Thursday February 19, 2009 Adele Mann

Theme: "What, Me Worry?"

17A: Start of a quip: WORRY IS A ROCKING

34A: Part 2 of quip: CHAIR THAT

45A: Part 3 of quip: WILL NEVER

66A: End of quip: TAKE YOU ANYWHERE

The original Glenn Turner quote is: Worrying is like a rocking chair, it gives you something to do, but it gets you nowhere.

Most of the worries are unfounded. Some people are trapped and paralyzed by their gloomy imaginations. Worries can easily morph into fears or phobias. Don't worry. Be happy.

This is a better puzzle than Alele Mann's last quip. It held my interest. But why "Chic" for (4D) though? To me, "Chic" is stylish, but PERT is "lively". Katie Couric used to be PERT.

Across:

1A: Short distance: STEP. This STEP is definitely not a "Short distance".

5A: Hullabaloo: FUROR

16A: Present starter?: OMNI. Omnipresent. Actually, "Present opener?" is a better clue.

21A: "Havana" star: LENA OLIN. Easy guess. I've never seen "Havana". Nice to see her full name in a grid.

25A: His in Hyeres: SES. Hyeres is on the French Riviera. I did not know that.

30A: "Barney Miller" co-star: SOO (Jack). Learned from doing Xword. I wonder why he changed his name into SOO. Japanese nickname for Suzuki?

42A: Explorer Johnson: OSA. No idea. Here is a safari photo of OSA and her husband Martin Johnson. If she is OSA, her husband should be OSO. A bear couple.

44A: Star in Cygnus: DENEB. "Cygnus" is Latin for "swan", cygnets are young swans. See this diagram again.

54A: SASA, e.g.: ENC. Wrote down ENV first.

58A: Deviant: ABNORMAL

68A: Mythical Hun king: ATLI. I don't know why the answer is ATLI when it's clued as Norse god related, but ATTILA when the clue was "The Scourge of God".

69A: Founder of the Ottoman dynasty: OSMAN. Oh, I did not know this either. More familiar with Ottoman Empire, not dynasty. China had over 20 dynasties. Qing was the last, overthrown by Sun Yat-Sen in 1911.

72A: Renaissance fiddle: REBEC. Absolutely no idea. See here for more information. It's pear-shaped and was replaced by viol after the Renaissance period.

Down:

1D: Disseminates: SOWS. Remind me of my theme title yesterday: Go, Sow Your Wild Oats.

3D: Stone or Pound: EZRA. Know poet EZRA Pound. Forgot who EZRA Stone is.

5D: Like Snow White: FAIREST. Good clue. Better than "Most ..."

7D: Qum coin: RIAL. Qum is in Iran. See it? It's to the south/southwest of Tehran.

11D: Ludwig and Jannings: EMILS. Jannings is the first winner of Oscar for Best Actor ("The Way of All Flesh"). Ludwig is a German author known for his biographies of Goethe, Napoléon, etc.

12D: "Tomorrow" singer: ANNIE. Nice clip.

19D: Actress Jones: CAROLYN. I guessed. Not familiar with this actress at all. Is CAROLYN and Caroline the same?

23D: Not by any means: NO HOW. Mine was NEVER.

29D: Itchy skin problem: TINEA. New word to me. It's also called ringworm.

31D: Mirage, maybe: OASIS. OK, maybe.

38D: Fiji's capital: SUVA. PGA golfer Vijay Singh attended high school here, according to Wikipedia. He is very cold in person, very arrogant.

48D: Cast off: UNMOOR. I wanted UNSHED. Silly, since SHED is the correct word.

51D: Mongolian invader: TATAR. I think China had the largest territory when it's ruled by Genghis Khan.

53D: Braided linen tape: INKLE. Oh, I did not know there is a special term for braided linen.

57D: Everygreen tree: YEW. Are these berries poisonous?

59D: Eye in Aix: OEIL. Trompe l'OEIL. Surreal, isn't it? Julian Beever never ceases to amaze me. Pavement Picasso indeed.

64D: Ireland: ERIN. The poetic name for Ireland is EIRE. Hibernophile is a term to describe one who love all things Irish, esp the Corrs & Bono. Hibernia is Latin for Ireland. Sounds cold, doesn't it?

C.C.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009 Josiah Breward

Theme: Go, Sow Your Wild Oats

17A: Show: FINISH THIRD

60A: Slow: REDUCE SPEED

11D: Snow: WINTER WHITE

24D: Stow: PACK TIGHTLY

If you have a better theme title, please come to the Comments section. I first wrote down "Go with the Flow" as all the theme clues rhyme with "Flow", but they are quite strict, all starting with letter S and ending with OW.

