Theme: Be Brief
17A: Start of quip: I DON'T CARE
26A: Part 2 of quip: HOW MUCH A
33A: Part 3 of quip: MAN TALKS
46A: Part 4 of quip: IF ONLY HE
52A: Part 5 of quip: SAYS IT IN
66A: End of quip: A FEW WORDS
Yes indeed, brevity is the soul of wit after all. But don't be so brief that your comment is incomprehensible to others.
It's a Josh Billings quip. He also said: "Common sense is the knack of seeing things as they are, and doing things as they ought to be done." It reminds me of Bill Clinton's eulogy for Jackie: "God gave her very great gifts and imposed upon her great burdens. She bore them all with dignity and grace and uncommon common sense."
I don't understand this quote though: "The wheel that squeaks the loudest is the one that gets the grease. " Does he think that complaining is a good thing?
The clue for ABC (5D: Opening letters) is very jarring to my eyes. LETTER is the answer for 36A: Epistle. So many ways to clue ABC. In China, we call American-born Chinese as ABC.
Across:
5A: Takes steps: ACTS. I like verbs in a puzzle. A noun "Play parts" bores me.
9A: Donna lead-in: PRIMA. PRIMA Donna is the same as "Diva", isn't it?
15A: Record spoiler: BLOT
20A: Remove the rime: DE-ICE. And ICINESS (45D: Frigidity).
21A: Break down, as a sentence: PARSE. I don't understand the grammatical structure of the italicized part: "Who could Jenny be talking to that was worth appropriating moments set aside for a date with me? Some musical wonk?” ("Love Story")
32A: Reclined: LAIN. Lie's past tense LAY and past participle LAIN often confuse me.
40A: Isinglass: MICA
44A: White-collar worker?: CLERIC
56A: Long or hot finish?: SHOT. Nice clue. My instinctive thought was "Double eagle", which is actually long AND hot.
68A: Tapestry in "Hamlet": ARRAS. The Scandinavian rug rug RYA seems to be on exile now.
73A: Those, to Jose: ESAS. And BANCO (4D: Barcelona bank).
Down:
2D: Boggs of baseball: WADE. Nice HOF induction photo. The guy on the left is RYNE Sandberg, who often appears in our puzzle. WADE Boggs spent most of his career with the Red Sox. But I think he will root for the Rays tonight. I really like Matt Garza.
3D: Shunning: AVOIDANCE. I am not fond of the ING clue. "Dodger's goal" is better. Sorry about your loss last night, Carl V and all your Dodgers fans, but Phillies are a better team.
6D: Sound of thunder: CLAP. I thought of PEAL.
7D: Pentateuch: TORAH. "Pentateuch" is a new word to me.
8D: Unsaturated alcohol: STEROL. No idea.
9D: Early neonate: PREEMIE. New word to me also.
18D: Colorful tropical fish: TETRA. It's also prefix for four.
22D: Ingests: SWALLOWS. I don't quite grok this Plautus quote: "To blow and swallow at the same moment is not easy." Blow what?
25D: Pilgrimage destination: HOLY CITY
34D: "___ Bulba": TARAS. I forgot. I actually linked this TARAS Bulba clip last time when we had COSSACK ("Russian horseman") in our puzzle. Taras Bulba is an Urkraine COSSACK.
35D: Snow runner: SKI. So many Polish name end with SKI. White Sox's A. J. Pierzynski is of Polish descent.
39D: Dawn Chong and Carruth: RAES. We had Charlotte RAE before.
47D: Not by any means: NO HOW. Is it a slang? I've never heard of this before.
54D: ___ for the taking: YOURS. "... You are mine and I'm YOURS for the taking ... Lay Your Hands on Me..."
57D: Milton of Uganda: OBOTE. Unknown to me. I only knew Idi Amin. OBOTE is both Amin's predecessor and successor.
65D: Gun in old slang: GAT. Have not seen GAM for a long time. Alessandra has very long legs. She is my favorite Victoria's Secret model.
