Tuesday August 12, 2008 Norma Steinberg

Theme: The Sound of Music

17A: Chopin song to Caesar's enemy?: ETUDE BRUTE

65A: When King David sang?: PSALM TIMES

10D: Handel's reveries? SUITE DREAMS

25D: Strauss' NYT setting?: WALTZ STREET

Oh how I struggled with the theme today! I did not know the musical meaning of SUITE, and I had no idea that Handel wrote many keyboard SUITES. "SWEET DREAMS" kept popping into my mind and I started to think that this might be a wordplay puzzle.

I wish ACT (20A: Behave) were clued as "Play part" to further enhance the musical sub-theme:

44A: Famous fair lady: ELIZA. Here is the original Broadway poster.

31D: Webber hit: CATS

53D: La __ (Milan's opera house): SCALA

I also wish POLO (35D: Equestrian game) was clued as "China explorer" to pair us with ASIA (36D: China's land). I don't believe the clue for TIED (23D: Even-steven) is the contructor's original submission. She would not have overlooked EVEN (18D: __ as we speak).

Anyway, I enjoyed this puzzle very much. It felt so feminine and pretty. Lots of girl power in the grid. And none of them is unyielding.

Across:

10A: Swedish auto: SAAB. I often wonder why this company name is SAAB AB rather than just SAAB, so repetitive.

15A: Stretch of land: TRACT. and 11D: Land measure: ACRE

22A: Show up for: ATTEND

24A: Cleansing routine: SHOWER. "Jump in the SHOWER...". Dolly Parton has such an enviable body, so sexy. I really want the rainbow, but I don't want to put up with the rain.

26A: "Dallas" matriarch: ELLIE. I lapsed into ELLEN again. I've never seen "Dallas".

30A: Secondhand ride: USED CAR

39A: Kind of queen: DRAMA

50A: Part of a poppy: STEM. I planted SEED first.

54A: Move it: HASTEN. I've never heard of "Move it". "Hightail it" yes!

58A: Rival of Athens: SPARTA. Pure guess. I don't know why SPARTA is the "Rival of Athens". Not familiar with Greek history or mythology.

69A: Actress Shire: TALIA. She is Connie in "The Godfather".

70A: Muppet with a unibrow: BERT. I don't understand this picture. What is that long stuff coming out of the peanuts jar? Looks elastic.

Down:

2D: Fire starter: MATCH

3D: Former planet: PLUTO. 冥王星 in Chinese. Literally "Star of the Underworld King". 王 means "King" in English. More than 7% of the total population in China has 王 as surname. That's about 93 million, 1/3 of the total US population?

4D: Punk rocker Vicious: SID. I don't know anything about his songs. I just love so much the "You were my little baby girl" poem he wrote to his girlfrend Nancy. So simple and sweet.

5D: J. Ringling's partner: P. T. BARNUM. Unknown to me. I pieced his name together from the across fills.

7D: Fry lightly: SAUTE. What's the difference between SAUTE and Stir-fry?

27D: Units of light: LUMENS. Another unknown. Easily gettable.

29D: Empower: ENABLE. I don't like the clue. I hate the repetition of letter (s) in both the clue and the answer. So many other ways to clue "ENABLE". The same with SLAB ( 58D: Thick slice). "Thick piece" would be just fine.

32D: Famous cookie maker: AMOS. This constructor clued AMOS as "Writer Oz"in her last puzzle. Listen, this is Melissa's favorite AMOS.

42D: One of the U.S. Virgin Islands: ST. THOMAS. Pure guess. Here is the map. Have you been there before?

45D: Plugging away: AT IT. OK, this is another phrase that bothers me. In which dictionary can you find "AT IT"?

67D: Big blue: IBM Think!

C.C.

Monday August 11, 2008 Allan E. Parrish

Theme: "Rhyme with MUCK"

18A: Leaving Las Vegas lament: ROTTEN LUCK

62A: Word in Don Rickles' insults: HOCKEY PUCK

4D: Defenseless target: SITTING DUCK

25D: FX network series: NIP TUCK

27D: Shift blame: PASS THE BUCK

Good puzzle, but I was not really aweSTRUCK by the construction, no Z or Q. I guess I should not always expect such scrabbly letters from Allan E. Parrish. But I think his rhyming themed puzzles start to bore me now.

I do like those strikeout K's in the grid, and the J & X. The puzzle feels very smooth, no forced fill or strained clue. I did not know EISEN (16A), RAL (23A), SERGEI (33A), HIS'N (70A) and MYNA (38D), but all were inferable by the crossing fills.

