Theme: TWO FOR ONE (61A: Restaurant special, and a hint to this puzzle's theme) - synonym of "one" in a common phrase is replaced with synonym of "two".
18A: Not quite Barcelona's best?: NUMERO DOS. Numeros Uno, Spanish for "number one". Uno is replaced with DOS, Spanish (Barcelona) for "two".
24A: Four-handed piano piece by a French emperor?: NAPOLEON DUET. Napoleon Solo is a fictional character from "The man from U.N.C.L.E.". Unknown to me. Solo is replaced with DUET. French emperor = NAPOLEON. The piano DUET is also known as "piano four hands". Two pianists (four hands) play on the same keyboard.
37A: Movie gigolo Bigalow struggling with debt?: DEUCE IN THE HOLE. Ace in the Hole, a hidden advantage. Ace is replaced with DEUCE. Movie: "DEUCE Bigalow, Male Gigolo".
52A: Multitasking, but just barely?: DOUBLE-MINDED. Single-minded, determined/resolute. Single is replaced with DOUBLE. I just can't multitask.
Another creative puzzle from Dan Naddor. Another special 16*15 grid. The additional column is added to accommodate the even-numbered central theme entry DEUCE IN THE HOLE.
Today's Dan Naddor Index (total non-theme entries with 6 or more letters) is 28. Very high!
Besides NAPOLEON DUET, there are a few other music/opera references:
20A: La Scala highlight: ARIA. La Scala is an opera house in Milan.
33A: Conductor Toscanini: ARTURO. He was once the principal conductor of La Scala.
57A: "The Three Tenors" tenor with Jose and Plácido: LUCIANO. Plácido Domingo, José Carreras & LUCIANO Pavarotti are "The Three Tenors". They popularized the opera for the general public.
65A: "Swan Lake" heroine: ODETTE . No idea. She is the princess who's turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer. "Swan Lake" is a classical ballet.
19D: Key in which "Chopsticks" is usually played: C MAJOR. I've never heard of "Chopsticks", it's a simple, extremely well-known waltz for the piano, according to Wikipedia.
I just loved the upper left and lower right corner. Five out of those six long entries were gimmes. Still had to cheat though. Maybe I will finish one Dan Naddor puzzle before German pulls out of Afghanistan.
Across:
1A: Hardly emulated the 16-Across: SLEPT LATE. And 16A: Proverbial worm catcher: EARLY BIRD. Nice cross-reference. Nice placements as well.
10A: Skeleton's place?: CLOSET. Idiom: A skeleton in the CLOSET. Dark secret.
17A: Fountain treat: MALTED
19A: Ovoid tree nuts: ACORNS. Filled in PECANS.
21A: Swear falsely, with "oneself": PERJURE. Bet it's a gimme for Scooter Libby/Martha Stewart.
23A: Olympic perfection: TEN. Perfect!
29A: Chic: ELEGANT. Jerome observed last time that Chic is an anagram of "Hi, C.C.".
31A: Support provider?: BRA. You should always hand-wash your BRA.
32A: Wrong thing to do: SIN. Then ATONES (50D: Make amends).
36A: Impudent: PERT
42A: R.E. Lee, e.g.: GENL (General). GEN is a more common abbreviation. And CADETS (67A: Future officers).
44A: Batting sta.: AVG. Batting Average. Ichiro trails Joe Mauer slightly on AL Batting Average leaderboard now. Strangely, they both love rap music.
45A: Sch. with a Phoenix campus: ASU (Arizona State University). The Sun Devils. Their main campus is at Tempe.
56A: Versatile vehicle, for short: UTE. Sport-UTE. SUV.
59A: Not strict about, as crime: SOFT ON. All crimes should be punished sufficiently and immediately.
66A: Delicate spring roll wrapping: RICE PAPER. Gimme. It's made of rice flour. I really like Vietnamese spring rolls. Chinese egg rolls use wheat wrappers.
68A: How references may be available, in a resumé: ON REQUEST. Pas de problèm!
Down:
1D: It has 100 seats: SENATE. Senator Kennedy's seat may remain empty for many months.
2D: Hardy partner: LAUREL. LAUREL and Hardy. The comedy team.
