Theme: Double Plays
23A: Munchkin femmes fatales?: WICKED LITTLE WOMEN (Wicked; Little Women)
36A: Workplace braggart?: COMPANY SHOWBOAT (Company; Showboat)
55A: Inferior pomade?: HAIR GREASE (Hair; Grease)
76A: Like sturdy chairs?: FANNY PROOF (Fanny; Proof)
95A: Standing ovation: TITANIC APPLAUSE (Titanic; Applause)
111A: Queen Henrietta's personal account of Cromwell's treachery?: OLIVER THE KING AND I (Oliver; The King and I)
16D: Jazz lovers on the Mississippi?: BIG RIVER CATS (Big Rivers; Cats)
61D: Detective usin' taps?: DANCIN SLEUTH (Dancin'; Sleuth)
Each theme answer contains two Broadway play names, hence "Double Plays". The below fills are play-related bonus fills:
66A: At the theater, perhaps: ON A DATE
1D: Curtain call response: BOW
25D: Lerner's partner: LOEWE
40D: One -__: uninterrupted play: ACT-ER
115D: Gershwin of Broadway: IRA
Hope Clear Ayes gets her internet connection back today. This puzzle is tailor-made for her. Just saw Gwyneth Paltrow's "Proof" the other night. Not my cup of tea.
When I googled earlier, some of the above theme answers are plays, some are musicals. What are the main differences between the two?
Quite a few tricky & fresh clues in today's puzzles. I was misdirected many times.
Across:
1A: The Tide: BAMA. Thought their nickname is the Crimson Tide.
5A: Fundamental: BASAL. Wrote down BASIS first. So my crossing answer is SET rather than LOT for 9D: Film studio site.
10A: Fly to fear: TSETSE. Better than "Dangerous fly" clue. Reminded me of Eric Jong's "Fear of Flying".
16A: __-Rhin: Strasbourg's department: BAS. Unknown to me. BAS-Rhin is French for "Lower Rhine". Haut-Rhin (Upper Rhine) lies in its south. But I can't find either in this Strasbourg map.
19A: Algerian seaport: ORAN. Thought Camus was born here. Wrong. He was born in Mondovi, Algeria. Yves Saint Laurent was born in ORAN.
20A: "Ooh, send me!": I'LL GO. I had trouble with many of the multiple words today.
21A: Blowhard's output: HOT AIR
22A: Peak overlooking Knossos: IDA. Mount IDA is the Greek "Mountain of Goddess". I had no idea where Knossos is.
27A: Baker Street transports: HANSOMS. Stumped. Knew the Sherlock Holmes connection., but I could not come up with HANSOMS.
29A: Closed the gap on: NEARED
31A: HBO alternative: SHO
33A: Slip into: DON. D'oh, clothes. I was in the wrong direction.
34D: Off! ingredient: DEET
35A: Dish sometimes served with wasabi: SASHIMI. "Sometimes"? All times for me. I've never had SASHIMI without wasabi.
41A: Last Hebrew letter: TAV. The first is aleph.
42A: No longer an item: APART. Good clue too.
43A: Pulitzer poet Marianne: MOORE. Completely stranger to me.
44A: Crosby and Como: CROONERS. Nice C, C & C.
48A: Prong: TINE
49A: Rewards for playing well: ESPYS. The sports awards.
52A: Little bit: DROP
58A: __anglais: English horn: COR. It's neither English nor horn. COR is French for "horn".
59A: Cocktails with triple sec: SIDECARS. No idea. I don't know what a "triple sec" is either.
63A: Frequent morning surprise: ALARM. Not the surprise I have in mind.
64A: Slithering: SNAKY
69A: 20-20 observation: IT'S A TIE. Nice clue. My mind wandered off to 20/20 vision.
71A: Gold digger: MINER. I liked this clue too. Thought of Kanye West's "Gold Digger".
72A: Country singer Haggard: MERLE
74A: Busch partner: ANHEUSER
75A: "Yadda yadda yadda": Abbr.: ETC. "Seinfeld".
80A: Grasshopper's antithesis, in a fable: ANT. Aesop fable.
81A: Reformer Jacob: RIIS. Reformer of what?
83A: Drones, e.g.: MALES. Male bees. I was thinking of airplanes.
84A: Result of an egg-toss miss: SPLAT
86A: Dots on la carte: ILES. Carte is French for "map".
90A: Clementi work: SONATINA. A short sonata. I was stumped. Wikipedia says the Italian musician Muzio Clementi is famous for his piano sonatas and SONATINAS.
92A: "Nature's soft nurse" to Shakespeare: SLEEP. No idea.
93A: Conductor's aid: SCORE
99A: Little Dipper star: POLARIS. The North Star.
