Tuesday November 25, 2008 Norma Steinberg

Theme: Word of Mouth

17A: Stammering: TONGUE-TIED

60A: Performed like Milli Vanilli: LIP SYNCHED

10D: Ursine-shaped candies: GUMMY BEARS

30D: Five-year-old's money source: TOOTH FAIRY

A couple of things first:

1) Thank you for the nice words yesterday regarding the 1 million hit. What an interesting journey! Thank you for the company. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate your generosity in sharing your knowledge and time with me and several thousands of solvers every day. I hope you continue to find this blog informative and worthy of your time. I also hope you find the comments from other solvers educating and entertaining.

2) I still can not access my Hotmail account from Firefox, and I don't like IE. So I decided to go back to my dormant Gmail account. If you have any question or comment on the blog, please email me at crosswordc@gmail.com from now on. What I don't understand is why Hotmail is suddenly blocked from Firefox. I've changed nothing for the setup.

Now back to the puzzle. I am not fond of GUM being embedded in GUMMY in 10D. Bubble gum, chewing gum are better GUM candidates.

I like how TOTO (37A: Dorothy's pet) crossing ASTA (29D: Cinema pooch). I also like how HIS (33D: That guy's) parallels HER (38D: That girl's), with HIS slightly above and on the right of HER, wonderful position.

The clue for COPRA (50D: Coconut meat) is incorrect. I cook with coconut meat and but I've never used COPRA, which is dried coconut meat and is used to extract coconut oil.

This is probably the easiest puzzle I've solved this month. Not much pause.

Across:

1A: Myers or Nesmith: MIKE. Only know MIKE Myers. Have never heard of Nesmith. What's he famous for?

5A: Elegant behavior: CLASS. I think the best CLASS clue I've seen is "Type of act". He has CLASS.

10A: Shoots the breezes: GABS. I thought of YAK first.

15A: Arthur Marx's stage name: HARPO. I did not know that his original name is Arthur.

19A: Gangster's girl: MOLL

39A: Verdi heroine: AIDA. Interesting, Wikipedia says AIDA is an "Arabic female name meaning "visitor" or "returning". And it means "reward" in Swahili.

45A: Little-hand indication: HOUR. $355 for this hand clock? Ridiculous!

52A: Norse God: THOR. God of Thunder. His hammer always returns to him magically after being thrown to a target. Most of the Norse myths come from the two Eddas I think: The Poetic Edda (the elder EDDA) or the The Prose Edda (the younger EDDA).

Down:

1D: First name in spies: MATA. Bond jumped into my my mind first. By the way, does anyone know who shot Dominic Greene in "Quantum of Solace"?

5D: Fidel's friend: CHE. If Guevara were still alive, he would have launched a revolutionary against our editor's stiff way to clue his name. I don't think he would be happy to be connected with Fidel Castro all the time.

12D: Chagall's "____ in Green": BELLA. I am not familiar with this painting. Looks like "BELLA in black" to me. BELLA is Chagall's first wife.

34D: __ Inch Nails: NINE. I guessed. This rock band is completely foreign to me. I don't like their Gothic look.

55D: Pasadena campus: UCLA. Doug Peterson, the constructor for yesterday's puzzle, is from Pasadena. Today's constructor Steinberg lives in San Francisco.

C.C.

Monday November 24, 2008 Doug Peterson

Theme: Settle "Down"

4D: Down: FINE FEATHERS

8D: Down: NOT FUNCTIONING

14D: Down: SWALLOW QUICKLY

23D: Down: GRIDIRON PLAY

I am glad "Bear market's heading" is not part of the theme answers. It would definitely make me feel DOWN.

I think it would be very hard to make an ACROSS themed puzzle. Lots of possiblities with CROSS though: Symbol of Christianity; Peeved; X mark; Betray, etc.

Nice theme. Too many abbreviations for my taste. Some of them can be easily avoided:

10A: Pampering, briefly: TLC. I think this trio TLC is famous enough for a clue.

19A: Can. province: QUE. How about "What" in Spanish/French?

I like the clue for GRAINS (62A: Wood patterns). But the WHEAT clue (37A: Flour grain) definitely needs to be reworded.

Across:

1A: Pitch indicators: CLEFS. I was picturing a baseball catcher using his fingers to indicate the pitch location.

13A: Pinesap: ROSINS. Never know when to put ROSINS and when to put RESINS.

17A: Informercial tagline: ACT NOW. Lots of compound words today. I like I'M OK (39A: Reassuring response).

18A: Bill killer: VETO. I was thinking of Uma Thurman in "Kill Bill".

20A: Middle-of-the-road: MODERATE. This word reminds me of Tim Russert. I think a verb clueing would have pleased him.

22A: Diagram: FIGURE. Rather dull clue, isn't it? How about FIGURE Skating?

32A: Art style of '20s and '30s: DECO. ERTE is often clued as "Art DECO artist".

41A: Math text abbr.: QED

42A: State since '48: ISRAEL

44A: French waters: EAUX. The same with gâteau/chapeau/château, just add letter X for the plural form. The pronunication remains the same.

47A: Spanish pianist Jose: ITURBI. I forgot about him completely. Linked his Chopin Fantaisie-Impromptu last time. Wikipedia says that he played himself in the movie "Anchors Aweigh".

51A: Lung compartment: AIR SAC

52A: Election day survey: EXIT POLL

59A: Journalist Bly: NELLIE. How can I remember her name? I shudder everytime I see a "Bly" clue.

60A: Garment with straps: BRA. What's your favorite brand? I like Wacoal. Her body shape looks surreal.

63A: Japanese honorific: SAN. Just add SAN to the end of their given name or surname, regardless of gender or age.

Down:

3D: Cornerstone abbr.: ESTD

10D: Brimless hat: TOQUE. Do you know why chefs wear tall TOQUE?

11D: Gene Tierney classic: LAURA. I guessed. Have never heard of this movie before. The plot sounds interesting.

26D: Pinochle combo: MELD. Got the answer from the across fills. Not familiar with "Pinochle". I only played a very simple Chinese card game with my families during holiday seasons. My Dad liked to cheat.

29D: Minor League level: AAA. I like this clue. Much better than "Battery type" or "Motorist's org.". Rochester Red Wings Triple A is Twins affiliate.

30A: Half of UTEP: EL PASO. Maybe I will like this clue on another day. I got headache seeing so many abbreviations today.

33D: Online read: EMAG. The clue needs an abbreviation hint.

43D: Roofing specialists: SLATER. This reminds me of TILER. Our editor likes to clue it as "Masonic doorkeeper" rather than "Flooring specialist".

47D: Poetic feet: IAMBS. Is the B silent in pronunciation?

49D: Type of sprawl or renewal: URBAN

54D: "The Mod Squad" character: LINC. Got this name after I googled NELLIE Bly. Not familiar with "The Mod Squad". That girl looks so pretty.

55D: Reduced by: LESS. I believe in "Less is More". So many things are better left unsaid.

C.C.