Saturday October 9, 2010 James Sajdak

Theme: None

Total words: 68. Total blocks: 33

Very unusual grid design. It has:

1) the standard 180 degree rotation;

2) a left to right symmetry;

3) a top to bottom mirroring pattern.

Rarely do we see this kind of grid structure. As a result, we have a even-numbered count of all entries with various length, including an amazing 28 of seven-letter words.

The puzzle is anchored by a pair of music grid spanners:

27A. It lost to "Moon River" for a Best Song Oscar : TOWN WITHOUT PITY. Unknown trivia to me. "Moon River" is lovely.

42A. 1964 Record of the Year Grammy winner, with "The" : GIRL FROM IPANEMA. Sweet song.

Across:

1. Avid ones keep Life Lists : BIRDERS. Is "Life Lists" a specific term to birders?

8. Weapons restriction of a sort : TEST BAN

15. Circling : IN ORBIT

16. Coin's "heads" : OBVERSE

17. Take a plane? : SKYJACK. My favorite clue today.

18. Formed before delivery, as concrete : PRECAST

19. Mom and pop financing gp. : SBA

20. Roger who coached eight NHL teams : NEILSON. No idea. Obviously this guy is in Hall of Fame. Is eight a record?

22. Taste : SIP. Drink.

23. Collaborator with a Count and a Duke : ELLA (Fitzgerald). Count Basie. Duke Ellington. I don't feel the two a's are necessary. You?

25. Dance genre : TAP

26. Peak in Thessaly : OSSA. Mt Ossa. Peak near Olympus.

32. View from Jackson Hole : TETONS. Grand Tetons. Big boobs.

33. Safe portfolio investments : T-NOTES

34. Ad-committee link : HOC. Ad hoc committee.

35. Dr. Ray Langston's TV team : CSI. Have never watched CSI. Don't know the doctor.

36. Come to a head : BOIL UP

39. Puget Sound port : TACOMA

45. Sub. for omitted names : ET AL. Literally "and others". French got their "et" from Latin I gather.

46. Hammett's Spade : SAM. Sam Spade. And 11D. Hammett's Spade, e.g. : TEC. Short for detective. Nice clue tie-in.

47. Library Card Sign-up mo. : SEPT

48. Like some painkillers, briefly : OTC

49. French lover? : AMATEUR. I don't get it. Is it literally "lover" in French, Kazie?

53. Frat letter : RHO

54. Told : RELATED. And 59. Not told : UNAWARE. Another clecho (clue echo).

56. Easily attached : STICK ON

58. Island north of Trinidad : GRENADA. Needed crossing help.

60. Sect linked to the Dead Sea Scrolls : ESSENES. I can never remember this sect. So close to Essences.

Down:

61. Jai alai balls : PELOTAS. It's just Spanish for "balls", correct?

1. "Bullitt" co-star : BISSET (Jacqueline). Total stranger to me. Bullitt is a character's name in the film.

2. Therapy aid : INK BLOT

3. Pluralis majestatis : ROYAL WE. Pluralis majestatis is "majestic plural" in Latin.

4. Court physician? : DR. J. Julius Erving. Basketball court.

5. "Personal Witness: Israel Through My Eyes" author : EBAN (Abba)

6. Potatoes alternative : RICE

7. Nevis neighbor : ST KITTS. See this map. Crazy STK*start.

8. Leadership position : TOP SPOT

9. River through Aragon : EBRO. To the Mediterranean.

10. 1984 Swedish speed skating medalist Gustafson : SVEN. Both his given name and surname are so Swedish/Norwegian.

12. Golfer's 2-wood : BRASSIE. Gimme to me. Watched lots of the old Bobby Jones golf tips when I first started golfing.

13. Rink stats : ASSISTS

14. Working capital? : NET PAY. Nice misdirecting "working".

21. __-di-dah : LAH

24. Colonial mound : ANTHILL. Tricky "colonial".

26. Sunroof and CD changer, e.g. : OPTIONS

28. "A Room of One's Own" author : WOOLF (Virginia). Not familiar with the book. What's it about?

29. Arouse, as wrath : INCUR

30. Open without a corkscrew : UNCAP

31. 1900 Puccini premiere : TOSCA. Well, 5-letter Puccini work answer is either TOSCA or OPERA.

