Sunday November 2, 2008 Alan P. Olschwang

Theme: Fooled Again

23A: Start of Groucho Marx quip: IN AMERICA YOU CAN

38A: Part 2 of quip: GO ON THE AIR AND

56A: Part 3 of quip: KID THE POLITICIANS,

78A: Part 4 of quip: AND THE POLITICIANS

94A: Part 5 of quip: CAN GO THE AIR

114A: End of quip: AND KID THE PEOPLE

Oh boy, solving a crossword puzzle definitely needs total focus. I felt very distracted earlier and went through hell trying to fill in all the blanks.

Normally I don't have so many problems getting into Olschwang's wavelength, After all, I've solved 43 of his puzzles since I started blogging. But there seems to be an inordinate amount of proper nouns in today's grid. Several corners presented a Sisyphean challenge to me. I thought I had pushed the damned rock to the hilltop. But it kept rolling back. Now I have in front of me an ugly puzzle full of wite-out marks.

I do like the following clues:

36A: Piper's first name?: PIED

9D: Publicity stunt, of a sort: PHOTO OP

43D: Listens without hearing?: LIP READS

The "Lat." clue for ID EST (40D: That is: Lat.) should not be abbreviated.

Across:

5A: Peacock constellation: PAVO. Latin for "Peacock". Here is the map. Unknown to me.

19A: Okinawa port: NAHA. Another unknown. See this map. It's also Okinawa's capital.

20A: Ludwig or Jannings: EMIL. Jannings is the first winner of Oscar for Best Actor ("The Way of All Flesh"). Ludwig is a German author known for his biographies of Goethe, Napoléon, etc. I knew neither of them.

21A: Egypt's Mubarak: HOSNI. He succeeded Anwar Sadat.

22A: Conductor Georg: SOLTI. Another unknown. Wikipedia says he won 31 Grammys in his life time. He spent over 20 years with the Chicago Symphony. He looks so engaged.

27A: Like a lamb sauce: MINTY. Odd clue to me. Chinese people do not use any mint sauce for lamb dish or for any dish. Toothpaste is MINTY.

28A: Old French dance: GAVOTTE. Well, I am not Marie Antoinette, how am I supposed to know this old french dance?

29A: Maj. Barbara's creator: GBS (George Bernard Shaw). Toughie. I've never heard of "Major Barbara" before. Only knew his "Pygmalion".

31A: Dam-building grp.: CVA (Columbia Valley Authority). I only knew TVA.

32A: City west of Detroit: ANN ARBOR. It's home to the University of Michigan (Wolverines).

34A: Hawaiian acacia: KOA. See this picture. KOA wood is valued for furniture and musical instruments. New to me also.

35A: Calculator key abbr.: CLR (Clear). I dislike this clue.

37A: Swarm member: TEEMER. What a strained answer!

41A: Class for U.S. immigrants: ESL

47A: Restrain: INHIBIT. And RASHEST (93D: Most impulsive).

64A: Norway evergreen: RED PINE. It's our state tree.

65A: Arrived at: GOT UP TO. Mine was "TOT UP TO" for a long long time.

67A: Medley or Tilden: BILL. Had no idea that Bill Medley is the half of The Righteous Brothers. Great "Unchanged Melody". Was Bill Tilden a gimme to you? I was not familiar with him at all.

70A: Resembling: suff: OID. Since ISH does not fit. Android for example.

72A: Waldorf-__ Hotel: ASTORIA. This Waldorf salad looks good. I like the walnuts to be toasted and honeyed.

90A: First name in mysteries: ERLE. Did you know that Halliburton's founder is also named ERLE?

91A: Bygone map abbr.: S.S.R.

99A: New Hampshire city: NASHUA. See this map. I don't even know who are NH's senators.

107A: Narrow inlet: RIA

109A: Fall into obscurity: ECLIPSE

111A: Change shape: MORPH

112A: Square one: GET-GO

121A: "The Flying Dutchman" girl: SENTA. I googled. SENTA was clued as "Actress Berger" before.

122A: Comic actor Arnold: STANG. Another google.

123A: Door hardware: HASP. My first thought was JAMB.

124A: Spanish muralist Jose: SERT. See his murals at the Rockefeller Center. I am not familiar with his name.

Down:

1D: Give life to: ANIMATE

2D: Bicuspids' neighbors: CANINES. I did not know the meaning of "Bicuspids".

3D: Bed of a river: CHANNEL. I always thought CHANNEL is just a waterway.

4D: Type of gong: TAM-TAM. No idea. See this picture. Sounds so close to tom-tom drum.

7D: "The __ of Wakefield": VICAR. New book to me also. It's written by Oliver Goldsmith.

8D: Norwegian saint: OLAV

10D: Cassock: SOUTANE. Sigh... another new word to me. What do you call the band Pope Benedict wears around his waist?

11D: Last of coal?: ESCE. Coalesce. It's the "Last of opal" too.

12D: Actress O'Connor: UNA. Got her name from across fills. Have never heard of her before. Which famous movie(s) is she in?

13D: Town in Country Kerry: DINGLE. Here is the map. It's a ridiculously difficult for me. I had DIN??E for eons.

15D: Panama proposition: POR

30D: Highlands hillside: BRAE

33D: Astronomer Tycho: BRAHE. Hmm, this moustache picture looks familiar. I must have searched for him before.

35D: Colette novel: CHERI. The new movie starring Michelle Pfeiffer will be out next year. Colette also wrote "Gigi".

