Sunday January 3, 2010 Dan Naddor

Theme: 51 Pickup - Roman numeral LI (51) is inserted into familiar phrases.

22A. Space cadet's selection?: OB(LI)VIOUS CHOICE. Obvious Choice.

30A. "Let's go, Mr. North": COME ON O(LI)VER. Come on Over. Olive North.

52A. Fish-eating bird's dessert?: PE(LI)CAN PIE. Pecan Pie.

61A. Powell's portrait painter?: CO(LI)N ARTIST. Con Artist. Colin Powell.

76A. Badly neglected vehicle?: SQUA(LI)D CAR. Squad Car.

95A. Scores kept by Cinderella's godmother?: FAIRY TAL(LI)ES. Fairy Tales.

109A. Ultimate caterer?: THE LAST SUPP(LI)ER. The Last Supper.

3D. Seasoning for kielbasa?:PO(LI)SH SPICE. Posh Spice (of the Spice Girls).

14D. Sarah's campaign strategist?: PA(LI)N HANDLER. Panhandler.

57D. Lassie's luggage carrier?: COL(LI)E PORTER. Cole Porter.

66D. Analgesic for a post-snorkeling headache?: CORAL RE(LI)EF. Coral Reef.

And CII (54D. MXX ÷ X). 1020÷ 10= 102. It doubles the theme number 51 and connects two of the theme answers. Neat!

Quintessential Dan Naddor puzzle: very heavy themage, clever, entertaining & bold wordplay. I counted a total of 129 theme squares among the 11 entries. We don't often see Down theme answers overlapping each other.

An unusual number of people names in the grid though. Fortunately most of them are recognizable. I did have to peek at the cheat sheet for a few obscure ones.

I suspect Dan got the theme inspiration during his 51 birthday celebration. Alas, I can not just send him an email now and ask. But I was comforted by the fact that he celebrated his last birthday with us on Oct 16, 2009, and he knew he was adored and respected.

Across:

1. Flavorful: SAPID. Boy, the third appearance in the past 8 days. Still sounds "insipid"/"vapid" to me. Do read this funny "How I Met My Wife" Bill G brought to us a while ago (sorry for the wrong credit yesterday, Bill.)

6. Tennyson poem that begins "He clasps the crag with crooked hands": THE EAGLE. Got the answer from crosses.

14. Scorecard numbers: PARS. Another golf term is CART (61D. Golf rental). Dan loves golf.

18. Leachman who is the oldest "Dancing With the Stars" contestant to date: CLORIS. Nope. Have never heard of this lady.

20. Is guaranteed to work: CAN'T FAIL

21. Ike's mate: MAMIE. And BESS (70D. 21-Across predecessor). Bess Truman.

24. Fly on the wind: GLIDE

25. Buddy: PAISANO. Paysan is French for "peasant".

26. Madre's boy: NINO.

27. Coleridge storyteller: MARINER. Albatross the wearisome burden (also the golf score) is derived from "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner".

29. USNA grad: ENS (Ensign)

34. Bridge site: NOSE. Of course I was picturing a real bridge, not the ridge of my nose.

35. "So that's it!": OHO. Crossing OOH (36D. "I'm amazed!").

37. Sporty Pontiac: GTO

38. Start of Caesar's boast: VENI. "Veni, vidi, vici"

39. Crack reaction: HA HA

40. Novelist Susan: SONTAG. Long time lover of Annie Leibovitz.

44. Inclined: LEANT. Oh, I thought it's leaned.

46. Burrowing rodents of Central and South America: PACAS. No idea. Dictionary says this rodent is almost tailless and valued as food.

47. Vatican Palace painter: RAPHAEL. The Italian Renaissance painter.

49. Had in mind: MEANT

50. "Meet the Fockers" actor: DE NIRO (Robert). Fun movie.

