Theme: Sit-COM
20A: Soothe Geronimo's people?: COMFORT APACHE (Fort Apache)
28A: Sherman tank, for one?: COMBAT MOBILE (Batmobile)
43A: "If Tarzan's bothering you, speak up!": COMPLAIN JANE (Plain Jane)
52A: Speak highly of enclosures?: COMMEND FENCES (Mend Fences)
Our local Star Tribune had a boringly incomprehensible article yesterday about a British scientist who has somehow proven that RNA is the key to the origin of life. There are two sentences that caught my eyes: "The author, John D. Sutherland, a chemist at the University of Manchester, likened his work to a crossword puzzle in which solving the first clues makes the others easier. "Whether we've done one across is an open question," he said. "Our worry is that it may not be right." You can read more here (third paragraph) in NY Time's website.
I was not familiar with John Wayne/Henry Fonda movie "Fort Apache". Did not know Batman's car the Batmobile either. But I got one across immediately today, and I got it right. Conquered the upper fairly quickly and got the COM theme early on. Struggled in the lower right corner though. Once again, several long & interesting words in the Down entries.
Just checked my blog archive and found out that most of the Doug Peterson puzzles have 4 theme entries. Some has 3. All of them are truly about synonyms, rhyming or some kind of wordplay, as he mentioned in his interview.
Across:
1A: Iraqi seaport: BASRA. Sigh. The Iraq War. Not worth the fight. Democracy should be fostered from within. BASRA is the second largest city in Iraq, after Baghdad.
10A: Dessert chain with Waffle Cone Wednesday: TCBY. Interesting, the first TCBY was opened in Clinton's Little Rock, AR (1981). I did not know that.
14A: Pigment of iron oxide: OCHER. Also spelled as OCHRE.
15A: Tolkien brutes: ORCS. And the Tolkien talking tree is ENT. Learned both from doing Xword.
16A: Anorak feature: HOOD. I forgot the meaning of anorak. It's the Eskimo parka.
19A: Lodge group: ELKS. Often clued as "Part of BPOE" (Benevolent and Protective Order of ELKS".
25A: Wedding setting: CHURCH. Nice rhyming clue.
31A: Bygone rulers: TSARS. The crossing letter S from STOOP (32D: Condescend) prevented me from thinking of CZARS or even SHAHS.
34A: Strong wagon: DRAY. Got it with the down help. I can never remember this wagon. It sure looks strong.
35A: Crow cousin: DAW. Alliterative clue again. I faintly remember seeing this bird somewhere before. OK. It's black. I guess it's indeed Crow's cousin then. Dictionary says it's "often nesting in church towers and ruins".
36A: DOJ employee: ATTY. Did not know DOJ is Department of Justice. ATTY was easy to obtain though.
37A: Spice often added to curries: CUMIN. No curry for me. Strange taste.
39A: Fiend: OGRE. I am used to the "Fairytale baddie" clue for OGRE.
40A: English site of a royal flush?: LOO. I got the answer and understood the "flush" part. But why "royal"?
41A: Hold one's own: COPE
42A: Massage: KNEAD
47A: Skillful pass: SPIRAL. No idea. Football term often stumps me.
48A: Ocean State sch.: URI (University of Rhode Island). Dr. Dad mentioned this abbreviation as a possible clue for URI when it's clued as "Swiss canton" in our old puzzle last time. But it did not register well in my brain. Wikipedia entry says CNN's Christiane Amanpour & John King both graduated from here.
49A: Doo-wop syllable: SHA. SHA is also the abbreviation for Shanghai.
56A: River through Kazakhstan: URAL
58A: Hippie's "Yeah, man!": I DIG
59A: Brag: VAUNT
60A: Star followers: MAGI. The three wise men. Good clue. I thought of GAZE first, you know, stargaze.
61A: Diamond complement: NINE. Another baseball answer is HOP (23A: Infield bounce).
