Monday October 27, 2008 Norma Steinberg

Theme: Phrasal Verbs with OFF ON

17A: Authorize in writing: SIGN OFF ON

56A: Argue toe-to-toe: FACE OFF ON

11D: Begin, as a trip: START OFF ON

28D: State one's opinions: SOUND OFF ON

I wish 56A were SQUARE/SLACK OFF ON, then every theme entry would start with letter S.

I really liked the ERIE clue (13D: Superior's inferior?), very clever. UNDO (14A: Cancel) could be clued as "Computer edit command" to complete a computer sub-theme, together with EXE (20A: Program file extension) and UNIX (2D: Trademark DOS).

It's an OK puzzle. I didn't find the theme inspiring though.

Across:

15A: Icefield: FLOE. Dictionary says ice FLOE is smaller than "Icefield", which is smaller than ice sheet and similar in area to ice cap. Very confusing.

21A: Essential meaning: POINT

36A: French you: VOUS. "Voulez-VOUS" from "Mamma Mia!".

40A: Seine feeder: MARNE. Unknown to me. See this map. It's a famous W.W. I battle site. Alfred Joyce Kilmer, the poet of "I think that I shall never see /A poem lovely as a tree" was killed at the second battle of the MARNE in 1918.

42: Homer's TV neighbor: NED. No idea. NED is always clued as "Actor Beatty". So is Bart Simpson's "Aye carumba" is a corruption of Spanish "Ay caramba"?

43A: Deuterium discoverer: UREY (Harold). I forgot. Saw his name before. He won Nobel Chemistry in 1934 and he was also involved in the Manhattan Project.

44A: Film festival site: CANNES. Palme d'Or for CANNES, Golden Lion for Venice Film Festival (the oldest film festival in the world).

55A: Actress Woodard: ALFRE. Ha, what can I say. I forgot her name again. Do you watch "Desperate Housewives"?

Down:

1D: Italian actress Elenora: DUSE. No idea. Wikipedia says she is the first woman to be featured on the cover of Time magazine (July 30, 1923).

6D: Michael Caine film: ALFIE. I've only seen Jude Law's 2004 ALFIE.

8D: Only penciled in: TENTATIVE

26D: Singing chipmunk: ALVIN. Here is their "The Christmas Song". So weird.

27D: Singer Pat: BOONE. Here is his "Ain't That a Shame".

31D: Unmanned aircraft: DRONE. I wonder if the constructor's original clue is bee related, since she has STING (34A: Wasp attack) gridded so close by.

34D: Nerve - wracking: STRESSFUL

37D: Indian garb: SARI. Has anyone seen "The Darjeeling Limited"?

57D: Temporary mania: FAD. I can never understand the Beanie Babies FAD.

C.C.

Sunday October 26, 2008 William S. Richardson

Theme: Green

65A: Green: EARTH FRIENDLY

3D: Green: FILLED WITH ENVY

30D: Green: PLACE FOR PUTTING

34D: Green: INEXPERIENCED

36D: Green: BLUE AND YELLOW

50D: Green: ADOLPH OR HUBERT

All those answers really feel like clues for GREEN, don't they? I wish BLUE AND YELLOW were structured in 3D to form a symmetry with ADOLPH OR HUBERT.

I've never seen a TMS Sunday puzzle with the majority of the theme answers clued in Down. I wonder what's the reason for this change. The puzzle looks nice too if you turn it 90 degrees.

The first theme answer I got is PLACE FOR PUTTING, which prompted me to expect "Masters jacket color", thinking this might be a golf-green related theme.

The clue for SUISSE (1D: Genevan nationality) is not to my liking. Since SUISSE is the French spelling, the clue should have inclued "Genève" as a hint.

Had to resort to OneAcross & Google for help, too many new words/names for me.

Across:

1A: Moroccan port: SAFI. Here is the map. Have never heard of the port before.

14A: Acid of apples: MALIC. New to me. It's derived from Latin "malum" meaning "apple".