3D: Fur source: ERMINE. Wow, he has such a long body.
4D: Arraignment response: PLEA
5D: Norse war god: TYR (Teer). The one-handed Norse god from whom we got Tuesday. Norse thunder god is THOR. Both sons of Odin.
6D: Debt-heavy corp. deal: LBO (Leveraged Buyout). An maneuver often incurs debt.
8D: Prefix with sphere: TROPO. Troposphere, the lowest layer of the atmosphere. New to me. TROPO is prefix for "turn/change".
9D: Car bomb?: EDSEL. The Ford flop. My mind just wandered off to Iraq where car bomb happens so often.
11D: Gap: LACUNA (luh-KYOO-nuh). Missing part in a manuscript/logical argument. New word to me.
12D: Opening hymn words: O LORD
13D: Coffeecake topping: STREUSEL. Same root as Strew. Literally "sprinkling" in German. I've never had coffeecake.
14D: Darkening time in verse: E'EN. Evening, poetically. I miss Dusk Til Dawn bar (Hongkong) occasionally. Wild time.
15D: NFL scores: TDS
22D: Yank's foe: REB (Rebel)
24D: Dealer's adversary: NARC. Drug dealer. I was picturing poker dealer. Do you like Kevin Spacey's "21"?
25D: Start a pot: ANTE. OK, poker now.
26D: Spitting sound, in comics: PTUI. Look, he is back!
27D: Cork's home: EIRE. Cork is a county in Ireland.
28D: "We know drama" station: TNT. Plenty of "Law & Order" reruns.
30D: Franks' conquest: GAUL. Got the answer, though I had no idea that Franks refer to those "ancient Germanic peoples dwelling in the regions of the Rhine, one division of whom, the Salians, conquered GAUL about a.d. 500, founded an extensive kingdom, and gave origin to the name France". So, France was called GAUL before a.d. 500?
34D: ER personnel: RNS (Registered Nurses)
35D: Giant among Giants: OTT (Mel). Hall of Famer. Nice clue.
37D: "Whip it" band: DEVO. Ah, now I remember those red hats.
38D: Inundated: ENGULFED
39D: Tennis great Lew who won three of the four majors in 1956: HOAD. His name escaped me. Aussie.
40D: Lackawanna's lake: ERIE. Easy guess. Have never heard of Lackawanna, a city in W New York, on Lake ERIE, near Buffalo.
41D: Stampeding group: HERD. Was surprised to find out that the #1 meaning of stampede is "a sudden, frenzied rush or headlong flight of a HERD of frightened animals, esp. cattle or horses". I was picturing the horrible Hajj stampede.
42D: Zooks lead-in?: GAD. Stumper. I actually went in one Gadzooks store one day out of pure curiosity. Dark stuff.
45D: "Little Women" author: ALCOTT. Louisa May ALCOTT.
46D: Fishing nets: SEINES. Here is a good image.
49D: One in an international septet: EUROPE. One of the seven continents. Named after Europa, a Phoenician princess abducted to Crete by Zeus. Zeus is such a amoral/immoral guy.
51D: Shirk one's duty, in a big way: DESERT. Coward.
53D: Seat of Montana's Silver Bow County: BUTTE. No idea. See the map. It's southwest of Helena. Wikipedia says Evel Knievel was born here. Maybe Doug Peterson too.
54D: Foreword, briefly: INTRO. And the closing section is called EPILOG.
55D: Like a choice between evils: NO-WIN
59D: SPCA part: Abbr.: SOC
60D: Harem room: ODA. Turkish for room.
62D: Elec. text-reading method: OCR (Optical Character Recognition). Argyle's printer has such function,
64D: N-R connectors: OPQ. Alphabet.
Answer grid.
Picture of the Day: Here is great photo of our fellow LAT solver Bill G and his family. Bill is the one wearing sunglasses. His puzzle column (mostly math) "Mind Games" appears in the local newspaper "The Beach Reporter" every other Thursday. Bill and his wife Barbara (in blue jacket) are retired teachers. His daughter Bonnie (blond hair, holding her son Jordan) teaches third grade in nearby Redondo Beach. Bill's oldest son Tim is on the left side. And Dan, Bill's middle son, is on the right. Dan's kids, Felix and Scarlet, round out the motley crew.
