Thursday April 22, 2010 Jack McInturff

Theme: LILY TOMLIN (57A. "All of Me" actress whose first name is a hint to this puzzle's theme) - The first word of each theme answer is a type of lily.

18A. Father of Sam and Charlie: TIGER WOODS. Tiger Lily. See this photo. Tiger's wife Elin holds their daughter Sam, and Charlie is in Tiger's arms. The clue struck me as obscure, esp for non-golfers who don't follow the Tiger scandal.

20A. South Pacific site of large stone statues: EASTER ISLAND. Easter Lily.

35A. Continuously: DAY AFTER DAY. Daylily. The dried flowers of some daylilies are commonly used in Chinese cuisine, though the word daylily itself is new to me. We just call them golden needles.

54A. Asian draft animal: WATER BUFFALO. Water Lily. Did not know water buffalo are used as draft animals.

Hmm, we seem to have a trend for longer unifier now. At least, Jack loves longer ones. In his last PO' BOY puzzle, PO is inserted into each common phrase and no BOY is to be found.

A year ago, we would just have four theme entries with a defining LILY at the lower right corner of the grid. I do love the LILY TOMLIN hook. Symmetrically it balances out TIGER WOODS nicely. Jack also provides us with lots of nice long words with 6 or more letters. I counted 20. Awesome!

Favorite clue today is BED (12D. Something that goes with breakfast?). Bed and Breakfast. I was thinking of crossword.

Across:

1. Tsp. and tbsp.: AMTS

5. Old orchard spray: ALAR

9. Abu __: DHABI. Capital of the United Arab Emirates.

14. Separate by color, say: SORT. Wanted CODE.

15. Angle function: SINE

16. Barely flowed: OOZED

17. Hairy "pet": CHIA

22. Casual evenings: NITES. Nice clue.

23. Dull: TIRESOME

27. One might be snappy: DRESSER. Great clue too.

30. Anti vote: NAY

31. __ Kan: Alpo rival: KAL, Kal-Kan. What's the name origin for this pet food company?

32. Some game enders: MATES. Chess game.

34. They come and go: FADS. Nailed it.

39. Enter: GO IN

41. Search stealthily: PROWL

42. Abate: EBB

43. Rosemary's portrayer: MIA (Farrow)

46. Hides: STASHES

50. Mind: LISTEN TO

53. Clinton Labor secretary Robert: REICH. Man, I can never remember his name.

60. __ on the shoulder: A TAP

61. Author __ Rogers St. Johns: ADELA. I confuse her name with Fred Astaire's sister ADELE.

62. __ sci: POLI. Political science. Not a familiar abbr to me.

63. Pointed end: CUSP

64. Feature of Oregon sales: NO TAX. Got the answer from crossings.

65. Singles: ONES.

66. Latin I word: ESSE. To be.

Down:

1. Go up: ASCEND

2. Angora fabric: MOHAIR. Angora goat.

3. Sad, to Sarkozy: TRISTE. Good alliteration.

4. Churchill or Roosevelt, e.g.: STATESMAN

5. Star sci.: ASTR. Astronomy.

6. 10% of DXXX: LIII. 10% of 530=53.

7. Apprehension: ANGST

8. Catch from a pier: REEL IN

9. "The Soloist" co-star: DOWNEY. Robert John Downey, Jr. I've never seen "The Soloist".

10. Robbery accessories: HOODS

11. Nitrogen-based dye: AZO. Azo dye. Learned from doing Xword.

13. Psyche parts: IDS. Id, ego, and super-ego are the three parts of Freud's psyche definition. Lois is a master at this stuff.

19. Avis lead-in: RARA. Rara avis.

21. Samuel Johnson work: ESSAY

24. "You bet": OKAY

25. Alfred E. Neuman is its mascot: MAD. The Mad Magazine.

26. Overhead transports: ELS

28. LAX posting: ETA

29. Court decision maker: REF. Tennis court. (Update: Basketball court. Sorry for the error.)

33. Indy 500 advertiser: STP

34. Mask: FALSE FACE

35. Ownership call: DIBS

36. Speech hesitations: ERS

37. Malarkey: ROT. Malarkey is a new word to me.

38. Happy, for one: DWARF. "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs". Stymied me.

39. Hair stiffener: GEL

40. Geisha's sash: OBI

43. Spareribs separator: MEAT AX. It's just called cleaver, isn't it?

44. Keen on: INTO

45. Musical direction after ritardando, perhaps: A TEMPO. No idea. Waiting for Jazzbumpa for more explanation.

47. Gap: HIATUS

48. Mercedes sedan category: E-CLASS. So, E stands for executive, Dennis?

49. Quaint retail word: SHOPPE. Ye Olde Shoppe. I used to think Ye stands for "you" until I read Spitzboov & Jazzbumapa's "the" discussion on the blog a few days ago.

51. Tony winner Tharp: TWYLA. Got her this time.

52. Sweater synthetic: ORLON

55. Peevishness: BILE

56. Les États-__: UNIS. The US in French.

57. Data-sharing syst.: LAN (Local Area Network).

58. Chapel vow: I DO

59. Ease, with "up": LET

Answer grid.

I just added "Search This Blog" box below "Blog Archive" at the right end of the blog front page. Simply type in "Jeannie's Meatloaf" or anything we've discussed at the blog writeup or Comments section, the related posts should appear at the very top of the blog.

