Friday January 21, 2011 Kelsey Blakley

Theme: I’m from Boston, and er, ah, you like how I pahk my cah? You take a phrase in the language and change the ER ending into A so it might sound like said by a Bostonian, but transforming the answer into a new and witty sound alike. Wicked cool. As a born and bred New Englandah, I enjoyed the theme, though I struggled with the first entry.

20A. Heavy metal mimic?: HARD ROCK MYNA, anyone ready to hear my story about the bird who sang like Pavorotti again? Did you know MYNAS (or MYNAHS) are members of the starling family? There really is a type of mining done by a HARD ROCK MINERS which I did not know.

28A. Nickname for a pharmaceuticals czar?: PILL PAPA. Sadly, we probably all know a PILL POPPER.

37A. Surfing-induced torpor?: BEACH COMA. Torpor is a nice word, and BEACHCOMBER is a single word which changes into a phrase.

49A. Sailor's pocket bread?: SALT PITA. Lots going on here, SALT as a sailor and bread as , well bread. When I was away at boarding school, the baker told me they really put SALTPETER in the food at our school. It does yield the interesting word anaphrodisiac.

56A. Heavenly food on the nightstand?: BEDSIDE MANNA. My uncle was a doctor, and the patients loved his BEDSIDE MANNER.

Heigh ho all, it is once again Freighday, and for the whole bunch of us with ties the northeast this was a really fun puzzle. In addition to the 5 theme answers, we had another twelve words ending in “A.” So let’s go…

Across:

1. Cape Cod feature: GABLE. Continuing with the New England theme, I grew up in this type HOUSE with the shed dormers.

6. Valentine trim: LACE. We are starting early with our frilly clues.

10. Embezzle: SKIM. I am not sure, but I imagine this comes from the cream rising to the top of milk, and someone stealing the best part.

14. Medicinal plants: ALOES. Our crosswordese of the day.

15. Comet competitor: AJAX. Cleaners, not things in the sky. I had a fish named AJAX, he was a red betta, named after the redheaded giant warrior in the Aeneid.

16. Plantation near Twelve Oaks: TARA. Looks like Gone With the Wind will follow me for a while.

17. Like ESP?: SIXTH. SENSE I enjoyed the movie; it had an unrelated Osmond as well.

18. __ avis: RARA. This rare bird is pretty common in puzzles.

19. Prince William's alma mater: ETON. Their major rival is HARROW, don’t ask me why.

23. Exotic guided tour: SAFARI. Oh my, back to planning a honeymoon.

26. Subway co. in a 1959 song: MTA. Of course the M is for Massachusetts, (Transit Authority) so it fits our puzzle, as well as giving us the KINGSTON TRIO .

27. Flop: DOG. This was my difficult corner, and frankly Scarlett, I do not get the clue. Oh, I just got it, the play was a flop, a dog, a bomb; okay.

31. Aim high: ASPIRE. Dream big.

33. Commotion: ADO. Much of it can become a play.

34. Chapeau's perch: TETE. The mandatory French lesson from my write ups, Chapeau being a HAT and TETE is head.

36. One bearing down: EIDER. Really cute use of language, and play on bearing down.

40. Williams of ''Happy Days'': ANSON. Potsie, who became a director.

43. Peevish, as a puss: SOUR. We all know some, but I will stop there to prevent getting in trouble.

44. One shooting the bull?: VET. Nice misdirection again, inoculating by a veterinarian, not telling stories or killing anything.

47. Sharp Italian cheese: ROMANO. Or annoying TV comedian.

52. 11th-century date: MVI. Oh no, the dread roman numeral clue!

53. Mantel piece: URN. I once made the mistake of picking up one on the mantelpiece when I was picking up a woman foe a date, only to learn I had just met her first husband.

55. Crankcase reservoir: OIL PAN. This should have been next to Gasoline Alley.

60. Bit of plankton: ALGA. While a whale may go through tons, a human cannot digest most plankton.

61. C-3PO worshiper: EWOK. Gotta love a robot with a British accent.

62. Where to see government programs: CSPAN. CABLE SATELLITE PUBLIC AFFAIRS NETWORK.

66. Nat or Card: NLER.I like baseball, but if I do not see and NLER or an ALER anytime soon I will be happy.

67. Sparkling wine city: ASTI. Don’t call it champagne.

68. Elicit a :-) from: AMUSE. Now even puzzles speak in emoticons. LMAO.

69. Dismally damp: DANK. I do loves me a good alliteration and this carries through the clue and answer.

70. "Lolita" star Sue: LYON. I am not sure what happened to this YOUNG LADY but I do know she dated Donovan Leitch; does that help?

