Theme: Gas Gauge
20A: Conceited: FULL OF ONESELF
38A: Plan not completely thought after: HALF-BAKED IDEA
57A: Much campaign rhetoric: EMPTY PROMISES
Ah, a puzzle from our own Fred Jackson III. What a pleasant Monday morning surprise! Congratulations, Fred.
This puzzle seems to be tailor-made for solvers at my level. No obscure dead actor/actress or old TV series name. Three lively theme answers. I really like 15*15 grids with 3 or 4 theme entries. My cup of tea. 5 makes the grid look busy. And weird abbreviations or obscure ESSY Persson style name tend to creep up when there are 6 or 7. Maybe advanced solvers adore them, I don't.
A bit of a French sub-theme:
19A: Parisian river: SEINE
30A: French love: AMOUR
69A: Canonized Mlles: STES
53D: Gallic girlfriends: AMIE
All of them are clued straightforwardly. No trickly "Parisian flower?" for SEINE misguide.
Across:
1A: Put below, as cargo: STOW. Why "below"? I don't grok it.
5A: Potentially painful precipitation: HAIL. Some flowers are surprisingly strong. ROSES (55D: Thorny flowers) are easily damaged by hailstorms.
9A: Treasure map measures: PACES. How come? I got the answer from down fills. I've never seen a treasure map. I suppose it has its own scale term?
15A: __ Domini: ANNO. AD. Nominative singular is ANNUS, and plural is ANNI (anniversary). This is confusing. Is ANNO in ANNO Domini dative singular or ablative singular?
18A: Composer Stravinsky: IGOR. Sometimes it's clued as "Operative prince". And IAGO (60D: "Othello" fellow). I used to confuse those two, both contains GO. And two ao in Golfer Isao Aoki's name.
23A: Brit. record label: EMI (Electric & Musical Industries Ltd.). Just found out this morning that the "Big Four" record companies are EMI, Sony Music, Universal Music and Warner Music.
24A: Former Egypt-Syria alliance: Abbr.: UAR (United Arab Republic, 1958-1961). Egypt continued to be called UAR until 1971. So Nasser was the president of UAR until his death in 1970. Don't confuse UAR with UAE (United Arab Emirates). Still remember the UAE Dubai port scandal?
25A: Beers and ales: QUAFFS. I thought ale is a kind of beer.
33A: Last: Abbr.: ULT
37A: Scott who sued for his freedom: DRED. And he lost. I finally remember his name this time.
42A: Suffix with hard or soft: WARE. My first thought is BALL.
43A: Seashell seller, in a tongue twister: SHE. I am not good at tongue twister, English or Chinese. Are you?
44A: Retirement org.: SSA. And "Seniors' org" is AARP. Many AARP members are not retired.
45A: "Slippery" tree: ELM. Easy guess. Why is it called "Slippery ELM"?
46A: Archaeological fragment: SHARD. I think the broken piece of my bobblehead is called SHARD too.
48A: Like some poetry: LYRIC. Some are EPIC.
52A: Prefix with sphere: STRATO. ATMO is also "prefix with sphere".
56A: "Foucault's Pendulum" author Umberto: ECO. Here is the bookcover. Wikipedia says the book has been described as a "thinking person's Da Vinci Code". I can't remember who, but one of our fellow solvers has read his "The Name of the Rose".
61A: Count with a keyboard: BASIE. Stumper for me. I can't figure out how one can count with a keyboard. Have never heard of Count BASIE. Is this nickname Count inspired by Duke Ellington?
63A: Warts and all: AS IS
65A: Group of eight: OCTET. Sometimes the answer is OCTAD.
66A: Stroll in the shallows: WADE. I kept reading the clue as "Stroll in the shadows".
67A: Head over heels in love: GAGA. I like this clue.
68A: Out of fashion: PASSE. Does Britney look sexy to you in this low-rise jeans?
Down:
1D: Fixed charge: SET FEE
2D: Psychological injury: TRAUMA. Like what we suffered during Chinese Cultural Revolution.
3D: Like many old-fashioned lamps: OIL-LIT. Aladdin's genie lamp is OIL-LIT.
4D: Wishing place: WELL. Odin traded his right eye for wisdom from the WELL of Mimir.
5D: Israeli port city: HAIFA. Here is the map. Third largest city in Israel, after Jerusalem & Tel Aviv.
