Thursday January 7, 2010 Robert W. Harris

Theme: Imaginary Places - Familiar two-word phrases ending with "locations" are punnily reinterpreted in correspondence to their clues.

18A. Where yearbooks are made?: ANNUAL PLANT. Annual plant grows and dies in a season.

26A. Where Hershey's makes new discoveries?: CHOCOLATE LAB. Chocolate Lab has chocolate-colored coat.

47A. Where astronauts worship?: SPACE MISSION. SPACE STATION anyone?

60A. Where littlenecks try their luck?: CLAMS CASINO. Littlenecks are soft clams, aren't they?

Robert W. Harris's LAT "Giant Leap for Mankind" puzzle was published on the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moonwalk. He seems fond of science.

Melissa Bee blogging.

Across:

1. Cool one: CAT. Two for the price of one.

4. Overused: STALE

9. Drink with a "generation": PEPSI. Barry Manilow wrote the jingle (at 4:00).

14. Kitchen catchphrase: A LA. In the manner or style of. Chicken A La King.

15. Implied: TACIT. A tacit agreement.

16. Betting everything, in poker: ALL IN

17. Food made from 35-Down: POI. And TARO (35D. Source of 17-Across).

20. Uncaptured: AT LARGE

22. Spring celebration: EASTER

23. Surrender: CEDE

24. Beam: RAY

25. That, in Monterrey: ESO. Spanish. Monterrey, Nuevo León, México, is the third largest city in Mexico. The "City of the Mountains."

31. Long, on Lanai: LOA. The Hawaiian name "Mauna Loa" means "Long Mountain." Largest volcano on the planet.

32. Broods: MOPES

33. What some tickets are for: SEATS

37. Russian-born Deco designer: ERTE. C.C. has drilled this one into my head.

39. Anger: IRE

40. Bare-bones subj? ANAT. Anatomy. Great clue.

41. Some religious observances: FASTS. Like Ramadan, or Lent.

43. Rub out: ERASE

46. College sr.'s test: GRE. Graduate Record Examinations.

50. Prof's helpers: TAS. Teaching Assistants.

53. Bullring cry: OLE

54. It will come back to you: ECHO

55. Esoteric: ARCANE

57. Maddened: ENRAGED

63. Living cell constituent: Abbr.: RNA

64. Prefix with tropic: HELIO. Prefix for "sun".

65. Unwise homebuilder's material, so the story goes: STRAW

66. Put together: ADD

67. Lip-curling look: SNEER

68. Early five-and-dime entrepreneur: KRESS (S. H.)

69. Howard of the Three Stooges: MOE

Down:

1. Bit of bullring gear: CAPA. Dictionary.com says cape originates from 16th century Sp. capa. Never understood this "sport".

2. Loads: A LOT

3. Men's formalwear: TAILCOATS

4. Made-it-big status: STARDOM. On the heels of Jazzbumpa's question yesterday, "you know you've made it big when ____."

5. Hybrid fruit: TANGELO. Tangerine and grapefruit or pomelo. UGLI appears more often in our puzzles.

6. Teen's concern: ACNE

7. Actress Lucy: LIU. One of "Charlie's Angels".

8. Two after epsilon: ETA. Greek alphabet. Nice change from the standard airport abbreviation clue.

9. Melonlike fruits: PAPAYAS. Papaya enzyme is a useful ingredient to treat ACNE.

10. Wings with blueprints: ELLS. Building additions.

11. Likely spot for dinner? PLATE. Cute.

12. Trig functions: SINES

13. Words about a speaker, briefly: INTRO

19. Sharon of "Boston Public": LEAL. Had no idea.

21. Post-WWII nuclear org.: AEC. Atomic Energy Commission. According to wikipedia, it was established in 1947 to foster and control the peace time development of atomic science and technology. Abolished in 1974 when it's functions were reassigned to other agencies.

24. Stitch over: RESEAM

26. Staff symbol: CLEF

27. Romanian dance: HORA. The circle dance often seen in traditional weddings and other celebrations.

28. Individually: APIECE

29. Lafayette's land: TERRE. French for "land". General Lafayette of American Revolutionary War.

30. Arthur who played Maude: BEA.

34. Cardiologist's request: ANGIOGRAM. X-ray that shows blood flow through an artery or vein.

36. Early submachine gun: STEN. Never heard of it.

38. "The War of the Worlds" invaders, e.g.: ETS. Extra Terrestrials.

42. One buying time, perhaps: SPONSOR. Advertising time.

44. Raw or burnt pigments: SIENNAS. WM, can you elaborate?

45. Typical home-loan contract obligations: ESCROWS

48. Actor Baldwin: ALEC

49. ___ Na Na: SHA. Musical group from the sixties.

