Thursday August 19, 2010 Gene Newman

Theme: Idiom Antonyms - The starting positional prepositions in familiar phrases are flip-flopped and the resulting phrases are humorously reinterpreted and clued with question marked one-word adjectives.

17A. Dishonest?: BELOWBOARD. When you are honest, you are said to be aboveboard in your dealings.

26A. Happy?: UP IN THE MOUTH. Sad = down in the mouth.

42A. Sick?: OUT OF THE PINK. Healthy = in the pink.

56A. Incompetent?: OFF THE BALL. Competent = on the ball.

This theme is similar to neagative (in-/im-/un-/dis-/non-/extra-) words that no longer have a corresponding positive in the language, as in this poem, A Very Descript Man, attributed to J. H. Parker, one day late for bad poetry day:

I am such a dolent man, / I eptly work each day; / My acts are all becilic, / I've just ane things to say. / My nerves are strung, my hair is kempt, / I'm gusting and I'm span:/ I look with dain on everyone / And am a pudent man. / I travel cognito and make A delible impression: / I overcome a slight chalance, / With gruntled self-possesion. / My, dignation would be great / If I should digent be:/ I trust my vagance will bring / An astrous life for me.

Al here, with a fun Thursday. I think I might have gotten this without the theme, but figuring that out sure sped things up. I think this is a first for me, no links today...

Cross:

1. Boot's meal: MESS. Boot camp, I suppose...

5. What houses may be built on: SPEC. Speculation that if you build it, it will sell.

9. Li'l Abner's creator: CAPP. Al Capp, born: Alfred Gerald Caplin.

13. Some finals: ORALS. Final tests for graduate college/university degrees.

15. Machu Picchu's land: PERU. Translates to "old mountain".

16. Jewish youth org.: YMHA. Young Men's Hebrew Association.

19. Baseball Triple Crown component: RBIS. Runs Batted In. Also Home Runs and batting average, three statistics required for batters. Pitchers must lead in wins, strikeouts and Earned Run Average (ERA).

20. Winter sailcraft: ICE BOATS.

21. Locks up: JAILS.

22. Sgts.' superiors: LTS. Sergeants, lieutenants.

23. Galeón booty: ORO. Spanish gold. Galeón is Spanish for galleon.

24. Specialty, informally: THING. It's your/my thing to solve crossword puzzles.

30. Coach in the air?: CLASS. Coach class is the cheapest way to travel by plane, train, etc.

33. Tries to sink, perhaps: RAMS. Battleship collisions, also the part of the ship specifically designed to do such damage.

34. "Now I get it!": OHO.

35. Journalist Clare Boothe __: LUCE. Busy lady for an illegitimate child: Playwright, editor, journalist, ambassador, socialite and US Congresswoman.

36. Teases maliciously: BAITS.

38. MLB All-Star Game day: TUES. Baseball season approximate mid-point, played usually on the second Tuesday of July.

39. ___-de-France: ILE. The most populous region of France, contains most of metropolitan Paris.

40. War ender: PACT. Latin pactum, covenant, contract.

41. Serious borders?: ESSES. The letter "S" is first and last in the word SeriouS. Was anyone fooled?

46. America's Cup entry: YACHT.

47. Bank book no.: INT. Interest.

48. Asian title of respect: SRI. Sanskrit for "beauty", especially of divinities and kings.

51. Illegal pickoff moves, e.g.: BALKS. A few baseball terms in the puzzle... This is when a pitcher makes a move as if to throw, but instead interrupts his motion. If he can make a smooth throwing motion to the base instead, then it isn't a balk and a runner with too far of a lead-off can possibly be tagged out.

53. Out of the box: UNCRATED.

55. Russian city on the Oka: OREL. A geographical answer to confuse you along with the Ural Mountains and the Aral Sea.

58. First name in Old West fiction: ZANE. Grey. Roughly 90 books with 110 movies made from his work.

59. "Go away!": SHOO.

60. Like Serling stories: EERIE. Rod Serling, narrator of the Twilight Zone.

61. Be compliant: OBEY.

62. Get wise with: SASS.

63. U.S. Army decorations: DSCS. Distinguished Service Cross. One step below the Medal of Honor.

Down:

1. Gas brand with a red "o" in its logo: MOBIL.

2. Upright: ERECT.

3. Rep's work: SALES. I guess REP isn't considered an abbrev. in this context...

4. Schulz's Pig-Pen, e.g.: SLOB. Charles Schulz, Peanuts comic. Pig-Pen is the one constantly in a cloud of dust, even when it rains or snows.

