Thursday, May 23, 2013 David Poole

Theme: "Call Me Madam." (Harking back to a common thread lately!)

Let's start with the reveal today:

60D. Title for the starts of 20-, 25-, 37-, 46- and 55-Across: MRS.

20A. Showy bit of plumage : PEACOCK FEATHER. Mrs. Peacock is one of the suspects in the game of Cluedo. (Called "Clue" in North America.)

25A. Mae West's request to Beulah in "I'm No Angel" : PEEL ME A GRAPE. Mrs Peel is every guy's heartthrob from the show "The Avengers."

37A. N, in Morse code : DASH-DOT. Mrs. Dash is the brand name for a line of seasonings. Developed by a real-life Mrs. named Carol Bernick. Before settling on the name "Mrs Dash," the company also considered the name "Mrs. Pinch."

46A. Quadrennial mathematics awards : FIELDS MEDALS. Another real-life lady who started a cookie company with her own secret recipe.

55A. His work was done by Friday : ROBINSON CRUSOE. One of my favorite movies is "The Graduate." I will never forget this famous film cougar!

Just missing a "J" for a pangram. Did this seem like a Monday puzzle to you? I have to admit, I wondered what the connection was for the themers, and had an "Aha!" moment when I read the reveal.  Trivia for today: "MRS" is the abbreviation for "mistress," which is the feminine form of "Master" or "mister."  It originally applied to both married and unmarried women. Around the 17th century, the word "mistress" was divided differently to designate a married (Mrs) or unmarried (Miss) woman.

Across:

1. Bigger than big : EPIC.

5. Spender of rials : OMANI. I always have to wait for perps before entering OMANI or Irani. Yemeni can be determined by the number of spaces. They all spend rials.

10. It makes cents : ZINC. This was my last fill, and a real "D'OH" when I finally figured it out. (It makes sense, now!)

14. Hawaiian girl who adopted Stitch : LILO. A 2002 Disney film that was made into  a TV show, airing for only two seasons that ended in 2006.

15. Assume : POSIT. I just love that word!

16. Fishing, maybe : ASEA. Obligatory "A" word.

17. Bulky bovids : OXEN. Nice alliterative clue.

18. Oscar-winning composer Korngold : ERICH. Won for his 1938 score of the love theme of Robin and Marian in "The Adventures of Robin Hood."

19. Family : CLAN.

23. First name in talk shows : ELLEN. DeGeneres. She also played Dory in "Finding Nemo." Fun clip. 4:58

24. Big Ten or Big East org. : NCAA. National Collegiate Athletic Association.

32. Place for stop-and-go traffic? : REST AREA. Funny clue!

35. Asian currency name meaning "round" : YUAN. Looks pretty rectangular to me... (From C.C.: The coins used before paper currency were all "round".)

36. Plains native : OTO.

41. Box set component : DVD.

42. Selene's Roman counterpart : LUNA. Moon goddesses.

44. Blue moons and hen's teeth : RARITIES.

50. Traveling : AWAY.

51. Splenda rival : EQUAL.

60. Home of H. Matisse's "The Dance" : MOMA. Museum of Modern Art.

61. Scarlet fever cause : STREP.

62. Ambiance : AURA.

63. Leeway : ROOM.

64. Refrain from singing about a farm? : E-I-E-I-O. (Mr. McDonald's farm, that is!)

65. "Phooey!" : RATS.

66. Plato's promenade : STOA.

67. iPad pictures : ICONS.

68. David and Goliath's battlefield : ELAH.

Down:

1. Surprise your friends, wedding-wise : ELOPE. Fresh clue.

2. Point of resolution : PIXEL. I wonder if that is where the film studio Pixar got its name?

3. Intestine-related : ILEAL.

4. Notion : CONCEPT.

5. Vienna-based commercial gp. : OPEC. Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. Originally based in Geneva, Switzerland.

6. '70s-'80s TV attic-dweller : MORK. from Ork.

7. "Fat chance!" : AS IF.

8. ___ Creed : NICENE. A profession of faith in Christianity, it was adopted by the first Ecumenical Council in Nicaea.

9. Cornell's city : ITHACA. In the Finger Lakes of New York.

10. Millard was his vice president : ZACHARY. Millard Fillmore and Zachary Taylor. Millard went on to become POTUS when Zachary died of cholera. There were suspicions that he was assassinated with poison, but that was disproved. His doctors probably had more to do with his death by treating him with ipecac, calomel, opium and quinine, bleeding him, and blistering him. Nice.

