Theme: What is the plural of deer?
You want more than one theme entry? This puzzle has many, (count them: SIX, with four in the vertical position!) which use a plural phrase without an "s". In fact, there is no other plural in the puzzle. Just ask any constructor, how difficult this is to achieve! (I just re-wrote this paragraph to get rid of four of them. Can you guess what my original note was?)
And here is the full list:
20A. Phenoms : WUNDER KINDER. Literally, German for "Phenoms" or child prodigies. Shall we start off with eine kleine Mozart? 9:00 (Just let it play in the background, while you read the rest...)
55A. Trochee and iamb : METRICAL FEET. Trochee is a stressed syllable, followed by an unstressed one. One of my favorites is from Macbeth:
Double, double, toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
An Iamb is the opposite: it consists of an unaccented syllable, followed by an accented one. Iambic tetrameter has four of these per line, as in Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening":
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
3D. Some living legends : GRAND OLD MEN. Not to be confused with "Grumpy Old Men". 1:16
5D. Exemplars of poverty : CHURCH MICE. Attributed to Lewis Carrol, but there are no quotes in his writing that mention them!
26D. Some molars : WISDOM TEETH. Is the plural of Kissing Booth - "beeth"?
32D. Museums for astronomy buffs : PLANETARIA. Ahhh...pure Latin 101. Neuter nouns ending in -um are pluralized by ending them in -a.
And the reveal:
You want more than one theme entry? This puzzle has many, (count them: SIX, with four in the vertical position!) which use a plural phrase without an "s". In fact, there is no other plural in the puzzle. Just ask any constructor, how difficult this is to achieve! (I just re-wrote this paragraph to get rid of four of them. Can you guess what my original note was?)
And here is the full list:
20A. Phenoms : WUNDER KINDER. Literally, German for "Phenoms" or child prodigies. Shall we start off with eine kleine Mozart? 9:00 (Just let it play in the background, while you read the rest...)
55A. Trochee and iamb : METRICAL FEET. Trochee is a stressed syllable, followed by an unstressed one. One of my favorites is from Macbeth:
Double, double, toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
An Iamb is the opposite: it consists of an unaccented syllable, followed by an accented one. Iambic tetrameter has four of these per line, as in Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening":
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
3D. Some living legends : GRAND OLD MEN. Not to be confused with "Grumpy Old Men". 1:16
5D. Exemplars of poverty : CHURCH MICE. Attributed to Lewis Carrol, but there are no quotes in his writing that mention them!
26D. Some molars : WISDOM TEETH. Is the plural of Kissing Booth - "beeth"?
32D. Museums for astronomy buffs : PLANETARIA. Ahhh...pure Latin 101. Neuter nouns ending in -um are pluralized by ending them in -a.
And the reveal:
59D. Last letter in most plurals (but not in this puzzle's six longest answers, which are the only plurals in this grid) : ESS
Marti here, to unravel this WUNDER-ful puzzle for you. I blogged his last LAT puzzle in January, which I thought was a masterpiece. He always goes for unusual themes, and this one is no exception.
Across:
1. Historical novel, usually : SAGA. "Forsythe Saga" comes to mind.
5. CCCII x III : CMVI. Do the math!
9. Digital camera option : ZOOM. Or, half a Mazda commercial. 0:29
13. Show signs of age, as wallpaper : CURL. I live in an 1890 Victorian. CURLing wallpaper is the least of my problems!
14. Gray with age : HOARY. OK, I am feeling my age now...
16. Ohio tribe : ERIE
17. Ventura County city : OJAI. Oh, hi!
18. Prepare to transplant, as to the garden : UNPOT. I am re-potting all my plants right now...so this one was a write-over!
19. Swig : BELT. Tinbeni, I bet you never BELT down your avatar!
23. Trip letters : LSD. Lysergic Acid Diethylamide. Tim Leary's drug of choice.
24. Breezed through : ACED.
25. Cut : SAWED.
29. "Death, that hath suck'd the honey ___ breath": Shak. : OF THY. "...hath no power yet upon thy beauty..." Death scene in "Romeo and Juliet"
31. Fitting : APT
33. 10-Down suffix : ITE. and 10-D. Raw mineral : ORE. Ores: Bauxite, graphite, pyrite and onyx...(oops - that last one was just too scrabbly to leave out!)
34. Peace in the Middle East : SALAAM
36. Ginormous : COLOSSAL. Fun clue!
38. Env. info : ADDR.ess on an envelope
39. Sardegna o Sicilia : ISOLA. Italian for "Island". Geography lessons! #1 Sardinia. #2 Sicily.
41. Mine entrance : ADIT. Hello, crossword friend!
42. A little too clever : GIMMICKY
44. Physicist Tesla : NIKOLA. Another old friend is back!
46. 64-Across spec : EEE. A size for Daisy Duck? and 64A. Nine West product: SHOE. Popular women's brand.