38D: Trade association: GUILD

39D: Jiffy: TRICE

44D: Hautboys: OBOES. Hautboy is French for OBOE.

48D: Brit. medical syst.: NHS (National Health Service). This has become a gimme to me.

49D: Step cautiously: TIPTOE

51D: Plane bisecting the body: SAGITTAL. All right, this is a great picture to show you those bisecting planes. Somehow I just could not get the letter G.

53D: Serengeti bounder: IMPALA. They look so skinny.

55D: Netlike caps: SNOODS

56D: Mystical teachings: var. KABALA. Cabala is more common of course.

57D: Part of eyes: IRISES. I am still waiting for van Gogh's IRISES clue.

60D: Lead-ins: INTROS

68D: Vietnam Memorial artist: LIN (Maya). She does have "A Strong, Clear Vision".

70D: Basketry willow: OSIER. Wow, look at these red OSIER dogwood. Kind of like cotton plants after all the cottons are picked.

88D: Writer H. L. __: MENCKEN. Yet another google. He is known as "The Sage of Baltimore". And he is "regarded as one of the most influential American writers and prose stylists of the first half of the 20th century."

91D: Card cheat: SHARPIE. New SHARPIE definition to me.

98D: Rainbow: pref.: IRID. As iridescent. I would not have obtained the word without the across fills.

101D: Sailing ships: SLOOPS. It looks like a boat rather than a ship.

109D: Icelandic epic: EDDA. Elder EDDA is the "Poetic EDDA". Younger EDDA is the "Prose EDDA". Both written between 8th to 13th century.

110D: God of Memphis: PTAH. I always think of ELVIS when I see this clue. PTAH is an Egyptian god. Wikipedia says "In art, he is portrayed as a bearded mummified man, often wearing a skull cap, with his hands holding an ankh, was, djed, the symbols of life, power and stability, respectively." Interesting WAS. I wonder if any constructor thought of cluing DJED as "Egyptian symbol of stability" rather than "spun record" (DJ-ed).

113D: Hood's heater: GAT. I thought ROD first.

116D: Explode: POP. "Explode"? I have problem accepting this clue.

C.C.

Saturday November 1, 2008 Matthew Higgins

Theme: None

Total blocks: 27

Total words: 68

Letter S must be all constructors' favorite letter. It can start a word and end a word. It can be followed by either a vowel or a consonant. I guess that's why we see it popping up everywhere in the grid, esp the first row & last row, first column and last column.

We get 27 S'es today, too many for my taste. But one thing I really like about Higgins' puzzle is the lack of pop culture and actor/actress names, which often stump me. Additionally, he always does solid research on his clues. Nearly all of them are dictionary-accurate, though not lively.

Some of the clues today are pretty good:

32A: Virginia, for one: REEL

5D: Half and half?: ONE. Without the "?", the clue would be good too, but boring.

50D: Bannister, for one: MILER. Roger Bannister is the first man to run the mile in less than four minutes.

Across:

1A: Considers probable: SUPPOSES. Three S'es for the first word, three S'es for the last word (SCORSESE).

9A: Nabokov novel: LOLITA. Have you see the movie remake? My favorite Jeremy Irons movie is "Damage".

17A: Squatter: NESTER. Homesteader. I thought a "Squatter" is someone who squats.

20A: Sinuous: SERPENTINE. "Sinuous" is a new to me. I know "tortuous" though.

26A: Greek harp: TRIGON. It's "an ancient Greek stringed instrument with a triangular shape". New to me. I only know LYRE. If you find a TRIGON picture, please share with us. I could not find one on the internet. (Addendum: Here is a TRIGON picture, and here is LYRE).

28A: Roman deck count: LII. 52. Also the "Number of weeks in a year" for the Romans.

30A: Fix firmly: SECURE. I like the verb cluing.

35A: Wheys: SERA. I am more familiar with the "Blood fluids" clue.

42A: State in northwestern Mexico: SONORA. It's bordering Arizona.

53A: Cancellation: RESCISSION. Only knew the verb RESCIND.

57A: Bay windows: ORIELS. I tend to confuse ORIELS with ORIOLES.

60A: French department on the bay of Biscay: VENDEE. See this map. I've never heard of it before.

61A: Subtraction starters: MINUENDS

63A: "Mean Streets" director: SCORSESE. Have you seen "Mean Streets"? Looks interesting.

Down:

1D: Groups in groups: SUBSETS

3D: Like plunder at sea: PIRATIC. I wanted PIRATEY. I've never heard of PIRATIC before.

9D: State of being cheerlessly solitary: LONELINESS. LONELINESS can be beautiful and inspiring, esp if you are comfortable being alone.

11D: Tilt to one side: LIST. Is this solely a nautical term?

12D: Arteries' innermost linings: INTIMAE. New to me. The plural form of INTIMA can also be INTIMAS.

13D: "I Was a __Werewolf": TEENAGE. Have you seen the movie? It looks horrifying.

14D: Gland near the kidneys: ADRENAL. This is where adrenaline comes from, correct?

21D: Ballet movements: PLIE. These girls are pretty.

27D: Close calls: NEAR-MISSES

29D: Forms into small pellets: GRANULATES. OK, I checked, it's a word.

41D: Statements of obvious veracity: TRUISMS

43D: Semi-translucent glass: OPALINE. It's the same as opalescent, isn't it?

C.C.