Friday December 12, 2008 Robert H. Wolfe

Theme: Sound Alike

17A: Golf?: PLAY A ROUND (AROUND)

55A: Take a dive?: THROW A BOUT (ABOUT)

11D: Compete in a steeplechase?: JUMP A BOARD (ABOARD)

28D: Race on earth?: RUN A GROUND (AGROUND)

I was not aware of the boxing term "dive". But "PLAY A ROUND" came to me immediately so I got the theme very early on. It certainly helped me fill in several blanks. I found today's down fills much easier to obtain than the across ones.

Two major problems in this puzzle:

1) DIVE (24A: Swoop) is an answer, so "dive" should not be part of the clue for 55A.

2) POUT (51D: Look sullen) and POUTY (33A: Peevish) in the same puzzle? They are of the same root for goodness sake.

I do like the clues for GOOSE (6D: Nene, for one) and GUEVARA (41D: Che from Argentina). Lovely to see "Nene" and "Che" as clues rather than the fills. I had the mistaken idea that Che was from Cuba.

Across:

1A: Walker in water: WADER. Nice clue. All alliterations.

14A: Napoleon, for a time: EXILE. Another nice clue. Try "Dalai Lama" next time. He has been an exile for a long time.

15A: SSS classification: ONE A. Here is a detailed list. Have you ever seen a Purple Heart medal in person?

16A: King novel, "__ Key": DUMA. Got the book title from down fills. I've never read any Stephen King book.

21A: Bonny girl: LASS. "Bonny" is rooted in BON (57D: __ mot (witticism)).

22A: Swooped: DIPPED. Are they are really interchangeable?

25A: __ Gorda, FL: PUNTA. New city to me. What is it famous for? The name is "Fat Point" in Spanish.

26A: Low, foglike clouds: STRATI. Singular form is STRATUS.

34A: Small traveler in space: METEOROID

36A: Japanese ethnic group: AINU. The aboriginal Japanese. AINU is literally "human" in their language.

37A: Hindu garment: var.: SAREE. SARI is more common. Same with RANEE, which is a variant of RANI.

41A: Prickly, Scottish shrub: GORSE. I totally forgot about this bush. Dictionary says it's a genus of Ulex. Kind of reminds me of IBEX (Mountain goat) and IlEX (Holm oak). A bunch of weird looking words.

45A: Rope on the range: RIATA. Sometimes it's REATA. What's the difference between RIATA and LARIAT?

47A: Whence Zeno: ELEA. Zeno of ELEA.

50A: B.C. or P.E.I.: PROV. We have provinces (22) in China. Xi'An is the capital city of Shaanxi Province.

58A: Potent beginning: OMNI. Also "Present beginning".

61A: Art movement: DADA. OK, here is Dadaist Duchamp's "Mona Lisa". Here is the explanation on the DF meaning of L.H.O.O.Q..

Down:

3D: Naturalist Fossey: DIAN. Got her name from across fills. Is DIAN a nickname of DIANA?

9D: Pharisee rival: SADDUCEE. Completely unknown to me. Dictionary defines SADDUCEE as "a member of a Palestinian sect, consisting mainly of priests and aristocrats, that flourished from the 1st century b.c. to the 1st century a.d. and differed from the Pharisees chiefly in its literal interpretation of the Bible, rejection of oral laws and traditions, and denial of an afterlife and the coming of the Messiah."

10D: Make work: ADAPT. Are you comfortable with this clue?

29D: Job extras: PERKS. What amazing PERKS Google offers to its employees!

44D: Exhale forcefully: BLOW. Also the title of a Johnny Depp movie.

52D: Inning sixths: OUTS. Baseball term. "Three up, three down". Why "sixth" instead of "six"?

53D: Very small: ITSY. This reminds me of a good clue for SANTA ("He has a small staff").

C.C.

