Wednesday March 11, 2009 Jo Vita

Theme: Crack Up

17A: Broadway moneymaker: SMASH HIT

30A: Blast from the past?: BIG BANG

47A: Soft drink: SODA POP

62A: Launch: BLAST OFF

11D: Bases-loaded homer: GRAND SLAM

35D: Radical food fad: CRASH DIET

Not happy with 30A clue. BLAST is part of the theme answer for 62A. Tell me how you would clue BIG BANG.

The clue for ESS (13D: Part of CBS?) is quite tricky. I thought of SYS first, then EYE. Finally realized ESS refers to the letter S in CBS.

Mary Elson, the Managing Director of Tribune Media Service, emailed me yesterday that TMS will be ending Wayne R Williams syndication puzzle on Sunday March 22, 2009. So, starting on March 23 (Monday) most of the papers that currently have TMS Daily will carry LA Times Daily edited by Rich Norris.

This is a great news for us, as LA Times puzzles are definitely of superior quality. Besides, we can have the same Sunday puzzles to work with. I am aware, however, that some of you might be given a different LA Times Sunday crossword edited by Sylvia Bursztyn. But you can always print out the Rich Norris Sunday puzzle from LA Time's website.

Across:

8A: 1997 20-game winner Denny: NEAGLE. Guessed. Have never heard of this pitcher. He was actually drafted by the Twins in 1989. Wikipedia says his name was mentioned in the Mitchell Report in connection with steroids. Boo!

14A: __ Valley, CA: SIMI. Reagan Library is located here.

19A: Bernhardt and Siddons: SARAHS. SARAH Bernhardt was a French actress nicknamed "The Divine SARAH". SARAH Siddon was a British actress most famous for her portrayal of Lady Macbeth. Of all the SARAHS in the world, our editor wanted these two, absurdly obscure. Boo!

20A: Nautical rescue system: AIR SEA

21A: Cossack chief: HETMAN. No idea. Last time the answer is ATAMAN.

23A: NASA outpost: ISS (International Space Station). Williams like to clue ESA as "NASA's ISS partner".

27A: Mil. honor: DSC (Distinguished Service Cross). I wanted DSM. Wikipedia says DSC is "the second highest military decoration that can be awarded to a member of US Army". What is the highest then? Purple Heart? By the way, DSO (Distingushed Service Order) is the "British military award".

33A: Abominable: ACCURSED. New word to me. Same as CURSED?

36A: Vexed: GALLED. His chutzpah used to GALL me.

38A: Myanmar, by another name: BURMA. Capital city: Yangon. Currency: Kyat. Strange country. Governed by those bloody military juntas. Aung San Suu Kyi needs more than just the glibido from the west for her fight.

41A: Employment: USAGE

44A: Representative examples: EPITOMES

49A: Numerical ending: ETH. "Ordinal suffix" to be exact.

51A: C.S.A. soldier: REB. Opposite Yank?

52A: Actress Meyers: ARI. No idea. Thought ARI is man's name. What's her face shape? Square?

55A: Fanning of "Man on Fire": DAKOTA. She grows up quickly. Her interviews are uniformly boring.

58A: Signaled: CUED IN

64A: Lack of vigor: ANEMIA. Dates help. Lots of irons in dates. Nuts stuffed honeyed dates. Delicious!

65A: NRC forerunner: AEC (1946 to 1975)

66A: Heraldic border: ORLE. Learned this word from doing crossword. What's the difference between heraldry and coat-of-arms?

67A: climber's spikes: PITONS

68A: '60 radicals: SDS. Was this a gimme to you? I keep confusing SDS with '70 radicals SLA (Symbionese Liberation Army).

Down:

1D: Very, in music: ASSAI. "Allegro ASSAI" means very fast. Add one letter L, it becomes the "attack vigorously" ASSAIL.

4D: "Beth" singer: KISS. Here is the clip. Definitely not my style. Any KISS collectors there? Do you have the original KISS bobbleheads?

6D: Colonial cuckoo: ANI. Why "Colonial"?

7D: Prot. sect: METH. The same abbreviation as the drug?

8D: Savings: NEST EGG. Dwindling quickly! My GE stock is now traded at $8 per share. Terrible.

18D: Flights to safety: HEGIRAS. No idea. Dictionary also says that HEGIRA refers to the flight of Mohammed from Mecca to Medina in 622 ad. So it's the starting point of the Muslim era.

