Thursday, October 10, 2013 Jennifer Nutt

Theme: "Green Bay Packers!" Five shades of GREEN are "packed" into this puzzle...all mixed up into a nice salad!

17-Across. *Slow-to-develop sort : LATE BLOOMER. Teal. Here is the green winged teal duck:

23-Across. *Precursor to adoption, often : FOSTER CARE. Forest.  This is what I imagine:

52-Across. *Bargain hunter's destination : FLEA MARKET. Leaf. To me, little difference from "FOREST." But still, a distinct shade of green.

10-Down. *21st birthday, e.g. : MILE STONE. Lime.

31-Down. *Old TV title shown in a heart : I LOVE LUCY. Olive. The one outlier - it uses two words for the anagram.  ...Martinis, anyone?

And the revealer (I sorely needed it to suss the theme!):

62-Across. Salad choice, and a literal description of the starts of the answers to starred

 clues : MIXED GREENS.

Anagrams of various shades of green in a nicely executed theme.  It may be a bit over the top, since all the anagrams were of different words. Usually, anagram puzzles make different words from the same letters.  So that is why this puzzle was relegated to a Thursday level, even though the fill (and my solving time of 8 minutes +/-) dictated a Tuesday-Wednesday level.

Marti here, to show the way through the woods on this Thursday.

Across:

1. Kindle add-ons : APPS.

5. Fight : CLASH.

10. Rainy day consequence : MUD.

13. Wool source : LLAMA. Anyone want "sheep" here? Anyone?

15. Personal strength : FORTE.

16. George's songwriting partner : IRA. Gershwins.

19. Cover : LID.

20. Work in which Iago is a baritone : OTELLO.

21. Spot for a Hindu's tilak : FOREHEAD. No idea what a "tilak" was, but guessed it was one of these marks:

25. Like an unswept fireplace : ASHY. By November, ours becomes quite "ASHY."

26. "Ring Cycle" goddess : ERDA. Goddess of earth, from Wagner's "Ring Cycle" ("Der Ring des Neibelungen")

27. Skip over : OMIT.

29. Hubbub : STIR.

32. Gloss targets : LIPS.

35. Maui howdy : ALOHA. Nice rhyme. I wonder if OwenKL will honor us with a limerick including this one?

38. Amigo : PAL.

39. Pound spenders : SYRIANS. Had to perp and WAG this one (check the crosses and do a "wild a**ed" guess.)

41. Postal motto word : NOR. "Neither snow NOR rain NOR gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds." Minor nit: the US Post Office does not have an official motto. It is simply the inscription on the James Farley Post Office in NYC.

42. Coffee shop feature : AROMA.

44. Half a sci-fi sign-off : NANU. From "Mork and Mindy." Soooo late seventies!

45. Yard parts : FEET. Three, exactly...

46. Star in Lyra : VEGA. Another WAG that proved to be right.

48. Sphere opening : ATMO. ATMOsphere. If you have seen "Gravity," what did you think?

50. Gray __ : AREA.

58. All one can stomach : BELLYFUL.

60. Northwest college town where "Animal House" was filmed : EUGENE.

61. Big bird : EMU.

64. Twitch : TIC.

65. Witch : CRONE.

66. Where many tennis winners are hit : AT NET. No idea. All perps. (C.C.:  "Winners here refers to the "winning shots", correct?)


67. Farm structure : STY.

68. Father of Moses : AMRAM. I had to dig deep in the recesses for this one!

69. Word after high or open : SEAS.


Down:

1. "__ the Lights": Kanye West song : ALL OF. Nice intro...

2. First philosopher to mention Atlantis : PLATO.

3. Gourmet spreads : PATES.

4. Ore refinery : SMELTER.

5. Fiscal VIP : CFO. Chief Financial Officer.

6. Bubble bath accessory : LOOFA. I wanted the "loofah" spelling here...

7. Hard wear? : ARMOR. Cute misdirection.

8. Music provider : STEREO.

9. On hand : HERE.

11. Hater of David, in Dickens : URIAH. From "David Copperfield."

12. Pops : DADDY. Wanted "Daddy-o." Wouldn't fit.

14. More qualified : ABLER.

18. Imperious : LORDLY.

22. Flag down : HAIL.

24. __ terrier: Highlands hunter : CAIRN. Shweeet!

