Friday July 17, 2009 Dan Naddor

Theme: The Double(t) Is Double(d) TT → DD

17A: Evidence of a spilled dessert? PUDDING ON THE DOG

22A: Nervous ticks?: SHUDDER BUGS

35A: Linens for jockeys?: OFF-TRACK BEDDING

51A: Slope where sycophants hang out?: NODDING HILL

57A: What a yenta exam does?: TESTS ONE'S MEDDLE

Just learned the idiom "putting on the dog" a few months ago from a LAT puzzle. Notting Hill is an affluent area in West London. Also a very romantic movie starring Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant.

Bitter & bidder should be interesting to work with. Latter & Ladder might not be fun. What else can you think of?

Quite a few tricky clues in today's puzzle:

54A: It may be added to impress: IVE. Impressive.

7D: Jet problem?: LAG. Jetlag.

I struggled with the multiple-word entries today.

Across:

1A: Per se: IN ITSELF. Per se is literally "by itself" in Latin.

9A: Research, perhaps: LOOK UP. Hmm, I often LOOK UP the word in my dictionary during solving. I am not cheating. Just doing my research.

15A: Statue, perhaps: MEMORIAL. I guess I understand the controversy over a Chinese designing MLK Memorial Statue. Maybe it should be sculpted by an African American. However, MLK transcended racial line.

16A: When some shifts start: AT NINE. Never know when to put AT NINE, when to put NINE AM.

19A: Symbol of love: EROS. Ha ha, I thought of ROSE. Red rose is my favorite flower.

20A: Any of the Beverly Hillbillies: YOKEL

21A: PC linkup: LAN (Local Area Network)

28A: Consider overnight: SLEEP ON. Don't think too much. Just do it.

30A: Sicily's capital?: ESS. Letter S is the first (capital) letter of Sicily.

32A: They're usually rolled outs: TARPS. D'oh, ballpark. I was thinking of dough.

34A: Hipbones: ILIA

41A: Miss equivalent?: MILE. I've never heard of the proverb "A miss is as good as a MILE". Thought of the French miss MLLE.

42A: W, once: YALIE. George W. Bush graduated from Yale. Harvard Business School as well.

43A: Sports drink suffix: ADE. Gatorade.

44A: Pinch, so to speak: NAB. I did not know pinch is a slang for arrest.

47A: Staples Center NBAer: LA LAKER. I am glad Kobe Bryant got his NBA Championship ring sans Shaq.

55A: Playground assertion: IS TOO

56A: 1961 space chimp: ENOS. I wonder why they named him ENOS.

63A: "The Joy Luck Club" author: AMY TAN. A rare author gimme for me. She is a Chinese American. "The Joy Luck Club" is the name of the mahjong club the four ladies formed. Great read.

64A: Fetch: RETRIEVE

65A: Artist's home, perhaps: COLONY. I am not familiar with this definition of COLONY. I thought of STUDIO.

66A: 2009 film based on a TV show that premiered in 1966A: STAR TREK

Down:

1D: Drives forward: IMPELS

2: __ network: NEURAL. Had problem piecing the answer together.

3D: "Finished!": I'M DONE. One blank too much for VOILA.

4D: "Dracula" (1931) director Browning et al?: TODS. I can never remember this guy. Last time the clue was "Pioneer filmmaker Browning".

5D: Hindu honorific: SRI. Sanskirt for "splendor/majesty". SRI Lanka means "Venerable Island".

6D: Cologne article: EIN. Or DER, DAS, all German articles.

8D: Rock's Pink __: FLOYD

9D: Fried fare often served with applesauce: LATKES. I don't know, I've never had LATKES or the Norwegian lefsa.

10D: Catchall column heading: OTHERS

11D: Produce amt.: ONE LB. Cherries are in season now. My favorite snack at the moment.

12D: Tease: KID

13D: Game with Draw Two Cards: UNO

14D: Takedown units?: PEG. Oh, "take down a PEG".

18D: Junction point: NODE

22D: Bandy words: SPAR. I think Chris Matthews (Hardball) has the best job in this world.

23D: Group dance done while holding hands: HORA. The Jewish wedding dance.

24D: Offensive to some, briefly: UN-PC (UN - Politically Correct). And ETTE (29D: Suffix which may be 24-Down). I don't understand why ETTE is UN-PC.

25D: Wrinkly fruit: UGLI. It's actually quite sweet.

