Wednesday April 22, 2009 Mike Peluso

Theme: CAPE (66A: Action hero's garb, and what each first word in this puzzle's four longest answers is.)

20A: Cornucopia: HORN OF PLENTY

34A: Supplement that some claim eases arthritis: COD LIVER OIL

43A: Texas governor before George W. Bush: ANN RICHARDS

56A: 1973 Erica Jong novel: FEAR OF FLYING

I used to confuse CAPE HORN with CAPE of Good Hope, which is in the southern tip of Africa. Learned CAPE COD from reading various JFK biographies. Saw CAPE ANN in a puzzle before. CAPE Fear (bottom) is new to me. It's on the coast of North Carolina, jutting into the Atlantic Ocean. Why Fear? Prone to shipwrecks?

Easy solving this morning. This puzzle makes me feel smart. All of the theme entries were gimmes to me. COD LIVER OIL has concentrated amount of Omega-3 fatty acids. Good for arthris, good for heart too. ANN RICHARDS once described President Bush as "born with a silver foot in his mouth".

Here is a list of Clever Clues of the Month from Crosswordese.com. You can also click here for the complete list of Word of Day. They are in alphabetical order. Every one of them has a great picture and lots of other interesting information. Send Paul an email if you want his free word-of-the day delivery. Today his word is ORT (70A: Morsel).

Across:

1A: Aquanaut's workplace: SEALAB. First time I met aquanaut. Whom does he work for? US Navy?

7A: Arabic for "son of": IBN. Like the former Saudi king IBN Saud. Same as the Scottish Mac. BIN is also "son of", right? Like Osama BIN Laden.

10A: Software prototype: BETA. Alpha is for the internal software testers.

14A: "1984" author: ORWELL. Just realized this morning that George ORWELL is his penname. His real name is Eric Arther Blair. Do you know what Cary Grant's real surname is? Leach! Archibald Alec Leach.

16A: Campground arrival, briefly: RVER. Many PGA golfers travel in RV. I've never seen them called as RVer though.

17A: Pleasure dome site of verse: XANADU. From Coleridge's poem "Kublai Khan". Xanadu is a very exotic way to spell Shangdu, the summer palace of Kublain Khan. It's located in current Inner Mongolia in north China. China has the shape of a rooster. Our administrative division is called PROV (47A: Ont. or Que.) too.

18A: Most energetic: PEPPIEST. And LOOSER (23D: Not as tight). I bet we won't see more than two Er, est suffixes in a Rich Norris puzzle.

25A: Via: BY WAY OF

29A: Poivre partner: SEL. French for salt. Poivre is French for pepper.

38A: "Bali __": HAI. Here is the clip. Bloody Mary sang it to Lieutenant Cable to lure him to into Bali HAI to become her son-in-law. Her daughter Liat is very pretty.

39A: Italian cheese: ASIAGO. Named after the Italian region where the cheese originated.

40A: Tender poultry: CAPONS. I don't think I've had CAPON before. Sounds cruel to castrate chickens just for their meat.

42A: Stereotypical pirate leg: PEG. I suppose this refers to Long John Silver of "Treasure Island".

50A: Former big name on "The View": ROSIE (O'Donnell). She is too much for me. I only like her in "Sleepless in Seattle".

55A: Mag. employees: EDS. I think Anna Wintour is the coolest editor of any magazine.

61A: Crooner Julio: IGLESIAS. Father of Enrique IGLESIAS, who is married to Anna Kournikova.

62A: What pupils do in the dark: DILATE

67A: Lunes, por ejemplo: DIA. Lunes is Spanish for Monday. French Monday is lundi.

69A: Prolific autho.?: ANON. Yes, indeed. I like this clue.

71A: Grand Prix site: LE MANS. Learned where LE MANS is last time when MLLES was clued as "Le Mans lasses". Quite close to Paris.

Down:

1D: White __: SOX. And ERA (2D: Pitching stat). I like how they parallel.

3D: Barley bristle: AWN

4D: Sister of Rachel: LEAH. Both are Jacob's wives. LABAN was often clued as "Father of Leah and Rachel" in our old puzzle.