9D: Charlatan: POSEUR
10D: Journalist __ Rogers St. Johns: ADELA. Learned her name from doing crossword. I don't understand how anyone can be surnamed St. Johns. Also at a loss over Edna St. Vincent Millay's name. How can they call themselves St? By the way, Fred Astaire's sister is ADELE, very close to ADELA.
11D: Hairdo: COIFFURE. Used to have difficulty rememering this word. Then I realized coif is the root, and ure is just a noun suffix, as in pressure.
21D: Words before sight and mind: OUT OF
26D: Dog collar target: FLEA. No idea. Why? I am not a dog/cat person. I thought the dog collar is used to control and restrain dogs.
27D: Benchmark: Abbr.: STD
29D: Dot on an ocean map: ISLE. "Dot in la mer" will be ILE.
35D: Air rifle ammo: BB SHOT. Will BB gun kill a squirrel?
38D: "Stop right there!": HALT. "Stop right here!" would be WHOA, right?
41D: Faith of more than 1 billion: ISLAM. Oh, that's a lot. Here is more information. There are about 2.1 billion people of Christian faith. That's about 1/3 of the world population. ISLAM literally means "submission" (to God).
42D: Craven of Horror: WES. The director of "A Nightmare on Elm Street".
46D: Tampa neighbor, briefly: ST. PETE. Wikipedia says it's nicknamed "The Sunshine City" because it has some 360 days of sunshine every year. Is it true? I find it hard to believe.
47D: Pooh-pooh: DERIDE
49D: Shoot again: RESNAP
51D: Marquee name, often: CO-STAR. Spencer Tracy received top billings in all the movies he co-starred with Katharine Hepburn.
58D: Swerves at sea: YAWS. "Swerves in the air" too. Someone please give me a lesson today. I can never remember the differences among roll, pitch and YAW. I do know Dennis's thrust though.
59D: Juniors' H.S. exam: PSAT (Preliminary SAT). Oh, I don't know it's for juniors only. How about LSAT? Are juniors allowed to take it also?
61D: '40 jazz: BOP. Did not know BOP was developed in the '40. I thought it existed in '20 already.
62D: Here, in Spain: ACA. Mine was ICA. Don't speak Spanish. I thought if French is ICI, why not ICA for Spanish?
Answer grid.
C.C.
20A: Conceited: FULL OF ONESELF
38A: Plan not completely thought after: HALF-BAKED IDEA
57A: Much campaign rhetoric: EMPTY PROMISES
Ah, a puzzle from our own Fred Jackson III. What a pleasant Monday morning surprise! Congratulations, Fred.
This puzzle seems to be tailor-made for solvers at my level. No obscure dead actor/actress or old TV series name. Three lively theme answers. I really like 15*15 grids with 3 or 4 theme entries. My cup of tea. 5 makes the grid look busy. And weird abbreviations or obscure ESSY Persson style name tend to creep up when there are 6 or 7. Maybe advanced solvers adore them, I don't.
A bit of a French sub-theme:
19A: Parisian river: SEINE
30A: French love: AMOUR
69A: Canonized Mlles: STES
53D: Gallic girlfriends: AMIE
All of them are clued straightforwardly. No trickly "Parisian flower?" for SEINE misguide.
Across:
1A: Put below, as cargo: STOW. Why "below"? I don't grok it.
5A: Potentially painful precipitation: HAIL. Some flowers are surprisingly strong. ROSES (55D: Thorny flowers) are easily damaged by hailstorms.
9A: Treasure map measures: PACES. How come? I got the answer from down fills. I've never seen a treasure map. I suppose it has its own scale term?
15A: __ Domini: ANNO. AD. Nominative singular is ANNUS, and plural is ANNI (anniversary). This is confusing. Is ANNO in ANNO Domini dative singular or ablative singular?
18A: Composer Stravinsky: IGOR. Sometimes it's clued as "Operative prince". And IAGO (60D: "Othello" fellow). I used to confuse those two, both contains GO. And two ao in Golfer Isao Aoki's name.
23A: Brit. record label: EMI (Electric & Musical Industries Ltd.). Just found out this morning that the "Big Four" record companies are EMI, Sony Music, Universal Music and Warner Music.
24A: Former Egypt-Syria alliance: Abbr.: UAR (United Arab Republic, 1958-1961). Egypt continued to be called UAR until 1971. So Nasser was the president of UAR until his death in 1970. Don't confuse UAR with UAE (United Arab Emirates). Still remember the UAE Dubai port scandal?