29D: Aqua and motor endings: CADES. Aquacade is new to me.

32D: Biographer of FDR: ALSOP. Almost every JFK book I've read mentioned Joseph ALSOP. Are you familiar with General Chenault's Flying Tigers? ALSOP served as Chenault's "Staff Secretary" when they trained in Rangoon, BURMA.

33D: Poplar tree: ABELE. I forgot. What's the difference between ABELE and aspen again?

34D: Flat face of a gem: CULET. No idea. See this digram.

43D: Spanish mates: ESPOSAS. Got the answer from across fills. It's Spanish for "wife". I thought it means "Spouse".

45D: Emetine source plants: IPECACS. I can never remember this word. Their roots contain "emetine", whatever it is.

56D: Sphere starter?: ATMO. Atmosphere.

57D: Down with!: A BAS. Know this from the French Revolutionary cry "A BAS le roi!" Our editor used to clue ABAS as "Arab garments".

61D: Verse starter?: UNI. Universe. "Sex starter?" is also good, yes?

C.C.

Tuesday March 10, 2009 Adele Mann

Theme: Watered Down

17A: Tabloid talk show host: RICKI LAKE

66A: "Young Frankenstein" director: MEL BROOKS

11D: "Enter Talking" writer: JOAN RIVERS

30D: "Caribbean Queen" singer: BILLY OCEAN

Those people are ALL WET!

I am not familiar with RICKI LAKE. JOAN RIVERS is too much for me, so acerbic her tongue. Her daughter Melissa is equally intimidating. BILLY OCEAN revealed himself after I filled in all the crosses.

I suppose there is no famous people with surnames like LAKES or OCEANS, the plural form? I really liked the theme though.

To those whose paper has stopped carrying TMS Daily puzzle. You can go to Chicago Tribune's website. Click on the date, then pick Regular Skill Level or Master Skill Level. You can always print out the puzzles if you prefer to solve it in paper. Click on Print, then Blank Puzzle.

To those LA Times solvers, you can get all the answers in their website. And if you have questions regarding certain clues, please feel free to ask in the Comments section. Argyle will guest-blog one LA Times puzzle this Sunday.

I also published a "How to Create a Link at Comments section" earlier this morning. It's not difficult at all. You just need some practices.

Across:

9A: Hindu ruler: RAJAH. Or Raja.

15A: Regan's father: LEAR. Also Cordelia/Goneril's father. Don't google, tell me who is Hero's love?

23A: Chants: LITANIES. Reminds me of McCain's "Drill, Baby, Drill" chant. It's coined by Michael Steele, not Sarah Palin, who can see Russia from her house.

32A: Provencal verse: SESTINA. My guess is SESTINE, which is actually correct also. So is SEXTINA. It's a six-stanza verse. A poetic form used by Dante, Kipling, Ezra Pound, etc.

39A: Show-biz notable: CELEB. Hope to see CELEB with PAPARAZZI in a grid someday.

43A: Quantity of yarn: SKEIN. Last time it's clued as "V-formation flock" and stumped lots of solvers. A SKEIN of geese.

49A: Thwarts: STYMIES. I like "Thwarts", with three consonants together.

51A: Mushroom morsel: CAP. Hmmm, mushroom, MOREL. How long is that? CAP can also be clued as "Climax", yes?

55A: Achieve success: GET AHEAD

58A: Ridiculous pretense: CHARADE

64A: Trample: TREAD. Dislike the TR repetition. With today's "Wet" theme, "TREAD water" is better.

71A: Sound qualities: TONES. Musical term? I was thinking of SONES, the "Loudness unit".

73A: Cut: SAWN. Always thought the past particle of SAW is SAWED.

Down:

1D: Razor choice: ATRA. Gillette is part of P & G, so is Duracell & Oral-B.

7D: Like some buckets: OAKEN. I learned this morning that most of the old ship were made of oak wood due to its hardness, strength and resistance to insect and fungal attack. Had no idea that oak trees do not produce acorns until they are 50 years old.

8D: Concise summary: PRECIS. Without the intersecting P, I might have filled in APERCU. It has 6 letters also.

13D: First part of a bray: HEE. HEE-Haw.

18D: Egyptian goddess: ISIS. The Egyptian goddess of fertility. The wife/sister of Osiris. JD, there is letter "I" in modern interpretation of Egyptian glyphs after all. (Note: Here is a great link JD provided.)

