Friday September 3, 2010 Anthony J. Salvia

Theme: ID THEFT (36A. Web danger, and a hint to this puzzle's theme) - ID is stolen from the first word of each two-word common phrase.

17A. Like a dialect coach? : ACCENT PRONE. The base phrase is Accident Prone.

53A. Answer from LL Cool J? : RAP RESPONSE. Rapid Response. LL Cool J is a rapper.

11D. Christmas? : PRESENTS DAY. Presidents Day. Wikipedia says it can also be Presidents' Day.

25D. Herbivorous reptiles? : FLORA GATORS. Florida Gators. Shout-out to Gator Mom, who pointed out my tent dress mistake last time.

Nice pinwheel grid design, with the central hub ID THEFT, which made its LA Times debut today. Great tie-in. We don't often see a unifier in letter(s) addition/deletion/substitution puzzles.

The constructor's black square blocks along the four edges (called fingers, as they look like fingers poking into the grids) and the central parallel ladder-style break-downs give us plenty of 3 & 5-letter words, hence an early week-ish low average word length.

Across:

1. What some sirens do : TEMPT. Knew immediately that "siren" refers to the vamp.

6. 1990s-2000s Irish leader Bertie : AHERN. Alien to me. The dude on the right.

11. Pres. counterparts : PMS (Prime Ministers)

14. It may be blank : STARE. Great clue.

15. Food processor setting : PUREE. Last E prevented me from thinking of BLEND.

16. Outback critter : ROO

19. End of an academic address : EDU

20. Periods : SPELLS

21. Amount-and-interval numbers : DOSES. Drew a blank.

23. Not connected : OFF LINE. Nice entry.

26. Reel art : CINEMA

27. Knack : TALENT

28. Whalebone : BALEEN. Stumped me again.

30. New York home of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute : TROY. Who knows?!

31. Three-time French Open champion : SELES (Monica). French Open '90, '91, and '92.

32. Its symbol is Sn : TIN. Immediately followed by its symmetrical partner EAR (35. Musical knack). Knack clue echo with 27A.

38. Murcia Mrs. : SRA. Have never heard of Murcia, a city in SE Spain.

39. Nutritional stat : RDA. Recommended Daily Allowance.

40. Like some panels : SOLAR

41. Genesis locale : EDEN

42. Key of Mozart's Symphony No. 40 : G MINOR. Got MINOR part quickly.

44. Where the Maine sank : HAVANA. "Remember the Maine! to Hell with Spain!". Everything I learn, I learn from Xword.

46. Expects : AWAITS

48. Consequences of an all-nighter : RED EYES

49. Obsess : EAT AT

50. Titania's consort : OBERON. No idea. The King of "A Midsummer's Night Dream".

52. General on a menu : TSO. General Tso's Chicken.

58. Where Nina Totenberg reports : NPR. She's the legal affairs correspondent for NPR.

59. Inuit for "women's boat" : UMIAK. Kayak means "man's boat".

60. Gives some TLC to, with "in" : TUCKS

61. Doofus : ASS

62. They're heavier than foils : EPEES. Did not know foil is a fencing weapon as well.

63. Source of brown fur : STOAT

Down:

1. Airport safety org. : TSA

2. Last letters on some lists : ETC. Etc, etc...

3. Slicker : MAC. The "raincoat" meaning of slicker is new to me. I am eager to see what funny line Lois can make out of this answer.

4. Performer with five #1 hits in his first year on the Billboard charts : PRESLEY. When was that?

5. One at the edge of the gutter : TEN PIN. Bowling lane "gutter".

6. Record label launched in 1968 : APPLE. Unaware of this trivia.

7. Pitch : HURL. Man, Aroldis Chapman can sure pitch.

8. Lover of Psyche : EROS. Yep. I am aware of their affair.

9. Toon dog : REN. Ren and Stimpy.

10. Most impoverished : NEEDIEST

12. Cable __ : MODEM

13. "Semper Fidelis" composer : SOUSA. Sousa served in the Marine Corps. Do you all like "Full Metal Jacket?". I was just telling Dennis how cruel and humiliating the boot camp was.

