Theme: It all ADDS UP (to a sinister riddle)!! The first three letters of the theme entries are synonyms for "add". But, Don G. and C.C. have taken it a step further by using words that change the pronunciation of the "add" synonyms. I have provided links to the theme entries, so you can hear the difference. Just click the speaker next to the entry, and you will hear the correct pronunciation. C.C and Don G. have also provided us with a nice visual, in the form of "plus" signs within the grid. I noticed those immediately when I opened the puzzle, did you?
16A. Rikishi's contest : SUMO MATCH. Did you learn to do "sum" math in grammar school? A "rikishi" is the Japanese word for a professional sumo wrestler. It is also the ring name for professional wrestler Solofa F. Fatu, Jr. I watch him all the time...(not ! - see 62A)
28A. City known as the political capital of Africa : ADDIS ABABA. After your ABC's, I bet you learned how to add two and two! Addis Ababa is located in central Ethiopia.
43A. Pacific Northwest cedar monuments : TOTEM POLES. To "tot" up figures sounds like an old-fashioned phrase. Because of the moist climate in the pacific northwest, few examples of totem poles carved before 1900 exist today.
And, (wait for it!!...) the unifier:
55A. The three in this grid are a hint to the starts of 16-, 28- and 43-Across : PLUS SIGNS
Marti here, and I am delighted to blog another one of our dynamic duo's offerings!
Across:
1. Altar constellation : ARA. I hate it when the lead-in fill is something I don't know (or forgot 2 seconds after I had it in the last puzzle...) So we are going to have a little astronomy lesson right off the bat: Ara is latin for "altar". And it kind of looks like one, don't you think?
4. Picked locks? : AFRO. Great misdirection. These "dos" sometimes still have the "pick" stuck in them!
8. Where to see Goyas : PRADO. Museo Nacional del Prado, in Madrid.
13. Translating computer program : COMPILER
15. Had pizza delivered, say : ATE IN. Got indigestion...
18. Vice __ : VERSA.
19. DFW airport home : TEX. Dallas - Fort Worth, Texas.
20. Lei presenter : WAHINE. The Hawaiian word for "woman". Can also mean a surfer girl.
22. Bit for the dog bowl : ORT. Why do they always get the orts?
23. Tapped-out character : DIT.
24. Popping up all over : RIFE. From old English rīfe; related to Old Norse rīfr generous, Middle Dutch rīve. Who knew???
25. Plaintive wind, perhaps : OBOE. The oboe does sound sad, especially when used to portray the poor duck in "Peter and the Wolf". Interesting narration by David Bowie.
26. First-year law student : ONE-L. Scott Turow's book One L says it all.
30. Battlefield display : HEROICS. Billy, don't be a hero...
32. King's problem in "The King's Speech" : STUTTER. Wonderful movie! Have you all seen it?
33. Polo Grounds #4 : OTT. Dang! Why can I never remember my baseball facts? I knew Mel Ott from, oh, about a thousand crossword puzzles. But "Polo Grounds" threw me for a while. Remember? That was the name of four different stadiums in upper Manhattan, used by the New York Metropolitans, Giants, Yankees and Mets...
34. Place to see bull horns : LEA. They share the lea with the sheep, you know.
35. Reorganize, and then some : SHAKE UP. Great fill.
39. Thrill : DELIGHT
45. NYC neighborhood : NOHO. Short for "North of Houston". I have heard some New Yorkers pronounce this as "how-sten". Is that a local thing?
46. Make __ dash : A MAD. What is everyone so mad about?
47. Scandinavian saint : OLAF. Also a college in Northfield, MN. You can get tickets to listen to Garrison Keeler's "Prairie Home Companion" live broadcast from there on November 19.
48. Rascal : IMP
49. Like Gen. McChrystal : RET. An outspoken and sometimes controversial four-star general, he RETired in July of 2010.
50. Quite soon : ANY DAY. Yep, "Any day now, I'll get to those weeds in the garden..."
52. Bearded beast : GNU. Who gnu?
53. What a case may go to : TRIAL. Yeah, but we have Lemonade and Hahtool on our side!!
58. Gravy no-no : LUMPS. I always leave a few lumps in my gravy, just so everyone knows I made it from scratch, and not from a can...