26D: "Strange Interlude" playwright: O'NEILL. Easy guess. I've never heard of "Strange Interlude".

27D: Purple dinosaur: BARNEY. Not familiar with this character either. Why "Purple"? It looks pink to me. Vikings' uniforms are "Purple" color. Brett Favre in Vikings uniform? Liar!

28D: Bigot: RACIST. I watched Ed Norton's "American History X" the other day, kind of shocked by what I saw.

33D: Seize: TAKE. Thought of RAID first. Police do "Seize" stuff when they conduct a RAID, right?

40D: Military units: BRIGADES. I suppose their head is called brigadier.

50D: Flower part: STAMEN. Flowers' male organ. So tiny. It bears sufficient pollens I suppose. The white stuff on top is the anther. No wonder the word has MEN in its tail.

52D: Carson's predecessor: PAAR. Double A. The double R wife of Henry VIII is PARR (Catherine).

57D: Trivial stuff: DROSS. I don't understand this clue. "Worthless stuff", yes. "Trivial stuff" means "small matter", no?

62D: Place at an angle: SKEW. Here is a word where you can't simply add an ER without changing its original meaning. Skewer. I like shrimp pineapple shish-kebab, don't you?

65D: Greek letter: RHO. The 17th Greek letter. Consonant.

C.C.

How to Create a Link at Comments Section

<a href="url">Link text</a>

Copy and paste the above gibberish link syntax into the Comment section.

Then, erase letters url (keep the quotation mark), and insert whichever website you want to link (copy and paste the website from the Address Bar). Then erase words Link text and replace them with whatever words you want your link to be named. Please bookmark this page, the nerds' nerdy but accurate explanation. The "Link syntax" box under "An HTML Link" is what I'm babbling here. Also, if you want certain words/sentences of your comments to be bold or italic, here are more fancy commands for you. Use the same principle as "How to make a link". Very simple, copy and paste. Additionally, I suggest you download Firefox. It has automatic spell-check function for comments. Much better than Internet Explorer. C.C. PS: If you still have problems with the link, please email Bill. Click on his avatar, you will find his email address. Bill mentioned these instructions work on PC & Mac. 

 

PSS: Thanks a million, Barry G. You are my hero! ("&") →, — >, << >>! PSSS: For those who wants to link a picture, go to Google Photos and upload your picture. Then click on the picture, and copy the link as you would with any other link.

Monday March 9, 2009 Ed Voile

Theme: Front Man

17A: Valet: MAN SERVANT

28A: Polite: MANNERLY

45A: Seacows: MANATEES

59A: Handle: MANIPULATE

11D: Display dummy: MANNEQUIN

35D: Instruments similar to lutes: MANDOLINS

MAN! I failed again. Third day in a row.

Lots of false starts: MANNERED instead of MANNERLY. SEPARATE instead of SET APART (24A: Isolate). All my own faults though. We've solved quite a few Ed Voile puzzles lately, yet I still can not find his pattern.

"Cold War letters" (7D) would be an OK clue for USSR or SSR, but for USA? No! We've long entered the Obama era.

ADD (20A: What summers do) gave me lots of trouble. I could not figure out anything about the intersecting down clues, so I tried hard to think what summers do to me. But neither TAN or SUN fits. If there were a question mark behind the clue, I might have interpret "summers" correctly and thought of ADD. Sigh! I just mentioned a possible "Chinese summer?" for ABACUS last time.

Across:

1A: John L. or Jerry Lee: LEWIS. Did not know the CIO founder John L. LEWIS. President of the United Mine Workers of America from from 1920 to 1960. And a major player in the history of coal mining.

14A: Ward off: AVERT. I like how it crosses EVADE (2D: Escape cleverly).

16A: Gilbert of Teasdale: SARA

19A: Small piece: SNIP. New meaning of SNIP to me.

22A: Intrinsic nature: ESSENCE. PER SE is often clued as "Intrinsically".

39A: Cinematic nightmare street: ELM. "A Nightmare on ELM Street". I don't like horror movies.

42A: "William Wilson" writer: POE. Have never heard of this short story. "The Raven" & "Annabel Lee", that's all the POE work I know.

43A: Scantily: THINLY. Not fond of the LY repetition. "Without much density" is better.

49A: Airs out: FRESHENS. I kept thinking of AERATES.

56A: North sea bird: AUK. I was really fooled by this Penguin clip. Now your turn! (OK, It's an April Fools' joke.)

