Theme: ONE - Syllable Longest English Words
(33D: Number of syllables in 17A, 25A, 36A, 51A and 61A)
17A: Carried with great effort: SCHLEPPED
25A: Rounded up: SCROUNGED
36A: Compacted: SCRUNCHED
51A: Suppressed: SQUELCHED
61A: Chewed the fat: SCHMOOZED
Very impressive theme answers, all of them are 9-letter long, with ONE anchoring the whole grid. Very solid. I thought of "Scratched" and "Stretched" earlier, what else could you come up with? "Strengths" is also 9-letter, but it does not fit the past tense "Mr. ED" pattern.
Several blemishes in the cluing though:
25A: Rounded up: SCROUNGED. SCROUNGED has an "searched and foraged" undertone, and the clue does not imply so, does it?
46A: Existing: Lat.: IN ESSE. The "Lat.' should not be abbreviated.
3D: Butt collector: ASH TRAY. Shouldn't "Butt" be in plural form?
43A: MD and ME: STS (States). This answer is clearly shouting for some editing. See HESSE (52D: German State). A simple "Peter, Paul and Mary: abbr" would have worked out nicely. The Streets abbreviation STS is impossible due to the AVENUE (9D: Street crosser) clue.
24D: LAPD alert: APB. Once again, "Police dispatch, quickly" would be a better clue due to NYPD (26D: "___ Blue").
58D: Finish second: LOSE. In the finals, yes, otherwise, it's not true. "Finish last" is more accurate a clue.
Flaws aside, I still enjoyed solving this puzzle. It's definitely more interesting than his humdrum QUIP puzzle.
ACROSS:
1A: Nabokov novel: ADA. Do you know that besides composing his "chess problems", Nabokov also constructed crosswords (in Russian)? And it's his opinion that the creating process of the two were very similar.
4A: Old World palm: ARECA. Stumper. I think I googled it before, but I failed to commit it to my memory. ARECA is a kind of Asian Tropical palm (Betel Palm).
14A: Aspin from Wisconsin: LES (Leslie). No idea. Wikipedia says he was Clinton's Secretary of Defense after spending more than 20 years in the Congress.
16A: Nemo's creator: VERNE (Jules). From "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea". Nemo (némō ) is Latin for "no one".
19A: Goldman and Lazarus: EMMAS
27A: Level off: PLATEAU. I wonder if there is a detailed description on the "PLATEAU phase" in 'KAMA Sutra".
30A: Pooh pal: EEYORE. From "Winnie-the-Pooh". The grumpy donkey. What's behind this strange name?
39A: __ of information: MINE. New phrase to me.
42A: French fathers: PERES. And 57A: Fr. lasses: MLLES (Mademoiselles). Together with LES (14A, French "the") and VERNE (16A), they form a quietly streaming French undercurrent, very characteristic of Olschwang's puzzles.
64A: Lying on one's stomach: PRONE
DOWN:
2D: Actress Yvonne: DE CARLO. Not a familiar name to me, though I've seen "The Ten Commandments" several times before. Why does this "The Munsters" Barbie cost so much ($299)? Is it a rare collector's item?
4D: Explorer Tasman: ABEL. New to me. According to Wikipedia, he was the first known European to reach Tasmania, New Zealand and the Fiji islands.
5D: Weather or traffic pc.: REPT (Report).
6D: "The Raven" monogram: EAP (Edgar Allan Poe). Can you think of a good clue for "Elvis Aron Presley" monogram?
7D: Opposite of dimin.: CRESC (Crescendo). "Dimin" is "diminuendo". So strange, "Innuendo" does not seem to have any musical overtone, or does it?
8D: Poisonous snake: ADDER. Here is a puff ADDER. Looks so thick, hard and long.
11D: Toon myopic: MR. MAGOO. Nope, nope, he is completely unknown to me. Did he fall off the cliff eventually?
12D: Vigilant: ON ALERT
18D: Inventory: LIST. Really? Are they the same?
25D: Offer a recap: SUM UP. I dislike the "p" in the clue.
34D: Bitter: ACRID
36D: Zaire's Mobutu __ Seko: SESE. Feels like I have not seen IDI Amin for ages.
39D: Accidents: MISHAPS
40D: Ask: INQUIRE
41D: Subatomic particle: NEUTRON
43D: Reacts to an allergen: SNEEZED. SQUEEZED is another long 1-syllable word.
44D: Promising ads?: TEASERS
47D: Trick pitch: SLIDER. I almost wrote in SINKER. Randy Johnson is probably the best SLIDER I know of.
48D: Outer: pref.: ECT. Or ECTO/EXO.
