Sunday, February 8, 2009 Linda and Charles Preston

Note: This post is blogged by Argyle. It's a TMS Sunday syndication, different from our normal TMS Daily puzzle Sunday edition.

Theme: ANATOMY

28A: Seeming worth: FACE value

56A: Sensitive firearm part: HAIR trigger

87A: Revelation: EYE opener

91A: Hard work: ELBOW grease

29D: USNA grad.: KNUCKLEhead

35D: Trunk: FOOTlocker

42D: Football defenseman: NOSE tackle

Across:

6A: Harris' ___ Rabbit: BR'ER. Brother Rabbit.

13A: Stalks: STEMS. Good clue.

18A: Kate's TV partner: ALLIE. CBS sitcom '84 to '89, somewhat like a female version of 'The Odd Couple'.

19A: Self-assuredness: POISE. Weak clue.

20A: "___Gotta Be Me": I'VE. This clue is getting over-used.

22A: Sierra ___ - LEONE. There are quite a few 'Sierra __' out there. Sierra Leone and its neighbor down the coast, 80A Niger neighbor - Benin.

23A: Martini's partner: ROSSI. You can put this vermouth in your martini.

26A: Fool: KNUCKLEHEAD

28A: Seeming worth: FACE VALUE. I had 'fair value' for awhile, just close enough to mess me up.

31A: Writer Cleveland: AMORY. Cleveland Amory, 1917 - 1998, prominent humorist and humanitarian, founded The Fund for Animals in 1967 and served without pay as its president until his death. He wrote The Cat and the Curmudgeon.

32A: Hydrocarbon derived from resins: RETENE. I see no reason to know this word!

33A: Goodbye to some: ADIOS: Weak clue.

34A: Commotions: FURORS

35A: Notability: FAME

39A: Decorative glitter: SPANGLES. on the Red Carpet.

45A: Inquest official : CORONER

46A: Like a pine tree: CONED. Weak clue.

47A: Certain winner: SHOO-IN. Certain is used to indicate a 'sure thing' in this case.

49A: Desperados: THUGS

52A: "Deutschland űber ___" - ALLES. "Germany above All" originally meant the whole country is more important than the individual states.

54A: "Anna Christie" writer: O'NEILL. Eugene O'Neill, 1888 – 1953, was an American playwright, and Nobel laureate in Literature. Wrote "Anna Christie" in 1920.

56A: Sensitive firearm part: HAIR TRIGGER. Good clue.

62A: Without principles: AMORAL. No comment.

65A: Reporter's quest : SCOOP

66A: Shone like a lighthouse: BEACONED

70A: Hindu monks: FAKIRS. A Hindu ascetic or religious mendicant, especially one who performs feats of magic or endurance.

71A: Irritate: RANKLE. A good word; sounds like its meaning.

73A: Turn around: REVERSE. Weak clue, would prefer "change direction".

75A: ___ pig: GUINEA

77A: Goldenyears' folk : RETIREES

78A: Event take: GATE

79A: Italian poet and namesakes: DANTES

81A: Medicinal plants: SENNAS. Senna Alexandrina used for herbal laxative tea.

82A: Spellbinding group: COVEN. Group of witches and warlocks.

87A: Revelation: EYE OPENER

91A: Hard work: ELBOW GREASE. "Elbow grease has been a term of 'hard manual labor' since before 1639, 'B.E.'s Dictionary of Canting Crew' (ca. 1698) calling it 'A derisory term for Sweat.' The old joke that 'elbow grease' is the best brand of furniture polish was probably common centuries ago, too, in some form. The phrase was known in France from early times as well (buile de bras)." From the "Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins" by Robert Hendrickson (Facts on File, New York, 1997).

93A: Hood, of "Our Gang": DARLA: Darla Hood.

94A: "___tu": Verdi aria: ERI. Dmitri Hvorostovsky sings a beautifully melancholy rendition of Renato's aria, Eri tu from Un Ballo.

95A: Rum cake: BABKA. Yum!

97A: Former Laker great Baylor: ELGIN. Elgin Baylor, basketball forward, led Minneapolis/LA Lakers to 8 NBA Finals; 10-time All-NBA 1st team (1959-65,67-69) Topps Card.

98A: First were black and white: TVS. And five are in Dick's basement.

99A: Staggering: AREEL

100A: Hopeless case: GONER. Cute clue.

More cute clues in the Down set:

Down:

1D: Mound miscues: BALKS

2D: Malkovich/Nelligan film: ELENI. Kate Nelligan and John Malkovich star in a 1985 film that stands as a monument to a loving mother and heroic woman, Eleni Gatzoyiannis.

4D: Chop: MINCE

6D: Blubbers: BOO-HOOS

9D: Nevada's politico Harry: REID. Harry Reid, Democrat, the senior United States Senator from Nevada, as well as the U.S. Senate Majority Leader.

10D: Varied - DIFFERED. Weak clue.

11D: Barnstormer, maybe: AVIATOR. Or aviatrix, maybe.

12D: British textile dealers: MERCERS. Noun [F. mercier, fr. L. merx, mercis, wares, merchandise]. Originally, a dealer in any kind of goods or wares; now restricted to a dealer in textile fabrics, as silks or woolens. [Eng.]

13D: Tonsorial treatment: SHAVE

14D: Italian semi-hard cheese: TOMA. Toma is a type of cow's milk cheese whose taste is fairly salty becoming 'piccante' as the months pass.

15D: Immorality: EVIL

16D: Carte before the course: MENU. Cute clue.

27D: Served soup:- LADLED

32D: Artful dodges: RUSES

33D: Actress Moorehead: AGNES

34D: Seneca, Cayuga, et al.: FINGER LAKES. Lakes formed by glaciers on New York's Southern Tier.

35D: Trunk: FOOT LOCKER

36D: Baseball family name: ALOU

39D: Skiddoo!: SCRAM

40D: Ernest ___:1918 Pulitzer winner: POOLE. Ernest Poole, 1880 - 1950, was a U.S. novelist. His portrait of a New York family titled His Family made him the first recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1918. His novel The Harbor has remained the work for which he is best known. It presents a strong socialist message, set in the industrial Brooklyn waterfront. It is considered one of the first fictional works to offer a positive view of unions.

42D: Football defenseman: NOSE TACKLE

46D: Surly sort: CHURL

47D: Child's direction?: STIR: Cute clue, French chef Julia Child's direction.

