Tuesday September 15, 2009 Donna S. Levin

Theme: LOST IN SPACE (57A: TV sci-fi series, first aired 9/15/1965, on which a robot spoke the catchphrase formed by the first words of 17-, 26-, and 42-Across).

I think that is the longest clue I have ever seen in a puzzle.

17A: Toon rodent who's a British secret agent: DANGER MOUSE.

26A: Suitor's proposal: WILL YOU MARRY ME?

42A: Shipwrecked literary hero: ROBINSON CRUSOE.

Melissa Bee blogging.

DANGER, WILL ROBINSON! Even though I never watched LOST IN SPACE, I got the answer immediately. Wikipedia says the phrase was only used once on the show.

Fairly straightforward puzzle, with a few unknowns to make it interesting. Three letters short of a pangram (J, Q and X).

Donna S. Levin has a knack for tribute puzzles. We just had her "The Wizard of Oz" (70-year anniversary) last month.

Across:

1A: Actress Messing of "Will & Grace": DEBRA.

6A: Nothing, in Latin: NIHIL. “Nihil aude, nihil obtine." Risk nothing, gain nothing.

11A: 6-Across suffix: ISM. Who said, "ism's, in my opinion, are not good."?

14A: Typical: USUAL. I'll have the usual.

15A: Endangered layer: OZONE.

20A: Scenic routes, often: SIDEROADS. Like this.

21A: "Look Homeward, Angel" author Thomas: WOLFE. His autobiographical first novel. One of my unknowns. Easy to confuse him with "The Bonfire of Vanities" author Tom WOLFE.

32A: Baseball's "Big Unit" _____ Johnson: RANDY. 6' 10" Pitcher for SF Giants. "Big Unit" indeed. Left-handed. Second All-time in strikeouts (4,867), after Nolan Ryan. Don't confuse him with Baseball's "The Big Train" Johnson, Hall-of-Famer Walter Johnson (right-handed).

33A: Cattle drive buddy: PARD. If you insist. And 62A: Buddy: PAL.

36A: Bouquet: SCENT. I tried to 'smell' it first.

38A: Litter weakling: RUNT.

40A: German name for Cologne: KOLN. I must have been absent the day we learned that.

41A: Cup for cafe: TASSE. French for cup. Like this. Or this.

46A: "_____ directed": medication warning: USE AS.

47A: Ship, to a sailor: HER.

50A: Mike Nichols's comedy partner: ELAINE MAY. Improvisational comedy duo from the 1960's. No idea.

59A: Nipper's co.: RCA. The famous dog listening for his master's voice.

64A: Two foursomes: OCTET. Sometimes it's OCTAD.

Down:

1D: Bombs that don't go off: DUDS.

2D: Actor Morales: ESAI. Crossword staple.

3D: 1930s-'40s German-American political group: BUND (boond). Wikipedia says 'Its main goal was to promote a favorable view of Nazi Germany.'

5D: In a wary way: ALERTLY. Watchful.

6D: "Hold the Hellmann's": NO MAYO. I've never uttered those words in my life.

7D: Shirt that once had a reptilian logo: IZOD.

8D: Male Servant: HOUSEMAN. You're hired.

9D: Aetna's business: Abbr: INS. Aetna is named after Mt Etna, the Sicilian volcano.

10D: Moving toward the calmer side, at sea: LEEWARD. Opposite of windward. See?

11D: "Shoulda listened to me!": I TOLD YOU SO. Or, as my aunt used to say, 'I mentioned that.'

18D: Actor Calhoun: RORY.

22D: Hockey legend Bobby: ORR. Bruins #4. RANDY Johnson always wears #51, except when he was with the Yankees.

25D: Golfer's wheels: CART.

26D: Loony one: WACKO. Irritating word.

27D: How a debater's response is made: IN REBUTTAL. There you go again.

28D: Mormon's gp.: LDS. Latter-Day Saints.

29D: Philly Ivy League sch.: U PENN.

30D: Minister's home: MANSE.

31D: Art Deco designer: ERTE. A gimme, thanks to C.C.

32D: Trailer park resident, for short: RV'ER. Recreational Vehicle. Not so much. I don't normally think of a trailer park and an RV park as the same thing.

36D: Slugger Sammy: SOSA. Sometimes it's "Slamming Sammy", which could also refer to the legendary golfer Sam SNEAD.

37D: Forms an increasingly smaller circle around, with "on": CLOSES IN. Another long clue.

38D: Coll. dorm VIPs: RA'S. Resident Assistants.

40D: Prepared to say 26-Across: Kneeled. Aw. Two cross-references in today's grid.

41D: Seeks help from: TURNS TO.

43D: Cuba or Aruba: Abbr: ISL. Island. Nice rhyme.

44D: Common poolside chair: CHAISE.

45D: Bridle part: REIN. Argyle has educated us about this before.

48D: Ball field protector: TARP.

49D: Peruvian of old: INCA.

51D: Former Ford cars: LTDS.

53D: Enhanced milkshake: MALT

54D: Entr' ____: intermission: ACTE. French for 'between the acts.'

55D: Mon., on Tues.: YEST (Yesterday). Today is Tuesday. Rich is quite attentive to this detail.

58D: Four quarters: ONE. Four quarters make one whole. "12D starter?" would be a great cross-reference clue too.

Answer grid.

Melissa Bee

Monday, September 14, 2009 Lila Cherry

Theme: Vowel Progression

17A: London art museum, as it was formerly known: TATE GALLERY

25A: Its seat is Jackson, Wyoming: TETON COUNTY

35A: It shows a book's name, author. publisher, etc.: TITLE PAGE

52A: Photographic memory: TOTAL RECALL

59A: Multi-flavored ice cream: TUTTI FRUTTI

TAT - Make lace
TET - Vietnamese New Year
TIT - Small bird
TOT - Small child
TUT - Mild reproof

Lila Cherry is just Rich Norris, anagram of "Really Rich". He uses this alias name for Monday puzzles.

All theme entries are two-word phrases, and the T?T is the start of the first word. Very consistent. Nice triple stacks of 7's Down fills in each corner. (Notes from Rich: The main inspiration was to see if I could come up with TAT/TET/etc. words which use long vowels, unlike the 3-letter words which all use short ones.)

