Thursday August 14, 2008 Alan P. Olschwang

Theme: Money Matters

19A: Start of a quip: MONEY

25A: Part 2 of quip: IS WHAT THINGS

40A: Part 3 of quip: RUN INTO

51A: Part 4 of quip: AND PEOPLE RUN

61A: End of quip: OUT OF

I am AT A LOSS (44D: Perplexed) for words over this puzzle. There are some quality clues and lively answers. But I really don't grok this quip.

I know PEOPLE can "RUN OUT OF MONEY", but how can things "RUN INTO MONEY"? It does not make any sense to me.

Whatever, MONEY can indeed be a powerful aphrodisiac. I would buy a graded (PSA 7 or better) Topps 1952 Mickey Mantle if I were rich. How about you?

Across:

5A: Poker variation: STUD. STUD is such a virile word, so many ways to play around.

9A: Archipelago member: ISLET. Is "Keys" a kind of ISLET?

16A: Tall military hat: SHAKO. Now, what's the name of that showy red stuff atop the hat? Strange shape, strange position!

20A: Atlanta's transit system: MARTA (Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority). No idea. I strung the answer together from down clues.

22A: Fleetwood Mac hit: SARA. Here is the song. I've never heard of it before.

28A: Sister/Wife of Zeus: HERA. And their mother is RHEA.

29A: Restaurant employee: MAITRE D'. I like the intersection of this word with RISTORANTE (30D).

33A: Iowa city: AMES. The Cyclones (Iowa State) are here.

38A: Turbulent: ROILY

42A: Haggard novel: SHE. I simply forgot. Saw this clue before. Here is the book cover.

43A: CoverGirl rival: ALMAY. I like CoverGirl's LashBlast.

47A: Tex-Mex menu choice: TOSTADA. This Avocado TOSTADA looks delicious.

59A: Classify: SORT. Does "pegged" in "Have someone pegged" mean "classified" also?

63A: Iron pumper's pride: LATS. I would not have got this one without the down fills. Not a familiar term to me.

67A: Cato's way: ITER

68A: Sundance Kid's girl: ETTA. Have not seen ETTA clued as "Kett of comics" for a long time.

70A: Carolina rail: SORA. Looks like she is ready to attack.

71A: Virginia dance: REEL. Pure guess. Not a familar dance to me.

Down:

1D: Likewise: AS AM I. I wanted ME TOO.

3D: Pushes beyond endurance: OVERWHELMS. Interesting way to define OVERWHELMS.

4D: Cuts canines: TEETHES

6D: L'chaim or prosit: TOAST. Hebrew & German respectively. "Gan Bei" in Chinese.

7D: Bathsheba's Hittite hubby: URIAH. Certainly not a gimme to me. I have such difficulty remembering this Dickens character.

8D: Disadvantage: DETRIMENT

9D: Ending of a belief: ISM. Hmmm, no guts to clue it as "The ending of sex"?

10D: Gives a look at: SHOWS TO. Ha, this answer did not crumble so easily to me at all.

26D: No-no: TABU. Needs a variation mark in the clue.

27D: __d'Italia (bicycle race): GIRO. Another guess. Dimly remember this race at Lance Armstrong's "It's Not About the Bike".

30D: Italian eatery: RISTORANTE. "Restaurant" in Italian. Unknown to me. I pieced it together from the perps.

31D: K-12, in education: ELHI (Elementary & High school). I could picture the frown from KittyB.

46D: Writer of "The Faerie Queene": SPENSER (Edmund). Foreign to me. Easily inferable though. Are you familiar with this poet and his poem?

48D: Toothy deg.: DDS (Doctor of Dental Science/Surgery). Not sure which one is the license to drill.

52D: Muse of lyric poetry: ERATO. "Lovely" name.

62D: Tina of "30 Rock": FEY. She certainly rocks!

C.C.

Wednesday August 13, 2008 Robert H. Wolfe

Theme: Horsing Around? Neigh!

