Sunday, April 6, 2008 Willy A. Wiseman

Theme: FULL CALENDAR (Pls let me know if you spot any mistake)

110A: Kevin Kline movie, with "The": JANUARY MAN

89A: Groundhog Day: FEBRUARY SECOND

1A: Step in step: MARCH

33D: Annual fall: APRIL SHOWERS

129A: Chicken Itza man: MAYAN

57A: Followup to 33D: JUNE WEDDING

23A: Summer holiday: JULY FOURTH

44D: "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" playwright: AUGUST WILSON

110A: 1980 Neil Diamond hit: SEPTEMBER MORN

79A: German-American celebration: OCTOBER FEST

48A: Walt Whitman work: NOVEMBER BOUGHS

29A: Spring Byington's TV classic: DECEMBER BRIDE

First of all, I love Sade the beautiful singer, not Sade the sadistic writer. I don't enjoy being tortured. But I was put through a waterboading this morning. It's excruciating! I am certain that some of you will breeze through the puzzle without encountering any bad weather. But for me, it was a stormy and turbulent sailing experience. Oodles of unknown terms like OLEIC, ELASTIN, TETRYL, IATRO. Loads of films, songs, singers, playwright I've never heard of. In fact, I don't remember I've ever spent such an unendurably long time flirting with Google. Painful!

Maybe I should not try Sunday puzzle. It frustrates me and robs me of the precious confidence I've built up during the weekdays. The amount of new information is simply too overwhelming.

I was flustered and paralyzed from the very beginning 1D: Fastfood position (McJOB). I've never, ever heard of this slang. I guess I could've taken a wild stab if 18A: SHANKS (CRURA) was an easily obtainable answer. Alas, it was formidably flinty. I pictured all kinds of shanks in my brain, including the shank shot that hit my right ankle by a stupid golfer. Ouch! Could not think of anything, so I limped away.

I actually figured out the theme very quickly, immediately after I got Y from 4D: Shed Tears (CRY). That enabled me to fill in the beginning MONTH part a few long across theme entries. But, what followed the months (Jan, Sept, Nov. & Dec, Nov) were impenetrable. The down clues were of no help, in fact, they only added to my miseries.

Besides, I self-inflicted myself with some near-fatal wounds. Take 66A: Manufactured baloney? (LIED) for example. I was hellbent to fill in LIES. I wanted a noun and I would not consider any other choice. Then 43D (Mathematical figures of earth) became GEOISS. I checked all the dictionary sources, and could not find any evidence to validate my fill. However, I convinced myself somehow that GEOISS was correct. I thought it was probably another made-up ATIP word by Wiseman (asa as our Editor Williams). So I decided to hammer in this last nail GEOISS on the puzzle and call it a success. Only realized that I was wrong when I tried to type in LIED for the blog entry. Stupid!

Now looking back at this puzzle, it is pretty elegant. It's not an easy task to pull off these 12-month feat in one grid. My only gripe is about the lower right corner. LEMAY (107D) and MAYAN (129A) should not have crossed each other that way. It looks very awkward to me. Besides, the month MAY could've been constructed as an independent entry (just like every other month) rather than embedded in another word.

Some of today's clues are very clever, esp those with question marks. The best is 100A: Roman Crowd?: III (Roman number three. Two's a company, Three's a crowd). Very refreshing.

Grid (21*21): Total letters filled: 369. Total blank squares: 72

Across entries:

6A: Ancient Greek portico: STOA. Plural can be STOAS, or STOAE. OK, Ancient Greek Mall: AGORA, AGORAE. Ancient Greek concert hall: ODEUM, ODEUMS or ODEA.

10A: Bub: FELLA

15A: Lowly NCO: CPL (Corporal)

18A: Shanks: CRURA. Singular form is CRUS.

19A: Greek crosses: TAUS. Greek letter T.

20A: Trojan War epic: ILIAD

21A: American Omegas: ZEES. Omega is the last letter of Greek alphabet.

25A: Stallone persona: RAMBO

26A: Asian inland sea: ARAL. Saw it clued as "Shrinking Asian Sea" before.

27A: Eng. honor: OBE (Order of British Empire). Thought Tina Brown received an OBE. Wrong. She received a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire), which is higher than OBE.

32A: Theda of silents: BARA. Not familiar with this name. Interesting, Wikipedia says her name is an anagram of "Arab Death". No wonder she was cast as "Cleopatra".

34A: Sparta site: LACONIA

37A: Like a little Glaswegian: WEE. How so? Doesn't Wee also mean "a little bit" in American English?.

38A: Fraction of a rupee: PAISA. Well, I suppose if you are from Indian or Pakistan, this is a gimme for you. I have no idea.

40A: Pass slowly: DRAG

43A: "I Can't Make You Love Me" singer: RAITT. Not familiar with the song.

45A: Actor McGavin: DARREN. Nope. Another stranger.

53A: Acid in soap: OLEIC. No idea. Totally beyond my ken.

55A: Pigeon talk: COOING. Could've, should've got this one, but I did not. I was thinking a real noun, not a fake ING verb-noun.

56A: Window part: SILL. Put PANE first of course.

60A: Various functions: USES

64A: Collected: AMASSED. 2 other SS in today's puzzle: UMASS, PUSS.

66A: Manufactured baloney?: LIED. Couldn't believe that I was snagged here for so long.

67A: Refuges: ASYLA. Plural of Asylum. An insanely difficult answer for a simple clue.

68A: 1977-to-2005 Missouri congressman: GEPHARDT (Dick). Shouldn't the c in Congressman should be capitalized? Or is it just another Obama Democrat/democrat thing? My husband likes Gephardt a lot. Me, lukewarm toward him.

70A: Lively dance: JIG

71A: Ghostly: SPECTRAL

74A: CNN correspondent David: ENSOR. I tend to confuse him with Jamie McIntyre (CNN Pentagon reporter). They don't even look alike.

75A: Coup d'_: ETAT. I want Zimbabwe army to have a Coup d'ETAT, NOW. Mugabe has to go.

77A: Remove snarls: UNTWIST. Sounds good to me, though I've never used this word before.

78A: Goulash or slumgullion: STEW. Slumgullion sounds so unappealing to me. Slum...

84A: Former Peruvian currency: INTI. The insanity goes on! Had_ _ _ I sitting there for over 30 minutes.

85A: Slope of a rampart: ESCARP. Nope. It's "a steep artificial slope in front of a fortification''.. Derived from French "escarper" (to cut).

87A: St. Louis bridge: EADS. Vaguely heard of it.

88A: City in Scotland or Illinois: ELGIN

94A: Barrymore film, "__ Lupin": ARSÈNE. No idea.

95A: New England sch. UMASS (University of Massachusetts)

96A: Vega's constellation: LYRA

97A: Medical: pref.: IATRO. Big stumper for me. I have IATROPHOBIA. I am skeptical of most of the doctors who try to foist new medicines/procedures on patients. US Health Care system, in Dennis' military term, is totally FUBAR (Fouled up beyond all recognition). Oh, by the way, "Iatro" is a Greek word, meaning physician. Here is an example: IATROGENIC: "a disease or problem caused, or made worse by a physician, surgeon or by medical treatment or diagnostic procedures."

99A: Snoop: SPY

103A: Graphite removers: ERASERS

106A: Workers' rights. grp.: NLRB (National Labor Relations Board)

114A: Ref. set: OED (Oxford English Dictionary)

117A: Switch addition?: EROO (Switcheroo).

118A: Very, in music: ASSAI. Allegro assai is very quick.

122A: Alphabetize: SORT

124A: Saucers without cups?: UFOS. Good clue too.

125A: Noted violin maker: AMATI. Or STRAD (AMATI's student)

127A: Insinuating: SNIDE

128A: Stock shade: NUDE

Down clues:

1D: Fastfood position: McJOB. Slang for "a low-paying, low-prestige job that requires few skills and offers very little chance of intracompany advancement". Is it a gimme for you?

2D: Orangjestad's land: ARUBA

3D: Sovereign: RULER

5D: Weapon handle: HAFT

6D: Buddhist shrines: STUPAS. Did not know this word. I only knew PAGODAS. What's the difference between these two? (Update from drdad: Stupa is a mound like structure containing relics of Guatama Buddha (founder of Buddhism). Pagoda is a tiered tower found in may parts of Asia and also commonly dealing with Buddhism. I guess the mound vs. the tower is the key.)

8D: Better: OUTDO

10D: Gun: FIREARM

11D: NFL kicker Jason: ELAM

12D: Tree branch: LIMB

13D: Tag: LABEL

15D: Russian ruler: CZAR. No!! It's "Former Russian ruler". Right now, Putin is the man, as he has been since 1999, at least, until May 2008. Secondly, there should be a "Variant" mark besides the clue, as TSAR is more common.

