Saturday March 7, 2009 Tom Pruce

Theme: None

Total blocks: 26

Total words: 70

Hard puzzle! I don't think Mr. Tom Pruce and I speak the same language this morning.

Now I start to understand why those ace solvers like themeless grids. It's a true test of the range of your knowledge. For weekday themed puzzles, you can always rely on theme as your sherpa and fill in lots of blanks with your reasoning. No such help is available on Saturdays, except a few gimme affixes like S, ER, EST, ED, etc.

For those who don't have TMS Sunday tomorrow, here is Stan Newman's Newsday puzzle. Click on March 1, 2009 for the "Baloney Sandwich" puzzle. Argyle will blog it here tomorrow morning. I hope by introducing other puzzles on the blog, you can see how they differ from TMS offerings.

Across:

1A: Makeshift: STOPGAP. Is Obama's economic stimulus package a STOPGAP measure?

8A: Some metamorphic rocks: SCHISTS. No idea. See this SCHIST rock. Silvery color. Rich in mica. Easy to split. So close to schism in spelling.

15A: Sicilian wine: MARSALA. Not familiar with this wine. It's named after the city MARSALA where the wine is produced. Used frequently in cooking. Now I want some seafood risotto.

16A: Removal mark: ERASURE

17A: Rigby of the Beatles song: ELEANOR. The tune sounds awfully familiar. I don't remember the song title though.

18A: Tropical malady: MALARIA. Literally ''bad air'' .

19A: Diamond gal: LIL. No idea. Which one is our "Diamond gal" LIL?

22A: Hand tool for holding: PLIERS. "Hand tool for holding" can also be PINCERS, right?

25A: Old English bard: SCOP. New word to me. SCOPS often traveled to various courts to recite their courtly epic poetry. Their Scandinavian counterpart is SKALDS who composed those old Norse Eddas I think.

30A: John Hersey book: HIROSHIMA. Have never heard of this book . It's about the dropping of atomic bomb obviously. Wikipedia says his original article appeared in the August 31, 1946 issue of "The New Yorker". And "the article took up the entire issue of the magazine – something The New Yorker had never done before, nor has it since." Our editor likes to clue ADANO as "Hersey's bell town".

32A: Absorbed in thought: BEMUSED. To me, BEMUSED is confused and perplexed, not "Absorbed in thought". But RAPT is too letter short.

35A: Old draft org.: SSS (Selective Service System).

38A: Tentacled mollusk: OCTOPOD. I was thinking of octopus.

43A: Spanish island: MINORCA. Literally "Minor island", compared with Majorca, the "Larger island" on the left. I've got no idea. All I could think of is the "Girls Gone Wild" island Ibiza.

45A: Anterior flappers: FORE WINGS. The darker colored wings? I surmise the other pairs are called REAR WINGS?

54A: Novelist Kingsley: AMIS. Only know his son Martin, also a novelist, a strongly opinionated one. Tina Brown's old flame.

55A: Some wading birds: STILTS. No idea. Holy cow! Incredible long legs. No wonder it's called STILTS.

57A: Zubenelgenubi or Dubhe: STAR. Zubenelgenubi is the second brightest star in the constellation Libra. And Dubhe is a "pointer star in the constellation Ursa Major and the brightest of the seven stars that form the Big Dipper". Both were unknown to me. Stars have refused to shine for me for a few weeks.

59A: Menlo Park initials: TAE. Edison. ALVA is often clued as "Menlo Park middle name".

60A: Bat stickum: PINE TAR. Baseball players use it to improve grips. Pitchers use it too.

62A: Repeating: ITERANT. I kind of like the ING ending clue. Better than "Repetitive". Novice solvers might be tempted to fill in ING for the last 3 blank squres.

64A: Rest upon: OVERLIE. What kind of image are you picturing?

65A: Electra's brother: ORESTES. The painting of him being pursued by the three Furies jumped into my mind immediately. But I just could not remember his damned name. Anyway, he should not be faulted for killing his mother. She deserved the punishment.

66A: Succinctly: TERSELY

67A: Ilie of tennis: NASTASE. Nice reverse of the clue/answer.

Down:

2D: Eye for an eye: TALION. Another new word for me. With an "I (eye)" inserted in TALON. It's "punishment identical to the offense, as the death penalty for murder". That's exactly what ORESTES' mother got then. She killed her husband and his lover Cassandra. Then she was murdered by her own son.

3D: Vague threat: OR ELSE

4D: O. T. book: PSA (Psalms). Baseball cards collectors are probably all familiar with the grading firm PSA (Professional Sports Authenticator). Notice PSA at the very right end? That's a 1951 Mickey Mantle Bowman rookie card in NM/MT (Near Mint/Mint) condition. It's sold for $22,750.

5D: Novelist Ernest: GANN. I googled his name. Looks like he had a great aviation career as well.

7D: Jumping from a plane: PARACHUTING

9D: Junk: CRAP. Ah ya, bad word.

10D: British greetings: HALLOS. Really? I've never paid attention to that.

11D: Rider and Bowman: ISAIAHS. ISAIAH Bowman was an American geographer, who served as the President of John Hopkins University from 1935 to 1948. ISAIAH Rider is former NBA star. I knew neither of them. Bowman is always the baseball card brand to me. Topps, Bowman and Upper Deck.

12D: Certainties: SURETIES

13D: Some Roman galleys: TRIREMES. See this picture. Dictionary says it derives its name from its three rows of oars on each side, manned with one man per oar. I don't understand it. That's more than 3 rows of oars. Last time BIREMES was clued as "Roman galleys", supposedly "two tiers of oars on each side". Again, that's lots of oars. Maybe I don't even know what OARS are. (Note: Here is a good link explaining those oar positions).

14D: Marine predator: SEA SNAKE. I just learned this morning that SEA SNAKE like eels. I like eels too, unagi, yummy!

21D: Chemical warfare agent: POISON GAS

26D: Part of speech: PREPOSITION

29D: __ volente (God willing): DEO. In Islam, it's Insha' Allah.

33D: 1901: MCMI. And DCV (39D: 605).

35D: Tender regard: SOFT SPOT. Are you OK with this clue?

36D: Playful: SPORTIVE. New word to me. Is it the same as SPORTY?

37D: Sieve: STRAINER. And colander.

42D: Peter of "Being There": SELLERS. Easy guess. Have never heard of the movie "Being There". I don't know why "Being There" brought Julie Christie's "Away From Her" to my mind.

46D: Turkey feature: WATTLE. I was thinking of dewlap. That's ugly. I am glad I am not a turkey.

48D: Capital of Transkei: UMTATA. Nope. I don't know where the heck Transkei is. See this map. Nelson Mandela was born here. Wikipedia says his first 2 wives were both from this area too.

49D: Tropical creepers: LIANES. I keep remembering then forgetting these "Tropical creepers".

53D: Part of the Carpathians: TATRA. The TATRA Mountains are the highest mountain range in the Carpathian Mountains, the range in central Europe, extending from N Slovakia to central Romania. Both were unknown to me.

56D: Spinanaker or spanker: SAIL. Thought "spanker" is a person who spank. Did not know it's also a "fore-and-aft" sail.

58D: Jed of "The Chris Isaak Show": REES. Sigh. We've had the same clue several times before, yet his name keeps escaping me. He must be a very small potato. There is not even a Wikipedia entry for him.

61D: Actor Alejandro: REY. Got his name from across fills. He is in Elvis's "Fun in Acapulco". Was he very well-known?

63D: Alphabet trio: RST. "Q-U link" certainly does not sound as cute as yesterday's "RV link" for STU.

C.C.

