Sunday July 19, 2009 Alan Arbesfeld

Theme: Den of Thieves - CON is added to each phrase.

23A: Builder's political clout?: CONTRACTOR PULL

34A: Patronizing part of the digestive tract?: CONDESCENDING COLON

47A: Lacking partners?: OUT OF CONSORTS

60A: Oppose, while tippling?: CONFRONT LOADED

68D: Lawyer in line for a title shot: LEGAL CONTENDER

86A: "Da" or "ja"?: CONSENT ABROAD

93A: Angel on one's shoulder? MASTER OF CONSCIENCE

113A: Charge of the TV?: CONSOLE CUSTODY

Five of the CON's are prefixed to the first word, three are to the second word. Nice theme title. Reminds me of James Steward's "Den of Thieves" (a book about inside trading).

Descending colon was new to me, but CONDESCENDING part was not tough to get. LOADED is an adjective, how could it describe a verb CONFRONT?

"Da" is Russian for "yes". Russian "no" is NYET. "Ja" is German for "yes", and we have the "no" NEIN (87D: Kurt refusal?) in the grid. Good play on "curt refusal".

I had another struggle. The sheer size of Sunday puzzle just intimidated me. Also, lots of sports references in this puzzle. I can picture how Kazie reacts.

Across:

1A: Apple variety: IMAC. I thought of FUJI apple again.

5A: "Hi and Lois" pooch: DAWG. Unknown to me.

9A: Like a 112-Across game: TIED. And ONE ONE (112A: Score in a pitchers' duel). What a boring game!

13A: Chalk talk, perhaps: LESSON

19A: "Me neither": NOR I. Or the rice ball/sushi wrapping seaweed NORI.

20A: City known for lake-effect snow: ERIE. I like the new clue.

21A: Actress Skye: IONE. Wrote down IONA.

22A: Colts fullback Alan who famously scored the winning touchdown in the 1958 NFL championship game: AMECHE. No idea. Wikipedia says this guy is the cousin of actor Don AMECHE.

26A: Hair dryer brand: CONAIR

27A: Screen names, e.g.: USER IDS

28A: Pointillism marks: DOTS

29A: Race that once began in Wasilla: IDITAROD. Where does it start now? Anchorage? The terminus is Nome.

31A: Dinosaur, so to speak: RELIC

32A: Turn down: VETO

33A: "Right away, boss": I'M ON IT. Still have problem adjusting to multiple words.

41A: U.K's Gordon Brown et al: PMS. I was thinking of Labor Party.

44A: Him, to Henri: LUI. Her is ELLE.

48A: Hockey East college town: ORONO. More used to the "University of Maine town". Had no knowledge that there is even a Hockey East conference.

53A: Where to see Hamilton, informally: TEN SPOT. Did not know it's a slang for a ten-dollar bill. Sawbuck, yes.

55A: Bama rival: OLE MISS

56A: Affectedly dainty, in Dover: TWEE. No idea. It's a baby-talk alteration of sweet.

57A: Key contraction: O'ER. Francis Scott Key. National Anthem.

59A: Macho types: HE-MEN

64A: Mainland Africa's smallest nation: GAMBIA. See the map. It's surrounded by Senegal. A former British colony. I've never heard of it.

67A: Jeer leaders: BOOERS. Ah, "Cheer leader?" would be a great clue for CEE.

74A: Bothered to no end: ATE AT. And NAGS AT (95D: Bothers incessantly).

79A: Tin Woodsman's prop: AXE. "The Wizard of Oz". I only know him as the "Tin man".

81D: Being hunted, perhaps: AT LARGE

83A: Deodorant choices: ROLL-ONS

88A: Birch kin: ALDER

89A: City on the Orne: CAEN. Forgot. Might have seen ORNE clued as "Caen's river" before.

91A: Aution ending?: EER. Auctioneer.

92A: Scrub sites, briefly: ORS (Operation Rooms). Surgical scrub. Hence the TV series name "Scrubs".

100A: Old marketplaces: AGORAE. The Greek marketplace. I wrote down AGORAS.