28. More, in Madrid : MAS.

29. Relaxing getaway : SPA.

30. La Brea goo : TAR.

33. Newscaster Lindström : PIA. No clue. Three perps nailed it...

34. Capital SSW of Riyadh : SANA'A. This was ingrained from previous x-word puzzles.

36. Weeder's tool : HOE.

37. Busts, perhaps : ART.

39. Lose tensile strength : SAG. Various parts of my body are losing tensile strength...

40. Pumpkin pie spice : NUTMEG. Thanksgiving is coming up.

43. __ ticket : MEAL.

45. Evolves beyond forgiveness : FORGETS. "Forgive, and forget..."

47. Maintain as true : AFFIRM. Avow or Aver were both too short.

49. Tierney of "ER" : MAURA. Four perps and a WAG for the last "A" nailed it.

50. Drives the getaway car for : ABETS.

51. Mail payment : REMIT.

53. Vegas hotel with a Sphinx re-creation : LUXOR.

54. Colleague of Ruth and Sonia : ELENA. Ending in "A" or "E"??? WAG got it.

55. New Hampshire city : KEENE. My "surrogate daughter" (a Katrina evacuee) lives in Keene, and just had a baby. So I nailed this one.

56. Nine: Pref. : ENNEA.

57. Lab work : TESTS.

59. Village People classic : YMCA.

63. Rep.'s rival : DEM.

That's all for this week. See you next time, same day, same blog...
Marti

Note from C.C.:

Please click here to solve a special tribune puzzle George Barany and Friends made to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the birth of a famous opera composer who frequents our crosswords. I hope you bookmark his website as a Favorite. He regularly publishes new puzzles there.

Wednesday, October 9th, 2013 Gerry Wildenberg

Theme: Center Parting - as the hint clue explains the four theme answers reveal a hair-related word at the start and the end of each one.

17A. 1949 Olivia de Havilland film : THE HEIRESS. She won the Oscar for Best Actress for her performance.

25A. Home of the Clinton Presidential Library : LITTLE ROCK. It's a pretty spectacular bulding:

36A. Bead in a necklace : CULTURED PEARL. As opposed to ignorant ones?

49A. Sam's Choice, e.g. : STORE BRAND. I rarely shop at Wal-Mart so this didn't jump out at me right away. The theme definitely helped me get this one.

59A. Nitpick, and what this puzzle's circled letters represent : SPLIT HAIRS

Maidin Mhaith to you all; I thought I'd exercise my Irish a little this morning! I know some of you won't have had the circles printed in your particular newspaper but I don't think they were necessary for the theme to become apparent. I thought this was going to be very tricky - on my first pass I was drawing lots of blanks until I got to the SW, and then things started to fall into place.

It didn't help that I always forget whether Reba McEntire or Kelly Ripa was Regis Philbin's co-host, and I also forget that the clue will indicate whether we're looking for the first or the last name, so that left me pondering the last few letters of the fill for a couple of minutes, especially with crosses that were also unknowns.

Let's see what else we've got:

Across:

1. 10% donation : TITHE

6. "12 Angry Men" actor : COBB. Lee J. was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor for his performance.

10. Credit card bill nos. : A.P.R.'S. The Annual Percentage Rate. Some credit cards have extraordinarily high ones.

14. Lucy's landlady : ETHEL

15. __ code : AREA. 818 in my case.

16. Sodium hydroxide, on a chem test : NaOH. Sodium's symbol "Na" comes from the Latin Natrium, which begs the question why we didn't name just the element that?

19. Kathryn of HBO's "Oz" : ERBE. No idea. Perps.

20. Dermatologist's concerns : RASHES.

21. Rowboat propeller : OAR

23. "Where __ sign?" : DO I

24. Cold drink brand : ICEE. I only needed four crosses to nail this one.

29. White House tween : SASHA. I usually blank on the Obama's kids. More perps to the rescue.

31. Delightful time : GAS. I had GAY initially until BESOTS came along.

32. Singer Shore : DINAH

33. Pope of 903 : LEO V. Crosses needed to decide between the possible I, V or X choices. I'm assuming there weren't enough Leos to get up into L or C territory.

35. Van Cleef & __: French jeweler/perfumer : ARPELS. Perps. Never head of this partnership. Interesting-looking watches though.

