Theme: Signs of Burnout - ASH (80A: Sign of burnout hidden in eight puzzle answers)
23A: Dramatic device about which Hamlet says "The play's the thing...": SHOW WITHIN A SHOW. Hamlet exclaimed: "the play's the thing wherein I'll catch the conscience of the King." He tried to prove that his uncle the new King murdered his father by staging a play which mimiced the way he imagined his father was killed.
37A: Kindness simile: SWEET AS HONEY. Hmm, as SWEET AS HONEY, as powerful as love.
53A: Rare key in which a section of Chopin's "Polonaise Fantasie" is written: A-SHARP MINOR. Got the answer with Down fill help. Wikipedia says the scale for "Polonaise Fantasie" is A-flat major.
72A: World Series of Poker Main Event game: TEXAS HOLD'EM. The most popular card game in America.
87A: California's first lady: MARIA SHRIVER. She sure has the Kennedy look.
105A: Open one's law office, say: HANG OUT A SHINGLE. The constructor Vic Fleming is a judge in Little Rock, Arkansas. Bonnie L. Gentry is a Merril Lynch financial adviser based in Scottsdale, Arizona.
17D: Easily become angered: HAVE A SHORT FUSE. Like Donald Rumsfeld.
46D: 2000 Martin Lawrence/Nia Long comedy: BIG MOMMA'S HOUSE. Unknown to me. This poster does not catch my fancy.
Strange to see the ASH in embedded in the beginning of A-SHARP MINOR while all the others are hidden in the middle of the theme entries. The spreads are quite consistent though, all spanning two words.
A bit of golf undercurrent:
95A: Ready to be driven: TEED UP. The golf ball is TEED UP and ready to be driven either by a driver or a long iron.
24D: Green targets: HOLES. Or PINS when you are far away from the greens.
101D: Annual major golf tournaments played in August, familiarly: PGA. The PGA Championship. The last of the four majors: Masters (Augusta, Georgia, April), US Open (June), the British Open (July) and the PGA Championship (August).
Smooth solving today. MARIA SHRIVER tipped me off the theme and I was then able to fill in all the ASH'es.
Across:
1A: Deferred payment at the bar: RAN A TAB
8A: Flies over Africa?: TSETSES. I like the question mark, it makes the clue interesting.
15A: Alternative to Twinkies: HOHOS. From Hostess.
22A: Pocatello's state: IDAHO. And UTAH (68D: Bonneville Flats state).
26A: Type sizes: PICAS
29A: Star responsible for eclipsing Venus?: SERENA. The Williams sister. I was not surprised by her outburst at U.S. Open at all.
30A: North Carolina university: ELON. And UTEP (68A: Sch. near the Rio Grande) - University of Texas, El Paso.
40A:".... so long __ both shall live?": AS YE. Is this a Bible quote? I guessed AS WE.
43A: Regal initials: HRH. His/Her Royal Highness.
44A: Ed who wrote "87th Precinct" novels: MCBAIN. No idea. Alias name for Evan Hunter. Lemonade or someone else mentioned this on the blog when we had EVAN last time. NOVEL is the answer for 25A: Work of fiction.
47A: Loving: Prefix: PHILO. As in philosophy. PHILE is suffix for "lover", as in Francophile.
57A: Grammar school basics, briefly: RRR. Reading, Writing and Arithmetic.
58A: Kelly's co-host: REGIS (Philbin). He bores me.
59A: H-bomb trial, e.g.: N-TEST
62A: Broadway auntie: MAME. "Autie MAME".
63A: Concerning: ANENT
66A: Big name in nonstick cookware: T-FAL. Big indeed.
67A: It starts with enero: ANO. And DIAS (96A:"Buenos __").
71A: Suffix with real: ISM. Realism.
75A: Get licked: LOSES. Twins won again! Sorry, Fred/Jazzbumpa and all Detroit Tigers fans.
76A: Put down: DEMEAN
78A: Prefix meaning "spiral": HELIC. No idea. Helix is Greek for "spiral". Its adjective is helical.
79A: Fizzles (out): PETERS
81A: "__fired!": YOU'RE. Donald Trump's catchphrase.
83A: Vaughan of jazz: SARAH. Unknown to me. Here is a clip of her "The Sassy One".
85A: Siberian metropolis: OMSK. See this map. Quite close to Kazakhstan. I tend to confuse it with ORSK (on the Ural River), also bordering Kazakhstan.
90A: Letters before a trade name: DBA (Doing Business As)
94A: "The Mod Squad" role: LINC (Hayes). I forgot.
97A: Dangerous compound in Agent Orange: DIOXIN. New word to me. Sounds toxic.
