Saturday March 21, 2009 Tom Pruce

Theme: None

Total blocks: 32

Total words: 68

Had some trouble with lower right corner. But at least I filled in lots of blanks. I only got a few words in last week's LA Times puzzle, and some were just wrong guesses.

I expect lots of fun ahead, but also plenty of struggles. I will definitely need your help to understand the cluing and get the theme right.

The clue for TONERS (46D: Soothing skin creams) is simply wrong. Toner is liquid. Mr. Pruce needs to pay close attention to what his wife is using to s-Pruce up her skin.

Across:

1A: Last letter of words?: ESS. Can't fool me.

14A: Gods of Ancient Rome: DEI. So what is the singular form of DEI then? I often confuse DEI with DEO, as in DEO gratias (thanks be to God).

16A: Actress Piper: LAURIE. No idea. Strange name, Piper, sounds like a man. Wikipedia says this lady dated Reagan a couple of times before his marriage to Nancy. And she was in some TV series called "Twin Peaks".

17A: Brown-and-white cow: GUERNSEY. "Brown-and-white" indeed. They look happy. Happy cows were bred on the British Channel Island of GUERNSEY, hence the name. I've never heard of it before.

20A: Guevara and others: ERNESTOS. I don't know any "other" ERNESTO.

25A: Fearless daring: AUDACITY. Ah, "The AUDACITY of Hope". Our governor Tim Pawlenty said "Hope is not a plan".

28A: Academy frosh: PLEBE. Navy Academy I presume?

30A: Hawkins of Dogpatch: SADIE. "Li'l Abner" stuff again. Sadly, I forgot all about her and the SADIE Hawkins Day. Did she find a husband in the end?

35A: Edberg or Sorenstam: SWEDE. Lots of great golfers are from Sweden. So is Tiger Wood's wife. Some call rutabaga as SWEDE.

38A: Salad-service piece: CRUET. Not a common item in Asian kitchens.

42A: Rump: DERRIERE. I envy those who have DERRIERE. Most Asians don't have butts.

44A: Click beetle: ELATER. No idea. Huge eyes. Do they make clicking noises? If so, they certainly won't elate me. Dennis says only male turkeys gobble, and females "make a clicking noise". I thought they make "clucking" noise. What do you think?

50A: Amati's hometown: CREMONA. Unknown to me. See this map. Also the Strad namesake "Stradivari's hometown".

54A: Quick impression: APERCU. Or Synopsis.

56A: Fast-food customers: ORDERERS. I thought of TEENAGERS first.

60A: A. J. of auto racing: FOYT. Nope. I only know A. J. of baseball. Wikipedia mentions that A. J. FOYT is the only driver to win the Indianapolis 500 (which he won four times), the Daytona 500, the 24 Hours of Daytona, and the 24 Hours of Le Mans".

Down:

2D: Premier pointillist: SEURAT (Georges). Here is his most famous work: "Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte".

3D: Burnt shade: SIENNA. Like this. Don't understand why our editor has never clued SIENNA as the scorching hot/ready to burn "Actress Miller". Her name is fun to play with.

4D: Become rigid, in a way: TENSE UP. Ah, "TENSE UP".

5D: Profligates: WASTRELS. New word to me. I wanted WASTERS, but it's one letter short.

10D: Countrified: RUSTICAL. Only know Rustic.

11D: Raymond Burr TV series: IRONSIDE. Have zero familiarity with this TV series or the actor Raymond Burr.

12D: Arizona river: GILA. Or the name of this desert monster. Wikipedia says GILA monster is so sluggish in movement that it poses no threat to human.

18D: Mil. division: REGT (Regiment). I learned this morning that a regiment consists of at least two battalions and is commanded by a colonel.

25D: Poplar tree: ABELE. I need to chew an acorn. Forgot this white poplar ABELE again. Rooted in Latin albellus, meaning white.

34D: Wrongly self-willed: PERVERSE. Again, not a familiar definition to me. Sick, yes.

36D: Common: EVERYDAY

39D: Male hawk used in falconry: TIERCEL. Also spelled as TERCEL. New name to me.

48D: Fight, country-style: RASSLE. Slang for "wrestle". This kind of Dogpatch style word often stumps me.

50D: Gian __ Menotti: CARLO. Uh-uh, no. Williams often clue CARLO as "Sophia's husband" or "Director Ponti". MENOTTI was clued as "The Consul" composer in our puzzle before. He won Pulitzer for "The Consul". He also wrote the classic Christmas opera "Amahl and the Night Visitors".

52D: Opinion pg.: OP-ED. It's always placed opposite the editorials, hence the name.

