Saturday, May 25th, 2013, Steven J. St. John

Theme: SJSJ

Words: 70 (missing B,K,Q)

Blocks: 28

  My last SJSJ puzzle was back in January - and today's looked deceptively simple, starting with a 3-letter word, which I got, but then I stared at a wash of white for the longest time; I got a break "spang" in the center with 33A., and it all filled in from there - save ONE letter.  Oh well.  We had crossing 10-letter entries today:

31. Not likely to fall : SURE-FOOTED

8. Intensified : HEIGHTENED

35. Road hog? : GAS-GUZZLER

27. Ponder : PUZZLE OVER - so true~!

O         N         W         A         R         D         ~         !

ACROSS:

1. Bug spray target : ANT - I don't mind ants and spiders; every other insect and arachnid creeps me out

4. Hospital bug : STAPH - I had STREP, and I knew that wasn't quite right

9. They're usually password-protected: Abbr. : ACCTs

14. Where the buck stops? : DOE - I am still looking for the doe that stops me; I don't usually go for blondes, but....mini-story @ 11D.

15. Opening of a memorable walrus song : I AM HE - "I am the Walrus", The Beatles

16. F follower in vintage TV : TROOP - F-Troop, which I watched in re-runs as a kid

 

 

17. Pius XII's successor : JOHN XXIII - listed as "blessed", crossing;  4D. One of five popes, ironically : SIXTUS - #5 1585-90; here's the list of them all

19. Totaled : RAN TO

20. Trailer caution : UNRATED - Motion Picture trailers, that is

21. Breaks down slowly : GNAWS AT - meh, yeah, I guess

23. "Beowulf" translator Heaney : SEAMUS

24. John of "Harold & Kumar" movies : CHO

25. Confused : LOST - ah, not ASEA

26. Firms : TONES - as one's body

27. __ melt : PATTY - not BACON....

29. USPS assignment : RTE - U P S, too; I was out with my buddy Jim tonight - he has a postal route

30. Huff : SNIT

33. Mesa natives : ARIZONANS - I read this as "relatives" first, so I was thinking "BUTTE"

38. Magic power : MOJO - reminds me of Austin Powers - "yeah, baby, yeah~!"

42. Material flaw : RIP - Fabric

43. Laid the groundwork for? : TILED - I did some tiling in the rental apartment at mom's house; I really need to update my blog

44. Didn't quite expect : HOPED

45. God that leaves one smitten : EROS

47. Insurance salesman Ryerson in "Groundhog Day" : NED

48. Stephen King classic : MISERY - Not "CARRIE"

49. In a single effort : AT ONE GO - I had IN one go to start; missed the "in" in the clue

51. Lore components : SAYINGS

52. Capital near the Red Sea : SANA'A - map

53. Celebrity perks : V.I.P. PASSES - makes me think of another music link

55. Employ with vigor : EXERT

56. Dr. Dean __ of talk radio : EDELL

57. Somme one : UNE - Frawnch

58. They might be hitched : RIDES

59. Spur part : ROWEL - new word for me; I had RODEL; see 51D.

60. Humanities dept. : PSYchology

DOWN:

1. Fiddles with : ADJUSTS

2. Situation when the first pitch is thrown : NO ONE ON - Baseball for C.C.; I wanted "opening day", then I stared at NOON -ON for a long time

3. Like many "Argo" militants : TEHRANI - those in Tehran, Iran

5. Mortgage payment component : TAXES - not here on Long Island; the tax bill comes separately twice a year

6. "__ the Falling Snow": Enya song : AMID

7. Golden ratio symbol : PHI - I know what this means, but I have a hard time describing it to others; Wiki does a pretty good job

9. Blade brand : ATRA

10. __ space : CRAWL - NYS cashed my check for filing to be a Home Inspector; going to be seeing my share of crawl spaces soon, I hope

11. Hang out (with) : CONSORT - SO - I was consorting with George, Jim, Bob, Kev, Mark, Jack and Chris tonight, downtown Patchogue....

