Saturday August 1, 2009 Barry Silk

Theme: None

Total words: 70

Total blocks: 26

A pangram. Barry's hallmark. All 26 letters are utilized in the puzzle, including 2 Z's & 2 Q's.

This grid also has unique symmetry. If you fold it along the diagonal lines, all the black squares match each other. Very pretty. Lots of triple-stacked 7-letter words in each quadrant.

I suspect REYKJAVIK (21D: Northernmost national capital) is Barry's seed entry. Awesome fill, so scrabbly. Too bad I couldn't spell it correctly. I only know the Chinese translation. Oh, by the way, Barry is traveling and has no access to computer until Monday night. So, he won't respond to our comments today.

Very hard puzzle. Too many unknowns. A nightmare for me.

Across:

1A: Tops: BETTERS. BESTS can be clued as "Tops" too.

8A: Grows fond of: WARMS TO

15A: City WNW of Cheyenne: LARAMIE. Stumped. See this map. University of Wyoming is there. Dick Cheney's alma mater.

16A: Sister of Iphigenia: ELECTRA. I had no idea who Iphigenia is. Might have got the answer if it's clued as "Sister of Orestes". Remember this Three Furies painting? Orestes stabbed his mother to death because she murdered his father and was having an affair with someone else.

17A: Predictably: AS USUAL

18A: Ceremonious event: BANQUET. Of course I was thinking of Obama's Beer Summit.

19A: Peels: ZESTS. Noun or verb?

20A: Réunion attendee: FRERE. French for "brother". Sister is SOEUR.

22A: ConAgra spray: PAM. Did not know ConAgra owns PAM.

23A: Ferrara ruling family: ESTE. More often clued as "Italian noble family".

24A: Heat unit: THERM. Oh well, I only know BTU. THERM=100,000 BTUs. My initial thought was SQUAD, thinking heat might refer to the police.

25A: Style: MODE

26A: Caribbean export: RUM

27A: They usually lose at war: TREYS. How come? What war?

28A: Hood of "Our Gang" fame: DARLA. DARLA Hood, "typically the love interest of Alfafa, Butch, or (usually) Waldo", according to Wikipedia. Stumper for me.

29A: Low-fat breakfast brand: SPECIAL K. Oh, I did not know it's low-fat brand. Hate low-fat/no-fat food.

31A: Bit of gossip: MORSEL

32A: Place where a customer may be taken: CLIP JOINT. Does "taken" here mean "cheated"?

34A: Gel cap alternative: TABLET

37A: Urban scavenger: ALLEY CAT

42A: Like bighorns: OVINE. Bighorn is a wild sheep with large, curving horns.

43A: President of Pakistan, 1978-'88: ZIA. I forgot. This guy appeared in our old TMS puzzle before. He became the president by overthrowing Ali Bhutto, father was Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated in 2007.

44A: "Saga of the Greenlanders" hero: LEIF. Son of Erik the Red. I've never heard of "Saga of the Greenlanders". It tells the colonization of Greenland by Erik the Red according to Wikipedia. LEIF means "heir".

45A: Sunday outing: DRIVE. A pleasure trip.

46A: 1950s-60s TV quiz show host: MARX. No idea. Groucho MARX. The show is called "You Bet Your Life".

47A: Internet annoyance: LAG. Annoying indeed. Hit the Refresh button when you come here.

48A: Product of a fault: QUAKE. Geology fault.

49A: Helvetica's lack: SERIF. I did not know the meaning of Helvetica. It's a typeface in which characters have no SERIFS. Wikipedia says Helvetica is derived from Confoederatio Helvetia, the Latin name for Switzerland.

50A: Name from a Hebrew word for "God is with us": EMANUEL. Unknown to me.

52A: Of more interest to a nitpicker: PETTIER

54A: Emit: RADIATE

55A: Brobdingnagian: IMMENSE. Again, did not know the meaning of Brobdingnagian.

56A: Some small suits: SPEEDOS. Suit here refers to swimsuit, right? Daniel Craig is my favorite Bond.

57A: Test the concentration of, in chem lab: TITRATE. New word to me also.

Down:

1D: Apparel with insignias, at times: BLAZERS. Pilots' BLAZERS?

2D: Backs off: EASES UP

3D: Words to a skeptic: TRUST ME

4D: Decorator's asset: TASTE. TASTE is very subjective.

5D: Layers of green eggs: EMUS. See these eggs. Very dark green, almost black.

6D: River valley formation: RIA. Well, it's a gimme to me only when it's clued as "River inlet".