I'm going to say that this puzzle is just right for a Monday. The pros should have no trouble; the tyros will struggle some, but if they have been solving on a regular basis, they should recognize some from recent puzzles, i.e. 64A: Actor Zimbalist Jr.: EFREM.

Then there is what I think of as the Jeopardy clues: You have no idea so you give the only answer you can come up with, i.e. 25A: Its seat is Jackson, Wyoming: TETON COUNTY. On Jeopardy, they are the answers that usually start a category.

Oh yeah, Argyle here and I feel like putting in a lot of links today. And if you're wondering, no troubles with Across Lite today.

Across:

1A: Places for chickens: COOPS. A-frame style for free rangers with good nighttime protection.

6A: Teapot feature: SPOUT. Teapot

11A: Roman 901: CMI. And 49A: AT&T competitor: MCI.

14A: Comics orphan: ANNIE. Scary

15A: Skier's jacket: PARKA. and 16A: Youthful fellow: LAD. Parka lad

19A: Some MIT grads: EES. Electrical Engineers.

20A: Extreme degrees: NTHS.

21A: LPGA teen phenom Michelle: WIE. With her hair down. She is coming off a bad weekend.

22A: Tibet's capital: LHASA. Chinese call Tibet as Xizang, very scrabbly.

24A: "__ you ready for this?": ARE.

28A: Oinker: PIG.

29A: Proofs of age, briefly: IDS. Identifications

30A: Ones making money: EARNER.

31A: Pointy-eared "Star Trek" guy: SPOCK. "Live long and prosper."

33A: Cookie holder: JAR. Or

34A: Small jazz combo: TRIO.

39A: Parts of the Rockies: Abbr.: MTNS. Mountains.

42A: Boiling: HOT.

43A: Kitchen allure: AROMA. It depends on who's in the kitchen.

47A: Norse mariner Leif: ERICSON. His route. Leif is also the son of "Eric the Red".

51A: King, in France: ROI.

54A: Prickly chestnut case: BUR. Here.

55A: Blackmore's " Doone": LORNA. R. D. Blackmore, (d. 1900). Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor, is a romance novel based on a group of historical characters and set in the late 17th century in Devon and Somerset, England.

56A: Paul Bunyan's tool: AXE.

57A: Piece of sausage: LINK.

58A: Stock mkt. debut: IPO. Initial Public Offering: a company's first stock offering to the public.

63A: Fire, to the French: FEU. Look, it's Monday, they even tell you it's French. Pot-au-FEU is literally "pot on fire", which Dennis hates.

65A: "__ the loneliest number": old song lyric: ONE IS. Not that old, is it?

66A: Ambulance destinations, for short: ERS. Emergency Rooms

67A: Goes bad, as milk: SOURS.

68A: Strolls in shallow water: WADES.

Down:

1D: Short snoozes: CATNAPS. Cats napping.

2D: Traveling away from home: ON A TRIP. And 3D: Very busy: ON THE GO.

4D: Pumpkin desserts: PIES. T'is the season. Yum. And 25D: __ torch: patio light: TIKI. Time to put them away for the year.

5D: Part of a line: Abbr.: SEG.

6D: Bowler's challenges: SPLITS. Remember? We had BABY SPLIT awhile back.

7D: Opposite of neo-: PALEO. A combining form meaning “old” or “ancient.” Paleosong lyric?

8D: Source of iron: ORE.

9D: Kiev is its cap.: UKR.

10D: "Fire and Rain" singer/songwriter James: TAYLOR.

11D: Vacuum __: CLEANER.

12D: Orchestra conductors, formally: MAESTRI. Italian plural of maestro.

13D: "Sounds about right to me": I'D SAY SO.

18D: Dumbfounded: AWED.

23D: Big game tracker: HUNTER. Can you see HUNTER (Torri) on his back?

26D: Twice-monthly tide: NEAP. The tide occurring at the end of the first and third quarters of the lunar month, in which high water mark is at the lowest. The tide at full and new moon is when the water mark is at its highest.

27D: Irene of "Fame": CARA. Image

32D: Radiologist's procedure, briefly: CT SCAN.

33D: Fast plane: JET. Did anyone try SST first?

36D: Norse thunder god: THOR. Image. Two Viking references today.

37D: "The __ Ranger": LONE. Ah, the memories.

38D: "Passages" author Sheehy: GAIL. Her book.

39D: Insurance company with Snoopy on its blimp: METLIFE. Blimp.

40D: State cop: TROOPER. Are all state policemen called troopers?

41D: __ oxide: laughing gas: NITROUS.

44D: Circled the earth: ORBITED.

45D: Canadian cop: MOUNTIE. Not troopers. Great left to right "cop" mirror to TROOPER.

46D: Smooch that even misses the cheek: AIR KISS. A maestro of air kisses.

48D: Political candidate lineups: SLATES.

49D: Adages: MAXIMS. Axioms too.

50D: First symbol on a musical staff: CLEF. For C.C.

53D: Supply party food for: CATER.

57D: Pale-green moth: LUNA. Pretty.

60D: ET's vehicle: UFO.

61D: One-man show about Capote: TRU. He was an American writer who wrote both Breakfast at Tiffany's and In Cold Blood.

62D: Use oars: ROW. Banacek on the Charles River, Boston. (TV show, mystery).

Answer grid.

Picture of the Day: Here is a photo of today's constructor Lila Cherry (Rich Norris, editor of LA Times Daily Crossword, the taller guy). On his left is the master of tribute puzzles David Kahn, the author of NY Times' Barack Obama "Making History" & Michael Jackson puzzles.

Argyle

Sunday September 13, 2009 Pamela Amick Klawitter

Theme: Rainbow Connection - Familiar phrases/names starting with (the orderly placed) colors of the rainbow.

22A: Fake footprint at the murder scene, e.g.: RED HERRING. Something intended to divert the attention from the real issue. Joe Biden used the phrase RED HERRING very often during his campaign TV appearance.

26A: Tea type: ORANGE PEKOE. Just black tea. No orange flavor.

33A: Coward, slangily: YELLOW-BELLY. Learned this phrase, lily-livered and mealy-mouthed together in one Op-Ed piece.

66A: Anne's home, in a 1908 Montgomery classic: GREEN GABLES. "Anne of GREEN GABLES", new novel to me. GREEN GABLES is a fictional farm in Prince Edward Island. Montgomery is a Canadian author.

