Theme: None
Total blocks: 29
Total words: 72
A pangram, all 26 letters are used. Awesome.
Of all the long quality fills (lots of 10's, 9's & 8's), I love these three the most:
17A: "Night" writer: ELIE WIESEL
14D: 1922 physics Nobelist: NIELS BOHR
30D: Former dominion that included India, Pakistan and Bangladesh: BRITISH RAJ
We often see ELIE, NIELS or BOHR & RAJ alone, so it's good to see the full names. I was also happy to see TEA (42A: 49-Across product) and ASSAM (49A: State in northeast India) together.
Vigorous slog this morning. Quite a few unknowns to me.
Across:
1A: Tightens the screws: CLAMPS DOWN. Only 2 vowels. The first entry always has plenty of consonants.
11A: One of the Karamazovs: IVAN. From "The Brothers Karamazov". I guessed. Have never heard of the book. IVAN is Russian for John.
15A: Comic strip guy with an eye patch: BAZOOKA JOE. I wonder if today's BAZOOKA baseball card brand evolved from BAZOOKA Bubble Gum.
16A: Indonesian Island: BALI. Sometimes the answer is JAVA.
18A: Fashion issue: ELLE
19A: Awesome: RAD. Read this article about our fellow LAT solver Kathleen Wolf (WM). She is so talented.
20A: Uncle of Prince Wm.: EDW. Prince Edward.
21A: Kind of identity: SEXUAL. Should have got SEXUAL immediately after I filled in X from the intersecting "horny" IBEX (11D: Alpine goat).
23A: Curse: SWEAR
25A: Acrylic from DuPont: ORLON. ON is a suffix suggesting textile fiber. Same as NYLON, also coined by DuPont.
28A: Visitors from afar?: ETS. Nailed it immediately.
29A: Breathing heavily, perhaps: LABORING. I was picturing football players breathing heavily in the football field.
31A: __ rule: MOB. Mine was AS A.
32A: Marked by obscenities, say: RATED R
35A: Mariner's dir.: SSE. Had difficulty obtaining this dir.
36A: Cellar prefix: OENO. Prefix for wine. Oenophile refers to one who loves wine.
37A: "Don't change a thing!": I LOVE IT. I felt stupid struggling with this answer.
39A: "Composer" of "Fanfare for the Common Cold": P.D.Q. BACH. Sigh. He stumped me again, even with the Composer in quotation mark.
41A: Slalom feature: GATE
44A: Pistol-packing pacer: DUELER. Nice alliterative p p p clue.
45A: U.K. honor: OBE (Order of the British Empire)
46A: Suspicious looks: FISHEYES. New word to me.
48A: Skip: LAM. Verb?
50A: Fix, as a reed instrument: REPAD. No idea. Need KittyB/Jazzbumpa to explain.
54A: Sci-fi psychic: EMPATH. I only know empathy.
56A: "Anna and the King" actress Ling: BAI. Do you like her hair? BAI is "White" in Chinese.
58A: Workers' rights gp. since 1919: ILO (International Labor Organization)
59A: Mexican kin: TIOS
60A: Battle fatigue: RUN ON EMPTY. Had difficulty obtaining this answer also.
64A: Rumors: TALK. I was looking for a S ending word of course.
65A: Sign of possession: APOSTROPHE. What a simple yet tricky clue!
66A: Singles: ONES
67A: Cats' get-together: JAM SESSION. Oh, Jazz "Cats".
Down:
1D: Some radio users: CB'ERS
2D: TV drama whose title appeared on a California license plate: LA LAW. New to me. Susan Dey is all I know about LA LAW.
3D: Sodium __: salt used in airbag systems: AZIDE. Also new to me.
4D: Stooge with bangs: MOE. Larry, MOE and Curly.
5D: Coca-Cola quencher: POWERADE
7D: Korea automaker bought by GM: DAEWOO. Ha ha, I had no idea that GM owns DAEWOO. DAE is big, WOO is universe. I can tell the literal meaning by its Hanja characters.
8D: IHOP orders: OJS
9D: Trouble: WOE. Wrote down ADO first.
10D: "Naughty Marietta" costar (1935): NELSON EDDY. Stranger to me. Greta Garbo came to my mind when I read the movie title and the year of production. Jeanette MacDonald is the other costar.
