Friday September 24, 2010 Kelsey Blakley

Theme: SPOONERISM - Two-layered theme. The initial consonant(s) of common word/phrases are switched, and the end of each spoonerized two-word answer is a type of knife.

17A. Choose deli platter items? : PICK CHEESE. The unspoonerized word is Chickpeas. Cheese knife.

25A. Beef marinated in Jim's bourbon? : BEAM STEAK. Steam Bake. Not a familiar cooking term to me. Steak knife.

34A. Rooster's spread? : COCK'S BUTTER. A bit DF, isn't it? Box Cutter. Massive spoonerism in this one. The only entry where the middle consonants X experiences spelling CK change. Sound remains the same of course. Butter knife.

49A. "Casablanca" nightclub income? : RICK BREAD. Brick Red. Rick's Cafe in "Casablanca". Bread here means "money", right? The other three theme entries all end in real food. Bread knife.

58A. What each of the other four longest answers in this puzzle is : SPOONERISM

55A. Ironically, the 58-Acrosses in this puzzle end in types of them : KNIVES. "Ironically"? Are they supposed to end in "SPOONS"?

We also have TINE (19A. Jabber?). You use fork to jab I suppose.

Rather complicated scheme, isn't it? I was clueless about theme until I reached the unifier. Even then I still needed a bit of head-scratching to untangle the initial base phrase.

Total 21 non-theme entries of six or more letters. Quite impressive. Mainly a result of breaking down left and right edges of the grid into two rather than our normal three parts. Two-part edges are often seen in Saturday themeless.

Across:

1. Elián Gonzalez's home : CUBA. Easy start.

5. Legendary brothers in law : EARPS. At O.K. Corral. Not brothers-in-law.

10. Hogwarts messengers : OWLS. Lovely entry for Argyle.

14. What the connected have : AN IN. Have an in. The connected people.

15. Sole projection : CLEAT. SPIKE too, in golf.

16. Unconvincing : THIN

20. Opera set on Cyprus : OTELLO. Verdi opera based on Shakespeare's Othello. Did not know where it's set.

21. Spiced 23-Across : CHAI. And TEA (23. See 21-Across). Several cross-referenced clues in the grid.

24. Oater camp sight : TEPEE

27. Both Begleys : EDS

28. Chrysler division : RAM. Dodge Ram.

30. Shooting gadget : SYRINGE. Was not picturing medicine shooting.

31. Oklahoma tribe : KIOWA. Only know OTOE.

33. Dutch physics Nobelist Simon van der __ : MEER. No idea. 1984 Physics co-Nobelist. Still alive.

38. Shelled out : PAID

40. Rival of 2-Down : US AIR. And UNITED (2D. Red Carpet Club flier). Also, MOTH (54A. Light-headed flier?). Flier clecho (clue echo)

41. Bring charges against : ARRAIGN. Learned from watching "Law & Order".

45. Stumble : ERR

46. Sagittarian's mo., probably : DEC. Probably, yes.

51. Friend of Jesús : AMIGOS. Funny clue. To me, Jesus lived in Israel and spoke Hebrew, so did his friends. (Correction: The answer is singular AMIGO.)

53. Shih __ : TZU. The Tibetan dog.

56. Pack member : WOLF

60. Subj. with skeletons in the closet?: Abbr. : ANAT. Nice clue too.

61. Balm : SALVE

62. Within: Pref. : ENTO. Opposite ECT(O).

63. Place to keep stock? : YARD. Livestock? Don't quite get the clue.

64. Grammy winner Gormé : EYDIE. Faintly rang a bell.

65. Mtg. : SESS. Meeting/Session.

Down:

1. "In Cold Blood" author : CAPOTE (Truman)

