Friday October 24, 2008 Edgar Fontaine

Theme: "Marry" Has a Little Rhyme

18A: Hogwarts' student: HARRY POTTER

23A: Former Heavyweight Champion: LARRY HOLMES

38A: Director of "Rain Man": BARRY LEVINSON

51A: Phillie with eight gold gloves: GARRY MADDOX

58A: Hatchet-wielding temperance advocate: CARRY NATION

"Rain Man" is a great movie, but I've never paid attention to its director's name. I am not familiar with either LARRY HOLMES or GARRY MADDOX. The only Phillie I could think of is Mike Schmidt (also 11-letter).

Besides GARRY MADDOX, there are also CUB (58D: Chicago pro) and ABNER (54D: Doubleday of baseball) for a baseball undertone. Though it's been debunked, I still like the myth that Doubleday invented baseball.

I think our editor was watching ball games while editing this puzzle, so many flaws. Awful clue for HITHERTO (11D: Until now) due to UNTIL (63A: Up to). A clue for Clara BARTON (6D: Coen film, "__ Fink") would have avoided the COEN (27D: "Fargo" director) duplication. There should be a "briefly" hint for OTS (32A: Bonus periods).

Across:

1A: Maternal flower?: MUM. Well, only in the UK, isn't it? It's MOM here. "Silent flower?" is better.

4A: Travail: LABOR

9A: Cause for a blessing? ACHOO

17A: Sound intensity units: abbr.: DBS (Decibels). Stumper for me.

20A: Hardest to fathom?: DEEPEST. Can you think of a word/phrase to clue DEEPEST without using "-est" (or "most"/"least")?

22A: Hebrew letter: RESH. New to me. It's 20th letter of Hebrew alphabet. Notice nun, tet and shin? Great words to play around for those Xword constructors.

26A: Writer Umberto: ECO. Hee, I finally remember his name.

29A: Needle case: ETUI. Long time no see!

30A: Toshiba rival: NEC. NEC belongs to Sumitomo. One of the earliest foreign companies to enter China after our "Open Door" policy (1978). Coca - Cola was an early bird too.

31A: Rider's whip: CROP. New to me. I've never heard of riding CROP or leather tongue.

35A: Oscillates: VIBRATES. I always associate VIBRATES with a trembling motion rather than "swing back and force".

55A: Alaska's first governor: EGAN. Wikipedia says EGAN is "the only governor in the state's history to have actually been born in Alaska." Sarah Palin was born in Sandpoint, Idaho.

57A: Singer Flack: ROBERTA. I love her "Killing Me Softly With His Song".

Down:

1D: Be a busybody: MEDDLE

3D: Capital of Lesotho: MASERU. No idea. LESOTHO was clued as "Basutoland, today" on a TMS Sunday puzzle before. It's encircled by South Africa.

4D: Massachusetts medical clinic: LAHEY. Another unknown. Is it as famous as Mayo Clinic?

8D: Actor Alejandro: REY. I googled his name, then I realized that I had searched for him before. He is in Elvis's "Fun in Acapulco".

24D: Tool for evening: LEVELER. New word to me.

25D: DLII times II: MCIV. Roman 1104.

28D: Saturn's wife: OPS. Googled again. Her equivalent is Rhea in Greek mythology. Saturn (Cronus) ate all his children except Jupiter (Zeus). How cruel!

36D: Again, in music: BIS. I wonde what's the origin for BIS.

39D: Be ruled by: ANSWER TO

49D: Forces from: EXACTS. The clue should be "Forces (from)", don't you think so?

C.C.

Thursday October 23, 2008 Alan P. Olschwang

Theme: Cold-play

17A: Start of Ed Howe quip: I WISH IT WERE

28A: Part 2 of quip: POSSIBLE TO

40A: Part 3 of quip: PULL A

48A: Part 4 of quip: COLD, LIKE AN

63A: End of quip: ACHING TOOTH

Have you ever paid attention to how crossword constructors number their Across/Down clues? The first 13 Down clues are always in sequential order.

Also, in Quip/Quote puzzle, all the theme answers are supposed to be structured in Across. If there are an odd number of theme entries (Five in today's puzzle), the middle one has to be gridded in the very center of the puzzle and it must have an ODD number of letters (PULL A, 5 letters).

I hate the clue for MISLAID (25D: Lost). LOST TO is an answer for 5A: Was defeated by. Certain rules of cluing are not supposed to be broken. This duplication of clue/answer is a big No-No.

With OTT (6D: Polo Grounds great) in the grid and the World Series going on, you would think our editor has the foresight to clue SERIES (70A: One thing after another) differently.

Across:

1A: Vino region: ASTI. I like this clue better than the partial fill "___ Spumante".

11A: Letters for shock treatment: ECT (ElectroConvulsive Therapy). I would not have got it without the down clues. ECT just appeared in our puzzle last week.

24A: Scottish uncle: EME. No idea. How can the spelling and pronunciation are so drastically different from "uncle"? See this list of Scottish words and phrases. Lots of QU* words for Barry Silk to muse over.

26A: "Fiddler on the Roof" role: TEVYE. This is his "If I Were a Rich Man". I wanted YENTE.

34A: Egg-coloring brand: PAAS. Ha, this is the first time I encountered this brand. Why is it called PAAS instead of PASS?

35A: Emetic medication: IPECAC. I forgot. Identical clue on Sept. 2.

54A: Brahman, e.g.: CASTE. Brahman is "member of the highest, or priestly, class among the Hindus". Big stumper for me. I am used to the "Hindu social stratum/class" clue.

61A: Seal engraved on a ring: SIGNET

67A: Can skip: NEEDN'T. This kind of answer always give me trouble.

71A: Jewish month: ADAR. It's Purim's month.

Down:

4D: Part of foot: INSTEP. I thought of INCHES first.

8D: What's worldwide: THE WEB. I like this clue.

10D: Ballroom dance: ONE-STEP

11D: Undecided: EQUIVOCAL

12D: Like Shirley Temple's hairdo: CURLY. She is so sweet. I cannot undertand the appeal of this CURLY though.

13D: Linen fabric: TOILE. What's the story on this TOILE pillow?

18D: Billy of the Dead End kids: HALOP. I googled his name. He said he hated the name Dead End.

29D: Flavorful: SAPID. SAPID does not sound "flavorful" to me. In fact, it sounds vapid and unpalatable.

30D: Hansen of NPR's "Weekend Edition": LIANE. She is the lady on the left. Her husband is Neal Conan, host of NPR's "Talk of the Nation", which I listen occasionally.

41D: Gospel writer: LUKE. What does "Physician, heal thyself" mean?

46D: Implied: TACIT

50D: Honshu city: NAGOYA. I googled again. I only know the Chinese word for NAGOYA (名古屋) . See this map.

64D: Despot Amin: IDI. Do you still remember the name of the president who preceded and succeeded Amin? I don't. Let me check...Ah, Milton OBOTE. Actually, it's Apollo Milton OBOTE.

C.C.