C.C.
18A: Not quite Barcelona's best?: NUMERO DOS. Numeros Uno, Spanish for "number one". Uno is replaced with DOS, Spanish (Barcelona) for "two".
24A: Four-handed piano piece by a French emperor?: NAPOLEON DUET. Napoleon Solo is a fictional character from "The man from U.N.C.L.E.". Unknown to me. Solo is replaced with DUET. French emperor = NAPOLEON. The piano DUET is also known as "piano four hands". Two pianists (four hands) play on the same keyboard.
37A: Movie gigolo Bigalow struggling with debt?: DEUCE IN THE HOLE. Ace in the Hole, a hidden advantage. Ace is replaced with DEUCE. Movie: "DEUCE Bigalow, Male Gigolo".
52A: Multitasking, but just barely?: DOUBLE-MINDED. Single-minded, determined/resolute. Single is replaced with DOUBLE. I just can't multitask.
Another creative puzzle from Dan Naddor. Another special 16*15 grid. The additional column is added to accommodate the even-numbered central theme entry DEUCE IN THE HOLE.
Today's Dan Naddor Index (total non-theme entries with 6 or more letters) is 28. Very high!
Besides NAPOLEON DUET, there are a few other music/opera references:
20A: La Scala highlight: ARIA. La Scala is an opera house in Milan.
33A: Conductor Toscanini: ARTURO. He was once the principal conductor of La Scala.
57A: "The Three Tenors" tenor with Jose and Plácido: LUCIANO. Plácido Domingo, José Carreras & LUCIANO Pavarotti are "The Three Tenors". They popularized the opera for the general public.
65A: "Swan Lake" heroine: ODETTE . No idea. She is the princess who's turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer. "Swan Lake" is a classical ballet.
19D: Key in which "Chopsticks" is usually played: C MAJOR. I've never heard of "Chopsticks", it's a simple, extremely well-known waltz for the piano, according to Wikipedia.
I just loved the upper left and lower right corner. Five out of those six long entries were gimmes. Still had to cheat though. Maybe I will finish one Dan Naddor puzzle before German pulls out of Afghanistan.
Across:
1A: Hardly emulated the 16-Across: SLEPT LATE. And 16A: Proverbial worm catcher: EARLY BIRD. Nice cross-reference. Nice placements as well.
10A: Skeleton's place?: CLOSET. Idiom: A skeleton in the CLOSET. Dark secret.
17A: Fountain treat: MALTED
19A: Ovoid tree nuts: ACORNS. Filled in PECANS.
21A: Swear falsely, with "oneself": PERJURE. Bet it's a gimme for Scooter Libby/Martha Stewart.
23A: Olympic perfection: TEN. Perfect!
29A: Chic: ELEGANT. Jerome observed last time that Chic is an anagram of "Hi, C.C.".
31A: Support provider?: BRA. You should always hand-wash your BRA.
32A: Wrong thing to do: SIN. Then ATONES (50D: Make amends).
36A: Impudent: PERT
42A: R.E. Lee, e.g.: GENL (General). GEN is a more common abbreviation. And CADETS (67A: Future officers).
44A: Batting sta.: AVG. Batting Average. Ichiro trails Joe Mauer slightly on AL Batting Average leaderboard now. Strangely, they both love rap music.
45A: Sch. with a Phoenix campus: ASU (Arizona State University). The Sun Devils. Their main campus is at Tempe.
56A: Versatile vehicle, for short: UTE. Sport-UTE. SUV.
59A: Not strict about, as crime: SOFT ON. All crimes should be punished sufficiently and immediately.
66A: Delicate spring roll wrapping: RICE PAPER. Gimme. It's made of rice flour. I really like Vietnamese spring rolls. Chinese egg rolls use wheat wrappers.
68A: How references may be available, in a resumé: ON REQUEST. Pas de problèm!
Down:
1D: It has 100 seats: SENATE. Senator Kennedy's seat may remain empty for many months.
2D: Hardy partner: LAUREL. LAUREL and Hardy. The comedy team.
3D: Fur source: ERMINE. Wow, he has such a long body.