12D: Fast-food combo order: VALUE MEAL
13D: Just like that: ALL AT ONCE. So simple in retrospect.
22D: College dept.: ENG
24D: Naproxen brand: ALEVE. Did not know the meaning of naproxen, though I often see ALEVE, Advil & Tylenol commercials on TV.
26D: Santa Fe et al.: Abbr.: RRS. Was this a gimme to you? I've never heard of Santa Fe Railroad.
27D: Have a problem ordering sirloin steak?: LISP. Clever clue.
32D: Verdi classic: RIGOLETTO. No, nope. AIDA is the only Verdi I know.
33D: Hank Aaron, by birth: ALABAMIAN. Stumper for me. Hank Aaron was born in Mobile, Alabama. He is Dennis' favorite player.
34D: Family tree?: TOTEM POLE
36D: Large and then some: OBESE
38D: Mystery novelist Gerritsen: TESS. Holy moley, a Chinese American novelist. Sorry, I don't know you.
40D: They want to know: QUERIERS. I like the clue, though querier sounds like a made-up word. I suppose you can ER every verb.
43D: Solution reaction: AHA. Nice one.
46D: Budgetary excess: FAT. New definition of FAT to me.
47D: Adorn in relief: EMBOSS
51D: Longstocking of kids' books: PIPPI. Faintly remember this character. I was brought up by my grandma who did not read or write. So my exposure to any kind of kids' books (even Chinese ones) was almost zero.
52D: Notwithstanding that, informally: ALTHO
53D: Elder statesman: DOYEN. I kept thinking Cato the Elder. Anyway, I was more familiar with doyenne. Helen Thomas is often called doyenne of the White House press corps.
55D: Names, as a price: ASKS. Wish I were brave enough to haggle for a better price at baseball card show or flea market.
57D: Chamber opening?: ANTE. Antechamber is new word to me.
61D: Put __ fight: UP A
62D: Pierre, e.g.: NOM. Pierre is just a French name.
63D: Perps' patterns: MOS. I know MO is modus operandi, but the plural of modus operandi is modi operandi.
Answer grid.
C.C.
Total blocks: 29
Total words: 72
A pangram, all 26 letters are used. Awesome.
Of all the long quality fills (lots of 10's, 9's & 8's), I love these three the most:
17A: "Night" writer: ELIE WIESEL
14D: 1922 physics Nobelist: NIELS BOHR
30D: Former dominion that included India, Pakistan and Bangladesh: BRITISH RAJ
We often see ELIE, NIELS or BOHR & RAJ alone, so it's good to see the full names. I was also happy to see TEA (42A: 49-Across product) and ASSAM (49A: State in northeast India) together.
Vigorous slog this morning. Quite a few unknowns to me.
Across:
1A: Tightens the screws: CLAMPS DOWN. Only 2 vowels. The first entry always has plenty of consonants.
11A: One of the Karamazovs: IVAN. From "The Brothers Karamazov". I guessed. Have never heard of the book. IVAN is Russian for John.
15A: Comic strip guy with an eye patch: BAZOOKA JOE. I wonder if today's BAZOOKA baseball card brand evolved from BAZOOKA Bubble Gum.
16A: Indonesian Island: BALI. Sometimes the answer is JAVA.
18A: Fashion issue: ELLE
19A: Awesome: RAD. Read this article about our fellow LAT solver Kathleen Wolf (WM). She is so talented.
20A: Uncle of Prince Wm.: EDW. Prince Edward.
21A: Kind of identity: SEXUAL. Should have got SEXUAL immediately after I filled in X from the intersecting "horny" IBEX (11D: Alpine goat).
23A: Curse: SWEAR
25A: Acrylic from DuPont: ORLON. ON is a suffix suggesting textile fiber. Same as NYLON, also coined by DuPont.
28A: Visitors from afar?: ETS. Nailed it immediately.
29A: Breathing heavily, perhaps: LABORING. I was picturing football players breathing heavily in the football field.
31A: __ rule: MOB. Mine was AS A.
32A: Marked by obscenities, say: RATED R
35A: Mariner's dir.: SSE. Had difficulty obtaining this dir.
36A: Cellar prefix: OENO. Prefix for wine. Oenophile refers to one who loves wine.
