Theme: GEES (66A: Yegg's thousands)
17A: Toxic defoliant in Vietnam: AGENT ORANGE
27A: 1930s Fred Astaire partner: GINGER ROGERS
38A: Study of rock groups?: GEOLOGY
45A: Show runner: STAGE MANAGER
58A: "Adam Bede" novelist: GEORGE ELLIOT
Plus 23 more theme answers I will list later.
The above 5 long theme answers all have 2 or 3 G's each and are symmetrically placed. GINGER ROGERS is my favorite, the only one with 3 G's. Have never seen her full name in a puzzle before. Looks cool in the grid. GEOLOGY clue is made interesting with a question mark.
Just amazing puzzle! Total 21 G's. NY Times' record is 19. All soft G theme answers are positioned in Across, and hard G' in Down. Out of the 78 words in this puzzle, 28 are theme answers (14 Across and 14 Down). And if I counted correctly, there are only 60 non-theme black squares. That would be 125 theme squares, about 68% of theme fills. Definitely a first for me.
It reminds me of the Sept 19, 2008 Newsday "52 of a Kind" puzzle. Every word in the grid has a letter L, some are long, some are short. I asked Stan Newman if all of them are theme answers. He said yes, but "of course this is a special case".
Very creative puzzle. I enjoyed a lot. I wonder why SOFT G is not clued in the grid. Is it structurally impossible?
OK, here we go, more soft G (Across) theme entries:
4A: Sharp-witted: AGILE. Wrote down ACUTE recklessly.
9A: O. Henry's "The Gift of the __": MAGI. Read this story in Chinese. It's in our high school western literature class.
14A: Taunts: GIBES
16A: Windy City superstation: WGN. Owned by the Tribune Company, which also owns Chicago Cubs, Chicago Tribune, LA Times and of course Tribune Media Services (TMS) which syndicates LA Times and the old TMS Daily puzzle.
32A: Rowlands of "Another Woman": GENA
50A: Golden __: AGERS. Didn't we just see this clue the other day? Time for teen AGERS.
62A: Red-and-white supermarket logo: IGA (Independent Grocers Alliance). Sigh! I can't remember this chain name. It's clued as "Supermarket grp." in early April.
66A: Yegg's thousands: GEES. Feels weird to see G spelled out as GEE.
67A: Letter appearing only in down answers; its opposite appears in across answers: HARD G
68A: Glue is one: GEL
And hard G Down theme entries:
2D: Billiards player's consideration: ANGLE
4D: Tennis great who retired in 2006: AGASSI (Andre). Two-US Open champ, as clued in yesterday's puzzle.
5D: Prefix with hertz: GIGA. Only know gigabyte.
9D: Address to a pal, in Pamplona: MI AMIGO. "My friend" in Spanish. This refers to male friend only, correct?
11D: Satanic nation in Revelation: GOG. No idea. Got it from across fills. Is that how we got AGOG?
20D: '70 Olympics name: OLGA (Korbut). OLGA means "Holy".
29D: Skilled in: GOOD AT
32D: Tenet's CIA successor: GOSS (Porter). Gimme gimme. Leon Panetta is the current boss. Someone just mentioned on the blog yesterday that CIA's nickname is "The Company". NSA's nickname is "The Puzzle Palace".
38D: Donate, in Dundee: GIE. Scottish for "give".
39D: Club appearance: GIG
42D: Overlooks: IGNORES. Overlook is a Janus word. It means IGNORES, but it also means "to watch over".
44D: Logician's connector: ERGO
52D: Antisocial elephant: ROGUE. Is "Antisocial elephant" a slang? I am not familiar with this phrase.
55D: __ Khan: AGA. Sometimes it's clued as "Turkish title". Literally "Lord". Here is Anne Bancroft's "Yma Dream" again. AGA Khan is one of them. AVA Gardner, AVA Gabor, OONA O'Neill, IDA Lupino, Abba EBAN, UTA Hagen, Ida Lupino and most of the crossword stalwarts are in the clip too.
58D: Comical bit: GAG
Non theme fills (Across):
1A: Late-night name: JAY. JAY Leno. Another kind of soft G, right?
13A: Prop extension?: ANE. Propane. I like this clue. Much better than our old "Chemical ending".
15A: Key that often sounds gloomy: MINOR. Oh, I was unaware of this. So MAJOR keys are cheerful?
