Tuesday August 10, 2010 C.W. Stewart

Theme: Outer Clothes - The first word of the first four themes and the last word of the unifier are articles of outerwear. If you experienced déjà vu, it's because of this, just two weeks ago.

17A. Southernmost tip of South America : CAPE HORN. The Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Africa.

21A. Smacked someone when they least expected it? : STOLE A KISS

40A. Deadly squeezers : BOA CONSTRICTORS. No image, I know how some feel about snakes.

57A. Family crest : COAT OF ARMS . (28D __ of arms : COAT: just yesterday)

66A. Director's shout, and hint to the starts of 17-, 21-, 40- and 57-Across : "IT'S A WRAP!"

Argyle here.

Déjà boo, not nearly as tight as Harvey Estes' 27 July offering but it does have a grid spanner in the middle. (Our local paper had a story about the big snake but called it a boa restricter. A neighbor herpetologist wrote a scathing letter to the paper, upset that they could make such a basic mistake.)

Across:

1. Box-office smash : HIT

4. Hug and smooch : NECK

8. Robbins's partner : BASKIN. Baskin-Robbins premium ice cream. With more than 6,000 retail shops in 35 countries, they’re now the world’s largest chain of ice cream specialty shops.

14. Wrigley Field feature : IVY . Go Cubbies! Image

15. "No lie!" : TRUE

16. It can be formal or informal : ATTIRE. Or outerwear.

19. Jolly-good mates : BLOKES

20. Fort with billions in bullion : KNOX. Located in Kentucky, the United States Bullion Depository, commonly called Fort Knox, is a fortified vault building located adjacent to Fort Knox. It holds about 4,603 tons of gold bullion. It is second in the United States only to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's underground vault in Manhattan, which holds about 5,000 metric tonnes of gold in trust for many foreign nations, central banks and official international organizations.

23. Gender-neutral possessive : ONE'S

25. Besides : ELSE

26. Sew with loose stitches : BASTE

29. Thanksgiving veggie : YAM

31. It's plighted in marriage : TROTH . Old English trēowth ; related to Old High German gitriuwida, meaning loyalty, truth

35. Mid-size Nissan : ALTIMA . Automobile.

37. Have dinner : SUP

39. Arthur of "The Golden Girls" : BEA . Passed away last year.

44. Young newt : EFT

45. La Brea goo : TAR

46. Like many CIA ops : COVERT

47. Dance components : STEPS

50. Building site : LOT

52. Actor Davis : OSSIE

53. Edible Andean tubers : OCAS . Has anyone tried one?

55. Reason to swear : OATH

61. Track figures : ODDS. Racing track. Number figure.

65. Pressing : URGENT

68. Ghostly gathering : SEANCE . A ghostly gathering only if the seance is successful.

69. Like some dorms : CO-ED

70. Gold, south of the border : ORO . Spanish

71. Luggage lugger : PORTER

72. CPR experts : EMTS

73. Stroke lovingly, or the object of a loving stroke : PET

Down:

1. Hayseed : HICK

2. "Terrible" 16th-century leader : IVAN

3. Goof for good, e.g.? : TYPO. Letters DF are together in the keyboard.

4. Utmost degree : NTH

5. Jagged, as a leaf's edge : EROSE

6. Respectful bow : CURTSY

7. Numbers game : KENO

8. Biblical tower site : BABEL

9. Finally : AT LAST

10. Furnace room worker : STOKER . I don't believe they exist anymore. Their job was to shovel coal or coke into the furnace.

11. Singer __ Dee : KIKI . And now, a musical interlude.

12. Tees off : IRES

13. Suffix with kind or fond : NESS

18. Like some dancers : EXOTIC

22. King Julien XIII in "Madagascar" : LEMUR . Madagascar is a 2005 computer-animated film produced by DreamWorks Animation. Sacha Baron Cohen is the voice of the king. What a lemur looks like.

24. Verne captain : NEMO

26. Innocents : BABES

27. Floating on high : ALOFT

28. Country division : STATE

30. N.L. Central player : ASTRO . Baseball's Houston Astros.

32. Bassoon relatives : OBOES

33. Country singer Gibbs : TERRI . No relation of Special Agent Gibbs. "Somebody's Knockin'"

34. Impulsiveness : HASTE

36. Critter on a hill : ANT

38. Snapshot, briefly : PIC

41. Lively Cuban dance : SALSA

42. Old geezer : COOT

43. NBC offering : TV SHOW

48. Strong : POTENT

49. Decorative wall light fixture : SCONCE

51. Source of oater drumming : TOM-TOM . Not only in Westerns but in jungle movies, too.

54. Later than : AFTER

56. Liability offset : ASSET

57. Zodiacal border : CUSP

58. One may be dipped in milk : OREO

59. Lab gel : AGAR

60. Paddy product : RICE

62. Lead-in for cloth or kick : DROP . Drop cloth - to catch paint spatter. Drop kick - to catch the offense off guard (football).

