Wednesday, March 14 2012, Steve Blais

theme: let's play dress up - SUITs are split into three parts in three common phrases.

20A. Standard of comparison : MEASURING STICK

31A. Like some kitchen cabinets : CUSTOM BUILT

40A. Govt. workers concerned with returns : IRS AUDITORS

53A. It includes a vest ... and what can be found in each set of circles in the long answers : THREE PIECE SUIT

circles! uncommon and fun puzzle device. it must have been difficult to come up with three phrases containing the letters S U I T in that order. steve blais gave us the this little piggy themed puzzle in january.

melissa here, going to be a bit brief due to ongoing internet issues out here in the boonies.

across

1. Diamond-studded tooth caps, e.g. : BLING

also known as grillz. okay .. uh ... sorry .. but i don't really ... get ... ech.

6. "High Voltage" band : AC/DC

10. Valence lead-in : AMBI. that was a little tricky. ambivalence.

14. Smash over the infield, say : LINER. for all you baseball fans.

15. "The Big Sleep" genre : NOIR. iMdb best film noir titles.

16. Normandy city : CAEN. two hours northwest of paris - largely destroyed in WWII.

17. Arctic digs : IGLOO

18. Refuse to grant, as access : DENY

19. Big hike : TREK

23. Be a buttinsky : PRY

24. Corner opening? : CEE. i love this shout out, hope it was intentional.

25. Saved to watch later : TIVO'ED. so many people love their tivo - if i ever start watching tv again i may get it.

27. Oldies refrain syllable : SHA. sha na na ...

28. Do one's homework, so to speak : PLAN

30. Casserole morsel : PEA

35. Go (for) : OPT

36. __ close to schedule : ON OR. on or about march 14th.

37. 'Enry's 'ouse : 'OME. eliza doolittle accent.

38. Escape : FLEE

39. Bad check letters : NSF. non-sufficient funds.

44. Asian festival : TET

45. Hi-fi spinners: Abbr. : RECS. records, as in vinyl.

46. Convenient connections : INS

47. Fighting words : IT’S WAR

49. WWII USN carrier : LST

50. Common college degs. : BS'S. or how one gets by if he/she doesn't have one.

57. Nile queen, familiarly : CLEO.

58. PTA part: Abbr. : ASSN. parent teacher association.

59. Like a five-star hotel : RITZY

60. Hide from a trapper : PELT. like this clue.

61. Spanish surrealist : DALI. interesting character.

62. Big chip maker : INTEL

63. Not busy : IDLE

64. WWII British gun : STEN

65. "With Reagan" memoirist : MEESE. attorney general during the time of secret arms sales to iran.

down

1. Goodyear flier : BLIMP

2. Crossbred big cat : LIGER. offspring of a male lion and female tiger.

3. Parquetry design : INLAY. beautiful.

4. Modernists, informally : NEO'S. neo-conservative, neo-liberal, neo-modern, etc.

5. "I have had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn't it" speaker : GROUCHO.

6. Actress MacDowell : ANDIE. model turned actress.

7. Either "True Grit" (2010) director : COEN. one of the coen brothers' films.

8. "Correct answer!" sound : DING!

9. Formal glassware : CRYSTAL

10. When Juliet drinks the potion : ACT IV. romeo and juliet.

11. 13th-century globetrotter : MARCO POLO

12. One whose workplace is all abuzz : BEEKEEPER. cute.

13. Printer's purchase : INK

21. Printer's purchase : REAM

22. Add a little color to : TINT

26. Calendar entries : DATES

27. Cello sect. : STR

28. PowerCat soccer cleats, e.g. : PUMAS

29. In __ of: replacing : LIEU

31. "Reuben, Reuben" actor Tom : CONTI. 1983 academy award nominee.

32. Yet to be paid : UNSETTLED. great read, this ...

33. Crab variety : SOFT SHELL

34. Pear choice : BOSC

38. Mil. installations : FTS

40. Wrath, in a classic hymn : IRAE. dies irae, latin for 'day of wrath.'

41. Checks carefully, as a contract : RE-READS

42. Backup medium : DISC

43. Provisional : INTERIM

48. Put pen to paper : WROTE. mostly done now by putting fingers to keyboard.

49. Early Soviet leader : LENIN. vladimir lenin, russian marxist revolutionary and leader of the bolsheviks.

50. Former Montana copper-mining city : BUTTE

51. Clothing rack array : SIZES

52. Vogue : STYLE

54. Hurdle for a jr. : PSAT. preliminary SAT test.

55. Cruise stopover : ISLE

56. Trig ratio : SINE

57. Cost-of-living stat : CPI. consumer price index.

Answer grid.

melissa

Tuesday, March 13, 2012 Jeff Chen

Theme: Build a Better Trap for Them - It would have to be a good trap to hold our diverse rodents that start our theme entries today.

