Friday April 9, 2010 Jack McInturff

Theme: PO' BOY (63A. N'awlins sandwich, and this puzzle's title) - PO is inserted into the start of the second word of a two-word common phrase.

21A. Criticize a small town?: SLAM (PO)DUNK. Slam Dunk. Podunk = Small town.

26A. Checking for doneness at the grill?: BURGER (PO)KING. Burger King, our cream cheese contest-winning Jeannie's client.

42A. Certain pork thief?: BELLY (PO)ACHER. Ah, OK, bellyacher is actually one word. Poacher = Thief.

49A. Spelling contest notice?: BEE (PO)STING. Bee Sting.

As the clue says, PO' BOY is a just a title, not the exact theme tie-in word we are accustomed to. So you won't find BOY anywhere.

All the above inserted POs are pronounced with long O sound in the new phrases, very consistent. I've never had Po' Boy. Looks delicious. It always has fried seafood in the middle, right?

As the norm with the late week puzzle, I went straight to the bottom for the unifier, then worked my way up. Not really a proper course order. The constructors/editor place the unifying "Aha" at the very end for a reason. It's served as a dessert.

Across:

1. Large swallows: GULPS. Large amount swallowed. I was thinking that there might be a large bird swallow I was not aware of.

6. Loosen (up): WARM. Wanted EASE.

10. Joseph who brought Shakespeare to Central Park: PAPP. He founded the New York Shakespeare Festival. Unknown to me.

14. Director Kurosawa: AKIRA. Must be a happy fill for Annette.

15. Plant with thick, fleshy leaves: ALOE

16. Morlock prey: ELOI. The race in "The Time Machine".

17. Elementary particle: MESON. From Greek "mesos", meaning "middle". I simply forgot. It appeared in our puzzle before.

18. Neeson of "Nell": LIAM. Have never seen "Nell". Liked his Oskar in "Schindler's List".

19. Undecided: TORN. Between decisions.

20. Abbr. followed by a year: ESTD (Established)

23. Old Ford: PINTO. Must be named after the horse then. We also have EL CAMINO (38D. 1950s-'80s Chevy utility vehicle). Literally "the road" in Spanish.

25. Bad luck: HOODOO. Voodoo too.

30. Jackie Chan and others: ASIANS. Chinese, to be exact.

31. Magic 8-Ball response: YES. And NO, I presume.

32. Rug feature: NAP

35. Giving word?: UNCLE. Giving up. Nailed it.

36. Fertilization targets: OVA. Was in the soil direction. Fertility would be an easier clue.

37. Priestess in Bizet's "The Pearl Fishers": LEILA. Total blind spot for me.

39. West famous for "Come up sometime and see me": MAE. Mae West. Lois would love this clue.

41. Scarecrow portrayer: BOLGER (Ray). And BAUM (26D. Munchkin creator). "The Wizard of Oz".

45. St. Clare's town: ASSISI. Saint Clare of Assisi. I've only heard of St. Francis of Assisi.

48. Finish by: END AT

52. Name on some Kmart shoes: MCAN. The Thom McAn shoe brand. Learned from doing Xword.

55. Subordinate: AIDE

56. Mountain lake: TARN. The glacier-formed lake.

57. Op artist Bridget: RILEY. Easy guess. Not not familiar with this English painter.

58. List of games, briefly: SKED (Schedule)

59. Presque Isle's lake: ERIE

60. Bury: INURN. You wanted INTER, don't you?

61. __ d'oeuvre: HORS

62. Opposite of bleak: ROSY

Down:

