Friday, May 6, 2011, Peter Koetters

Theme: Double ZZs top double DDs - DD in the first part of well-known phrases are changed into ZZs. A somewhat new fun way to do a "replace the letter" puddle, I mean puzzle. We do not need any pics of double ZZs, do we?

More specifically:

17A. Moving like a dog in a narrow tube?: MUZZLING THROUGH. MUDDLING THROUGH, is where you plod along.

27A. Dud sparklers?: FIZZLE STICKS. FIDDLE STICKS probably originated from the violin playing in the street, which did not include high class music. It is why we have fiddling around.

41A. One solving several crosswords simultaneously?: PUZZLE JUMPER. PUDDLE JUMPER is an expression for a plane which goes on a short flight.

50A. Brilliant bees?: BUZZING GENIUSES. BUDDING GENIUSES, is used to describe young people who show extreme potential early in life.

Hi everyone, lemonade back with another new constructor, who has given us a puzzle with a little bit of everything, puns, tricks, obscurities, music and more.

So let's see what Peter picked....

ACROSS:

1. Make sound: HEAL. Boom we start with trickery, sound not being related to noise, but to hale and hearty. Nice.

5. Fictional elephant: BABAR. Aww, and I get my favorite elephant again this week; read the books to your grandkids.

10. Pine: ACHE. Deception number two, not a tree, but pining away, extra nice.

14. Capital at the foot of Mount Entoto: ADDIS ABABA. We have often discussed this Ethiopian CAPITAL at the base of Mount Entoto, which is not to be confused with the dog, or the BAND which did have a song about Africa.

16. Gambler's marker: CHIT. The sophisticated IOU.

19. Spots on cartes: ILES. Okay Jeannie, we get our French lesson today- cartes= maps and iles=islands.

20. Straight opening?: ORTHO. My favorite clue, because it is a double cross, unlike all of our other opening clue, which means you are to create a word beginning with the clue, this is the literal definition of Ortho, which is a prefix meaning STRAIGHT, like ORTHODONIST, tooth straightener.

21. Kennel worker: GROOMER. Well, you hope they keep the big sweeties groomed.

25. Greek sphinx, from the neck down: LIONESS. This is as opposed to the Egyptian Spinx, which is masculine and nice, the Greek being feminine and nasty. If you want more information you can read this LINK.

29. Good for growing, as soil: LOAMY. Nice black dirt, unlike the sand we have in Florida.

30. Traps: WEBS. Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.

31. Pick up: GET. When you are the store, I need some milk.

34. Razor brand: ATRA. There you go, last week's AFTA has morphed into the razor, everyone happy?

35. Contempt: ODIUM. A simple Latin word meaning hate.

37. Stadium level: LOGE. We have had this recently; just think sky boxes at the ball park.

38. Sigh relative: TSK. Oh goody, our word of the week, with yet a different slant.

39. Othello, for one: MOOR. Speaking of deceit, poor moor.

40. Wonder Woman weapon: TIARA. She had her lasso, her wrist bands and her invisible plane.

44. Anniversary gala: JUBILEE.

47. Häagen-Dazs array: SORBETS. Of course this is accurate, but not my first thought; by now I assume everyone knows this company was from Brooklyn and used the fancy foreign name to justify their higher prices.

48. Words after take or save: A SEAT. back to the ball park, go marlins.

49. Z-zebra link: AS IN. Z as in Zebra.

57. Performer of many Dylan songs: BAEZ. I have seen her perform at Woodstock, in Lennox Mass., many times, and always loved her VOICE

58. San Diego Zoo attraction: GIANT PANDA.

59. __ breve: ALLA, means all brief or quick in Italian (like our word brevity), and in musical notation I believe means a faster tempo, but I will defer to JzB to give you the full scoop on this one.

60. Folklore threats: OGRES. They get such a bad rep, but Shrek is a pussycat, sort of.

61. Not at all bleak: ROSY. Just like this puzzle, not at all bleak, but rather fun so far, no big holes.

Okay on to part two!