53D: Rounded ottoman: POUF. Not the POUF I am familiar with. Here are some POUT ottomans.

Full answer grid.

C.C.

Friday March 20, 2009 Josiah Breward

Theme: Vowel Movement

17A: Dang: EUPHEMISTIC OATH

22A: Deng: BULLS' PLAYER LUOL

37A: Ding: MINI INDENTATION

46A: Dong: SOUND OF A BIG BELL

54A: Dung: ONE TYPE OF BEETLE

This puzzle is a bleeding AIG mess for me. I am really not into clue-as-theme style crossword. Not good at defining things.

Have never heard of dung beetle. Ai ya, that smells. Luol Deng was alien to me also. Wikipedia says he is a British born in Sudan. I thought Deng is an exclusive Chinese surname, as in Deng Xiao-Ping, the long time Chinese Communist Party leader. If Deng were Tim Geithner, AIG would have returned those bonuses immediately. Or he might have taken an exit strategy from the expensive bailout weeks ago. He was rather ruthless, you know, with Tiananmen Square Incident. But he also opened our door to foreign investment.

I only know GILL (44A: Four fluid ounces) as a a girl's name or fish organ. Not familiar with the measurement meaning. But since OUNCE (47D: Light weight) is an answer, "ounces" should not be allowed in the clue.

So, this will be the last Wayne R Williams puzzle for many of you whose paper only carries TMS Daily from Monday to Friday. Maybe you can come to the Comments section at the end of this blog entry and tell me how long you've been working on TMS Daily puzzle and who got your started.

I am sure we will have fun with LA Times Daily. It's of much superior quality and edited by a highly respected crossword professional Rich Norris. Go to their website and print out the hard copy if your paper decides to go with another syndication.

Across:

11A: Boxer's stats: KOS. Sometimes the clue is singular form "Boxer's stat".

14A: Fragment: SCRAP. Did not come to me readily.

20A: Currier's partner: IVES. Or the Big Daddy in "Cat on Hot Tin Roof". I really liked that role.

21A: Old-fashioned dagger: SNEE. Now I've learned SNEE is "Old-fashioned", DIRK is not.

32A: President Garfield's middle name: ABRAM. Blanked again this morning.

52A: City south of Moscow: TULA. Forgot. Nice map. Wikipedia says TULA is the administrative center of TULA Oblast, where Leo Tolstoy was born and buried. Oblast is like our state, right?

53A: Big mil. brass: GENL. Always thought the abbreviation for general is GEN.

62A: 1900: MCM. Paris Métro was opened in 1900. So easy to navigate the Métro in Paris, even if you don't speak the language.

63A: Pong producer: ATARI. I suppose someone can make a Pang, Peng, Ping, Pong & Pung puzzle as well. Can you believe Pung is a word? It's a boxlike sleigh drawn by one horse. Peng is a Chinese mythological bird. Also a popular given name, as in Chinese ex-Premier Li Peng.

65A: Vegetable ball: PEA. Does not sound cute to me.

66A: Safin of tennis: MARAT. Have never heard of this tennis player. He defeated Pete Sampras and won US Open in 2000, then won Australia Open in 2005. How to pronounce his name? The same as MARAT who was killed in his bathtub?

Down:

2D: Fort Worth sch.: TCU. Texas Christian University. Very strange name, the Horned Frogs.

5D: Smeltery by product: SPEISS. New word to me. Same pronounciation as "Spice". Dictonary says it's literally "food" in old German.

7D: Bone cavity: FOSSA. Also a new word. The plural is FOSSAE.

9D: Radio static letters: EMI (ElectroMagnetic Interference)

10D: LIRR terminus: NYC. LIRR stands for Long Island Rail Road, the busiest commuter railroad in North America.

11D: Sandra's "Speed" co-star: KEANU. "Bullock's "Speed" co-star" would be REEVES. Basic crossword rule: given name in clue, given name in answer; surname in clue, surname in answer. He emits more miliadonis now.

12D: Start of a path?: OSTEO. Osteopath. New word to me. I wanted PSYCHO.

13D: Sub-Saharan region: SAHEL. Another very forgetable word. This arid region, stretching cross six countries from Sengal to Chad.

18D: AL-NL honoree: MVP. Justin Morneau is AL MVP in 2006.

22D: High times: BOOMS. I wrote down NOONS. Often see NOON clued as "High time?". Completely forgot the question mark. "High Noon" is Bill Clinton's favorite movie.

23D: Wrinkly fruits: UGLIS. I finally had an UGLIE earlier this month. Not bad. Maybe my expectation was very low. It's kind of juicy, but not very sweet.