99A: General Arnold of WWII: HAP
102A: PC key below shift: CTRL. Had to check my keyboard.
103A: Frenzied: MANIC. Our fellow solver Chip is from Maine, hence Mainaic. I saw some of you call him MANIC.
104A: Vertical: PLUMB. Perpendicular.
108A: Chorus platform: RISER
109A: Instrument shaker at the end of minstrel troupe: MR. TAMBO. No idea. Dictionary says it's "the end man in a minstrel troupe who plays the tambourine".
110A: Made of clay: EARTHEN
111A: Bridge bid, briefly: ONE NO. Does No. stand for north? I know nothing about bridge.
112A: Black Sea port dweller: ODESSAN. Ukrainians.
113A: Unemotional: DRY-EYED
Down:
1D: Spoke like Don Corleone: RASPED. I've read most of the books by Mario Puzo, "Godfather" is definitely the best.
2D: Not long, timewise: AWHILE
3D: Recent rightist: NEOCON. I actually like Bill Kristol (founder of "The Weekly Standard"). Can't stand Richard Perle.
4D: Nile dam site: ASWAN
8D: Hot-dish holder: TRIVET. Three-legged.
9D: Iroquois Confederacy member: SENECA
12D: Trendy London area: SOHO. I don't why it's a trendy area. London's main Gay Village is located there. SOHO is a NY area too.
15D: Jazzman known as "Fatha": HINES (Earl)
16D: Febreze target: ODOR. P&G brand.
18D: Short story writer known for irony: O HENRY
19D: Comforting words: SOLACE
31D: Ballet bird: SWAN. "SWAN Lake"
34D: 1862 Bull Run victor: LEE (Robert. E)
39D: Blue Moon of '60s-'70s baseball: ODOM. Holy moley. Have never heard of this pitcher. "Blue Moon" is a great nickname. I want to be called "Deep Throat".
40D: Subject of Indiana Jones's quest: ARK. Nice to see ARK and ARC (35A: Missile's path) in one grid.
41D: ""Gymnopédies" composer: SATIE (Erik). French composer.
44D: Disney's Ariel, e.g.: MERMAID
45D: Make pure: CLEANSE. Thought of the terrifying ethnic cleansing in some parts of Iraq.
48D: Dost possess: HAST. Archaic for "have". "Dost" = "do".
50D: One staying afloat in place: TREADER. Made-up word.
53D: Building addition: ANNEX
54D: First instruction: STEP A. I like fills like STEP A & EPISODE I. The I & One substitute does not bother me at all.
55D: Words before black or red: IN THE
56D: Book after Micah: NAHUM. Had to look at my Bible book list again.
63D: " .. two fives for __?": A TEN
64D: Island east of Java: BALI. TIMOR too.
65D: Elec. letters: AC/DC
66D: Marriage promise: TROTH. Oh, that's how we got betroth I presume.
69D: Harass: MOLEST
70D: Fair, in forecasts: CLEAR. Beautiful weather here in Minnesota. Summer's final fling.
73D: Feng __: SHUI. Literally "water". Feng is "wind".
74D: Wife of Zeus: HERA. Sister of Zeus as well.
77D: Alas. native: ESK (Eskimo). I forgot which one is un-PC, Inuit or Eskimo?
79D: Scrub up, say: PREP. In Operation Room.
81D: PBS chef Martin: YAN. "YAN Can Cook".
83D: Libya's Gulf of __: SIDRA (SID-rah). No idea. Here is the map. The Mediterranean gulf.
84D: Torn off forcibly: AVULSED. New word to me. I only know convulse.
85D: Veteran: OLD PRO. Newbie would be TYRO.
88D: Queen of Troy: HECUBA (HEK-yoo-buh). Hard to remember her name. She's the mother of Paris/Hector/Cassandra. Wife of Priam (PRAHY-uhm).
89D: Gymnast Mary Lou of Olympics fame: RETTON. No idea, though she looks very familiar.
90D: Lake fisherman's boat: DINGHY
91D: Receiver of property, in law: BAILEE. Wow, it's a real word.
92D: Climb: ASCEND
94D: Book, in Bologna: LIBRO. Unknown to me. It's Spanish for "book" also.
96D: Beatrice's admirer: DANTE. Got the answer from Across fills. Was his love unrequited?
98D: Mutant superhero group of comics: X-MEN. Marvel Comics.
106D: Mantric sounds: OMS. Om is also spelled as aum. Dictionary defines it as "The supreme and most sacred syllable, consisting in Sanskrit of the three sounds (a), (u), and (m), representing various fundamental triads and believed to be the spoken essence of the universe. It is uttered as a mantra and in affirmations and blessings."
107D: Guffaw syllable: HAR. Sarcastic guffaw, isn't it?
