Tuesday February 3, 2009 Josiah Breward

Theme: A Sacred Journey

17A: 1941 Bing Crosby movie: BIRTH OF THE BLUES

40A: 1937 Paul Muni move (with "The"): LIFE OF EMILE ZOLA

61A: One of Donne's sonnets: DEATH BE NOT PROUD

None of the above theme answers was familiar to me. I thought there would be an odyssey of struggle waiting ahead when I read the clues. Was surprised that most of them crumbled quickly.

Had trouble with HMO (62D: Ins. choice). "Insurance" did not come to my mind readily at all. I need an additional word "Medical" for the clue, either "Medical Ins. choice" or "Med. Insurance choice".

Besides "LIFE OF EMILE ZOLA" and "LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL", what other movie titles include the word LIFE?

Across:

1A: Painter's base: GESSO. Wikipedia says GESSO was "traditionally mixed with animal glue, usually rabbit-skin glue". Does modern GESSO contain any animal product?

29A: Yellowish-green olivines: PERIDOTS. Nice rings. Peridot is the August birthstone. Don't know how it differs from emerald.

32A: University in Waco: BAYLOR. The largest Baptist university in the world.

37A: Seraglio: HAREM. I forgot the meaning of "Seraglio". Italian for "enclosure". I often wonder if men really are not allowed inside HAREM.

46A: Heroic in scope: EPIC. Watched "Gandhi" the other day. Couldn't fully understand his mindset. Overly idealistic.

49A: Supporter: ADHERENT. Supporter of a "cause", isn't it? Nehru was an ADHERENT of Gandhi's philosophy and legacy, but he is not an ADHERENT of Gandhi, right?

55A: Dope or skinny: INFO. And FACT (57D: Actual event).

58A: One of the Ionian Islands: CORFU. Here is the map. Upper left corner. Prince Philip was born there. Lots of decorative stuff on his uniform.

69A: Van Duyn and Washbourne: MONAS. Van Duyn was a Pulitzer-winning poet (1991). Washbourne played Higgins' housekeeper Mrs. Pearce in "My Fair Lady" (1964). Did not know the former, and forgot the latter.

72A: Some golf tournaments: OPENS. "Some tennis tournaments" too. Rafael Nadal just won Australia Open. Stunning. Another history in the making.

73A: Dutch painter: STEEN (Jan). Here is his painting offered at European Fine Art Affair last year. With the current global economic crisis, I don't expect any "shock and awe" in 2009, unless it's another Rembrandt.

Down:

2D: Samuel's mentor: ELI. I guessed. Bible is definitely my Achilles' heel. Holy smoke, is it really ELI Manning?

13D: Durante feature: NOSE. A prominent NOSE indeed.

22D: Cameos and pippins: APPLES. I've had enough APPLES this winter. I am craving fresh peaches & nectarines.

27D: Adam's second: ABEL. And ONAN (59D: Judah's son). No trouble with either of them.

28D: Tom, Dick or Harry, etc.: NAME. What's so special about those three names? They don't rhyme or anything. Or are they just random picks?

35D: Bounces back: REACTS. I suppose so.

41D: Big pot of stew: OLLA. Olio can be "Big pot of stew" too.

43D: Japanese fighter of WWII: ZERO. No idea. Strange number ZERO. Why not name their fighter EIGHT? 8 is a lucky number for both Chinese and Japanese.

C.C.

Monday February 2, 2009 Tom Pruce

Theme: Feeling Blue

20A: Without warning: OUT OF THE BLUE

60A: Jamaican peak: BLUE MOUNTAIN

10D: Something to scream: BLUE MURDER

30D: Miles Davis classic: KIND OF BLUE

I was only familiar with the phrase OUT OF THE BLUE. But the other three entries were very easy to suss out once I figured out the theme. Do you know where the BLUE MOUNTAIN got its name?

A perfect puzzle for Michael Phelps. He must be feeling very blue this morning. What a disappointment. Why did he need marijuana to get high? Kind of tarnished his ONCE IN A BLUE MOON eight gold medal Olympic record.

So jarring to see RED (15A: Scarlet, e.g.) and RED-HOT (6D: Fiery) intersects one another. Also, is the clue for NSA (59A: Govt. advisory grp.) correct? I wanted NSC (National Security Council). NSA is so damned secretive that I don't know to whom they give advice to.

Across:

8A: Greyhound pacer: RABBIT. I got the answer, but have no idea how RABBIT is connected with "Greyhound pacer".

14A: Gymnast Korbut: OLGA. This is incredible. She got four gold Olympics medals.

16A: Actress Dahl: ARLENE. Can never remember this actress, mother of Lorenzo Lamas. Wikipedia says she had a relationship with JFK as well.

24A: Spinoff of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show": RHODA. Learned from doing Xword. It's often clued as "Valerie Harper sitcom". Which kind of TV program do you watch now?

25A: Samms and Lazarus: EMMAS. Have never heard of EMMA Samms before. That's a very daring dress. Nice pair of ... earrings. She is a British TV actress.

29A: City on Baranof Island: SITKA. Nailed it this time. Still can't believe it's the largest city in the US by area.

34A: Driving nails obliquely: TOEING. Learned this carpentry term last time.

38A: Inter-campus sports grp.: NCAA. Can you believe NCAA was founded in 1906 and has an annual budget of $5.64 billion? By contract, NASA annual budget is $17.3 billion.

51A: Munch Museum city: OSLO. Have never heard of Munch Museum before. It's named after the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch, best known for his angst-filled "Scream".

63A: Low tracts: SWALES. The ditch on the right I presume? This word always gives me trouble.

70A: Swan genus: OLOR. No idea. Latin for swan. Too exotic a name for me to remember.

72A: French some: DES. And FRANC (21D: Old French bread?), which is also the currency for Switzerland.

Down:

2D: Chilean-born pianist Arrau: CLAUDIO. Got his name from across fills. Here is a clip. I wonder why the clue is "Chilean-born" rather than "Chilean". He must have changed his nationality later on then.

4D: Tropical root: TARO. I miss those Cantonese fried TARO cakes.

7D: Made sense: ADDED UP

26D: Med. procedure: MRI. How does MRI differ from X-ray?

27D: Gone by: AGO. "A long long time AGO... the day the music died...". It's been 50 years.

43D: NASA partner: ESA. Very tiresome clue. ESA is "That" in Spanish, right?

48D: Acquire by trickery: FINAGLE. Made me think of Merrill Lynch's John Thain and his outrageous way of using government bailout money to pay his employees bonus. I am glad he is gone.

49D: Greek letter: UPSILON. EPSILON and OMICRON also have 7 letters.

50D: Some thrown horseshoes: LEANERS. Struggled with this one. Last time I was also stumped when LEANER is clued as "Almost a ringer". It's "a thrown horseshoe that leans against the stake."

63D: Sellout theaters: SRO. No abbreviation hint in the clue. I would prefer "Sellout letters".

64D: Sebaceous cyst: WEN. This clue is getting stale too. Not sure if everyone knows, but the current Chinese Premier is named WEN Jiabao.

C.C.