5. Exact, to a Brit: SPOT ON.

6. Porridge morsels: PEAS.

7. Goof: ERR.

8. Ruminant's mouthful: CUD. To ruminate is to turn something over in your mind, or as a cow, chew cud.

9. Rostand's long-nosed lover: CYRANO. Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac, who actually existed, however, the play's plotline involving Roxane and Christian is almost entirely fictional — the real Cyrano did not write the Baron's love letters for him

10. Equivocal: AMBIGUOUS.

11. Punxsutawney predictor: PHIL. Groundhog day.

12. Coquette's wink, say: PASS. The word pass has been associated with a fencing move definition, to lunge at, also to make an attempt or try, or to make a "play" for.

14. Eagles' attacks: SWOOPS.

18. Adriatic port: BARI. Italy. Only got it through perp fills...

21. Slim __: snack items: JIMS. So greasy. I suppose they help wash the beer down...

24. One of those things: THAT

25. Bottom lines?: HEMS. Was not thinking sewing here, wanted NETS for the profit sense.

26. Take habitually: USE. Addiction.

27. Like overused crossword clues: TRITE.

28. Biblical pronoun: THEE.

29. Ponderosa heavyweight: HOSS. Dan Blocker was a large man.

30. Adman's award: CLIO. Named for the Greek muse of history, Clio is known as The Proclaimer; the name is from a root word that means "recount" (narrate) or "make famous".

31. Beaut: LULU. Bret Favre, for example.

32. Welder's need: ACETYLENE.

36. British spa town: BATH. Aptly named.

37. Sieben follower: ACHT. Seven, eight in German.

38. Sound made with a head shake: TSK. Made along with the shake, as opposed to an actual noise generated by having loose screws or missing marbles.

40. U.S. Army E-3s: PFCS. Privates, First Class. Technically the abbreviation is contained internally either singular or plural with the first word, so it shouldn't really have an "S" at the end, but this rule is broken a lot in everyday use.

41. Early bird special item: ENTREE. Extended early restaurant hours where the price can be cheaper to generate additional business off-peak.

43. "Little Sure Shot": OAKLEY. Annie.

44. Mottled horses: PINTOS. Large patches of white plus any other color.

45. Move furtively: INCH. Little by little.

48. Oscar Night assembly: STARS.

49. Dig find: RELIC. Archaeology.

50. What a slacker does: IDLES. Slack as in lax, limp, unmoving.

51. Oaf: BOZO. Oaf is related to elf, and comes from a changeling; a foolish child left by the fairies. Some dictionaries still give the plural as oaves. Bozo perhaps from Sp. bozal, used in the slave trade and also to mean "one who speaks Spanish poorly."

52. Certain Semite: ARAB. Semite from Shem, one of the three sons of Noah.

53. Area 51 sightings: UFOS. I have it on pretty good authority that this is really much ado about nothing. I'd tell you how I know, but then I'd have to have you taken care of...

54. Reading by a night light, perhaps: ABED. I will be doing this soon, I hope. I think words like these were made up by poets to stretch out the number of syllables.

56. WWII spy org.: OSS. Office of Strategic Services, forerunner of the CIA.

57. Govt. loan insurer: FHA. Federal Housing Administration.

Answer Grid,

Al

Wednesday August 18, 2010 Dan Naddor

Theme: ALTERATIONS - The second word of each two word theme answer indicates someone or something that causes some sort of transformation, in plural form.

16A. Some den boxes : CABLE CONVERTERS. "Den box" gave me pause. This is the box that allows your old non-cable-ready TV to hook up to cable. CONVERTERS can also change their religions, or transform things.

22A. Hookups to many electronic devices : POWER ADAPTORS. They change the voltage from line current to whatever your device requires.

35A. Jacob Riis et al. : SOCIAL REFORMERS. They try to make things better. Riis' cause was the impoverished of New York City, 100 years ago.

44A. Currency pros : MONEY CHANGERS. They'll convert your Shekels to Denarii - for a price. But the pros have their cons, and might get chased out of an inappropriate venue by an activist SOCIAL REFORMER, who might even try to CONVERT them.