Answer grid.
C.C.
23A: Dramatic device about which Hamlet says "The play's the thing...": SHOW WITHIN A SHOW. Hamlet exclaimed: "the play's the thing wherein I'll catch the conscience of the King." He tried to prove that his uncle the new King murdered his father by staging a play which mimiced the way he imagined his father was killed.
37A: Kindness simile: SWEET AS HONEY. Hmm, as SWEET AS HONEY, as powerful as love.
53A: Rare key in which a section of Chopin's "Polonaise Fantasie" is written: A-SHARP MINOR. Got the answer with Down fill help. Wikipedia says the scale for "Polonaise Fantasie" is A-flat major.
72A: World Series of Poker Main Event game: TEXAS HOLD'EM. The most popular card game in America.
87A: California's first lady: MARIA SHRIVER. She sure has the Kennedy look.
105A: Open one's law office, say: HANG OUT A SHINGLE. The constructor Vic Fleming is a judge in Little Rock, Arkansas. Bonnie L. Gentry is a Merril Lynch financial adviser based in Scottsdale, Arizona.
17D: Easily become angered: HAVE A SHORT FUSE. Like Donald Rumsfeld.
46D: 2000 Martin Lawrence/Nia Long comedy: BIG MOMMA'S HOUSE. Unknown to me. This poster does not catch my fancy.
Strange to see the ASH in embedded in the beginning of A-SHARP MINOR while all the others are hidden in the middle of the theme entries. The spreads are quite consistent though, all spanning two words.
A bit of golf undercurrent:
95A: Ready to be driven: TEED UP. The golf ball is TEED UP and ready to be driven either by a driver or a long iron.
24D: Green targets: HOLES. Or PINS when you are far away from the greens.
101D: Annual major golf tournaments played in August, familiarly: PGA. The PGA Championship. The last of the four majors: Masters (Augusta, Georgia, April), US Open (June), the British Open (July) and the PGA Championship (August).
Smooth solving today. MARIA SHRIVER tipped me off the theme and I was then able to fill in all the ASH'es.
Across:
1A: Deferred payment at the bar: RAN A TAB
8A: Flies over Africa?: TSETSES. I like the question mark, it makes the clue interesting.
15A: Alternative to Twinkies: HOHOS. From Hostess.
22A: Pocatello's state: IDAHO. And UTAH (68D: Bonneville Flats state).
26A: Type sizes: PICAS
29A: Star responsible for eclipsing Venus?: SERENA. The Williams sister. I was not surprised by her outburst at U.S. Open at all.
30A: North Carolina university: ELON. And UTEP (68A: Sch. near the Rio Grande) - University of Texas, El Paso.
40A:".... so long __ both shall live?": AS YE. Is this a Bible quote? I guessed AS WE.
43A: Regal initials: HRH. His/Her Royal Highness.
44A: Ed who wrote "87th Precinct" novels: MCBAIN. No idea. Alias name for Evan Hunter. Lemonade or someone else mentioned this on the blog when we had EVAN last time. NOVEL is the answer for 25A: Work of fiction.
47A: Loving: Prefix: PHILO. As in philosophy. PHILE is suffix for "lover", as in Francophile.
57A: Grammar school basics, briefly: RRR. Reading, Writing and Arithmetic.
58A: Kelly's co-host: REGIS (Philbin). He bores me.
59A: H-bomb trial, e.g.: N-TEST
62A: Broadway auntie: MAME. "Autie MAME".
63A: Concerning: ANENT
66A: Big name in nonstick cookware: T-FAL. Big indeed.
67A: It starts with enero: ANO. And DIAS (96A:"Buenos __").
71A: Suffix with real: ISM. Realism.
75A: Get licked: LOSES. Twins won again! Sorry, Fred/Jazzbumpa and all Detroit Tigers fans.
76A: Put down: DEMEAN
78A: Prefix meaning "spiral": HELIC. No idea. Helix is Greek for "spiral". Its adjective is helical.
79A: Fizzles (out): PETERS
81A: "__fired!": YOU'RE. Donald Trump's catchphrase.
83A: Vaughan of jazz: SARAH. Unknown to me. Here is a clip of her "The Sassy One".
85A: Siberian metropolis: OMSK. See this map. Quite close to Kazakhstan. I tend to confuse it with ORSK (on the Ural River), also bordering Kazakhstan.
90A: Letters before a trade name: DBA (Doing Business As)
94A: "The Mod Squad" role: LINC (Hayes). I forgot.
97A: Dangerous compound in Agent Orange: DIOXIN. New word to me. Sounds toxic.
99A: General Arnold of WWII: HAP
102A: PC key below shift: CTRL. Had to check my keyboard.