62A: Five-star: A ONE

65A: Profit's partner?: LOSS. Would EERS be an acceptable answer as well? Profiteers.

Down:

1D: Actor Fernando: LAMAS. No idea. He is the father of Lorenzo LAMAS (left).

3D: George of "Cheers": WENDT. Unknown to me also. I only recognize Ted Danson & Woody Harrelson in this picture.

5D: Stovetop utensils: STEWPANS. Holy cow! I've never heard of STEWPANS. Use slow cooker for stew.

6D: River to the Bristol Channel: SEVERN. Nope. Here is a map. Click on it, the map will enlarge. See the word SEVERN to the right of Newport? It's the longest river in Britain.

12D: Stoltz of "Mask": ERIC. Easy guess. Have zero familarity with this actor.

26D: Pekoe piece: TEA LEAF. Have you had chrysanthemum tea before?

33D: "Truth or __": DARE. Is this the movie about Madonna? I wanted LIES.

37D: Actress Van Devere: TRISH. Forgot. She was married to George Scott. I like his "Patton".

40D: Cushing/Lee horror film: THE SKULL. No idea. Looks terrifying.

42D: California observatory peak: PALOMAR. Spanish for "Pigeon house". Saw this clue somewhere before.

45D: Bub: MAC. This reminds me of the Baboo episode in "Seinfeld". But isn't baboo an offensive slang for Indian?

46D: Attributes: TRAITS. Did not come to me readily.

51D: Observant one: NOTER. This word feels like NEEDER/WANTER to me. It exists only in the dictionary.

55D: Corduroy rib: WALE. Like this. Ribbed twill is SERGE. Any SERGE Gainsbourg fan there? This picture looks so doctored. This is TRUER. Jane Birkin is very skinny.

C.C.

Sunday March 8, 2009 Josiah Breward

Theme: All This Time

1A: Former: ONE-TIME

29A: Football break: HALFTIME SHOW

37A: Strikeout victim: THREE-TIME LOSER

52A: Freelance work: PART-TIME JOB

67A: Classic Ken Kesey novel: SOMETIMES A GREAT NOTION

86A: Cash incentive: OVERTIME PAY

99A: Guinness concerns: ALL-TIME RECORDS

107A: A need for speed: NO TIME TO LOSE

128A: Whenever: ANYTIME

I had a very hard TIME solving this puzzle. Without the theme hint, I doubt I could finish it. Lots of pauses and write-overs. Strange to see 1A as a theme answer.

I am still not sure about STP (57A: potent hallucinogen). Do you have the same answer? I wrote down LSD first. STP is always "The Racer's Edge".

Nice to see ATONEMENT (79D: Ian McEwan novel) gets some recognition. Unfortunately, IAN (5D: Singer Janis) is an answer in the grid. So ATONEMENT has to be reworded. A plain "Reparation" would work.

Scroll down the page to see Argyle's blog on Stan Newman's Newsday "Baloney Sandwich" puzzle.

Across:

15A: Mature insect: IMAGO. Larva, pupa & IMAGO.

20A: Attack by bombers: AIR RAID. I was thinking of AIR STRIKE.

21A: Awakening: AROUSAL

22A: Hurler Ryan: NOLAN. The strikeout king, steroid free. HOFer. Very conservative political leaning.

23A: Philosopher Langer: SUSANNE. Guessed. Have never heard of this American philosopher. She wrote "Philosophy in a New Key".

25A: Oar holder: THOLE. Th' Hole.

33A: Hydroxyl compound: ENOL. "Hydroxyl" means nothing to me. The answer is always ENOL for a 4-letter compound clue: "Organic compound", "Carbon compound", whatever.

47A: Pirate in "Peter Pan": SMEE. Captain Hook's cohort.

49A: Assn.: SOC. Society?

50A: Feeling no need for apology: UNASHAMED. UNABASHED has the same amount of letters.

61A: Forthcoming: INSTORE

62A: CD alternative: DAT (Digital Audiotape)

63A: Founder of Stoicism: ZENO. ZENO of Citium. Different from ZENO of Elea.

66A: Latin handle: ANSA. Plural is ANSAE.

74A: Karras of "Webster": ALEX. The big guy. Total stranger to me.

75A: Years, to Yves: ANS. Le Nouvel AN (New Year's Day). ANS is more often clued as a shortened form for "Answers".