59. Billie Holiday's real first name : ELEANORA. I forgive you guys! My oldest sister's name was Eleanor (R.I.P.)
60. El primer mes : ENERO. "The first month", in Spanish: January.
61. Houston MLBer : STRO. I guess this is short for "Astro"? And Major League Baseball?
62. "Just kidding!" : NOT.
OK, time for a sip of wine, and then lets continue to
Down:
1. Rm. coolers : ACs. Abbr. and plural in the clue lets us know it's not "fan".
2. Stand-up performance : ROUTINE.
3. Current contraption : AMMETER. This one gave me fits, as I was thinking of "ohmmete..." but I ran out of spaces.
4. Align the cross hairs : AIM
5. Fly in the ointment : FLAW.
6. Slows : RETARDS. Phew! This one could have been a very un-PC clue.
7. Prom corsage : ORCHID. Does anyone grow orchids besides Vidwan and me?
8. Work on the street : PAVE. Heh, heh..I had a totally different kind of work in mind...
9. MapQuest output: Abbr. : RTE. Route.
10. Pilot in a show : AEROBAT. Another one that gave me fits. I wanted "aeronau..." Dang! Ran out of spaces again! But, it's a real word - aerobatics are performed by - what else? - Aerobats!
11. Prepare for the hot tub : DISROBE. OK, I will refrain...
12. Painting the town red : ON A TEAR. "On a spre...". OK, I'm just going to have to stretch this grid out a little bit, to fit in all my answers.
14. "A __ upon thee!" : POX. Who said that?
17. Oldies players : HI-FIs. Oldies? OLDIES? Who you callin' "old", Miss C.C.?? My Hi-Fi was the latest thing in H.S. !!
21. Gets cozy : NESTLES. Every morning, I like to nestle into the crook of DH's arm when I wake up. My favorite part of the day!
23. [Facepalm!] : D'OH. The Urban Dictionary defines "facepalm" as "The act of dropping one's face / forehead into one's hand. Usually accompanied by a "thunk" or a cry of "D'oh!" " We here on the blog just use a V8 can...
25. Lay one's hands on : OBTAIN
27. Undid the blindfold : LOOKED. No fair peeking!
28. Do more than just consider : ACT UPON
29. "The Clan of the Cave Bear" writer : AUEL. I have her latest, The Land of the Painted Caves, on my iPad, waiting to be read. (It's #11 on the list...).
31. Tabloid pair : ITEM
35. Scare : STARTLE
36. Jeter's 3,000th hit, e.g. : HOME RUN. Derek, if memory serves me...
37. Unit by unit, in succession : AT A TIME. One at a time...
38. Coral component : POLYP
39. Foreclosure cause : DEFAULT. Oops!
40. In progress : GOING ON
41. Author better known as Saki : H.H. MUNRO. "Saki" is a reference to the cup-bearer in the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám.
42. Word with seed or banana : TOP
44. Tureen utensils : LADLES
50. Besides : ALSO. And furthermore...
51. Strategic WWI river : YSER. Through France and Belgium.
52. Gibson need : GIN. Marti's need, at this point...
54. Spring mo. : APR. Let me check my calendar...
56. Common word on Brazilian maps : SAO. (Forgive the lack of punctuation accents): Sao Paolo, Sao Luis, Sao Jose de Ribamar, Sao Lourenco de Mata, Sao Goncalo do Amarente, Sao Cristovao, Sao Mateus... you get the idea!
57. Watched the kids : SAT. While they were studying for their college admission tests...
Answer grid.
Whew! That was fun, and I'll see y'all again real soon!
Marti
Note from C.C. and Don:
Don cooked up this idea. We wanted to see if we could use plus signs in the grid to convey meaning in a phrase. Since plus signs are addition, we thought the theme phrases could begin with words that mean "add". We kept it to three letter words, and noticed that the pronunciation in one of the theme phrases was different than the "add" word. We liked that idea, and followed it through for the other two theme answers. The real challenge, though, was trying to get three plus signs into the grid. Hence, we ended up with ELEANORA in 59-Across, if you will forgive us. Does this puzzle remind any of you Don's L-BARS grid image?