71. Pram occupant's wear: NAPPY. A touch of old England to go along with our puzzle, with PRAM being what they call a baby carriage, and NAPPY is a diaper. NC, your thoughts? You can change your mind.

Okay, take a break, have another sip of coffee, and then…

DOWN:

1. State of matter: GAS. Boom, a quick clecho with 51D. State of matter: PLASMA. When was a kid in school when we spoke of STATE OF MATTER we had only gas, liquid and solid; then again the periodic table had only 4 elements, FIRE, WATER, AIR and BILE.

2. Fighter who was a dove: ALI. Muhammed who would not go to VietNam but did 3D. Emulate 2-Down: BOX.

4. Ruinous: LETHAL. I do not think of these as synonymous, but that is just me.

5. F equivalent: ESHARP. JzB, I defer to you on all musical stuff.

6. Blubber: LARD. Man all of a sudden I am the synonym police, while both of these relate to fat, I do not see them as the same thing.

7. Slightly gapped: AJAR. When is a door not a door?

8. Ricochet: CAROM. We had pool table when I was young, so I learned all about ANGLES .

9. Long-odds track wager: EXACTA. Actually a PICK SIX or even a TRIFECTA is harder.

10. Stalk: STEM. For some reason, my first thought was of stalkers.

11. Insect that can mimic a leaf: KATYDID. We had lots of these BUGS when I was growing up in Connecticut, they are kind cool.

12. Cargo on the Edmund Fitzgerald when it sank in Lake Superior: IRON ORE. I did not know that fact, is it mentioned in the SONG ?

13. Recipient of an annual baseball award since 1983: MANAGER. Did not know this easier and that corner was my only slow spot.

21. Rodeo prop: RIATA. ALI pioneered the ROPE A DOPE for his fight against George Foreman.

22. "Casey's Top 40" host: KASEM. He has a 6’ tall wife, Jean who was born in New Hampshire, and was very funny as the second Mrs. Tortelli on Cheers which was set in Boston.

23. Bad Ems attraction: SPA. In case you did not know it, this is a town in the Rhineland, now part of Germany, which I know was part of the Roman incursion into the area. Helps to have a son who studies this stuff.

24. Give a leg up: AID.

25. Showman Ziegfeld: FLO. He was a German immigrant and did great things for American MUSICAL THEATER .

29. Chest muscles, briefly: PECS. No more today girls.

30. Oldest musketeer: ATHOS. I did not ever think about which among this group was the oldest.

32. Zadora of "Hairspray": PIA. Like Sue Lyon, her early film role was in Butterfly as the object of affection of an older man, only Pia did one better, as her lover was her father. In real life she married a 54 year old man when she was 23, but he was rich, and she has had a nice life.

35. OAS member: ECUA. Once again and Ecuador reference, I hope one day to tell great Ecuador stories; I already can tell you about the cocal leaf teas they gave my business partner, but that isn’t very interesting.

37. Zookeeper's main squeeze?: BOA. Oh how cute, a nice change from our ASP.

38. Lassitude: ENNUI. Well here is the ultimate cracked clecho, because this also mean BOREDOM, which could be BOADOM, id from Bahston.

39. DuPont's Fiber A, now: ORLON. Why orlon or nylon or rayon?

40. Worn symbol of support: ARM BAND. Sadly the best know being those of Nazi Germany.

41. "Billy Budd," e.g.: NOVELLA. A controversial little novel, with homosexual undertones.

42. Wee bit: SMIDGEN.

44. Certain lounge frequenter: VIP. They exist in other places than strip clubs guys.

45. SFO listing: ETA. SFO is the code for San Francisco airport.

46. Soak up some rays: TAN. It was 81 today.

48. Tough test: ORDEAL. Related to ORLON?

50. Object of a kicking game: TIN CAN. Ah yes, when we were young and poor, we played kick the can.

54. Like a thorough update: NEWSY. Meh.

57. Cutty __: historic clipper ship: SARK. This is an interesting CLIPPER SHIP and malt whiskey.

58. Agent inspired by Chan: MOTO. Another inscrutable Asian detective, played by Peter Lorre in the movies.

59. Like, with "to": AKIN.

63. Minor crying wolf?: PUP. Yes, wolf babies are pups also.

64. Egyptian viper: ASP. Oh no, the damn ASP was here after all!

65. Napoleonic Wars marshal: NEY. He is becoming a pretty common visitor.

Answer grid.

