Thursday October 14, 2010 Matt Matera

Theme: Aye-Aye, Sir - Various ways to answer in the affirmative appear at the starts of the answers to starred clues, with different language bracketed at the end of each clue as a hint. Tip off in the clue for 66A. Parliamentary votes : YEAS.

1A. *Hip-hopper who married Beyoncé (German): JAY-Z. Symmetrically placed with YEAS.

20A. *Old stories (English): YESTERDAY'S NEWS.

28A. *Inferred cosmic substance (Russian): DARK MATTER. Matter that cannot be detected directly, but "must" exist because "something" massive is interacting with the observed gravitational behavior of the matter that can be detected.

44A. *Séance device (French): OUIJA BOARD. Actually, the trademarked name comes from combining two "yes" words, OUI and JA. That makes this answer stand out a bit from the others.

51. *Fatal problem in Genesis (Spanish): SIBLING RIVALRY. Cain v. Abel.

Al here.

A fairly "agreeable" puzzle today, no? A pangram. Kind of slow starting, but once it got going, it filled in faster for me than yesterday's. More than a few obscure names and places make this a Thursday puzzle, though.

ACROSS:

5. Sturdy fabric: DENIM. From French serge de Nîmes, cloth from a town in southern France.

10. Delhi wrap: SARI. Women's wear in India. Also has an alternate of spelling saree. A seemingly infinite variety of styles.

14. Movie apiarist: ULEE. Peter Fonda's character in Ulee's Gold was a beekeeper.

15. Like sandalwood leaves: OVATE.

16. Green Zone site: IRAQ. A heavily fortified central portion of Baghdad that contained several palaces of Saddam Husein. The International Zone. Also a recent movie about the same starring Matt Damon.

17. Gets into: DONS. Puts on clothing.

18. Brewers' kilns: OASTS.

19. Things you saw while out?: LOGS. Sawing logs, slang for snoring.

23. "Paris, je t'__": 2006 film: AIME. (Paris, I love you) a film made up of 18 short stories, and had 22 directors.

24. Charged particle: ION.

25. Nashville awards gp.: CMA. Country Music Awards.

33. Mythological ride: CARPET. Close your eyes, girl, or if you prefer, don't you dare close your eyes.

35. Derisive cry: YAH. If you say so, I guess.

36. Pivotal part: CRUX. Latin for "cross".

38. Bug, perhaps: ERROR. Latin errare, wander, go astray.

39. Hottie: FOX. Obligatory pic. Just don't google images for her with the word "thumbs"...

40. Easternmost state: MAINE. Ayuh is another way to say yes.

41. "Don't touch that __!": DIAL.

42. Body art, in slang: TAT. Tattoo.

43. High-speed raptor: FALCON. Raptor (Latin) and rapid are related words. To call a raptor high-speed is sort of redundant.

47. Former World No. 1 tennis player Ivanovic: ANA. What is it that draws attractive women to tennis?

48. With 6-Down, one in fear of an audit: TAX. and 6. See 48-Across: EVADER.

49. "Dagnabit!": RATS. Charlie Brown's second-favorite interjection, especially at Halloween. "Rats, another rock."

58. Colombia neighbor: PERU.

59. Funnel-shaped: CONED.

60. Architect Mies van der __: ROHE. Father of "modern" architecture. i.e. big square buildings with lots of glass. Also tubular steel furniture.

61. Animal shelter: LAIR. Related to "lie", as in lie down.

62. Gather: AMASS.

63. Intuited: KNEW. Not quite the same? My sense of the word is to perceive or guess immediately without thinking, but without knowing beforehand. Maybe I'm wrong.

64. About: OR SO.

65. Greet respectfully: BOW TO.

DOWN:

1. Kids' author Blume: JUDY.

2. Succulent plant: ALOE.

3. Dieters may fight them: YENS.

4. Keebler cracker: ZESTA. Saltines competition.

5. Pushover: DOORMAT.

7. Org. with rovers: NASA. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Rover as a remote exploration vehicle, not a dog. SPCA for first thoughts anyone?

8. __-bitty: ITTY.

9. Handel bars?: MESSIAH. Cute musical pun, bars of music, Handle's Messiah. (famously, the Hallelujah chorus)

10. '20s White House nickname: SILENT CAL. Coolidge. 30th president. A possibly apocryphal story has it that Dorothy Parker, seated next to him at a dinner, said to him, "Mr. Coolidge, I've made a bet against a fellow who said it was impossible to get more than two words out of you." His famous reply: "You lose."

11. ... ducks in __: A ROW. Explanations from decorative plaster ducks on the mantle in the 70's, to shooting galleries, are everywhere, but the likely origin is much simpler, think of the image of a mother duck leading her ducklings across a pond, which could have been observed ever since there were ducks.