50. Dash instruments: TACHS. Tachometer of a car measures engine RPMs.

51. Senator Specter: ARLEN. Democrat, PA.

52. Model Proportion: SCALE. I only know model train scales, smallest to largest: Z, N, HO (Half O), S, O, and G. Dennis, do other models have similar scales?

56. Friend, in France: AMIE. Female AMI.

57. Pierce Brosnan's homeland: EIRE. Irish name for Ireland.

58. Prefix meaning "within": ENDO. As in Endoscope. ECTO is the prefix meaning "outer".

59. Miami-____ County: DADE

62. Narrow channel: Abbr.: STR. Strait. Strait of Gibraltar.

A celebration of Dan Naddor's life will be held at 1 p.m. today. Here is a great writeup of Dan's crossword career & philosophy in LA Times. Rich Norris mentioned that there are more than twenty Dan puzzles in LA Times pipeline and they will be published throughout the year.

Answer grid.

Melissa

Wednesday January 6, 2010 Gareth Bain

Theme: Classic Music Contracts, A-List - Classic Rock hit songs that follow a pronoun and verb contraction & A & noun pattern in the titles.

17A: 1966 Monkey's hit: I'M A BELIEVER. Written by the Lovely Wife's favorite, Neil Diamond.

65A: 1968 Impressions hit: WE'RE A WINNER. Must not have impressed me. No recollection of it.

11D: 1971 Tom Jones hit: SHE'S A LADY. Or at least a woman. What's new, Pussycat?

36D: 1962 hit attributed to the Crystals but sung by the Blossoms: HE'S A REBEL. Here are the Crystals.

And, at no extra charge, 50A Original iPod, as it's now known: CLASSIC. Not really part of the theme, but I co-opted it, so there.

But wait, there's more -

31A Put on the HiFi: PLAY. Spin them platters!

Hi Gang, it's JazzBumpa, your HOT LIPS trombonIST. Nice retro theme for the CLASSIC rock lover in you. The puzzle is one letter J away from a pangram.

Across:

1A Distinguishing feature: CACHET. News to me. Merriam-Webster tells us:1 a : a seal used especially as a mark of official approval b : an indication of approval carrying great prestige. 2 a : a characteristic feature or quality conferring prestige. Well, OK, then.

7A "Is this _____ time to talk of Pensions and Grenadiers?": - Sterne: A FIT. Beats me. Can't track it down. Anybody have a clue?

11A Wailing instrument: Must be SAX. Harpoon won't fit.

14A Hit the big time: ARRIVE. You know you've arrived when you ___________. (Fill in the blank.)

15A Quote as a source: CITE. Like Sterne in 7A.

16A Dress bottom: HEM. Per Wikipedia, "To hem a piece of cloth (in sewing), a garment worker folds up a cut edge, folds it up again, and then sews it down. The process of hemming thus completely encloses the cut edge in cloth, so that it cannot ravel. A hem is also the edge of cloth treated in this manner." That's getting to the bottom of it!

19A Bard's "prior to": ERE. "Able was I ere I saw Elba" Your palindrome for the day.

20A Bright Star: NOVA. Also, an old Chevy. Also Spanish for "No go." Great name for a car.

21A Basic French verb: ETRE. Crossword staple, usually travels with RAISON D'.

22A "Beware the Jabberwock _________" MY SON. Excellent advice from my mom. "The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!" The Jabberwock, I mean. Not mom. She's a sweetie. Anyway, it was Lewis Carrol, not mom.

24A Warehouse stamp letters: REC'D. Received. Got it?

26A "Washboard" muscles. ABS. Abdominals. Six pack. Very gutsy. We watched "The biggest loser" tonight. Yikes!

27A Briney expanse: SEA. I couldn't force-fit PICKLE BARREL into 3 spaces.

28A "M*A*S*H" nickname: Major Margaret J. "HOT LIPS" Houlihan. Played by Loretta Swit.

34A Wildly eccentric, briefly: SCHIZO. Schizophrenic. Doesn't fit the clue very well. Nor does it refer to multiple personality disorders. My alter ego is a SCHIZO, but we get along OK.

37A Sniffling and sneezing cause: COLD. "Viral upper respiratory tract infection (VURI), acute viral nasopharyngitis, acute viral rhinopharyngitis, acute coryza." Not a low temperature, as we all seem to be experiencing. Anyway, I wanted DUST.

39 ________ Carte: A LA. A la Carte, meaning "according to the menu", or "on the wagon," or something like that. May or may not involve an extra charge. It's all very confusing.

40A Roll call response: PRESENT. My alter ego always responds, "ABSENT." He's incorrigible.

42A How some suits are made: TO ORDER. Mine are off the rack at Penny's.

44A Toys: "R" US. Couldn't fit "IN THE ATTIC", nor type a backward R. My alter ego says he knows how, but he went to bed.

