Friday June 25, 2010 Mark Feldman

Theme: Food Pun - The first word of each two-word familiar food item is substituted by a city, whose country is given in the corresponding clue.

20A. Swiss poultry dish?: BASEL CHICKEN. Basil Chicken. Basel is a city in Switzerland.

27A. Korean menu listing?: SEOUL FOOD. Soul Food. I do love Seoul food. Hot!

35A. Indian lunch fare?: DELHI SANDWICH. Deli Sandwich. Do Indians use naan as sandwich wrap?

43A. Moroccan hearty meal? RABAT STEW. Rabbit Stew. Rabat is the capital of Morocco.

52A. Meccan omelet ingredient? JEDDAH CHEESE. Cheddar Cheese. I've never heard of Jeddah, a port city in Saudi Arabia. Near Mecca indeed. The only theme entry with a city rather than a country as clue hint.

All of the theme answers are punning on the first word. I like the consistency.

Some more food/drink references:

17A. 2006 farce involving a drinking contest: BEER FEST. Total four 8-letter entries today.

48A. Fare that's filled and baked: MEAT PIE

63A. Fruitcake: NUT. OK, not really food.

49D. __ four: PETIT

50D. Bean products?: IDEAS. Nailed it. The question mark told me it's not sprouts. I have stir-fried bean sprouts every Tuesday.

We don't often see four clusters of four black squares in a puzzle. It sure increases the total black square count in a hurry (Total 42 in today's grid).

My favorite clue (I presume Seen's too) is RED (43D. Bench, once). Johnny Bench. Cincinnati Reds. Dennis told me about a card show near our home a few months ago and I was able to see Bench in person. Pete Rose was there too.

Across:

1. A.L. East team: BOS. Boston Red Sox. Quite a few abbr. in this grid.

4. 1960 Olimpiadi host: ROMA. The Italian clue suggests the answer will be in Italian.

8. Padlocked, perhaps: HASPED

14. Glob suffix: ULE

15. Receptive: OPEN

16. More gray: ASHIER

19. "Magic Hour" author": ISAACS (Susan). Don't know the author or the book. What's it about?

22. Memo abbr.: ATTN

23. Move beyond: OUTGROW

32. Frost: HOAR

33. Fast horse: ARAB

34. Frayed: TATTY

40. Certain Net user: AOLER. Net is capitalized.

41. '60s Mod staple: MINI

42. Letters that come at the end of the week: TGIF. We also have FRI (29D. It can be casual: Abbr.). Not fond of the two in the same grid.

51. Race: TEAR. Did not leap to me readily.

57. All one had: ESTATE. Great clue.

60. Transfers again, as computer files: RECOPIES

61. Hungary neighbor: SERBIA

62. Barrie Newfoundland: NANA. The dog in "Peter Pan".

64. Is out there: EXISTS

65. African antelope: ORYX. It has long, straight-horns, Lois!

66. Rte. finder: GPS

Down:

1. Good ol' boys: BUBBAS

2. Fatty acid salt: OLEATE. Ate is a suffix for "salt".

3. Handles: SEES TO

4. Texter's response to a hilarious joke: ROFL

5. Crude org. : OPEC. Crude oil.

6. Interlock: MESH

7. Boycotting, perhaps: ANTI

8. Basho's forte: HAIKU. Have never heard of Basho, a Japanese 17th century poet known for Haiku poems.

9. Black listing?: ASSET. Awesome clue.

10. City near the Yangtze River: SHANGHAI. No, not "near". It's at the mouth of the Yangtze River. I worked in Shanghai for some time.

11. Emmy-winning news anchor Lindström: PIA. No idea. She's Ingrid Bergman's daughter.

12. Common Mkt.: EEC

13. "ER" extras: DRS

18. Contact lens solution brand: RENU. The only brand I know.

21. Cape __ : COD

24. VMI program: ROTC. VMI = Virginia Military Institute. New to me.

25. Bit of irreverence: OATH

26. Twisted: WRY

28. Lionized actor?: LAHR (Bert). The Cowardly Lion in "The Wizard of Oz".

30. Treaty gp. since 1948: OAS

31. President with two Grammys: OBAMA. Loved Lemonade's Palin palindrome comment yesterday. John's SEXES clue is awesome too. I think I mentioned on the blog before. Japanese say "I am going" to mean "I am coming".