55A. Insurance investigators : CLAIMS ADJUSTERS. Per Wikipedia, they "investigate insurance claims by interviewing the claimant and witnesses, consulting police and hospital records, and inspecting property damage to determine the extent of the company’s liability." Otherwise, an adjustment is often a small scale fine-tuning, as to your radio dial or 6th cervical vertebra.

Hi gang, it's JazzBumpa, the Toledo Trombonist, blessed to have a Dan Naddor puzzle to share with you.

Today, Dan gave us three grid-spanning theme answers, plus two more at 13 letters each, making for an extremely dense and rich blend. Very seldom do we see a total of 71 theme squares on a weekday puzzle. With 36 blocks (4 cheaters/helpers), 74 words, and an averages length of 5.11, this is technically very close to a Thursday puzzle.

Difficulty seems about right for a Wednesday, though. I chunked through in 14:43. I had a feeling we were due for one of Dan's, but didn't recognize this as his style. The cluing seems a bit straightforward, not the normal Devious Dan Delights. But this is a superb puzzle: the theme is tight and coherent, and the long down fill is exquisite.

Across :

1. "The Facts of Life" actress Charlotte : RAE. By me. I never watched. I think she's the one in the middle.

4. Swiftly : APACE. Fast enough to walk abreast - so to keep pace.

9. Just __: minimal amount : A DAB. This was a slow fill for me. Could be A TAD, or A BIT, without the perps.

13. Dual-purpose room shape : ELL. Kitchen and dining room, perhaps. But for kitchen and bathroom, I'd say, "ELL no!"

14. Raptor's gripper : TALON. Frex, an eagle's claw, or this.

15. Academy freshman : PLEBE. Probably derived from PLEBIAN, the class of Roman common citizens of lower status than Patricians.

19. Mimi's "mine" : AMOI. Oh, my. Alliteration for a foreign word seems pretty standard, the French name clues the language.

20. Clown for the camera : MUG. Occasionally a kid will do this.

21. Pounce on : LEAP AT. Maybe you should look first.

25. Solar wind particle : ION.

26. "Alley __" : OOP. Ally OOP was a cartoon cave man. He gives me an eary feeling. Or it can be something quite uplifting.

27. Yale or Harvard : IVY. The Ivy League Schools, offering lots of tradition, and very expensive educations.

30. Form 1040 IDs : SSNS. Social Security Numbers. Somewhere out there is an identity thief who wants yours.

32. Hammer-wielding god : THOR. It seems to me I've blogged this god before. Then again, what the Valhalla do I know.

34. Gave the boot : AXED. In Valhalla, you get hammered.

38. Fruity pastry : TART. They can be interesting and quite appetizing. The first two pictures here give some hint as to the variety.

39. Community word : OURS

40. "Powerful you have become, the dark side I sense in you" speaker : YODA. From Star Wars the saga, a character sagacious he is; speak this way he does. More attention he should have in ESL class paid.

41. Go downhill fast? : SKI. Our cabin last week was on SKI View Drive at an elevation of 2900 feet, and the way up was SKI Mountain Road. I was concerned about going downhill fast, without SKIs.

42. Course taught bilingually: Abbr. : ESL. English as a second language. Part of the cosswordese nouveau.

43. Dorothy Gale's state: Abbr. : KAN. Dorothy from Kansas, the reference from the Wizard of Oz: "Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore." The mean elevation of Kansas is 2000 feet. Toledo is 615.

51. Card carrier : MEMBER. Some organizations have membership cards so you can prove you belong. I am a card carrying MEMBER of the flat-landers.

53. Sound from a wowed crowd : OOH. Or from the view on Ski View Drive. The parking lot of Ober Gatlinburg was 400 feet below us.

54. Do in : SLAY

58. Shrewd : CAGEY

59. Helmsley dubbed "Queen of Mean" : LEONA. She is the hotel owner who opined that, "taxes are for little people." Riis would have had a thing or two to say to her.

60. "__ lost!" : GET. My response to Leona.