36. Pink Gin ingredient : BITTERS. No idea. Have never heard of Pink Gin.

37. Sources of ambiguous answers : ORACLES. Warren Buffett would love this clue. He's called the Oracle of Omaha. Guess who's the Oracle of Nebraska?

38. Some Iberian inns : POSADAS. Spanish for "inns"?

39. "Pencils down" : TIME'S UP. From proctors.

40. Mongoose family member : MEERKAT. Cute.

41. Antique oil holder : AMPHORA. Or "Antique wine holder". The Greek vase. Learning moment for me.

42. Magazine whose debut issue featured a cover photo of Cindy Crawford dressed as Washington : GEORGE. Another gimme. See the cover. It's not worth anything collection-wise. The first issue of Playboy with Marilyn Monroe in good condition can easily fetch hundreds of bucks (just to annoy Annette).

43. Comb breaker, perhaps : MAT. Have never heard of "hair" being referred as "mat".

44. Makes up (for) : ATONES

49. __ end : AT AN. Partial.

50. Early Iranian : MEDE. They live din Media.

51. Big name in alternative press : UTNE. Utne Reader.

52. Shiraz spending money : RIAL. Another Iran reference. Shiraz the city. Not the wine.

55. Suffix with oct- : ANE. Octane.

57. USN rank : CWO (Chief Warrant Officer). Is it a common abbr, Spitzboov? I was clueless.

Answer grid.r grid.

To Jayce, a belated 生日快乐! Jayce speaks and recognizes some Chinese characters. I bet he knows a few naughty slang.

C.C.

Friday October 8, 2010 Paul Guttormsson

Theme: ADD ON (39A. Extra, and this puzzle's title) - "ON" is added to the end of a familiar two word pair to create a new and humorous visual.

20A. Milton Hershey, e.g.?: CHOCOLATE BARON. Milton? The candy bar man, No wonder he got in the candy business. This puzzle actually forms a perfect companion to Gareth Bain's NIXON puzzle we had a while ago. ON is nixed from familiar phrases. The word baron was in play as well.

56A. Segundo matrimonio result, maybe?: SPANISH STEPSON. Did we all understand second marriage? Of course they are in ROME .

10D. Body of brewing rules?: BEER CANON. I love this, both for the pun (we have our Canon of Ethics for Lawyers) and the extended visual BEER CANNON .

35. Ancient Germanic singer?: ALTO SAXON. I also like this one very much, it is also a double play on words with ALTO SAX and ANGLO-SAXONS .

Well hello Friday, it is surprise, surprise, Lemonade before your eyes, with a new day dawning. I am not sure I have seen this constructor before, or maybe only doing a NY Times.

Anyway, the theme was easy but fun; though apparent from the very first reveal of BAR ON from the perps, it did not make the clues and answers any less witty, and the rest was easy in places and hard in places, so I guess a Friday. Let’s have it!

Across:

1. Mother of Horus: ISIS. Wow, we start with an obscure but common crossword MYTHICAL FIGURE , I always loved Isis because her mother’s name is NUT.

5. Cheap reads: PULPS. People either love or hate cheap FICTION .

10. Divulge: BARE. Do we like the bare MIDRIFF .

14. 1959 British Motor Corp. debut: MINI, and a car semi-clecho, 15A. Last Olds: ALERO. It spawned its own fan club SIGN UP .

16. Ostrich cousins: EMUS are from Australia (right KZ) which is near NZ, and 28A. Fictional tree shepherd: ENT. Amazing visuals of New Zealand, and the March in LORD OF THE RINGS . And we should give equal time to 46D. Brute: OGRE .

17. Routing abbr.: ATTN. Tricky, as most of us thought first of travel routes, rather than routing a letter.

18. Subordinate to: UNDER. Not a very PC use of the word.

19. Give off: EMIT.

23. MPG rating agency: EPA. Environmental Protection Agency.

24. Millennium-ending year: ONE BC. Now this is a topic for debate, when do milienia begin and end? Is this followed by 1 A.D.?