63. Challenge : DARE

64. Brit's bit of tea : SPOT

67. Super Bowl highlights? : ADS

Answer grid.

Argyle

Monday, August 9, 2010 Jeff Chen

Theme: *ULUS - Two-word phrases with ULUS as the ending of the first word. If there is more than that to it, I can't see it. Disambiguation page.

17A. Economy-boosting government program : STIMULUS PACKAGE Perhaps this was the seed entry.

28A. Exam with derivatives and integrals : CALCULUS TEST

49A. Puffy sky feature : CUMULUS CLOUD

64A. Rome's twin founders, traditionally : ROMULUS AND REMUS. Total 13 letter Us in this grid. Hard to pull it off, as U is harder to place than E, or A or other vowels.

Argyle here.

I hope Jeff may show up to enlighten us on his thought process on this ambitious Monday puzzle. Now if it seemed easy to many of you; it may be because we've seen many entries before, recently (not the theme entries, which are all very fresh.)

Across:

1. Sound near an ineffective scarecrow : CAW

4. Electrical pioneer Nikola : TESLA

9. Scandinavian inlet : FJORD

14. Chef's phrase : À LA

15. Healing plants : ALOES

16. Apple pie maker's device : CORER

20. Ex-UN chief Annan : KOFI. This man.

21. GPS suggestions : RTES

22. Greek vowels : ETAS

23. Apt name for a herding dog : SHEP As in shepherd.

26. Wedgelike tools : CHISELS

32. __ Miss : OLE. The University of Mississippi

33. Game originally named "The Conquest of the World" : "RISK" A game that takes forever to get going but ends in a hurry.

34. Gold or silver, e.g. : MEDAL. I was stuck on METAL for a long time

38. Baldwin of "30 Rock" : ALEC

40. Line spoken to the audience : ASIDE

43. Actor's assignment : ROLE

44. Big name in chicken : TYSON

46. She gets what she wants : LOLA

48. Wall Street index, with "the" : DOW. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA).

53. Hall of Fame Celtic whose initials are his given name : KC JONES. Basketball player and coach.

56. Spanish cat : GATO

57. Pakistan neighbor : IRAN

58. Benelux country: Abbr. : NETH. The Benelux is an economic union in Western Europe that comprises three neighbouring countries, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg.

60. Strong-jawed device : VISE

68. Makes a scarf, say : KNITS

69. One-eighty : U-TURN

70. Dot on a die : PIP

71. Dost lay one's eyes on : SEEST. It's in the book, the Good Book.

72. "For __ sake!" : PETE'S

73. Messy place : STY

Down:

1. Sherry container : CASK. Sherry is a fortified wine made from white grapes that are grown near the town of Jerez, Spain. The word "sherry" is an anglicization of Jerez. It is stored in 600-litre casks that are made of North American oak, which is slightly more porous than French or Spanish oak.

2. Choir part : ALTO

3. Homeless child : WAIF

4. Cross shape : TAU

5. Bent pipe shape : ELL

6. One with a grumpy scowl : SOURPUSS

7. "__ we forget" : LEST

8. Appearance : ASPECT

9. TV monitoring gp. : FCC. Federal Communications Commission

10. Wisecrack maker : JOKESTER

11. Give a speech : ORATE

12. Fit for a king : REGAL

13. Word with sun or evening : DRESS

18. Catchall abbr. : MISC

19. Tennis legend Arthur : ASHE

24. "Ben-__" : HUR

25. "East of Eden" director Kazan : ELIA. "East of Eden" is a 1955 film, directed by Elia Kazan, and loosely based on the second half of the novel East of Eden by author John Steinbeck. It had James Dean in his first major screen role.

27. Belief: Suff. : ISM

28. __ of arms : COAT

29. Comrade in arms : ALLY

30. Wranglers alternative : LEES

31. Proficiency : SKILL

35. Knucklehead : DODO

36. Baseball's Felipe or Moises : ALOU

37. Ribald : LEWD

39. Hard-shelled palm fruits : COCONUTS

41. Dunked morning snack : DOUGHNUT

42. Film lioness : ELSA. Nice kitty.

45. Sister : NUN

47. "Sister __": Whoopi Goldberg film : ACT

50. List of choices : MENU

51. Runs out of : USES UP

52. Score before 15, in tennis : LOVE

53. Actor Douglas and baseballer Gibson : KIRKS. Gibson was an outfielder who batted and threw left-handed. He spent most of his career with the Detroit Tigers but also played for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Kansas City Royals, and Pittsburgh Pirates.

54. Witch : CRONE

55. Farr or Foxx : JAMIE. Corporal (later Sergeant) Maxwell Q. Klinger(Farr) or actor, stand-up comedian, and singer(Foxx)

59. London's __ Britain art gallery : TATE

61. Rascals : IMPS

62. Three-piece attire, maybe : SUIT

63. Glimpse : ESPY

65. WWII transport : LST. Landing Ship, Tank

66. Dr. of rap : DRE

67. Dr.'s co-workers : RNS. NOT Dr. Dre's.

Answer grid.

Argyle