11. Man, for one : ISLE. This one threw me for a bit.

12. Almost : NEAR.

13. Slammer : CAN. Hands up for "pen" at first? If I had figured out that tricky ZINC clue, I might not have gotten hung up in this corner.

21. Early Christian year : ONE A.D. Very early.

22. ___ sale : TAG.

26. Stat for Justin Verlander : ERA. Earned Run Average. I feel lost when trying to decide between RBI or ERA.

27. Bandleader Brown : LES...and his "Band of Renown." 2:43

28. 1984 Olympic slalom champion : MAHRE. Phil Mahre and Bode Miller were my heroes when I was growing up.

29. "Truth in Engineering" automaker : AUDI.

30. Smooth, in a way : PAVE.

31. They may be tight or right : ENDS.

32. Massage deeply : ROLF. Learned this from crosswords.

33. Sewer's case : ETUI.

34. Unit of loudness : SONE.

38. Martin Sheen, to Emilio Estevez : DAD.

39. ___ pro nobis : ORA. "Pray for us."

40. Bathroom renovator : TILER.

43. Country band named for their home : ALABAMA. "Tennessee River" was their first #1 hit. 2:55

45. Drafting implement : T-SQUARE.

47. SADD concern : D.W.I. Driving While Intoxicated, refers to being inebriated on alcohol. DUI is another common term meaning "Driving Under the Influence" (of either drugs or booze.)

48. Japanese immigrant's grandchild : SANSEI. Issei, Nisei and Sansei are names used in Australia and North America to refer to first generation immigrants from Japan, their children, and their grandchildren, respectively

49. Sufi, e.g. : MYSTIC.

52. Garden variety : USUAL.

53. Corpuscle's passageway : AORTA. Because "artery" was too long and "vein" was too short. AORTA was juuuuust right!

54. Boxer's restraint : LEASH. Anyone get pulled into the boxing ring misdirection?

55. Origin : ROOT.

56. "Typee" sequel : OMOO. I'm going to read that one some day...

57. Three-layer treat : OREO.

58. Dusseldorf denial : NEIN.

59. USN noncoms : CPOs. Chief Petty Officer. What do you get when you have three CPOs? ;-D

Signing off, until next week!

Hugs,

Marti

Note from C.C.:

Here is a sweet photo of Max, 8-year-old grandson of our dear Spitzboov (Al). Max lost his mother Gretchen in January. Al told me they just held a memorial service for Gretchen last weekend.

Wednesday, May 23, 2013 Doug Peterson

Theme: Mental Wealth - each of the theme entries begins and ends with MI-ND as the unifier explains

 17A *Tiny time unit: MILLISECOND When I was younger it bothered me that there weren't a million milliseconds in a second. Now I've got better things to worry about.

 

 24A *Compromising position: MIDDLE GROUND I was nicely misdirected here - I wasn't thinking "a position of compromise" but something a little racier.

 39A *Prop for an emcee: MICROPHONE STAND A prop in the sense of something to lean on?

 

 51A *Loitered: MILLED AROUND Plenty of that going on at the conference/expo I'm at today.

 63A Mood, and a literal feature of the answer to each starred clue: FRAME OF MIND Ahh - the answers are "framed" by MI-ND. I'm in New Orleans this week, and in the "Big Easy" frame of mind.

Happy Wednesday everyone - Steve here with Doug Peterson's latest offering, a solo outing this time. Purists might quibble about one single-word and three two-word theme entries, but I'm fine with it. Let's see what else we've got.

Across:

1 Short sermon: HOMILY

7 Barrier along a bank: DIKE

11 Breakfast meat: HAM. Food!

14 Easy-entry baby outfit: ONESIE

15 “Happy Days” actress Moran : ERIN There's been some unflattering photos of Erin in recent years, but let's stick with the happier days

16 Skater Midori: ITO Famous for having jumped completely out of the rink at the 1991 World Championships and carried on still smiling.

19 “Brave __ World”: NEW. Aldous Huxley's best known opus.

20 Blues legend James: ETTA

21 Words with instant and hour: IN AN

22 Four Tops tune, e.g.: OLDIE. Crosses helped me out here.

27 “Sesame Street” music teacher since the show’s inception: BOB Crosses helped me out here too! Can I call a repeated blog comment a blecho?

 

30 Negative replies: NOS

31 Start a bridge hand: DEAL. Don't you shuffle before you deal?

32 Standoffish: ALOOF

34 Grifter’s game: CON

35 It’s all in your head: IDEA Sometimes it feels like all I've got in my head are dim, distant recesses and voices.

43 “Times of Your Life” singer Paul: ANKA

44 Popular Calif. destination: LAX. I'm not sure I'd call Los Angeles International Airport a popular destination for me - I'm in and out of that place far too often - I'll be back there on Thursday.

