Friday September 11, 2009 Dan Naddor

Theme: TWO FOR ONE (61A: Restaurant special, and a hint to this puzzle's theme) - synonym of "one" in a common phrase is replaced with synonym of "two".

18A: Not quite Barcelona's best?: NUMERO DOS. Numeros Uno, Spanish for "number one". Uno is replaced with DOS, Spanish (Barcelona) for "two".

24A: Four-handed piano piece by a French emperor?: NAPOLEON DUET. Napoleon Solo is a fictional character from "The man from U.N.C.L.E.". Unknown to me. Solo is replaced with DUET. French emperor = NAPOLEON. The piano DUET is also known as "piano four hands". Two pianists (four hands) play on the same keyboard.

37A: Movie gigolo Bigalow struggling with debt?: DEUCE IN THE HOLE. Ace in the Hole, a hidden advantage. Ace is replaced with DEUCE. Movie: "DEUCE Bigalow, Male Gigolo".

52A: Multitasking, but just barely?: DOUBLE-MINDED. Single-minded, determined/resolute. Single is replaced with DOUBLE. I just can't multitask.

Another creative puzzle from Dan Naddor. Another special 16*15 grid. The additional column is added to accommodate the even-numbered central theme entry DEUCE IN THE HOLE.

Today's Dan Naddor Index (total non-theme entries with 6 or more letters) is 28. Very high!

Besides NAPOLEON DUET, there are a few other music/opera references:

20A: La Scala highlight: ARIA. La Scala is an opera house in Milan.

33A: Conductor Toscanini: ARTURO. He was once the principal conductor of La Scala.

57A: "The Three Tenors" tenor with Jose and Plácido: LUCIANO. Plácido Domingo, José Carreras & LUCIANO Pavarotti are "The Three Tenors". They popularized the opera for the general public.

65A: "Swan Lake" heroine: ODETTE . No idea. She is the princess who's turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer. "Swan Lake" is a classical ballet.

19D: Key in which "Chopsticks" is usually played: C MAJOR. I've never heard of "Chopsticks", it's a simple, extremely well-known waltz for the piano, according to Wikipedia.

I just loved the upper left and lower right corner. Five out of those six long entries were gimmes. Still had to cheat though. Maybe I will finish one Dan Naddor puzzle before German pulls out of Afghanistan.

Across:

1A: Hardly emulated the 16-Across: SLEPT LATE. And 16A: Proverbial worm catcher: EARLY BIRD. Nice cross-reference. Nice placements as well.

10A: Skeleton's place?: CLOSET. Idiom: A skeleton in the CLOSET. Dark secret.

17A: Fountain treat: MALTED

19A: Ovoid tree nuts: ACORNS. Filled in PECANS.

21A: Swear falsely, with "oneself": PERJURE. Bet it's a gimme for Scooter Libby/Martha Stewart.

23A: Olympic perfection: TEN. Perfect!

29A: Chic: ELEGANT. Jerome observed last time that Chic is an anagram of "Hi, C.C.".

31A: Support provider?: BRA. You should always hand-wash your BRA.

32A: Wrong thing to do: SIN. Then ATONES (50D: Make amends).

36A: Impudent: PERT

42A: R.E. Lee, e.g.: GENL (General). GEN is a more common abbreviation. And CADETS (67A: Future officers).

44A: Batting sta.: AVG. Batting Average. Ichiro trails Joe Mauer slightly on AL Batting Average leaderboard now. Strangely, they both love rap music.

45A: Sch. with a Phoenix campus: ASU (Arizona State University). The Sun Devils. Their main campus is at Tempe.

56A: Versatile vehicle, for short: UTE. Sport-UTE. SUV.

59A: Not strict about, as crime: SOFT ON. All crimes should be punished sufficiently and immediately.

66A: Delicate spring roll wrapping: RICE PAPER. Gimme. It's made of rice flour. I really like Vietnamese spring rolls. Chinese egg rolls use wheat wrappers.

68A: How references may be available, in a resumé: ON REQUEST. Pas de problèm!

Down:

1D: It has 100 seats: SENATE. Senator Kennedy's seat may remain empty for many months.

2D: Hardy partner: LAUREL. LAUREL and Hardy. The comedy team.

3D: Fur source: ERMINE. Wow, he has such a long body.

4D: Arraignment response: PLEA

5D: Norse war god: TYR (Teer). The one-handed Norse god from whom we got Tuesday. Norse thunder god is THOR. Both sons of Odin.

6D: Debt-heavy corp. deal: LBO (Leveraged Buyout). An maneuver often incurs debt.

8D: Prefix with sphere: TROPO. Troposphere, the lowest layer of the atmosphere. New to me. TROPO is prefix for "turn/change".

9D: Car bomb?: EDSEL. The Ford flop. My mind just wandered off to Iraq where car bomb happens so often.

11D: Gap: LACUNA (luh-KYOO-nuh). Missing part in a manuscript/logical argument. New word to me.

12D: Opening hymn words: O LORD

13D: Coffeecake topping: STREUSEL. Same root as Strew. Literally "sprinkling" in German. I've never had coffeecake.