12. Cookbook phrase : TO TASTE - ...speaking of which, there were some ladies....

13. Laid eyes on : SPOTTED - I "laid eyes" on a cute blonde at the club tonight; reminded me of Taylor Swift....

18. Ice-breaking aid : NAME TAG - ...the blonde did not have one....

22. Over the hill, say : NOT FAR - distance, not age - which is how we felt in the club tonight....

24. Saw your breath while singing, maybe : CAROLED - ...her name could have been Carol....

28. Quaint pointing word : YON - ...YON blonde....

31. Giving a once-over, with "up" : SIZING - and yes, I was sizing her up~!

32. Subtle absorption : OSMOSIS

34. Symbol of tiredness : RUT - I tried ZZZ first, since I considered there may be "ZZ" with SiZing - I was one square off

35. Pompadour sporter : GREASER - This guy?

36. One way to Martha's Vineyard : AIR TAXI

37. Showed affection for, in a way : SPOONED

39. Begins to share : OPENS UP - in a counseling session

40. Maker of Natural Glow lotions : JERGENS - um, don't go there....

 

41. Meandering journey : ODYSSEY

44. Georgian greeting : HI, Y'ALL - I lived in Jacksonville, Fla - they speak Georgian there, too~!

46. Catch : SNARE

48. Butcher block wood : MAPLE - I knew this, made me change my "Carrie"

50. Vittles : EATS

51. Jet : SPEW - Got me; I had SPED first

54. Swear words : I DO

Splynter

Friday, May 24, 2013, James Sajdak

Theme: Deal me in.

Each of the five theme answers are phrases with the last word of the phrase being a type of card game, clued in a modified clecho fashion. This is our 26th puzzle from James, and the first in 2013. I had the pleasure of blogging two earlier Friday efforts, one of which was a similarly themed puzzle relating to farms.

He does use the 15 x 16 grid to get his grid spanner in. He does it so seamlessly, you might not have noticed.

All our puzzles are available in the archives, as is the wonderful INTERVIEW done by C.C. I saw the theme when I got  LONELY HEARTS, and without it I would have been dead in the water as there were many clues which strained my fading memory. I am not sure all of his cluing was according to Hoyle, but we must persevere. See if you agree with my favorites as we go through the solving.

18A. Card game horn music? : WINDS OF WAR.(10) A wonderful book by Herman Wouk; I was surprised that the simplest of card games WAR is now played for money by many at casinos.

25A. Card game where one person plays all the hands? : LONELY HEARTS.(12) Like many other trick taking games, HEARTS is best played with 4 people, who should be listening to this SONG.(2:02). Before we had dating sites we had Lonely Hearts ads.

40A. Card game played in dugouts? : DIAMOND SOLITAIRE.(16) Tiffany's in New York is credited with introducing the ring with just one lone stone. Baseball is played on a diamond, where the teams wait in dugouts.

55A. Card game by the Thames? : LONDON BRIDGE.(12) The most widely played and competitive of the bidding games. Bridge columns still run on the crossword page in the few newspapers left. My favorite memory (other than my father throwing cards in frustration when Aunt Dora trumped his Ace) LINK.(2:04). The 1831 bridge was moved to Lake Havasu City Arizona. A shout out to all our Arizona posters. (Where did you go Frenchie and Robin?)

66A. Card game requiring waterproof cards? : BATH TUB GIN.(10) Gin describes a number of games in the Gin/Rummy family. Knock Gin is a big money game in the northeast. Prohibition gave us the vile homemade SPIRITS,

Across:

1. This and that : BOTH. Simple, but I did not see it.

5. Cries : SOBS. Okay, now we are off. and the almost clecho 1D. Cried : BAWLED..

9. Open the door for : ADMIT. But not the big bad wolf.

14. Met moment : ARIA. The Metropolitan Opera House in Manhattan at Lincoln Center.

15. Water-based paint : LATEX.

17. Mary ___: ship in a Hammond Innes novel : DEARE. It was titled The Wreck of the Mary Deare. He wrote 30 or so thrillers LINK.

20. Cub of comics : OLSEN (Jimmy). Reading all the old Superman comic books paid off.

21. Big backup : LOG JAM. From the problems caused by the logs sent downstream.

22. Fight in Dogpatch : RASSLE, Deserves at least one picture of the style inspired by Daisy Mae

24. 90-degree fitting : ELL.

30. 25% of Off Deep Woods : DEET. N,N-Diethyl-meta-toluamide, abbreviated DEET,

32. "Am not!" retort : ARE SO.

33. Sushi shop offering : AHI. Fancy.

34. Crop up : ARISE.

37. ___ noodles: Chinese dish : WONTON. Not to be confused with wanton as in women.

45. Dream up : INVENT. Like the process of these puzzles.

46. City south of Metz : NANCY. Site of WWII BATTLE. also, 70A. WWII beachhead near Rome : ANZIO.

47. Carrying-on : ADO.

48. Consumed : EATEN. Food, jealousy?

51. Mail folder : SENT.

60. "Don't think so" : NAH.

