Friday May 29, 2009 Dan Naddor

Theme: I Like "U" (I → U)

17A: Flared garb for Tarzan: JUNGLE BELLS (Jingle Bells)

24A: Manage to provide morning refreshment?: MUSTER COFFEE (Mister Coffee)

37A: Scarf makers?: BOA CONSTRUCTORS (Boa Constrictors)

46A: Wrinkle on a dessert topper?: CHERRY PUCKER (Cherry Picker)

57A: Wolves full of themselves?: BLUSTER PACK (Blister Pack)

Why BELLS for "Flared garb"? I don't understand the connection. My favorite theme entry is BLUSTER PACK. I've been opening so many Blister Packs of baseball cards. And it also reminded me of Kim Jong-il and his blustering brinkmanship. Insane!

Typical Dan Naddor puzzle. Lots of theme squares (61). There are also four noticeable 10-letter long Down entries intersecting three of the theme entries:

11D: 1989 Daniel Day-Lewis film: MY LEFT FOOT. Wikipedia shows that the film won several Oscars. I've never seen it.

12D: One putting on a show: IMPRESARIO

27D: Cutting-edge farm parts: PLOWSHARES. Gimme for Windhover. But it's a new word to me. PLOWSHARE does not sound "cutting-edge" at all, PLOWSHARP does.

28D: It's hoisted on ice annually: STANLEY CUP. Nice, timely fill.

Quite a few clever clues. My favorite is BLTS (30A: Alphabetical orders?). I got B & S in position, then I filled in BCDS immediately, completely ignoring the question mark in the clue.

Across:

1A: Debacle: FIASCO. I've got no interest to read the sequel to "FIASCO".

7A: Fish used in sashimi: OPAH. Holy moley! I love sashimi, but I've never had OPAH. Wanted TUNA.

11A: "Good Will Hunting" setting, briefly: MIT. Great movie. The setting for Kevin Spacey's "21" is also MIT.

14A: Racket: UPROAR

15A: Denpasar is its capital: BALI. I had to check my dictionary to see where Denpasar is.

16A: Sumac from South America: YMA. From Peru. Her name means "Beautiful flower".

19A: Old platters: LPS

20A: First woman to land a triple axel in competition: ITO (Midori). Interesting trivia.

21A: Crumb: LOUSE. Did not know crumb is a slang for "worthless person". Was thinking of bread crumb.

22A: Levels: TIERS

26A: Orbital point: APSIS. Thought of APOGEE first.

29A: Keisters: PRATS. Both are new slang to me.

31A: Mogadishu native: SOMALI. The only SOMALI I know is Iman, wife to David Bowie.

35A: Actress Wray: FAY. Stranger to me. Wikipidia says FAY Wray is the first ever scream queen, originating from her appearances in the 1932 film "Doctor X" and the 1933 film "King Kong".

40A: Wheat beard: AWN. Fun clue. It reads like "Wheat bread".

41A: Short stops: PAUSES. Another great clue. Made me think of baseball's shortstop.

42A: Silk, in St. Étienne: SOIE. And TASSE (13D: Café cup). Alliteration in both clues.

43A: Finely contoured: SLEEK. I like the sequential clue order of 42 "Silk..."and then 43 "Finely contoured".

45A: Ulan __: BATOR. Ulan BATOR is literally "Red Hero". Russia's Ulan Ude is "Red Uda".

51A: Clapton hit that won the 1992 Best Rock Song Grammy: LAYLA. Here is the song clip. It's about Pattie Boyd, then wife of George Harrison.

52A: Off-the-wall piece on the wall: OP ART. Excellent clue.

53A: Humanities degs.: BAS

56A: Tolkien creature: ORC

60A: Modern, in Mannheim: NEU. Same pronunciation as our "new", Kazie? What is German for "old"?

61A: Tales and such: LORE

63A: Sixth of five?: ESP. The Sixth Sense. Stumped me.

64A: Odessa-to-Waco direction: EAST. I like this new cluing.

65A: Lacing air: EYELET

Down:

1D: Big film maker: FUJI. Also the highest mountain in Japan. And of course, FUJI apples.

2D: "__ a Spell on You": 1957 Screamin' Jay Hawkins song: I PUT. Here is the song. I wanted CAST.

3D: Florentine flower?: ARNO. River flows, hence flow-er.

4D: Soak, in British dialect: SOG. No idea. Thought of RET, which is often clued as "Soak flax".

5D: "We want to hear from you": CALL US. Nailed it immediately. But when I looked at my finished grid, I kept seeing CALLUS.

6D: Ingredients in a McFlurry, perhaps: OREOS. Stumped. I've never had McFlurry.

8D: Not so bright: PALER. As in color?

10D: Memorable: HISTORIC

18D: "Despite what I just said ...": BUT

23D: "__ tree falls ...": IF A. "IF A tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?".

25D: Not quite a B: C PLUS

31D: Serpentine: SNAKY

32D: Home of the NCAA's Buckeyes: OSU (Ohio State University). Just learned that Jack Nicklaus attended OSU.

33D: Whitney et al.: Abbr.: MTS. Thought of ELI Whitney first.

36D: River to the North Sea: YSER

38D: In working order: OPERABLE

39D: 1917 abdicator: TSAR

44D: Goethe's "The __-King": ERL. Gimmie after yesterday's Schubert's "The ____-King" clue. So, the boy is indeed fevered and hallucinating about the ERL-King?

