Sunday August 2, 2009 Nancy Salomon

Theme: At the Y (Letter Y's are added to familiar phrases)

23A: Conference call? MAN(Y)-TO- MAN(Y) CHAT

36A: Skittish about almost everything?: WORLD WAR(Y)

49A: Cheer from an ass?: SUPPORT BRA(Y)

81A: Successful cabbies?: BUS(Y) DRIVERS

95A: Thick stick-in-the-mud?: DENSE FOG(Y)

114A: Overt play for sympathy?: OPEN-PIT(Y) MINING

16D: Hamlet's cry after finding a gem?: AY, THERE'S THE RUB(Y)

43D: Editor's mixed bag?: GOOD COP(Y) BAD COP(Y)

The Y at the theme title "At the Y" refers to YMCA, correct?

I am not familiar with the communication term MANY-TO-MANY. "To sleep: perchance to dream: Ay, there's the rub" is from Hamlet's "to be or not to be" speech. SUPPORT BRAY is so funny.

Smooth puzzle from Nancy Salomon. If there were a Crossword Hall of Fame, she should be among the first to be inducted.

I filled in lots of blanks on my first pass. Still had to cheat though. Disliked the clue for WOE IS ME (21A: Melodramatic cry) because MELO is the answer for 48A: Dramatic beginning.

Across:

1A: Downfall: DEMISE

7A: Religion founded in the Punjab: SIKHISM. SIKH is Sanskrit for "disciple".

14A: Valuable strings: AMATIS. Wrote down STRADS first. It fit well with SEC, my initial answer for the intersecting 14D: Wall Street org. (ASE).

20A: undermined: ERODED

22A: Agree to unit: SAY "I DO"

26A: Off the shelf: SOLD

27A: Followers of zetas: ETAS. Greek has 24 letters.

30A: Severe spasm: THROE

31A: Stud site: EAR LOBE. Stud earrings.

33A: Joe's con man buddy in "Midnight Cowboy": RATSO. Played by Dustin Hoffman.

34A: Loads: REAMS. Did anyone try SCADS first?

35A: Corp alias: DBA (Doing Business As)

40A: Ice cream thickener: AGAR. Made of seaweed.

42A: Makes true: ALIGNS. "True" here means "on target".

44A: Censor's deletion: OATH

45A: Secrecy metaphors: CLOSETS. My first thought is THE ROSE. Rose does denote secrecy, you know, sub rosa.

53A: Math ration: SINE

55A: Gathering clouds and such: OMENS. Chinese view crow as an OMEN of death.

57A: State stat: AREA

58A: Team with a star logo: ASTROS. Houston ASTROS.

62A: Charlie Brown's creator: SCHULZ. Charles SCHULZ was born and grew up here in Minnesota.

64A: Much of Egypt: SAHARA. SAHARA is just Arab for "desert".

65A: "Odyssey" enchantress: CIRCE. Wanted SIREN again. CIRCE turned Odysseus' crew into swine.

66A: Wavy lines, in comics: ODOR

69A: Skelton's Kadiddlehopper: CLEM. I can never remember this name.

70A: Fast times?: LENTS. Without the question mark, the clue is valid too.

71A: Lazy: OTIOSE. New word to me.

73A: Bumps up: RAISES

75A: Wagner works: OPERAS

77A: Get going: PROPEL

78A: Weapon with a bell guard: EPEE. I don't know what a bell guard is.

79A: SeaWorld star: SHAMU. Orca sounds deadly, doesn't it?

80A: Hard to grasp: EELY

85A: Chum, e.g.: BAIT. I kept thinking of "buddy" chum.

89A: Collectors' targets: DEBTORS. Was in the hobby "collector" direction. I am very into bobbleheads now.

92A: Atlanta suburb: SMYRNA. No idea. Here is a map.

94A: Former Sony brand: AIWA. Oh, I was not aware that Sony has killed the AIWA brand. Sony only acquired AIWA in 2002.

98A: Relocation: Abbr.: TRF (Transfer). Not a familiar abbr. to me.

99A: Feature of Goliath, but not giants: HARD G. My favorite clue. Very nice wordplay.

102A: Western star with a whip: LA RUE (Lash). He got his name Lash because of his exceptional skill with bullwhip.

104A: Scorecard listings: ROSTERS

106A: Period of note: EPOCH

107A: Layered do: SHAG. Like Farrah Fawcett's hair.

108A: Cameo shape: OVAL

111A: Polo of "Meet the Fockers": TERI. Dustin Hoffman was in "Meet the Fockers" too.

112A: Guarded bars: INGOTS. Thought of the prison bars.

118A: Passed gradually: SEEPED

119A: Soft, in a way: LENIENT

120A: Cooling-off period?: ICE AGE

121A: Dionysian attendants: SATYRS. They are part man, part goat, constantly drinking and chasing the nymphs. See this SATYR balancing a wine cup on his erect MOREL.

122A: City on the Elbe: DRESDEN. Famous for its fine china.

123A: Cordage fibers: ISTLES. This word used to stump me.

Down:

1D: DNC part: Abbr.: DEM. DNA is Democratic National Committee.

2D: Subject to being wiped out: ERASABLE

3D: Way around Disneyland: MONORAIL. No idea. Have never been to Disneyland.

4D: Pastoral piece: IDYLL

5D: Put on the table: SET DOWN

6D: Shogun's capital: EDO. The name became Tokyo in 1868. Shogun is literally "general".

7D: Police crisis acronym: SWAT

8D: Isle of Mull neighbor: IONA. See this map. I've never heard of Isle of Mull.