25A: Beers and ales: QUAFFS. I thought ale is a kind of beer.
33A: Last: Abbr.: ULT
37A: Scott who sued for his freedom: DRED. And he lost. I finally remember his name this time.
42A: Suffix with hard or soft: WARE. My first thought is BALL.
43A: Seashell seller, in a tongue twister: SHE. I am not good at tongue twister, English or Chinese. Are you?
44A: Retirement org.: SSA. And "Seniors' org" is AARP. Many AARP members are not retired.
45A: "Slippery" tree: ELM. Easy guess. Why is it called "Slippery ELM"?
46A: Archaeological fragment: SHARD. I think the broken piece of my bobblehead is called SHARD too.
48A: Like some poetry: LYRIC. Some are EPIC.
52A: Prefix with sphere: STRATO. ATMO is also "prefix with sphere".
56A: "Foucault's Pendulum" author Umberto: ECO. Here is the bookcover. Wikipedia says the book has been described as a "thinking person's Da Vinci Code". I can't remember who, but one of our fellow solvers has read his "The Name of the Rose".
61A: Count with a keyboard: BASIE. Stumper for me. I can't figure out how one can count with a keyboard. Have never heard of Count BASIE. Is this nickname Count inspired by Duke Ellington?
63A: Warts and all: AS IS
65A: Group of eight: OCTET. Sometimes the answer is OCTAD.
66A: Stroll in the shallows: WADE. I kept reading the clue as "Stroll in the shadows".
67A: Head over heels in love: GAGA. I like this clue.
68A: Out of fashion: PASSE. Does Britney look sexy to you in this low-rise jeans?
Down:
1D: Fixed charge: SET FEE
2D: Psychological injury: TRAUMA. Like what we suffered during Chinese Cultural Revolution.
3D: Like many old-fashioned lamps: OIL-LIT. Aladdin's genie lamp is OIL-LIT.
4D: Wishing place: WELL. Odin traded his right eye for wisdom from the WELL of Mimir.
5D: Israeli port city: HAIFA. Here is the map. Third largest city in Israel, after Jerusalem & Tel Aviv.
9D: Charlatan: POSEUR
10D: Journalist __ Rogers St. Johns: ADELA. Learned her name from doing crossword. I don't understand how anyone can be surnamed St. Johns. Also at a loss over Edna St. Vincent Millay's name. How can they call themselves St? By the way, Fred Astaire's sister is ADELE, very close to ADELA.
11D: Hairdo: COIFFURE. Used to have difficulty rememering this word. Then I realized coif is the root, and ure is just a noun suffix, as in pressure.
21D: Words before sight and mind: OUT OF
26D: Dog collar target: FLEA. No idea. Why? I am not a dog/cat person. I thought the dog collar is used to control and restrain dogs.
27D: Benchmark: Abbr.: STD
29D: Dot on an ocean map: ISLE. "Dot in la mer" will be ILE.
35D: Air rifle ammo: BB SHOT. Will BB gun kill a squirrel?
38D: "Stop right there!": HALT. "Stop right here!" would be WHOA, right?
41D: Faith of more than 1 billion: ISLAM. Oh, that's a lot. Here is more information. There are about 2.1 billion people of Christian faith. That's about 1/3 of the world population. ISLAM literally means "submission" (to God).
42D: Craven of Horror: WES. The director of "A Nightmare on Elm Street".
46D: Tampa neighbor, briefly: ST. PETE. Wikipedia says it's nicknamed "The Sunshine City" because it has some 360 days of sunshine every year. Is it true? I find it hard to believe.
47D: Pooh-pooh: DERIDE
49D: Shoot again: RESNAP
51D: Marquee name, often: CO-STAR. Spencer Tracy received top billings in all the movies he co-starred with Katharine Hepburn.
58D: Swerves at sea: YAWS. "Swerves in the air" too. Someone please give me a lesson today. I can never remember the differences among roll, pitch and YAW. I do know Dennis's thrust though.
59D: Juniors' H.S. exam: PSAT (Preliminary SAT). Oh, I don't know it's for juniors only. How about LSAT? Are juniors allowed to take it also?
61D: '40 jazz: BOP. Did not know BOP was developed in the '40. I thought it existed in '20 already.
62D: Here, in Spain: ACA. Mine was ICA. Don't speak Spanish. I thought if French is ICI, why not ICA for Spanish?
Answer grid.
C.C.