DOWN:

1. It may be glazed: HAM. Or my eyes after doing the blog.

2. URL ending: EDU.

3. Woodworking tool: ADZ. This is the second puzzle which I blogged with lots of ZZZZZs.

4. Songwriter Phair: LIZ. One of many female singers who started about the same time, but I do not think she ever sang at the Lilith FAIR

5. One holding property in trust: BAILEE. Out token legal term, used for the hat check girl, the parking attendant and the pawn shop

6. Li'l __: old-themed restaurant: ABNERS. Never heard of this chain.

7. Traveling companions?: BAGS. Nice misdirection here as well, and those of you with mothers in law, be nice it is Mother's Day Sunday.

8. NYC dance co.: ABT. AMERICAN BALLET THEATER . Where they teach dancers to 28D. Pirouette: TWIRL.

9. Word of support: RAH. Rah rah sis boom bah. Rah Rah ree, kick em in the knee, Rah Rah rass, kick em in the other knee.

10. Cache crop?: ACORNS. Nice cash/cache sound alike.

11. Laundry conveyor: CHUTE. I have never had a laundry chute, only garbage ones.

12. Good times: HIGHS. Well, what a controversial clue, I mean admittedly lots of people smoke pot, but...oh he just means emotional highs. Never mind.

13. Group values: ETHOS. A bit more Greek today.

15. By a narrow margin: SLIMLY. A bit of a stretch as a word, but I guess better than nonely.

18. Rank and file movers: ROOKS. A nice chess clue, describing the movement of the piece.

21. Key of Schubert's Impromptu Op. 90, No. 3: G FLAT. If it has five letters it will be something flat, then wait and see the perp.

22. Popular party people: RIOTS. Oh man get a couple of drinks in him, and he is a riot!

23. Arkansas's ___ National Forest: OZARK.

24. Baum princess: OZMA. Many of you may not know how many books Mr. Baum wrote about OZ, and all of the characters not in the movie, but they even have their own wiki sight where you can learn. PS welcome back KAZIE.

25. Stead: LIEU. These days in my world, this attached DEED IN....

26. Warhead vehicle, briefly: ICBM. InterContinentalBallisticMissile.

31. Blow one's top: GO APE. I seldom see this without a third word modifier.

32. Coastal wader: EGRET. They love Florida.

33. They may signify joy: TEARS. But not when you have to sign the DEED IN LIEU.

35. Exude: OOZE. Seems like it fits with this puzzle, which is oozing zzzz.

36. Nap: DOZE. Hopefully no one is sleeping through my efforts.

37. Branch: LIMB.

39. Media lead-in: MULTI. See, there is the standard cluing for an opening or lead-in.

40. Source of some greens: TURNIP. For Thelma and the other Southern Belles who cook with Turnip Greens.

41. Italian square: PIAZZA. Not to be confused with the ex-Met Mike, who was Italian, but fairly hip, though the bleach blond look was not a good move.

42. Ascetic of yore: ESSENE. A biblical reference, appropriate for this season.

43. Articulations: JOINTS. More confusion, and the less common use of articulation, not words, but separations.

44. Sluglike alien strangled by Leia: JABBA. Yes, she was ANGRY

45. Standard: USUAL.

46. Chisel's edge: BEZEL. Sounds so much like Bevel and they are related.

49. Bacteriologist's supply: AGAR. For their Petri dishes.

51. IHOP '__: takeout food program: N'GO. Well I already told my IHOP wrestling story, so it is up to you to comment, though if only this had been worked into the ROO puzzle....

52. Short job: GIG. Devin's band played a GIG at Uncle Lou's; he did not want me to go, because the place was a little sketchy, Great to be a dad.

53. Syr. seceded from it in 1961: UAR. United Arab Republic; not much on being united.

54. __-cone: SNO. Don't eat the yellow ones.

55. Money VIPs: EDS. Cannot fool me twice, the magazines editors! Ha!

56. Mention: SAY. Say good night Gracie. Good night Gracie.

Answer grid.

Lemonade

Thursday, May 5, 2011, Julian Lim

Theme: Gone with the wind. The main answers all have had their "hat" blown away.