7D: Bookstore section: SELF HELP

8D: Units of magnetic flux: WEBERS. No idea. It's named after German physicist W. E. WEBER. I thought of TESLA, which is actually "Unit of magnetic flux density". One TESLA equals to one WEBER per square meter.

9D: Elevator button: ALARM

10D: Filmmaker Clair: RENE. An unknown French filmmaker to me.

11D: 1974 John Wayne title role: MCQ. Another total unknown.

12D: Dazes: STUPORS

13D: Old sewing machine part: TREADLE

14D: Common haggis ingredient: OATMEAL. Scottish seem to put OATMEAL in everything.

24D: Baldness, e.g.: TRAIT

25D: Best Picture of 1955: MARTY. No idea. Wikipedia says Ernest Borgnine won Oscar for his performance in this movie.

27D: Like many a backsplash: TILED

28D: Charitable organization, e.g.: DONEE. Struggled with the answer.

30D: Symbol seen in viola music: C CLEF. Absolutely no idea. Is C CLEF used in viola music only?

31D: Creator of Heffalumps: MILNE. Here is a list of Winnie-the-Pooh characters. I've never heard of Heffalumps.

33D: Salad leftover: OLIVE PIT. Did not come to me readily. I only make Chinese/Japanese style salad. Don't use olive or cheese.

34D: They have a lot of bills: TELLERS. So simple in retrospect.

35D: Garmin display: AREA MAP. Not familiar with the GPS navigation producer Garmin.

36D: Fighting force: BRIGADE. Sigh. Nope.

38D: Winter Palace resident: CZARINA. Wanted THE TSAR.

39D: Least substantial: AIRIEST

40D: Exempt, in a way: TAX FREE

42D: Papal vestment: ORALES. Also called fanon, "a striped scarflike vestment worn by the pope over the alb when celebrating solemn Pontifical Mass", says dictionary. Unknown to me. Maybe Argyle can find a link on those papal vestments.

45D: Because of: DUE TO

46D: Coin collector?: METER. My favorite clue. The real "Coin collector" is called numismatist.

48D: Beyond stereo: QUAD. Have never heard of QUAD hi-fi.

49D: Acct. summary: STMT. Statement. I've never paid attention to the abbreviation before.

51D: Nuremberg negative: NIE. German for "never". I only know NEIN (no).

53D: One of the "big four" record labels: EMI. A rare gimme. The other three are Universal, Sony and Warner Music.

Answer grid.

C.C.

Friday July 31, 2009 Dan Naddor

Theme: Say It Again? (sk → X)

17A: Paul Bunyan's admission in therapy?: I HATE TO AX (ask)

27A: Formal attire for Dumbo?: ELEPHANT TUX (tusk)

43A: Plant fiber used by moonshiners?: WHISKEY FLAX (flask)

56A: Diver's tank capacity?: OXYGEN MAX (mask)

11D: Catchall source of revenue?: MULTI-TAX (task)

36D: Keep a Northeastern fort under surveillance?: VIDEO DIX (disk)

WHISKEY FLAX is not an ideal theme entry, as there is still a SK there waiting to be swapped. DIX in the last one refers to Fort DIX, named for Civil War Major General John Adams DIX.

What other sk/X can you think of? Minsk/MINX came to my mind.

Another Mount Everest for me. My "Yes, I can" hope has now resigned to "Well, I tried". Very hard. I did not understand the theme until the very end.

Cross:

1A: Queen described by Mercutio: MAB. Here is Mercutio's speech. From Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet". I'm used to the "Fairy queen" clue.

4A: Cornrow: PLAIT. Bo Derek wore cornrows in movie "10".

9A: Like much "Laugh-In" humor: CAMPY. What exactly is CAMPY? Is "Friends" CAMPY?

14A: Put away: ATE

15A: Dreads wearer: RASTA. Bob Marley is probably the most famous RASTA. Love his "No Woman, No Cry".

16A: Fertilized item: OVULE. And GAMETE (49A: 16-Across cell). I had trouble obtaining both. Needed "egg" for hint.

19A: Tees off: RILES

20A: Fish in a tank: TETRA

21A: Italian omelet served open-faced: FRITTATA. I have yet to try zucchini FRITTATA. I expect it to be very soggy.

23A: Museum assortment: RELICS

25A: Balk at: RESIST

31A: Place to unwind: TUB

32A: "A Perfect Spy" author: LE CARRE. Here is the book cover. I've never heard of it. John LE CARRE also wrote "The Constant Gardener".

