Wednesday February 4, 2009 Adele Mann

Theme: "No" Songs For You

17A: 1986 hit by Heart: NOTHIN' AT ALL

41A: 1963 hit by the Orlons: NOT ME

65A: 1984 hit by Berlin: NO MORE WORDS

11D: 1966 hit by the Beatles: NOWHERE MAN

30D: 1981 hit by Elton John: NOBODY WINS

I have never heard of The Orlons or the Heart bands. And the only Berlin song I am familiar is "Take My Breath Away". Nevertheless, all the theme answers are very easy to obtain.

Excellent theme. I also love Annie Lennox's No More "I Love You's". The video is a bit weird, but the song is beautiful.

I think this is the 4th or 5th time I saw WEN in a TMS puzzle. Every time it's clued as "Sebaceous cyst". Where is the creativity? The WEN Ho Lee nuclear espionage scandal is well known, right? I heard of it when I still lived in China.

I just mentioned two days ago that I wanted WEN clued as "Chinese Premier __ Jiabao". And yesterday someone threw a shoe at him when he was delivering a speech in Cambridge. That despicable protester is completely ignorant of China and the democracy movement there. He has no idea what kind of positive role WEN played during Tiananmen Square Incident. He has no knowledge of how WEN handled the Sichuan earthquake disaster. WEN is the most well respected Chinese leader inside and outside China, among us Chinese.

Across:

1A: Spill the beans: BLAB. Reminds of yesterday's ONAN (Judah's son). He "spills his seeds" on the ground. Might be a waste, but sure not a sin to me. Just learned Onanism from Barry G /Lemonade yesterday.

5A: Japanese entertainer: GEISHA. Here is a modern day GEISHA. The same article says there are now only 1,000 GEISHA left in Japan (compared with 80,000 in 1928) and they are not allowed to marry. “Memoirs of a GEISHA" is a fascinating read.

39A: River of Hamburg: ELBE. Literally "river". Wikipedia says "ELBE was recorded by Ptolemy as Albis, Germanic for "river". Here is the map again. It originates in Czech and flows northwest across German to the North Sea.

44A: Infamous Helmsley: LEONA. The "Queen of Mean". She left millions of trust fund for her dog Trouble when she died. The Helmsley Foundation is the No. 1 charitable giver in 2008 though. Total $5.2 billion commitment. Mayor Bloomberg is the biggest living doner. Strange that the Gates did not make the list.

56A: Legendary archer: TELL. Or "Spill the beans" again.

68A: Barnyard layer: HEN. It's also "Female lobster/octopus/salmon".

70A: Brightest star in Lyra: VEGA. Here is the diagram. Wikipedia says "VEGA was the first star, other than the Sun, to have its photograph taken and the first to have its spectrum photographed" (1850).

Down:

6D: Hurler's stat: ERA. Louis mentioned several days ago about Cleveland's saying "If a Feller has a Lemon He-gan Waynn". I thought that's a great line. Bob Lemon, Jim Hegan or Early Wynn were obscure to me. But Bob Feller is a big potato, HOFer. I thought his name "Feller" could be a great misleading clue. "Feller's start" for ERA sounds good to me.

37D: Pianist Thelonious: MONK. His middle name is Sphere, one of the most influential jazz greats of the 50's and 60's, according to Seattle John.

45D: Fact book: ALMANAC. I wonder how much this original book costs in this condition. Does anyone collect first edition books? I traded my first edition "Godfather" (1969) for some baseball cards several years ago.

50D: City near Rawalpindi: LAHORE. Here is the map. LAHORE is the second-largest city in Pakistan after Karachi. I got the answer, but did not really know where Rawalpindi is. Wikipedia says it's the military headquarters of the Pakistan Armed Forces and and also served as the nation's capital while Islamabad (10th largest city in Pakistan) was being constructed in the 1960s.

55D: Geneva's lake: LEMAN. Here is the name origin. LPGA holds its Evian Masters every year on the southern shore of Lac LEMAN. The golf course looks breathtaking on TV. Big purse, second only to US Open I think.

61D: Three-spot: TREY. No idea. It's always clued as "Low card".

