Theme: Sleigh Ride
17A: New York prison: SING SING
28A: Drake's snack cake: RING DING
46A: Getting a one-base hit: SINGLING
62A: Circus owner Charles: RINGLING
11D: Crazy person: DING-A-LING
35D: Delaying departure: LINGERING
Did I catch the right theme? I was getting dizzy with those *ING words. For a moment, I thought DOING (29D: In the act of) might be the tie-in theme answer. It's located in the very center of the grid. But I could not make much sense of it.
I have never heard of RING DING snack cake before. Thought DING-A-LING refers to male organ when you guys brought "My DING-A-LING" A few days ago. Now it's "Crazy person"?
Was stumped by a few proper names. Had to google. I rather like today's clues: short, succinct and straightfoward. Only wish KENYA (40D: Mau Mau country) were clued as "Obama's ancestral home".
Across:
1A: Daiquiri need: RUM. "Tom and Jerry need" for us during this time of the year.
4A: Yves' evening: SOIR. No hesitation between SOIR (Bon) and NUIT (Bonne) this time due to the intersecting SES (4D: His: Fr.). Also EAU (66A: Agua, to Fifi) and ETRE (68A: French 101 verb).
6A: Painter Modigliani: AMEDEO. His name escaped me completely. I really like this "Girl in Pigtail" painting.
14A: Actress O'Connor: UNA. She is in "The Invisible Man". New to me. Our editor used to clue UNA as "Actress Merkel".
16A: Actress Mercouri: MELINA. I googled her name. Wikipedia says she was nominated for Oscar for the Greek film "Never on Sunday". She looks stunning.
20A: Loudness unit: SONE. 40 decibles. PHON is also "Loudness unit". I forgot the difference between the two.
21A: Willingly, old-style: LIEF. Another archaic "Willingly" is FAIN.
23A: Uneasy feeling: ANGST. A rare consonant-laden short word.
24A: Non-stop: ON AND ON. Did anyone fill in ON A ROLL first?
30A: Mormon ltrs: LDS. Do you think Mitt Romney will run for president again? I think our governor Tim Pawlenty will.
33A: Membrane of grasses: PALEA. See this diagram. I would not have got it without the neighboring fills. I was thinking of PALEO, you know, the paleolithic diet, hunter/gather style: no grain/legume, lots of meat, veggie and fruits.
37A: NYC subway line: IRT. Opened in 1904 already? That's amazing.
43A: Fall garden?: EDEN. This clue is getting stale.
44A: Specialized lingo: ARGOT. I've never used this word in daily conversation. Jargon, yes.
51A: Setting free: UNTYING. One more *ING word.
55A: Part of ROK: KOREA. The current UN Chief Ban Ki-moon is from ROK (South Korea).
57A: "__ Sanctorum": ACTA. Quotaton mark? It has to refer to these books then. ACTA is a plural form of Latin "actus", meaning "official records, as of acts, deeds, proceedings, transactions, or the like".
59A: Half of CXIV: LVII. Roman for 57. Do you know what CCLD is?
60A: Journalist Fallaci: ORIANA. Sigh, another google. I just can't remember this lady's name. She wrote "The Force of Reason".
64A: Presidential also-ran Alf: LANDON. He lost to FDR in 1936.
67A: Heavenly creatures: ANGELS. And MANNA (3D: Heavenly food).
Down:
5D: Lithographer Redon: ODILON. Here is "The Spider". Musée d'Orsay has a nice collecton of his drawings.
6D: Six-out segment: INNING
9D: Hodgepodge: MELANGE
12D: Tolkien's trees: ENTS
13D: Hops kiln: OAST
22D: Michigan city: FLINT. A little trivia for you: FLINT is "the largest city in the United States with a one-syllable name". I did not know that. Also, GM was founded in FLINT in 1908.
25D: Dist. across: DIA (Diameter)
27D: Andes autocrat: INCA. Why "autocrat"?
31D: Bond picture: DR. NO. The first Bond movie.
32D: Let it stand: STET. Oppositeof DELE.
39D: Mine entrance: ADIT
41D: Former Scottish county: ARGYLL. See this map. Why did Scotland abolish all its counties in 1975?
47D: Old instrument plucker: LUTIST. "Old"? How so?
50D: Gettysburg victor: MEADE (George). I got his name after cheating on ORIANA. He looks very tall.
53D: Foch and Simone: NINAS. Here is NINA Simone's "My Baby Just Cares for Me". I was not familiar with actress NINA Foch.
54D: Lively dance: GIGUE. See this clip. I've never heard of this dance before. The GIGUE dance starts at 1:42 I suppose?
55D: Beverage nut: KOLA. Wow, lots of nuts in this pod. How many do you have to chew to get excited?
56D: Algerian port: ORAN. Camus was born here. So was designer Yves Saint-Laurent.
63D: Test for srs.: GRE. GMAT too, isn't it? For those who want to obtain MBA degree.
