Tuesday March 17, 2009 Ed Voile

Theme: The Davey Family

17A: Renowned jazz pianist: DAVE BRUBECK

24A: "Curb Your Enthusiasm" star: LARRY DAVID

48A: "Die Hard" co-star: ROBERT DAVI

57A: English LPGA golfer: LAURA DAVIES

11D: 1997 PGA champion: DAVIS LOVE

32D: Monkees singer: DAVY JONES

Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone! Go to solve LA Times Daily puzzle if you have time. It has a very proper theme for today.

Both DAVIS LOVE and LAURA DAVIES were gimmes to me. I remember vividly the miraculous rainbow at Winged Foot and how emotional DAVIS LOVE was. It's his first and only major. Who else but LAURA DAVIES (next to John Daly) can you fill for "English LPGA golfer"? She is the face of the British/European LPGA.

I was not familiar with the other four theme answers. But I figured out the theme earlier on. So I was able to fill in some blanks with creative guesses.

Must be a headache day for those who have trouble with Roman numerals:

11A: 605: DCV

19A: Sundial seven: VII

30A: 1405: MCDV

30D: Twice DLXXV: MCL

Some of the clues could be reworded to avoid the heaviness in abbreviated answers today. For example. BAS (21A: Some U. degs"), why not just "__ - relif"? Also, I've never liked "SSS word" for SEL (29D). Last time "Poivre companion" stumped lots of people (Poivre is French for "pepper"), but a simple "Salt in France" should be fine. I am still waiting for someone to try "Sand's seasoning?".

Across:

1A: Perpetual traveler: NOMAD. Anyone thought of GYPSY first?

6A: "Le __ du printemps": SACRE. "The Rite of Spring". Ballet by Igor Stravinsky. Unknown to me. All I could think of is the Printemps department store. Printemps is "Spring" in French.

14A: Threatened layer: OZONE

28A: Equal-sided figure: ISOGON. Like square.

29A: Part of a wd.: SYL. Why do I always think of letters instead of syllables?

37A: One-horse carriages: CHAISES. New defintion to me. CHAISE is a kind of carriage with a hood. One-horse and two-wheeled.

41A: Morse unit: DIT. What's difference between DIT and DOT again? (Answer from Barry G: DIT and DOT are synonymous. It's just that DIT is paired with dah, whereas DOT is paired with dash. DIT and dah represent the sound made by typing the characters "." and "-" with a telegraph, whereas DOT and dash represent the names of the characters.)

42A: Med. readings: EEGS. Saw a very clever clue the other day. "Head lines?"

44A: Servile: MENIAL

46A: Goya's "The Naked __": MAJA. Hey, Williams is getting DF. He could have clued MAJA as "The Clothed MAJA". But "The Naked MAJA" does look better. I wish I had her waist, so tiny!

60A: Enzyme: suff.: ASE. And ANE (4D: Chemical suffix). I am curious to see how our new editor Rich Norris clues ANE. I like the separate AN E approach.

61A: Felix or Luther: ADLER. Got it because yesterday's "Felix and Polly" clue. Have never heard of actor Luther ADLER. Barry G's Irene ADLER clue sounds equally obscure to me. And I've never heard of any of the ADLER in Ink's list. It seems that Alfred ADLER is most well-known one. Wikipedia says he coined this concept "Inferiority Complex".

Down:

1D: Of a junction: NODAL

2D: Conductor Seiji: OZAWA. His name escapes me constantly. I could only picture his face. He was actually born in Shenyang, China when it was under Japanese occupation.

5D: Boone and others: DEBBYS. Thought of DANIELS first. Here is DEBBY Boone's "You Light Up My Life".

6D: Wursts: SAUSAGES. Interesting comments from Kazie yesterday: "My son has been experimenting with sausage making recipes, and he specially ordered the intestine casings because he says when the meat dries out, the natural casings shrink with it and there are no air pockets to cause spoilage like with the synthetic casings that won't shrink."

7D: Fugitive letters: APB. I like Harrison Ford's "The Fugitive".

8D: Simpleton: CRETIN. New to me. CRETIN does not look like a stupid word.

9D: Sieved into pellets: RICED. Don't have a ricer in our kitchen.

18D: Protective hemispheres for antennas: RADOMES. Contraction of RA (dar) + DOME. Another new word to me. How can antennas work when they are domed?

23D: Beaver Cleaver's hometown: MAYFIELD. Got it from across fills.

25D: Classic Buicks: RIVIERAS. Also got from across fills.

36D: Ed.'s work pile: MSS. I'd rather the clue be "Editor's work pile, abbr."

38D: His: Fr.: SES. Or her/its.

39D: Mary Roberts of mysteries: RINEHART. I googled her name. Wikipedia says she is often called American Agatha Christie. Is it true?

41D: Cotillion gal: DEB. I did not know the meaning of "Cotillion". It's a formal ball given for debutantes.

44D: Sofa section: MODULE. New to me. Which section is MODULE?

46D: Jim or Gardner: McKAY. Did not know actor/artist Gardner McKAY. He must be very famous to grace a Life Magazine cover. Jim McKAY was the first sportscaster to win an Emmy (He won a total of 12 Emmy Awards).

48D: "The Cloister and the Hearth" writer: READE (Charles). One more google. Interesting bookcover. Is it a good read from READE?

49D: Concorde, e.g.: AVION. "Plane" in French.

C.C.

Monday March 16, 2009 Jo Vita

Theme: Colorful Places

29A: Southernmost city in Texas: BROWNSVILLE

58A: Town on Great Slave Lake: YELLOWKNIFE

11D: Virginia Tech location: BLACKSBURG

28D: Neighbor of Winston-Salem: GREENSBORO

BLACKSBURG brought back the horrifying scenes of the Virginia Tech shooting. It's the only theme answer I've heard of.

Why would someone name a town YELLOWKNIFE? Sounds haunted and dangerous to live. Is GREENSBORO a shortened word for Greensborough? BROWNSVILLE was very easy to obtain. Wikipedia says Kris Kristofferson was born there.

I had trouble with the intersection of NORMA and ADLERS. Otherwise, an OK grid, our last TMS Daily Monday puzzle. By the way, here is a picture of Rich Norris, the editor for LA Times Daily puzzle. He looks very serious, doesn't he? On the other hand, Barry Silk looks so relaxed and morally MOREL.

Across:

1A: Diet beers: LITES. I don't eat or drink anything LITE or no-fat. Have to eat real food.

9A: Native Israeli: SABRA. Dictionary says it means "prickly pear" in Hebrew. A person who immigrates to Israel is called OLEH (masculine) or OLAH (feminine). I suppose SABRA can be either a man or a woman?

14A: Stern or Babel: ISAAC. I did not know ISAAC Babel, the Russian Jewish writer. He was shot to death by Stalin's secret police.

17A: Very large in scale: MACRO. I think my diet mirrors that of Macrobiotics, except that I don't eat brown rice.