25D: Son of Leah: LEVI. No idea. Would have got it if the clue were LEVI Strauss.

26D: Campfire whoppers: YARNS. After some beer, probably.

32D: Anderssen of chess: ADOLF. No, no, nope. Have never heard of ADOLF Anderssen, the German chess master.

33D: Blue or Cross: BEN. BEN Blue was a Canadian-Amercian actor and comedian (the guy on the left). BEN Cross is an English actor. Both were unknown characters to me.

34D: Break in the audience: AISLE

35D: "Plaza Suite" setting: HOTEL. Got it from across fills. "Plaza Suite" is a play by Neil Simon.

38D: Footnote wd.: IBID. So close to IBIS the long-legged wading bird.

40D: Ernest of country music: TUBB. First encounter with this singer. Wikipedia says his nickname is "Texas Troubadour".

45D: Shoelace ends: AGLETS

46D: Tread heavily: STOMP. This Lucy stomping grapes barbie is quite pretty. Not very collectible though. The Lucy & Ricky 50th Anniversary Barbie is the hottest. Very hard to find one in unopened new condition.

48D: Muslim scholars: ULEMA. Or ULAMA. Arabic for "wise man". Appeared in our puzzle before. And of course I could not remember it.

49D: Marketplace of yore: AGORA. Ah, Socrates' shopping mall.

50D: Accord with: BEFIT. Can you give me an example to show how they are interchangeable?

51D: Like Brahms piano trio No. 1: IN B. Pure guess.

58D: Female of the flock: EWE. So sweet. I love EWE, Honey.

60D: Rent out: LET. Reminds me of the "Letters?" clue for LANDLORDS in LA Times last Friday. Very clever.

Here is the answer grid (Thank you again, Barry G).

Also, Crockett found out that the puzzle The Oregonian carries this week is an United Media Syndication. I hope you guys all vote for LA Times Daily in the end.

C.C.

Thursday March 19, 2009 Willy A. Wiseman

Theme: None or a Farewell Message?

Well, I was expecting a coup de grâce quip/quote today. Did not expect such a short two line "parting words" from our editor Wayne R. Williams (aka Willy A. Wiseman/Josiah Breward).

A themed puzzle should have at least three entries, but I only found two:

31A: Start of parting words: SEE YOU IN THE

40A: End of parting words: FUNNY PAPERS

So, technically this is a themeless. I've never heard of the above idiom before. Does it really carry an air of "mild contempt"?

The clue for NOUVEAU (5D: Word with riche or cuisine) is simply wrong. Cuisine is a feminine noun, so the adjective is nouvelle, not NOUVEAU. Haute cuisine, not "haut" cuisine. "Word with riche or art" would be OK.

Across:

1A: Novice reporter: CUB. Surprised that Wiseman did not use "Chicago pro" clue in his last puzzle to pay tribute to his major audience, the Chicago Tribune solvers.

4A: Preserved for later: ON ICE

15A: Musical wrap-ups: CODAS

18A: City on the Arkansas: TULSA. See this map. I got the answer from down fills. Wikipedia says "For most of the 20th century, the city held the nickname "Oil Capital of the World". Which city holds the title now? Riyadh (Saudi Arabia)?

23A: Stuck around: WAITED

26A: Nobleman: EARLS. Thought of PEERS first, then LORDS, then EARLS.

28A: Established in office: INSTATED. One more blank, the answer would be INSTALLED.

44A: Powers of "Hart to Hart": STEFANIE. New actress to me. Often see girls named Stephanie. Wikipedia says "Hart to Hart" was created by Sidney Sheldon. I like his "Rage of Angels".

46A: New Haven alum: ELI. How many of our presidents graduated from Yale? I only know Bush 41, Clinton & Bush 43.

47A: Artifact: RELIC. This word always reminds me of Agatha Christie. She left the comfort of England and accompanied her archaeologist husband to the extremely tough-to-live Iraq exploring those digs. Yet he still cheated on her. Why are most men unfaithful?

48A: Theater section: BALCONY. The answer is often LOGE.

57A: Above it all: ALOOF. I like this quote: "Anger, ego, jealousy are the biggest diseases. Keep yourself ALOOF from these three diseases".

61A: Miller's product: FLOUR. "Milliner's product" will be HAT. I can never understand the rage about that hat.

63A: Clay or Frick: HENRY. No idea. According to Wiki, HENRY Clay was more than any other individual responsible for the War of 1812. And he was greatly admired by Lincoln and JFK. Henry Clay Frick was an industrialist and art patron, once known as "America's most hated man". Why was he hated so much?