10D: Sot's syllable: HIC. Hiccup.

11D: 1987 Beatty bomb: ISHTAR. Funny, Dustin Hoffman is in this movie too. ISHTAR is also the Babylonian/Assyrian goddess of love/fertility. Counterpart to the Phoenician Astarte.

12D: Wiseacre: SMARTY. Wonder how SMARTY Jones is doing.

15D: Chanted words: MANTRAS

18D: "Jump the Shark," e.g.: IDIOM. "Jump the Shark" is derived from the scene in "Happy Days" when the Fonz water skied over a shark. The phrase refers to a point where TV shows has run out of ideas and resorts to stunts to retain viewer interest. Of course, things all go downhill from there.

19D: Pump bottoms: SOLES

24D: Dutch artist Jan van der __ van Delft: MEER. I only know him as Jan Vermeer. "Van" means "from" or "of" in Dutch. He was born and buried in Delft. Probably most famous for "The Milkmaid" and "The Girl with the Pearl Earring", the latter inspired the Scarlett Johansson movie with the same title.

29D: Eucalyptus muncher: KOALA

31D: Cheese tray choice: EDAM. Dutch cheese.

33D: Gung-ho: RAH RAH

37D: Cuts: LOPS

38D: Skip along the water: DAP. This has become a gimme as well.

39D: Intl. commerce group since 1995: WTO (World Trade Organization). Replaced GATT (General Agreements on Tariffs and Trade).

41D: some El Prado works: GOYAS. Both his "The Naked Maja" and "The Clothed Maja" are in El Prado.

45D: Hot item: CRAZE

46D: King Zog's capital: TIRANA. Capital of Albania. I did not know who King Zog is.

47D: Bar belts: SNORTS. Stumped. Both "belt" and "snort" are slang for "a drink of liquor, esp when swallowed in one gulp" according to dictionary.

50D: Second commandment preposition: UNTO.

51D: Fighting ender: TRUCE. Korean War simply ended with a TRUCE, not a peace treaty.

52D: Nautical time units: BELLS. The half-hour units. Navy's traditional timekeeping system.

54D: Those, in Tijuana: ESAS. ESOS too.

56D: Attorney general under Reagan: MEESE (Ed).

59D: Capital north of Sacramento: SALEM

60D: Like British bishop: MITRED. British spelling of miter, the traditional, ceremonial head-dress of bishop.

61D: Ray's opponent: ORIOLE. Both belong to American League East Division.

62D: All lathered up: SOAPY

63D: Turned on the waterworks: CRIED

65D: Handle things: COPE. Thought of DEAL first.

67D: Become decent: DRESS. OK, #7 definition of "decent" according to Dictionary.com: "wearing enough clothing to appear in public".

69D: Former "Last Comic Standing" host Jay: MOHR. Stumped. But when I googled his name, I realized he was the nice guy Nick in Jennifer Aniston "Picture Perfect".

72D: Jostle: ELBOW

74D: Unruffled: SERENE. Like Mona Lisa's smile.

76D: Turn a corner, in Monopoly: PASS GO. No idea. Know nothing about Monopoly.

79D: Fitness magazine: SELF. Eva Longoria is very pretty, even without make-up.

82D: Range mostly in Russia: URALS

83D: OR hookups: IVS. Reminds me of a clever clue for STU (RV hookups).

84D: Go head to head: VIE

86D: Main street: ARTERIAL

87D: Encroach (upon): INFRINGE

90D: More like best buds: TIGHTER. The clue just does not feel natural to me.

93D: Occult figures: MYSTICS

95D: Cloth dealer, in Cambridge: DRAPER. British for dealer in cloth/clothing/dry goods. What do we call "Cloth dealer" in America ?

96D: Debs in politics: EUGENE. Unknown figure to me. Wikipedia says he was one of the founding members of the International Labor Union.

97D: Air France destination: ORLY. Main airport of Paris prior to Charles de Gaulle.

99D: 1960 Olympic figure skating gold medalist Carol: HEISS. Nope. She looks so cheerful.

100D: Sleep disturbance: APNEA

101D: Creator of an immortal 1852 lexicon: ROGET. Oh, the man with many words. I did not know ROGET's Thesaurus was published in 1852.

108D: Page with essays: OP-ED. OP(posite)- ED(itorial).

110D: Ltrs. in a letter: ATTN

113D: Tom Hayden's '60s org.: SDS (Students for a Democratic Society)

116D: Early 11th century year: MII. 1002.

117D: Some appliances: GES. Hey, finally Goldman Sachs upgraded GE.

Answer grid.

Thanks for the comments, everyone.

C.C.

Saturday August 1, 2009 Barry Silk

Theme: None

Total words: 70

Total blocks: 26

A pangram. Barry's hallmark. All 26 letters are utilized in the puzzle, including 2 Z's & 2 Q's.

This grid also has unique symmetry. If you fold it along the diagonal lines, all the black squares match each other. Very pretty. Lots of triple-stacked 7-letter words in each quadrant.

I suspect REYKJAVIK (21D: Northernmost national capital) is Barry's seed entry. Awesome fill, so scrabbly. Too bad I couldn't spell it correctly. I only know the Chinese translation. Oh, by the way, Barry is traveling and has no access to computer until Monday night. So, he won't respond to our comments today.

Very hard puzzle. Too many unknowns. A nightmare for me.

Across:

1A: Tops: BETTERS. BESTS can be clued as "Tops" too.