19A: National symbols: FLAGS. This is Chinese National flag, with 5 stars. The colors and designs kind of resembles the old Soviet Union flag.

24A: Glacial epoch: ICE AGES

26A: Skeans and dirks: DAGGERS. Skean is a new DAGGER to me. It's formerly used in Ireland and in the Scottish Highlands.

29A: Arlene and Roald: DAHLS. Someone mentioned last time that DAHL means "valley" in Norwegian language. Related to DALE I suppose.

31A: "Over There" cont.: EUR. Guessed. Why "Over There"? Old movie title?

42A: Verdun's river: MEUSE. No idea. I did not know where Verdun is. See this map. It flows from NE France through E Belgium and S Netherlands into the North Sea. Last time I linked the same map when ARGONNE was clued as "WWI battle site".

43A: Spanish dish: PAELLA. Literally "frying pan" in Catalan. Saffron is probably the most expensive spice in the world.

48A: Bellini opera: NORMA. Unknown to me. Wikipedia says it's first produced at La Scala in 1831 and it is generally regarded as an example of the supreme height of the Bel canto tradition, whatever that is. This is the only NORMA I know.

53A: Engaged: BUSY. I wanted RAPT.

57A: Poetic peeper: ORB. Maybe you can find me a poem where the poet wrote "Oh, how lovely thine ORBS are".

62A: Mythical weeper: NIOBE. Can you believe this is a gimme for me? Lots of solvers found me last year when they searched this word. Anyway, NIOBE had 14 kids, and she she bragged of her superiority to LETO, who only had two kids (the Twins Apollo & Artemis, fathered by Zeus). Then all her kids were slewn by Apollo and Artemis. And NIOBE herself was turned into stone by Zeus while weeping her loss.

66A: Stuffed __ (kishke): DERMA. Nope. Have never heard of kishke either. Looks just like sausage. I hope it's sweet and not garlicky.

68A: Jamaican cultist: RASTA. Ah, Bob Marley. Here is his "No Woman No Cry", to comfort our "Mythical weeper" NIOBE.

Down:

2D: Munich's river: ISAR

4D: Solicit persistently: EARWIG. New word to me. This insect shows up when I googled EARWIG.

5D: Wall bracket: SCONCE. Mine was SOCKET.

6D: Glacial chasm: CREVASSE. Same as crevice?

7D: 1953 Jane Wyman movie: SO BIG. The answer presented itself to me. The original novel won a Pulitzer for Edna Ferber in 1925.

12D: Moore or Mudd: ROGER. Not familiar with the journalist ROGER Mudd.

21D: Evening in Venezia: SERA. Italian for evening. I did not know Venezia is Italian for Venice.

26D: Star of "Sleepy Hollow": DEPP (Johnny). Have never seen this movie. "Heads will roll" sounds scary.

27D: Intangible quality: AURA. "Intangible" indeed.

35D: Aoki of golf: ISAO. Golf HOFer. He belongs to history. Now all eyes are on Ryo Ishikawa. Sensational. We will see him at the Masters this year.

44D: Henri's girl: AMIE. How to say "girlfriend" in Spanish? By the way, I've had enough Bernard-Henri Levy and his narcissistic unbuttoned white shirt.

46D: Garbage boat: SCOW. Barge popped into my mind. It's also a garbage boat, isn't it?

49D: Felix and Polly: ADLERS. No idea. Polly ADLER was a Russia-born brothel madam. Three Felix ADLERS here. I don't know which one the constructor was thinking.

54D: One archangel: URIEL

56D: Aluminum company: ALCOA. Oh my God, I just found out this morning that ALCOA is traded at $5.73/share. Unbelievable.

59D: Singer Delange: ILSE. I forgot. She is a Dutch country singer.

63D: NYC subway line: BMT (Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit). Can never remember this initial.

C.C.

Sunday March 15, 2009 Willy A. Wiseman

Theme: Cards for Two

23A: Blackjack: POLICEMAN'S CLUB

36A: War: OPEN HOSTILITIES

73A: Scatter: CUT AND RUN

108A: Casino: TRUMP PLAZA OR RIO

126A: Gin: COTTON SHUFFLER

17D: Nautically nauseous: CAPTAIN'S DECK

64D: Solitaire: A DIAMOND RING

I hope I got the theme answers correct. I am a dummy when it comes to card games. Why "Card for Two" as the theme title?

I don't know. HAND PICK (8D: Select personally) might be part of the theme answers too. But there is nothing hidden in its symmetrical partner SAL MINEO (93D: "Exodus" co-star). Or am I missing something here?

Struggled with this puzzle. Too many proper names. Our editor is on a name binge today. He could easily clue KEENER (107D: Catherine of "Full Frontal") as "More acute". "Single Sra" for SRTA (66A) is such a lazy cluing.

I have never seen a word number indicator like 67D: Time qualifier: __ about (2 words): AT OR. Normally Williams would go with "End of comment?" (commentator). He hates partials.

See here for Argyle's post on Rich Norris' Thursday SPAGHETTI puzzle.

Across:

1A: Simpson's songwriting partner: ASHFORD (Nickolas). Stumped immediately. Have never heard of him or his wife Valerie Simpson. They wrote "Ain't No Mountain High Enough".

8A: Seize a vehicle in transit: HIJACK. I had this wrong notion that HIJACK means "Seize a plane in transit" and CARJACK is the answer the clue is looking for.

20A: Put away one's sword: SHEATHE

21A: Comparable thing: ANALOG. Not analogy?

22A: Chilly period: ICE AGE. I wrote WINTER first. It's indeed the "Chilly period" here in MN.

30A: Memory unit: BIT. Know nothing about computer. BIT, byte. Which is bigger?

33A: Tom Sawyer's sweetheart: BECKY. Guessed. His love for her is unrequited, right?

48A: Hitters: BATSMEN. My inital answer is BATTERS.

70A: Senior members: DOYENS. Female is called doyenne. Helen Thomas is often referred to as the doyenne of the White House press corps.

71A: Diameter halves: RADII. Probably only math geeks celebrated the National Pi Day yesterday.

76A: Mother-of-pearl: NACRE. Here is a picture. I don't know why NACRE is precious. Some drums have very nicely encircled NACRE around its body.

77A: With hands on hips: AKIMBO. I can never remember this position. Sounds like a Japanese word.

79A: Iditarod terminus: NOME

87A: S.F. underground: BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit). Oh, I did not know it's underground.

89A: Bookkeeping abbr.: EOM. Glory be! I am not familar with this abbreviation at all. It's just "End of Month".

105A: Flasks: PHIALS. Only knew vial.

106A: No-good-__: NIK. I need to use this word. I've never used ne'er-do-well in my conversation either.

112A: Grasslike wetland plant: SEDGE. The leaves looks cutting.

114A Asian range: ALTAI. It's called 阿尔泰山脉 in Chinese. Wikipedia said the ALTAI mountains are known as the Turkic people's birthplace. Originated in the word Altau. AL means "gold", TAU means "mount". So ALTAI means the "Mountains of Gold" in their language.