98A: Aristocratic: BLUE-BLOODED. Wikipedia says blue blood is from Spanish phrase "sangre azul," indicating noble birth or descent. And the term derived from the fact that the native Spanish have thinner-walled (bluer) blood vessels than people of Arab origin (the Moors).

107A: "Closer to Fine" folk-rock duo: INDIGO GIRLS. They are featured prominently in "Wordplay". Crossword nuts.

115A: Ponytailed pal of Lucy Van Pelt, in "Peanuts": VIOLET GRAY. No idea. Can't really see her poneytail.

And 49D: Mnemonic for this puzzle's theme: ROY. G. BIV, placed perfectly in the heart of the grid. I like how those color phrases are structured. Very orderly and elegant. I just can never remember ROY G. BIV. So complicated. It's easier to remember the color sequence.

There are also three Biblical figures in this puzzle:

19A: Brother of Moses: AARON. He helped lead the Hebrews out of Egypt. I've never heard of him. More used to the Hank AARON clue.

80D: Twin of Jacob: ESAU. He sold his birthright to Jacob. Probably crossword constructors' favorite Biblical figure, with all those vowels.

95D: Third son of King David: ABSALOM. Hebrew for "father of peace". Ab(h)=father. Salom = peace. Completely unknown to me. I had AB????M, then I decided ABRAHAM sounds good.

Very pleasant solving. Lots of clever clues.

Across:

5A: 12th century year: MCII. Roman 1102.

9A: Tante's spouse: ONCLE. French for uncle. Tante=aunt.

20A: Santa's favorite snack cakes?: HO HOS. Ho, ho, ho, lovely clue for our Santa Argyle.

21A: Limp-watch artist: DALI. In his "The Persistence of Memory", the watches are limp.

28A: Story starter? ESS. Letter S starts the word Story, hence starter.

27A: Kiss drummer Peter: CRISS. No idea. He is the Catman. Those guys have very strange makeup.

30A: Bite hard: CHOMP

31A: Conjurer's word: PRESTO

39A: Net business: ETAIL. Like Amazon/Ebay.

40A: It may have a code: AREA. Stumped me. Nice clue.

43A: A-Team muscle man: MR. T. Would prefer another clue due to TEAM (123A: Locker room group).

46A: Fitness franchise primarily for women: CURVES. There is one closer to our home.

48A: Related to the lower back: SACRAL. The noun is sacrum. Latin for "holy bone". No wonder it sounds sacred.

52A: Adjusts, as sagging socks: HIKES UP

54A: Helmsley and others: LEONAS. "The Queen of Mean" hotelier.

56A: 1930s-40s singer/actress Durbin: DEANNA. Unknown to me. She looks pretty. Canadian. Still alive.

57A: Stuffed shirt: SNOB

59A: "As a matter of fact," informally: Y'KNOW

62A: Stare: GAPE. Thought of OGLE.

71A: Paperless tests: ORALS. And DEES (74A: Bad marks) & BEAR (58D: Nasty exam).

73A: Meal on a stick: KABOB. Shish KABOB. Lots of weird food-on-a-stick at our State Fair.

76A: Nursery rhyme loser?: BO PEEP. "Little BO BEEP has lost her sheep". Stumper for me. All nursery rhymes are.

78A: Make a home (in): RESIDE. And ADOBE (102D: Southwestern home).

81A: "Like that'll ever happen!": DREAM ON

86A: Shows up: APPEARS

88A: Correct, as text: REVISE

90A: Site of a bread line?: BAKERY. Nailed it.

91A: "L.A. Law" costar: DEY (Susan)

92A: Go round and round: ROTATE. I liked the clue.

97A: Island east of Java: TIMOR. Sigh. I can only think of BALI. West TIMOR belongs to Indonesia. East TIMOR is an independent country.

100A: Pay attention in class: LEARN. Wanted LISTEN.

106A: One of a world majority: ASIAN

117A: Wittenberg's river: ELBE. Wittenberg is a town on the ELBE River. Famous for its connection with Martin Luther and the dawn of the Protestant Reformation. Unknown to me.

118A: Knock off: CEASE

119A: Wrong move: ERROR

120A: Mythical matchmaker: AMOR. Cupid. Roman love god. YENTE is the "Musical matchmaker" in "Fiddler on the Roof".

121A: Highland rejections: NAES

122A: Specter on the Hill: ARLEN. Pennsylvania senator. Started as a Democrat, then changed to Republican, and now back to a Democrat.

124A: Slider's goal: BASE. Baseball.

Down:

2D: Aggressive Greek god: ARES. Greek god of war. TYR is the Norse equivalent.

5D: Cousin of the xylophone: MARIMBA. New instrument to me also. What kind of wood is it made of?

6D: Veggie drawers: CRISPER. I put my grapes/peaches in the CRISPER.

8D: Having one sharp, musically: IN G. Nope. Music term is definitely my blind spot.

9D: Chicago site of many connections: O'HARE. Airport. Second busiest airport in the world, after Atlanta.

11D: Seaman's song: CHANTEY (SHAN-tee). New word to me. I will just connect it with chanter, French for "sing".

12D: A million to one, say: LONG ODDS

13D: Italian noble family: ESTE

14D: Gigi's goodbye: ADIEUS. Does Gigi here refer to Leslie Caron's "Gigi" or just a common French name?

15D: Warmongers: HAWKS. Like Paul Wolfowitz. Man, this guy is incredible. Expensive suit, no?

16D: Economist Janeway: ELIOT. Got the answer from Across fills. He was the economic advisor to FDR and LBJ.

17D: Gets the lead out?: MINES. Metal lead.

19D: Hood's weapon?: ARROW. Robin Hood.

23D: Lacking auditory feedback: ECHOLESS. Did not know it's a word.

28D: Jazz trombonist Kid: ORY. Nope. Complete stranger to me. I do know the answer for "Jazz trombonist grandpa": RON. Our jazzbumpa.

29D: Chinese leader: PREMIER. Zhou Enlai is our first and most beloved PREMIER.

30D: Horror writer Barker: CLIVE. Nope. He does not look like a writer. I like this CLIVE (Owen). Daniel Craig too. I find them to be very attractive.

31D: Put: PLACE

33D: "Ugh!": YECH. JD uses this word sometimes.

34D: Case for tweezers and such: ETUI (ey-TWEE). PTUI is pronounced like TOO-ee.

35D: Symbol of happiness: LARK. Happy as a LARK.

