Thursday March 26, 2009 Bonnie L. Gentry

Theme: What Chutzpah!

21A: Operational headquarters: NERVE CENTER

26A:Classy office door adornment: BRASS NAME PLATE

46A: 2006 Political best-seller, with "the": AUDACITY OF HOPE

52A: Beside one another: CHEEK BY JOWL

Boomer bought me "The AUDACITY OF HOPE" when it first came out. But I've never got the opportunity to get it autographed. Now it's collecting dust on my shelf, together with my Obama baseball card and the inauguration pin.

CHEEK BY JOWL is a new idiom to me. But thank God I know JOAN (55D: Rocker Jett). Every time I link Michael Bolton's "Can I Touch You There" on the blog, someone will return with a link of JOAN Jett "Do You Want to Touch Me".

What I've noticed about Rich Norris' puzzle, besides those tricky "Little butter?" (4D: KID) wordplay, is the vivid evocative descriptions. For example:

27D: It's twirled in a rodeo: RIATA.

63D: It sometimes needs a boost: EGO

I like them a lot. Seldom saw them in our old puzzles.

There were only a couple of real unknowns to me in this grid. But I struggled. My conclusion? Rich Norris and I can't talk. He is not "straightforward" and "honest" with me.

Across:

1A: Alp top: PEAK. Thought of SNOW.

5A: Sounding shocked: AGASP. And PALE (10A: Looking shocked). I am in "shock and awe" of these 2 clues. Just great!.

14A: A8 manufacturer: AUDI. Thought A8 might be another kind of V8 juice.

15A: Decisive refusal: NEVER. I was thinking of NO WAY first.

16A: Double-click: OPEN. Of course. But I blanked.

18A: Lacking skepticism: NAIVE. You've got to have a very skeptical attitude when you face this new crossword editor.

19A: __ dixit: IPSE. Learned from doing Xword. Literally "he himself said it". Maybe you can make a sentence for me. I've never used this phrase in daily conversation.

20A: Ocean delicacy: ROE. I pictured EEL. Now I crave some perfectly grilled sweet unagi. The aroma is simply intoxicating. I can almost smell it.

23A: She played Ulla in "The Producers": UMA. Easy guess. Have never seen "The Producers". I love this Ulla/UMA connection.

25A: Estrangement: RIFT

37A: Clavell's "__-Pan": TAI. See the bookcover. Literally, TAI-Pan means "Big Class" in Cantonese. TAI, "big". Pan, "class". Or "big shot" & "big potato" in our slang.

38A: Ma, for one: CELLIST. D'oh, Yo-Yo Ma. I was thinking of Ma Bell.

41A: Rx writers: MDS. Mine was DRS.

42A: 1943 penny metal: STEEL. Unknown to me. I did not know that 1943 penny is rare.

44A: "Proud Mary" band, for short: CCR (Credence Clearwater Revival). Here is the clip. I was stumped again.

51A: Corp. that once owned Hertz and Hilton: UAL (United Air Lines). Oh really? I was totally unaware of this history. Very short-lived though.

63A: Irish Free State successor: EIRE. Heard of this "Irish Free State" (1922-1937) from watching Liam Neeson's "Michael Collins".

68A: "Roots" Emmy winner: ASNER. Another guess. Don't remember him in "Roots".

69A: Capital south of Lillehammer: OSLO. Another guess. I did not know where Lillehammer is. According to Wikipedia, it means "the Small Hamar". Hamar is town name. Literally "steep rock". I was disappointed that it had nothing to do with hammer.

Down:

1D: "I Kid You Not" author: PAAR. Unknown to me. Is it an interesting read? Henry VIII's wife is PARR, two R's.

2D: 100 cents: EURO. I felt so dense this morning. Just could not think of this damned EURO.

3D: Part of "The Sound of Music" farewell song: ADIEU, ADIEU. I can't remember this song. Edelweiss" does not fit, nor does "Do-Re-Me", the only two songs I could think of.

4D: Little butter? KID. Sometimes RAM is clued as "Butter?". Playing on the verb butt. RAM butts. Get it? Butt-er.

6D: Transmission component: GEAR

7D: Tel __ - Yafo: AVIV. Literally "Sping". I only know Tel AVIV, "Hill of Spring". Had no idea there is a trailing Yafo.

9D: Rain, briefly: PRECIP. Precipitation.

10D: Indicate: POINT AT

11D: PDA entry: APPT (Appointment).