62A: Money with hits: EDDIE. I knew immediately that the Money here is not the real money. But I had never heard of this rock singer. So, total blank here.
63A: Top: APEX
64A: Letters from Plato: ETAS. Alphabet letters. Lovely clue. Learned a lot about Sartre and his chasing (not just after girls) from reading Simone de Beauvoir's "A Translantic Love Affair: Letters to Nelson Algren".
65A: Printer acronym: LASER. Have never bothered to check what LASER stands for: Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. TASER is short for Thomas A. Swift's Electric Rifle.
Down:
1D: "The Garden of Earthly Delights" painter: BOSCH. His name revealed itself after I filled in the Across blanks. Here is the painting. All those people are naked.
2D: One may precede a blessing: ACHOO
3D: Oldest of Stooges: SHEMP. No idea. All I could think of is Moe, Larry and Curly.
5D: Gulches: ARROYOS. Nailed it this morning.
6D: Warm place to chill: HOT TUB. Nice clue.
7A: Subject matter: AREA. Got the answer. Do not understand the rationale.
8D: Ottawa-based law gp.: RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police)
9D: Derivative '80s game in which one ghost's name was changed from Clyde to Sue: MS. PAC-MAN. It's clued as "'80 arcade game" in an Allan E Parrish puzzle last Dec. Those ghost names mean nothing to me.
10D: Old Boston name: THE HUB. No idea. Only knew the "Beantown".
11D: "Kubla Khan" poet: COLERIDGE. This is the same picture of Kubla Khan we used in our history book. He's the founder of Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368). Song, Yuan, Ming & Qing. The last four dynasties in China.
12D: With 22-Down, Asian cabbage: BOK. And CHOY (22D: See 12-Down). It's "Chinese cabbage" to be exact.
13D: Abbr. on a golf tee: YDS. PGA Championship 2009 will be played here in MN in August.
26D: Bow in pictures: CLARA. I got the answer immediately. She is "The it Girl".
27D: Cut down: HEWED. "Cut" is a very tricky word tense-wise.
29D: Campaign creators: AD MEN
30D: Half of sex-: TRI. Somehow this clear prefix mark - after sex (Latin for six) made me laugh. Why not "Half of sex?". Too DF?
31D: Easily scratched minerals: TALCS
33D: Era that began with a blast?: ATOMIC AGE. Holy cow! I had no idea that we still live in ATOMIC AGE.
37D: Montana resource site: COAL MINE. Is Montana famous for its COAL MINE like West Virginia? Doug Peterson is from Montana.
38D: Press initials: UPI
39D: Fused: ONE. Did you get this answer immediately?
41D: Casino delicacy?: CLAM. Big stumper. Not familiar with Clams Casino at all. What are those blackened stuff? Looks like they are burned.
42D: Either of two notable jumpers: KNIEVEL
44D: Long-winded: PROLIX. New word to me. I thought of PROSAIC.
45D: Story that tells the story of Samson: JUDGES. No idea. All I know about Samson is that he is a strong man and Samsonite is named after him.
46D: Strip yip: ARF. Oh, comic strip.
49D: Scoots along, as a cloud: SCUDS. Always have trouble remembering this cloud moving meaning of SCUD.
50D: "Thin Ice" star, 1937: HENIE. I am sure it's a gimme for Clear Ayes. Me? I forgot all about Sonja HENIE.
51D: Autumn blossom: ASTER. Greek for star. I just found out that disaster is actually rooted in ASTER. How surprising!
54D: Ricci of fashion: NINA. These NINA Ricci models all look like famished.
55D: Zilch: NADA. Would love to see ZILCH as answer some day.
56D: She played Emma in "The Avengers": UMA. Easy guess. It's either UMA or EVA (Longoria). I've never seen "The Avengers".
57D: Good thing to beat: RAP. "Beat the RAP" is a new slang to me.
Answer grid.
