Theme: Watered Down
17A: Tabloid talk show host: RICKI LAKE
66A: "Young Frankenstein" director: MEL BROOKS
11D: "Enter Talking" writer: JOAN RIVERS
30D: "Caribbean Queen" singer: BILLY OCEAN
Those people are ALL WET!
I am not familiar with RICKI LAKE. JOAN RIVERS is too much for me, so acerbic her tongue. Her daughter Melissa is equally intimidating. BILLY OCEAN revealed himself after I filled in all the crosses.
I suppose there is no famous people with surnames like LAKES or OCEANS, the plural form? I really liked the theme though.
To those whose paper has stopped carrying TMS Daily puzzle. You can go to Chicago Tribune's website. Click on the date, then pick Regular Skill Level or Master Skill Level. You can always print out the puzzles if you prefer to solve it in paper. Click on Print, then Blank Puzzle.
To those LA Times solvers, you can get all the answers in their website. And if you have questions regarding certain clues, please feel free to ask in the Comments section. Argyle will guest-blog one LA Times puzzle this Sunday.
I also published a "How to Create a Link at Comments section" earlier this morning. It's not difficult at all. You just need some practices.
Across:
9A: Hindu ruler: RAJAH. Or Raja.
15A: Regan's father: LEAR. Also Cordelia/Goneril's father. Don't google, tell me who is Hero's love?
23A: Chants: LITANIES. Reminds me of McCain's "Drill, Baby, Drill" chant. It's coined by Michael Steele, not Sarah Palin, who can see Russia from her house.
32A: Provencal verse: SESTINA. My guess is SESTINE, which is actually correct also. So is SEXTINA. It's a six-stanza verse. A poetic form used by Dante, Kipling, Ezra Pound, etc.
39A: Show-biz notable: CELEB. Hope to see CELEB with PAPARAZZI in a grid someday.
43A: Quantity of yarn: SKEIN. Last time it's clued as "V-formation flock" and stumped lots of solvers. A SKEIN of geese.
49A: Thwarts: STYMIES. I like "Thwarts", with three consonants together.
51A: Mushroom morsel: CAP. Hmmm, mushroom, MOREL. How long is that? CAP can also be clued as "Climax", yes?
55A: Achieve success: GET AHEAD
58A: Ridiculous pretense: CHARADE
64A: Trample: TREAD. Dislike the TR repetition. With today's "Wet" theme, "TREAD water" is better.
71A: Sound qualities: TONES. Musical term? I was thinking of SONES, the "Loudness unit".
73A: Cut: SAWN. Always thought the past particle of SAW is SAWED.
Down:
1D: Razor choice: ATRA. Gillette is part of P & G, so is Duracell & Oral-B.
7D: Like some buckets: OAKEN. I learned this morning that most of the old ship were made of oak wood due to its hardness, strength and resistance to insect and fungal attack. Had no idea that oak trees do not produce acorns until they are 50 years old.
8D: Concise summary: PRECIS. Without the intersecting P, I might have filled in APERCU. It has 6 letters also.
13D: First part of a bray: HEE. HEE-Haw.
18D: Egyptian goddess: ISIS. The Egyptian goddess of fertility. The wife/sister of Osiris. JD, there is letter "I" in modern interpretation of Egyptian glyphs after all. (Note: Here is a great link JD provided.)
26D: "Strange Interlude" playwright: O'NEILL. Easy guess. I've never heard of "Strange Interlude".
27D: Purple dinosaur: BARNEY. Not familiar with this character either. Why "Purple"? It looks pink to me. Vikings' uniforms are "Purple" color. Brett Favre in Vikings uniform? Liar!
28D: Bigot: RACIST. I watched Ed Norton's "American History X" the other day, kind of shocked by what I saw.
33D: Seize: TAKE. Thought of RAID first. Police do "Seize" stuff when they conduct a RAID, right?
40D: Military units: BRIGADES. I suppose their head is called brigadier.
50D: Flower part: STAMEN. Flowers' male organ. So tiny. It bears sufficient pollens I suppose. The white stuff on top is the anther. No wonder the word has MEN in its tail.
52D: Carson's predecessor: PAAR. Double A. The double R wife of Henry VIII is PARR (Catherine).
57D: Trivial stuff: DROSS. I don't understand this clue. "Worthless stuff", yes. "Trivial stuff" means "small matter", no?
62D: Place at an angle: SKEW. Here is a word where you can't simply add an ER without changing its original meaning. Skewer. I like shrimp pineapple shish-kebab, don't you?
65D: Greek letter: RHO. The 17th Greek letter. Consonant.
