Friday, November 23, 2012, Marti Duguay-Carpenter

THEME: Appendix, as in Append IX, adding IX which is the Roman Numeral for nine which has absolutely nothing to do with the theme. .

Another cute and tricky (as in TR-  IX are for kids) theme from our Friday femme fatale, as we have a classic 4 theme puzzle with the "ix" added to the first word of a common  phrase to create a completely different and rib tickling new phrase. Simple but clever, and the rest of the fill is very clean and does not include many 3 letter answers and has a bunch of middle range words like BOSSIER,  EYE EXAM,  FARADAY, HANG ON TO,  PETER OUT, BOX OFFICE and  LOBBYISTS. Well let us see if all the tryptophan has dulled our senses or the day off from TOIL (yes I said TOIL!)  given us the strength to have no leftovers in our solving this little gem.

17A. Impish chutzpah? : PIXIE CRUST (10). Pie crust changes into a rather self-contradictory phrase suggesting both cute and tough.

24A. Royal handyman? : FIXIT FOR A KING (13). My  favorite visual, but whether the clue is fit for a King I am unsure.

46A. Betty Crocker's empire? : MIXING DYNASTY (13). The Ming Dynasty is replaced by the Queen of cake mixes.

56A. Watergate, notably? : NIXON ISSUE (10). Politics are non-issues here, but Nixon and Watergate will never go away.

Across:

1. Stroll : AMBLE. Exactly the speed I want to travel after a day of stuffing my face. I did not pour this in and the perps made it worse.

6. To-do : FLAP.

10. Bottle in a crib? : BABA. My son Aaron never used a pacifier, but loved his baba, cool to see this today while I am at his house.

14. Cry near the sty : SOOEY.  Ever called a hog? Can also be spelled SOOIE (1:48).

15. Aruba, for one : ISLE. One of the ABC isles.

16. Muslim prayer leader : IMAM.

19. Enemy of a ratón : GATO. A Spanish Cat does not like rats, not referencing people from Boca. Right Dennis?

20. __-pitch : SLO. This clue was a real softball, and mirrors the last clue, 59D. Cat lead-in : SNO.

21. Capital of Spain : ESS. If you all were trying to fit Madrid in there, S is the only capital letter in the word.

22. Pennsylvania site of the Crayola Factory : EASTON. Also birthplace of boxer Larry Holmes.

28. 90's trade pact : NAFTA. The North American Free Trade Agreement.

30. Agreeable : SAVORY. Here is where I hit a speed bump; I know it means pleasant or agreeable in the context of food, but without the reference this took the perps, as did.

31. Geometry staple : AXIOM. The 5 which are the basis of EUCLIDEAN GEOMETRY.I will defer to our math whiz Fermatprime, but when I saw the clue I just could not see marti's angle.

32. Sign on for another hitch : RE-UP. "to re-enlist," 1906, U.S. armed forces slang, from re- "back, again" + up "enlist." Online Etymology Dictionary.

33. Airport near Forest Hills, N.Y. : LGA. Laguardia, named for Mayor Fiorello Laguardia, and an unforgettable setting where you glide down over the water until the landing strip appears with the skyscrapers in the distance.

36. ___ de gallo: Mexican salsa : PICO. Do you all love Cilantro?

37. Core : HEART. Notice how our divine miss m keeps working these clues in.

39. Trashcan scavenger : COON. Aside from pejorative meanings, this is a legitimate stand alone word for raccoon so no real nit to pick here. Though I certainly have had to outsmart raccoon back in the day of small garbage cans off of which they easily got the top.

40. Legal ending : ESE. We are adjourned, just did not fit. Legalese.

41. Wedding ring, e.g. : BAND. This little one baffled me for a bit, maybe this is why I am so long divorced.

42. Watson of the PGA : BUBBA. 2012 Masters champion and the third PGA Tour winning golfer from little Milton Florida high school,  as well as being a SINGER (2:17). He is in the overalls.

43. Fads : MANIAS. Some might say Bubba is a maniac.

45. Electron circuit : ORBIT. We could go round and round about this clue.

50. Its components are often bought separately : STEREO.

51. Come-___:teasers : ONS.  Like these ADS (9:30)?

52. "Gross!" : ICK.

