Theme: Star Tribune Crossword Corner (Blogged by Argle)
17A: It produces expanding bubbles of multimillion degree gas: STARBURST GALAXY
26A: Daily newspaper published in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, with "The": TRIBUNE-DEMOCRAT
45A: Professional cruciverbalist, perhaps: CROSSWORD EDITOR
59A: Gain a monopoly: CORNER THE MARKET
(Note from C.C.: Click here if you have not solved the puzzle. Please save your discussions on Barry's LA themeless (Feb 21. LA Times has a 30-day archive.) for next Sunday's blog post. Also, NT Times just published Barry and Doug Peterson's "The Cruciverbalist" puzzle this morning. Should appear in syndication paper next Sunday. I won't blog it since Rex and Orange have covered it pretty well.)
Back to Argyle.
Thank you, Barry Silk, for giving C.C. and us our own crossword. I hope my blog does it justice.
There are many acronyms and abbreviations to deal with and a few proper names, too, but none of the dreaded crossings of unknowns, IMHO.
All in all, an enjoyable puzzle.
Across:
1A: Engage in, as war: WAGE.
5A: Grazing grounds: LEAS. Cows at an al fresco café.
9A: Cuban currency: PESOS. Images.
14A: Mystique: AURA. Mystique: noun, an AURA of heightened value or interest or meaning surrounding a person or thing.
15A: Sea World performer: ORCA. SeaWorlds are in San Diego, CA, Orlando, FL, and San Antonio, TX. ORCA, also known as killer whale, is a black and white predatory whale.
16A: Sticker: DECAL. Here's a sticker for your SASE.
17A: It produces expanding bubbles of multimillion degree gas: STARBURST GALAXY. I picked the one that looked hottest, the Starburst Galaxy He2-10 .
20A: Miss America of 1971: ___ George: PHYLLIS. PHYLLIS George has worked as a television host and sportscaster. She was previously married to Robert Evans and to former Kentucky Governor John Y. Brown, Jr., with whom she had two children. She is also the author of several books and a business woman.
21A: Return destination?: Abbr.: IRS. 1040 Tax return (no picture, we all know what it looks like.)
22A: Fannie ___ : MAE. The Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA), commonly known as Fannie MAE, was founded in 1938 during the Great Depression. The corporation's purpose is to purchase and securitize mortgages in order to ensure that funds are consistently available to the institutions that lend money to home buyers.
On September 7, 2008, it was announced that Fannie MAE and Freddie Mac were being placed into conservatorship of the FHFA. The action is "one of the most sweeping government interventions in private financial markets in decades". As of 2008, Fannie MAE and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) owned or guaranteed about half of the U.S.'s $12 trillion mortgage market. (Not a pretty picture)
23A: Intl. assn. created in 1948: OAS. Organization of American States.
24A: Onassis nickname: ARI. ARIstotle Onassis, billionaire Greek shipping magnate, married Jackie Kennedy in 1968.
25A: Pouches: SACS. Pouchlike structures in a plant or an animal, sometimes filled with fluid.
26A: Daily newspaper published in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, with "The": TRIBUNE-DEMOCRAT. Front cover, Serving Grater Johnstown Since 1853.
31A: Intertwined: WOVE.
32A: U.S.N. clerk: Abbr.: YEO. United States Navy YEOman, a petty officer, having chiefly clerical duties.
33A: Pendulum partner: PIT. A short story written by Edgar Allan Poe, “The PIT and the Pendulum” (1843).
34A: Whatever: ANY. Adjective- whatever it may be: cheap at ANY price / cheap at whatever cost.
35A: Spies' quest: SECRETS. True Lies.
38A: Games grp.: IOC. International Olympic Committee.
41A: Director's cry: CUT. CUT, CUT, CUT!
43A: William F. Buckley was one: ELI. Nickname for a Yale University student, which Mr. Buckley was, Class of '50.
44A: Number near an APR: MSRP. New car sticker APR: annual percentage rate. MSRP: Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price.
45A: Professional cruciverbalist, perhaps: CROSSWORD EDITOR. Wayne Robert Williams, perhaps.
50A: Possess: HAVE
51A: Stat. for Ryan Howard: HRS. Home RunS: Howard is the 6'4" and 260 lb. first baseman for the Philadelphia Phillies. On June 27, 2007, Howard became the player to reach 100 HRS the quickest in Major League Baseball history.
52A: Pentagon fig.: GEN. High ranking milatary officer: GENeral
53A: The Beatles' "___ Mine": I ME. Beatles song, written and sung by George Harrison.
54A: Org. that maintains 35-Across: CIA. Central Intelligence Agency.
