Wednesday November 3, 2010 Gareth Bain

Theme: Fowl Play - The first word of each two-word familiar phrase is a type of KFC chicken piece.

17A. Commonly upholstered seat : WING CHAIR. A chair with "wings" to provide comfortable protection from drafts. Like this.

28A. Real scream : THIGH SLAPPER. A funny joke or story that might cause you to laugh and slap your thigh.

40A. "Finger lickin' good" sloganeer, and a hint to this puzzle's theme : KFC. Kentucky Fried Chicken.

45A. Crawl alternative : BREAST STROKE. The front crawl, or forward crawl, is a swimming style. New to me.

62A. '80s fashion fad inspired by dance films : LEG WARMER. Anyone not think of these?

Melissa here.

One of the easier wednesdays in recent memory - blew through it pretty quickly except for a couple of names i did not know.

Across:

1. Hippocratic oath no-no : HARM. "First, do no harm." Part of an oath taken by doctors swearing to practice medicine ethically. Believed to have been written by Hippocrates, often regarded as 'the father of medicine.' Interestingly enough, when i looked up the actual text of the oath, the words "first, do no harm" are not there, although not harming the patient is TACITLY implied.

5. Astounds : AWES

9. Unspoken, but implied : TACIT

14. Pints at the bar : ALES

15. TV part? : TELE. I wanted ROLE.

16. Like merinos : OVINE. Relating to sheep. Merino is a breed of sheep particularly prized for its wool.

19. Prolific psalmist : DAVID. King David, author of the Psalms.

20. Some littermates : KITTIES. Cute. And 29D. Call to 20-Across : HERE. "Here, kitty."

21. "To continue ..." : AND

23. Gary's st. : IND. St = state. Gary, Indiana. Clear Ayes would appreciate this.

24. Bakery array : PIES

26. Smart-__: cocksure and conceited : ALECKY. Not sure i've seen this as an adjective before. "My brother is smart-alecky."

33. Rue : REGRET

34. Pint-size : WEE

35. Frenzied : AMOK. I like this word. Almost as good as kerfuffle. Anyone recognize the line "There's something amok with this cheesecake?"

39. Wildly cheering : AROAR

41. Honshu port : OSAKA

42. Balkan native : SERB

43. Nintendo game console : WII.

44. We-alone link : ARE NOT

48. British philosopher who wrote "Language, Truth and Logic" : A.J. AYER. A bit obscure. A book of philosophy published in 1936. Alfred Jules Ayer.

51. Enjoy the Appalachian Trail : HIKE. Riiiiight, he was hiking.

52. Prom rental : TUX

53. Maker of tiny combs : BEE. Bzzz.

55. Like a persistent headache : NAGGING. Or a smart-alecky brother.

60. O'Connor's successor : ALITO. Supreme Court Justices.

64. The QE2, e.g. : LINER. Retired in 2008.

65. An acre's 43,560 square feet : AREA

66. Je t'__: Pierre's "I love you" : AIME

67. Canada's highest mountain : LOGAN. Second highest peak in North America.

68. Tramp's love : LADY. Disney movie, Lady and the Tramp.

69. Put in the overhead : STOW

Down:

1. Aggressive sort : HAWK. Indeed.

2. Et __: and others : ALII. Abbreviated et al.

3. Monopoly payment : RENT

4. Bilko's mil. rank : MSGT. Sergeant Bilko was a Master Sergeant.

5. Believer's antithesis : ATHEIST. One who does not believe in God.

6. Otter's kin : WEASEL

7. Actor Wallach : ELI

8. Word repeated in a Doris Day song : SERA. Que Sera, Sera = whatever will be, will be. The song was introduced in Alfred Hitchcock's 1956 film The Man Who Knew Too Much. Won an Academy Award for Best Original Song.

9. More than crawl : TODDLE. Clecho. Babies crawl first, then they toddle. Toddlers.

10. Palindromic girl's name that ranked among the 10 most popular in each of the past five years : AVA. Ava Gardner.

11. Like some pride : CIVIC. I suppose.

12. How contracts are usually signed : IN INK. Does it in ink, you still with us?

13. Garment including a chemise : TEDDY. Clue feels odd. A chemise and a teddy are both undergarments, usually worn under a blouse.

