Saturday, Dec 24th, 2011 Jack McInturff

Theme: None

Words: 72

Blocks: 33

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas to all ~!! This is not Jack FROST nipping at your nose, but Jack McInturff nipping at your noggin - or is that egg-nog doing that???

I just checked to see when we last saw Jack McInturff, and he gave us our Thanksgiving Eve puzzle, too - now he is here with our Christmas Eve puzzle, and I do believe it is his first Saturday puzzle, tho he has given us Sundays before. I have to admit, this was the first time I went to Google to find an answer because I got stuck in the NE corner, and it was due to my mistake of thinking SGTS was the E-7 rank; more at 10D....

Anyway, this one was tough, and I cheated, but what can I say....triple 9's and 8's in a pinwheel fashion, with those frustrating one word clues, and some deception as well. I do like the early morning brain battle.

Onward ~!

Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen ~!

Comet, Cupid, Donder, and Blitzen ~!

ACROSS:

1. Totally : STONE COLD

10. Rigs on the road : SEMIs

15. Annual All-American Soap Box Derby site : AKRON, OHIO - I knew this answer, but couldn't recall the city, so I put in OHIO, and waited....

16. Old French capital? : FRANC - how funny is this??? I was stuck on SOU and ECU for so long from doing crosswords, that FRANC totally eluded me until I changed my 10D answer

17. One may be marching : BRASS BAND

18. Keyboardist who founded Return to Forever : COREA - did not know this; I am sure JazzB was "HIP" to him; a little clip for you

19. Rembrandt van __ : RYN - I WAGed at RIN, should have known it was a "Y"; also 32A. Rug with a long pile : RYA - standard in crosswordese

20. Certain protests : SIT-INs - or bed-ins, as done by our last clue/answer

22. "Friends" actress, familiarly : JENnifer Aniston, my personal fave from a show I did NOT watch

23. Spread __ : EAGLE

26. Pmt.-lowering option : RE-FInance

27. Lacking a partner : ODD - as in socks, not people....ah.

28. Blessed event? : SNEEZE - by not reading this as Bless -ED, I was able to nail it

30. Italy's Como, per esempio : LAGO - Italian for Lake

33. Fancy layer : GILT - UGH ~! This one stumped me, and had to go letter cycling before the "G" made sense in both across and down....

35. "__ out!" : YER - not GET, which also has the central "E"

36. Giant in a 2000 merger : AOL - America On Line, did not know this (From C.C.: The AOL./Time Warner merge. Debacle.)

37. 1980s Screen Actors Guild president : ED ASNER - boy this guy gets around in crosswords, doesn't he!?!? Such user/solver-friendly letters, and his 'full' name

40. "The Complaint of Peace" essayist, 1521 : ERASMUS

42. Eastern Med. country : LEBanon

43. Ophelia's niece, in "Uncle Tom's Cabin" : EVA

44. TV Stone Age pet : DINO - the Flintstones "dog", so to speak

45. Court figs. : D.A.s - District Attorneys, part of the LAW side of LAW & ORDER, a favorite TV show of mine

46. Lacking : SANS - French, 'without'

48. Town across the Connecticut River from Springfield, Mass. : AGAWAM - map

52. Ring support : OLE - AH ~!! The cry from the crowd ~!! The ring being the bullfight

53. Baker's meas. : TSPs

55. Puck's eatery : SPAGO - not in my wheelhouse - this place

56. Veep before LBJ : RMN - A WAG, tho I knew he was in politics for a long time, Richard Milhous Nixon

57. Candy heart phrase : BE MINE - I tried being cute with "I LOVE U"

59. Gnarly : RAD - Helps to have a teenager in one's life for this kind of language - in my case it was my generation that typically found "cool" things to be Gnarly, and RAD - but I never said either word unless I was trying to be sarcastic - think Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure

60. Big name in insurance : AETNA

62. One of two in a historic 1869 Utah meeting : IRON HORSE - Dah ~!!! I knew it was the two trains meeting at Promontory Summit, but STEAM TRAIN didn't fit, nor LOCOMOTIVE

65. "Sharky's Machine" author : DIEHL - this guy; WAGed the "H"

66. Classroom concern : TARDINESS

67. Wee hr. : ONE A.M. - I am DONE at UPS as of 9am this morning - spent all week getting up at 12 midnight for a ONE A.M. shift, getting out at 9-10am. How about you Dennis? Are you 0 & 1 w/u now?

68. Deliberate : SLEEP ON IT - De-li-BER-ate, as in a jury, not De-LIB'rate, as in an intentional act

DOWN:

1. Buffalo skaters : SABRES - Hockey Hockey Hockey ~!! My Rangers beat their Winter Classic rivals the Philadelphia Flyers, once again, this time 4-2. The outdoor game is a week from Monday, and New Year's Eve is an alumni (there's some CW for you) game of the retired types - should be a lot of fun, yes eddyB ~?