36D: "Boston Public" actress Sharon: LEAL. No idea. Do you like her lipstick color?

38D: Like no news?: GOOD. No news is GOOD news.

41D: Decaf pioneer: SANKA. Have never had it.

42D: "If at first you don't succeed" course of action: PLAN B. This answer gives me trouble all the time, regardless of how it's clued.

44D: Keep getting Mad, say: RENEW. Mad magazine. M is capitalized.

45D: Old dynasts: TSARS

47D: Like most pop hits: SUNG. Did not come to me immediately.

51D: He succeeded Fidel: RAUL. Brothers.

53D: Politically motivated spending: PORK. Pork barrel.

62D: Turn: GO BAD

63D: Soap-on-__: A ROPE. What is this? The Urban Dictionary definitions sound awful.

64D: Popeye's dad Poodeck __: PAPPY. No idea. PAPPY is just a Southern slang for dad, correct?

65D: Civil War's Robt. __: E LEE

67D: Big name in criticism: EBERT. Film critic Roger EBERT.

69D: Long time follower?: NO SEE . Long time NO SEE.

69D: Certain Slav: SERB

72D: Chef's high-temperature technique: SEARING. Hmm, I want some seared tuna.

75D: Vacation area: SEA COAST. "Vacation spot" is better as AREA is an answer to 40A.

77D: Annual dance: PROM

79D: Lollapalooza: DILLY. Lollapalooza is a fun word.

82D: Goodyear's home: AKRON. Once “the rubber capital of the world”.

83D: Hoover Dam's lake: MEAD

85D: "Blue" TV squad: NYPD. "NYPD Blue".

87D: More boring: STODGIER

89D: __ Fagan, Billie Holiday's birth name: ELEANORA. No idea. Thought Billie Holiday is her real name.

93D: New kid on the block, e.g.: ARRIVAL. Interesting intersection with RIVAL (114A: Honda, to Toyota).

97D: Toys "R" Us purchases: TRIKES

98D: Real est. ad. count: BRS

99D: Hybrid big cat: LIGER. Lion & tiger. Offspring of a male lion and a female tiger. Tiglon = Tiger & lion, the offspring of a male tiger and a female lion.

101D: First name in B-29 lore: ENOLA. ENOLA Gay.

104D: Rub off: ERASE

108D: Willy of "Free Willy": ORCA

111D: "Get Smart" evil agency: KAOS. Obtained the answer from Across fills.

112D: Thomfield Hall governess: EYRE. Jane EYRE.

115D: Check for accuracy: VET. Such rigorous vetting process for those White House nominees.

116D: Gift of the garrulous: GAB. Kiss the Blarney Stone, you'll get the gift of GAB.

Answer grid.

C.C.

Saturday September 12, 2009 Don Gagliardo

Theme: None

Total blocks: 28

Total words: 68

A few notes first:

1) If you solve today's puzzle via Cruciverb's website, there is an error for 5A. The answer is ADDER instead of ADDED. Rich Norris (LA Times Crossword Editor) has notified Cruciverb, but it's not been been updated yet. Click here for the correct Across Lite grid.

2) Rich acknowledged the error for LOOIE ("Certain NCO, slangily") clue immediately on Thursday morning in an email to Dennis. I should have put his response on the blog main entry. Rich said these recent problems are all the result of last-minute changes requested by Tribune. And they've smoothed out the process, which should soon put an end to the glitches.

3) Today's puzzle is the first themeless by Don "Hard G" Gagliardo (Congratulations, Don!). He kindly provided us with his creating process:

"The September 12 themeless puzzle happened from a desire on my part to expand my challenges. I had never done a themeless, and wanted to see what it is like. To try something a little different, I thought it would be interesting to cross six 15-letter entries (three across, three down) and have them spread out in the grid. Rich pointed out that this does not work well on two accounts: it makes it difficult to have other long entries, and at least a couple of the 15's are probably not going to be very interesting. Rich referred me to Barry Silk's puzzle that week, and how he got , I believe it was, 22 entries at least 7 letters long. It was a beautiful puzzle and so I was inspired. I decided on two 15's to cross at the center. My novelty was to try to clue them the same way (I don't know if it made it this way to publication). Those two long entries determined a great deal how the rest of the puzzle filled in. I tried for variety, and answers that could have interesting clues. At that time, I did not have Crossword Compiler. It was extremely hard to create this puzzle with paper and pencil! My first version was almost acceptable. With a small revision, Rich accepted the puzzle. BTW, Rich was noted as being Mr. Saturday at the New York Times. To have him accept this puzzle was a great honor. Rich has a book of puzzles out, "A to Z Crosswords", which explores the themeless style at great length. Amazingly, each puzzle in the book is a pangram. It is extremely enjoyable solving."

The two grid-spanning 15's are:

32A: "See?!": WHAT DID I TELL YOU?!

7D: "Sound familiar?": DOES IT RING A BELL?

Great intersection at the very center of the grid. Such vibrant colloquial phrases.

Not a very focused solving for me. Got distracted by the error warning and then peeked at the answer sheet way too early.

Across:

1A: Absorbed: RAPT. "Wordplay" is a very absorbing documentary on NY Times crossword.

5A: Snake with a puff variety: ADDER. Dictionary says Puff ADDER inflates its body and hisses when disturbed. Extremely venomous.

10A: Shakespeare's Avon calling?: BARD. The BARD of Avon, Shakespeare's nickname.

14A: Become equitable in the long run: AVERAGE OUT

17A: Remote measuring devices: TELEMETERS. No idea. It measures/transmits/receives data between a ground station and an artificial satellite. Can also be a verb.

18A: Cheese coated in red paraffin: EDAM. Named after the town in the Netherlands where the cheese originated.

19A: China's Zhou __: ENLAI. Mandarin spelling. Cantonese is Chow ENLAI. The only high-level Chinese leader who survived Mao's Cultural Revolution purge.

20A: That, in Madrid: ESO. Sometimes it's ESA.

21A: Museum in Madrid: PRADO. Both Goya's "The Naked Maja" & "The Clothed Maja" are housed in PRADO. Nice consecutive Madrid clues.

22A: "Tea for Two" for two, e.g.: DUET. "Tea for Two" is a DUET in musical "No, No, Nanette".

23A: Country singer Yearwood: TRISHA. Oh, it's she who sings "How Do I Live" in Nicolas Cage's "Con Air".

