Friday September 9, 2011 Bruce R. Sutphin

Theme: Get your fat RS out of here! A letter removal puzzle with some real wit offered up for our Friday enjoyment. Each of 4 well known phrases has the letter combination R and S removed, including in the last one where they appear twice in the phrase. Bruce Sutphin had his first puzzle published in July on a Friday (the one adding “TAG”) so I may apply for a job as his blog caddy. Like his first one, I found this very entertaining and creative, but not as challenging as many Fridays. Let us see what he did this time.

17A. Village with very little gardening equipment?: ONE HORSE TOWN. An old phrase changed into a new, very DF one. See Don Imus below. Brave to use HOE in a puzzle.

27A. Entrance purchases for a conditioning program?: FIRST CLASS TICKETS. Fit class; how many belong to gyms?

44A. What Ruth forgot to bring to pool night?: CURSE OF THE BAMBINO. As all the Red Sox fans here (LaLa et al.) will tell you , the curse is long gone. Babe Ruth, not some random Biblical woman.

57A. Like calls between drudges?: PERSON TO PERSON. Rather cruel to poor peons.

and the unifier,

66A. Failures (and in another way, a hint to 17-, 27-, 44- and 57-Across): LOSERS, which you must parse as LOSE RS.

Nice theme, let's see some fill.

Across:

1. Gung-ho response: I'M ON IT. Yes boss, my nose is naturally brown.

7. Delay : LAG.

10. Evans of country: SARA, how many for Country Music? (4.02)

14. Buff: POLISH. Not a hunk, and not an Eastern European.

15. Farm female: EWE. Too bad you linked for Thursday, Argyle.

16. Left: QUIT. Left the room.

19. The NCAA's Runnin' Rebels: UNLV. University of Nevada, Las Vegas; Jerry Tarkanian's basketball teams put this school on the map.

20. Lab, for one: DOG. My first grandpuppy is half black lab, half boxer. Big sweetie.

21. Reject: NIX.

22. Sends: ELATES. Like, "Baby, you send me." Very fifties.

24. Jacket label letters: ISBN. International Standard Book Number. Back to acronymville.

26. Get off the shoulder, say: TOW. Nice visual clue.

35. Actor Milo: O'SHEA. A wonderful character actor, whose name no one knows.

36. Pool game call: MARCO. POLO. A most fun game I played with my brothers. It looks like this, but please turn down your speakers. (3.13)

37. Tiny beef: NIT. You think the other constructors are picking on you Hearti?

38. Fly on a line: LURE. Great clue.

39. Gives credit where credit is due: CITES. Including proper citations is vital in legal writing.

40. On the safer side: ALEE. There is windward and leeward.

41. Rational ending?: IZE. I wonder how mean people rationalize their behavior?

42. "__ it Art?": Kipling: BUT IS. A Poem.

43. 1955 UN joiner: SPAIN. Really I have them all memorized, they joined with Albania, Cambodia and Libya. NOT!

47. Morgan Freeman won its 2011 Life Achievement Award: Abbr.: AFI. American Film Institute.

48. Morning talker: IMUS. He was not my favorite even before this infamous broadcast.

49. Fly over the equator?: TSETSE. The whole fly and nothing but the fly.

52. Pleased cry: YES. More DF; WH, Dennis, I am afraid my video was censored.

53. Droid, e.g.: PDA. Personal Digital Assistant.

56. Slip through the cracks?: OOZE.

61. Run well: PURR. Man the engine on Barry G's 300 really purrs.

62. Unsound: ILL.

63. Like Napoleon: EXILED. Able was I ere I saw Elba.

64. Relaxing locales: SPAS. Hi, mb.

65. The Hartford logo: ELK. A real gimme for our Connecticut group?

Down:

1. Tune carrier: IPOD. No more Steve Jobs.

2. One-track: MONO. As opposed to stereo, not like the mind of most of the macho men.

3. Couturier Cassini: OLEG. Jackie O's favorite and father of Tina, but that's another story.

4. Med. research agency: NIH. Oh wow, surprise an acronym, National Institute of Health.

5. Bar opening?: ISO. Isobar. Meteorology; I personally thought of: "Are you from Tennessee? Because you're the only ten I see!"

6. Pistons' place: THE NBA. I think this is the first time we have seen the whole name.

7. Last non-priest to be named pope: LEO X. One of the de Medicis. For the ladies....

8. "Isn't that cute?": AWW. Have you seen my sweet bald grand niece? Awwwww.

9. It involves mapping: GENETICS. Nice misdirection.

10. Gripe: SQUAWK. Not to complain, but I had trouble with this one.

11. Reunion attendee: AUNT, unless you eat outside then it is ANT.

12. Stir up: RILE. Maybe too many acronyms could RILE some bloggers?

13. Off-rd. rides: ATVS. All Terrain Vehicle (S).

18. Worker with light metal: TIN SMITH. Leaves me speechless.

23. Bonkers: LOCO. Spanish.

24. Slush Puppie maker: ICEE, not to be confused with a Slurpee.

25. Radical '70s group : SLA. Symbionese Liberation Army. The captors of Patty Hearst.

27.__ acid: vitamin B9: FOLIC.

28. Amigo on the road: ISUZU. You all remember Joe?

29. Crowd starter?: THREE. Three's a crowd unless you were John Ritter.

30. "Socrate" composer: SATIE. A work for voice and piano by Erik Satie, a crossword specialist.

31. Nice compliment: TRÈS BIEN. You did not think we would get through without at least one French lesson? This catch all phrase means basically "very good" but is used in so many ways.

32. Zhou __: ENLAI, for you youngsters, your history lesson.

33. Happy Meals toy, e.g.: TIE IN. Generally to a movie promotion.

34. Writer of short letters: STENO. Stenographers use Shorthand when taking dictation. This concept was created by Cicero's slave Tiro.

39. Honey : CUTIE PIE. A cutie pie and an aww, this image.

40. NYPD notices: APBS. All Points Bulletin (S).

42. Ones who've got your back, in Internet shorthand: BFFS. Best Friend Forever (S)

43. Future George W. Bush Presidential Library site: SMU. Southern Methodist Universitym where dandy Don Meredith played quarterback.

45. "Hondo" et al.: OATERS. Westerns and a second shout out to HH.

46. Dutch brewery: AMSTEL. What Friday would be complete without a beer reference?

49. A-one: TOPS.

50. Food in a memorable "Seinfeld" episode: SOUP. Actually, many episodes. (3.59)

51. Pound of verse: EZRA. a major poet who was very antisemitic and supported Mussolini and Hitler and denounced the US.

52. White partner: YOLK, ha ha, not a black and white answer. The Yolk is on you!

53. "__ Eterno": 2004 sports documentary : PELE, arguably the greatest soccer player of all time. (3.29)

54. Active sort: DOER, how many of our retired teachers hate the axiom "the who can do those who can't teach?"

55. Addenda: ANDS, why use only four letters when you squeeze out 7?

58. Lascivious leader?: ELL. LASCIVIOUS. Another Df word form Bruce. Yummy.

59. Big name in kitchenware: OXO. Good grief, more good grips!

60. Tecs: PIS. Why not one more; Private Investigator (S).

Answer grid.

Well I had a really good time again, and I hope you all have a wonderful day and week end. Thanks Bruce for the work, maybe just a touch heavy on the acronyms; and "see" you all on the other side.

Lemonade