Theme: None
Total blocks: 28
Total words: 72
Almost a pangram. Only letter Q is missing. Our fellow LAT solver Anon HP said the other day that it's called a lipogram. A rather scrabbly lipgram, 2 J's, 2X's, and a Z, several K's as well, hallmarks of Barry Silk.
This grid looks interesting. The upper left corner and the lower right corner are almost blocked off, if not for the letter A (Intersection of 20A: ASTR & and 8D: GREAT WHITE SHARK) and its symmetrical partner letter H (Intersection of 47A: MATH and GREAT WHITE SHARK ). Phew! Dangerous.
I had huge, huge trouble with this puzzle. The grid itself does not look as intimidating as eight 15-letter themeless we had a while ago, only two 15-letter fills crossing each other, right in the middle of the grid. But boy, those 8-letter long words are hard to get. And there are 12 of them.
Lots of clever, tricky clues. My favorite clue today is AUGERS (41D: Boring things). I was thinking of the ENNUI boring boring.
I also noticed that our editor Rich Norris likes to clue one-word answer with one word clue that has the same first letter. In today's grid, there are SAG (Slump), MAUL (45A: Manhandle) and ASTONISH (12D: Amaze).
Across:
1A: Super: WHIZ-BANG. Stumped immediately, since my crossing answer for 1D: Totals (WRECKS) was SUMS UP.
9A: Winged mimics: MYNAHS. Barry used the identical clue for this bird last time. Also spelled as myna.
15A: Listening device: RECEIVER. Ah, of course, but I was thinking of the hidden camera/bug.
16A: Where to see saucers: TEA SET. I was trapped again. Could not get the flying saucers out of my mind.
17A: Drill: EXERCISE. Did not get this one either.
18A: Turkey appendage: WATTLE. Kind of ugly. Dewlap is 6-letter too.
19A: Trysting places, perhaps: CAFES. Oh, I thought a tryst always involves sexual activities.
20A: Sagan's subj.: ASTR (Astronomy). ASTR/ASTRO is a prefix for star.
22A: Sugar ending: OSE. As in fructose, sugar found in fruits.
23A: Presidential middle name: KNOX. James K. Polk.
24A: Needing to reorder: OUT OF. Mine was EMPTY.
26A: Shrub of the genus indigofera: ANIL. See this shrubby picture. "Genus indigofera" means nothing to me. I am more used to the "Blue dye/Indigo" clue.
27A: Line part: Abbr. SEG. I failed here also. Total mess in this upper left corner.
28A: Major artery: Abbr. EXPWY (Expressway). Another swampy area for me.
29A: It may be fine: PRINT. I was thinking of flour.
30A: God to more than a billion: ALLAH. Gimme. Last time Fred clued ISLAM as "Faith of more than 1 billion".
31A: Kawasaki watercraft: JET SKI. Have never heard of this brand name, nor have I heard of its manufacturer Kawasaki. Do they have factories here in the US?
32A: Immigrant's status perhaps: DUAL CITIZENSHIP. For some yes, China does not allow dual citizenship.
36A: Detach, in a way: UNCLIP. I suppose so. I thought UNCLIP is a made-up word. But it exists in dictionary.
37A: Yellowish brown: TAWNY. Oh well, last time it's clued as "Brownish orange". Good evening, are you TAWNY?
38A: Honored formally: CITED. I felt stupid. I had *ED there forever.
39A: O'Connor of "Xena: Warrior Princess": RENEE. No idea. Wikipedia says she plays the role of Gabrielle. I do know Lucy Lawless though.
43A: Speaker of baseball: TRIS. Should be a gimme for everyone now.
44A: German-speaking Swiss city: BASEL. Also spelled as BASLE. See this map. German-speaking indeed. Wikipedia says it borders France and Germany. And many pharmaceutical companies like Novartis and Roche are headquatered there.
46A: Yom __: holiday, in Hebrew: TOV. Elissa just mentioned that certain Jewish holidays never falls on Sabbath (Saturday). I forgot which ones. TOV is literally "good". Yom TOV is "Good day". Mazel TOV is "good fortune" in Hebrew.
47A: Course with many functions: MATH. I am bad at MATH. Are you?