Friday March 6, 2009 Annabel Michaels

Theme: Scrub Away

17A: Warmer on the table: CHAFING DISH

24A: Tall building: SKY SCRAPER

39A: Disease spread by kittens: CAT SCRATCH FEVER

51A: Graphics program tool: PAINT BRUSH

64A: Elastic substance: INDIA RUBBER

I am not a cat person. Have never heard of CAT SCRATCH FEVER. Not familiar with INDIAN RUBBER either.

I disliked the jarring inconsistency in today's theme entries. CHAFE, SCRAPE, SCRATCH, BRUSH and RUB would be an OK set.

Also hated all the "More" clues. Three ER is too much for a grid. Besides, I think the clues could be reworded to disguise the unpleasant repetitiveness "More".

42D: More intoxicated: HIGHER. Try "Kind of education".

48D: More coarse: CRUDER. Try "Less refined".

53D: More sickly: ILLER. I don't know. Maybe you can come up with a better clue. ILLER is such a made-up word. Nobody feels ILLER. One might feel worse, not ILLER.

I do love the clues for ISH (10D: Sort of ending?) and STU (32D: R-V hookup, RSTUV, alphabet). Very cute. Can't decide whether I like ARNIE (52D: Putter Palmer) or not. To me, "Putter" is just a putter, a golf club. I've never heard anyone being called a "Putter".

Across:

6A: Early adders: ABACI. I can't remember what kind of wood my primary school abacus was made of. But it was very heavy to carry around for a little girl.

14A: Billiard shot: CAROM. Sometimes the answer is MASSE. See 1:35, pretty cool.

19A: G.I. wear: ODS (Olive Drabs). Someone mentioned on the Comments section that you never call a Marine a soldier. So does "solider" apply only to Army grunt? Dictionary says "jarhead" is a disparaging slang for a Marine. I wonder why Navy picked up "squid" as their nickname. "Zoomies" for Air Force sounds quite appropriate. Hayrake said "wing nut" is for Navy aviator, what is the slang for a Marines pilot then? Does Army have a flying division as well?

20A: Noisemaker: RATTLE

22A: Large blob: GOUT. I only know GOUT is a kind of arthritic disease and those who have GOUT can't eat certain fish.

29A: Safe and sound: OKAY. And ACCEPT (28D: Answer affirmatively).

33A: Small harbor: COVE. It's for also small boats, correct? Or can you dock a big yacht there as well?

35A: Traveled by plane: FLOWN. I FLIED first. Dictionary.com seems to imply that there is a difference between FLIED and FLOWN.

44A: French eye: OEIL. Here is one more Julian Beever for you. He is really the Picasso in creating Trompe l'OEIL pavement art.

49A: Arch type: OGEE. Like this one.

55A: Balmy: DAFT. Had no idea that "Balmy" has a "eccentric" side.

60A: Self: pref.: AUT. I thought it's AUTO.

63A: Darkroom abbr. ENL. No waffling between ENL and NEG this time.

70A: Pound and Cornell: EZRAS. Did not know EZRA Cornell, founder of Cornell University. More used to seeing EZRAS clued as "Pound and Stone".

71A: Japanese fencing: KENDO. No idea. The kanji characters 剣道 mean "Way of the Sword" in English. Japanese DO is a corruption of Chinese TAO (Way). Judo is literally "Soft way".

Down:

1D: Ghana's capital: ACCRA. "Ghana's largest city" as well. Surprised to learn that 69% of the population in Ghana are Christians, compared with 16% of Muslims.

3D: Whitney's partner: PRATT. I can never remember this engine maker.

4D: Propelled in a high arc: LOFTED. Did not know LOFT is a verb as well. My answer was LOBBED, thinking of Phil Michelson's lob shot.

8D: Melodic passage: ARIOSO. Got it from the across fills. Here is Julian Lloyd Webber playing Bach's "ARIOSO". Weird. I thought ARIOSO is like ARIA, a song.

9D: "Serendipity" star John: CUSACK. Finally a move star I know and a movie I've seen.

12D: Embody with: ENDUE. Mine was ENDOW.

13D: Stomach: pref: GASTR. Similar to my AUTO/AUT experience earlier, I thought the prefix is GASTRO.

18D: Greek advisor at Troy: NESTOR. I blanked on his name again. Saw this clue before. He was the oldest and wisest men of the Greeks in Trojan War. But the Greek was still the loser of Trojan War. Maybe he was not really that wise.

22D: Singer Crystal: GAYLE. The long hair country singer. That's all I know about her.

25D: Polynesian beverage: KAVA. No idea. Looks like raw organic apple cider vinegar. Hard to imagine these roots can produce something intoxicating.

26D: Fund-raising event: RAFFLE

30D: Service winner: ACE. Tennis.

34D: WWII arena: ETO. Often clued as "DDE arena".

37D: Unseld of the NBA: WES. Hall-of-Famer. Too bad. I've never heard of him.

47D: Guitar brand: IBANEZ. Nope. Is it a famous brand? Who are their competitors?

54D: New York city: UTICA. Interesting, the first Woolworth's was opened here in 1878, though it failed within a year. Target just opened its first store in Hawaii. Right now, Vermont is the only state in the US Target-less.

56D: Composer Berg: ALBAN. Why is his name so hard for me to remember? And I also confuse him with LABAN, "Rachel's father".

57D: Demon: FIEND. Devil is another 5-letter word.

64D: __- de-France: ILE. And "ILE locale" is MER.

C.C.

Thursday March 5, 2009 Ed Voile

Theme: Right on the Money

20A: Start of a quip: MONEY DOES GROW ON

37A: Part 2 of quip: TREES

50A: End of quip: IT IS MADE OF PAPER

During Chinese Spring Festival, native Cantonese always buy a big orange tree, which symbolizes abundant happiness. Some like to hang red money envelopes on the branches, similar to western Christmas tree decoration.

It's fun to spend Chinese New Year in Canton, esp for singles, as it's a custom for married couples to give red envelop to singles, regardless of their age. The amount of money inside varies. Often 8, 88, or 888. Besides Mainland China, Taiwan and Japan, 8 is also considered a lucky number in many Southeast Asian countries. But my lucky number is 3. What's yours?

This puzzle yielded too easily. Kind of bland. No clue struck me as sparkling. Two of the obscure answers (GAVOT & TALA) were all obtainable from crosses. I am not capable of solving NY Times style Friday/Saturday puzzles. But I like grid that offers some resistance. A hard-won battle is more enjoyable.

Our fellow solver Crockett1947 has created a Star Tribune Crossword Corner Google map. Please email him at Crockett1947@comcast.net if you want your name marked in that map.

Across:

1A: Org. of Toms and Tiger: PGA. Here is a picture of David Toms and Tiger Woods chatting during 2006 Ryder Cup. David Toms won 2001 PGA Championship, his only major. He won with his brain, so disciplined in his course management. Handsome too, though not as milliadonis -intensive as Adam Scott.

4A: Weapons of mass destruction: H-BOMB. Thought of A-BOMB first. I don't really know the difference between the two. Both produce mushroom clouds, right?

14A: Rower's requirement: OAR. "Oar holder' is THOLE. Here is Mark in Buenos Aires's comment yesterday: "Re Thole - Is this derived from "the hole". "where shall I put my oar - "put it in th´ ´ole, stupid."

15A: Stan's slapstick partner: OLLIE. I presume OLLIE is a nickname of Oliver?

25A: John __ Passos: DOS. Not familiar with this novelist. Got it from down fills. He wrote The U.S.A. Trilogy, which has made several appearances in our puzzle before.

35A: Gibbon, e.g.: APE. I guessed. Did not know "Gibbon" is a kind of small ape. Does it have 10 fingers as we do?

42A: Diana Ross's group: SUPREMES. Need with "The" in the clue.

45A: Psychic power: ESP. Like the power Oda Mae Brown has in "Ghost"?