17A. Old-style bottle opener : CHURCH KEY. Let's start with a problem. Several dictionaries state that a church mouse is a fictional mouse created by Lewis Carroll. Unfortunately, nobody can find it in his writings. The idioms "poor as a church mouse" and "quiet as a church mouse" have been around for centuries but still no exact reason why it should be so. So I give you this poem, by John Betjeman, "Diary of a Church Mouse". And a picture of a church key, used for taking the caps off of bottles before twist-offs.

24A. Yankee with a record 18 World Series home runs : MICKEY MANTLE

41A. 1995 Woody Allen film with a Greek chorus : MIGHTY APHRODITE. I would think this grid spanner was the seed for this puzzle.

52A. Highest British military rank : FIELD MARSHAL

65A. Cry evoked by the first parts of the answers to 17-, 24-, 41- and 52-Across? : "EEK! A MOUSE!"

Argyle here. Plenty of theme materials in this puzzle (about 57 squares). Jeff also managed to put in excellent paralleled long Downs.

Across:

1. Pointer's pronoun : THAT

5. Supermarket stripes: Abbr. : UPCs. (Universal Product Code)

9. Poe's middle name : ALLAN. His poem was about a raven.

14. Hand-on-the-Bible utterance : OATH

15. Lassie : GIRL. Despite the fact in the television series the character Lassie is female, all collies to play Lassie were male. They weren't Scottish either.

16. Take care of : SEE TO

19. "Are not!" retort : "AM TOO!"

20. Afghanistan's capital : KABUL

21. Honoree of a D.C. monument at 1964 Independence Ave. : MLK. (Martin Luther King). It is hard to get an idea of the scope of his monument from just one perspective so I've linked the Google image page.

23. Treats, as squeaks : OILS

28. Pen point : NIB

31. Bullfight shout : ¡OLÉ!

32. Puzzle (out), in slang : SUSS

33. Idle of "Life of Brian" : ERIC. Monty Python's.

35. Preschool basics : ABC's

38. Charges at some booths : TOLLS

44. Actor Davis : OSSIE

45. Vim and vigor : BRIO. From Italian, of Celtic origin. (Probably can't say that about too many words.)

46. "__ dash of ...": recipe words : ADD A

47. Courtroom entry : PLEA

49. Top-row PC key : ESC

51. Approximate fig. : EST.

57. Both Chaneys : LONs

58. Beverage cooler : ICE

59. Lindsay of "Herbie: Fully Loaded" : LOHAN. Herbie wasn't the only one.

63. Connector with a slash : AND/OR

68. Traffic problem : TIE-UP

69. Wife of Osiris : ISIS. (Egyptian Religion)

70. Racing's Grand __ : PRIX. Oh my, the term is used for a lot more than racing these days. Wikipedia disambiguation.

71. Fruit-filled treats : TARTS

72. Deck chair wood : TEAK

73. Deck chair piece : SLAT

Down:

1. Sound heard around the clock : TOCK. But every other second.

2. Sarcastic joke response : HA HA

3. "... three men in __" : A TUB

4. Tap idly with one's fingers : THRUM

5. "I'm not eating that!" : "UGH!"

6. Dental care suffix : PIK

7. Double Stuf stuff : CREME

8. On the q.t. : SLYLY

9. Comparative words : AS A

10. Citrus-flavored refresher : LEMON SODA

11. Change the subject, perhaps : LET IT SLIDE

12. Lagoon surrounder : ATOLL

13. Oater omen : NOOSE

18. Ad-writing award : CLIO

22. Canada hwy. distances : KMs. (kilometres)

25. Modeling material : CLAY

26. Skewered fare : KEBAB. (or kabab, kabob, kebap)

27. Garage occupant : AUTO

28. Animated clownfish : NEMO

29. Van Gogh flower : IRIS

30. Spare-no-cost type : BIG SPENDER

34. Hangs loose : CHILLS OUT

36. EMT's procedure : CPR

37. Draws back, as in fear : SHIES

39. Former Fords : LTDs

40. Airplane assignment : SEAT

42. Ready for a drive : TEE'D. Golf.

43. __ Hashanah : ROSH

48. Friend from France : AMI

50. Unruffled : CALM

52. Scruggs's partner : FLATT

53. Ancient Aegean region : IONIA. Map.

54. Nail the test : ACE IT

55. Della of "Touched By an Angel" : REESE

56. Aerobatic maneuvers : LOOPS. Amazing kit-built aircraft. Clip (4:44)

60. Throw : HURL

61. Sri Lanka locale : ASIA. Off the tip of India. Hit by a tsunami in 2004.

62. First in line : NEXT

64. Rotation meas. : RPS. (revolutions per second)

66. Korean 27-Down manufacturer : KIA

67. Look for answers : ASK

Argyle