25. E. African nation: ETH. Landlocked ETHIOPIA . Their calendar is 7.5 years off from the Gregorian.

30. Place to see an Audi: STRASSE. German for Street.

34. A.L. player whose team logo includes an Uncle Sam hat: NY YANKEE. For all of those who worship the dark side IMAGE .

37. Got in on a deal: ANTED. A deal of cards, gambling, as opposed to a business deal, like with Bernie Madoff, no gamble at all.

38. Form often requiring an SSN: APPL. Application, one of many abbreviations, such as 42A. Master: Abbr.: ORIG. I guess this comes from the music business where the master recording is the original.

43. Buck parts: CENTS. What is a Buccanear? A very high price for corn.

45. Improve one's bargaining power, in a way: UNIONIZE. OOO, very tempting, but no politics!

47. Radar user: TROOPER. My favorite POLICE FORCE .

50. "Star Trek" sequel, briefly: TNG. The Next Generation, featuring our recent favorite DEANNA TROI . Not to be confused with Star Wars and 2D. Jedi nemesis: SITH .

51. St. crosser, on signs: PED. estrian clue.

52. Yahtzee score sheet row: SIXES. I have played but did not remember this score sheets. You can print them ON LINE .

54. Suffix with ranch: ERO. My favorites IMAGE .

62. Imitation: FAUX. YOU THINK? .

63. Playgroup reminder: SHARE. Like this GROUP .

64. Reference work, usually: TOME .

65. Curly coif: AFRO. No comment IMAGE .

66. Austrian dessert: TORTE. YUMMY .

67. Thought: IDEA. Better than IDEATE.

68. "It's __ fun": BEEN. Damn I wish this had been saved for the end, it is a great exit line.

69. Malibu, for one: SEDAN.

70. Word avoided by optimists: CANT.

Down:

1. Apple variety: IMAC. Apple computer.

3. Involved with: INTO. Eh, a stretch for me, but reminds me of the line from the movie, Mary: I had this guy leave me a voicemail at work, so I called him at home, and then he emailed me to my BlackBerry, and so I texted to his cell, and now you just have to go around checking all these different portals just to get rejected by seven different technologies. It's exhausting.

4. From that time: SINCE.

5. "She's a Lady" songwriter: PAUL ANKA. But is he a GENTLEMAN ?

6. Radius neighbor: ULNA. Your arm bones.

7. Helped come about: LED TO. The cause and effect of life.

8. Grooms: PREENS.

9. Frozen dessert: SORBET.

11. Gun shop stock: AMMO.

12. Wreck: RUIN.

13. Winter hrs. in N.J.: EST. Who wants to be in NJ in the winter? Oops, sorry Dennis.

21. Not booked: OPEN.

22. Lover of Cal, in "East of Eden": ABRA. Gone so soon CAL .

25. Put on the books: ENACT. A legislative intent.

26. Blood __ :TYPER. This was all perps, otherwise I would have had no idea.

27. Therapy lead-in: HYPNO. Kind of a pun.

29. Rocker Nugent: TED. I liked him better for his MUSIC

31. Comic unit: STRIP. Nice juxtaposition with 32. Jump on, as an opportunity: SEIZE, right ladies.

33. Beat by a bit: EDGED.

36. http://mit.__: EDU. I guess the small letters are to keep you from realizing it was Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

40. Man.and Minn. neighbor: ONT. Ontario, Canada. More abbreviations, but gimmes for our northern contingent.

41. What an apostrophe may stand for, in dates: NINETEEN. ‘30s, ‘40s

44. Reinterpret, in a way: SPIN. A true American CREATION .

48. Is: EXISTS. Cogito Ergo Sum.

49. Work on hooves: RESHOE. Anyone seen Secretariat yet? I think it came out today.

53. Pottery piece: SHARD. My son digs for shards.

55. Sight-related: OPTIC. The nerve of him to use this clue.

56. Protected: SAFE. Yes boys and girls, always be safe, and stay 57D. Not corrupted: PURE.

58. Madrid miss:Abbr.: SRTA. Senorita, I have not counted the abbreviations, but gee.

59. Club __: SODA. Great to take out stains.

60. Comet, to some: OMEN. Classic MOVIE .

61. Tidy: NEAT. Which is also pretty 62D. "Cool!": FAB.

Answer grid.

Lamonade