55A: Lese __: high crime: MAJESTE. (The crime) of injured majesty. French partial translation of Latin: (crīmen) laesae māiestātis, laesae, feminine genitive of laesus, past participle of laedere, to injure + māiestātis, genitive of māiestās, majesty.
59A: Gain a monopoly: CORNER THE MARKET. Monopoly! Now that would be a good theme for a crossword puzzle.
62A: Work with the hands: KNEAD. You need to KNEAD that dough.
63A: Concert wind: OBOE. But not "A Mighty Wind".
64A: Bee or Em: AUNT. Bee, from Mayberry, and Em, still in Kansas.
65A: Marsh plant: SEDGE. Also called swale grass; I can remember when I was a kid, the old farmers would talk about having to cut swale grass from the swamps to feed the livestock if they ran out of hay in the winter.
66A: Spreadsheet divisions: ROWS
67A: Running behind: LATE
Down:
1D: Member of a colony: WASP. Social insects living in a common nest. Usually, we think of ants.
2D: Bibliography abbr.: AUTH. AUTHor.
3D: Overcast: GRAY. Skies.
4D: Where to find a stud: EARLOBE. Oops, wrong kind of stud.
5D: Onetime regular on "Curb Your Enthusiam": LOUIS NYE. He was a regular on the old Steve Allen's "Man in the Street" bit. "Hi-ho, Steverino!"
6D: Goofs up: ERRS
7D: Coolers, for short: ACS. Air ConditionerS.
8D: Mad specialty: SATIRE. A can of worms for PromiseMeThis if he doesn't get this one.
9D: BlackBerry devices and iPhones,briefly: PDAS. Personal Digital AssistantS.
10D: Migratory fish: EEL. Unlike many fish, they migrate from fresh water to salt water to spawn.
11D: Phony: SCAM ARTIST. The Talented Mr. Bernard L. Madoff.
12D: State that borders Guerrero: OAXACA. Map. The historic home of the Zapotec and Mixtec peoples.
13D: Most foxlike: SLYEST. Or sliest.
18D: Berliner ___: dark pigment: BLAU. In English, Berlin blue. Another name for the color, Prussian blue, it was discovered accidentally in Berlin in 1704. One of the first synthetic pigments, it is a very dark blue, colorfast, non-toxic pigment.
19D: Harsh: GRIM
24D: Devoted fans: ADORERS. Such are the fans of Barry Silk puzzles.
25D: Phys., e.g.: SCI. The SCIence of PHYSics
26D: Old "Up, up and away" sloganeer: TWA. Trans World Airlines.
27D: Presidential nickname: RON. 40th President of the United States, RONald Wilson Reagan.
28D: Like some of University of Pennsylvania's buildings: IVY-COVERED. A land-grant university and a member of the Ivy League. "Leges sine Moribus vanae".
29D: Overseas trade org.: EEC. European Economic Community, official name of the Common Market.
30D: Photo finish?: OPS. PHOTOgraphic OPportunitieS, Occasions that lend themself to (or are deliberately arranged for) taking photographs that provide favorable publicity.
35D: Urban intersectors: Abbr.: STS. STreetS
36D: Former days, in former days: ELD. noun: Archaic. antiquity.
37D: Draws: TIES. When neither side is winning a contest.
39D: Colombian gold: ORO. Spanish is spoken in Columbia and ORO is Spanish for gold.
40D: EMT's specialty: CPR. Emergency Medical Technician performs CardioPulmonary Resuscitation.
42D: Capitalize on: USE.
44D: Kind of deposit: MINERAL. Too much MINERAL deposits will give you "hard" water and then you will need a water softener.
45D: Dixie ___ : CHICKS. Three female singing group. Picture and Song (I'll tell you up front, the song is Not Ready to Make Nice for those of you who do not want to listen to the Dixie CHICKS.) Lyrics.
46D: Assumed family name in punk rock: RAMONES. American rock band often regarded as the first punk rock group. Formed in Forest Hills, Queens, New York, in 1974. Picture and Song (I'll tell you up front, the song is I wanna be Sedated for those of you who do not want to listen to The RAMONES.)
47D: Fan's production: WHIR. Imitative of the sound the fan blades make when spinning.
48D: Speaker: ORATOR.
49D: ___ vu: DEJA. The feeling that what is happening now, has happened before.
54D: Relinquish: CEDE.
55D: Speak Persian?: MEOW. Persian is a type of cat.
56D: Antarctic flier: SKUA. Any of several Arctic and Boreal predatory sea birds that harass smaller birds and snatch the food they drop. They sound like bullies.
57D: Temporary shelter: TENT
58D: Suffix with kitchen: ETTE
60D: Complain constantly: NAG
61D: "Curb Your Enthusiam" channel: HBO. Home Box Office.