Boomer bowled a 300 last night, his 5th perfect game.

C.C.

Bonus Crossword: Barry Silk Presentation Puzzle

THEME: Barry Silk Presentation Puzzle

Crossword Grid Found here.

Just click on iPaper, then print it out. Barry Silk kindly provided us with this special puzzle he made for a presentation on Jan 17, 2009 at the Tysons-Pimmit Regional Library, a branch of the FAIRFAX COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY. He spoke on the evolution of the crossword, its role as a daily showcase of wit and wordplay, and gave clues and tips for solving them. This venue is the theme of the puzzle appearing in the first part of the four long across answers.

19A: One of the most congested streets in Los Angeles: FAIRFAX AVENUE

26A: Dunmore caves site in Ireland: COUNTY KILKENNY

46A: National parks and forests, ex.: PUBLIC PROPERTY

54A: Reference storage: LIBRARY STACKS

Barry is a prolific crossword constructor with a wealth of experience. Check out C.C.'s interview with him here if you haven't already.

This puzzle was two letters shy of being a pangram-no J or Q, typical Barry Silk. For those of you not familiar with pangram crosswords they use every letter of the alphabet at least once. Here is an interesting crossword puzzle constructor story and an amazing triple pangram by Matt Gaffney.

Have you ever tried constructing a double or triple pangram Barry? Did they make a video of your presentation that we can view?

NYTAnonimo here subbing for C.C.. Bear with me as this is my first attempt at blogging.

I had to google 7D to complete this puzzle. Didn't know this Philadelphia university. Flew though it pretty fast except for that snag.

ACROSS:

1A: Living room centerpiece: SOFA

5A: Scoundrel: CAD. Besides referring to a rake (check out the tavern scene) it is also an acronym for Computer Aided Design.

8A: Hits a high point: PEAKS.

13A: Not this: THAT

14A: Former Iranian president: Bani___SADR. More familiar with Sadr City in Iraq.

15A: Kramden of "The Honeymooners": RALPH Can be found here with 51D. Nice touch Barry.

16A: Coastal city: PORT

17A: Ballet movement: PLIE. Always wanted to take ballet but never did. How many of you have?

18A: Steer clear of: EVADE. Don't evade helping C.C. blog these puzzles-it's not as hard as I thought it would be. I'm sure the first time is longer too until you get the hang of it.

19A: One of the most congested streets in Los Angeles: FAIRFAX AVENUE. Unknown to me. The X from DREXEL helped me to come up with FAIRFAX. That's one of the reasons I like the way Barry tries to include the more uncommon letters of the alphabet in his puzzles. They are often what helps me pull the word from memory.

22A: Steinbeck's birthplace: SALINAS

24A: Super Bowl XLII MVP: Manning-ELI. I'm not much for watching sports so this is a weak spot for me in puzzle solving. I learn these sports names primarily from crosswords. Love to swim and hike though. Any other swimmers and hikers out there?

25A: Baseball great Mel-OTT

26A: Dunmore Caves site in Ireland: COUNTY KILKENNY. There is a beautiful castle in Kilkenny too. Have any of you been to this area?

29A: "Barbara __"(Beach Boys classic): ANN. Time machine time!

30A: (As written): SIC

31A: Wonder: AWE

32A: Father: BEGET. Think I've only seen this in the Bible. I'm plodding my way through this tome-up to Maccabees. My eyes glaze over in certain areas (like the begets). I also get sidetracked reading Bible commentaries (or books like Who on Earth was Jesus?) along with my regular reading.

35A: Butterfly catcher: NET

37A: Drinks with straws: SODAS

41A: Gym goer's pride: BOD (body)

43A: Sounds of hesitation: UHS

45A: Que. Neighbor: ONT. (Ontario)

46A: National parks and forests, e.g.: PUBLIC PROPERTY. How many of our national parks have you been to? Which was your favorite? I've been to Yosemite in California, Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, Acadia in Maine and Buck Island in the US Virgin Islands (St. Croix). Have driven through the Smokies and Everglades but not stopped for a visit. My favorite was Yosemite. Saw it in August and would like to go back in the spring when there is actually a Yosemite Falls flowing!