64A: Rhythm of activity: TEMPO

Down:

2D: Detach: UNFIX

9D: Fertility goddess: ASTARTE. I forgot. Could only think of the "Egyptian goddess of fertility" ISIS. ASTARTE is the ancient Semitic goddess, worshiped by both Phonicians and cannanites.

10D: Australian lass: SHEILA. Kazie says this is an outdated Aussi slang.

11D: Ohio school: KENT STATE. Lou Holtz' alma mater. Here is their Golden Flashes logo.

13D: Scott of a famous case: DRED. I blanked again. Could only think of Scott Peterson.

21D: Nymph chaser: SATYR. See this picture. Very ugly libertine. Part-man, part-horse. The Roman equivalent is Fauns.

23D: Dry streambed: WASH. Have never heard of Dry WASH before.

26D: Portal: ENTRY

28D: Vacuous: INANE

31D: Black and White: SEAS. I've heard of White SEA, but I forgot where it's located. Do those purple colored areas all belong to Norway?

33D: Duck product: EIDERDOWN

34D: Type of Greek column: IONIC. This is quite tricky, as DORIC almost fits in too. See this D.I.C picture (Thanks, Kazie). I don't believe we had Corinthian in our puzzle before.

38D: Pizazz: SPICE. Pizazz, pizzaz, pizzazz. So many different spellings.

40D: In error: FALSELY

41D: Detachment: UNIT. Why? I was thinking of aloofness.

42D: London fog: PEA SOUP. Have never been to London. Does the fog really look like PEA SOUP?

45D: Tributary: FEEDER

49D: "La Boheme" or "The Girl of the Golden West": OPERA. Both by Puccini. I am not familiar with "The Girl of the Golden West".

50D: Peter and Franco: NEROS. Peter NERO is an American pianist. He appeared in our puzzle before. Franco NERO is an Italian actor, husband of Vanessa Redgrave (the girl on his left). Redgrave is the mother of Natasha Richardson, who died last night after suffering a head injury from a skiing accident. Natasha is the wife of Liam Neeson ("Schindler's List"). He is going to play Abe Lincoln in Spielberg's biopic. Too much information?

51D: "The Shadowy Waters" poet: YEATS. Got the answer. Have never heard of the poem. Does not look interesting to me. YEATS won Nobel in 1923.

54D: Cosmo competition: ELLE. The girl on this ELLE China is Zhang Ziyi, probably the most influential Chinese actress right now. She played Sayuri in "Memoirs of a Geisha", a role should have been given to a Japanese actress in my opinion.

C.C.

Wednesday March 18, 2009 Adele Mann

Theme: Natural Elevations

17A: Ancient: AS OLD AS THE HILLS

29A: Candy bar, formally: PETER PAUL MOUNDS

47A: Pennsylvania destination: POCONO MOUNTAINS

60A: Wales: CORDUROY'S RIDGES

Refreshing to see "Wales" as a clue today. Our editor likes to clue WALE as "Corduroy ridge". It's the only gimme theme answer to me. Does the apostrophe bother you?

I've never heard of PETER PAUL MOUNDS. Thought the candy bar might be called Peter, Paul & Mary or something. It seems that both AS OLD AS THE HILLS and "As old as Methuselah" are from the Bible.

I really like the theme entries today. Very consistent. All of them are at the end of the phrases and all in plural forms.

Some of the fills strike me as very obscure. The intersection of CLUJ & JEHU was utterly impossible for me.

Across:

1A: Strasbourg's region: ALSACE. Between France & Germany. ALSACE -Lorraine was annexed by Germany in 1871 after the Franco-Prussian War and returned to France by the Treaty of Versailles (1919).

7A: City in Transylvania: CLUJ. Only till 1974. It's now called CLUJ-Napoca, the third largest city in Romania. Aburdly hard!

11A: Govt. med. grp.: HRA. Health Reimbursement Account/Arrangement. Was this a gimme to you? I really have problem remembering this program.

16A: Greek Aurora: EOS. Goddess of dawn. Sister of Helios (God of sun). Jimmy in S Carolina posted a great poem named "Rosaline" on the blog Comments section last night. Some of the lines are very sensual: "... Her cheeks are like the blushing cloud /That beautifies Aurora's face... Her paps are centres of delight /Her breasts are ORBS of heavenly frame...". Beautiful poem.

25A: Chapel Hill inst.: UNC. Mia Hamm's alma mater. The Tar Heels.

28A: Hubbubs: DINS. Instinctively wrote down ADOS.

34A: Defoe character: CRUSOE. Interesting, Wikipedia says "Robinson CRUSOE" is sometimes regarded as the first novel in English. It's published in 1719.