78A: Plant similar to verbena: LANTANA. Here some LANTANA. And verbena.

81A: Friend on the Left Bank: AMI. Ennui! Partial clue is more interesting here. But who AM I to argue?

89A: Mid-range golf club: SEVEN IRON. My first round of golf was played with SEVEN IRON and putter only.

92A: Winter Games grp.: IOC. "Summer Games grp." as well.

93A: Patriotic org.: DAR. "Patriotic women's org." to be exact.

95A: Nymph of mythology: OREAD. The mountain nymph. Like poor Echo.

96A: Feinstein or Wiest: DIANNE. Sounds like DIANNE Feinstein is going to run for Governor of California governor in 2010. I like DIANNE Wiest in "Hannah and Her Sisters". Can't stand her in "Law & Order".

103A: Annapolis grad.: ENS. Ensign. Does "swabbie" apply to commissioned officer also? Does ENS have to attend boot camp and read Blue Jacket Manuel as well?

114A: Thompson of "Family": SADA. Which one? I wrote down EMMA. Liked her a lot in "Sense and Sensibility".

118A: NH compound: IMINE. No idea. Dictionary explains IMINE (or AMINE) as "a compound derived from ammonia and containing the bivalent NH group combined with a bivalent nonacid group." What is NH?

123A: Brief look-see: RECON. I always wonder which military division usually conducts those RECON missions. Air Force?

125A: Transfers some power: DEPUTES

126A: Praying figure: ORANT. I forgot. Here is an early Christian painting of Noah in ORANT gesture. I had this image of Noah being an old, thinly-built man. Maybe I confuse him with Moses.

127A: Parliament of Israel: KNESSET. Interesting, the "Parliament of Japan" is called Diet.

Down:

1D: Tobacco kiln: OAST

2D: New Zealand island territory: NIUE. No idea. Sounds like a randomly made-up word. Look at the map on the right. It's pretty far away from New Zealand. I wonder what NIUE means in native language.

3D: Old Gaelic: ERSE. This is another bothersome word. Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic and Celtic confused the hell out of me.

4D: Layered nets: TRAMMELS. Ah me. No sir, have never heard of TRAMMEL net.

6D: Manhattan buyer: MINUIT. He bought Manhattan for only at 60 guiders, appoximately $1,000 in today's money. I knew this crazy deal. Did not know this guy's name. Go Dutch! Have you heard of Dutch courage & Dutch uncle?

8D: Go, in Glasgow: GAE. Pronounced like GAY.

9D: One end of a sleeve: ARMHOLE

10D: Snook: ROBALO. Got the answer from across fill. Did not know "Snook" is a kind of fish.

14D: Havelock or Perry: ELLIS. Havelock ELLIS was a British psychologist who wrote "Studies in the Psychology of Sex". And Perry ELLIS was an American ashion designer. I got it from across fills as well.

15D: Office speakers: INTERCOMS

16D: Scale of minerals: MOHS. MOHS scale. It measure the hardness of minerals. 1 for TALC, 10 for diamond. Perfect!

28D: "Philadelphia" director: DEMME (Jonathan). Saw the movie. Did not pay attention to who directed it. DEMME won Oscar for "The Silence of the Lambs".

30D: Commonest protein in muscle: MYOSIN. No. Beyond my ken. "Myo" is a prefix for "muscle".

37D: Wyomia of track: TYUS. "Ah me" again. I had TYU? forever. She is the first woman athlete ever to successfully defend her sprint title in a subsequent Olympics.

45D: Film material: ACETATE. I should have known, but I don't. I actually use these sheets to protect my collectible magazines.

51D: Spumante source: ASTI. Wine region.

52D: Offspring: PROGENY

60D: Literary bits: ANA. Sometimes it's clued as "Santa ___ winds".

62D: Gum substitute: DEXTRIN. Impossible for me. Sounds so toxic. Dextr(o) is a prefix for "to the right", but I don't think it applies here.

64D: Awe-inspiring: FEARSOME. Like this puzzle. But it inspires no "awe" from me.

65D: Nice water?: EAU. Plural is EAUX. "Nice" has lost all its playfulness to me. Try "Sand water?" next.

67D: Pasonlini movie: SALO. Forgot. The movie is based on Marquis de Sade's "The 120 Days of Sodom". Looks very sadistic.

69D: Writing-on-the-wall word: MENE. Total mess here. I definitely googled this word before. I think I saw the "writing-on-the-wall" of Tribune Media Service (TMS). It looks bleak.

