Friday. October 19, 2012, Jeff Chen

THEME: Elementary my dear Watson, it goes on the Table, Period.

Wow, another of our many favorite constructors and mentors, who put together an effort filled with so many layers, and no hens in the bunch. For the newbies, here is his INTERVIEW. So the theme has three sets of two natural elements, (two 14 and one 15 letter combination) the atomic symbol for which spells out the first unifier, 39A, FASHION which is then enhanced by 59A, another grid-spanning clue, which clues you to think of the answers to 17A, 22A and 50A as elements. There are some three and four  letter fill to help get the theme going through perps, but all in all another gem. It is hard to believe Jeff has only been doing this for just over three years. For me the puzzle has much of the joy of a Dan Naddor, heavy themeage and lots of tricky word pairs. Some may not enjoy the referential cluing and the proper names, but hey that is what make the world interesting; so let's get to dissecting this one.

17A. Components of 39-across : FLUORINE (symbol F)  ARSENIC (AS). (15)

22A. Components of 39-across : HYDROGEN (H) IODINE.(I). (14)

50A. Components of 39-across : OXYGEN (O) NITROGEN (N). (14)

and the first hint:

39A. Symbolic sum of 17-, 22- and 50-Across : FASHION. (7) Symbolic being your first clue to the periodic table.

followed by:

59A. Classic manual, with "The," and what the starred answers' components are vis-à-vis 39-Across : ELEMENTS OF STYLE. (15). This book was still the BIBLE for authors when I was studying and teaching English at UConn. (Does your paper have the 17A, 22A & 50A starred?)

Across:

1. Kool Moe Dee's genre : RAP. I do not know this early rap ARTIST,(4:17) but I see he was the first to rap at the Grammys.

4. Response to a drought ending : AT LAST. Rain, at last!

10. Spot that many avoid : TV AD. Nice misdirection.

14. Words of attribution : A LA. Our first French of the day, and my recurring clue for three Fridays, though each was different. Literally, from the...

15. Inspiration for jambalaya : PAELLA. When the Spanish came to the new world, they found saffron too rare and too expensive, they used the exciting fruit, the tomato, the rest in gastronomic history.

16. Jaunty greeting : HI HO. A greeting which cannot be used in certain neighborhoods, or you will be beaten.

20. Yao-like : TALL. 7'6" tall, basically a walking tree who played basketball for the Houston Rockets until his body broke down.

21. Gummy : VISCID. from the Latin, like its more popular cousin, viscous; though not to be confused with vicious.

28. Lightsaber wielders : SITH. George Lucas explained to me, this race became so mean because everyone called them SITHIES.

29. Get ready for a drive : TEE UP. (third two word answer).

30. Elem. school staple : PBJ. Peanut Butter & Jelly.

33. Some emoticons : FROWNS. Turn that frown upside down, stand on your head.

37. Barbera d'___: Italian wine : ASTI. A brand new way to avoid Spumante.

38. Sushi topper : ROE. Wants some eggs with your fish?

41. Key for getting out of a jam : ESCape. Nice clue.

42. Humble reply to praise : I TRY. Number 4.

44. Visit : STOP BY. (5)Can people Stop By or do they need to call first?

45. ___ Cabos, Mexico : LOS. The southern most city in the BAJA.

46. Chowderhead : MORON. This is an actual medical term for a level of awareness.

48. Gaseous: Pref. : AERI. Not that kind of gaseous, silly!

56. Signal to try to score : WAVE IN. (6) and the Yankees did not wave in many runs did they. The horse AROD finished last at Belmont yesterday.

57. They're often bruised : EGOS. I also bruise my eggos, but that is just me.

64. Greg's love on "House" : LISA. Mostly known as CUDDY, she left the cast.

65. Hard pieces : ETUDES. I will let our resident maestro JzB discuss this musical concept.

66. Flicks : PIX. Not to be confused with 27D. Books that require a commitment : EPICS.

67. Pup without papers : MUTT. Speaking of which, how did the cat placement go divine miss m? An the semi-clecho 35D. Go after, puppy-style : NIP AT.(8). Not like the 43A. Support for a downward-facing dog : YOGA MAT.(9).