47. Shell game need : PEA.
Across:
1. Historical novel, usually : SAGA. "Forsythe Saga" comes to mind.
5. CCCII x III : CMVI. Do the math!
9. Digital camera option : ZOOM. Or, half a Mazda commercial. 0:29
13. Show signs of age, as wallpaper : CURL. I live in an 1890 Victorian. CURLing wallpaper is the least of my problems!
14. Gray with age : HOARY. OK, I am feeling my age now...
16. Ohio tribe : ERIE
17. Ventura County city : OJAI. Oh, hi!
18. Prepare to transplant, as to the garden : UNPOT. I am re-potting all my plants right now...so this one was a write-over!
19. Swig : BELT. Tinbeni, I bet you never BELT down your avatar!
23. Trip letters : LSD. Lysergic Acid Diethylamide. Tim Leary's drug of choice.
24. Breezed through : ACED.
25. Cut : SAWED.
29. "Death, that hath suck'd the honey ___ breath": Shak. : OF THY. "...hath no power yet upon thy beauty..." Death scene in "Romeo and Juliet"
31. Fitting : APT
33. 10-Down suffix : ITE. and 10-D. Raw mineral : ORE. Ores: Bauxite, graphite, pyrite and onyx...(oops - that last one was just too scrabbly to leave out!)
34. Peace in the Middle East : SALAAM
36. Ginormous : COLOSSAL. Fun clue!
38. Env. info : ADDR.ess on an envelope
39. Sardegna o Sicilia : ISOLA. Italian for "Island". Geography lessons! #1 Sardinia. #2 Sicily.
41. Mine entrance : ADIT. Hello, crossword friend!
42. A little too clever : GIMMICKY
44. Physicist Tesla : NIKOLA. Another old friend is back!
46. 64-Across spec : EEE. A size for Daisy Duck? and 64A. Nine West product: SHOE. Popular women's brand.
47. Shell game need : PEA.
48. Durable cloth: DENIM
49. Africa's northernmost capital : TUNIS. Another geography lesson.
51. Suffragette who co-founded Swarthmore : MOTT. Lucretia Coffin Mott. What a name! She was a Quaker minister and a major figure in the reform movements of the 19th century.
52. "Conan" airer : TBS. Turner Broadcasting System.
59. Tombstone lawman : EARP. Shootout at the OK corral.
62. Fishing boot : WADER. Usually seen in the plural, but this puzzle won't allow that! My dad used these all the time. He was a great fly fisherman, and taught me when I was 6. I still love it!
63. Private jet maker : LEAR. Dudley, have you ever flown one?
65. Muscat native : OMANI. The capital of Oman is Muscat. Geography lesson # 4 today.
66. Periodic table fig. : AT. NO. Atomic Number "o"?. (Why is the abbr. of number "NO"? There is NO "O" in number!)
67. It may be rigged : SAIL
68. "After the Thin Man" dog : ASTA
69. Oft-misused pronoun : WHOM. For who the bell tolls?
Down:
1. Tough guy's expression : SCOWL. "Make my day..."
2. How roast beef may be served : AU JUS.
4. "Put ___ on it!" : A LID
6. Capuchin, e.g. : MONKEY. Or just monk...
7. Lacking sharpness : VAPID.
8. Waffle maker : IRON. I peeked at this perp for the across clue, and mistakenly filled in "I-Hop". Bad girl!
9. Last critter in an ABC book : ZEBRA
11. Fry cook's supply : OIL. EVOO, anyone?
12. Bumped into : MET. No baseball ref?
15. Abbr. in a CFO's report : YTD. Chief Financial Officer. Year to date.
21. "Do I dare to ___ peach?": Prufrock musing : EAT A.
| "Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach? | |
| I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach. | |
| I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each..." |
22. This, in Tijuana : ESTO
27. Cybercommerce : E-TAIL. And some web dating sites...
28. Sedimentary formation : DELTA
30. "Charlotte's Web" setting : FARM
31. Chat room inits. : AOL. Is there anyone online in America who does not know this "initialism"?
34. "Full House" actor : SAGET. Later reduced to host of AFV. Combined.
35. "Farewell, chérie" : ADIEU
36. Coquettish : COY
37. Munro's pen name : SAKI. The pen name may be a reference to the cupbearer in the Rubáiyát by Omar Khayyam.
40. Reggae relative : SKA. Yay! Another music link. Very interesting history of the genre. 6:18
43. ___ dixit: unproven claim : IPSE. Latin for "He himself said it".
45. IOC part: Abbr. : INT'L. International Olympic Committee. (Triple double letters in "committee". Cool word)
48. Museum guide : DOCENT
50. Drive forward : IMPEL
51. Cursed alchemist : MIDAS. Yeah, I should be so cursed...
53. Lotto variant : BEANO
54. Pol Thurmond : STROM. South Carolina senator from 1954-2003.
56. Couple : TWO
57. Avatar of Vishnu : RAMA. In this case, avatar means "manifestation", not that little picture on your blog entry.
58. Weak spot : FLAW
60. Word of discovery : AHA
61. Palais resident : ROI. French "palace" in the clue, and French answer for "king". I bet you got that one, Abejo. Right?
Answer grid.
That's all until next week!
Hugs,
Marti
