Theme: None
Total word: 72 / Total block: 30
Average word length: 5.42
This puzzle is framed by triple stacks of horizontal 11s in the top and bottom sections:
4A. Versatile crafts item : PIPE CLEANER. Only know the cleaning pipe cleaner. Not aware of the craft type.
16A. Decisive stroke : COUP DE GRACE. Literally "stroke of mercy".
18A. Eagle, notably : LUNAR MODULE. Was thinking of the band Eagles. This might be Barry's seed entry.
50A. "Mr. Television" : MILTON BERLE. Always nice to see a full name.
55A. Error result, often : UNEARNED RUN. Did you think of baseball immediately?
57A. Region of the North 30-Across : SARGASSO SEA. And ATLANTIC (30. It covers about 20% of the Earth's surface). These two do not consist a mini-theme as they are not symmetrically placed. Just a simple cross-reference.
Barry seems to be fond of clue cross-references now, esp in his themeless puzzles. Also, no more expected pangram. I think he's focused more on clean & smooth fill rather than scrabbliness. He also debuted quite a few new entries in this grid.
Total eleven 7-letter answers, all of them are in Downs, mostly placed in each corner paralleling one another.
Across:
1. Year in Pope Innocent III's reign : MCC. 1200. His reign: 1198-1216. Who knows? Why is he called "Innocent"?
15. "Memories __ Made Of This": 1956 chart-topper : ARE. Easy guess.
17. Sweetie : HON
19. Fills in for : ACTS AS
21. Much cybercommunication, briefly : IMS
22. One of the fam : SIB
23. Beat : THROB. Only one vowel.
24. Bean named for the Italian word for "bean" : FAVA. Good to know.
26. Default consequence, for short : REPO. Oh, auto payment default.
27. "Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies" author : MEAD (Margaret). Her name escaped me.
28. See 51-Down : SALE. And TAG ( 51D. With 28-Across, bargain hunters' mecca). Tag sale.
29. "Find out" : GO ASK
32. 1970s New York mayor : BEAME (Abe). From 1974-1977. He's in my memory shelf now.
33. Dessert shaper : JELLO MOLD. Did not come to me easily. I don't eat jello.
35. Have an outstanding loan from : OWE TO
37. Lengthen : PROTRACT. I like this entry too.
41. Damage indications : SCARS. What damage?
42. They aren't behind you : FOES. Tricky clue.
43. Under the decks : ALOW. As opposed to "aloft". Stumped me last time.
44. "Listen!" : HARK
45. Swell and dandy : FOPS. Swell and dandy here are nouns rather than adjectives.
46. Not a good thing to make in a restaurant : SCENE. Great clue.
47. Wall St. hedger : ARB (Arbitrager)
48. Salyut successor : MIR. Russian for "peace". De-orb-ed in 2001.
49. Vehement : FIERCE
54. Toon, familiarly, who debuted in "Devil May Hare" (1954) : TAZ. No idea. The Tasmanian Devil.
56. Threshold : EVE
58. German article : DER. German "the".
Down:
1. Sanskrit for "great soul" : MAHATMA. Tagore gave Gandhi this title.
2. Work with hooks : CROCHET. Literally "small hook".
3. Main : CENTRAL. Wouldn't be nice to see this entry in the very center of the grid?
4. Techie training site : PC LAB
5. Markers : IOUS. Don't know this slang meaning of "marker".
6. "I'd like to study philosophy, but I just Kant," e.g. : PUN. Buckeye's style of pun.