18. Written code : CIPHER. To read it, you must decipher.

22. Golfer's sunburn spot : NAPE. Back of the neck. I see a lot of golfer's tans at work.

25. Swimmer with a bladelike snout : SAWFISH. Creepy.

27. Pencil tip : ERASER

28. Refrain syllables : TRAS. Tra la la.

30. Inventor Sikorsky : IGOR. He designed and flew the world's first multi-engine fixed-wing aircraft, the Russky Vityaz in 1913, and the first airliner, Ilya Muromets, in 1914.

31. Like takers : GRABBY.

32. Ripple near the nipple : PEC. Nice.

36. Hombre's hand : MANO. Mano is Spanish for hand.

37. "I get it, I get it!" : OK OK

38. British rock star Bush : KATE

40. Korean automaker : KIA

41. Former Nicaraguan leader : ORTEGA

43. "The Way We __" : WERE. Great movie. "See ya, kid."

44. "Shoot" : ASK AWAY

46. With new life : REBORN

47. Lightly shaded : TINGED.

48. To any extent : AT ALL

49. Crooner Iglesias : JULIO.

50. Firing : AXING. See this a lot.

54. Carrier to Tel Aviv : EL AL. This too.

56. Mardi __ : GRAS. "Fat Tuesday."

57. Go-getter's response to "Do you know of such a person?" : I'M IT. Perps filled it in.

58. Nautilus skipper : NEMO. Or him.

59. Expanded : GREW

61. Texas __: oil : TEA

63. Stat for CC Sabathia : ERA. Carsten Charles Sabathia. Yankees pitcher. Earned Run Average.

Answer grid.

Melissa

Tuesday, November 2, 2010 Bruce Venzke

Theme: Political Exercise - While the first word of these phrases may be found in the gym, the phrases themselves could also indicate the actions of candidate on the campaign trail, a trail that ends today(and starts again tomorrow).

17A. Being convincing via coercion: TWISTING ONES ARM

27A. Making a comeback, say: TURNING THE TIDE

45A. Sneering: CURLING ONES LIP

60A. Telling a little white lie: BENDING THE TRUTH

Argyle here, not running for anything. Tell me what you think about my take on the theme.

Two full width answers and two that just lack one letter. Very nice doable Tuesday and just a 'J' short of a pangram.

Across:

1. Throaty attention getter : AHEM

5. Contemptible person, in slang : SLEAZE

11. Brewery cask : KEG

14. Mideast's __ Strip : GAZA. Map.

15. Set in waves, as hair : PERMED

16. Prompt on stage : CUE

20. Ski resort grooming vehicle : SNO-CAT

21. Yves's yes : OUI

22. Bow-toting god : EROS

23. Boxer sounds? : ARFS. A canine boxer.

25. Food package meas. : NT WT. Net Weight.

33. Gossipy Barrett : RONA. She currently runs the Rona Barrett Foundation, a non-profit organization in Santa Ynez, California, dedicated to the aid and support of senior citizens in need.

34. Vintage car : REO. Oldsmobile.

35. Ship-locating system : LORAN. LOng RAnge Navigation. LORAN use has been in steep decline, being replaced with the satellite based Global Positioning System. (GPS)

36. Yiddish laments : OYs

37. Sticks to, as a task : KEEPS AT

40. One of the "Little Women" : AMY. "Little Women" (or Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy) is a novel by American author Louisa May Alcott.

41. Part of a front-end alignment : TOE IN. On your car, you may also have rear-end alignment with toe in adjustment.

43. Mississippi or Mersey: Abbr. : RIV. River. Good spot here for a musical interlude. Ferry Cross The Mersey.

44. Water shade : AQUA. Not the shade of water in either of the aforementioned rivers.

49. "Was __ loud?" : I TOO

50. Drawer feature : KNOB

51. Actress Chase : ILKA. Ilka Chase(1900-1978) had a long career as an actress on stage and screen and wrote more than a dozen books. Her book. Her epitaph reads: "I've finally gotten to the bottom of things."

54. Miner's find : ORE

56. Genetics pioneer Mendel : GREGOR. He was an Austrian monk and biologist whose work on heredity became the basis of the modern theory of genetics.