103A: Frenzied: MANIC. Our fellow solver Chip is from Maine, hence Mainaic. I saw some of you call him MANIC.
104A: Vertical: PLUMB. Perpendicular.
108A: Chorus platform: RISER
109A: Instrument shaker at the end of minstrel troupe: MR. TAMBO. No idea. Dictionary says it's "the end man in a minstrel troupe who plays the tambourine".
110A: Made of clay: EARTHEN
111A: Bridge bid, briefly: ONE NO. Does No. stand for north? I know nothing about bridge.
112A: Black Sea port dweller: ODESSAN. Ukrainians.
113A: Unemotional: DRY-EYED
Down:
1D: Spoke like Don Corleone: RASPED. I've read most of the books by Mario Puzo, "Godfather" is definitely the best.
2D: Not long, timewise: AWHILE
3D: Recent rightist: NEOCON. I actually like Bill Kristol (founder of "The Weekly Standard"). Can't stand Richard Perle.
4D: Nile dam site: ASWAN
8D: Hot-dish holder: TRIVET. Three-legged.
9D: Iroquois Confederacy member: SENECA
12D: Trendy London area: SOHO. I don't why it's a trendy area. London's main Gay Village is located there. SOHO is a NY area too.
15D: Jazzman known as "Fatha": HINES (Earl)
16D: Febreze target: ODOR. P&G brand.
18D: Short story writer known for irony: O HENRY
19D: Comforting words: SOLACE
31D: Ballet bird: SWAN. "SWAN Lake"
34D: 1862 Bull Run victor: LEE (Robert. E)
39D: Blue Moon of '60s-'70s baseball: ODOM. Holy moley. Have never heard of this pitcher. "Blue Moon" is a great nickname. I want to be called "Deep Throat".
40D: Subject of Indiana Jones's quest: ARK. Nice to see ARK and ARC (35A: Missile's path) in one grid.
41D: ""Gymnopédies" composer: SATIE (Erik). French composer.
44D: Disney's Ariel, e.g.: MERMAID
45D: Make pure: CLEANSE. Thought of the terrifying ethnic cleansing in some parts of Iraq.
48D: Dost possess: HAST. Archaic for "have". "Dost" = "do".
50D: One staying afloat in place: TREADER. Made-up word.
53D: Building addition: ANNEX
54D: First instruction: STEP A. I like fills like STEP A & EPISODE I. The I & One substitute does not bother me at all.
55D: Words before black or red: IN THE
56D: Book after Micah: NAHUM. Had to look at my Bible book list again.
63D: " .. two fives for __?": A TEN
64D: Island east of Java: BALI. TIMOR too.
65D: Elec. letters: AC/DC
66D: Marriage promise: TROTH. Oh, that's how we got betroth I presume.
69D: Harass: MOLEST
70D: Fair, in forecasts: CLEAR. Beautiful weather here in Minnesota. Summer's final fling.
73D: Feng __: SHUI. Literally "water". Feng is "wind".
74D: Wife of Zeus: HERA. Sister of Zeus as well.
77D: Alas. native: ESK (Eskimo). I forgot which one is un-PC, Inuit or Eskimo?
79D: Scrub up, say: PREP. In Operation Room.
81D: PBS chef Martin: YAN. "YAN Can Cook".
83D: Libya's Gulf of __: SIDRA (SID-rah). No idea. Here is the map. The Mediterranean gulf.
84D: Torn off forcibly: AVULSED. New word to me. I only know convulse.
85D: Veteran: OLD PRO. Newbie would be TYRO.
88D: Queen of Troy: HECUBA (HEK-yoo-buh). Hard to remember her name. She's the mother of Paris/Hector/Cassandra. Wife of Priam (PRAHY-uhm).
89D: Gymnast Mary Lou of Olympics fame: RETTON. No idea, though she looks very familiar.
90D: Lake fisherman's boat: DINGHY
91D: Receiver of property, in law: BAILEE. Wow, it's a real word.
92D: Climb: ASCEND
94D: Book, in Bologna: LIBRO. Unknown to me. It's Spanish for "book" also.
96D: Beatrice's admirer: DANTE. Got the answer from Across fills. Was his love unrequited?
98D: Mutant superhero group of comics: X-MEN. Marvel Comics.
106D: Mantric sounds: OMS. Om is also spelled as aum. Dictionary defines it as "The supreme and most sacred syllable, consisting in Sanskrit of the three sounds (a), (u), and (m), representing various fundamental triads and believed to be the spoken essence of the universe. It is uttered as a mantra and in affirmations and blessings."
107D: Guffaw syllable: HAR. Sarcastic guffaw, isn't it?
Answer grid.
C.C.