Across:

1A: One meaning of X: KISS. Here is Rodin's "The KISS".

9A: Dutch cheese: GOUDA. Or sometimes EDAM.

14A: Race in "The Time Machine": ELOI

16A: Rich of the "NFL Network": EISEN. His mug looks familiar to me, but I would not have got his name without the crossing fills.

20A: Organic fuel source: PEAT BOG

23A: '60s singer Donner: RAL. Again, I pieced his name together from the perps. I like this album title.

24A: Dude from Dubuque: IOWAN. Ha, I thought "Dubuque" is a city in Scotland. Here is the map. Great clue. This is the fasinating "American Gothic" from the IOWAN Grant Wood.

26A: Undulation: RIPPLE. "Undulation" reminds me of yesterday's PGA Championship. 41 down, 1 more to go Sergio!

28A: Tip over: UPEND

31A: Inventor Tesla: NIKOLA. Good to see "Tesla" as part of the clue rather than as the answer to "unit of magnetic flux density".

33A: Composer Rachmaninoff: SERGEI. Wikipedia says that Vladimir Horowitz might have gotten his "rhythmic snap from Rachmaninoff". His hands look quite small. Does anyone know the difference between SERGEI and SERGEY in Russian?

35A: Smoke conduit: PIPE STEM. Hmm, very interesting names. Must be a very satisfying experience to insert the tenon of the PIPE STEM into the mortise of the PIPE BOWL.

40A: Like wise: DITTO. That's what Sam replied to to Molly when she said "I love you" to him in "Ghost". He really loved her though.

42A: Sharp rival: SONY

43A: 2006 Steve Martin role: CLOUSEAU. Remember this picture? That's Molly Sims. She is in the upcoming "Pink Panther 2".

45A: Customer: PATRON

50A: African wild dog: JACKAL. His tail looks rather bushy. Our ex-governor Jesse Ventura ("The Body") used to call the local media as "JACKALS". He is a hard man.

53A: Deceitful one: KNAVE

56A: Middle Eastern grp.: PLO. Vs. Hamas.

58A: Coffee bean variety: ARABICA. Beautiful berries.

70A: Boondocks possessive: HIS'N. I still don't understand this one. Why add letter N?

71A: Kentucky fort: KNOX. Also President Polk's middle name.

Down:

1D: Some seaweed: KELP. Very grainy and coarse. Only good for vegetarian dashi broth. I like miso soup.

5D: "One L" writer: TUROW (Scott). He also wrote "Presumed Innocent". "One L" is a good read, short too.

6D: Work shoe: BROGAN. It appeared in our puzzle before.

9D: Non-Jewish: GENTILE. Or Non-Mormon, according to the dictionary.

11D: Stage a coup: USURP

12D: Temporary tattoo: DECAL

13D: That's just over a foot: ANKLE. I like this clue.

19D: Continental sound: EUROPOP. Here is "Believe" from Dima Bilan (Eurovision 2008 winner), for Melissa. She likes Plushenko. That violinist is Edvin Marton, the very talented Hungarian composer. He is playing his Stradivarius.

28D: Parris Island org.: USMC (United States Marine Corps). I've never heard of Parris island before. Where is the Marines HQ?

29D: Orange coat: PEEL

30D: Cube-make Rubik: ERNO. I like this Rubik scene from Will Smith's "The Pursuit of Happyness". But why not "Happiness"?

34D: According to plan: IDEALLY

36D: One third of a WWII movie?: TORA. It's a good movie. "To" means "sudden" in Chinese too.

37D: Son of Seth: ENOS. Or "Slaughter in baseball".

38D: Talking starling: MYNA. What?

50D: Holy war: JIHAD. Those people who take part in JIHAD are called mujahideen (singular is mujahid). Wikepedia says "In Islamic scripture, the mujahid contrasts with the QAID, one who does not join the JIHAD". Dictionary explains QAID (also spelled as CAID) as "Muslim judge, tribal chief". Those constructors should probably consider this word for their next pangram.

51D: Like a bunch: ADORE. I initially misread "Like" as an prepostion.

52D: Powdered chocolate: COCOA

54D: "Catch-22" star: ARKIN (Alan). I've never seen "Catch-22". Like his role in "Little Miss Sunshine" thought.

60D: Mafia leader: CAPO. Haven't see CAPO clued as "Guita device" for a while.

61D: Writer Haley: ALEX. I truly felt the culture shock when I read his "The Autobiography of Malcolm X". Very educating though.

C.C.