68. Writer de Beauvoir : SIMONE. This unique and powerful woman was the life partner of Jena Paul Sartre, but together they lived a rather debauched LIFE, which you can read about there, or you can consider this LINK. to ponder her contribution to philosophy and feminism.

69. Miss Pym's creator : TEY. Josephine a wonderful mystery and historical mystery author.

Down:

1. Lake floater : RAFT. If you watch CSI, NCIS and BONES you probably thought BODY.

2. Burka wearer's deity : ALLAH. Same one.

3. Comedian Shore : PAULY. Is he FUNNY? (2:03). I really only know him as an early MTV VJ.

4. CPA's busy time : APRil. Tax day the 15th, now. It was March 15 when I first recall my father grumbling.

5. Mai ___ : TAI. The drink.

6. "Dancing With the Stars" judge Goodman : LEN. The dancing prune.

7. Bayer painkiller : ALEVE. If you read the literature, you will never take PILLS.

8. Knocked off : SLAIN. OFF bad, UP bad, on wood, good.

9. Tibia neighbors : TARSI. Speaking of Bones, work your way down.

10. "Why, I never!" : THE IDEA! (7) I can see Aunt Bee, only I think it was always the very idea hmph!

11. "Fast Five" star : VIN DIESEL. Fuel for your tank ladies? Get your motor running?

12. Sushi tuna : AHI, or do you prefer expensive fish?

13. One of a toon septet : DOC. From the Latin for 7, Dwarves of course, or is it Dwarfs?

18. Cutlass maker : OLDS. Not a sword maker but a defunct car manufacturer.

19. Many a St. Andrews golfer : SCOT. They vote next year to be independent of Britain, Steve, Nice Cuppa, anyone?

23. Jazz lick : RIFF.

24. Others, abroad : OTRAS. Our Spanish lesson 1.

25. Spirit : GHOST.

26. Bats : NUTSO. Both colloquial for insane, which is what you have to be to inject your body with 31D. It might make you forget your lines : BOTOX. A portmanteau of Botulinum Toxin, the neurotoxin responsible for many deaths. Worse than taking Aleve. I love the clue, forget your lines...those ones coming from my eyes and my smile and....

30. Tops : PRIMO. From Latin, Italian and  I think Spanish  for "first."

32. Ex-Laker silhouetted in the NBA logo : JERRY WEST. One of the all time great players, with this interesting STORY. The ABA gave us more than the 3 point shot.

34. Detective's pronoun : WHO. From WHO DUNNIT, I guess.

36. Serious : SOBER.

40. "Eli's Coming" songwriter : NYRO. a wonderful SINGER (3:59) song writer who died young of ovarian cancer just like Gilda Radnor. Sad. makes the song more powerful.

47. Campbell of "Wild Things" : NEVE. For those who have not seen the SCENE(1:12), it is very R-rated. Not related to 51D. Tampico tots : NENES, Tampico is also in Mexico, and the NENE is the bebe..

49. "Is this what ___ for...?" : I GET. (10)

52. Gangster Frank : NITTI. I am really enjoying reading Max Allan Collins'  Nate Heller historical mysteries, often featuring Nitti. He was my favorite gangster on the Untouchables.

53. Briefly : IN SUM. (11).

54. Abu Simbel's land : EGYPT. These were dug out by Ramses II's slaves and saved by the Asswan DAM.

55. "Honest!" : NO LIE. (12) Do you ever trust anyone who says this?

