Theme: Hum Along - HUM is inserted at the beginning of a familiar phrase, resulting in a new phrase that start with a familiar HUM* beginning word.
17A: Military Vehicle arrangement?: (HUM)VEE FORMATION. Geese fly in VEE FORMATION. And "Military Vehicle" = HUMVEE. Widely used in Iraq/Afghanistan.
24A: Flower holder that carries a tune?: (HUM)MING VASE. I don't really know why foreigners prize MING VASES. Those produced in Qing Dynasty are prettier. And "carries a tune" = HUMMING.
43A: Ordinary dinner bread? (HUM)DRUM ROLL. DRUM ROLLS are used to build anticipation. Ordinary = HUMDRUM. Ennui. Oprah. Dr. Phil.
56A: Chemical that keeps the baloney out?: (HUM)BUG REPELLENT. Have to use Mosquito REPELLENT while playing golf earlier in the morning. "Baloney"= HUMBUG. Nonsense!
I think Barry made this puzzle when he was hungry. He put in ONION (32A: __ rings), HAMS (23D: Canned meats), SALSA (36A: Mexican eatery staple) & SAUSAGES (36D: Kielbasas, e.g.). I have never heard of kielbasa. My husband calls it Polish sausage.
Maybe Barry does not like Waldorf salad, otherwise he would have clued APPLE (41A: Jobs creation) differently. I do like his clue though. Jobs here refer to Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. I just talked about his liver transplant last Sunday.
Fine puzzle. Fun too. Three X's, one J, one Z, four V's. Barry's hallmark. He said HUMMING VASE was his seed entry. It came to him while he was solving another puzzle. Then he found three others. He made this puzzle in June 2009.
Across:
1A: Langley et al.: Abbr.: AFBS (Air Force Bases). Air Force's Air Combat Command is headquartered in Langley Air Force Base (Hampton, Virginia). Somehow I thought of CIA, which is headquartered in Langley, Virginia.
5A: Sports disks that can reach speeds of more than 100 miles per hour after being struck: PUCKS. Oh, I did not know this trivia.
10A: Steinbeck hero Tom: JOAD. From "The Grapes of Wrath".
15A: R&B family name: ISLEY. Very dim memory of the name. What's their most famous song?
16A: Magazine name that's also a pronoun: ELLE. French for "she/her".
20A: How pros do things: EXPERTLY. Like Tiger Woods. He never even wastes a practice shot. Highly efficient.
21A: "(The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valance" singer: PITNEY (Gene). Here is the clip. I've never heard of the singer nor the song.
29A: FDR predecessor: HCH (Herbert Clark Hoover). Did not know Hoover's middle name.
34A: Revelatory, as a moment: AHA
35A: 45 years after William I invaded England: MCXI. Roman for 1111. William the Conqueror invaded England in 1066. 1066 + 45=1111.
38A: One of the Four Corners states: Abbr.: ARIZ
39A: Biblical judge: ELI. Nice new clue. No more Yale references. BASTA.
40A: Draped attire: SARI. Also SAREE.
46A: Low pitch: BASS. D'oh, musical tone. I was thinking of baseball.
47A: MPG rating group: EPA (Environmental Protection Agency)
48A: City with a University of Washington campus: TACOMA. Seattle & TACOMA, that's all I know about Washington State.
51A: Street entrances: MANHOLES. Not the entrances I pictured.
58A: Get from __: advance slightly: A TO B
59A: English county bordering Suffolk: ESSEX. The German industrial city is ESSEN.
60A: Alamo first name: DAVY(Crockett)
61A: He sings "Maria" in "West Side Story": TONY
63A: Terrier type: SKYE. Must be first bred in the Isle of SKYE.
Down:
2D: Continuous change: FLUX. This whole world is in constant FLUX. Nothing stays still.
3D: Speed __: BUMP. Don't think I've seen BUMP in a puzzle before.
4D: Golf's Ballesteros: SEVE. Genius around green. I am glad he beat the brain cancer and will play at the 2010 British Open.
5D: Bakery container: PIE TIN
6D: Old Glory: US FLAG. Only one vowel.
7D: Sate: CLOY. Paris Hilton's sweetness is overly cloying.
8D: Plop lead-in: KER
9D: Academic conferences: SYMPOSIA. Plural of symposium. Can you believe it's a gimme for me?