1. Hunter's quarry: GAME

2. Some are made from koa wood: UKES

3. Amount rarely paid: LIST PRICE. True.

4. Spendthrift: PRODIGAL. Nice entry.

5. __ Bernardino: SAN

6. Belt or sock: WALLOP. Great clue.

7. Et __: ALIA. Neutral plural of et al; et alii is masculine plural, et aliae is feminine plural.

8. Knock around: ROAM

9. Tennessee's largest city: MEMPHIS. And IRIS (51D. Tennessee state flower).

10. Eddie of "Frasier," for one: PET DOG. Thought Eddie is just a person, as I've never watched "Frasier".

11. Orally: ALOUD

12. Blue books?: PORNO. "Blue" can mean off-color.

13. Cold War put-down: PINKO. Slang for "communist", isn't it? Why pink instead of red?

21. Narrow waterways: Abbr.: STRS (Straits)

22. Bass attachment?: OON. Bassoon. I wanted IST.

24. Endangered state bird: NENE. Hawaii state bird.

27. Annapolis sch.: USNA

28. Kvetch's words: OY VEY. Tell me you thought of Barry G. I did.

29. Mauna __: KEA. Mauna Kea (white mountain), Hawaii's highest peak. Kea = White. Loa = Long. Mauna Loa (long mountain).

32. Bouncer employer: NIGHTCLUB. Awesome strings of consonants.

33. Opposite of aweather: ALEE

34. Henry VIII's sixth: PARR (Catherine). The last wife of Henry VIII. I often confuse PARR with PAAR (Jack)

36. Olive __: OYL. The BYE in the crossing 40A. Tournament pass (BYE) prevents me from penning in OIL.

37. Burden: LOAD. Fell into the ONUS trap.

40. Runner's problem: BLISTER

41. Big bell sound: BONG

42. Two-footers: BIPEDS. Of course, I was picturing those two-footers on the green.

43. Spanish pronoun: ESO

44. Retailer whose middle name was Cash: PENNEY. J.C. Penney.

45. Put to shame: ABASH

46. Watch handle: SEIKO. D'oh, the watch brand "handle".

47. Feast that includes the Cup of Elijah: SEDER. Can a non-Jew join a Seder feast?

50. Tropical tuber: TARO

53. Nautical leader?: AERO. Aeronautical. We've got three ex-Navy guys in our blog: Spitzboov, Frank & EddyB. Who else?

54. Big Apple ltrs.: NY NY

57. Tear: RIP

Answer grid.

C.C.

Thursday April 8, 2010 Jascha Smilack

Theme: HORSE (67A. Word to add to 20-, 37- and 54-Across to make sense of the answers) - Horse needs to be fastened to the end of each common phrase to make sense of all the "uneasy" clues.

20A. Uneasy about a farm team member?: DODGING THE DRAFT(horse). Farm team member = Draft horse.

37A. Uneasy about a long shot?: AFRAID OF THE DARK(horse). Dark horse = Long shot. Nyctophobia refers to fear of darkness. I used to sleep with our closet light on all night.

54A. Uneasy about an aquarium fish?: CHICKEN OF THE SEA(horse). Aquarium fish = Seahorse. Used in Chinese herbal medicine.

We also have a cross-referenced SENATE (50A. Where Caligula reputedly tried to seat his 67-Across). A fact I was unaware of. But Galigula was an eccentric weirdo, so no real surprises.

A unique spin of our normal change letter string theme, in which the theme phrases often induce groan and only make sense when the letter string is dropped/added/substituted. Today, all the grid-spanning 15-letter theme entries are perfectly fine common phrases. You just need to tag HORSE to make horse sense of the clues. Loved the "uneasy" tie-in.

Also loved the side-by-side placement of GOLF (12D. Go for a Masters?) and SYST (13. CBS part). Golf fans all know that CBS has been covering the Saturday/Sunday Masters tournaments for years. But why "Go for a Masters" instead of "Go for Masters"? Why extra "a"?

Google shows that today's constructor Jascha Smilack is a Ph.D student in Chinese literature in Harvard. This seems to be his crossword debut. Gong Xi, Gong Xi!

Across:

1. Must: HAS TO

6. "Iron Chef America" chef Cat __: CORA. Needed crosses for her name. I did enjoy the few episodes of "Iron Chef America" I saw. Liked the Japanese flavor.

14. Dickens's mysterious Mr. Drood: EDWIN. Easy guess. I've never heard of "The Mystery of Edwin Drood", Dickens' final novel.