C.C.
17A: Tabloid talk show host: RICKI LAKE
66A: "Young Frankenstein" director: MEL BROOKS
11D: "Enter Talking" writer: JOAN RIVERS
30D: "Caribbean Queen" singer: BILLY OCEAN
Those people are ALL WET!
I am not familiar with RICKI LAKE. JOAN RIVERS is too much for me, so acerbic her tongue. Her daughter Melissa is equally intimidating. BILLY OCEAN revealed himself after I filled in all the crosses.
I suppose there is no famous people with surnames like LAKES or OCEANS, the plural form? I really liked the theme though.
To those whose paper has stopped carrying TMS Daily puzzle. You can go to Chicago Tribune's website. Click on the date, then pick Regular Skill Level or Master Skill Level. You can always print out the puzzles if you prefer to solve it in paper. Click on Print, then Blank Puzzle.
To those LA Times solvers, you can get all the answers in their website. And if you have questions regarding certain clues, please feel free to ask in the Comments section. Argyle will guest-blog one LA Times puzzle this Sunday.
I also published a "How to Create a Link at Comments section" earlier this morning. It's not difficult at all. You just need some practices.
Across:
9A: Hindu ruler: RAJAH. Or Raja.
15A: Regan's father: LEAR. Also Cordelia/Goneril's father. Don't google, tell me who is Hero's love?
23A: Chants: LITANIES. Reminds me of McCain's "Drill, Baby, Drill" chant. It's coined by Michael Steele, not Sarah Palin, who can see Russia from her house.
32A: Provencal verse: SESTINA. My guess is SESTINE, which is actually correct also. So is SEXTINA. It's a six-stanza verse. A poetic form used by Dante, Kipling, Ezra Pound, etc.
39A: Show-biz notable: CELEB. Hope to see CELEB with PAPARAZZI in a grid someday.
43A: Quantity of yarn: SKEIN. Last time it's clued as "V-formation flock" and stumped lots of solvers. A SKEIN of geese.
49A: Thwarts: STYMIES. I like "Thwarts", with three consonants together.
51A: Mushroom morsel: CAP. Hmmm, mushroom, MOREL. How long is that? CAP can also be clued as "Climax", yes?
55A: Achieve success: GET AHEAD
58A: Ridiculous pretense: CHARADE
64A: Trample: TREAD. Dislike the TR repetition. With today's "Wet" theme, "TREAD water" is better.
71A: Sound qualities: TONES. Musical term? I was thinking of SONES, the "Loudness unit".
73A: Cut: SAWN. Always thought the past particle of SAW is SAWED.
Down:
1D: Razor choice: ATRA. Gillette is part of P & G, so is Duracell & Oral-B.
7D: Like some buckets: OAKEN. I learned this morning that most of the old ship were made of oak wood due to its hardness, strength and resistance to insect and fungal attack. Had no idea that oak trees do not produce acorns until they are 50 years old.
8D: Concise summary: PRECIS. Without the intersecting P, I might have filled in APERCU. It has 6 letters also.
13D: First part of a bray: HEE. HEE-Haw.
18D: Egyptian goddess: ISIS. The Egyptian goddess of fertility. The wife/sister of Osiris. JD, there is letter "I" in modern interpretation of Egyptian glyphs after all. (Note: Here is a great link JD provided.)
26D: "Strange Interlude" playwright: O'NEILL. Easy guess. I've never heard of "Strange Interlude".
27D: Purple dinosaur: BARNEY. Not familiar with this character either. Why "Purple"? It looks pink to me. Vikings' uniforms are "Purple" color. Brett Favre in Vikings uniform? Liar!
28D: Bigot: RACIST. I watched Ed Norton's "American History X" the other day, kind of shocked by what I saw.
33D: Seize: TAKE. Thought of RAID first. Police do "Seize" stuff when they conduct a RAID, right?
40D: Military units: BRIGADES. I suppose their head is called brigadier.
50D: Flower part: STAMEN. Flowers' male organ. So tiny. It bears sufficient pollens I suppose. The white stuff on top is the anther. No wonder the word has MEN in its tail.
52D: Carson's predecessor: PAAR. Double A. The double R wife of Henry VIII is PARR (Catherine).
57D: Trivial stuff: DROSS. I don't understand this clue. "Worthless stuff", yes. "Trivial stuff" means "small matter", no?
62D: Place at an angle: SKEW. Here is a word where you can't simply add an ER without changing its original meaning. Skewer. I like shrimp pineapple shish-kebab, don't you?
65D: Greek letter: RHO. The 17th Greek letter. Consonant.
C.C.
