Sunday July 26, 2010 Nora Pearlstone

Theme: Tee for Two - Letter T is added to the start of the second word of each two-word familiar phrase, which also has letter T as the end of its first word. The resulting phrase with two Ts spanning in the middle is then humorously clued.

23A. Monster affected by a moon phase? : CRESCENT TROLL. The base phrase is crescent roll.

37A. Levy on butchers? : MEAT TAX. Meat ax.

69A. Warren weeping? : RABBIT TEARS. Rabbit ears. Rabbits live in warrens. Bet it brought a smile to our Warren and his lovely wife Ruth.

76A. Japanese chicken snacks? : EAST TENDERS. Not familiar with the base phrase "EastEnders". Does it refer to the BBC show?

106A. Can for old smokes? : BUTT TIN. Butt in.

124A. Attacker's fruity treat? : ASSAULT TRIFLE. Assault rifle.

17D. Small pie à la Pollock? : ABSTRACT TART. Abstract art. Pollock's work is truly hard to understand.

41D. Stuff that sticks for years? : GREAT TAPE. Great ape.

49D. Taunting from the Miami bench? : HEAT TRASH. Heat rash. Miami Heats (NBA).

65A. Bakery supply for wrapping cake boxes? : DESSERT TWINE. Dessert wine.

Fun theme. Fun clues too. I liked that all the theme entries are two-word phrases, which give the theme a narrowed focus.

Some may not pay attention to those transformed second T* word, but none of them has the repeating pattern. Rich Norris (Nora Pearlstone is his alias name, anagram of "not a real person". ) covered a wide range of possible T starting words:

1) T with various vowels/vowel combination: short a, long a, ar, ea, e & i. I suppose Rich found no sparkly To or Ty phrases.

2) T with consonants: TW & TR(A/I/O). TH is missing. Thought it's a good combination to play around. No, Jerome/John?

Total 49 Ts in the grid, eclipsed only by the most used crossword vowel E (53).

My favorite clues today:

122A. Split payment? : ALIMONY

116D. Females with pig tails : SOWS. The clue made me laugh.

Across:

1. Get at : ACCESS

7. Like lambs : GENTLE. I wanted SILENT, thinking "The Silence of the Lambs". We also have TAME (118D. Easy to manage).

13. 1983 invasion site : GRENADA

20. President Ahmadinejad's capital : TEHRAN. Mad man.

21. Pioneer Day celebrant : UTAHAN. Not familiar with Utah's state holiday "Pioneer Day".

22. Dressed : ENROBED

25. Chips Ahoy! maker : NABISCO

26. Filet mignon, e.g. : ENTREE

27. Black Sea country : UKRAINE. Awesome entry.

29. Diglyceride, for one : ESTER. Know the answer, not the clue.

30. Performance rights org. : BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc)

31. Craving : URGE

33. Give a hand : ASSIST

35. Yeats's homeland : ERIN. Poetic name for Ireland.

36. Response to an e-mail wisecrack : LOL

40. "Here's the __ ..." : THING

42. Many a Monopoly sq. : AVE

43. Sole : ONLY

45. Abbot's address: Abbr. : RT. REV. Retired Reverend I suppose. (Correction: It stands for Right Reverend. Thanks, Lemonade.)

46. Spiffed (up) : SPRUCED

48. Illustrator N.C. : WYETH. No idea. He's the father of Andrew Wyeth, known for his "Christina's World".

50. The younger Saarinen : EERO. The older Saarinen is Eliel.

51. Boo follower : HOO. Boohoo.

54. Toon flapper Etta : KETT. Can never remember this old comic figure.

55. __ Plaines, Illinois : DES

57. 1980s South African pres. : P.W. BOTHA. Was confused by the PWB combination. Total stranger.

60. Starts the kitty : ANTES

63. Mouse site : PAD. Computer mouse.

66. College fund-raising targets : ALUMS

71. U.K. award : OBE (Order of the British Empire)

72. Newbie : TYRO

73. Everycowboy : TEX

74. Skip : OMIT

75. Hook (up) : RIG

79. Carrion eater : HYENA

80. Asian holiday : TET. Only in Vietnam.

81. '90s N.Y. Philharmonic conductor Kurt : MASUR. Another stranger.

82. Westernmost of the Sunda Islands : SUMATRA

84. Mean at a univ. : GPA

86. South Dakota, to Pierre : ETAT. Pierre here refers to the typical French name instead of the capital city.

88. Word before and after "vs." in a Mad feature : SPY. Spy vs. Spy.

89. Italian vineyard region : ASTI. Do you like "Stealing Beauty"?

92. Culture: Pref. : ETHNO

96. Read : PERUSED

99. Scrawny : GAUNT

101. Good earth : LOAM. Nice play on "The Good Earth".

102. Co. that spun off the Baby Bells : AT&T

103. Wasteland : HEATH

108. Luau instrument : UKE

109. 19th Amendment proponent : CATT. Carrie Chapman Catt. Suffrage.

