Wednesday August 27, 2008 Willy A. Wiseman

Theme: He Must Be Off

17A: Screwball pitcher: DIZZY DEAN

36A: Peculiar parodist: WEIRD AL

58A: Millinery fruitcake: MAD HATTER

11D: Touched toon: DAFFY DUCK

32D: Kook of Koontz: ODD THOMAS

Of the above 5 theme answers, DIZZY Dean was a gimme, and I knew DAFFY Duck. The three 3 were new to me. But I caught the theme very earlier on, so I did not struggle that much.

I solved this puzzle without peeking at the constructor's name. After I was done, I thought it was from John Underwood. We have not seen his work for a long time. Now I am so curious to see who will be the QUIP/QUOTE author tomorrow. Can't be Alan P. Olschwang as we just did his VICTORY puzzle yesterday. Maybe Robert H Wolfe?

The clue for EIDER (37D: Downy duck) definitely needs to be changed as we had DAFFY DUCK as an answer. "Spread Down?" sounds good to me.

Across:

4A: With 64A: Wild Sioux: CRAZY. And HORSE (64A: See 4A). The monument looks quite imposing right now. But I can't wait to see the finished sculpture.

9A: Golden-touch king: MIDAS. Interesting to see ANE (59D: Dijon donkey) in the grid. MIDAS has donkey ears.

15A: Actress Anouk: AIMEE. I've never seen any of her movies. Her parents must love her a lot to name her AIMEE.

19A: Crime group: MAFIA. I like "GoodFellas".

22A: Gabfest: CONFAB. I forgot. Saw this clue before. Is CONFAB a common word?

23A: Ground-nesting Old World bird: BUSTARD. Foreign to me. Dictionary says BUSTARD came from a blend of French word "bistarde" and "outarde'. Both from Latin "avis tarda", meaning "slow bird". Great BUSTARD.

27A: Of armorial bearings: HERALDIC

30A: Came up: AROSE. Here is A ROSE for you. I also like the clues for ITCHES (47D: Restless desires) and YEN (8D: Desire), don't you?

42A: Balin and Clair: INAS. Yawner! Can you think of something else to clue INAS?

45A: Conventional: ORTHODOX

48A: Rabbits' kin: HARES. And HUTCH (50D: Rabbit residence). I wanted WARREN.

53A: Cigar fan: SMOKER. Yep, Freud is right, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

55A: Gumshoe: TEC. Always thought of Pinkerton seeing this clue. Pinkerton has a very successful Intellectual Property Investigation service in China.

57A: Actress Veronica: HAMEL. Unknown to me. WP says she is in "Hill Street Blues". Oh, I saw Andy Sipowicz (Dennis Franz) in the picture. Which one is HAMEL? The girl on the last row?

61A: Clean with a bill: PREEN. I am so vain.

62A: Fifth of MV: CCI. Hmm, me, I, myself.

63A: No longer in: PASSE

Down:

1D: Back of a tape: SIDE B

5D: Passengers: RIDERS. Great EASY RIDER clip.

7D: Fervor: ZEAL. I like the Z's in today's puzzle. See also ZETAS (18D: Greek letters).

9D: Champagne cocktail: MIMOSA. Did not know that MIMOSA was invented at Ritz Hotel in 1925.

10D: Without sense: INANELY

22D: Chick of jazz: COREA. This should make Katherine happy.

24D: Over again: ANEW

25D: Card displays: MELDS. No idea. I don't play canasta or any card game.

27D: Little well-furred rotund mammal: HYRAX. Another unknown animal. WP says "From a distance, a HYRAX could be mistaken for a very well-fed rabbit or guinea pig." He looks so cute.

29D: Charlotte or Gary, e.g.: CITY. Clever clue.

33D: Sots: WINOS. So many words to decribe a drunkard.

38D: Org. of Gulbis and Creamer: LPGA. Ah, the prettiest girls in LPGA Tour. Both have dangerous looking dip drives. See this clip.

41D: Movers' partners: SHAKERS

46D: End of a threat: OR ELSE. "?!!"

49D: Passover meal: SEDER. Did not know that SEDER means "order" in Hebrew.

51D: Standing tall: ERECT. Long, ERECT flower stalk.

55D: Cocoyam: TARO. I had no idea that TARO is also called cocoyam. I miss so much the TARO cakes in Guangzhou.