Argyle
17A: It produces expanding bubbles of multimillion degree gas: STARBURST GALAXY
26A: Daily newspaper published in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, with "The": TRIBUNE-DEMOCRAT
45A: Professional cruciverbalist, perhaps: CROSSWORD EDITOR
59A: Gain a monopoly: CORNER THE MARKET
(Note from C.C.: Click here if you have not solved the puzzle. Please save your discussions on Barry's LA themeless (Feb 21. LA Times has a 30-day archive.) for next Sunday's blog post. Also, NT Times just published Barry and Doug Peterson's "The Cruciverbalist" puzzle this morning. Should appear in syndication paper next Sunday. I won't blog it since Rex and Orange have covered it pretty well.)
Back to Argyle.
Thank you, Barry Silk, for giving C.C. and us our own crossword. I hope my blog does it justice.
There are many acronyms and abbreviations to deal with and a few proper names, too, but none of the dreaded crossings of unknowns, IMHO.
All in all, an enjoyable puzzle.
Across:
1A: Engage in, as war: WAGE.
5A: Grazing grounds: LEAS. Cows at an al fresco café.
9A: Cuban currency: PESOS. Images.
14A: Mystique: AURA. Mystique: noun, an AURA of heightened value or interest or meaning surrounding a person or thing.
15A: Sea World performer: ORCA. SeaWorlds are in San Diego, CA, Orlando, FL, and San Antonio, TX. ORCA, also known as killer whale, is a black and white predatory whale.
16A: Sticker: DECAL. Here's a sticker for your SASE.
17A: It produces expanding bubbles of multimillion degree gas: STARBURST GALAXY. I picked the one that looked hottest, the Starburst Galaxy He2-10 .
20A: Miss America of 1971: ___ George: PHYLLIS. PHYLLIS George has worked as a television host and sportscaster. She was previously married to Robert Evans and to former Kentucky Governor John Y. Brown, Jr., with whom she had two children. She is also the author of several books and a business woman.
21A: Return destination?: Abbr.: IRS. 1040 Tax return (no picture, we all know what it looks like.)
22A: Fannie ___ : MAE. The Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA), commonly known as Fannie MAE, was founded in 1938 during the Great Depression. The corporation's purpose is to purchase and securitize mortgages in order to ensure that funds are consistently available to the institutions that lend money to home buyers.
On September 7, 2008, it was announced that Fannie MAE and Freddie Mac were being placed into conservatorship of the FHFA. The action is "one of the most sweeping government interventions in private financial markets in decades". As of 2008, Fannie MAE and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) owned or guaranteed about half of the U.S.'s $12 trillion mortgage market. (Not a pretty picture)
23A: Intl. assn. created in 1948: OAS. Organization of American States.
24A: Onassis nickname: ARI. ARIstotle Onassis, billionaire Greek shipping magnate, married Jackie Kennedy in 1968.
25A: Pouches: SACS. Pouchlike structures in a plant or an animal, sometimes filled with fluid.
26A: Daily newspaper published in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, with "The": TRIBUNE-DEMOCRAT. Front cover, Serving Grater Johnstown Since 1853.
31A: Intertwined: WOVE.
32A: U.S.N. clerk: Abbr.: YEO. United States Navy YEOman, a petty officer, having chiefly clerical duties.
33A: Pendulum partner: PIT. A short story written by Edgar Allan Poe, “The PIT and the Pendulum” (1843).
34A: Whatever: ANY. Adjective- whatever it may be: cheap at ANY price / cheap at whatever cost.
35A: Spies' quest: SECRETS. True Lies.
38A: Games grp.: IOC. International Olympic Committee.
41A: Director's cry: CUT. CUT, CUT, CUT!
43A: William F. Buckley was one: ELI. Nickname for a Yale University student, which Mr. Buckley was, Class of '50.
44A: Number near an APR: MSRP. New car sticker APR: annual percentage rate. MSRP: Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price.
45A: Professional cruciverbalist, perhaps: CROSSWORD EDITOR. Wayne Robert Williams, perhaps.
50A: Possess: HAVE
51A: Stat. for Ryan Howard: HRS. Home RunS: Howard is the 6'4" and 260 lb. first baseman for the Philadelphia Phillies. On June 27, 2007, Howard became the player to reach 100 HRS the quickest in Major League Baseball history.
52A: Pentagon fig.: GEN. High ranking milatary officer: GENeral
53A: The Beatles' "___ Mine": I ME. Beatles song, written and sung by George Harrison.
54A: Org. that maintains 35-Across: CIA. Central Intelligence Agency.