45A Wild outbreak: RIOT. Very crosswordese. Wanted HORSES, or PANDEMIC.

47A Victimized, with "on": PREYED. Literally, caught and ate. Figuratively, used and abused. There are other options.

48A Wine bottle datum: YEAR. Some are very good. Also known as vintage.

52A Narrow inlet: RIA. Learned from doing crosswords. A wide inlet is RIA GRANDE.

54A Chick _____: light women's fiction: LIT. How politically incorrect is that. These books not read on "The Biggest Loser."

55A Nordic Runners: SKIS. Cute clue. The blades of skis are RUNNERS, I suppose.

58A Knight's Job: QUEST. A search or pursuit for something valuable. Like a shrubbery. And 2D Knight suit: ARMOR. Not Jammies.

60A Ice sheet: FLOE. A floating sheet of ice. Very COLD.

62A Burned, in a way: ON CD. You can do it yourself.

64A City area, briefely: URB. Short for an urban area, aka city.

68A Get older: AGE. Father time wins in the end.

69A Yemen city on its own Gulf. ADEN. Lots of trouble in Yemen, these days.

70A Early ascetic: ESSENE. I think I read somewhere that John the Baptist was an ESSENE, not a Southern Baptist.

71A State that's only 9 mi. wide at its narrowest point: DEL. Note Abbrv in cl.et. ans. MD gets pretty narrow, too.

72A Had second thoughts about: RUED. I thought this was more along the lines of deep regret.

73A Put away for later: STORED. These guys do it, and they're very protective.

Down:

1D Abel's slayer: CAIN. Original sibling rivalry. Why can't we all just get along?

3D Have a jones for: CRAVE. From the diction of addiction.

4D Japanese grills: HIBACHIS. A simple charcoal grill.

5D Noted victim of temptation: EVE. Clever clue. Mom of the original siblings, and early fig leaf HEMMER.

6D Prefix with vision: TELE. Television. Yeah. Whatever.

7D Biting: ACERBIC. As, wit. Same root as acid, I'll bet.

8D Fin: Am I done? No. It's a FIVE SPOT. A five dollar bill. Old slang. Anybody know where it came from?

9D Meteor ending: ITE. With or without, what's the difference?

10D Contract details: TERMS. Be sure to read the fine print.

12D Related to flying: AERO. That's plain.

13D Marvel Comics superheroes: X-MEN. Should be X-persons.

18D Emphatic type: Abbr.: ITAL. Italic. As you can see.

23D "Sho 'nuff": YEP. I agree. Though one could quibble about where to place the apo'strophe's.

25D Earth moving machine, and hopefully not the one driving it: DOZER. I love this clue. Short for bull dozer, hopefully not somebody taking a nap.

29D G and T part: TONIC. Gin and tonic. I needed a lot of perp help. My gin mixes with vermouth and drowns olives.

30D Spills, as from a bucket: SLOPS. Traditional method for hog feeding. Perhaps Windhover can elaborate.

32D Sheltered, in a way: ALEE. Away from the wind.

33D Place for a sale: YARD. Or garage. Or Target.

34D Nimble: SPRY. Agile, graceful. Somehow, "Jack be spry" just doesn't work.

35D Rockers Motley: CRUE. Ugly noise, IMHO.

38D Day of films: DORIS. Doris Day, clean cut sex goddess, before sex was invented. Clue got me - needed perp help.

41D Like 1-800 numbers. TOLL-FREE. That's why we like 1-800 numbers.

43D "I guess": RECKON SO. YEP.

46D Last bit: TAIL END. Sounds like a military expression, like tail gunner. Maybe Dennis can fill us in.

49 Grafton's "______ for Ricochet" R IS. Forward R this time. From Sue Grafton's alphabet mystery series. I got bored somewhere around F.

51D One often bordered an agora: STOA. Another crossword stalwart. I believe an agora was an outdoor market. A STOA is a collonade. In those days, "I'm goin' to the Stoa." was rather ambiguous.

53D Clashing, big time. AT WAR. That's about as big as it gets.

56D _________ Tube: INNER. An inflatable rubber bladder inside a tire.

57D Part of an act: SCENE. Acts of plays are divided into scenes. Or one can make a scene. Making many scenes is a bad act.

58D Campus area: QUAD. Short for quadrangle, a four-sided area surrounded by buildings.

59D Yearning: URGE. Should I give in . . .?

61D Ram's dams: EWES. I would feel sheepish if I didn't get this one.

63D Scott in an 1857 case: DRED. A much RUED decision.

66D Campus URL ending. EDU. ITE was already taken by the meteor.

67D Performer's suffix: IST. As in SAXophonist. Are there other examples?

That's all folks. Cheers!

Answer grid.

JzB