20A: First Hebrew letter: ALEPH. First Arab letter is ALIF.

26A: Fuzzy or frizzy: NAPPY

31A: Guinea - ___: BISSAU. See this map. BISSAU is also the capital of the country. Another unknown. It's a Portuguese colony before.

36A: Lab vessels: BEAKERS

37A: Like cars in a traffic jam: END-TO-END

46A: Case for Fox Mulder: X- FILE. Or "Case for Dana Scully".

57A: Pastoral paradise: ARCADIA. Unknown to me. So close to ACADIA in spelling. Dictionary says ARCADIA is "a mountainous region of ancient Greece, traditionally known for the contented pastoral innocence of its people." Kind of like Shangrila, isn't it?

64A: Dutch commune: EDE. I only know Swiss canton URI. See EDE?

69A: Language of Bangladesh: BENGALI. New to me also. I thought they speak Bangladesh language. Dictionary says "jute" is from BENGALI "jhuto".

72A: Hole in a needle: EYE

74A: RSVP-er: INVITEE

81A: Immune system component: T CELL

87A: "Gypsy Love" composer: LEHAR (Franz). No idea. Have only heard of his "The Merry Widow". Here is a clip. She is not singing in Italian, is she?

93A: Sportscaster Scully: VIN. He "holds the distinction of the longest consecutive service of any current major league broadcaster for one team." I've never heard of him before. Not a Dodgers fan.

94A: Publisher' s mark: COLOPHON. It's "A brief description usually located at the end of a book, describing production notes relevant to the edition." I had no idea that there is even a word for that page.

97A: Skintight outfit: LEOTARD

102A: Juicy fruits: MANGOES. One medium-sized MANGO has all the vitamin A & C you need. Some of them are so stringy.

104A: Of words: VERBAL. See the origin of cruciverbalist. I like Ken's example last week: "I never talk to cruciverbalists; they are either cross or down."

108A: View again: RESEE. And I SEE (4D: Words of understanding). I don't like seeing two SEE's.

113A: Mortise insertion: TENON

115A: Ordinary language: PROSE. "Purple PROSE" is not ordinary.

Down:

5D: Squeals: TATTLE. The other ?ATTLE words are battle, cattle and rattle. Constructors always keep several options open.

8D: Columnist's opinion pg.: OPED. I would prefer a simple "Columnists' pg". I don't like the OP duplication.

9D: Remnants of a grenade: SHRAPNEL. I did not know that SHRAPNEL has no plural form.

14D: Wild ones: MANIACS. Mozart is genius MANIAC.

16D: One who loses faith: LAPSER. If you say so.

17D: To some extent: IN PART

18D: Indian pony: CAYUSE. New word to me. He is named after the Indian tribe CAYUSE I suppose.

38D: Restaurateur Shor: TOOTS. Learned his name from doing Xword of course. Is the Toots Shor's Restaurant still in business?

44D: Type of dysentery: AMOEBIC. The other type is bacillary. New to me.

45D: Jejunum connections: DUODENA. Singular form is DUODENUM. Another unknown to me. I did not know the meaning of "Jejunum". It's "the middle portion of the small intestine, between the duodenum and the ileum."

51D: Ruling house of Great Britain: WINDSOR

52D: English poet Siegfried: SASSOON. No idea. His eyes look very penetrating. SASSOON is "joy" in Hebrew.

54D: Marshy depression: SWALE. I wrote down SWAMP first.

82D: Wrenches: CONTORTS

88D: Football teams: ELEVENS. The same with soccer and cricket, both have 11 players on each side.

90D: Whaler's cohort: SEALER. Okey-dokey.

91D: Matador: TORERO

94D: Aircraft pioneer: CESSNA (Clyde). No idea. See this picture. He is in Aviation Hall of Fame. His company is still in operation, and "currently, CESSNA produces 2-, 4- and 6-place single-engine airplanes, utility turboprops, and business jets."

98D: Brooke Shields film, "___ Nevada": Nope, nope. New film to me. Only knew "A Fish Called WANDA".

C.C.