18. It may pop up in a clearing : TENT. What "clearing"?

22. Vending machine insert : ONE

23. Fish-eating mammal : OTTER

24. Capacitance unit : FARAD. No idea. It's named after English physicist Michael Faraday. Dudley and Jayce shouldn't have any problem with this one.

26. Bass symbol : CLEF

28. Joy of "The View" : BEHAR

29. A or Ray : ALER. AL = American League. Oakland A's. Tempa Bay Rays. The rhyming clue does not do much for me.

31. City SE of Cherbourg : ST LO. See this map. What is Cherbourg famous for?

33. Papas of "Zorba the Greek" : IRENE. Nope. Another unknown. Greek actress.

34. Family matriarchs : NANAS

36. "For real?" : IS IT TRUE?

37. Oxford fellows : DONS. Like our professors, correct?

41. Become balanced : EVEN OUT

43. Athletes for Hope co-founder Hamm : MIA. Bill G had a close encounter with her.

44. Word on a towel : HERS

45. Embraces : ADOPTS

46. Cigna competitor : AETNA. Named for the volcano Etna.

47. Mud daubers, e.g. : WASPS. Not familiar with the mud dauber wasp.

48. Smells : REEKS

50. Boy with a fishing pole in a '60s sitcom title screen : OPIE. Stumper. I've never watched "The Andy Griffith Show".

51. Highlands hillside : BRAE

54. Rock concert fixture : AMP

55. U.S. Army E-6, e.g. : NCO. What other 3-letter answer could it be?

56. Jamaican genre : SKA

57. Phila. setting : EST. I am guessing the constructor is from Philadelphia.

Answer grid.

C.C.

Thursday September 2, 2010 Dan Naddor

Theme: Palindrome Pairs (36A. Three pairs of them end the answers to starred clues: PALINDROMES) - The ends of three symmetrical pairs of theme answers are palindromes.

17A. *Dense fabrics: DOUBLE KNITS. And 60A. *More than just grumble: RAISE A STINK. The first and last theme answers are paired. Knits is stink spelled backwards.

20A. *Ready to blow?: OVER STRESSED. paired with 54A. *"Top Chef" spin-off involving competitive baking: JUST DESSERTS. Then the second answer is paired with the penultimate answer. This one impressed me the most. Not just an acronym, stressed is desserts spelled backwards.

27A. *It'll keep your hat on: CHIN STRAP. paired with 44A. *Carquest stock: AUTO PARTS. Finally the third answer is paired with the ante-penultimate answer. Strap is parts spelled backwards.

Al here.

Along with the pairing, there was also some impressive symmetry work involved. The tip-off answer was positioned in the very center. Every pair has one answer that starts on the left edge of the grid and its mating answer answer ends on the right edge, and constructed so that both answers within a given pair are the same length as each other. Amazing 8-letter overlaps on the first and last pair of theme answers.

I can't help wondering how many puzzles from Dan are left before they are gone. Seven theme answers, using 75 squares, that's over 40% of the puzzle letters. Another quick solve for me today though, the short answers were mostly easy. I think abjure was the only word where I had to look up the meaning afterward.

Across:

1. Yankees' div.: AL EAST. Baseball. The Yankees are in the American League.

7. Deal: COPE. From Old French: couper, to hit, originally meant "come to blows with", and later evolved into "handle successfully". This would make coping so much more satisfactory, sometimes...

11. Jenny or jack: ASS. Names which became generic for male and female, applied to other animals (wren) and objects (spinning jenny, car jack). Note that "jack" was not capitalized here, so a name was not being clued. Ridden by 69A. Quixote's squire __ Panza: SANCHO.

14. Alter, as boundaries: REDRAW. Elbridge Gerry, governor of Massachusetts, was lampooned when his party redistricted the state in a blatant bid to preserve an Antifederalist majority. One Essex County district resembled a salamander, and a newspaper editor dubbed it a Gerrymander.

15. Slain shepherd: ABEL. Killed by his brother Cain. With 49A. 15-Across's dad: ADAM.

16. "Fer sher": YEP.