6D: Book jacket promo: BLURB. Crossword sub-title is also called a BLURB. Right, Fred?

7D: Running the country: IN POWER

8D: Hybrid meat: BEEFALO. Beef & buffalo. Also called cattalo (cattle & buffalo). Completely new to me.

9D: Dover diaper: NAPPY. The answer reviewed itself. I don't know British call diaper as NAPPY. The constructor picked up the seaport Dover for alliteration purpose.

10D: Boxer's alternatives: BRIEFS

21D: Org. at 11 Wall St.: NYSE. Oh well, what else could it be?

22D: Daisy Mae's creator: AL CAPP

24D: Spectrum color: INDIGO. Reminds me of the INDIGO Girls. They love crossword also. You should see "Wordplay" if you have not.

27D: She, in Lisbon: ELA. Ha ha, no more "Guido's high note" any more.

28D: Latvian capital: RIGA. The Latvian chess master Mikhail TAL is called "The Magician from RIGA".

31D: First words of the "Mr. Ed" theme: A HORSE. Anther easy guess. I've never seen "Mr. Ed".

32D: "___ Camera": CANDID

35D: From, in German names: VON. Same as French de and Italian da. How about Greta VAN Susteren? Hers is VAN.

36D: Former transp. regulator: ICC (Interstate Commerce Commission). 1887-1996. Learned from doing Xword.

37D: Cowardly lion portrayer: LAHR. Just found out this morning that Bert LAHR's original name is Irving Lahrheim.

45D: Lays into: RAILS AT. "Lay into" is a new phrase to me.

48D: "Pippin" Tony winner Ben: VEREEN. He looks awfully familiar. I must have googled him before.

53D: "Don't mind __": IF I DO. I got the answer. Have no idea what it means. Sounds self-conflictory.

56D: Pay stub abbr.: FICA

57: Alaska's first governor: EGAN. Gimme. Learned this fact long time ago. William Allen Egan was the first (1959 to 1966) and 4th governor (1970-1974) of Alaska.

58D: Brand for Fido: ALPO

60D: Get hold of, with "onto": GLOM. The past tense is GLOMMED. A new word I learned from T. Frank.

63D: Altar in the sky: ARA. See this diagram. ARA is Latin for Altar.

64D: Former Opry network: TNN. Another easy guess. Wikipedia says TNN changed into Spike in 2003. Owned by Viacom.

65D: Alpine curve: ESS. Not much wordplay today.

Answer grid.

C.C.

Tuesday April 21, 2009 Gail Grabowski

Theme: Crouch Down

20A: Nearby, on a country road: AROUND THE BEND

39A: Is completely uninformed: DOESN'T KNOW SQUAT

60A: Row house porch: CONCRETE STOOP

I was thinking of AROUND THE CORNER for 20A. But I ran out of blanks. Dictionary says AROUND THE BEND is a slang for insane/crazy. What is a row house? I've never heard of that term.

Dan Naddor mentioned the other day that because of his love for heavy "themage", his puzzles tend to have lower word count and high black square count. His last OUGH puzzle has 6 theme entries, 74 words & 34 black squares. While today's puzzle has only 3 theme entries, 78 words & 38 black squares. More black squares than Naddor's. Strange.

I misread the clue for 39 as "Is completely uniformed" rather than "uninformed". I also had a little trouble obtaining NY YANKEE (41D: one of the Bx. Bombers). I was thinking of a specific Yankees' player when I saw Bronx Bomber clue, you know, like Mantle. Reminds me of YANK we had a while ago. It's clued as "Big Jerk". I got the answer, by wrong reasoning. I thought the clue was referring to George Steinbrenner and his Yankees.

Today's constructor, Gail Grabowski, is one of Stan Newman's Newsday regular contributors. Her bio says she started constructing crossword in 2002 and she specializes in early week puzzles. She looks so sweet. Are you surprised that Doug Peterson is that young?

Across:

1A: Shopping center: MART. Penned in MALL first.

5A: Letter-routing letters: ATTN . I got the answer. Don't understand the "Letter-routing".

