Theme: None
Total blocks: 30
Total words: 72
The maximum word counts for a themeless puzzle is 72 (78 for a weekday 15*15).
As soon as I saw Brad Wilber's byline, I immediately knew "we're not in Kansas any more". His puzzles are just tough. I did fill in more blanks than I first thought. Then I peeked shamelessly at the answer sheet. Quite a few unknowns!
Can't imagine how I would have fared if the original clues remained unchanged. The grid actually does not look intimidating at all, just lots of 9-letter entries, total 14 if I counted correctly.
Across:
1. Pretax sums, e.g.: : SUBTOTALS. Didn't come to me readily. My husband handles all the tax/money stuff in our house.
10. Hero at the Battle of Cabra, 1079: EL CID. Knew this 11th century Spanish hero. Was unaware of the Battle of Cabra.
15. Blackmailer in "David Copperfield": URIAH HEEP. Stumper, though I've seen URIAH clued as "Heep in a Dickens novel" before.
16. Actress Téa: LEONI. She's married to David Duchovyn of "The X-Files".
17. They reach very large audiences: MASS MEDIA
18. Agreements: PACTS
19. Yucatán years: ANOS. Alliteration often happens with foreign words.
20. Wall Street down time?: BEAR MARKET. Great clue. "Wall Street up time" would be BULL MARKET.
22. Jailbird: CON
23. Trains overhead: ELS. In Chicago.
24. Prof's aides: TAS (Teaching Assistants)
26. "Love Don't Cost a Thing" singer, familiarly: J-LO. One of my favorite J-LO songs. I wonder if anyone tried TLC.
27. City south of Fort Worth: WACO. And EL PASO (10D West Texas city). The Texas oil city is ODESSA.
28. Former Ger. currency: DMS (Deutsche Marks). Is it a common abbreviation? RMB is Chinese currency. It stands for RenMinBi, literally "people's currency".
29. Football boot that takes unexpected bounces: SQUIB KICK. No idea. Football terms are definitely my blind spots.
32. Newsman Huntley: CHET. He co-anchored "The Huntley-Brinkley Report" with David Brinkley.
33. Grinch creator: SEUSS. "How the Grinch Stole Christmas!"
34. Bird Down Under: EMU. It's on Australian coat of arms.
37. Foliage-eating pest: GYPSY MOTH.
39. Lush's sound: HIC. An onomatopoeic word. An imitation of hiccup.
40. Chatters: GABS
41. Western alliance: Abbr.: OAS (Organization of American States). Since 1948.
42. Luther opponent Johann __: ECK (Ek). No idea. Wikipedia says he's a 16th-century German Roman Catholic theologian who opposed the reforms of Martin Luther.
43. NASDAQ debut: IPO (Initial Public Offering)
45. Closest pal, in texting shorthand: BFF (Best Friend Forever)
48. Product sold below cost to attract customers: LOSS LEADER. New phrase to me.
51. Jezebel's deity: BAAL. Hebrew for "lord"/"master". It's just clued as "False god" yesterday. Jezebel was the wife of Ahab, king of Israel. According to the Bible, she encouraged idolatry.
52. Flannel shirt pattern: PLAID
53. Booming voice quality: RESONANCE
55. __ Carlo: MONTE
56. "Cogito ergo sum" philosopher: DESCARTES (dey-KAHRT). René DESCARTES: "I think, therefore I am".
58. Shrub with fluffy grayish flower clusters: SMOKE BUSH.
Down:
1. "Poison" plant: SUMAC. Highly toxic.
2. Seventh planeta: URANO. Spanish for Uranus I gather.
3. Plains bovine: BISON
4. Soviet news agency: TASS. Now Itar-TASS.
5. Resistance unit: OHM. Named after the German physicist G. S. OHM. The reverse MOH is "unit of conductance".
6. Amoebalike movie alien: THE BLOB. Nope. Have never heard of the movie. Wikipedia says it's Steve McQueen's debut performance.