19. Prior to, to Prior: ERE. Interesting echo here. The second Prior (capitalized) refers to English poet Matthew Prior.

22. Fettuccine follower: ALFREDO. Noodles with Parmesan cheese and butter. And in the US mostly with cream as well.

25. Aborigines of Hokkaido: AINU. Japan.

26. Compress, in a way: BALE. Hay, straw, cotton, etc.

32. Cat tail motion: SWITCH. Twitch + swish making a portmanteau word that already exists?

35. Specialty: AREA.

40. Lots: A TON. Originally "space occupied by a tun or cask of wine," thus identical to tun.

41. Area 51 location: NEVADA.

50. Bingo call: B-TEN. Each letter has a possible 15 sequential numbers starting with one. There are 552,446,474,061,128,648,601,600,000 different Bingo cards possible.

51. Kettle pair: MA AND PA.

59. www address: URL. Uniform Resource Locator. With 3D. 59-Across ending: EDU.

64. Messenger letters?: RNA. RiboNucleic Acid. Travels out of the cell nucleus to deliver coded instructions to assemble proteins.

65. Ain't right?: ISN'T.

66. Have suspicions about: BE ON TO.

67. One hairpin turn after another: ESS.

68. Cribbage markers: PEGS.

Down:

1. Not easy, to a Cockney?: 'ARD. Hard. Letter H is dropped in Cockney accent.

2. MGM mascot: LEO.

4. Botanical gardens: ARBORETA. An arboretum is a collection of trees or woody plants. Specific arboreta names include: fruticetum, viticetum, and pinetum.

5. Soother: SALVE.

6. Rough wool cloth: TWEED. A trade name said to have developed from a misreading (supposedly by London hatter James Locke) of tweel, Scottish variant of twill, possibly influenced by the river Tweed in Scotland.

7. Six-pack units: CANS. And 22A. Six-pack units: ABS. Mostly an either/or choice, unless you really work at it.

8. Notice with a bio, often: OBIT.

9. Czech hockey player Nedved: PETR. Why would we care? Well, he married her.

10. Threat ender: ELSE.

11. Music to a captain's ears: AYE, SIR.

12. Star sometimes seen opposite Venus?: SERENA. The Williams sisters, tennis stars.

13. Stepped on it: SPED UP.

18. McDonald's founder: KROC. Ray.

21. Gathered dust: SAT.

23. Postgraduate study: LAW.

24. Emma Peel's hair style: FLIP.

28. "I wish I __ seen that": HADN'T. That which has been seen can never be un-seen. I'll be kind and not link anything here.

29. Factory outlet tag abbr.: IRR. Irregular.

30. Vegas gas: NEON. Jumping Jack Flash, it's a gas gas gas.

31. Identical: SAME. Literally from Latin: idem "the same" (from id "it, that one") + demonstrative suffix -dem.

33. Show enjoyment at a show: CLAP.

34. __ high note: HIT A. Payoff at 3:34.

37. Where the Lofoten Isl. are: NOR. Abbr. for Islands, and for Norway.

38. Northwestern University city: EVANSTON. The only private school in the Big-10. The Wildcats.

39. Teen safety org.: SADD. Originally: Students Against Driving Drunk, now they are against Destructive Decisions. Founders of the "Contract for Life" between parents and their children.

42. Skip over water, as stones: DAP. There is actually a North American Stone Skipping Association. The record is 40 skips.

43. Doc bloc: AMA. American Medical Association.

44. Officially retract: ABJURE. From Latin abjurare "deny on oath," from ab- "away" + jurare "to swear,"

45. One-way street no-nos: U-TURNS.

46. Magnetic measures: TESLAS. If only he was this popular in his day...

47. Hudson Bay prov.: ONT. Ontario. Did you ever notice that Canananananada is like banananana? It's hard to know when to stop.

48. Hook's right hand: SMEE. I wanted this to be hook, just for the irony, but "gone" would have worked, too.

52. Saudis, usually: ARABS.

53. On the Aegean: AT SEA.

55. Water waster: DRIP.

56. Slack off: EASE.

57. Participate in karaoke: SING.

58. Grounded jets: Abbr.: SSTS.

61. Ltd. relative: INC. Limited is the British "incorporated".

62. Nonspecific extreme: NTH.

63. "Koochie-__!": KOO. Possibly not safe for work, or while you're drinking something...

Answer Grid.

Al