8A: Grows fond of: WARMS TO

15A: City WNW of Cheyenne: LARAMIE. Stumped. See this map. University of Wyoming is there. Dick Cheney's alma mater.

16A: Sister of Iphigenia: ELECTRA. I had no idea who Iphigenia is. Might have got the answer if it's clued as "Sister of Orestes". Remember this Three Furies painting? Orestes stabbed his mother to death because she murdered his father and was having an affair with someone else.

17A: Predictably: AS USUAL

18A: Ceremonious event: BANQUET. Of course I was thinking of Obama's Beer Summit.

19A: Peels: ZESTS. Noun or verb?

20A: Réunion attendee: FRERE. French for "brother". Sister is SOEUR.

22A: ConAgra spray: PAM. Did not know ConAgra owns PAM.

23A: Ferrara ruling family: ESTE. More often clued as "Italian noble family".

24A: Heat unit: THERM. Oh well, I only know BTU. THERM=100,000 BTUs. My initial thought was SQUAD, thinking heat might refer to the police.

25A: Style: MODE

26A: Caribbean export: RUM

27A: They usually lose at war: TREYS. How come? What war?

28A: Hood of "Our Gang" fame: DARLA. DARLA Hood, "typically the love interest of Alfafa, Butch, or (usually) Waldo", according to Wikipedia. Stumper for me.

29A: Low-fat breakfast brand: SPECIAL K. Oh, I did not know it's low-fat brand. Hate low-fat/no-fat food.

31A: Bit of gossip: MORSEL

32A: Place where a customer may be taken: CLIP JOINT. Does "taken" here mean "cheated"?

34A: Gel cap alternative: TABLET

37A: Urban scavenger: ALLEY CAT

42A: Like bighorns: OVINE. Bighorn is a wild sheep with large, curving horns.

43A: President of Pakistan, 1978-'88: ZIA. I forgot. This guy appeared in our old TMS puzzle before. He became the president by overthrowing Ali Bhutto, father was Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated in 2007.

44A: "Saga of the Greenlanders" hero: LEIF. Son of Erik the Red. I've never heard of "Saga of the Greenlanders". It tells the colonization of Greenland by Erik the Red according to Wikipedia. LEIF means "heir".

45A: Sunday outing: DRIVE. A pleasure trip.

46A: 1950s-60s TV quiz show host: MARX. No idea. Groucho MARX. The show is called "You Bet Your Life".

47A: Internet annoyance: LAG. Annoying indeed. Hit the Refresh button when you come here.

48A: Product of a fault: QUAKE. Geology fault.

49A: Helvetica's lack: SERIF. I did not know the meaning of Helvetica. It's a typeface in which characters have no SERIFS. Wikipedia says Helvetica is derived from Confoederatio Helvetia, the Latin name for Switzerland.

50A: Name from a Hebrew word for "God is with us": EMANUEL. Unknown to me.

52A: Of more interest to a nitpicker: PETTIER

54A: Emit: RADIATE

55A: Brobdingnagian: IMMENSE. Again, did not know the meaning of Brobdingnagian.

56A: Some small suits: SPEEDOS. Suit here refers to swimsuit, right? Daniel Craig is my favorite Bond.

57A: Test the concentration of, in chem lab: TITRATE. New word to me also.

Down:

1D: Apparel with insignias, at times: BLAZERS. Pilots' BLAZERS?

2D: Backs off: EASES UP

3D: Words to a skeptic: TRUST ME

4D: Decorator's asset: TASTE. TASTE is very subjective.

5D: Layers of green eggs: EMUS. See these eggs. Very dark green, almost black.

6D: River valley formation: RIA. Well, it's a gimme to me only when it's clued as "River inlet".

7D: Bookstore section: SELF HELP

8D: Units of magnetic flux: WEBERS. No idea. It's named after German physicist W. E. WEBER. I thought of TESLA, which is actually "Unit of magnetic flux density". One TESLA equals to one WEBER per square meter.

9D: Elevator button: ALARM

10D: Filmmaker Clair: RENE. An unknown French filmmaker to me.

11D: 1974 John Wayne title role: MCQ. Another total unknown.

12D: Dazes: STUPORS

13D: Old sewing machine part: TREADLE

14D: Common haggis ingredient: OATMEAL. Scottish seem to put OATMEAL in everything.

24D: Baldness, e.g.: TRAIT

25D: Best Picture of 1955: MARTY. No idea. Wikipedia says Ernest Borgnine won Oscar for his performance in this movie.

27D: Like many a backsplash: TILED

28D: Charitable organization, e.g.: DONEE. Struggled with the answer.

30D: Symbol seen in viola music: C CLEF. Absolutely no idea. Is C CLEF used in viola music only?

31D: Creator of Heffalumps: MILNE. Here is a list of Winnie-the-Pooh characters. I've never heard of Heffalumps.

33D: Salad leftover: OLIVE PIT. Did not come to me readily. I only make Chinese/Japanese style salad. Don't use olive or cheese.

34D: They have a lot of bills: TELLERS. So simple in retrospect.

35D: Garmin display: AREA MAP. Not familiar with the GPS navigation producer Garmin.

36D: Fighting force: BRIGADE. Sigh. Nope.

38D: Winter Palace resident: CZARINA. Wanted THE TSAR.

39D: Least substantial: AIRIEST

40D: Exempt, in a way: TAX FREE

42D: Papal vestment: ORALES. Also called fanon, "a striped scarflike vestment worn by the pope over the alb when celebrating solemn Pontifical Mass", says dictionary. Unknown to me. Maybe Argyle can find a link on those papal vestments.