58. Steamy : SEXY.

59. Sunblock of a sort : ELM. Under the branches of the old elm tree.

60. Sch. with a Riverhead campus : LIU. Long Island University. LINK.

61. Prefix with meter : ODO. The one that tells yo how many miles you have traveled.

62. Marshland : FEN. A good old English cozy word.

63. Lubbock-to-Laredo dir. : SSE. Well I guess if we are going to go in that direction, I had better get out of here and leave it to you. I love Jeff Chen's work as he always makes me work and think, whether a Monday or a Friday; I hope you had a good time, I know I worked you hard in places as well, so see you next time.

Lemonade

Thursday, October 18, 2012 Rich Mausser

Theme: Going in circles.

Extremely elegant puzzle, but I wonder how many will catch on to the nuances here?

18. Congregational divide : CHURCH AISLE.

24. "Inside the NBA" analyst Barkley, familiarly : SIR CHARLES.

40. Fix-it guide : REPAIR CHECKLIST.

52. Wooly garment : MOHAIR COAT.

And the unifier:

63. Office purchase, and in a way, what can be seen in this puzzle's sequence of circles : SWIVEL CHAIR.

At first, I thought it was just anagrams of the word CHAIR.  "Ah, but look closer Grasshopper, and you will see that the 'chair' swivels one letter at a time":

r - chai

ir - cha

air - ch

hair - c

And did I mention? It is a pangram, to boot! Fantastic execution! And very timely, because I am in the process of re-doing my office, complete with new office chairs...

Marti here, to look at the rest of the entries with you.

Across:

1. Browns' org. : NFL. National Football League. Or "Cle," on scoreboards.

4. Twine material : SISAL

9. Come-ons : LURES

14. SS supplement, for some : IRA. Individual Retirement Account.

15. Golfer who was #1 when she retired in 2010 : OCHOA . Mexican-born Lorena OCHOA Reyes, who was the top women's golfer from 2007-2010. She won her first state event at the age of five! (How's that make you feel, HG?)

16. Missouri's ___ Mountains : OZARK . Map.

17. TUMS target : GAS . I wanted "acid," but it wouldn't fit.

20. Modern address starter : HTTP . Hypertext transfer protocol. Who comes up with these names, anyway?

22. Spirited mount : STEED

23. Do a hatchet job : HEW

28. Burning rubber sound : SQUEAL

30. Decorous : PROPER

34. Green hole : CUP . The hole on the green that OCHOA hits more often, with less strokes, than I!

35. Wings it, musically : VAMPS . Trust me, I read more about VAMP than I ever care to remember while looking this one up. So let's just go to an example. 4:21

39. Heavenly bear : URSA. Major or minor?

44. Like many eBay items : USED

45. Tuscany city : SIENA. Another map.

46. Hum attachment? : VEE . This vehicle.

47. Fable messages : MORALS

50. Manually : BY HAND

56. He voiced Elmer : MEL. Blanc. The man of a thousand voices.

59. Sweethearts maker : NECCO . New England Confectionery Company.

60. Leap in a tutu : JETE

67. Fish lacking pelvic fins : EEL. It does, however, have a dorsal fin.

68. Aptly named bug spray : REPEL. Never heard of the brand, so this was a WAG.

69. New product div. : R AND D. Research and Development. Also abbreviated R&D, RND or simply R-D.

70. Holiday tuber : YAM. It's getting to be that time of year.

71. Surrogate : PROXY . This evening, we spotted a small kitten in our yard that had a collar. It ran right up to us and mewled loudly.  Unfortunately, there was no ID tag on the collar, so we took her in, gave her food & water, a litter box, and a pillow for a bed out in the Florida room.  I put up posters with her picture throughout the neighborhood. But I think I have become her surrogate mother. Tomorrow I will call the animal control officer and the local pet shelter to see if anyone has reported a missing cat. Anyone have any other ideas of how I can find her owners?

72. Out of port : AT SEA

73. "Strange Magic" rock gp. : ELO . Electric Light Orchestra.  Here it is. 4:24

Down:

1. Soon to happen : NIGH

2. Its name usually has only two or three letters : FRAT . Alpha Tau Omega, or Delta Phi, for example. Not to be confused with 37 Down. Part of PBK : PHI . Phi Beta Kappa, the honor society.

