Thursday March 26, 2009 Bonnie L. Gentry

Theme: What Chutzpah!

21A: Operational headquarters: NERVE CENTER

26A:Classy office door adornment: BRASS NAME PLATE

46A: 2006 Political best-seller, with "the": AUDACITY OF HOPE

52A: Beside one another: CHEEK BY JOWL

Boomer bought me "The AUDACITY OF HOPE" when it first came out. But I've never got the opportunity to get it autographed. Now it's collecting dust on my shelf, together with my Obama baseball card and the inauguration pin.

CHEEK BY JOWL is a new idiom to me. But thank God I know JOAN (55D: Rocker Jett). Every time I link Michael Bolton's "Can I Touch You There" on the blog, someone will return with a link of JOAN Jett "Do You Want to Touch Me".

What I've noticed about Rich Norris' puzzle, besides those tricky "Little butter?" (4D: KID) wordplay, is the vivid evocative descriptions. For example:

27D: It's twirled in a rodeo: RIATA.

63D: It sometimes needs a boost: EGO

I like them a lot. Seldom saw them in our old puzzles.

There were only a couple of real unknowns to me in this grid. But I struggled. My conclusion? Rich Norris and I can't talk. He is not "straightforward" and "honest" with me.

Across:

1A: Alp top: PEAK. Thought of SNOW.

5A: Sounding shocked: AGASP. And PALE (10A: Looking shocked). I am in "shock and awe" of these 2 clues. Just great!.

14A: A8 manufacturer: AUDI. Thought A8 might be another kind of V8 juice.

15A: Decisive refusal: NEVER. I was thinking of NO WAY first.

16A: Double-click: OPEN. Of course. But I blanked.

18A: Lacking skepticism: NAIVE. You've got to have a very skeptical attitude when you face this new crossword editor.

19A: __ dixit: IPSE. Learned from doing Xword. Literally "he himself said it". Maybe you can make a sentence for me. I've never used this phrase in daily conversation.

20A: Ocean delicacy: ROE. I pictured EEL. Now I crave some perfectly grilled sweet unagi. The aroma is simply intoxicating. I can almost smell it.

23A: She played Ulla in "The Producers": UMA. Easy guess. Have never seen "The Producers". I love this Ulla/UMA connection.

25A: Estrangement: RIFT

37A: Clavell's "__-Pan": TAI. See the bookcover. Literally, TAI-Pan means "Big Class" in Cantonese. TAI, "big". Pan, "class". Or "big shot" & "big potato" in our slang.

38A: Ma, for one: CELLIST. D'oh, Yo-Yo Ma. I was thinking of Ma Bell.

41A: Rx writers: MDS. Mine was DRS.

42A: 1943 penny metal: STEEL. Unknown to me. I did not know that 1943 penny is rare.

44A: "Proud Mary" band, for short: CCR (Credence Clearwater Revival). Here is the clip. I was stumped again.

51A: Corp. that once owned Hertz and Hilton: UAL (United Air Lines). Oh really? I was totally unaware of this history. Very short-lived though.

63A: Irish Free State successor: EIRE. Heard of this "Irish Free State" (1922-1937) from watching Liam Neeson's "Michael Collins".

68A: "Roots" Emmy winner: ASNER. Another guess. Don't remember him in "Roots".

69A: Capital south of Lillehammer: OSLO. Another guess. I did not know where Lillehammer is. According to Wikipedia, it means "the Small Hamar". Hamar is town name. Literally "steep rock". I was disappointed that it had nothing to do with hammer.

Down:

1D: "I Kid You Not" author: PAAR. Unknown to me. Is it an interesting read? Henry VIII's wife is PARR, two R's.

2D: 100 cents: EURO. I felt so dense this morning. Just could not think of this damned EURO.

3D: Part of "The Sound of Music" farewell song: ADIEU, ADIEU. I can't remember this song. Edelweiss" does not fit, nor does "Do-Re-Me", the only two songs I could think of.

4D: Little butter? KID. Sometimes RAM is clued as "Butter?". Playing on the verb butt. RAM butts. Get it? Butt-er.