50D: Guiding light: ANGEL

51D: Sediment: LEES. As in a bottle of wine.

54D: Shrek and family: OGRES

56D: Give an edge to?: HONE. Cute clue

57D: Ancient area of Asia Minor: IONIA

59D: Tours' river: LOIRE. France.

60D: Wasteland shrub: GORSE. Now that is rough.

63D: Hood's honey: MOLL. Cute clue, the female companion of an American gangster.

65D: Perfumery oil: SAVIN. Savin oil, used in perfumery, comes from the leaves and tops of a low, spreading Eurasian juniper (Juniperus sabina) of E North America and Europe.

66D: Crow : BRAG

67D: "Do I dare to ___ peach": EAT A. Discussed before.

68D: Structural sci.: ANAT. New clue to me.

69D: Post office purchase units: PANES

70D: Honoring, in a way: FETING. Fete can be noun or verb.

72D: Ravi Shankar, e.g.: SITARIST

73D: Resumption: RENEWAL

75D: Fish-eating birds: GANNETS. You won't see any geese do this.

76D: Frighten: UNNERVE

77D: Annuls: REVOKES

79D: Disc jockey starter: DEE. Disc jockey starts with a "D".

80D: Went for apples, in a way: BOBBED. Cute clue, anybody have a good 'bobbing for apples' story?

81D: Durations: SPANS.

82D: Diplomat ___ Boothe Luce: CLARE. Clare Boothe Luce, 1903 – 1987, was an American playwright, editor, journalist, ambassador, socialite and one of the first women ever in congress, representing the state of Connecticut.

84D: Singer Frankie: LAINE. Frankie Laine, 1913 - 2007, (born Francesco Paolo LoVecchio), was a successful American musician, singer and songwriter whose career spanned 75 years. The Cry of the Wild Goose (not a gannet!)

88D: Bush school : YALE. Generations of the Bush family have been Yale alumni.

89D: Thus: ERGO

90D: Actors Ken and Lena: OLIN

91D: Israel's Abba: EBAN

92D: Storm: RAGE

Argyle

Saturday February 7, 2009 Ed Voile

Theme: None

Total blocks: 34

Total words: 70

This is the first puzzle that I've solved with so few Down fills. Only 25 answers, compared with 45 Across words. And four of them have 15 letters:

3D: Flock and pride, e.g.: COLLECTIVE NOUNS

6D: Predatory insects: PRAYING MANTISES

7D: cousin of colitis: GASTROENTERITIS

11D: Digestive tract: ALIMENTARY CANAL

To steal a line from SEC whistle blower Harry Markopolos, this grid "roars like a lion and bites like a flea". Can't believe SEC took no action for 10 years when it took this guy only five minutes to figure out Bernie Madoff was a fraud.

I did have some trouble at the lower left quadrant. I did not know "No, no, NANETTE" and had trouble deciphering REDALGAE (37D: Source of agar). Has forgotten all the edible RED ALGAE dulse discussion we had a few weeks ago. I only use nori seaweed to wrap my rice balls.

Across:

4A: With it, once: HEP. I still see people use the word HEP occasionally. "With it, once"?

15A: Part of E.E.C.: EUR. Interesting intersection with EUROPA (5D: Icy satellite of Jupiter), which was named after the Greek goddess, from whom Europe derived.

16A: Spaces between leaf veins: AREOLAE. Last time the answer is a different plural form AREOLES. Can also be AREOLAS. Boring clue. I wanted "Nipple rings" .

25A: Elbe tributary: EGER. I can't find a map. Wikipedia says EGER is also a Hungarian city best known for its castle & thermal baths & wines. Nicknamed "Rome of Hungary". I wonder why most of those roofs are red.

26A: Capital on the Missouri River: PIERRE. Lingered here when we went to Billings a few years ago. A small charming city. Very quiet and clean. It's named after the fur trader PIERRE Chouteau.

27A: Old high note: ELA. The obscure Guido's high note.

33: Verizon, once: GTE. Only learned this morning that Verizon is a portmanteau of veritas and horizon. It's formed in 2000 when GTE merged with Bell Atlantic.

40A: Construct a retaining wall: REVET. No idea. Dictionary explains REVET as "to retain (an embankment, for example) with a layer of stone, concrete, or other supporting material; provide with a revetment." And it's rooted in French word "revetir", meaning "to clothes again". The noun is revetment. I did not know that there is a special term for those stony embankment.

38A: Adult males: MEN. And MAN (50A: Isle of __). Not sure if NY Times will allow this singular & plural form appear in one puzzle.

42A: Big place in California?: SUR. Big SUR.

44A: Invalidate: CANCEL. I thought of debunk.

51A: Prefix meaning different: HETERO. Heterosexual.

52A: __ homo (Behold the man!): ECCE. Last time ECCO is clued as "Behold, to Bellini". Italian for ECCE I suppose.

53A: Afrafat's org.: PLO. It's "Abbas's org." now.

54A: Of part of the eye: IRIDIC. New word to me. You would think the adjective for iris would be irisic.

61A: 'No, No,__": NANETTE. Have never heard of this musical before. Interesting trivia: Wikipedia says the producer of the show, a former owner of the Red Sox, financed the show by selling Babe Ruth to the Yankees.

64A: Artist's bases: GESSOES. Thought the plural form is just GESSOS.

66A: WWII landing craft: LST (Landing Ship Tank). The boat used in "Saving Private Ryan".

Down:

2D: Caspian sturgeon: BELUGA. I suppose those black stuff are BELUGA? Have never tasted it before.

9D: Clairvoyant women: SEERESSES. Cassandra was a SEERESS. She foresaw the fall of Troy. But because she did not return Apollo's love, he cursed her and nobody believed in her predictions.

12D: Certain Israeli: GALILEAN. Jesus is one.

23D: Given life, eg.: SENTENCED. I like this clue.

32D: Toss among: PITCH INTO

35D: Ducks and dodges: ELUDES

45D: hang out to freshen: AERATE

46D: John and Sondra: LOCKES. Knew John LOCKE, not Sondra LOCKE. Wikipedia says she is best known for frequently starring in films with Clint Eastwood.

57D: Presidential election loser of '50s: AES. Poor Adlai Stevenson. Always a "loser" in our editor's eye. How about "JFK's UN ambassor" or "DDE's opponent/challenger" rather than "Loser to DDE" all the time. He dated Lauren Bacall for some time, right?

C.C.