48A: Dance with a kick: CONGA. No idea. Like this?
49A: Mate's response: AYE SIR. Ship officer. I was thinking of the Autralian pal "Mate". G'DAY is 2 letter short.
51A: Declared: ADJUDGED. New word to me.
54A: Picket fence: PALING. Also a new word. I think I will remember this word. Will associate it with Sarah Palin.
55A: Space science: ROCKETRY. Was this a gimme to you?
56A: Bastille Day party site: ELYSEE. I had no idea that French president holds an annual garden party at the Palais de L'ELYSEE on Bastille Day.
57A: London-born supermodel: KATE MOSS. Great to see her full name in a grid. That's her iconic tousled hair. My first thought was CAMPBELL (Naomi) though. It has 8 letters as well.
Down:
2D: Hydrocarbon obtained from petroleum: HEXANE. No idea. HEX is a prefix for six, and ANE is a suffix for saturated hydrocarbon.
3D: Weather phenomenon also known as pogonip: ICE FOG. Like this? I did not know the meaning of pogonip. Dictionary defines it as "an ice fog that forms in the mountain valleys of the western U." I wrote down EL NINO, knowing full well it's not right.
4D: Prestone competitor: ZEREX. Both are antifreezes. It appears in our puzzle before. Identical clue. But I forgot again.
5D: Some pens: BICS. My first fill.
6D: Prefix with fauna: AVI. Prefix for bird.
7D: Super __: game console: NES. Learned from doing Xword.
8D: Two-ton predator: GREAT WHITE SHARK. Is two-ton their average weight?
9D: Cal. sequence: MTWTF. Week days. I did not get this one. But I will next time. He can add Saturday and Sunday as well.
10D: Time for a revolution?: YEAR. I like this clue.
11D: Jazzman Adderley: NAT. Not a familiar name to me.
13D: National Museum of Finland site: HELSINKI. Easy guess. Where else could it be?
14D: Dart feature: STEEL TIP
21D: Vegan staple: SOY. Ah, Barry Silk.
24D: Plant in the primrose family: OXLIP. I had no idea that OXLIP belongs to the primrose family.
25D: __ the crack of dawn: UP AT
26D: Bohemian: ARTSY. So what's the difference between ARTY and ARTSY?
28D: Conqueror of Valencia in 1094D: EL CID. Interesting, Wikipedia says EL is from the Spanish article EL, then CID comes from the Arabic sidi meaning lord.
29D: Trattoria offering: PENNE. Plural of Italian PENNA, feather/quill pen in origin.
30D: Everything, to Ernst: ALLES. German for "Everything". Unknown to me. I could only think of the French TOUT(E).
31D: Valuable rock: JEWEL
32D: Multipurpose roll: DUCT TAPE. Only found out this morning that it's developed by Johnson & Johnson. I always thought it's a 3M invention.
33D: It merged with Goodrichin 1986D: UNIROYAL. No idea. Wiki said UNIROYAL was called The United States Rubber Company before 1961. And it's one of the original 12 Dow stocks.
34D: In an energetic way: ACTIVELY. I suppose so.
35D: First name in Western fiction: ZANE (Grey). Total stranger to me. Wiki says he was born in Zanesville, Ohio. And the city is named after his maternal ancestor Ebnezer Zane, some land speculator and road builder.
40D: Serenaded: SANG TO
42D: Knight who sings: GLADYS. This name looks very familiar to me. I must have googled her before. The only Knight I could think of is the Knight who throws a chair.
44D: One might precede a tug: BARGE. It's flat bottomed. It needs to be towed or pushed. That's all I know about BARGE.
45D: Way to the web: MODEM. I wanted LOG IN.
47D: Infielder's cry: MINE. 6-letter blank would be I GOT IT.
48D: Salad veggie: CUKE. Love pickled cucumber.
50D: Reunion moniker: SIS
52D: 1988 noir remake: DOA. No idea. The remake starred Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan. The 1950 original starred Edmond O'Brien (1950).
53D: Where sts. meet: JCT (Junction). Sts = Streets. I thought it's saints. But I can't think of a good abbreviation for heaven. Very tricky clue.
Answer grid.