14D: Darkening time in verse: E'EN. Evening, poetically. I miss Dusk Til Dawn bar (Hongkong) occasionally. Wild time.

15D: NFL scores: TDS

22D: Yank's foe: REB (Rebel)

24D: Dealer's adversary: NARC. Drug dealer. I was picturing poker dealer. Do you like Kevin Spacey's "21"?

25D: Start a pot: ANTE. OK, poker now.

26D: Spitting sound, in comics: PTUI. Look, he is back!

27D: Cork's home: EIRE. Cork is a county in Ireland.

28D: "We know drama" station: TNT. Plenty of "Law & Order" reruns.

30D: Franks' conquest: GAUL. Got the answer, though I had no idea that Franks refer to those "ancient Germanic peoples dwelling in the regions of the Rhine, one division of whom, the Salians, conquered GAUL about a.d. 500, founded an extensive kingdom, and gave origin to the name France". So, France was called GAUL before a.d. 500?

34D: ER personnel: RNS (Registered Nurses)

35D: Giant among Giants: OTT (Mel). Hall of Famer. Nice clue.

37D: "Whip it" band: DEVO. Ah, now I remember those red hats.

38D: Inundated: ENGULFED

39D: Tennis great Lew who won three of the four majors in 1956: HOAD. His name escaped me. Aussie.

40D: Lackawanna's lake: ERIE. Easy guess. Have never heard of Lackawanna, a city in W New York, on Lake ERIE, near Buffalo.

41D: Stampeding group: HERD. Was surprised to find out that the #1 meaning of stampede is "a sudden, frenzied rush or headlong flight of a HERD of frightened animals, esp. cattle or horses". I was picturing the horrible Hajj stampede.

42D: Zooks lead-in?: GAD. Stumper. I actually went in one Gadzooks store one day out of pure curiosity. Dark stuff.

45D: "Little Women" author: ALCOTT. Louisa May ALCOTT.

46D: Fishing nets: SEINES. Here is a good image.

49D: One in an international septet: EUROPE. One of the seven continents. Named after Europa, a Phoenician princess abducted to Crete by Zeus. Zeus is such a amoral/immoral guy.

51D: Shirk one's duty, in a big way: DESERT. Coward.

53D: Seat of Montana's Silver Bow County: BUTTE. No idea. See the map. It's southwest of Helena. Wikipedia says Evel Knievel was born here. Maybe Doug Peterson too.

54D: Foreword, briefly: INTRO. And the closing section is called EPILOG.

55D: Like a choice between evils: NO-WIN

59D: SPCA part: Abbr.: SOC

60D: Harem room: ODA. Turkish for room.

62D: Elec. text-reading method: OCR (Optical Character Recognition). Argyle's printer has such function,

64D: N-R connectors: OPQ. Alphabet.

Answer grid.

Picture of the Day: Here is great photo of our fellow LAT solver Bill G and his family. Bill is the one wearing sunglasses. His puzzle column (mostly math) "Mind Games" appears in the local newspaper "The Beach Reporter" every other Thursday. Bill and his wife Barbara (in blue jacket) are retired teachers. His daughter Bonnie (blond hair, holding her son Jordan) teaches third grade in nearby Redondo Beach. Bill's oldest son Tim is on the left side. And Dan, Bill's middle son, is on the right. Dan's kids, Felix and Scarlet, round out the motley crew.

C.C.

Thursday September 10, 2009 Bruce Venzke

Theme: Yarn-spinning

20A: Start of an investor's quip: I BOUGHT STOCK IN A

39A: Quip, part 2: BLANKET

41A: Quip, part 3: FACTORY

55A: End of the quip: BUT IT SOON FOLDED

The BLANKET FACTORY was closed. It FOLDED. Not the BLANKET. I don't know. Quip puzzles often fail to amuse me because I don't always understand the pun & the humor.

I'm convinced that our editor Rich Norris loves alliteration. Look at the amazing number of alliterative clues in today's clues:

14A: Absolut alternative: STOLI. Vodka brand.

15A: Caramel-filled candy: ROLO. Hershey's candy. Produced by Nestlé outside US. I've never tried it.

17A: Hawk's hook: TALON

64A: Source of a suit: TORT. Law suit.

66A: Fill fully: SATE

9D: College in Claremont, California: POMONA. Unknown to me. Wikipedia says POMONA College has ranked in the top ten of liberal arts colleges nationally since their inception in 1887. Sagehens is their nickname. POMONA is Roman goddess of fruit.

11D: Mine, in Metz: A MOI

27D: Big board: PLANK

54D: Leading the league: ON TOP. Twins' Joe Mauer is ON TOP of the AL leaderboard in several categories. What an extraordinary year! Joe Mauer = AL MVP, whether those writers vote for him or not.

60D: Far from flashy: DRAB

Some are probably an unconscious effort.

Dennis pointed out that the clue for LOOIE (31D: Certain NCO, slangily) is wrong. Lieutenant is a Commissioned Officer, not a Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO).

Across:

1A: Syrian president: ASSAD. Bashar al-ASSAD (since 2000). His father ASSAD ruled Syria for over thirty years.