55. Zola title heroine : NANA.

60. Posting place : BLOG. A shout out to all of us.

61. Dressage pace : TROT. The pace of showing horses.

62. Submission : ENTRY.

63. Edible dessert container : CONE. Really nice simple, but evocative clue. Sugar or waffle?

64. Spanish medals or metals : OROS. Spanish lesson, meaning Gold.

65. Valentine's Day gift : ROSES. Another shout out to our Valentine baby. I wonder why there are no Js in her puzzles?

Down:

1. Threats to Indiana Jones : ASPS.  You all recall SNAKES on the PLANE (0:18)?

2. Work hard : MOIL. Of course i fell into her damn TOIL trap, and felt cut off from ever solving the NW. When the M in amble became mandatory, my heritage brought MOYLE to mind, and my energy waned, You could say it was about to 9D. Fizzle : PETER OUT. Which can be very painful with metal zippers.

3. Where a smash is welcome : BOX OFFICE. Mario and Luigi did not fit. Fun fill.

4. Island chain? : LEI. This is how to clue a three letter word and still make it fun.

5. Test for pupils? : EYE EXAM. More clue/fill magic.

6. Baby book entries : FIRSTS. How fitting with my little Charlotte now among us.

7. Sch. with a pelican on its official seal : LSU. Hey Hahtoolah, it is Louisiana State University.

8. Singer Green et al. : ALS.  Like this SONG (3:16).

10. Idaho State's conference : BIG SKY. Home of football powers Eastern Washington and Montana State.

11. Valuable violin : AMATI. Amo Amas, Amati, I love a good violin! Sadly, STRAD was my first thought.

12. A racer may pass it : BATON. Okay, here my first thought was GAS, then I went to Kidney Stone. It took awhile to get to a team race.

13. Encircled by : AMONG.

18. CBS series with regional spinoffs : CSI. Crime Scene Investigation. fading and soon to be gone. Ted Danson and Elizabeth Shue just pose too much, and she is always smiling inappropriately. She is a pretty woman but there are dead bodies. They even brought back the ghost of Warrick Brown in an attempt to bring back audience.

23. 50-and-up group : AARP.  American Association of Retired Persons.

25. "Am ___ late?" : I TOO. Like our late night poster always worry.

26. Electromagnetic induction discoverer FARADAY. This MAN.

27. "Your turn to talk" : OVER. Cute CB Radio talk clue. Over.

28. It's hidden by a ponytail : NAPE. Tattoo would not fit.

29. Turning point : AXIS. We had ALLIED-AXIS, now we have another meaning.

33. Influential Washington group : LOBBYISTS. Nice $10.00 word here.

34. Desert that borders the Altai Mountains : GOBI. You want to LEARN?.

35. Future doc's subj. : ANATomy.  This brings to mind one of my favorite obscure terms, METONOMY. which my friend uses daily when he says he is going to the track.

37. Keep : HANG ON TO. Are we going back to hoarders from last week?

38. Lover of Geraint : ENID. One of only two books which I began and did not finish, Tennyson's Idylls of the King. 

39. Short and not so sweet : CURT. I could not think of any short and acerbic people, though Kurt Vonnegut was close, but he was a K.

41. Scourge : BANE. I love this word.

42. More domineering : BOSSIER. Does this fill look like a French word that got lost and ended up in Ohio?

43. Vegas hotel, with "the" : MIRAGE. Steve Wynn's huge palace which changed the strip.

44. Snobs : SNOOTS. I never heard this used as a noun, only like, "The maitre'd was Snooty because I was wearing sneakers," Both come from the same stem word SNOUT (NOSE) from holding the nose up in the air.

46. "Hardball" network : MSNBC. How many remembered where the MS came from? Microsoft and the National Broadcasting Company.

47. 1895-'96 ___-Ethiopian War : ITALO. The First of two such wars. This is the HISTORY. It really looks like marti is trying to teach us stuff this week, while we are all too full of Turkey. (Okay Barry G.were going to say I actually am too full of....)

48. It might be in the spotlight : XENON. One of the inert gases used to make "neon" signs and lights.

49. Curry of "Today" : ANN. More brouhaha about her firing and the continued decline of Today versus GMA, but come on, Kathie Lee and Yoda?

53. "Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me" band, with "The" : CURE. Not familiar with album, here is the SONG..(6:20)

54. Ring jinglers : KEYS. A little early Christmas music, jingle keys, jingle keys?

57. Damaged, as mdse. : IRRegular.

58. Pencil game loser : XOO. Tic Tac Tomorrow we will have more leftovers, and I love my baby. If any of you actually come and solve, thank you and I hope you had a great holiday. See you all next time.