16A. Rikishi's contest : SUMO MATCH. Did you learn to do "sum" math in grammar school? A "rikishi" is the Japanese word for a professional sumo wrestler. It is also the ring name for professional wrestler Solofa F. Fatu, Jr. I watch him all the time...(not ! - see 62A)
28A. City known as the political capital of Africa : ADDIS ABABA. After your ABC's, I bet you learned how to add two and two! Addis Ababa is located in central Ethiopia.
43A. Pacific Northwest cedar monuments : TOTEM POLES. To "tot" up figures sounds like an old-fashioned phrase. Because of the moist climate in the pacific northwest, few examples of totem poles carved before 1900 exist today.
And, (wait for it!!...) the unifier:
55A. The three in this grid are a hint to the starts of 16-, 28- and 43-Across : PLUS SIGNS
Marti here, and I am delighted to blog another one of our dynamic duo's offerings!
Across:
1. Altar constellation : ARA. I hate it when the lead-in fill is something I don't know (or forgot 2 seconds after I had it in the last puzzle...) So we are going to have a little astronomy lesson right off the bat: Ara is latin for "altar". And it kind of looks like one, don't you think?
4. Picked locks? : AFRO. Great misdirection. These "dos" sometimes still have the "pick" stuck in them!
8. Where to see Goyas : PRADO. Museo Nacional del Prado, in Madrid.
13. Translating computer program : COMPILER
15. Had pizza delivered, say : ATE IN. Got indigestion...
18. Vice __ : VERSA.
19. DFW airport home : TEX. Dallas - Fort Worth, Texas.
20. Lei presenter : WAHINE. The Hawaiian word for "woman". Can also mean a surfer girl.
22. Bit for the dog bowl : ORT. Why do they always get the orts?
23. Tapped-out character : DIT.
24. Popping up all over : RIFE. From old English rīfe; related to Old Norse rīfr generous, Middle Dutch rīve. Who knew???
25. Plaintive wind, perhaps : OBOE. The oboe does sound sad, especially when used to portray the poor duck in "Peter and the Wolf". Interesting narration by David Bowie.
26. First-year law student : ONE-L. Scott Turow's book One L says it all.
30. Battlefield display : HEROICS. Billy, don't be a hero...
32. King's problem in "The King's Speech" : STUTTER. Wonderful movie! Have you all seen it?
33. Polo Grounds #4 : OTT. Dang! Why can I never remember my baseball facts? I knew Mel Ott from, oh, about a thousand crossword puzzles. But "Polo Grounds" threw me for a while. Remember? That was the name of four different stadiums in upper Manhattan, used by the New York Metropolitans, Giants, Yankees and Mets...
34. Place to see bull horns : LEA. They share the lea with the sheep, you know.
35. Reorganize, and then some : SHAKE UP. Great fill.
39. Thrill : DELIGHT
45. NYC neighborhood : NOHO. Short for "North of Houston". I have heard some New Yorkers pronounce this as "how-sten". Is that a local thing?
46. Make __ dash : A MAD. What is everyone so mad about?
47. Scandinavian saint : OLAF. Also a college in Northfield, MN. You can get tickets to listen to Garrison Keeler's "Prairie Home Companion" live broadcast from there on November 19.
48. Rascal : IMP
49. Like Gen. McChrystal : RET. An outspoken and sometimes controversial four-star general, he RETired in July of 2010.
50. Quite soon : ANY DAY. Yep, "Any day now, I'll get to those weeds in the garden..."
52. Bearded beast : GNU. Who gnu?
53. What a case may go to : TRIAL. Yeah, but we have Lemonade and Hahtool on our side!!
58. Gravy no-no : LUMPS. I always leave a few lumps in my gravy, just so everyone knows I made it from scratch, and not from a can...