17. "Don't tell a soul!": KEEP IT UNDER YOUR. It is likely that there's no direct link to hats at all and that 'keep it under your hat' just meant 'keep it in your head'. "The man whose estate lies under his hat need never tremble before the frowns of fortune."--Anthony Trollope

31. Spout nonsense: TALK THROUGH ONE'S. This has quite a few speculative explanations.  My favorites are a reference to the emptiness of the hat atop one's head, as if one were thinking and speaking with an empty head, and Joseph Smith (the book of Mormon) reading a stone that nobody can see with his face buried in his hat.

41. Moonlight, say: WEAR MORE THAN ONE. To hold multiple jobs. This one is fairly direct. Back when almost everyone wore hats, if a man who was an admiral, a Lord Lieutenant of a county and Chancellor of a university - each of which has an impressive ceremonial hat - was going to an official function, the question "which hat will you be wearing?" would mean "in which capacity will you be attending?".

60. Instantly ... or how this puzzle's other three longest answers came about?: AT THE DROP OF A HAT. In the 19th century it was occasionally the practice in the United States to signal the start of a fight or a race by dropping a hat or sweeping it downward while holding it in the hand. The quick response to the signal found its way into the language for any action that begins quickly without much need for prompting.

Hi all, if it's Thursday, it must be me...

ACROSS:

1. Some graphic works: EROTICA. I wanted to fill this with "ESCHERS".

8. It often involves x's: ALGEBRA. Solve this equation for "X". Tricky putting this immediately following the preceeding clue to misdirect your thinking.

15. Of words: LEXICAL. From Greek "Lexikos", pertaining to words. A Lexicon is a dictionary of words.

16. One doing a lot of riding: NEEDLER. Riding in the sense of "giving a hard time". To needle is to goad or provoke a response.

19. Phishing targets: Abbr.: SSNS. An insidious form of Spam emails that can do damage if they bait you to bite at the lure. Legitimate companies don't email you for personal information. They only request it if you initiated a transaction with them. Never give out your identity in respnse to an unsolicited email or phone call, even if it looks legit.

20. Handbill: FLYER. Meaning of "small handbill or fly-sheet" is from U.S. slang (originally especially of police bulletins), on notion of "made to be scattered broadcast."

21. Nothing special: SO-SO. Every puzzle has some of these fillers.

22. Wroclaw's region: SILESIA. Today's geography lesson. An ancent region, now part of Poland and the Czech Republic.

24. Refillable candy: PEZ. The name Pez was derived from the letters at the start, the middle and the end of the German word for peppermint, Pfefferminz, the first Pez flavor. Pez was originally introduced in Austria.

25. Equilibrium: STASIS. The Greek word, meaning "a standing still".

29. 34-Down degree: NTH. A mathematical term indicating indefinite number, in which n is an abbreviation for number.

38. Carl's sweetheart, in "Up": ELLIE. Pixar movies are for everyone, and this one tugs at your heartstrings while still being funny. If you haven't seen it, don't let the fact that it is a "cartoon" keep you from renting it.

39. Double-slash container: URL. Internet locators that web browsers understand start several different ways, the most prevalent is:  http://  This is so common that you don't even have to type it in when you manually enter one in the address bar, all modern browsers will assume you meant to do it.

40. Deteriorate slowly: ERODE. I think I did this before... Latin erosionem "a gnawing away", from rodere, to gnaw, related to rodent.

44. Black and __: two-beer drink: TAN. Bass Pale Ale and Guinness (yes, the ones who produce the record book), usually, layered carefully, not mixed together.

45. Pugilism venues: ARENAS. Boxing.

46. "The Island of the Day Before" author: ECO. Umberto. Wiki has a fairly succinct plot synopsis.

49. Event with a queen: PAGEANT. First thoughts were of the recent Royal Wedding, a planned distraction, I'm sure.

53. Entre __: NOUS. French. Between us. A movie of that name was subtitled Coup de Foudre, which means "love at first sight".