19A: Charlie Parker's instrument: ALTO SAX. Would not have got the answer without the down fills. I could only think of saxphone.
21A: Novel type: DIME
22A: Sings, so to speak: TELLS. "Where do I begin? To tell the story of how great a love can be?..."
23A: Philosopher __ tzu: LAO. LAO literally means "old" in Chinese. LAO-Tzu is "Old Master". My husband calls me LAO Po, literally "Old wife".
35A: Place for a stud: LOBE. Stud earrings.
36A: Tribute with a wink: ROAST. Like the annual Gridiron Club Dinner. Obama skipped his this year.
37A: Siouan speaker: OTO. Or OTOE.
40A: Old touring car: REO. The old Olds.
41A: 2005 horror sequel: SAW II. Easy guess. I don't watch horror movies.
43A: Artist who worked on Hitchcock's "Spellbound": DALI. Another guess. I only know the 2002 documentary "Spellbound". I bet those kids are great at solving crosswords. Have never heard of Hitchcock's "Spellbound". DALI was a close friend of Mia Farrow.
44A: O.K. Corral name: EARP. Learned from doing Xword.
48A: Certain, for sure: Abbr.: SYN (Synonym). I don't get this one? What does SYN stand for? (Note: Certain is the synonym of "sure". I am going to bang my head at the wall now.)
49A: LAX tower gp.: ATC. Air Traffic Control. I got the answer from down fills also.
54A: Actress Cusack: JOAN. John Cusack's sister. She is Cynthia in "Working Girl".
64A: "Lovergirl" vocalist __ Marie: TEENA. Here is the clip. I am not familiar with this singer. Wikipedia says she is nicknamed Lady T and her real name is Mary Christine Brockert. Why TEENA intead of Tina then?
65A: Rapa __: Easter Island: NUI. Here is a map. I had no idea that Easter Island is also called Rapa NUI, the Polynesian name meaning "Big Rapa". Wikipedia says it's coined by labor immigrants from Rapa in the Bass Islands, who likened it to their home island in the aftermath of the Peruvian slave deportations in the 1870s. Maybe you can tell me where Bass Islands is.
Non-theme Down:
1D: Scold: JAW AT. Is JAW AT a phrase? I only know JAW.
3D: Streisand title role: YENTL. I still don't know the exact meaning of YENTL. But it's the root word of YENTA.
6D: Alpine goat: IBEX. The wild mountain goat with terrifying horns. Does IBEX shed their horns as buck does with their antlers?
7D: Sportscaster Berman: LEN. Ah me, I forgot his name. I recognized those bobbleheads, so I must have linked this picture before.
8D: More than -er?: EST. Cute clue.
10D: "Archie Bunker's Place" costar: ANNE MEARA. Ben Stiller's mother.
15D: Hospital scanner: MRI
23D: Matt of "Joey": LeBLANC. A rare gimme. Liked him in "Friends". Have never seen "Joey" though.
24D: Anatomical ring: AREOLA. The nipple rings. Are(a) + Ola. The plural is AREOLAE.
26D: "Mr. Triple Axel" Brian: ORSER. Got his name from across fills. A Canadian figure skater. How tall do you think he is?
28D: Marlins' div: NLE (National League East). Braves, Phillies, Mets and the Nationals are the other members. Our Twins belong to ALC (American League Central).
30D: Access ending: ORY. Accessory.
34D: "When pigs fly!": NO WAY JOSE
46D: Nape growth: MANE. The nape of lion/horse.
47D: Livestock identifier: EAR TAG. See this picture. I can almost feel the pain when his ear is pierced.
51D: "Dallas" name: EWING. This has become a gimme. Williams clued EWING as "Adlai Stevenson's middle name" a couple of times.
53D: Slow mollusk: SNAIL
57D: Tegucigalpa's country: Abbr.: HOND (Honduras). Tegucigalpa is the capital city. We just had ESTO clued as "This, in Tegucigalpa" a week ago. But I forgot it completely. New abbreviation to me also.
59D: Summer in the cité: ETE. Rather tepid clue. I like last time's "When the French fry?".
60D: Ordinal suffix: ETH. Sometimes it's clued as "Biblical verb ending".
61D: Meadow: LEA. I've never seen this meadow word in any book, but EWE might have.