117A: Gifts bestowed: LARGESS

122A: Blood: pref.: HEMA. Or hemo. As in hemophilia, the disease Byron Nelson died of.

130A: Guy of "Factory Girl": PEARCE. I googled. Here is a picture of him and Sienna Miller who starred in the "Factory Girl". He is an Aussi also.

131A: Military decoration: EPAULET. I used to remember this word.

133A: Arialike solo: ARIOSO. Forgot again.

134A: Schedules anew: RESLOTS

Down:

2D: Brogue or wingtip: SHOE. Did not know brogue and wingtip means the same thing.

3D: Recklessly determined: HELLBENT

5D: Stock-market abbr.: OTC. Over-the-Counter. I don't know anything about stock market, except my GE stock keeps dropping. How is OTC different from NYSE trading? Also, if most of us are losing money in this market, who is winning? If no one, where did the money disappear to?

10D: Actor Derek: JACOBI. Googled him, then realized that I had googled him before. An illustrous career.

11D: Completely wrong: ALL WET

12D: Administrative body: COUNCIL. Can't believe I struggled with this one.

24D: Having wings: ALATE. I only knew ALAR, which actually means "Winglike".

29D: Cicely and Mike: TYSONS. Cicely is Miles Davis' wife.

31D: Essay: THEME. New definition to me.

34D: Largo and Longboat: KEYS. Both KEYS are in FL. Here is my favorite KEYS.

37D: "Waiting for Lefty" playwright: ODETS. Another google. Is ODETS very famous? Very odd picture. What are they trying to achieve?

46D: William Sydney Porter: O HENRY. Easy guess. I did not know O HENRY's original name. What does O stand for? Why not O'HENRY?

49D: DEA type: NARC. It's always "D.E.A. agent". I don't know why it's "type".

59D: Rail: SORA. The Carolina rail.

61D: Unfledged bird: EYAS. Would not got this weird word without the surrounds. The British spelling is Eyass.

81D: Legendary drummer Gene: KRUPA. He was played by SAL MINEO (93D: "Exodus" co-star) in the 1959 biopic "The Gene KRUPA story".

91D: Black bird: MERL. Also MERLE. Not fully black. I learned the meaning of this word a few months ago when someone talked about MERL Reagle, the genius crossword constructor for Dennis's "Philadelphia Inquirer".

96D: Actor Mastroianni: MARCELLO. Another google. Found his mug to be very familiar, then I remember I saw his movie "A Very Private Affair" with Brigitte Bardot.

98D: Brit. quartermaster: RSO (Regimental Supply Officer).

100D: Hunting trophy: BIG GAME. New phrase to me. I thought there is a special trophy for hunters.

102D: Surpasser: OUTDOER. Made-up "er" word.

109D: Rum cocktail: MAI TAI. Nice to see its full name. Wikipedia says MAI TAI means "good" in Tahitian. What is that flower besides the mint leaves?

110D: Poet Metastasio: PIETRO. No idea. He was "an Italian poet and librettist, considered the most important writer of opera seria libretti", whatever that is. And he is known as an "emotional, lyrical, and romantic poet". His hands look like a lady's . Wonder how long his thumbs are.

111D: "The Third Man" instrument: ZITHER. Got the Z from the intersecting PLAZA. So the only viable answer is ZITHER.

113D: Having auricles: EARED. AURI/OTO is prefix for ear.

121D: "Little Latin __ Lu": LUPE. Have never heard of this song before.

126D: Bks balancer: CPA. This "er" word really annoys me. "Balancing pro" is better.

127D: Mil. training course: OCS. Officer Candidate School. New to me. Why "course" then?

C.C.

Thursday March 12, 2009 Donna Hoke Kahwaty / Rich NorrisLA Times

Theme: SPAGHETTI (57A: Noodles, and word that can precede the beginning of 17-, 28-, or 43-Across)

17A: Commute, stereotypically: STRAPHANG

28A:Four-walled play areas: SQUASH COURTS

43A: 19th century communications pioneer: WESTERN UNION

(Note from C.C. This post is blogged by our sweet Santa Argyle. Click here for the LA Times Thursday March 12, 2009 puzzle.)

You can look at 13D link to see SPAGHETTI STRAPS.

You may visit your local produce and pick up some SPAGHETTI SQUASH.

Rent some old Eastwood films to watch SPAGHETTI WESTERNS.

SPAGHETTI is in Aisle 7.

Across:

1A: Goes arduously (through): WADES.

6A: London hrs. GMT. Greenwich Mean Time.

9A: Clarifying words: ID EST. Latin ‘that is’, abbreviated i.e. Do you think asking for a hint it was Latin is too much to ask?

14A: Thomas associate: ALITO. Clarence Thomas has served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States since 1991; Samuel Alito has served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States since 2006. Associate was the clue that we were looking a judge and not a buddy of Thomas the Tank Engine.

15A: Rock’s — Speedwagon: REO. There were still some of these trucks around when I was a wee lad. Our crossword.corner anthem.

16A: Conical home: TEPEE.

17A: Commute, stereotypically: STRAPHANG. On a subway or bus, when you can’t find a seat, you stand and hang on to a strap. poster

19A: Line to the audience: ASIDE. My first thought was a line up the audience, aisle, instead of a line spoken directly to the audience.

20A: Cut canines: TEETHED.

21A: Joseph Kennedy’s middle daughter: EUNICE. Eunice Shriver, 87, was the fifth of nine children of Joseph and Rose Kennedy and she helped found the Special Olympics as a national event.

23A: Be off: ERR.

24A: Udder parts: TEATS. They're real and they're spectacular.

26A: Pale-green moth: LUNA

28A: Four-walled play areas: SQUASH COURTS. You might find some babies in these play areas.

31A: Sort: GROUP. Sort into groups or group into sorts, works either way.

33A: Frat house empties: KEGS. The kegger parties can get pretty rowdy, or so I’m told.

34A: Take in: EAT. It would have made more sense without the “IN”.

35A: Swedish coin: KRONA. Plural, kronor.

36A: Lith., formerly: SSR. Lithuania, along with Estonia and Latvia, were known as the Baltic States, on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea. and were incorporated into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics as constituent republics in 1940. They became independent again in 1991.

37A: A bridal veil may be attached to one: TIARA.

39A: Hotel addition?: IER. Hotelier is the manager or owner of a hotel or inn. The Cornell University School of Hotel Administration is the place to go if you want to become a hotelier.

40A: Send to the canvas: KAYO. The pronunciation of KO, which stands for Knock Out, from boxing.

42A: One of the Papas: DENNY. The Mamas and Papas L. to R., Denny Doherty, Cass Elliot, John Phillips, and Michelle Phillips Creeque Alley with pics from the Monterey Pop Festival.

43A: 19th century communications pioneer: WESTERN UNION. Western Union was founded in Rochester, New York, in 1851 as The New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company. It changed its name to Western Union Telegraph Company in 1856 at the insistence of Ezra Cornell, one of the founders of Cornell University, to signify the joining of telegraph lines from coast to coast.