57D: 2501: MMDI
C.C.
(33D: Number of syllables in 17A, 25A, 36A, 51A and 61A)
17A: Carried with great effort: SCHLEPPED
25A: Rounded up: SCROUNGED
36A: Compacted: SCRUNCHED
51A: Suppressed: SQUELCHED
61A: Chewed the fat: SCHMOOZED
Very impressive theme answers, all of them are 9-letter long, with ONE anchoring the whole grid. Very solid. I thought of "Scratched" and "Stretched" earlier, what else could you come up with? "Strengths" is also 9-letter, but it does not fit the past tense "Mr. ED" pattern.
Several blemishes in the cluing though:
25A: Rounded up: SCROUNGED. SCROUNGED has an "searched and foraged" undertone, and the clue does not imply so, does it?
46A: Existing: Lat.: IN ESSE. The "Lat.' should not be abbreviated.
3D: Butt collector: ASH TRAY. Shouldn't "Butt" be in plural form?
43A: MD and ME: STS (States). This answer is clearly shouting for some editing. See HESSE (52D: German State). A simple "Peter, Paul and Mary: abbr" would have worked out nicely. The Streets abbreviation STS is impossible due to the AVENUE (9D: Street crosser) clue.
24D: LAPD alert: APB. Once again, "Police dispatch, quickly" would be a better clue due to NYPD (26D: "___ Blue").
58D: Finish second: LOSE. In the finals, yes, otherwise, it's not true. "Finish last" is more accurate a clue.
Flaws aside, I still enjoyed solving this puzzle. It's definitely more interesting than his humdrum QUIP puzzle.
ACROSS:
1A: Nabokov novel: ADA. Do you know that besides composing his "chess problems", Nabokov also constructed crosswords (in Russian)? And it's his opinion that the creating process of the two were very similar.
4A: Old World palm: ARECA. Stumper. I think I googled it before, but I failed to commit it to my memory. ARECA is a kind of Asian Tropical palm (Betel Palm).
14A: Aspin from Wisconsin: LES (Leslie). No idea. Wikipedia says he was Clinton's Secretary of Defense after spending more than 20 years in the Congress.
16A: Nemo's creator: VERNE (Jules). From "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea". Nemo (némō ) is Latin for "no one".
19A: Goldman and Lazarus: EMMAS
27A: Level off: PLATEAU. I wonder if there is a detailed description on the "PLATEAU phase" in 'KAMA Sutra".
30A: Pooh pal: EEYORE. From "Winnie-the-Pooh". The grumpy donkey. What's behind this strange name?
39A: __ of information: MINE. New phrase to me.
42A: French fathers: PERES. And 57A: Fr. lasses: MLLES (Mademoiselles). Together with LES (14A, French "the") and VERNE (16A), they form a quietly streaming French undercurrent, very characteristic of Olschwang's puzzles.
64A: Lying on one's stomach: PRONE
DOWN:
2D: Actress Yvonne: DE CARLO. Not a familiar name to me, though I've seen "The Ten Commandments" several times before. Why does this "The Munsters" Barbie cost so much ($299)? Is it a rare collector's item?
4D: Explorer Tasman: ABEL. New to me. According to Wikipedia, he was the first known European to reach Tasmania, New Zealand and the Fiji islands.
5D: Weather or traffic pc.: REPT (Report).
6D: "The Raven" monogram: EAP (Edgar Allan Poe). Can you think of a good clue for "Elvis Aron Presley" monogram?
7D: Opposite of dimin.: CRESC (Crescendo). "Dimin" is "diminuendo". So strange, "Innuendo" does not seem to have any musical overtone, or does it?
8D: Poisonous snake: ADDER. Here is a puff ADDER. Looks so thick, hard and long.
11D: Toon myopic: MR. MAGOO. Nope, nope, he is completely unknown to me. Did he fall off the cliff eventually?
12D: Vigilant: ON ALERT
18D: Inventory: LIST. Really? Are they the same?
25D: Offer a recap: SUM UP. I dislike the "p" in the clue.
34D: Bitter: ACRID
36D: Zaire's Mobutu __ Seko: SESE. Feels like I have not seen IDI Amin for ages.
39D: Accidents: MISHAPS
40D: Ask: INQUIRE
41D: Subatomic particle: NEUTRON
43D: Reacts to an allergen: SNEEZED. SQUEEZED is another long 1-syllable word.
44D: Promising ads?: TEASERS
47D: Trick pitch: SLIDER. I almost wrote in SINKER. Randy Johnson is probably the best SLIDER I know of.
48D: Outer: pref.: ECT. Or ECTO/EXO.
57D: 2501: MMDI
C.C.