33A: __kiri: HARA. HARA is "belly", kiri is "cut". The Japanese samurai suicide.

34A: Selfless sort: GIVER. Donor too.

37A: Ex-Fed chairman Alan Greenspan's alma mater: NYU. A rare gimme for me. Greenspan is a disciple of Ayn Rand.

38A: Not so strict: LAXER

39A: Computer operating system: UNIX. Windows for our computer.

40A: Tabloid topic: SCANDAL. A-Rod is dating Kate Hudson now.

42A: It's illegal to drop it: LSD. I did not know the slang meaning of drop: to ingest an illicit drug orally; swallow, according to dictionary.

47A: River of the Carolinas: PEE DEE. Stumped again.

50A: The Great Barrier Reel borders it: CORAL SEA. See this map. My first Poison is a Christmas gift from Queensland.

54A: Expectant parent, e.g.: NAMER

58A: Part of "CSI": CRIME. SCENE is 5 letter too.

59A: Baseball commissioner Bud: SELIG. He used to own Milwaukee Brewers.

60A: Verb suffix?: OSE. Verbose. I did not fall into the IZE trap.

61A: Hockey lineup, e.g.: HEXAD. A group of six. I was stumped. Know nothing about hockey.

62A: Borneo swinger: ORANG. Borneo is the third largest island in the world, after Greenland and New Guinea.

63A: 1985 video game release, initially: NES (Nintendo Entertainment System). Japanese kanji for Nintendo is literally "Trust heavens".

Down:

1D: French teacher: MAITRE. I thought it's PROFESOR.

2D: Following closely: AT HEEL

3D: __ wig: '60s fad item: BEATLE. I wonder how much this original wig is worth now.

4D: Service provider? PREACHER. Great clue.

5D: Back muscle, for short: LAT. I simply forgot. See this diagram. Short for latissimus dorsi.

6D: Starting: AS OF

7D: __-Tass: news agency: ITAR. The Russian news agency. ITAR stands for Information Telegraph Agency of Russia.

8D: Sitcom set in a garage: TAXI. No idea.

9D: Organ layer: CORTEX. Latin for "bark of a tree". I thought CORTEX refers to the brain, you know, cerebral CORTEX.

10D: Some athletic footwear: AVIAS

12D: You can get it from a blast: PLEASURE. I was picturing a dynamite blast.

13D: Check-box word: YES. I like this clue.

18D: Apartment with two staircases, perhaps: TRIPLEX. So, duplex is "Apartment with one staircase"?

22D: Loyal: TRUE

24D: __ fly: run-scoring out: SAC. Sacrifice fly.

26D: Way up the slope: T-BAR

28D: Folk singer Griffith: NANCI. Stranger to me. Wikipedia says she is the original singer of "From a Distance". I like Bette Miller's version.

29D "__ I might ...": TRY AS

30D: Jack's place: TRUNK

33D: Not a whole person?: HALF MAN. "Two and a HALF MAN" helped me with this answer.

34D: [Uh-oh!]: GULP. The square brackets suggest non-verbal behavior/gesture.

35D: Like many Woody Allen characters: INSECURE. Thought of NEUROTIC.

38D: Bomb big-time: LAY AN EGG. Multipe words always give me trouble.

40D: Kid-lit poet Silverstein: SHEL. He also wrote the music and lyrics for "A Boy Named Sue".

41D: B.S., e.g.: DEG. And SCH (55D: 41-Down awarder)

44D: Best Actor winner for "Save the Tiger" (1973): LEMMON (Jack). No idea. Great clip. Al Pacino looks so young.

45D: Drill command: AT EASE

46D: Persian king who captured Athens: XERXES. Sigh. I actually watched and liked "300", in which Gerard Butler the Spartan King leads 300 Spartans fighting against XERXES, very kinky looking in the film.

48D: Miller creation: DRAMA. Arthur Miller. Anyone tried FLOUR?

52D: Phys. activity: EXER (exercise). Not a familiar abbreviation to me.

53D: "The Clan of the Cave Bear" heroine: AYLA. Boy, I can never remember this Jean Auel character.

57D: Beefeater, e.g.: GIN. No idea. I've never heard of Beefeater GIN. Dictionary defines beefeater as "yeoman of the English royal guard or a warder of the Tower of London". Hence the guard label I suppose.

Answer grid.

Thank you for the blog/private answers and comments, everyone. I appreciate and value every contribution.

C.C.