61. "Ed Wood" Oscar winner : LANDAU. Martin Landau has been in many films and TV shows but his turn as Bela Lugosi in Plan 9 from Outer Space won him the award. LINK

62. Unlike couch potatoes : ACTIVE.

64. Pong developer : ATARI. The first.

69. Contact, in a way : RADIO. Before cell phones, we radioed for help.

71. Portly pirate : SMEE. Is Hook's man the only fat pirate?

72. Last name of Phineas in Disney's "Phineas and Ferb" : FLYNN. This with TAL almost did me in but only an L made sense. Never heard of the show/movie?

73. Tablet named for an organ : TUMS. For the tummy (an organ?)

74. Gone : PAST. Well the Acrosses are done.

Down:

2. Brightly plumed songbird : ORIOLE. They beat the Yankees yesterday.

3. Bit of excitement : TINGLE. Movie scared the crap out of me when I was little.

4. One of Islam's five pillars : HADJ.

5. Ref's aid : SLOMO. Slow motion replay.

6. Lout : OAF.

7. Texter's "Meant to tell you" : BTW. By The Way.

8. Celebrex developer : SEARLE. They were bought by Pfizer which dispense their products by prescribing....

9. ___ of reality : A DOSE.

10. Huey, Dewey and Louie's mom, in early comics : DELLA. Nope, nothing registered.

11. 1993 Fiat acquisition : MASERATI. vroom.

12. Hostility : IRE.

13. Decimal base : TEN. Our number system is a base ten but I will let Fermat and Bill G. do their mathematical thing.

16. Looks into? : X-RAYS. Love this clue as well, really sneaking and yet literally true.

19. "Do the Right Thing" pizzeria owner : SAL. This MOVIE.(4:22).

23. Do Jeeves's job : SHOW IN. Hey Vidwan, did you know P.G. Wodehouse was coming up, you had two references to him in the last week (one makes me blush)? I had a very hard time with this as Jeeves's job was to save Bertie from himself, played so well by Dr. House.

26. Old 38-Down overseer : NASD. National Association of Security Dealers.

27. "___ Tu": 1974 hit : ERES. You are so beautiful, to me. LISTEN.(3:04)

28. Wielder of a hammer called Mjölnir : THOR. I love the comic, hated the movie.

29. Trig function : SINE.

31. Hardly exciting : TAME. Lame, what's your game?

35. Popeil of infomercials : RON. One spring while in LA on business, my brother and I spend an afternoon with a Realtor touting houses for sale, and one was Ron Popeil's house, and sure enough every closet was stuffed with things he sold. Sadly no cell phone cameras in those days.

36. Mean : INTEND. Sometimes people intend to be mean.

38. Like some stocks : OTC. Over The Counter.

39. Thumbs-down votes : NAYS.

40. Retro phone feature : DIAL. Why was it called dial tone and is it now called digital tone?

41. China lead-in : INDO.

42. Iconic sales rep : AVON LADY. Who's calling?

43. "Dedicated to the ___ Love": '50s-'60s hit : ONE I.  Made more famous by the Mama's and the Papas and the Shirelles.

44. Touch down : LAND.

49. Addis ___ : ABABA. This capital was in the first puzzle I blogged at the Corner.

50. Out of one's class? : TRUANT. Great clue, the word comes from the French for vagabond.

52. Conundrum : ENIGMA. This had me puzzled.

53. Armadas : NAVIES. 1588?

54. Large search area : THE NET. This had me fooled for a while thinking outside.

56. "Splish Splash" singer : DARIN. More 50's music. I love Kevin Spacey in the movie Beyond the Sea, worth watching, but he was not the ORIGINAL.(2:18).

57. Stew veggie : ONION. Did you stew on this clue for long?

58. Perros may chase them : GATOS. Spanish dogs apparently chase Spanish cats, and the beginning of our canine corner.

59. Old French coin : ECU. Pure crosswordese.

63. Recipe amt. : TBSP. Tablespoon of sugar? Too much, eh Mary?

64. "Can I go out?" : ARF. I LOVE this clue.

65. 1960-'61 chess champ : TAL. I have no memory of this CHAMP. Bobby Fischer is my first chess master. I never knew we had a Latvian on top of the chess world. This with FLYNN, almost did me in, but the L gave the ta da.

67. Shih ___ : TZU. Woof, woof. More puppies. A breed originating from China with a name sure to make the little ones giggle. My ex has two.

68. One of LBJ's beagles : HIM. The other was HER and there was quite the scandal when he picked on up by the ears.

Well this puzzle has gone to the dogs, so I guess it is time for me to get my pooper scooper and get out of here, leaving you all to your memories.

Until next time, L out.