3. DaVinci masterpiece, with "The" : LAST SUPPER. I used to take my lunch and sit on the bench in front of it when I worked in Milan.

4. Humanities maj. : SOC. Sociology.

5. Einstein's "I" : ICH . German.

6. Complaint about a library volume? : SHUSH . Fun clue. I was thinking in terms of books as volumes, not sound.

7. Primary artery : AORTA

8. One working on a punch, perhaps : LACER . Well I guess if you have to include a word like "lacer", then at least the clue can be fun! It refers to the one with the pint of vodka, spiking the punch at the senior prom.  Sound like anyone you know??

9. Dump truck adjunct : LOADER .  Or the one who gets 11 Down?

10. Israeli arms expert ___ Gal : UZI . Israel...arms...has to be UZI, right?

11. Diaper woe : RASH .

12. Gardner who invented cases : ERLE . We know him from his "Perry Mason" series.

13. Depict unfairly : SKEW . Did I ever tell you about the course I took in college, called "Lying With Statistics"? It gave me a permanently skeptical view of anything published with graphs...

19. Common menu option : HELP

21. À la mode serving : PIE

25. Sitarist Shankar : RAVI

26. Woodwind instr. : CLAR. inet.  I totally missed the abbr. of "instr." and automatically filled in "oboe" at first.

27. Franklin's genre : SOUL. Aretha, not Benjamin!

28. Rugby tussle : SCRUM . Don't ask me how I knew this, but it filled automatically.

29. Mexican cheese : QUESO

31. Magnum, for one : PRIVATE EYE . '80's TV show called "Magnum, P.I."

32. Krupp Works city : ESSEN. Not to be confused with the coffeemaker family "Krups."

33. Did Ebert's job : RATED . Formerly partnered with Siskal, in a show where they reviewed movies and gave them either a thumbs up or a thumbs down. "Two Thumbs Up" would indicate a real "must-see."

36. Roast hosts, for short : MCS . Master of Ceremony(s). Masters of Ceremony. Master of Ceremonies. Let's just go with "emcees," OK?

38. Understand : SEE. See?

41. First family member? : ADAM . (Because Barack, Michelle, Malia or Sasha wouldn't fit.)

42. "Mad Money" channel : CNBC . Never saw it. Know it from crosswords.

43. Put on the canvas : KAYO. K-O, or "knock-out," in boxing.

48. Desolate : LONELY.

49. Poet Silverstein : SHEL. "Uncle Shelby" to his fans. I miss ClearAyes, so here's one of his poems in her memory.

There is a place where the sidewalk ends

And before the street begins,

And there the grass grows soft and white,

And there the sun burns crimson bright,

And there the moon-bird rests from his flight

To cool in the peppermint wind.

Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black

And the dark street winds and bends.

Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow

We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,

And watch where the chalk-white arrows go

To the place where the sidewalk ends.

Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,

And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,

For the children, they mark, and the children, they know

The place where the sidewalk ends.

51. Pilgrimage to Mecca : HAJ

53. Ghana's capital : ACCRA. Another map.

54. Apple messaging tool : iCHAT

55. Horses with interspersed colored and white hairs : ROANS.

56. Amt. you don't expect to pay : MSRP. Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price.

57. Wide-mouthed pourer : EWER.

58. Slimming choice, briefly : LIPO . I'll go with Windhover's method, thank you.

61. Marsh duck : TEAL . Lovely!

62. Sailor's patron : ELMO . "St. Elmo's Fire" is a weather phenomenon in highly charged atmospheres. It would appear as a luminous glow on the ends of the ship's masts, and was regarded by sailors with religious awe.

64. Plague : VEX

65. Ending with fluor- : IDE

66. Nutritional stat : RDA . Recommended Dietary Allowance replaced the older term "Recommended Daily Allowance."

That's all for now. 'Til next week!

Hugs,

Marti

Late addition: Anyone know whose cat this is?