16D: Hairpiece: PERIWIG

17D: "He __ me beside the still waters": LEADETH

24D: Singer K. T. __: OSLIN. Nope, no memory of this singer at all. Here is more information about her.

30D: Killing: suff: CIDE (Homicide, e. g.)

35D: Religious law: CANON

39D: NRC forerunner: AEC (Atomic Energy Commission). NRC is Nuclear Regulatory Commison.

41D: First letters: ABCDE

42D: Mathematical figures of Earth: GEOIDS. Another stumper. It's "an imaginary surface that coincides with mean sea level in the ocean and its extension through the continents.". "Geo" is earth earth obviously, "oid" means "like", as in ellipsoid. Factoid has the same root I think. OK, so the adjective for "Geoid" is a "Geoidal".

45D: Medicinal quantities: DOSAGES

46D: Sustenance: ALIMENT. A new word for me. But ALIMENT looks like something stunting rather than nourishing. Maybe because of AILMENT? Spelling is almost the same.

47D: Blackslide: RELAPSE. So easy to go astray in life.

51D: Silver or Wood: RON. I made a blind-squirrel guess and RON happened to the right acorn.

52D: Expansive: BIG

54D: Melville novel: "Billy __": BUDD

57D: O. T. book: JER (Jeremiah)

58D: High society: ELITE. I like of like "High Society" the movie. It's the only Bing Crosby work I've seen.

61D: Shot putter?: SYRINGE. Another stumper. I misread the clue as "Short Putter"?. So I was walking on the green of "Yip" and "Gimme", all those golf terms. When I realized it's "Shot", I marveled at the cleverness of the clue. Hope you did not go to the "Shot Put" the athletics term. But you doctor/nurse INJECTS shot, NOT puts shot into your body, don't they?

62D: Ligament substance: ELASTIN. No idea. It's " a protein constituting the basic substance of elastic tissue.".

63D: Type of cracker: SALTINE

65D: Patriotic men's org: SAR (Sons of the American Revolution). DAR is Daughters of American Revolution.

67D: Do one's part?: ACT. Act one's role. In fact, the clue is sufficient without the question mark, don't you agree?

69D: Detonator stuff: TETRYL. No idea. I was exploded at this point of my solving. The suffix "YL" looks so crazy. Oh, "yl" is a suffix used to "form the chemical names of organic compounds when they are radicals (parts of larger compounds), such as ethyl and phenyl." Who cares!

70D: Straight punch: JAB

72D: Mug or kisser: PUSS

73D: Tolkien tree: ENT. Tolkien baddie is ORC. That's all I know. Somehow "Lord of the Ring" has never caught my fancy.

76D: Electrocuted elephant: TOPSY. Was not aware of this event. A bit disturbing to me.

79D: Andean tuber: OCA. It looks like this.

82D: Wind machine: FAN. Should have a question mark after this clue I think.

83D: Jockey Arcaro: EDDIE. The Master of Triple Crown!

86D: "Calvin and Hobbes" girl: SUSIE. Another stranger. But it's inferable.

89D: Botherations: FUSSES. Does the word "bothers" bother you, Editor? Why bent so far for "Botherations"?

90D: Kind of penguin: EMPEROR

91D: Long Island hamlet: BAYPORT

92D: Recluse: EREMITE

93D: Dear Italian: CARO. OK, so it's "Dear" in Italian: mia caro, mia cara. Same with French mon chéri, ma chérie. Want to learn a bit Chinese? It's "Qin Ai De" ("亲爱的"). And it does not have femininity or masculinity difference.

101D: Mosque officials: IMAMS. I tend to confuse Somalia Supermodel IMAN with this IMAM.

102D: "Peer Gynt" dramatist: IBSEN. Got it this time.

104D: Indian golfer Atwal: ARJUN. Nope, not familiar with him. He spent way too long at the Asian/European Tour I suppose.

105D: Military muddle: SNAFU (Situation Normal, All Fouled UP). This word brings smile to my face. I remember I was very shocked when Dennis first explained the sanitized version of SNAFU on a March puzzle.

107D: Wallace's 1968 running mate: LeMAY (Curtis). A total stranger to me. But who can remember a vice presidential candidate's name? LeMay, hmm, not a familiar surname to me at all. He had to have some French heritage I suppose.

108D: Rodeo rope: REATA

109D: Nigeria's neighbor: BENIN. Porto Novo is Benin's Capital. I don't think any other Capital City in this world has 4 Os in its name.

112D: Actor Morales: ESAI. Enough said about this NYPD Blues guy.

114D: "Atlas Shrugged" author: RAND (Ayn). That's why it's so hard to parse what on earth Greenspan tried to say. He was way too influenced by RAND. So was Mark Cuban, who had a crush on Rand and her "The Fountainhead".

115D: Whiskey shot: DRAM

120D: Land of sleep: NOD. Land of NOD, the "mythical land of sleep".

121D: Singer Sumac: YMA.

C.C.

A Few Updates

1) Yesterday (Friday, April 4)'s GETTING ON puzzle constructor Robert A. Doll is a real person, not a pseudonym as I originally thought. Orange just blogged about his Washington Post puzzle on March 16, 2008.

2) Blogger comments glitch: It turns out that people have been experiencing similar problems in other blogs too (Rex Parker's NYT for example). I was worried that I did something wrong with my settings. Hope Blogger fixes this problem soon.

3) My gripes about OTT, OTTO, ODIUM and RADIUM: Here is Orange's take: "I don't think it's clumsy to have similar strings of letters in multiple answers, as long as they're not forms of the same word. OTT and OTTO are different, and ODIUM and RADIUM are entirely different, too. The big no-no is repeating the same word with the same root, like having OUTOFTIME and TIMER in the same puzzle."

4) My complaint about Sapporo sash clue: Orange said "many constructors and editors like short clues to rhyme or have alliteration. Thus, [Pig's digs] for a STY, and [Sapporo sash]. [Tokyo sash] basically means the same thing, but the clue doesn't have alliteration. Not sure why they're so fond of it!"

So, some of my grumblings are not on sold ground, and sometimes they are not right. But I am writing honestly about what's really going on in my mind.

If you disagree with my view, or spot any mistake, whether it's typo, clumsy theme summary, or wrong entry (I typed in Calls on the RED carpet for yesterday's CHIDES clue, did not realize it 'til Orange asked me), or incorrect grammar (I had this big past tense & present perfect confusion until Hugh Brown sent me a detailed explanation in mid March), please don't hesitate to let me know. I am willing and eager to learn.

Thank you for swinging by every day. I've learned a lot from you guys.

C.C.

Saturday, April 5, 2008 Arlan and Linda Bushman

Theme: NONE

An uphill battle today, brutal! Without a theme guidance, I felt like I was playing golf under foggy (and cold) weather. I could not see the fairways clearly, not to mention the pin positions. I was in the rough on almost every hole.

To make things worse, I kept wanting AVE, HEXAGON and ORT to be merged and form an open parallel to balance 20A and 53A. This needless mental knot caused me quite a few strokes.

My first several tee shots were actually perfect, right down in the middle. But I could not follow through. Had no idea how to chip and where to land the ball on the green.

Take the lower right corner for example: I got SONICS for 49A, then I wrote down OWED (confused it with owned) for 61A: Have, in the past, and I filled in DOES for 64A: Unnamed others, thinking of John/Jane DOE. I had no idea what was Knicks coach Thomas' given name. I did not know the meaning of "thurible", imagining it was a kind of sewing tool like thimble. Have never heard of actress Gershon. So, a bloody mess there. I could not even get AT NIGHT for 41D. Stupid! What can I say?

Except the ugly double appearances of STAIR (20A & 11D) & HAMMER (53A & 54D), this puzzle was very well designed and constructed. Lots of quality fills. I think I would've enjoyed it were I a better solver.

Grid: Total letters filled: 193. Total blank squares: 32

FRONT NINE:

1A: Bungle: FLUB

5A: Gem weight: CARAT

10A: Flat-topped rise: MESA. OK, a non-MESA related question for you: Are you or anyone of your family a MENSA member? Send me a private email if you do not want go public with this information.

14A: Mrs. Chaplin: OONA. O'Neill's daughter. But what an enviable & magical marriage they forged! 35 years. Incredible. By the way, Oona's daughter Geraldine Chaplin played Tonya in Dr. Zhivago.

15A: Florida citrus city: OCALA

16A: Dog-eared: USED

17A: Marketed: SOLD. Really? I thought marketing was different than selling. (Update: drdad says they are the same)

18A: Upstairs storage room: ATTIC

19A: Former "SNL" rival: SCTV (Second City TV). Wikipedia says it's a "Canadian TV sketch comedy show offshoot from Toronto's The Second City troupe thatran between 1976 to 1984". Is it well-known?

