Wednesday November 26, 2008 Barry Silk

Theme: MIDDLE EARTH (58A: Tolkie place... or this puzzle's theme)

18A: Dispel differences: CLEAR THE AIR

28A: Like some good food?: HEART-HEALTHY

44A: Woomera, e.g.: SPEAR THROWER

I did not know the meaning of "Woomera", and I heedlessly filled in SEPTET instead of HEPTAD for 46D: "Seven Dwarfs, e.g." and ZEST instead of ZEAL for 53D: "Enthusiasm". So I made a mess at the lower middle section.

I really don't know much about crossword construction, but I do know it's not easy coming up with two J's (JUJUBE) and two Z's (ZZ TOP) in one fill. Barry Silk is unbelievable. I am always impressed by his repeated efforts in coming up with scrabbly grids, so effortlessly.

I hope you enjoyed his pangram today. This is probably my favorite Barry Silk puzzle. I love the theme. I think I am getting better understanding his mind. I filled in AQI (14A: EPA pollution measure) like it's a OREO cookie. Can you believe a year ago I did not even know what ORT is? My first ever crossword fill is SOSA. What about you?

Across:

4A: One way to fall: APART. Fall APART. Good clue.

15A: Film version: MOVIE. What's the difference between Film and MOVIE?

16A: Articles of faith: CREDO. Without ADIOS (12D: Spanish ta-ta), I would probably have penned in CREED. Or should it be the plural CREEDS?

23A: Brief expert: PROS. I was picturing James Bond in "Brief" (Daniel Craig in "Casino Royale"). I wish the clue were "Experts, briefly".

24A: Infomercial knife: GINSU. OK, here is the original GINSU ad.

32A: Like Rembrandt: DUTCH

37A: Corner aloft: TREE. I think the best TREE clue I've seen is "Leaves home?".

41A: Columnist Marilyn __ Savant: VOS. Her name came to me via the adjacent fills. I am not familiar with this columnist. She has a IQ of 228, "the highest ever recorded", according to Wikipedia.

42A: Composer Thomas: ARNE. The composer for "Rule, Britannia".

47A: Chewy candy: JUJUBE. Chinese date is called JUJUBE also. But I've never heard of KIWI (56D) being called "Chinese gooseberry". Is gooseberry edible? I used to binge on mulberry.

51A: Words before end or angle: AT AN. I don't like this clue. You either clue it as "AT AN angle" or "AT AN end". Dennis probably wants to "Get A TAN".

52A: "Legs" band: ZZ TOP. Here is the song. Those beards are too long for my taste. Interesting, Wikipedia says Frank Beard, "Ironically, in spite of his own surname", almost always "sports just a mustache".

55A: "Lonely Boy" singer Paul: ANKA. Look at those girls, they are all chewing bubblegum. Baseballcards came with the bubblegum in 1959, right? This Mickey Mantle Topps 1959 was sold for $2.850 at an auction.

61A: Fort __, NJ: DIX. Learned it from doing Xword.

62A: Sheep peep: BLEAT. BLEAT always reminds of "The Silence of the Lambs". I wish I had never seen it. What a nightmare!

63A: How some stocks sell: AT PAR

66A: Yorkshire city: LEEDS. Mark Knopler, who scored "The Princess Bride", graduated from the University of Leeds.

67A: Milwaukee's st.: WIS. I misread "st" as "street" first.

Down:

1D: Bit of reality: FACT

2D: Pastel hue: AQUA. It's a shade of cyan, so is teal.

3D: Mr. Microsoft?: BILL GATES. It's symmetrical partner is BAY WINDOW (34D: Oriel). Nice to see "Oriel" as the clue rather than the answer. I like seeing GATES, WINDOW and JAMBS (47D: Doorframe parts) in one puzzle.

4D: All-films stn.: AMC. So is TMC.

5D: Buff: POLISH. I misread the clue as "Bluff", so I was picturing the bluffs above Omaha Beach and Reagan's D-Day speech. That's a strange memory statue, isn't it?

6D: Line of inquiry: AVENUE. I was stumped, how so? What is "Line of inquiry"?

7D: Iranian cash: RIAL. It's the money unit of Yemen, Oman and Iran.

8D: Trillion: pref.: TERA. I would not have got this one without the across fills. See this list. Barry can clue PETA as "Quadrillion" prefix rather than "Animal rights grp." next time. I cannot count above a million.