101A: Near-eternity: AEON. Or EON.

102A: On the nose: EXACT

106A: Exurban resident: VILLAGER

109A: Toasted breakfast brand: EGGO

110A: Honda Ruckus, e.g.: SCOOTER. Not familiar with the Honda Ruckus brand.

116A: Claim holder: LIENOR

117A: Personnel list: ROTA. I forgot this word. It's British for roster.

118A: Stereotypical lab name: IGOR. The lab assistant in"Young Frankenstein".

119A: Model Sastre: INES. Wow, is this an intentional wardrobe malfunction? She is a Spanish model/actress.

120A: Burnout cause: STRESS

121A: Baseball's "Walking Man" Eddie: YOST. Hmmm, I might have this 1959 Topps reprint. Could not recall him or his nickname.

122A: Shopper's aid: TOTE

123A: "__ la vie": C'EST

Down:

1D: Run up: INCUR

2D: Meat favored by Sarah Palin: MOOSE. Brought back last year's MOOSE raves.

3D: Cellulose fiber: ARNEL. New word to me. Strange, a fiber without ON (orlon, nylon).

4D: Like ugli fruit: CITRIC

5D: Pooped out: DEAD

7D: Wilde, notably: WIT. Thought of GAY first.

8D: Crystal-lined rocks: GEODES

9D: Try to avoid detection, in a way: TIPTOE

10D: Chits: IOUS

11D: 8X10, e.g.: Abbr.: ENL

12D: Separate into fields: DELIMIT. New word to me. Sounds like "get rid of limit", doesn't it?

13D: Pre-skating chore: LACING

14D: Face with a hyphen for a nose, say: EMOTICON. :-)

15D: Ottawa NHLers: SENATORS. Twins were once Washington SENATORS.

16D: Easily recalled facial mark: SCAR. Wanted MOLE.

17D: Kent State locale: OHIO

19D: Societal klutz: NERD

25D: Uniformed campus org: ROTC

30D: Aid financially: DONATE TO

32D: Way to a man's heart?: VEIN. Couldn't cram in "through his stomach". Great clue.

35D: 2008 LA-Phila. showdown: NLCS (National League Championship Series). Phillies won of course.

36D: Pairs: DUOS

37D: Gunpowder ingredient: NITER

38D: Bounded along: LOPED

40D: Jotted down: NOTED

41D: Pal of Piglet: POOH. Winnie-the-POOH.

42D: Prospector's beast: MULE. No idea. Why?

43D: Goblet feature: STEM

48D: First watch on the moon: OMEGA. Oh, I did not know this.

49D: Set in stone: FINAL

50D: Ferret cousin: STOAT

51D: Dominate, in sports: OWN. PWN in leetspeaks.

53D: Field zebra: REF

54D: First name in legal fiction: ERLE. ERLE Stanley Gardner.

57D: __ close to schedule: ON OR

60D: Cannes showing: CINE. Cannes Film Festival.

61D: Needing a seat belt extender, say: OBESE. China is super-sizing its economy as well as its children.

63D: Sirius or Vega, e.g.: A STAR. I can never remember the star type: O, B, A, F, G, K & M (Oh, be a fine girl, kiss me).

65D: Thom __ shoes: MCAN

65D: Place to find hit records?: BOX SCORE. Great clue.

68D: Super Bowl XIV player: LA RAM. No idea. LA RAMS moved to St. Louis prior to the 1995 season, according to Wikipedia.

69D: Deadly virus: EBOLA

70D: Neuters: GELDS

71D: Low-budget prefix: ECONO

72D: "The Sound of Music" extra: NUN. Julie Andrews is in Bo Derek's "10" too.

73D: Around-the-horn MLB plays: DPS (Double Plays).

75D: Switch back?: EROO. Switcheroo. Good clue.

76D: Thickening agent: AGAR

77D: Turner and Mack: TEDS. Don't know TED Mack.

81D: Suit to __: A TEE

82D: Glacier-formed lake: TARN. Can never commit this word to my memory.

