Saturday October 24, 2009 Thomas Heilman

Theme: None

Total words: 70

Total blocks: 30

Today's grid reminds me of a Saturday themeless by Bruce Venzke and Stella Daily, with grid-spanning triple stacks at the top and bottom. Noticed it has CAUTIONARY TALES also?

Here are six 15-letter fill:

1A. Obsolete item: A THING OF THE PAST. Antiquity is too short. Multi-words continue to pose problems for me.

16A. "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" and others: CAUTIONARY TALES. Not familiar with Goethe's poem "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" at all.

17A. Pet that's larger than a toy: MINIATURE POODLE

60A. Tax service, familiarly: INTERNAL REVENUE

65A. It may be awakened after a period of inattention: RENEWED INTEREST. Very nice clue/fill.

66A. Retail security staff: STORE DETECTIVES. Another name for security guards?

Definitely a challenging puzzle for me. I think our eased-up phase is officially over.

Across:

18. Group originally named the Jolly Corks: ELKS. Unknown trivia to me. The name derived from a bar trick introduced by the group's organizer.

19. Zaire's Mobutu Sese __: SEKO. In office 1965-1997. I can never remember this guy's name.

20. No longer serving: Abbr.: RET (Retired)

21. Bk. before Job: ESTH (Esther). After Nehemiah. I peeked at my Bible book list.

24. Themes: TOPICS

27. Try to bean, in baseball: THROW AT. Another baseball reference is RBIS (37A. Diamond stats). Throwing at a player's head is really dangerous.

30. Easing of tension: DETENTE. I used to confuse it with international agreement ENTENTE.

31. Roadside grazer: DOE

32. False show: PRETENSE

36. Verdi aria that translates to "It was you": ERI TU. Nailed it. Eri = Were. Tu = You.

41. Hearty entrée: RIB ROAST. And ROE (44A. Caviar, say). And PAO (12D. Kung __ chicken). Hungry?

45. Quantities possessing only magnitude: SCALARS. Escaped me again. Vectors possess magnitude and direction.

50. Seat of Washington's Pierce County: TACOMA. Not familiar with the county name at all. Bing Crosby was born in Tacoma (grew up in Spokane).

51. 1956 Mideast crisis site: SUEZ. The crisis was resulted from Egypt's nationalization of the Suez Canal.

52. Part of a loop: ARC

57. McAn of shoes: THOM. The brand was named after a Scottish golfer Thomas McCann.

Down:

1. Tiptop: ACME

2. Shadow: TAIL. Verb.

3. Hid out, with "down": HUNKERED

4. "Yea, verily": IT IS SO

5. Actress Vardalos: NIA. She wrote and starred in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding".

6. Contracted, as an illness: GOT

7. Burden: ONUS

8. Cab hailer: FARE. Oh, I did not know FARE can refer to a person.

9. Serious trip: TREK

10. Some triangle sides: HYPOTENUSES. Stumped. The side of a right triangle opposite the right angle.

11. WWII zone: ETO (European Theater of Operations)

13. Second man on the moon: ALDRIN (Buzz)

14. Choose: SELECT. Penned in OPT FOR.

15. Safari menace: TSETSE. Waiting for JD to tell us whether she saw TSETSE during her safari exploration.

22. Local govt. unit: TWP (Township). I failed again.

23. Half-baked: HAREBRAINED. Is this rooted in "The Tortoise and The Hare" fable?

25. They may end with 27-Down: OTS. And TDS (27D. Passes may result in them: Abbr.)

26. Equal: PEER. Noun.

29. Alaska and La., once: TERRS

30. Remove pitch stains from: DETAR. Always want UNTAR.

33. Spanish uncle: TIO. Oncle in French.

35. Alice's chronicler: ARLO. D'oh, "Alice's Restaurant". I was thinking of Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland".

38. Soviet leader who signed SALT I and II: BREZHNEV (Leonid). In office 1964 to 1982. I only know the Chinese translation of his name.

39. Biennial games org.: IOC (International Olympic Committee). Winter and Summer Olympics are two years apart from each other.

40. Tennis unit: SET

42. Descartes's conclusion: I AM. "I think, therefore I am" (Cogito, ergo sum).

43. Nashville sch.: TSU (Tennessee State University). No idea. Their nickname is the Tigers.

45. Connecting flights: STAIRS. Of course, my mind flew to the airport. Very clever clue.

46. Customs exemption for an auto: CARNET (kahr-NEY). It's a "customs document a customs document allowing an automobile to be driven at no cost across international borders". New word to me.

47. Customer ID: ACCT NO (Account Number)

49. Czar known as "the Great": PETER I. He reigned from 1682 to1725.

55. Narrow opening: SLIT. Too large (and high) a slit?

56. Normandy river: ORNE (awrn). The D-Day river. And OUSE (58D. York's river). Prounouced like "ooze", meaning "water". Learned both from doing Xword.

59. "Miracle" 1969 World Series winners: METS. The "Miracle Mets", managed by Gil Hodges.

61. Chariot ending?: EER. Charioteer.

62. "Self-Reliance" essayist's monogram: RWE (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

64. Lab caretaker? VET (Veterinarian). Lab here is short for labrador. The question mark did not prevent me from going in the laboratory direction.

Answer grid.

C.C.