Wow, I felt like a kid again, thanks for having me in your homes; until next time be sure and use a good hand sanitizer like GermX, and be kind.

Lemonade

Note from C.C.:

Today marks the 3rd anniversary of this blog. I want to thank everyone, esp my dedicated blogging crew and regular commenters for making this a fun adventure.

Thursday, January 20, 2011 Mark Bickham

Theme: Add a silent K. Rather than giving you a long explanation, I'll let Marina Orlova explain it.

17A. Tough handicap to overcome in a joust?: KNIGHT BLINDNESS. Nyctalopia may exist from birth, or be caused by injury or malnutrition, for example, a lack of vitamin A. The opposite is hemeralopia.

22A. Hoopster featured in a news magazine?: KNICK OF TIME. Possibly from an old custom of recording time as it passed by making notches on a tally stick.

39A. What "purls of wisdom" is an example of?: KNITWIT. Nit, from nix, a variant of nichts (German for nothing).

51A. Was familiar with Britain?: KNEW ENGLAND. Not in the biblical sense, I hope...

59A. Bow tied by mortal hands?: KNOT OF THIS WORLD. The nautical unit of measure is from the practice of attaching knotted string to the log line. The ship's speed can be measured by the number of knots that play out while the sand glass is running. The distance between knots is 1/120 of a mile.

Hi all, Al here. If it's Thursday, it must be obfuscated clue day, and there sure were plenty that took a second or third thought.

ACROSS:

1. Volkswagen model since 1979: JETTA.

6. Stare: GAWK. Here you go, ladies.

10. Charm: MOJO.

14. Unit of capacitance: FARAD. Named for Michael Faraday. A capacitor that can store one FARAD would have to be somewhere between the size of a tuna can up to a one liter soda bottle. To store the total energy that a single AA battery can deliver, a capacitor would have to be of over 10,000 times larger than that.

15. "Would __?": I LIE.

16. Baseball's Moises: ALOU. Son of Felipe, also associated with baseball. You could see either name for this bit of crosswordese.

20. Words after post or suffer: A LOSS.

21. Beginning: ONSET.

26. Leo, for one: SIGN. All the focus on Astrology lately, but the dates aren't going to be changed.

27. Manhattan neighborhood acronym: NOHO. NOrth of HOuston St.

28. Ready to serve: DONE.

32. Uncertain concurrence: I GUESS.

35. Gave a buzz: RANG. Telephone.

37. Snaps: PIX.

38. Mineo of "Rebel Without a Cause": SAL.

41. HBO competitor: TMC. Home Box Office, The Movie Channel. For once it wasn't SHOwtime, but same difference, really.

42. __ king: ALA. Cooked in a cream sauce with green pepper or pimiento and mushrooms.

43. Hokkaido native: AINU. Indigenous people of Japan, conceptually like Native Americans here, the Maori of New Zealand, or Australian Aboriginal people.

44. Shoot for, with "to": ASPIRE. Associated with the concept of excitement, heavy breathing (inspiration, expiration), not the spire of a tall building.

46. Old Italian bread: LIRA. This bread/money misdirection shouldn't catch you off guard late in the week.

48. Puts on: DONS. Contraction of "do on", the original sense of "do" was "put". Contrast with doff, as with removing your hat in the presence of a lady.

50. Biol. branch: ECOL. Living organisms (biology) being optimized to suit their environment (ecology).

55. Unlikely lint-gatherer: OUTIE. This article about a collector is probably: 61D. "I didn't need to know that!": TMI.

58. Without delay: APACE.

65. Pinup Hayworth: RITA. Margarita Carmen Cansino. Died of Alzheimer's. Her case, and Ronald Reagan's years later, were instrumental in bringing this problem to light, not just to hide it away.

66. Pianist Gilels: EMIL. Rachmaninoff. Not a lot of other music references today, an unknown for me. Lots of youtube vids though.

