Wednesday July 1, 2009 Jack McInturff

Theme: GLASS (72A: Dinnerware item that can precede the start of 17-, 26-, 38-, 52- or 61-Across)

17A: Paintings and such: WORKS OF ART

26A: Causing heads to turn: EYE-CATCHING

38A: Releasing stress, in a way: BLOWING OFF STEAM

52A: Gungan general of "Star Wars" films: JAR JAR BINKS

61A: Very hard candy: JAWBREAKER

And glass ceiling, glasshouse and glassware. What else?

Dictionary explains GLASS JAW as "a person's jaw, esp. that of a boxer, that is vulnerable to even a light blow". It's a new phrase to me.

I got the unifying answer GLASS quickly, but had difficulty obtaining the last two theme answers. Not a "Star Wars' fan, so JAR JAR BINKS was a total stranger to me. He looks ugly. I've never heard of JAWBREAKER candy either. The name sounds so hard.

Very happy to see MINN (67A: Its state bird is the common loon) in the puzzle. Finally a day to celebrate Minnesota. At last, we have a 2rd senator. Mr. (Al) Franken Goes to Washington. I don't expect one iota of "Mr. Smith" style idealism. What a saga! 8 months' recount and court fight.

Across:

1A: World-weary: BLASE. Oh well, lah-di-dah, lah-di-dah.

10A: Feature of a bad air day: SMOG. Misread the clue as "bad hair".

14A: Bay Area county: MARIN. I got the answer from Down fills. Inside the green zone. Wikipedia says it's across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco.

15A: Fairy tale opener: ONCE. And THE (40D: First word of many titles).

16A: Heart: CORE

19A: Ship of Greek mythology: ARGO. Jason and the Argonauts.

21A: House party convenience: WET BAR

29A: Alimony recipients: EXES. But "All My EX'S Live in Texas".

31A: Negatives: NO'S

32A: Watch readouts: LEDS (Light-Emitting Diodes)

36A: Soup bean: LIMA. I've never made any soup with LIMA bean.

44A: Kinfolk: Abbr.: RELS

45A: A flat counterpart: G-SHARP

46A: Ending letters, in Leeds: ZEDS. Our ZEES.

49A: Suffix with expert: ISE. Hmm, very straightforward cluing. "Verb ending, in Leeds" would be a great clue too. I like our IZE ending though.

56A: Sargasso, for one: SEA. I've never heard of the Sargasso SEA. Dictionary says Sargasso is Portuguese for "seaweed".

57A: Kilimanjaro site: AFRICA. Hope to see Kilimanjaro as answer someday.

58A: River islets: AITS. AIT has the same pronunciation as ATE.

68A: Fourth person: ABEL

69A: Wishful words: I HOPE

70A: Early birds?: EGGS. Nice clue.

Down:

1D: Munich-based automaker: BMW. It owns Rolls-Royce.

2D: __-tze: LAO. The Taoism founder. LAO is literally "old" in Chinese.

4D: Punjab sect member: SIKH. Pronounced the same as "seek". Literally, "disciple".

5D: Happen next: ENSUE

6D: Ease: SOFTEN

7D: "___ clear day ...": ON A

8D: Text-scanning technology, briefly: OCR. No idea. It stands for Optical Character Recognition.

9D: Contents meas.: NET WT

10D: Verbally attack: SCATHE. Oh, this is a new definition to me. So few politicians escapes Maureen Dowd unscathed.

11D: Like fascination with the dark side: MORBID. Woody Allen is half-MORBID.

12D: Instruments with stops: ORGANS

13D: Conductor Szell: GEORG. Nope. Wikipedia says GEORG Szell was born in Budapest and grew up in Vienna. And he served as as Music Director for the Cleveland Orchestra from 1946 to 1970.

18D: Direct ending?: ORY. Directory. IVE is a "Direct ending?" too.

22D: Mercedes sedan category: E-CLASS. Waiting for Dennis to give more information.

23D: LPGA star Karrie: WEBB. I have several of her autographed items. She is in golf Hall of Fame.

24D: Skating maneuver: AXEL. Named after Paulsen AXEL who popularized the maneuver.

25D: Part of a rep's spiel: DEMO. And GLIB (39D: Smooth-talking).

27D: Gigantic statues: COLOSSI. Or colossuses.

28D: "Like, no way!": AS IF

34D: Respiratory cavity: AIR SAC. For bird, right? I obtained the answer from Across fills.

35D: Dir. from Wichita to Omaha: NNE

37D Factory work: Abbr.: MFG. OK, MFG stands for"manufacturing" and MFR stands for "manufacturer".

41D: Vittles: EATS. Anyone likes Alton Brown's "Good EATS"?

42D: 18th century composer Thomas: ARNE. The composer for "Rule, Britannia".

43D: Film-rating org.: MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America)

46D: Alluringly plump: ZAFTIG. New word to me. Dictionary says it's Yiddish for "juicy, succulent". Betty Grable's picture showed up when I googled ZAFTIG. to me, she is not plump at all. Just perfect.

48D: Islamic genies: DJINNS. I only know the other spelling: JINNI. It's literally "demon".

52D: "My Name is Earl" Emmy winner Pressly: JAIME. New actress to me. Very interesting name. J'aime is literally "I love" in French.

53D: Indian prince: RAJAH

54D: Cassis cocktail: KIR. Named after Félix KIR (1876–1968), mayor of Dijon, who allegedly created the recipe, according to Dictionary.com. I've never had it. It's made of crème de cassis (blackcurrant liquor) & white wine.

