clue.
I did not know that every QUIP themed puzzle has its own specific title until I solved Alan P. Olschwang "Young Adults" QUIP last Sunday. Live and Learn, indeed.
Nothing scintillating about this puzzle. The clues/answers are way TOO (4 TOO's embedded in the grid) ordinary, there is no "extra", if any, flashes of brilliance to make it extraordinary. This constructor really needs to DEVIATE (41D: Go off course) from his annoying QUIP rut and create some quality puzzles for TMS solvers.
ACROSS:
6A: Timex rival: CASIO. And another watch brand is OMEGA (43A: Final Greek letter).
15A: Robbery: HEIST. Gene Hackman's HEIST is pretty good.
33A: Candler or Gray: ASA. And another palindromic word CIVIC (38A: Municipal).
53A: "Great" czar: PETER I (from 1682-1725).
54A: Jazz devotee: HIPSTER. Always thought HIPSTER refers someone who is hip. Had no idea that HIPSTER can also mean a jazz fan.
60A: Mexican Mrs.: SRA (Señora). And her top curve is TILDE (26D: Diacritical mark).
62A: French student: ELEVE. "Nice pupil"!
64A: Play tricks on: TEASE. "...The way you talk, the way you TEASE, right now I think you see, there Ain't Nothing 'Bout You that don't do something for me..."
DOWN:
1D: Nitrogen compound: AMINE. Learned this chemical compound word from doing Xword.
2D: Artoo's last name: DETOO. No idea. Got it from the perps. This is how R2-D2 looks like.
5D: Star-shaped: STELLATE. New word to me. Only know "Stellar".
7D: __ Lingus (Irish airline): AER. And another Irish reference is actor REA (58D: Stephen of "Fear Dot Com"). I've never seen "Fear Dot Com" (FeardotCom). Just saw his Prêt-à-Porter a few days ago.
9D: Some crustaceans: ISOPODS. Another new word to me. Dictionary defines ISOPODS as "Any of numerous crustaceans of the order Isopoda, characterized by a flattened body bearing seven pairs of legs and including the sow bugs and gribbles." How strange! Where can you find 7 in the word ISOPODS? Shouldn't it be HEPTAPOD, like "Four: prefix" TETRA (47D: Colorful tropical fish) in TETRAPOD?
10D: "The Stunt Man" star: O'TOOLE (Peter). I've never seen the movie, have you?
11D: Bara of the silents: THEDA. BARA was clued as Theda of the silents on a TMS puzzle before. Wikipedia says her name is an anagram of "Arab Death". She did not look wild to be Cleopatra, did she? So easy to confuse her with the IT girl CLARA Bow.
12A: Boring tool: AUGER. AUGER in action. I had no idea that this tool is called AUGER, which looks so similar to AUGUR.
13D: Irriatation: THORN
22D: Keanu in "The Matrix": NEO. I really like Keanu's role in "Something's Gotta Give", don't you? Which is your favorite Keanu movie?
32D: Measuring instrument: GAUGE
38D: Four-poster covers: CANOPIES
45D: Peau de __: SOIE (soft silk). Lime Peau de SOIE. SOIE is silk in French, peau is skin. "MAL (27A: __de Mer) dans sa peau" means "ILL as ease" (39D).
46D: "No bid": I PASS
49D: Soup herb: THYME. I never sprinkle THYME in my soup. I do like roasted asparagus with fresh THYME.
50D: One Barrymore: ETHEL. Unknown to me. I only knew DREW Barrymore and LIONEL Barrymore, who was also a very talented painter. I am surprised that this Wikipedia bio did not mention any of his artwork.
C.C.
