Saturday December 27, 2008 Tom Pruce

Theme: None

Total blocks: 27

Total words: 70

This grid looks unbelievably open and balanced. I wonder if it's because of the 27 neatly placed 7-letter words. And it only has six 3-letter words, probably the least I've seen in a TMS puzzle.

I did not like seeing ICE BOAT (3D: Winter craft), ICE AGE (62A: Glacial periods) and AGER (56D: Last of a teen?) in one puzzle. It does not look elegant to me.

I wish ECON (22A: M. Friedman's field) were clued as "Paul Krugman's field (abbr.)". He won Nobel prize in Economics this year and he certainly deserves a place in our puzzle.

I really like topical clues, you know, "I can see Russia from my house!" comic clue for TINA FEY amuses me. And I think "Obama's daughter" is a perfectly fine clue for "SASHA" yesterday.

Across:

8A: Skunk: POLECAT. I wonder what's the origin of "panda". We just call it "bear cat" in China.

15A: Play place: REC ROOM. I was thinking of the theater play.

16A: Prayers: ORISONS. Dictionary says that ORISON is a "doublet of oration" etymologically. What is a doublet?

18A: Organic compound: PENTANE. New word to me.

19A: Nightclubs: CABARETS

21A: Spiny-finned fish: MULLET. I only knew the awful hairstyle MULLET. See this picture. But aren't all the fish "Spiny-finned"?

25A: Clan sub-divisions: SEPTS. New word to me. Only knew SEPT as seven in French.

26A: Flat fish: SKATE. Came across this fish clue a few weeks ago. So ugly.

32A: Deprives of vigor: EMASCULATES. I thought of emaciates, but it's one letter short.

43A: Group of whales: POD. Last time when PODS was clued as "Movable classrooms", I thought it referred to "School of whales".

46A: 112 letters: CXII

47A: Jack-in-the-pulpit: ARUM. How can I remember this word? A RUM?

48A: End of land or sea?: SCAPE

55A: Loss of muscular coordination: ATAXIA. The prefix A means "not", and TAXI is a Greek suffix meaning "order". New word to me.

57A: Sweetbread: PANCREAS. Omigod, really?

59A: News: TIDINGS

61A: Author of "Gigi": COLETTE. Ha, gimme for me. COLETTE once said: "I love my past. I love my present. I'm not ashamed of what I've had, and I'm not sad because I have it no longer".

64A: Square dance leaders: CALLERS. New definition of CALLERS to me.

Down:

7D: "The Bartered Bride" composer: SMETANA. Would not have got his name without the crossing fills. I wonder what SMELTANA mean in his native language.

9D: City near Provo: OREM

10D: Chemist Pauling: LINUS. Holy moly, he is a two-time Nobel prize winner. But the only LINUS I knew is him.

11D: Crime novelist Loren D. __: ESTLEMAN. I googled this novelist. Feels like a consonant is missing from his name. Why not PESTLEMAN or NESTLEMAN?

12D: Colliery: COAL PIT. I did not know the meaning of "Colliery".

13D: Bening of "What Planet Are Your From": ANNETTE. Know Bening, who once claimed that the Columbia "Torch Lady" was modeled after her. Have never seen "What Planet Are Your From".

14D: Dreaded African flies: TSETSES

35D: Type of electrical cable: TRIAXIAL. I guessed. How is it related to cable coaxial?

37D: Of the ischium: SCIATIC. Hip related. Foreign to me. I did not what "ischium" is.

38D: Unusual stuff: EXOTICA. So close EROTICA in spelling.

39D: Fortress: CITADEL

40D: Altar constellation: ARA. Have not seen "Coach Parseghian" clue for a long time.

44D: Sleep inducers: OPIATES

58D: Last book of "The Alexandria Quartet": CLEA. No idea. Ink mentioned "The Alexandria Quartet" last time when we had LIVIA (clued as "Durrell novel") in John Underwood's "America's Major Wars" puzzle. CLEA is the name of a bi-sexual painter.

C.C.

Friday December 26, 2008 Allan E. Parrish

Theme: Vowel Progression

17A: Kitchen items: FRYING PANS

26A: Spots for tots: PLAYPENS

37A: Certain hair clips: BOBBY PINS

52A: Legendary coloratura soprano: LILY PONS

61A: Some cartoons: VISUAL PUNS

This reminds of Sallie's "facetious"comment several days ago. It has all the vowels in it and all the vowels are in proper order.

OK, if LILY PONS made the Times' cover, she has to be a legend then. I wanted her name to be LILY POND. But it broke the P_NS theme pattern.

Nice to see VISUAL PUNS in a grid, after our discussion of "Pinkie" several weeks ago.

Was disappointed by the SASHA (54D: Skater Cohen ) clue. You would think "Obama's daughter" is now famous enough to appear in our puzzle. I bet our editor "can't handle the truth", otherwise, he would have clued MEN (8D) as "A Few Good __''. This "Game pieces" clue bores me to pieces now.

Across:

6A: Sgt. Preston's crew: RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police). I did not know who Sgt. Preston is. That dog looks very loyal.

16A: Bonn mister: HERR. Frau's husband.

26A: 1996 British Open winner: LEHMAN (Tom). Gimme for me. Pride of Minnesota. He was unstoppable in 1996. Then Tiger burst into the scene and you know what happened after that.

29A: Flash flood: FRESHET. New word to me.

40A: Pear choice: BOSC. I love Hosui (Asian Pear) more. It's crisper and sweeter.

44A: Hops kilns: OASTS. Do you know why there is always a white cone atop those OASTS?

48A: Latin I word: AMO. "I love". How to say "I love you, honey" in Latin?

49A: Jolie movie: GIA. Know the movie, have never seen it.

50A: Irish lass: COLLEEN. Got it this time.

55A: Thin layer: LAMINA. Thought of veneer.

55A: Lake Titicaca location: ANDES. See this map. New lake to me.

65A: Ringlet: CURL

67A: Principal artery: AORTA

70A: Brittany port: BREST. The red dot on the left. I just learned this city name the other day when LAIT was clued as "Milk of BREST" in another puzzle. Kind of DF, isn't it?

Down:

1D: Spanky's pal: ALFALFA. No idea. Have never heard of Our Gang before. Strange name.

2D: Certain writing implements: MARKERS

3D: Subjects for analysts: PSYCHES

9D: On-base mil. stores: PXS (Post Exchange). New abbreviation to me.

13D: Karen of "Little House on the Prairie": GRASSLE. Would not have got her name without across fills.

22D: Dancer Charisse: CYD. Alien to me also. Wow, look at this picture. She looks stunning. She is in "Singin' in the Rain".

24D: "Morning Joe" airer: MSNBC. The only MSNBC program I watch every day is "Hardball". Joe Scarborough appears as a guest from time to time.

27D: City near Santa Barbara: LOMPOC. According to Wikipedia, the name of the city is derived from a Chumash word "Lum Poc" meaning "little lake" or "lagoon". Not a familiar name to me. Here is the map.

30D: Underground Railroad leader: TUBMAN (Harriet). Is there a movie made about her life?

35D: Pathetic start?: SYM. Sympathetic.

38D: Actor Scott: BAIO. He looks familiar. I must have seen him somewhere before. But his name meant nothing to me.

39D: Vincent Lopez theme song: NOLA. See this clip. I just keep forgetting this song title.

49D: Nav. by satellite: GPS (Global Positioning System). Or "Family MD".

58D: Crisp bread: RUSK. See here for more information. It's the same as zwieback (twice-baked bread).

C.C.