71D: Mandela's nat.: RSA (Republic of South Africa). Mandela was born in UMTATA, which was clued as "Capital of Transkei" in yesterday's puzzle.

73D: Venezuelan river: ORINOCO. See this map. I only know Enya's "ORINONCO Flow".

80D: Christian creed: NICENE. I probably need to see this word 3 more times to remember it.

83D: Fox's title: BR'ER. Uncle Remus tales. BR'ER Rabbit appears in our puzzle more often.

85D: Added stipulations: ANDS

90D: Ecole student: ELEVE

91D: Resolves, as a disagreement: IRONS OUT

96D: "Casino" star: DE NIRO. Is "De" a sign of his Italian root? Too many F words in "Casino". I did not like it.

97D: Atom with a variable nucleus: ISOMER

98D: New York prison: ATTICA. Sing Sing is also in NY.

100D: Magnetic flux density units: TESLAS

113D: "The Ring of the Nibelung" role: ERDA. First time I heard of "The Ring of the Nibelung", a "cycle of four epic music drama by Wagner".

115D: Graph starter?: ALTI. Have never heard of Altigraph. It's "an altimeter equipped with a device for recording its measurements on a graph". I am too frustrated to check the meaning of "altimeter". Simply hated this clue. Why not "Prefix for high"?

117D: African fox: ASSE. Also called Cape Fox. Hey, buddy, nice to see you again!

C.C.

Sunday March 1, 2009 Newsday Stan Newman

Theme: BALONEY SANDWICHES: But not entirely edible (Blogged by Argyle)

23A: Baloney sandwich: BAGUETTE HOKUM BAGUETTE

43A: Baloney sandwich: WHEAT TOMFOOLERY WHEAT

71A: Baloney sandwich: SOURDOUGH ROT SOURDOUGH

92A: Baloney sandwich: BAGEL BALDERDASH BAGEL

118A: Baloney sandwich: ROLL HORSEFEATHERS ROLL

(Note from C.C.: Click March 1, 2009 Sunday for this Newsday puzzle. S.N. is Stan the Man himself. Click on the bottom PDF file if you want to print out the puzzle.)

Across:

1A: What “-phile” means: LOVER e.g., audiophile, a person who is especially interested in high-fidelity sound reproduction. Anglophile likes anything English.

6A: Hole punchers: AWLS examples

10A: Great weight: HEFT noun form

14A: Informal farewells: TATAS Chiefly British

19A: Wine’s nose: AROMA

20A: Emphatic denial: THAT’S A LIE

22A: Cologne’s river: RHINE Cologne, Germany

23A: Baloney sandwich: BAGUETTE HOKUM BAGUETTE traditional HOKUM - out-and-out nonsense; bunkum. It is thought the term, hokey came from hokum.

26A: Winter bugs: FLUS FLU is the brief form of influenza. We have a woman on a local radio station that would read “flus” and pronounce it as rhyming with “plus”.

27A: “___ the fields we go…: O’ER

28A: Zilch: NIL

29A: Two-Oscar actor: LEMMON Jack Lemmon, Best Supporting Actor for Mister Roberts (1955) and Best Actor for Save the Tiger (1973)

30A: Yale student: ELI Hard to believe that William F. Buckley and George H. Bush both went to Yale.

31A: Theater genre: COMEDY tragedy and comedy masks

33A: Hair cutter: RAZOR

36A: Gershwin’s “Concerto ___”: IN ‘F’ Excerpt (2:57 min.)

37A: Flip-chart holder: EASEL

39A: Bake-sale sponsor: PTA

40A: Beer maker: BREWER

42A: Half of CDIV: CCII 404/2=202

43A: Baloney sandwich: WHEAT TOMFOOLERY WHEAT Tomfoolery is foolish or silly behavior. A simpleton can be described as a Tom fool but why should Tom be singled out for this degradation? There seems to be no answer. Tom appears to have been chosen for no identifiable reason, similar to "John Doe".

47A: Mail ctr.: GPO mail center - General Post Office, the main post office that also has branch post offices.

48A: Part of IRS: INT Internal Revenue Service

49A: Off-Broadway award: OBIE From O.B., abbreviation for off-Broadway.