111. Tough spot : SCRAPE

113. Saltimbocca herb : SAGE. Was ignorant of the exact family sage belongs to.

114. Seat holder: Abbr. : SEN. Senate.

115. Flightless New Zealanders : KIWIS

117. Ruthless leaders : TYRANTS

120. Rubbed the wrong way : CHAFED

127. Time keeping action? : RENEWAL. Time magazine.

128. Treads heavily : STOMPS

129. List shortener : ET ALIA

130. Women's department array : DRESSES

131. Most balanced : SANEST

132. "Have patience" : NOT YET

Down:

1. LAX tower service : ATC. Air Traffic Control. I forgot.

2. What a stickler may stand on? : CEREMONY. Why? Don't get this clue.

3. Bedspread fabric : CHENILLE. Chenille fabric.

4. While opening : ERST. Erstwhile.

5. Pelvic bone : SACRUM

6. Scornful type : SNEERER

7. Like some instinctive reactions : GUT

8. Caesar's closer : ET TU. "Et tu, Brute?". Caesar's dying words.

9. Sussex stoolie : NARK. Did not know the Brits call informant "nark". Weird, it sounds the cop "narc" to me.

10. Chest : THORAX

11. Singers' refrains : LALAS. One more time for Lucia to think of her mother.

12. Join up : ENLIST

13. Beginning : GENESIS

14. Protein-building polymer : RNA. Only know it as "Genetic letters".

15. Kathryn of "Law & Order: C.I." : ERBE. Her name escaped me. We had this actress before.

16. Uproar : NOISE

18. Trick : DECEIVE

19. Decorated : ADORNED

24. Deny the truth of : NEGATE

28. Med. research org. : NIH (National Institutes of Health)

30. Lose, as a big lead : BLOW

32. To be, in Quebec : ETRE

34. I-90 in Mass., e.g. : TNPK (Turnpike)

38. U. of Maryland team : TERPS

39. Declare : AVOW

44. Financial report hdg. : YTD

47. __ Reader: alternative media anthology : UTNE. Named after its founder.

51. Sting, for instance : HOAX. Sting operation. Not singer Sting.

52. Tout's hangout, for short : OTB (Offtrack Betting)

53. "Yahoo!" : OH BOY

56. Roy Rogers's birth name : SLYE. His real name is Leonard Slye. Might be one of Dennis "Did you know...". I simply forgot.

58. Brittany seaport : BREST

59. Je t'__: French "I love you" : AIME

61. Historic canal : ERIE

62. U.S. Army E-6 : SSGT. Staff Sergeant.

63. Pope creation : POEM. English poet Alexander Pope.

64. Four-line rhyme scheme : ABAA

67. Coffee holders : URNS

68. __ vivendi: lifestyle : MODUS. I only know "joie de vivre".

70. Small bell sound : TING

73. Room service convenience : TRAY

77. Layered skirt : TUTU

78. Old Roman ldr. : EMP. ldr = leader. Meh!

79. Goes after : HAS AT

83. Product with "Robusto!" flavors : RAGU

85. View from Martha's Vineyard, Mass. : ATL. Atlantic ocean.

87. Golf shop bagful : TEES

90. "Tsk" relatives : TUTS

91. Whole : INTACT

93. Indoor buzzer? : HOUSEFLY. Superb clue/answer.

94. Blunt fiction : NAKED LIE. I like this answer too.

95. Rainbow, to some : OMEN

96. Early luxury auto : PACKARD

97. 24/7 business : ETAILER

98. Three-syllable feet : DACTYLS. How I wish dear Clear Ayes were here to give us an example!

100. Secure, in a way : TIGHTEN

104. Give it a go : TRY

105. Bother no end : HARASS

106. Former Mormon leader Ezra Taft __ : BENSON. Peeked at the answer sheet. He has a distinguished look.

107. Almost touching : NEAR TO

110. Airport postings : TIMES

112. Fusilli, e.g. : PASTA

119. Has dinner : SUPS. And EAT (126. Dinner exhortation). Dinner echos.

121. Royal decree : FIAT

123. Tam wearer's turndown : NAE. Scottish for "no".

125. D-Day craft : LST (Landing Ship Tank)

Answer grid.

I have a question: Does Nora Pearlstone sound like a porn star name to you? We continue to get quite a few Japanese porn spams on last Nora "PMS" themed Sunday puzzle, even after we deleted all the possible links in the main write-up and the Comments section. Darling Santa has to delete them nearly every day.

C.C.

Saturday July 24, 2010 Mark Diehl

Theme: None

Total words: 66

Total blocks: 36

Average Word length: 5.73

The total block count is relatively high compared with its word count, but 12 are help squares in each corner, consuming 1/3 of them.

The puzzle is framed by a 11/13/15 on top and a 15/13/11 at the bottom. All of them are multi-word entries:

1A. Co-star of TV's "Chuck" : ADAM BALDWIN. Cross-referenced with MY BODYGUARD (56A. 1980 film debut for 1-Across). Have never heard of this dude. Looks cool. I liked how the cross-referenced pair bookends the grid.

12A. One might raise the roof : CRANE OPERATOR. Was thinking of something temper related.