45D: Because of: DUE TO

46D: Coin collector?: METER. My favorite clue. The real "Coin collector" is called numismatist.

48D: Beyond stereo: QUAD. Have never heard of QUAD hi-fi.

49D: Acct. summary: STMT. Statement. I've never paid attention to the abbreviation before.

51D: Nuremberg negative: NIE. German for "never". I only know NEIN (no).

53D: One of the "big four" record labels: EMI. A rare gimme. The other three are Universal, Sony and Warner Music.

Answer grid.

C.C.

Friday July 31, 2009 Dan Naddor

Theme: Say It Again? (sk → X)

17A: Paul Bunyan's admission in therapy?: I HATE TO AX (ask)

27A: Formal attire for Dumbo?: ELEPHANT TUX (tusk)

43A: Plant fiber used by moonshiners?: WHISKEY FLAX (flask)

56A: Diver's tank capacity?: OXYGEN MAX (mask)

11D: Catchall source of revenue?: MULTI-TAX (task)

36D: Keep a Northeastern fort under surveillance?: VIDEO DIX (disk)

WHISKEY FLAX is not an ideal theme entry, as there is still a SK there waiting to be swapped. DIX in the last one refers to Fort DIX, named for Civil War Major General John Adams DIX.

What other sk/X can you think of? Minsk/MINX came to my mind.

Another Mount Everest for me. My "Yes, I can" hope has now resigned to "Well, I tried". Very hard. I did not understand the theme until the very end.

Cross:

1A: Queen described by Mercutio: MAB. Here is Mercutio's speech. From Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet". I'm used to the "Fairy queen" clue.

4A: Cornrow: PLAIT. Bo Derek wore cornrows in movie "10".

9A: Like much "Laugh-In" humor: CAMPY. What exactly is CAMPY? Is "Friends" CAMPY?

14A: Put away: ATE

15A: Dreads wearer: RASTA. Bob Marley is probably the most famous RASTA. Love his "No Woman, No Cry".

16A: Fertilized item: OVULE. And GAMETE (49A: 16-Across cell). I had trouble obtaining both. Needed "egg" for hint.

19A: Tees off: RILES

20A: Fish in a tank: TETRA

21A: Italian omelet served open-faced: FRITTATA. I have yet to try zucchini FRITTATA. I expect it to be very soggy.

23A: Museum assortment: RELICS

25A: Balk at: RESIST

31A: Place to unwind: TUB

32A: "A Perfect Spy" author: LE CARRE. Here is the book cover. I've never heard of it. John LE CARRE also wrote "The Constant Gardener".

33A: __kiri: HARA. HARA is "belly", kiri is "cut". The Japanese samurai suicide.

34A: Selfless sort: GIVER. Donor too.

37A: Ex-Fed chairman Alan Greenspan's alma mater: NYU. A rare gimme for me. Greenspan is a disciple of Ayn Rand.

38A: Not so strict: LAXER

39A: Computer operating system: UNIX. Windows for our computer.

40A: Tabloid topic: SCANDAL. A-Rod is dating Kate Hudson now.

42A: It's illegal to drop it: LSD. I did not know the slang meaning of drop: to ingest an illicit drug orally; swallow, according to dictionary.

47A: River of the Carolinas: PEE DEE. Stumped again.

50A: The Great Barrier Reel borders it: CORAL SEA. See this map. My first Poison is a Christmas gift from Queensland.

54A: Expectant parent, e.g.: NAMER

58A: Part of "CSI": CRIME. SCENE is 5 letter too.

59A: Baseball commissioner Bud: SELIG. He used to own Milwaukee Brewers.

60A: Verb suffix?: OSE. Verbose. I did not fall into the IZE trap.

61A: Hockey lineup, e.g.: HEXAD. A group of six. I was stumped. Know nothing about hockey.

62A: Borneo swinger: ORANG. Borneo is the third largest island in the world, after Greenland and New Guinea.

63A: 1985 video game release, initially: NES (Nintendo Entertainment System). Japanese kanji for Nintendo is literally "Trust heavens".

Down:

1D: French teacher: MAITRE. I thought it's PROFESOR.

2D: Following closely: AT HEEL

3D: __ wig: '60s fad item: BEATLE. I wonder how much this original wig is worth now.

4D: Service provider? PREACHER. Great clue.

5D: Back muscle, for short: LAT. I simply forgot. See this diagram. Short for latissimus dorsi.

6D: Starting: AS OF

7D: __-Tass: news agency: ITAR. The Russian news agency. ITAR stands for Information Telegraph Agency of Russia.

8D: Sitcom set in a garage: TAXI. No idea.

9D: Organ layer: CORTEX. Latin for "bark of a tree". I thought CORTEX refers to the brain, you know, cerebral CORTEX.

10D: Some athletic footwear: AVIAS

12D: You can get it from a blast: PLEASURE. I was picturing a dynamite blast.

13D: Check-box word: YES. I like this clue.

18D: Apartment with two staircases, perhaps: TRIPLEX. So, duplex is "Apartment with one staircase"?

22D: Loyal: TRUE

24D: __ fly: run-scoring out: SAC. Sacrifice fly.

26D: Way up the slope: T-BAR

28D: Folk singer Griffith: NANCI. Stranger to me. Wikipedia says she is the original singer of "From a Distance". I like Bette Miller's version.

29D "__ I might ...": TRY AS

30D: Jack's place: TRUNK

33D: Not a whole person?: HALF MAN. "Two and a HALF MAN" helped me with this answer.