12. Poverty, in metaphor: RAGS. From rags to riches.

13. Brightness nos.: IQS. I wanted something to do with lumens, or other light sources.

21. Down source: EIDER. Harvested from nests after the ducklings mature and leave it.

22. "Kidding!": NOT! Popularized by Wayne's World skits and movies (from SNL).

25. Included in the e-mail chain: CCED. Carbon Copied, a holdover from business snail mail. You can still buy carbon paper, but why?

26. Video game plumber: MARIO. Nintendo's go-to guy has appeared in over 200 games since 1981 where he was "jumpman" in the Donkey Kong arcade game.

27. Pianist Claudio: ARRAU. From Chile, which also neighbors 58A. Peru. Moonlight Sonata.

29. Honshu city: KYOTO. The Koyoto Protocol on greenhouse gas emission reduction (the US has refused to participate) was first adopted there. And 45D. Airline to 29-Down: JAL.

30. Top limit: MAX.

31. Actress Durance who plays Lois on "Smallville": ERICA. On the one hand it wasn't clued with (Erica) Jong. On the other, hand, if you're not into comic book heroes made into TV shows, you're unlikely to have heard of her. This year is the last season for Smallville, which has been somewhat more soapy than super. We don't know yet if Ms. Durance has a fear of flying yet, as the red and blue blur has not figured out how to do it yet in this alternate Superman story line.

32. Bad sentence: RUN ON.

34. Former Kremlin policymaker: POLITBURO.

37. TV princess: XENA. Lucy Lawless.

39. Terrif: FAB.

40. Former sketch comedy that used Don Martin cartoons: MAD TV.

42. Hailed ride: TAXICAB.

43. "I wish 'twere otherwise": 'FRAID SO.

46. Slap the cuffs on: ARREST.

50. Like a biting remark, in British slang: SARKY. Sarcastic.

51. Burn slightly: SEAR.

52. Novelist Murdoch: IRIS. Apparently one of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945. Sorry to say her work is completely unknown to me.

53. Pitcher Hideo: NOMO. First Japanese major leaguer to relocate to US MLB (Dodgers).

54. Chew: GNAW. Sort of an onomatopoetic word.

55. Unaccompanied: LONE. Had SOLO at first.

56. Flightless bird: RHEA. Finally. Something other than EMU. Not new to crosswords, though.

57. Trees used to make longbows: YEWS. Foliage is poisonous, especially to horses. Rare to poison humans, unless you're like Euell Gibbons and eat everything in the forest. (Actually, that's not true. Euell died of a complications due to a genetic disorder, not from eating pine trees.)

58. Abbas's gp.: PLO. Palestine Liberation Organization. Mahmoud Abbas succeeded Yasser Arafat.

Answer Grid.

Al

Wednesday October 13, 2010 Dan Naddor

Theme: For Richer or Poorer - The first part of each of the four theme answers describes the financial situation of a person, in descending order of wealth.

17A. Challenges for an interviewee: LOADED QUESTIONS. This is my favorite board game, spent many hours playing the GAME with my kids and their friends.

25A. Not even close: WELL OFF THE MARK. Important in target shooting, and new ad campaigns, I guess.

40A. Journalism bigwig: MANAGING EDITOR. I guess Dan wanted to pay homage to Mr. Norris.

51A. Defied tradition: BROKE WITH CUSTOM. Interestingly, the meaning having no money comes from 1700’s , while the meaning of tradition or habit is associated with COSTUME .

When I had my last eye operation, I worked in a brokerage firm, while recuperating and my motto was, “I guarantee to make you a small fortune. Just bring me a large one.”

Lemonade here, gifted with another Dan Naddor to discuss. Unlike many of his efforts only 4 theme words and no unifier, but they were two 14s and two 15s, so if you got them it was an easy ride, and if not a struggle. A very low word count for Wednesday as a result.

Across:

1. Mr. or Mrs.: ABBR. We begin with the classic misdirection, it does not matter what the words, just that they are abbreviations.

5. Furtive message: MEET ME. HALF WAY .

11. New Deal prog.: TVA. The Tennessee Valley Authority, Still in operation providing ELECTRICITY .

14. Toon predator __ E. Coyote: WILE. Be careful WHAT YOU WISH FOR .

15. First pro team to play on artificial turf: ASTROS. ASTROTURF .

16. Used to be: WAS.

20. Serious religious dissents: HERESIES. Like MARTIN LUTHER who played the first Halloween trick.

21. Elite Eight org.: NCAA. The nickname for the college basketball championship quarter finals. You need to remember March Madness, too.

22. Trinidad's partner: TOBAGO. You too, can spy on the WORLD .

24. Digital greeting: E-CARD. Are they meant for ETARDS?

30. __ the finish: IN AT. Dan loved multiple word phrases. Like 47A. "If you ask me ...": AS I SEE IT. Or, 5D. Constituted from: MADE OF. 11D. Like some accidents: TWO CAR. 49D. "Pay __ mind!": IT NO.