84D: Not to mention: LET ALONE

85D: Spaghetti sauce herbs: OREGANOS

86D: Winans of gospel: CECE

90D: Quite removed (from): A FAR CRY

94D: "All politics is applesauce" speaker: ROGERS. Will ROGERS is of Cherokee root.

96D: Utah state flower: SEGO. SEGO lily.

97D: "Calm down!": COOL IT

98D: Top suits: CEOS. Suit is a slang for business executive, as they often wear suit. Needs an abbreviation hint.

99D: Type of dancer: EXOTIC

103D: Say an Act of Contrition: ATONE

104D: Hands over: CEDES. Britain handed over Hongkong to China in 1997. And Portugal handed over Macau to China in 1999.

105D: It could be cheating: TRYST. Indeed.

106D: Lady __ Tenn. team: VOLS. University of Tennessee women's athletic teams. I was stumped again.

107D: Embroidered ltr.: INIT (Initial)

109D: Fangom Forest denizens: ENTS. Tolkien's talking tree ("The Lord of Rings") again. It's just clued as "Treebeard's kin" yesterday.

110D: Connery, by birth: SCOT. I liked Sean Connery in "Entrapment".

111D: Medical breakthrough: CURE

114D: Queenside castle, in chess notation: O-O-O. I know nothing about chess.

115D: It may be inflated: EGO. Saw this clue before. Still like it.

Thanks for the answers/comments, everyone.

Answer grid.

C.C.

Saturday July 18, 2009 Doug Peterson

Theme: None

Total blocks: 30

Total words: 70

Whoa! This puzzle is hard. It should not be, as I actually know most of the fills. But the clues are tricky, exemplified by F-STOP (24A: Fuji setting). Of course, I filled in JAPAN first, thinking of Mt. Fuji.

Dennis probably likes those triple-stacked 9-worders in upper left/lower right and the paralleled 10's in the upper right/lower left. He likes long words. Me? I like simple, short, explosive, just-do-it verb words.

Neat to see the two 15-letter fills cross each other in the very middle of the grid:

35A: Control tower concern: TRAFFIC PATTERNS

8D: Antarctic denizens: EMPEROR PENGUINS

Across:

1A: Blissful state, slangily: HOG HEAVEN. Wanted CLOUD NINE.

10A: Tack together: BASTE. By sewing loosely with long stitches.

15A: Russian Orthodox church feature: ONION DOME. Named after its onion-like structure.

16A: Habitually: OFTEN

17A: They're usually not on itineraries: SIDE TRIPS

18A: Bullock's "Miss Congeniality" costar: BRATT. Sigh. I forgot who else starred in the movie. I like Benjamin BRATT's Rey in "Law & Order".

19A: French hagiological abbr.: STE. Hagio is a prefix for "saint". Hagiology is the literature dealing with the lives of the saints. New word to me. STE is often clued as "Fr. holy woman".

20A: Events on a card: RACES. Does this refer to "playing the race card"?

21A: Jam highlights: SOLOS. Wrote down RIFFS.

22A: Doctor finder: PAGER

23A: Yacht site: BASIN. Tiger Woods' yacht is called Privacy. He missed the cut at the British Open yesterday.

27A: Master: Abbr.: ORIG (Original)

29A: FDR program: NRA (National Recovery Administration)

31A: Steadily fading sound: ECHO. And POOF (22D: Vanishing word).

32A: French police detective unit: SURETE. No idea. It's France's FBI/Scotland Yard. SURETE (surety), is French for "safety".

32A: Elongated fish: GAR

38A: Dig into: EAT

39A: Fictional Queen: ELLERY. The mystery author. Queen is capitalized.

40A: Vacación destination: LAGO. Spanish for lake. Portuguese/Italian too.

41A: MLB rally killers: DPS (Double Plays)

42A: Logician Turing: ALAN. No idea. Have never heard of this guy (1912-1954). Wikipedia says he is often considered to be the father of modern computer science. And he died from eating a cyanide-laced apple. How sad!

43A: Not recent: OLDEN

44A: Fencer's defense: PARRY

46A: Coconut's place: GROVE. I always associate GROVE with short trees. Coconut trees are pretty tall.

