Sunday March 1, 2009 Newsday Stan Newman

Theme: BALONEY SANDWICHES: But not entirely edible (Blogged by Argyle)

23A: Baloney sandwich: BAGUETTE HOKUM BAGUETTE

43A: Baloney sandwich: WHEAT TOMFOOLERY WHEAT

71A: Baloney sandwich: SOURDOUGH ROT SOURDOUGH

92A: Baloney sandwich: BAGEL BALDERDASH BAGEL

118A: Baloney sandwich: ROLL HORSEFEATHERS ROLL

(Note from C.C.: Click March 1, 2009 Sunday for this Newsday puzzle. S.N. is Stan the Man himself. Click on the bottom PDF file if you want to print out the puzzle.)

Across:

1A: What “-phile” means: LOVER e.g., audiophile, a person who is especially interested in high-fidelity sound reproduction. Anglophile likes anything English.

6A: Hole punchers: AWLS examples

10A: Great weight: HEFT noun form

14A: Informal farewells: TATAS Chiefly British

19A: Wine’s nose: AROMA

20A: Emphatic denial: THAT’S A LIE

22A: Cologne’s river: RHINE Cologne, Germany

23A: Baloney sandwich: BAGUETTE HOKUM BAGUETTE traditional HOKUM - out-and-out nonsense; bunkum. It is thought the term, hokey came from hokum.

26A: Winter bugs: FLUS FLU is the brief form of influenza. We have a woman on a local radio station that would read “flus” and pronounce it as rhyming with “plus”.

27A: “___ the fields we go…: O’ER

28A: Zilch: NIL

29A: Two-Oscar actor: LEMMON Jack Lemmon, Best Supporting Actor for Mister Roberts (1955) and Best Actor for Save the Tiger (1973)

30A: Yale student: ELI Hard to believe that William F. Buckley and George H. Bush both went to Yale.

31A: Theater genre: COMEDY tragedy and comedy masks

33A: Hair cutter: RAZOR

36A: Gershwin’s “Concerto ___”: IN ‘F’ Excerpt (2:57 min.)

37A: Flip-chart holder: EASEL

39A: Bake-sale sponsor: PTA

40A: Beer maker: BREWER

42A: Half of CDIV: CCII 404/2=202

43A: Baloney sandwich: WHEAT TOMFOOLERY WHEAT Tomfoolery is foolish or silly behavior. A simpleton can be described as a Tom fool but why should Tom be singled out for this degradation? There seems to be no answer. Tom appears to have been chosen for no identifiable reason, similar to "John Doe".

47A: Mail ctr.: GPO mail center - General Post Office, the main post office that also has branch post offices.

48A: Part of IRS: INT Internal Revenue Service

49A: Off-Broadway award: OBIE From O.B., abbreviation for off-Broadway.

50A: Close down: END

53A: Swanky sports suite: SKY BOX Interior view

57A: “Face the Nation” network: CBS Columbia Broadcasting System

60A: Builds: ERECTS

64A: Move suddenly: DART

66A: Wasn’t consistent: YOYOED vacillated

68A: Computer program, for short: APP An application program is used for a particular application (opposed to system program).

70A: Moral values: ETHIC

71A: Baloney sandwich: SOURDOUGH ROT SOURDOUGH Something absurd or fatuous is ROT. Making your own sourdough is delicious.

75A: Fire-gone conclusion: EMBER Nice take on fore-gone conclusion.

76A: Feel bad about: RUE

77A: Aussie gal: SHEILA Chosen for no identifiable reason, similar to "John Doe" and “Tom the Fool”.

78A: Internalize anger: STEW

79A: European capital, to natives: LISBOA Portuguese for Lisbon, seaport and capital of Portugal

81A: AMA members: MDS American Medical Association members are Medicīnae Doctors in New Latin; is that the proper way to make a plural in New Latin, by adding an “S”.