11D: Tripper Timothy: LEARY. The LSD guy.

13D: Body of art: TORSO. Venus de Milo is probably the most famous "Body of art".

19D: Conway of country music: TWITTY. Here is his Hello Darlin'. Sounds so sad. I obtained his name from across fills.

21D: "Odyssey" sorceress: CIRCE. Siren does not fit and sirens don't really appear in "Odyssey", right?

38D: Zephyr: BREEZE

39D: __ roll (streaking): ON A. Strange that Williams allows partial fill from time to time.

44D: Ice cream treat: SUNDAE. I wish there were no whipped cream in SUNDAE. I also don't like icing on the cake.

45D: 1912 Olympian: THORPE. My first thought was Jesse Owens, who was a 1936 Olympian. Here is a picture of Jim THORPE at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics. I vaguely remember one of his game worn jerseys was sold over half a million at an auction several years ago.

49D: Word-weary: JADED

57D: Lumber camp stack: AXES

59D: USPS piece: LTR. Lots of three-letter words in today's grid.

60D: "48 __": HRS. New film to me. Is it good?

C.C.

Tuesday November 25, 2008 Norma Steinberg

Theme: Word of Mouth

17A: Stammering: TONGUE-TIED

60A: Performed like Milli Vanilli: LIP SYNCHED

10D: Ursine-shaped candies: GUMMY BEARS

30D: Five-year-old's money source: TOOTH FAIRY

A couple of things first:

1) Thank you for the nice words yesterday regarding the 1 million hit. What an interesting journey! Thank you for the company. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate your generosity in sharing your knowledge and time with me and several thousands of solvers every day. I hope you continue to find this blog informative and worthy of your time. I also hope you find the comments from other solvers educating and entertaining.

2) I still can not access my Hotmail account from Firefox, and I don't like IE. So I decided to go back to my dormant Gmail account. If you have any question or comment on the blog, please email me at crosswordc@gmail.com from now on. What I don't understand is why Hotmail is suddenly blocked from Firefox. I've changed nothing for the setup.

Now back to the puzzle. I am not fond of GUM being embedded in GUMMY in 10D. Bubble gum, chewing gum are better GUM candidates.

I like how TOTO (37A: Dorothy's pet) crossing ASTA (29D: Cinema pooch). I also like how HIS (33D: That guy's) parallels HER (38D: That girl's), with HIS slightly above and on the right of HER, wonderful position.

The clue for COPRA (50D: Coconut meat) is incorrect. I cook with coconut meat and but I've never used COPRA, which is dried coconut meat and is used to extract coconut oil.

This is probably the easiest puzzle I've solved this month. Not much pause.

Across:

1A: Myers or Nesmith: MIKE. Only know MIKE Myers. Have never heard of Nesmith. What's he famous for?

5A: Elegant behavior: CLASS. I think the best CLASS clue I've seen is "Type of act". He has CLASS.

10A: Shoots the breezes: GABS. I thought of YAK first.

15A: Arthur Marx's stage name: HARPO. I did not know that his original name is Arthur.

19A: Gangster's girl: MOLL

39A: Verdi heroine: AIDA. Interesting, Wikipedia says AIDA is an "Arabic female name meaning "visitor" or "returning". And it means "reward" in Swahili.

45A: Little-hand indication: HOUR. $355 for this hand clock? Ridiculous!

52A: Norse God: THOR. God of Thunder. His hammer always returns to him magically after being thrown to a target. Most of the Norse myths come from the two Eddas I think: The Poetic Edda (the elder EDDA) or the The Prose Edda (the younger EDDA).

Down:

1D: First name in spies: MATA. Bond jumped into my my mind first. By the way, does anyone know who shot Dominic Greene in "Quantum of Solace"?

5D: Fidel's friend: CHE. If Guevara were still alive, he would have launched a revolutionary against our editor's stiff way to clue his name. I don't think he would be happy to be connected with Fidel Castro all the time.

12D: Chagall's "____ in Green": BELLA. I am not familiar with this painting. Looks like "BELLA in black" to me. BELLA is Chagall's first wife.

34D: __ Inch Nails: NINE. I guessed. This rock band is completely foreign to me. I don't like their Gothic look.

55D: Pasadena campus: UCLA. Doug Peterson, the constructor for yesterday's puzzle, is from Pasadena. Today's constructor Steinberg lives in San Francisco.

C.C.