13D: Fed. power dept.: ENER (Energy). Not a familiar abbreviation to me. Our current Secretary of Energy is Steven Chu. Chinese American. Nobel Physics winner. Newly minted Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke is also a Chinese American. Both their surnames are Cantonese spelling. Chu is Zhu in Mandrin Chinese. LOCKE is simply Luo. (Note: How do you think of my clues: "Soft tail?" as in softener or "Damp end?" as in dampener?)

21D: "Illmatic" rapper: NAS. Learned his name from doing crossword. What does "Illmatic" mean?

22D: Key of Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 1: E FLAT. Pure guess.

24D: Submissions to ed.: MSS (Manuscripts)

26D: Upside down sleepers: BATS. Only learned this facts a few weeks ago.

28D: PBS's science guy: NYE. The "Science Guy".

29D: IM offerer: AOL. No waffling between AOL and MSN today.

30D: Punish with a fine: MULCT. This is a word that I keep remembering and keep forgetting.

31D: Gin cocktail: TOM COLLINS. New to me. It's often served in a glass called Collins glass, which is also new to me.

32D: Become, finally: END UP

36D: Salinger dedicatee: ESME. Salinger's "For ESME – with Love and Squalor".

38D: Louisiana Territory explorer: CLARK. I don't know the extent of Lewis and CLARK exploration.

39D: Needing salt, perhaps: ICY. It snowed here again yesterday. But no more salt is needed.

43D: Enters stealthily: EDGES IN

45D: '50s oldies syllables: SHA. No idea. I know nothing about '50s oldies. SHA-la-la?

47D: Secret doctrine: CABALA. Did not come to me immediately, though I often read Madonna/Demi Moore CABALA/Kabala stuff on gossip magazines.

48D: Tennyson works: IDYLLS. Occasionally you will find two or four line pastoral poems in some Chinese landscape paintings.

49D: Eye or ear ending: FUL. "Mouth ending" too.

54D: Streets liners: ELMS. No ELMS along our streets.

57D: Deterioration: WEAR. Mine was TEAR.

59D: Like the Sabin vaccine: ORAL. Salk's vaccine required injection.

60D: Jared of "American Psycho": LETO. Know his name. Have never seen "American Psycho". In Greek mythology, LETO is Zeus' mistress. Apollo's mom. She was born in KOS/COS, from which we got COS lettuce (Romaine), clued as "Lettuce variety" in our old puzzle before.

Full Answer Grid

C.C.

Wednesday March 25, 2009 Jack McInturff

Theme: RULE (62D: Govern, or word that can follow the first word of the four longest puzzle answers)

17A: Valley girl's "Ick!": GAG ME WITH A SPOON

27A: Cliché framed above many a hearth: HOME SWEET HOME

48A: Spaceflight management center: GROUND CONTROL

64A: Yellow-skinned apple: GOLDEN DELICIOUS

Why "Valley girl" reference for GAG ME WITH A SPOON? The Frank Zappa "Valley Girl" song? HOME RULE is a new term to me.

Did you feel today's puzzle was more difficult than yesterday's? I had lots of wite-outs for the cleverly tricky clues:

21A: Wagon pullers: TEAM. Mine was OXEN.

70A: Play area?: STAGE. Mine was SCENE, which is actually "Play part".

9D: MA and PA: STS (States). I made up my own word PTS (Parents), knowing clearly MA is not Ma, PA is not Pa.

26D: Bank feature: ATM. Mine was DAM, thinking of river bank.

46D: Old French capital?: FRANC. Replaced by Euro in 2001. PAREE sprang to my mind first. FRANC is often clued as "Old/stale French bread?".

49D: Put in stitches: DARN. Mine was SEWN. I figured "Put" might be past tense.

65D: When the French fry?: ETE. What a great clue. Scorching hot! I blanked though. I need a "summer" or "season" to think of ETE.

Our fellow solver Fred, who has had puzzles published by LA Times, mentioned in yesterday's Comments section that "the ramp between Wednesday and Thursday is steep in terms of difficulty". So, be prepared for tomorrow's fight.

On a scale of 1-5, Monday and Tuesday's level of difficulty for our puzzle is 1, Wednesday is 2, Thursday and Friday, 3, Saturday and Sunday 4.

To Star Tribune solvers, if you want LA Times puzzle in our paper, please write to Susan Barbieri (Assistant Features Editor) and let her know your views. I wish they had asked our opinion before they made the switch. Her email address is: susan.barbieri@startribune.com

Across:

1A: Blue or brown follower: EYED. I think I have brown eyes, though my drivers's license says BLK.

15A: Jet-black gem: ONYX. Wikipedia says it could be of other colors too. Greek origion, meaning "claw/fingernail." So called because the mineral's color sometimes resembles that of a fingernail, pink with white streaks.