7. AQI calculator : EPA. Barry used AQI (Air Quality Index) in his grid before. Twice I think.
8. Windows disk designation : C DRIVE. My recovery is D Drive. I don't really understand why.
9. Auxiliary proposition : LEMMA. Need your help. I don't grok the clue and the answer means nothing to me
10. Strong ones may clash : EGOS. An echo from our hidden EGO on Thursday.
11. Dull ending? : ARD. Ending to the word dullard. Also drunkard. No other way to clue ARD.
12. Ad follower : NAUSEAM. Ad nauseam.
13. Surpass : ECLIPSE
14. Adidas subsidiary : REEBOK
20. Counterworker? : SODA JERK. Why question mark?
24. Tank : FAIL
25. Portmanteau drink : ALCOPOP. Portmanteau of alco(hol) and pop. Barry used this entry in his March 6, 2010 puzzle.
26. It might be a drag : ROAD RACE. Windhover would have nailed this one.
28. Battleground of 1944 : ST. LO. Or CAEN. They are close.
29. Moolah : GELT. Hanukkah moolah.
31. Prudential Center team : NETS. NBA.
32. Ballpark chorus : BOOS
34. G.I. fare : MRES
35. Tin whistle relative : OCARINA. Literally "little goose" in Italian. Oca = Goose.
36. Canary, at times : WARBLER
38. Tipped off : ALERTED
39. Like band shells : CONCAVE. Had to google "band shells" image to see what they are.
40. Grooming tool : TWEEZER. Love my teezer.
41. Detective, in slang : SHAMUS. New slang to me.
42. Business issue since 1917 : FORBES. Wow, such a long history.
45. Espoo natives : FINNS. Espoo is Finland's second largest city. At the bottom. Quite close to Helsinki.
46. City S of Florence : SIENA. In Tuscany.
48. New Mexico county or its seat : MORA. Too obscure for my taste. Three geography clues in a row!
49. Drawing device : FLUE. I sure was not thinking of chimney, Santa!
52. Shogun's capital : EDO. Shogun is derived from Chinese "Jiangyun" (general).
53. Where to see some sleepers: Abbr. : RRS. Railroad "sleepers".
Answer grid.
Blogger's new Spam Filter feature continues to spam comments with blue links in them, regardless of who the posters are. It seems that those linked posts appear immediately once published, but then disappear into the Spam Box until Argyle and I un-spam them. Please have patience. Thanks. Things are fine with normal text-only/link-less posts.
Updated @9:43am: Blogger seems to have ironed out the link problem. Everything is OK now.
C.C.
Total word: 72 / Total block: 30
Average word length: 5.42
This puzzle is framed by triple stacks of horizontal 11s in the top and bottom sections:
4A. Versatile crafts item : PIPE CLEANER. Only know the cleaning pipe cleaner. Not aware of the craft type.
16A. Decisive stroke : COUP DE GRACE. Literally "stroke of mercy".
18A. Eagle, notably : LUNAR MODULE. Was thinking of the band Eagles. This might be Barry's seed entry.
50A. "Mr. Television" : MILTON BERLE. Always nice to see a full name.
55A. Error result, often : UNEARNED RUN. Did you think of baseball immediately?
57A. Region of the North 30-Across : SARGASSO SEA. And ATLANTIC (30. It covers about 20% of the Earth's surface). These two do not consist a mini-theme as they are not symmetrically placed. Just a simple cross-reference.
Barry seems to be fond of clue cross-references now, esp in his themeless puzzles. Also, no more expected pangram. I think he's focused more on clean & smooth fill rather than scrabbliness. He also debuted quite a few new entries in this grid.
Total eleven 7-letter answers, all of them are in Downs, mostly placed in each corner paralleling one another.
Across:
1. Year in Pope Innocent III's reign : MCC. 1200. His reign: 1198-1216. Who knows? Why is he called "Innocent"?
15. "Memories __ Made Of This": 1956 chart-topper : ARE. Easy guess.
17. Sweetie : HON
19. Fills in for : ACTS AS
21. Much cybercommunication, briefly : IMS
22. One of the fam : SIB
23. Beat : THROB. Only one vowel.
24. Bean named for the Italian word for "bean" : FAVA. Good to know.
26. Default consequence, for short : REPO. Oh, auto payment default.
27. "Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies" author : MEAD (Margaret). Her name escaped me.
28. See 51-Down : SALE. And TAG ( 51D. With 28-Across, bargain hunters' mecca). Tag sale.
29. "Find out" : GO ASK
32. 1970s New York mayor : BEAME (Abe). From 1974-1977. He's in my memory shelf now.