10D: Breakwater: JETTY. Both the clue and the answer are new to me. JETTY sounds so adjective.
13D: Opposite of grant: DENY. Verb. I wrote down DEBT first, thinking of the noun endowment.
18D: Watergate Senator Sam: ERVIN. Wikipedia says Senator ERVIN also brought down McCarthy.
27D: French pronoun: MOI. And TOI & LUI, another two objective pronouns that end with letter I.
28D: Logically sound: VALID
29D: Silent film star?: HARPO. I was stumped. HARPO Marx. Why question mark?
37D: Pentagon topic: ARMS. I bet ARMS interest those guys more than peace.
38D: Auto loan letters: APR. Annual Percentage Rate I presume.
40D: SeaWorld favorite: SHAMU
41D: Title hero in a 1951 opera commissioned for television: AMAHL. Menotti's "AMAHL and the Night Visitors". I drew a blank.
44D: Grim figure?: REAPER. Grim REAPER, personification of death.
45D: One deck: UP NEXT
46D: Ewing whose ex-wife dreamt an entire season of "Dallas": BOBBY. No idea. Interesting Barry used "dreamt" instead of "dreamed". Linda mentioned a while ago that "dreamt" is the only English word that ends in "mt".
49D: Monte Carlo, e.g.: AUTO. I was thinking of Grace Kelley's Monte Carlo.
50D: "Let's go!": C'MON
51D: Monument Valley sight: MESA. I feel hot just seeing this picture.
52D: Cutlass automaker: OLDS. Would prefer a AUTO-less clue.
53D: Security problem: LEAK. Bob Novak's legacy will be forever marred by his CIA LEAK scandal.
54D: It's a sin: ENVY. A deadly sin.
57D: 18, 19, 20 in a series: RST. Can't fool me. The alphabet series.
Answer grid.
Picture of the Day: Here is a wonderful family photo of our fellow LAT solver Jazzbumpa (the forever changing trombonist), his lovely wife Gloria and their grandchildren.
He said:
17A: Military Vehicle arrangement?: (HUM)VEE FORMATION. Geese fly in VEE FORMATION. And "Military Vehicle" = HUMVEE. Widely used in Iraq/Afghanistan.
24A: Flower holder that carries a tune?: (HUM)MING VASE. I don't really know why foreigners prize MING VASES. Those produced in Qing Dynasty are prettier. And "carries a tune" = HUMMING.
43A: Ordinary dinner bread? (HUM)DRUM ROLL. DRUM ROLLS are used to build anticipation. Ordinary = HUMDRUM. Ennui. Oprah. Dr. Phil.
56A: Chemical that keeps the baloney out?: (HUM)BUG REPELLENT. Have to use Mosquito REPELLENT while playing golf earlier in the morning. "Baloney"= HUMBUG. Nonsense!
I think Barry made this puzzle when he was hungry. He put in ONION (32A: __ rings), HAMS (23D: Canned meats), SALSA (36A: Mexican eatery staple) & SAUSAGES (36D: Kielbasas, e.g.). I have never heard of kielbasa. My husband calls it Polish sausage.
Maybe Barry does not like Waldorf salad, otherwise he would have clued APPLE (41A: Jobs creation) differently. I do like his clue though. Jobs here refer to Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. I just talked about his liver transplant last Sunday.
Fine puzzle. Fun too. Three X's, one J, one Z, four V's. Barry's hallmark. He said HUMMING VASE was his seed entry. It came to him while he was solving another puzzle. Then he found three others. He made this puzzle in June 2009.
Across:
1A: Langley et al.: Abbr.: AFBS (Air Force Bases). Air Force's Air Combat Command is headquartered in Langley Air Force Base (Hampton, Virginia). Somehow I thought of CIA, which is headquartered in Langley, Virginia.
5A: Sports disks that can reach speeds of more than 100 miles per hour after being struck: PUCKS. Oh, I did not know this trivia.
10A: Steinbeck hero Tom: JOAD. From "The Grapes of Wrath".
15A: R&B family name: ISLEY. Very dim memory of the name. What's their most famous song?
16A: Magazine name that's also a pronoun: ELLE. French for "she/her".
20A: How pros do things: EXPERTLY. Like Tiger Woods. He never even wastes a practice shot. Highly efficient.
