Tuesday, October 20, 2009 Bruce Venzke

Theme: "The Problem Was the Answer" - The theme the constructor came up with when he couldn't think of a theme.

20A: Suffering writer's block: COMING UP EMPTY

36A: Suffering writer's block: FRESH OUT OF IDEAS. Glaring crossing with SASS (29D: Get fresh with).

54A: Suffering writer's block: DRAWING A BLANK

Argyle again. Three theme puzzle again. Same difficulty level again.

TORSI rhymes with horsey: Who knew? I am looking forward to seeing what the rest of the week brings.

Across:

1A: Modify to fit: ADAPT. I had alter first.

10A: Early late-night host Jack: PAAR.

14A: __-Bismol: PEPTO. It will put you in the PINK.

15A: It smells: NOSE. And sometimes, it runs.

16A: Golden Fleece ship: ARGO. Jason's ship.

17A: Devoured every bit of: ATE UP. Puts you in the "Clean Plate Club". And EATS DIRT (38D: Admits an embarrassing error ). Clunker of the day! EATS CROW is the proper term, isn't it? Plus, two derivatives of EAT should not be allowed in one grid.

24A: "Days of __ Lives": OUR. "Like sand through an hour glass."

25A: One of the Musketeers: ARAMIS. Athos, Porthos, and ARAMIS.

28A: Paintings by dadaist Max: ERNSTs. Max Ernst, 1891–1976) German painter, sculptor, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst is considered to be one of the primary pioneers of the Dada movement and Surrealism.

32A: Sport __: family vehicle: UTE.

33A: Is bratty: ACTS UP. How many "up" in this grid? I counted three.

42A: Modeling session activity: POSING. Very sexy POSING from Gisele, just to get Dennis' blood flowing.

43A: Frequently, to a poet: OFT.

44A: Docking spot: PIER.

46A: Black Sea resort: ODESSA. Just one of the PIERS at ODESSA.

50A: Offers from a genie: WISHES.

52A: Small bill: ONE. The genie may offer three WISHES but I'd settle for just ONE.

58A: Pinza of "South Pacific": EZIO. He was the plantation owner Emile.

60A: Space-saving abbr.: ET AL.. Gee, this won't save any space in my closet!

61A: Many sculptures: TORSI. I googled TORSI and I got this....

64A: Krupp Works city: ESSEN. Kazie mentioned sometime ago that it's literally German for "to eat". Five letter German city. The Krupp family, a prominent 400-year-old German dynasty from Essen, have become famous for their steel production and for their manufacture of ammunition and armaments. The manufacturer of coffee makers and espresso machines, Krups, has just one "P".

66A: Letters after pi: RHOs.

67A: Color-coded Monopoly cards: DEEDS.

Down

1D: Geronimo's tribe: APACHE.

3D: Ancestors in Darwin's theory: APEMEN. echo 9D: Sailor: SEAMAN.

4D: Spitter's sound: PTUI.

5D: Exceptional: TOP NOTCH. Combining the two.

6D: Acquire, as liabilities: INCUR. What ARE the liabilities of seed spitting?

7D: Cartoon flapper Betty: BOOP.

8D: Maui, for one: ISLE. Did you all get this immediately?

10D: Carbo-loader's choice: PASTA. And ATKINS (49D: Diet guru who wouldn't have recommended 10-Down). The so-called "high protein" diet. Do you believe in any diet?

11D: Military mascot: ARMY MULE. The Navy's is a goat. This fill intersect two theme answers, so does TOP NOTCH, EATS DIRT and INDEBTED.

12D: It goes before beauty, so they say: AGE.

21D: Enthusiasm: GUSTO.

22D: Get too personal: PRY.

26D: "__ sin to tell ...": IT'S A.

30D: Henry Higgins, to Eliza: TUTOR. My Fair Lady.

31D: NYSE debuts: IPOs. New York Stock Exchange. Initial Public stock Offering (IPO)

34D: Apartment house manager, slangily: SUPE.

36D: Go with the __: FLOW.

39D: "Shrek" ogress: FIONA. and 45D: "Cross my heart": I SWEAR. You'd better believe her.

40D: Obligated to repay a loan: INDEBTED.

47D: Few and far between: SPARSE.

51D: Reform Party founder Perot: H.ROSS.

55D: Rash symptom: ITCH. But don't scratch, it will get infected.

56D: Prefix with second: NANO. Meaning "billionth". Also an Apple iPod model.

58D: Earth-friendly prefix: ECO.

59D: Reheat, nowadays: ZAP. Better use here than when it was clued as skipping over ads.

Answer grid.

Argyle

Notes from C.C.: Thank you for the well-wishes, everyone. I'm getting better and will be back blogging tomorrow morning. Welcome back, Clear Ayes, WM and Windhover (You need to download some free crossword puzzle application to solve LA Times on your iPhone.)

Monday October 19, 2009 Mark Bickham

Theme: All Keyed Up - the last word of each theme answer is a computer key.

