Wednesday August 6, 2008 Stanley B. Whitten

Theme: Watered Down

17A: 1970 Bobby Bloom hit: MONTEGO BAY

52A: Thoreau's cabin site: WALDEN POND

11D: View from Cornell: CAYUGA LAKE

27D: Shields film: BLUE LAGOON

Out of the 4 theme answers, WALDEN POND was the only gimme for me, but the other 3 were easily obtainable.

I like this puzzle, great theme. No frustratingly ungettable words. Simple & smooth. ILLER (35A: More poorly) did raise my eyebrow a bit, but technically it's a legit word.

In the past several days, I've been pondering on how these constructors come up with certain themes. In today's case, why did this constructor pick up lakes rather than rivers (brook, creek, stream, etc)?

I still can't figure it out. But I know that all of those guys have done an exhaustive amount of work to come up with a solvable and entertaining puzzle. I wonder how long it takes them to complete a grid, hours? or Days?

Just to want to say a "Thank you" to them here. I know I can be a poor critic to their work sometimes, but I am an equal opportunity critic and I truly appreciate their effort.

Across:

10A: Gent from Aberdeen: SCOT. See this map for Aberdeen.

16A: Cover a lot of ground?: PAVE. Great clue.

21A: Show off: FLAUNT. So easy to get confused with FLOUT.

25A: Gelcap alternative: TABLET

28A: Wander about: DIVAGATE. Unknown to me. I got it from the down fills. This is a very interesting word. I wonder if any constructor has ever thought of constructing a GATE rebus puzzle, you know, with Watergate, Monicagate/Zippergate, Plamegate, Rathergate, etc.

37A: "The Three Faces of ___": EVE. I am not familiar with this film. Easily gettable though. How would you clue EVE if you were the constructor? I like "First offender?".

39A: Tightwad: PIKER. Another new word to me. I penned in MISER first. Google researched showed that PIKERS were the "1849 Gold Rush equivalents of 1930s Okies. A piker was literally someone from Pike County, Missouri. Large numbers of Pike County residents rushed to California to seek their fortunes".

40A: Olios: MELANGES

45A: Smooth, in music: LEGATO. This reminds of the TENUTO (Sustained note) we had a while ago. KittyB explained TENUTO as "similar to "LEGATO," in that the music is very smooth, and the notes connect to each other, no spaces between them. The opposite of tenuto would be "staccato," where the note is very short and articulated hard."

47A: Touched tenderly: CARESSED

56A: "The Four Seasons" star: ALDA. The answer revealed itself after I filled in the down clues. I've never seen the movie. Alan ALDA's name is so crossword friendly.

58A: Robust: HEFTY. What kind of HEFTY fish is that?

Down:

1D: Cell body: SOMA. New to me. Dictionary says it's also an "intoxicating drink of the Hindu gods". And in "Brave New World", SOMA is "the name of a state-dispensed narcotic producing euphoria and hallucination".

4D: One of eight: OCTUPLET. Another new word to me. It's built up upon TRIPLET or QUADRUPLET I suppose. Here is a picture of the famous Dionne QUINTUPLETS.

6D: Athol Fugard play, "A Lesson from ___": ALOES. Not familiar with this book. It's about apartheid in the early 1960s. Interesting book title. I know ALOES are healing. I've never thought of them as ugly though.

9D: Seasonal rhinitis: HAY FEVER

10D: Rose with a bound: SPRANG. I like the clue and the answer.

35D: Toenail, sometimes: INGROWTH. Only knew INGROW.

36D: Life on earth: LIFE SPAN

39D: Sacramental disk: PATEN. Disk?

42D: Something beyond doubt: SURETY

46D: Dresden's waterway: ELBE. Have not seen its tributary EGER for a long time. This is the ELBE watershed.

C.C.

Tuesday August 5, 2008 Verna Suit

Theme: That Is (i.e) Extra

17A: Part-time girlfriend?: SEMI SWEETIE

27A: ID a gastronome?: FINGER FOODIE

44A: Assault tour crew member?: HIT THE ROADIE

60A: Early bird warm-up wear?: ROBIN HOODIE

I've never heard of ROADIE. I like the other 3, esp FINGER FOODIE, deliciously clued.

This is a very creative theme idea. I wonder what other similar words this constructor pondered while creating her grid. If she is a real gastronomist, COOKIE & BEANIE might be in her thinking process.