51. Judo sash: OBI

55. Blush: REDDEN

56. Muhammad's birthplace: MECCA. Hence the annual Hajj to Mecca.

58. Swoon: FAINT

59. Gloom: PALL

60. Promise, for one: OLEO. The Promise brand margarine.

65. Creamy shade: ECRU

69. Angle iron: L-BAR. In the form of an L (90 degree bend)

71. Like tortoiseshell: HORNY. Man, Dennis/Carol would have fun kidding with Dan about his clue.

72. Like Niagara Falls: AROAR. I like the two consecutive "Like ...".

73. Large envelope: MAILER

80. Needle: RIB

81. Sign up: ENLIST

82. Lion-colored: TAWNY

83. Water polo teams, e.g.: HEPTADS. Heptad is a group of seven.

85. Chicago suburb: NILES. Unknown to me.

86. Merited: RATED

87. Back fin: DORSAL. Learned from doing Xword.

89. Isinglass: MICA

90. Org. concerned with PCBs: EPA

92. Piece of work: ERG. Normally clued as "Unit of work".

94. Casa pet, perhaps: GATO. Spanish for "cat". Los Gatos (CA) means "The Cats".

101. Pitching stat: ERA

103. Going on and on: ETERNAL

105. "Charity thou __ lie": Stephen Crane: ART A. Was ignorant of the poem.

106. Ralph Nader in the 2000 election, according to Gore supporters: SPOILER. Indeed.

108. Bit of gaucho gear: RIATA. Or reata.

113. Atlas feature: INSET

114. Abscissa's counterpart: ORDINATE. Had to look up in my dictionary for the meaning of "abscissa".

115. Jungle queen: SHEENA. From "Sheena, Queen of the Jungle".

116. Hungarian castle city: EGER. I wonder if it's a gimme for our Hungarian trombonist Jazzbumpa. I only know Eger the river.

117. Grading period: SEMESTER

118. Hotel amenities: SAFES

Down:

1. Range: SCOPE

2. Wrestler Lou: ALBANO. Nope. Was he very famous?

4. The cornea covers it: IRIS

5. Former NBA center Vlade: DIVAC. A Serbian. I peeked at the answer sheet again.

6. Horned Frogs' sch.: TCU (Texas Christian University). In Ft. Worth.

7. Lacks: HAS NOT

8. Valley Girl's home, perhaps: ENCINO. Spanish for "evergreen". It’s in San Fernando Valley. District of LA. Stumper for me.

9. Culture: Pref.: ETHNO

10. "__ Such As I": Elvis hit: A FOOL

11. Merry, in Metz: GAI. French for "gay".

12. Contractor's ID: LIC (License)

13. Natural environment: ELEMENT

15. Body builder?: AMINO ACID. Builder of protein. Great clue.

16. Carpooling: RIDESHARE. Did the answer come to you immediately?

17. Allow oneself to be persuaded: SEE REASON. New idiom to me.

19. Chinese: Pref.: SINO. As in Sino-American relations.

21. Dugout ldr.: MGR (manager). "Ldr" is such a weird abbreviation for "leader", isn't it?

23. Pah lead-in: OOM. Oom leads the word "Oompah".

28. Bush spokesman Fleischer: ARI. Too smooth a tongue.

31. Easter roller: EGG

32. Russian prince known as "Moneybag": IVAN I. Easy guess. 14th-century Russian prince.

33. Sale, to Seurat: VENTE. French for "sale". Does Seurat here refer to pointillist Georges Seurat or is Seurat is a popular French surname, Kazie?