59. Billie Holiday's real first name : ELEANORA. I forgive you guys! My oldest sister's name was Eleanor (R.I.P.)
60. El primer mes : ENERO. "The first month", in Spanish: January.
61. Houston MLBer : STRO. I guess this is short for "Astro"? And Major League Baseball?
62. "Just kidding!" : NOT.
OK, time for a sip of wine, and then lets continue to
Down:
1. Rm. coolers : ACs. Abbr. and plural in the clue lets us know it's not "fan".
2. Stand-up performance : ROUTINE.
3. Current contraption : AMMETER. This one gave me fits, as I was thinking of "ohmmete..." but I ran out of spaces.
4. Align the cross hairs : AIM
5. Fly in the ointment : FLAW.
6. Slows : RETARDS. Phew! This one could have been a very un-PC clue.
7. Prom corsage : ORCHID. Does anyone grow orchids besides Vidwan and me?
8. Work on the street : PAVE. Heh, heh..I had a totally different kind of work in mind...
9. MapQuest output: Abbr. : RTE. Route.
10. Pilot in a show : AEROBAT. Another one that gave me fits. I wanted "aeronau..." Dang! Ran out of spaces again! But, it's a real word - aerobatics are performed by - what else? - Aerobats!
11. Prepare for the hot tub : DISROBE. OK, I will refrain...
12. Painting the town red : ON A TEAR. "On a spre...". OK, I'm just going to have to stretch this grid out a little bit, to fit in all my answers.
14. "A __ upon thee!" : POX. Who said that?
17. Oldies players : HI-FIs. Oldies? OLDIES? Who you callin' "old", Miss C.C.?? My Hi-Fi was the latest thing in H.S. !!
21. Gets cozy : NESTLES. Every morning, I like to nestle into the crook of DH's arm when I wake up. My favorite part of the day!
23. [Facepalm!] : D'OH. The Urban Dictionary defines "facepalm" as "The act of dropping one's face / forehead into one's hand. Usually accompanied by a "thunk" or a cry of "D'oh!" " We here on the blog just use a V8 can...
25. Lay one's hands on : OBTAIN
27. Undid the blindfold : LOOKED. No fair peeking!
28. Do more than just consider : ACT UPON
29. "The Clan of the Cave Bear" writer : AUEL. I have her latest, The Land of the Painted Caves, on my iPad, waiting to be read. (It's #11 on the list...).
31. Tabloid pair : ITEM
35. Scare : STARTLE
36. Jeter's 3,000th hit, e.g. : HOME RUN. Derek, if memory serves me...
37. Unit by unit, in succession : AT A TIME. One at a time...
38. Coral component : POLYP
39. Foreclosure cause : DEFAULT. Oops!
40. In progress : GOING ON
41. Author better known as Saki : H.H. MUNRO. "Saki" is a reference to the cup-bearer in the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám.
42. Word with seed or banana : TOP
44. Tureen utensils : LADLES
50. Besides : ALSO. And furthermore...
51. Strategic WWI river : YSER. Through France and Belgium.
52. Gibson need : GIN. Marti's need, at this point...
54. Spring mo. : APR. Let me check my calendar...
56. Common word on Brazilian maps : SAO. (Forgive the lack of punctuation accents): Sao Paolo, Sao Luis, Sao Jose de Ribamar, Sao Lourenco de Mata, Sao Goncalo do Amarente, Sao Cristovao, Sao Mateus... you get the idea!
57. Watched the kids : SAT. While they were studying for their college admission tests...
Answer grid.
Whew! That was fun, and I'll see y'all again real soon!
Marti
Note from C.C. and Don:
Don cooked up this idea. We wanted to see if we could use plus signs in the grid to convey meaning in a phrase. Since plus signs are addition, we thought the theme phrases could begin with words that mean "add". We kept it to three letter words, and noticed that the pronunciation in one of the theme phrases was different than the "add" word. We liked that idea, and followed it through for the other two theme answers. The real challenge, though, was trying to get three plus signs into the grid. Hence, we ended up with ELEANORA in 59-Across, if you will forgive us. Does this puzzle remind any of you Don's L-BARS grid image?