2. "Tumbleweeds" cartoonist : T.K. RYAN - good way to get a four-consonant word in the grid, with T-K-R-Y - this guy and his strip

3. Fruit in a knock-knock joke : ORANGE - OK, OK, I wanted Banana, and you get 'em both~!

4. Negatives : Nos

5. Cannes duo : ENS - ah, not the French number, but the two "N"s in the word caNNes

6. Picnic trash : COBS - Corn centers, leftover

7. 2011 Canadian Open champ Sean : O'HAIR - golf, this guy

8. Architectural support : LINTEL - A steel L-bar that spans a masonry opening over a window or door, e.g., and carries the weight of the load above; also decorative, as in this instance

9. "Chariots of Fire" executive producer : DODI FAYED - more famous for his romantic link and death with Princess Diana

10. E-7 Army personnel : SFCs - the killer for me, a Sergeant First Class - my friend Jim is in the Army, has about 6 years left, and the last I heard, he was an E-6, and deployed to Afghanistan; I wonder if he got holiday leave....

11. Ranch closing? : ERO - Ranchero

12. Mint family herb : MARJORAM

13. "Help me" : I NEED YOU - too long to fit on a candy heart ???

14. Checkout counter newspaper fodder : SCANDALS - Aww, I wanted UFO IS GOD, or something much more investigative - I was looking for that scene from MiB where they "check the hot sheets", the supermarket tabloids

21. Gulf of Guinea country : NIGERIA

24. Staying power : LEGS - ah, yes to say "it has legs" means it (or they) will last - all I want for Christmas is these two hot legs

25. Web issues : EZINES - hey, I don't mind the E- or A- words, but I am getting tired of all the I- things you can buy these days; I am getting rid of my i P.O.S. for Christmas

29. Raise : ELEVATE

31. Asian swingers : ORANGs - Primates, but I thought they didn't do much in the trees

34. Sends : TRANSMITS

37. Poe poem written at the time of the California Gold Rush : EL DORADO - here

38. Cardplayer's request : DEAL ME IN

39. Type of ballot : ABSENTEE

41. Suds source : SOAP - not FOAM, and not BEER

47. Cochlea shape : SPIRAL

49. Underground home : WARREN


50. Two-time U.S. Open champ : AGASSI - tennis

51. Unassuming : MODEST

54. Nighttime disturbance, at times : SNORE

57. Healer : BALM

58. Cologne conclusion : ENDE - more French, I believe (C.C.: German for "end".)

61. New Deal home loan gp. : NHA - Here's a great site that lists all of them, I think

63. Trendy : HIP

64. "Double Fantasy" artist : ONO - not a fan

Answer grid.

I have one last 2-hour shift at UPS at 7am today, sorting overnight Air packages, and then I am back to my regular schedule on Tuesday

- yea ~~!!!!

Splynter

Friday, December 23, 2011, Mike Peluso

Theme: No F words here! The letter F is taken from the end of the second word of a common phrase and is replaced with either a sound alike or the word without the F to create a new and witty phrase. This is my second Mike Peluso puzzle to write up, and like the other it has many 3 and 4 letter words, which should be easy, but they are not. It also has lots of themeage, so let us see what we have to work with today.

18A. Answered on "Name That Fabric"?: CRIED WOOL. Cried wolf. My favorite, and seeing the theme really helped.

20A. Just the binding?: BOOK SHELL. Book shelf. Here the F leaves but an added L comes in to play.

36A. Scale model of an ancient rival of Rome: MINIATURE GAUL. Miniature golf. Here we lose the F sound and have a sound alike. As Julius Caesar said, "Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres."

54A. Burger queen?: GROUND BEE. Ground Beef. The F is gone, no sound alike. Queen Bee, a convoluted pun with Burger King as well. A shout out to our amazing BEES.

57A. Non-contraband cheese?: LEGAL BRIE. Legal Brief. This one also just has the F removed. Brie the french soft cheese.

The unifier: 65A. Disappearing sound, and a hint to this puzzle's theme: PFFT. Not much help, but I had the theme long before I git here.

Time for the rest of the story.

Across:

1. Tic, for one: SPASM. Like that of Inspector Dreyfus.

6. Arcade trademark word: SKEE. Skee Ball, the first game where we teach kids to gamble to win prizes.

10. Its website has a "Rodents 101" section: DCON. Gotta love em, CLIP (0:18).

14. "__ Go Again": Whitesnake #1 song : HERE I. CLIP.(4:33).

15. Brand at Petco: IAMS. The founder of the company was Paul Iams.

16. Pats on a buffet: OLEO. No, not on the waitresses' bottom.

17. '30s-'40s Kildare portrayer : AYRES. Lew, who ironically studied to be a doctor at the University of Arizona.

22. Pocatello sch : ISU. Idaho State University.

23. Texter's "Oh, before I forget ..." : BTW. By the Way.

24. Pah lead-in: OOM. Is this too close to 40A. Oomph: ZING?

25. Car radio selection: PRESET.

28. Hedger's OK: YES, BUT...what if? See below?

30. Land measurement ACRE.

32. "Discreet Music" composer: ENO. Sounds better than elevator music.