Friday February 6, 2009 John Underwood

Theme: KNOT (69A: Tie tie)

20A: Green apple: GRANNY SMITH

31A: Step down: BOW OUT

37A: British royal residence: WINDSOR CASTLE

43A: Get it wrong: SLIP UP

57A: Geometric choreography?: SQUARE DANCE

I was not familiar with either GRANNY KNOT or SQUARE KNOT. So I had difficulty tying, or rather untying, the constructor's knotty knots. Took me a long time to figure out what his theme is.

Always thought the "British royal residence" is Windsor Palace.

Nice, scrabbly puzzle, with expensive letters like X, Q and J. As NCAA is the answer for 35D: Final Four letters, so the clue for ATH (56A: NCAA word) should definitely be changed into "Sports fig." or something else. Come visit the Comments section and tell us how you would clue ATH.

Across:

1A: Cloth belt: SASH. Here is a SASH KNOT.

5A: Man with ladder: JACOB. Faintly remember JACOB's LADDER story. Do you know if Job's Tears have any Biblical reference? They are supposed to be good for your skin. Too insipid for my taste though.

10A: Rue the aerobics: ACHE. Nice change from the old "Sore spot" or "Masseuse's target".

15A: Sunshine State city: OCALA. Is it really the "Horse Capital of the World"? Not Lexington, KY?

19A: Director Gus Van __: SANT. Liked "Good Will Hunting", did not know Gus Van SANT was the director. His recent film is "Milk", which nabbed 8 Oscar nominatons this year, including Best Picture.

23A: Baseball scoreboard trio: RHE. Runs, Hits & Errors.

27A: C.I.A. forerunner: OSS. I mentioned yesterday about my confusion over Michael Hayden still being Obama's CIA Director. Had forgotten all about Leon Panetta until someone emailed me about his Senate confirmation hearing yesterday. Strange to have a guy without any intelligence background as CIA head. Tough guy though. Monica Lewinsky hated him.

31A: Step down: BOW OUT. Brought to mind Tom Daschle's sudden withdrawal of his nomination as Secretary of Health and Human Services. Jaw-dropping amount of "consulting" income.

41A: Interferometer instrument: AERI. Got the answer from down fills. Have never heard of Atmospheric Emitted Radiance Interferometer. It measures "the absolute infrared spectral radiance (watts per square meter per steradian per wavenumber) of the sky directly above the instrument". Too abstract for me. I doubt this is Underwood's original clue.

46A: Part of R.S.A.: AFR. RSA is Republic of South Africa.

47A: Govt. bookkeepers: GAO. Oh, I always thought it stands for General Accounting Office. Turns out that the name was changed into Government Accountability Office in 2004.

65A: Pathogenic bacteria: ECOLI. The "Deadly African virus" is EBOLA. And Carlo Levi's book is titled "Christ Stopped at EBOLI".

Down:

2D: Oldsmobile models: ALERO. Why did they name the model ALERO? Is it a Greek/Roman god or something?

5D: Young kangaroo: JOEY. Have seen this clue too many times to be stumped.

8D: Acid in soap: OLEIC. Wikipedia says "OLEIC acid makes up 55-80% of olive oil".

11D: Shade of gray: CHARCOAL. Young girls probably like the frayed hem in this CHARCOAL mini-skirt.

38D: Dublin dudes: IRISHMEN. Nice alliteration. And EIRE (66A: Dublin's land). Now our blog needs a Scottish solver. We already have an Irish, a British and a Welsh.

40D: Valuable fiddle: STRAD. OK, here again is Joshua Bell's famous DC Metro rush hour incognito experiment. He and $3.5 million STRAD collected a total of $32 from over 1,000 passers-by.

48D: Famed jockey Eddie: ARCARO. The only guy to have won Triple Crown twice. Amazing. That's a strange photo. According to this list, he was not the jockey of Assault. He rode Whirlaway and Citation.

55D: "R.U.R."playwright: CAPEK (Karel). The inventor of the word "robot" (1921). Often see RUR clued as "Capek play".

C.C.

Thursday February 5, 2009 Alan P. Olschwang

Theme: Irrational Rationale

20A: Start of George Bernard Shaw quote: NOTHING IS EVER

38A: Part 2 of quote: ACCOMPLISHED BY A

56A: End of quote: REASONABLE MAN

Do you consider this as a REASONABLE quote? George Bernard Shaw was an activist, so this quote may be his excuse for any excesses he may commit. Here is a site with more of his quotes (and there are a lot of them).

The quote does encourage audacity and creativity, right? I wasted some valuable time at upper right corner this morning. Wrote down WENT instead of PART for 10A: Split, thinking the clue is a past tense. The down fills today seem to be a bit harder than across ones.

For those whose paper does not carry TMS Sunday puzzle, here is another TMS syndication puzzle. Hope you are interested. Argyle will blog this puzzle on Sunday.

Across:

14A: Kosher: LEGIT. "Not kosher" is TREF.

15A: Aces, sometimes: ONES: When playing Black Jack, ACES may count as one or eleven.

19A: Loan letters: MTGE (Mortgage). Someone mentioned the other day that HMO stands for "Homeowners Insurance" in real estate term. A rare bright spot on the housing market, the pending home sales index is up. The prices might be way down.

23A: Charlotte-to-Raleigh dir.: ENE. Got the answer from down fills. Had no idea of the exact direction.

24A: Nat. interest watchdog: CIA. Wasn't Obama supposed to nominate someone new for the CIA director post? How come the head is still Michael Hayden?

25A: Strauss opera: SALOME. I forgot. Faintly remembered "Dance of the Seven Veils" though. The opera was based on a play by Oscar Wilde. SALOME was the daughter of Herodias and stepdaughter of Herod Antipas and it was she who asked for the head of John the Baptist on a platter. Dictionary says SALOME is Hebrew for "peace". Is it related to "shalom" then?

28A: Painted ponies: PINTOS. I don't understand this clue? Why "Painted"? I adore Michael Learns to Rock's "Paint my Love", though I don't think my love will be "a picture of thousands sunsets".

35A: A.E.C. successor: NRC. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, created in 1975.

37A: Prince Valiant's son: ARN. He is getting old in the comic strip, too. NYTanonimo just blogged this enty at her Barry Silk post. She also mentioned that LETT is an archaic word for Latvian, yet our editor keeps using "Riga resident" for LETT. I don't know. Whatever, I will just LETT it be.