61. Specks in la mer : ILES. Islands in French. Or in the stream, perhaps.

62. Op-ed piece, e.g. : ESSAY.

63. Timeline divs. : YRS. Years. Abbrv in cl & ans.

Down:

1. Postgame summary : RECAP.

2. Crockett's last stand : ALAMO. Not our Crockett. Davey from Tennessee. The Alamo was the site of a 13 day siege and final assault that left all but two of the defenders dead. You can learn more about it here.

3. Be rude in a crowd : ELBOW. I needed perp help for this one. A rude person can use his elbows as weapons or pry bars to get ahead of the little people.

4. Enjoyed a blue plate special : ATE. I enjoyed some ice cream with a couple granddaughters this evening.

5. Pellet gobbler of old games : PACMAN. You can play here.

6. For all to hear : ALOUD. Are we allowed to say ALOUD ALOUD?

7. Line dance : CONGA. Let Gloria show you how.

8. Ltr. holder : ENV. Envelope. Anoth. Abrv.

9. Rite site : ALTAR. A rite is an established, ceremonious, usually religious act or process. The altar is a designated place or structure for such religious activities. It also echoes "ALTER," a much too subtle hint at the theme.

10. Threw overboard : DEEP SIXED. Maybe one of our sailors can fill us in on this colorful phrase.

11. __ Kadabra: foe of the Flash : ABRA. No idea, but it was an easy guess.

12. Blue ribbon-worthy : BEST. First prize at the county fair is often a blue ribbon.

15. Before surgery, briefly : PRE-OP. People get so nervous here, they take drugs to calm down.

17. What to do after making your metaphorical bed : LIE IN IT. No sympathy here. Deal with the consequences of your actions. Nice combination, though.

18. Corrida combatant : EL TORO. The bull in the bullfighting ring. Alas, poor bull - you never win.

23. Parks in '50s news : ROSA. ROSA Parks refused to give her seat on the bus to a white man, and this caused a national ruckus. In my life time. Wow.

24. Vanishing sounds : POOFS. Does a disappearing magic dragon go POOF or PUFF?

28. Designer Wang : VERA. Here is her style.

29. Gridiron gains: Abbr. : YDS. Yards. There are 100 between the opposite goal lines.

30. Overcharge, slangily : SOAK. Another colorful phrase. Anybody know where it came from?

31. Practice grid game : SCRIMMAGE. The NFL pre-season practice games are shown on TV. Better as fill, IMHO.

32. With sincerity : TRULY

33. Part of H.R.H. : HER. HER ROYAL HIGHNESS - the Queen. We aren't supposed to have any here. Except for LEONA, I guess.

34. Surrounded by : AMONGST. AMONGST and AMIDST sound so archaic.

35. Oft-numbered rtes. : STS. Streets, I guess. But STS are usually named, not numbered.

36. They aren't champs : LOSERS. And their RECAPS aren't much fun, either.

37. "You've Got Mail" co-star : RYAN. Meg RYAN. I wanted to fit in a first name, and that just wasn't working. Looks like her plastic surgery was no great success, either.

42. Bad guy : ENEMY. But I'm his ENEMY, too. Does that make me a bad guy?

43. Islands VIP : KAHUNA. Again, from Wikipedia: Kahuna is a Hawaiian word, defined in the Pukui & Elbert (1986) as a "Priest, sorcerer, magician, wizard, minister, expert in any profession."

45. Big Apple awards : OBIES. Annual Off Broadway awards bestowed by The Village Voice, and another part of crosswordese nouveau.

46. Cryptographers' creations : CODES. Software developers, too.

47. Orange-roofed eateries, for short : HOJOS. Howard Johnson's. Here is one of Howard's finest moments.

48. Poem of lament : ELEGY. Now is when we need Clear Ayes.

49. Not as easy to come by : RARER. Dan's puzzles are getting RARER.

50. Handicappers' methods: Abbr. : SYSTS. Systems. This relates to wagering on sports, I'll bet.

51. 13th-century date : MCCI. Roman 1201. My memories of that year are quite vague.

52. Airline to Tel Aviv : EL AL. And a frequent flyer in crosswords.

56. Pub pint : ALE

57. "Come to think of it ..." : SAY. And I say this was a fine solving and blogging experience.

Answer grid.

Here is a picture of the much vaunted Varsity Chili Dogs Dennis drove hundreds of miles for last week. Strange to have mustard over chili over hot dogs, isn't it? Here's another look.

Cheers!

JzB