20A: Lighthouse feature, often: SPIRAL STAIRCASE

23A: Condition of life: ESTATE. Not aware of this meaning of ESTATE. I might have penned in STATE if the clue was asking for a 5-letter fill.

24A: Outstanding: STELLAR. That's Johanna Santana. So weird to see him in Mets uniform.

25A: Green sauce: PESTO. Wasabi is green too, but I guess you call it condiment. My husband simply can not stand wasabi. He gets all teared up just by looking at it.

28A:Does field work: REAPS

29A: Mason totes: HODS

32A: Occult doctrine: CABALA. Or KABALA. Madonna spent over $12,000/month just for her Cabala water. Crazy! She is one mystifying bird: She does Yoga, she lives on a Microbiotic diet, and she practices CABALA. They are of totally different religious concept.

35A: Skater Babilonia: TAI. Did not know her before.

36A: Old-style greeting: AVE. Only in old Rome I suppose. Latin for "hail". Would be very nice if the A here intersect with the A in SALVO.

37A: Honeycomb shape: HEXAGON. Have never seen a honeycomb in my life. So I have no idea what's the shape.

40A: "I, Robot" author: ASIMOV. Have you seen the movie (Will Smith)?

42A: Shift or sack: DRESS

46A: Low-altitude cloud: STRATUS. Plural is STRATI. I guess it would be STRATA if not for STRATUM.

48A: Military tribute: SALVO

49A: Seattle team, informally: SONICS. SuperSonics. Does Seattle Mariners have a nickname also?

53A: Rodin implements: HAMMER AND CHISEL

56A: X or Y line: AXIS

57A: Sound loudly: BLARE

58A: Actress Gerson: GINA. No idea. She looks pretty.

59A: Numbers game: KENO. Have never played this game.

60A: Birdlike: AVIAN

61A: Have, in the past: HAST. Could be clued in better way. I don't like the HA repetition.

62A: British PM Anthony: EDEN. Much better than Eve's garden clue.

63A: Nick of the screen: NOLTE. Repeat offender! How proper!

Back nine:

1D: "Cabaret" director: FOSSE (Bob). He won Oscar for this movie in 1972. I've never seen the movie. The only Liza Minnelli movie I've seen is New York, New York.

2D: Aerial stunts: LOOPS

4D: Undeserved imputations: BAD RAPS

5D: Comes together: COALESCES. I am so proud that I filled in this word without looking at other across clues after I got letter C from CARAT and O from OCALA.

7D: "Round and Round" band: RATT. No, not familiar with the band or the song.

8D: Miscreant's dodge: ALIAS. Did not know the meaning of "miscreant", but the word itself looks very bad to me, you know, with "mis", so I made an educated guess.

10D: Brawn: MUSCLE

11D: Moving stairway: ESCALATOR

12D: Distinguishes: SETS APART. I start to really like this kind of adverb/preposition embedded answer. Crossword is made more challenging NOT by MOSSY obscure words, but by intelligent cluing, in my view.

13D: Hard times: ADVERSITY

21D: Bolted down: ATE. Did not know that "bolt" can mean "eat' before. I don't think I want to bolt down any food. I am a slow picky eater.

22D: Put on once again: RERAN. I was in the direction of "put on weight" or "put on clothes".

26D: Hack: TAXI

27D: Illinois democrat: OBAMA. democrat, not Democrat? Shouldn't the D be capitalized?

29D: Deal clincher, perhaps: HANDSHAKE

30D: Given too much work: OVERTAXED

31D: Figure out: DETERMINE

33D: Highly worked up: AGOG

34D: Romance movie staple: LOVE SCENE

37D: Undue speed: HASTE

41D: When star comes out: AT NIGHT

43D: Biblical strong man: SAMSON

45D: Japanese stage offering: NOH. From Nogaku. Japanese musical drama (masked). No/Noh means talent, "gaku" means music.

47D: Type of renewal or sprawl: URBAN

50D: Knicks coach Thomas: ISIAH. Wow, looks like he has had a illustrious career. Sorry for my ignorance Sir!

51D: Use a thurible: CENSE. This word "thurible'" just looks so wrong to me. Weird spelling.

52D: Bluish-gray in color: SLATY. Did not know that "SLATY" also mean slate-like color.

C.C.

Friday, April 4, 2008 Robert A. Doll

Theme: GETTING ON

17A: Getting on: NO SPRING CHICKEN

29A: Getting on: OVER THE HILL

57A: Getting on: OLD AS METHUSELAH

Hmm, welcome back Robert A. Doll! It's been a long time.

I really like this guy's pseudonym, very spooky. Had to admire his discipline today not to clue 56A: OTTO as Robert the Doll family. That self-referential meta would've driven me up a wall. By the way, has anyone been to that museum (Key West, FL) and seen Robert the Doll?

"Haunted" is how I felt this morning while solving this puzzle. I was possessed by the stupefying number (30) of 3-letter words. So overpowering! What seized you to commit this frown-upon crossword construction sin, Mr. Doll?

On the other hand, all the three theme entries are very appealing to me. Some of the colloquial expressions (HEY, C'MON, IT'S ME, DIS, HOORAH) and simple phrases (GROSS OUT, NEAR MISS, ESCAPE KEY) are very lively, esp the grid structure of the last three. It has some elegance. OTT and OTTO should not be in the same puzzle though. The same with ODIUM and RADIUM. Juttingly clumsy!

No home run today. Not even a triple or double. Plenty of singles, all over the field.

Grid: Total letters filled: 187. Total blank squares: 38

Front Nine:

1A: Design detail: SPEC

5A: Shake a leg!: C'MON

9A: Intense loathing: ODIUM. Does ODIUM have a plural form? I could not find it in the dictionary. Maybe it follows the same pattern as Odeum (the ancient Greek hall): Odeums, or Odea?

14A: Celestial bear: URSA

16A: Actress Delta: BURKE. Have never heard of her.

20A: Funny Foxx: REDD. Learned his name from doing crossword. Have never watched Sanford and Son. Is it good?

22A: Red shade: CERISE

25A: Disgust: GROSS OUT

30A: Altdorf's canton: URI. Altdorf is the capital of URI. Home of William Tell, the legendary Archer. I spent about 5 years in Canton (Guangzhou), China before I moved to the US.

31A: Bond backer: ISSUER

33A: Silvery-gray: ASH. Did not know that silvery-gray can be a noun. Always thought it was an adjective.

34A: Went like the wind: RACED

36A: Way out on the computer: ESCAPE KEY

41A: Precedes: ANTEDATES

43A: Dirty look: GLARE. Really? I always thought "GLARE" was a harsh look. LEER is a dirty look, isn't it? (Update: here is what drdad says: A glare is a dirty look, i.e., a fierce or angry stare. A leer is a desirous and sly look. It can suggest a desire for sex or a malicious intent).

43A: On the back: DORSAL. Alright, its root is "dorsum" (Latin for back). VENTRAL means on the back, its root is "venter" (Latin for belly). POSTERIOR & ANTERIOR is so much easier to remember. (Update: According to Dennis, Dorsal' is used mostly in fish (dorsal fin) and aircraft (dorsal antennae). )

50A: Close call: NEAR MISS

53A: Sore: TENDER

56A: "Beetle Bailey'' pooch: OTTO. No idea at all. Is this a gimme for you?

65A: Gets really steamed: BOILS

66A: Put on: GAIN. I had GA _ _ idling there for a while. I was temped to pen in GARB (as in putting on clothes).

67A: Khartoum's river: NILE. Khartoum is the Capital of Sudan. Do you call Sudan a Muslim country or an Arab country? I can never tell the difference.

Back Nine:

4D: Old Mercury: CAPRI. Also can be clued as Island in Italy of course.

5D: Calls on the carpet: CHIDES. Not familiar with this phrase. Can you give me an example on the usage?

9D: Newspaper section, for short: OBITS

10D: Channels: DUCTS

13D: Part of "MIB": MEN. The movie, "Men in Black". Not my favorite Will Smith or Tommy Lee Jones movie. I think I hate this clue, so unfair to those who have never seen the movie. Terrible abbreviation. Clue overkill!

18D: Domiciled: RESIDED

19D: Triumphant shout: HOORAH. Which is more common, Hoorah or Hurrah?

24D: Lasagna cheese: RICOTTA

25D: Productive oil wells: GUSHERS

26D: Alcove: RECESS

27D: California city: OAKLAND. A chance missed for Billy Beane. He could've bribed the constructor and got some exposure for his Athletics.

32D: Scraps: SET-TOS

35D: Cain raiser: EVE. Is this a good clue to you? Cain raiser, Cain rearer, it just sounds so weird to me.

