Theme: What Chutzpah!
21A: Operational headquarters: NERVE CENTER
26A:Classy office door adornment: BRASS NAME PLATE
46A: 2006 Political best-seller, with "the": AUDACITY OF HOPE
52A: Beside one another: CHEEK BY JOWL
Boomer bought me "The AUDACITY OF HOPE" when it first came out. But I've never got the opportunity to get it autographed. Now it's collecting dust on my shelf, together with my Obama baseball card and the inauguration pin.
CHEEK BY JOWL is a new idiom to me. But thank God I know JOAN (55D: Rocker Jett). Every time I link Michael Bolton's "Can I Touch You There" on the blog, someone will return with a link of JOAN Jett "Do You Want to Touch Me".
What I've noticed about Rich Norris' puzzle, besides those tricky "Little butter?" (4D: KID) wordplay, is the vivid evocative descriptions. For example:
27D: It's twirled in a rodeo: RIATA.
63D: It sometimes needs a boost: EGO
I like them a lot. Seldom saw them in our old puzzles.
There were only a couple of real unknowns to me in this grid. But I struggled. My conclusion? Rich Norris and I can't talk. He is not "straightforward" and "honest" with me.
Across:
1A: Alp top: PEAK. Thought of SNOW.
5A: Sounding shocked: AGASP. And PALE (10A: Looking shocked). I am in "shock and awe" of these 2 clues. Just great!.
14A: A8 manufacturer: AUDI. Thought A8 might be another kind of V8 juice.
15A: Decisive refusal: NEVER. I was thinking of NO WAY first.
16A: Double-click: OPEN. Of course. But I blanked.
18A: Lacking skepticism: NAIVE. You've got to have a very skeptical attitude when you face this new crossword editor.
19A: __ dixit: IPSE. Learned from doing Xword. Literally "he himself said it". Maybe you can make a sentence for me. I've never used this phrase in daily conversation.
20A: Ocean delicacy: ROE. I pictured EEL. Now I crave some perfectly grilled sweet unagi. The aroma is simply intoxicating. I can almost smell it.
23A: She played Ulla in "The Producers": UMA. Easy guess. Have never seen "The Producers". I love this Ulla/UMA connection.
25A: Estrangement: RIFT
37A: Clavell's "__-Pan": TAI. See the bookcover. Literally, TAI-Pan means "Big Class" in Cantonese. TAI, "big". Pan, "class". Or "big shot" & "big potato" in our slang.
38A: Ma, for one: CELLIST. D'oh, Yo-Yo Ma. I was thinking of Ma Bell.
41A: Rx writers: MDS. Mine was DRS.
42A: 1943 penny metal: STEEL. Unknown to me. I did not know that 1943 penny is rare.
44A: "Proud Mary" band, for short: CCR (Credence Clearwater Revival). Here is the clip. I was stumped again.
51A: Corp. that once owned Hertz and Hilton: UAL (United Air Lines). Oh really? I was totally unaware of this history. Very short-lived though.
63A: Irish Free State successor: EIRE. Heard of this "Irish Free State" (1922-1937) from watching Liam Neeson's "Michael Collins".
68A: "Roots" Emmy winner: ASNER. Another guess. Don't remember him in "Roots".
69A: Capital south of Lillehammer: OSLO. Another guess. I did not know where Lillehammer is. According to Wikipedia, it means "the Small Hamar". Hamar is town name. Literally "steep rock". I was disappointed that it had nothing to do with hammer.
Down:
1D: "I Kid You Not" author: PAAR. Unknown to me. Is it an interesting read? Henry VIII's wife is PARR, two R's.
2D: 100 cents: EURO. I felt so dense this morning. Just could not think of this damned EURO.
3D: Part of "The Sound of Music" farewell song: ADIEU, ADIEU. I can't remember this song. Edelweiss" does not fit, nor does "Do-Re-Me", the only two songs I could think of.
4D: Little butter? KID. Sometimes RAM is clued as "Butter?". Playing on the verb butt. RAM butts. Get it? Butt-er.
6D: Transmission component: GEAR
7D: Tel __ - Yafo: AVIV. Literally "Sping". I only know Tel AVIV, "Hill of Spring". Had no idea there is a trailing Yafo.
9D: Rain, briefly: PRECIP. Precipitation.
10D: Indicate: POINT AT
11D: PDA entry: APPT (Appointment).
13D: Fed. power dept.: ENER (Energy). Not a familiar abbreviation to me. Our current Secretary of Energy is Steven Chu. Chinese American. Nobel Physics winner. Newly minted Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke is also a Chinese American. Both their surnames are Cantonese spelling. Chu is Zhu in Mandrin Chinese. LOCKE is simply Luo. (Note: How do you think of my clues: "Soft tail?" as in softener or "Damp end?" as in dampener?)
21D: "Illmatic" rapper: NAS. Learned his name from doing crossword. What does "Illmatic" mean?
22D: Key of Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 1: E FLAT. Pure guess.
24D: Submissions to ed.: MSS (Manuscripts)
26D: Upside down sleepers: BATS. Only learned this facts a few weeks ago.
28D: PBS's science guy: NYE. The "Science Guy".
29D: IM offerer: AOL. No waffling between AOL and MSN today.
30D: Punish with a fine: MULCT. This is a word that I keep remembering and keep forgetting.
31D: Gin cocktail: TOM COLLINS. New to me. It's often served in a glass called Collins glass, which is also new to me.
32D: Become, finally: END UP
36D: Salinger dedicatee: ESME. Salinger's "For ESME – with Love and Squalor".
38D: Louisiana Territory explorer: CLARK. I don't know the extent of Lewis and CLARK exploration.
39D: Needing salt, perhaps: ICY. It snowed here again yesterday. But no more salt is needed.
43D: Enters stealthily: EDGES IN
45D: '50s oldies syllables: SHA. No idea. I know nothing about '50s oldies. SHA-la-la?
47D: Secret doctrine: CABALA. Did not come to me immediately, though I often read Madonna/Demi Moore CABALA/Kabala stuff on gossip magazines.
48D: Tennyson works: IDYLLS. Occasionally you will find two or four line pastoral poems in some Chinese landscape paintings.
49D: Eye or ear ending: FUL. "Mouth ending" too.
54D: Streets liners: ELMS. No ELMS along our streets.
57D: Deterioration: WEAR. Mine was TEAR.
59D: Like the Sabin vaccine: ORAL. Salk's vaccine required injection.
60D: Jared of "American Psycho": LETO. Know his name. Have never seen "American Psycho". In Greek mythology, LETO is Zeus' mistress. Apollo's mom. She was born in KOS/COS, from which we got COS lettuce (Romaine), clued as "Lettuce variety" in our old puzzle before.
Full Answer Grid
C.C.
