Theme: Duh, just add "D." Each of the four theme answers are common phrases, which when a "D" is added to the end of the last word, create an entirely new and witty phrase. This week have seen a "G" added to the beginning, and now a "D" to the end, Gol Darn what fun. My early Christmas present is getting to blog a JL which is loaded with George Bush's favorite- trickeration, which is a real treat. So let us leave the pumpkin patch and see what this twisted mind had in store for us.
17A. Comedian for hire?: RENTAL CARD. This pun almost Hertz, as we see a rental car transformed to a funny man; what a card JL is.
23A. What Shakespeare's parents had to do?: RAISE THE BARD. To raise the bar, to seek greater accomplishment, and Will was known as the bard of Avon, recalling our Brit lady from earlier.
47A. Green that's hard to swallow?: CHOKE COLLARD. Collards are in the cabbage family, and very popular in the South, though cooked properly you will not choke. I do not like seeing dogs on choke collars, they seem quite cruel.
57A. Memoir title for Sela?: ACTS OF WARD. From an act of war to the acting of Sela Ward, she now co-stars in CSI:NY, did you know you can watch complete episodes on your computer? Just go to this LINK.
and the middle of the grid unifier; 37A. Low grade, or an appropriate title for this puzzle: D PLUS. In case card and bard had not done it for you.
A really fun theme, which was delivered wrapped in:
Across:
1. Traveler's reference: ATLAS. I wonder if young people raised on GPS and MapQuest even know what an atlas is?
6. Baldwin of "30 Rock": ALEC. The oldest of the brothers and ex of Kim Basinger.
10. A month of Sundays: AGES. JL being a friend of the Corner, rewards us with a classic clecho; 21A. A month of Sundays: EON. A nice shout out to our creative marine.
14. Go after: CHASE. Like a dream.
15. "Later, dahling!": CIAO. Italian night with JL, as we also have, 46D. Italian sweetheart: CARO. And a fine Italian reference 34D. Teatro __ Scala: Milan opera house: ALLA. From our musical maestro, the correct name of La Scala.
16. Fictional sleuth who first appeared in the Saturday Evening Post: MOTO. This series was commissioned by the Post after the death of Earl Der Biggers, the creator of the Charlie Chan character. The writer was a Post staffer, named JP Marquand, who later won a Pulitzer Prize for the delightful, The Late George Appleby which is still an entertaining read.
19. Expresses delight: OOHS. And if your are really good he/she will also give you some aahs.
20. Finis, in Frankfurt: ENDE. German lesson, if you want to guess where we get our word...
17A. Comedian for hire?: RENTAL CARD. This pun almost Hertz, as we see a rental car transformed to a funny man; what a card JL is.
23A. What Shakespeare's parents had to do?: RAISE THE BARD. To raise the bar, to seek greater accomplishment, and Will was known as the bard of Avon, recalling our Brit lady from earlier.
47A. Green that's hard to swallow?: CHOKE COLLARD. Collards are in the cabbage family, and very popular in the South, though cooked properly you will not choke. I do not like seeing dogs on choke collars, they seem quite cruel.
57A. Memoir title for Sela?: ACTS OF WARD. From an act of war to the acting of Sela Ward, she now co-stars in CSI:NY, did you know you can watch complete episodes on your computer? Just go to this LINK.
and the middle of the grid unifier; 37A. Low grade, or an appropriate title for this puzzle: D PLUS. In case card and bard had not done it for you.
A really fun theme, which was delivered wrapped in:
Across:
1. Traveler's reference: ATLAS. I wonder if young people raised on GPS and MapQuest even know what an atlas is?
6. Baldwin of "30 Rock": ALEC. The oldest of the brothers and ex of Kim Basinger.
10. A month of Sundays: AGES. JL being a friend of the Corner, rewards us with a classic clecho; 21A. A month of Sundays: EON. A nice shout out to our creative marine.
14. Go after: CHASE. Like a dream.
15. "Later, dahling!": CIAO. Italian night with JL, as we also have, 46D. Italian sweetheart: CARO. And a fine Italian reference 34D. Teatro __ Scala: Milan opera house: ALLA. From our musical maestro, the correct name of La Scala.
16. Fictional sleuth who first appeared in the Saturday Evening Post: MOTO. This series was commissioned by the Post after the death of Earl Der Biggers, the creator of the Charlie Chan character. The writer was a Post staffer, named JP Marquand, who later won a Pulitzer Prize for the delightful, The Late George Appleby which is still an entertaining read.
19. Expresses delight: OOHS. And if your are really good he/she will also give you some aahs.
20. Finis, in Frankfurt: ENDE. German lesson, if you want to guess where we get our word...
22. Euripides tragedy: MEDEA. No doubt JL's subtle shout to your obedient Friday blogger, and the husband of this barbarian princess, who was cast aside for a king's daughter and got her revenge killing the king and the daughter, and her two children with Jason. Maybe, as the first reference to this heinous act appears to be in the Euripides play. My father used to tell me this was his father's (who was a tailor) favorite Greek playwright, telling his sons all of the time "Euripides pants, I'm gonna smack you." LINK.
27. Zoo re-creation: HABITAT. Did anyone watch Zookeeper? Or Rise of the Planet of the Apes?
30. Hippy dances?: HULAS. The question mark and the punny spelling of hippie, tell you the fun has begun. A literal and damned witty clue.
31. More than portly: OBESE. A literal and damning clue.
32. Frost, for one: POET. See, I knew there was a reason I mentioned this poet last week.
30. Hippy dances?: HULAS. The question mark and the punny spelling of hippie, tell you the fun has begun. A literal and damned witty clue.