17A: City horse-to-be?: MARE (MAYOR) ELECT

62A: Equestrian leather work?: REIN (RAIN) MAKER

11D: Stable stall? MANE (MAIN) OFFICE

28D: Horse's blinder?: BRIDLE (BRIDAL) VEIL

This would have been a perfect Derby Day puzzle.

I was so enthralled by those homophonic puns, very interesting to solve. I wanted to merge 38A & 40A and somehow created **SADDLE**. I like puzzles with a run-through theme answer.

This constructor is very good at wordplay, and I think he loves animals, which are often found roaming around in his puzzles. I wonder when he is going to clue WOLF.

I am not fond of putting too many *SS words in one grid: ASS (44D: Pompous fool); USELESS (21A: Serving no purpose); HISS (47A: Spy Alger); ROSS (13D: Flag fabricator); SASS (31D: Lip). HARASS (47D: Really bother).

Quite A FEW (37A: Not many) new words/names to me, but they were all conquerable by the crossing fills.

Across:

5A: Firefighter's sprayer: HOSE. I like this outdoor sink with HOSE reel. It does not look too sturdy though.

9A: Truman's birthplace: LAMAR (MO)

16A: Balbo or Calvino: ITALO. I am tired of this clue. Why not clue it as "From Rome, prefix" to please all those ITALOphiles?

19A: Canonical hour: NONES. Here is a wonderful list Ken found last week:

Vigils: Night prayer
Matins: Sunrise prayer (note the spelling)
Lauds: Also at sunrise
Prime: first hour (6:00 am)
Terce: third hour (9:00 am)
Sext: 6th hour (12:00 noon)
None: 9th hour (3:00 pm )
Vespers: Sunset
Compline: (just before bed)

20A: Printing guide: STENCIL

25A: Ring above the collar?: HALO. Such a heavenly clue! I like it.

26A: Some roof ends: GABLES. What purpose do GABLES serve? Or are they just decorative features?

35A: Gold: AURUM. I only know its symbol is AU. Had no idea of its complete spelling. AG is for silver.

38A: Destroyer escort: FRIGATE. Foreign to me. I got it from the down fills.

40A: Sporting dog: SPANIEL. Spot looked so confused.

43A: Arab garments: ABAS. Yawner. Have some courage to rebel. "ABAS le roi"!

45A: Empirical philosopher: LOCKE (John). Know him only because of his "tabula rasa" idea, which was originally pioneered by Aristotle.

53A: Contrary: ADVERSE

64A: Filaments: HAIRS. Are you happy with this clue?

66: In __ veritas: VINO. So true, "There is truth in wine".

67A: "___ Shrugged": ATLAS. I've never read the book, probably as difficult as Sylvia Plath's "Ariel". I don't think I can understand.

69A: Novelist Shusaku: ENDO. Unknown to me. He wrote "The Samurai". Interesting way to clue ENDO, which is also the prefix for "Inner". See EXO (63D: Outer: pref). But I suppose the direct oppsite of ENDO is "ECTO".

Down:

1D: Money for mendicants: ALMS. "mendicant" is a new word to me.

2D: Perfectly: TO A T

5D: Greek sun god: HELIOS. Sol for the Romans.

6D: Nancy of "Access Hollywood": O'DELL. What's that red dot on her dress?

8D: Caesar's penultimate words: ET TU. BRUTE just appeared yesterday.

9D: Narrow and elongated: LINEAR

18D: Itchy skin woe: ECZEMA. I can never remember the spelling of this word.

26D: Faux pas: GAFFE. Isn't GAFFE a big "faux pas"?

27D: Of the ear: AURAL. Or OTIC.

29D: Racing sled: LUGE

39D: Follows: TAILS. Have to show you again this PREHENSIBLE TAIL Argyle found last week.

41D: Call to arms: ALARUM. Unknown to me also. It's the archaic spelling of ALARM. The clue should have "once" to indicate its old-fashionedness.

48D: Gordon ___, aka Sting: SUMNER. New to me again. I only knew Sting as Sting.

52D: Goldoni of "Shadows": LEILA. I've never seen "Shadows". Have never heard of her name either. (Addendum: The answer is wrong, should be LELIA)

C.C.