83A: Doing nothing: IDLING

85A: Chapter of history: ERA

86A: Do nothing: LOLL

88A: Soviet space station: MIR

90A: Expected: DUE

92A: Baloney sandwich: BAGEL BALDERDASH BAGEL Balderdash is senseless, stupid talk or writing. It once meant a muddled mixture of liquors.

102A: Greek goddess of strife: ERIS Goddess of discord; sister of Ares, god of war.

103A: Isn’t caught by: EVADES

104A: “Bali __”: HAI Bali Ha'i, also spelled Bali Hai, is a show tune from the 1949 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific. It is the name of a fictional island with two volcanoes.

105A: Nomad: ROVER

107A: Dash lengths: EMS In printing, the space needed for an “M” is used as the measure of a dash.

108A: Deliver a speech: ORATE

109A: Frisked, with “down”: PATTED Just watch the TV show, “COPS”, you’ll get the idea.

111A: “Now ___ seen everything!”: I’VE

112A: ‘70s Minnelli musical: THE ACT It was a 1977 Broadway show, "concept musical" about a has-been movie star trying to make a comeback. Liza Minnelli won a Tony Award for Best Musical Actress.

114A: Totally: ALL tot ALLy, could we have a better clue here, please?

116A: Guerilla Guevara: CHE Ernesto "Che" Guevara 1928 – 1967, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, politician, author, physician, military theorist, and guerrilla leader. After death, his stylized image became countercultural symbol worldwide.

117A: Pet pest: FLEA

118A: Baloney sandwich: ROLL HORSEFEATHERS ROLL An euphemism for horses**t, rubbish; nonsense; bunk.

124A: “Oklahoma!” aunt: ELLER “Oklahoma!” is a theatrical musical and movie. The female lead's Aunt Eller Murphy is a peppy and friendly middle-aged ranch owner who pretty much knows everyone, and everyone respects her. song (you may have to turn up the volume.)

125A: Highest point in Wash.: MT RAINIER Finally a gimme for the you West Coasters. Mount Rainier in the state of Washington

126A: Dogma: TENET

127A: Caterpillar competitor: DEERE Cat dozer, John Deere dozer

128A: Plaintiff: SUER

129A: Hay bundle: BALE A painting of hay bales.

130A: None too trusting: LEERY

Down:

1D: Tuition add-on: LAB FEE

2D: Unwritten rules: ORAL LAW

3D: Chic: VOGUISH I checked; it is a word.

4D: Ostrich kin: EMUS

5D: Soul singer Corinne Bailey ___: RAE British singer: one of her songs.

6D: Try: ATTEMPT

7D: Cabbie’s query: WHERE TO

8D: __-di-dah: LAH

9D: Like some stares: STONY

10D: Drag along: HAUL

11D: Massachusetts state tree : ELM

12D: Minor misstatement: FIB Is that what Sen. Burris made; some minor misstatements?

13D: It may be bagged: TEA Good clue.

14D: More devoted: TRUER Not so good clue.

15D: Throat-clearing sound: AHEM

16D: Chickadee relatives: TITMICE Two chickadees and a tufted titmouse at the feeder.

17D: Cather title character: ANTONIA The final book(first published in 1918) of Willa Cather's prairie trilogy, My Antonia, is considered her greatest accomplishment. Antonia is a bold and free-hearted young woman.

18D: Deemed appropriate: SEEN FIT

21D: Snow board: SKI

24D: Overly: TOO

25D: “Goodness gracious!”: GLORY BE

31D: Gives it up (for) : CLAPS It took awhile to get the clue. Applauds.

32D: Stop up: DAM

33D: Fam. Member: REL Family member; relative.

34D: Leave agape: AWE

35D: Zilch: ZERO

38D: Brain-scan letters: EEG electroencephalogram

40D: Good, in Grenoble: BON Grenoble, France, map

41D: Coll. marchers: ROTC College marchers, (not the protesters but the protestees) Reserve Officers Training Corps

42D: Party-snack brand: CHEETOS Cheese puffs; I prefer the chrunchy.