C.C.
20A: Soothe Geronimo's people?: COMFORT APACHE (Fort Apache)
28A: Sherman tank, for one?: COMBAT MOBILE (Batmobile)
43A: "If Tarzan's bothering you, speak up!": COMPLAIN JANE (Plain Jane)
52A: Speak highly of enclosures?: COMMEND FENCES (Mend Fences)
Our local Star Tribune had a boringly incomprehensible article yesterday about a British scientist who has somehow proven that RNA is the key to the origin of life. There are two sentences that caught my eyes: "The author, John D. Sutherland, a chemist at the University of Manchester, likened his work to a crossword puzzle in which solving the first clues makes the others easier. "Whether we've done one across is an open question," he said. "Our worry is that it may not be right." You can read more here (third paragraph) in NY Time's website.
I was not familiar with John Wayne/Henry Fonda movie "Fort Apache". Did not know Batman's car the Batmobile either. But I got one across immediately today, and I got it right. Conquered the upper fairly quickly and got the COM theme early on. Struggled in the lower right corner though. Once again, several long & interesting words in the Down entries.
Just checked my blog archive and found out that most of the Doug Peterson puzzles have 4 theme entries. Some has 3. All of them are truly about synonyms, rhyming or some kind of wordplay, as he mentioned in his interview.
Across:
1A: Iraqi seaport: BASRA. Sigh. The Iraq War. Not worth the fight. Democracy should be fostered from within. BASRA is the second largest city in Iraq, after Baghdad.
10A: Dessert chain with Waffle Cone Wednesday: TCBY. Interesting, the first TCBY was opened in Clinton's Little Rock, AR (1981). I did not know that.
14A: Pigment of iron oxide: OCHER. Also spelled as OCHRE.
15A: Tolkien brutes: ORCS. And the Tolkien talking tree is ENT. Learned both from doing Xword.
16A: Anorak feature: HOOD. I forgot the meaning of anorak. It's the Eskimo parka.
19A: Lodge group: ELKS. Often clued as "Part of BPOE" (Benevolent and Protective Order of ELKS".
25A: Wedding setting: CHURCH. Nice rhyming clue.
31A: Bygone rulers: TSARS. The crossing letter S from STOOP (32D: Condescend) prevented me from thinking of CZARS or even SHAHS.
34A: Strong wagon: DRAY. Got it with the down help. I can never remember this wagon. It sure looks strong.
35A: Crow cousin: DAW. Alliterative clue again. I faintly remember seeing this bird somewhere before. OK. It's black. I guess it's indeed Crow's cousin then. Dictionary says it's "often nesting in church towers and ruins".
36A: DOJ employee: ATTY. Did not know DOJ is Department of Justice. ATTY was easy to obtain though.
37A: Spice often added to curries: CUMIN. No curry for me. Strange taste.
39A: Fiend: OGRE. I am used to the "Fairytale baddie" clue for OGRE.
40A: English site of a royal flush?: LOO. I got the answer and understood the "flush" part. But why "royal"?
41A: Hold one's own: COPE
42A: Massage: KNEAD
47A: Skillful pass: SPIRAL. No idea. Football term often stumps me.
48A: Ocean State sch.: URI (University of Rhode Island). Dr. Dad mentioned this abbreviation as a possible clue for URI when it's clued as "Swiss canton" in our old puzzle last time. But it did not register well in my brain. Wikipedia entry says CNN's Christiane Amanpour & John King both graduated from here.
49A: Doo-wop syllable: SHA. SHA is also the abbreviation for Shanghai.
56A: River through Kazakhstan: URAL
58A: Hippie's "Yeah, man!": I DIG
59A: Brag: VAUNT
60A: Star followers: MAGI. The three wise men. Good clue. I thought of GAZE first, you know, stargaze.
61A: Diamond complement: NINE. Another baseball answer is HOP (23A: Infield bounce).
