Friday January 2, 2009 Barry Silk

Theme: MATCH (39A: Word before ends of 20A, 28A, 48A and 58A)

20A: Movie theater appliance: POPCORN MAKER

28A: Parcel, possibly: CARDBOARD BOX

48A: Cocktail implement: SWIZZLE STICK

58A: Sycophant's reward: BROWNIE POINT

BROWNIE POINT is a new phrase to me. It takes "BROWNIE, you're doing a heck of a job" to a whole new dimension then.

I really like the clues for ARSON (2D: Illegal firing?) and LOO (49D: Elton's john). Very clever. I would prefer "Since Jan. 1" over "Since 1/1" for YTD. I also dislike the clue for SEL (24A: SSS word). Abbreviated answer should always be avoided when other choice exists. Besides, why not play with George Sand's name and clue SEL as "Sand's salt". Alliterative and misguiding.

I hope you enjoyed this pangram from Barry. It's been exactly a month since we last solved his puzzle.

Across:

1A: Delhi garb: SARI. And RANI (71A: Indian royalty). Perfect symmetry.

9A: Flashy: JAZZY. The style of Barry's puzzle as well. Four Z's today.

16A: "The Waste Land" poet: ELIOT. Boston accent?

23A: Surround with an aura: ENHALO. Was unaware of the verb form.

37A: Seed covering: ARIL. I forgot the difference between ARIL and TESTA again.

45A: Greek war god: ARES. He is also Aphrodite's lover, so are Adonis and Hermes and a bunch of other guys. Hugo once said "A woman with three lovers is a woman." I've yet to become a woman then.

61A: Leon Uris novel: QB VII. No idea. This is the book cover. What does QB stand for?

65A: Actor Franco: NERO. Unknown to me. I am used to the "Fictional Wolfe" clue. Hmm, his book looks interesting.

68A: Hydroxyl compound: ENOL. Often clued as "Organic compound".

Down:

3D: Writer Ellison: RALPH. New writer to me. Wikipedia says he is best known for novel "Invisible Man", which won the National Book Award in 1953.

4D: Emetic medication: IPECAC. My brain keeps burping this word.

5D: "Air Music" composer: NED ROREM. Have never heard of this composer before. He looks quite handsome.

8D: Half of UTEP: EL PASO. Another "My Pet Goat" moment for me. I just can't remember what UTEP stands for (University of Texas, EL PASO).

9D: Worn ornaments: JEWELRY. Does anyone collect Taxco sterling silver JEWLERY? Here is a vintage Los Castillo signed sterling silver owl pin. The seller is asking $475 for his item.

10D: Banned spray: ALAR. When was it banned?

11D: Quick turn: ZIG

12D: Tony winner Caldwell: ZOE. Here is a clip of Caldwell and Sean Connery in "MacBeth". I simply forgot her name. Googled her before. She has won four Tony Awards.

21D: "The Good Earth" wife: O-LAN. "The Good Earth" is the best book about China. No other author has ever captured the authentic Chinese spirit better than Pearl Buck did.

22D: Cyclades island: KEA. I would not have got it without the across fills. Can never remember this damned island. Isn't it strange that KEA is the only feminine sounding island while others all have *S ending masculine names?

27D: Neural transmitters: AXONS. They transmit impulses.

29D: Kind of fingerprint: DNA. I've always associated DNA with blood or hair, but never with fingerprint.

30D: Test versions: BETAS. Computer term I presume?

31D: River regulator: DAM. I was thinking there might be a federal agency that regulate those rivers.

32D: Fabricated: FALSE. LIED does not fit.

41D: Dutch brew: HEINEKEN. They have very formidable market share in Asia Pacific.

44D: Of Russian monarchy: CZARIST

46D: Porgy: SCUP. Holy cow. So this is what a S CUP looks like. Unknown to me. Where did I get the idea that "Porgy" is a pig name?

50D: One of the Blues Brothers: ELWOOD. Another new name to me.

51D: Scandinavian coins: KRONER. Strange plural form.