23A: Donizetti aria "Regnava __ silenzio": NEL. No idea. Here is a clip. I've never heard of Italian composer Zonizetti or "Regnava NEL silenzio" ("Silence Reigned"). So what does NEL mean?

25A: Storyteller: LIAR

33A: Finance major's deg.: BBA (Bachelor of Business Administration). New abbreviation to me. Wish I had attended school when I first arrived here.

35A: When repeated twice, "et cetera": YADA. Always thought it's repeated three times.

43A: Sweater synthetic: ORLON. Clued as "Synthetic fiber" in yesterday's puzzle.

45A: Unheeding: DEAF. Also LEAF (24D: Table section). I like this kind of F or K ending words.

60A: Jacket type worn by several Bond villains: NEHRU. Interesting trivia. I did not know this. I still have not figured out who killed the evil Greene in "Quantum of Solace".

67A: "A cat must have three different names": ELIOT. I don't know this particular poem, but I do know the musical "Cats" is based on his cat poems.

68A: Savings choice: IRAS. The clue needs an abbreviation hint, doesn't it?

69A: Give sparingly: DOLE. Why "sparingly"? The rescue package government DOLEs out is huge. Oh by the way, Linda mentioned last night that "abstemious" and "facetious" are the only two English words with all the vowels in order. She also said "dreamt" is the only English word ending in "mt".

72A: Impressionist: APER. Very unexpected clue.

Down:

3D: Caltech sr.'s goal, often: ENGR. Ah, LA Times, another CA reference. Remember Monday's "Fellow Dodgers, e.g." for TEAMMATE?

4D: Rectangular game piece: DOMINO

5D: Holy animal?: COW

10D: School play prop: PAPER HAT

27D: "They'll Do It Every Time" cartoonist Jimmy: HATLO. Unknown to me, HAT LO, is he very famous? This woman looks very dominating.

29D: Hard-to-find guy of kids' books: WALDO

31D: Land where Moses died: MOAB. East of Dead Sea. In current Jordan.

33D: Internet opinion piece: BLOG. Exactly, "opinion piece", might be wrong. Blog is short for weblog.

34D: 2008 Libertarian presidential candidate: BARR (Bob). I had no memory of this guy at all. Could only think of Ralph Nader.

38D: Elvis classic: HOUND DOG. No idea. Is it really classic? Sounds so repetitive and boring.

41D: Jacques of "Mon Oncle": TATI. Got this French actor's name from across fills. "Mon Oncle"("My Uncle") won an Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 1958, according to Wikipedia.

44D: 22.5 deg.: NNE. See more Compass Points. I drew a blank on this one also. Have never seen NNE clued this way before.

50D: Recognition: CREDIT. How fortunes change for Tim Geithner. March Madness indeed. However, he really should get the CREDIT for Dow's near 500 point soar on Monday.

51D: New York tribe: ONEIDA. Literally "erected stone".

56D: Hip bones: ILIA. Singular Ilium. I often confuse ILIA with ILEA (the ends of small intestines). Its singular form is ileum. They have the same pronunciation, correct?

58D: Prefix with sol: AERO. Aerosol. It's often clued as "Sabb model" in our old puzzle.

63D: Rehab admission: USER. The answer did not come to me readily.

Answer Grid.

C.C.

Tuesday March 24, 2009 Dan Naddor

Theme: Texas Lolita's Favorite Things (Note: Lolita is a town in Texas, my theme title is just for fun)

17A: Centennial State rock?: COLORADO BOULDER

22A: Wolverine State fire?: MICHIGAN FLINT

35A: Peach State wide open spaces?: GEORGIA PLAINS

47A: Cotton State sculpture?: ALABAMA MOBILE

54A: Cornhusker State Town Car?: NEBRASKA LINCOLN

I like the theme and theme answers. Very clever. I wonder how the constructor would clue Embarrass, Minnesota.

I did not know the nickname for Colorado is "Centennial State". Found out later that it became a state in 1876, 100 years after the the Declaration of Independence, hence the name.

I also like the extra descriptive phrases and trivia that accompany the clues. Feel like I've learned a few new things and I enjoyed very much the new clues, so refreshing. For example:

26A: It will never fly: EMU. It's always "Flightless bird' in our old puzzle.

24D: Bell hit with a padded hammer: GONG. Again, always "Big bell" in TMS Daily.

41D: Dolly, the clone, was one: EWE. Always "Ram's mate".

As LADY (62A: Disney dog") is an answer in the grid, I am not fond of the clue for ROMEO (15: Ladies' man). Come to the Comments section if you have a better idea.

I'd like to make a suggestion today. When you comment, please let me know which clue is your favorite or least favorite and why. Due to my special background, some of humor or subtlety intended by the constructor or editor is lost on me. And I don't want to miss the fun.