55. Tanager homes: NESTS.  Colorful birds.

56. Impatient sounds: TSKS.

63. Cape user: MATADOR. Spanish, literally "killer," from matar "to kill or wound," probably from Arabic mata "he died."

64. Ex claim: ALIMONY. From Latin alimonia "food, support, nourishment, sustenance". "I won't pay," he said.  "Oh, yes you will," she Ex claimed.

65. Suffering terribly: IN AGONY. From Greek agonia "a (mental) struggle for victory," originally "a struggle for victory in the games.

66. "Listen to Your Heart" pop duo: ROXETTE. Official video.

DOWN:.

1. Horned game: ELKS. Other choices, both singular and plural, DEER,  BUCK.

2. "Cheers" actor Roger: REES. Character: Robin Colcord.  Didn't really remember him at first.

3. Paddy animals: OXEN. Rice paddies.

4. Inside information: TIPS.

5. Here, in Haiti: ICI. More French.

6. Cajun entrée: CATFISH. Not a big fan of "blackened" foods, I have a midwest "bland" taste palate.

7. __ in the conversation: A LULL. Related to lullaby, as in a "sleep".

8. Range along the Ring of Fire: ANDES.

9. Wolf's activity: LEERING. Howling, anyone? Wolves as a symbol of lust are ancient, e.g. Roman slang lupa "whore," literally "she-wolf". The equation of "wolf" and "prostitute, sexually voracious female" persisted into 12c., but by Elizabethan times wolves had become primarily symbolic of male lust.

10. Lux. neighbor: GER. Luxembourg and Germany.

11. Breyers alternative: EDYS.

12. It barely gets beyond the infield: BLOOP. Baseball.

13. Conserve, in a way: REUSE. Reclaim, recycle.

14. __ con pollo: ARROZ. Spanish, rice with chicken.

18. Science educator Bill: NYE. Bow ties are cool. Oh wait, that's a different character, Who knows Who I mean?

22. Display of links: SITE MAP. Usually created by the site webmaster for search engine crawlers to catalog, but regular users can also save time searching for something if they know it is on specific site.

23. Really: AT HEART.

25. Worry: STEW. Fret. To simmer in one's own juices.

26. "The Handmaid's __": Atwood novel: TALE. "Speculative" fiction. Beginning with a staged terrorist attack (blamed on Islamic extremist terrorists) that kills the President, a movement calling itself the "Sons of Jacob" launches a revolution, ousted Congress, and suspended the U.S. Constitution under the pretext of restoring order. Taking advantage of electronic banking, they were quickly able to freeze the assets of all  "undesirables" in the country, stripping their rights away.

27. __ puttanesca: with a spicy tomato sauce: ALLA. Literally "whore's style spaghetti" in Italian.

28. Avoid: SKIRT. Outskirts are the border or edges of a city or the hem of a skirt.

30. Mezzo Marilyn: HORNE. In keeping with the plethora of foreign language today, here's Habenera.

32. Capek play: RUR. Rossum's Universal Robots. More like androids, but this introduced the word "robot" to the English language (and science fiction).

33. Refinable rock: ORE.

34. Like z: Abbr.: ULT. Latin "ultimo", meaning last.

35. When two hands meet?: NOON. Probably the cleverest clue in the puzzle, clock hands. Imagine how boring the world will be if everything becomes digital-only instead of analog.

36. Author Buchanan: EDNA. Mysteries.

37. Dates: SEES.

42. With no end in sight: ON AND ON. Or, facing forward...

43. His co-pilot was a Wookiee: HAN SOLO. Star Wars.

46. As a friend, in Marseilles: EN AMI. French.

47. Trig function: COTAN. I think math counts as a foreign language, too...

48. "__ sight!": OUTTA. Uptight and all right. Little Stevie Wonder.

50. Elbridge __, governor famous for redistricting: GERRY. A portmanteau word Gerrymander came about because a district in MA looked like a salamander after political machinations were enacted to redistribute voting blocs to favor the party in power for future elections.

