Wednesday November 11, 2009 Allan E. Parrish

Theme: Hit List - The first word of each # 1 hit song title is a synonym of "permanent".

20A. 2002 #1 hit for rapper Ja Rule: ALWAYS ON TIME. I've never heard of the the song or the rapper. Ja Rule's real name is Jeffrey Atkins.

36A. 1989 #1 hit for Paula Abdul: FOREVER YOUR GIRL. Know Paula Abdul from her previous gig with "American Idol". The song faintly rings a bell.

56A. 1989 #1 hit for the Bangles: ETERNAL FLAME. Someone just linked the Bangles on the blog the other day. The song is a total unknown to me.

Were all the above hits familiar to you?

This theme reminds me of David W. Cromer's "Always Faithful" puzzle, but with a tighter structure. Only three 12-letter theme answers, which allow for plenty of sparkling long entries (I counted 22 non-theme fill with 6 letters or more). And only 32 blocks. We often see 38 on weekdays.

Great to see Allan E. Parrish's byline again. Like Barry Silk, he likes to use scrabbly letters, though not much in this puzzle.

Across:

1. Taylor of "The Nanny": RENEE. She played Fran Fine's mother.

10. Patsies: SAPS

14. Are: EXIST. ARE is often clued as "Exist".

15. ''Star Wars'' royalty: LEIA. Princess Leia, played by Carrie Fisher. I am surprised that her mother, Debbie Reynolds, is still alive. Tough luck in men.

17. Senate minority leader McConnell: MITCH. From Kentucky. His wife is Bush 43's Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao. Contemporary political names are normally my gimmes.

18. Enchilada wraps: TORTILLAS. And REESE'S (51D. Popular candy pieces). Hmm, food is always welcome in our blog. By the way, care to share with Jeannie and all of us your thanksgiving stuffing recipe? A bit of Minnesota wild rice can flavor up the taste immensely.

22. Lake Wobegon creator: KEILLOR (Garrison). Ah, Minnesota reference. Welcome to Lake Wobegon, where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average...

23. Without any help: UNAIDED

27. "¿Cómo ____ usted?": ESTA

28. "__Cop": 1987 film: ROBO. Always wanted "Mall Cop".

30. Sugar coating: GLAZE

31. Thrice, in Rx's: TER. Again, no TID (ter in die), Latin for "three times a day".

33. Bone: Pref.: OSTE. As in osteoarthritis.

35. Rural area: LEA

41. Milne marsupial: ROO. Kanga's kid in "Winnie-the-Pooh".

42. Airline to Ben-Gurion: EL AL. Ben Gurion International is EL AL's home base. Named after Israel's first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion.

43. 1950s-'60s "Man on the Street" comic Louis: NYE. Learned his name from doing Xword.

44. Radio station alert sign: ON AIR

46. Academia VIP: DEAN. The clue seems to be asking for an abbreviated answer, doesn't it, Jerome?

48. Apt. balcony: TERR (Terrace). I am inured to the "territory" clue.

52. He shared a Nobel Peace Prize with de Klerk: MANDELA. In 1993. For their work in ending the apartheid in South Africa.

54. Will beneficiary: LEGATEE. With TEE in place, I mindlessly wrote down TRUSTEE.

58. Ploy: STRATAGEM. Awesome entry.

61. Country singer McCann and others: LILAS. No idea. Here is her "I Wanna Fall in Love". Do you like her bangs?

62. Mil. no-show: AWOL

63. Heavyweight bout?: SUMO. Heavyweight indeed.

64. Blazing: AFIRE

66. Grandson of Eve: ENOS. Son of Seth.

67. Hardwood trees: TEAKS. The wood is used in shipbuilding.

Down:

2. Forces out of the country: EXILES. Stupid Saddam should have accepted exile offer. War would have been avoided.

3. Jerk: NITWIT

4. Intensify: ESCALATE. Another great entry.

5. __ alcohol: ETHYL

6. Corrida charger: EL TORO. Spanish for "the bull".

7. Quite a long time: AEON

8. Master performer: VIRTUOSO. Italian for "skilled".

10. Cirque du __: SOLEIL. Literally "sun" in French. Has anyone seen a Cirque du Soleil show in person?

13. '60s activist gp.: SDS (Students for a Democratic Society)

19. Mental pictures: IMAGERY

21. Chestnut horse: SORREL. And ROAN (38D. Colorful horse).

24. Mustachioed Spanish surrealist: DALI. Most famous for his melting clock ("The Persistence of Memory")

25. Former Israeli president Weizman: EZER. Wanted EBAN. Confused him with Abba Eban.

29. Peter of "Everybody Loves Raymond": BOYLE

32. City NNE of Seattle: EVERETT. Obtained the answer from crosses. What's Everett famous for?

34. Prison escape route, perhaps: TUNNEL. Love "The Shawshank Redemption".

36. Gift tag word: FROM. Christmas is coming.

37. Chaplin's last wife: OONA. The "Alley Oop" character OOOLA.

39. Speed trap device: RADAR GUN

40. "Mind your own business!": GET A LIFE. Oh, I had the wrong understanding that "Get a life" means "Don't be so obsessed with something".

45. Role models, say: IDEALS

47. Los __: Manhattan Project site: ALAMOS. In New Mexico.

49. And others: Latin: ET ALIA. Neutral plural of et al; et alii is masculine plural, et aliae is feminine plural.

50. Comment: REMARK. Here is a detailed explanation on this "How to Post a Comment" on our blog. Come and join us for the daily crossword (or non-crossword topics as the day goes on) discussion.

53. Purchase alternative: LEASE

55. F-sharp equivalent: G-FLAT

57. Verne captain: NEMO. Literally "no one" in Latin. From Verne's "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea".

59. Pan Am rival: TWA. Once owned by Howard Hughes.

Answer grid.

Happy Veterans Day, Dennis, Argyle and all those who have served in the military.

C.C.

Tuesday November 10, 2009 Donna S. Levin

Theme: DRIVE (68A: Hit from a tee, and word that can follow the first words of 20-, 28-, 49- and 59-Across)

20A. One-hit wonder: FLASH IN THE PAN

28A. Controversial school subject: SEX EDUCATION.

49A. President's selective rejection: LINE ITEM VETO.

59A. Pact addressing nuclear proliferation: TEST BAN TREATY.

FLASH DRIVE: A small electronic device used to store digital data, more portable and robust than a hard drive, ranging in capacities from 64MB to 256GB. I'm not savvy enough to need one.

LINE DRIVE: Baseball term for a batted ball that travels low, fast, and straight. The bane of pitchers.

TEST DRIVE: Taking a car out for a ride prior to purchase.

I left out SEX DRIVE because who here doesn't know about that!

Argyle again. This puzzle is not as scrabbly as Barry's yesterday, but smooth as well. Several nice Bob Klahn style clue echos (either sequential or crossing).

Some might have some trouble but the perps will probably rescue them.

Across:

1. Labor union foe: SCAB. SCABS was just clued as "Picket line crossers" yesterday.

5. 1999 Ron Howard film: ED TV. Starring Matthew McConaughey.

9. Clunker of a car: LEMON.

14. Building passage: HALL. Crossing SHAFT (1D. Mine passage). Nice "passage" echo.

15. Retired Cunard flagship, for short: QE II. Trouble for anyone?

16. Atlanta campus: EMORY. The university is recognized internationally for its outstanding liberal arts college, superb professional schools and one of the Southeast's leading health care systems. Emory's main campus is located in the suburban Atlanta neighborhood of Druid Hills.