46D: Knockoff: CLONE

47D: Falls heavily: POURS. D'oh, rain!

48D: Discomfit: UPSET

49D: Ailurophobe's dread: CAT. Had to check the dictionary for ailurophobe.

50D: Last word in a doughnuts: KREME. Krispy KREME. Not a fan of doughnuts. I wrote down EAT ME first.

54D: Teen breakout?: ACNE. Got it immediately. Saw identical clue somewhere before.

55D: Game with no card lower than seven: SKAT

58D: Mauna __: LOA. Hope to see the full MAUNA LOA in a grid someday.

Answer grid.

C.C.

Thursday May 28, 2009 Tom Heilman

Theme: HYPOCRITE (62A: Insincere type suggested by the starts of the answers to starred clues)

17A: *Hack's output: POTBOILER

21A: *Canceling: CALLING OFF

26A: *Idealized family: THE JONESES

48A: *Pitched percussion instrument: KETTLE DRUM

56A: *Sorcery: BLACK MAGIC

In Chinese, we have an idiom similar to POT CALLING THE KETTLE BLACK: Crow laughing at the pig for being black.

I always thought THE JONESES simply means your neighbor, not necessarily an "idealized family". I got the defining entry HYPOCRITE first, then worked my way up, thinking the starts of the starred theme clues might synonyms to HYPOCRITE. Quite an inventive theme approach.

Besides KETTLE DRUM, there are several other music/musician/musical instrument related fills:

1A: Item of concern in a sound check: AMP

1D: "Spanish Flea" trumpeter: ALPERT (Herb). The guy in the middle?

15D: Schubert's "The __ King": ERL. Completely unknown to me. Here is a short plot summary.

18D: Instruments for Earl Scruggs: BANJOS

I don't think question mark is needed for NITRO (19A: TNT component?). The ? made me think of DRAMA, you know, TNT's "We know drama".

Across:

4A: Height: Pref.: ACRO. As in acrophobia. It appeared in our puzzle before, but I forgot. Wanted ALTI or ELEV, which are actually "Height: Abbr.".

8A: Part of a diploma accolade: MAGNA. MAGNA cum laude.

13A: John, to Ringo: LOO. John is slang for bathroom. Can't fool me.

20A: Film feline: ELSA. From "Born Free".

23A: Umbrella alternative: RAIN HAT

25A: Summer blowers: FANS

29A: Baseball feature: SEAMS. See this official Major League Rawlings baseball, with the commissioner's signature. That's Bud Selig.

33A: Hammer, for one: TOOL. Thought of Tom DeLay, "The Hammer".

36A: Analyze in English class: PARSE

39A: Groan inducer: PUN

40A: Where alpaca roam: ANDES. Which one is alpaca? I don't know how it looks differently from a llama.

42A: Org. concerned with climate change: EPA

43A: "Dang": DARN. Don't like the clue.

45A: U.S. document issuer: GPO (Government Printing Office). I was stumped.

53A: Enthusiastic okay, in Seville: SI SI. Shi Shi in Chinese.

55A: The first requirement: RULE ONE. Not RULE NUMBER ONE?

60A: Arguing: AT IT. Stop Arguing/Bickering! Clue me.

61A: "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding" author: LOCKE (John). Easy guess. Have never heard of this essay.

64A: Sprain site: ANKLE. Ouch!

66A: Fascist leader?: NEO. Neo-fascist. Nice clue.

Down:

2D: Dough: MOOLAH. I used to confuse this word with mullah.

3D: "Happy Days" friend of Richie and Ralph: POTSIE. No idea. Thought of Fonzie, the guy who jumped the shark. Which one is POTSIE?

4D: __ Z: A TO

5D: Mexican-American: CHICANO. This is a new word to me.

6D: Empathize: RELATE

7D: Sports commentator Hershiser: OREL. Often clued as "Pitcher Hershiser".

8D: Heavenly fare: MANNA

9D: Associates (with): ALIGNS

10D: Deteriorate: GO TO SEED. New phrase to me.

11D: Ball used for dorm hoops: NERF

12D: Beginning: AS OF. I nailed almost all the multiple word answers today.

22D: "Granting that ...": IF SO. Can you give me an example on how these two are interchangeable?

27D: Slow the growth of: STUNT

28D: Very long interval: EON

30D: Live and breathe: ARE. Need your help again. I don't understand this cluing. The grammar is confusing.

31D: Woolf's "__ Dalloway": MRS. I learned this book from "The Hours".

34D: Collar extension: LAPEL

38D: Searches thoroughly: RANSACKS

39D: Season opener?: PRE. Preseason. A home-run clue. Nice!

41D: Loving refusal: NO DEAR. I like YES DEAR.

44D: Actor Tamiroff: AKIM. Hebrew for "God will establish". I can never remember his name.

45D: Important energy source for the brain: GLUCOSE. Thought of Fructose first. I figured my brain loves quick sugar from fruits.

47D: Amuse: TICKLE

49D: Shooter's aid: TRIPOD. And SKEET (54D: Shooter's sport). Nice pair.

51D: Merges: UNITES

52D: Earth threat in some sci-fi films: METEOR

56D: Tell: BLAB

59D: Pita sandwich: GYRO. Here is a GYRO sandwich with some ROTINI (50D: Spiral pasta) salad. What's your favorite pasta?

63D: These, in Troyes: CES. French for "these". I don't know where exactly Troyes is. It's picked just for alliteration purpose I suppose.

Answer grid.

C.C.