25A: Geometric fig.: CIR (Circle)

26A: Show featuring agents 86 and 99: GET SMART. Watched Steve Carell & Anne Hathaway's "GET SMART" a few weeks ago. Just plain silly.

28A: Web search tool: ENGINE. My first reaction: GOOGLE.

30A: Lumberjack, at times: AXER. And RUER (16A: One with regrets). Remember we used to get lots of RE, ER, EST, ED, S, ING affixes in the old Saturday puzzles?

31A: 1980s-'90s Buick sports car: REATTA. No idea. Wikipedia says it's a hand-made luxurious sports coupe by Buick. Short-lived. From early 1988 to 1991. One more T than the rodeo rope REATA.

37A: 1993-2001 White House maiden name: RODHAM. Hillary Clinton 2016? Possible!

38A: Symbol on a staff: NOTE. Musical staff.

39A: Like most piano technician services: IN-HOME

40A: Football setting: GRIDIRON. Favre + Vikings = Superbowl? Possible!

45A: Peg under a dimpled ball: TEE. Such a vivid clue. Golf ball weighs 1.62 ounces or less.

46A: Legal term that's French for "on a bench": EN BANC. BANC is French for "bench". Wikipedia says this legal term refers to the hearing of a legal case where all judges of a court will heard the case (an entire bench), rather than a panel of them. Unknown to me.

48A: Sushi wrapper: NORI. Love NORI seaweed. Sometimes I crumble them in my soup.

49A: Chelmsford's county: ESSEX. Have never heard of Chelmsford. Quite close to London. What is it famous for?

51A: Blood typing letters: ABO. Shouldn't it be "Blood type letters"?

52A: Photons' family, in physics: BOSON. Named after the Indian physicist S. N. Bose. Both the clue and the answer mean nothing to me.

53A: Elec. supplier: UTIL (Utility)

54A: 2002 film for which Adrien Brody won a Best Actor Oscar: THE PIANIST. It's on our Netflix queue.

56A: Ruse: PLOY

57A: Used car dealer's spiel, say: SALES PITCH

58A: Dict. offerings: SYNS (Synonyms)

59A: Clay bakers: KILNS

60A: Southwestern art colony town: TAOS. In New Mexico.

Down:

1D: OK for kids, filmwise: RATED G. Do let your kids watch "The Greatest Game Ever Played". One of the best golf movies I've ever seen. So inspiring. Everything begins with a dream.

2D: Michigan in Chicago, e.g.: AVENUE. No idea, Sir. Michigan AVENUE is a major north-south street in Chicago. Too clever a clue for me.

3D: Bit of buckshot: PELLET

4D: Dog training aids: TREATS

5D: Time of your life: AGE. Wow, so simple. I'm 38 and I am a pig.

6D: Checked: DETERRED. I was in the "verified" direction.

8D: Continental currency: EUROS. Such a straightforward clue for a Saturday.

9D: ACLU concerns: RTS. Is it a common abbreviation for rights?

10D: Rabbit or Bear's title: BR'ER. Uncle Remus stories.

11D: Gall: AUDACITY. Thought of CHUTZPAH first.

12D: Interpret by inference: READ INTO

13D: H. G. Wells's island researcher: DR. MOREAU. No idea. "The Island of Dr. MOREAU" is a science fiction novel by H. G. Wells.

21D: Like some den walls: PANELED

23D: Cabbies in Canterbury: TAXIMEN. We just call them taxi drivers in China.

24D: One seriously straying from the flock?: HERETIC. Was thinking of MAVERICK.

27D: Sargent portrait of a mysterious Frenchwoman: MADAME X. Here is the painting. Both the portrait and the painter were strangers to me.

32D: Newspaper accounts: WRITE-UPS

33D: With no deception: HONESTLY

34D: Bonding: ADHESION. Tricky clue. I thought the clue is asking for an ING ending verb.

35D: Even if, informally: THO'

36D: Like gift wrap on Christmas morning: TORN OPEN. I open some on Christmas Eve, and save some for Christmas morning.

41D: Like con artists' shills, e.g.: IN ON IT

42D: Bilingual Muppet: ROSITA. Forgot. The "Sesame Street" character. She speaks Spanish and English.

43D: Pitcher Jesse, who had the most career appearances: OROSCO. Total 1,252 games pitched. Can't believe I've never heard of this guy. He was with the Twins in 2003.

44D: Final innings: NINTHS. I like how OROSCO paralles NINTHS.

47D: Mideast religion that preaches equality: BAHA'I (buh-HAH-ee). Founded in Persia in the 19th century.

50D: Bridge expert Culbertson et al.: ELYS. The authority on contract bridge.

52D: "Southern" relig.: BAP. Southern Baptist. Not a familiar abbr. to me.

54D: "For shame!": TSK

55D: Unit of Time: Abb.: ISS (Issue). D'oh, Time magazine. I did not even pay attention to the capitalized T.

Answer grid.

Picture of the Day: Here is great Father's Day photo of our fellow LAT solver Jimmy B, his wife Diane and their three boys. Their middle son (on the left) had just finished the police academy, hence the buzz cut.

C.C.

Friday September 11, 2009 Dan Naddor

Theme: TWO FOR ONE (61A: Restaurant special, and a hint to this puzzle's theme) - synonym of "one" in a common phrase is replaced with synonym of "two".

18A: Not quite Barcelona's best?: NUMERO DOS. Numeros Uno, Spanish for "number one". Uno is replaced with DOS, Spanish (Barcelona) for "two".

24A: Four-handed piano piece by a French emperor?: NAPOLEON DUET. Napoleon Solo is a fictional character from "The man from U.N.C.L.E.". Unknown to me. Solo is replaced with DUET. French emperor = NAPOLEON. The piano DUET is also known as "piano four hands". Two pianists (four hands) play on the same keyboard.

37A: Movie gigolo Bigalow struggling with debt?: DEUCE IN THE HOLE. Ace in the Hole, a hidden advantage. Ace is replaced with DEUCE. Movie: "DEUCE Bigalow, Male Gigolo".

52A: Multitasking, but just barely?: DOUBLE-MINDED. Single-minded, determined/resolute. Single is replaced with DOUBLE. I just can't multitask.

Another creative puzzle from Dan Naddor. Another special 16*15 grid. The additional column is added to accommodate the even-numbered central theme entry DEUCE IN THE HOLE.