4D: Arraignment response: PLEA
5D: Norse war god: TYR (Teer). The one-handed Norse god from whom we got Tuesday. Norse thunder god is THOR. Both sons of Odin.
6D: Debt-heavy corp. deal: LBO (Leveraged Buyout). An maneuver often incurs debt.
8D: Prefix with sphere: TROPO. Troposphere, the lowest layer of the atmosphere. New to me. TROPO is prefix for "turn/change".
9D: Car bomb?: EDSEL. The Ford flop. My mind just wandered off to Iraq where car bomb happens so often.
11D: Gap: LACUNA (luh-KYOO-nuh). Missing part in a manuscript/logical argument. New word to me.
12D: Opening hymn words: O LORD
13D: Coffeecake topping: STREUSEL. Same root as Strew. Literally "sprinkling" in German. I've never had coffeecake.
14D: Darkening time in verse: E'EN. Evening, poetically. I miss Dusk Til Dawn bar (Hongkong) occasionally. Wild time.
15D: NFL scores: TDS
22D: Yank's foe: REB (Rebel)
24D: Dealer's adversary: NARC. Drug dealer. I was picturing poker dealer. Do you like Kevin Spacey's "21"?
25D: Start a pot: ANTE. OK, poker now.
26D: Spitting sound, in comics: PTUI. Look, he is back!
27D: Cork's home: EIRE. Cork is a county in Ireland.
28D: "We know drama" station: TNT. Plenty of "Law & Order" reruns.
30D: Franks' conquest: GAUL. Got the answer, though I had no idea that Franks refer to those "ancient Germanic peoples dwelling in the regions of the Rhine, one division of whom, the Salians, conquered GAUL about a.d. 500, founded an extensive kingdom, and gave origin to the name France". So, France was called GAUL before a.d. 500?
34D: ER personnel: RNS (Registered Nurses)
35D: Giant among Giants: OTT (Mel). Hall of Famer. Nice clue.
37D: "Whip it" band: DEVO. Ah, now I remember those red hats.
38D: Inundated: ENGULFED
39D: Tennis great Lew who won three of the four majors in 1956: HOAD. His name escaped me. Aussie.
40D: Lackawanna's lake: ERIE. Easy guess. Have never heard of Lackawanna, a city in W New York, on Lake ERIE, near Buffalo.
41D: Stampeding group: HERD. Was surprised to find out that the #1 meaning of stampede is "a sudden, frenzied rush or headlong flight of a HERD of frightened animals, esp. cattle or horses". I was picturing the horrible Hajj stampede.
42D: Zooks lead-in?: GAD. Stumper. I actually went in one Gadzooks store one day out of pure curiosity. Dark stuff.
45D: "Little Women" author: ALCOTT. Louisa May ALCOTT.
46D: Fishing nets: SEINES. Here is a good image.
49D: One in an international septet: EUROPE. One of the seven continents. Named after Europa, a Phoenician princess abducted to Crete by Zeus. Zeus is such a amoral/immoral guy.
51D: Shirk one's duty, in a big way: DESERT. Coward.
53D: Seat of Montana's Silver Bow County: BUTTE. No idea. See the map. It's southwest of Helena. Wikipedia says Evel Knievel was born here. Maybe Doug Peterson too.
54D: Foreword, briefly: INTRO. And the closing section is called EPILOG.
55D: Like a choice between evils: NO-WIN
59D: SPCA part: Abbr.: SOC
60D: Harem room: ODA. Turkish for room.
62D: Elec. text-reading method: OCR (Optical Character Recognition). Argyle's printer has such function,
64D: N-R connectors: OPQ. Alphabet.
Answer grid.
Picture of the Day: Here is great photo of our fellow LAT solver Bill G and his family. Bill is the one wearing sunglasses. His puzzle column (mostly math) "Mind Games" appears in the local newspaper "The Beach Reporter" every other Thursday. Bill and his wife Barbara (in blue jacket) are retired teachers. His daughter Bonnie (blond hair, holding her son Jordan) teaches third grade in nearby Redondo Beach. Bill's oldest son Tim is on the left side. And Dan, Bill's middle son, is on the right. Dan's kids, Felix and Scarlet, round out the motley crew.
C.C.