102A: Charles II's royal architect: WREN (Christopher). I forgot. Googled him before. Wikipedia says he designed 55 of 87 London churches after the Great fire of London in 1666, including St. Paul's Cathedral in 1710.
103A: Golden age, e.g.: ERA. Why "age" is not capitalized?
104A: H.S. dropout's goals: GED
105A: '40s-'50s Marshall Islands trials: A-TESTS. I thought they were conducted at Bikini Atoll.
107D: Domed hall: ROTUNDA
110A: VW predecessors?: STU. Alphabet STUVW.
116A: Peewee: TOT
117A: Hoity-toity: LA-DI-DA
118A: Milk a scene: EMOTE
119A: Row in a bowl: TIER. Bowl game.
120A: Lenten symbol: ASH
121A: Be a big brother to: ASSIST
122A: Rib shots: POKES. Had trouble understanding the clue.
123A: On the main: ASEA
Down:
2D: D-backs, on scoreboards: ARI. Arizona Diamondbacks. They won World Series the first year I came to the US (2001).
3D: 1978 Village People hit: MACHO MAN. Not a familiar song to me.
4D: "My Way" songwriter: ANKA (Paul)
5D: Competes to buy: BIDS ON. As on Ebay.
6D: Ghostwriters' noms de plume, say: ALLONYMS. New word to me. How is it different from pseudonym?
7D: Like a big loser?: SLIM. Lose weight. Nice clue.
8D: Ticket sellers: Abbr.: AGTS. Had trouble with this answer also.
10D: Home shopping network?: THE WEB
11D: Site of a 1976 anti-apartheid uprising: SOWETO. Have never heard of SOWETO Uprising. Thought it's in Johannesburg.
12D: School since 1440: ETON. This has become a gimme.
13D: Angus' topper: TAM. Angus county in Scotland. I was thinking of the beef.
14A: Tuscan hill town: SIENA. So close to the "Earthy color" SIENNA. One less letter N.
15D: Che, really: ERNESTO. Che Guervara.
17D: Relevant, in law: AD REM. Escaped my mind also.
18D: Tony-winning Manhattan restaurateur: SARDI. I don't get this clue. I know the award name Tony was coined in the Sardi's. Did Vincent SARDI win a Tony Award also?
24D: Finish by: END AT
31D: Satchmo's singing style: SCAT
32D: Southwestern pottery maker: HOPI. Beautiful olla.
34D: Back: Pref.: DORSI. Forgot. It appeared in our puzzle several months ago.
35D: Arrive en masse: STREAM IN
37D: Go ahead of: PRECEDE
38D: Former frosh: SOPHS. Why the clue is singular?
39D: Georgetown player: HOYA
45D: Switch positions: ONS. ON/Off.
46D: Raw recruit: ROOKIE
47D: Lighter on one's foot: SPRYER. I like this clue.
49D: "L'___, c'est moi": Louis XIV: ETAT. Oh boy, where did I get "Le roi, c'est moi" quote?
51D: Pledging site: FRAT
54D: Accessory for an old-time flying ace: SCARF. How come?
57D: City on the Ruhr: ESSEN
59D: Suzanne of "Step by Step": SOMERS. Know Suzanne SOMERS. Have never heard of the TV series "Step by Step".
60D: Ab __: from the beginning: INITIO. Hope I can remember it next time.
62D: Money-saving carpeting choices: REMNANTS. Ha ha, I did not know there is a special term for those carpets.
65D: Big name in beachwear: NAUTICA. Nope. Not a beach person. I like her shirt.
67D: Actress Soleil Moon __: FRYE. New name to me also. Great name, Soleil Moon.
68D: Yodeler's range: ALPS. Mountain range.
70D: At __: nevertheless: THAT. At THAT is a new idiom to me.
73D: Zhou of China: ENLAI. Our first premier.
74D: Wouldn't hurt __: A FLEA. I thought it's "Wouldn't hurt a fly".
77D: Bordeaux buddy: AMI. Alliteration again.
78D: "Hold Me" Grammy winner: OSLIN. Here is the song.
79D: Cartel acronym: OPEC
82D: Casa areas: SALAS
85D: Desire: APPETITE. Oh, desire for food.
87D: Four-time Olympic diving gold medalist: LOUGANIS. No idea. Wikipedia says Greg LOUGANIS won two gold in 1984 and two in 1988.
88D: Gaelic tongue: ERSE
89D: Tourney ranking: SEED
91D: Largest of the British Virgin Islands: TORTOLA. See this map. Completely foreign to me.
92D: Hägar's dog: SNERT. Learned from doing Xword. I don't read the comic strips.
93D: Subject for Eric Partridge: SLANG. I did not know who Eric Partridge is. Wikipedia says he was a noted New Zealand/British lexicographer of the English language, particularly of its SLANG.
96D: Suit fabrics: TWEEDS. SERGE is "Suit fabric" too.