43A: Brit's raincoat: MAC

50A: "Seinfeld" gal: ELAINE

64A: Burnsian hillside: BRAE. I did not know "Burnsian" refers to Robert Burns. Thought it might be a Scottish town. Interesting origin: BRAE is rooted in Old Norse word "Bra" meaning eyebrow. I don't really know what a BRAE is. This picture came up when I googled the word.

66A: Fertilizer ingredient: NITER. "Gunpowder ingredient" as well.

67A: Comic Martin: MULL. Easy answer. But I've never heard of Martin MULL before.

Down:

2D: Detroit dud: LEMON. Poor Detroit, hit so hard by the recession, and the Lions, and an unfaithful mayor.

3D: Striped gem: AGATE. It's not a previous gem, isn't it? I only know marbles are made of AGATE.

5D: Impassivity: STOICISM. Stoic was founded by Zeno, Zeno of Citium. Not the paradox guy Zeno of ELEA, our crossword stalwart.

10D: __ Sue Martin: PAMELA. Not a familiar actress to me. What movie is she famous for?

11D: Old navigation instrument: ASTROLABE. No idea. Looks complicated. The word starts with ASTRO. Has to be related with stars then.

12D: Fix, in a way: RIG

22D: Anatomical duct: VAS. Latin for "vessel". Plural is vasa. Unknown to me. I've never heard of the sperm transporting tube "VAS deferens" either.

26D: Martin and Pickford: MARYS. MARY Martin was an Tony-winning actress. MARY Pickford was an Oscar-winning Canadian actress. Both were strangers to me.

28D: PGA member: PRO. Quite true.

34D: Of an insurance job: ACTUARIAL. Only knew actuary.

36D: Little angel: CHERUB. This is the famous Vanity Fair magazine cover when the author used CHERUB to describe Scarlett Johansson.

40D: Aubergine: EGGPLANT. Nightshade vegetable. I like the purple slim ones on the right.

49D: Irish playwright: O'CASEY (Seán). Another guess. He wrote "The Plough and the Stars".

54D: Actress Claire: DANES. She played Meryl Streep's daughter in "The Hours".

58D: Scottish headland: NESS. Or "Famous T-man Eliot". Kevin Costner is great in "The Untouchables".

C.C & Argyle

Wednesday February 4, 2009 Adele Mann

Theme: "No" Songs For You

17A: 1986 hit by Heart: NOTHIN' AT ALL

41A: 1963 hit by the Orlons: NOT ME

65A: 1984 hit by Berlin: NO MORE WORDS

11D: 1966 hit by the Beatles: NOWHERE MAN

30D: 1981 hit by Elton John: NOBODY WINS

I have never heard of The Orlons or the Heart bands. And the only Berlin song I am familiar is "Take My Breath Away". Nevertheless, all the theme answers are very easy to obtain.

Excellent theme. I also love Annie Lennox's No More "I Love You's". The video is a bit weird, but the song is beautiful.

I think this is the 4th or 5th time I saw WEN in a TMS puzzle. Every time it's clued as "Sebaceous cyst". Where is the creativity? The WEN Ho Lee nuclear espionage scandal is well known, right? I heard of it when I still lived in China.

I just mentioned two days ago that I wanted WEN clued as "Chinese Premier __ Jiabao". And yesterday someone threw a shoe at him when he was delivering a speech in Cambridge. That despicable protester is completely ignorant of China and the democracy movement there. He has no idea what kind of positive role WEN played during Tiananmen Square Incident. He has no knowledge of how WEN handled the Sichuan earthquake disaster. WEN is the most well respected Chinese leader inside and outside China, among us Chinese.

Across:

1A: Spill the beans: BLAB. Reminds of yesterday's ONAN (Judah's son). He "spills his seeds" on the ground. Might be a waste, but sure not a sin to me. Just learned Onanism from Barry G /Lemonade yesterday.

5A: Japanese entertainer: GEISHA. Here is a modern day GEISHA. The same article says there are now only 1,000 GEISHA left in Japan (compared with 80,000 in 1928) and they are not allowed to marry. “Memoirs of a GEISHA" is a fascinating read.

39A: River of Hamburg: ELBE. Literally "river". Wikipedia says "ELBE was recorded by Ptolemy as Albis, Germanic for "river". Here is the map again. It originates in Czech and flows northwest across German to the North Sea.

44A: Infamous Helmsley: LEONA. The "Queen of Mean". She left millions of trust fund for her dog Trouble when she died. The Helmsley Foundation is the No. 1 charitable giver in 2008 though. Total $5.2 billion commitment. Mayor Bloomberg is the biggest living doner. Strange that the Gates did not make the list.

56A: Legendary archer: TELL. Or "Spill the beans" again.

68A: Barnyard layer: HEN. It's also "Female lobster/octopus/salmon".

70A: Brightest star in Lyra: VEGA. Here is the diagram. Wikipedia says "VEGA was the first star, other than the Sun, to have its photograph taken and the first to have its spectrum photographed" (1850).

Down:

6D: Hurler's stat: ERA. Louis mentioned several days ago about Cleveland's saying "If a Feller has a Lemon He-gan Waynn". I thought that's a great line. Bob Lemon, Jim Hegan or Early Wynn were obscure to me. But Bob Feller is a big potato, HOFer. I thought his name "Feller" could be a great misleading clue. "Feller's start" for ERA sounds good to me.

37D: Pianist Thelonious: MONK. His middle name is Sphere, one of the most influential jazz greats of the 50's and 60's, according to Seattle John.

45D: Fact book: ALMANAC. I wonder how much this original book costs in this condition. Does anyone collect first edition books? I traded my first edition "Godfather" (1969) for some baseball cards several years ago.

50D: City near Rawalpindi: LAHORE. Here is the map. LAHORE is the second-largest city in Pakistan after Karachi. I got the answer, but did not really know where Rawalpindi is. Wikipedia says it's the military headquarters of the Pakistan Armed Forces and and also served as the nation's capital while Islamabad (10th largest city in Pakistan) was being constructed in the 1960s.

55D: Geneva's lake: LEMAN. Here is the name origin. LPGA holds its Evian Masters every year on the southern shore of Lac LEMAN. The golf course looks breathtaking on TV. Big purse, second only to US Open I think.

61D: Three-spot: TREY. No idea. It's always clued as "Low card".

Boomer bowled a 300 last night, his 5th perfect game.

C.C.

Bonus Crossword: Barry Silk Presentation Puzzle

THEME: Barry Silk Presentation Puzzle

Crossword Grid Found here.

