Sunday January 4, 2009 Ed Voile

Theme: Old/New Things

23A: Any date in 2008? OLD YEAR'S DAY (New Year's Day)

25A: Replacement dog?: NEW YELLER (Old Yeller)

40A: City in ancient France?: OLD ORLEANS (New Orleans)

53A: Recently made?: NEW FASHIONED (Old Fashioned)

83A: Past eras in a city near Leeds?: OLD YORK TIMES (New York Times)

98A: Ebonics, e.g.?: NEW ENGLISH (Old English)

111A: Pink slip of a former GM Car?: OLDS PAPER (Newspaper)

116A: Waterway named for Paul?: NEWMAN RIVER (Ol' Man River)

"Ol' Man River" is a new song to me. As for 98A, Wikipedia says Ebonics refers to "Black English" or "African American Vernacular English". Why is it called NEW ENGLISH then? And How is it related to Old English? I guess I don't understand the rationale for his clue buildup.

Very nice and timely theme. Of those 8 theme answers, OLD YORK TIMES is my favorite.

Sunday's puzzle is always intimidating to me. The sheer size is overwhelming. And it often contains a few strange medical/chemical terms and obscure people' names. The difficulty level of NY Times Sunday puzzle is the same as their Thursday's. But our puzzle does not follow their pattern. I would say TMS Sunday is the most difficult, at least for me. I hope I can finish a 21*21 without cheating by the end of 2009.

Across:

11A: Playful troublemakers: SCALAWAGS. A new rascal word to me. Dictionary says that SCALAWAG also refers to "a native white Southerner who collaborated with the occupying forces during Reconstruction, often for personal gain."

20A: Unit of loudness: SONE. About 40 decibels.

21A: Civil War battle site: SHILOH. I was not familiar with Battle of SHILOH. What's so siginificant about it?

26A: Rocket launcher: BAZOOKA. OK, here is a picture. It's a portable. Topps also manufactures BAZOOKA baseball card.

27A: School in Sandhurst. Eng.: RMA (Royal Military Academy)

31A: Spaces between leaf veins: AREOLES. Can also be spelled AREOLAS, AREOLAE. The singular form is AREOLA. This is the only diagram I could find. And obviously they are not "Spaces between leaf veins".

35A: Chloroform discoverer: LIEBIG. OK, I checked, it's not a BIG LIE. This guy LIEBIG is indeed the discoverer of Chloroform, whatever it is. Wikipedia also says that he is known as the "father of the fertilizer industry" for his discovery of nitrogen as an essenitial plant nutrient.

45A: Wilson and Mulroney: BRIANS. Wilson is the lead singer for The Beach Boys. And Mulroney was the Canadian Prime Minister from 1984 to 1993. I knew neither of them. Easy guess though.

52A: Gust of wind: SCUD. I always associate SCUD with ballistic missile.

63A: Arlene or Roald: DAHL. Arlene DAHL is an actress. Roald DAHL is the author of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory". Both unknown to me.

67A: Isl. of Australia: TAS. I wish it were clued as "Prof's aides".

69A: Current flow restrictors: DIODES. No idea. This is too complicated for me to understand.

75A: "The Conformist" writer Moravia: ALBERTO. I googled his name.

79A: Destitute class: HAVE-NOTS

86A: Climb (a rope): SHINNY. New to me. Looks like an adjective.

96A: Mutation: FREAK. How so?

102A: Capital of ancient Lydia: SARDIS. See this map. Way obscure to me.

104A: "Roberta" star: ASTAIRE. Alright, here is the clip. I've never heard of "Roberta".

109A: Cooking sticks: SKEWERS

120A: Seaport in the Philippines: ILOILO. I forgot. Saw this clue before. Here is the map again. The spelling reminds of the African fly TSETSE.

124A: Scott of a famous case: DRED. Was he a gimme to you? I could only picture Scott Peterson in my mind. What a awful man he is.

Down:

4D: Milne character: EEYORE. Learned from doing Xword. How to pronounce EEYORE again?

6D: Racing org.: NHRA (National Hot Rod Association)

10D: Aromatic fungicide: THYMOL. THYME & OL (suffix for alcohol). Unknown to me. How can fungicide be "Aromatic"?

19D: Old pol. unit: SSR (Soviet Socialist Republic). Pre-1991 obviously.

31D: Slow musical passages: ADAGIOS

34D: Sergeant fish: SNOOK. Had zero familiarity with this giant fish.

36D: Italian bowling: BOCCI. Or BOCCE. Yet another unknown. Looks like they are having fun.

37D: Pelvic bone: ILIUM. Also the Latin name for ancient Troy.

45D: Actor De Wilde: BRANDON. Another google. Which movie is he famous for?

47D: Mountain nymph: OREAD. Echo is an OREAD in Greek mythology.

50D: FDR or JFK: DEM. BHO is a DEM too. Weird, isn't it? Obama sounds so much better.

52D: Blues or Cardinals: ST. LOUIS

53D: Pres. advisory grp.: NSC (National Security Council). James Jones will be Obama's National Security Advisor.

59D: Love potion, in Britain: PHILTRE. Holy smoke. Really? How come I've never heard of this word? It's rooted in Greek philos, love. I suppose PHILTER is "Love potion, in America". Maybe I need to learn how to brew PHILTER.

68D: Ratfink: STOOLIE

77D: Mass calendars: ORDOS. Latin for "order". I have no doubt that I won't be able to remember this word next time the clue comes up.

80D: Director Kurosawa: AKIRA. I recognized his Japanese name when I googled. What a brilliant career!