37D: Baby oinkers: PIGLETS. I put PIGGIES first.

40D: Marie Curie material: RADIUM

41D: Conservative Coulter: ANN. She drives me mad all the time. But I love the clue. Very topical.

48D: Harmonize: ATTUNE

51D: Domain: REALM

52D: Billiard stroke: MASSÉ. Is it the same as CAROM? (Update: Feedback from drdad: in pool, a carom is any shot involving a strike of the ball and subsequent rebound. A masse is a shot taken with the cue almost vertical that causes the ball to follow an extremely curved path.)

54D: Interminably: NO END

56D: CSNY song: OHIO. Nope. Total stranger.

57D: Sapporo sash: OBI. I just don't get this editor's obsession with Sapporo. What happened to you in this city?

(Update at 6:01pm Friday. Orange said Robert A. Doll is the constructor's real name. My mistake. Sorry)

C.C.

What's Your Preferred Time to Do Crossword? Poll

Question: What's Your Preferred Time to do Crossword?

Total votes: 315

Morning: 242 (76%)

Afternoon: 30 (9%)

Evening: 36 (11%)

Others: 7 ( 2%)

Thank you for the participation.

C. C.

Thursday, April 3, 2008 Alan P. Olschwang

Theme: WILL ROGERS QUOTE

17A: Start of Will Rogers quote: IT IS GREAT

24A: Part 2 of quote: TO BE GREAT

40A: Part 3 of quote: BUT IT

52A: Part 4 of quote: IS GREATER

63A: End of quote: TO BE HUMAN

Gone! I belted another one out of the ball park this morning. Unbelievable! I think I've entered this home run zone now.

There are probably 2 reasons for my smooth sailing today: 1) The puzzle is very easy. Lots of repetitive theme entries (esp "GREAT"). No obscure word. No MOSSY or dead actors or actress. 2) I am getting smarter. It's probably the former, though I prefer to think it's the latter.

I had a rather shaky start, having never heard of "fiddler crab". But I was able to string together the answers from the down clues. Then I zipped through the upper right corner and continued on effortlessly to the heart of the puzzle. Nabbed the theme very quickly. That allowed me to fill in a bunch of blank squares without even consulting the down clues.

My only pause today was 28A: TEE (Couples' pedestal"). I got the words, but was baffled a bit by the clue. Then I realized the "Couples" here is Fred Couples (PGA golfer). What a great trap! I am not sure I like "pedestal" part of the clue though, too fancy and heavy for a TEE. "Couples' Peg" would be a good one, but "peg' might be too self-revealing. What do you think? Alex of PGA (I presume you are a scratch golfer) will probably come up with a better clue.

As usual, I was IRED by 2 clues today: 49D: Single grain: OAT. 54D: Silo filler: GRAIN. I loathed seeing GRAIN twice. There has to be a way to circumvent this kind of avoidable double appearances. Once (CODE on Monday) in a week is already too much, twice (ORAL on Tuesday) is unbearable, three times in a week? I am speechless! I do like today's AFAR and AFIRE though.

Grid: Total letters filled: 189. Including 17 Rs, 15 Ss, and 18 Ts, which account for more than 1/4 of the total fills. Total blank squares: 36

OK, Let's tee off! Front nine:

1A: Fiddler in the sand: CRAB. What, their average lifespan is only 1.5 years?

5A: Tarry: BIDE

14A: In good health: HALE. If this constructor really wants to go for a Golf sub-theme, he will clue HALE as Erwin of Sr. PGA. He is a great golfer by the way, personality aside.

16A: Kind of eagle?: LEGAL Why is that? I don't get it. Is it because US Justice Department has an eagle on its seal? (Update later. From Dennis: "Legal Eagle" is a slang term that's been around for a long time, applied mostly to attorneys, paralegals, etc.).

20A: Lassos: RIATAS. Sometimes it's REATAS: "re" is the prefix for "again" of course, "atar" is "to fit, to tie", What about LARIAT? OK, "la" means "the" in Latin (from illa), "riat" comes from "Reatar". Interesting. What's the differences among RIATA, LARIAT and LASSO?

21A: Cherubic or seraphic: ANGELIC. The clue is a bit redundant, don't you think so?

34A: Search deeply (into): DELVE

38A: Fuss: TO-DO. ADO.

42A: Smoke deposit: SOOT

43A: Some Eastern Europeans: SLAVS. OK, so Russians belong to Eastern Slavs; the Bulgars, Serbs, Croats, Slavonians, Slovenes belong to Southern Slavs; And the Poles, Czechs, Moravians, Slovaks belong to Western Slavs. This is a ethnic term not a racial term I gather???

45A: Abs exercise: SIT-UP

48A: DDE's arena: ETO (European Theater of Operations). Is there a special theater name for our current involvement in Iraq?

56A: Essence of roses: ATTAR

60A: Tell the tale: NARRATE

61A: Professional copyist: SCRIBE

67A: __ avis: RARA. Rare bird.

71A: Expanded: GREW. I did not fell into the "ED" trap.

Back Nine:

1D: Bird sound: CHIRP

2D: Relation in degree: RATIO

3D: Police blotter entry: ALIAS. Oh, by the way, when you opine at the Comments section, please adopt a name. You can still remain anonymous, it's just easier for others to identify you.

4D: Rouse: BESTIR. Hmm, wouldn't "Arouse" make a better clue? Esp since the prefix of "be" in BESTIR? Or does "arouse" have too much sexual connotation?

5D: Obstacles: BARS. I've never used "BAR" as a barrier. Sometimes simple English words slip my grasp very easily.

7D: Narc org.: DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration, not Agency)

9D: Marked with a tab: FLAGGED

10D: Sports officials: REFEREES

12D: "West Side Story" tune: MARIA. Not familiar to me. I sewed together the word from the across clues.

33D: Indian instrument: SITAR. That's the playing instrument for Norah Jones' father (Ravi Shankar)

36D: Solemn promise: VOW. I put I DO first, but quickly discarded it.

37D: Hot time in Le Havre: ÉTÉ (Summer in French)

44D: Kind of clam: STEAMER

46D: Georgia fruit: PEACH. Ty Cobb is "the Georgia Peach".

49D: Single grain: OAT. How so? Can you also clue rice, corn, wheat this way?

51D: Like guitars and tennis racquets: STRUNG. Why "racquet" instead of "racket"?

52D:Peruvians of yore: INCAS

55D: Colorful fish: TETRA. If it's 4 letter, then it's OPAH.

57D: Lesser Sundas island: TIMOR. It's BALI on Sunday March 30's puzzle. OK, if it's Greater Sundas island, the answers could be Sumatra, Borneo, Java, and Sulawisi.

61D: Brown quickly: SEAR. The first image that popped to my mind is the UPS Brown guy. They come and go quickly.

Ready for tomorrow? Let me give you a clue, his surname is _ _ _ _ man.

C.C.

Wednesday, April 2, 2008 Allan E. Parrish

Theme: FINER RHYMES

17A: Seven-time home run champ: RALPH KINER

28A: One operating a dragline excavator: STRIP MINER

36A: Where Flo worked: MEL'S DINER

48A: QE2, for one: OCEAN LINER

61A: Frisco gridder: FORTY- NINER

Sub-theme: JOHN

43A: John's beloved: YOKO

6D: Grisham (John) novel, with "The": CLIENT

23D: John Henry's tool: HAMMER

33D: Economist John Mayard: KEYNES

55D: "John Brown's Body" poet: BENET

I started out very nicely: penned in ASPEN for 1A, had one strawberry, then filled in ANNOYED for 1D. Then I had a quick glance at the author's name and was a bit disconcerted that it was not Philip J. Anderson. I paused at Allan E. Parrish's name and got very nervous immediately.

Remember the EAT HER theme blunder I committed on March 21? Embarrassing! I am sure that my ignorance will continue to bubble up and boil over. Please bear with me.

Anyway, I never gained my confidence back after learning the puzzle author's name, never really gained any toehold at all. It's an extremely grueling trek. I did figure out the theme pretty quickly though. From now on, no more breakfast before puzzle, foods dull my brain. Felt like a lethargic tree sloth UNAU this morning.

Grid: 15*15. Total words count: 74. Total blank squares: 33.

Across entries:

1A: Colorado resort: ASPEN. Let's pack up the T-Bar, Gondola lift and other SKI (38D: Hit the slopes) gears and go back to "Shivering Tree" clue for a while.

2A: Tobacco plug: CHAW

10A: Certain mil. awards: DSCS. DSC is Distinguished Service Cross. Could also be DSO (Distinguished Service Order), or DSM (Distinguished Service Medal).

14A: Former NYC mayor Abe: BEAME. Not familiar with him.

15A: Molten rock: LAVA

16A: Billy or jack: MALE. Billy is a male goat, jack is a male donkey.