Friday October 23, 2009 Merle Baker

Theme: IXNAY (60A. Slangy turndown, and a hint to how 17-, 22-, 32-, 47- and 51-Across are formed) - IX is nixed from familiar phrases.

17A. Health nut?: MISTER F(IX)IT

22A. "Make him an offer he can't refuse," e.g.?: DON QU(IX)OTE. The memorable line is a quote from Don Corleone ("The Godfather").

32A. Where hogs go hog-wild?: SWINGING S(IX)TIES. Hilarious clue/answer.

47A. DVDs?: N(IX)ON-TAPES. Not a smooth fill for me.

51A. Cocktails at an exotic resort club?: M(IX)ED DRINKS. Was ignorant of Club Med (Méditerranée), so I had trouble understanding the connection between MED & "exotic resort club".

This puzzle reminds of Gareth Bain's NIXON puzzle, where ON is nixed in every theme entry. And NIXON is placed in the lower right corner as well.

Nice pangram (all 26 letters are used at least once). But the theme took me too long to grok, though I got IXNAY rather early. Several peeks at the cheat sheet today.

Across:

1. Angle: SLANT

6. Like disco dancers: GO-GO. Go-go dancers.

10. "Wow": GEE

13. Explorer __ de León: PONCE. He named Florida Florida, meaning "flower".

14. Structural sci.: ANAT. Body structure.

15. Nightclub in a Manilow song: COPA. Copacabana (At the Copa), referring to the famous nightclub Copacabana (The Copa) in NY City.

16. Atlanta university: EMORY. And GONZAGA (41A). Spokane university). The latter stumped me. Wikipedia says it's a private Catholic Jesuit university and listed Bing Crosby as one of its notable alumni.

19. Prefix with dermal: EPI. Epidermal.

20. PC support person: TECH. See techie in grid more often.

21. Village paper?: VOICE. Village Voice, the free weekly newspaper in NY. They give out the annual Obie Award. Nice clue.

25. Toy in a holster: CAP GUN

26. Eightfold: OCTUPLE. Adjective. Noun is octuplet, like the Octuplet Mom.

28. Arg. neighbor: URU (Uruguay). Can't be Bra(zil), Par(aguay) or Chi(le) because the constructors/editor prefer a full word rather than an abbreviated country name.

29. IM provider: AOL

30. Arles assent: OUI. Alliteration. Arles is where van Gogh painted many of his masterpieces.

31. Get ready, briefly: PREP

36. Satirist Mort: SAHL. Thank God I committed him to my memory.

37. Blood classification letters: ABO. O for me.

38. "__ who?": SEZ. With P?Z?? in place, I should have got PIZZA (31D. Food in a flat box) immediately.

40. Source of 20s, for short: ATM. And NCR (4D. Big name in 40-Acrosses).

45. Comfort for a griever: SOLACE

50. Tolkien tree creature: ENT. Anglo-Saxon word for "giant".

53. Bugs chaser: ELMER. Elmer Fudd.

56. Lighten up?: DIET. Nailed it immediately.

57. Stiller's comedy partner: MEARA. Jerry Stiller and Anna Meara, Ben Stiller's parents.

58. Form 1040 ID: SSN

59. Lhasa __: APSO. The breed originating from Tibet. APSO is literally "bearded" in Tibetan.

Down:

1. Swimwear brand: SPEEDO. They sponsor Michael Phelps.

2. California city near Vandenberg Air Force Base: LOMPOC. See this map. Literally "little lake" in its Native Indian language. I simply forgot.

3. Consecrate using oil: ANOINT

5. Mystery writer Josephine: TEY. No idea. The only Josephine I know is Hart, whose "Damage" is just brilliant.

6. Reproductive cell: GAMETE. Sperm or egg.

7. In the cooler: ON ICE

8. Deep wound: GASH

9. Polo Grounds hero: OTT (Mel). NY Giants played in the Polo Grounds.

10. "I don't get it": GO FIGURE

11. Gastronomes: EPICURES (EP-i-kyoors). And SAVORERS (32D: 11-Down, e.g.). Both posed problems to me, though I remember we had epicure/epicurious discussions on the blog before. Savorer sounds so made-up.

12. Gone from the plate: EATEN UP. I liked how it parallels EPICURES.

15. Photoshop command: CROP

18. Author Hunter: EVAN. Also known as Ed McBain.

20. Turnpike collection spot: TOLLGATE

23. Small game bird: QUAIL. Cantonese style quail is often glazed with honey, very tasty, crispy too.

24. Resting atop: UPON

25. Two-wheeled artillery wagons: CAISSONS (KEY-suhn). Only know the military funeral caisson.

27. "A __ of Wine, a Loaf of Bread ...": JUG. And Thou (Beside me singing in the Wilderness).

30. Notable 1969 bride: ONO. Liked this new clue.

33. Battered repeatedly, in slang: WHALED ON. New phrase to me.

34. ThinkPad maker: IBM

41. Attends: GOES TO

43. Biological divisions: GENERA. Wow, I had no idea that plural of genus is genera.

44. Down a sinful path: ASTRAY

52. Pocatello's state: Abbr.: IDA. Have never heard of the city Pocatello, home of the Idaho State University. Named after some Indian tribal chief Pocatello.

53. Brit. record label: EMI. One of the four major record labels: Sony, Universal, Warner and EMI.

54. Latin law: LEX. Learned from doing Xword. The plural is leges (LEE-jeez).

Answer grid.

C.C.