Answer grid.
C.C.
17A: Toxic defoliant in Vietnam: AGENT ORANGE
27A: 1930s Fred Astaire partner: GINGER ROGERS
38A: Study of rock groups?: GEOLOGY
45A: Show runner: STAGE MANAGER
58A: "Adam Bede" novelist: GEORGE ELLIOT
Plus 23 more theme answers I will list later.
The above 5 long theme answers all have 2 or 3 G's each and are symmetrically placed. GINGER ROGERS is my favorite, the only one with 3 G's. Have never seen her full name in a puzzle before. Looks cool in the grid. GEOLOGY clue is made interesting with a question mark.
Just amazing puzzle! Total 21 G's. NY Times' record is 19. All soft G theme answers are positioned in Across, and hard G' in Down. Out of the 78 words in this puzzle, 28 are theme answers (14 Across and 14 Down). And if I counted correctly, there are only 60 non-theme black squares. That would be 125 theme squares, about 68% of theme fills. Definitely a first for me.
It reminds me of the Sept 19, 2008 Newsday "52 of a Kind" puzzle. Every word in the grid has a letter L, some are long, some are short. I asked Stan Newman if all of them are theme answers. He said yes, but "of course this is a special case".
Very creative puzzle. I enjoyed a lot. I wonder why SOFT G is not clued in the grid. Is it structurally impossible?
OK, here we go, more soft G (Across) theme entries:
4A: Sharp-witted: AGILE. Wrote down ACUTE recklessly.
9A: O. Henry's "The Gift of the __": MAGI. Read this story in Chinese. It's in our high school western literature class.
14A: Taunts: GIBES
16A: Windy City superstation: WGN. Owned by the Tribune Company, which also owns Chicago Cubs, Chicago Tribune, LA Times and of course Tribune Media Services (TMS) which syndicates LA Times and the old TMS Daily puzzle.
32A: Rowlands of "Another Woman": GENA
50A: Golden __: AGERS. Didn't we just see this clue the other day? Time for teen AGERS.
62A: Red-and-white supermarket logo: IGA (Independent Grocers Alliance). Sigh! I can't remember this chain name. It's clued as "Supermarket grp." in early April.
66A: Yegg's thousands: GEES. Feels weird to see G spelled out as GEE.
67A: Letter appearing only in down answers; its opposite appears in across answers: HARD G
68A: Glue is one: GEL
And hard G Down theme entries:
2D: Billiards player's consideration: ANGLE
4D: Tennis great who retired in 2006: AGASSI (Andre). Two-US Open champ, as clued in yesterday's puzzle.
5D: Prefix with hertz: GIGA. Only know gigabyte.
9D: Address to a pal, in Pamplona: MI AMIGO. "My friend" in Spanish. This refers to male friend only, correct?
11D: Satanic nation in Revelation: GOG. No idea. Got it from across fills. Is that how we got AGOG?
20D: '70 Olympics name: OLGA (Korbut). OLGA means "Holy".
29D: Skilled in: GOOD AT
32D: Tenet's CIA successor: GOSS (Porter). Gimme gimme. Leon Panetta is the current boss. Someone just mentioned on the blog yesterday that CIA's nickname is "The Company". NSA's nickname is "The Puzzle Palace".
38D: Donate, in Dundee: GIE. Scottish for "give".
39D: Club appearance: GIG
42D: Overlooks: IGNORES. Overlook is a Janus word. It means IGNORES, but it also means "to watch over".
44D: Logician's connector: ERGO
52D: Antisocial elephant: ROGUE. Is "Antisocial elephant" a slang? I am not familiar with this phrase.
55D: __ Khan: AGA. Sometimes it's clued as "Turkish title". Literally "Lord". Here is Anne Bancroft's "Yma Dream" again. AGA Khan is one of them. AVA Gardner, AVA Gabor, OONA O'Neill, IDA Lupino, Abba EBAN, UTA Hagen, Ida Lupino and most of the crossword stalwarts are in the clip too.
58D: Comical bit: GAG
Non theme fills (Across):
1A: Late-night name: JAY. JAY Leno. Another kind of soft G, right?
13A: Prop extension?: ANE. Propane. I like this clue. Much better than our old "Chemical ending".
15A: Key that often sounds gloomy: MINOR. Oh, I was unaware of this. So MAJOR keys are cheerful?