55D: City in Tuscany: SIENA

56D: Bankrupt giant: ENRON. We bought a pack of ENRON logo golf balls on Ebay after the ENRON collapse. My sister-in-law has this strange conspiracy theory that Ken Lay is not really dead.

57D: Popular vodka, familiarly: STOLI

60D: Andes autocrat: INCA. Again, why "autocrat"?

61D: NFL passers: QBS. And TDS. That's all I know about football.

62D: Emeril's exclamation: BAM. "Aw, yeah, babe", "feel the love", Emeril also likes to say "Kick it up a notch".

C.C.

Thursday January 1, 2009 Alan P. Olschwang

Theme: The Folly of Power

20A: Start of Napoleon quote: IN POLITICS, AN

39A: Part 2 of quote: ABSURDITY IS

56A: End of quote: NOT A HANDICAP

And a bonus fill EXILE (64A: Napoleon's fate).

I thought Napoleon said "In politics, stupidity is not a handicap." Whatever, I don't buy it. Look at what happened to Eliot Spitzer. What a stunning fall! He seems to be very happy with his Slate.com gig though.

I also found out this morning that Napoleon is the originator of "If you want a thing done well, do it yourself."

Very simple puzzle. I am really bored by some of the stale clues. "Nice summers?" for ETES (37D) does not feel nice to me any more. Why not "Are, in Paris" or a straightforward "Vous ____ ici"?

Across:

1A: Isinglass: MICA. According to Wikipedia, the #1 definition of "Isinglass" is a "substance obtained from the swimbladders of fish (esp Beluga sturgeon); used mainly for the clarification of wine and beer, it is a form of collagen".

5A: Olympic swimmer Janet?: EVANS. Unknown to me. I got her name from down fills.

10A: Body shops?: SPAS. I thought of GYMS first.

14A: Aphrodite's son: EROS. And another Greek god is ARES (38A: Belligerent deity).

29A: Archibald and Thurmond: NATES. NAT is also the nickname for Nathaniel, right?

45A: Night school subj.: ESL (English as a second language). I've never attended this "Night school".

50A: German state: HESSE. See this map. Is their state legislature called diet also? Just saw SENAT clued as "French diet" the other day.

54A: Argentine plain: LLANO. Is double L word common in Spanish?

65A: __ Levu, Fiji: VITI. Unknown to me. It's the largest island in Fiji. Its capital city Suva is on this island. I wonder what VITI Levu mean in local language.

66A: River through Dresden: ELBE. The river originates in Czech and flows northwest across German to the North Sea.

67A: Ink ingredient: ELEMI. No idea. Olschwang clued ELEMI as "Varnish ingredient" in his July 24 puzzle.

Down:

1D: Dillon of "A Christmas Story": MELINDA. I guessed. Have never heard this MELINDA. "A Christmas Story" is a very strange movie to me.

5D: Fancy needle case: ETUI

10D: Force to be a sailor: SHANGHAI. Interesting to see a word rooted in Chinese city SHANGHAI. I just can't stand men who speak Shanghai dialect.

22D: Islet: AIT

27D: Legal matter: RES. It's clued as "Notes of scales" the other day.

30D: August in Avignon: AOUT. July is juillet, and September is just septembre. March is mars. French months and days are not capitalized, but all German nouns are capitalized. Isn't it strange?

32D:Pooch on "Frasier": EDDIE. Learned this name from doing Xword.

40D: Fit in: BELONGED

41D: Traffic directive: YIELD

47D: Roller-coaster comparative: LOOPIER. Why?

49D: Brace amount: TWO. Both "Brace" and "Span" can mean "a pair". A brace/span of oxen.

55D: Lawrence Durrel novel: LIVIA. OK, here is the obscure book again. It's in John Underwood's Nov 18 puzzle. But his original clue is "Mother of Tiberius", which is equally mystifying to me.

Happy New Year everyone! I am going to stop obsessing about my eye wrinkles and wasting money on those miracle creams. What's your New Year's resolution?

C.C.