Theme: None
Total blocks: 30
Total words: 70
Whoa! This puzzle is hard. It should not be, as I actually know most of the fills. But the clues are tricky, exemplified by F-STOP (24A: Fuji setting). Of course, I filled in JAPAN first, thinking of Mt. Fuji.
Dennis probably likes those triple-stacked 9-worders in upper left/lower right and the paralleled 10's in the upper right/lower left. He likes long words. Me? I like simple, short, explosive, just-do-it verb words.
Neat to see the two 15-letter fills cross each other in the very middle of the grid:
35A: Control tower concern: TRAFFIC PATTERNS
8D: Antarctic denizens: EMPEROR PENGUINS
Across:
1A: Blissful state, slangily: HOG HEAVEN. Wanted CLOUD NINE.
10A: Tack together: BASTE. By sewing loosely with long stitches.
15A: Russian Orthodox church feature: ONION DOME. Named after its onion-like structure.
16A: Habitually: OFTEN
17A: They're usually not on itineraries: SIDE TRIPS
18A: Bullock's "Miss Congeniality" costar: BRATT. Sigh. I forgot who else starred in the movie. I like Benjamin BRATT's Rey in "Law & Order".
19A: French hagiological abbr.: STE. Hagio is a prefix for "saint". Hagiology is the literature dealing with the lives of the saints. New word to me. STE is often clued as "Fr. holy woman".
20A: Events on a card: RACES. Does this refer to "playing the race card"?
21A: Jam highlights: SOLOS. Wrote down RIFFS.
22A: Doctor finder: PAGER
23A: Yacht site: BASIN. Tiger Woods' yacht is called Privacy. He missed the cut at the British Open yesterday.
27A: Master: Abbr.: ORIG (Original)
29A: FDR program: NRA (National Recovery Administration)
31A: Steadily fading sound: ECHO. And POOF (22D: Vanishing word).
32A: French police detective unit: SURETE. No idea. It's France's FBI/Scotland Yard. SURETE (surety), is French for "safety".
32A: Elongated fish: GAR
38A: Dig into: EAT
39A: Fictional Queen: ELLERY. The mystery author. Queen is capitalized.
40A: Vacación destination: LAGO. Spanish for lake. Portuguese/Italian too.
41A: MLB rally killers: DPS (Double Plays)
42A: Logician Turing: ALAN. No idea. Have never heard of this guy (1912-1954). Wikipedia says he is often considered to be the father of modern computer science. And he died from eating a cyanide-laced apple. How sad!
43A: Not recent: OLDEN
44A: Fencer's defense: PARRY
46A: Coconut's place: GROVE. I always associate GROVE with short trees. Coconut trees are pretty tall.
49A: Jazz pianist Ahmad: JAMAL. Stumped. He looks charming. Wikipedia says his music is featured in Clint Eastwood's "The Bridge of Madison County", a rather disappointing movie. The book is so good.
50A: Handbook, e.g.: GUIDE
51A: Ft. Worth campus: TCU (Texas Christian University). Strange mascot name: Horned Frogs. Fighting Okra is another strange mascot name.
54A: Winning, barely: UP ONE. Not ONE UP?
55A: A paddlewheel may propel one: RIVERBOAT. Wikipedia says modern RIVERBOATS are generally screw (propeller) driven.
57A: Drips: NERDS. Dictionary defines "drip" as "an unattractive, boring, or colorless person." That's different from NERD, isn't it?
58A: Like sound frequencies above 20 kHz or so, to humans: INAUDIBLE. Oh, good to know.
59A: Beaniks of '50s-'60s TV: KREBS. No idea. It's a character in "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis"
60A: Surfing equipment?: DSL MODEMS. The question mark should send you in the internet surfing direction.
Down:
1D: Eric Cartwright's nickname on "Bonanaza": HOSS. Completely unknown (the one in the middle) to me. Wikipedia explains that HOSS might come from "Haas", Swedish for "big in stature and big in spirit". Oh, I also saw Jay Haas last week at the 3M Championship.
2D: Handling the task: ON IT. Now I miss AT IT.
3D: French Nobelist André: GIDE. He won Nobel Literature in 1947. He inspired Camus and Sartre, both Nobel winners. Camus 1957. Sartre 1964, though he declined.
4D: Row starter: HOE. No idea. Use HOE to start a row in the garden?
5D: Rope in: ENTRAP
6D: "Kind of __": 1967 hit: A DRAG. Here is the clip. Have never heard of the song.