56A: Italian poet: DANTE. The "Divine Comedy" sounds quite fascinating to me.

58A: Public square: PLAZA. I often wonder why we have Tiananmen Square rather than Tiananmen PLAZA. Maybe we were just imitating Soviet Union in those earlier days. They have Red Square.

Down:

2D: French peasant dance: GAVOT. Or GAVOTTE. I obtained this GAVOT dance from crossing fills. Last time GAVOTTE was clued as "Old French dance".

6D: Potpourris: OLIOS. I thought OLIO itself is a mix of various things. It has plural form also?

8D: Porgy's girlfriend: BESS. Is the grammar purposely mangled in the song "BESS, You Is My Woman Now"?

10D: Oater bar: SALOON. I just learned honky-tonk a few days ago.

22D: "__ People Play": GAMES. Easy guess. Have never heard of this song.

28D: Judd Hirsch sitcom: TAXI

30D: Escritoire: DESK. It's the only answer that makes sense. I did not know the meaning of "Escritoire". Looks like "Antique Roadshow" stuff. Can you tell Leigh Keno from Leslie Keno? I can't.

40D: Rub over: BESMEAR. Is "Rub over" an idiom? Somehow I wanted ERASE.

43D: Change dimensions: RESIZES. I like this clue. Better than "Estimate again".

46D: Summer or Shalala: DONNA. Know Clinton's DONNA Shalala. Not familiar with singer DONNA Summer. She has very fine LINEAMENTS. What are her signature songs?

47D: Disney World attraction: EPCOT. I only learned this morning that EPCOT stands for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow.

49D: Move as a throng: TROOP. Any Eagle Scout there?

51D: Samoan currency: TALA. The answer revealed itself. Here is a two TALA bank note. Samoa capital is APIA. Pago Pago is the capital of American Samoa, which has American DOLLAR as their currency of course.

C.C.

Wednesday March 4, 2009 Josiah Breward

Theme: Bar Hop

17A: "Frasier" location: CAFE NERVOSA

56A: "Family Guy" location: DRUNKEN CLAM

11D: "Friends" location: CENTRAL PERK

24D: "I Love Lucy" location: BABALOO CLUB

Of the above 4 sitcom locations, CENTRAL PERK was the only gimme to me. "Friends" was a very popular show when I lived in Guangzhou (Canton). I had difficulty adjusting to the English dialogues when I first moved here. Had been so used to their Cantonese conversations.

Easy solving though. Lots of gimme 3-letter words are structured in the grid to help. If the constructor Josiah Breward (aka Willy A Wiseman, alias name of our editor Wayne R. Williams) wanted this puzzle to be more difficult, he would have reclued many entries. Take DCCI (54D) for example. He used the most straightforward number clue 701. "Start of the 8th century" would be very hard, and "First year of John VI's papacy" would be very very hard if not impossible. I really think a puzzle should be made more difficult by tough cluing rather than putting in some obscure or imagined words.

Some extra notes:

Due to the increase of the posters in the past two days, I've decided to lift the 100 comments limit I imposed a few months ago. But the 5 posts/per day/per person rule still applies. I would appreciate your efforts in sticking to that. I am very interested in a detailed first post of your crossword solving experinces, but please keep your post #2 to #5 concise and succinct.

Also, you might have noticed, I've been less involved in Comments section as I once was. I simply don't have the time/access to the computer. If you need an immediate answer to a crossword clue or want a prompt reply to some question, please ask Dennis. He has agreed to help me responding to the inquiries, which means he obviously won't be bound by the 5 post limit.

As I said before, every comment is forwarded into my mail box. So I will still read every one of them in the evening time. And I will address the unanswered questions on the next morning. I won't be able to thank each of you for the great answers you provide to me on the blog or via private mails, but I am truly grateful for your help. Every bit of information/post is valued, including the negative remarks.

I will try my best to make my main blog entry as informative as possible. And I need your active participation to make this crossword corner vibrant and entertaining. Serious crossword discussions are welcome, so are simple poems, sports talk, music links, jokes, movie star gossips, favorite food, etc.

Please join the fray and let's entertain ourselves, esp when the puzzle gets very boring. Let's Nero-fiddle and leave the burning Rome to those ELECTED (53A: Chosen by vote). Let's have some fun.

Across:

1A: Humbles: ABASES. Nothing ABASES the pachydematous Rod Blagojevich, who just signed a 6-figure book deal to expose "the dark side of politics". Is that a doctored photo?

25A: Break in the audience: AISLE

26A: __ diem (seize the day): CARPE. The late Twins great Kirby Puckett used to say "Don't take anything for granted, because tomorrow is not promised to any of us." This motto originally came from Horace's poem: CARPE diem quam minimum credula postero (Seize the day and place no trust in tomorrow). "Seize the day tomorrow" is "CARPE diem cras". How to say "Seized yesterday" then?

29A: Letter after zeta: ETA. Greek H. Or "JFK infor" occasionally.

30A: Asta's mistress: NORA. Nice to see Asta as a clue rather than answer. NORA Ephron is a great candidate for NORA clue too. I like her "Sleepless in Seattle". Have to admire Carl Berstein for not revealing the Deep Throat secret to Ephron while they were married.

31A: Facing the pitcher: AT BAT. Always fun for me to see NL pitchers AT BAT. But I kind of like AL's DH too. I wonder who first thought of this DH idea.

40A: Valuable dental items: GOLD TEETH. Any diamond teeth?

42A: At bay in a bay: TREED. I don't get this. Does the second bay refer to bay tree?

46A: Indy-winner Luyendyk: ARIE. Learned his name from doing Xword. He is a two-time Indy 500 winner. Is ARIE Dutch for Ari? It sounds like a nickname to me.

47A: Oar holder: THOLE. What kind of wood is THOLE made of?

65A: Mark of infamy: STIGMA. Good clue. I wanted ANTONY. Mark Antony & Cleopatra. Also thought of the Watergate Deep Throat Mark Felt.

Down:

5D: Nine: pref.: ENNEA. I've never used a word with ENNEA as a pref.

6D: Wonder of Motown: STEVIE. Who is the singer at 0:58?

7D: Actor Telly: SAVALAS. All Greek words of male gender end with letter S. That's why we always see S at the end of those Greek male surnames.

8D: Substitute for soap: AMOLE. This word has appeared in our crossword so often that it's become a gimme to me, though I have no idea what exactly is AMOLE.

18D: Put on a revival: RESTAGE. And RERENT (14A: Find a new tenant). There should be a limit on these prefixes.

21D: Feldon of "Get Smart": BARBARA. Pure guess. Have never heard of "Get Smart".

30D: Bk. after Ezra: NEH. Before Esther.

34D: Bit of clowning: SCHTICK. Very nice word, 5 consonants. Vowels are boring!

38D: Napoleon's marshal: NEY. Marshal Michel NEY, "bravest of the brave". He was arrested, tried and executed after the Waterloo.

47D: Two toppers: TREYS. Crockett's "Deuce toppers" is better.

56D: Fly-fishing action: DAP. Not a familiar "action" to me.

58D: USN big shot: ADM. Thought of Obama's Security Adviser James Jones immediately. Forgot he was a Marine general. Both ADM and general are 4-star ranks.

Dennis flitted occasionally to my blog in Feb, 2008. But a year ago today, he started his daily morning comment and I could count the days when he was missing. Thanks for the interesting information & humor you bring to us every day, Dennis. To quote Xchefwalt, "you are the funniest guy I've never met".

C.C.

Tuesday March 3, 2009 Adele Mann

Theme: In Other Words

20A: Railroad employee: TRAIN TRACKER (Train = Track ???)