49A: Jazz pianist Ahmad: JAMAL. Stumped. He looks charming. Wikipedia says his music is featured in Clint Eastwood's "The Bridge of Madison County", a rather disappointing movie. The book is so good.

50A: Handbook, e.g.: GUIDE

51A: Ft. Worth campus: TCU (Texas Christian University). Strange mascot name: Horned Frogs. Fighting Okra is another strange mascot name.

54A: Winning, barely: UP ONE. Not ONE UP?

55A: A paddlewheel may propel one: RIVERBOAT. Wikipedia says modern RIVERBOATS are generally screw (propeller) driven.

57A: Drips: NERDS. Dictionary defines "drip" as "an unattractive, boring, or colorless person." That's different from NERD, isn't it?

58A: Like sound frequencies above 20 kHz or so, to humans: INAUDIBLE. Oh, good to know.

59A: Beaniks of '50s-'60s TV: KREBS. No idea. It's a character in "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis"

60A: Surfing equipment?: DSL MODEMS. The question mark should send you in the internet surfing direction.

Down:

1D: Eric Cartwright's nickname on "Bonanaza": HOSS. Completely unknown (the one in the middle) to me. Wikipedia explains that HOSS might come from "Haas", Swedish for "big in stature and big in spirit". Oh, I also saw Jay Haas last week at the 3M Championship.

2D: Handling the task: ON IT. Now I miss AT IT.

3D: French Nobelist André: GIDE. He won Nobel Literature in 1947. He inspired Camus and Sartre, both Nobel winners. Camus 1957. Sartre 1964, though he declined.

4D: Row starter: HOE. No idea. Use HOE to start a row in the garden?

5D: Rope in: ENTRAP

6D: "Kind of __": 1967 hit: A DRAG. Here is the clip. Have never heard of the song.

7D: Music school major: VOICE

9D: Headland: NESS

10D: First "America's Funniest Home Videos" host: BOB SAGET. He was also the dad in "Full House".

11D: Puffy styles: AFROS. I was imagining WM's soufflé.

12D: Critical 1942-1943 battle site: STALINGRAD. Now called Volgograd. Grad is a suffix meaning "city".

13D: It's part of the Rockies: TETON RANGE. The Grant Teton is the highest mountain of the range.

14D: Treebeard's kin: ENTS. Tolkien's talking trees. Treebeard is the eldest of the species of ENTS, according to Wikipedia.

23D: Wee: BITTY

23D: Honored with a party: FETED

25D: Jotting medium: SCRAP PAPER. I always carry a 6" X 9" notebook with me. You?

26D: Dean Martin classic: THAT'S AMORE. I did not really appreciate the EEL clue ("That's a moray") last time until Dennis brought up THAT'S AMORE.

28D: Bottom: REAR. Oh, the derrière "Bottom".

30D: Illicit ignition: ARSON

32D: Lacking gravity: SILLY. Wanted ZERO G.

3D: First to win 100 NCAA team championships: UCLA. Total 104. Who is next? Stanford?

36D: Unflinching: FEARLESS

37D: Magazine with the column "Ask E. Jean": ELLE. Four-letter magazine, what else could it be?

43D: Go too far: OVERDO

45D: Soul predecessor: R AND B. Had huge trouble with this answer. I was thinking something like BRAVE, you know, BRAVE soul.

47D: Romantic triangle figure: RIVAL

48D: Recital hall: ODEUM. Plural is ODEA.

49D: Kind of fax: JUNK. Stymied also.

50D: Sudoku feature: GRID. "Crossword feature" too.

51D: Soliloquy opener: TO BE. "TO BE or not to be." - Hamlet.

52D: 0 on the Beaufort scale: CALM. I don't what Beaufort scale is. It measures winds at sea. It has 12 degrees, 0 = CALM, 12 = Hurricane.

53D: Chief Ouray's people: UTES. Guessed.

56D: Opposite of ask: BID. Oh, E-bay auction. I knew it's not ANS, since there is no abbreviation hint.

Answer grid.

C.C.