21A: "(The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valance" singer: PITNEY (Gene). Here is the clip. I've never heard of the singer nor the song.
29A: FDR predecessor: HCH (Herbert Clark Hoover). Did not know Hoover's middle name.
34A: Revelatory, as a moment: AHA
35A: 45 years after William I invaded England: MCXI. Roman for 1111. William the Conqueror invaded England in 1066. 1066 + 45=1111.
38A: One of the Four Corners states: Abbr.: ARIZ
39A: Biblical judge: ELI. Nice new clue. No more Yale references. BASTA.
40A: Draped attire: SARI. Also SAREE.
46A: Low pitch: BASS. D'oh, musical tone. I was thinking of baseball.
47A: MPG rating group: EPA (Environmental Protection Agency)
48A: City with a University of Washington campus: TACOMA. Seattle & TACOMA, that's all I know about Washington State.
51A: Street entrances: MANHOLES. Not the entrances I pictured.
58A: Get from __: advance slightly: A TO B
59A: English county bordering Suffolk: ESSEX. The German industrial city is ESSEN.
60A: Alamo first name: DAVY(Crockett)
61A: He sings "Maria" in "West Side Story": TONY
63A: Terrier type: SKYE. Must be first bred in the Isle of SKYE.
Down:
2D: Continuous change: FLUX. This whole world is in constant FLUX. Nothing stays still.
3D: Speed __: BUMP. Don't think I've seen BUMP in a puzzle before.
4D: Golf's Ballesteros: SEVE. Genius around green. I am glad he beat the brain cancer and will play at the 2010 British Open.
5D: Bakery container: PIE TIN
6D: Old Glory: US FLAG. Only one vowel.
7D: Sate: CLOY. Paris Hilton's sweetness is overly cloying.
8D: Plop lead-in: KER
9D: Academic conferences: SYMPOSIA. Plural of symposium. Can you believe it's a gimme for me?
10D: Breakwater: JETTY. Both the clue and the answer are new to me. JETTY sounds so adjective.
13D: Opposite of grant: DENY. Verb. I wrote down DEBT first, thinking of the noun endowment.
18D: Watergate Senator Sam: ERVIN. Wikipedia says Senator ERVIN also brought down McCarthy.
27D: French pronoun: MOI. And TOI & LUI, another two objective pronouns that end with letter I.
28D: Logically sound: VALID
29D: Silent film star?: HARPO. I was stumped. HARPO Marx. Why question mark?
37D: Pentagon topic: ARMS. I bet ARMS interest those guys more than peace.
38D: Auto loan letters: APR. Annual Percentage Rate I presume.
40D: SeaWorld favorite: SHAMU
41D: Title hero in a 1951 opera commissioned for television: AMAHL. Menotti's "AMAHL and the Night Visitors". I drew a blank.
44D: Grim figure?: REAPER. Grim REAPER, personification of death.
45D: One deck: UP NEXT
46D: Ewing whose ex-wife dreamt an entire season of "Dallas": BOBBY. No idea. Interesting Barry used "dreamt" instead of "dreamed". Linda mentioned a while ago that "dreamt" is the only English word that ends in "mt".
49D: Monte Carlo, e.g.: AUTO. I was thinking of Grace Kelley's Monte Carlo.
50D: "Let's go!": C'MON
51D: Monument Valley sight: MESA. I feel hot just seeing this picture.
52D: Cutlass automaker: OLDS. Would prefer a AUTO-less clue.
53D: Security problem: LEAK. Bob Novak's legacy will be forever marred by his CIA LEAK scandal.
54D: It's a sin: ENVY. A deadly sin.
57D: 18, 19, 20 in a series: RST. Can't fool me. The alphabet series.
Answer grid.
Picture of the Day: Here is a wonderful family photo of our fellow LAT solver Jazzbumpa (the forever changing trombonist), his lovely wife Gloria and their grandchildren.
He said:
In front:
Gloria (aka the Lovely Wife), Josh (who has had enough), and Ron, (aka JzB, your humble trombonist.)
In back:
Nate (of Blues fame), Ryan, Abby (the artist), Lauren, Alexa, Amanda, Emily, Samantha, Rebekka, Danny.
I had to do some red-eye correction. Emily, frex. could look either Goth or demonic. I chose Goth."
C.C.
C.C.