67. Church parts: NAVES. Winchester Cathedral. (note, C.C. reported that link not working for her, even though it does for me. So here's a new one: Naves)

68. They have heads and handles: AXES.

69. Mug imperfections: ZITS. Facial acne. Again, probably TMI.

70. Symbol of strength: STEEL. Superman.

DOWN:

1. LaGuardia alternative, familiarly: JFK. Yesterday's Google banner paid tribute to Kennedy's inaugural speech. "Ask not..."

2. Suffix with Caesar: EAN. There are etymology stories that attribute naming of c-sections to his birth, but this is unlikely because his mother lived to see his triumphs, and those would have been fatal in that day and age. More likely the name comes directly from Latin caesus past participle of caedere "to cut."

3. Like jibs: TRIANGULAR. Sails.

4. Movie poster words: TAGLINE. Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water.

5. For a specific purpose: AD HOC. This clue is as direct of a translation from Latin as they come.

6. Big name in guitars: GIBSON. Also MARTIN, TAYLOR, FENDER, IBANEZ, SUZUKI... There are a lot of six letter guitar manufacturer names is what I'm saying. I only have two of those, neither of which is today's puzzle answer.

7. Pledge of Allegiance ender: ALL. Congress recently read the constitution out loud. If that wasn't just a stunt, they should pay equal attention to the words in the pledge, too. "Indivisible"? Not for lack of trying.

8. November 2006 Nintendo release: WII. The two lower case letter "i"s in Wii symbolize two people standing together playing. Pronounced "we".

9. Barbie's beau: KEN. According to Mattel, they broke up in February of 2004, but in 2006 a "new" Ken came along and now they are reunited.

10. Took one's place at, as a post: MANNED.

11. Cries following charges: OLES. I say we make Merill Lynch clean up all their "bullish".

12. __ Cuervo tequila: JOSE.

13. Remove from office: OUST.

18. Sound of reproach: TSK.

19. End for free: DOM. Freedom.

22. Capital of Rwanda: KIGALI. Geography lesson of the day.

23. Cookie information, perhaps: FORTUNE. Oh, the archaic kind of cookie, not something that your web browser saves your ADDRESS in... Speaking of which, if you are concerned about privacy, you might want to visit this site and opt out of letting them show (and sell) your personal information.

24. Relax, as tense relations: THAW.

25. Ancient Aegean region: IONIA.

26. Cordage fiber: SISAL. Rugs, mats, dartboards. Versatile.

29. Retina-brain link: OPTIC NERVE.

30. Jerk: NIMROD. A word that has flipped it's original meaning. Originally "great hunter" (Biblical reference to the son of Cush). Speculation (lets leave it at that) on the reason for the reversal has Bugs Bunny ironically referring to Elmer Fudd as a poor little nimrod. It may be that over the course of history among "manly" hunters, it started to be used in a sarcastically mocking fashion, and the popularity of Bugs gave it an extra boost, but I wouldn't go so far as to claim that to be the true etymology. Makes for a good story, though.

31. Stand out: EXCEL. Or a Microsoft spreadsheet program.

33. Calypso offshoot: SKA. Reggae relation.

34. Like ugly remarks: SNIDE.

36. Fast sports cars: GTS. Gran turismo, Grand tourer.

40. "__ pronounce you ...": I NOW.

45. Naval attire: PEACOAT. Originated from the Dutch or West Frisian word pijjekker, in which pij referred to the type of material used, a coarse kind of twilled blue cloth with a nap on one side.

47. Loyal Japanese dogs: AKITAS.

49. Sluggards: SNAILS. As in "sluggish", I guess.

52. "The Matrix" hero: NEO. Whoa! Keanu Reeves.

53. Modern dash-mounted device: Abbr.: GPS. Global Positioning System.

54. Croquet venues: LAWNS.

55. Creole vegetable: OKRA.

56. Windows alternative: UNIX. Unless you want to play a few certain specific games with certain video cards, that is. With Ubuntu you can do just about everything else.

57. Handy bag: TOTE.

60. Casbah headgear: FEZ. Also, the 11th Doctor (Who) thinks they're cool.

62. Best seller: HIT.

63. General at Antietam: LEE.

64. Step up from dial-up: DSL. Digital Subscriber Line. Cable is faster still.

Answer Grid.

Al