34D: [Uh-oh!]: GULP. The square brackets suggest non-verbal behavior/gesture.

35D: Like many Woody Allen characters: INSECURE. Thought of NEUROTIC.

38D: Bomb big-time: LAY AN EGG. Multipe words always give me trouble.

40D: Kid-lit poet Silverstein: SHEL. He also wrote the music and lyrics for "A Boy Named Sue".

41D: B.S., e.g.: DEG. And SCH (55D: 41-Down awarder)

44D: Best Actor winner for "Save the Tiger" (1973): LEMMON (Jack). No idea. Great clip. Al Pacino looks so young.

45D: Drill command: AT EASE

46D: Persian king who captured Athens: XERXES. Sigh. I actually watched and liked "300", in which Gerard Butler the Spartan King leads 300 Spartans fighting against XERXES, very kinky looking in the film.

48D: Miller creation: DRAMA. Arthur Miller. Anyone tried FLOUR?

52D: Phys. activity: EXER (exercise). Not a familiar abbreviation to me.

53D: "The Clan of the Cave Bear" heroine: AYLA. Boy, I can never remember this Jean Auel character.

57D: Beefeater, e.g.: GIN. No idea. I've never heard of Beefeater GIN. Dictionary defines beefeater as "yeoman of the English royal guard or a warder of the Tower of London". Hence the guard label I suppose.

Answer grid.

Thank you for the blog/private answers and comments, everyone. I appreciate and value every contribution.

C.C.

Thursday July 30, 2009 Fred Jackson III

Theme: Cover Letters

20A: Photographer of a letter? P(ea) SHOOTER

26A: Letter's rest period?: T(ea) BREAK

49A: Undercover operation to trap a letter?: B(ee) STING

56A: One who can't hold a letter?: I(eye) DROPPER

10D: Letter out for a stroll?: J(ay) WALKING

38D: Official in charge of a letter?: C(sea) CAPTAIN

Hmm, 6 theme entries, quite heavy. Fred must have sifted through a ton of theme candidates. I wonder if he considered any phrase with letter Q (cue) or Y (why).

B STING and J WALKING are so evocative. T BREAK is great too. Hot scone & strawberry jam & tea. Yum!

When I first saw the question mark after each "letter", I actually thought of landlord. You know, the one who lets. Someone asked on the blog last summer why RENT is clued as "Letter amount?".

Lovely puzzle. I still had to cheat, but I fared better than I did with last Thursday's Dan Naddor "Take Action" puzzle.

Across:

1A: [Snore]: HO-HUM. And BLAH (27D: Eliciting a "So what").

6A: Blow hard: HUFF. HUFF and puff.

10A: Singer Joan: JETT. Wrote down BAEZ first.

14A: Ex-TV host Stewart: ALANA. She co-hosted the "George & ALANA" show with her then husband George Hamilton. I only knew her as Rod Stewart's ex.

15A: River to the Mediterranean: EBRO. The Spanish river. ELBE, the Hamburg river, flows into the North Sea.

16A: Guitarist's effect: WAWA. No idea. Dictionary says it's some kind of muted guitar/trumpet effect.

17A: Hear again: RETRY. I don't get this one.

18A: Speed Wagons, e.g.: REOS

19A: Stress, it's said: AGER. Probably only in crossword world. Stress does age us faster.

22A: Flea market figure: SELLER. Wrote down DEALER first. They have 4 letters in common.

24A: Tops with cups: BRAS. Nailed it immediately. Quite a crossing with UNROBE (4D: Strip).

25A: Ready to collapse: RICKETY

29A: Old Mughal Empire capital: DELHI. It's the same place as New DELHI, correct?

30A: suffix with glob: ULE. A diminutive suffix.

31A: Blocks that lock: LEGOS

33A: At the ready: ON TAP

37A: Rash preventer: TALC. Thought of ALOE, which actually treats rather than prevents rash.

39A: Like some checking accounts: NO-FEE

41A: Nuts (over): GAGA

42A: Word before radio or wave: SHOCK. SHOCK radio = Howard Stern.

44A: "I dunno": GOT ME. NO IDEA won't fit.

46A: Mark, as a ballot: X IN. No abbreviation hint? For your information, XIN means "new" in Chinese. New Year is XIN Nian. Nian means "year".

47A: Shady retreat: ARBOR

51A: Crow relatives: MAGPIES

54A: Like Burbank City Hall, for short: DECO. Have never heard of Burbank City Hall before. It's in California.

55A: Respectful gesture: CURTSY

60A: "Bess, You is My Woman," e.g.: ARIA

61A: Muskogee's st.: OKLA. What is Muskogee famous for?

63A: Heavy herbivore: RHINO. Horny, horny. RHINO's horn is more valuable than gold.

64A: Suspense novelist Hoag: TAMI. Unknown figure to me. What does her neck scarf say?

66A: Country singer Tucker: TANYA. Jimbo, happy?

68A: Muchas horas: DIAS. Spanish for DAYS. "Muchas horas" is "Many hours". I pieced the answer together from Down fills.

69A: Rile (up): STEAM

Down:

1D: Dwell (on): HARP

2D: Cheers at some World Cup games: OLES

3D: "Hell __ no fury ...": HATH. "Hell HATH no fury like a woman scorned".

5D: Like some elections: MAYORAL. Wow, there is an adjective for mayor? I only know gubernatorial.

7D: Slangy prefix meaning "super": UBER

8D: One way to sway: FRO. To and FRO.