46A: Stubborn people won’t give one: INCH. Stubborn Britons won’t give a centimeter.

47A: Clan symbol: TOTEM. A large pole carved with family symbols. Beaver Clan totem.

48A: First name in design: LIZ. Liz Claiborne, with Art Ortenberg and Leonard Boxer, founded in 1976, Liz Claiborne Inc., a fashion company that sells directly to customers. In 1986, it was the first company founded by a woman to be listed in the Fortune 500. She was also the first designer to insist that her collection be placed together on the sales floor. Shoppers no longer went from shirt department to pant department to coordinate an outfit, revolutionizing the way department stores arranged clothing and created the role of fashion merchandising as we know it today.

51A: Minimalist composer Glass: PHILIP. Although his music is often, though controversially, described as minimalist, he describes himself instead as a composer of "music with repetitive structures". sample

53A: Closet article: GARMENT.

56A: Word with pipe or sign: PEACE.

59A: Sailing maneuvers: TACKS. The combination of the aerodynamic force from the sails and the hydrodynamic force from the underwater hull section allows motion in almost any direction, except straight into the wind. Or ask Jeannie.

60A: Big Apple subway div.: IRT. New York City’s Interborough Rapid Transit.

61A: Actress Georgia: ENGEL. Georgia Bright Engel, 60, is an American film and television actress probably best known for sweet Georgette Baxter on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. She is the one on the right.

62A: Tray filler: ASHES. Ashtray; I was thinking ice cubes.

63A: Seek redress, in a way: SUE. The American way.

64A: Dig deeply?: ADORE. A devious clue.

Down:

1D: Useless venture: WASTE.

2D: Shorten or lengthen, say: ALTER.

3D: More desperate: DIRER. I can’t decide if it is pronounced ‘dire’ or ‘direrer’; I think I’d use more dire.

4D: Pennsylvanie, e.g.: ETAT. A little help that it is French would have been nice. Pennsylvania and state. Something like ‘Pennsylvanie to Tours tourists’.

5D: This year’s grad, two years ago: SOPH.

6D: Like a good egg?: GRADE A. What it looks like without its shell.

7D: “So many ___, so little time”: Mae West: MEN.

8D: As a team: TOGETHER.

9D: “Let’s call ___ evening” IT AN. We may be seeing more of these partial fills now.

10D: “I Spy” TV studio: DESILU. I Spy was a secret agent series, 1965 to 1968. Robert Culp and Bill Cosby were traveling as "tennis bums". In reality, they were spies. Desilu Productions was owned by Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz.

11D: Gourmet: EPICUREAN. A follower of Epicurus (341-270 BC), a famous Greek philosopher, who has been regarded, erroneously, as teaching a doctrine of refined voluptuousness, esp. to the luxuries of the table.

12D: Like a couch potato: SEDENTARY. Accustomed to sitting a great deal and doing little exercise.

13D: Top with a slogan: TEE. This stumped me for quite awhile. Top – a garment worn on the upper torso, also known as a shirt; so a shirt with a slogan on it could be a T-shirt, also known as a TEE; which gives me an excuse to link a sexy picture. The slogan, in case you missed it, is "I'll be using theses to my advantage", and, yes, I know, technically, she isn't wearing a T-shirt. I DON"T CARE.

18D: Distressed: HET UP. Archaic

22D: Search and rescue org.: USCG. United States Coast Guard.

25D: Tries to date: ASKS OUT.

27D: The Charles’ dog: ASTA.

28D: Charlie, to Martin: SON. Martin Sheen is the father of Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez. L. to R., Emilio, Charlie, and Martin.

29D: Tremble: QUAKE.

30D: Bone: Pref.: OSTEO.

31D: Stew ingredients: GREEN PEAS.

32D: Personality test creator: RORSCHACH. Is it a Rorschach test or a crossword I tied to do with a fountain pen?

35D: Smallest ratite bird: KIWI. A ratite is any of large, flightless birds. The Ostrich is the largest, next is the Emu, Cassowary, Rhea, and smallest, Kiwi, a chicken-sized bird.

36D: Overview: SYNOPSIS. Precis!

38D: Quaint quarters: INNS.

41D: Introductory humanities class: ART I. It would be ART IOI usually.

42D: Joltin’ Joe: DiMAG. Both are nicknames for Joe DiMaggio. A member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, DiMaggio was a 3-time MVP winner and 13-time All-Star (the only player to be selected for the All-Star Game in every season he played).

44A: Alan of “Growing Pains”: THICKE. Alan Thicke, 62, is a Canadian actor, songwriter, and game and talk show host. He is best known for his role as Jason Seaver, the patriarch on the ABC television series Growing Pains.

45D: Prove false: NEGATE.

48D: Abandon one’s inhibitions: LET GO.

49D: Put to rest?: INTER. Rest In Peace

50D: Scrabble 10-pointer: Z TILE. A real Scrabblely answer

52D: Not as much: LESS.

54D: Ostrich relative: RHEA. A kiwi relative, too.

55D: Fix: MEND.

56D: Home-school link, briefly: PTA

58D: “Piece of the Rock” company, on the NYSE: PRU. “Piece of the Rock” is the slogan for Prudential Financial Inc. whose symbol on the New York Stock Exchange is PRU.

Argyle

Saturday March 14, 2009 Tom Pruce

Theme: None

Total blocks: 29

Total words: 68

I often have millet soup. It's gluten free and safe for me to eat. But the finger millet RAGI (11D: Asian cereal grass) is an exotic new grain to me. Have never seen ONAGERS (62D: Wild asses of Asia) in my life, after living in Asia for over 30 years. They are native to desert areas of Asia like Syria, Iran, Israel, Pakistan, etc.

A bit of Scottish flavor in this grid:

27A: Possess like a Scot: HAE. Guessed this one. Then I remembered I linked Burns "Some HAE meat and canna eat" poem sometime last year.

28A: Scot's negative: NAE

12D: Scott hero: IVANHOE. I wanted ROB ROY. Last time IVANHOE was clued as "Sir Walter Scott hero".

Not a difficult puzzle. Most of the short words are clued very straightforwardly. So that makes the long words obtainable. I filled in lots of blanks before I googled. I think I will struggle mightily with LA Times Saturday themeless. I was only able to fill in a few words last time when Argyle blogged Barry Silk's puzzle. Rich Norris (editor for LA Times crossword) has accepted a few of Barry's puzzles, and they are all themeless. So, be prepared for the struggle.

Oh by the way, Barry's puzzle appeared in NT Times today. Read this interesting interview (Spoiler alert: It contains some answers to the puzzle) conducted by Jim Horne, the official NY Times crossword blogger. "Dr. Pangram" sounds so APT. Want to see how Barry looks like?

Additionally, Mary Elson, the Manging Director for Tribune Media Service, told me yesterday that they have informed all the papers about the puzzle change. I don't know why our local papers have not relayed this important news to us the solvers.

