Sunday December 7, 2008 Arlan and Linda Bushman

Theme: Must "C" Movies

23A: Movie about George M. Cohan's sweet tooth?: YANKEE DOODLE CANDY (DANDY)

43A: Movie about interpreter fees?: COST (LOST) IN TRANSLATION

63A: Movie about a rain forest chef?: THE JUNGLE COOK (BOOK)

91A: Movie about a kennel owner's purchase: A FISTFUL OF COLLARS (DOLLARS)

114A: Movie about a versatile container?: A CAN (MAN) FOR ALL SEASONS

16D: Movie about a dance troupe?: THE CAST (LAST) WALTZ

62D: Movie about a sleuth's heavenly helper? THE CLUE (BLUE) ANGEL

Such a clever theme. Perfect theme title as well.

I thought of the movie "Some Like it Hot", but the "C" change will result "Come Like it Hot", probably too DF. "Annie Hall" is a great candidate too, but it's impossible to clue "Annie Call" grammatically. "Fargo" (Cargo) does not have enough letters to be a theme answer.

Of the above 7 movies, the only movie I've seen is LOST IN TRANSLATION. And the only movie I've never heard of is A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS.

I seriously doubt the GOLD clue (109A: Fort Knox cache) is the constructors' original. They are far too experienced a team to make clue/answer (65D: Military stronghold: FORT) duplication mistake.

The cluing mistake for DETENTE (17D: International accord) somehow comforts me. I thought I am the only one who is often confused by DETENTE and ENTENTE. What can I say? Confused minds think alike?

I loved the clue for SPA (117D: Bath, for one). Very clever. Bath is a city in England famous for its spas. See the map? It's to the west of London, close to Bristol.

Across:

1A: Fuzzy fruit: KIWI. Fuzzy indeed. But really we don't call KIWI "Chinese gooseberry" in China.

5A: Use elbow grease: SCRUB. I wonder why NASA prefers SCRUB over cancel when they call off the shuttle launch.

10A: 6-pointers: TDS. I still think "NFL" is needed in the clue for abbreviation hint. 6 is not good enough for me.

19A: Seed protector: ARIL. Testa is the hard, outer coating.

20A: Bath sponge: LOOFA. This is how it looks like before it enters your bathroom. Very tasty when stir-fried with a little bit of meat.

21A: Location of Bradley University: PEORIA. I googled. Caterpillar Headquarters is based here also. And WACO (57A: Baylor U. location). U should not have been abbreviated. Dr. Pepper Museum is in WACO.

29A: Printer's measures: PICAS

30A: Beckham's game: SOCCER. We call it football in China.

36A: Yarn bundle: HANK. Like a skein? I've never heard of HANK used as "Yarn bundle" before.

37A: Close-knit group: CLIQUE. Coterie is one letter too long.

39A: Salami type: GENOA. Can you believe that I've never had salami?

40A: Adriatic gulf: TRIESTE. See Gulf of TRIESTE. It's at the north end of Adriatic Sea. New to me also. Such a sad looking word, so close to TRISTE in spelling.

48A: Deserve: RATE. How so? I wanted EARN.

50A: "Leave it to Beaver" co-star: TONY DOW. Would not have got his name without the surrounds.

63A: Grilled sandwich: PANINI. This veggie PANINI looks so good. When do you use the singular form panino then?

67A: Bremen exclamation: ACH. I guessed. Not familiar with this city/state Bremen.

75A: Twisted treat: PRETZEL

79A: Rose extract: ATTAR. I wonder how many rose petals it takes to make a drop of rose oil.

80A: Rhine siren: LORELEI. Also spelled as LORELEY, which can also refer to the rock along the Rhine River where the siren LORELEI lured the sailors. Too bad, Kazie, I simply forgot it again. All I could think of is Circe.

83A: Legendary Hun king: ATLI. I can't understand why Attila the Hun is also called ATLI.

89A: Disco of "The Simpsons": STU. Learned his name from doing Xword. MOE is the bartender in "The Simpsons".