Across:

21A: Frontier bases?: OUTPOSTS. I had the ending letters *STS in place, then I thought of OLD WEST. But you can't pluralize OLD WEST, can you?

29A: One in a "Flying" circus act": WALLENDA. Have never heard of "The Flying WALLENDAS". Wikipidia says their name in German, "Die fliegenden Wallenda", is an obvious rhyme on the title of the Wagner opera, "Der fliegende Holländer ("The Flying Dutchman"). Basebal HOFer Honus Wagner's nickname is also "The Flying Dutchman". His T206 is the most valuable baseball card. Record is $2.8 million. Graded, of course.

32A: __ generis: unique: SUI. New to me. Literally "of its own" in Latin. SUI is also a Cantonese surname (XIAO in Mandarin Chinese), as in fashion designer Anna SUI.

51A: Italian veal dish: OSSO BUCO. I've never developed a taste for Italian food or olive oil. Too strong.

53A: Pah preceder: OOM. Did not come to me immediately.

59A: Quaint "Holy moly": EGAD. Is "Glory be" quaint also?

60A: John of England: ELTON. John MAJOR popped into my mind first. It has 5 letters too.

64A: To be, in old Rome: ESSE. Yesterday it's "To be, in Tijuana" (ESTAR), the same lower right corner. Maybe tomorrow we will see "To be, in Tours" (ETRE).

Down:

1D: Juice drink with a hyphenated name: HI-C. Holy cow! Can you believe I've never heard of this brand name? I only drink tea & water. Sometimes I drink soup. Or should I say I "eat" soup?

3D: Minute particles: MOLECULES

4D: One of the deadly sins: SLOTH. Last time this year I was struggling with Williams' "Two-toed sloth (UNAU) and "three-toed sloths (AIS).

7D: O'Neill's "__ for the Misbegotten": A MOON. New play to me. "Misbegotten" sounds like a wrong word President Bush would say.

8D: Blunt rejection: REBUFF. Putin style, NYET, no matter how many times you look into his eyes and search for his soul.

9D: Play the piccolo: TOOTLE. I've never seen a piccolo in person. Wikipedia says piccolo is the highest instrument in the orchestra or band. Now only manufactured in C.

12D: "Rhyme Pays" rapper: ICE-T. Had he spelled his name correctly as ICED - T, he probably would not make so many appearances in crossword.

18D: Bitter complainer: RAILER. Only knew the verb RAIL. I don't like the ER repetition in clue/ANSWER, though I can't think of a better way to clue it.

19D: Words before smoke or flames: UP IN. Stumper. Are both UP IN smoke and UP IN flames slang?

22D: Copy cats?: MEW. Lovely clue. Cats MEW/MEOW.

33D: Like a 12-0 verdict: UNANIMOUS. Reminds me of "12 Angry Men".

34D: Basketball Hall of Famer Dan: ISSEL. No idea. ISSEL, strange name. OK, I will try to connect him with salt, since SEL is French for salt. IS SEL.

37D: Neeson of "Taken": LIAM. Have never seen the movie "Taken". But LIAM was probably a gimme for many. He's been in the news a lot lately due to his wife's tragic death. He also stars in "Rob Roy". And Rob Roy's refusal is NAE (58D). I liked his "Michael Collins" a lot.

42D: Derivatives of it are used in sunscreen: PABA (Para-AminoBenzoic Acid). This word got me again. I wanted ALOE. Dictionary says PABA is "a metabolic acid found in yeast and liver cells; used to make dyes and drugs and sun blockers".

43D: Privilege loser, often: ABUSER

44D: Equally yucky: AS BAD

49D: Watery trenches under drawbridges: MOATS. My hometown Xi'An has one of the best preserved city walls in the world.

50D: Italian lawn game: BOCCE. I forgot this game again.

51D: Like Ogden Nash's lama, in a poem: ONE L. It's always "Scott Turow title" in our old puzzle. I like this change.

52D: Big name in video games: SEGA. Only found this morning that SEGA stands for "SErvice GAmes of Japan".

Full Answer Grid.

C.C.

Interview with Rich Norris

Rich Norris is the editor of LA Times Daily Crossword, which replaces TMS Daily edited by Wayne R. Williams in many local newspapers starting today.

He is also a very accomplished crossword constructors. His puzzles have been published by NY Times (186, second only to Manny Nosowsky, stunning!), NY Sun, Newsday, CrosSynergy, Wall Street Journal, etc.

I asked (via email) Mr. Norris a few questions that had been burning in my mind for two weeks. I hope you enjoyed the interview. I did.