51. Peruvian pronoun: ESO. Spanish for "that".

52. How some stocks are sold: AT PAR. At the original price, no discounts or premiums.

54. Woolly rug: SHAG.

56. Far from titillating: TAME. Not graphic (1A).

57. Recorded on film: SHOT.

58. Key figure in epistemology: KANT. Immanuel.  Philosophy, the study of knowledge and justified belief. If you want to immerse yourself...

59. Eyelid nuisance: STYE.

61. Japanese capital of yore: EDO. Tokyo today.

62. Quandary: FIX. With "in a".

Answer Grid.

Al

Wednesday, May 4, 2011 Don Gagliardo

Theme: CAT-ITUDE. each theme answer describes a characteristic of a cat.

17A. *Like some ovens : SELF-CLEANING. more things should come with this option. like cars. and kids. and where's the self-cleaning toilet?

17A. *Checking, as books : BALANCING

35A. *Field action : HIGH-JUMPING

53A. *Part of many a magic act : DISAPPEARING. my cat does this all the time. about which my son says, 'he's a man, he'll be fine.'

58A. New York resort area, and what the answers to starred clues are : CATSKILLS - or CAT SKILLS. cute pun. see note from don hard g at the bottom.

Across:

1. Work on, as a part : COMB. i suppose.

5. Donald, to his nephews : UNCA. easy guess.

9. Polite title : MADAM. ma'am is short for madam.

14. [Turn the page] : OVER.

15. Indian flatbread : NAAN

16. Monterrey girlfriend : AMIGA. monterrey is mexico's third largest city.

19. Plymouth's county : DEVON. plymouth is a city in england. in this map of devon county, you can see plymouth to the southwest.

22. Expand operations : UPSIZE

25. Expand one's belly : EAT. partial clecho.

26. Goose egg : NIL. zip, nada, zilch.

27. Hard work : MOIL. not to be confused with mohel.

28. Activist with Raiders : NADER. ralph nader recruited hundreds of idealistic college students and lawyers to work with his center for study of responsive law.

31. 1987 Masters champ Larry : MIZE. best known for this shot.

32. 61-Down resident : PIG, and 61D. 32-Across home : STY

33. Versatile, powerwise : AC/DC. "DC is the abbreviation for direct current, which is a type of electrical current that travels through a circuit in only one direction. Direct current is the type of electrical power that is produced by fuel cells, batteries, and generators equipped with commutators. While DC power was the first type of electricity to be commercially transmitted, it has been widely replaced by alternating current (AC) electricity, and is now used primarily in electrochemical and metal-plating applications."

34. Subdivided : ZONED. tricky.

39. Flat-topped formation : BUTTE. courthouse butte near sedona, arizona.

41. Boston or Baltimore : PORT

42. Blame, slangily : RAP. according to the book, 'the whole ball of wax,' by laurence urdang, the expresssion is taken facetiously, from a ‘rap on the knuckles.’ that shows what i know, i would have guessed it was related to rap sheet, which is an acronym for record of arrest and prosecution.

45. Blame : ONUS. from latin.

46. Flower girl's path : AISLE. timely - gotta love this shot.

48. Geologic procession : EONS

49. Bert Bobbsey's twin : NAN

50. Little devil : IMP

51. Lunch time : MIDDAY

57. Place to play : ARENA

62. Best Buy squad members : GEEKS. before i switched from pc to mac, i had a stool there with my name on it.

63. Busy as __ : A BEE

64. Toned-down "Awesome!" : NEAT. extra credit for anyone who knows where this comes from: "dear annie. thanks for your letter. you sound neat."

65. Ferber and a Dame : EDNAS

66. Mama __ : CASS

67. Plucky : GAMY. if you say so...

Down:

1. Cheap pipe material : COB. scroll down this page for instructions on making your own corn cob pipe.

2. Ooplasm containers : OVA. the ooplasm is cytoplasm of an oocyte. oo yeah, i knew that off the top of my head.

3. Blanc who voiced Bugs : MEL

4. Sergio Mendes & __ '66 : BRASIL. remember this?

5. Relax, as one's fist : UNCLENCH. made me think of this.

6. Greenhorn : NAIF. a naive or inexperienced person.

7. Call off an appt. : CANCel. often abbreviated cx.

8. "Hulk" director : ANG LEE. didn't know that, never saw hulk.