9D: Dig discovery: FOSSIL

11D: Apollo 11 module: EAGLE

12D: Twitter message: TWEET. Sarah Palin is a Twitterati (the Twitter elite).

13D: Linger: TARRY

21D: Unavailable: TAKEN. Directly above BEYOND (48D: Not within reach of).

23D: Return call?: ECHO. Good clue.

25D: Pedometer button: RESET

28D: Possible result of a job change, for short: RELO

29D: Attend of the needs of: DO FOR. The answer is often SEE TO.

32D: "We Got the Beat" band, with "The": GO-GO'S. Here is the clip. Both the band and the song are unfamiliar to me.

34D: Part of a pickup line?: TAXI. Great clue too.

35D: Opposin': AGIN. Against. Not "fer".

36D: Remorseful feeling: PANG

40D: Cookout remnant: EMBER

43D: Barbra's "A Star is Born" costar: KRIS (Kristofferson)

45D: Accompanists?: ESCORTS. Can you clue ABETTORS as "Accompanists?" also?

50D: Signature wear for Astair: TOP HAT. In his musical TOP HAT.

51D: Future docs' exams: MCATS (Medical College Admission Tests). I forgot.

52D: Surrounding glows: AURAE. The plural of aura can also be AURAS.

53D: Mr. Clean target: GRIME

54D: Times to attack: D-DAYS

56D: "Casablanca" role: ILSA. Hey, "Here's looking at you, kid", welcome back.

57D: Cabinet wood: PINE

58D: "Orinoco Flow" singer: ENYA. Simply beautiful.

59D: Itinerate: ROAM. I only know the noun itinerary. In fact, I misread the clue as "Iterate".

62D: Colorful carp: KOI. Some of the KOI can cost thousands of dollars.

Answer grid.

C.C.

Interview with Jerome Gunderson

Since June 2007, Jerome Gunderson has had 6 puzzles published by LA Times. Had we switched to LAT one week earlier on March 16, 2009, he would be the first LAT constructor we encountered.

Jerome loves anagrams. And he has a terrific sense of Norwegian humor, being a great grandson of an Olaf. Last time when Dennis brought up "Water a Flower Day", Jerome responded with "Baloney! Why would anyone put more water in a river?" - one of my favorite blog Comments.

I also enjoy and value Jerome's analysis of each puzzle. He always brings out the highlight of each grid and helps us to appreciate every constructing effort.

I love imperfection in art/life, and I am really touched by Jerome's "tiny flaw in a Navajo rug" & blemish fill in a perfect puzzle analogy.

How is today's puzzle different from your original submission? Any significant change on the grid?

Today's puzzle is very different from the original submission. The first draft had TEASE hidden in TEA SERVICE. Rich canned that because tease split two words and the other theme words were contained in just one. Big mistake on my part. So tease was out the window and replaced by RAZZLE DAZZLE. That change led to altering, by necessity, a large part of the grid. The constructor is the one responsible for having to deal with that. It's not the editor's job to redo a puzzle. It's the author's responsibility.

Which is the seed word of this puzzle? How did you come up with the set of theme answers?

Tease was the seed word. It simply occurred to me that you could take other words that meant tease and use them in a clever way by hiding them in unrelated phrases. I wanted the solver to have to work a little to catch on even though the theme is staring you in the face, right smack-dab out front.

The theme entries were fairly easy to come up with. How many phrases start with RAZZ, JOSH, KID and RIB? That easiness was pure luck. Not often does it work that way.

What's your background? How did you get involved in crossword solving/constructing?

When I was a lad my heroes were Jack London and Maxim Gorky. I was going to be as adventurous as they. Turns out that I never sailed the seas or walked the breadth of Russia. But I did land a job as a short order cook in a funky little diner. After two days training I was left on my own to handle breakfast and lunch. It became clear really quick why it is said all cooks are drunks. Each morning one of the waitresses would come in early and do the daily puzzle in the San Francisco Chronicle. I got into the habit of helping her. I don't think we ever finished one but it began a lifelong love of crosswords. In 2005 I made one and managed to get Merl Reagle to take a look at it. I thought the puzzle brilliant. A couple of days later he sent me a detailed critique. He pretty much said it might have been the crappiest puzzle he'd ever seen. His honesty (I still owe him for that) compelled me to improve. For two years I did every puzzle I could lay my hands on, and continued to make puzzles. Which I showed no one. I constantly compared the puzzles of the pros against my own stuff with the purpose of discovering the difference between the two. In 2007 I sent Nancy Salomon a few theme ideas and she liked a couple of them. In fact, she co-wrote my first puzzle and it appeared in June of that year in the Los Angeles Times. To this day she's gracious enough to respond when I ask for a helping hand.

As I was trying to be London or Gorky I wandered around a lot from town to town. Mostly in the Southwest and California. I had many jobs in my teen years. From the age of twenty to twenty nine I was an organizer for the United Farm Workers Union and a Teamster. For the last thirty years I've been a union carpenter. I live in a small town called Healdsburg. It's about an hour north of San Francisco. I'm blessed to be married to an extraordinary woman named Roxanna.

What is a perfect puzzle to you? What kind of themes/fills fascinate you?

The perfect puzzle would have Dan Naddor's cleverness, Merl Reagle's zaniness, Cathy Allis's humor, Nancy Salomon's fabulous fill, and the clues written by Bob Klahn.

I was fortunate to have lived on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona for two years. While there I learned that some rug makers purposely weaved a tiny flaw into the rug. The idea being that humans were not perfect, only the gods were. The flaw was simply a statement of humbleness. My puzzle today has the word ETES in it. It's my offering to a higher power. So I don't want to hear about it.