17A: "Keep out" sign: DO NOT ENTER

24A: Pay for everyone's dinner: PICK UP THE TAB

40A: "All exits are blocked" situation: NO MEANS OF ESCAPE

50A: Throng management: CROWD CONTROL

62A: Four-on-the-floor, e.g.: STICK SHIFT

65D: Computer feature that ends each of the five longest across answers: KEY

Argyle here.

It hasn't taken our editor long to ramp things up it seems. Certainly harder than past Mondays, what with a Ceasar assassin and Jungian principle. And a new (to us) constructor, too boot. A nice mix of letter count although a little heavy on the use of "S". OTOH, very limited use of "RE-" and "-ED"s.

There are some entries that a casual solver might find hard but have become "gimmes" to the rest of us, ODER for one. How to account for these words when judging the relative difficulty of a puzzle, I don't know.

Across:

1A: "Overhead" engine parts: CAMS.

10A: __ the lily: ornament to excess: GILD. "GILD the lily", to add unnecessary ornamentation, a special feature, etc., in an attempt to improve something that is already complete, satisfactory, or ideal. By itself, GILD is to add gold leaf to an object.

14A: Doing the job: ON IT. Force of habit; I put AT IT first.

15A: Between, quaintly: TWIXT. Tastier without the last "T". And OPE (33A: Not shut, in verse). And ANON (2D: Soon, to a bard). All poetic fill.

16A: There oughta be one, so it's said: A LAW.

19A: Turn on a pivot: SLUE.

20A: Jungian feminine principle: ANIMA. Animus for the musculian principle. I am hoping someone can explain why the inner man is feminine.

21A: Coll. major for a future concert artist: MUS. Clunky.

32A: Peter, Paul or Mary: SAINT. All those three are saints. Nice play on the folk group "Peter, Paul and Mary". Then we also have the abbreviated STE (5D: Sault __ Marie).

34A: German river: ODER. May not known to all. Should be known to anyone doing crosswords on a regular basis. Polish/German border river.

45A: WWII submachine gun: STEN. British 9 mm submachine gun. The US used the B.A.R.(Browning Automatic Rifle) The M1918 was chambered for the .30-06 Springfield rifle cartridge and was designed by John Browning

54A: Witchy woman: HAG.

60A: Norse war god: ODIN. The Norse chief god. Tyr is "Norse war god" too.

67A: Division of society: CASTE. In Indian, esp.

69A: __ helmet: safari wear: PITH.

70A: Ease, as fears: ALLAY. I confess, I had RELAX and BELAY before ALLAY.

71A: Home on a limb: NEST. Cute.

Down:

1D: Musical finale: CODA.

4D: Defeat decisively: STOMP. Wow, a rather strong word I don't remember seeing used before in a puzzle.

7D: On, as a lamp: LIT.

8D: Like churches, vis-à-vis most taxes: EXEMPT. Wonder why the sudden use of vis-à-vis and a little shaky on that use.

9D: Rooster's gait: STRUT. I've seen some that were most comical.

10D: Tank filler: GAS. Simple but I like it.

11D: Unable to read: ILLITERATE.

12D: First lady before Michelle: LAURA.

13D: Dork: DWEEB.

22D: Small stores: SHOPS.

25D: Traveling show worker: CARNY.

26D: Sedona and Sorento: KIAS. A pair of SUVs from the Korean manufacturer. Sedona is an echo from Saturday. KIA is an abbreviation too. KI = "Rising" in Korean. A = Asia.

27D: Not made of interlaced parts, as fabric: UNWOVEN. This feels awkward.

30D: "American __": IDOL. Is anything happening with IDOL right now?

31D: Precious stone expert: GEMOLOGIST. This and 11D were a couple of nice, legitimate ten-letter fills.

35D: Stitch over: RESEW.

37D: Man of La Mancha: SENOR. Another great wordplay on Cervantes's "Don Quixote - Man of La Mancha".

38D: Acted like: APED. Are you happy with this clue/answer; it seems it wasn't liked very much the last time we had it.

39D: Contact or zoom: LENS.

41D: "All kidding __ ...": ASIDE.

42D: No-food protest: FAST.

47D: Snazzy entrance: PORTAL.

50D: Bite vigorously: CHOMP. STOMP and CHOMP, a strong echo here.

51D: Pie slice edges, geometrically: RADII. Plural of radius.

52D: One of Caesar's assassins: CASCA. Publius Servilius Casca was the first to strike Caesar with a dagger. Only remembered this after looking up the answer. Brutus is another assassin.

53D: Actress Lindsay: LOHAN. Showing off her talents.

57D: Longest river: NILE.

58D: Roswell sightings, briefly: UFOS. Roswell, NM is the the site of Area 51 (which doesn't exist either...or does it?)

59D: Printer's "let it stand": STET.

61D: To the __ degree: NTH. Echo of yesterday!

63D: One of many in the Aegean Sea: Abbr.: ISL. Abbr. of island or isle.

64D: Windy City transportation org.: CTA. Chicago Transit Authority or the band.

Answer grid.

Argyle