28A: 9-to-5 worker: CLOCK - WATCHER (Clock = Watch)

45A: Certain cash machine: MONEY CHANGER (Money = Change)

55A: Garden company: PLANT FACTORY (Plant = Factory)

This is the strangest puzzle I've ever solved. The last theme answer simply does not fit the ER ending pattern. PLANT PRODUCER makes more sence.

Or am I missing something here? I am completely at sea! (Note: Thanks to Mrs. BC, now I got the theme, though the Train & Track connection is still confounding.)

My nitpicks today:

25A: Money player: PRO. MONEY is part of the theme answer. So it should not be allowed to appear as clue. Would be a great tie-in if the clue were "Not 4D" ("Opposing position": ANTI).

64A: Splitsville: RENO. The clue definitely need "?" mark.

23A: P. Goss grp.: CIA. I got the answer because I happen to be very interested in CIA stuff. But I dislike the abbreviation of Porter Goss's name. It's unnessary. "grp." is sufficient to indicate to the solvers that the answer is shortened. I don't know when this puzzle was submitted. But we've got 2 CIA directors after Goss: Michael Hayden and the current Leon Panetta. However, Peter Goss did have a distinguished career with CIA. So I suppose the clue is OK.

Thank you for the great responses yesterday. Very enjoyable reading. Some of your breakfast sound strange to me though. Now you've taken the first step, I really hope you can stop at the Comments box often.

Across:

5A: Econ. agcy.: FTC (Federal Trade Commission). They investigate the price-fixing, fraudulent advertising and other illegal practices. The National Do Not Call Registry was established by them as well. Stumper for me. I wanted CDC as I initially thought of COTERIES for the intersecting 5D: Cliques: FACTIONS.

8A: Of singers: CHORAL

16A: Inspirational discourse: HOMILY. How is it different from a sermon? Every time I see this word, I think of the HOMINY grit.

17A: Covered walkways: PORTICOS. Have you visited the White House before?

35A: 1945 conference site: YALTA. I often confuse this Big Three meeting with MALTA Conference, which also happened in 1945, between Churchill and FDR.

49A: Gerund maker: ING. The new CEO of ING Group should rethink their advertising strategy. Won't cost much to bribe our editor to put their name in crossword grid.

50A: "All over the World" grp.: ELO. Would not have got this group without the down fills. I thought "All over the World" might be a slogan for some organization like ILO (International Labor Union).

52A: Gangster's gun: GAT. "Mobster's gun" might be a better clue due to letter G repetition. "Gangster's girl" is MOLL.

58A: Social occasion: AFFAIR. Hmmm, to me, AFFAIR is a secretive, illicit, extramarital, "Unfaithful" fling.

61A: Rodent burrows: RATHOLES. Not RAT HOLES?

62A: Wagner heroine: ISOLDE. From his "Tristan und ISOLDE". From what I gleaned in Wikipedia, the story resembles the romances between Guinevere and Lancelot. What "a brief shining moment" Camelot is.

63A: Here, in Le Havre: ICI. See this map. Nothing special about this city. The constructor picked up "Le Havre" simply because of its alliteration with "Here".

66A: Mo: SEC. Moment. Second.

Down:

1D: Out of gas: EMPTY

3D: "Happy Days" co-star Erin: MORAN. Guessed. Have never seen "Happy Days". It doesn't look like her autograph. The most precious autograph I've got is from Johan Santana. Does he look handsome to you? He pitched the very first baseball game I saw when I arrived in the US.

6D: Of the chest: THORACIC. No idea. Thorax is Latin for chest. That's a very strange diagram, isn't it?

7D: Spanish house: CASA. "Italian house" as well. "Casa room" is SALA.

8D: Division of a polo match: CHUKKA. Obtained from across fills. I know nothing about polo. Kind of like baseball "inning" I presume? How many CHUKKAS are there in a polo match?

9D: Best policy?: HONESTY

10D:__ Khayyam: OMAR. The "Tentmaker" poet. His surname Khayyam means "Tentmaker", so his ancestor might be tentmakers. Like our Smith. I like his "A jug of Wine / A Loaf of Bread / And Thou..." poem. Very simple and beautiful.

13D: Sodium hydroxide: LYE. Sophisticated clue, but I was not intimidated. Whatever lipstick you put it on, LYE is still LYE still the "Soap ingredient" to me.

18D: Contents abbr.: INCL. Included? I don't know. I wanted ENCL (31A: Bus. letter abbr.).

25D: Flower of Texas: PHLOX. Pronounced as "flocks". Literally "flame" in Latin. Why "Texas"? We have this flower in Minnestoa too.

29D: Shrine at Mecca: KAABA. No idea. It's considered the very center of the Muslim world. KAABA is a "cube-shaped building in the Great Mosque of Mecca, containing the Black Stone". The word KAABA is from from Arabic ka'bah meaning "cubic structure". Muslims face towards the KAABA when they pray, regardless of where they are. Also, those pilgrims walk several times around the KAABA in a counter-clockwise direction during Hajj.

31D: Bursera resin: ELEMI. It's clued as "Varnish ingredient" several times before. I forgot what "Burser" is.

32D: Cynthia of "Sex and City": NIXON. What's wrong with her dress?

38D: Sign of sadness: LONG FACE. This is a happy "Sex and City" LONG FACE. Another one, happy too.

39D: Inflexible: DOGMATIC

46D: Red Bordeaux: CLARET

48D: Incise deeply: ETCH. I like this word ETCH, 3 consonants. KVETCH is great too. OREO is boring.

52D: Automation of Jewish legend: GOLEM. Absolutely no idea. It's literally "cocoon" in modern Hebrew. Might derive from the word gelem, meaning "raw material". Looks so clumy and ugly. Scary too. Wikipedia says "Frankstein" was inspired by GOLEM legends.

54D: Cicely or Mike: TYSON. Did not know Cicely TYSON, Miles Davis' wife.

56D: Speaker of baseball: TRIS. I don't think I own any of his card. Learned his name from doing Xword. He was inducted into HOFin 1937, together with Cy Young (the guy on the left).

57D: Lawnmower brand: TORO. Who is their major competitor? Deere?

58D: Some sloths: AIS. This has become a gimme to me. Here is a great picture, see their three toes? If anyone finds a picture clearly showing the two toes of the UNAU sloth, please come to the Comments section and share with us.

59D: Tallahassee sch.: FSU. The sports team name is The Seminoles.

60D: In place of: FOR. I thought of CUM, which is actually "with". Normally the answer for "In place of " is LIEU.

C.C.

Monday March 2, 2009 Jo Vita

Theme: Put on a Hat!

17A: Fish farms: HATCHERIES

25A: Three consecutive goals: HAT TRICK

53A: Carolina cape: HATTERAS

62A: Female pharaoh: HATSHEPSUT

11D: Location of Southern Miss: HATTIESBURG

24D: Sharp-featured visage: HATCHET FACE

Luckily we had HAT TRICK in our puzzle last week. Otherwise, I would have struck out six straight times. HATSHEPSUT looks insanely wrong to me. Wikipedia says this lady was the fifth pharaoh of Egypt, and is generally regarded by Egyptologists as one of the most successful ones.

Took me a while to realize CIT (3D: U. S. voter) stands for citizen. Is it a common abbreviation? I was not familiar with it at all. I love America and American politics, but I don't have the right to vote. I don't have the patience and courage to go through INS application again. They screwed up my green card big last time. Obviously my Chinese name Zhouqin needs a "u" to make sense to others.

I'd like to have a survey today. If you read this blog every day, can you pop into the Comments section and introduce yourself? Tell me which city/state you are from. Maybe your favorite breakfast too.

Here is the detailed instruction on how to post a comment. I look forward to hearing from you. (Note: Please post your comment on today's Comments section rather than the instruction Comments part).

Across:

1A: Chocolate coffee: MOCHA. Named after the Yemen port city MOCHA, from which the coffee was exported. Yemen is the birthplace of coffee cultivation. But Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee itself.