50A: Close down: END

53A: Swanky sports suite: SKY BOX Interior view

57A: “Face the Nation” network: CBS Columbia Broadcasting System

60A: Builds: ERECTS

64A: Move suddenly: DART

66A: Wasn’t consistent: YOYOED vacillated

68A: Computer program, for short: APP An application program is used for a particular application (opposed to system program).

70A: Moral values: ETHIC

71A: Baloney sandwich: SOURDOUGH ROT SOURDOUGH Something absurd or fatuous is ROT. Making your own sourdough is delicious.

75A: Fire-gone conclusion: EMBER Nice take on fore-gone conclusion.

76A: Feel bad about: RUE

77A: Aussie gal: SHEILA Chosen for no identifiable reason, similar to "John Doe" and “Tom the Fool”.

78A: Internalize anger: STEW

79A: European capital, to natives: LISBOA Portuguese for Lisbon, seaport and capital of Portugal

81A: AMA members: MDS American Medical Association members are Medicīnae Doctors in New Latin; is that the proper way to make a plural in New Latin, by adding an “S”.

83A: Doing nothing: IDLING

85A: Chapter of history: ERA

86A: Do nothing: LOLL

88A: Soviet space station: MIR

90A: Expected: DUE

92A: Baloney sandwich: BAGEL BALDERDASH BAGEL Balderdash is senseless, stupid talk or writing. It once meant a muddled mixture of liquors.

102A: Greek goddess of strife: ERIS Goddess of discord; sister of Ares, god of war.

103A: Isn’t caught by: EVADES

104A: “Bali __”: HAI Bali Ha'i, also spelled Bali Hai, is a show tune from the 1949 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific. It is the name of a fictional island with two volcanoes.

105A: Nomad: ROVER

107A: Dash lengths: EMS In printing, the space needed for an “M” is used as the measure of a dash.

108A: Deliver a speech: ORATE

109A: Frisked, with “down”: PATTED Just watch the TV show, “COPS”, you’ll get the idea.

111A: “Now ___ seen everything!”: I’VE

112A: ‘70s Minnelli musical: THE ACT It was a 1977 Broadway show, "concept musical" about a has-been movie star trying to make a comeback. Liza Minnelli won a Tony Award for Best Musical Actress.

114A: Totally: ALL tot ALLy, could we have a better clue here, please?

116A: Guerilla Guevara: CHE Ernesto "Che" Guevara 1928 – 1967, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, politician, author, physician, military theorist, and guerrilla leader. After death, his stylized image became countercultural symbol worldwide.

117A: Pet pest: FLEA

118A: Baloney sandwich: ROLL HORSEFEATHERS ROLL An euphemism for horses**t, rubbish; nonsense; bunk.

124A: “Oklahoma!” aunt: ELLER “Oklahoma!” is a theatrical musical and movie. The female lead's Aunt Eller Murphy is a peppy and friendly middle-aged ranch owner who pretty much knows everyone, and everyone respects her. song (you may have to turn up the volume.)

125A: Highest point in Wash.: MT RAINIER Finally a gimme for the you West Coasters. Mount Rainier in the state of Washington

126A: Dogma: TENET

127A: Caterpillar competitor: DEERE Cat dozer, John Deere dozer

128A: Plaintiff: SUER

129A: Hay bundle: BALE A painting of hay bales.

130A: None too trusting: LEERY

Down:

1D: Tuition add-on: LAB FEE

2D: Unwritten rules: ORAL LAW

3D: Chic: VOGUISH I checked; it is a word.

4D: Ostrich kin: EMUS

5D: Soul singer Corinne Bailey ___: RAE British singer: one of her songs.

6D: Try: ATTEMPT

7D: Cabbie’s query: WHERE TO

8D: __-di-dah: LAH

9D: Like some stares: STONY

10D: Drag along: HAUL

11D: Massachusetts state tree : ELM

12D: Minor misstatement: FIB Is that what Sen. Burris made; some minor misstatements?

13D: It may be bagged: TEA Good clue.

14D: More devoted: TRUER Not so good clue.

15D: Throat-clearing sound: AHEM

16D: Chickadee relatives: TITMICE Two chickadees and a tufted titmouse at the feeder.

17D: Cather title character: ANTONIA The final book(first published in 1918) of Willa Cather's prairie trilogy, My Antonia, is considered her greatest accomplishment. Antonia is a bold and free-hearted young woman.

18D: Deemed appropriate: SEEN FIT

21D: Snow board: SKI

24D: Overly: TOO

25D: “Goodness gracious!”: GLORY BE

31D: Gives it up (for) : CLAPS It took awhile to get the clue. Applauds.