Just click on iPaper, then print it out. Barry Silk kindly provided us with this special puzzle he made for a presentation on Jan 17, 2009 at the Tysons-Pimmit Regional Library, a branch of the FAIRFAX COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY. He spoke on the evolution of the crossword, its role as a daily showcase of wit and wordplay, and gave clues and tips for solving them. This venue is the theme of the puzzle appearing in the first part of the four long across answers.

19A: One of the most congested streets in Los Angeles: FAIRFAX AVENUE

26A: Dunmore caves site in Ireland: COUNTY KILKENNY

46A: National parks and forests, ex.: PUBLIC PROPERTY

54A: Reference storage: LIBRARY STACKS

Barry is a prolific crossword constructor with a wealth of experience. Check out C.C.'s interview with him here if you haven't already.

This puzzle was two letters shy of being a pangram-no J or Q, typical Barry Silk. For those of you not familiar with pangram crosswords they use every letter of the alphabet at least once. Here is an interesting crossword puzzle constructor story and an amazing triple pangram by Matt Gaffney.

Have you ever tried constructing a double or triple pangram Barry? Did they make a video of your presentation that we can view?

NYTAnonimo here subbing for C.C.. Bear with me as this is my first attempt at blogging.

I had to google 7D to complete this puzzle. Didn't know this Philadelphia university. Flew though it pretty fast except for that snag.

ACROSS:

1A: Living room centerpiece: SOFA

5A: Scoundrel: CAD. Besides referring to a rake (check out the tavern scene) it is also an acronym for Computer Aided Design.

8A: Hits a high point: PEAKS.

13A: Not this: THAT

14A: Former Iranian president: Bani___SADR. More familiar with Sadr City in Iraq.

15A: Kramden of "The Honeymooners": RALPH Can be found here with 51D. Nice touch Barry.

16A: Coastal city: PORT

17A: Ballet movement: PLIE. Always wanted to take ballet but never did. How many of you have?

18A: Steer clear of: EVADE. Don't evade helping C.C. blog these puzzles-it's not as hard as I thought it would be. I'm sure the first time is longer too until you get the hang of it.

19A: One of the most congested streets in Los Angeles: FAIRFAX AVENUE. Unknown to me. The X from DREXEL helped me to come up with FAIRFAX. That's one of the reasons I like the way Barry tries to include the more uncommon letters of the alphabet in his puzzles. They are often what helps me pull the word from memory.

22A: Steinbeck's birthplace: SALINAS

24A: Super Bowl XLII MVP: Manning-ELI. I'm not much for watching sports so this is a weak spot for me in puzzle solving. I learn these sports names primarily from crosswords. Love to swim and hike though. Any other swimmers and hikers out there?

25A: Baseball great Mel-OTT

26A: Dunmore Caves site in Ireland: COUNTY KILKENNY. There is a beautiful castle in Kilkenny too. Have any of you been to this area?

29A: "Barbara __"(Beach Boys classic): ANN. Time machine time!

30A: (As written): SIC

31A: Wonder: AWE

32A: Father: BEGET. Think I've only seen this in the Bible. I'm plodding my way through this tome-up to Maccabees. My eyes glaze over in certain areas (like the begets). I also get sidetracked reading Bible commentaries (or books like Who on Earth was Jesus?) along with my regular reading.

35A: Butterfly catcher: NET

37A: Drinks with straws: SODAS

41A: Gym goer's pride: BOD (body)

43A: Sounds of hesitation: UHS

45A: Que. Neighbor: ONT. (Ontario)

46A: National parks and forests, e.g.: PUBLIC PROPERTY. How many of our national parks have you been to? Which was your favorite? I've been to Yosemite in California, Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, Acadia in Maine and Buck Island in the US Virgin Islands (St. Croix). Have driven through the Smokies and Everglades but not stopped for a visit. My favorite was Yosemite. Saw it in August and would like to go back in the spring when there is actually a Yosemite Falls flowing!

51A: Prince Valiant's son: ARN. Wikipedia says the Legend of Prince Valiant is an animated television show based on the Prince Valiant comic strip by Hal Foster.

52A: Female deer: DOE

53A: It may fit all: ONE SIZE

54A: Reference storage: LIBRARY STACKS. Location of Barry's presentation.

57A: Model of perfection: IDEAL

58A: Riga resident: LETT. Wikipedia says this is an archaic word for Latvian.

59A: Object of worship: IDOL

62A: Prefix with grade: CENTI

63A: Southwestern earthenware pot: OLLA

64A: Neighbor of Senegal: MALI. The stamp collecting hobby my uncle introduced me to when I was a kid has proven useful in solving crosswords.

65A: Cosmetics maker Lauder: ESTEE

66A: Scottish negative: NAE

67A: Cry in court: OYEZ. Think they teach this in law school?

Down:

1D: "The racer's edge": STP (Scientifically Treated Petroleum)

2D: "Well, whaddya know!": OHO

3D: Extending over a wide area: FAR FLUNG

4D: Achieve: ATTAIN

5D: Kind of leather: CALFSKIN

6D: 1998 Sarah McLachlan hit: ADIA

7D: Philadelphia university: DREXEL. My Achilles heel. Did you have one?

8D: Sneak showings: PREVIEWS. Check out the upcoming movies here.

9D: Icicle site: EAVE

10D: Substance abuse support group: ALANON (Alcoholics Anonymous)

11D: Mil. assignment: KP DUTY (Kitchen Patrol)

12D: Ghost costume, basically: SHEET

14D: Uses a hose: SPRAYS (Guaranteed to make you smile.)

20D: Bank statement abbr.: INT. (Interest)

21D: __-Seltzer: ALKA

22D: Sign of healing: SCAB

23D: Top-notch: A ONE

27D: Freeze: ICE UP. Have you all thawed out yet?

28D: New beginning?: NEO (As in neocon, neolithic, neoimpressionism, neoplasm, etc.)

33D: Wane: EBB

34D: Perjured oneself: TOLD A LIE . How m a n y m o r e can you think of? I've found snopes.com and factcheck.org good places to check the veracity of dubious claims.

36D: Engine valve: THROTTLE. My knowledge of car parts is limited-VERY limited-I know how to use the dipstick to check the oil level, how to measure tire pressure and add air to the tire, and could probably change a tire if I absolutely had to. My first car was an old Chevy Nova I had my last year in college. The floor boards in front developed a hole that went all the way through. You could see the street below. My friends used to joke that I could stick my foot through to brake-kind of like driving your car Fred Flinstone style. It drove like a tank (or at least how I think a tank would drive). Memories! What was the first car you owned?