26D: Cross the threshhold: GO IN

27D: Beast with a rack: STAG. Ha ha, I just typed in "Breast with a rack" a moment ago.

33D: Shade of blue: SKY. The clue is quite Monday-ish.

34D: Flash of sorts: IDEA

35D: Arabian Sea nation: OMAN. Capital Muscat.

36D: Generic pooch: FIDO. What's the name of your dog(s)?

37D: Hightailed it: FLED

38D: Site of the active volcano Mount Agung: BALI. Guessed MALI first.

39D: Airline to Eilat: EL AL. Eilat, pronounced as ey-laht, is the southernmost city of Israel.

40D: Pickle flavoring: DILL. The only herb I use are chives. The basil at the Farmer's Market makes me headache.

44D: Xterra maker: NISSAN. My knowledge on car makers is as weak as my understanding of Bible.

45D: "I come to bury Caesar" speaker: ANTONY (Mark). "I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him...".

46D: Weed __: lawn care product: B-GON. Not familiar with this brand at all. No chemical spray in my garden. And HOERS (53D: Weed whackers).

49D: Exhibit Darwinism: EVOLVE. This clue feels so highbrow.

52D: "Same here!": DITTO. Interesting to see a lone TT here.

56D: Work for Money, maybe: EDIT. I did not pay attention to the capitalized Money (Money magazine).

57D: Part of a winning trio: TAC. Tic-TAC-Toe. Stumped also.

58D: Musical genre related to punk: EMO

59D: Dict. division: SYL (Syllable). I wanted SYN (synonym).

60D: An hour's worth of tunes, maybe: SET. OK, Dictionary says SET can refer to "a group of pieces played by a band, as in a night club, and followed by an intermission". Is this the correct rationale?

61D: NYC subway inits.: MTA (Metropolitan Transportation Authority). I wrote down IRT (Interborough Rapid Transit).

Answer grid.

C.C.

Thursday July 16, 2009 Jack McInturff

Theme: WHAT'S THE SPREAD?

16A: Old-fashioned remedy for chest colds: MUSTARD PLASTER

26A: Rochester medical center: MAYO CLINIC

36A: "Black Bottom Stomp" jazz pianist: JELLY ROLL MORTON

43A: Lima variety: BUTTER BEAN

I was not aware of the MUSTARD PLASTER for chest colds remedy. MAYO CLINIC was a gimme of course. It's as Minnesota as 3M, Target, Best Buy & Spam. MAYO CLINIC's business has suffered greatly since Sept 11. Those rich Saudi emirs, sheiks and royal families used to fly there and spent tons of money on checks up (yeah, jewelries too).

JELLY ROLL MORTAN(1890-1941) was a total stranger to me. Wikipedia says he was from New Orleans and he was a pivotal figure in early jazz.

We had some discussions about lima bean & BUTTER BEAN on the blog a while ago. Here in our local grocery store, you can get frozen green lima beans and frozen cream colored BUTTER BEANS. They do taste similar.

Struggled today. I just could not get on the constructor's wavelength.

Across:

1A: Resort off Venezuela: ARUBA. Been under Dutch control since 1636. Before that, Spain's colony. ARUBA means "red gold", from Ore Ruba, Ore= gold, ruba=red.

6A: Astro's cap insignia: STAR. Alright, see Roger Clemens' cap.

10A: Witty sort: WAG

13A: Rodeo competitor: ROPER. Lassoer too.

14A: Novelist Bagnold: ENID. Author for "National Velvet".

15A: Basic language trio open: AMO. AMO, amas and AMAT. And I LOVE (30D: 15-Across, translated). I felt stupid struggling with the combo. I guess I need "Latin" hint for 15A.

19A: Ballpark souvenirs: YEARBOOKS. Yes indeed, though I am obsessed with bobbleheads now.

20A: Air: TUNE. Air is "a melody or tune, especially in the soprano or tenor range", says Dictionary.com.

21A: Comparative words: AS AN. Straight AS AN arrow, for example. I wanted THAN.

22A: Household nickname: SIS. My brother calls me Jie, Chinese for SIS.

23A: Marshlike: MIRY

32A: Golfer's traction aid: CLEAT. And NINE (49A: Course half). Many people golf with tennis shoes.

34A: Border on: ABUT. The answer seems to be always ABUT instead of EDGE.