Or if she is into sports, she could be be musing on ROOKIE, BOOKIE, GOALIE and BIRDIE. I also thought of COOLIE, SORTIE, STOOLIE and WEENIE (?). OKIE might not be OK.

And of course the sweet words like CUTIE, DEARIE & CHERIE.

What else can you think of?

I struggled with puzzle. Got mired in the N crossing beween ANETO and ANEMO and could not get the letter R between NORNS and SIDRA. And encountered pockets of problems here and there.

Across:

1A: "Politically incorrect" host: MAHER (Bill). A stupid "not cowardly"mistake. He is funny though.

2A: Envelop closer: CLASP. I don't like the repetition of "CL" both in the clue and in the answer.

14A: Wind: pref.: ANEMO. As in "Anemometer". ANEMO came from Greek "anemos", meaning wind. Too obscure to me.

15A: Errs on esses: LISPS

21A: Line from Mork: NANU NANU. Often see NANU clued as "Half of Mork's sign-off".

33A: Kind of metabolism: BASAL

36A: Steffi of tennis: GRAF. Amazing career wins, they are perfect together.

37A: Kid's punishment: NO TV

38A: Dilly: LULU. Here is LULU's "To SIR (49A: Galahad's title) With Love". I liked the movie.

41A: Fusses: ADOS. OK, let's talk about Shakespear's "Much ADO about Nothing" today. Is "Nothing" really "Nothing"?

42A: Riga resident: LETT

43A: Collar inserts: STAYS. What is exactly a STAY?

47A: Labor grp.: UAW (United Automobile Workers)

48A: Touch of frost: NIP. I like this clue.

52A: Relies on: TRUSTS IN

63A:Beethoven dedicatee: ELISE. "Für ELISE".

64A: Norse goddesses: NORNS. Goddesses of Fate: Here is a painting of the famous 3 NORNS: Urðr (Past Fate), Verdandi (Present Fate) & Skuld (Future Fate). I know none of them. I am not familiar with Norse mythology, or any mythology.

66A: "101 Dalmatians" author: DODIE (Smith). I got her name from the down fills. I did not know her. I like her bangs. Is the haircut suitable to her oblong face shape, Katherine?

Down:

1D: Billiard stroke: MASSE. I like "The Hustler", don't you?

2D: Pico de __ (Pyreness peak): ANETO. Really tough crossing beween ANETO & ANEEMO. Why is the guy on the left wearing shorts? It feels cold.

3D: Macho types: HE-MEN. Oh, I see, maybe this is the reason why: He wants to be a "HE-MAN". Then catches a cold/bug on the way back home and sleeps for days.

5D: Perfume ingredient: ROSE OIL

6D: French key: CLE. Or CLEF (nf). The calculator key is TOUCHE. She is wearing the "CLE de Peau" enhancer.

8D: Tec's terrier: ASTA. "The Thin Man" dog. I don't like the clue. Isn't "Tec" a shortened form of "Detective"? Or is it a widely accepted word just like "info"?

9D: Son-of sit-comes: SPIN-OFFS. I dislike this clue. It does not sound cute to me at all.

10D: Phony: PSEUDO

22D: Newborn: NEONATE. And 61D: Born in Bordeaux: NEE.

27D: Marlowe's Doctor: FAUSTUS. "The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus". I've never heard of this novel or Christopher Marlowe. I only knew FAUST and the "Faustian bargain".

30D: Lady of Lisbon: DONA

35D: Assigned time: SLOT

28D: Thalia's sister: ERATO. Muse of love poetry. Thalia is the muse of "comedy and idyllic poetry". Several words have ERATO hidden in them: accelerator, generator, adulterator, exaggerators, etc. Someone ought to make a rebus puzzle out these words and credit me as his MUSE.

29D: Cane palm: RATTAN

39D: Emulated Lindbergh: FLEW SOLO

43D: Drinking straws: SIPHONS. Ha, I even had difficulty obtaining this word, mainly due to STAY & NORNS.

49D: Libyan gulf: SIDRA. This is a map for Gulf of SIDRA. Unknown to me also.

50D: One way to do crossword: IN INK. I cannot do mine without "Wite-Out".

55D: Footnote carrier: IBID

56D: Unless, in law: NISI. Add an E, we've got a word for Japanese American NISEI.

C.C.