19A: Charlie Parker's instrument: ALTO SAX. Would not have got the answer without the down fills. I could only think of saxphone.
21A: Novel type: DIME
22A: Sings, so to speak: TELLS. "Where do I begin? To tell the story of how great a love can be?..."
23A: Philosopher __ tzu: LAO. LAO literally means "old" in Chinese. LAO-Tzu is "Old Master". My husband calls me LAO Po, literally "Old wife".
35A: Place for a stud: LOBE. Stud earrings.
36A: Tribute with a wink: ROAST. Like the annual Gridiron Club Dinner. Obama skipped his this year.
37A: Siouan speaker: OTO. Or OTOE.
40A: Old touring car: REO. The old Olds.
41A: 2005 horror sequel: SAW II. Easy guess. I don't watch horror movies.
43A: Artist who worked on Hitchcock's "Spellbound": DALI. Another guess. I only know the 2002 documentary "Spellbound". I bet those kids are great at solving crosswords. Have never heard of Hitchcock's "Spellbound". DALI was a close friend of Mia Farrow.
44A: O.K. Corral name: EARP. Learned from doing Xword.
48A: Certain, for sure: Abbr.: SYN (Synonym). I don't get this one? What does SYN stand for? (Note: Certain is the synonym of "sure". I am going to bang my head at the wall now.)
49A: LAX tower gp.: ATC. Air Traffic Control. I got the answer from down fills also.
54A: Actress Cusack: JOAN. John Cusack's sister. She is Cynthia in "Working Girl".
64A: "Lovergirl" vocalist __ Marie: TEENA. Here is the clip. I am not familiar with this singer. Wikipedia says she is nicknamed Lady T and her real name is Mary Christine Brockert. Why TEENA intead of Tina then?
65A: Rapa __: Easter Island: NUI. Here is a map. I had no idea that Easter Island is also called Rapa NUI, the Polynesian name meaning "Big Rapa". Wikipedia says it's coined by labor immigrants from Rapa in the Bass Islands, who likened it to their home island in the aftermath of the Peruvian slave deportations in the 1870s. Maybe you can tell me where Bass Islands is.
Non-theme Down:
1D: Scold: JAW AT. Is JAW AT a phrase? I only know JAW.
3D: Streisand title role: YENTL. I still don't know the exact meaning of YENTL. But it's the root word of YENTA.
6D: Alpine goat: IBEX. The wild mountain goat with terrifying horns. Does IBEX shed their horns as buck does with their antlers?
7D: Sportscaster Berman: LEN. Ah me, I forgot his name. I recognized those bobbleheads, so I must have linked this picture before.
8D: More than -er?: EST. Cute clue.
10D: "Archie Bunker's Place" costar: ANNE MEARA. Ben Stiller's mother.
15D: Hospital scanner: MRI
23D: Matt of "Joey": LeBLANC. A rare gimme. Liked him in "Friends". Have never seen "Joey" though.
24D: Anatomical ring: AREOLA. The nipple rings. Are(a) + Ola. The plural is AREOLAE.
26D: "Mr. Triple Axel" Brian: ORSER. Got his name from across fills. A Canadian figure skater. How tall do you think he is?
28D: Marlins' div: NLE (National League East). Braves, Phillies, Mets and the Nationals are the other members. Our Twins belong to ALC (American League Central).
30D: Access ending: ORY. Accessory.
34D: "When pigs fly!": NO WAY JOSE
46D: Nape growth: MANE. The nape of lion/horse.
47D: Livestock identifier: EAR TAG. See this picture. I can almost feel the pain when his ear is pierced.
51D: "Dallas" name: EWING. This has become a gimme. Williams clued EWING as "Adlai Stevenson's middle name" a couple of times.
53D: Slow mollusk: SNAIL
57D: Tegucigalpa's country: Abbr.: HOND (Honduras). Tegucigalpa is the capital city. We just had ESTO clued as "This, in Tegucigalpa" a week ago. But I forgot it completely. New abbreviation to me also.
59D: Summer in the cité: ETE. Rather tepid clue. I like last time's "When the French fry?".
60D: Ordinal suffix: ETH. Sometimes it's clued as "Biblical verb ending".
61D: Meadow: LEA. I've never seen this meadow word in any book, but EWE might have.
Answer grid.
C.C.