37A: "Don't change a thing!": I LOVE IT. I felt stupid struggling with this answer.
39A: "Composer" of "Fanfare for the Common Cold": P.D.Q. BACH. Sigh. He stumped me again, even with the Composer in quotation mark.
41A: Slalom feature: GATE
44A: Pistol-packing pacer: DUELER. Nice alliterative p p p clue.
45A: U.K. honor: OBE (Order of the British Empire)
46A: Suspicious looks: FISHEYES. New word to me.
48A: Skip: LAM. Verb?
50A: Fix, as a reed instrument: REPAD. No idea. Need KittyB/Jazzbumpa to explain.
54A: Sci-fi psychic: EMPATH. I only know empathy.
56A: "Anna and the King" actress Ling: BAI. Do you like her hair? BAI is "White" in Chinese.
58A: Workers' rights gp. since 1919: ILO (International Labor Organization)
59A: Mexican kin: TIOS
60A: Battle fatigue: RUN ON EMPTY. Had difficulty obtaining this answer also.
64A: Rumors: TALK. I was looking for a S ending word of course.
65A: Sign of possession: APOSTROPHE. What a simple yet tricky clue!
66A: Singles: ONES
67A: Cats' get-together: JAM SESSION. Oh, Jazz "Cats".
Down:
1D: Some radio users: CB'ERS
2D: TV drama whose title appeared on a California license plate: LA LAW. New to me. Susan Dey is all I know about LA LAW.
3D: Sodium __: salt used in airbag systems: AZIDE. Also new to me.
4D: Stooge with bangs: MOE. Larry, MOE and Curly.
5D: Coca-Cola quencher: POWERADE
7D: Korea automaker bought by GM: DAEWOO. Ha ha, I had no idea that GM owns DAEWOO. DAE is big, WOO is universe. I can tell the literal meaning by its Hanja characters.
8D: IHOP orders: OJS
9D: Trouble: WOE. Wrote down ADO first.
10D: "Naughty Marietta" costar (1935): NELSON EDDY. Stranger to me. Greta Garbo came to my mind when I read the movie title and the year of production. Jeanette MacDonald is the other costar.
12D: Fast-food combo order: VALUE MEAL
13D: Just like that: ALL AT ONCE. So simple in retrospect.
22D: College dept.: ENG
24D: Naproxen brand: ALEVE. Did not know the meaning of naproxen, though I often see ALEVE, Advil & Tylenol commercials on TV.
26D: Santa Fe et al.: Abbr.: RRS. Was this a gimme to you? I've never heard of Santa Fe Railroad.
27D: Have a problem ordering sirloin steak?: LISP. Clever clue.
32D: Verdi classic: RIGOLETTO. No, nope. AIDA is the only Verdi I know.
33D: Hank Aaron, by birth: ALABAMIAN. Stumper for me. Hank Aaron was born in Mobile, Alabama. He is Dennis' favorite player.
34D: Family tree?: TOTEM POLE
36D: Large and then some: OBESE
38D: Mystery novelist Gerritsen: TESS. Holy moley, a Chinese American novelist. Sorry, I don't know you.
40D: They want to know: QUERIERS. I like the clue, though querier sounds like a made-up word. I suppose you can ER every verb.
43D: Solution reaction: AHA. Nice one.
46D: Budgetary excess: FAT. New definition of FAT to me.
47D: Adorn in relief: EMBOSS
51D: Longstocking of kids' books: PIPPI. Faintly remember this character. I was brought up by my grandma who did not read or write. So my exposure to any kind of kids' books (even Chinese ones) was almost zero.
52D: Notwithstanding that, informally: ALTHO
53D: Elder statesman: DOYEN. I kept thinking Cato the Elder. Anyway, I was more familiar with doyenne. Helen Thomas is often called doyenne of the White House press corps.
55D: Names, as a price: ASKS. Wish I were brave enough to haggle for a better price at baseball card show or flea market.
57D: Chamber opening?: ANTE. Antechamber is new word to me.
61D: Put __ fight: UP A
62D: Pierre, e.g.: NOM. Pierre is just a French name.
63D: Perps' patterns: MOS. I know MO is modus operandi, but the plural of modus operandi is modi operandi.
Answer grid.
C.C.