C.C.
17A: Start of quip: I DON'T CARE
26A: Part 2 of quip: HOW MUCH A
33A: Part 3 of quip: MAN TALKS
46A: Part 4 of quip: IF ONLY HE
52A: Part 5 of quip: SAYS IT IN
66A: End of quip: A FEW WORDS
Yes indeed, brevity is the soul of wit after all. But don't be so brief that your comment is incomprehensible to others.
It's a Josh Billings quip. He also said: "Common sense is the knack of seeing things as they are, and doing things as they ought to be done." It reminds me of Bill Clinton's eulogy for Jackie: "God gave her very great gifts and imposed upon her great burdens. She bore them all with dignity and grace and uncommon common sense."
I don't understand this quote though: "The wheel that squeaks the loudest is the one that gets the grease. " Does he think that complaining is a good thing?
The clue for ABC (5D: Opening letters) is very jarring to my eyes. LETTER is the answer for 36A: Epistle. So many ways to clue ABC. In China, we call American-born Chinese as ABC.
Across:
5A: Takes steps: ACTS. I like verbs in a puzzle. A noun "Play parts" bores me.
9A: Donna lead-in: PRIMA. PRIMA Donna is the same as "Diva", isn't it?
15A: Record spoiler: BLOT
20A: Remove the rime: DE-ICE. And ICINESS (45D: Frigidity).
21A: Break down, as a sentence: PARSE. I don't understand the grammatical structure of the italicized part: "Who could Jenny be talking to that was worth appropriating moments set aside for a date with me? Some musical wonk?” ("Love Story")
32A: Reclined: LAIN. Lie's past tense LAY and past participle LAIN often confuse me.
40A: Isinglass: MICA
44A: White-collar worker?: CLERIC
56A: Long or hot finish?: SHOT. Nice clue. My instinctive thought was "Double eagle", which is actually long AND hot.
68A: Tapestry in "Hamlet": ARRAS. The Scandinavian rug rug RYA seems to be on exile now.
73A: Those, to Jose: ESAS. And BANCO (4D: Barcelona bank).
Down:
2D: Boggs of baseball: WADE. Nice HOF induction photo. The guy on the left is RYNE Sandberg, who often appears in our puzzle. WADE Boggs spent most of his career with the Red Sox. But I think he will root for the Rays tonight. I really like Matt Garza.
3D: Shunning: AVOIDANCE. I am not fond of the ING clue. "Dodger's goal" is better. Sorry about your loss last night, Carl V and all your Dodgers fans, but Phillies are a better team.
6D: Sound of thunder: CLAP. I thought of PEAL.
7D: Pentateuch: TORAH. "Pentateuch" is a new word to me.
8D: Unsaturated alcohol: STEROL. No idea.
9D: Early neonate: PREEMIE. New word to me also.
18D: Colorful tropical fish: TETRA. It's also prefix for four.
22D: Ingests: SWALLOWS. I don't quite grok this Plautus quote: "To blow and swallow at the same moment is not easy." Blow what?
25D: Pilgrimage destination: HOLY CITY
34D: "___ Bulba": TARAS. I forgot. I actually linked this TARAS Bulba clip last time when we had COSSACK ("Russian horseman") in our puzzle. Taras Bulba is an Urkraine COSSACK.
35D: Snow runner: SKI. So many Polish name end with SKI. White Sox's A. J. Pierzynski is of Polish descent.
39D: Dawn Chong and Carruth: RAES. We had Charlotte RAE before.
47D: Not by any means: NO HOW. Is it a slang? I've never heard of this before.
54D: ___ for the taking: YOURS. "... You are mine and I'm YOURS for the taking ... Lay Your Hands on Me..."
57D: Milton of Uganda: OBOTE. Unknown to me. I only knew Idi Amin. OBOTE is both Amin's predecessor and successor.
65D: Gun in old slang: GAT. Have not seen GAM for a long time. Alessandra has very long legs. She is my favorite Victoria's Secret model.
C.C.