33. Surrealist Jean: ARP. A regular in our world.

34. On the __ vive: alert: QUI. From French, who lives, being the inquiry of the guard of the gate.

35. City south of Fort Worth: WACO. I guess forever linked to David Koresh, the wacko from Waco.

41. DOD arm: NSA. Department of Defense. National Security Agency.

42. Aus. currency : DOL. Austrailian Dollar.

43. Seasonal helper: ELF.How many liked the Will Farrell movie?

44. Olds 442 rivals: GTOS. My brother has a 1967.

45. Honolulu's __ Palace: IOLANI. The only real PALACE in the US.

49. Mouth formations: DELTAS. Mouths of rivers, my favorite was Miss Florida.

51. H.S. dropout's exam: GED. General Educational Development are the tests not the diploma.

52. Author Yutang: LIN. Out of my knowledge base, perhaps other can give some history. (From C.C.: Lin Yutang was a giant in Chinese literature, known for his beautiful prose.)

53. High dudgeon: IRE. An odd word never used by itself, and with no known origin like its cousins BLUDGEON and CURMUDGEON.

60. Rock's Burdon et al : ERICS. and the Animals.

61. He lowered the New York Times' price from 3¢ to 1¢: OCHS. And raised circulation from 7,000 to 900,000. Interesting MAN.

62. Doofuses : OAFS.

63. Reds, maybe: WINES.

64. Clothes alterer of a kind: MOTH. Cute, but I do not see many moths here.

66. Tex's "What if ...": S'POSE. This one fooled me for a while even after I filled in all the letters, I suppose I just did not see it.

Down:

1. Ramshackle: SHABBY. I started with SHANTY, thinking of an old house.

2. Native American hallucinogen: PEYOTE. When I was in college lots of people wanted to be indigenous Americans so they could experience the ritual of mescaline, the hallucinogen in Peyote.

3. Pointers: ARROWS.

4. Tuner option: SEEK. Being from New England I like my TUNER to be Albacore. Also and Anagram for SKEE, and the derivation of SIC.

5. Where Clark met Lewis in 1804: MISSOURI. The state or the river?

6. "Attack!": SIC EM. likely from "seek them."

7. Jazz great Malone: KARL. This was so cool, not the music, but the NBA team.

8. Oscar winner Jannings : EMIL. A silent film star who won the first best Actor award in 1929; he later became a Nazi propagandist, and his Hollywood career was over.

9. Toledo-to-Akron dir : ESE.

10. Not spare the rod?: DOWSE. The art of finding water with a stick, not to be confused with DICKY the STICK promoted by Johnny Carson.

11. Sellers role: CLOUSEAU. Truly in a class by himself with his tormentor/tormentee 57D. Herbert who played 11-Down's nemesis Inspector Dreyfus: LOM. A perfect FOIL for Seller's silliness.

12. Antipoverty agcy: OEO. Office of Economic Opportunity.

13. Exiled Cambodian Lon __ NOL. My favorite palindromic leader.

19. Like some consequences: DIRE.

21. Revealing '60s-'70s fad: HOT PANTS. I remember Goldie Hawn.

25. Literally, "pray G-d : PRIE DIEU. Where people kneel to pray.

26. SASE, e.g.: ENCL. Enclosure.

27. Overly: TOO. Like SOFIA sometimes?

29. Slam: BANG. Thank you ma'am.

30. Blue hues: AQUAS. Very big here in Florida.

31. Heel : CUR. An old fashioned word.

35. Medieval fortification: WALL. Anyone watching the mini-series made from Pillars of Earth?

36. Sports Authority Field altitude: MILE. The only stadium anyone cares about altitude is in Denver, home of the Broncos and now Tim Tebow, a Gator.

37. Like some movies: IN FLIGHT. This was really hard for me to parse. The perps finally filled, but this was a struggle.

38. Chicken general?: TSO. A staple both in the restaurant and the puzzle.

39. It may be a relief: GOOD NEWS. Very obscure clue.

40. Last of 26, in Chelsea: ZED. The British way to designate the letter "z."

44. Erse speaker, perhaps: GAEL. Gaels, the Celtic peoples of Scotland, Ireland. Erse became Irish.

46. White rat, e.g.: ALBINO. Or my favorite...

47. Reunion attendees: NIECES.

48. Actually existing: IN ESSE. Literal Latin.

50. Contentious talk: TRASH. The language of the NBA and NFL.

51. "Whither thou __ ...": Ruth: GOEST. "whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people..."

54. Five-time U.S. Open champ: GRAF. Wife of Andre Agassi; you think their children will pay?

55. Jazz phrase: RIFF. Riffs are found primarily in rock music, Latin, funk and jazz, classical music is also sometimes based on a simple riff, such as Ravel's Boléro.

56. Coffee choice: DRIP. I much prefer having my coffee with an interesting person.

58. Green prefix: ECO. Ecology and all that.

59. Gillespie's genre: BOP. John Birks 'Dizzie' Gillespie was a major figure in both bebop and JAZZ. (3:47) Listen and enjoy as he ends my return to the saddle. JzB, cheeky bastard wasn't he.

Answer grid.

Thanks and it is good to be back, if still a bit out of shape. Have a very happy holiday week all.

Lemonade

Note from C.C.:

Happy Birthday to our Capricorn Misty! Found the Capri pants yet?