Thursday September 25, 2008 Alan P. Olschwang

Theme: Catch Me if You Can

20A: Start of a quip: HE WHO COURTS THEN

40A: Part 2 of a quip: RUNS AWAY, LIVES TO

54A: End of quip: COURT ANOTHER DAY

The original quote from Evan Esar is "He who courts and runs away, lives to court another day".

As usual, I don't fully grasp this quip. Why would he "LIVES TO COURT ANOTHER DAY" if he "RUNS AWAY"? What if "He is Just Not That into You" in the first place?

Very interesting to see RELAID (36A: Installed again, as tiles) so early in the morning. I hope the tiles are installed properly this time. I would change the clue for ANCHOR (4D: Relay finisher" into "Brian Williams, e.g." I often check his "Nightly News" just to see what tie he is wearing that night. I would also change the VEIN (13D: Layer of ore) into "The way to Brian Williams' heart?"

Wish the clue for SILLS (30D: Window bases) were "Soprano Beverly" to pair up with OPERA (21D: Massenet work), and I would reword the clue for OUIS (55D: Arles assents) into "Arles Législature votes" to match YEAS (71A: Affirmative votes). I also think there should be an abbreviation mark for VETTE (42D: Sporty Chevy).

Easy sailing this morning. Had to google EST (47D: Erhard's program) though. I was stumped by ESS (51A: 19th of a certain series).

Across:

1A: Madame Bovary: EMMA. The only Flaubert novel I've read. Poor little thing, she should have known that the sea of adultery is very stormy and unpredictable.

10A: Prison knife: SHIV. Slang for switchblade. I forgot. Did watch "In Cold Blood" and vaguely remembered the character made such a weapon out of a toilet brush.

18A: Skylit courtyards: ATRIA. I often confuse ATRIA with ALTRIA (Philip Morris). Kraft has a very formidble presence in China.

19A: Wrinkled citrus fruit: UGLI. I've never had this "Exotic tangelo from Jamaica".

44A: Change with time: EVOLVE

49A: Scottish feudal lord: THANE. New to me. Shakespeare's Macbeth's is THANE of Cawdor & THANE of Glamititle.

64A: Kind of trail: VAPOR. What caused this VAPOR trail?

67A: Immature seed: OVULE

Down:

7D: Ashram member: GURU. ASHRAM was clued as "GURU's community" last time.

9D: Rhubarbs: SPATS. I did not know the slang meaning of "Rhubarb". That's a huge RHUBARB.

10D: Golden table wine: SAUTERNE. Clear Ayes probably knows a lot about this semisweet white wine.

25D: Add to the heap?: SCRAP. What's the origins of "Deep-six" and "Eighty-six"? Faintly remember someone explained them to me before. But I crossed the River Lethe.

28D: One possessed?: SLAVE. Nice clue. Here is Britney's "I am a SLAVE 4 U".

32D: ___ del Sol: COSTA. Got it from the across clues. Would have been a gimme were it clued as COSTA Rica.

33D: Sean of "The Lord of the Rings". Learned his name from doing Xword.

37D: Cote resident: EWE. I always thought cote is for bird.

38D: Fourth of MMXVI: DIV. Roman 504.

41D: Cheap ocean passage: STEERAGE. Jack won his STEERAGE passage in a poker game in "Titanic".

54D: Edible first prize: CAKE. Razzberry, do you like this flourless chocolate CAKE?

56D: Samovars: URNS

58D: Artistic work: OPUS. OK, Kittyb, this Paderewski piece is for you.

59D: Lacquered metalware: TOLE. Nice flower tray.

62D: Poisonous evergreens: YEWS. I suppose YEW wood is not poisonous, otherwise, how could archery bows be made of YEWS?

C.C.

A Nice Crossword Story

Below information is from Guardian's Crossword Editor's blog.

In 1929 the Manchester Guardian offered two prizes (two guineas and one guinea) for the best original story of not more than 200 words making the maximum use of words deployed only by crossword setters. The response was enormous and the prize went to a Mr RH Edmondson of Windermere for the following:

"Ena sat under the lee of a tor, singing an aria in Erse. Her molars gleamed; her ebon tresses shaded the tan on her nose. Idly she drew tunes in the loam. An erne rose from the mere, and the evil cry of an otter rang o'er the lea.

"Beside her sat a gallant tar, full of ale and élan. 'Fly with me,' he cried, 'my liner is at the quay and I have a store of taels and liras.' And he talked on Eden and of far manors of taro and copra where errant emus are, and beys and emirs dine on dates and all the denes team with irate asps and boas.

"But she must stay with her sire to ted the hay and ret the flax, tend the ewes and drive the bats out of the buttery. And what about her fiancé? A man of title, an Earl; he would slit his carotid with a snee if she eloped and she had no alibi."So she wended her way home, and the tar took his taels to some other damsel and the Earl jilted her. And she lived at home and did the crossword puzzles ever after.