62A: Money with hits: EDDIE. I knew immediately that the Money here is not the real money. But I had never heard of this rock singer. So, total blank here.
63A: Top: APEX
64A: Letters from Plato: ETAS. Alphabet letters. Lovely clue. Learned a lot about Sartre and his chasing (not just after girls) from reading Simone de Beauvoir's "A Translantic Love Affair: Letters to Nelson Algren".
65A: Printer acronym: LASER. Have never bothered to check what LASER stands for: Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. TASER is short for Thomas A. Swift's Electric Rifle.
Down:
1D: "The Garden of Earthly Delights" painter: BOSCH. His name revealed itself after I filled in the Across blanks. Here is the painting. All those people are naked.
2D: One may precede a blessing: ACHOO
3D: Oldest of Stooges: SHEMP. No idea. All I could think of is Moe, Larry and Curly.
5D: Gulches: ARROYOS. Nailed it this morning.
6D: Warm place to chill: HOT TUB. Nice clue.
7A: Subject matter: AREA. Got the answer. Do not understand the rationale.
8D: Ottawa-based law gp.: RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police)
9D: Derivative '80s game in which one ghost's name was changed from Clyde to Sue: MS. PAC-MAN. It's clued as "'80 arcade game" in an Allan E Parrish puzzle last Dec. Those ghost names mean nothing to me.
10D: Old Boston name: THE HUB. No idea. Only knew the "Beantown".
11D: "Kubla Khan" poet: COLERIDGE. This is the same picture of Kubla Khan we used in our history book. He's the founder of Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368). Song, Yuan, Ming & Qing. The last four dynasties in China.
12D: With 22-Down, Asian cabbage: BOK. And CHOY (22D: See 12-Down). It's "Chinese cabbage" to be exact.
13D: Abbr. on a golf tee: YDS. PGA Championship 2009 will be played here in MN in August.
26D: Bow in pictures: CLARA. I got the answer immediately. She is "The it Girl".
27D: Cut down: HEWED. "Cut" is a very tricky word tense-wise.
29D: Campaign creators: AD MEN
30D: Half of sex-: TRI. Somehow this clear prefix mark - after sex (Latin for six) made me laugh. Why not "Half of sex?". Too DF?
31D: Easily scratched minerals: TALCS
33D: Era that began with a blast?: ATOMIC AGE. Holy cow! I had no idea that we still live in ATOMIC AGE.
37D: Montana resource site: COAL MINE. Is Montana famous for its COAL MINE like West Virginia? Doug Peterson is from Montana.
38D: Press initials: UPI
39D: Fused: ONE. Did you get this answer immediately?
41D: Casino delicacy?: CLAM. Big stumper. Not familiar with Clams Casino at all. What are those blackened stuff? Looks like they are burned.
42D: Either of two notable jumpers: KNIEVEL
44D: Long-winded: PROLIX. New word to me. I thought of PROSAIC.
45D: Story that tells the story of Samson: JUDGES. No idea. All I know about Samson is that he is a strong man and Samsonite is named after him.
46D: Strip yip: ARF. Oh, comic strip.
49D: Scoots along, as a cloud: SCUDS. Always have trouble remembering this cloud moving meaning of SCUD.
50D: "Thin Ice" star, 1937: HENIE. I am sure it's a gimme for Clear Ayes. Me? I forgot all about Sonja HENIE.
51D: Autumn blossom: ASTER. Greek for star. I just found out that disaster is actually rooted in ASTER. How surprising!
54D: Ricci of fashion: NINA. These NINA Ricci models all look like famished.
55D: Zilch: NADA. Would love to see ZILCH as answer some day.
56D: She played Emma in "The Avengers": UMA. Easy guess. It's either UMA or EVA (Longoria). I've never seen "The Avengers".
57D: Good thing to beat: RAP. "Beat the RAP" is a new slang to me.
Answer grid.
C.C.