15. Fidel's successor: RAUL. The Castro brothers. Quite a few names in this puzzle.

16. "__ Named Sue": A BOY. And A DROP (2D. __ in the bucket). Partials.

17. Israeli ambassador Moshe: ARENS. Again, his name emerged itself. Not familiar with this guy at all. When was he the ambassador?

18. Like some profs.: ASST (Assistant)

19. Web links: URLS

23. Michael Phelps sponsor: SPEEDO. OK, for Jeannie. Phelps survived his drug scandal quite well.

24. "Dies __": IRAE. "Dies Irae", the Latin hymn. Literally "Days of Wrath". Dies = Day. Irae = Wrath.

25. Humble: DEMEAN

28. Play footsie, say: FLIRT. Directly above TOE TAP (36. Shoe part for Astaire).

32. It may be up: JIG. The jig is up. Rich used the identical clue a while ago, still got me. Lethologica!

41. Maps: CHARTS. Verb.

42. Fair-hiring abbr.: EOE (Equal Opportunity Employer). EEO = Equal Employment Opportunity.

43. Hi or lo follower: RES (Resolution)

44. "Flowers for Algernon" author Daniel: KEYES. Rang a faint bell. See the book cover.

45. "Analyze That" star: DE NIRO

48. Top-shelf: A ONE

59. Winery prefix: OENO. Oeno is Greek goddess of wine.

60. Casual top: POLO

61. Stock phrase: AT PAR

62. Exploit: DEED

63. Etonic competitor: AVIA

64. Peachy: SWELL

65. Wood shaper: ADZE. Or adz.

66. Appear dramatically: LOOM. I associate loom with ominously rather than dramatically.

Down:

1. Call before the game: HEADS. "Heads or tails?". We had this clue before.

3. Stockholm native: SWEDE

4. Colored a bit: TINGED. Wrote down TINTED first.

5. Like some daring football kicks: ONSIDE

6. Steep outcropping: CRAG. The rugged rock.

7. Brewery feature: OAST

8. Act like fools?: RUSH IN. Fools rush in. Nailed it today.

9. Let out, say: ALTER. Oh, the hemline. Nice clue.

10. Honored with a crown of foliage: LAURELED.

11. Start of a spell: ABRA. The start of Abracadabra.

21. Roaming types: NOMADS

22. Green Goblin portrayer in Spider-Man films: DAFOE (Willem). I only remember Tobey Maguire.

26. Rock producer Brian: ENO

27. Newspaper revenue component: AD FEE

29. __-Tass: news agency: ITAR (Information Telegraph Agency of Russia).

30. Red inside: RARE

31. I-90 in Mass. et al.: TPKS (Turnpikes)

32. Magic harp thief: JACK. From "Jack and the Beanstalk" the fairy tale. I peeked at the answer sheet.

33. "__ hollers, ...": IF HE. "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe, /Catch a tiger by the toe./If he hollers let him go..."

34. __ matter: GRAY. Felt silly not getting this one immediately.

36. Believer: THEIST

38. First three numbers, in some directories: AREA CODE

39. "Not a problem!": IT'S OK

40. Cargo unit: TON

45. Again, to Gaius: DE NOVO. Latin for "From the beginning".

46. Talk out again: REHASH

47. "Old" punches?: ONE-TWO. One-two punch. Why "old"?

49. High country: NEPAL. High in the Himalaya. I hope you were not thinking of Tibet, because it's not a country. It's part of China.

51. According to: AS PER

52. Dabbling ducks:: TEALS. Teals belong to the dabbling ducks, which feed by dabbling in the shallow waters.

53. Bogart's "High Sierra" role: EARLE. No idea. I've never seen the movie.

54. Musical ending: CODA

55. Follow: HEED. As advice.

56. Don Juan's mother: INEZ. Spanish for Agnes, meaning "pure".

57. Random collection: OLIO

58. Fire suppressant: FOAM

Answer grid.

C.C.