7. Dreaded mosquito: AEDES (ey-EE-deez). The yellow-fever mosquito. Another new word.
8. Darth's daughter: LEIA. From "Star Wars".
9. Title gladiator played by Kirk Douglas: SPARTACUS. I guessed.
11. Goneril's father: LEAR. King Lear. He has three daughters: Goneril (oldest, bad), Regan (middle one, bad too) and Cordelia (youngest, good).
12. Old military topper with a turned-up brim: COCKED HAT
13. Fit together: INTERMESH. I only knew ENMESH.
14. Repugnance: DISTASTE
21. Big truck name: MACK
23. Yale Bowl cheerers: ELIS. Yale Bowl is the stadium of Yale University football team (the Yale Bulldogs).
26. Equitable: JUST
27. Timid types: WIMPS
29. Long-sentence punctuation: SEMICOLONS. The answer just leaped itself.
30. Marsh hazard: QUICKSAND
31. Rows on pianos: KEYBOARDS.
32. CNBC interviewees: CEOS. Sometimes CFOS.
33. "... on my honor": SO HELP ME. God, I had SOH???PME sitting there forever. Stupid!
35. Fed who tracks down money launderers: T-MAN. From the Department of the Treasury.
37. Rubberneck: GAPE
38. Exuberant modern compliment: YOU ROCK. Yep, our Lois uses this compliment all the time.
40. Word before Age or cage: GILDED. Gilded cage is new to me. Dictionary says to be like “a bird in a gilded cage” is to live in luxury but without freedom. What can I say? I've been living under a rock.
44. Gypsum painting surface: GESSO (JES-oh). Stumped many last time when it appeared in our puzzle.
45. African language group: BANTU. Includes Swahili and Zulu.
46. Looks toward: FACES
47. It's pressed on the campaign trail, with "the": FLESH. "Press the FLESH" = shake hands. Another new idiom to me.
49. Place to build: SITE
51. Cutting remark: BARB. Hey, Barb B!
54. Highland refusal: NAE. What's Scottish for "yes" then?
Answer grid.
C.C.
Total blocks: 30
Total words: 72
The maximum word counts for a themeless puzzle is 72 (78 for a weekday 15*15).
As soon as I saw Brad Wilber's byline, I immediately knew "we're not in Kansas any more". His puzzles are just tough. I did fill in more blanks than I first thought. Then I peeked shamelessly at the answer sheet. Quite a few unknowns!
Can't imagine how I would have fared if the original clues remained unchanged. The grid actually does not look intimidating at all, just lots of 9-letter entries, total 14 if I counted correctly.
Across:
1. Pretax sums, e.g.: : SUBTOTALS. Didn't come to me readily. My husband handles all the tax/money stuff in our house.
10. Hero at the Battle of Cabra, 1079: EL CID. Knew this 11th century Spanish hero. Was unaware of the Battle of Cabra.
15. Blackmailer in "David Copperfield": URIAH HEEP. Stumper, though I've seen URIAH clued as "Heep in a Dickens novel" before.
16. Actress Téa: LEONI. She's married to David Duchovyn of "The X-Files".
17. They reach very large audiences: MASS MEDIA
18. Agreements: PACTS
19. Yucatán years: ANOS. Alliteration often happens with foreign words.
20. Wall Street down time?: BEAR MARKET. Great clue. "Wall Street up time" would be BULL MARKET.
22. Jailbird: CON
23. Trains overhead: ELS. In Chicago.
24. Prof's aides: TAS (Teaching Assistants)
26. "Love Don't Cost a Thing" singer, familiarly: J-LO. One of my favorite J-LO songs. I wonder if anyone tried TLC.
27. City south of Fort Worth: WACO. And EL PASO (10D West Texas city). The Texas oil city is ODESSA.
28. Former Ger. currency: DMS (Deutsche Marks). Is it a common abbreviation? RMB is Chinese currency. It stands for RenMinBi, literally "people's currency".