I enjoy any well crafted puzzle regardless of the theme. However, my favorite crosswords to solve are ones with a lot of whacky words and phrases. The whackier the better. I also love the tough Saturday type puzzle. When it comes to fill I'd rather see a phrase than a word.

What kind of references books do you use? And where do you get your puzzle inspirations?

My dictionaries are Random House Unabridged and Merriam Webster's. On line I use Onelook quite a lot. These sources are mostly for cluing and making sure my spelling is correct.

Inspiration and ideas can only come from your mind. There are an infinite amount of puzzle ideas to draw on. You simply have to find a way to tap into the billions of possibilities just sitting there unused. I don't believe that puzzles are an art form or that they take exceptional talent. I certainly don't believe you have to be a brainiac or highly educated to create one. I'm living proof of that. Most people are talented in something and most people have a good imagination. I firmly convinced that almost anybody could learn to make a crossword puzzle. Ultimately, I suppose you have to inspire yourself to accomplish anything. The inspirations of a muse are only you talking to yourself.

If anyone has a question I'd be delighted to respond.

Wednesday July 29, 2009 Jerome Gunderson

Theme: Just a Tease!

17A: Mojave Desert grower: JOSHUA TREE

26A: Flashy theatrically: RAZZLE-DAZZLE

44A: VIP at a grand opening: RIBBON CUTTER

60A: Place to wade: KIDDIE POOL

A pangram. 5 Z's. Unbelievable. There are also 6 V's in the grid. Quite unusual.

Such a tight & focused theme. RAZZLE-DAZZLE is certainly the showiest entry. Wish NEEDLE (45D: Bit of Christmas debris) were just clued as "Tease".

I had trouble with lower right corner. Penned in TROY instead of EPIC for 55D: "Cast-of-thousands movie" and messed up the whole corner.

Across:

1A: Knocks senseless: DAZES. And TKOS (52AD: Ali stats).

6A: "__ Zapata!": 1952 film: VIVA. Elia Kazan film, starring Marlon Brando. I obtained the answer from Down fills. I had ?IVA there and thought of DIVA first.

10A: Hook for landing large fish: GAFF. Faux pas is GAFFE.

14A: Send to the Hill, say: ELECT. Capitol Hill.

15A: Sister of Ares: ERIS. Twin sister to be exact. ERIS is the apple thrower who indirectly initiated the Trojan War. Greek goddess of discord.

16A: Teen follower?: AGER. Teenager.

19A: Tear to pieces: RIVE. So the person who tears the stuff to pieces would be RIVER?

20A: Coin-op eatery: AUTOMAT

21A: Moved to and fro, as a golf club just before swinging: WAGGLED. I'm glad Sergio Garcia gave up his waggle habit. Painful to watch. Just hit the damned ball.

23A: Harris' __ Rabbit: BR'ER

25A: Last Olds ever made: ALERO. Discontinued in 2004. Some source says ALERO is a Nigerian name meaning "Grace of the Land".

32A: "Tiny Alice" dramatist: ALBEE (Edward). The answer emerged itself.

33A: Rattler's pose: COIL

37A: Haunted house sound: MOAN

38A: Scout's job, for short: RECON

42A: Former wrestling star __ Brazil: BOBO. No idea. Wikipedia say this guy was credited with breaking down barriers of racial segregation in professional wrestling, and he is often referred to as the Jackie Robinson of wrestling,

43A: Luxurious fur: SABLE

47A: Up and about: RISEN

51A: Exams for would-be Mensas: IQ TESTS. Why did those Kamikaze pilots bother to wear helmets?

54A: Perfumery product: ESSENCE. ATTAR is often clued as "Essence of roses".

59A: Simon & Garfunkel et al.: DUOS

62A: Show flexibility: GIVE. A perfectly ripe mango should GIVE a little when pressed.

64A: Popular DVRs: TIVOS

65A: Seine summers: ETES. What Jerome himself said.

67A: 1"=100', e.g.: SCALE. What kind of SCALE?

Down:

1D: __ vu: DEJA. "DEJA Vu" is also a Denzel Washington movie. Very strange.

5D: Trip: STUMBLE. Verb.

6D: Checked out thoroughly: VETTED. Brutal vetting process in politics.

7D: Bargain tag abbr.: IRR

8D: Penthouse feature: VIEW

10D: Use Listerine, say: GARGLE

11D: Mentally quick: AGILE. "Physically quick" too.

12D: Peggy Lee signature song: FEVER

13D: Feckless Corleone brother: FREDO. He is indeed feckless. Sonny is hot-headed and reckless. Michael is just a perfect Godfather, calculated and ruthless.

18D: Bern's river: AARE. Or AAR. The river flows from the Alps into the Rhine. Aa is an old German for "running water". R is "river" I presume?

22D: It may be unmitigated: GALL. Is "unmitigated GALL" a common phrase?

28D: Letter-shaped beam: Z-BAR. No idea. Like this?

29D: Buddhist sect: ZEN. I like how it mirrors ZIN (31D: California red, briefly) in the grid.

34D: Cardholder's woe: DEBT

35D: Car bar: AXLE. Nice rhyme.

36D: Textile worker: DYER

39D: Fall away: EBB

42D: Trash holders: BINS. Wrote down CANS first.

43D: Romantic lowerings: SUNSETS. Did not come to me immediately. I was stumped by "lowerings".

44D: __ Pieces, candy brand: REESE'S. I've never had this candy. Do they taste similar to M & M?