55D: "Shrek" author Williams: STEIG. Don't know the author. Shrek looks ugly too.

63D: Unseld of the NBA: WES. Sometimes it's clued as "Director Craven".

64D: Campground org.: KOA (Kampgrounds of America). Unknown to me.

65D: Mini-albums, briefly: EPS (Extended Plays). Also new to me.

66D: Legal thing: RES. Latin for "thing".

Answer grid.

C.C.

Tuesday June 30, 2009 Timothy L. Meaker

Theme: Spelling Bee

20A: February greeting card request!: BE MY VALENTINE

30A: Utah's nickname: BEEHIVE STATE

39A: "Petticoat junction" star: BEA BENADERET

51A: Sue Grafton's second Kinsey Millhone novel: "B" IS FOR BURGLAR

Nice homophone. "C, SEE, SEA" & "I, AYE, EYE" popped into my mind, but I could not think of a 4th entry.

I have never heard of BEA BENADERET. The only BEA I know is BEA Arthur. Love BE MY VALENTINE. So sweet! Chocolate, roses & Paris. Actually, a hike in Appalachia Trail sounds romantic too. So does a 7-day stay in ARG (47A: Braz. neighbor).

Why "Mamma Mia!" trio? for EMS (25A)? The clue should be quartet, correct? There are four letter M in "Mamma Mia!".

Across:

1A: Tout's topic: ODDS. Alliteration.

5A: Broad tie: ASCOT. Named after the Royal ASCOT race.

10A: Left the launch pad: ROSE. And GOES (56A: Leaves) & STAY (64A: Hang around). Plenty of actions.

14A: Slightest concern: HOOT

15A: Juniper fruit: BERRY. I've never used juniper BERRY in cooking.

16A: Black, to Byron: EBON. Another alliteration.

17A: Cath. prelate: MSGR. Monsignor. Not a familiar abbreviation to me.

18A: Come apart: BREAK

19A: Keycard receiver: SLOT. Crossing ENTER, which is clued as "Key in".

23A: Baker or Bryant: ANITA. Only knew ANITA Baker.

26A: Bernese Alps peak: EIGER. I forgot. Someone mentioned Clint Eastwood's "The EIGER Sanction" last time when EIGER appeared.

27A: "You __!": "Sure thing!": BETCHA. First Minnesotan phrase I learned.

29A: Four-time Wimbledon champ Rod: LAVER

34A: Super Bowl highlights?: ADS. Nice clue.

35A: "Hedda Gablar" dramatist: IBSEN. And GYNT (53D: 35-Across's "Peer __"). Love cross reference.

36A: Bauxite, to aluminum: ORE. Did not know bauxite is the principal ORE of aluminum.

43A: Unrefined: CRASS. Wrote down CRUDE first.

45A: Tell to enter, as a prospective job applicant: SEND IN

46A: Kitchen bigwigs: CHEFS. Bam! Emeril is out of Food Network.

54A: First name in daredevilry: EVEL. EVEL Knievel.

55A: "Yippee!": OH BOY

60A: Strikeout king Ryan: NOLAN. Total Ryan with 5,714 strikeouts. Johan Santana now has 1,676. Nobody is going to catch NOLAN Ryan. Randy Johnson has tried his very best.

62A: Grounded fleets, briefly: SSTS

63A: "Looks __ everything": AREN'T. But very important.

Down:

1D: Resistance unit: OHM. The "Conductance unit" is MHO.

2D: MS-__: DOS. Windows preceder.

3D: Animal control officer's concerns: DOG BITES

4D: Yawn accompanier, often: STRETCH

5D: "Dear" columnist: ABBY. Our paper has dropped her column.

6D: Dish up: SERVE. Not "Dish out"?

7D: Dairy aisle buy: CREAM

8D: Think-on-your-feet tests: ORALS. I got the answer. Don't under the logic.

9D: Wee one: TYKE

10D: Nervous: RESTIVE

11D: Accommodate: OBLIGE

12D: At an earlier time: SOONER

21D: When doubled, a fish: MAHI. Mahi-mahi is very tasty. It means "strong-strong" in Hawaiian.

22D: In apple-pie order: NEAT

23D: Palindromic pop group: ABBA. "Mamma Mia!"

28D: Alternatives to Reeboks: AVIAS. Avia is Latin for "to fly". One more blank, the answer would be ADIDAS.

33D: Common news hour: TEN. TEN PM, to be exact.

36D: Have pizza delivered, say: ORDER OUT

37D: Bridle strap: REIN. Misread the clue as "Bridal strap". GOWN came to my mind.

38D: Frequent Italian erupter: ETNA. Literally "I burn".

39D: Perplexes: BAFFLES

41D: Start a new hand: DEAL

42D: Angers: ENRAGES. And RESENT (44D: React indignantly to) & ABHOR (47D: Despise). Not a happy puzzle.

43D: Leek cousins: CHIVES. Onions too.

46D: Turnpike "breakers": CB'ERS. Argyle mentioned the other day that the professional truck driver is called "Road Scholar", a take-off on Rhodes Scholar.

48D: Kirov cash: RUBLE. Easy guess. I don't know where Kirov is, but it sounds Russian. And I like the alliteration.

49D: Corny joke reaction: GROAN

52D: Novelist Jaffe: RONA. Have you read any of her books? I learned her name from doing Xword. Sometimes RONA is clued as "Gossipy Barrett".

Answer grid.

C.C.