Wednesday June 24, 2009 Sharon Petersen

Theme: LET'S DANCE (58A: Ball offer, and a hint to this puzzle's theme)

18A: Good horse for a kid: WELSH PONY

23A: Fiery chip dip: RED HOT SALSA

37A: Pete Rose nickname: CHARLIE HUSTLE

51A: Dickens orphan: OLIVER TWIST

Not familiar with HUSTLE dance. But CHARLIE HUSTLE was a gimme. I probably have over 100 Pete Rose baseball cards.

This puzzle really dances, rhythmic in each word, none feels forced or made-up. Scrabbly too. One more letter Z, we would have had a pangram.

I was confused by the clue for WORD (44D: Sponsor's offering?). Then a big V-8 moment: "And now, a WORD from our sponsor".

Across:

6A: Doorway part: JAMB. I wonder if letter B is just like K (knife/knock), which was pronounced 500 years ago.

14A: Not quite a liter: QUART. Oh, I did not know a QUART is only 0.946 liters.

15A: Most draftable: ONE A

20A: Land in la mer: ILE

21A: 35mm camera type: SLR

22A: From Buffalo to Boston: EAST. French for EAST is EST. Spanish is ESTE.

27A: Where Mork and Mindy honeymooned: ORK. Learned from doing Xword. Old TV shows are definitely my weakest link in solving Xword. What's yours?

30A: Online investing service: E*TRADE. They offer savings/checking account as well.

32A: Org. in the 2008 film "Burn After Reading": CIA. I've yet to see this Coen brother film.

33A: Big name in yellow journalism: HEARST. Wiki says the term "yellow journalism" originated during the American Gilded Age of the late nineteenth century with the circulation battles (peaked from 1895 to about 1898) between Joseph Pulitzer's New York World and William Randoph HEART's New York Journal.

41A: Monk monikers: FRAS

44A: WWII female: WAC (Women's Army Corps). Our fellow solver Southern Belle was one during the Korean War.

50A: Tree toppler: AXE

54A: Lobbying group for 50-and-over folks: AARPS. Who is the most powerful lobbying group in the US? NRA?

56A: Helpful contacts: INS

57A: Title Pontiac of song: GTO. "Little GTO".

63A: Rara __: AVIS. Sade is one.

64A: "Mask" actress: CHER. She looks amazing in the video. I also like her "Believe".

65A: Achilles, for one: GREEK. Brad Pitt played Achilles in "Troy".

68A: Howard Hughes's phobia: GERMS. Donald Trump's too.

Down:

1D: Escort: SQUIRE

2D: Young hen: PULLET. Wish EGG (61D: Fabergé treasure) clued as "Hen product" to pair up with PULLET.

3D: Like many violent films: RATED R

4D: Bobble the ball, e.g.: ERR. Baseball & alliteration. Lovely ERR clue.

5D: O'Hare approx.: ETA (Estimated Time of Arrival)

6D: Prominent bulldog features: JOWLS

7D: End of __: AN ERA

10D: "Klutzy me": OOPS

11D: Diplomatic etiquette: PROTOCOL. No such thing for the mad man Kim Jong-il. About 21% of Koreans have Kim as their surname.

12D: Salon offering: TAN

19D: Lukas of "Mars Attacks!": HAAS. Got his name from Across fills. Not familiar with the movie neither.

25D: Poland-Germany border river: ODER. Same pronunciation as odor. Here is the map. It begins in Czech Republic and flows into the Baltic Sea.

34D: Christina of "Black Snake Moan": RICCI. Know her name. Have never heard of the movie. Looks awful.

35D: Neptune's realm: SEA. Neptune is the Roman god of sea. The Greek equivalent is Poseidon.

37D: Heart: CRUX. As in "The CRUX/heart of the matter...".

38D: "Dig in": HAVE AT IT. Here we go again, AT IT.

41D: Hialeah's home Abb.: FLA. Wiki says Hialeah is literally "pretty prairie". And it has the second highest percentage of Cuban and Cuban American residents of any city in the US. After Miami I suppose.

45D: Poncho wool: ALPACA. LLAMA can be clued as "Poncho wool" too.

47D: Pooh Corner cat: TIGGER. Again, I obtained the answer from Across fills. I think I am going to confuse him with the "Buster Brown dog" TIGE. Are these two both playing on the word "tiger"?

49D: Baby birds?: STORK

52D: Immoral practices: VICES

53D: Month in el invierno: ENERO. Easy guess. I don't know "invierno" is "winter" in Spanish.