Can you tell us a bit about your background? How did you start crossword constructing and then editing?

I've solved puzzles since I was a teenager, but didn't try to make one until many years later, in the '90s. I sent two puzzles to Will Shortz at the NYT. Will's policy of crediting the constructor, which was a new policy at the Times, was certainly an incentive. Luckily, he accepted one. I did a lot of constructing for about six years--as many as 200 puzzles per year in a dozen different markets, including frequent NYT themeless puzzles. I heard in late 1999 that the LA Times editorship was about to be vacant, so I applied and was fortunate enough to land the job. I had learned a lot about editing from my association with Will, who wrote me a nice letter of recommendation. No doubt that helped. ;-)

LA Times puzzles get progressively more difficult as the week goes, while our old TMS Daily are randomly placed. Is that the major difference between the two puzzles? Do you also shun partial fills and "cheater squares" like Williams? What kind of fills are you trying to include or exclude?

I don't know enough about Wayne Williams' TMS puzzle to compare it to mine. I'm aware that he didn't use graduated difficulty, which is a concept I strongly believe in. Solvers come to the newspaper with a broad variety of solving skills. I think graduated difficulty provides the most amount of enjoyment and challenge for the largest number of solvers each week. I also think it helps puzzlers improve their solving skills.

I don't exclude partial phrases, but I do ask constructors to use them in moderation--usually no more than two in a 15x15 puzzle. As for fill, I like contemporary words and phrases. I ask constructors not to overload a grid with proper names, and not to allow two tough names to cross each other. When there is popular culture in a puzzle, I think it should be spread around: music, TV, movies, sports, science, literature, etc.

Can you describe to us what a typical editing process looks like? What percentage of the grid/cluing do you normally rework?

On average, I probably change anywhere from 1/3 to 1/2 of the clues. The majority of these changes are to adjust difficulty, avoid repeats of recent clues, and improve accuracy. I don't change that many grids, but if there are obscurities or answers that I think are too tough for a particular day of the week, I'll ask constructors to make changes. If they're unable to do it after one or two tries, then I'll help out.

You seem to have a core group of constructors who work for you on regular basis. How do you assign the puzzles to them? Or do they just submit a puzzle and then you rework to decide the difficulty level & allot to a different day?

I hardly ever assign a puzzle. Constructors send me work whenever the Muse visits them. I guess with some, she visits more often. (I think of the Crossword Muse as a "she" in honor of Margaret Farrar.) Constructors are a pretty savvy bunch. Most of them know when they're making a puzzle whether it's a Monday or a Wednesday or a Friday, and they try to clue accordingly. Puzzle placement during the week usually depends on theme difficulty. The simplest, most obvious themes will occur earlier in the week. Wordplay and trickery are generally reserved for the end of the week.

While it's true that some constructor names appear fairly regularly in our puzzles, it's still a wide-open market. I publish an average of 100 different constructors' work every year. This year, in less than four months (I edit about a month ahead), I've already published the work of more than 50 different constructors. You'll also see new constructors regularly. Last year there were 22 debuts.

I saw some of your ACPT photos, you look so serious. What do you do for fun? What would people find one thing that's most surprising about you?

LOL. I'm terrible in front of a still camera. I'm certainly serious about my work, but I don't think of myself as an overly serious person. I think you'll see plenty of playfulness in LA Times clues, especially later in the week.

When I'm not puzzling, I'm probably spending time with my wife, golfing, playing the piano (love Beethoven and the Romantics), shooting pool, or just walking outdoors. My wife also loves the same things I do: puzzles, golf, pool, the outdoors.

Hope this was helpful, and thanks again for asking. I hope you enjoy the puzzles.

Thank you, Mr. Norris.

LA Times Daily Crossword

Tribune Media Service (TMS) has replaced the TMS Daily puzzle with LA Times Daily Crossword edited by Rich Norris starting March 23, 2008. The puzzle is printable from their website if you prefer solving on paper.

The puzzle is also available at Cruciverb.com in Across Lite format. You can download free Across Lite from NY Time's website.

The L.A. Times crossword appears in nearly 700 daily and Sunday newspapers in the U.S., India, Canada, Mexico, Bermuda, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Japan and Taiwan.

On a scale of 1-5, the level of difficulty for our Monday and Tuesday puzzle is 1, Wednesday is 2, Thursday and Friday 3, Saturday 4 and Sunday 3.

Updated on Sept 24, 2009: DIFFICULTY of daily puzzles can range from easy to moderate. In terms of The New York Times puzzle, that means no harder than Wednesday. Difficulty level of clues and fill for Saturday themeless should be similar to NYT Wednesday/Thursday. Sunday puzzles should be of moderate difficulty, similar to Tues/Weds NYT.