34. Fool: TWIT

35. Old Venetian judge: DOGE

36. "The Praise of Chimney-Sweepers" essayist: ELIA

37. Right crosses may follow them: LEFT JABS. Needed crossing help.

38. Point: NIB

39. Stranded material: DNA

40. 20s provider, for short: ATM

44. Dance move: STEP

45. Elevating, in a way: TEEING. Various balls.

46. Relax: EASE UP

47. Takes by force: WRESTS

53. Cartoonist Peter: ARNO. Total stranger to me.

54. When repeated, word of agreement: HEAR

55. Manhattan sch.: CCNY (City College of NY)

56. Piltdown man, e.g. : HOAX

57. Language suffix: ESE

58. Bio datum: SEX

59. Head of state?: TRI. I don't get this one. Wanted ESS, the starting letter of the word state.

Answer grid.

Welcome back Kazie! You were dearly missed.

C.C.

Thursday June 24 John Lampkin

Theme: Life-less - The word LIFE is missing from the end of four "classic" song titles.

17A. Beatles classic: A DAY IN THE.

24A. Stevie Wonder classic: FOR ONCE IN MY.

37A. "Annie" classic: ITS THE HARD KNOCK.

46A. "Dirty Dancing" classic: THE TIME OF MY.

58A. Sinatra classic, and hint to what's missing from this puzzle's other classics: THAT'S LIFE.

So, how was this for you? The last part to fall for me was the center.

Several clue echos in the grid. John's hallmark. Best clues:

32D. James's creator: IAN. Ian Fleming, James Bond.

48D. Bond creator: EPOXY. Chemical bond.

Al here, and we're off to the races.

Across:

1. Chain of hills: RIDGE. From Old English hrycg, meaning the back of a man or beast. Appearing like the lumps of your backbone in a narrow line. That makes calling the ridgeback breed of dog sort of redundant, although I think that is just extra hair...

6. Top rating: TEN.

9. Startle: SCARE.

14. Stay a step ahead of: ONE-UP.

15. Tribe that fought the Navajo: UTE. Didn't like Mormons much, either...

16. Soaked: HOSED.

19. China's Zhou __: EN LAI.

20. Covers: LIDS.

21. Very long time: EON.

22. Woofer's output?: ARF ARF. Wanted something to do with a sound system bass speaker at first, not a dog.

23. Code word: DAH. The sound of the long pulse in Morse code, written as a dash. DIT is the sound for the short pulse, written as a period (or dot).

26. Thor's father: ODIN. Also called Wodan, wod being Old English for mad or frenzied. Odin was not known for being a happy Norse God.

28. Hot: IRED. Like Odin.

29. What peddlers peddle: WARES. Said Simple Simon to the pie man, let me taste your wares.

31. Bank leader?: CITI. Leader to the word Citibank, one of the first to introduce ATMs, way back in the 70's.

33. Genesis twin: ESAU. First-born, Jacob was the other twin.

40. Celebratory feeling: GLEE.

41. Bit of naughtiness: NONO.

42. Sharp: ACUTE. With an angle less than 90 degrees.

43. Dover domestic: CHAR. An English servant, or chore-woman. Dover, in England faces France across the narrowest part of the English Channel. Also in the grid 31D. Regular duty: CHORE.

45. WWII gun: STEN.

51. Coming-out party?: DEB. Party here refers to the person, a debutant, not a celebration, as in "party of the first part".

54. American elk: WAPITI. A single male elk can produce 22 to 25 lbs of antler velvet annually and on ranches in the United States, Canada and New Zealand, this velvet is collected and sold to markets in east Asia, where it is used in medicine.

55. Robert Morse title role: TRU. Truman Capote.

56. Efficient: ABLE.

57. Two little words?: I LOVE. The phrase "Three little words" have been used in song and movies, and movies about song. Here you only get two out of three. It's not about you. I wanted "pull my finger".

60. Snazzes (up): SEXES.

61. A-line line: HEM. Sewing appearing in a skirt.

62. Offer, as one's two cents: PUT IN. I usually hear it used derisively: Who asked you to put in your two cents worth? A nominal fee to be allowed to offer your opinion, not usually collected.

63. Hot meeting?: TRYST. From Old French tristre, an appointed station in hunting.

64. Source of iron: ORE. Too short to fit spinach in there.

65. Church closings: AMENS. I was trying to come up with something along the lines of a special purpose door or such-like.