9. Ticked off by : MAD AT. wanted irked.

10. Word of agreement : AMEN

11. Water shower? : DIVINING ROD. show-er. get it?

12. Fret (over) : AGONIZE

13. Really botched up : MANGLED

18. Pince-__ : NEZ. the style of spectacles worn by teddy roosevelt.

21. Poor listener's in-and-out organ : EAR. in one ear, out the other.

22. One wearing black at home : UMP. umpire.

23. Island dish : POI

24. Trusting way to purchase : SIGHT UNSEEN

29. Descriptive wd. : ADJ. adjective.

30. Bra choices : D-CUPS.

31. Day for the fair-of-face child: Abbr. : MON. "Monday's child is fair of face." what day were you born?

33. Some do it gracefully : AGE. like her.

34. Teen omen : ZIT. acne.

36. "__ for me to know ..." : IT'S. '... and you to find out.'

37. Kind of biol. : MOL. the branch of biology that deals with the molecular basis of biological activity, commonly mol bio.

38. Bases for arguments : PREMISES

39. "Of Human __" : BONDAGE. novel by w. somerset maugham.

40. Like some TV pilots : UNAIRED

43. Nostalgist's suffix : ANA. as in, americana.

44. Future therapist's maj. : PSY. psychology.

46. Band booster : AMP. amplifier.

47. Medicinal syrup : IPECAC. ick.

48. Garden container? : EDGING. nice.

50. "None for me, thank you" : I PASS

52. Publicity : INK

54. Songwriter Paul : ANKA

55. Rhyme scheme in Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" : AABA. yes, but only the first stanza:

Whose woods these are I think I know.

His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

lines 1, 2, and 4 all have the same rhyme sound, while line 3 introduces a new sound. see this link for the rhyme scheme of the remaining stanzas.

56. Hwys. with nos. : RTES

59. Thompson of "Back to the Future" : LEA

60. Flee : LAM. didn't know this could be a verb, meaning escape. usually hear it as a noun, 'escaped convicts on the lam.'

Answer grid.

Melissa

Constructor note:

What an interesting word, Catskills. I wonder about its origin. For some reason one day, I just heard it as Cat Skills, two words. I grew up with cats, and was always amazed at what they can do. They do have extraordinary abilities. Why not do a puzzle about them? It helps that Rich is a cat person. Thanks to Rich, he helped me to round off my list of cat abilities. There may be some others that I have forgotten. Will the cat people out there write in to tell us about cat’s skills that others of us may have forgotten?

Tuesday, May 3, 2011 Jeff Chen

Theme: Hop to It - Our little unifier hops across the bottom of the grid, as indicated by the circles. Check the answer grid for the proper placement of the circles if your version is missing them or are incorrect (Cruciverb puz file contained an error, the three circles should be moved one column right to 60D). Because the unifier is in the vertical columns, I will list them left to right instead of top to bottom.

51D. Sing like Bing : CROON

30D. 2007 Iraq War strategy : TROOP SURGE

6D. In whatever way possible : BY HOOK OR BY CROOK

34D. Little one hopping across today's puzzle : ROO. Winnie-the-Pooh's little buddy.

9D. Stereotypical deal-making site : SMOKE-FILLED ROOM

10D. Was angry to the max : HIT THE ROOF

60D. Cheer : ROOT

Argyle here. Lemonade714 must have some pull. He asked Friday, "Isn't it time we had a Jeff Chen puzzle?" and here we are. You might call this a visual theme. If you had the circles, it was easy to pop in ROO in the appropriate places, perhaps a little too easy. It might have been more satisfying to find them on your own. ?

Across:

1. Schmooze, as with the rich and famous : HOBNOB

7. Baseball's Cobb et al. : TYs

10. Fabled loser : HARE

14. Hooters' hangout : OWLERY. The Owlery is a room on the top of Hogwarts Castle's West Tower, where the school owls and the owls belonging to students live during the school year. Of course!