33. Dessert shaper : JELLO MOLD. Did not come to me easily. I don't eat jello.
35. Have an outstanding loan from : OWE TO
37. Lengthen : PROTRACT. I like this entry too.
41. Damage indications : SCARS. What damage?
42. They aren't behind you : FOES. Tricky clue.
43. Under the decks : ALOW. As opposed to "aloft". Stumped me last time.
44. "Listen!" : HARK
45. Swell and dandy : FOPS. Swell and dandy here are nouns rather than adjectives.
46. Not a good thing to make in a restaurant : SCENE. Great clue.
47. Wall St. hedger : ARB (Arbitrager)
48. Salyut successor : MIR. Russian for "peace". De-orb-ed in 2001.
49. Vehement : FIERCE
54. Toon, familiarly, who debuted in "Devil May Hare" (1954) : TAZ. No idea. The Tasmanian Devil.
56. Threshold : EVE
58. German article : DER. German "the".
Down:
1. Sanskrit for "great soul" : MAHATMA. Tagore gave Gandhi this title.
2. Work with hooks : CROCHET. Literally "small hook".
3. Main : CENTRAL. Wouldn't be nice to see this entry in the very center of the grid?
4. Techie training site : PC LAB
5. Markers : IOUS. Don't know this slang meaning of "marker".
6. "I'd like to study philosophy, but I just Kant," e.g. : PUN. Buckeye's style of pun.
7. AQI calculator : EPA. Barry used AQI (Air Quality Index) in his grid before. Twice I think.
8. Windows disk designation : C DRIVE. My recovery is D Drive. I don't really understand why.
9. Auxiliary proposition : LEMMA. Need your help. I don't grok the clue and the answer means nothing to me
10. Strong ones may clash : EGOS. An echo from our hidden EGO on Thursday.
11. Dull ending? : ARD. Ending to the word dullard. Also drunkard. No other way to clue ARD.
12. Ad follower : NAUSEAM. Ad nauseam.
13. Surpass : ECLIPSE
14. Adidas subsidiary : REEBOK
20. Counterworker? : SODA JERK. Why question mark?
24. Tank : FAIL
25. Portmanteau drink : ALCOPOP. Portmanteau of alco(hol) and pop. Barry used this entry in his March 6, 2010 puzzle.
26. It might be a drag : ROAD RACE. Windhover would have nailed this one.
28. Battleground of 1944 : ST. LO. Or CAEN. They are close.
29. Moolah : GELT. Hanukkah moolah.
31. Prudential Center team : NETS. NBA.
32. Ballpark chorus : BOOS
34. G.I. fare : MRES
35. Tin whistle relative : OCARINA. Literally "little goose" in Italian. Oca = Goose.
36. Canary, at times : WARBLER
38. Tipped off : ALERTED
39. Like band shells : CONCAVE. Had to google "band shells" image to see what they are.
40. Grooming tool : TWEEZER. Love my teezer.
41. Detective, in slang : SHAMUS. New slang to me.
42. Business issue since 1917 : FORBES. Wow, such a long history.
45. Espoo natives : FINNS. Espoo is Finland's second largest city. At the bottom. Quite close to Helsinki.
46. City S of Florence : SIENA. In Tuscany.
48. New Mexico county or its seat : MORA. Too obscure for my taste. Three geography clues in a row!
49. Drawing device : FLUE. I sure was not thinking of chimney, Santa!
52. Shogun's capital : EDO. Shogun is derived from Chinese "Jiangyun" (general).
53. Where to see some sleepers: Abbr. : RRS. Railroad "sleepers".
Answer grid.
Blogger's new Spam Filter feature continues to spam comments with blue links in them, regardless of who the posters are. It seems that those linked posts appear immediately once published, but then disappear into the Spam Box until Argyle and I un-spam them. Please have patience. Thanks. Things are fine with normal text-only/link-less posts.
Updated @9:43am: Blogger seems to have ironed out the link problem. Everything is OK now.
C.C.
