Theme: Pseudo-Opposite - Words that start with a non-functioning reversing/negative prefix are punnily re-interpreted and clued as if the prefixes were real.
20A. Caucus member changing his mind about a candidate?: DENOMINATOR. The caucus member nominates, then de-nominates, hence he/she is a de-nominator.
30A. For the real thing?: ANTIPHONY. Antiphony (an-TIF-uh-nee) is "alternate or responsive singing by a choir in two divisions". New word to me. Anti phony. Pronunciation stress shift.
49A. Took back one's story?: UNRELATED. Related a story, then un-related ("Took back").
58A. Downsizing result?: DISPOSITION. Being disposed? I don't get this one.
Perhaps Al/Bob can tell us which prefixes are of Latin origin and which ones are of the Greek root.
So many other prefixes have the same "opposite" meaning: a (atypical), il (illegal), im (impersonal), in (inexpensive), ir (irrelevant), all placed in front of an adjective and its derivative noun.
Don "Hard G" plays piano (so does our editor Rich Norris), so quite a few music references in the grid:
19A. Bach's "__ the G String": AIR ON. The clip sounds familiar. Al might have linked it before.
45A. Key of Chopin's "Military Polonaise": A MAJOR. Got the MAJOR part easily.
52A. Carry __: A TUNE
2D. Swiftly, to Solti: ALLEGRO. Alliteration.
3D. Name associated with three Beethoven overtures: LEONORA. No idea. Wikipedia says Leonore is the original title of Beethoven's opera Fidelio, in which Leonara is disguised as a prison guard named "Fidelio" and rescues her husband Florestan from death in a political prison.
8D. Axton of country: HOYT. Got his name via crosses.
29D. Sharp or flat: OFF KEY
33D. Budapest-born conductor Antal: DORATI. A gimme for our on-the-road Jazzbumpa. I've never never heard of this guy.
39D. Early violin maker Andrea: AMATI. No AMATI/STRAD wobbling today.
60D. Last melody?: TAPS. Last melody call in military bases.
The relatively sparse theme entries allows for plenty of six-letter (total 12) and seven-letter (total 14) fill. Dennis would love those stacks of triple 7s in each Down quadrant.
Today is the first Friday in a long long time that we don't have a add/delete/substitute a letter string theme.
Across:
1. Cotton unit: BALE. Al just mentioned that BALE can also refer to 10 reams of paper.
5. "__ is life!": SUCH
9. Earns a fink moniker: BLABS. I don't associate blab with informing.
14. Seine sights: ILES. French for islands. Alliteration and assonance.
15. Circular cookie: OREO. Alliteration.
16. "__ Breath You Take": Police hit: EVERY. Nice song.
17. Unappetizing food: GLOP
18. Like some summer days: LAZY
23. Latin 101 verb: AMO. Latin for "I love".
24. Freudian subject: EGO
25. Asgard ruler: ODIN. Asgard is the home of those Norse gods.
26. Timberlake with six Grammys: JUSTIN. He and Jessica Biel are a cute couple.
28. Pointer: ARROW
32. Took it slow: LOAFED
34. Flow partner: EBB. Ebb and flow.
35. City NW of Provo: OREM. Wanted ENID the Oklahoma city.
36. Dan'l Webster, in a Twain story: FROG. The jumping frog.
40. Take to the cleaners: SOAK. Let's have a SOAK clue contest today. Mine: Get wet. Rhyming.
43. Remote abbr.: REW (Rewind)
53. "Gimme a minute!": NOT YET
54. Babysitter's bane: BRAT
56. Bug like a dog?: BEG. Good clue.
57. Cos. with ampersands, often: RRS. Railroad companies often have ampersands in them?
61. Choosing from a lineup, briefly: ID'ING
63. Smurf elder: PAPA. Not familiar with the Smurf. Wikipedia says this fellow is 542 years old.
64. Thomas __ Edison: ALVA. Learned from doing Xword.
65. Scary words from the boss: SEE ME. Wanted FIRED.
66. Not fer: AGIN. For & Against.
67. Hammer part: PEEN
68. "To __ human ...": ERR IS. To forgive is divine.