7D: Music school major: VOICE
9D: Headland: NESS
10D: First "America's Funniest Home Videos" host: BOB SAGET. He was also the dad in "Full House".
11D: Puffy styles: AFROS. I was imagining WM's soufflé.
12D: Critical 1942-1943 battle site: STALINGRAD. Now called Volgograd. Grad is a suffix meaning "city".
13D: It's part of the Rockies: TETON RANGE. The Grant Teton is the highest mountain of the range.
14D: Treebeard's kin: ENTS. Tolkien's talking trees. Treebeard is the eldest of the species of ENTS, according to Wikipedia.
23D: Wee: BITTY
23D: Honored with a party: FETED
25D: Jotting medium: SCRAP PAPER. I always carry a 6" X 9" notebook with me. You?
26D: Dean Martin classic: THAT'S AMORE. I did not really appreciate the EEL clue ("That's a moray") last time until Dennis brought up THAT'S AMORE.
28D: Bottom: REAR. Oh, the derrière "Bottom".
30D: Illicit ignition: ARSON
32D: Lacking gravity: SILLY. Wanted ZERO G.
3D: First to win 100 NCAA team championships: UCLA. Total 104. Who is next? Stanford?
36D: Unflinching: FEARLESS
37D: Magazine with the column "Ask E. Jean": ELLE. Four-letter magazine, what else could it be?
43D: Go too far: OVERDO
45D: Soul predecessor: R AND B. Had huge trouble with this answer. I was thinking something like BRAVE, you know, BRAVE soul.
47D: Romantic triangle figure: RIVAL
48D: Recital hall: ODEUM. Plural is ODEA.
49D: Kind of fax: JUNK. Stymied also.
50D: Sudoku feature: GRID. "Crossword feature" too.
51D: Soliloquy opener: TO BE. "TO BE or not to be." - Hamlet.
52D: 0 on the Beaufort scale: CALM. I don't what Beaufort scale is. It measures winds at sea. It has 12 degrees, 0 = CALM, 12 = Hurricane.
53D: Chief Ouray's people: UTES. Guessed.
56D: Opposite of ask: BID. Oh, E-bay auction. I knew it's not ANS, since there is no abbreviation hint.
Answer grid.
C.C.
Total blocks: 30
Total words: 70
Whoa! This puzzle is hard. It should not be, as I actually know most of the fills. But the clues are tricky, exemplified by F-STOP (24A: Fuji setting). Of course, I filled in JAPAN first, thinking of Mt. Fuji.
Dennis probably likes those triple-stacked 9-worders in upper left/lower right and the paralleled 10's in the upper right/lower left. He likes long words. Me? I like simple, short, explosive, just-do-it verb words.
Neat to see the two 15-letter fills cross each other in the very middle of the grid:
35A: Control tower concern: TRAFFIC PATTERNS
8D: Antarctic denizens: EMPEROR PENGUINS
Across:
1A: Blissful state, slangily: HOG HEAVEN. Wanted CLOUD NINE.
10A: Tack together: BASTE. By sewing loosely with long stitches.
15A: Russian Orthodox church feature: ONION DOME. Named after its onion-like structure.
16A: Habitually: OFTEN
17A: They're usually not on itineraries: SIDE TRIPS
18A: Bullock's "Miss Congeniality" costar: BRATT. Sigh. I forgot who else starred in the movie. I like Benjamin BRATT's Rey in "Law & Order".
19A: French hagiological abbr.: STE. Hagio is a prefix for "saint". Hagiology is the literature dealing with the lives of the saints. New word to me. STE is often clued as "Fr. holy woman".
20A: Events on a card: RACES. Does this refer to "playing the race card"?
21A: Jam highlights: SOLOS. Wrote down RIFFS.
22A: Doctor finder: PAGER
23A: Yacht site: BASIN. Tiger Woods' yacht is called Privacy. He missed the cut at the British Open yesterday.
27A: Master: Abbr.: ORIG (Original)
29A: FDR program: NRA (National Recovery Administration)
31A: Steadily fading sound: ECHO. And POOF (22D: Vanishing word).
32A: French police detective unit: SURETE. No idea. It's France's FBI/Scotland Yard. SURETE (surety), is French for "safety".
32A: Elongated fish: GAR
38A: Dig into: EAT
39A: Fictional Queen: ELLERY. The mystery author. Queen is capitalized.
40A: Vacación destination: LAGO. Spanish for lake. Portuguese/Italian too.