96A: Hack's question: WHERE TO

99A: Baker's item: PIE PAN. What kind of pie did you have for Thanksgiving?

104A: Ancient letters: RUNES. The first six letters of RUNES are F, U, TH, A, R, K, hence Futhark.

108A: "Over the Rainbow" composer: ARLEN (Harold). Normally I like the original song, but this medley of "Over the Rainbow" and "What a Wonderful World" is so beautiful.

110A: Osaka Okay: HAI. The same with "Cantonese Okay". "Mandarine Okay" is "Shi".

119A: Block: SCREEN

123A: Grandstander: HOTDOG

Down:

1D: Danny or Stubby: KAYE. Got this name from across fills. I know neither of them.

5D: Make glossy: SLEEKEN. New verb to me.

6D: Musical wrapups: CODAS

9D: Undesirable individual: BAD PENNY. New slang to me.

15D: "Banana Boat" shout: DAY-O. I've never heard of "Banana Boat" before. I like that guy's voice. The tune sounds so similar to "Come Mr. Taliban".

18D: Breathing device: SNORKEL

24D: Boredom: ENNUI

33D: Brainpower meas.: IQ TEST. Nice answer.

39D: Small cave: GROT. Only knew grotto. Also, I did not know that cavern is a big cave. Always thought cavern is smaller.

44D: Final strike: THREE. Great clue. Oh by the way, Babe Ruth’s jersey number is 3. Mantle's is 7. Kirby Puckett's number is 34. He died too young.

55D: Hit by the Stones: ANGIE. Is that Mick Jagger? He looks so different.

60D: Kin of CHiPs: LAPDS. But the official acronym for California Highway Patrol is CHP, isn't it?

63D: Opinion leader: PUNDIT

64D: Biotic beginning?: ANTI. Antibiotic. Very unexpected clue.

66D: Home decor co.: IKEA. Do you like the Swedish style food at IKEA?

73D: Bout-stopper: TKO (Technical knockout). The clue needs "for short".

82D: Immature newt: EFT

83D: Estrange: ALIENATE. I like this word "Estrange". I also like espouse.

86D: Hines footwear: TAP SHOES. I guessed. Have never heard of "Hines footwear" before.

89D: Eddied: SWIRLED. I wanted TWIRLED.

94D: Richly appointed: OPULENT. I did not know that "appoint" can mean "furnish".

103D: Monteverdi opera "L'__": ORFEO. Another google. ORFEO is Italian for Orpheus. He shouldn't look back when he tried to bring his wife Eurydice from Hades. Kind of like Lot's wife Pillar of Salt story, isn't it?

104D: Pine product: ROSIN. Never know when to put ROSIN and when to put RESIN.

106D: Pulverize: MASH

107D: Behold, to Guido: ECCO. Italian for ECCE I presume. Guido is the guy who invented the musical notation. Remember the ELA (Guido's high note)?

111D: Egyptian cross: ANKH. Very easy to mix ANKH with the Punjab religion SIKH.

C.C.

Saturday December 6, 2008 Matthew Higgins

Theme: None

Total blocks: 24

Total words: 66

Nice looking grid, isn't it? So open. Only 24 blocks (black squares). This is a record for us. More often we have between 27-32 on a Saturday themeless puzzle. NY Time's fewest block record is 18.

I think I am going to count the total words for Saturday grids from now on. 66 sounds quite low. Our average is probably 70. FYI, the maximum words allowed for a TMS themeless is 72 (78 for themed puzzle). This puzzle holds the record for lowest word count (only 59) in Jim's database.

The plethora of affixes (S, ER & ING) still bother me. But they sure helped me tremendously in tackling today's offering. TARSALS (26D: Ankles) are "Ankle bones", not "Ankles", right?

I have to say again, this grid just looks so pretty.

Across:

8A: Run playfully: SCAMPER. This word always brings to mind the photo of JFK Jr. crawling out of the Oval Office desk. He later said in an interview that the space was too small for Bill Clinton and Monica to play around.

15A: Quintessence: EPITOME. I would like to see QUINTESSENCE clued as "Epitome" some day.