31. Seventh of eight, now: URANUS. Planets, very cute and tricky now that PLUTO is just a dog; we have NEPTUNE as number 8, which ties in with 37. Neptune, for one: SEA GOD.

32. Japanese drama: NOH. We had this recently.

33. Bar shot: SNORT.

34. "May I help you?": YES. Or perhaps, BEING SERVED . Sorry, I was just being a 44A. Goof: BONER. Oh, oh, this showed up again, it must be a teen-age time for puzzles. So not clecho, just me.

39. It may be raw: DATA. My favorite clue, as I tried so hard to picture the correct fruit of vegetable.

45. Kind of will or trust: LIVING. A nice lawyer gimme, just for us.

46. Greek vowel: IOTA.

55. Spy novelist Deighton: LEN. Excellent SPY NOVELS .

56. It's attractive: MAGNET. My favorite clue, as I thought of all the pretty things in the world. (I know, so I have lore than one favorite).

57. Earthenware pot: OLLA. Real crosswordese for me; I have never heard the word used elsewhere.

58. Big name in ice cream: EDY. Big?

59. Church councils: SYNODS. Which ties in perfectly with the religion of our HERETIC .

60. Fix up: REDO. Ah, we can go back to that debate.

Down:

1. Hole-making tool: AWL.

2. Many a Britannica article: BIO. Now why is this not clued as an abbreviation, or is BIO a stand alone?

3. Mindless chatter: BLAH BLAH. Do we like this or YADDA YADDA?

4. Reacted to giving out too many cards: REDEALT. In my house the reaction would have been a mini-tantrum and cards being thrown. They took card games very seriously.

6. ABA honorifics: ESQS. Another gimme for me. HISTORY OF LAWYERS .

7. Case in a purse, perhaps: ETUI .

8. Elder or alder: TREE. Two very spiritual trees. We have a continuation of our reference to WICCA and ancient CELTIC belief. And of course, 9D. Trunk growth: MOSS.

10. D.C. setting: EST. Clock setting, Eastern Standard Time.

12. Joan of "Knots Landing": VAN ARK. Poor girl starred in Dallas and Knot’s Landing , and wanted to stay young FOREVER

13. Longtime Syrian ruling family name: ASSAD ..

18. Consequently: ERGO. And we must have at least some Latin for me.

19. Pizarro victims: INCAS. The story of how a small force led by PIZARRO conquered despite being outnumbered at least 20 to 1 is what makes history so amazing.

22. Womb-mate: TWIN. A golden oldie pun.

23. Vintner's prefix: OENO. Her we go, also a recent clue.

24. Outback critter: EMU. As was this denizen of OZ.

26. Yeasts, e.g.: FUNGI. Sounds yummy, like mushrooms.

27. Eight-time British Open host town: TROON. Get yourself a TEE TIME .

28. Greek leader?: HARD G. Silly, the beginning of the word Greek is Hard G.

29. M.D.'s specialty: ENT. No this is not a doctor who treats trees in Middle Earth, it is Ear Nose and Throat.

33. Show signs of age, as a roof: SAG. A roof, yes, that is a better image.

34. 1950s Niners Hall of Fame quarterback: Y A TITTLE. Yelberton Abraham was a very talented quarterback when I was a boy, and one of my fondest memories was watching with my father and brothers, the Chicago Bears beating Tittle and the New York Giants in the 1963 championship game. However, the strongest memory of him is this IMAGE taken the following year.

35. Harrow rival: ETON. Where Britain raised their Prime Ministers.

36. Puppeteer Tony: SARG. He helped to inspire others to create puppets BIOGRAPHY .

37. Weasel: SNEAK. No, not the kid from Harry Potter.

38. Listening device: EAR. Another Naddor trademark, a clue so simple, it is hard.

39. ÷ follower: DIVISOR. Not to be confused with Dividends and Quotients.

40. Tied in the harbor: MOORED. LIKE THIS? .

41. 1963 Burton role: ANTONY. When he and Elizabeth Taylor made the most expensive movie at the time, CLEOPATRA , Eddie Fisher recently died.

42. Picks: ELECTS. It is almost time again.

43. "Mon __!": Poirot exclamation: DIEU. Ah, the working of the little grey cells from the Belgian (do not call him French) detective creation of Dame Christie.

44. Book read by millions: BIBLE. Still, the all time best seller. I wish I had the rights.

47. Traveling: AWAY. WE GO .

48. Communicate digitally?: SIGN. A definite NO NO .

50. Get rid of: SHED . Like a snake?

52. Magnesium has two: EMS. It wraps the word.

53. Passé: OLD. Okay, I get the hint, time to wrap this up.

54. Cultural Revolution leader: MAO. What a revolutionary new clue, not!

Thanks for listening, get ready to invite everyone back and Happy Birthday to the mother of my children.

Answer grid.

Lemonade