Please feel free to go to the Comments section at the end of each blog entry if you have any question.

C.C.

Added later: Besides LA Times and Chicago Tribune, these website carry LA Times Crossword as well. Feel free to email me if you find others.


1) American Mensa  (Ads free). Relatively stable. One glitch in the 2 times I tested.

2) Web Crossword. Not very reliable. Sometimes no new puzzles there.

Monday March 23, 2009 Pancho Harrison

Theme: Latin Numeral Prefixes

20A: All-in-one home entertainment gadget: UNIVERSAL REMOTE

38A: Pact between two countries: BILATERAL TREATY

57A: Geometric solid with five faces, ironically: TRIANGULAR PRISM

Four is quadri/quadr, five is quinque/quinqu. The corresponding Greek prefixes are: mono (1), di (2), tri (3), tetra/tetr (4) and penta/pent (5). See this list.

TRIANGULAR PRISM is new to me. If it's "ironically", why don't they change the name to Quartangular Prism or Pentangular Prism? I wonder who originally coined the term.

I am glad we are given a Monday puzzle to start with. I was able to fill in lots of blanks with authority. No "Shock and Awe" or "Shock and Oh". Feels like a nice round on a Par 3 executive course at the beginning of the season.

However, the real shocker for me was to see Newsday puzzle (edited by Stan Newman) in our Star Tribune this morning. It's authored by Gail Grabowski. There is only a short 2-line announcement saying "Today's Newsday puzzle replaces the TMS Daily Crossword Puzzle, which is no longer available".

I hope you guys get LA Times puzzle. If not, you can always go to LA Times website and print out the puzzle. I won't blog Newsday.

Oh, Carol asked why this puzzle is titled "Card for Two" yesterday. I don't understand myself. Can you help us?

Across:

13A: Crime scene find: CLUE. Thought of GUNS immediately. But the CLUE clue is singular.

24A: Coin of the __: legal currency: REALM. New to me. So our coin of the REALM is U.S. dollar?

25A: Mt. Rushmore's state: S. DAK. Have never been there. Wikipedia says Mt. Rushmore was originally known to the Lakota Sioux as Six Grandfathers and was later renamed after Charles E. Rushmore, a prominent New York lawyer, during an expedition in 1885. I wonder why the sculptor did not carve 6 presidents initially.

27A: Intelligence, slangily: SMARTS. I was thinking of CIA/NSA style intelligence. But of course, I don't really know what their slang for intelligence is. Any idea?

34A: Colorful quartz: AGATE

37A: Durable wood: TEAK. And water-resistant, right? Since it's used to build ship. I've never seen TEAK timber in person, is it really oily?

42A: "___ Almighty", 2007 Steve Carell film: EVAN. Have heard of the film. Not interested.

43A: Where sailors go: TO SEA. Yeah, true. But I think they also like to go TO BARS.

53A: Pound's 16: OUNCES. My mind is clearly foggy this morning. I don't know. But I was thinking of Ezra Pound. Who knows, he might have written 16 famous poems/letters to someone I was not aware of. Or he could have 16 LOVERS, which also has 6 letters.

65A: Busybody: YENTA. The matchmaker in "Fiddler on the Roof" is called YENTE. And the Barbra Steisand film is named YENTL. Is this YENT some kind of Hebrew prefix?

66A: Exam for future Drs.: MCAT. (Medical College Admission Test). No idea. I thought it would be ?SAT like LSAT for "Exam for future attys".

68A: Netherworld river: STYX. Achilles' mom forgot to dip his heel here. Another Netherworld river is Lethe, the river of forgetfulness.

Down:

1D: Clean using elbow grease: SCRUB. I like this clue.

2D: 1985 Malkovich film: ELENI. I crossed the River Lethe on the name of this film. Saw identical clue somewhere before.

3D: See 10-Down: RUBIK. And ERNO (10D: With 3-Down, inventor of a puzzling cube). Reminds me of Will Smith playing RUBIK's cube in "The Pursuit of Happyness".

4D: "___ and Butt-head": MTV cartoon: BEAVIS. Obtained the answer from across fills.

9D: Fellow Dodger, e.g.: TEAMMATE. Ah, now we are solving LA Times puzzle. I expect plenty of Dodgers reference in the future.

29D: Westminster art gallery: TATE. Named after Henry TATE, a sugar tycoon & art collector.

30D: Terrier named for a Scottish isle: SKYE. And don't forget actress Ione SKYE. Really liked her role in "Say Anything" with John Cusack.