3. Arm & Hammer logo feature : BICEPS. Arm & Hammer baking soda. Novel clue.

4. __ socks : ANKLE

5. Pilot's "E" : ECHO. Well, gimme for our pilot Dudley.

6. It may be blonde or brown : ALE. Got via crosses. Tricky clue.

7. Volleyball star Gabrielle : REECE. Model too.

8. Ottoman lords : PASHAS. Used to stump me.

9. Hot and heavy : STEAMY. Love. Sex.

10. Baseball's Master Melvin : OTT. Man, I never knew Mel Ott is nicknamed called "Master Melvin".

11. Bleach : WHITENER

12. Roots : LINEAGE

13. British : trainer :: American : __ : SNEAKER. Really, Nice Cuppa, you call sneakers "trainers" in Britain?

18. Ayatollah, e.g. : CLERIC

22. Camp David Accords signer: Abbr. : ISR. Egypt too. Camp David Accords.

25. Upscale imports : BMWS

26. Source of ticking : TIMER

29. Verbal thumbs-up : A-OK. Reminded me of Jennifer Aniston "Love Happens".

31. Maker of the FunSaver disposable camera : KODAK

32. __ Dhabi : ABU

34. Advertising notice : CIRCULAR

35. Recycled : USED

36. What many rural roads lack : TAR

37. Albania's capital : TIRANE. How can I remember this name? Looks so ordinary.

38. Not completely : PARTWAY

39. Home of Carefree Highway : ARIZONA. I guessed.

42. Chip maker : IBM. Computer chips.

43. Detroit suburb __ Pointe : GROSSE. Nope. Was it the place first settled down by the French?

44. Take-home : NET PAY

46. Like some wisdom : DIVINE

47. Discharges : EGESTS. Opposite INGESTS.

48. Carl Sagan PBS series : COSMOS

50. Get __ of: locate : A HOLD

52. Entangles : MIRES

55. Bouncing joint? : KNEE. Bouncing what? Soccer ball?

57. Wire svc. involved in many arrangements : FTD. Oh, flowers.

59. Egg opening : OVI. Prefix.

Answer grid.

Since many of you do not come to the blog on weekend, I'd like to share with you a birthday puzzle I made for a special blog contributor, who is celebrating his birthday this coming Sunday. The clues are very general, you don't need to know him to solve the grid.

Click here for the puz file (Across Lite), and here for the pdf version. I also had a write-up of the puzzle and my thought process. But don't read until you solve the puzzle. It's here.

C.C.

Thursday September 23, 2010 John Pounders

Theme: The Kool-Aid Man's catchphrase, Oh, Yeah! All three answers end with THAT. Each is punctuated differently to have a different meaning.

20A. "Oh, yeah?": SURE ABOUT THAT?

36A. "Oh, yeah!": I LIKE IT LIKE THAT.

53A. "Oh, yeah ...": I REMEMBER THAT.

Al here.

Lots of tricky cluing today, only four proper names and a couple of geography clues. A fun puzzle, but nothing really stood out structurally to me, so on with the answers.

ACROSS:

1. A teaspoon, maybe: DOSE. It seems so obvious after you see it. Not so much before.

5. It may involve splashing: BATH.

9. Old hat: PASSE. Out of fashion, trite. The allusion is to nothing more than the appearance of worn-out headgear, but there is an older, more vulgar meaning...

14. Quechua speaker: INCA. Estimates are that 6-8 million people in the Andes region speak it today. You can take lessons...

15. Return from the Alps?: ECHO. Hike, anyone?

16. Sticky resin used in paint: ALKYD. Oil-based as opposed to Latex water-based. The term alkyd is a modification of the original name "alcid", reflecting the fact that they are derived from alcohol and organic acids.

17. Hot quaff: GROG. Supposedly an allusion to Old Grog, nickname of Edward Vernon (1684-1757), British admiral who wore a grogram cloak and who in August 1740 ordered his sailors' rum to be diluted.

18. Love god: EROS. Greek. Cupid was the corresponding Roman God.

19. "Thelma and Louise" car: T-BIRD. Movie Spoiler picture.

23. __ manual: USERS. The one for my blue ray player came in 8 different languages. What a waste of paper.

24. Canadian sentence enders?: EHS. How do you spell the country to our north? C, eh? N, eh? D, eh?

25. Start using: TAP. Like a beer keg.

28. High degree: PHD. Needed perps to eliminate NTH.

29. Prone: LIABLE. Apt is actually the older meaning from Latin: bent forward, inclined. To lie face-down wasn't recorded until the 1570s.

33. "Carnival of Harlequin" surrealist: MIRO. Joan. We just had him for "Sill Life With Shoes" last Thursday.

34. Angler's accessory: SEINE. A net.

35. Silas Marner, e.g.: MISER. Subtitled The Weaver of Raveloe, by George Eliot (the pseudonym of Mary Ann(e) Evans).

41. Garden bulb: TULIP. Do you think of flowers or vegetables first when you see or hear the word garden? I wanted ONION at first. Gardenias are named for naturalist Dr. Alexander Garden, Vice President of the Royal Society.

42. Sharp ridge: ARETE. There are several in this picture.

43. Repose: CALM. A related word to repose is "pause". Calm is from from Old Italian calma, which is from Late Latin cauma "heat of the mid-day sun" (in Italy, a time when everything rests and is still).