35A: Pay closing: OLA. Payola. Nice clue.

40A: Gray's "The Bard", e.g.: ODE. Thomas Gray is the guy who wrote many elegies.

41A: __-mutuel: PARI. Type of betting. Learned from doing Xword. PARI is French for bet. Mutuel = mutual.

42A: Chutzpah: NERVE

48A: Not squander: USE

51A: __ proprietor: SOLE

53A: 1892 Leoncavallo opera: PAGLIACCI. No idea. PAGLIACCI is plural of Pagliacco, Italian for clown.

60A: Choreographer Reinking: ANN. Unknown figure to me.

61A: Heifetz's teacher: AUER. Stumped. I was unaware of the teacher/student relationship Leopold AUER and Jascha Heifetz. AUER is pronounced like "our".

62A: In concert: AS ONE

63A: Place for a ring: TOE. One of our relatives has a nose ring and a tongue ring. It's just not pretty.

64A: Gets faint: DIMS. Oh, light. I was thinking of swoon.

65A: Seed covering: TESTA. Or ARIL.

Down:

1D: College football's Black Knights: ARMY. I had no idea that the West Point sports team is called Black Knights.

2D: Lecherous sort: ROUE. Would you call Hugh Hefner a ROUE?

3D: "__-daisy!": UPS-A. Thought it's UPSY-daisy!

4D: Unwelcome exposure: BETRAYAL. Not the picture I had in mind. Excellent clue.

5D: Spirited horses: ARABS. Often see STEED clued as "Spirited horse".

6D: Arizona cultural resort: SEDONA. Wikipedia says it's named after SEDONA Miller Schnebly (1877–1950), the wife of the city's first postmaster, who was celebrated for her hospitality and industriousness. So pretty.

7D: Toll rd.: TNPK (Turnpike)

9D: Nutritional fig.: RDA

10D: '60s dance: WATUSI. I forgot. Clear Ayes mentioned this dance on the blog before I think.

11D: Call from the flock: AMEN

12D: He "used to be the next president": GORE. "Hi, I'm Al GORE, and I used to be the next president of the United States". He never really said he invented the internet.

17D: Knock around: ROAM. "Knock around" is a new phrase to me.

18D: English blue cheese: STILTON. Name after a village called STILTON where the cheese was first sold.

22D: Pond film: SCUM. D'oh, gunk. I thought it's a movie starred by a guy named Pond.

23D: Flipping burgers, e.g.: McJOB

24D: __ Diable: old penal colony site: ILE DU. Devil's Island. A "small part of the notorious French penal colony in French Guiana until 1952". Unknown to me. Diable is French for "devil".

25D: Subleased: RELET

27D: "Boola Boola" singer: YALIE. "Boola Boola" is Yale's football fighting song.

28D: On a slant: Abbr.: OBL. Oblique. Not a familiar abbr to me.

29D: Quasimodo's "our": NOTRE. French for "our". Quasimodo is from Victor Hugo's "The Hunchback of NOTRE Dame". My favorite clue today. French for "we" is NOUS.

31D: Worked with wicker: CANED

33D: Work on a galley: TYPESET. Here is an old galley proof press.

37D: Like inverted Jenny stamps: RARE

38D: Poetic peeper: ORB. Just "eye" in poem.

39D: Prepare for a show: REHEARSE

44D: New Orleans university: TULANE. The Green Wave. Historian Douglas Brinkley used to teach here.

45D: Tees off: ANGERS. Of course. I "STARTS", thinking of the real golf "Tees off". Who do you think will win British Open? I figure our Jimmy in S Carolina will root for Padraig Harrington. Me too.

46D: Guitarist Lofgren: NILS. A member of Springsteen's E Street Band.

50D: Try to bite, kitten style: NIP AT

51D: Police jacket acronym: SWAT (Special Weapons And Tactics)

52D: Speed skater who won "Dancing with the Stars": OHNO (Apolo). Read somewhere that this guy had a very rough past. I don't like man with a goatie.

53D: Spittoon user's sound: PTUI. Public spitting used to be socially acceptable in China. Disgusting.

55D: Corp. leaders: CEOS. Do you think Steve Jobs got a special treatment for his liver transplant? Do you think he should have?

56D: Defeatist's word: CAN'T

57D: It may be half-baked: IDEA

59D: Down: SAD. Thought of EAT first.

Answer grid.

C.C.