Sunday January 18, 2009 Robert H. Wolfe

Theme: Fishy Business

23A: Fishy multi-talented celebrity?: OPAH WINFREY (Oprah Winfrey)

25A: Fishy musician?: PIANO TUNA (Piano Tuner)

39A: Fishy age recognition?: BIRTHDAY COD (Birthday Card)

57A: Fishy Brinks vehicle?: ARMORED CARP (Armored Car)

81A: Fishy Florida ballot?: HANGING SHAD (Hanging Chad)

93A: Fishy weakness?: ACHILLES' EEL (Achilles' Heel)

114A: Fishy warship?: MINNOW WAR (Man O' War)

116A: Fishy amplifiers?: HERRING AIDS (Hearing Aids)

I did not know that Man O' War is a kind of warship. Always thought it's a racing horse and is connected to Seabiscuit somehow. I actually think "Fishy thoroughbred?" is a better clue than "Fishy warship?" because of the annoying War/WAR duplication.

I liked this puzzle a lot. Caught all of the fish very early on and sailed through most of the puzzle storm-free.

I don't quite understand the clue for NO-HIT (4D: Pitch near perfection). I am confused by the grammar structure. NO-HIT is an adjective, right? A NO-HIT game. "Pitch near perfection" is a noun phrase, isn't it? No-hitter is a noun. Nolan Ryan threw seven no-hitters in his career, a major league record. None of them is a perfect game though.

Across:

11A: Heckler's partner in firearms: KOCH. Have never held a gun in my life. Not familiar with Heckler & KOCH at all.

28A: Protected one's king, in a way: CASTLED

33A: Stimpy's pal: REN. Learned this dog name from doing Xword. Stimpy is a cat.

46A: Unbeatable opponents: NEMESES. Singular is NEMESIS.

53A: River of Hades: LETHE. River of forgetfulness. Styx is the River of Hate, forming "the boundary between the upper and lower worlds". Has anyone read "The Divine Comedy" or "Inferno"?

69A: German automaker: OPEL

61A: Pastry cement: MASTIC. No idea. I found some MASTIC sealant though. Is this cement somehow related to the MASTIC tree?

64A: Airhead: DITSY. New word to me. Can also be spelled as DITZY.

68A: Vulture's repast: CARRION. Does vulture eat live animal at all?

75A: Lighter fuel: BUTANE. How is it different from propane?

84A: Seed producers of certain trees: PINECONES

102A: Bob Dylan's "__ Lady of the Lowlands": SAD EYED. Here is the song. New to me. It's about his wife Sara Lownds.

105A: Shop talk: ARGOT. Lingo is another 5-letter word that might fit in another time for "Shop talk".

108A: English philosopher of Herbert: SPENCER. I googled his name. Wikipedia says he coined the phrase "Survival of the Fittest". I thought it's Darwin original quote.

110A: Siren: LORELEI. The Rhine Siren, to be exact. Chinese lore does not have similar siren who lures those restless sailors.

124A: Some chasers: POSSE

Down:

2D: Kal Kan rival: ALPO. Know ALPO. Have never heard of Kal Kan brand. Don't own any pet.

5D: Reacting to Sinatra: ASWOON. Very interesting clue. Why Sinatra instead of Clooney?

8D: Stupor: pref: NARCO. As in narcosis. New to me. I only know NARC as "DEA agent".

11D: Astronomer Johannes: KEPLER. Another google. He was a German astronomer. That's an excellent portrait.

24D: "Newsboy" painter: INMAN (Henry). I forgot all of him. Wikipedia says nearly a dozen of his 30 Native American portraits are in the collection of the White House. Here is "Newsboy" once again.

26D: Infamous cow owner: O'LEARY (Catherine)

29D: Speaker of diamonds: TRIS. Ah, baseball. TRIS Speaker is in HOF of course.

32D: Pre-Mayan civilization: OLMEC. OLMEC, Maya & Aztec. Just learned this word a few days ago.

35D: Indian state: ASSAM. The tea state. South of Himalaya Mountains.

36D: Sanskrit aphorism: SUTRA. Hmm, "Kama SUTRA". Kama is god of erotic desire/love in Sanskrit.

41D: Persuade: COOPT. "Persuade"? Not a familiar definition to me.

43D: Humdinger: DILLY. I often mix "Humdinger" with "harbinger".

45D: Reference citation: FOOTNOTE

47D: Whatnot shelves: ETAGERES

55D: Structural beam: I-BAR. Have only heard of I-BEAM. It's the same, I suppose.

56D: Emphasizes: POINTS UP. New phrase to me.

58D: Letters for shock treatment: ECT (ElectroConvulsive Therapy). So hard to remember this abbreviation.