37A: Star Wars letters: SDI (Strategic Defense Initiative). Reagan's program. Have you read anything by Patti Davis? I kind of like her style. Simple & elegant.

39A: Old Turkish title: AGA

43A: Saxophonist Mulligan: GERRY. No idea. Was he the guy who spoke?

54A: Waiting to bat: ON DECK. I mis-read the clue as "Waiting to bait".

66A: Serpent tail?: INE. Serpentine. "Hero tail?" too. The new editor might use the IN E approach.

67A: Paddock papa: SIRE. Don't google, tell me who SIRED War Admiral?

68A: Turkish inn: IMARET. Sigh. How can I remember this word. MARE between IT?

71A: Diarist Pepys: SAMUEL. Often see PEPYS clued as "Diarist Samuel". Anyway, Pepys is pronounced the same as "peeps". He recorded the 1666 London fire in his diary. 1666 is often called Annus Mirabilis (Year of Miracles). I really hope the stock market has reached its bottom and this year will not become an Annus Horribilis for us.

Down:

2D: "__ Girs": LES. See this poster. Got it this time.

4D: Dahl and Francis: ARLENES

5D: USN rank: CMDR. Who does CMDR report to and who reports to him?

7D: Component of some TV: CRT

9D: Shoshones: UTES. They live in Utah and W Colorado. The University of Utah's sports team is called Utah UTES. What are those white stuff on the left of letter U? Feathers? This picture is clearer.

10D: King of Israel (842-815 B.C.): JEHU. No idea, the year range means nothing to me. What was he famous for? Wikipedia says "The speed of Jehu" was once a common idiom in America. Very fast? Very slow? Just right?

11D: Kept back: HELD IN

12D: Dancer Petit: ROLAND. Nope. Don't know this French guy. His lips are so thin, must be a glib talker.

18D: Predatory shorebird: SKUA. Always thought SKUAS live in Arctic. Turns out you can find them in Antarctic too.

19D: Kashmir river: INDUS. Unknown to me. See this map. The River is on the east side of Kashmir. It originated in Tibet, China and flows into the Arabian Sea.

22D: Pet protection grp.: SPCA

26D: Crux: NUB. NUB, nib & neb often confuse me.

27D: Book of "The Alexandria Quartet": CLEA. Gimme for Ink I am sure. She's been reading this Quartet. My answer was COMA.

30D: Al of the '50s Indians: ROSEN. Ah, gimme. Another great old time Jewish baseball player is Dodgers' Sandy Koufax, who refused to pitch for Game 1 of the 1965 World Series (against the Twins) because it fell on Yom Kippur.

31D: Pitcher Martinez: PEDRO. Another gimme. He has won Cy Young. He sucked every time I watched him pitch. Don't know which team he wants to go this year. Indians?

32D: Actress Follows: MEGAN. Got her name from across fills. Have never never heard of this Canadian actress. Interesting "Follows". Is there anyone surnamed Leads?

33D: Pictures of illusions: OP ART. Thought of MIRAGES.

40D: 20% of CCLXV: LIII. Roman 53.

41D: Ms. Rowlands: GENA. I forgot. Which movie is she famous for again?

43D: Hooked by a horn: GORED. Ouch! I really like Borked. If GORED became a real word, what would be your definition?

44D: Mirror image?: YOU. Depends on who is looking at the mirror at the moment.

46D: Layered pavement: MACADAM. This is another word I keep remembering then keep forgetting. It's named after the Scottish engineer John Loudon McAdam who invented this crused stone pavement method. Wonder why they added an extra letter A. Easy to prounounce?

47D: Oracle of Delphi region: PHOCIS. First encounter with this region. Here is the map. It's on the upper right corner. Wikipedia mentions that this region is mainly pastroral, neither rich in material resources nor well placed for commercial enterprise. No large cities grew up within its territory, and its chief places were mainly of strategic importance.

48D: Wife of Paris: OENONE. I could only think of Helen. OENONE is an Oread (mountain nymph). This lady must drink lots of wine, since OENO is the Greek prefix for wine (Vino in Roman).

55D: Crescent end: CUSP. Not familiar with this astrology definition.

58D: "Topaz" author: URIS. See this bookcover. I just realized this morning that some of Leon URIS books have very scrabbly titles: "Exodus", "The Haj" and "QB VIII".

63D: Soviet mil. intelligence: GRU (Glavnoe Razvedyvatel'noe Upravlenie, Russian for (Chief Intelligence Directorate). It appeared in our puzzle before. Wikipedia shows that GRU still exists. And it's Russia's largest intelligence agency. So the clue is not accurate.

C.C.

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.