Lemonade

Thursday, November 22, 2012 Don Gagliardo and C.C. Burnikel

Theme:

Walking around the perimeter of the grid are various types of cats. Let's go clock-wise:

1-Across. Float on a wave : BOB. Bobcats are native to North America.

4-Across. Provide with shelter : HOUSE. House cats allow people to live in their house.

9-Across. Child seat? : LAP. Lap cats lap up a lot of milk.

11-Down. Valuable carpet : PERSIAN. My first cat was a white Persian cat.

51-Down. Passageway : ALLEY. Alley cat - subject of my July 10th puzzle  (^0^)

65-Across. Wander off course : STRAY. Anony-Mouse has adopted a DFAC (Darn Feral Attack Cat.) And now another one has joined in on the fun, named "Clooney." I wonder if they will be feasting on turkey today?

64-Across. Pitcher Seaver : TOM. I bet this was C.C.'s clue! (From C.C.: This is Rich's clue.)

63-Across. Pool : KITTY. I named one of my cats KC for "Kitty Cat."

48-Down. Coffee preference : BLACK. Why yes, I do drink my coffee black. How did you know?

1-Down. Language spoken in Yangon : BURMESE. Not to be confused with the "Sacred Cat of Burma."

And the unifier:

38. Fashion runway, or, in a way, what this puzzle's 10 perimeter answers comprise : CATWALK.

Typical of Don G.-C.C. offerings, this one is packed with theme entries. A total of fifty-five theme letters, which must have made this one a real bear to construct. Each one is a literal type of cat, with no figurative entries like "hep cat," "cool cat" or "fat cat." In addition to that, the grid itself is unique.  It has left-to-right symmetry, but not top-to-bottom.  If you squint, can you see the cat in the grid, with his arms outstretched?

Marti here, blogging before I start cooking my favorite meal of the year. But let's dig in to this feast first.

Across:

12. Colorful card game : UNO.

13. Sales tools : SAMPLES.

15. Ginger ___ : ALE.

16. Early initials in American cars : REO. REO Speedwagon band took their name from the automobile designed by Ransom Eli Olds.

17. Longtime pop group with mostly self-named albums : CHICAGO. 19 of their 22 studio albums have "Chicago" in the title. I always associate them with this song. 3:50

18. La Méditerranée, e.g. : MER. French clue "The Mediterranean" for "sea" in French.

19. El cheapo : MISER.

21. Med. amount : TSP. Just a teaspoon of sugar helps the medicine go down.

22. NV might be one : REBUS. I stared at this answer for the longest time, before I realized that it was not talking about the abbreviation for Nevada, but the word "envy." I love rebus license plates like "AU H20" for Goldwater.  Anyone else have some good ones?

24. Lure into lawbreaking : ENTRAP.

26. Rich ice creams : GELATI. Italian word for "ice creams." Update: The singular would be GELATO.

27. Make foggy : STEAM UP.

29. North African country : TUNISIA. Map.

30. Plural suffix with slogan : EERS. Sloganeers. They are the ones who bring us phrases like "Finger lickin' good," "Think outside the bun" and "Melts in your mouth, not in your hands."

31. Classification between family and species : GENUS.

33. "South Park" kid : STAN. This weird looking kid.

34. Tiny amt. of time : NSEC. Nano-second. A billionth of a second.

36. Heir, often : SON.

37. In the public eye : SEEN. And a shout-out to one of our regulars.

41. "Holberg Suite" composer : GRIEG. Nailed it. Here is the prelude (2:57), in keeping with 62-Across. Prelude or étude : PIECE.

44. Deep bell tones : BONGS. HaHa, I bet some of our regulars weren't thinking of bells when this answer appeared...

48. Like some whiskey : BLENDED. and crossing it at 39-Down. Like some whiskey : AGED. Tinbeni can fill us all in.

50. Sun porches : SOLARIA. Husker Gary, did you nail it?

52. Blockheads : LUGS. That's the way I felt yesterday when I had a DNF.  Fermatprime, this one was right up my alley, so it was a speed run for a Thursday. I feel vindicated!

53. Some garage-made CDs : DEMOS.

55. Hood's honey : MOLL.

56. Brought something home, perhaps : ATE IN. I was off on the "income" tangent.

58. eBay action : BID.