C.C.

Wednesday April 21, 2010 Donna S. Levin

Theme: WHAT'S THAT RACKET? - The last word of each phrase is a synonym for RACKET, meaning loud noise.

17A. Consequence of the subprime mortgage fiasco: REAL ESTATE CRASH

25A. Exit spectacularly: GO OUT WITH A BANG

42A. Punished severely, with "on": LOWERED THE BOOM

55A. Complaint from one trying to concentrate, perhaps, and this puzzle's title: WHAT'S THAT RACKET?

So indulgent in the middle: SHOP, WOK, EAT, WINE, GALLO, CREPE, KEG .. then a GORGE and SPASM at the end.

melissa bee here.

Across:

1. Harpsichord relative: PIANO. A harpsichord looks a lot like a piano, but the sound comes from the strings being plucked, like a harp.

6. Doorframe part: JAMB. The upright pieces that form the sides of the door opening.

10. One of Hammett's Charleses: NORA. Dashiell Hammett's The Thin Man series, featured Nick and Nora Charles.

14. Aggressive poker bet: ALL IN. Wiki's explanation.

15. Spooky-sounding lake: ERIE (sounds like "eerie")

16. Musician Clapton: ERIC. Change the world.

20. Start of something? ESS. The letter S in the word Start. Fantastic clue.

21. Accident investigation agcy.: NTSB. National Transportation Safety Board.

22. Lowly assistant: FLUNKY

23. Swindle: ROOK. Synonyms for scam or defraud.

24. Move quickly, as clouds: SCUD. "To run or skim along swiftly and easily." I can never see this word without thinking of Arthur Kent, the scud stud.

31. Get out of bed: ARISE

32. Hunan pans: WOKS. Hunan Food (very hot) is one of the major cuisines in China. From Hunan Province where Mao Ze-Dong was from. "Hunan pan" is a nice rhyming clue for singular WOK.

33. Consume: EAT

35. Cellar stock: WINE

36. Blin, in Blois: CREPE. Dessert anyone? Alliteration. Blois is a city in Central France. Blin is singular of Blini.

38. Chip's buddy: DALE. Disney chipmunks.

39. Frat party staple: KEG

40. Mindless repetition: ROTE

41. Championship: TITLE

46. Guns: REVS.

47. Word after open or seven: SEAS

48. Take big steps: STRIDE. Didn't know stride necessarily implied big.

51. Hit or miss? VERB. Favorite clue/answer, so sneaky.

52. Special __: military force: OPS. Highly trained police or military groups that conduct special operations.

58. Aqueduct feature: ARCH. Like this.

59. Lob: TOSS

60. Narrow canyon: GORGE

61. Cook in the microwave: NUKE

62. Fencer's weapon: EPEE

63. Tic, e.g.: SPASM. i've treated a few of those.

Down:

1. Peel: PARE

2. Martinique et Re'union: ILES. French island in the eastern Caribbean Sea. Nice beaches.

3. "__, poor Yorick!": Hamlet: ALAS. Kenneth Branaugh in my favorite version.

4. Zilch: NIL. Zero.

5. Musically monotonous: ONE NOTE

6. Zippy watercraft: JETSKI

7. Like about 20% of Israeli citizens today: ARAB

8. Univ. near Harvard: MIT. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge.

9. Stud muffin photos: BEEFCAKE. His brother lived next door to my brother in Texas. Everything's bigger there.

10. Chilean poet Pablo: NERUDA. No idea. Interesting guy. Won the Nobel Prize in 1971.

11. Algerian seaport: ORAN. Rote. Yves Saint Laurent was born in ORAN.

12. Game played on a world map: RISK. Have you ever played?

13. Sore: ACHY. Starting to feel like i'm at work.

18. Store in a hold: STOW

19. Clover-shaped suit: CLUBS

23. Artful stratagem: RUSE

24. Engage in retail therapy? SHOP. Not a shopper. I prefer other therapies.

25. Stare in wonder: GAWK. Here.

26. Bay window: ORIEL

27. New Wave band __ Boingo: OINGO

28. Tammany Hall name: TWEED. William Marcy (Boss) Tweed was the political boss of the Tweed Ring and Tammany Hall.

29. "Peachy keen!": NEATO

30. Carlo Rossi winemaker: GALLO

34. Be rife (with): TEEM

36. Sports car named for a small warship: CORVETTE

37. Info in AAA TripTiks: RTES. Routes. TripTiks is a trip planning tool for AAA customers.

38. "That's mine!": DIBS

40. Saxes and oboes: REEDS

41. They usually have strings attached: TEA BAGS. Great clue.

43. Twist in pain: WRITHE

44. Scary African fly: TSETSE. Haven't seen the dreaded 'half a fly' for a while.

45. Frau's spouse: HERR. Courtesy title in German, equivalent to Sir or Lord.

48. Ugly duckling, actually: SWAN. Children's story.

49. Drive-__ window: THRU

50. Pinion partner: RACK. Common steering mechanism.

51. Still life subject: VASE. Like this.

52. Gumbo pod: OKRA

53. Things for hanging things: PEGS

54. Stern's opposite: STEM. From stem to stern.

56. Emulate Kanga: HOP. Kangaroo.

57. Radar gun aimer: COP

Answer grid.

melissa