Thursday October 16, 2008 Alan P. Olschwang

Theme: Be Brief

17A: Start of quip: I DON'T CARE

26A: Part 2 of quip: HOW MUCH A

33A: Part 3 of quip: MAN TALKS

46A: Part 4 of quip: IF ONLY HE

52A: Part 5 of quip: SAYS IT IN

66A: End of quip: A FEW WORDS

Yes indeed, brevity is the soul of wit after all. But don't be so brief that your comment is incomprehensible to others.

It's a Josh Billings quip. He also said: "Common sense is the knack of seeing things as they are, and doing things as they ought to be done." It reminds me of Bill Clinton's eulogy for Jackie: "God gave her very great gifts and imposed upon her great burdens. She bore them all with dignity and grace and uncommon common sense."

I don't understand this quote though: "The wheel that squeaks the loudest is the one that gets the grease. " Does he think that complaining is a good thing?

The clue for ABC (5D: Opening letters) is very jarring to my eyes. LETTER is the answer for 36A: Epistle. So many ways to clue ABC. In China, we call American-born Chinese as ABC.

Across:

5A: Takes steps: ACTS. I like verbs in a puzzle. A noun "Play parts" bores me.

9A: Donna lead-in: PRIMA. PRIMA Donna is the same as "Diva", isn't it?

15A: Record spoiler: BLOT

20A: Remove the rime: DE-ICE. And ICINESS (45D: Frigidity).

21A: Break down, as a sentence: PARSE. I don't understand the grammatical structure of the italicized part: "Who could Jenny be talking to that was worth appropriating moments set aside for a date with me? Some musical wonk?” ("Love Story")

32A: Reclined: LAIN. Lie's past tense LAY and past participle LAIN often confuse me.

40A: Isinglass: MICA

44A: White-collar worker?: CLERIC

56A: Long or hot finish?: SHOT. Nice clue. My instinctive thought was "Double eagle", which is actually long AND hot.

68A: Tapestry in "Hamlet": ARRAS. The Scandinavian rug rug RYA seems to be on exile now.

73A: Those, to Jose: ESAS. And BANCO (4D: Barcelona bank).

Down:

2D: Boggs of baseball: WADE. Nice HOF induction photo. The guy on the left is RYNE Sandberg, who often appears in our puzzle. WADE Boggs spent most of his career with the Red Sox. But I think he will root for the Rays tonight. I really like Matt Garza.

3D: Shunning: AVOIDANCE. I am not fond of the ING clue. "Dodger's goal" is better. Sorry about your loss last night, Carl V and all your Dodgers fans, but Phillies are a better team.

6D: Sound of thunder: CLAP. I thought of PEAL.

7D: Pentateuch: TORAH. "Pentateuch" is a new word to me.

8D: Unsaturated alcohol: STEROL. No idea.

9D: Early neonate: PREEMIE. New word to me also.

18D: Colorful tropical fish: TETRA. It's also prefix for four.

22D: Ingests: SWALLOWS. I don't quite grok this Plautus quote: "To blow and swallow at the same moment is not easy." Blow what?

25D: Pilgrimage destination: HOLY CITY

34D: "___ Bulba": TARAS. I forgot. I actually linked this TARAS Bulba clip last time when we had COSSACK ("Russian horseman") in our puzzle. Taras Bulba is an Urkraine COSSACK.

35D: Snow runner: SKI. So many Polish name end with SKI. White Sox's A. J. Pierzynski is of Polish descent.

39D: Dawn Chong and Carruth: RAES. We had Charlotte RAE before.

47D: Not by any means: NO HOW. Is it a slang? I've never heard of this before.

54D: ___ for the taking: YOURS. "... You are mine and I'm YOURS for the taking ... Lay Your Hands on Me..."

57D: Milton of Uganda: OBOTE. Unknown to me. I only knew Idi Amin. OBOTE is both Amin's predecessor and successor.

65D: Gun in old slang: GAT. Have not seen GAM for a long time. Alessandra has very long legs. She is my favorite Victoria's Secret model.

C.C.

Wednesday October 15, 2008 Allan E. Parrish

Theme: PRO (18D: Word before 17A, 57A, 11D and 25D) & CON (52D: Word before 17A, 57A, 11D and 25D)

17A: Davy Crockett portrayer: FESS PARKER

57A: Certain nuclear weapon: FUSION BOMB

11D:Early TV transmission: TEST PATTERN

25D: Plot: TRACT OF LAND

The clues for 18D & 52D are inaccurate. They are the words before the first word of above 4 theme entries.

