Wednesday April 1, 2009 BOAP

Puzzle Title: "Get the Lead Out"

Puzzle constructor: Barrel of A Pencil (BOAP)

BOAP has been fascinated by crossword puzzles for thirty years. And he has been a dedicated collector and user of woodcase pencils for the past several years. Big fan of Dan Naddor, whose puzzle we solved on March 24, 2009.

Please come to the Comments section and let him know your thoughts on his puzzle.

Thanks.

C.C.

(Updated on April 7, 2009: Answer Grid.)

Tuesday March 31, 2009 Steve Dobis

Theme: THE KINGSMEN (60A: "Louise Louie" singers, and this puzzle's theme)

18A: '80s TV series with a talking car named KITT: KNIGHT RIDER

23A: 1943 Triple Crown winner: COUNT FLEET

36A: England's Charles, since 1958: PRINCE OF WALES

54A: "Nothing can stop" him, in a 1962 doo-wop classic: DUKE OF EARL

I am not familar with THE KINGSMEN or their song "Louie Louie". I think I prefer the theme title to be THE KING'S MEN. Too obscure a clue? Any way to work around "All the King's Men"?

A big leap from Monday's easy grid for me. Used lots of wite-out. The clue of 18A brought to mind Fred Dryer and his "Hunter", which was hugely popular in China in late '80s. But he does not have a talking car. KNIGHT RIDER came to China only in 1995. And we have a completely different Chinese name.

I was also thinking of Whirlaway for 23A. It runs out he was the 1941 Triple Crown winner. Have never heard of the song "DUKE OF EARL". PRINCE OF WALES was the only gimme theme entry to me. He probably should give the crown to Williams.

Across:

4A: Former Anaheim Stadium NFLer: LA RAM. Stumper. Did not know St. Louis Rams was once LA Rams. Kind of like Brooklyn/LA Dodgers. Twins was called Senators before.

9A: Lawn game using lobbed missiles: JARTS. Got it from down fills. Wikipedia says JARTS is banned in the US/Canada. I thought of BOCCI the Italian lawn bowling. Boomer had another perfect game last night. An exciting 830 (289/241/300).

14A: Fenway team, familiarly: SOX. Chicago team as well.

16A: "___ Gold": Peter Fonda film: ULEE'S. I don't believe we had ULEE'S in our old puzzle before. Always ULEE, clued as "Peter Fonda role".

17A: Rock music's __ Fighters: FOO. No idea. Wikipedia says their name is taken from World War II term "FOO Fighter", used by allied pilots to refer UFOs. See here for more etymology. The cartoonist & Chinese figurine word FOO connection reminds me of Egg FOO Young, a dish you won't find in a real Chinese kitchen table.

22A: London insurance giant: LLOYD'S. "Giant"? Like AIG/AIU?

29A: Taqueria offering: TOSTADA. What are those red-skinned diced cubes? Apples?

35A: It's a wrap: SARAN. Hard to unwrap. Do you like Food Network's "Unwrapped"? Fascinating history on American packaged food.

42A: New Zealand native: MAORI. Literally "Ordinary people" in its native language. And their dance is called HAKA.

44A: Basic ballroom dance: TWO STEP

47A: Riddles: ENIGMAS. Thought of Churchill's comment on Soviet Union: "A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an ENIGMA".

56A: Ravel work immortalized in "10": BOLERO. Just beautiful! It's a TEN (28D: Gymnast's goal). Williams liked to clue TEN as "Bo's number".

65A: Expected to land: DUE IN

68A: Filmdom ogre: SHREK. Found out this morning that SHREK is from German word Schreck meaning "terror".

69A: Muffin Man's lane: DRURY. Another stumper. Have never heard of this nursery rhyme.

70A: +, on a batt.: POS

Down:

1D: To be the truth: AS FACT. Can you give me an example of how these two are interchangeable?

3D: Israelites' departure: EXODUS. Also the title of Uris novel.

4D: Sitting Bull's language: LAKOTA. Dictonary says it's also called TETON.

5D: Son of Valiant: ARN. He has become a gimme to me. "Bride of Valiant" is ALETA, who just appeared in our puzzle two days ago.

6D: Portuguese royal: REI. The Spanish king is REY.

7D: Each one in a square is 90 degrees: ANGLE

8D: Composer Gustav: MAHLER. Learned the name of his work "Das Lied von der Erde" from doing crossword. Lied (pronounced like leed") is German art song. Erde means "earth".

11D: McCarthy era paranoia: RED SCARE. Learned this "paranoia" only after I came to the US. Quite shocking to me.

24D: S&L guarantor: FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation). Forgot. Did get SSA (31D: FICA funds it) though.

37D: Soda in a float: ROOT BEER. Well, I guess I've been living under the rock. Have never heard of "ROOT BEER float". I was expecting a perfectly ripe banana split in the middle when I ordered "Banana Split" last time. And was shocked when a big boat of dessert arrived.

42D: Boston transit inits: MTA. Massachusetts Transportation Authority? I don't know. MTA was always clued as "Kingston Trio hit" in our old puzzle.

46D: Cleansed: PURGED. I WASHED first.

48D: "I wish it could be!": IF ONLY. So many IF ONLY and "what-ifs" in our lives.

50D: Zany: MADCAP. COCA is often clued as "Zany Imogene".

51D: Melodious passage: ARIOSO. I am going to drink acorn coffee if I forget this word again.

55D: "80-'90s quarterback Bernie: KOSAR. No idea. Is Bernie KOSAR very famous? Wikipedia says he is a part-owner of Florida Panthers.

57D: "The Grapes of Wrath" figure: OKIE. The family name of the novel is JOAD.

58D: Web cross-reference: LINK. Click here if you want to learn how to make a LINK at the Comments section.

62D: East Lansing sch: MSU (Michigan State University). The Spartans.

63D: Musket suffix: EER. "Auction/profit" suffix too.

Full answer grid.

C.C.