10A: Cartoonist Addams: CHAS. No idea. Nickname for Charles? The creator of "The Addams Family".

30A: Nearby things: THESE. Oh, "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)". I always thought they are made of THESE.

35A: Full of worthless stuff: DROSSY. Only know DROSS.

38A: Golfer Mediate: ROCCO. Gimme. ROCCO Mediate finished second at US Open last year. I don't know. I can never warm up to this guy. Maybe he needs to change his glasses.

40A: A-Team guy: MR. T

42A: Pianist Blake: EUBIE. Ah, EUBIE, why did you pick up this nickname? So hard for me to remember.

43A: In heaven: ON HIGH

47A: Chinawood oil: TUNG. Glory be! Have never heard of TUNG oil before. It's used as varnish ingredient for furniture. I recognized the Chinese character for TUNG tree (油桐) when I googled. Did not know it's also called China wood-oil tree.

56A: Martina of tennis: HINGIS. Shocked to learn she used cocaine. Maybe she should not have broken up with Sergio Garcia. They were cute together. Sergio is a close amigo of Rafael Nadal. And Tiger Woods is of course rooting for his pal Roger Federer. Now you know Tiger and Sergio are no real buddies. Hope US Open (Bethpage Black) this year is as entertaining as the 2002 one.

59A: Caspian sturgeon: BELUGA. This looks dangerous. I did not know BELUGA is that huge. What is the average size of BELUGA caviar then?

66A: 750 in letters: DCCL

67A: Cinema pooch: ASTA. And ASTRO (22D: "The Jetsons").

68A: TV journalist Frank: SESNO. I know how he looks like, but would not have got his name without the down fills. He used to appear on Wolf Blitzer's "The Situation Room" often.

71A: Hebrew letter: TSADI. Nope. Can also be spelled as TSADE or SADHE. 18th of the 22 Hebrew letter. I only know the first one ALEF.

Down:

2D: Can or cup ending: OLA. I cook with canola oil. Oliver oil is too strong for me.

4D: One hundred : pref.: HECTO. As in hectogram. I know this prefix when I see it. But I can't spell it out without adjecent help.

12D: "Toys in the __": ATTIC. Easy guess. Not familiar with this Aerosmith album. Hmmm, Aerosmith sounds like a great name to play for an AERO clue. "Smith intro/head?".

23D: Eating utensil: SPOON. Bet Dennis wanted FORK. I really really like this Spoonbridge and Cherry sculpture. That SPOON weighs about 5,800 pounds. Walker Arts Center just removed the cherry (1,200 pounds) to give it a fresh paint.

26D: Religious deg.: TH. D. (Theologicae Doctor). Doctor of Theology. Not a familiar abbreviation to me. Know SEM (29D: Theol. sch.) though.

32D: Minute trace: SCINTILLA

34D: Altar constellation: ARA. See this diagram. Latin for "Altar".

37D: Safecrackers: YEGGS. I wonder what's the origin of YEGG. It sounds Hebrew to me.

46D: Yep: UH-HUH

49D: "__ Cannonball": WABASH. Is this a very well-known song? I've never heard of it before. Very strange song title.

51D: Abridged version: DIGEST

55D: Fracas: SET-TO. Reminds me of the slangy & obscure squabble word RHUBARB we had last time.

65D: You, to Yves: TOI. "... C'est TOI pour moi. Moi pour TOI...."

C.C.

Sunday March 1, 2009 Willy A Wiseman

Theme: Verbatim

23A: Bankruptcy reorganization: CHAPTER ELEVEN

39A: Felon's full term: LIFE SENTENCE

61A: Annual muscleman contest: MR. UNIVERSE

85A: Repeat, but not verbatim: PARAPHRASE

104A: Japanese compact model: NISSAN STANZA

125A: Product for contemporary penners: MICROSOFT WORD

17D: Tim Allen film: THE SANTA CLAUSE

50D: NYC talk show host: DAVID LETTERMAN

I am confused by the theme title. All the above theme answers feel like part of a virtual epic poem. I don't know how they are connected to "Verbatim". Maybe I don't fully understand the meaning of "Verbatim".

Not a very tough puzzle. Some of the obscure answers are gettable from crossing fills. Still, I had to rely on Google for some thorny sticklers. But it's just such a bothering solving experience. I was/am clueless about the theme.

Some quibbles:

13A: Device for tossing empties: EJECTOR. It intersects OUSTED (18D), which is clued as "Ejected". Why not "Forced out"? Rod Blagojevich style!

41D: Dead Sea kingdom: EDOM. "Ancient" is needed for the clue.

79D: Crosses: SPANS. Intersects EONS (92D: Geologic span).

Is Barry Silk's "The Cruciverbalist" (NY Times syndication) puzzle in your paper today? Feel free to post your comments here. I am interested in what you have to say. Here is Dr. Dad's blog post on Barry Silk's LA Times themeless. Click here for Argyle's post on "Over and Over".

Across:

1A: Gloomy gus: SOURPUSS. Good clue alliteration.

9A: Lacking zip: SLOW. I interpreted "zip" as "oomph" rather than "speed". So the answer did not jump to me immediately.

20A: Irrationality: UNREASON. Did not know this is a word. It can also be a verb.

21A: Small and weak: PUNY. Mine was TINY initially.

28A: Handlelike parts: ANSAE. I can never remember this loopy word ANSA. Besides, I thought the plural form is ANSAS.

31A: Parts of bird wings: ALULAE. No idea. ALULAE is also called "Bastard Wing" or "Spurious Wing". Ala is Latin for "wing". The answer reminds me of "Spaces between leaf veins" AREOLES. Weird looking words.

38A: Radicals of the '60s: SDS (Students for a Democratic Society). Not a familiar group. I was thinking of SLA (Symbionese Liberation Army) which is often clued as "Radical group". But they are of '70s. Wikipedia says Tom Hayden is one of the founders of SDS. I presume all their activities are related to Vietnam War protests.

44A: In force: VALID

45A: Willie Wonka creator: DAHL (Roald). Another PETR style odd looking name. Maybe his mom did not know how to spell Ronald, as Mark said the other day. (Note: DAHL means "valley" in Norwegian language.)

48A: South of France: MIDI. Need Kazie's help here. I wanted SUD (106D: Nord's opposite). To me, MIDI is "noon". The best explanation I could find is that "Midday is synonymous with the direction of south because in France the Sun is in the south at noon".

68A: In an irregularly notched fashion: EROSELY. Like these EROSE lips.

84A: Part of AST: ATL. I blanked on this one. AST is Atlantic Standard Time.

90A: Satellite of Jupiter: ELARA. This small moon escaped me long time ago. It's named after the mother by Zeus of the giant Tityus, who, according to Wikipedia, was phallic being who grew so vast that he split his mother's womb and had to be carried to term by Gaia herself. Tityos attempted to rape Leto at the behest of Hera and was slain by Apollo and Artemis. As a punishment, he was stretched out in Hades and and tortured by two vultures who fed on his liver. This punishment is extremely similar to that of the Titan Promeheus, whose liver was eaten by a huge eagle every day only to have it grow back to be eaten again the next day. Kind of like the dripping venom over Loki's face, right? Are you still reading? OK, what is phallic being?

96A: Racing org.: NHRA

102A: Dugout stack: BATS. Awesome bat. Every baseball bat I've seen seems to be made by Louisville Slugger. Why?

111A: Calais summers: ETES. See this map. Calais is French port nearest England. It's on the Strait of Dover.

112A: Soviet mil. intelligence: GRU. Absolutely no idea. I wrote down KGB. GRU stands for Glavnoe Razvedyvatel'noe Uupravlenie (Chief Intelligence Directorate). Founded in 1920 as a complement to the KGB.