Today's Dan Naddor Index (total non-theme entries with 6 or more letters) is 28. Very high!

Besides NAPOLEON DUET, there are a few other music/opera references:

20A: La Scala highlight: ARIA. La Scala is an opera house in Milan.

33A: Conductor Toscanini: ARTURO. He was once the principal conductor of La Scala.

57A: "The Three Tenors" tenor with Jose and Plácido: LUCIANO. Plácido Domingo, José Carreras & LUCIANO Pavarotti are "The Three Tenors". They popularized the opera for the general public.

65A: "Swan Lake" heroine: ODETTE . No idea. She is the princess who's turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer. "Swan Lake" is a classical ballet.

19D: Key in which "Chopsticks" is usually played: C MAJOR. I've never heard of "Chopsticks", it's a simple, extremely well-known waltz for the piano, according to Wikipedia.

I just loved the upper left and lower right corner. Five out of those six long entries were gimmes. Still had to cheat though. Maybe I will finish one Dan Naddor puzzle before German pulls out of Afghanistan.

Across:

1A: Hardly emulated the 16-Across: SLEPT LATE. And 16A: Proverbial worm catcher: EARLY BIRD. Nice cross-reference. Nice placements as well.

10A: Skeleton's place?: CLOSET. Idiom: A skeleton in the CLOSET. Dark secret.

17A: Fountain treat: MALTED

19A: Ovoid tree nuts: ACORNS. Filled in PECANS.

21A: Swear falsely, with "oneself": PERJURE. Bet it's a gimme for Scooter Libby/Martha Stewart.

23A: Olympic perfection: TEN. Perfect!

29A: Chic: ELEGANT. Jerome observed last time that Chic is an anagram of "Hi, C.C.".

31A: Support provider?: BRA. You should always hand-wash your BRA.

32A: Wrong thing to do: SIN. Then ATONES (50D: Make amends).

36A: Impudent: PERT

42A: R.E. Lee, e.g.: GENL (General). GEN is a more common abbreviation. And CADETS (67A: Future officers).

44A: Batting sta.: AVG. Batting Average. Ichiro trails Joe Mauer slightly on AL Batting Average leaderboard now. Strangely, they both love rap music.

45A: Sch. with a Phoenix campus: ASU (Arizona State University). The Sun Devils. Their main campus is at Tempe.

56A: Versatile vehicle, for short: UTE. Sport-UTE. SUV.

59A: Not strict about, as crime: SOFT ON. All crimes should be punished sufficiently and immediately.

66A: Delicate spring roll wrapping: RICE PAPER. Gimme. It's made of rice flour. I really like Vietnamese spring rolls. Chinese egg rolls use wheat wrappers.

68A: How references may be available, in a resumé: ON REQUEST. Pas de problèm!

Down:

1D: It has 100 seats: SENATE. Senator Kennedy's seat may remain empty for many months.

2D: Hardy partner: LAUREL. LAUREL and Hardy. The comedy team.

3D: Fur source: ERMINE. Wow, he has such a long body.

4D: Arraignment response: PLEA

5D: Norse war god: TYR (Teer). The one-handed Norse god from whom we got Tuesday. Norse thunder god is THOR. Both sons of Odin.

6D: Debt-heavy corp. deal: LBO (Leveraged Buyout). An maneuver often incurs debt.

8D: Prefix with sphere: TROPO. Troposphere, the lowest layer of the atmosphere. New to me. TROPO is prefix for "turn/change".

9D: Car bomb?: EDSEL. The Ford flop. My mind just wandered off to Iraq where car bomb happens so often.

11D: Gap: LACUNA (luh-KYOO-nuh). Missing part in a manuscript/logical argument. New word to me.

12D: Opening hymn words: O LORD

13D: Coffeecake topping: STREUSEL. Same root as Strew. Literally "sprinkling" in German. I've never had coffeecake.

14D: Darkening time in verse: E'EN. Evening, poetically. I miss Dusk Til Dawn bar (Hongkong) occasionally. Wild time.

15D: NFL scores: TDS

22D: Yank's foe: REB (Rebel)

24D: Dealer's adversary: NARC. Drug dealer. I was picturing poker dealer. Do you like Kevin Spacey's "21"?

25D: Start a pot: ANTE. OK, poker now.

26D: Spitting sound, in comics: PTUI. Look, he is back!

27D: Cork's home: EIRE. Cork is a county in Ireland.

28D: "We know drama" station: TNT. Plenty of "Law & Order" reruns.

30D: Franks' conquest: GAUL. Got the answer, though I had no idea that Franks refer to those "ancient Germanic peoples dwelling in the regions of the Rhine, one division of whom, the Salians, conquered GAUL about a.d. 500, founded an extensive kingdom, and gave origin to the name France". So, France was called GAUL before a.d. 500?

34D: ER personnel: RNS (Registered Nurses)

35D: Giant among Giants: OTT (Mel). Hall of Famer. Nice clue.

37D: "Whip it" band: DEVO. Ah, now I remember those red hats.

38D: Inundated: ENGULFED

39D: Tennis great Lew who won three of the four majors in 1956: HOAD. His name escaped me. Aussie.

40D: Lackawanna's lake: ERIE. Easy guess. Have never heard of Lackawanna, a city in W New York, on Lake ERIE, near Buffalo.

41D: Stampeding group: HERD. Was surprised to find out that the #1 meaning of stampede is "a sudden, frenzied rush or headlong flight of a HERD of frightened animals, esp. cattle or horses". I was picturing the horrible Hajj stampede.

42D: Zooks lead-in?: GAD. Stumper. I actually went in one Gadzooks store one day out of pure curiosity. Dark stuff.

45D: "Little Women" author: ALCOTT. Louisa May ALCOTT.

46D: Fishing nets: SEINES. Here is a good image.

49D: One in an international septet: EUROPE. One of the seven continents. Named after Europa, a Phoenician princess abducted to Crete by Zeus. Zeus is such a amoral/immoral guy.

51D: Shirk one's duty, in a big way: DESERT. Coward.

53D: Seat of Montana's Silver Bow County: BUTTE. No idea. See the map. It's southwest of Helena. Wikipedia says Evel Knievel was born here. Maybe Doug Peterson too.

54D: Foreword, briefly: INTRO. And the closing section is called EPILOG.