For those who don't have access to TMS Sunday puzzle, have a look at LA Times March 12 Thursday puzzle, Argyle will blog it tomorrow morning.

Across:

1A: Primitive believer: ANIMIST. How is it different from Shamanism?

8A: Land named for Vespucci: AMERICA. The feminized Latin version of his given name Amerigo. Here is how AMERICA is called in Chinese, "the beautiful country".

15A: Puerto Rican boxer Hector: CAMACHO. Googled his name. He looks quite gentle. Is KO a boxing magazine?

17A: Oodles: UMPTEEN

16A: Exquisite: ELEGANT. Anna Wintour is icily ELEGANT.

23A: Byrnes or Roush: EDD. Have never heard of the baseball player EDD Rouse. A HOFer. Wikipedia says he "used a massive 48-ounce Louisville Slugger (the heaviest bat used in baseball)" and he claimed that he never broke a bat in his big league career. Is that a record?

24A: Surveying instrument: ALIDADE. I forgot. This instrument appeared in our puzzle 2 months ago.

29A: Having a harmful effect: DELETERIOUS. I know the meaning of this long word. But it sure was not a gimme to me.

31A: Greenstreet and Pollack: SYDNEYS. Did not know the British actor SYDNEY Greenstreet. He is the bad club owner Signor Ferrari in "Casablanca". The big guy on the right.

36A: Roman transportation: CHARIOT. Driven by two horses. I like this Roman CHARIOT, so finely sculpted.

44A: Explore ahead: RECONNOITER. This is another long word that I can't spell it out without surrounds.

47A: Mdse. identifier: UPC

49A: J. Hancocked?: SGD. My initial answer was OK'D. Look at his autograph. Very clear indeed. No wonder "John Hancock" became an synonym for signature.

53A: Two-headed: DUAL. I don't understand this clue. "Two-headed" conjured up a very unpleasant Greek mythical animal.

57A: Separate metals by melting: LIQUATE. New word to me. I was thinking of ABLATE, which actually means "to remove or dissipate by melting, vaporization, erosion".

Down:

1D: Tapering points: ACUMENS. Not a familiar definition to me.

2D: Date to celebrate: NAME DAY. Hey, Congress just passed a National Pi Day (March 14) resolution.

4D: Groening or Dillon: MATT. Knew MATT Dillon. Loved his "Crash". Have never heard of MATT Groening, the creator of "The Simpsons". Is his named pronounced the same as "groaning"?

5D: Hard water?: ICE

6D: "Cheers" co-star: SHELLEY LONG. Dennis pointed her name last time when I linked this picture.

7D: Uvula neighbors: TONSILS

8D: Film material: ACETATE. Would not have got this material without the crossing help.

10D: Dutch commune: EDE. No idea. This is the best map I could find. The temperature is in C of course.

13D: Horse-man?: CENTAUR. No idea. Holy moly. Horse-man indeed. Reminds me of the part bull, part man Minotaur. Both end in TAUR, prefix for "bull". Those Greek mythology figures can be very absurd.

24D: Operatic soprano Patti: ADELINA. Another google. Italian soprano. Died in 1919. She looks pretty. Verdi called her the greatest vocalist that he ever heard.

25D: Vivid verbal description: DELINEATIONS

37D: Solvent from petroleum: HEPTANE. Its molecule has seven carbon atoms, hence prefix HEPT. I got the answer from across fills.

38D: Stresses: ACCENTS

40D: The Moor of Venice: OTHELLO. His betrayer is IAGO.

41D: Make less severe: ASSUAGE

51D: DCCLI doubled: MDII. 751X2=1502

58D: Sine __ non: QUA. Can you make a sentence for me? I know the meaning of this Latin phrase. Have never used it in conversation or writing.

C.C.

Friday March 13, 2009 Josiah Breward

Theme: A.A. Group

1A: All confused: AT SEA

17A: Eroticism: APHRODISIA

28A: World of scholars: ACADEMIA

45A: Gardens of trees: ARBORETA

58A: Capital of Ethiopia: ADDIS ABABA

67A: Old World lizard: AGAMA

5D: Loss-of-hair condition: ALOPECIA

11D: Jerry Stiller's wife: ANNE MEARA

35D: Janet Suzman film, "Nicholas and __": ALEXANDRA

40D: Mechanical men: AUTOMATA

I have never heard of that Janet Suzman movie. ALOPECIA & AUTOMATA are complete unknowns to me. I just learned this morning that the plural form of certain Greek ma-ending words end in ta. Like stigma, the plural form is stigmata.

Do you like the theme? I am not enthralled by it at all. Feel bored actually. I counted 35 letter A's in this puzzle. This puzzle by Patrick Berry for NY Times on March 21, 2002 has 69 A's.

Too many ER suffixes for my taste:

47A: Debate participant: ARGUER

26D: Storyteller: RELATOR

27D: Scenery chewer: EMOTER

I've got quite a few "So long" emails from our TMS solvers in the past week. Maybe I did not make my point clear. TMS just decided to stop using Wayne R Williams' TMS Daily puzzle on March 22. We will get LA Times Daily starting on March 23, 2009 Monday. LA Times Daily is part of TMS also. And you can always get LA Times on line if your paper does not carry the puzzle. Just print it out if you prefer solving on paper as I do. Click on Print, then Blank Puzzle, you will get a empty grid with clues on.

I like the small but tight community we've built here. Don't leave. I need your participation to make this crossword corner vibrant.

Across:

14A: Transferred design: DECAL. Bumper sticker is a kind of DECAL, isn't it?

15A: Corridor: HALL. I wonder who first thought of the HALL of Fame idea. It sure sounds better than Corridor of Fame. Was Don Mattingly rude to reporters during his career as Bert Blyleven was? Why isn't he in HOF yet?

19A: Module: UNIT. Always think of NASA's LEM when I see the word "Module".

21A: Shriver of tennis: PAM. Have never heard of this girl. Her facial bone structure does look like Maria Shriver. Wikipedia says they are cousins.

22A: Top berths: UPPERS

24A: Silver server: TEA SET. Have never had any tea served in a silver server before.

26A: Cash in: REDEEM

33A: Hindu mystic: SWAMI. Literally "master" in Sanskrit. Guru is "teacher". Yoga is "union".

38A: Mrs. Fred Flintstone: WILMA. Got her name from down clues. TV characters are definitely my Achilles' heel.

40A: Of the ear: AURAL. Or OTIC.

44A: Singer Ritter: TEX. John Ritter's dad.

53A: Wish bestowers: GENIES. So if you had one wish from a GENIE, what would it be?

64A: Jazz pianist Art: TATUM. No idea. Is he blind?

67A: Old World of lizard: AGAMA. I forgot. His tail is so long.

Down:

3D: Unstressed vowel: SCHWA. The inverted "e", as in the either end of "America". I've never had problem pronouncing SCHWA, it's the vowel in bad/bed, sax/sex that confuses me.