17. Diva's number: ARIA.

18. Samovars: URNS. Samovar is a Russian term for a metal urn with a spigot, used to boil water for tea and traditionally having a chimney and heated by coals. Picture

19. Love, to Luigi: AMORE. Italian. OK, here is Dean Martin's "That's AMORE".

23. Stylistic judgment: TASTE.

24. Fishing aid: NET.

25. Hitter's stat: RBI.

36. It may be copped in court: PLEA. Cop a plea.

37. VCR successors: TIVOS. C.C. won't like 13D: TV's "Science Guy": NYE. because of TV in the clue.

38. Oodles: A LOT.

40. Mlles., in Spain: SRTAS. Mademoiselle is French for Miss, señorita in Spanish.

43. Soccer immortal: PELE.

44. Like thick carpets: PLUSH.

46. Beehive State college team: UTES.

48. No-goodnik: RAT.

54. European toy dog, briefly: POM. Pomeranian.

55. Enter, as data: INPUT. Data is the plural of DATUM (31D. Bit of information)

64. Gemologist's weight: CARAT. What's the difference between CARAT and KARAT again? (From Crockett: CARAT a unit of weight and KARAT a unit of pureness.)

66. Perjurer: LIAR.

67. "__ and Away": 1960s hit: UP, UP

71. Hood's scheme: CAPER.

72. Halloween cover-up: MASK.

73. IRS IDs: SSNS. Typical bottom edge word.

Down:

2. "Cheers" waitress: CARLA. Rhea Perlman (CARLA) is married to Danny DeVito. And 6. Actor Bruce: DERN. Bruce is the father of actress Laura Dern, whom he had with his ex-wife, actress Diane Ladd.

3. Fictitious name: ALIAS. Oh, C.C. gets quite a few annoying porn comments from this Nora Pearlstone (Rich Norris alias name) blog entry. Can someone have a look and see which link might cause such problem? Be careful with what you link at the Comments section too.

4. Explosions: BLASTS.

5. Prefix with lateral: EQUI. Meaning "same".

7. Windshield option: TINT.

8. Four-armed Hindu deity: VISHNU (VISH-noo). “The Preserver". Brahma is the Creator and Shiva is the Destroyer.

9. Eagerly took advantage of, as an opportunity: LEAPT AT.

10. Jane Austen novel: EMMA.

11. Song with the lyric "I'm crossing you in style": MOON RIVER. "Moon River", was composed by Johnny Mercer (lyrics) and Henry Mancini (music) in 1961, for the movie, Breakfast at Tiffany's.

12. NHL legend Bobby: ORR.

21. Dickens schemer Uriah: HEEP. From "David Copperfield".

22. Common Mkt.: EEC. European Economic Community.

26. When repeated, Yalie's cheer: BOOLA. "Boola Boola" is Yale's fight song.

27. Map in a map: INSET.

29. T-shirt sizes: XLS.

30. Eternally, in poems: E'ER. V is normally omitted (as in ne'er too).

31. Bit of informatition: DATUM

32. Bit of advice: TIP. Sequential "Bit of..." echo.

33. Canada's national tree: MAPLE. Hi, Geri!

34. Do-or-die poker bet: ALL-IN.

35. There and back: ROUND TRIP.

39. Mao __-tung: TSE. Wayne R Williams is probably still using his "Half a fly?" every day now. Tung simply means "east" in Chinese.

41. Off-road ride, briefly: ATV. Repeated offender.

45. Cool cat: HIPSTER.

47. Mix: STIR.

51. The Democrats' donkey, for one: EMBLEM.

52. Outdoes: ONE-UPS.

56. Half of the "California Dreamin'" singers: PAPAS.

57. One-eighty: U-TURN. 180 degrees is half-way round a circle (360 degrees)

58. Works on a keyboard: TYPES.

60. Icicle site: EAVE.

61. Verdi's slave girl: AIDA. The princess from Nubia (thanks, JD, and welcome back).

63. Difficult journey: TREK.

64. Swine flu watchdog agcy.: CDC. Center for Disease Control. Quite a topical fill.

65. Coach Parseghian: ARA. Of Notre Dame. Literally "Altar" in Latin.

Answer grid.

Argyle