41A: MLB rally killers: DPS (Double Plays)
42A: Logician Turing: ALAN. No idea. Have never heard of this guy (1912-1954). Wikipedia says he is often considered to be the father of modern computer science. And he died from eating a cyanide-laced apple. How sad!
43A: Not recent: OLDEN
44A: Fencer's defense: PARRY
46A: Coconut's place: GROVE. I always associate GROVE with short trees. Coconut trees are pretty tall.
49A: Jazz pianist Ahmad: JAMAL. Stumped. He looks charming. Wikipedia says his music is featured in Clint Eastwood's "The Bridge of Madison County", a rather disappointing movie. The book is so good.
50A: Handbook, e.g.: GUIDE
51A: Ft. Worth campus: TCU (Texas Christian University). Strange mascot name: Horned Frogs. Fighting Okra is another strange mascot name.
54A: Winning, barely: UP ONE. Not ONE UP?
55A: A paddlewheel may propel one: RIVERBOAT. Wikipedia says modern RIVERBOATS are generally screw (propeller) driven.
57A: Drips: NERDS. Dictionary defines "drip" as "an unattractive, boring, or colorless person." That's different from NERD, isn't it?
58A: Like sound frequencies above 20 kHz or so, to humans: INAUDIBLE. Oh, good to know.
59A: Beaniks of '50s-'60s TV: KREBS. No idea. It's a character in "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis"
60A: Surfing equipment?: DSL MODEMS. The question mark should send you in the internet surfing direction.
Down:
1D: Eric Cartwright's nickname on "Bonanaza": HOSS. Completely unknown (the one in the middle) to me. Wikipedia explains that HOSS might come from "Haas", Swedish for "big in stature and big in spirit". Oh, I also saw Jay Haas last week at the 3M Championship.
2D: Handling the task: ON IT. Now I miss AT IT.
3D: French Nobelist André: GIDE. He won Nobel Literature in 1947. He inspired Camus and Sartre, both Nobel winners. Camus 1957. Sartre 1964, though he declined.
4D: Row starter: HOE. No idea. Use HOE to start a row in the garden?
5D: Rope in: ENTRAP
6D: "Kind of __": 1967 hit: A DRAG. Here is the clip. Have never heard of the song.
7D: Music school major: VOICE
9D: Headland: NESS
10D: First "America's Funniest Home Videos" host: BOB SAGET. He was also the dad in "Full House".
11D: Puffy styles: AFROS. I was imagining WM's soufflé.
12D: Critical 1942-1943 battle site: STALINGRAD. Now called Volgograd. Grad is a suffix meaning "city".
13D: It's part of the Rockies: TETON RANGE. The Grant Teton is the highest mountain of the range.
14D: Treebeard's kin: ENTS. Tolkien's talking trees. Treebeard is the eldest of the species of ENTS, according to Wikipedia.
23D: Wee: BITTY
23D: Honored with a party: FETED
25D: Jotting medium: SCRAP PAPER. I always carry a 6" X 9" notebook with me. You?
26D: Dean Martin classic: THAT'S AMORE. I did not really appreciate the EEL clue ("That's a moray") last time until Dennis brought up THAT'S AMORE.
28D: Bottom: REAR. Oh, the derrière "Bottom".
30D: Illicit ignition: ARSON
32D: Lacking gravity: SILLY. Wanted ZERO G.
3D: First to win 100 NCAA team championships: UCLA. Total 104. Who is next? Stanford?
36D: Unflinching: FEARLESS
37D: Magazine with the column "Ask E. Jean": ELLE. Four-letter magazine, what else could it be?
43D: Go too far: OVERDO
45D: Soul predecessor: R AND B. Had huge trouble with this answer. I was thinking something like BRAVE, you know, BRAVE soul.
47D: Romantic triangle figure: RIVAL
48D: Recital hall: ODEUM. Plural is ODEA.
49D: Kind of fax: JUNK. Stymied also.
50D: Sudoku feature: GRID. "Crossword feature" too.
51D: Soliloquy opener: TO BE. "TO BE or not to be." - Hamlet.
52D: 0 on the Beaufort scale: CALM. I don't what Beaufort scale is. It measures winds at sea. It has 12 degrees, 0 = CALM, 12 = Hurricane.
53D: Chief Ouray's people: UTES. Guessed.
56D: Opposite of ask: BID. Oh, E-bay auction. I knew it's not ANS, since there is no abbreviation hint.
Answer grid.
C.C.