35D: Chinese way: TAO. Japanese corruption of our TAO is do. Judo is literally "Soft way". Kendo (Japanese fencing) is "Way of the sword".

39D: Like many Disney film: ANIMATED

40D: Bill Clinton's instrument: TENOR SAX. Or TENOR SEX to me, since there is no difference in my SAX and SEX pronunciations. I thought of SAXOPHONE first. But it did not fit.

41D: Incurred, as debts: RAN UP

51D: Saharan hills: DUNES

54D: Home of the NFL's Bengals, casually: CINCY. Not a football fun. Did not know where exactly is the home of the Bengals. It's rumored that Vikings are moving to LA.

55D: To be, in Tijuana: ESTAR. No idea. Don't speak Spanish. Only know "To be, in Paris" is ETRE. So how do you say "To be, or not to be" in Spanish?

56D: Clobber, in the Bible: SMITE. So smitten is "Awe-clobbered"?

57D: Uno plus dos: TRES. "The theme is mirrored in this clue and answer pair", according to Orange.

59D: "Picnic" Pulitzer winner: INGE (William). No waffling between INGE and AGEE this time due to the crossing clues. AGEE is "A Death in the Family" Putlizer winner. Also the co-screenwriter for "The African Queen". Oh, another crossword Pulitzer winner is ALBEE, who wrote "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf".

Full answer grid.

C.C.

Sunday March 22, 2009 Willy A. Wiseman

Theme: Parting Words

1A: With 132A: parting words to a hermit: FAREWELL,

132A: See 1A: MY LONELY ("Farewell, My Lovely")

27A: Parting words from a gambler: GOODBYE, MY CHIPS ("Goodbye, Mr. Chips")

36A: Parting words extended with a look: ALOHA STARE (Aloha State)

58A: With 61A: parting words to a swamp daddy: SEE YA PATER,

61A: See 58A: ALLIGATOR (See ya later, alligator)

70A: With 83A & 86A, parting words from Douglas Adams to a gossip: SO LONG, AND

83A: See 70A: THANKS FOR

86A: See 70A: ALL THE DISH ("So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish")

102A: Parting words in person: BYE BYE LIVE ("Bye Bye Love")

113A: Parting words when going to meet Mr. Reed: I'LL BE SEEING LOU ("I'll be Seeing You")

I only know "BYE BYE LOVE" , ALOHA STATE & "I'LL BE SEEING YOU". But it's not difficult to figure out what names the constructor was playing.

I still don't quite get why "a swamp daddy" is PATER. Also, the clue for RABIN (109D: Itzshak of Israel) is missing one letter Y. Or are Yitzshak and Itzshak the same?

Quite a few misstarts today. Wrote down EATS instead of AILS for 72D: Has something. And penned in PATSY instead of SOFTY for 70D: Easy mark. I don't know. After more than a year of solving Mr. Williams' puzzles, I still struggle mightily. Hard to read his mind.

Got a bit emotional solving this grid. Whatever you do, whereever you go, Mr. Williams, I wish you all the best. Thanks for the fun and frustrations.

I also want to take this opportunity to thank Philip J. Anderson, Diane C Baldwin, Matthew Higgins, Annabel Michaels, Alan P. Olschwang, Allan E. Parrish, Doug Peterson, Tom Pruce, Barry Silk, Norma Steinberg, Verna Suit, John Underwood, Ed Voile, Michael T. Williams, Stan B. Whitten, Robert H. Wolfe and other TMS Daily contributors. Thank you so much for the great puzzles. I look forward to seeing your byline in LA Times.

Across:

9A: Host of "Scientific American Frontiers": ALDA (Alan). I was unaware of this PBS program.

20A: Formal written defense: APOLOGIA. No problem this time.

22A: New version: REVISAL. New word to me.

25A: Outbreeding: EXOGAMY. Opposite of endogamy. Exo is prefix for "outer", and "endo" is prefix for "within". Both unknown to me.

26A: Classic TV sitcom equine: MR. ED

35A: Marketing starter?: TELE. Telemarketing.

50A: Arquette of "Desperately Seeing Susan": ROSANNA. Googled her name. Very unusual surname, Arquette.

53A: Hoover Dam's lake: MEAD. Have never been here before.

64A: Verdi classic: AIDA. Can you believe it debuted in Cairo in 1871?

69A: Tahleuah, OK school: NSU (Northeastern State University). Easy guess. I don't know where Tahleuash, OK is.

93A: Evening in Montmartre: SOIR. Lingered in Montmartre for a long time trying to feel Monet & van Gogh. Also went to Sacré-Cœur. My first time ever in a church.

99A: Little lion of stars: LEO MINOR. Here is a diagram.