C.C.
Total blocks: 28
Total words: 72
Almost a pangram. Only letter Q is missing. Our fellow LAT solver Anon HP said the other day that it's called a lipogram. A rather scrabbly lipgram, 2 J's, 2X's, and a Z, several K's as well, hallmarks of Barry Silk.
This grid looks interesting. The upper left corner and the lower right corner are almost blocked off, if not for the letter A (Intersection of 20A: ASTR & and 8D: GREAT WHITE SHARK) and its symmetrical partner letter H (Intersection of 47A: MATH and GREAT WHITE SHARK ). Phew! Dangerous.
I had huge, huge trouble with this puzzle. The grid itself does not look as intimidating as eight 15-letter themeless we had a while ago, only two 15-letter fills crossing each other, right in the middle of the grid. But boy, those 8-letter long words are hard to get. And there are 12 of them.
Lots of clever, tricky clues. My favorite clue today is AUGERS (41D: Boring things). I was thinking of the ENNUI boring boring.
I also noticed that our editor Rich Norris likes to clue one-word answer with one word clue that has the same first letter. In today's grid, there are SAG (Slump), MAUL (45A: Manhandle) and ASTONISH (12D: Amaze).
Across:
1A: Super: WHIZ-BANG. Stumped immediately, since my crossing answer for 1D: Totals (WRECKS) was SUMS UP.
9A: Winged mimics: MYNAHS. Barry used the identical clue for this bird last time. Also spelled as myna.
15A: Listening device: RECEIVER. Ah, of course, but I was thinking of the hidden camera/bug.
16A: Where to see saucers: TEA SET. I was trapped again. Could not get the flying saucers out of my mind.
17A: Drill: EXERCISE. Did not get this one either.
18A: Turkey appendage: WATTLE. Kind of ugly. Dewlap is 6-letter too.
19A: Trysting places, perhaps: CAFES. Oh, I thought a tryst always involves sexual activities.
20A: Sagan's subj.: ASTR (Astronomy). ASTR/ASTRO is a prefix for star.
22A: Sugar ending: OSE. As in fructose, sugar found in fruits.
23A: Presidential middle name: KNOX. James K. Polk.
24A: Needing to reorder: OUT OF. Mine was EMPTY.
26A: Shrub of the genus indigofera: ANIL. See this shrubby picture. "Genus indigofera" means nothing to me. I am more used to the "Blue dye/Indigo" clue.
27A: Line part: Abbr. SEG. I failed here also. Total mess in this upper left corner.
28A: Major artery: Abbr. EXPWY (Expressway). Another swampy area for me.
29A: It may be fine: PRINT. I was thinking of flour.
30A: God to more than a billion: ALLAH. Gimme. Last time Fred clued ISLAM as "Faith of more than 1 billion".
31A: Kawasaki watercraft: JET SKI. Have never heard of this brand name, nor have I heard of its manufacturer Kawasaki. Do they have factories here in the US?
32A: Immigrant's status perhaps: DUAL CITIZENSHIP. For some yes, China does not allow dual citizenship.
36A: Detach, in a way: UNCLIP. I suppose so. I thought UNCLIP is a made-up word. But it exists in dictionary.
37A: Yellowish brown: TAWNY. Oh well, last time it's clued as "Brownish orange". Good evening, are you TAWNY?
38A: Honored formally: CITED. I felt stupid. I had *ED there forever.
39A: O'Connor of "Xena: Warrior Princess": RENEE. No idea. Wikipedia says she plays the role of Gabrielle. I do know Lucy Lawless though.
43A: Speaker of baseball: TRIS. Should be a gimme for everyone now.
44A: German-speaking Swiss city: BASEL. Also spelled as BASLE. See this map. German-speaking indeed. Wikipedia says it borders France and Germany. And many pharmaceutical companies like Novartis and Roche are headquatered there.
46A: Yom __: holiday, in Hebrew: TOV. Elissa just mentioned that certain Jewish holidays never falls on Sabbath (Saturday). I forgot which ones. TOV is literally "good". Yom TOV is "Good day". Mazel TOV is "good fortune" in Hebrew.
47A: Course with many functions: MATH. I am bad at MATH. Are you?