40. Small sword : RAPIER. Small as in slim, not short.

41. Corduroy ridges : RIBS

42. "__ Is Born" : A STAR. Barbra Streisand's Emmy-winning "Evergreen" was the theme.

43. Double-helix molecule : DNA. Deoxyribonucleic acid is a bit of a mouthful, but it does have an elegant structure.

44. Coke and Pepsi : SODAS. Could easily have been COLAS also, so I waited for the crosses. Lots of waiting for crosses for me today.

52. Dramatic opening? : MELO. Was Romeo being melodramatic in 55A?

53. Blackguard : CAD

54. Small pop group : DUO

55. When, in Act III, Romeo cries, "O, I am fortune's fool!" : SCENE I

57. Course for Crusoe?: Abbr. : ANAG. I was wondering which direction Crusoe would have sailed to get from Chile to Más Atierra, and then realized Oh! Course is the anagram of  Crusoe.

62. Actor Jared : LETO

63. What NHL shootouts resolve : TIES

64. Mountain ridge : ARÊTE

65. Galley order : STET. Enjoyed the misdirection here. Galley proofs are edited before going forward to final typesetting and publication.

66. Sound that fits this puzzle's theme : SNIP. "Bonus" tie-in.

67. Outmoded : PASSÉ

Down:

1. Shape-fitting game : TETRIS, This was all the rage at one time. I never played it, but I knew people who spent hours and hours playing it. It is credited with driving sales of the hand-held Nintendo Game Boy.

2. Cayuga Lake city : ITHACA.

3. Ph.D. hurdles : THESES

4. Dastardly chuckle : HEH HEH. Dick Dastardly's dog Muttley has the best chuckle:

5. Gen. Robert __ : E. LEE

6. Train unit : CAR

7. Mineral resource : ORE

8. Stupefies with drink : BESOTS. This was interesting - I'd never thought of it in this context before; I'd always associated BESOT with falling hopelessly in love.

9. __ metabolic rate : BASAL. Used to calculate how many calories your body burns when at rest.

10. "Wheel of Fortune" buy : AN "E"

11. The president, vis-à-vis one Thanksgiving turkey : PARDONER. I always think it's odd that the president "pardons" a turkey - it's not as if the turkey did anything wrong! At school we studied Chaucer's Pardoner's Tale - I can still remember the opening lines:

"In Flanders whilom was a company

Of younge folkes, that haunted folly,

As riot, hazard, stewes, and taverns;"

12. Autodialed electioneering tactic : ROBOCALL. Learning moment for me - I didn't know this word.

13. Arab tribal leaders : SHEIKHS. I stopped short after "SHEIK--" - I couldn't figure out why there were two spaces left and only one S in my hand!

18. Map speck: Abbr. : ISL. You can't get much more of a speck than this - the world's smallest populated isle (in Rhode Island).

22. Right, as a wrong : REDRESS

26. Lab assistant of film : IGOR. This clip from "Young Frankenstein" explains the correct pronunciation:

27. Greek café : TAVERNA

28. Longtime Philbin co-host : RIPA

30. Took in or let out : ALTERED

34. Andorra's cont. : EUR. Andorra's also a bit of a map-speck in Europe.

35. Msg. to the whole squad : A.P.B. The All-Points Bulletin usually contains details of a suspect to be detained if seen.

36. Hand-held clicker : CASTANET. I couldn't get the "people counter" clicker out of my mind for quite some time.

37. Current : UP-TO-DATE

38. Perjurer : LIAR

39. Gorilla observer Fossey : DIAN

40. "Good Lovin'" group, with "the" : RASCALS. I wasn't familiar with this song, nor the group.

43. Stop by unannounced : DROP IN

45. 1998 British Open champ Mark : O'MEARA. He beat Brian Watts by two strokes in a four-hole playoff.

46. Declares untrue : DENIES

47. Warnings : ALERTS

48. "That's quite clear" : SO I SEE

50. Some gallery statuary : BUSTS

51. Summer hrs. : D.S.T. It always makes me smile that there is somehow a way to "save" daylight by shifting the clocks around by an hour.

56. English guy : CHAP

58. Caught on to : GOT

60. Floral chain : LEI

61. AOL, e.g. : I.S.P. Internet Service Provider. We seem to have seen this a lot recently.

That's about it from me. As the sari saleslady said to her customer - "It's a wrap!"

Steve