29. Football boot that takes unexpected bounces: SQUIB KICK. No idea. Football terms are definitely my blind spots.
32. Newsman Huntley: CHET. He co-anchored "The Huntley-Brinkley Report" with David Brinkley.
33. Grinch creator: SEUSS. "How the Grinch Stole Christmas!"
34. Bird Down Under: EMU. It's on Australian coat of arms.
37. Foliage-eating pest: GYPSY MOTH.
39. Lush's sound: HIC. An onomatopoeic word. An imitation of hiccup.
40. Chatters: GABS
41. Western alliance: Abbr.: OAS (Organization of American States). Since 1948.
42. Luther opponent Johann __: ECK (Ek). No idea. Wikipedia says he's a 16th-century German Roman Catholic theologian who opposed the reforms of Martin Luther.
43. NASDAQ debut: IPO (Initial Public Offering)
45. Closest pal, in texting shorthand: BFF (Best Friend Forever)
48. Product sold below cost to attract customers: LOSS LEADER. New phrase to me.
51. Jezebel's deity: BAAL. Hebrew for "lord"/"master". It's just clued as "False god" yesterday. Jezebel was the wife of Ahab, king of Israel. According to the Bible, she encouraged idolatry.
52. Flannel shirt pattern: PLAID
53. Booming voice quality: RESONANCE
55. __ Carlo: MONTE
56. "Cogito ergo sum" philosopher: DESCARTES (dey-KAHRT). René DESCARTES: "I think, therefore I am".
58. Shrub with fluffy grayish flower clusters: SMOKE BUSH.
Down:
1. "Poison" plant: SUMAC. Highly toxic.
2. Seventh planeta: URANO. Spanish for Uranus I gather.
3. Plains bovine: BISON
4. Soviet news agency: TASS. Now Itar-TASS.
5. Resistance unit: OHM. Named after the German physicist G. S. OHM. The reverse MOH is "unit of conductance".
6. Amoebalike movie alien: THE BLOB. Nope. Have never heard of the movie. Wikipedia says it's Steve McQueen's debut performance.
7. Dreaded mosquito: AEDES (ey-EE-deez). The yellow-fever mosquito. Another new word.
8. Darth's daughter: LEIA. From "Star Wars".
9. Title gladiator played by Kirk Douglas: SPARTACUS. I guessed.
11. Goneril's father: LEAR. King Lear. He has three daughters: Goneril (oldest, bad), Regan (middle one, bad too) and Cordelia (youngest, good).
12. Old military topper with a turned-up brim: COCKED HAT
13. Fit together: INTERMESH. I only knew ENMESH.
14. Repugnance: DISTASTE
21. Big truck name: MACK
23. Yale Bowl cheerers: ELIS. Yale Bowl is the stadium of Yale University football team (the Yale Bulldogs).
26. Equitable: JUST
27. Timid types: WIMPS
29. Long-sentence punctuation: SEMICOLONS. The answer just leaped itself.
30. Marsh hazard: QUICKSAND
31. Rows on pianos: KEYBOARDS.
32. CNBC interviewees: CEOS. Sometimes CFOS.
33. "... on my honor": SO HELP ME. God, I had SOH???PME sitting there forever. Stupid!
35. Fed who tracks down money launderers: T-MAN. From the Department of the Treasury.
37. Rubberneck: GAPE
38. Exuberant modern compliment: YOU ROCK. Yep, our Lois uses this compliment all the time.
40. Word before Age or cage: GILDED. Gilded cage is new to me. Dictionary says to be like “a bird in a gilded cage” is to live in luxury but without freedom. What can I say? I've been living under a rock.
44. Gypsum painting surface: GESSO (JES-oh). Stumped many last time when it appeared in our puzzle.
45. African language group: BANTU. Includes Swahili and Zulu.
46. Looks toward: FACES
47. It's pressed on the campaign trail, with "the": FLESH. "Press the FLESH" = shake hands. Another new idiom to me.
49. Place to build: SITE
51. Cutting remark: BARB. Hey, Barb B!
54. Highland refusal: NAE. What's Scottish for "yes" then?
Answer grid.
C.C.