123A: Homo sapiens: HOMINID. New word to me. Are we all HOMINID?

130A: Dimensions: abbr. MEAS. Measurement I presume.

131A: Island in the Baltic Sea: SAAREMAA. Nope! Lots of those words end with MAA? I suppose it means "land" in local language.

132A: Linear distances: LENGTHS

133A: Comic Johnson: ARTE. His name is tailor-made for crossword.

134A: In a stupid manner: OBTUSELY. I felt dense. The answer did not come to me easily.

Down:

1D: For example: SUCH AS

3D: Seventh planet: URANUS. Fun trivia. It has 27 known moons. all of which are named after characters from the works of Shakespeare and Alexander Pope.

7D: Alphabetize: SORT. Mine was LIST.

8D: Macbeth's dagger: SNEE. Thought of dirk. Never know when to put which.

9D: Relieved: SPELLED. Forgot this definition.

10D: Jack Lemmon film: LUV. I guessed. Is it romantic?

12D: Keenan or Ed: WYNN. Ed WYNN is a comedian. Keenan the actor is his son. They were strangers to me.

13D: Of Icelandic tales: EDDAIC. Only know EDDA.

14D: "The Joker is Wild" subject: JOE E LEWIS. I googled this one. Played by Frank Sinatra. I like this Joe Lewis quote: "I went on a diet, swore off drinking and heavy eating, and in 14 days I lost two weeks."

33D: Brennan and Heckart: EILEENS. I guessed. Don't know who they are.

42D: French student: ELEVE. Have not seen ECOLE in our puzzle for a long time.

47D: Fish for fertilizer: ALEWIFE. No idea. Why "fertilizer"? Are they not edible? Strange name. I can't find a fish that's named ALE HUSBAND.

55D: Indo-European: ARYAN. Why do I associate this word with Hitler?

57D: Distance measure: ROD. Unknown to me. "Distance" of what? And how long?

58D: Goddess of dawn: EOS. Aurora for the Romans. That's a perfect body. I want to have it.

63D: Slugger Garciaparra: NOMAR. He is married to Mia Hamm.

64D: Luigi's island: ISOLA. Is Luigi a common Italian name? Somehow I thought of the "Dracula" actor Bela Lugosi and started to imagine an island in Transylvania. My mind is not well constructed.

67D: Missionary Junipero: SERRA. The answer revealed itself. Have never heard of this guy.

75D: "Magnificent" Medici: LORENZO. Would not have got his name without the crossing fills. According to Wikipedia, this dude was the de factor ruler of the Florence Republic during the Italian Renaissance.

97D: More accessible: HANDIER

102D: Town near Jerusalem: BETHEL. A bit north of Jerusalem. Hebrew for "house of god". I only know Bethlehem.

105D: Sultan's decrees: IRADES. Arab for "Will/wish". I was only aware of FATWA, which is often issued by those terrorists.

107D: Over distance: pref.: TELO. As in Telodynamic, "pertaining to the transmission of mechanical power over considerable distances, as by means of endless cables on pulleys". I don't understand what I just wrote.

108D: DNA code: GENOME. Forgot. It's a combination of Gene & (chromos)om.

109D: Of religious rites: SACRAL. Another new word.

115D: "Love Boat" co-star: TEWES (Lauren). Well, the only "Love Boat" I was aware of is our Vikings' Love Boat Sex Scandale. But Daunte Culpepper won't fit. Lauren TEWES looks pretty, very fine facial LINEAMENTS.

121D: Utah city: MOAB. Was this city a gimme to you? I was stumped. The 4-letter answer for "Utah city" is always OREM.

C.C.

Sunday February 22, 2009 Linda and Charles Preston

Theme: Over and Over (Blogged by Argyle)

23A: Resumé accompaniment: COVER LETTER

42A: Cowboy: CATTLE DROVER

64A: President from New Jersey: GROVER CLEVELAND

90A: Bill Holman comic strip: SMOKEY STOVER

111A: “Lethal Weapon” sidekick: DANNY GLOVER

14D: Road arrangement: CLOVERLEAF

71D: Bulldozer: EARTHMOVER


Theme Song

Across:

IA: Rice dish: PILAF. Chow Time

6A: Defensive or end: ZONE. Defensive zone: hockey. End zone: football.

10A: Pilot’s place: PALM. Redneck Palm Pilot

14A: Leader Guevara: CHE. Castro’s amigo.

17A: Peninsular mideast region: ARABIA. map

19A: He finishes the cake: ICER.

20A: Steel support: I BEAM.

22A: Fall behind: LAG.

23A: Resumé accompaniment: COVER LETTER. A letter to coalesce the various items in the resume.

25A: Hugo hero: QUASIMODO. Victor Hugo wrote “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” and Quasimodo was the hunchback.

27A: Compass pt.: E N E.

28A: Wells vegetarians: ELOI. The Eloi are one of the two post-human races in H. G. Wells' 1895 novel The Time Machine ; the other race, the Morlocks, are not vegetarians.

29A: Beyond help: SUNK. A goner.

30A: “When ___ Cry”: DOVES. The “Artist” Prince has muted all YouTube versions of his song so here are some originals.

31A: Wise ___ owl: AS AN. Wise as an owl.

32A: Acted like a chick: PEEPED. They’re coming soon. PEEPS!

35A: Actress Moorehead: AGNES. Agnes Moorehead, on the radio version of The Shadow in 1937, portrayed Margo Lane, The Shadow's confidant. The Shadow’s famous ability to "cloud men's minds," made him an invincible crime fighter, a figure never seen, only heard. Very convenient for radio!

36A: Ooze: SEEP.

39A: “Pal Joey” author: O’HARA. Pal Joey is a 1939 epistolary(written as a series of letters) novel by John O'Hara, which became the basis of the 1940 stage musical comedy and 1957 motion picture of the same name.

40A: Enter the picture: APPEAR. This reminds me of a clip I saw. Two elderly women are dozing in chairs at the beach; their camera on the table beside them. Some boys come along and one sneaks up and takes the camera.
“Oh,” you think to yourself, “he’s stealing the camera.” But instead he takes a picture of another boy ‘mooning’ the camera and then puts it back on the table and they go on down the beach.
I would have liked to have been there when the women got those photos back.

42A: Cowboy: CATTLE DROVER. One who drives cattle to market.

46A: Spruce: NEAT. Spruce, meaning smart, neat, fashionable, and spruce, the tree, come from the same root(Prussia) but by very different roads. The word, Pruce, indicates from Prussia, where the spruce fir came from. Also, a very fine leather came from Prussia and apparel made with 'spruce leather' was neat and dapper.

47A: ___ Cruces, NM: LAS. Famous for it's breathtaking sunsets.

50A: Fireplace residue: ASH.

51A: Spur: INCITE. The cattle drover spurred his horse and incited it to move faster.

52A: “The Lion King” villain: SCAR. Animated Disney movie

53A: Gave for a while: LENT. ‘Gave up for a while’ time?: LENT

54A: Creepy Christopher: LEE. He doesn't look so creepy...wait a minute...yes, he does!

55A: “The Jungle Book” bear: BALOO. Nothing scary about this bear.

56A: Does nothing: IDLES.

58A: Paul Anka hit: DIANA. 1957, singing about his babysitter.

59A: Grasso or Raines:ELLA. Ella Grasso, 1919 – 1981, was an American politician, and first woman elected governor of Connecticut. She was elected governor "in her own right," without being the wife or widow of a past governor. Ella Raines, 1920 – 1988, was an American actress. She has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame; one for movies, the other for TV.

61A: Wire gauge: MIL. one mil = 0.001 of an inch

62A: Inter ___: ALIA. Inter Alia, means among other things, in Latin.