48A: Dance with a kick: CONGA. No idea. Like this?
49A: Mate's response: AYE SIR. Ship officer. I was thinking of the Autralian pal "Mate". G'DAY is 2 letter short.
51A: Declared: ADJUDGED. New word to me.
54A: Picket fence: PALING. Also a new word. I think I will remember this word. Will associate it with Sarah Palin.
55A: Space science: ROCKETRY. Was this a gimme to you?
56A: Bastille Day party site: ELYSEE. I had no idea that French president holds an annual garden party at the Palais de L'ELYSEE on Bastille Day.
57A: London-born supermodel: KATE MOSS. Great to see her full name in a grid. That's her iconic tousled hair. My first thought was CAMPBELL (Naomi) though. It has 8 letters as well.
Down:
2D: Hydrocarbon obtained from petroleum: HEXANE. No idea. HEX is a prefix for six, and ANE is a suffix for saturated hydrocarbon.
3D: Weather phenomenon also known as pogonip: ICE FOG. Like this? I did not know the meaning of pogonip. Dictionary defines it as "an ice fog that forms in the mountain valleys of the western U." I wrote down EL NINO, knowing full well it's not right.
4D: Prestone competitor: ZEREX. Both are antifreezes. It appears in our puzzle before. Identical clue. But I forgot again.
5D: Some pens: BICS. My first fill.
6D: Prefix with fauna: AVI. Prefix for bird.
7D: Super __: game console: NES. Learned from doing Xword.
8D: Two-ton predator: GREAT WHITE SHARK. Is two-ton their average weight?
9D: Cal. sequence: MTWTF. Week days. I did not get this one. But I will next time. He can add Saturday and Sunday as well.
10D: Time for a revolution?: YEAR. I like this clue.
11D: Jazzman Adderley: NAT. Not a familiar name to me.
13D: National Museum of Finland site: HELSINKI. Easy guess. Where else could it be?
14D: Dart feature: STEEL TIP
21D: Vegan staple: SOY. Ah, Barry Silk.
24D: Plant in the primrose family: OXLIP. I had no idea that OXLIP belongs to the primrose family.
25D: __ the crack of dawn: UP AT
26D: Bohemian: ARTSY. So what's the difference between ARTY and ARTSY?
28D: Conqueror of Valencia in 1094D: EL CID. Interesting, Wikipedia says EL is from the Spanish article EL, then CID comes from the Arabic sidi meaning lord.
29D: Trattoria offering: PENNE. Plural of Italian PENNA, feather/quill pen in origin.
30D: Everything, to Ernst: ALLES. German for "Everything". Unknown to me. I could only think of the French TOUT(E).
31D: Valuable rock: JEWEL
32D: Multipurpose roll: DUCT TAPE. Only found out this morning that it's developed by Johnson & Johnson. I always thought it's a 3M invention.
33D: It merged with Goodrichin 1986D: UNIROYAL. No idea. Wiki said UNIROYAL was called The United States Rubber Company before 1961. And it's one of the original 12 Dow stocks.
34D: In an energetic way: ACTIVELY. I suppose so.
35D: First name in Western fiction: ZANE (Grey). Total stranger to me. Wiki says he was born in Zanesville, Ohio. And the city is named after his maternal ancestor Ebnezer Zane, some land speculator and road builder.
40D: Serenaded: SANG TO
42D: Knight who sings: GLADYS. This name looks very familiar to me. I must have googled her before. The only Knight I could think of is the Knight who throws a chair.
44D: One might precede a tug: BARGE. It's flat bottomed. It needs to be towed or pushed. That's all I know about BARGE.
45D: Way to the web: MODEM. I wanted LOG IN.
47D: Infielder's cry: MINE. 6-letter blank would be I GOT IT.
48D: Salad veggie: CUKE. Love pickled cucumber.
50D: Reunion moniker: SIS
52D: 1988 noir remake: DOA. No idea. The remake starred Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan. The 1950 original starred Edmond O'Brien (1950).
53D: Where sts. meet: JCT (Junction). Sts = Streets. I thought it's saints. But I can't think of a good abbreviation for heaven. Very tricky clue.
Answer grid.
C.C.