19A: Type of type: abbr.: ITAL (Italic)

20A: Thick-brick link: AS A

21A: Quite angry: IRED. Is this even a word?

22A: "Fiddler on the Roof": SHTETL. Ow, what a ridiculous name! "On the other hand", it's a legitimate clue. Shtetl is Yiddish for "small town".

24A: Attacks zealously: DIVES IN

26A: Mountain ridge: ARETE. Repeat offender!

27A: Henry James biographer: EDEL (Leon)

32A: Shortstop Jeter: DEREK. I think I have his rookie card.

40A: Sales channel: HSN (Home Shopping Network). Looks like Rene Aiu is doing a good job.

44A: Dressed like a judge: ROBED

53A: Specter: SHADE

54A: Singer Flack: ROBERTA. My favorite is probably "Killing me softly with his song".

56A: Singer Brewer: TERESA. No, not a familiar name to me.

59A: NOW element: ORG. NOW is National Organization for Women.

64A: Decent chap: GENT

65A: "Star Trek: TNG" character: TROI. No idea. Have never watched "Star Trek", and I don't think I will. Not my cup of tea.

66A: Plant swelling: EDEMA

67A: Transition point: EDGE. Is EDGE a point?

68A: "Back in Black" rockers: AC/DC. The Australian band.

69A: Clan emblem: TOTEM

Down entries:

1D: Chafed: ABRADED

2D: City near Fort Ord: SEA SIDE

3D: Chitchat: PALAVER. I've never used this word in my daily conversation. This word reminds of "parlez vous...", though the pronunciation is different.

10D: Composer Shostakovich: DMITRI. Probably a gimme for our fellow solvers Lois & Feste. I am not acquainted with Shostakovich. The only DMITRI I know is Nationals' DMITRI Young.

12D: Loud noise: CLATTER

13D: Clouseau portrayer: SELLERS. No idea. Not familiar with Peter Sellers and his work.

18D: Actor/Singer Kristofferson: KRIS.

29D: Element No. 86: RADON

39D: Apple choice: ROME

40D: Kidnap victim: HOSTAGE

41D: Plotted: SCHEMED. I like the paralleled structure of 40D & 41D.

45D: Knight's superior: BARONET. My dictionary says it's a title below a baron and above a knight.

46D: Outermost: EXTREME

47D: Explanatory drawing: DIAGRAM

49D: " ___ Fideles": ADESTE

50D: Sensuous: EROTIC. Not a sexy clue any more. Try something exotic!

51D: Golfer Sabbatini: RORY. The South African golfer. Very talented. Not a "the lollipop of mediocrity” for sure. He tied for 2nd at last year's Masters.

57D: Mennen product: AFTA

59D: Cattle poker: PROD

62D: "The Lord of the Rings" baddie: ORC

Ready for a quip/quote puzzle?

C.C.

Tuesday, April 1, 2008 Diane C. Baldwin

Theme: Common Phrases Meaning "GRASP"

20A: Understand: SEE THE LIGHT

38A: Comprehend: GET THE MESSAGE

55A: Catch on: TAKE THE HINT

I did not detect any April's Fools' hoax in this puzzle, did you?

This grid reminded me of John Underwood's March 25 SLIP puzzle (last Tuesday's). Lots of three letter words, though theme was not as lively. I don't think I like the way those two 4-blank squares are stacked & cornered together in the middle of the grid. It just does not fit my eyes.

I did not finish the puzzle today mainly due to my English vocabulary deficiency. I did not know the meaning of "Metronome" and "Solfeggio", and I've never heard of the movie "Free Willy", so I went through hell trying to fill in the DEER part of the puzzle.

I do like the CLAW clue, and I love how it intersects CLASP. It evokes such a vivid image! I am a bit irked by 43A: Oral delivery: SPEECH. This "Oral" is as unpleasant as yesterday's CODE. If ORAL appears as the answer to 6D: Voiced, this "Oral delivery" clue should really be promptly discarded. Hello Williams, can you hear me now?

Grid structure: Total words counts: 78. Total blank square: 36 (maximum is 43).

1A: Grizzly weapon: CLAW. Do you know that grizzly bears eat plant also?

5A: Fall flat: BOMB

9A: Alluring trait: CHARM. Just do not clue ALLUREMENT as "Charming trait" next time. It will drive someone nuts!

14A: Old Italian bread? LIRA. Money. This bread clue is getting staler now. Bake something new for us.

15A: "Stride la vampa.": e. g.: ARIA

19A: Can't do without: NEEDS. I gather you can also clue NEED to be "Can't do without", right?

29A: Spook, maybe: SPY. Never knew that spook is a slang for espionage.

34A: Ho Chi Minh City, formerly: SAIGON. "Good morning, Vietnam"! We have a fellow TMS crossword solver there.

44A: Electron tube parts: ANODES

47A: "Free Willy" star: ORCA. Unknown to me, but it's a good change from the "Killer whale" clue.

51A: Old-fashioned messages: TELEXES

53A: One of Florida's Keys: LARGO

59A: Tubby plus: OBESE

64A: Cut and paste: EDIT. Shouldn't it be clued as "Cut and paste, e. g."?

66A: Gondola alternative: T-BAR. I was thinking of the Italian boat. Did not know anything about the Gondola lift.

68A: Tete topper: BERET. The unbearable ennui! Surprise me with something new next time!

Down entries:

1D: Jewelry fasteners: CLASPS

2D: Get into position: LINE UP

3D: Red cell carrier: ARTERY

4D: Cool one's heels: WAITS

5D: In the altogether: BARE. Hmm, I've never heard of this expression before. I thought it meant SANE. American idioms are killing me!

9D: Negative beginning: CONTRA. I like this clue. Contra- is a prefix here.

10D: Cry's partner: HUE. Cry and Hue.

21D: Courage to continue: HEART. Not fond of this clue at all. I don't know. I guess I was expecting something more audacious & intrepid. The HEART here sounds so Coward Lion-ly.

25D: Singer Shore or Washington: DINAH. One name is enough!

26D: Hyped up: AGOG

33D: Metronome's reminder: TEMPO

35D: Chopin piano piece: ÉTUDE

41D: Solfeggio: SCALE

48D: Rein in: BRIDLE. Yep, this is not a time for "unbridled enthusiasm" & "irrational exuberance".

49D: Catch fire: IGNITE

58D: Rhino's weapon: HORN

59D: Poetic peeper: ORB. Nice change from yesterday's "Eye, poetically" clue.

60D: Quilting klatch: BEE. This is the first time I meet Klatch.

C.C.

Monday, March 31, 2008 Stanley B. Whitten

Theme: Oral Cavity

17A: Senior Bush pronouncement: READ MY LIPS

63A: Harmonica: MOUTH ORGAN

11D: At a loss for words: TONGUE TIED

29D: Dentyne, e.g.: CHEWING GUM

I did it! I hit the ball out of the park! No steroid, no corked bat, no google visit. It's just gone! That ball is history! My first ever cheat-free puzzle!

It's a smooth sailing from the beginning to the end. I did not chance upon any obscure words or get tangled by any "could be this""could be that" snag. I only used Liquid Paper once to correct one mis-fill.

The appearance of both 40A: SENOR and 39D: SENORITA in the same puzzle made me cringe a bit, but they are structured so nicely in the grid, so I will let it go. But I would reclue 14A: "Type of code or rug" to something else, since the word CODE appears again as the answer to clue 36D: Encryptions. What do you think?

Grid: 15*15. Total word counts: 74. Total blank squares: 34

Oh, another thing, I have a quick question for you: On Sunday's puzzle, BANJOS is clued as "Lute kin". I know kin's plural form is still kin, so, technically, the pluralized BANJO is correct, but shouldn't "Lute" be in plural form to be completely harmonious with the answer? Or do you think the clue is perfectly fine as it is? Let me have your view.

Across Entries:

5A: Calyx part: SEPAL

10A: Bus driver on "The Simpsons". OTTO. An educated guess. Have never watched this TV series.

15A: Play Tricks on: TEASE

16A: Quantum physicist Niels: BOHR. Repeat offender!

19D: Give the cold shoulder to: SNUB

20D: Island nation of east of Fiji: TONGA. Thought this country used GROSS NATIONAL HAPPINESS(GNH) to define their quality of life. Wrong, it is Bhutan.

21D: Retirement accounts: NEST EGGS

23D: Sponsorship: EGIS. Could also be spelled as AEGIS.

26D: Former Indian leader: NEHRU

31D: Musical sound effect: REVERB. Reverberative effective, I gather?

45D: Low point: NADIR

47D: Dusk, to Donne: E'EN. I love like the alliteration of the clue. John Donne is an English Poet. This is a great bar in Hongkong called "Dusk Till Dawn".