38D: Her last film was "With Six You Get Eggroll" (1968): DORIS DAY.

39D: 1998 animated bug film: ANTZ. Have we seen ANTZII in a puzzle yet? Looks like that would be a no for the NYT from Jim Horne's stats. Can't remember if it's been in a Trib puzzle-do you know C.C.?

40D: Eye trouble: STYE

42D: Stylish Christian: DIOR. Though he died in 1957 his name lives on.

44D: Beethoven's "Moonlight ___": SONATA

46D: Groups of lions: PRIDE

47D: Straight: UNBENT

48D: Sri Lanka, once: CEYLON. Also a type of tea.

49D: Chest muscle, for short: PEC (pectoralis major and pectoralis minor)

50D: Igloo dweller: ESKIMO

51D: Kramden of "The Honeymooners": ALICE

55D: Give a "G" or "PG," say: RATE

56D: Actress Ward: SELA. I actually saw a movie she was in-just didn't remember it-big surprise! (Well it was a minor role for her-but I don't watch many movies or much TV and have trouble remembering the plots, characters and titles of the ones I do see.)

60D: Bullfight cheer: OLE

61D: Taylor, familiarly: LIZ

Lot of familiar crossword words in here but still an enjoyable puzzle.

Phew-this first try at blogging took a while-gives you a new appreciation for what C.C. does (everyday) ! Thanks to C.C. for the blog and to Barry for all the fine puzzles!

Tuesday February 3, 2009 Josiah Breward

Theme: A Sacred Journey

17A: 1941 Bing Crosby movie: BIRTH OF THE BLUES

40A: 1937 Paul Muni move (with "The"): LIFE OF EMILE ZOLA

61A: One of Donne's sonnets: DEATH BE NOT PROUD

None of the above theme answers was familiar to me. I thought there would be an odyssey of struggle waiting ahead when I read the clues. Was surprised that most of them crumbled quickly.

Had trouble with HMO (62D: Ins. choice). "Insurance" did not come to my mind readily at all. I need an additional word "Medical" for the clue, either "Medical Ins. choice" or "Med. Insurance choice".

Besides "LIFE OF EMILE ZOLA" and "LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL", what other movie titles include the word LIFE?

Across:

1A: Painter's base: GESSO. Wikipedia says GESSO was "traditionally mixed with animal glue, usually rabbit-skin glue". Does modern GESSO contain any animal product?

29A: Yellowish-green olivines: PERIDOTS. Nice rings. Peridot is the August birthstone. Don't know how it differs from emerald.

32A: University in Waco: BAYLOR. The largest Baptist university in the world.

37A: Seraglio: HAREM. I forgot the meaning of "Seraglio". Italian for "enclosure". I often wonder if men really are not allowed inside HAREM.

46A: Heroic in scope: EPIC. Watched "Gandhi" the other day. Couldn't fully understand his mindset. Overly idealistic.

49A: Supporter: ADHERENT. Supporter of a "cause", isn't it? Nehru was an ADHERENT of Gandhi's philosophy and legacy, but he is not an ADHERENT of Gandhi, right?

55A: Dope or skinny: INFO. And FACT (57D: Actual event).

58A: One of the Ionian Islands: CORFU. Here is the map. Upper left corner. Prince Philip was born there. Lots of decorative stuff on his uniform.

69A: Van Duyn and Washbourne: MONAS. Van Duyn was a Pulitzer-winning poet (1991). Washbourne played Higgins' housekeeper Mrs. Pearce in "My Fair Lady" (1964). Did not know the former, and forgot the latter.

72A: Some golf tournaments: OPENS. "Some tennis tournaments" too. Rafael Nadal just won Australia Open. Stunning. Another history in the making.

73A: Dutch painter: STEEN (Jan). Here is his painting offered at European Fine Art Affair last year. With the current global economic crisis, I don't expect any "shock and awe" in 2009, unless it's another Rembrandt.

Down:

2D: Samuel's mentor: ELI. I guessed. Bible is definitely my Achilles' heel. Holy smoke, is it really ELI Manning?

13D: Durante feature: NOSE. A prominent NOSE indeed.

22D: Cameos and pippins: APPLES. I've had enough APPLES this winter. I am craving fresh peaches & nectarines.

27D: Adam's second: ABEL. And ONAN (59D: Judah's son). No trouble with either of them.

28D: Tom, Dick or Harry, etc.: NAME. What's so special about those three names? They don't rhyme or anything. Or are they just random picks?

35D: Bounces back: REACTS. I suppose so.

41D: Big pot of stew: OLLA. Olio can be "Big pot of stew" too.

43D: Japanese fighter of WWII: ZERO. No idea. Strange number ZERO. Why not name their fighter EIGHT? 8 is a lucky number for both Chinese and Japanese.

C.C.

Monday February 2, 2009 Tom Pruce

Theme: Feeling Blue

20A: Without warning: OUT OF THE BLUE

60A: Jamaican peak: BLUE MOUNTAIN

10D: Something to scream: BLUE MURDER

30D: Miles Davis classic: KIND OF BLUE

I was only familiar with the phrase OUT OF THE BLUE. But the other three entries were very easy to suss out once I figured out the theme. Do you know where the BLUE MOUNTAIN got its name?

A perfect puzzle for Michael Phelps. He must be feeling very blue this morning. What a disappointment. Why did he need marijuana to get high? Kind of tarnished his ONCE IN A BLUE MOON eight gold medal Olympic record.

So jarring to see RED (15A: Scarlet, e.g.) and RED-HOT (6D: Fiery) intersects one another. Also, is the clue for NSA (59A: Govt. advisory grp.) correct? I wanted NSC (National Security Council). NSA is so damned secretive that I don't know to whom they give advice to.

Across:

8A: Greyhound pacer: RABBIT. I got the answer, but have no idea how RABBIT is connected with "Greyhound pacer".

14A: Gymnast Korbut: OLGA. This is incredible. She got four gold Olympics medals.

16A: Actress Dahl: ARLENE. Can never remember this actress, mother of Lorenzo Lamas. Wikipedia says she had a relationship with JFK as well.

24A: Spinoff of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show": RHODA. Learned from doing Xword. It's often clued as "Valerie Harper sitcom". Which kind of TV program do you watch now?