55D: Like a choice between evils: NO-WIN

59D: SPCA part: Abbr.: SOC

60D: Harem room: ODA. Turkish for room.

62D: Elec. text-reading method: OCR (Optical Character Recognition). Argyle's printer has such function,

64D: N-R connectors: OPQ. Alphabet.

Answer grid.

Picture of the Day: Here is great photo of our fellow LAT solver Bill G and his family. Bill is the one wearing sunglasses. His puzzle column (mostly math) "Mind Games" appears in the local newspaper "The Beach Reporter" every other Thursday. Bill and his wife Barbara (in blue jacket) are retired teachers. His daughter Bonnie (blond hair, holding her son Jordan) teaches third grade in nearby Redondo Beach. Bill's oldest son Tim is on the left side. And Dan, Bill's middle son, is on the right. Dan's kids, Felix and Scarlet, round out the motley crew.

C.C.

Thursday September 10, 2009 Bruce Venzke

Theme: Yarn-spinning

20A: Start of an investor's quip: I BOUGHT STOCK IN A

39A: Quip, part 2: BLANKET

41A: Quip, part 3: FACTORY

55A: End of the quip: BUT IT SOON FOLDED

The BLANKET FACTORY was closed. It FOLDED. Not the BLANKET. I don't know. Quip puzzles often fail to amuse me because I don't always understand the pun & the humor.

I'm convinced that our editor Rich Norris loves alliteration. Look at the amazing number of alliterative clues in today's clues:

14A: Absolut alternative: STOLI. Vodka brand.

15A: Caramel-filled candy: ROLO. Hershey's candy. Produced by Nestlé outside US. I've never tried it.

17A: Hawk's hook: TALON

64A: Source of a suit: TORT. Law suit.

66A: Fill fully: SATE

9D: College in Claremont, California: POMONA. Unknown to me. Wikipedia says POMONA College has ranked in the top ten of liberal arts colleges nationally since their inception in 1887. Sagehens is their nickname. POMONA is Roman goddess of fruit.

11D: Mine, in Metz: A MOI

27D: Big board: PLANK

54D: Leading the league: ON TOP. Twins' Joe Mauer is ON TOP of the AL leaderboard in several categories. What an extraordinary year! Joe Mauer = AL MVP, whether those writers vote for him or not.

60D: Far from flashy: DRAB

Some are probably an unconscious effort.

Dennis pointed out that the clue for LOOIE (31D: Certain NCO, slangily) is wrong. Lieutenant is a Commissioned Officer, not a Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO).

Across:

1A: Syrian president: ASSAD. Bashar al-ASSAD (since 2000). His father ASSAD ruled Syria for over thirty years.

6A: 1/2 fl.oz.: TBSP

10A: Copacetic: JAKE. Both meaning "fine". Both new to me. Copacetic sounds toxic.

18A: Reason to cram: EXAM

19A: Kentucky Derby entrant: COLT. Filly too. I wonder why Rachel Alexandra did not enter Kentucky Derby this year.

25A: Pleasing breeze: ZEPHYR (ZEF-er). Greek god of west wind. This puzzle is quite scrabbly, with two Z's, one J, one X and several K's.

29A: Asian inland sea: ARAL. It's shrinking.

31A: Butcher's units: Abbr.: LBS

34A: Gallic she: ELLE. Gallic (GAL-ik) is related to Gaul/France. I often confuse it with the Celtic Gaelic (GEY-lik).

37A: Words on a desk box: IN/OUT. I used to have a PENDING tray when I worked.

43A: Dentist's request: RINSE. Thought SAY AH first.

44A: Pool table boundary: RAIL

48A: Sensible: WISE. Wrote down SANE first.

47A: One way to get directions: ASK. Men seldom ASK for direction.

48A: "Serpico" author Peter: MAAS. Here is the book cover. Vaguely remember seeing Al Pacino's movie sometime ago. I've never heard of Peter MAAS. He looks like a mafia consigliere, the advisor to the Don.

50A: Good-sized chamber ensembles: OCTETS. Pieces for eight.

52A: 45 or 78, e..g.: Abbr.: RPM

53A: Elmer Fudd, for one: TOON

63A: Western team that beat the Crimson Tide in the 2009 Sugar Bowl: UTES. The University of Utah. I could only think of UCLA.

65A: "Chestnuts roasting ..." co-writer: TORME (Mel). The Velvet Fog.

67A: 20th century basso Pinza: EZIO. He played the French plantation owner Emile in the musical "South Pacific".

68A: Cyberletters: E-MAIL

69A: If's partner, in logic: THEN

71A: Weaselike mammal: SABLE. So curious. Cute too. No fur, please!

Down:

1D: Piedmont wine region: ASTI. The Italian province or its capital. South of Turin.

3D: With no help: SOLO

4D: Any of three baseball brothers: ALOU. Basta! Let's honor the BOONE family for a change. I liked Bret BOONE.

5D: Lifeboat, perhaps: DINGHY. My god, I thought DINGHY is a garbage boat.

6D: Old waste allowances: TRETS. The "Container weights" is TARES.

7D: Premium opera house spot: BOX SEAT. "Premium stadium spot" too.

8D: Blind part: SLAT

10D: Athletic types: JOCKS

12D: Ceramics baker: KILN

13D: Place whom Sundance liked: ETTA. ETTA Place, Sundance Kid's girlfriend. I could only remember her given name. Loved "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid". Thought the "Place" was referring to an actual place.

21D: Golden __: Mongol invaders: HORDE. Faintly remember the Mongol Empire was divided into Golden/White/Blue/Great HORDE after Genghis Khan died.

22D: Baby's ailment: COLIC

25D: Striped equine: ZEBRA. I might watch some ZEBRA in action this football season, now we have Brett Favre.

26D: Perry of fashion: ELLIS. He died of AIDS.

28D: Coop moms: HENS. What do you call a female pigeon? HEN also?

30D: Get a new mortgage on, briefly: REFI (Refinance)

32D: Pop: BURST. Verb. I was thinking of soda pop.

36D: Gillette Machs3 predecessor: ATRA

38D: Food-minus-pkg. measure: NT WT. This and AT NO used to stymie me. Not any more.

40D: Neat and trim: KEMPT. More familiar with unkempt.

42D: Standoffish: ALOOF. Like Senator John Kerry.