6D: Transmission component: GEAR

7D: Tel __ - Yafo: AVIV. Literally "Sping". I only know Tel AVIV, "Hill of Spring". Had no idea there is a trailing Yafo.

9D: Rain, briefly: PRECIP. Precipitation.

10D: Indicate: POINT AT

11D: PDA entry: APPT (Appointment).

13D: Fed. power dept.: ENER (Energy). Not a familiar abbreviation to me. Our current Secretary of Energy is Steven Chu. Chinese American. Nobel Physics winner. Newly minted Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke is also a Chinese American. Both their surnames are Cantonese spelling. Chu is Zhu in Mandrin Chinese. LOCKE is simply Luo. (Note: How do you think of my clues: "Soft tail?" as in softener or "Damp end?" as in dampener?)

21D: "Illmatic" rapper: NAS. Learned his name from doing crossword. What does "Illmatic" mean?

22D: Key of Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 1: E FLAT. Pure guess.

24D: Submissions to ed.: MSS (Manuscripts)

26D: Upside down sleepers: BATS. Only learned this facts a few weeks ago.

28D: PBS's science guy: NYE. The "Science Guy".

29D: IM offerer: AOL. No waffling between AOL and MSN today.

30D: Punish with a fine: MULCT. This is a word that I keep remembering and keep forgetting.

31D: Gin cocktail: TOM COLLINS. New to me. It's often served in a glass called Collins glass, which is also new to me.

32D: Become, finally: END UP

36D: Salinger dedicatee: ESME. Salinger's "For ESME – with Love and Squalor".

38D: Louisiana Territory explorer: CLARK. I don't know the extent of Lewis and CLARK exploration.

39D: Needing salt, perhaps: ICY. It snowed here again yesterday. But no more salt is needed.

43D: Enters stealthily: EDGES IN

45D: '50s oldies syllables: SHA. No idea. I know nothing about '50s oldies. SHA-la-la?

47D: Secret doctrine: CABALA. Did not come to me immediately, though I often read Madonna/Demi Moore CABALA/Kabala stuff on gossip magazines.

48D: Tennyson works: IDYLLS. Occasionally you will find two or four line pastoral poems in some Chinese landscape paintings.

49D: Eye or ear ending: FUL. "Mouth ending" too.

54D: Streets liners: ELMS. No ELMS along our streets.

57D: Deterioration: WEAR. Mine was TEAR.

59D: Like the Sabin vaccine: ORAL. Salk's vaccine required injection.

60D: Jared of "American Psycho": LETO. Know his name. Have never seen "American Psycho". In Greek mythology, LETO is Zeus' mistress. Apollo's mom. She was born in KOS/COS, from which we got COS lettuce (Romaine), clued as "Lettuce variety" in our old puzzle before.

Full Answer Grid

C.C.

Wednesday March 25, 2009 Jack McInturff

Theme: RULE (62D: Govern, or word that can follow the first word of the four longest puzzle answers)

17A: Valley girl's "Ick!": GAG ME WITH A SPOON

27A: Cliché framed above many a hearth: HOME SWEET HOME

48A: Spaceflight management center: GROUND CONTROL

64A: Yellow-skinned apple: GOLDEN DELICIOUS

Why "Valley girl" reference for GAG ME WITH A SPOON? The Frank Zappa "Valley Girl" song? HOME RULE is a new term to me.

Did you feel today's puzzle was more difficult than yesterday's? I had lots of wite-outs for the cleverly tricky clues:

21A: Wagon pullers: TEAM. Mine was OXEN.

70A: Play area?: STAGE. Mine was SCENE, which is actually "Play part".

9D: MA and PA: STS (States). I made up my own word PTS (Parents), knowing clearly MA is not Ma, PA is not Pa.

26D: Bank feature: ATM. Mine was DAM, thinking of river bank.

46D: Old French capital?: FRANC. Replaced by Euro in 2001. PAREE sprang to my mind first. FRANC is often clued as "Old/stale French bread?".

49D: Put in stitches: DARN. Mine was SEWN. I figured "Put" might be past tense.

65D: When the French fry?: ETE. What a great clue. Scorching hot! I blanked though. I need a "summer" or "season" to think of ETE.

