Monday December 29, 2008 Allan E. Parrish

Theme: Unmovable Vehicles

20A: "An Aperture Monograph" photographer: DIANE ARBUS

59A: Guy with "really big shew": ED SULLIVAN

11D: Cher film: MOONSTRUCK

29D: Island off Africa: MADAGASCAR

Hmm, we need a *JEEP for a pangram grid. But still, this puzzle will rank high in scrabbliness, with three X'es, two Z's, two V's and one Q, all hallmarks of a Allan E. Parrish puzzle.

I was not familiar with the book "An Aperture Monograph" or the photographer DIANE ARBUS. What is a "Monograph" anyway?

I wish ENOS (23A: Son of Seth) were clued as "Slaughter of Cooperstown" and EXPO (12D: Large intl. show) were clued as "National, formally". So together with ORTIZ (17A: Baseball's "Big Papi"), they would form a nice baseball sub-theme. Too bad, David ORTIZ was hurt all the time when he was with the Twins.

I hope we get a Barry Silk puzzle soon. I miss his wicked Q's.

Across:

1A: Belle or Bart: STARR. Only knew Bart STARR, Packers' quarterback, and Ringo STARR, not Belle.

9A: Packing heat: ARMED. OK, tell me why the answer for "Looking for big bucks?" is IN HEAT?

14A: Minor prophet: HOSEA. What's the difference between a "Minor prophet" and a major one? Who decides that?

16A: Two-month pope of 1605: LEO XI. This would have been a tricky one without the crossing help, you know, it could be LEO IX, LEO II, LEO IV or LEO VI.

18A: Latin 101 verb: AMO

19A: Parkinson's medication: L-DOPA. Another "My Pet Goat" moment for me. How can I remember this weird medicine name?

24A: Brandy letters: VSO

25A: Some binary compounds: OXIDES. Whatever you say. I know nothing about chemical compound.

27A: Salinger girl: ESME. Salinger's "For ESME – with Love and Squalor". Learned it from doing Xword.

32A: Type of gong: TAM TAM. I tend to confuse this one with Tom Tom drum.

36A: Mont of the Alps: BLANC. Does anyone own a Montblanc pen? This one looks very expsensive.

37A: Episcopal cleric: VICAR

40A: Hit by Billy J. Kramer & the Dakotas: BAD TO ME. No idea. Here is the clip. I went from BED TIME to BAD TIME, then BAD TO ME.

42A: Follow-up to a hit film, maybe: PREQUEL. I am eager to see "Angels & Demons", a PREQUEL to "The Da Vinci Code".

45A: Socialite Perle: MESTA. My brain keeps rejecting this name.

47A: Ticket: DUCAT. New slang to me.

57A: Richie's mom, to Fonzie: MRS. C

64A: Copier brand: RICOH. Canon and Xerox both have 5-letter too.

68A: Writer Calvino: ITALO. His name has become a gimme to me.

73A: SALT topic: N-TEST

Down:

1D: Like broken horses: SHOD. Why "broken"?

3D: Cinema canine: ASTA. TOTO is 4-letter too.

7D: Ice-smoothing machine: ZAMBONI. I was so happy I nailed this one. Have never been to a hockey game.

8D: Plains people: SIOUX. I like some of their names: Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, so evocative.

13D: Portuguese explorer: DIAS. He discovered Cape of Good Hope.

28D: Drudge: SLAVE

33D: What to make with Monty?: A DEAL. I guessed. I've never heard of "Let's Make a DEAL". Did not know who Monty is.

34D: Valetta's island: MALTA. Interesting "honey" etymology. Now I want a jar of MALTA honey. A bit trivia: MALTA is the smallest EU member.

36D: Ajax rival: COMET

41D: Reagan's attorney general: MEESE (Ed). If confirmed, Eric Holder will be our first African-American AG.

43D: Result of division: QUOTIENT. Have you taken a IQ test before? I have not. I fear I am borderline.

49D: Pop brand: RC COLA. Have never tasted this cola before. That's a great 1969 Mets collectible I suppose.

54D: Morris or Stewart of Arizona: UDALL. No idea. Stewart UDALL is JFK and LBJ's Secretary of the Interior. Morris UDALL ran for the president in 1976. I wonder what's the origin of this UDALL. It sounds so made-up to me.

56D: Composer Berg: ALBAN. Got his name from across fills.

58D: "Norma Rae" director Martin: RITT. New name to me also. Wikipedia says he also directed "Hud" and "The Long Hot Summer" . He must like Paul Newman a lot then.

61D: Clinging flora: VINE. Nice morning glory VINE. Rise and Shine!

C.C.

Sunday December 28, 2008 Josiah Breward

Theme: Santa's Upgrades

23A: Online funnies?: DOT(-COM) COMIC BOOKS

38A: Emoticon contests? KEY(BOARD) BOARD GAMES

70A: Collectibles featuring online notables?: E(-TRADING) TRADING CARDS

103A: Mini-Frisbee?: COMPACT (DISC) DISCUS

123A: Small round object? MICRO(SOFT) SOFTBALL

17D: Blazing blades?: HIGH (SPEED) SPEED SKATES

45D: Pick-up sticks call? PHONE (JACK) JACK STRAWS

I have never heard of JACK STRAWS before. JACK STRAW, yes, the ex British Foreign Secretary. Nice to see TRADING CARDS though. Hopefully I will be able to afford this graded 1956 Topps Mickey Mantle card someday, before I get too old.

BAH (79A: Scrooge's expletive) can not damp my enthusisam for this puzzle. Wow, what a great theme! Santa is a bit late though.