104A: Cat's-paw: DUPE. "Cat's-paw" is a new word to me.

120A: Utah ski resort: ALTA. Thought of Liam Neeson's wife. She was actually alright immediately after the skiing fall and she refused the medical help.

121A: Sibyl: DIVINER. Cassandra is one, though no one would ever believe what she divined.

123A: Man from Windhoek: NAMIBIAN. Windhoek is the capital of Namibia. New to me. The letter W is pronounced like V, strange.

1129A: Like raw footage: UNEDITED

130A: Heads side of a coin: OBVERSE. Vs. REVERSE.

Down:

1D: Granges: FARMS. I used to confuse "Grange" with "Grunge".

7D: Half of CIV: LII. Roman 52. The number of weeks for Caesar. Did they have Sunday off at that time?

8D: Pioneer director: LANG. Have never heard of Fritz LANG. "Pioneer" for what?

9D: If all goes wrong: AT WORST

10D: Navigation guide (var.): LOADSTAR. Variant of lodestar. Neither is a familiar word to me.

14D: Compound radical: HEXYL. The last 2 letters "yl" is a suffix used in the names of radicals, like "ethyl". Dictionary defines HEXYL as "the hydrocarbon radical", whatever that is.

15D: Shorebirds with upturned beaks: AVOCETS. Forgot. They belong to the same wading family as stilts. OK, her beak does seem to turn upward.

33D: Book after Daniel: HOSEA. Before Joel.

37D: Preliminary race: HEAT. Why is it called HEAT? Because the competitions are heated?

39D: Barrett or Jaffe: RONA. RONA Barrett is the gossip columnist. And RONA Jaffe was a novelist. Learned their name from doing Xwords.

41D: Vishnu incarnation: RAMA. No idea. RAMA is a she?

42D: First ceremony: INITIATION

43D: Nightmarish Belgian artist: ENSOR (James). Unknown to me. It does look nightmarish. I was thinking of Edvard Munch and his "The Scream", but he was from Norway.

44D: Pelvic bones: SACRA. Singular is sacrum. Unknown to me. I don't know its Chinese equivalent either. I definitely don't know my body. Such strange sacr-prefix, what's so sacred about that bone?

47D: Actress Frances: STERNHAGEN. Googled her name. I like the way she looks.

48D: Legumes with oily seeds: SOYAS. I've never called them as SOYAS, always soybeans.

59D: Wild way to run?: AMUCK. Need a "Var." mark.

62D: "Beau __": GESTE. Saw this clue a few times when I first started solving TMS puzzle in 2008. Is the movie good?

76D: "Chico and the Man" co-star: CHARO. Holy cow! Look at her original long name, and look at her body. Are they real? I would never have gotten the answer without across fills.

80D: Tuesday before Ash Wednesday: SHROVE. No idea. I only know Fat Tuesday.

81D: Analogy phrase: IS TO

85D: Mcllroy of golf: RORY. Uh-uh, no, can't recall his name. He looks like Tony Blaire. I used to follow European Tour when Adam Scott was playing.

88D: Promo link: TIE-IN. Should be the full term "Promotional link", as the answer is not abbreviated.

92D: "12 Angry Men": ED BEGLEY. Maybe Chris in LA knows. I can only remember Henry Fonda.

96D: Horizontal expander: WIDENER. So the "Vertical expander" would be DEEPENER? Made-up words.

98D: "__ in Gaza": EYELESS. Here is the book cover, written by Aldous Huxley.

103D: "Do Ya" grp.: ELO. Every crossword constructor's three letter go-to music grp due to its unique letter combination. See the clip.

106D: Intrinsically: PER SE

111D: Madame de __: STAEL. Got her name from crossing fills. Had a quick google afterward, then realized I had searched for her before. Her life sounded very complicated.

112D: Actress Jessica: TANDY. Unknown to me. She won an Oscar for "Driving Miss Daisy". She was also a Tony winner for her Blanche DuBois role in "A Streetcar Named Desire". I watched Vivien Leigh's movie. Very heavy. Not my type.

115D: Ukrainian city: LVOV. Also LVIV. On the upper left corner. Wikipedia says part of "Schindler's List" was shot here. My answer was KIEV.

116D: Fast food: BITE. Okey-dokey, I suppose "Grab a BITE" means "Eat it fast".

C.C.

Notes to Crossword Constructors

We are very interested in knowing more about you and learning how you get the inspiration for the puzzle and how you go about constructing it.

Please feel free to email me at crosswordc@gmail.com if you want to add a note or two to my blog entry on the day when your puzzle is published in LA Times.

Thanks.

C.C.

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.