Friday October 16, 2009 Dan Naddor

Theme: V Formation - W + long vowel sounds are changed into V + same long vowel sounds in the first word of a familiar phrases/name.

18A. Seat for eating scaloppine?: VEAL CHAIR. Wheelchair. Scaloppine refer to thinly sliced pieces of meat, especially veal, dredged in flour, sautéed, and served in a sauce. Unknown to me. I thought it's Italian for scallop. Scallop also means "thin boneless slice of meat" in cookery.

23A. Tool for a dueling snake?: VIPER BLADE. Wiper blade. I gather blade here means teeth?

36A. What Tarzan became after years of swinging?: VINE CONNOISSEUR. Wine connoisseur. Probably Dan's seed entry.

49A. Egotistical describer of laws of motion?: VAIN NEWTON. Wayne Newton. Newton's law of motion.

55A. Paleontologist's ski resort discoveries?: VAIL BONES. Whalebone. Vail is a Colorado skiing resort (Aspen is another one).

Five V theme answers. Roman numeral for five is V. Maybe just a coincidence.

Sometime last month I mentioned that I hoped to finish a Dan Naddor puzzle (sans cheating) before German pulls out of Afghanistan. Well, I did. Aced this puzzle today. Figured out the gimmick rather quickly and simply filled in blank after blank.

Today's Dan Naddor Index (total non-theme entries with 6 or more letters) is 10. Quite low in his standard.

Across:

1. Seawater component, to a chemist: NACL. Salt.

5. Egypt's Mubarak: HOSNI. Got the answer from crossings. I only know Mubarak as Mubarak. He's been the Egyptian president since Sadat's assassination in 1981.

10. Adriatic Sea country: Abbr.: ALB (Albania)

13. "In other words ...": I MEAN

15. Decide to participate: OPT IN

17. Oktoberfest dance: POLKA. Timely fill, esp for Dennis, who has been organizing the Oktoberfest in his area. Can you picture him dancing polka?

20. Speaker's stand: LECTERN

22. Blue Cross competitor: AETNA. And INS (29. 22-Acr. business). A simple cross-reference.

26. Home of the witch who melted: WEST. The Wicked Witch of the West in "The Wizard of Oz". And EAST (65A. Home of the witch buried under a fallen house). The Wicked Witch of the East. They are sisters. Glinda is the Good Witch of the North.

27. Earth tones: OCHRES

28. Newspaper ad meas.: SQ IN (Square Inch)

30. Sainted fifth-century pope: LEO I

31. Playfully: IN FUN

33. Org. once headed by Heston: NRA. Gimme, right? I've mentioned this fact a few times before.

40. Half and half: ONE. Simple fun clue.

41. Madison's neat roomie: UNGER. From "The Odd Couple".

42. Bottom-line negative: LOSS

43. Sykora of the NHL: PETR. Again, got his name from crosses. I don't follow hockey. He's the right winger for our Minnesota Wild. I presume Petr is Czechoslovakian for Peter?

44. "The Tempest" king: ALONSO

52. Month for fools?: APRIL. April Fools.

54. Uranium-238, e.g.: ISOTOPE. Easy guess. I know nothing about Uranium-238.

57. "Au contraire!": NOT SO. And NO SIR (51D. Boot camp negative).

60. Nest egg item, briefly: IRA. Hey, Dow is over 10,000 now.

61. Cheri of "SNL": OTERI

62. Firestone Country Club city: AKRON. The Bridgestone Invitational is played here.

63. Arch site: Abbr.: STL (St-Louis). The Gateway Arch was designed by our crossword pal Eero Saarinen.

64. Passover meal: SEDER. Funny "20 Things to Do with Matzah".

Down:

2. Latin 101 verb: AMO. AMO, amas, amat.

3. Texting device: CELL PHONE

4. View from Cleveland: LAKE ERIE

5. Shack: HOVEL

6. "The Barber of Seville," e.g.: OPERA. Rossini's most famous opera.

7. Represents: STANDS FOR

9. Peruvian ancestor: INCA. The Inca Empire was centered in Peru.

12. Sacha Baron Cohen title character: BORAT. Quite raunchy.

14. Mother-of-pearl: NACRE

21. Atlanta-based sta.: TBS. TNT, CNN, they are all based in Atlanta.

23. Saab competitor: VOLVO. Latin for "I roll".

24. Trap during a winter storm, maybe: ICE IN. This has become a gimme.

25. Prefix with distant: EQUI

31. Deep-rooted: INGRAINED. Like bad habits.

33. Aquarium fish with an iridescent stripe: NEON TETRA. How is it different from common tetra?

34. Rene of "Ransom": RUSSO. And Mel Gibson. Not a bad movie.

35. Burning desire?: ARSON. Nailed it immediately.

37. Stick in a parlor: CUE. The pool stick.

38. Airing in prime time, say: ON TV

39. Hardly a speed demon: SLOWPOKE. I am one.

45. Hotelier Helmsley: LEONA. "The Queen of Mean".

46. Lincoln's Confederate counterpart: DAVIS. Jefferson Davis, the CSA president.

47. Separately: APART

50. Grenoble's river: ISERE (ee-ZAIR). It flows to the Rhone.

53. Debt-laden corp. takeovers: LBOS (Leveraged Buyouts)

56. Suffix with Capri: OTE. Capriote, native of Capri. Cypriote is native of Cyprus. Learned from doing Xword.

58. Mariner's "Help!": SOS. Mayday too.

59. Que. neighbor: ONT (Ontario). Where Toronto is.

Answer grid.