31. More than portly: OBESE. A literal and damning clue.
32. Frost, for one: POET. See, I knew there was a reason I mentioned this poet last week.
33. Opening: GAP. Like in Michael Strahan's teeth.
36. __ chic: GEEK. Really, has The Big Bang Theory taken over?
39. 18-Down's love: SOLO. Han from the Star wars movies, linked to the great misdirection, 18. Princess with great buns?: LEIA, referring not to her gorgeous glutes, but her hair.
40. Orch. section : STR. Strings, you knew our musically adept Mr. Lampkin would not leave music from his effort.
41. Quarry: PREY. Not rocks but dinner.
42. Post-tonsillectomy treat: JELLO. No ice cream? Do they take out tonsils anymore?
43. Gauchos' gear: BOLAS. The weapon of choice for our Spanish cowboys.
45. Tabloid fodder: SCANDAL. Dis you hear about, the latex, oh never mind.
50. Material for some balloons: LATEX. Also a favorite of many a DOMINATRIX. (0:53).
51. Couple's pronoun: OUR. Not Freddy this week.
52. Continental wine region: ASTI. More Italian, Spumante anyone?
56. Punta del _ : ESTE. Off the coast of Uruguay.
60. Massage therapy pioneer Ida: ROLF. Interesting LADY who created ROLFING, not to be confused with ralphing.
61. Way: PATH.
62. Support in a loft: EASEL. Really intricate misdirection, as the artist all rent lofts to paint and bring their easels.
63. South Dakota's Wounded __: KNEE. Site of one of our nation's most horrible actions.
64. Hudson River city: TROY. Troy is located on the western edge of Rensselaer County, hence the name of RPI, the alma mater to two of our bloggers. RPI was founded in 1824, the first US college dedicated to science, and its alumni started MIT.
65. "That's just crazy talk!": MY EYE. Anther nice shout out from JL for all my ocular challenges, NOT!
Wow, it was work, fun bit now we must move on to:
Down:
1. Part of a plot, often: ACRE. Of land silly, not a book.
2. "All righty __!": THEN. A cute phrase, best said by a pretty woman. You know who you are.
3. Developer's need: LAND. See 1D. These days they really need buyers more.
4. Star of "61*"? : ASTERISK. A wonderful visual! Not the movie, just the title.
5. Ross __: SEA. We are back in ANTARCTICA.
6. Buttonhole: ACCOST. Like all of the old politicians, nice old word buttonhole.
7. Retired NPR host Hansen: LIANE. SHE retired.
8. It may be lent or bent: EAR. "Friends, Romans, Countrymen..."
9. Grand Banks catch: COD. Fish story.
10. Slide specimen: AMOEBA.
11. Easy to babysit, say: GOOD AS GOLD. This ended in "D" and had ten letters, but not part of theme.
12. Number no longer used?: ETHER. Numb-er. NUMB like the dentist, silly.
13. "Such a shame": SO SAD. Used by the young to ridicule, the break up line being, "too bad, so sad."
22. Get weak in the knees MELT.
24. Had: ATE.
25. K or G: THOU, these are two common abbreviations for One thousand dollars, e.g. I need 2K, or front me 2 Gs. This took me the longest time to see, really felt stupid.
26. Shades: HUES. Not sunglasses worn by Dr. House.
27. Big bikes: HOGS. We have had this before.
28. Stand watch, say: ABET. The lookout.
29. Colt 45 holder: BEER BOTTLE. Well, I get my beer reference (nice misdirection with the mental picture of the gun in a holster) but this is a malt liquor, not a beer, so is the bottle a beer bottle? Did you know the product was not named for the gun, but for number 45 for the Baltimore Colts?
32. Layer: PLY. If you ply her with enough drinks you might.
35. Parlor game: POOL. More properly, pocket billiards.
37. Movie monster, casually: DRAC. Really, who is friendly enough with Dracula to use this?
38. Tip of the Yucatán peninsula?: PESO. My complete favorite, as I wasted three minutes trying to recall my geography lessons and picture the end of the Peninsula, only to have the light bulb come on and realize he means TIP, like to waiter. D'OH! You are a fiend.
39. Banish: SEND AWAY.
41. Movie house suffix: PLEX. Cineplex 24, why?
42. Vase, in a pinch: JAR. I use big cups, but never put Tinman's Pinch in jar.
44. Michael of "Caddyshack": O'KEEFE. The kid in this always watchable MOVIE.(2:21).
45. Like many ski slopes in April: SLUSHY.
47. Uriah Heep, by profession: CLERK. Maybe in David Copperfield, but not this SONG.(2:53)
48. Is sporting: HAS ON.
49. Numbers game: LOTTO. $203,000,000.00 in Powerball this Saturday; let's pool our money and buy $1000.00 in tickets.
53. Freelancer's enc.: SASE. Self Addressed Stamped Envelope.
54. "South Park" co-creator Parker: TREY. He and his partner also did The Book of Mormon on Broadway, which no doubt inspired this recent COMMENT.
55. Empty: IDLE. Not Eric.
57. On-target: APT.
58. Wheels: CAR.
59. Neither masc. nor neut.: FEM. Feminine.
Answer grid.
On that sexual note, I am out of here and must wait until November to return, but please do not forget to all return on November 23 to say hi and a Thanksgiving for having a place to come to talk puzzle, make friends, laugh, share and even put up with anons. I will start naming names soon, so please be ready to say at least hi and how you are. Jeannie, we miss you. Mrs. Calabash where are you?
Lemonade