44D: 1964 Summer Olympics site: TOKYO Tokyo, Japan map

45D: Repairperson: FIXER

46D: Cable-ready: WIRED

50D: ‘50s Ford: EDSEL Late ‘50s lemon: never before a car like it

51D: Singer Judd: NAOMI Ashley, Wynonna, Naomi

52D: Defeats decisively: DRUBS

54D: Part of FYI: YOUR For Your Information

55A: Mild oath: BY GUM

56D: Showed pleasure: OOHED

58D: Founded: BASED

59A: Turn bad: SPOIL

61D: Water-park slide: CHUTE

62D: Princeton athlete: TIGER

63D: Dull sound: SCHWA From German Schwa, ultimately from Hebrew. shewa "a neutral vowel quality," literary "emptiness." for pronunciation

65D: Multiplies by three: TREBLES Yes, I had triples first.

67D: Requirements: DOS As in, DOS and don'ts, customs, rules, or regulations. The do’s are needed and the don’ts are inadvisable.

69D: Hungarian dog: PULI What a puli dog looks like. Wait, I still can’t tell. They are suppose to be a sheep herding dog.

72D: Be overly avid: DROOL Presents a rather crude picture, hey?

73D: Bronze place: THIRD An obvious answer…once you get it. Gold medal, silver medal, and bronze medal.

74D: Motown music: R AND B Rhythm and Blues

80D: Fujimori of Peru: ALBRTO Alberto Fujimori is a Peruvian of Japanese descent born in Lima, Peru, in1938. He served as President from 1990 to 2000 and was credited with uprooting terrorism in Peru and restoring its macroeconomic stability. Unfortunately, he also was charged with human rights violations. under arrest

82D: “Peter Pan” pirate: SMEE

84D: Basketball position: GUARD

87D: Igneous-rock source: LAVA

89D: Apr. payee: IRS April 15, pay to the order of Internal Revenue Service (Why in the world is it called a service?

91D: Swelled head: EGO

92D: Clearly embarrassed: BEET RED

93D: Shirt part: ARM HOLE

94D: Coveted ballet role: GISELLE The role of Giselle is one of the most sought-after in ballet. To win the role, a ballerina must have near perfect technique, outstanding grace, and great drama skills. Giselle revolves around the themes of forest spirits, forces of nature, and death. The second act of the ballet, in which everyone is wearing white, is known as the "white act." First performed in Paris in 1841.

95A: Back muscle, for short: LAT LATissimus dorsi muscles.

96D: Five-star monogram: DDE Dwight David Eisenhower was a five star General.

97D: Light-dawning cry: A-HA

98D: Small bag: SATCHEL Satchel Paige

99D: Informal greeting: HI THERE

100D: Fiend: EVIL ONE

101D: Evening device: LEVELER This clue bedeviled me.

106D: Houses, land, etc.: REALTY

108D: Painter’s pigment: OCHER

109D: Back-up strategy: PLAN B

110D: -arian relative: -EER -arian: denoting a person who supports, advocates, or practices a doctrine, theory, or set of principles associated with the base word: authoritarian; librarian; vegetarian.
-EER: denoting a person who produces, handles, or is otherwise significantly associated the base word (auctioneer; engineer; mountaineer; pamphleteer).

113D: Oriole, for one: ALER American Leaguer

114D: A great distance: AFAR

115D: Orchid product: LEI OK, more like a product that uses orchids.

117D: For the asking: FREE

119D: B&B offerings: RMS Bed and Breakfast inns, often in a private house and you are treated more like a guest than a customer. You can get a ROOM and something to eat in the morning.

120D: Alphabetic trio: STU

121D: Afore: ERE

122D: Acapulco aunt: TIA

123D: Mo. City: STL Saint Louis, Missouri. Looks funny spelled out, doesn’t it?