69. Actress Sofer: RENA. Damn it, I can never remember her name. I like that shirt.
70. League of Nations muralist: SERT. Four letter muralist is always SERT the Spanish muralist. I was unaware of his League of Nations (Geneva) work though.
Down:
1. "So what?!": BIG DEAL
4. Hockey Hall of Fame nickname: ESPO (Phil). The clue means nothing to me. This ESPO guy tortures me all the time.
5. Reliable, as a citizen: SOLID.
6. Muse holding a globe: URANIA. Muse of astronomy. A globe in her left hand, a peg in the right.
7. Matisse reportedly called him "the father of us all": CEZANNE. Easy guess.
9. Endure: BEAR UP
10. VII x VIII: LVI. 7x8=56. I don't like the VI repetition. The simple "Roman 56" should be just fine.
11. Oxygenating tool: AERATOR. For the golf greens?
12. Fire retardant chemical: BROMINE. This word sounds like poison. I must be confusing it with some other chemical.
13. Case, for instance?: SYNONYM. Case is a synonym of "instance". In this case/instance. Excellent clue.
21. Yard machine: MOWER
22. Algonquin kin: OJIBWA. Just learned that Ojibwa = Chippewa.
27. Patronize: SHOP AT. And ARTSIER (42. Like a more pretentious museum patron). Patron echo.
31. "Superstation" letters: TBS
37. Hear clearly: GET
40. Common photo subject: SUNRISE. Beautiful!
41. Due in soon: ON ORDER
44. Online resource: WEB PAGE. Can't fit in Wikipedia.
46. Golden __: 50th anniversary: JUBILEE
47. Like a bogey, to a golfer: ONE OVER. I wrote down OVER PAR first.
48. Ruling: REGNANT. Same root with reign?
50. Cliff features: LEDGES. For the climbers to gain a toehold.
51. Visit unexpectedly: DROP IN
55. Yoga posture: ASANA. Maybe Lucina can show us some of her yoga pictures someday.
59. Trade punches: SPAR
62. Application form abbr.: NMI. No Middle Initial.
Answer grid.
Picture of the Day: Here is a happy photo of today's constructor Don Gagliardo and his beautiful wife Barbara in their backyard in the summer of 2009. Barbara loves shoes and inspired Don's great SHOE BOX puzzle.
C.C.
20A. Caucus member changing his mind about a candidate?: DENOMINATOR. The caucus member nominates, then de-nominates, hence he/she is a de-nominator.
30A. For the real thing?: ANTIPHONY. Antiphony (an-TIF-uh-nee) is "alternate or responsive singing by a choir in two divisions". New word to me. Anti phony. Pronunciation stress shift.
49A. Took back one's story?: UNRELATED. Related a story, then un-related ("Took back").
58A. Downsizing result?: DISPOSITION. Being disposed? I don't get this one.
Perhaps Al/Bob can tell us which prefixes are of Latin origin and which ones are of the Greek root.
So many other prefixes have the same "opposite" meaning: a (atypical), il (illegal), im (impersonal), in (inexpensive), ir (irrelevant), all placed in front of an adjective and its derivative noun.
Don "Hard G" plays piano (so does our editor Rich Norris), so quite a few music references in the grid:
19A. Bach's "__ the G String": AIR ON. The clip sounds familiar. Al might have linked it before.
45A. Key of Chopin's "Military Polonaise": A MAJOR. Got the MAJOR part easily.
52A. Carry __: A TUNE
2D. Swiftly, to Solti: ALLEGRO. Alliteration.
3D. Name associated with three Beethoven overtures: LEONORA. No idea. Wikipedia says Leonore is the original title of Beethoven's opera Fidelio, in which Leonara is disguised as a prison guard named "Fidelio" and rescues her husband Florestan from death in a political prison.
8D. Axton of country: HOYT. Got his name via crosses.
29D. Sharp or flat: OFF KEY
33D. Budapest-born conductor Antal: DORATI. A gimme for our on-the-road Jazzbumpa. I've never never heard of this guy.
39D. Early violin maker Andrea: AMATI. No AMATI/STRAD wobbling today.
60D. Last melody?: TAPS. Last melody call in military bases.
The relatively sparse theme entries allows for plenty of six-letter (total 12) and seven-letter (total 14) fill. Dennis would love those stacks of triple 7s in each Down quadrant.