41. Western wine region: NAPA

42. Simple top: TEE

43. Totally behind: ALL FOR

44. Helped out: LENT A HAND. Nailed it. This fill connects three theme answers.

45. "The Raven" monogram: EAP (Edgar Allan Poe)

46. Spa treatment: PEEL

47. Dallas quarterback Tony: ROMO. Now who's he dating?

48. Brother of Cain: ABEL. Or SETH (the youngest).

49. Jazz flutist Herbie: MANN

50. "Shoot!": DRAT

53. Adverb ending: IAL. The ending of the word adverbial. Not the real adverb LY ending.

59. Movie with a memorable shower scene: PSYCHO. Wish I had not seen it.

63. Penta- minus two: TRI. Shouldn't be "Penta - minus bi-" since they are all prefixes?

64. Corn Belt st.: IND (Indiana)

67. Bust: RAID

68. Cities, informally: URBS

72. Dadaist collection: ARPS. Jean Arp. The Dadaist pioneer.

73. Where the wild things are: MENAGERIE. Awesome entry.

74. Bringing to life: ANIMATING

75. Uptight: ILL AT EASE

76. Keanan of "Step by Step": STACI. No idea. Quite heavy foundation on her forehead, no?

77. Persian Gulf nation: QATAR. Where Al Jazeera is based.

78. German director Boll known for film adaptations of video games: UWE. Man, this guy has a weird name. How do you pronounce UWE?

86. Theater districts: RIALTOS. Another new word to me. This solely refers to those districts around Broadway, right?

87. Indian lentil dish: DAL. Not to my taste. Indian dish is a bit too strong for me.

89. Juilliard deg.: MFA

90. Really bugs: EATS AT

91. Nebraska river: PLATTE. Missouri tributary.

93. "The Quiet American" author: GREENE (Graham)

96. Either Bush, once: YALIE. Both members of Skull and Bones too.

97. __ fat: TRANS

98. Ames sch.: ISU (Iowa State University)

99. "House" actor Omar: EPPS

100. Next year's juniors: SOPHS. Need "briefly" in the clue for abbreviation hint.

102. Tapestry behind which Polonius hid: ARRAS. In "Hamlet''.

104. Rebellious Turner: NAT

107. Intestinal parts: ILEA. Plural of ileum.

110. Realm until 1806: Abbr.: HRE (800 A.D. -1806 A.D.)

111. Teacher's deg.: ED. M (Master of Education)

Updates: In his Facebook, Dan Naddor said: "Don't send me flowers, don't send-in-the-clowns...make my life count. Please donate to Hoag Cancer Center -without them I would have been gone a long time ago." If you are attending the service on Jan 7th, Dan requested "no coats, no ties, no mourning attire, flip flops preferred".

Answer grid.

C.C.

Saturday January 2, 2010 Bob Peoples

Theme: None

Total blocks: 31

Total words: 66

Rather low in terms of word count. Lots of great multiple-word entries in this grid. I counted 13, among which eight have 10 or 11 letters. I also liked some of the long one-word entries, not the three ING-ending fill though.

Somehow I was very bothered by the "it" in the clue for VENUE (28A. Where it's at). Grammatically it's confusing. I do love the pronoun "they" for ETS (6D. They travel a great distance to get here).

Choppy solving. The lower right corner crumbled rather easily for me. Lower left was steely. The Down clues/fill today sure felt more accessible than the Across, didn't they?

Across:

1. Hedged reply: I BELIEVE SO. Great answer.

11. Gawain and Kay, e.g.: SIRS. Both knights at King Arthur's Round Table. Sir Gawain is Arthur's nephew. Kay is Arthur's foster brother.

15. Hustlers: CON ARTISTS

16. Slicing, dicing, etc.: PREP. I rather like the clue.

17. How preordained events are written?: IN THE STARS. Is this a idiom? I've never heard of it before.

18. Start to till?: ROTO. The start of the word rototill. I only know rototiller.

19. Fr. company: CIE. And another simpler French word MERES (45A. Metz mothers). Kazie explained to us CIE before.

20. Frazier rival: ALI. Joe Frazier.

21. Altercation: RUN-IN

22. Impart: LEND

24. Warning: OMEN

25. Zipping through: ACING. And ESTEEMING (26A. Looking up to). And IRONING (12D: Household drudgery). Any repining about the three ING's?