16A: Greek cafe: TAVERNA. New to me. Ink, is this a neuter or a feminine noun?

17A: Invigorate: LIVEN UP

18A: Ice-breaking remarks: OPENERS

19A: Old Turkish title: AGA. I have a question regarding AGA Khan. Is it an Irani hereditary title? Where is his office based? I seem to remember a Pakistani AGA Khan who was active in the 1950s and dated some Hollywood actresses.

20A: Goldbrick: SLACKER. Not familiar with this slang. I was thinking of ingot.

27A: Sees a mental picture: ENVISIONS

29A: More inadequate: LAMER. INANER came to my mind first.

30A: Makes certain: SEES TO IT

31A: Action of endearment: CARESS. And LONGINGS (33D: Strong persistent desires). Hmmm, "amor vincit omnia". What a wonderful 15-letter phrase! Perfect for a Valentine's Day theme answer.

32A: Swinging freely: PENDULOUS. This is the only "ing" clue that I liked.

37A: Athenian philosopher: SOCRATES. He said "Know thyself".

41A: Word-weary: BLASE

42A: One of Sri Lanka's languages: SINHALESE. Or Sinhala. Fascinating, Wikipedia says "Sinha" means "lion", and "la" means "to seize". Unknown to me. The only Sri Lanka language I was aware of is Tamil. And I always associate it with the Tamil Tiger force.

43A: Stadium top, often: DOME. Can you believe that the Twins new stadium will be roofless?

44A: Mold, mildew and smut: FUNGI

45A: Bristle: SETA. Bristly would be setal or setose.

46A: Dos Passos trilogy: U.S.A. I was so happy I finally remembered this trilogy.

49A: Slap the cuffs on: NAB

54A: ABaAabAB rhyme scheme: TRIOLET. No idea. Waiting for Clear Ayes to explain what this scheme is. Funny how it has "Trio" as prefix rather than "Octo" since it has eight lines.

Down:

1D: Interacts: RELATES. I like how it intersects with TOLD (23A: Informed). Wish the clues reflected the tie between the two.

2D: Mediocre imitator of an artist: EPIGONE. New word to me. All I could think of is copycat.

3D: Cockle or mussel: BIVALVE. Oyster is also BIVALVE too. Do you like raw oysters? So tasty!

6D: Light-sensitive photographic coating: EMULSIONS. Got it from the across clues.

7D: Resembling a calyx: SEPALOID. Wow, it's a word. I did not know this. Sepal-oid.

9D: Canaveral and Coral: CAPES. Have never heard of Coral CAPE before.

14D: Scan-line patterns: RASTERS. Another new word to me.

21D: Bruising: CONTUSING. The noun form contusion is more commonly used, isn't it?

24D: Arrange: DISPOSE. Not a familiar definition to me.

28D: Cubic meter: STERE. Who actually uses this word in their daily life?

29D: Classic Gene Tierney film: LAURA. Ha ha, I got LAURA today. Felt a bit sorry for LAURA Bush. She deserves a clue.

31D: Red dye from insects: COCHINEAL. Completely unheard of. Sounds so cruel to crush the insects to get the dye. Wikipedia says the COCHINEAL insects live on cacti. Look at these harvesting baskets.

35D: Conclusion: CLOSURE. I wonder any constructor has thought of a "SURE" puzzle, you know, with CLOSURE, COMPOSURE, EXPOSURE, LEISURE, MEASURE, etc.

36D: Small, bushy-tailed monkey: TAMARIN. New monkey to me. It's tiny. Strange mustache. Wikipedia says TAMARIN's gestation is "typically 140 days, and births are normally twins". And they live to be 18 years old when in captivity.

38D: "I was a __ Werewolf": TEENAGE. I forgot. Mr. Higgins used the same clue in his last puzzle. Looks scary.

42D: Guarantee: SURETY

44D: Peggy Lee classic: FEVER. See this clip. I guessed. I actually thought of NEVER first.

53D: One of Bobbsey Twins: NAN. I bet our editor does not like Indian food. Otherwise, he would have clued NAN as "Indian bread".

C.C.