44. Journey: VOYAGE. A journey was originally one day's travel. Or a group once again made popular by a bunch of Gleeks.

46. Merit badge org.: BSA. Boy Scouts of America.

49. Quarterback's cry: HUT. Why? I also found this, which claims that back when Roman Centurions gave orders, they then said HUT to execute it immediately. It could be true, the military today still uses HUT in marching cadence.

50. Time in a pool: DIP. To dip was originally to baptize, and is possibly related to "deep".

51. Willow tree twig: OSIER. Used in basket weaving. And they're coming to take me away, ha ha.

58. Virile one: HE-MAN. Dolph Lundgren in the live movie adaptation of the earlier cartoon.

60. Cranny's partner: NOOK. I think we just had INGLE recently, too.

61. First name in Indian music: RAVI. Shankar. Father of Norah Jones.

62. Church chorus: AMENS. Choir first anyone?

63. Tackle box item: LURE.

64. Mars counterpart: ARES. Mars/Roman, Ares/Greek Gods of war. Ares and "ire" are related. He was an angry god.

65. Opinion giver: JUDGE.

66. Cravings: YENS. Earlier yin "intense craving for opium", from Chinese yan "craving," or from a Beijing dialect word for "smoke." Reinforced in Eng. by influence of "yearn".

67. Word with cheap or bike: DIRT.

DOWN:

1. Unearths: DIGS UP.

2. Assault: ONRUSH. Assault from Latin prefix ad- (toward) + saltus (a leap or jump).

3. Homered, say: SCORED. Baseball home run. Nothing to do with the Simpsons.

4. Thirsty: EAGER.

5. Overseas network, with "the": BEEB. BBC is the British Broadcasting corporation. Also called "Auntie" Beeb.

6. Polis leader?: ACRO. Acropolis, acro for "high", and polis for "city". Usually translated as "citadel". The famous one at Athens, Greece. A picture that shows it high on a hill.

7. Commandment pronoun: THOU.

8. Hiker's stopover: HOSTEL. Not sure why a hiker, specifically. More budget-oriented than a hotel, I suppose.

9. Rustic ways: PATHS.

10. Jessica of "Sin City": ALBA. Another "comic book" movie. "Visually groundbreaking", rated moderately high.

11. People-wary, as a horse: SKITTISH.

12. Turk. neighbor: SYR. Turkey, Syria.

13. Byrnes of "77 Sunset Strip": EDD. TV detective show, ended in 1964.

21. Dreaming, perhaps: ASLEEP.

22. Not just a: THE. Definite article "the" vs. indefinite "a".

26. Space: AREA.

27. Sea side: PORT. The left side of a ship, that faces the harbor when docked. Opposite of starboard (the side where early boats were steered)

30. 1969 Super Bowl: III. The first two were retroactively renamed Super Bowls. They weren't called that at the time.

31. Colony dweller: ANT. From a compound of bases *ai- "off, away" + *mait- "cut." Thus the insect's name is "the biter off." Emmet survived into the 20th c. as an alternative form.

32. Secure, as a ship's line: BELAY. To coil a running rope around a cleat or pin.

33. Tick cousin: MITE. Little suckers. Another recent word.

34. Whole alternative: SKIM. Wanted semi. Didn't think of milk at first.

35. Falling star: METEOR. Meteor formerly meant any atmospheric phenomenon (thus meteorology for weather study). Atmospheric phenomena were formerly classified as aerial meteors (wind), aqueous meteors (rain, snow, hail), luminous meteors (aurora, rainbows), and igneous meteors (lightning, shooting stars).

36. Allergic reaction: ITCH.

37. Place to see grass skirts: LUAU. Had HULA in there at first.

38. Poorly planned: ILL-TIMED.

39. Bank offering, for short: IRA. Individual Retirement Account.

40. Powder container: KEG.

44. Animation: VIM.

45. For all to see: OPENLY.

46. Native of NE India: BIHARI. Bihar.

47. Pitcher known as "Tom Terrific": SEAVER. Awards galore.

48. Escape __: ARTIST. Hatch was too short.

50. Crowded: DENSE. Also Thick.

52. Valuable violin: STRAD. Also AMATI.

54. "You __?": RANG. Lurch, from the Addams Family.

55. Pout: MOUE.

56. Conceived, as an idea: BORN.

57. Barely manages, with "out": EKES.

58. Muslim's duty: HAJ. Hajj, Hadj

59. Source of lean meat: EMU.

Answer Grid.

Al