Theme: Crouch Down
20A: Nearby, on a country road: AROUND THE BEND
39A: Is completely uninformed: DOESN'T KNOW SQUAT
60A: Row house porch: CONCRETE STOOP
I was thinking of AROUND THE CORNER for 20A. But I ran out of blanks. Dictionary says AROUND THE BEND is a slang for insane/crazy. What is a row house? I've never heard of that term.
Dan Naddor mentioned the other day that because of his love for heavy "themage", his puzzles tend to have lower word count and high black square count. His last OUGH puzzle has 6 theme entries, 74 words & 34 black squares. While today's puzzle has only 3 theme entries, 78 words & 38 black squares. More black squares than Naddor's. Strange.
I misread the clue for 39 as "Is completely uniformed" rather than "uninformed". I also had a little trouble obtaining NY YANKEE (41D: one of the Bx. Bombers). I was thinking of a specific Yankees' player when I saw Bronx Bomber clue, you know, like Mantle. Reminds me of YANK we had a while ago. It's clued as "Big Jerk". I got the answer, by wrong reasoning. I thought the clue was referring to George Steinbrenner and his Yankees.
Today's constructor, Gail Grabowski, is one of Stan Newman's Newsday regular contributors. Her bio says she started constructing crossword in 2002 and she specializes in early week puzzles. She looks so sweet. Are you surprised that Doug Peterson is that young?
Across:
1A: Shopping center: MART. Penned in MALL first.
5A: Letter-routing letters: ATTN . I got the answer. Don't understand the "Letter-routing".
15A: Firenze farewell: CIAO. Firenze is Italian for Florence. I thought it's an Italian guy's name. CIAO is very close in pronunciation to CAO, the bad Chinese F word.
17A: "The Flintstones" pet: DINO. Learned from doing Xword. He is a dog, not a dinosaur, right?
23A: When prime time ends in Middle Ameri.: TEN PM. CST. Prime time is from 8:00pm to 11:00pm.
24A: Counterfeit coin: SLUG
25A: Sonoma Valley container: VAT. Sonoma Valley is the birthplace of California wine industry. Wikipedia says it's also called "The Valley of the Moon", literal meaning of the Native American word "Sonoma", according to Jack London.
28A: Irish homeland: EIRE. No wobbling between EIRE and ERIN this time due to the crossing fills. Hibernophile refers to those who love all things Irish. Hibernia is Latin for Ireland.
31A: Mug shot view: PROFILE
38A: Countesses' spouses: EARLS. Easy guess. I thought a countess's spouse is a count.
44A: Impressive grouping: ARRAY. "Grouping" of what?
47A: "Heavens!": MERCY ME. Big problem for me in this area. Not a phrase I use. Maybe I've heard of MERCY ME, but I've paid no attention.
56A: Deputized group: POSSE. Reminds me of Brad Pitt/Angelina Jolie and the large POSSE of securities that travel with them.
64A: Frighten, as horses: SPOOK. Why "as horses"? Frighten alone already means SPOOK.
67A: Memo phrase: IN RE. "In the matter of" in Latin. RE is the ablative of RES, "thing/matter". I learned it from doing Xword. Used to confuse it with INRI (Letters on a cross).
68A: Arizona State's city: TEMPE. Wikipedia says ASU has 4 campuses, TEMPE being the original and largest. Their mascot is Sparky the Sun Devil. Annika Sorenstam attended University of Arizona, so did Lorena Ochoa.
70A: Chess ending: MATE. Have you heard of board game Go? The geek kids in our high school class all played Go rather than chess.
Down:
4D: Theatrical travelers: TROUPE
5D: Corrosive compound: ACID. I wonder who first thought of using ACID for etching.
7D: Dash devices: TACHS. No "for short"?
8D: Useless: NO HELP. Thought of FUTILE first.
9D: Precedes: FOREGOES
10D: Mideast port on its own gulf: ADEN. Gulf of ADEN is nicknamed Pirate Alley.
11D: Cause of coughs and sniffles: COLD VIRUS
21D: Abbr. for people with only two names: NMI (No Middle Initial). So, if the letter S in Harry S. Truman's name is simply a letter S, why S. instead of S? Why dot after S?
22D: Prickly case: BUR. Learned this word from doing Xword also.
32D: Web site help sect.: FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions). Used to be stumped by this clue.
33D: Second or sixth president: ADAMS. 41 & 43: BUSH. I bet there is another Bush coming. Not Jeb or his son George P. Bush though.
34D: Gourmet mushroom: MOREL. OK, let's try a different picture.
35D: "Catch a Falling Star" singer: PERRY COMO. Guessed.
48D: Comfy footwear: MOC
51D: Record collector's platters: LPS. Don't you wish you still had your old baseball cards/childhood toys? Some of the hard plastic Ginny/Ginger doll can fetch hundreds of dollars now.
52D: Serve a sentence: DO TIME. I am getting better at the multiple words now. Nailed all of them today.
55D: Chill-inducing: EERIE. Vowel-intensive. Guess that's why we see this word so often.
57D: Salvage ship equipment: SONAR. Just learned yesterday that a ship is unsalvageable if its keel is broken.
61D: Butterfingers' cry: OOPS. OOPS, I always thought it's singular butterfinger.
63D: Memorable Old West lawman: EARP. This has become a gimme.
64D: NASCAR advertiser: STP. Often clued as "The Racer's Edge" in our old puzzle.
For those who don't visit the Comments section, here is the Susan Boyle clip Dennis linked a few days ago. Very inspiring.
Answer grid.