15A: Firenze farewell: CIAO. Firenze is Italian for Florence. I thought it's an Italian guy's name. CIAO is very close in pronunciation to CAO, the bad Chinese F word.

17A: "The Flintstones" pet: DINO. Learned from doing Xword. He is a dog, not a dinosaur, right?

23A: When prime time ends in Middle Ameri.: TEN PM. CST. Prime time is from 8:00pm to 11:00pm.

24A: Counterfeit coin: SLUG

25A: Sonoma Valley container: VAT. Sonoma Valley is the birthplace of California wine industry. Wikipedia says it's also called "The Valley of the Moon", literal meaning of the Native American word "Sonoma", according to Jack London.

28A: Irish homeland: EIRE. No wobbling between EIRE and ERIN this time due to the crossing fills. Hibernophile refers to those who love all things Irish. Hibernia is Latin for Ireland.

31A: Mug shot view: PROFILE

38A: Countesses' spouses: EARLS. Easy guess. I thought a countess's spouse is a count.

44A: Impressive grouping: ARRAY. "Grouping" of what?

47A: "Heavens!": MERCY ME. Big problem for me in this area. Not a phrase I use. Maybe I've heard of MERCY ME, but I've paid no attention.

56A: Deputized group: POSSE. Reminds me of Brad Pitt/Angelina Jolie and the large POSSE of securities that travel with them.

64A: Frighten, as horses: SPOOK. Why "as horses"? Frighten alone already means SPOOK.

67A: Memo phrase: IN RE. "In the matter of" in Latin. RE is the ablative of RES, "thing/matter". I learned it from doing Xword. Used to confuse it with INRI (Letters on a cross).

68A: Arizona State's city: TEMPE. Wikipedia says ASU has 4 campuses, TEMPE being the original and largest. Their mascot is Sparky the Sun Devil. Annika Sorenstam attended University of Arizona, so did Lorena Ochoa.

70A: Chess ending: MATE. Have you heard of board game Go? The geek kids in our high school class all played Go rather than chess.

Down:

4D: Theatrical travelers: TROUPE

5D: Corrosive compound: ACID. I wonder who first thought of using ACID for etching.

7D: Dash devices: TACHS. No "for short"?

8D: Useless: NO HELP. Thought of FUTILE first.

9D: Precedes: FOREGOES

10D: Mideast port on its own gulf: ADEN. Gulf of ADEN is nicknamed Pirate Alley.

11D: Cause of coughs and sniffles: COLD VIRUS

21D: Abbr. for people with only two names: NMI (No Middle Initial). So, if the letter S in Harry S. Truman's name is simply a letter S, why S. instead of S? Why dot after S?

22D: Prickly case: BUR. Learned this word from doing Xword also.

32D: Web site help sect.: FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions). Used to be stumped by this clue.

33D: Second or sixth president: ADAMS. 41 & 43: BUSH. I bet there is another Bush coming. Not Jeb or his son George P. Bush though.

34D: Gourmet mushroom: MOREL. OK, let's try a different picture.

35D: "Catch a Falling Star" singer: PERRY COMO. Guessed.

48D: Comfy footwear: MOC

51D: Record collector's platters: LPS. Don't you wish you still had your old baseball cards/childhood toys? Some of the hard plastic Ginny/Ginger doll can fetch hundreds of dollars now.

52D: Serve a sentence: DO TIME. I am getting better at the multiple words now. Nailed all of them today.

55D: Chill-inducing: EERIE. Vowel-intensive. Guess that's why we see this word so often.

57D: Salvage ship equipment: SONAR. Just learned yesterday that a ship is unsalvageable if its keel is broken.

61D: Butterfingers' cry: OOPS. OOPS, I always thought it's singular butterfinger.

63D: Memorable Old West lawman: EARP. This has become a gimme.

64D: NASCAR advertiser: STP. Often clued as "The Racer's Edge" in our old puzzle.

For those who don't visit the Comments section, here is the Susan Boyle clip Dennis linked a few days ago. Very inspiring.

Answer grid.

C.C.