Our fellow solver Fred, who has had puzzles published by LA Times, mentioned in yesterday's Comments section that "the ramp between Wednesday and Thursday is steep in terms of difficulty". So, be prepared for tomorrow's fight.

On a scale of 1-5, Monday and Tuesday's level of difficulty for our puzzle is 1, Wednesday is 2, Thursday and Friday, 3, Saturday and Sunday 4.

To Star Tribune solvers, if you want LA Times puzzle in our paper, please write to Susan Barbieri (Assistant Features Editor) and let her know your views. I wish they had asked our opinion before they made the switch. Her email address is: susan.barbieri@startribune.com

Across:

1A: Blue or brown follower: EYED. I think I have brown eyes, though my drivers's license says BLK.

15A: Jet-black gem: ONYX. Wikipedia says it could be of other colors too. Greek origion, meaning "claw/fingernail." So called because the mineral's color sometimes resembles that of a fingernail, pink with white streaks.

23A: Donizetti aria "Regnava __ silenzio": NEL. No idea. Here is a clip. I've never heard of Italian composer Zonizetti or "Regnava NEL silenzio" ("Silence Reigned"). So what does NEL mean?

25A: Storyteller: LIAR

33A: Finance major's deg.: BBA (Bachelor of Business Administration). New abbreviation to me. Wish I had attended school when I first arrived here.

35A: When repeated twice, "et cetera": YADA. Always thought it's repeated three times.

43A: Sweater synthetic: ORLON. Clued as "Synthetic fiber" in yesterday's puzzle.

45A: Unheeding: DEAF. Also LEAF (24D: Table section). I like this kind of F or K ending words.

60A: Jacket type worn by several Bond villains: NEHRU. Interesting trivia. I did not know this. I still have not figured out who killed the evil Greene in "Quantum of Solace".

67A: "A cat must have three different names": ELIOT. I don't know this particular poem, but I do know the musical "Cats" is based on his cat poems.

68A: Savings choice: IRAS. The clue needs an abbreviation hint, doesn't it?

69A: Give sparingly: DOLE. Why "sparingly"? The rescue package government DOLEs out is huge. Oh by the way, Linda mentioned last night that "abstemious" and "facetious" are the only two English words with all the vowels in order. She also said "dreamt" is the only English word ending in "mt".

72A: Impressionist: APER. Very unexpected clue.

Down:

3D: Caltech sr.'s goal, often: ENGR. Ah, LA Times, another CA reference. Remember Monday's "Fellow Dodgers, e.g." for TEAMMATE?

4D: Rectangular game piece: DOMINO

5D: Holy animal?: COW

10D: School play prop: PAPER HAT

27D: "They'll Do It Every Time" cartoonist Jimmy: HATLO. Unknown to me, HAT LO, is he very famous? This woman looks very dominating.

29D: Hard-to-find guy of kids' books: WALDO

31D: Land where Moses died: MOAB. East of Dead Sea. In current Jordan.

33D: Internet opinion piece: BLOG. Exactly, "opinion piece", might be wrong. Blog is short for weblog.

34D: 2008 Libertarian presidential candidate: BARR (Bob). I had no memory of this guy at all. Could only think of Ralph Nader.

38D: Elvis classic: HOUND DOG. No idea. Is it really classic? Sounds so repetitive and boring.

41D: Jacques of "Mon Oncle": TATI. Got this French actor's name from across fills. "Mon Oncle"("My Uncle") won an Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 1958, according to Wikipedia.

44D: 22.5 deg.: NNE. See more Compass Points. I drew a blank on this one also. Have never seen NNE clued this way before.

50D: Recognition: CREDIT. How fortunes change for Tim Geithner. March Madness indeed. However, he really should get the CREDIT for Dow's near 500 point soar on Monday.

51D: New York tribe: ONEIDA. Literally "erected stone".

56D: Hip bones: ILIA. Singular Ilium. I often confuse ILIA with ILEA (the ends of small intestines). Its singular form is ileum. They have the same pronunciation, correct?

58D: Prefix with sol: AERO. Aerosol. It's often clued as "Sabb model" in our old puzzle.

63D: Rehab admission: USER. The answer did not come to me readily.

Answer Grid.

C.C.