15. __ Kippur : YOM

16. Quite angry : IRED

17. Money to burn : WEALTH

18. Pi follower : RHO

19. Musical quality : TONE

20. Canonized pope known as "The Great" : ST. LEO. He was an Italian aristocrat, and is the first pope of the Catholic Church to have been called "the Great". He is perhaps best known for having met Attila the Hun in 452, persuading him to turn back from his invasion of Italy. Reason enough to make him a saint, eh?

21. Spoken thumbs-up : A-OK

22. Feds concerned with counterfeits : T-MEN

23. Top-level URL ender : .GOV

25. Donkey's bray : HEE-HAW

27. "Oopsy!" evoker : MISTAKE

31. "How silly __!" : OF ME

32. State emphatically : AVER

33. Legendary Bruin : ORR. Played his first ten seasons with the Boston Bruins.

35. Words with a sigh : "I TRIED"

39. __ Bell : TACO

40. Phantom's rival, in "The Phantom of the Opera" : RAOUL

42. Nobel Institute city : OSLO

43. Lay to rest : ENTOMB

45. NBA's Magic, on scoreboards : ORL. The Orlando Magic play in the Amway Arena.

46. Actress Lena : OLIN. Swedish-born Lena Olin already had a successful career as an actress before she came to Hollywood.

47. Settles the bill : PAYS

49. Fixed charges : SET FEES

51. Washington-based warehouse club : COSTCO

53. Hubbub : ADO

54. Pakistani language : URDU

55. Barbecue morsel : RIB. 13Down. Site of a 55-Across removal : EDEN

57. Less polite : RUDER

61. Dark film genre : NOIR. French black; noting the black numbers in roulette.

62. Nickel source : ORE

63. Cat also known as the dwarf leopard : OCELOT. Image.

65. Quarterback Flutie : DOUG. Played in both the NFL and the CFL.

66. "__ the land of the free ..." : O'ER

67. "Check that out!" : "OH, LOOK!"

68. Bar buyer's words : ON ME

69. Bar barrel : KEG

70. Treating maliciously : MEAN TO

Down:

1. In what way : HOW

2. Hasn't settled yet : OWES

3. Beginning trumpeter's sound : BLAT

4. "Gimme a Break!" star Carter : NELL. TV sitcom ran '81 to '86 on NBC.

5. Sandinista Daniel : ORTEGA

7. Banks with an Emmy : TYRA She has had so many different looks, I'll just lick the Google search page.

8. "__ and a bottle of rum!" : "YO-HO-HO!"

11. Odor : AROMA

12. Buy more Time, say : RENEW. The magazine.

24. Aloe __ : VERA

26. 911 respondent : EMT. Emergency Medical Technician.

27. Play or room follower : MATE

28. Nobelist Pavlov : IVAN. The Russian physiologist who went to the dogs.

29. Breakaway group : SECT

36. Ginger and Mary Ann's home away from home : ISLE. TV's Gilligan's Isle. The show was Gilligan's Island but the theme song called it Gilligan's Isle.

37. Nobelist Wiesel : ELIE

38. Crime bosses : DONs

41. Major in astronomy? : URSA

44. Yoga student's roll : MAT

48. Nighttime bash : SOIREE

50. Acknowledgment of a witty rejoinder : TOUCHÉ Derived from the sport of Fencing.

52. Hatred : ODIUM. You may be more familiar with the adjective form, ODIOUS.

54. Annul : UNDO

56. North Atlantic hazard : BERG

58. Oscar __ Renta : DE LA

59. North Carolina university : ELON

64. WBA decision : TKO. World Boxing Association/Technical Knockout.

Answer grid.

Argyle

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Monday, May 2, 2011 Robyn Weintraub

Theme: Where's the Wizard? - The first words of the theme entries will lead you to the Wizard of Oz and if you aren't sure of which are the theme entries, the unifier at the end will tell you.

17A. "Come this way!" : "FOLLOW ME!"