55A: Lese __: high crime: MAJESTE. (The crime) of injured majesty. French partial translation of Latin: (crīmen) laesae māiestātis, laesae, feminine genitive of laesus, past participle of laedere, to injure + māiestātis, genitive of māiestās, majesty.
59A: Gain a monopoly: CORNER THE MARKET. Monopoly! Now that would be a good theme for a crossword puzzle.
62A: Work with the hands: KNEAD. You need to KNEAD that dough.
63A: Concert wind: OBOE. But not "A Mighty Wind".
64A: Bee or Em: AUNT. Bee, from Mayberry, and Em, still in Kansas.
65A: Marsh plant: SEDGE. Also called swale grass; I can remember when I was a kid, the old farmers would talk about having to cut swale grass from the swamps to feed the livestock if they ran out of hay in the winter.
66A: Spreadsheet divisions: ROWS
67A: Running behind: LATE
Down:
1D: Member of a colony: WASP. Social insects living in a common nest. Usually, we think of ants.
2D: Bibliography abbr.: AUTH. AUTHor.
3D: Overcast: GRAY. Skies.
4D: Where to find a stud: EARLOBE. Oops, wrong kind of stud.
5D: Onetime regular on "Curb Your Enthusiam": LOUIS NYE. He was a regular on the old Steve Allen's "Man in the Street" bit. "Hi-ho, Steverino!"
6D: Goofs up: ERRS
7D: Coolers, for short: ACS. Air ConditionerS.
8D: Mad specialty: SATIRE. A can of worms for PromiseMeThis if he doesn't get this one.
9D: BlackBerry devices and iPhones,briefly: PDAS. Personal Digital AssistantS.
10D: Migratory fish: EEL. Unlike many fish, they migrate from fresh water to salt water to spawn.
11D: Phony: SCAM ARTIST. The Talented Mr. Bernard L. Madoff.
12D: State that borders Guerrero: OAXACA. Map. The historic home of the Zapotec and Mixtec peoples.
13D: Most foxlike: SLYEST. Or sliest.
18D: Berliner ___: dark pigment: BLAU. In English, Berlin blue. Another name for the color, Prussian blue, it was discovered accidentally in Berlin in 1704. One of the first synthetic pigments, it is a very dark blue, colorfast, non-toxic pigment.
19D: Harsh: GRIM
24D: Devoted fans: ADORERS. Such are the fans of Barry Silk puzzles.
25D: Phys., e.g.: SCI. The SCIence of PHYSics
26D: Old "Up, up and away" sloganeer: TWA. Trans World Airlines.
27D: Presidential nickname: RON. 40th President of the United States, RONald Wilson Reagan.
28D: Like some of University of Pennsylvania's buildings: IVY-COVERED. A land-grant university and a member of the Ivy League. "Leges sine Moribus vanae".
29D: Overseas trade org.: EEC. European Economic Community, official name of the Common Market.
30D: Photo finish?: OPS. PHOTOgraphic OPportunitieS, Occasions that lend themself to (or are deliberately arranged for) taking photographs that provide favorable publicity.
35D: Urban intersectors: Abbr.: STS. STreetS
36D: Former days, in former days: ELD. noun: Archaic. antiquity.
37D: Draws: TIES. When neither side is winning a contest.
39D: Colombian gold: ORO. Spanish is spoken in Columbia and ORO is Spanish for gold.
40D: EMT's specialty: CPR. Emergency Medical Technician performs CardioPulmonary Resuscitation.
42D: Capitalize on: USE.
44D: Kind of deposit: MINERAL. Too much MINERAL deposits will give you "hard" water and then you will need a water softener.
45D: Dixie ___ : CHICKS. Three female singing group. Picture and Song (I'll tell you up front, the song is Not Ready to Make Nice for those of you who do not want to listen to the Dixie CHICKS.) Lyrics.
46D: Assumed family name in punk rock: RAMONES. American rock band often regarded as the first punk rock group. Formed in Forest Hills, Queens, New York, in 1974. Picture and Song (I'll tell you up front, the song is I wanna be Sedated for those of you who do not want to listen to The RAMONES.)
47D: Fan's production: WHIR. Imitative of the sound the fan blades make when spinning.
48D: Speaker: ORATOR.
49D: ___ vu: DEJA. The feeling that what is happening now, has happened before.
54D: Relinquish: CEDE.
55D: Speak Persian?: MEOW. Persian is a type of cat.
56D: Antarctic flier: SKUA. Any of several Arctic and Boreal predatory sea birds that harass smaller birds and snatch the food they drop. They sound like bullies.
57D: Temporary shelter: TENT
58D: Suffix with kitchen: ETTE
60D: Complain constantly: NAG
61D: "Curb Your Enthusiam" channel: HBO. Home Box Office.
Argyle