55D: Man Fri.: ASST. "Robinson Cruso". Man Friday. Nice clue.

59D: "Uncle Tom's Cabin" girl: EVA

Answer grid.

C.C.

Tuesday June 23, 2009 Gary Lowe and Nancy Salomon

Theme: COUNT (54D: Tally, and what to do with the last word of 18-, 26-, 45- or 60-Across)

18A: Informal polls: STRAW VOTES

26A: Cause of unhealthy weight gain: EMPTY CALORIES

45A: Rockies grazers: MOUNTAIN SHEEP

60A: Prominent schnozzes: ROMAN NOSES

I am more familiar with straw polls rather than STRAW VOTES. Fats and processed carbs often contain EMPTY CALORIES. Actually, they are high-calorie food with mostly empty nutrients. I wonder what sheep count when they can't go to sleep. AQUILINE NOSES would be an awesome fill too.

Nancy mentioned in her interview that she likes theme that are tightly focused. She and Gary Lowe sure delivered today. All of the COUNT objects are in plural forms and located at the end of the each theme answer. Nothing forced or strained.

My favorites today are the two long Down fills: ADVICE GURU (3D: Dr. Phil or Dr. Laura, e.g.: ) and its symmetrical partner INEXPERTLY (29D: Hardly in a skillful way). I also like how UNSEAT (5D: Oust from office) and VETO (19D: Bill killer) intersect STRAW VOTES.

Across:

1A: Algerian city on the Mediterranean: ORAN. Algeria is an OPEC member, so is Nigeria.

15A: Dressed to the __: NINES. Puttin' on the Ritz. Nine is an interesting number. Nine innings in baseball, nine justices in Supreme Court, nine muses. What else?

20A: Working busily: AT IT

22A: What's happening: EVENT

23A: Native American shoe, briefly: MOC

24A: Lee whom nobody doesn't like: SARA. "Nobody doesn't like SARA Lee".

33A: Single or homer: HIT. Or double/triple.

35A: "___ Millionaire" 2008 Best Picture: SLUMDOG. Awesome film.

38A: 17th century French playwright: MOLIERE. His stage name. MOLIERE said "It is not only for what we do that we are held responsible, but also for what we do not do." So true!

44A: "Need You Tonight" rock group: INXS. Pronounced as "in excess". Australian band. I got the answer from Down fills.

51A: Big water pipe: MAIN

52A: PC bailout key: ESC. Nice "bailout".

58A: Johns, for short: LAVS. Or LOOS for "Johns", no "for short".

59A: Gusto: BRIO. Nice to see David Duval emerged from nowhere and played with BRIO in the US Open.

62A: Rebuke to Brutus: ET TU. How did Brutus reply?

63A: Lyricist Lerner: ALAN. Lerner & Loewe. "Gigi", "My Fair Lady", "Camelot", etc.

65A: Sheltered valley: GLEN

66A: Write to on a cell phone: TEXT

Down:

1D: Bedtime hr. after a late date, perhaps: ONE AM

2D: Totaled: RAN TO. As a bill.

4D: G.O.P. elephant creator Thomas: NAST. "Democratic donkey designer" too.

6D: Cabaret, casually: NITERY. Eatery, bakery. ERY is suffix for "place" here.

7D: Attainable: IN REACH

10D: Four-leaf plant: CLOVER. The good luck CLOVER I suppose.

12D: Flock's "Absolutely": AMEN

13D: Pain in the neck: PEST

24D: Hightailed it: SPED

28D: Prepare to fire: AIM

30D: Antony's loan request? EARS. I was not aware of Marc Anthony "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your EARS..." speech. I thought of Shylock and the guy in "The Merchant of Venice". His name is actually Antonio.

31D: Every other hurricane: SHE. Oh, good to know.

32D: Grrravy dog food maker: ALPO. Owned by Nestlé.

37D: Merry, in Marseilles: GAI

40D: Serpent suffix: INE. Ennui!

43D: All together: EN MASSE

46D: Swimming: NATANT. New word to me.

48D: Keep in a piggy bank: SAVE UP

49D: Sibilant catcalls: HISSES. Reminds me of the BOOER clue ("Raspberry blower") we had a while ago.

53D: Web destinations: SITES. Do bookmark my blog. Don't want to lose you next week when I change the title.

55D: House on campus: FRAT. No such house in our campus. Chinese colleges have very different systems than those in the US.

57D: Big-screen format: IMAX

58D: One and only: LONE. SOLE too.

61D: Never done before: NEW

Answer grid.

C.C.