C.C.
20A: Nearby, on a country road: AROUND THE BEND
39A: Is completely uninformed: DOESN'T KNOW SQUAT
60A: Row house porch: CONCRETE STOOP
I was thinking of AROUND THE CORNER for 20A. But I ran out of blanks. Dictionary says AROUND THE BEND is a slang for insane/crazy. What is a row house? I've never heard of that term.
Dan Naddor mentioned the other day that because of his love for heavy "themage", his puzzles tend to have lower word count and high black square count. His last OUGH puzzle has 6 theme entries, 74 words & 34 black squares. While today's puzzle has only 3 theme entries, 78 words & 38 black squares. More black squares than Naddor's. Strange.
I misread the clue for 39 as "Is completely uniformed" rather than "uninformed". I also had a little trouble obtaining NY YANKEE (41D: one of the Bx. Bombers). I was thinking of a specific Yankees' player when I saw Bronx Bomber clue, you know, like Mantle. Reminds me of YANK we had a while ago. It's clued as "Big Jerk". I got the answer, by wrong reasoning. I thought the clue was referring to George Steinbrenner and his Yankees.
Today's constructor, Gail Grabowski, is one of Stan Newman's Newsday regular contributors. Her bio says she started constructing crossword in 2002 and she specializes in early week puzzles. She looks so sweet. Are you surprised that Doug Peterson is that young?
Across:
1A: Shopping center: MART. Penned in MALL first.
5A: Letter-routing letters: ATTN . I got the answer. Don't understand the "Letter-routing".
15A: Firenze farewell: CIAO. Firenze is Italian for Florence. I thought it's an Italian guy's name. CIAO is very close in pronunciation to CAO, the bad Chinese F word.
17A: "The Flintstones" pet: DINO. Learned from doing Xword. He is a dog, not a dinosaur, right?
23A: When prime time ends in Middle Ameri.: TEN PM. CST. Prime time is from 8:00pm to 11:00pm.
24A: Counterfeit coin: SLUG
25A: Sonoma Valley container: VAT. Sonoma Valley is the birthplace of California wine industry. Wikipedia says it's also called "The Valley of the Moon", literal meaning of the Native American word "Sonoma", according to Jack London.
28A: Irish homeland: EIRE. No wobbling between EIRE and ERIN this time due to the crossing fills. Hibernophile refers to those who love all things Irish. Hibernia is Latin for Ireland.
31A: Mug shot view: PROFILE
38A: Countesses' spouses: EARLS. Easy guess. I thought a countess's spouse is a count.
44A: Impressive grouping: ARRAY. "Grouping" of what?
47A: "Heavens!": MERCY ME. Big problem for me in this area. Not a phrase I use. Maybe I've heard of MERCY ME, but I've paid no attention.
56A: Deputized group: POSSE. Reminds me of Brad Pitt/Angelina Jolie and the large POSSE of securities that travel with them.
64A: Frighten, as horses: SPOOK. Why "as horses"? Frighten alone already means SPOOK.
67A: Memo phrase: IN RE. "In the matter of" in Latin. RE is the ablative of RES, "thing/matter". I learned it from doing Xword. Used to confuse it with INRI (Letters on a cross).
68A: Arizona State's city: TEMPE. Wikipedia says ASU has 4 campuses, TEMPE being the original and largest. Their mascot is Sparky the Sun Devil. Annika Sorenstam attended University of Arizona, so did Lorena Ochoa.
70A: Chess ending: MATE. Have you heard of board game Go? The geek kids in our high school class all played Go rather than chess.
Down:
4D: Theatrical travelers: TROUPE
5D: Corrosive compound: ACID. I wonder who first thought of using ACID for etching.
7D: Dash devices: TACHS. No "for short"?
8D: Useless: NO HELP. Thought of FUTILE first.
9D: Precedes: FOREGOES
10D: Mideast port on its own gulf: ADEN. Gulf of ADEN is nicknamed Pirate Alley.
11D: Cause of coughs and sniffles: COLD VIRUS
21D: Abbr. for people with only two names: NMI (No Middle Initial). So, if the letter S in Harry S. Truman's name is simply a letter S, why S. instead of S? Why dot after S?
22D: Prickly case: BUR. Learned this word from doing Xword also.
32D: Web site help sect.: FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions). Used to be stumped by this clue.
33D: Second or sixth president: ADAMS. 41 & 43: BUSH. I bet there is another Bush coming. Not Jeb or his son George P. Bush though.
34D: Gourmet mushroom: MOREL. OK, let's try a different picture.
35D: "Catch a Falling Star" singer: PERRY COMO. Guessed.
48D: Comfy footwear: MOC
51D: Record collector's platters: LPS. Don't you wish you still had your old baseball cards/childhood toys? Some of the hard plastic Ginny/Ginger doll can fetch hundreds of dollars now.
52D: Serve a sentence: DO TIME. I am getting better at the multiple words now. Nailed all of them today.
55D: Chill-inducing: EERIE. Vowel-intensive. Guess that's why we see this word so often.
57D: Salvage ship equipment: SONAR. Just learned yesterday that a ship is unsalvageable if its keel is broken.
61D: Butterfingers' cry: OOPS. OOPS, I always thought it's singular butterfinger.
63D: Memorable Old West lawman: EARP. This has become a gimme.
64D: NASCAR advertiser: STP. Often clued as "The Racer's Edge" in our old puzzle.
For those who don't visit the Comments section, here is the Susan Boyle clip Dennis linked a few days ago. Very inspiring.
Answer grid.
C.C.