63. Pasture call : MOO. No connection to 68A. Melville's "Typee" sequel : OMOO.

64. Wobble : TEETER

65. London art museum : TATE

66. When one hand is up and the other is down : SIX. On an analog clock face; remember them?

67. Doctor's directives : ORDERS

Down:

1. FBI investigators : AGTs.

2. Goldie of "The Banger Sisters" : HAWN. Poster for the movie, with Susan Sarandon.

3. Opera star Pinza : EZIO. From "South Pacific", singing Some Enchanted Evening.

4. Lash cosmetic : MASCARA

5. One who's quick to anger : SPITFIRE

6. Sportscaster Berman : LEN. Since August 2008, Len has kept a blog and daily newsletter at LenBermanSports.com, using the form to continue his type of humor and whimsical sports stories.

7. Therefore : ERGO

8. Total : AMOUNT

9. Nadir's opposite : ZENITH

10. Netherlands city : EDE. Inland from Amsterdam.

11. Plymouth Reliant, e.g. : K-CAR. Dodge Aries, Plymouth Reliant, 1981 to 1989.

12. Continental currency : EURO

13. Jeweler's stock : GEMS

18. Mountain lake : TARN

19. Brief fight : SET-TO

24. Dagger of yore : SNEE

26. Whip mark : WELT

27. "Happy birthday __!" : TO YOU. This has to be one of the easiest clue/answer yet!

28. Racers Al or Bobby : UNSER. Automotive racers.

29. Decide to play for pay : GO PRO

30. Kuwaiti neighbor : IRAQI

31. Keep from flowing, as a stream : DAM UP

32. "Orinoco Flow" New Age singer : ENYA

33. Univ. military program : ROTC

37. Heal, as bones : KNIT

38. Pile-of-dishes place : SINK

39. Steed and Mrs. Peel's show, with "The" : AVENGERS. Image.

42. Homeric war epic : ILIAD

44. __ VO5: beauty product : ALBERTO

46. Twelve o'clock meeting : NOONER. Ho, ho, ho!

47. Stuffed with food : GORGED

48. Do a laundry task : SORT

51. Certain PCs : IBMs. Personal computers from International Business Machines(IBM).

52. First of 13 popes : LEO I

53. Fort featured in "Goldfinger" : KNOX

55. Cigar suffix : ETTE

57. Largest of the Mariana Islands : GUAM

58. Director Preminger : OTTO

59. Prefix with stat : RHEO

61. Skater Midori : ITO. Clip.

62. The Beatles' "I Saw __ Standing There" : HER

Answer grid.

We are passing along this email from Peter Gordon, editor of Fireball Crosswords. Hope you will subscribe for 2011. Fireball is one of the best (and most challenging) puzzles around.

"With just half a dozen puzzles left in the year, please send an email to me at xwords@optonline.net with the subject line either YES or NO that answers this question:

If Fireball Crosswords continues in 2011, the subscription price will be $16 for 40 puzzles. Do you plan to subscribe/resubscribe?

Next year, if I get enough subscribers, I will continue with the puzzles, but I will open up the submissions to all puzzle writers. I will still make many of the puzzles myself, including probably all the themeless puzzles, but there will be more variety because some of the puzzles will be themed puzzles. Since I will pay the highest rate in the country for a daily-sized puzzle, $201, I expect to get the cream of the crop, and won't accept anything less. But even if everyone were to resubscribe at the rate I charged last year, I'd still be losing money on every puzzle written by others. Since both my wife and accountant think this is a Bad Idea, I have no choice but to raise the rate. If around 500 of the 710 current subscribers sign on for next year, I will continue.

Whatever the outcome, the only result that will upset me is if I don't get a high response rate from this question. Without enough replies, I won't know what I should do. So cast your ballot on this Election Day and let me know YES or NO.

Also, please spread the word about Fireball Crosswords. If you're a blogger, mention the site (www.FireballCrosswords.com). If you have a Twitter account, tweet about it. Put it on your Facebook page. And talk it up to everyone you know. If there's someone who likes really hard crosswords, why not give a gift subscription? It's the gift that keeps on giving throughout the year. (If you plan on buying two subscriptions, send two YES emails.)

No matter the outcome, it's been a pleasure puzzling you throughout 2010!"

Argyle