14A. Situations that aren't clear-cut : BORDERLINE CASES. My favorite entry today. This might be the seed entry.

52A. 1983 ELO hit with the lyric "She loves that drivin' beat" : ROCK 'N' ROLL IS KING. Blind spot for me.

55A. They may be spotted at pet stores : CALICO KITTENS. Not a pet person. So, yeah, another blank stare.

Very difficult solving for me. Unable to sync with the constructor. I seldom do on Saturday, regardless of who constructs the puzzle. The clues are just too tricky & ambiguous.

Across:

16. State with a five-sided flag : OHIO. Unknown trivia to me. Boy, that's strange looking, isn't it?

17. Raccoon kin : COATI. With long & ringed tail.

18. Multipurpose lyrics : LA LA. Because they are often refrained, Santa?

19. Story : LEVEL. Was in the tale "Story" direction.

21. Cat lead-in : SNO. Snowcat.

22. Plush, in a way : PILED. As velvet.

23. Top quality : GRADE A

25. Oregon Trail river : PLATTE. A gimme for our Oregon gang.

26. It's often smoked in Sweden : EEL. I thought it's pickled there.

27. Kind of well : ARTESIAN. Named after the French region Artois. It's "a well that is dug into the ground to the water table and is under pressure and will spray out of the well head like a oil geyser". Who knows?!

31. Some rtes. : RDS

32. Luminescent critter : FIREFLY. Awesome fill. With two Fs.

33. Org. that infiltrated Germany in the '40s : OSS. I am used to the "CIA forerunner" clue.

36. Exude an air of disinterest : BLOW COLD. Also a new phrase to me. Crossing BRISKLY (36D. How a cool wind blows). Blow duplication.

37. Balderdash : PAP. Only familiar with the baby food definition.

38. For only a select few : SECRET

41. Very much : SORELY. For those who have been missing Clear Ayes,, she has a photo for us today.

43. Aquiline nose, e.g. : TRAIT

44. Area between N. and S. Korea : DMZ

47. Capital east of Dhaka : HANOI. Dhaka is the capital of Bangladesh. My brain nerve for directions is damaged. So, no idea, Sir!

48. Goes on to say : ADDS

49. One of the fire signs : ARIES

51. "Let's go!" : C'MON

Down:

1. Airport board heading : ARRIVALS

2. Grooved, in carpentry : DADOED. Here is a dado joint. Did not know it can be a verb, Jerome!

3. Hydrocarbon suffix : ANE. Learned from doing Xword.

4. Hired gun, briefly : MERC (Mercenary)

5. Official ties of New Mexico : BOLOS. Neckties!

6. Like bees : APIAN

7. Tempo marking : LENTO. "Slowly".

8. Bavarian trio : DREI. Three in German. A gimme for Kazie/Spitzboov.

9. Mil. branch from 1943 to 1978 : WAC. Women Army Corps. Stumper.

10. Restaurant guide category : ITALIAN

11. Margarita option : NO SALT. Hmm, that would not be margarita.

12. Stuck : COHERED. Tricky clue.

13. Got a new tenant for : RELET

14. Tony-winning star of "Where's Charley?" (1948) : BOLGER (Ray). Only know him as the scarecrow in "The Wizard of Oz".

15. 1986 Best New Artist Grammy winner : SADE. Had the S in place, so SADE came to me immediately. Love her.

20. Certain handout : LEAFLET

22. Toy in resealable cans : PLAY-DOH. Nice clue/answer.

24. "__ is the language of the unheard": M.L. King Jr. : A RIOT. Have never heard of this quote before. What does it mean? Sounds violent to me.

25. Dispensary stock : PILLS

28. Credit checker Experian, formerly : TRW. No idea.

29. Continental trade org. : EEC (European Economic Community)

30. Virgin America hub: Abbr. : SFO. Peeked at the answer sheet.

33. Negotiating asset : OPEN MIND. Another great entry.

34. Watering holes : SALOONS. Watering hole = bar/saloon.

35. Bond activity? : SPYING. James Bond.

38. Macy's logo : STAR

39. Triage MD : ER DOC. Had ERD?? forever.

40. High-tech engineering acronym : CAD/CAM. Computer-Aided Design/Computer Aided Manufacturing. Got me.

42. Eightball loser, often : RACKER. Don't know any pool terms.

44. Title name in an unfinished Dickens work : DROOD. Dickens's "The Mystery of Edwin Drood".

45. Whitish : MILKY

46. Chameleon-like Woody Allen character : ZELIG. Woody Allen's mockumentary (1983). We had this clue before.

49. String music direction : ARCO. With the bow. I can never remember this term.

50. In __: as found : SITU

53. Tip of a pen : NIB. Neb too, right?

54. RR depot : STA

Answer grid.

Here is a sweet photo of our beloved Clear Ayes & her granddaughter Rachael. she said the picture "was taken on Easter Eve 2010 when my granddaughter and I were making a huge mess dying Easter eggs. They weren't exactly works of art, but we had a great time making them and every one was colored with splashes of laughter". She'll be back with us once her family issue is resolved.

C.C.