45D: Oregon city near the mouth of the Columbia: ASTORIA. See this map. It's named after John Jacob Astor, who founded a fur trading post there in 1810.

49D: Dutch brew: AMSTEL. Stumper for me, Windhover/Jerome. It belongs to Heineken. Named after the AMSTEL River. What's so funny about this commercial?

51D: Bills with Franklin on them: C-NOTES. Slang for a hundred-dollar bill.

52D: Up from bed: RISEN

55D: Narc's arrest: BUST

56D: Westernmost D-Day beachhead: UTAH. I guessed. Have never heard of the code name UTAH Beach. Omaha Beach, yes.

57D: Chapeau's perch: TETE. French for "head".

58D: Move like sludge: OOZE. Always associate OOZE with running liquid. Sludge sounds thick and muddy.

59D: __ Linda, San Bernadino suburb: LOMA. No idea. It's to the south of LA. LOMA means "hill" in Spanish.

61D: Jannings of old movies: EMIL. The first guy to win Best Actor Oscar.

62D: Take out, editorially: DELE. Then a STET can cancel the DELE.

Answer grid.

Picture of the Day: Here is great photo of our fellow LAT solver KQ, flanked by her daughter and husband at a golf tournament. Her daughter was a member of the University of Iowa golf team. Here is another picture of KQ, her two sons and husband at an Angels game a couple of weeks ago.

C.C.

Interview with Donna S. Levin

Today is our 6th Donna S. Levin puzzle since the TMS switch. But it's Donna's 69th LAT starting August 2005.

Donna (She is very beautiful) specializes in early-to-midweek puzzles. She has created several excellent tribute puzzles this year: "The Wizard of Oz" & Wimbledon for LA Times; 40th Anniversary Moon Landing & Bastille Day for NT Times.

Her puzzles also appeared in NY Sun. She contributes regularly to Stan Newman's Newsday & CroSynergy/Washington Post. Enjoy the interview.

What inspired this puzzle? What are the other theme entries you considered but failed to make the cut?

The answer to your first question is pretty darned embarrassing, I confess. I’ve been pining for a dog ever since my husband and I moved to Florida in 2000, but alas, we live in a building that doesn’t allow pets. Since I’ve been suffering from dog-lust for the past nine years, there’s been a long-running inside joke between the two of us: when he does something nice for me (which is often, I’m glad to say), I pat him on the head and say “Good boy!” From that evolved this puzzle.

Once I realized that there were enough doggy-commands to form the basis of a puzzle, I just started playing with the possibilities. The potential entries that didn’t make the cut were:

SIT THIS ONE OUT 13
BEG THE QUESTION 14
BEG FOR MERCY 11
STAY THE COURSE 13
COME FLY WITH ME 13
COME AND GET IT 12
COME AS YOU ARE 12
COME WHAT MAY 11
COME CLEAN 9
HEEL SPURS 9
SHAKE N BAKE 10

Those entries wound up in the shredder because either the length was wrong, the cluing would have been contrived, the gridding would have been difficult, or (as in the case of BEG) I just didn’t think it was nice to ask the dog to be so undignified!

Which fills do you think will get "huh?" from the solvers and which ones do you expect to elicit a "wow" reaction?

I’m a little concerned about CAPE ANN. As an East Coast gal who lived in New England for seven years, I know it -- but I’m not so sure it’s familiar to folks on the other side of the country. I’m mindful of the foofaraw caused by a constructor’s use of NATICK in a New York Times puzzle not too long ago, and I don’t want to be the cause of so many solvers’ getting in a pet. (I’ve always wanted to use the phrase “in a pet” in a sentence, having learned it from crosswords. Finally, I’ve managed to do it. Hooray!)

I don’t believe there’s anything that will elicit a “Wow!” in this one. I’m satisfied if I can prompt a simple smile and a feeling of satisfaction upon completion.

How would you describe your style? You seem to be fond of the tribute puzzles.

My puzzles are generally pretty straightforward, as I aim for the early-to-midweek audience. I am in awe of the constructors who can do snazzy rebuses or themelesses with stacks of 15’s; that’s not me, I’m afraid. Maybe someday, but not yet.

My fondness for tribute puzzles stems from a lack of imagination. When I first started constructing, the themes flowed easily … but after 4-1/2 years, the well is beginning to run dry. If there’s an anniversary of a significant event -- Martin Luther King Day, the finale of TV’s M*A*S*H, the premiere of “The Wizard of Oz,” the conquering of Mount Everest, the storming of the Bastille -- it provides a good starting point for brainstorming potential puzzles.

What is a perfect puzzle to you? Who are your favorite constructors?

For me, a perfect puzzle is one that, after I’ve finished it, I’m proud of myself for having done so. It’s one that makes me think hard, but that doesn’t send me to Google searching for some silly piece of trivia that no normal person could possibly know. I want a fair test of my cultural literacy.

I’m impressed by the work of so many constructors, far too numerous to name. If I had to single out just a few, I’d cite Manny Nosowsky, for his elegant, seemingly effortless themeless puzzles; Patrick Blindauer, for his oh-so-clever themes; and Bob Klahn, for his fresh, witty clues.

What is your background and what prompted you to make your first crossword?

I’m a happily retired attorney -- emphasis on the “happily.” Way back in the day, when I was going to law school, I could often be found in the law library … but never with a law book. Instead, I’d have Xeroxed the crossword page from the library’s newspaper (on a student’s budget, it was too expensive actually to buy a copy of a New York or Los Angeles paper in Massachusetts), and I’d be concentrating on doing the puzzle rather than my coursework.

I’d enjoyed solving puzzles over the years, but never gave any thought to how they were constructed until December 2004, when my husband and I gave my parents a gift in honor of their 50th wedding anniversary: passage for two on Stan Newman’s “Crossword Cruise,” since my dad had been a crossword aficionado his whole life. My folks inveigled us to join them on the cruise. Although competitive (timed) solving of crosswords left me cold (it felt too much like taking the SAT’s), Stan’s seminar on how to construct a puzzle fascinated me, and the rest is history. Luckily, I had wonderful mentors from the beginning: Myles Callum answered my cyberpost seeking an experienced eye to look over my first puzzle, and then Nancy Salomon took me under her wing, as she has so many aspiring constructors. Rich Norris was an absolute gem, too, giving me encouraging words and the hope that I just might be able to make a go of it if I stuck with it. I’m eternally grateful to all three of them.