25A: Samms and Lazarus: EMMAS. Have never heard of EMMA Samms before. That's a very daring dress. Nice pair of ... earrings. She is a British TV actress.

29A: City on Baranof Island: SITKA. Nailed it this time. Still can't believe it's the largest city in the US by area.

34A: Driving nails obliquely: TOEING. Learned this carpentry term last time.

38A: Inter-campus sports grp.: NCAA. Can you believe NCAA was founded in 1906 and has an annual budget of $5.64 billion? By contract, NASA annual budget is $17.3 billion.

51A: Munch Museum city: OSLO. Have never heard of Munch Museum before. It's named after the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch, best known for his angst-filled "Scream".

63A: Low tracts: SWALES. The ditch on the right I presume? This word always gives me trouble.

70A: Swan genus: OLOR. No idea. Latin for swan. Too exotic a name for me to remember.

72A: French some: DES. And FRANC (21D: Old French bread?), which is also the currency for Switzerland.

Down:

2D: Chilean-born pianist Arrau: CLAUDIO. Got his name from across fills. Here is a clip. I wonder why the clue is "Chilean-born" rather than "Chilean". He must have changed his nationality later on then.

4D: Tropical root: TARO. I miss those Cantonese fried TARO cakes.

7D: Made sense: ADDED UP

26D: Med. procedure: MRI. How does MRI differ from X-ray?

27D: Gone by: AGO. "A long long time AGO... the day the music died...". It's been 50 years.

43D: NASA partner: ESA. Very tiresome clue. ESA is "That" in Spanish, right?

48D: Acquire by trickery: FINAGLE. Made me think of Merrill Lynch's John Thain and his outrageous way of using government bailout money to pay his employees bonus. I am glad he is gone.

49D: Greek letter: UPSILON. EPSILON and OMICRON also have 7 letters.

50D: Some thrown horseshoes: LEANERS. Struggled with this one. Last time I was also stumped when LEANER is clued as "Almost a ringer". It's "a thrown horseshoe that leans against the stake."

63D: Sellout theaters: SRO. No abbreviation hint in the clue. I would prefer "Sellout letters".

64D: Sebaceous cyst: WEN. This clue is getting stale too. Not sure if everyone knows, but the current Chinese Premier is named WEN Jiabao.

C.C.

Sunday February 1, 2009 Robert H. Wolfe

Theme: Eat My Words

23A: Junk carrying fruit?: SLOE (Slow) BOAT TO CHINA

37A: Freeing a pungent plant? SPRINGING A LEEK (Leak)

49A: Force exerted by a fruit?: PEAR (Peer) PRESSURE

66A: Herb's organic processes?: BASIL (Basal) METABOLISM

88A: Mushroom stem?: MOREL (Moral) SUPPORT

98A: Veggies' contemporaries?: BEET (Beat) GENERATION

118A: Herb from the distant past?: THYME (Time) IMMEMORIAL

PEAR PRESSURE seems to be strained. PEAR and Peer sound very different to me. MOREL SUPPORT made me laugh, given our wild MOREL discussion last summer.

I wonder if any constructor thought of building a "Moral" rebus puzzle. Moral Ground, Moral Standard, Moral Code, Moral Principle, Moral Philosophy, Moral Decline, Moral Lesson, Moral Victory, Moral Obligation, Moral Conduct, Moral Fiber, etc. Lots of "Moral Issue" words to grid.

Very nice puzzle. Excellent theme. Quite challenging for me though. Had to seek Google for help. Definitely more rewarding than last week's simple "Face It". The only minor quibble I have is the clue for HIT (53A: SRO indication). SRO indicates an abbreviated answer, but HIT is not.

Across:

8A: Character on "The A-Team": MR. T. This guy often wears too much gold.

14A: Brother of Rebecca: LABAN. I forgot his name completely. He is the father of Leah and Rachel, Jacob's father-in-law. Who is his wife then?

19A: Do little or nothing: LIE DOWN

22A: Beatles song from "The White Album": I WILL. Here is the clip.

25A: Paroxysm: THROE. I did not know the meaning of "Paroxysm". "oxy" meaning sharp, as in oxymoron.

26A: "Lohengrin" heroine": ELSA. I can never remember this Wagner opera. The girl looks scared. What is the story about?

27A: Joyce Kilmer classic: TREES. "I think I shall never see /A poem lovely as a tree..."

33A: Fatality faker: POSSUM

48A: Light starter?: TWI. Twilight.

52A: French possessive: A MOI. How do you say "Wish you were mine" in French? I suppose French has real and unreal conditional sentences too.

56A: Barry Levinson movie: DINER. No idea. Have never heard of this movie.

64A: AEC word: ENERGY. AEC was replaced by NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission).

75A: Under the most negative circumstances: AT WORST. I hope we've hit the bottom and the worst is now behind us. So depressing and chilling to read those massive layoff announcements.

80A: Winged: ALATE. Like Pegaus. Sometimes the answer is ALAR. Ala is "wing".

87A: Few: pref: OLIG. As in oligarchy. Here are some examples. I suppose you can call Putin's Russia oligarchy too.

94A: Erect, temporarily: RIG UP. Why "temporarily"?

97A: Brain box: NOODLE. "Brain box" is a new slang to me. I think my "Brain box" is full. I can't seem to absorb and digest the new information I get from reading others' comments.

101A: Incursions: FORAYS

111A: Rutger of "Blade Runner": HAUER. Googled his name. Three consecutive vowels. Perfect for crossword.

123A: Cyst: VESICLE. New to me. What causes these VESICLES? Looks like cigarette burns.

124A: Shoelace tip: AGLET. Derived from French word "aiguille" meaning "needle'".

Down:

4D: Old music halls: ODEA. Singular is odeum. Is there any modern music halls/theaters called odeum?

14D: Well-read elite: LITERATI. Digerati is a portmanteau of "digital" and "LITERATI".

18D: Dodger, in MLB jargon: NLER (National Leaguer). Both ALER and NLER exist in crossword world only.

32D: Put that out of your mind: IGNORE IT

34D: Last of Socrates?: OMEGA. The last letter of Greek alphabet.

35D: Pitcher Warren: SPAHN. Ah,"Spahn and Sain and Pray for Rain", Hall of Famer. The winningest southpaw in Major-League history.

57D: Incoming, as a train (abbr.): INB. Inbound?