63A: Go into a huddle: CONFER.

64A: President from New Jersey: GROVER CLEVELAND. Stephen Grover Cleveland, 1837 – 1908, was both the 22nd and 24th President of the United States. Cleveland is the only President to serve two non-consecutive terms (1885–89 and 1893–97) and therefore is the only individual to be counted twice in the numbering of the presidents.

69A: See 107 Down: SEEGER. 107 Down: PETE. An American folk singer and song writer. as the author or co-author of "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?", "If I Had a Hammer ", and "Turn, Turn, Turn!". Pete Seeger with his wife Toshi Seeger, founded the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Inc., an organization that seeks to protect the Hudson River through advocacy and public education.

72A: Med subj.: ANAT.. Medical subject: anatomy: the study of the structure of animals.

73A: Fled: RAN.

74A: Eastern discipline: YOGA. In Hinduism, a set of mental and physical exercises aimed at producing spiritual enlightenment.

78A: Actor Delon: ALAIN. Alain Delon is a César Award-winning French actor. He rose quickly to stardom, and by the age of 23 he was garnering comparisons to famed French actors such as Gérard Philipe and Jean Marais, as well as American actor James Dean. He was even called the male Brigitte Bardot.

79A: Reno or Jackson: JANET. Janet Reno was the Attorney General of the United States (1993–2001). Janet Jackson is an American recording artist and entertainer. She is the youngest child of the Jackson family of musicians.

81A: Velvety fabric: PANNE. A soft, lustrous, lightweight velvet with flattened pile.

83A: Down in the dumps: LOW.

84A: Bog: MIRE.

85A: Foodless day: FAST.

86A: Stuck one’s neck out: RISKED.

87A: “___ Sentimental Mood”: IN A. A jazz composition by Duke Ellington. I expect someone to give us a link to their favorite version of this composition.

88A: Tuck into a torte: EAT. Tuck into is a verb phrase meaning to eat with gusto and a torte a rich cake made with many eggs and little flour and usually containing chopped nuts.

89A: Big rig: SEMI. Tractor-trailer While we use the term semi to indicate the whole rig, it is more exact to call it just the trailer. A semi-trailer is a detachable trailer for hauling freight, with wheels at the rear end, the forward end being supported by the rear of a truck tractor when attached. A full trailer is a trailer supported entirely by its own wheels.

90A: Bill Holman comic strip: SMOKEY STOVER. Smokey Stover was a comic strip written and drawn by Bill Holman from the 1930s until he retired in 1973. Distributed through the Chicago Tribune, it featured the misadventures of the titular fireman, and had the longest run of any strip in the screwball genre.

93A: Priam’s wife: HECUBA. She was the wife of Priam, King of Troy therefore she was the queen in Greek Mythology. Priam and Hecuba had nineteen children. Nadya Suleman hasn't caught up with her...yet.

95A: Moisten the marigolds: WATER.

96A: Collie’s concern: HERD. Look at those eyes.

97A: Inlay: EMBED. Embed has more meanings than just inlay.

98A: Less benevolent: MEANER.

100A: London district: SOHO. Soho has the densest concentration of restaurants, cafés, clubs and bars in central London, and represents the vibrant, bustling heart of the city. The area immediately surrounding Old Compton Street in the southern part of Soho is widely recognized as London's premier gay village.

103A: Decorate: ADORN.

104A: “Schindler’s ___”: LIST. movie, 1993, Directed by Steven Spielberg. With Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, Ralph Fiennes. It is about Oskar Schindler, a German businessman who saved the lives of more than a thousand Polish Jews.

105A: Celebration: GALA.

106A: Choose, with for: OPT.

109A: Religious observances: DEVOTIONS.

111A: “Lethal Weapon” sidekick: DANNY GLOVER. As Sergeant Roger Murtaugh, he is afraid that Sergeant Martin Riggs(Mel Gibson) will get him killed in this series of films.

115A: In accord: ONE.

116A: Mead’s milieu: SAMOA. Margaret Mead authored of Coming of Age in Samoa.

117A: “Rigoletto” rendition: ARIA. “Rigoletto”, an opera (1851) with music by Giuseppe Verdi but not an individual aria so I feel this is a bad clue.

118A: Fly: AVIATE. You can’t be an aviator unless you aviate.

119A: Ukr., formerly: SSR. Ukraine is an independent country in Eastern Europe now, but at one time, it was a Soviet Socialist Republic.

120A: Not any, with a: NARY. I always heard it as “nary a one”.

121A: Make money: MINT. In debt, just mint more money(reserved for government use only).

122A: Where cats congregate: ALLEY. But at one time, they were on Broadway!

Down:

ID: Single step: PACE.

2D: Nutritional need: IRON.

3D: Wash: LAVE.

4D: Saperstein or Vigoda: ABE. Abe Saperstein was founder, owner, and coach of the Harlem Globetrotters Basketball Team. He was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1970. Abe Vigoda is an American movie and television actor. He's best known for his portrayal of Detective Sgt. Phil Fish on TV’s “Barney Miller”.

5D: Occasions for alarms: FIRES.

6D: Rigatoni relative: ZITI.

7D: UN Day month: OCT.. United Nations Day is the 24th of October.

8D: Society-page word: NEE.

9D: Stray: ERR.

10D: Stimulate: PIQUE.

11D: Plenty: ABUNDANCE.

12D: News source: LEAK.

13D: Bell and Barker: MAS. “Ma” Bell refers generally to all AT&T companies. “Ma” Barker’s sons went on a crime spree but she is thought to have not been involved in any actual crime. After she was killed in a shootout, J. Edgar Hoover tried to portray her as the leader to justify her death.

14D: Road arrangement: CLOVERLEAF. Interchange

15D: Pluto’s place: HADES. Pluto was the Roman version of the Greek God, Hades. The Romans called the underworld Hades. Confused yet?

16D: Inflatable items?: EGOS. Cute clue.

18D: ___ breve: ALLA. Alla Breve is tempo marking indicating a quick duple meter with the half note rather than the quarter note getting the beat (2/2 rather than 4/4). I’m sure somebody will explain it better in the comments section.

21D: Very small: MIDGET. Very small for its kind.

24D: Years on end: EON. Comprised of two or more eras.

26D: ___ Lisa: MONA. Aw, you know what she looks like.

29D: Practice punching: SPAR.

31D: Inclined: APT.

32D: Snapshot: PHOTO.

33D: Roof edge: EAVE.

34D: Poetic preposition: ERE. Before.

35D: On ___ with: equal to: A PAR.

36D: It’ll give you a weigh: SCALE. Clever.

37D: Art supporter?: EASEL. Used to be clever.

38D: Merman or Mertz: ETHEL. Ethel Merman, 1908 – 1984, was an American actress and singer known for musical theatre; well known for her powerful voice. Ethel Mertz is a fictional character played by Vivian Vance in the 1950s TV sitcom I Love Lucy, where she was Lucy’s friend and landlady.

39D: Baltimore Batsman: ORIOLE. A baseball player on the Baltimore Orioles team.

41D: Soup veggies: PEAS.

43D: Prog.: LIB.. I think they meant a member of a PROGressive party. Party members are LIBerals.

44D: Captivate: ENAMOR.

45D: CCXVIII tripled: DCLIV. 218 X 3 = 654

48D: Prince Philip’s daughter: ANNE. Prince Philip is Queen Elizabeth’s husband and their four children are Prince Charles, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew, and Prince Edward.

49D: Show-stopper: STAR. But the show must go on.

52D: Eastern European: SLAV.

53D: Jitterbug dance: LINDY. This is NOT how we did it at our record hops.

56D: ___ ease: uncomfortable: ILL AT. Ill at ease; socially uncomfortable

57D: Spare fare: DIET. Another clever clue.