55D: Actor Ewin: MCGREGOR. Refreshing! I am really tired to see Actor McGregor (EWIN) clue.

71D: Farmer's place. in song: DELL. The Farmer in the Dell. Sadly, I am not familiar with any of the English nursery rhyme. I got it from down clues.

Down entries:

1D: Links vehicle: CART. Cannot understand why so many teenagers take golf cart!

4D: Wisconsin mascot: BADGER. I love our Goldy Gopher!

8D: Colorado ski resort: ASPEN

13D: Eye, poetically: ORBS

18D: Conjuring: MAGIC. I only knew and used the verb "conjure, or conjure up".

24D: Nile bird: IBIS. No question asked, it's always IBIS for Nile bird.

28D: Lower oneself: STOOP. Hello, Hillary, 3am phone call, just curious to see how low will you stoop for the April 22 primary?

41D: "Little Caesar" role: RICO. Unknown to me. I got it from across clues.

44D: Artist Magritte: RENÉ. Another surrealist. I don't get this picture. If it's not a pipe, what is it then?

46D: Drive in Beverly Hills: RODEO

49D: Church doctrines: DOGMA

51D: Exemplar of stiffness: RAMROD

53D: Truth, of yore: SOOTH. I did not know this before.

55D: British pianist Hess: MYRA. I just noticed that MYRA is also an ancient town in Lycia (Turkey).

Alright, time for baseball! Twins Vs Angels (Torii who?) tonight. Justin Moreau was 3-for-4 last year at the Opening Day against the Orioles.

C.C.

PS: Oops, I forgot to say a special Thank you to Orange (Amy Reynaldo) earlier. Without her book and her generous help, I would've never finished this puzzle unaided. She has unveiled the mystery of crossword world to me. She taught me how, and she explained to me why.

Sunday, March 30, 2008 Robert H. Wolfe

Theme: DIET TRENDS

27A: Start of a modernized verse: JACK SPRAT DID EAT NO FAT

48A: Part 2 of the verse: HIS WIFE DID NOT EAT LEAN

87A: Part 3 of the verse: FIRST LOW CARB DIET THAT

112A: End of the verse: THIS WORLD HAD EVER SEEN

I don't know who modernized this originally delectable nursery rhyme. This new verse just looks so awful to me. I guess I dislike the single phrase structure of the last 2 lines. I want them to be complete sentence(s). I have this urge to insert an extra line of "It's the" between Part 2 and Part 3. What's your take? Do these theme entries make you grimace at all? Please let me know.

I was actually very delighted when I first saw the "DIET TREND" theme title. Like any other American woman, I am very conscious about my figure, so my brain is overloaded with Atkins, the Zone, South Beach and all kinds of absurd weight loss plans. I thought I would breeze through the puzzle with some grace and ease, alas, in the end, only NO FAT and LOW CARB made an begrudging appearance. I was also a bit startled when I paused (and winced) at the constructor's name: Robert H. Wolfe, again? That's 2 times in 3 days! Wow, our editor's pipeline must be running dry now!

OK, back to my struggle today. I got stumped immediately by 1A: BALI. I simply had no idea where Lesser Sundas was. I guess my brain was programed to see BALI clued as Indonesia Island or Resort. And, I wanted 4D: "How're you?"response (I'M OK) to be FINE. I've never heard of NINO Benvenuti, so I totally screwed up the upper left corner. I also spent an inordinate amount of time staring at the US OF A for 65D (States, in a way). Wow, what a crazy clue! Borat probably could've filled in that answer in his bikini without any across clues.

And the left middle corner was another nightmare for me. I've never heard of "The SEVEN Samurai", only knew Tom Cruise's "The Last Samurai". I recognized the word GRECO when I saw it, but if you clued it as Hellenic combiner (or prefix), then my mind was blank. It's like I knew who Pujols was when I saw his name, but if you clue it as Cardinals' first baseman _ _ _ _ _ _ , then I would be lost. I need to tidy up these loose strings of information in my brain and file them properly.

Grid Structure: 21*21; Total word counts: 142 (has reached the maximum word count for a Sunday puzzle). Total blank squares: 78.

Across entries:

1A: Island in the Lesser Sundas: BALI. Tough but fair clue.

5A: Common edible mushroom: MOREL

10A: Like Dylan Thomas: WELSH. I did not know him, filled in his name from down clues. He is Welsh poet.

15A: Exploits: ACTS. I put USES first, then quickly corrected myself.

19A: Composer Khachaturian: ARAM. Learned his name from doing crossword of course.

20A: Verdi's forte: OPERA

21A: Swiftly: APACE

23A: Boxer Benvenuti: NINO. An Italian boxer. He is a total stranger to me. What does "Nino" mean in Italian? "Boy", like Niño in Spanish?

24A: Brief Look-see: RECON (Reconnaissance). I like this clue.

25A: "Slave Ship" author: LEROI (Jones). He was in Tribune's March 10 puzzle. He is also known as Amiri Baraka.

32A: 1993 Harvey Keitel movie: THE PIANO. This movie won 3 Oscars in 1993. I've never seen this movie before. I got it only because I realized earlier on that there was a "THE" in every movie/novel title.

41A: Taking it on the __ (Fleeing from the law): LAM. Why put ING form in the clue? "Take it on the ___" is sufficient, no?

45A: Highly excited: AGOG

59A: Peter Benchley novel: THE DEEP. I've never read it. Benchley also wrote Jaws.

60A: USN part: NAV (Navy)

61A: Irregular lumps: NODULES

63A: Hoarded: SAVED UP

67A: Hellenic combiner: GRECO. Greco is "a combining form representing Greek in compound words: Greco-Roman". In fact, other than Greco-Roman, I've never seen Greco being attached to any other word.

69A: Malaysian wraparound: SARONGS. Indian wraparound is SARI (or Saree).

73A: Worker nest-egg leg.: ERISA (Employee Retirement Income Security Act). Ouch! Impossible!

74A: Brazilian woman's title: SENHORA

77A: Escape of fluid: LEAKAGE

81A: Cabal member: INSIDER

85A: Get up: ARISE

86A: Not Threatened: SAFE

91A: Coarse file: RASP

93A: Diva's moment: ARIA

95A: Paint additive: DRIER

98A: Uris or Trotsky: LEON. I always associate Leon Trotsky with Frida Kahlo, some affair was going on between them I think.

102A: Ground grain: GRIST

106A: Cave hanger: BAT

108A: Muse of epic poetry: CALLIOPE. Tough one, it can also be spelled as Kalliope.

118A: Where lovers work?: ON AIR. Good clue.

119A: Printers' measures: PICAS

121A: "God's Little __": ACRE. Have never read the novel, nor watched the film.

122A: Of the past: RETRO

123A: Look after: SEE TO

125A: Girl of a Salinger title: ESME

126A: Reverie: DREAM

127A: Wormy shapes: ESSES. Why "wormy shape" instead of "worm shape"?

Down entries:

1D: Lute kin: BANJOS. (Added later: Kin here is the plural form)

2D: ESA rocket: ARIANE. I had no idea. The dictionary says that ARIANE is "a French-built, three-stage, liquid-propellant rocket for launching satellites into orbit around the earth" ESA is European Space Agency. So, what's NASA's equivalent of ARIANE then?

3D: Surgical cutter: LANCET

4D: "How're you?" response: I'M OK. Now I think I like this colloquial expression.

5D: Phoneme: MORPH. Really, are they the same?

6D: __ citato (in the work cited): OPERE. Abbr. op. cit.

8D: Sensual: EROTIC

9D: T-top car: LANDAU. No idea.

10D: Ralph _ Emerson: WALDO

13D: Glenn and Turow: SCOTTS. Knew Scott Turow due to ONE L and Presumed Innocent. Have never heard of Scott Glenn.

14D: Manush baseball: HEINIE. Another Detroit Tiger's guy? It was Al Kaline just yesterday. And look at 90D: TIGER. Some conspiracy here!

15D: From: AS OF

16D: Make a deal with the D. A.: COP A PLEA. Perfect! I love this answer.

17D: Lancaster film: THE TRAIN. No, not familiar with this film.

18D: "Dombey and __": SON. Ow, another Dickens work. Headache for me.

28D: Big name in vodka, briefly: STOLI (Stolichnaya). No idea, what does Solichnaya mean? Is it just another brand name like Budweiser?

29D: "Newsboy" painter: INMAN (Henry). OK, I got it. Here is the painting.

30D: PAU's successor: OAS. Tired of this clue and answer. Try something else.

35D: Printing measures: EMS. What's the difference between "em" and "en" in terms of printing measures?

37D: Drags behind: TOWS

39D: Ancient European: GOTH. "The Teutonic who invaded and settled in parts of Roman Empire between 3rd to 5th centuries", so says the dictionary. So the gloomy word "Gothic" has nothing to do with Goth then?