62D: Trellis: ESPALIER. Another new word to me. Very pretty. Is that an apple tree? Some of the fruits look like pomegranates.

70D: "I remember Mama" character: LARS. Got it from across clues. Have never heard of this movie before.

81D: Wood: pref.: LIGN. First encounter with this prefix. Dictionary gives an example of "lignite", dark brown coal with a woodlike texture.

82D: Three from Berlin: DREI. Eins, zwei, DREI.

84D: Corundum relative: ALUNDUM. No idea. The clue means nothing to me. Both end in "undum". I suppose you can call them relatives.

90D: Lacking in development: UNFORMED. This clue does not feel natural to me.

92D: Panama preposition: POR. Good alliteration.

100D: Wind: pref.: ANEMO. As in anemometer, the instrument to measure the speed of wind. Saw this clue somewhere before.

106D: Hindu deity: SIVA. I don't know which one is more common, SIVA or Shiva. Here is a statue. How does Hinduism differ from Buddhism? Some of the meditating statues look quite similar.

119D: NASA partner: ESA (European Space Agency)

C.C.

Saturday January 31, 2009 Tom Pruce

Theme: None

Total blocks: 30

Total words: 70

This grid looks pretty to me. So open at four different corners, with those stacks of 7-letter words. I wonder what is the first word the constructor filled in for his grid. My guess is HEM AND HAW (21D: Procrastinate). But are they really interchangable?

I don't like the clue for LIT (10D: Lang. course). I think abbreviation should only be used when no other options are available. So many ways to clue LIT. "Set afire" is boring but works nicely in this grid. I just learned the other day that LIT is also a slang for "Intoxicated". Maybe you can tell me how you would clue LIT. I really enjoyed the non-tea LIPTON discussion the other day.

Had to google. Without a theme as my sherpa, I was daunted and lost. Did not know any of the two poets' name which intersects each other. Wanted Jennifer (Lopez) for 39D: One of Mark Antony's wives (OCTAVIA), confusing Marc Anthony with Mark Anthony. Anyway, Mark Anthony has five wives: Fadia, Antonia, Fulvia, OCTAVIA and Cleopatra. Looks like he liked women with a-ending names.

Across:

1A: Silent signal: GESTURE. Most of the people talk when they GESTURE.

8A: Mayflower passenger: PILGRIM. Vaguely remember there was a baby born EN ROUTE (2D: Along the way) to Plymouth.

15A: Brightest star in Scorpius: ANTARES. Literally rival of ARES (Mars for the Romans) due to the "similarity of its reddish hue to the appearance of the planet Mars". Interesting root. I have never heard of this red supergiant star before.

17A: Vaccaro and Lee: BRENDAS. BRENDA Vaccaro is an actress. BRENDA LEE is a singer. Neither was a familiar name to me.

20A: Ogden resident: UTAHAN. I used to imagine Poet Ogden Nash was born in Ogden, Utah. He was actually born in Rye, New York.

22A: Ancient ointment: NARD. Ah, I did remember this story. Just forgot who was the girl who washed Jesus' feet with NARD. Another Mary.

26A: Latvian chess master: TAL. The 1960-61 world chess champ. Wikipedia says Mikhail TAL is also called "The Magician from Riga".

32A: Group of seven: SEPTET. Sometimes the answer is HEPTAD.

36A: City near San Diego: OCEANSIDE. Here is the map. Easy guess. I did not know there is a city named OCEANSIDE, not to mention its exact location.

38A: Social Security pioneer: TOWNSEND (Francis). Another guess. Here is a picture of him giving a speech about his plan during 1939 New York World's Fair. I wonder what inspired him to think of this grand idea. What a mess we are facing today.

55A: "Animal Farm" author: ORWELL. See the book cover. We get the phrase "Big Brother" and "Orwellian" from his book "Nineteen Eighty-Four".

63A: Period of peace: DETENTE. I was thinking of Pax Romana. To me, DETENTE implies a "relaxing of tension" during JFK's cold war era.

64A: Poet Siegfried: SASSOON. This is Clear Ayes's summary of him: "SASSOON was an early 20th century poet, who was a decorated officer in WWI. He was nicknamed "Mad Jack" by his men for his near-suicidal exploits. He eventually became a vocal anti-war activist. He is memorialized in Westminster Abbey's Poet's Corner. The inscription reads, "My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity." I completely forgot his name. Had to google. SASSOON is "joy" in Hebrew.

65A: Loud speaker: STENTOR. He was a herald of the Greek forces during the Trojan War. And his voice was "as powerful as fifty voices of other men", according to Homer. I have never hear of this guy before. My answer was STENTER, as I wrongly guessed ERNESTE instead of ERNESTO for 43D: Che Guevara's first name.

Down:

1D: Jabbers: GABBLES. A gaggle of Geese GABBLE.

5D: Pakistani tongue: URDU. Dictionary says URDU is "essentially identical to Hindi in its spoken form but in its literary form heavily influenced by Persian and Arabic and written in an Arabic alphabet". It's one of the official languages in India too.

6D: "Giant" ranch: REATA. Learned from doing crossword. Have never seen "Giant".

8D: Umbrella cousins: PARASOLS. Here is Monet's Lady with a Parasol (facing right) once again.

12D: Drumming sound: RAT-A-TAT. Like the drum-banging at Oakland A's ballpark? So annoying!

24D: Climber's spikes: PITONS. This guy is pounding on a PITON. Rock climbing looks very dangerous.

37D: Ancient Greek poet: ANACREON. I forgot. It appeared in our puzzle last Nov. Here is what I wrote last time: "Wikipedia says he is a "lyrical poet" and notable for his "drinking songs and hymns". And his songs often celebrated "women, wine, and entertaining, and today can be considered eroticism". Very interesting information: Francis Scott Key modified Stafford Smith's melody of "To ANACREON in Heaven" for "The Star-Spangled Banner".

38D: Parts of rocker arms: TAPPETS. Here is a diagram. Does not look like "Parts of rocker arms". Whatever. Too technical for me to understand.

54D: "Boola Boola" singers: ELIS. Oh, I did not know "Boola Boola" is Yale's fight song. What's Harvard's then?

56D: Past due: LATE. I really liked "Past Due?" clue for TRE. Very clever. Uno, due, TRE.

61D: X: TEN. The wild receiver for Arizona Cardinals Larry Fitzgerald is from Minnesota. I guess we will all root for the Cardinals in Super Bowl XLIII.

C.C.