58D: Oxford bigwig: DON. The English have Dons instead of Deans like American Universities.

60D: Certain marble: AGGIE.

62D: Sebaceous gland problem: ACNE. Sebaceous is such an icky word.

63D: Cinema site: CANNES. I pondered this clue for awhile, thinking they wanted a type of theater. The Cannes Film Festival is one of the world's oldest, most influential and prestigious film festivals. The private festival is held usually in the month of May at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès, in the resort town of Cannes, in the south of France.

65D: Stimpy’s pal: REN. The Ren and Stimpy Show is an American/Canadian animated television series created by Canadian animator John Kricfalusi. The series first aired on MTV before going to Nickelodeon. They had a reputation for controversy, mostly stemming from imagery and cartoon violence. They pushed TV animation to new, borderline-tastelessness with episodes such as “Stimpy’s First Fart.”

66D: Carry on: RANT.

67D: School item: ERASER. Often a crossword item, also.

68D: Like Lincoln: LANKY. There is talk of getting some Lincoln’s DNA to see if he did, in fact, have Marfan’s syndrome.

69D: Identical: SAME.

70D: Literary pseudonym: ELIA. The pen name of Charles Lamb, 1775–1834, English essayist and critic.

71D: Bulldozer: EARTHMOVER. Early Japanese bulldozer.

75D: Popeye’s favorite color?: OLIVE. Popeye’s favorite gal, Olive Oyl.

76D: Hopeless case: GONER.

77D: Oscar or Tony: AWARD. Oscar is awarded for achievements in motion picture production and performance. Tony is awarded for achievements in theatrical production and performance.

79D: Door part: JAMB.

80D: Near East: ASIA MINOR.

81D: Tightwad: PIKER.

82D: NY hours: EDT. Eastern Daylight-saving Time.

85D: Clan clash: FEUD.

86D: Learning method: ROTE.

89D: Hunts like a hound: SCENTS.

90D: Ruth’s sultanate?: SWAT. The Great Bambino, The Sultan of Swat, The Colossus of Clout

91D: Chess piece: MAN.

92D: Triumphant cry: OHO.

94D: Spanish river: EBRO. The main river (Rio Ebro) of northern Spain.

97D: Barbara and Anthony: EDEN. Barbara Eden is an American film and television actress and singer who is best known for her starring role in the sitcom I Dream of Jeannie. This is one outfit that never made it on to television. Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon, 1897 – 1977, was a British Conservative politician, who was Prime Minister from 1955 to 1957.

99D: English-class assignment: ESSAY.

100D: Utter: SAY.

101D: Gymnast Korbut: OLGA. Olga Korbut, Gold Medalist 1972 Olympics, the Munchkin of Munich.

102D: Turkish treat: HALVA. A confection consisting of crushed sesame seeds in a binder of honey.

103D: Commotions: ADOS.

104D: ___ Linda, Cal: LOMA. Here

105D: Pesky insect: GNAT.

106D: Egg-shaped: OVAL.

107D: With 69 Across, “Turn! Turn! Turn” composer: PETE.

108D: Deck member: TREY. As in a deck of cards, the three. If there had been nautical clues/answers in the area, this could have been a stinker.

110D: Rock musician ___ Hunter: IAN. Ian Hunter was formerly frontman of Mott the Hoople;

111D: Beaver’s construction: DAM.

112D: Onassis’ nickname: ARI.

113D: Diarist Anais: NIN. Anais Nin (1903-1977). She wrote Delta of Venus which has been called porno for poets.

114D: It may be crude: OIL.

Argyle

Saturday February 28, 2009 Tom Pruce

Theme: None

Total blocks: 28

Total words: 70

Noticed how this puzzle differs from Matthew Higgins' themeless? The sparse and prudent use suffixes. Two ED and several S, which are very common in any Saturday grid. I simply can't stand puzzles with oodles of affixes like ER, RE, ING, ED and EST.

Lots of 10-letter words. 12, to be exact. That results in plenty of 4-letter words, most of which are clued pretty straighforwardedly.

The clue for NEWSSTANDS (1A: Place for papers) should be in plural form. I understand the constructor's alliteration purpose in cluing MISSEND (50A) as "Mail by mistake". I just dislike the letter duplication. "Mail by error" sounds OK to me.

I am lost on ANTECEDENT (14D: Cause). What's the rationale here?

For those regulars who don't have TMS Sunday puzzle, click "Over and Over". I will publish Argyle's blog post here tomorrow morning.

Across:

11A: Caesar's partner: COCA. Stumped immediately. I need "Caesar's TV partner" to think of the Imogene COCA. I thought of Caesar salad.

15A: Pharmacist: APOTHECARY. Recognize this word when I see it. But I can't spell it out.

16A: Son of Judah: ONAN. The guy who spilled his seeds on the ground. Onanism is easier to remember than the Latin "coitus interruptus". "Can I ...?"

17A: Ballet turns: PIROUETTES

18A: Flat fee?: RENT. Nice clue.

19A: Get a whiff of: SCENT. I wrote SMELL first.

21A: Summon to court: CITE. Would have come to me immediately if the clue were "Quote".

22A: Sicilian volcano: ETNA. The insurance giant AETNA is named after this volcano. Greek for "I burn". My surname Burn-ikel has no burning desire at all. It simply means "Don't kill the child" in Viking talks.

27A: Chandler novel, with "The": BIG SLEEP. Easy guess. I've never read this book.

31A: Team spirit: MORALE. I bet those Afghan warlords' MORALE is very high now, with CIA's supply of our friendship blue pills. Viagra is a potent weapon in war on terror, correct?

36A: Abbr. on folk music: TRAD. Add a prefix S, you suddenly have Joshua Bell's expensive STRAD.

46A: Black sea port: ODESSA. Still remember AZOV the "Black sea arm"? It's quite close to ODESSA.

46A: Unskilled: INEXPERT. Only know EXPERT.

56A: Of the kidney: RENAL. And OTIC (60A: Of the ear). What is "Of love"?

65A: Facial features: LINEAMENTS. You won't believe it, but I really have never heard of this word before.

67A: Took the first step: STARTED OUT

Down:

2D: Heroic in scope: EPIC. Are you a fan of "The Lord of the Rings"? Somehow I've never developed an interest in those fantasy novels.

5D: Airport connector: SHUTTLE

11D: Washington D.C. art gallery: CORCORAN. No idea. What is their most precious collection?

12D: Body of water near Syracuse: ONEIDA LAKE. It's the largest lake entirely within NY State. I just learned this morning that the name ONEIDA literally means "Erected stone".

13D: Type of bridge: CANTILEVER. Like this one? According to Dictionary, only one end of the CANTILEVER bridge is fixed. That picture does not seem to fit the definition.

24D: Sponsorship: AEGIS. See Athena's AEGIS shield. The center is Medusa's head. Poor Medusa. She used to be pretty. But then she made love to Poseidon in Athena's temple. Bam! Athena turned her into a monster! Her ugly face could turn any onlooker into stone, maybe an "Erected stone".

26D: Hang in loose folds: LOP. Not a familiar definition to me. "Chop off" is more common.

28D: Casts light on: IRRADIATES

29D: Jefferson Airplane singer: GRACE SLICK. Easy guess. In Chinese culture, that's a very rude gesture.

37D: Examines in minute detail: DISSECTS

44D: Off the charts: EXTREME. "Off the chart" is a new phrase to me.

51D: Shipboard crane: DAVIT. Is it mainly used to lift boat?

55D: Gershon of "Bound": GINA. Don't know "Bound". Only saw GINA Gershon in "Showgirls". She was rumored to have affair with Bill Clinton last year.

57D: One-billionth: pref.: NANO

58D: Westernmost of the Aleutian Islands: ATTU. Also the westernmost of the US.

C.C.