WINTER WHITE sounds strained to me. Besides, it's clued as a noun while the other three are all verb phrases. I dispute the clue for YEASTY (49D: Like bad bread). It's simply not true. Or should I say "a lie" given the lively blog discussions on TRUER yesterday.

This puzzle is a Hydra monster to me. I struggled hard.

Barry Silk has constructed a special puzzle for us. Click on iPaper and then print it out. Argyle will blog this puzzle on Sunday Feb 22. I hope you save it and solve it only on Saturday evening or Sunday morning.

Across:

6A: Jazz pianist Jankowski: HORST. Stumper immediately. Have never heard of this German pianist.

15A: City southeast of Rome: UTICA. No idea. Here is a map. I can't find UTICA. (Addendum: This is the correct map. It's in NY State. I was thinking of Italy.)

19A: Born in Boulogne: NEE. Another alliteration, the same with "Born in Bordeaux".

20A: Bishop's district: DIOCESE. ARCHDIOCESE is the district of Archbishop, who reports directly to the cardinal, right?

22A: Angel dust, abbr.: PCP. I forgot. It's still an illegal drug, isn't it?

25A: Willie Wonka's creator: DAHL(Roald). His name simply escaped me. Have you watched the Johnny Depp movie?

30A: Hope/Crosby co-star: LAMOUR (Dorothy). Here they are, "Road to Bali". I have never seen any of their "Road to ... " film.

32A: Athletic org.: YMCA. Penned in NCAA first. Can't seem to associate YMCA with "Athletic org.". My friend Linda goes to Y for workout sometimes.

40A: Game bird: WOODHEN. New bird to me. It's a flightless bird of the rail family. They look very dumb. So, the male of WOODHEN should be woodcock then. Oh, no, woodcock is a different bird of wading species. WOW (11A: Holy cow!), What do you call female woodcock then?

48A: __ Beach, S.C.: MYRTLE. I love the golf courses there. And the seafood.

50A: Cartwright or Down: ANGELA. Easy guess. I know neither of them. Who is ANGELA Down?

56A: Jellyfish: MEDUSAS. Nope. Here is a red MEDUSA. Named after the ugly Gorgon MEDUSA I suppose. Don't look at her too long, you don't want to be turned into a stone.

59A: U.S. dance grp.: ABT (American Ballet Theatre). First encounter with this abbreviation.

64A: __ Paese cheese: BEL. This cheese appeared on a Sunday TMS puzzle before. I like the package. So green. Poor dairy cows. So many of them have been turned into hamburgers.

65A: Pipe material: BRIAR. Thought that's how we got BRIAR Pipe. It turns out that I was wrong.

66A: Roofing material: TERNE. No idea. This roofing is TERNE metal coated.

68A: Cordage fibers: ISTLE. This word just looks so wrong. I tried to associate it with thISTLE and whISTLE when it appeared in our puzzle last time. But obviously it did not work. I forgot the damned word completely.

69A: Streisand movie: YENTL

Down:

2D: Fauna starter?: AVI. Prefix for bird.

5D: Football kick: ONSIDE. Not familiar with this football term. Only know PAT value is ONE.

6D: Rabbit residence: HUTCH. Good to know. Could only think of the briar patch.

7D: The Moor of Venice: OTHELLO. IAGO was clued as "Othello conniver" yesterday.

8D: Journalist Jacob August: RIIS. Googled this journalist. Very strange surname. He wrote a biography on TR, the 4th greatest American president, according to the latest C-span survey.

10D: Abe Lioncoln's boy: TAD. Nice trivia.

21A: Quito's country: ECUADOR. Their monetary unit is SUCRE, which was clued as "One of Bolivia's capitals" yesterday.

22D: "The Silver Streak" co-star: PRYOR. Got the answer from intersecting clues.

23D: Comet heads: COMAE. Plural of COMA. Brutal clue. I've never heard of Comet COMA before.

31D: Element fig: AT WT. Always want AT NO.

34D: __ majesty: LESE. High treason. Learned from doing Xword. What is the French root word for LESE?

41D: Pass through a membrane: OSMOSE

44D: Occurring in small stages: GRADUAL. I don't get this one.

47D: Dubbers: NAMERS. Annoy ERS repetition.

53D: Ill-gotten profit: LUCRES. I wanted LOOTS. Definitely need a "filthy" hint for LUCRES.

63D: Dolores __ Rio: DEL. Oh dear, I thought it's river. Have never heard of this Mexican actress. She looks so beautiful. I would say 999 millihelens, enough to launch 999 ships.

C.C.