C.C.
17A: New York prison: SING SING
28A: Drake's snack cake: RING DING
46A: Getting a one-base hit: SINGLING
62A: Circus owner Charles: RINGLING
11D: Crazy person: DING-A-LING
35D: Delaying departure: LINGERING
Did I catch the right theme? I was getting dizzy with those *ING words. For a moment, I thought DOING (29D: In the act of) might be the tie-in theme answer. It's located in the very center of the grid. But I could not make much sense of it.
I have never heard of RING DING snack cake before. Thought DING-A-LING refers to male organ when you guys brought "My DING-A-LING" A few days ago. Now it's "Crazy person"?
Was stumped by a few proper names. Had to google. I rather like today's clues: short, succinct and straightfoward. Only wish KENYA (40D: Mau Mau country) were clued as "Obama's ancestral home".
Across:
1A: Daiquiri need: RUM. "Tom and Jerry need" for us during this time of the year.
4A: Yves' evening: SOIR. No hesitation between SOIR (Bon) and NUIT (Bonne) this time due to the intersecting SES (4D: His: Fr.). Also EAU (66A: Agua, to Fifi) and ETRE (68A: French 101 verb).
6A: Painter Modigliani: AMEDEO. His name escaped me completely. I really like this "Girl in Pigtail" painting.
14A: Actress O'Connor: UNA. She is in "The Invisible Man". New to me. Our editor used to clue UNA as "Actress Merkel".
16A: Actress Mercouri: MELINA. I googled her name. Wikipedia says she was nominated for Oscar for the Greek film "Never on Sunday". She looks stunning.
20A: Loudness unit: SONE. 40 decibles. PHON is also "Loudness unit". I forgot the difference between the two.
21A: Willingly, old-style: LIEF. Another archaic "Willingly" is FAIN.
23A: Uneasy feeling: ANGST. A rare consonant-laden short word.
24A: Non-stop: ON AND ON. Did anyone fill in ON A ROLL first?
30A: Mormon ltrs: LDS. Do you think Mitt Romney will run for president again? I think our governor Tim Pawlenty will.
33A: Membrane of grasses: PALEA. See this diagram. I would not have got it without the neighboring fills. I was thinking of PALEO, you know, the paleolithic diet, hunter/gather style: no grain/legume, lots of meat, veggie and fruits.
37A: NYC subway line: IRT. Opened in 1904 already? That's amazing.
43A: Fall garden?: EDEN. This clue is getting stale.
44A: Specialized lingo: ARGOT. I've never used this word in daily conversation. Jargon, yes.
51A: Setting free: UNTYING. One more *ING word.
55A: Part of ROK: KOREA. The current UN Chief Ban Ki-moon is from ROK (South Korea).
57A: "__ Sanctorum": ACTA. Quotaton mark? It has to refer to these books then. ACTA is a plural form of Latin "actus", meaning "official records, as of acts, deeds, proceedings, transactions, or the like".
59A: Half of CXIV: LVII. Roman for 57. Do you know what CCLD is?
60A: Journalist Fallaci: ORIANA. Sigh, another google. I just can't remember this lady's name. She wrote "The Force of Reason".
64A: Presidential also-ran Alf: LANDON. He lost to FDR in 1936.
67A: Heavenly creatures: ANGELS. And MANNA (3D: Heavenly food).
Down:
5D: Lithographer Redon: ODILON. Here is "The Spider". Musée d'Orsay has a nice collecton of his drawings.
6D: Six-out segment: INNING
9D: Hodgepodge: MELANGE
12D: Tolkien's trees: ENTS
13D: Hops kiln: OAST
22D: Michigan city: FLINT. A little trivia for you: FLINT is "the largest city in the United States with a one-syllable name". I did not know that. Also, GM was founded in FLINT in 1908.
25D: Dist. across: DIA (Diameter)
27D: Andes autocrat: INCA. Why "autocrat"?
31D: Bond picture: DR. NO. The first Bond movie.
32D: Let it stand: STET. Oppositeof DELE.
39D: Mine entrance: ADIT
41D: Former Scottish county: ARGYLL. See this map. Why did Scotland abolish all its counties in 1975?
47D: Old instrument plucker: LUTIST. "Old"? How so?
50D: Gettysburg victor: MEADE (George). I got his name after cheating on ORIANA. He looks very tall.
53D: Foch and Simone: NINAS. Here is NINA Simone's "My Baby Just Cares for Me". I was not familiar with actress NINA Foch.
54D: Lively dance: GIGUE. See this clip. I've never heard of this dance before. The GIGUE dance starts at 1:42 I suppose?
55D: Beverage nut: KOLA. Wow, lots of nuts in this pod. How many do you have to chew to get excited?
56D: Algerian port: ORAN. Camus was born here. So was designer Yves Saint-Laurent.
63D: Test for srs.: GRE. GMAT too, isn't it? For those who want to obtain MBA degree.
C.C.