25A. Annual black-tie broadcast, familiarly : THE OSCARS

40A. Beatles film with Blue Meanies : "YELLOW SUBMARINE"

52A. Hot spot for pizza : BRICK OVEN

66A. MERGE or SIGNAL AHEAD, e.g. : ROAD SIGN

73A. One of five who heeded the directions in the first words of 17-, 25-, 40-, 52- and 66-Across : TOTO. Along with Dorothy Gale, Tinman, Scarecrow and the Cowardly Lion.

Argyle here and no B-movie but a fine Monday puzzle. It is too bad the Cruciverb site is down but there isn't much to explain anyway. Quite a few three-letter entries but that is a small price to pay to get six theme entries, one a grid spanner, into a Monday puzzle. Ms. Weintraub had her debut puzzle in the NY Times on Monday, March 28, 2011 so I assume this is her LAT debut, also. Good job, Robyn. More info on our constructor here.

Across:

1. Indiana city of song : GARY. Gary Indiana(2:00) from The Music Man.

5. TV channels 2-13 : VHF

8. Draw unwelcome graffiti on : DEFACE

14. Concept : IDEA

15. Rowboat need : OAR

16. Ran to Vegas to get married, perhaps : ELOPED

19. "Dirty" hair color : BLONDE

20. Breadcrumbs, in a children's story : TRAIL

21. Army NCO : SSGT

23. College official : DEAN

24. Blush-inducing H.S. class : SEX ED

27. Needle hole : EYE

29. Palm smartphone : TREO. Image.

30. Turn over a new __ : LEAF

34. Bungle the job : ERR

36. Tall hat wearer at Buckingham Palace : GUARD

44. Like Keebler magic : ELFIN

45. Prefix with political : GEO

46. Airport transport : TRAM

47. Writing tools : PENS. In case you don't watch TV, this funny Geico ad.

50. Doc's org. : AMA

56. Inclined to opine : VOCAL

61. Like rain forests : LUSH

62. "I Got You Babe," e.g. : DUET

63. Asinine : INANE

64. Half a Beatles nonsense title : OB-LA-DI

68. Church official : CLERIC

69. _ Jima : IWO

70. Lead-in for while : ERST

71. Living room piece : SETTEE

72. 8x 10 or 11 x 14: Abbr. : ENL. Photo enlargements.

Down:

1. Bridal shower pile : GIFTS

2. Really like : ADORE

3. Take a long bath, say : RELAX

4. Connecticut Ivy Leaguer : YALIE. Usually, we get Eli's.

5. Promise : VOW

6. Pets on wheels : HAMSTERS

7. Not stale : FRESH

8. Credit card user : DEBTOR

9. Right-angle shape : ELL

10. Mall eatery site : FOOD COURT

11. Sleep clinic concern : APNEA

12. Storage closet wood : CEDAR

13. Perfect places : EDENS

18. Renaissance Faire sign word : OLDE

22. TV's "_ Smart" : GET

26. "Sonic the Hedgehog" developer : SEGA. SEGA is a multinational video game software and hardware development company.

28. Hedge bush : YEW

30. Soap ingredient : LYE

31. Electric swimmer : EEL

32. E.T. of '80s TV : ALF

33. Sales meeting visual aid : FLIP CHART

35. Snug bug's spot : RUG

37. Bubble wrap filler : AIR

38. Genetic letters : RNA

39. Like JFK and FDR : DEM. Both were Democrats.

41. Fun run length, for short : ONE K

42. Boston nickname : BEANTOWN

43. Boo-boo kisser : MOM

48. "Not happening!" : "NO DICE!"

49. "Law & Order: __" : SVU. Special Victims Unit.

51. Enthusiastic : AVID

52. Voting alliances : BLOCS

53. Russian coin : RUBLE

54. Archipelago unit : ISLET

55. Goosebump-inducing : EERIE

57. First stage : ONSET

58. Largest city in Africa : CAIRO. Egypt.

59. Common teenage emotion : ANGST

60. Slow, to Solti : LENTO

65. Conk out, as an engine : DIE

67. Gmail alternative : AOL

Answer grid.

Argyle