32D: Stop up: DAM

33D: Fam. Member: REL Family member; relative.

34D: Leave agape: AWE

35D: Zilch: ZERO

38D: Brain-scan letters: EEG electroencephalogram

40D: Good, in Grenoble: BON Grenoble, France, map

41D: Coll. marchers: ROTC College marchers, (not the protesters but the protestees) Reserve Officers Training Corps

42D: Party-snack brand: CHEETOS Cheese puffs; I prefer the chrunchy.

44D: 1964 Summer Olympics site: TOKYO Tokyo, Japan map

45D: Repairperson: FIXER

46D: Cable-ready: WIRED

50D: ‘50s Ford: EDSEL Late ‘50s lemon: never before a car like it

51D: Singer Judd: NAOMI Ashley, Wynonna, Naomi

52D: Defeats decisively: DRUBS

54D: Part of FYI: YOUR For Your Information

55A: Mild oath: BY GUM

56D: Showed pleasure: OOHED

58D: Founded: BASED

59A: Turn bad: SPOIL

61D: Water-park slide: CHUTE

62D: Princeton athlete: TIGER

63D: Dull sound: SCHWA From German Schwa, ultimately from Hebrew. shewa "a neutral vowel quality," literary "emptiness." for pronunciation

65D: Multiplies by three: TREBLES Yes, I had triples first.

67D: Requirements: DOS As in, DOS and don'ts, customs, rules, or regulations. The do’s are needed and the don’ts are inadvisable.

69D: Hungarian dog: PULI What a puli dog looks like. Wait, I still can’t tell. They are suppose to be a sheep herding dog.

72D: Be overly avid: DROOL Presents a rather crude picture, hey?

73D: Bronze place: THIRD An obvious answer…once you get it. Gold medal, silver medal, and bronze medal.

74D: Motown music: R AND B Rhythm and Blues

80D: Fujimori of Peru: ALBRTO Alberto Fujimori is a Peruvian of Japanese descent born in Lima, Peru, in1938. He served as President from 1990 to 2000 and was credited with uprooting terrorism in Peru and restoring its macroeconomic stability. Unfortunately, he also was charged with human rights violations. under arrest

82D: “Peter Pan” pirate: SMEE

84D: Basketball position: GUARD

87D: Igneous-rock source: LAVA

89D: Apr. payee: IRS April 15, pay to the order of Internal Revenue Service (Why in the world is it called a service?

91D: Swelled head: EGO

92D: Clearly embarrassed: BEET RED

93D: Shirt part: ARM HOLE

94D: Coveted ballet role: GISELLE The role of Giselle is one of the most sought-after in ballet. To win the role, a ballerina must have near perfect technique, outstanding grace, and great drama skills. Giselle revolves around the themes of forest spirits, forces of nature, and death. The second act of the ballet, in which everyone is wearing white, is known as the "white act." First performed in Paris in 1841.

95A: Back muscle, for short: LAT LATissimus dorsi muscles.

96D: Five-star monogram: DDE Dwight David Eisenhower was a five star General.

97D: Light-dawning cry: A-HA

98D: Small bag: SATCHEL Satchel Paige

99D: Informal greeting: HI THERE

100D: Fiend: EVIL ONE

101D: Evening device: LEVELER This clue bedeviled me.

106D: Houses, land, etc.: REALTY

108D: Painter’s pigment: OCHER

109D: Back-up strategy: PLAN B

110D: -arian relative: -EER -arian: denoting a person who supports, advocates, or practices a doctrine, theory, or set of principles associated with the base word: authoritarian; librarian; vegetarian.
-EER: denoting a person who produces, handles, or is otherwise significantly associated the base word (auctioneer; engineer; mountaineer; pamphleteer).

113D: Oriole, for one: ALER American Leaguer

114D: A great distance: AFAR

115D: Orchid product: LEI OK, more like a product that uses orchids.

117D: For the asking: FREE

119D: B&B offerings: RMS Bed and Breakfast inns, often in a private house and you are treated more like a guest than a customer. You can get a ROOM and something to eat in the morning.

120D: Alphabetic trio: STU

121D: Afore: ERE

122D: Acapulco aunt: TIA

123D: Mo. City: STL Saint Louis, Missouri. Looks funny spelled out, doesn’t it?

Argyle

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.