64D: Henning and McClure: DOUGS. DOUG Henning was a Canadian magician. DOUG McClure was an actor. I knew neither of them.

51D: Early computer: ENIAC

95D: Calyx parts: SEPALS

98D: Twilled fibrics: SERGES. Be prepared. Everytime SERGE appears in our puzzle, I will link SERGE Gainsbourg. I think Jane Birkin's moaning is sexier than Brigitte Bardot's.

107D: Growl: GNAR. Knar is a knot on the tree. Both exist only in crossword world in my opinion.

111D: City near Brussels: LIER. See this map. It's in Antwerp. Too obscure a clue.

115D: Assn. for boxers: WBA (World Boxing Association)

117D: "Kidnapped" author: RLS (Robert Louis Stevenson). Here is the bookcover. I doubt I will ever read it.

C.C.

Saturday January 17, 2009 Matthew Higgins

Theme: None

Total blocks: 26

Total words: 68

Now I start to admire Higgins' tenacity in coming up with themeless after themeless on Saturdays. He is obviously undaunted by the challenges of constructing a low word /block count grid.

He also seems to like 27 black square grids. I am so curious to know how he started this puzzle and which was the first word he filled in.

As usual, most of his clues are impeccably correct, straight from the dictionary. But certain liveliness is missing. And too many S and ED suffixes for my taste. LACKER (13D: One in want) sounds like a made-up word. So does BASSNESS (36D: Low quality of music?), which is nowhere to be found when I googled earlier.

Across:

1A: Louisiana county: PARISH. Is Louisiana the only state where county is called PARISH?

7A: Microscopic layer: THIN FILM. Science lab term?

15A: Hardy shrub of the honeysuckle family: ABELIA. See this photo. It's named after the British botanist Clarke Abel. Not a familiar shrub to me. Honeysuckle is too fragrant.

16A: Source of agar: RED ALGAE. Good to know. Is RED ALGAE edible?

23A: Squash pigment: CAROTENE. Also "Carrot/Sweet potato pigment". Source for Vitamin A. Good for your eyes.

26A: Wins by charms: ENDEARS. This reminds me a clue for END: Kind of ear? Very tough clue, isn't it? It took me a long time to figure out why the answer is ENDEAR.

31A: But, to Brutus: SED. Nope. My first encounter with this Latin "But". I am sure I won't remember it tomorrow morning when I wake up.

37A: Skulls: CRANIA

39A: Redhead duck: POCHARD. No idea. This POCHARD looks angry.

42A: Museum guides: DOCENTS

46A: Plants with funnel-shaped flowers: PETUNIAS. Nice picture. Do you know that PETUNIAS belong to the nightshade family?

47A: In the rigging: ALOFT. Opposite of alow. New nautical term to me. I always associate ALOFT with "High in the sky".

50A: Have a ball: LIVE IT UP. Reminded me of yesterday's NATURAL GAS (Teetotalers' bash). I could not find "It's a GAS" being referred as "Have a blast" anywhere on line. If you find the source, please let me know.

54A: Sap of energy: ENERVATE

55A: Moves in and out: WEAVES. What is moved "in and out"? Shuttle?

56A: Final courses: DESSERTS. What is this dessert? Looks like corn flour.

57A: "Gunsmoke" star: ARNESS (James). Uh-uh, nope. Strange name. Feels like letter H is missing from ARNESS. This girl looks very pretty.

Down:

1D: Cure-alls: PANACEAS. Sad to hear about Steve Jobs' health problem. Maybe he should have continued his vegan lifestyle rather than eating meat again. Who knows.

2D: Act of enduring without yielding: ABIDANCE. Such an exact definition.

10D: Prattled: NATTERED. And GAB (34A: Shoot the breeze)

11D: Batted one's eyes, for example: FLIRTED. I was thinking of the idiom "Not bat an eye".

12D: Start burning: IGNITE. Very rigid clue.

24D: Massive ref. work: OED (Oxford English Dictionary). Massive indeed, 20 volumes.

32D: Serving to pull: TRACTIVE. I thought the answer would end in *ING.

34D: Possessive case: GENITIVE

35D: Fred and Adele: ASTAIRES. Probably the most famous dancing siblings.

37D: Large slow moving beetles: CHAFERS. Here is a CHAFER. Unknown to me. Too small to move slowly.

38D: Generic game pieces: MEN. This clue is getting stale. Oscar Wilde once said "MEN marry because they are tired; women because they are curious; both are disappointed."

44D: Loser at Little Bighorn: CUSTER. If the clue is "Winner at Little Bighorn", whom would you think of? Sitting Bull or Crazy Horse?

53D: Author of "Saving Fish from Drowning": TAN (Amy). I've not read this book yet. "The Joy Luck Club" is fascinating read.

C.C.