The clue for SUNUNU (74D: Political pundit John) confused the hell out of me. Can you call a current US Senator "Political pundit"? I don't think so.

I was not familiarwith PEPIN (43A: Son of Charlemagne), but Wikipedia says he is the father , not the son, of Charlemagne.

Also, too many Roman numerals for my taste:

63A: IV x XIII: LII

4D: Fifth of MMMDV: DCCI

67D: 1700 in letters: MDCC

I'd like to share with you three excellent answers using Roman numerals as hinted clues:

1500: PHYSICIAN

400: MUSIC MEDIUM

30: DIRTY MOVIE

I think I want Santa to upgrade me from C.C. to 200 today.

Across:

21A: Eric of "Top Hat": BLORE. Have never heard of this British comic actor or the musical "Top Hat".

22A: Newman of "SNL": LARAINE. I googled her name. Wikipedia says she is the original "SNL" cast member.

26A: "Seinfeld" gal: ELAINE. I did not find ELAINE's dance to be funny. "No Soup for You" episode is hilarious.

28A: Land of Oranjestad: ARUBA. OK, what does "-jestad" mean in Dutch then?

32A: E. O'Brien film: D.O. A. I got this answer from down fills. Saw this clue before.

34A: __ volente (God willing): DEO. In Islam, it's Insha' Allah.

47A: Heart rhythm: DIASTOLE. New word to me. I've never heard of SYSTOLE either.

51A: Actor Knight: TED. Here is a picture of him in "Caddyshack".

52A: Overrefined: EFFETE. If you say so.

55A: Volcanic rock ejecta: SCORIA. Holy hotwick. I completely forgot this word.

65A: Wire-service letters: UPI. Does it still exist? Feels like AP dominates all the news sources.

68A: Feudal laborer: ESNE. What's the difference between ESNE and SERF?

69A: Mary of "Where Eagles Dare": URE. A complete fail-URE for me. I can never remember this actress's name.

75A: Spanish red: ROJO. New Spanish word to me.

78A: Patriotic men's org: SAR (Sons of the American Revolution). "Patriotic women's org." is DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution).

81A: Porthos, to Athos: AMI. Great clue.

82A: Satellite of Jupiter: ELARA. Unknown to me. How can I remember it? E LARA (Zhivago's love)?

90A: Place position: SECOND. Win, place and show, horse racing term.

95A: Full of: suff.: ULENT. As in opulent and fraudent. I went through lots of trouble getting this answer.

100A: Hemlock homes: NESTS. Why?

114A: Kind of ray: MANTA. Great picture. Is it edible?

127A: Antiknock fluid: ETHYL. Ha, I got it today.

128A: Adenauer: DER ALTE. I am more used to seeing ALTE is often clued as "Der ___: Adenauer".

129A: Pearson and Flatt: LESTERS. The answer revealed itself after I filled in the surrounds. I knew neither of them. LESTER Pearson was a Canadian politician who won Nobel peace prize in 1957. Wikipedia says LESTER Flatt is "one of the pioneers of bluegrass music".

Down:

2D: Tropical lizard: ANOLE. Such a strange mix of green and blue.

7D: R. Reagan's Star Wars: SDI (Strategic Defense Initiative). Introduced in 1983.

8D: "Fernando" group: ABBA. Here is the clip. It's a new song to me. Who is "Fernando"?

10D: Hornswoggled: ROOKED. "Hornswoggle" is new word to me.

13D: Rains and Debussy: CLAUDES. Monet too.

14D: Beat: LAMBASTE

24D: Wholly confused: CHAOTIC

29D: Incarnation of Vishnu: RAMA. No idea. See this picture. I bet I will forget it after lunch.

35D: Versifier Nash: OGDEN

38D: Bleaching vat: KIER. Have never heard of this vat before. Sounds like a German name to me.

40D: Gilberto of Bossa-Nova fame: ASTRUD. I forgot her name. Do remember the song "The Girl From Ipanema".

42D: Michael Caine film: ALFIE. "Jude Law film" too.

43D: Salad green: ESCAROLE. I always call it endive. It's quite bitter, so different from Belgian endive.

56D: Small isles: AITS. This word only exists in the crossword world, doesn't it?

58D: Center starter?: EPI. Epicenter.

59D: Windy City rail inits: CTA (Chicago Transit Authority). Wikipedia says CTA is "the second largest transit system in the United States and fourth largest in North America". New York City's MTA is the #1 I suppose? Who are the other two before CTA?

60D: Soprano Te Kanawa: KIRI. I googled her name. She is from New Zealand, and she sang at Diana and Prince Charles' wedding.

71D: Indonesian island group: ARU. I can never remember this island group (lower right corner).

72D: Long-snouted fish: GAR. Also called needlefish. This GAR is ruthless.

73D: Masticated: CHEWED. "Masticate" is a new word to me. Sounds so DF.

77D: University of Maine town: ORONO

83D: Dijon donkey: ANE. I wish it were broken up as AN E ("Wheel of Fortune" buy).

86D: Travel stamps: VISAS

91D: Trump namer: DECLARER. Bridge?

99D: "The Bells of __": ST MARYS. New film to me.

101D: Quantity of a look?: EYEFUL. Nice clue.

104D: Like successful jingles: CATCHY

111D: Boston cagers, for short: CELTS

112D: Small harbor: INLET. How is it different from cove?

116D: Ed or Leon: AMES. I got it from the across fills. AMES is always clued as "Iowa college town".

124D: Eng. instruction letters: ITA (Initial Teaching Alphabet). Too obscure for me. This is where I prefer the clue to be a partical, you know, "Call IT A day" sounds so much better.

C.C.