6D: Leveling piece: SHIM. The yellow piece he is trying to insert? It's a new word to me.

8D: Ring king: ALI. Bush gave him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005. Can you believe Marilyn Monroe was a Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient also (1952)?

9D: Acclaim: PLAUDIT

25D: Emma of "Dynasty": SAMMS. Barry G's younger day crush.

29D: Vienna's river: DANUBE. Here is the map. Vienna is Wien in German. The river flows from southern Germany into the Black Sea.

42D: Holy war: CRUSADE. The Muslim CRUSADE is Jihad.

50D: Mazda model: MIATA. No idea. I know nothing about sports cars. MIATA means "reward" in old German.

52D: Andes ruminant: LLAMA. Just learned this morning that the gestation period of LLAMA is 11 1/2 months (350 days). And the average gestation period of elephants is 22 months. Poor elephants!

C.C.

Thursday March 12, 2009 Annabel Michaels

Theme: Carrot and Stick

20A: Start of a Johnny Carson quip: YOU GET MORE WITH

32A: Part 2 of quip: A KIND WORD AND

41A: Part 3 of quip: A GUN THAN WITH

56A: End of quip: A KIND WORD ALONE

His original quote is "You can get more with a kind word and a gun than you can get with a kind word alone." TR's adage "Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far." came from a Western African proverb.

A BAS la quip/quote! I've had enough. So happy we only have one left.

Balzac is always Balzac to me. I did not know his given name HONORE (49D: M. de Balzac). Not fond of the abbreviation M. "Novelist de Balzac", yes. Just read "Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress" the other day. It brought back lots of sad memories.

Balzac said "Great love affairs start with Champagne and end with tisane". It seems that French are stalwart believers in the juice-perfuming/sweetening power of tisane. Have you tried the orange & rose water & mint combination? Does it work?

Speaking of orange, our crossword Orange (Amy Reynaldo) emailed me yesterday about "Marbles Amateur Crossword Tournament". It will be held in Chicago on Saturday April 18, 2009. The contest will use NY Time's Monday to Thursday puzzles from the following week. And the registration is $20. All proceeds go to charities. I hope you guys in Chicago will take part and support her effort.

Across:

14A: Set of antlers: RACK. How many in a "set"? Two? I still can't believe that deer antlers are deciduous. I wonder if there is any pain when the antlers fall off/grow back every year.

18A: French historian: RENAN (Ernest). No idea. He looks like a historian who smokes heavily and collects tobacco pipes, the real ones.

19A: Org. of court player: USTA. "Org. of course player" is USGA. I still can't decide whether I like "Putter Palmer" for ARNIE or not. Nobody ever calls a golfer who puts as "putter", but Dictionary.com says otherwise.

25A: Peer Gynt's mother: ASE. Forgot her name again. Now I am going to connect her with ASSE the African fox. ASE & ASSE.

26A: Mary of "Where Eagles Dare": URE. Another memory failURE for me. Why can't I remember this girl's name?

28A: Evil spirit: var.: DAEMON. Can also be spelled as DAIMON. Both unknown to me.

30A: Tux adjuster: TAILOR. Did not come to me immediately.

46A: Actor Cesar: ROMERO. I googled his name. He was the first actor to play the Joker in "Batman".

55A: Carpool-lane letters: HOV (High Occupancy Vehicle)

61A: Medical prefix: IATRO. Stumped me again. I kept thinking ITIS the "Medical suffix". IATRO is Greek for "Physician", as in IATROGENIC, "a disease or problem caused, or made worse by a physician, surgeon or by medical treatment or diagnostic procedures." Look, IATROPHOBIA (Fear of Doctors). Gosh, what would you do if you have bestiphobia (Fear of clothing)?

66A: Corduroy rib: WALE. 3rd time in a week?

Down:

2D: Puget Sound port: TACOMA. Bing Crosby was born here (grew up in Spokane).

4D: Keel extension: SKEG. No idea. This picture came up when I googled SKEG. What's the function of SKEG?

5D: Italian ice cream: TORTONI. I only know gelato. This TORTONI looks delicious, with those crumbled macaroons and minced almonds. It's "named after a famous Italian cafe owner of the same name in the 19th century Paris".

6D: Wind: pref.: ANEMO. Nope! It's rooted in ANEMOI the Greek wind gods. The Roman equivalent were VENTI. Question for Ink: Wikipedia says ANEMOI are all male gods, how come the word does not end in masculine-ending S?

7D: Spanish health: SANO. Guessed. Is it somehow related to SANE?

9D: Che's first name: ERNESTO. Got it this time.

11D: Of skin eruptions: PUSTULAR. The noun is pustule, pus-filled pimple. Another new word to me.

13D: NASA partner: ESA (European Space Agency). I am glad NASA spotted the hydrogen gas leak yesterday. I shudder to think what might have happened had Discovery lifted off.

21D: Cuddly George Lucas creature: EWOK. Learned this furry creature from doing Xword. It does not look "cuddly" to me.

27D: Mother of Brunhilde: ERDA. No idea. She is the Mother of Earth. I am not familiar with Wager's "The Ring of the Nibelung". Did not know Brunhilde is a valkyrie, the girl who brings back those who died bravely in the battle to Odin's Valhalla, the afterlife hall of the slain.

34D: Rather or Blocker: DAN. DAN Blocker is foreign to me. Loved DAN Rather' curtain closer “And, to each of you, Courage".

37D: Me, myself and I problem: EGOMANIA. Looks good with NUMSKULL (38D: Blockhead).

42D: Disney sci-fi film: TRON

43D: Greetings: HOWDIES

44D: Singer of M. I. T.: ISADORE. Is this guy very famous? I thought M. I. T. might be band I've never heard of.

48D: Chest: THORAX. Last time I was stumped by THORACIC, clued as "Of the chest".

53D: First president of South Africa: SWART. No idea. See this list. I thought of (De) Klerk, but he was the last president of the apartheid era.

57D: Adjective forming suffix: IBLE. As in collectible. Baseball cards for me. I like old Life magazine too. What do you collect?

58D: Juanita's other: OTRA. "Juan's other" would be OTRO.

C.C.

Wednesday March 11, 2009 Jo Vita

Theme: Crack Up

17A: Broadway moneymaker: SMASH HIT

30A: Blast from the past?: BIG BANG

47A: Soft drink: SODA POP

62A: Launch: BLAST OFF

11D: Bases-loaded homer: GRAND SLAM

35D: Radical food fad: CRASH DIET

Not happy with 30A clue. BLAST is part of the theme answer for 62A. Tell me how you would clue BIG BANG.

The clue for ESS (13D: Part of CBS?) is quite tricky. I thought of SYS first, then EYE. Finally realized ESS refers to the letter S in CBS.

Mary Elson, the Managing Director of Tribune Media Service, emailed me yesterday that TMS will be ending Wayne R Williams syndication puzzle on Sunday March 22, 2009. So, starting on March 23 (Monday) most of the papers that currently have TMS Daily will carry LA Times Daily edited by Rich Norris.

