Monday January 19, 2009 Josiah Breward

Theme: Meal Time

20A: Residence inn: BED AND BREAKFAST

40A: British bread-and-cheese meal: PLOUGHMAN'S LUNCH

55A: Sweet following eating: AFTER DINNER MINT

I have never heard of PLOUGHMAN'S LUNCH before. Ploughman probably will not eat those bitter endives in the middle. What is the stuff on that front white cup? Looks deliciously chunky.

Not a well-thought theme. If BREAKFAST and LUNCH are located at the end of the phrase, so should be DINNER. You know, like CHRISTMAS DINNER, 15 letters, perfect. What other *DINNER ending phrases can you think of? BUSINESS DINNER is one letter short.

Easy sailing this morning. Very doable puzzle. I got SEE (23A: Match a raise) from down clues, but I don't understand the cluing. How so?

Across:

1A: Calgary team: FLAMES. Here is a hockey puck with FLAMES logo. That's a very hot name. We have Wild in Minnesota. Edmonton Oilers is also based in Alberta.

10A: Novelist Oz: AMOS. "A Tale of Love and Darkness" sounds intriguing.

14A: City on the Rio Grande: LAREDO. Is this city somehow related to "The Streets of LAREDO"? The title of the sad baseball movie "Bang the Drum Slowly" comes from that song.

18A: USN big shot: ADM. What's the equivalent Marines/Army/Air Force big shot? GEN?

24A: Singer Moffo: ANNA. The answer revealed itself after I filled in the down clues. Have never heard of this opera singer.

25A: CCCII tripled: CMVI. Roman 906.

29A: Grp. of D.C. advisors: NSC (National Security Council). Here is a list of those who attend the NSC meeting. General James Jones will coordinate those meetings for Obama.

31A: Chicago singer Peter: CETERA. No idea. I do love Chicago's "Hard to Say I'm Sorry/Get Away". "Chicago" here refers to the band name.

37A: Bay window: ORIEL

44A: "Les Preludes" composer: LISZT. Here is a clip.

45A: Old-time roofing material: SLATE. "Old-time"? Does it mean that SLATE is not used as roofing material any more?

64A: Harem area: ODA. Turkish for "room". Derived from odalik, meaning "a chamber girl" or "a concubine", according to Wikipedia.

67A: Eskimo knife: ULU. Have never heard of ULU knife.

68A: Potential looter: RIOTER

69A: Medieval slave: ESNE. Sometimes is SERF. I don't know how those two are different from each other.

Down:

4D: Physical opening?: META. Metaphysical. Will Rogers probably would want this clue to be "I have never MET A man I didn't like". Our editor dislikes partial fills though.

9D: Love affairs: ROMANCES. They are not the same, are they? To me, "Love affair" implies a sexual and illicit relationship.

10D: Former PLA leader: ARAFAT. Hard to associate ARAFAT with Nobel Peace prize winner.

21D: Simple brooms: BESOMS. New brooms to me. Very twiggy.

27D: "Twelfth Night" role: VIOLA. I guessed. Have never read "Twelfth Night".

30D: Patsy Cline classic: CRAZY. Here is the song. Can't find Willie Nelson's CRAZY on YouTube. It's pretty good too.

33D: Belly muscles: RECTI. Singular is rectus. Another new word to me. I am convinced that I don't know my own body.

41D: Worked freelance: HIRED OUT

42D: End of a spat?: ULA. Spatula. Also "End of a form" (Formula).

47D: "__ Fideles": ADESTE. Semper is also 6-letter.

49D: Rugged range: SIERRA. "Rugged ridge" would be ARETE.

52D: Move sideways: SIDLE. There is no difference in my pronunciation of SIDLE and SADDLE.

55D: Winglike structures: ALAE. The adjective is ALAR, though often clued as "Banned spray".

59D: Synthesizer maker: MOOG. I have never heard of Bob MOOG or MOOG Synthesizer.

62D: British wheel: TYRE. British TYRE hits kerb.

C.C.

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.