40D: Noted screenwriter: AGEE (James). Katharine Hepburn had some interesting words to say about James Agee's alcoholism in her biography ME: Stories of My Life. Obviously, Agee, Bogart, John Huston had a great time working on The African Queen.

47D: Outcast: LEPER

48D: Dangles: HANGS

49D: Words of concern: I CARE

50D: "The __ Samurai": SEVEN. Just for your information, the plural form of Samurai is still Samurai. Japanese film (1954).

51D: _ ex machina: DEUS. OK, so Deus is God, literally it's "God from the machina". Here is a better explanation: "In Greek and Roman drama, a god lowered by stage machinery to resolve a plot or extricate the protagonist from a difficult situation". It has extended the meaning to "a person or event that provides a sudden and unexpected solution to a difficulty." Kind of like "White Knight"?

52D: "La _ Bonita": ISLA. Madonna's song. The Beautiful Land. Spanish language I gather. Not sure.

55D: Assam or hyson: TEA. Assam is Indian black tea. Hyson is Chinese green tea.

56D: Embankment: LEVEE

64D: Singer Shore: DINAH. She was a great golfer. She founded LPGA's Dinah Shore Golf Tournament (today's Nabisco Kraft, a Major).

65D: States, in a way: US OF A. Now I am a bit confused, did Borat say "US of A", or "US and A"?

66D: Actress Debra: PAGET. Vaguely remember her name. Have seen Ten Commandments a few times, but I never paid attention to who played Lilia. In fact, the only actor I know from that movie is probably Charlton Heston.

68D: Sound like a bird: CHIRP. Does the clue bother you? It feels that the clue is asking for an adjective/adverb. I wanted CHIRPY.

71D: Characteristic clothes: GARB

72D: Lose traction: SKID

75D: Alphabetical trio: RST. Same clue, same answer, same author (see March 18 puzzle).

78D: Big land mass: ASIA

79D: Will of "The Watsons": GEER. I did not know GEER, nor was I familiar with the TV Series.

83D: Bedside pitcher: EWER

87D: Overly enthused ones: FANATICS

88D: Weather map line: ISOTHERM. It's "a line on a weather map or chart connecting points having equal temperature". Iso is a root word for equal (Greek), therm is heat.

89D: God of Islam: ALLAH

90D: Detroit player: TIGER (the baseball team)

91D: CSA type: REB (Rebel)

95D: Parties: DOS

96D: Phrase differently: REWORD

97D: Person with pressing problems: IRONER. Now, I think this clue needs a "?" behind the clue, don't you think so?

99D: Slip away: LAPSE

100D: Dated platters: OLDIES. Dictionary says that "Platter" is a slang for a phonograph record.

101D: Some kin: NIECES

103D: Cold pack: ICE BAG

104D: Blouse part: SLEEVE

105D: Dyed: TINTED

108D: Type of portable memory: CD ROM

109D: Egg-shaped: OVATE. I only knew OVAL. Not aware of OVATE before.

113D: Nice notion?: IDEE. French for idea.

114D: Mortgage figure: RATE

115D: Old Italian bread: LIRA. Bread is "Money" here. Euro has replaced Lira obviously!

117D: Menlo Park initials: TAE (Thomas Alva Edison). Dubbed the "The Wizard of Menlo Park".

I am totally exhausted now. Gotta have some high carb & high fat breakfast! Enjoy your Sunday, everyone!

C.C.

Saturday, March 29, 2008 Josiah Breward

Theme: NONE

Definitely a stumper for me today, lots of unknowns. The clues are tough, but not wicked or senseless. I like the Saturday's open grid feel, but I just feel so lost and rootless without the theme guidance.

I had an uncharacteristically great start, devouring the upper left corner like a hungry lion. Even SAMUEL PEPYS jumps into my mind without any extra spur. Wonderful, all I really need to know, I learned from doing crossword!

But all the other spots are like Fallujah, so tough and forbidding. It's simply beyond my strength to tame the whole field. I spent about 35 minutes on the puzzle, then I quit.

Grid: 15*15, total 71 words (maximum is 72 for a Saturday), total blank square: 30.

ACROSS entries:

1A: From one side to the other: ACROSS. Hmm, a bit meta. Can you self-reference clue like this?

7A: Tex-Mex menu items: TOSTADAS. Want some?

15A: Definite rules?: THE LAW. Great clue. I like it when a preposition or definite article is embedded in the answer. Very tricky but it provides me with a precious "Aha" moment.

16A: Tiger in the Hall of Fame: AL KALINE. Mr. Tiger. The first name that popped to my mind was actually Ty Cobb. Cobb was the first ever Hall- of-Famer, wasn't he?

17A: Change a file code: RENAME

18A: Fetal sac: PLACENTA. Plural form can be "Placentae" or "Placentas". Wonder why so many medical terms take their roots in Greek language.

19A: Cunning: ARTFUL

20A: Part of RSVP: S'IL. No more question on my wobbly G8 drunk clip, s'il vous plaît, let's just talk about Carla's nude photos!

24A: Patronage: EGIS. Can also be AEGIS. Aegis is the shield of Zeus. Dictionary says "Athene's aigis was a short goat-skin cloak, covered with scales, set with a gorgon's head, and fringed with snakes". Look at this picture. That's Medusa's head. Her gaze would not turn me into a stone at all. She does look monstrous though.

24A: Old English letter: EDH. No idea. Dictionary says it can also be spelled as ETH.

26A: Chemical suffix: ANE. I am always at a loss when facing chemical suffix clue, too many choices: ASE, ENE or ANE.

30A: Walesa of Solidarity: LECH. Nobel Peace Winner 1983.

32A: Admiral or cabin boy: SAILOR. Why is "cabin boy" a sailor? (Update: Dennis said a "cabin boy" serves the captain and senior officers on a ship, hence sailor.)

34A: "Malcolm X" director: LEE (Spike)

35A: Event before a golf tournament: PRO-AM. Want a chance to win Bay Hill, John Daly? Pay attention to your Pro-Am time next time!

37A: Groom oneself: PRIMP

38A: Port St. __, FL: LUCIE

40A: Sapporo sash: OBI. Why Sapporo all the times? Spice up the clue with some other exotic Japanese city name!

41A: Skater Sonja: HENIE. No idea.

42A: Overthrow: USURP

43A: Itchy problem: TINEA. I was not aware of this skin problem until this morning. Looks awful.

46A: Passes on: RELAYS

48A: Astronaut Aldrin: BUZZ. I like Buzz's take on Lisa Nowak's intrepid restroom-less 900-mile love pursuit. Gutty statement in my view.

55A: Spanish painter Joan: MIRÓ. Max Ernest & Dali are the other 2 Surrealists who have an insatiable appetites for crossword fame.

59A: Peter of "Six Feet Under": KRAUSE. Unknown to me. I wanted O'Toole, but it did not fit.

63A: Bad egg: EVIL DOER

65A: Pastoral poems: IDYLLS

66A: Snake River people: NEZ PERCE. Unknown to me. Here is the definition: "A Native American people formerly inhabiting the lower Snake River and its tributaries in western Idaho, northeast Oregon, and southeast Washington, with present-day populations in western Idaho and northeast Washington."

67A: Verdugo and others: ELENAS. I can not think of any famous Elena either, can you?

68A: Woody?: TREELIKE. Why the question mark?

69A: Shaped like a stringed instrument: LYRATE. Only knew Lyra. Good to learn its adjective form though.

Down clues:

1D: Gillette razor: ATRA

2D: "Silkwood"star: CHER. Have never watched this movie. I see it's written by Nora Ephron. I am going to put it in our Netflix queue. I adore Nora.

3D: Cloth tear: RENT. Ha ha, my effort yesterday is paid off, so quickly!

4D: Some Norwegian kings: OLAFS

5D: Noted diarist: SAMUEL PEPYS. But who wants to read his diary when Anais Nin is calling?

6D: Suffer in the heat: SWELTER

7D: Bugle cal: TAPS

8D: Stan's comic partner: OLLIE. Got it this time.

9D: Viking poets: SKALDS. Also spelled as Scald. "A medieval Scandinavian poet, especially one writing in the Viking age."

10D: Center X: TAC

12D: Airheads: DING A LINGS. Have never heard of this expression before. All my American friends are very nice people, they never speak any slang or negative thing when I am around.

13D: Legal paradoxes: ANTINOMIES. Not familiar with this legal term either. OK, so, anti is anti, nomes is Greek for law, and "antinomy" is "a contradiction between principles or conclusions that seem equally necessary and reasonable". Good.

14D: Cecil of cartoons, e.g.: SEA SERPENT. Here is more information for you. I've never heard of Beany and Cecil cartoon.