84D: Hebrew letter: KOPH. 19th letter of Hebrew alphabet. I got it from the across fills. It's pronounced the same as cough.

90d: Master of a ship SKIPPER. I always thought Joe DiMaggio's nickname is Yankee SKIPPER rather than Yankee Clipper.

93D: "Falconer" writer: CHEEVER (John). Here is the bookcover. Is it worth reading? Have never heard of this writer.

94D: Earthly: TERRENE. Only knew terrain.

95D: Blows a gasket: SEES RED. And HUFFS (79D: Blows hard). Someone is mad.

97D: "__ Fideles": ADESTE. Semper came up first.

105D: Austrian article: DER. Never know when to put DER, when to put DAS.

110D: Macrame feature: KNOT. I did not know the meaning of Macrame.

111D: Archaic: abbr.: OBS (Obsolete). Where can you find this abbreviation?

118D:Wire measure: MIL. It's about .001 inch. Saw this clue before.

C.C.

Saturday January 3, 2009 Josiah Breward

Theme: None

Total block: 38

Total word: 68

What's so special today? Why two crosses in the grid? Pure coincidence?

Funny how visual images can be so misguiding. After a quick glance at the simple grid, I had thought we might have a new record for the lowest total blocks. So wrong. It turns out that this puzzle actually has the highest number of black squares, though the total word count is quite low.

Still some suffixes, but not too excessive. CERN struck me as very obscure, but it's obtainable from the crossing fills, so is YAOUNDE.

But I cheated too early. Should have worked hard for MALACHI instead of looking up in the Reference Supplement section of my dictionary for "Books of Bible" immediately. Definitely not a satisfying solving experience.

Across:

1A: Awllike tool: ICEPICK. The weapon Sharon Stone used in "Basic Instinct". Leon Trotsky was also murdered with an ICEPICK.

8A:Lug laboriously: SCHLEPP. I thought it's SCHLEP, one P.

15A: Old Testament closer: MALACHI. Wikipedia says MALACHI might not be "the name of the author, since MALACHI means 'my messenger' or 'my angel' in Hebrew".

16A: Rigby of song: ELEANOR. By The Beatles. Unknown to me, the tune sounds very familiar though.

18A: Alternative to pasta: RISOTTO. There is really a science behind a perfect RISOTTO. Very complicated to prepare.

20A: Poetic globe: ORB. Or "Eye, poetically".

21A: Troy, NY school: RPI (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute). My brain simply refuses to accept this school name. What is RPI famous for?

22A: Uris novel, with "The": HAJ. It was QB VII yesterday.

28A: Herbal quaff: SAGE TEA. I've never had SAGE TEA. Guess that's why I can't even finish a Saturday puzzle without cheating.

29A: Grp. of gridders: AFC (American Football Conference). I thought of NFL. Holy cow, the Vikings belongs to NFC. I didn't even know that. OK, now I know TDS, QBS, NFL, AFC and NFC. What else? Oh, YDS & wardrobe malfunction.

30A: Eur. particle accelerator location: CERN (Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire - European Council for Nuclear Research). It's the the world's largest particle physics lab according to Wikipedi. Doesn't feel like it's something worth knowing.

32A: Work unit: ERG. Ten-millionth of a joule.

35A: Old-style second person verb: WOULDST. Strung the answer together with the crossing help.

38A: Illumination unit: LUX. What? I thought LUX is a brand of soap.

40A: Primitive plant: ALGA. Nori, kelp and other seaweeds are all ALGAE.

42A: Take over for: RELIEVE. Ah, how I miss baseball! Goose Goosage made into HOF last year. He is a great reliever.

46A: Fractional ending: ETH. "Biblical verb ending" as well.

50A: German automobile pioneer: DAIMLER

55A: Can. province: QUE. Next I want "___ Sera, Sera".

56A: Capital of Cameroon: YAOUNDE. No idea. See this map. I wonder what YAOUNDE means in its local language.

62A: Parents: REARERS. I only knew REAR. If it's a valid word, then step-parents are REARERS too. My REARER is my grandma.

63A: Most labyrinthine: MAZIEST. Have never heard of MAZY before.

Down:

1D: Mrs. Marcos: IMELDA. Ah, shoes, of which she had too many. It's like my baseball card collection, very addictive.

2D: Indian pony: CAYUSE. I forgot. Saw this clue/answer before. CAYUSE is named after the Indian tribe.

5D: Discharges from wounds: ICHORS. I rememer ICHOR was clued as "Blood of gods" before,

6D: Nervous system disorder: CHOREA. Another new word to me. Is it pronounced the same as Korea?

8D: Saw-toothed: SERRATED

13D: French stewlike dish: POT-AU-FEU. I won't link a picture, since so many of you just hate this dish.

14D: Item on a secret agenda: PROJECT X

25D: Inveigh: DECLAIM. So many *claim words: DECLAIM, disclaim, reclaim, proclaim, exclaim, acclaim and misclaim.

34D: Sword lily: GLADIOLA. Not my favorite flower. Too wild for me. I did not know it's also called "Sword lily" though.

36D: Poisonous shrub: OLEANDER. Which part is poisonous?

43D: Jewish Jehovah: ELOHIM. You would think this would be a gimme for me after reading your comments three weeks ago. But no. Dear God, please let me know your name next time.

44D: City in a Shakespeare title: VERONA. "The Two Gentlemen of VERONA".

45D: Poor quality imitation: ERSATZ. Dealt with too many ERSATZ luxury products when I worked with Pinkerton (Intellectual Investigation) in China.

57D: Egy-Syr., for a time: UAR (United Arab Republic). Between 1958 to 1961, during Nasser's presidency.

C.C.