6A: 1/2 fl.oz.: TBSP

10A: Copacetic: JAKE. Both meaning "fine". Both new to me. Copacetic sounds toxic.

18A: Reason to cram: EXAM

19A: Kentucky Derby entrant: COLT. Filly too. I wonder why Rachel Alexandra did not enter Kentucky Derby this year.

25A: Pleasing breeze: ZEPHYR (ZEF-er). Greek god of west wind. This puzzle is quite scrabbly, with two Z's, one J, one X and several K's.

29A: Asian inland sea: ARAL. It's shrinking.

31A: Butcher's units: Abbr.: LBS

34A: Gallic she: ELLE. Gallic (GAL-ik) is related to Gaul/France. I often confuse it with the Celtic Gaelic (GEY-lik).

37A: Words on a desk box: IN/OUT. I used to have a PENDING tray when I worked.

43A: Dentist's request: RINSE. Thought SAY AH first.

44A: Pool table boundary: RAIL

48A: Sensible: WISE. Wrote down SANE first.

47A: One way to get directions: ASK. Men seldom ASK for direction.

48A: "Serpico" author Peter: MAAS. Here is the book cover. Vaguely remember seeing Al Pacino's movie sometime ago. I've never heard of Peter MAAS. He looks like a mafia consigliere, the advisor to the Don.

50A: Good-sized chamber ensembles: OCTETS. Pieces for eight.

52A: 45 or 78, e..g.: Abbr.: RPM

53A: Elmer Fudd, for one: TOON

63A: Western team that beat the Crimson Tide in the 2009 Sugar Bowl: UTES. The University of Utah. I could only think of UCLA.

65A: "Chestnuts roasting ..." co-writer: TORME (Mel). The Velvet Fog.

67A: 20th century basso Pinza: EZIO. He played the French plantation owner Emile in the musical "South Pacific".

68A: Cyberletters: E-MAIL

69A: If's partner, in logic: THEN

71A: Weaselike mammal: SABLE. So curious. Cute too. No fur, please!

Down:

1D: Piedmont wine region: ASTI. The Italian province or its capital. South of Turin.

3D: With no help: SOLO

4D: Any of three baseball brothers: ALOU. Basta! Let's honor the BOONE family for a change. I liked Bret BOONE.

5D: Lifeboat, perhaps: DINGHY. My god, I thought DINGHY is a garbage boat.

6D: Old waste allowances: TRETS. The "Container weights" is TARES.

7D: Premium opera house spot: BOX SEAT. "Premium stadium spot" too.

8D: Blind part: SLAT

10D: Athletic types: JOCKS

12D: Ceramics baker: KILN

13D: Place whom Sundance liked: ETTA. ETTA Place, Sundance Kid's girlfriend. I could only remember her given name. Loved "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid". Thought the "Place" was referring to an actual place.

21D: Golden __: Mongol invaders: HORDE. Faintly remember the Mongol Empire was divided into Golden/White/Blue/Great HORDE after Genghis Khan died.

22D: Baby's ailment: COLIC

25D: Striped equine: ZEBRA. I might watch some ZEBRA in action this football season, now we have Brett Favre.

26D: Perry of fashion: ELLIS. He died of AIDS.

28D: Coop moms: HENS. What do you call a female pigeon? HEN also?

30D: Get a new mortgage on, briefly: REFI (Refinance)

32D: Pop: BURST. Verb. I was thinking of soda pop.

36D: Gillette Machs3 predecessor: ATRA

38D: Food-minus-pkg. measure: NT WT. This and AT NO used to stymie me. Not any more.

40D: Neat and trim: KEMPT. More familiar with unkempt.

42D: Standoffish: ALOOF. Like Senator John Kerry.

45D: Oregon city near the mouth of the Columbia: ASTORIA. See this map. It's named after John Jacob Astor, who founded a fur trading post there in 1810.

49D: Dutch brew: AMSTEL. Stumper for me, Windhover/Jerome. It belongs to Heineken. Named after the AMSTEL River. What's so funny about this commercial?

51D: Bills with Franklin on them: C-NOTES. Slang for a hundred-dollar bill.

52D: Up from bed: RISEN

55D: Narc's arrest: BUST

56D: Westernmost D-Day beachhead: UTAH. I guessed. Have never heard of the code name UTAH Beach. Omaha Beach, yes.

57D: Chapeau's perch: TETE. French for "head".

58D: Move like sludge: OOZE. Always associate OOZE with running liquid. Sludge sounds thick and muddy.

59D: __ Linda, San Bernadino suburb: LOMA. No idea. It's to the south of LA. LOMA means "hill" in Spanish.

61D: Jannings of old movies: EMIL. The first guy to win Best Actor Oscar.

62D: Take out, editorially: DELE. Then a STET can cancel the DELE.

Answer grid.

Picture of the Day: Here is great photo of our fellow LAT solver KQ, flanked by her daughter and husband at a golf tournament. Her daughter was a member of the University of Iowa golf team. Here is another picture of KQ, her two sons and husband at an Angels game a couple of weeks ago.

C.C.