23D: Vamoose: SCOOT

25D: At random: HAPHAZARDLY

27D: Power to attract: ALLUREMENT. I use "enticement" occasionally, never "allurement".

28D: Belgian waterway: MEUSE RIVER. Great clue, great answer, so nice to see RIVER is part of the answer. The Meuse originates from France, flowing north to the North Sea through Belgium and the Netherlands.

29D: Make worldly: SECULARIZE. I have an affinity for good verb, this is one of them.

31D: U.S. Middle East peace envoy: HABIB. Philip Habib.

36D: Less: MINUS

44D: Old Testament book: EZEKIEL

47D: Zen enlightenment: SATORI. This is definitely a gimme for Lakers' Phil Jackson, he is a Zen Master.

52D: Sunken ship: WRECK

54D: Stratum: LAYER

56D: Greek wine flask: OLPE. It appeared on Feb 6 puzzle, almost the identical clue. Here is a picture.

58D: Song of the LPGA: AREE. She was one stroke away from beating Grace Park for the 2004 Nabisco (one of LPGA's Majors). She has a Twin sister name Naree, also a LPGA member. South Koreans are so talented in golfing.

61D: Venetian blind part: SLAT. I've never heard of Venetian blind.

64D: 2nd-smallest State: DEL. I love Senator Biden (DE) and his wits. "A noun, a verb and 9/11", the best rip I've ever heard!

C.C.

Friday, March 28, 2008 Robert H. Wolfe

Theme: "RE + ___ING = A Whole New word + ING " (update later: I think I kind of like the constructor's clever theme idea, I just hate the ING Tsunami).

17A: Matching up twosomes again?: REPAIRING

21A: Following up a fault? RESERVING

33A: Handing down old bike?: RECYCLING

46A: Follow-up ram? REBUTTING

59A: Second phone-in?: RECALLING

66A: Double checking a grade: REMARKING

A few things first:

1) I've just learned that our crossword editor, Wayne Robert Williams (ask as Josiah Breward or Willy A. Wiseman) actually does spend his oh-so-precious time editing the original puzzles submitted by various constructors. I received an email yesterday from a constructor who explained to me why my admonishment of his certain cluing was not his fault.

I was always under the impression that only Will Shortz (NY Times) & Peter Gordon (NY Sun) and a few other well known crossword editors change heavily (as much as 50%) the original clues to reach their desired difficulty level. This Williams guy seems to juggle so much projects on his hands (Daily Crossword, Daily Commuter, Daily Jumbo) every day that I thought he just foisted upon us any crossword he got from others. Frankly, his "Chicago Local Poet" puzzle on March 20 Thursday was crying for editing.

2) I've also learned from Orange that that it's actually an accepted practice in the cruciverbalist (crossword constructors) world for editors to edit their own constructions. Rich Norris of LA Times, Stan Newman of Newsday (the most responsive editor in my view) and other editors all publish their own puzzles under different pseudonyms. So my criticism of Mr. Williams' editing his own work was not on solid ground. However, he has never deigned to reply to me or addressed any of my questions, so I will continue to vent my displeasure over certain clues, fair or not.

OK, back to the puzzle. This is, without a doubt, the worst TMS puzzle I've ever solved. Had I known this was the puzzle waiting for me on the newspaper this morning, I would've stayed in bed. What a hideous construction! This Mr. Wolfe needs to turn off his obsession with ING and let go of his "Idée fix" with France. He simply let his admiration for Peter Mayle go overboard.

It's relatively an easy battle for me, esp with the annoyingly ubiquitous INGs, which rendered a few otherwise tough-to-get entries easily inferable. "The Count of Monte Cristo" happens to be one of my favorite books, and I just blogged about ARAN a few days ago, so I swept through the upper right corner with no effort.

But I did get snared on the lower right corner, esp the intersection of 63A & 58D. I never knew that "RENT" could be a noun meaning small fissure, always thought that "RENT" is the past particle of the verb "REND". So my 58D was LEGID for a long time, I thought LEGID might be a variant of LEGIT, or "On the level" has another meaning that I was not aware of. So I spent a long time sulking at the clues. I had to google ODEA and CELT. I forgot the former and I did not know the latter (BRETON).

Grid: Total words 78, total blank square: 38.

Across entries:

1A: Hawaiian port: HILO

5A: Machu Picchu honcho: INCA

9A: "The Count of Monte Cristo": DUMAS. The 2002 remake with James Caviezel as Edmond Dantes was pretty good. I still think that Tim Robbins & Morgan Freeman's The Shawshank Redemption is the best. Is there a special genre name for these kind of prison-break style movies?

14A: Slaughter of baseball: ENOS

16A: Madagascar primate: INDRI. It's a short tailed LEMUR, which was clued on March 13 puzzle.

19A: Hebrew month: SIVAN (the 9th month)

20A: Least desirable portion: DREGS. Yep, this puzzle is pockmarked with dregs.

23A: Unbroken stretch: STREAK

25A: Town near Caen: ST. LO

28A: Support pieces: I BEAMS

40A: Concert halls: ODEA. Saw it before, then I promptly forgot. The singular form is Odeum.

41A: Like pigeons' walk: TOE IN. The clue is asking for an adjective, is "Toe In" an adjective?

44A: Exploits to the nth degree: MILKS. I actually do not feel so bad for Paul McCartney. Heather Mill did not milk him dry.

48A: Watch the boxer?: PET SIT

50A: Greek letter: ETA

51A: Travel on Pegasus?: RIDE. I got it from the down clues. But really, I had no idea what was "Pegasus". And at this point of my solving, my mild displeasure with the question mark had been elevated to medium disgust (later upgraded to total scorn). Pegasu is "a winged horse, created from the blood of Medusa, that opened the spring of Hippocrene with a stroke of its hoof, and that carried Bellerophon in his attack on the Chimera."

54A: Helix: SPIRAL

68A: Gage book: ELENI. Did not know the author, did not know the book. Pure guess.

69A: Actor Morales: ESAI. Ah, Tony Rodriguez of NYPD Blue. Of the bunch, Bobby Simone (Jimmy Smits) is probably my favorite.

71A: Car type: SEDAN

73A: Tear: RENT. Noun.

Down clues:

1D: Goat groups: HERDS. Don't get it. Herd is already a group of goat, how can you add an extra S?

2D: Like some gases: INERT

3D: Long strider: LOPER

4D: Type of orange: OSAGE. Never heard of this orange. Osage is alway an Indian tribe name to me.

5D: Leb. neighbor: ISR

6D: Black in Paris: NOIR. Or Bete _.

7D: Pine pieces: CONES

8D: Feeling of dread: ANGST

9D: Take off, in a way: DISROBE

10D: Letters for 1506: MDVI (just for mkat :-))

12D: Islands off Galway: ARAN. Appeared on Sunday March 23 puzzle, clued as Islands off Ireland.

13D: Warble: SING. Finally an innocent ING.

18D: Babel or Stern: ISAAC. Knew Stern, did not know Babel, who died ages and ages ago. What's wrong with Issac Asimov?

24D: Tartan wrap: KILT

27D: Christian of fashion: DIOR

30D: To you, in Toulouse: A TOI

32D: Smelting waste: SLAG. Scum, dross, all junk.

33D: Caper: ROMP

34D: Singer Brickell: EDIE

35D: Breton, eg.: CELT. Did not know the meaning of Breton.

36D: Chatters: YAKS. Yak is also the Tibetan ox.

38D: Barbed remark: GIBE

45D: Steak order: SIRLOIN

47D: Rhino relative: TAPIR. It looks like this.

52D: More critical: DIRER. Not when you are in fault-finding mood obviously. Dire situation.

53D: January in Juarez: ENERO

55D: Stamp pad: INKER

57D: Kofi of the U.N. : ANNAN. Well, he is not with the U. N. any more. Ban Ki-Moon has been the new Sheriff for over a year.

58D: On the level: LEGIT

59D: Eurasian deer: ROES

60D: Perry's creator: ERLE

61D: For both sexes: COED

62D: Dancer Pavlova: ANNA. She is famous for her portrayal of a swan in The Dying Swan and Swan Lake. Wikipedia says that she is the first ballerina to travel around the world. She once said "Happiness is like a butterfly which appears and delights us for one brief moment, but soon flits away." So true!!

63D: Car loan lender: GMAC (General Motors Acceptance Corporation). Didn't GM sold it to some private investment firm? Target is also trying to divest its once profitable Credit Card Unit I think.

C.C.

What's Your Tool? Pool Result

Question: What's Your Tool?

Total votes: 363

Pencil: 151 (41%)

Pen: 200 (55%)

Online solving: 6 (1%)

Others: 6 (1%)

Thank you for the participation.

C. C.