Down:

1. "Fantastic Mr Fox" author Dahl: ROALD. Author for several children's books, although they can still hold an adult's interest as well.. Usually somewhat dark, with clearly defined good/bad characters and morality lessons built in.

2. Home to more than a billion: INDIA.

3. Beating one won't get you anywhere: DEAD HORSE.

4. Half a 1950 musical: GUYS. and Dolls.

5. Center opening?: EPI. An epicenter is the point on the earth's surface directly above the origin of an earthquake or underground explosion. Also a prefix-indication clue, along with 7D: Centric opening: ETHNO.

6. Teach privately: TUTOR.

8. At birth: NEE.

9. Actress North, once touted as "the new Marilyn Monroe": SHEREE. As Advertised.

10. Kind of man or game: CONFIDENCE. From the many scams in which the victim is induced to hand over money as a token of confidence: "con men". Also Congress. Not picking a side here, politics in general is something we could do with less of from both sides. That word comes from poly, meaning many, and tics, meaning blood-sucking parasites.

11. Narnia lion: ASLAN. Created by author C.S. Lewis.

12. Fix, as a slot machine?: REARM. Slot machine = one armed bandit.

13. Uplift: EDIFY. From Latin, to build or construct, as an edifice. Late Latin meaning: to improve spiritually or instruct.

18. Night light: NEON. Red is the only color actual neon gas produces. There are now more than 150 colors possible; almost every color other than red is produced using argon, mercury and phosphor. Neon tubes actually refer to all positive-column discharge lamps, regardless of the gas filling. The colors in order of discovery were blue (Mercury), white (Co2), gold (Helium), red (Neon), and then different colors from phosphor-coated tubes. The mercury spectrum is rich in ultraviolet light which in turn excites a phosphor coating on the inside of the tube to glow. Be very careful disposing of "neon" tubes, which are most probably mercury vapor instead.

22. Astringent: ACRID. Sharp, bitter, fierce. Related word: acrimony. I wouldn't have thought of acrid meaning quite the same as astringent, but I'm seeing more than one related pair in this puzzle (56D. Astringent compound: ALUM.), so that's probably why it was clued that way.

24. Bass or drum: FISH. Bass can be largemouth or smallmouth. Drumfish.

25. Blast cause, briefly: NITRO. Nitroglycerin. Also the N in TNT (Tri-Nitro-Toluene).

27. Some cops: DETECTIVES. Monk, Moto, Chan, even Wojo.

29. Rug: WIG. Hairpiece. Construction of a wig is similar to the process of making a rug: using a hook to attach tufts of hair to a piece of base material. Apparently the term started in the theater industry where many actors needed wigs to play their roles.

30. Ga. airport: ATL. Atlanta, Georgia.

34. News promo: SOUNDBITE. "The Eagle has landed" "Elvis has left the building".

35. Take the stage: ACT. Did anyone try to take the stagecoach?

36. Mandolin kin: UKE. Both are small plucked strings. The abbreviation is in the language, like rhino, so an indicator wasn't necessary.

38. As a friend, to Fifi: EN AMI. French phrase.

39. "High Noon" actress Jurado: KATY. 1952 movie starring Gary Cooper.

44. Regular alternative, informally: HI TEST. Only necessary if you have a high-performance (high-compression) engine to prevent knocking. In a regular engine, you don't get any benefit for the extra cost.

45. X-rated stuff: SMUT.

46. Unexpected climax: TWIST. I can't believe the proximity of the answer above was a complete accident...

47. In better health: HALER. Hale means whole, in the sense of wellness.

49. "... O, be some __ name": Juliet: OTHER. What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. (Ref 57A above, "pull my finger")

50. Bowler's division: FRAME. Ten per game.

52. Puckish: ELFIN. Puck is a mischievous fairy in "A Midsummer Night's Dream". A second Shakespeare clue/answer.

53. Has-__: BEENS.

58. Nevertheless, briefly: THO. Although.

59. Baths: SPA. Spa is actually a municipality in Belgium, and is the site of many healing hot springs. Agatha Christie's fictional detective (27D) Hercule Poirot was born in Spa.

Answer grid.

Pictures of the Day: Say Hello to Cameron, who was born on June 21, 2010. Look how happy Grandma JD is. Here is a another look at the handsome guy.

Al