This is a great news for us, as LA Times puzzles are definitely of superior quality. Besides, we can have the same Sunday puzzles to work with. I am aware, however, that some of you might be given a different LA Times Sunday crossword edited by Sylvia Bursztyn. But you can always print out the Rich Norris Sunday puzzle from LA Time's website.

Across:

8A: 1997 20-game winner Denny: NEAGLE. Guessed. Have never heard of this pitcher. He was actually drafted by the Twins in 1989. Wikipedia says his name was mentioned in the Mitchell Report in connection with steroids. Boo!

14A: __ Valley, CA: SIMI. Reagan Library is located here.

19A: Bernhardt and Siddons: SARAHS. SARAH Bernhardt was a French actress nicknamed "The Divine SARAH". SARAH Siddon was a British actress most famous for her portrayal of Lady Macbeth. Of all the SARAHS in the world, our editor wanted these two, absurdly obscure. Boo!

20A: Nautical rescue system: AIR SEA

21A: Cossack chief: HETMAN. No idea. Last time the answer is ATAMAN.

23A: NASA outpost: ISS (International Space Station). Williams like to clue ESA as "NASA's ISS partner".

27A: Mil. honor: DSC (Distinguished Service Cross). I wanted DSM. Wikipedia says DSC is "the second highest military decoration that can be awarded to a member of US Army". What is the highest then? Purple Heart? By the way, DSO (Distingushed Service Order) is the "British military award".

33A: Abominable: ACCURSED. New word to me. Same as CURSED?

36A: Vexed: GALLED. His chutzpah used to GALL me.

38A: Myanmar, by another name: BURMA. Capital city: Yangon. Currency: Kyat. Strange country. Governed by those bloody military juntas. Aung San Suu Kyi needs more than just the glibido from the west for her fight.

41A: Employment: USAGE

44A: Representative examples: EPITOMES

49A: Numerical ending: ETH. "Ordinal suffix" to be exact.

51A: C.S.A. soldier: REB. Opposite Yank?

52A: Actress Meyers: ARI. No idea. Thought ARI is man's name. What's her face shape? Square?

55A: Fanning of "Man on Fire": DAKOTA. She grows up quickly. Her interviews are uniformly boring.

58A: Signaled: CUED IN

64A: Lack of vigor: ANEMIA. Dates help. Lots of irons in dates. Nuts stuffed honeyed dates. Delicious!

65A: NRC forerunner: AEC (1946 to 1975)

66A: Heraldic border: ORLE. Learned this word from doing crossword. What's the difference between heraldry and coat-of-arms?

67A: climber's spikes: PITONS

68A: '60 radicals: SDS. Was this a gimme to you? I keep confusing SDS with '70 radicals SLA (Symbionese Liberation Army).

Down:

1D: Very, in music: ASSAI. "Allegro ASSAI" means very fast. Add one letter L, it becomes the "attack vigorously" ASSAIL.

4D: "Beth" singer: KISS. Here is the clip. Definitely not my style. Any KISS collectors there? Do you have the original KISS bobbleheads?

6D: Colonial cuckoo: ANI. Why "Colonial"?

7D: Prot. sect: METH. The same abbreviation as the drug?

8D: Savings: NEST EGG. Dwindling quickly! My GE stock is now traded at $8 per share. Terrible.

18D: Flights to safety: HEGIRAS. No idea. Dictionary also says that HEGIRA refers to the flight of Mohammed from Mecca to Medina in 622 ad. So it's the starting point of the Muslim era.

29D: Aqua and motor endings: CADES. Aquacade is new to me.

32D: Biographer of FDR: ALSOP. Almost every JFK book I've read mentioned Joseph ALSOP. Are you familiar with General Chenault's Flying Tigers? ALSOP served as Chenault's "Staff Secretary" when they trained in Rangoon, BURMA.

33D: Poplar tree: ABELE. I forgot. What's the difference between ABELE and aspen again?

34D: Flat face of a gem: CULET. No idea. See this digram.

43D: Spanish mates: ESPOSAS. Got the answer from across fills. It's Spanish for "wife". I thought it means "Spouse".

45D: Emetine source plants: IPECACS. I can never remember this word. Their roots contain "emetine", whatever it is.

56D: Sphere starter?: ATMO. Atmosphere.

57D: Down with!: A BAS. Know this from the French Revolutionary cry "A BAS le roi!" Our editor used to clue ABAS as "Arab garments".

61D: Verse starter?: UNI. Universe. "Sex starter?" is also good, yes?

C.C.

Tuesday March 10, 2009 Adele Mann

Theme: Watered Down

17A: Tabloid talk show host: RICKI LAKE

66A: "Young Frankenstein" director: MEL BROOKS

11D: "Enter Talking" writer: JOAN RIVERS

30D: "Caribbean Queen" singer: BILLY OCEAN

Those people are ALL WET!

I am not familiar with RICKI LAKE. JOAN RIVERS is too much for me, so acerbic her tongue. Her daughter Melissa is equally intimidating. BILLY OCEAN revealed himself after I filled in all the crosses.

I suppose there is no famous people with surnames like LAKES or OCEANS, the plural form? I really liked the theme though.

To those whose paper has stopped carrying TMS Daily puzzle. You can go to Chicago Tribune's website. Click on the date, then pick Regular Skill Level or Master Skill Level. You can always print out the puzzles if you prefer to solve it in paper. Click on Print, then Blank Puzzle.

To those LA Times solvers, you can get all the answers in their website. And if you have questions regarding certain clues, please feel free to ask in the Comments section. Argyle will guest-blog one LA Times puzzle this Sunday.

I also published a "How to Create a Link at Comments section" earlier this morning. It's not difficult at all. You just need some practices.

Across:

9A: Hindu ruler: RAJAH. Or Raja.

15A: Regan's father: LEAR. Also Cordelia/Goneril's father. Don't google, tell me who is Hero's love?

23A: Chants: LITANIES. Reminds me of McCain's "Drill, Baby, Drill" chant. It's coined by Michael Steele, not Sarah Palin, who can see Russia from her house.

32A: Provencal verse: SESTINA. My guess is SESTINE, which is actually correct also. So is SEXTINA. It's a six-stanza verse. A poetic form used by Dante, Kipling, Ezra Pound, etc.

39A: Show-biz notable: CELEB. Hope to see CELEB with PAPARAZZI in a grid someday.

43A: Quantity of yarn: SKEIN. Last time it's clued as "V-formation flock" and stumped lots of solvers. A SKEIN of geese.

49A: Thwarts: STYMIES. I like "Thwarts", with three consonants together.

51A: Mushroom morsel: CAP. Hmmm, mushroom, MOREL. How long is that? CAP can also be clued as "Climax", yes?

55A: Achieve success: GET AHEAD

58A: Ridiculous pretense: CHARADE

64A: Trample: TREAD. Dislike the TR repetition. With today's "Wet" theme, "TREAD water" is better.

71A: Sound qualities: TONES. Musical term? I was thinking of SONES, the "Loudness unit".