Argyle

Saturday March 7, 2009 Tom Pruce

Theme: None

Total blocks: 26

Total words: 70

Hard puzzle! I don't think Mr. Tom Pruce and I speak the same language this morning.

Now I start to understand why those ace solvers like themeless grids. It's a true test of the range of your knowledge. For weekday themed puzzles, you can always rely on theme as your sherpa and fill in lots of blanks with your reasoning. No such help is available on Saturdays, except a few gimme affixes like S, ER, EST, ED, etc.

For those who don't have TMS Sunday tomorrow, here is Stan Newman's Newsday puzzle. Click on March 1, 2009 for the "Baloney Sandwich" puzzle. Argyle will blog it here tomorrow morning. I hope by introducing other puzzles on the blog, you can see how they differ from TMS offerings.

Across:

1A: Makeshift: STOPGAP. Is Obama's economic stimulus package a STOPGAP measure?

8A: Some metamorphic rocks: SCHISTS. No idea. See this SCHIST rock. Silvery color. Rich in mica. Easy to split. So close to schism in spelling.

15A: Sicilian wine: MARSALA. Not familiar with this wine. It's named after the city MARSALA where the wine is produced. Used frequently in cooking. Now I want some seafood risotto.

16A: Removal mark: ERASURE

17A: Rigby of the Beatles song: ELEANOR. The tune sounds awfully familiar. I don't remember the song title though.

18A: Tropical malady: MALARIA. Literally ''bad air'' .

19A: Diamond gal: LIL. No idea. Which one is our "Diamond gal" LIL?

22A: Hand tool for holding: PLIERS. "Hand tool for holding" can also be PINCERS, right?

25A: Old English bard: SCOP. New word to me. SCOPS often traveled to various courts to recite their courtly epic poetry. Their Scandinavian counterpart is SKALDS who composed those old Norse Eddas I think.

30A: John Hersey book: HIROSHIMA. Have never heard of this book . It's about the dropping of atomic bomb obviously. Wikipedia says his original article appeared in the August 31, 1946 issue of "The New Yorker". And "the article took up the entire issue of the magazine – something The New Yorker had never done before, nor has it since." Our editor likes to clue ADANO as "Hersey's bell town".

32A: Absorbed in thought: BEMUSED. To me, BEMUSED is confused and perplexed, not "Absorbed in thought". But RAPT is too letter short.

35A: Old draft org.: SSS (Selective Service System).

38A: Tentacled mollusk: OCTOPOD. I was thinking of octopus.

43A: Spanish island: MINORCA. Literally "Minor island", compared with Majorca, the "Larger island" on the left. I've got no idea. All I could think of is the "Girls Gone Wild" island Ibiza.

45A: Anterior flappers: FORE WINGS. The darker colored wings? I surmise the other pairs are called REAR WINGS?

54A: Novelist Kingsley: AMIS. Only know his son Martin, also a novelist, a strongly opinionated one. Tina Brown's old flame.

55A: Some wading birds: STILTS. No idea. Holy cow! Incredible long legs. No wonder it's called STILTS.

57A: Zubenelgenubi or Dubhe: STAR. Zubenelgenubi is the second brightest star in the constellation Libra. And Dubhe is a "pointer star in the constellation Ursa Major and the brightest of the seven stars that form the Big Dipper". Both were unknown to me. Stars have refused to shine for me for a few weeks.

59A: Menlo Park initials: TAE. Edison. ALVA is often clued as "Menlo Park middle name".

60A: Bat stickum: PINE TAR. Baseball players use it to improve grips. Pitchers use it too.

62A: Repeating: ITERANT. I kind of like the ING ending clue. Better than "Repetitive". Novice solvers might be tempted to fill in ING for the last 3 blank squres.

64A: Rest upon: OVERLIE. What kind of image are you picturing?