C.C. the Victorious Mandarin Loon

Thursday October 15, 2009 Todd Gross

Theme: WRENCH (48D. A type of one begins the answers to starred clues)

20A. *Bakery fare named for their shape: CRESCENT ROLLS. Crescent wrench has a head shaped like a crescent. And it has a adjustable jaw to fit nuts/bolts of different sizes.

29A. *Quixotic reveries: PIPE DREAMS. Pipe wrench is also an adjustable wrench, used to grip and turn pipes. Did you hum "To dream the impossible dream ..." while filling in the answer?

45A. *Playground fixture: MONKEY BARS. Monkey wrench was named after the inventor Charles Moncky. Wikipedia says it's an old type of adjustable end wrench and was popular in the nineteenth century.

54A. *Beat poet who wrote "Howl": ALLEN GINSBERG. Allen wrench is a L-shaped bar with a hexagonal head at both ends. Used to turn screws/bolts with hexagonal sockets.

Man, I just call a wrench a wrench. Had no idea they have so many different names. But the answers were all easily obtainable due to the straightforward clues.

Very smooth puzzle. High Dan Naddor Index (total non-theme entries with 6 or more letters). I counted 21. The side by side placement of LOON (36D. Minnesota's state bird) and MANDARIN (37D: Official spoken language of China) just elated me. Mao Ze-dong is Mandarin Chinese. Mao Tse-tung is Cantonese spelling. Maddening differences, aren't they?

Those who solve NY Times regularly is probably familiar with today's constructor Todd Gross. He just made his NY Times debut with a Sunday "Let's Play Bingo" last month. Today's WRENCH is his first LA Times. Congratulations, Todd!

Todd also said Mike Peluso (one of our regular LAT constructors) helped him get this puzzle in "Rich-ready" format. And the puzzle was accepted before our TMS Daily /LAT switch. It's initially intended as a Wednesday puzzle, but moved to Thursday obviously due to this ease-up phase.

Across:

1. Premium movie station: SHO. Also HBO.

4. Hammer-wielding Norse god: THOR. The Norse god of thunder.

8. First voice of Mickey Mouse: DISNEY. Oh, I did not know Walt Disney was the original voice.

15. Will Rogers prop: ROPE. Will Rogers had Cherokee roots.

16. Rallying cry: ONWARD. No idea. Have never heard this word at the ball games.

19. Scrubs, as pots: SCOURED

23. Actress Holmes: KATIE. She is married to Tom Cruise, taller than he is, obviously.

32. 1953 Western hero to whom Joey cried "Come back!": SHANE. "Come back, SHANE".

34. Vacation home, maybe: RENTAL

41. Sunday dinners: ROASTS

43. Certain Sri Lankan: TAMIL. Tamils mostly live in north-eastern Sri Lanka. They speak Tamil of course.

47. Immortal racehorse Man __: O'WAR. The most famous racing horse in history, right?

51. Opie's dad: ANDY. From "The Andy Griffith Show".

52. Coffee dispenser: URN

53. Eagle's nest: AERIE

58. Ohio city north of Columbus: MARION. Got the answer from crosses. Interesting, Wikipedia says both John Dean (Nixon/Watergate fame) and President Warren Harding grew up here. Hmmm...

62. Really digs: IS INTO

64. MMX ÷ X: CCI. 2010 ÷ 10 = 201.

65. Basic doctrines: TENETS

66. One-armed bandit: SLOT. One-armed bandit is a slot machine.

67. "__ Haw": HEE

Down:

2. "Way to go!": HOORAY

3. Little barn fliers: OWLETS. Owls are far-sighted. They have difficulty seeing things up close.

4. Cease-fire: TRUCE

5. L'eggs product: HOSE

6. Good thing to keep when hearing opposing views: OPEN MIND. Keep an open mind. I like the clue. Also like the clue ASSET (53D. It's a good thing). It's all good, as Lois often says.

7. Bureaucratic waste: RED TAPE. I wonder why red tape and red herring are both red.

8. "Take care of it": DO SO. Do you use this phrase in your conversation?

9. "Batt. not __": INCL. Included? I never pay attention to the abbreviations in those packages.

10. Puffed up, as a sprain: SWOLLEN

11. Make queasy: NAUSEATE

12. Throw wide of the mark, say: ERR. Nicely placed beside YDS (13D. NFL gains).

22. Ham holder: RYE. And BUN (46D. Hot dog holder). "Holder" clue echo.

26. Detroit-based financial org.: GMAC (General Motors Acceptance Corporation). Owned by US government now.

27. Capital on a fjord: OSLO. Why the heck is Norway rather than Sweden awarding Nobel Peace?

29. Variously colored flower: PANSY

30. Small weight units: DRAMS. 1/16 of an ounce.

31. One way to lower an APR: REFI. APR = Annual Percentage Rate. I did not even see this clue. The answer emerged all by itself.

39. Traveling show: CARNIVAL

42. Toronto's includes the CN Tower: SKYLINE. The Dubai Tower has surpassed CN Tower as the tallest building in the world.

43. Quotas: TARGETS

44. Leopold's co-defendant: LOEB

49. Snoopy's flying persona, e.g.: AIR ACE. Snoopy the Flying Ace.

50. Baseball's Jackson, a.k.a. "Mr. October": REGGIE. Because he always delivered during World Series games. Despite his performance against the Twins, A-Rod is no Mr. October, nope!

55. Ex-senator Trent: LOTT. Yep, he has his own lobbying business now.

56. Genesis grandson: ENOS. Grandson of Adam/Eve. Son of Seth.

57. Pixar clownfish: NEMO. From "Finding Nemo".

58. Sch. near Harvard: MIT

59. Enzyme suffix: ASE. Pineapple contains some enzyme which breaks own protein, hence pineapple juice is sometimes used to marinade and tenderize meat.

Answer grid.

C.C.