51A: Prince Valiant's son: ARN. Wikipedia says the Legend of Prince Valiant is an animated television show based on the Prince Valiant comic strip by Hal Foster.

52A: Female deer: DOE

53A: It may fit all: ONE SIZE

54A: Reference storage: LIBRARY STACKS. Location of Barry's presentation.

57A: Model of perfection: IDEAL

58A: Riga resident: LETT. Wikipedia says this is an archaic word for Latvian.

59A: Object of worship: IDOL

62A: Prefix with grade: CENTI

63A: Southwestern earthenware pot: OLLA

64A: Neighbor of Senegal: MALI. The stamp collecting hobby my uncle introduced me to when I was a kid has proven useful in solving crosswords.

65A: Cosmetics maker Lauder: ESTEE

66A: Scottish negative: NAE

67A: Cry in court: OYEZ. Think they teach this in law school?

Down:

1D: "The racer's edge": STP (Scientifically Treated Petroleum)

2D: "Well, whaddya know!": OHO

3D: Extending over a wide area: FAR FLUNG

4D: Achieve: ATTAIN

5D: Kind of leather: CALFSKIN

6D: 1998 Sarah McLachlan hit: ADIA

7D: Philadelphia university: DREXEL. My Achilles heel. Did you have one?

8D: Sneak showings: PREVIEWS. Check out the upcoming movies here.

9D: Icicle site: EAVE

10D: Substance abuse support group: ALANON (Alcoholics Anonymous)

11D: Mil. assignment: KP DUTY (Kitchen Patrol)

12D: Ghost costume, basically: SHEET

14D: Uses a hose: SPRAYS (Guaranteed to make you smile.)

20D: Bank statement abbr.: INT. (Interest)

21D: __-Seltzer: ALKA

22D: Sign of healing: SCAB

23D: Top-notch: A ONE

27D: Freeze: ICE UP. Have you all thawed out yet?

28D: New beginning?: NEO (As in neocon, neolithic, neoimpressionism, neoplasm, etc.)

33D: Wane: EBB

34D: Perjured oneself: TOLD A LIE . How m a n y m o r e can you think of? I've found snopes.com and factcheck.org good places to check the veracity of dubious claims.

36D: Engine valve: THROTTLE. My knowledge of car parts is limited-VERY limited-I know how to use the dipstick to check the oil level, how to measure tire pressure and add air to the tire, and could probably change a tire if I absolutely had to. My first car was an old Chevy Nova I had my last year in college. The floor boards in front developed a hole that went all the way through. You could see the street below. My friends used to joke that I could stick my foot through to brake-kind of like driving your car Fred Flinstone style. It drove like a tank (or at least how I think a tank would drive). Memories! What was the first car you owned?

38D: Her last film was "With Six You Get Eggroll" (1968): DORIS DAY.

39D: 1998 animated bug film: ANTZ. Have we seen ANTZII in a puzzle yet? Looks like that would be a no for the NYT from Jim Horne's stats. Can't remember if it's been in a Trib puzzle-do you know C.C.?

40D: Eye trouble: STYE

42D: Stylish Christian: DIOR. Though he died in 1957 his name lives on.

44D: Beethoven's "Moonlight ___": SONATA

46D: Groups of lions: PRIDE

47D: Straight: UNBENT

48D: Sri Lanka, once: CEYLON. Also a type of tea.

49D: Chest muscle, for short: PEC (pectoralis major and pectoralis minor)

50D: Igloo dweller: ESKIMO

51D: Kramden of "The Honeymooners": ALICE

55D: Give a "G" or "PG," say: RATE

56D: Actress Ward: SELA. I actually saw a movie she was in-just didn't remember it-big surprise! (Well it was a minor role for her-but I don't watch many movies or much TV and have trouble remembering the plots, characters and titles of the ones I do see.)

60D: Bullfight cheer: OLE

61D: Taylor, familiarly: LIZ

Lot of familiar crossword words in here but still an enjoyable puzzle.

Phew-this first try at blogging took a while-gives you a new appreciation for what C.C. does (everyday) ! Thanks to C.C. for the blog and to Barry for all the fine puzzles!