65A: Electra's brother: ORESTES. The painting of him being pursued by the three Furies jumped into my mind immediately. But I just could not remember his damned name. Anyway, he should not be faulted for killing his mother. She deserved the punishment.

66A: Succinctly: TERSELY

67A: Ilie of tennis: NASTASE. Nice reverse of the clue/answer.

Down:

2D: Eye for an eye: TALION. Another new word for me. With an "I (eye)" inserted in TALON. It's "punishment identical to the offense, as the death penalty for murder". That's exactly what ORESTES' mother got then. She killed her husband and his lover Cassandra. Then she was murdered by her own son.

3D: Vague threat: OR ELSE

4D: O. T. book: PSA (Psalms). Baseball cards collectors are probably all familiar with the grading firm PSA (Professional Sports Authenticator). Notice PSA at the very right end? That's a 1951 Mickey Mantle Bowman rookie card in NM/MT (Near Mint/Mint) condition. It's sold for $22,750.

5D: Novelist Ernest: GANN. I googled his name. Looks like he had a great aviation career as well.

7D: Jumping from a plane: PARACHUTING

9D: Junk: CRAP. Ah ya, bad word.

10D: British greetings: HALLOS. Really? I've never paid attention to that.

11D: Rider and Bowman: ISAIAHS. ISAIAH Bowman was an American geographer, who served as the President of John Hopkins University from 1935 to 1948. ISAIAH Rider is former NBA star. I knew neither of them. Bowman is always the baseball card brand to me. Topps, Bowman and Upper Deck.

12D: Certainties: SURETIES

13D: Some Roman galleys: TRIREMES. See this picture. Dictionary says it derives its name from its three rows of oars on each side, manned with one man per oar. I don't understand it. That's more than 3 rows of oars. Last time BIREMES was clued as "Roman galleys", supposedly "two tiers of oars on each side". Again, that's lots of oars. Maybe I don't even know what OARS are. (Note: Here is a good link explaining those oar positions).

14D: Marine predator: SEA SNAKE. I just learned this morning that SEA SNAKE like eels. I like eels too, unagi, yummy!

21D: Chemical warfare agent: POISON GAS

26D: Part of speech: PREPOSITION

29D: __ volente (God willing): DEO. In Islam, it's Insha' Allah.

33D: 1901: MCMI. And DCV (39D: 605).

35D: Tender regard: SOFT SPOT. Are you OK with this clue?

36D: Playful: SPORTIVE. New word to me. Is it the same as SPORTY?

37D: Sieve: STRAINER. And colander.

42D: Peter of "Being There": SELLERS. Easy guess. Have never heard of the movie "Being There". I don't know why "Being There" brought Julie Christie's "Away From Her" to my mind.

46D: Turkey feature: WATTLE. I was thinking of dewlap. That's ugly. I am glad I am not a turkey.

48D: Capital of Transkei: UMTATA. Nope. I don't know where the heck Transkei is. See this map. Nelson Mandela was born here. Wikipedia says his first 2 wives were both from this area too.

49D: Tropical creepers: LIANES. I keep remembering then forgetting these "Tropical creepers".

53D: Part of the Carpathians: TATRA. The TATRA Mountains are the highest mountain range in the Carpathian Mountains, the range in central Europe, extending from N Slovakia to central Romania. Both were unknown to me.

56D: Spinanaker or spanker: SAIL. Thought "spanker" is a person who spank. Did not know it's also a "fore-and-aft" sail.

58D: Jed of "The Chris Isaak Show": REES. Sigh. We've had the same clue several times before, yet his name keeps escaping me. He must be a very small potato. There is not even a Wikipedia entry for him.

61D: Actor Alejandro: REY. Got his name from across fills. He is in Elvis's "Fun in Acapulco". Was he very well-known?

63D: Alphabet trio: RST. "Q-U link" certainly does not sound as cute as yesterday's "RV link" for STU.

C.C.