Thursday December 11, 2008 Alan P. Olschwang

Theme: Just Do It

17A: Start of G. K. Chesterton quip: IF A THING IS

29A: Part 2 of quip: NOT WORTH

40A: Part 3 of quip: DOING

48A: Part 4 of quip: IT'S WORTH

64A: End of quip: DOING BADLY

Well, Chesterton's original quote is "If a thing is worth doing, it's worth doing badly".

Mr. Olschwang's distorted quip does not make any sense to me. Why would you want to waste your effort on something that's not worth doing?

This is the first time that the quip actually helped me fill in quite a few blanks. Normally I rely on the down clues for the across quip answers.

Across:

1A: Waste from smelting: SLAG. Or DROSS for a 5-letter synonym.

2A: Lie about publicly: SMEAR. I suppose so, though I associate SMEAR with anonymous sources and their sleazy tactics.

10A: Pool surface?: FELT. Why "?" mark? I don't think it's needed.

20A: Panama Canal engineer: LESSEPS. I googled his name. He was also the developer of the Suez Canal. Wikipedia says he was only involved in the early efforts of the Panama Canal construction. And George Washington Goethals is more well-known as the chief engineer.

21A: Bargains: DICKERS. New word to me. DICKER sounds very DF.

23A: Chou of China: ENLAI. It's Zhou ENLAI in Mandarin Chinese. He is our first premier and the most beloved one.

32A: Emulate a beaver: GNAW. Lots of squirrels in our neighborhood. So I would have clued it as "Emulate a squrrel".

45A: Cultural mediums: AGARS. I always thought the plural form for medium is media.

59A: Flower arrangement: IKEBANA. I like this one. Very simple & Zen-like. I think you can break IKEBANA into IKE + BANA if you have difficulty remembering this word. Eric Bana is excellent in "Munich" and "Troy".

66A: Guitarist Clapton: ERIC. OK, clue ERIC as "Actor Bana" next time then. Here is Clapton's "Wonderful Tonight". So good. What a rock muse Pattie Boyd is!

68A: Cambodia currency: RIEL. Cambodia is the only country with RIEL as its currency. I tend to confuse RIEL with RIAL, the prevalent currency in the Middle East.

71A: Swimmer Torres: DARA. She looks pretty. Saw her name somewhere before, but then I promptly forgot. Had to google again.

Down:

1D: Big name in tools: SKIL. I got this tool after cheating on LESSEPS. What does SKIL stand for?

2D: Word of woe: ALAS. Would be AH ME if the clue were in plural form ("Words of woe").

4D: Readied: GOT SET

5D: Maritime cargo: SHIPLOAD

6D: Table constellation: MENSA. New constellation to me. I always associate MENSA with those who have high IQ. MENSA is "table" in Latin. "Stupid" in Spanish.

26D: Desert plants: CACTI. The hosts for those cochineal insects.

27D: Enlightened one, in Buddhism: ARHAT. I obtained the answer from across clues. It refers to "a Buddhist who has attained Nirvana through rigorous discipline and ascetic practices". I just mentioned the Zen enlightment Satori yesterday. How is Nirvana different from Satori?

31D: Dressing pick: RANCH. I don't understand this clue. Why "pink"? (Note: I misread the clue as "Dressing pink" earlier.)

41D: Hades, e.g.: GREEK GOD

46D: LP surface: SIDE B

49D: Crosspiece of a ladder: RUNDLE. I got the answer from across clues. New word to me.

51D: Part of a knight's outfit: TABARD. New word to me. It's sleeveless. What is that logo emblazoned on his TABARD?

60D: 1998 Sarah McLachlan hit: ADIA. I really have difficult memorizing this song. ADIA is Swahili for "Gift from God".

61D: Dodger, in MLB jargon: NLER (National Leaguer). I wish we could get rid of DH in American League.

62D: "Clan of the Cave Bear" heroine: AYLA. I drew a blank on her name again. The book is written by Jean M Auel whose surname appeared in our puzzle occasionally.

C.C.