I wonder if Mr. Parrish thought of extending CLAIM (10D: State as true) into CLAIM TO FAME (clued as EDMUND Hillary & Mt. Everest related), then we would have a PROCLAIM. Don't you think "Explorer Hillary" is a better clue for EMDUND (34D: Novelist White)? I've never heard of White before. Does he compare his works to Proust's?

I thought of 4 more phrases for another PRO themed puzzle: DUCT*, GRAM*, POSE* and FILE*. And BODY*, DOTE*, TRUST* and QUE* for an ANTI grid. "QUE será, será" will be an awesome theme answer.

(Addendum: Please ignore the above two paragraphs. I failed to see 52D clue and misread the whole theme of this creative puzzle).

Before I forget, do you know why "Pinkie" is cited as an example for visual pun? I can not grok it.

Across:

1A: "The Grapes of Wrath" family: JOAD. Without J from JIF (1D: Peter Pan rival), I would not have got this one. Can never remember this name.

5A: Clever remarks: QUIPS. I really have difficulty in understanding the cleverness in Allan P. Olschwang's QUIPS.

10A: Keyboard key: CTRL. Wish it were clued as "PC Key" to indicate an abbreviation, but theoretically the clue is flawless.

16A: "Star War" princess: LEIA. Carrie Fisher co-hosted TCM's "The Essentials" with Robert Osbourne for a short period of time. TCM should be a solid answer for clue 30A: "All-films stn. " (AMC), right?

19A: Author of "The Nazarene": ASCH (Sholem). I forgot. He appeared in our puzzle before. He wrote in Yiddish. Is "Sholem" the same as "Shalom"?

21A: Paper boss: EDITOR. It's sad that the NY Sun newspaper was shut down. I seldom solved their puzzles though, too hard for me.

23A: Beat circuits: PATROLS. I would prefer PATROLS clued as a verb.

27A: Dublin's land: EIRE. Have not seen ERIN for a long time.

38A: ASCAP's counterpart: BMI (Broadcast Music Incorporated). I am more familiar with Body Mass Index.

41A: Letters for shock treatment: ECT (ElectroConvulsive Therapy). Absolutely no idea.

45A: 1904 roadster: REO. I did not know it was introduced in 1904.

51A: Legal go-ahead: LICENSE

55A: "Tuesdays with Morrie": ALBOM (Mitch). He also wrote "The Five People You Meet in Heaven".

62A: Brass element: ZINC. Do multivitamins really help? What's your favorite brand? I have a hard time swallowing those big pills.

63A: "The Maltese Falcon" co-star: ASTOR (Mary). Have never seen this movie.

64A: Pasternak character: LARA. Refreshing clue. Our editor likes cluing LARA as "Dr. Zhivago's love". Yuri is also 4-letter. Nice pictures for "LARA's Theme". Simple, beautiful music, probably one of the best movie theme music.

Down:

3D: __ longa, vita brevis: ARS. It's clued as "___ gratia artis" last time.

4D: Identifiable as a unit: DISCRETE. The clue feels odd to me.

5D: Shrank in fear: QUAILED. I only know QUAIL as birds.

9D: Final run: STRETCH. I would love STRETCH to be clued as seventh-inning related to pair up with HOMER (29D: Round-tripper). I am rooting for Phillies and Rays. How about you?

13D: Lion of Oz: LAHR (Bert). Very strange surname, hard to remember.

24D: Top flier: AIR ACE. "Take My Breath Away" popped into my mind.

32D: La ___, WI: CROSSE. I wonder if the constructor considered putting in LACROSSE as a fill.

38D: A/C figures: BTUS

40D: Matched outfit: ENSEMBLE

43D: Singer Gloria: ESTEFAN. "I Just Can't Stop Loving You".

44D: ___ Bridge (NYC span): TRIBORO. When will it officially become RFK Bridge?

47D: "Billy __ ": ELLIOT. No, I've never heard of the movie or the musical. Only know "Mama" Cass ELLIOT.

53D: Haagen- ___: DAZS. I really like mochi ice cream.

55D: Hammett's terrier: ASTA. Toto is probably jealous of ASTA's status in our crossword world. He also has two vowels in his name.

59D: Single grain: OAT. I don't understand this clue. Why "Single grain"?

60D: Richie's father, to Fonzie: MR. C

C.C.