Today is the first Friday in a long long time that we don't have a add/delete/substitute a letter string theme.
Across:
1. Cotton unit: BALE. Al just mentioned that BALE can also refer to 10 reams of paper.
5. "__ is life!": SUCH
9. Earns a fink moniker: BLABS. I don't associate blab with informing.
14. Seine sights: ILES. French for islands. Alliteration and assonance.
15. Circular cookie: OREO. Alliteration.
16. "__ Breath You Take": Police hit: EVERY. Nice song.
17. Unappetizing food: GLOP
18. Like some summer days: LAZY
23. Latin 101 verb: AMO. Latin for "I love".
24. Freudian subject: EGO
25. Asgard ruler: ODIN. Asgard is the home of those Norse gods.
26. Timberlake with six Grammys: JUSTIN. He and Jessica Biel are a cute couple.
28. Pointer: ARROW
32. Took it slow: LOAFED
34. Flow partner: EBB. Ebb and flow.
35. City NW of Provo: OREM. Wanted ENID the Oklahoma city.
36. Dan'l Webster, in a Twain story: FROG. The jumping frog.
40. Take to the cleaners: SOAK. Let's have a SOAK clue contest today. Mine: Get wet. Rhyming.
43. Remote abbr.: REW (Rewind)
53. "Gimme a minute!": NOT YET
54. Babysitter's bane: BRAT
56. Bug like a dog?: BEG. Good clue.
57. Cos. with ampersands, often: RRS. Railroad companies often have ampersands in them?
61. Choosing from a lineup, briefly: ID'ING
63. Smurf elder: PAPA. Not familiar with the Smurf. Wikipedia says this fellow is 542 years old.
64. Thomas __ Edison: ALVA. Learned from doing Xword.
65. Scary words from the boss: SEE ME. Wanted FIRED.
66. Not fer: AGIN. For & Against.
67. Hammer part: PEEN
68. "To __ human ...": ERR IS. To forgive is divine.
69. Actress Sofer: RENA. Damn it, I can never remember her name. I like that shirt.
70. League of Nations muralist: SERT. Four letter muralist is always SERT the Spanish muralist. I was unaware of his League of Nations (Geneva) work though.
Down:
1. "So what?!": BIG DEAL
4. Hockey Hall of Fame nickname: ESPO (Phil). The clue means nothing to me. This ESPO guy tortures me all the time.
5. Reliable, as a citizen: SOLID.
6. Muse holding a globe: URANIA. Muse of astronomy. A globe in her left hand, a peg in the right.
7. Matisse reportedly called him "the father of us all": CEZANNE. Easy guess.
9. Endure: BEAR UP
10. VII x VIII: LVI. 7x8=56. I don't like the VI repetition. The simple "Roman 56" should be just fine.
11. Oxygenating tool: AERATOR. For the golf greens?
12. Fire retardant chemical: BROMINE. This word sounds like poison. I must be confusing it with some other chemical.
13. Case, for instance?: SYNONYM. Case is a synonym of "instance". In this case/instance. Excellent clue.
21. Yard machine: MOWER
22. Algonquin kin: OJIBWA. Just learned that Ojibwa = Chippewa.
27. Patronize: SHOP AT. And ARTSIER (42. Like a more pretentious museum patron). Patron echo.
31. "Superstation" letters: TBS
37. Hear clearly: GET
40. Common photo subject: SUNRISE. Beautiful!
41. Due in soon: ON ORDER
44. Online resource: WEB PAGE. Can't fit in Wikipedia.
46. Golden __: 50th anniversary: JUBILEE
47. Like a bogey, to a golfer: ONE OVER. I wrote down OVER PAR first.
48. Ruling: REGNANT. Same root with reign?
50. Cliff features: LEDGES. For the climbers to gain a toehold.
51. Visit unexpectedly: DROP IN
55. Yoga posture: ASANA. Maybe Lucina can show us some of her yoga pictures someday.
59. Trade punches: SPAR
62. Application form abbr.: NMI. No Middle Initial.
Answer grid.
Picture of the Day: Here is a happy photo of today's constructor Don Gagliardo and his beautiful wife Barbara in their backyard in the summer of 2009. Barbara loves shoes and inspired Don's great SHOE BOX puzzle.
C.C.