29. Saturate with: STEEP IN

30. Gulped with gusto: SWIGGED. Alliteration.

32. Cherished: PET. As project.

33. __-ha: stink: HOO. I was unaware that "stink" can mean "fuss/commotion".

34. Gathering with much rapping: GABFEST. Stumper.

38. __ Observatory, site of the larger Hale Telescope: PALOMAR. In San Diego County. Spanish for "pigeon house". Lots of pigeons can be seen during spring/autumn months atop Palomar Mountain, according to Wikipedia & JD.

42. Asteroids game company: ATARI

43. Alarming: WORRISOME

46. "Carmina Burana" composer: ORFF (Carl). German composer. Maybe Jazzbumpa/Crockett can tell us more about this guy. Complete stranger to me.

47. Part of Q.E.D.: ERAT

48. I.Q. test pioneer: BINET (Alfred). The inventor of the first widely accepted test for measuring intelligence. His name escaped me.

49. "__ Mir Bist Du Schoen": Andrews Sisters hit: BEI. Yiddish for "To Me You're Beautiful".

50. Taxonomic suffix: OTE. As in Capriot/Cypriot. I obtained the answer from crosses.

51. All-encompassing phrase: A TO Z. With the second T in place, I wrote down ET AL.

52. Locks out of a store?: HAIRPIECES. Locks = hair. Tricky clue.

56. Herbert sci-fi classic: DUNE. Nope. Have never hear of the book, nor the author.

57. Antique diamond shape: OLD MINE CUT. Educate me on what exactly is a old mine cut.

58. Phone abbr.: OPER

59. Sliders at home, perhaps: GLASS DOORS. The DOORS part emerged to me early on, so I was not misled into the miniature burgers or baseball sliders direction.

Down:

1. Cold fish, so to speak: ICICLES. Cold fish (aloof/reserved person) is a new expression to me.

2. Skinny to the max: BONIEST

3. Political agreement: ENTENTE

7. Daily supplement: VITAMIN

8. Big Sur retreat: ESALEN. The Esalen Institute is named after the Native American tribe Esalen. Another unknown to me.

9. Philharmonic section: STRINGS

10. WWII hush-hush gp.: OSS (Office of Strategic Services). CIA precursor.

11. Flying boat built by Hughes Aircraft: SPRUCE GOOSE. The one Dick (in black) and Carol (in red) visited last year.

13. Following: RETINUE. VIP's following.

14. Cleaned (off), as a counter: SPONGED

21. Ristorante fare: RAVIOLI. Does it always have cheese inside?

23. Long-term storage solution: DEEP FREEZER

24. Forgets about: OMITS

27. Modern pentathlon competitor, at times: EPEEIST (ey-PEY-ist). I had no idea that modern pentathlon include epee fencing.

31. Landing site: WHARF

34. Long legging attached to a saddle: GAMBADO. No idea. Rider's legging. Maybe "The Talented Mr. Argyle" can find us a picture link. Gamba is Italian for "leg", kind of like our "gam" I suppose.

35. Had the time of one's life: ATE IT UP

36. Without exception: BAR NONE

37. Blue pool target: TWO BALL. Billiard. It's blue.

38. Image adjusters: PR FIRMS. Nice clue.

39. Casablanca locale: MOROCCO

40. Pro's opposite: AMATEUR

44. Golden Crinkles maker: ORE-IDA. Portmanteau of Ore(gon) + Ida(ho).

52. Monopolize: HOG

53. Magnum et al.: Abbr.: PIS (Private Investigators).

54. Unaffiliated: Abbr.: IND (Independent)

55. Want-ad abbr.: EEO. Penned in EOE first. Three consecutive abbrs. Not SAPID at all.

Should you have time, read this SAPID defintion Annette linked yesterday. Do click on "How I Met My Wife", a big hit last time when Jazzbumpa brought to the blog.

Answer grid.

C.C.