59. Someone not to deal with : DEVIL.

60. Perfume with myrrh, say : CENSE.

61. Canteen gp. : USO. United Service Organizations. CBS launched a weekly radio show called "Stage Door Canteen" shortly after the beginning of WWII.  The following year, a film by the same name was released, and was a "reality" type movie about the USO.

Down:

2. Not much of a chance : ONE IN TEN.

3. Second shots : BOOSTERS. Like tetanus shots, not Jello shots!

4. "Told ya!" : HAH.

5. Forget to say : OMIT.

6. Bars on many bottles : UPCS. Universal Product Codes.

7. High-five, e.g. : SLAP.

8. Neurologist's printout, briefly : EEG. Electroencephalogram.

9. Excoriate : LAMBASTE.

10. Like Attu or Unalaska : ALEUTIAN. Both part of the Aleutian Island chain. Map.

13. "Buzz off!" : SCRAM. What you might say to a 28-Down. Nuisance : PEST.

14. Deep thinker Kierkegaard : SOREN. "People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use."

20. Remove evidence : ERASE. Like certain presidential tapes?

23. Dedicatee of Beethoven's "Bagatelle in A Minor" : ELISE. Nailed it! 3:35.

25. Wrinkly faced canine : PUG.

26. Gloomy fellow : GUS.

29. Fish in a can : TUNA. A mouth-watering entry for all our feline friends in this puzzle!

32. Demanding word : NOW. "Do it, NOW!"

35. Used an email option : CC'ED. Carbon Copied.  When I copy C.C. on an email, I C.C. C.C!

37. Vodka brand : SKOL. Hands up for all those who tried SKyy vodka first?

40. Wall St. deals : LBOS. Leveraged buyouts. "Leveraged" because they are debt-heavy acquisitions.

41. Seat cushions? : GLUTEI. Plural of gluteus. Check out these glutei...

42. University officer : REGENT.

43. Demand : INSIST.

45. "Whatever you want" : NAME IT.

46. President between Chester and Benjamin : GROVER. I did not know that fact.  He was a president?

47. Glassmaker's material : SILICA.

49. Coming-out : DEBUT.

50. City destroyed by fire and brimstone : SODOM. Forever linked to Gomorrah as a symbol of impenitent sin.

54. Soybean soup : MISO. I just had MISO last week. (In the puzzle, not for lunch.)

57. Napoleonic Wars marshal : NEY. His troops called him "Le Rougeaud" (Ruddy-faced one), and Napoleon called him "le Brave des Braves" (the Bravest of the Brave.)

59. Unassisted MLB coups : DPS. Double Plays. Needed every perp for this one, but at least I knew what it meant when it appeared, for once!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I do hope all our regulars and Anons who follow this blog will drop by today to thank C.C. for creating this wonderful community for cruciverbalists!

Marti

Notes from C.C.:

1) When I first proposed "Catwalk" to Don, the word CAT simply moves from left to right. Don elevated into an art. If you black out square 13 & 14, you'll see the original grid design Don had in mind. Thank you, Don, for teaching me by example on how to make a good crossword.

Don & his wife Barbara, Summer 2009

 

2) I also want to thank LA Times editor Rich Norris, his assistant Patti Varol, his test solvers and all LA Times constructors for giving us the top-notch puzzle every day.

Rich Norris & his wife Kim, ACPT, 2008

 3) And special thanks to my dedicated blogging team. The workhorse Argyle, always the first person I turn to whenever I experience a blog glitch.

Baby Argyle  (Scott) & His Four Sisters

The beautiful Melissa, who never fails to bring us the delightful wrap-up despite busy school life & unstable internet connection.

The avid Fighting Irish fan Steve, who knows everything about food, the really good food.

The super intelligent and cool guy Jazzbumpa (Ron), whose knowledge range & interests often astonish me.

The always cheerful and witty Marti, who brightens my every Thursday morning.

Marti & Pickles, Austria, 2011

The passionate & humorous Lemonade, who brings so much warmth and spot-on puzzle analysis to us every Friday.

Proud Grandpa Lemonade & Granddaughter Charlotte, Nov 21, 2012

The cool & hard-working Splynter, who has never missed a Saturday write-up since May 21, 2011.

Baby Splynter, So Curious

And the irreplaceable Dennis, who has been bombarded by me in the past few years with daily questions like "Does this theme work for you?" "Can I put this word on a Monday grid?" He's always been patient and always gives me the brutally honest answers.

Dennis the Altar Boy

4) I also want to thank those who donated, commented and wrote us emails. I really appreciate your kindness and generosity.