45 Buzzy instrument: KAZOO. Annoying instrument might be better!

46 Clump of dirt: CLOD. I like this word.

48 Tiki bar accessory: LEI

50 Capital of Saskatchewan?: ESS Because Canadian Dollar doesn't fit. Capital letter.

56 Coastal recess: INLET

57 Show willingness to compromise: BEND

58 Director Kazan: ELIA

62 Steeped brew: TEA

66 Turntable letters: R.P.M. I wonder how long it will be before we need the "archaic" convention for this?

67 Musical syllables: LA LA

68 “The Wrestler” star Mickey: ROURKE

69 Seventh Greek letter: ETA. ETTA, ELIA and ETA. Not quite a mini-theme, but I'll call these a grouping.

70 Bark excitedly: YELP

71 Orderly arrangements: ARRAYS

Down

1 Spot for an office: HOME. My office is at home so I didn't hesitate with this one.

2 Handling the job: ON IT

3 Hot sandwich: MELT Food! I've been moderating my diet since January, Currently I can only eat a melt vicariously though pictures.

4 Muhammad Ali’s faith: ISLAM

5 XXVI doubled: LII It amazes me how the Romans managed to do math - did they invent the abacus or was that the Greeks?

6 Unequivocal agreement: YES I DO. I had YES SIR at first which slowed things up a little.

7 Transferrable image: DECAL

8 Like a 7-Down, perhaps: IRONED ON Nice run-on!

9 Many holiday guests: KIN I was thinking along the "houseful" lines at first.

10 “Bewitched” mother: ENDORA. Crosses all the way for me with this one. I had not even a vague, dim-and-distant idea here.

11 Many a Mumbai man: HINDU. And there are many Mumbai men - the first time I stepped outside the airport there I couldn't believe the bedlam.

12 Picked up pizza, say: ATE IN Took me quite a while to see this

13 Tended the turf: MOWED

18 Phases out: ENDS

23 Nabokov title girl: LOLITA

25 A gumshoe often pays for it: INFO

26 Trait transmitter: GENE

27 The Crimson Tide: BAMA. I think this a great example of clue/answer symmetry - in this case both are nicknames.

28 Swedish actress Lena: OLIN Who is she? I need to bone up on my actors and actresses, they've caused me nothing but trouble today.

29 Strong lager: BOCK Ah - now we're back in my comfort zone. Originally German, now many varieties brewed around the world Prost!

33 Mythical source of wisdom: ORACLE. With a shameless plug for my employer, check out this clip of the Oracle Team USA America's Cup catamaran in San Francisco Bay - I've been playing this on a loop all day at the Oracle booth at the conference.

34 Longtime Aniston co-star: COX Jennifer's friend Courtney. Also Bruce Springsteen's friend in the Dancing in the Dark video.

36 Throw for a loop: DAZE

37 Grandson of Eve: ENOS Officially clueless. Me that is, not him.

38 Kerfuffles: ADOS. "Kerfuffle" is one of my favorite words.

40 Walk heavily: PLOD

41 Really enjoyed oneself: HAD A BALL

42 Shallot covering: SKIN I overlooked the blindingly obvious here and was trying to remember what the Lady of Shallott was covered with in Tennyson's ballad. When I dug up "robed in snowy white" from the inner memory recesses I was stumped. Then the penny dropped.

47 Threw: LET FLY

48 Unique: LONE

49 Writer Welty: EUDORA. ENDORA/EUDORA

51 British bishop’s topper: MITRE I didn't know these were unique to bishops from my homeland. That's one big hat though.

52 Hardly handy: INEPT

53 Peruvian grazer: LLAMA Twinned with BAMA. Lots of these today.

54 Update to reflect new roads, say: REMAP. It's a lot easier nowadays with satellites. It took 50 years to produce the first complete maps of the UK - they pretty much had to go right back again and start over.

55 Voice an objection: DEMUR

59 Pre-euro currency: LIRA. I need to wait now to see if this is LIRA or LIRE.

60 Dark and murky: INKY

61 Sugary drinks: ADES

64 “Norma __” : RAE. JEA - oops, not enough room for Marilyn.

65 On behalf of: FOR

That about wraps it up for today. Time to go and find something to eat - of course, that's not exactly difficult in NOLA!

Steve