46D: Mozart's "__ fan tutte": COSI. Italian for "Thus do all (women)" or "Women are like that". COSI = thus, in this way. Fan=do. Tutte=feminine form for "all". Mozart's comic opera (buffa). Alien to me.

47D: Ruffles potato chip feature: RIDGE

48D: Fed-up employee's announcement: I QUIT

49D: Potbelly, e.g.: STOVE. Wikipedia says the potbelly sandwich name is derived from the potbelly STOVE.

53D: Hindu "Destroyer": SIVA. Or Shiva. Plus Brahma the "Creator" & Vishnu the "Preserver". Hindu Trinity.

56D: 1960s-'80s Chevy: NOVA. No idea.

57D: Calm under pressure: COOL. "Grace under pressure" = COURAGE (Hemingway).

58D: "All __ being equal...": ELSE

61D: Hydroelectric project: DAM. China's Three Gorges DAM is the world's largest hydroelectric project.

Answer grid.

C.C.

Tuesday July 28, 2009 Scott Atkinson

Theme: WAIT (49D: Bide one's time, and a word that may precede the answers to starred clues)

17A: *"We aren't finished here": IT ISN'T OVER

53A: *"Give me another sec": I'M NOT READY

11D: *"It's on the tip of my tongue": DON'T TELL ME

28D: *"I haven't told you everything yet": THERE'S MORE

All of the theme answers contain 10 letters. I wonder if the puzzle is inspired by NPR's "Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!".

Americans are rather impatient. We want things HERE and NOW. I suppose impatience can be a virtue. It drives and speeds up innovation/progress at various fields. Had we waited and waited for the perfect moment, I doubt men would have landed on the moon.

It felt like I was climbing up the stairs in the middle. The grid just looked pretty to me. I also like how IDLE (50D: Just sitting around) parallels WAIT. Nice to see BUSY (24A: In use, as a phone line) in the puzzle too. Just WAIT!

Across:

1A: Potato holders: SACKS. Potatoes are nightshade veggies, so are tomatoes, eggplants and bell peppers.

10A: Kids' party occasion, briefly: B'DAY

14A: Andean beast: LLAMA. Alpaca & LLAMA are both domesticated guanacos.

15A: Actress Gershon: GINA. Does GINA Gershon strike you as sexy? I've only seen her in "Showgirls".

19A: Tolstoy's Karenina: ANNA. Impossible love story often ends tragically.

22A: Encourage: FOSTER

25A: Cinco de Mayo celebrations: FIESTAS

26A: Acela Express operator: AMTRAK. Acela is pronounced ah-CEL-la. Wikipedia says Acela is meant to be evocative of acceleration and excellence.

29A: Mottled T-shirt: TIE-DYE. Such a bright burst of colors.

30A: Broadway's George M.: COHAN. I always want to spell his name as COHEN.

32A: Wall St. takeover: LBO (Leveraged Buyout).

35A: __ & Chandon champagne: MOET. Part of Louis Vuitton.

40A: Bugs' pursuer: ELMER. ELMER Fudd.

41A: Noble's home: ESTATE. Misread the clue as "Nobel's home". That would be SWEDEN.

44A: Deteriorate, slangily: GO SOUTH

46A: Chopped liver spread: PATE. PATE de foie gras, yum!

47A: Group together: LUMP IN

48A: Dover fish dish: SOLE. I love walleye.

49A: The LPGA's Michelle: WIE. Michelle WIE likes wearing dangling earrings.

56A: Filly's father: SIRE

57A: Menthol cigarette: KOOL. Lots of interesting cigarette ads in those old Life magazines.

58A: Author Zola: EMILE. The French plantation owner in "South Pacific" is also called EMILE.

Down:

1D: __ to none: poor odds: SLIM. Like my chance of finishing a LAT Friday/Saturday/Sunday puzzle without cheating.

3D: Eve's oldest: CAIN. Then Abel, then Seth.

4D: Canada hwy. distances: KMS

5D: Puerto Rico's capital: SAN JUAN. I just realized that SAN JUAN is "Saint John (the Baptist)" in English.

8D: Washington's bill: ONE. Nice president clue to pair up with GARFIELD (9D: President after Hayes).

10D: Sounding like marching bands: BRASSY. I suppose Jazzbumpa's trombone sounds BRASSY too.

12D: Nighttime breathing disorder: APNEA

23D: Multivolume Brit. references: OEDS (Oxford English Dictionaries).

25D: "The X-__: FILES.

26D: Very top: ACME. And ATOP (52A: At the apex of).

27D: Drop anchor: MOOR

29D: Silky-voiced Mel: TORME. Nicknamed "The Velvet Fog".

33D: Woodstock singer Joan: BAEZ. There might not be iPod today had Joan BAEZ actually married Steve Jobs.

36D Bongo-playing '50s-'60s sterotypes: BEATNIKS

37D: Get out of Dodge: FLEE. "Get out of Dodge" is a new slang to me. I've vaguely heard of Dodge City.

39D: Spitter's sound: PTUI. Whoa, no more PTUI, otherwise, Elissa might just give up LAT.

42D: __up (absorbed, as gravy): SOPPED. SOP also means "bribe".

44D: Cinderella's slipper material: GLASS

45D: Protruding navel: OUTIE. Opposite INNIE.

46D: They often have deep ends: POOLS


54D: Bovine bellow: MOO. Alliteration.

55D: Comedian Philips: EMO. Interesting, baby name origin says EMO is German for "serious", I always thought EMO is just short for emotional.

Answer grid.

C.C.