73A: Cut: SAWN. Always thought the past particle of SAW is SAWED.

Down:

1D: Razor choice: ATRA. Gillette is part of P & G, so is Duracell & Oral-B.

7D: Like some buckets: OAKEN. I learned this morning that most of the old ship were made of oak wood due to its hardness, strength and resistance to insect and fungal attack. Had no idea that oak trees do not produce acorns until they are 50 years old.

8D: Concise summary: PRECIS. Without the intersecting P, I might have filled in APERCU. It has 6 letters also.

13D: First part of a bray: HEE. HEE-Haw.

18D: Egyptian goddess: ISIS. The Egyptian goddess of fertility. The wife/sister of Osiris. JD, there is letter "I" in modern interpretation of Egyptian glyphs after all. (Note: Here is a great link JD provided.)

26D: "Strange Interlude" playwright: O'NEILL. Easy guess. I've never heard of "Strange Interlude".

27D: Purple dinosaur: BARNEY. Not familiar with this character either. Why "Purple"? It looks pink to me. Vikings' uniforms are "Purple" color. Brett Favre in Vikings uniform? Liar!

28D: Bigot: RACIST. I watched Ed Norton's "American History X" the other day, kind of shocked by what I saw.

33D: Seize: TAKE. Thought of RAID first. Police do "Seize" stuff when they conduct a RAID, right?

40D: Military units: BRIGADES. I suppose their head is called brigadier.

50D: Flower part: STAMEN. Flowers' male organ. So tiny. It bears sufficient pollens I suppose. The white stuff on top is the anther. No wonder the word has MEN in its tail.

52D: Carson's predecessor: PAAR. Double A. The double R wife of Henry VIII is PARR (Catherine).

57D: Trivial stuff: DROSS. I don't understand this clue. "Worthless stuff", yes. "Trivial stuff" means "small matter", no?

62D: Place at an angle: SKEW. Here is a word where you can't simply add an ER without changing its original meaning. Skewer. I like shrimp pineapple shish-kebab, don't you?

65D: Greek letter: RHO. The 17th Greek letter. Consonant.

C.C.

How to Create a Link at Comments Section

<a href="url">Link text</a>

Copy and paste the above gibberish link syntax into the Comment section.

Then, erase letters url (keep the quotation mark), and insert whichever website you want to link (copy and paste the website from the Address Bar). Then erase words Link text and replace them with whatever words you want your link to be named. Please bookmark this page, the nerds' nerdy but accurate explanation. The "Link syntax" box under "An HTML Link" is what I'm babbling here. Also, if you want certain words/sentences of your comments to be bold or italic, here are more fancy commands for you. Use the same principle as "How to make a link". Very simple, copy and paste. Additionally, I suggest you download Firefox. It has automatic spell-check function for comments. Much better than Internet Explorer. C.C. PS: If you still have problems with the link, please email Bill. Click on his avatar, you will find his email address. Bill mentioned these instructions work on PC & Mac. 

 

PSS: Thanks a million, Barry G. You are my hero! ("&") →, — >, << >>! PSSS: For those who wants to link a picture, go to Google Photos and upload your picture. Then click on the picture, and copy the link as you would with any other link.

Monday March 9, 2009 Ed Voile

Theme: Front Man

17A: Valet: MAN SERVANT

28A: Polite: MANNERLY

45A: Seacows: MANATEES

59A: Handle: MANIPULATE

11D: Display dummy: MANNEQUIN

35D: Instruments similar to lutes: MANDOLINS

MAN! I failed again. Third day in a row.

Lots of false starts: MANNERED instead of MANNERLY. SEPARATE instead of SET APART (24A: Isolate). All my own faults though. We've solved quite a few Ed Voile puzzles lately, yet I still can not find his pattern.

"Cold War letters" (7D) would be an OK clue for USSR or SSR, but for USA? No! We've long entered the Obama era.

ADD (20A: What summers do) gave me lots of trouble. I could not figure out anything about the intersecting down clues, so I tried hard to think what summers do to me. But neither TAN or SUN fits. If there were a question mark behind the clue, I might have interpret "summers" correctly and thought of ADD. Sigh! I just mentioned a possible "Chinese summer?" for ABACUS last time.

Across:

1A: John L. or Jerry Lee: LEWIS. Did not know the CIO founder John L. LEWIS. President of the United Mine Workers of America from from 1920 to 1960. And a major player in the history of coal mining.

14A: Ward off: AVERT. I like how it crosses EVADE (2D: Escape cleverly).

16A: Gilbert of Teasdale: SARA

19A: Small piece: SNIP. New meaning of SNIP to me.

22A: Intrinsic nature: ESSENCE. PER SE is often clued as "Intrinsically".

39A: Cinematic nightmare street: ELM. "A Nightmare on ELM Street". I don't like horror movies.

42A: "William Wilson" writer: POE. Have never heard of this short story. "The Raven" & "Annabel Lee", that's all the POE work I know.

43A: Scantily: THINLY. Not fond of the LY repetition. "Without much density" is better.

49A: Airs out: FRESHENS. I kept thinking of AERATES.

56A: North sea bird: AUK. I was really fooled by this Penguin clip. Now your turn! (OK, It's an April Fools' joke.)

62A: Five-star: A ONE

65A: Profit's partner?: LOSS. Would EERS be an acceptable answer as well? Profiteers.

Down:

1D: Actor Fernando: LAMAS. No idea. He is the father of Lorenzo LAMAS (left).

3D: George of "Cheers": WENDT. Unknown to me also. I only recognize Ted Danson & Woody Harrelson in this picture.

5D: Stovetop utensils: STEWPANS. Holy cow! I've never heard of STEWPANS. Use slow cooker for stew.

6D: River to the Bristol Channel: SEVERN. Nope. Here is a map. Click on it, the map will enlarge. See the word SEVERN to the right of Newport? It's the longest river in Britain.

12D: Stoltz of "Mask": ERIC. Easy guess. Have zero familarity with this actor.

26D: Pekoe piece: TEA LEAF. Have you had chrysanthemum tea before?

33D: "Truth or __": DARE. Is this the movie about Madonna? I wanted LIES.

37D: Actress Van Devere: TRISH. Forgot. She was married to George Scott. I like his "Patton".

40D: Cushing/Lee horror film: THE SKULL. No idea. Looks terrifying.

42D: California observatory peak: PALOMAR. Spanish for "Pigeon house". Saw this clue somewhere before.

45D: Bub: MAC. This reminds me of the Baboo episode in "Seinfeld". But isn't baboo an offensive slang for Indian?

46D: Attributes: TRAITS. Did not come to me readily.

51D: Observant one: NOTER. This word feels like NEEDER/WANTER to me. It exists only in the dictionary.

55D: Corduroy rib: WALE. Like this. Ribbed twill is SERGE. Any SERGE Gainsbourg fan there? This picture looks so doctored. This is TRUER. Jane Birkin is very skinny.

C.C.