C.C.

Tuesday August 26, 2008 Alan P. Olschwang

Theme: VICTORY (40A: Sign found in 18A, 24A, 50A and 61A)

19A: "Guitar Town" singer: STEVE EARLE

24A: Carry out: GIVE EFFECT TO

50A: Certain lineman: DEFENSIVE END

61A: Renewable power source: WAVE ENERGY

This puzzle brought to my mind Churchill's VICTORY quote: "Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival."

It's an OK puzzle, not very exciting but much better than a lazy Quip. I liked the position of VICTORY in the grid. Lots of 4-letter words. I suppose it's mainly due to the length of the theme answers.

Other **VEE** words I've got are: VEEP, LEVEE, VEER, HUMVEE, the French word ELEVEE and the song "I Only Have Eyes for You". What other words can you think of?

Across:

5A: Woven net: MESH. Mariah Carey looks gorgeous in this MESH tank top.

16A: Nora's pooch: ASTA. From "The Thin Man".

22A: Colorful mount: ROAN. We need to have a discussion today about what exactly colors a ROAN horse exhibits.

28A: MacDonald's refrain: EIEIO. Inaccurate. It should be "Old MacDonald" refrain.

33A: Dweeb: NERD. Remember TWIRP/TWERP the other day?

35A: Wear away: FRAY. What's the difference between "Become raveled" and "Become unraveled"?

43A: Astronomer Tycho: BRAHE. I got his name from down fills. Yipes, look at his mustache.

59A: "Painting" painter: MIRO. I don't like this clue at all. "Painting" is not that well-known. This is his "Dog Barking at the Moon".

60A: Follow logically: ENSUE. Hmm, looks like our editor lacked the courage to clue ENSUE as "Come next" again. Martin sure had fun last time. Here is Beatles' "Come Together", for you.

70A: Mountain lake: TARN. I can never remember this word. WP says TARN is "derived from Old Norse word tjörn, meaning pond". This is TARN Hows in England.

Down:

1D: Scrawny one: SCRAG. Know SCRAGGY. Have heard of SCRAG.

2D: Maiden in Koranic paradise: HOURI. Their "virginity is renewable at pleasure", what a dream! It's so hard for me to picture HOURI & PERI (Persian fallen angels) as the same level as other beautiful creatures like Venus, Aphrodite, Apollo & Adonis.

3D: Bogey: ONE OVER PAR. I wonder why Humphrey Bogart was called "Bogey/Bogie". Did he play lots of golf?

4D: Famous meteor shower member: PERSEID. New to me. Have barely heard of constellation Perseus. PERSEID is defined as " one of a shower of meteors that appears to originate in the vicinity of the constellation Perseus during the second week of August."

7D: Cubic meter: STERE. I only learned this morning that STERE is from Greek "stereós" meaning solid.

8D: Total confusion: HAVOC

9D: Distinct personality: IDENTITY. Are they really synonymous? I thought of INDIVIDUALITY for "Distinct personality".

12D: Place for cargo: HOLD. CARGO was clued as "Hold contents" yesterday.

25D: Stereotypical poodle: FIFI. How come it's never clued as the annual FiFi Award?

30D: Magical command: OPEN SESAME

33D: Mount of Moses: NEBO. This is where Moses died I suppose. And 2 more Biblical mounts: SINAI ("Ten Commandments") & ARARAT (Noah's Ark).

40D: Impassioned: VEHEMENT

46D: Lettering aid: STENCIL

49D: "___ Got You Under My Skin": I'VE. Not a familiar song to me. I just heard it and I liked it. Beautiful song. Frank Sinatra had such an colorful life, so involved in American politics, JFK & Reagan adm. in particular.

51D: Half a tenner: FIN. Or "Half a sawbuck".

53D: Water wheel: NORIA. Unknown to me. It's "a device consisting of a series of buckets on a wheel, used in Spain and the Orient for raising water". See this picture.

54D: Techno-rock artist Gary: NUMAN. Pieced his name together from the across fills. Katherine, do you know this Gary?

63D: Long-snouted fish: GAR. Huge GAR. Is it edible?

64D: Over there, briefly: YON. I don't understand this Robert Burns' "O Were My Love YON Lilac Fair. But it looks beautiful, with "purple blossom" and "red rose". What does "I'd feast on beauty a' the night" mean?

C.C.