Barry Silk Puzzles

I mentioned yesterday that there should be an abbreviation hint for ATF (21A: Booze, butts and bullets bureau) in Barry Silk's "Score" puzzle. It turned out that his original clue is "Justice Dept. agency".

Here are some more of his originals:

36A: California Congresswoman Lofgren: ZOE. Unknown to me. See this picture. The lady on ZOE Lofgren's left is House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Arnold's tie has strange combination of colors.

37A: Took sides?: ATE. Great clue.

60A: Philadelphia had the first one in the United States: ZOO. Nice trivia.

44A: Jimmy Rollins in 2007: MVP. Barry is a Philly fan.

69A: Yamaha competitor: SONY. See? I was right in saying that "Vaio maker" is not his original clue.

1D: Dizzy Gillespie's jazz: BEBOP. Clear Ayes mentioned that "Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie were early bebop musicians" yesterday.

10D: B sharp equivalents: C-FLATS. Any comment, Barry G, KittyB and all your music experts? Our editor changed the clue to "Some major scales".

42D: NASA acceleration unit: ONE G. Yesterday's clues is "NASA unit".

Barry has submitted over 20 puzzles to TMS, but has not heard from our editor since Nov 1 when Tribune announced the bankruptcy. He is not optimistic that his puzzles will be published. Everything seems so uncertain with Tribune right now.

He has decided to make one of the puzzles available to readers of this blog. It has a great sports theme. If you want to solve the puzzle, please email me at crosswordc@gmail.com. And don't throw away the puzzle once you are done. I will blog about it next Tuesday or Wednesday and I want to hear your views about his grid.

I sure hope we will see more Barry Silk puzzle in the near future. What a classy guy he is.

C.C.

Thursday January 15, 2009 Alan P. Olschwang

Theme: A Restless Mind

17A: Start of a quip: UNEASY LIES

27A: Part 2 of quip: THE HEAD WHICH

45A: Part 3 of quip: EATS CRACKERS

60A: End of quip: WHILE IN BED

Is this a play on "Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown"?

I am completely stumped by this quip. After our Florida cracker discussion a few days ago, now I am at a loss at what CRACKERS refer to here. Ritz Cracker CRACKERS or is it another slang for drug?

I would have clued CLUES (1D: Aids for Sherlock) as "You are reading them" or anything crossword related. By the way, there are 78 clues/fills in today's grid, the maximum count allowed for a weekday 15*15 themed puzzle (72 for Saturday themeless).

Across:

1A: "Lara __: Tomb Raider": CROFT. Guinness Book of World Records 2009 named Angelina Jolie the Most Powerful Actress. Brad Pitt took the title of the Most Powerful Actor.

6A: Iron pumper's pride: LATS. Short for Latissimus Dorsi, literally the broadest (muscle) of the back. I can never remember this word. What specific exercise is needed to build up that "pride"?

14A: Palmer of "The Gentle Sex": LILLI. Completely unknown to me. She was a German actress and was married to Rex Harrison for over a decade. If you find a poster of "The Gentle Sex" on the internet, please share with us.

15A: Japanese box: INRO. See this picture. The toggle at the top of that picture is called netsuke, highly collectible. These netsukes are so erotic. Japanese traditional clothes have no pockets, thus the need for a small case attached to the kimono.

23A: Mack of Keystone films: SENNETT. Look at these SENNETT Bathing Beautifies. Was the picture taken in 1920's? I've never heard of this guy before. Wikipedia says he is called "The King of Comedy”.

41A: Wine region of Italy: ASTI. ASTI Spumante.

49A: Ilie of tennis: NASTASE. Often see ILIE clued as "Nastase of tennis".

53A: Abrasive cloth: EMERY

58A: Award for a sitcom: EMMY. Do you know why this award is called EMMY?

64A: Orchestral instruments: CELLI. Had no idea that the plural form of cello is CELLI.

67A: Minotaur's home: CRETE. So, what's the lesson drawn from Icarus' flight from CRETE? Hubris?

Down:

3D: City on the Allegheny: OLEAN. I've never heard of Allegheny River. Is it an Indian name?

6D: Frasier's ex: LILITH. Played by Bebe Neuwirth. Unknown to me.

7D: Blue dye: ANIL. I forgot the difference between ANIL and Indigo.

8D: Cross the line?: TRESPASS. Why question mark?

10D: Anti-war: DOVISH. Opposite hawish.

18D: "The Dresser" director Peter: YATES. He just appeared in our puzzle last Sunday.

26D: Writer LeShan: EDA. Crossword construstors seem to be very fond of three letter A- ending words: EDA, IDA, ADA, AVA, EVA, UMA, ABA, AGA, A LA, BOA, ERA, PEA, PTA and of course BRA. She is so pretty.

38D: Stiffened, in a way: STARCHED

41D: Sore: ACHY. I wrote down ACHE first.

43D: Quiet partner?: PEACE

51D: Small silvery fish: SMELT. What's your favorite fish? I really like walleye.

52D: Vocalist Gorme: EYDIE. What's the title of this song? Sounds so familiar. I've never heard of EYDIE Gorme though.

61D: Former trucking regulating agcy.: ICC (Interstate Commerce Commission). From 1887 to 1995. New to me also. Wikipedia says "the agency's remaining functions were transferred to the Surface Transportation Board.

C.C.