97D: Landfall for Noah: ARARAT
98D: Lops and tops: PRUNES. Nice rhymes.
99D: Elbows, maybe: PASTA. Elbow pasta. I was fooled.
100D: Four Holy Roman emperors: OTTOS
101D: __ Malvinas: the Falklands: ISLAS. Got it from Across fills. I don't know where ISLAS Malvinas is. Oh, I see, different name origins, hence Spanish Malvinas and English Falklands.
106D: Half of MXIV: DVII. Half of 1,014=507.
107D: San __, Italy: REMO
108D: "All right, already!": OK OK
109D: Base material?: DATA. Why?
113D: In the know: HEP. Wrote down HIP first.
114D: Mark to improve: DEE. Was thinking of a verb.
Answer grid.
C.C.
23A: Munchkin femmes fatales?: WICKED LITTLE WOMEN (Wicked; Little Women)
36A: Workplace braggart?: COMPANY SHOWBOAT (Company; Showboat)
55A: Inferior pomade?: HAIR GREASE (Hair; Grease)
76A: Like sturdy chairs?: FANNY PROOF (Fanny; Proof)
95A: Standing ovation: TITANIC APPLAUSE (Titanic; Applause)
111A: Queen Henrietta's personal account of Cromwell's treachery?: OLIVER THE KING AND I (Oliver; The King and I)
16D: Jazz lovers on the Mississippi?: BIG RIVER CATS (Big Rivers; Cats)
61D: Detective usin' taps?: DANCIN SLEUTH (Dancin'; Sleuth)
Each theme answer contains two Broadway play names, hence "Double Plays". The below fills are play-related bonus fills:
66A: At the theater, perhaps: ON A DATE
1D: Curtain call response: BOW
25D: Lerner's partner: LOEWE
40D: One -__: uninterrupted play: ACT-ER
115D: Gershwin of Broadway: IRA
Hope Clear Ayes gets her internet connection back today. This puzzle is tailor-made for her. Just saw Gwyneth Paltrow's "Proof" the other night. Not my cup of tea.
When I googled earlier, some of the above theme answers are plays, some are musicals. What are the main differences between the two?
Quite a few tricky & fresh clues in today's puzzles. I was misdirected many times.
Across:
1A: The Tide: BAMA. Thought their nickname is the Crimson Tide.
5A: Fundamental: BASAL. Wrote down BASIS first. So my crossing answer is SET rather than LOT for 9D: Film studio site.
10A: Fly to fear: TSETSE. Better than "Dangerous fly" clue. Reminded me of Eric Jong's "Fear of Flying".
16A: __-Rhin: Strasbourg's department: BAS. Unknown to me. BAS-Rhin is French for "Lower Rhine". Haut-Rhin (Upper Rhine) lies in its south. But I can't find either in this Strasbourg map.
19A: Algerian seaport: ORAN. Thought Camus was born here. Wrong. He was born in Mondovi, Algeria. Yves Saint Laurent was born in ORAN.
20A: "Ooh, send me!": I'LL GO. I had trouble with many of the multiple words today.
21A: Blowhard's output: HOT AIR
22A: Peak overlooking Knossos: IDA. Mount IDA is the Greek "Mountain of Goddess". I had no idea where Knossos is.
27A: Baker Street transports: HANSOMS. Stumped. Knew the Sherlock Holmes connection., but I could not come up with HANSOMS.
29A: Closed the gap on: NEARED
31A: HBO alternative: SHO
33A: Slip into: DON. D'oh, clothes. I was in the wrong direction.
34D: Off! ingredient: DEET
35A: Dish sometimes served with wasabi: SASHIMI. "Sometimes"? All times for me. I've never had SASHIMI without wasabi.
41A: Last Hebrew letter: TAV. The first is aleph.
42A: No longer an item: APART. Good clue too.
43A: Pulitzer poet Marianne: MOORE. Completely stranger to me.
44A: Crosby and Como: CROONERS. Nice C, C & C.
48A: Prong: TINE
49A: Rewards for playing well: ESPYS. The sports awards.
52A: Little bit: DROP
58A: __anglais: English horn: COR. It's neither English nor horn. COR is French for "horn".
59A: Cocktails with triple sec: SIDECARS. No idea. I don't know what a "triple sec" is either.
63A: Frequent morning surprise: ALARM. Not the surprise I have in mind.
64A: Slithering: SNAKY
69A: 20-20 observation: IT'S A TIE. Nice clue. My mind wandered off to 20/20 vision.
71A: Gold digger: MINER. I liked this clue too. Thought of Kanye West's "Gold Digger".
72A: Country singer Haggard: MERLE
74A: Busch partner: ANHEUSER
75A: "Yadda yadda yadda": Abbr.: ETC. "Seinfeld".
80A: Grasshopper's antithesis, in a fable: ANT. Aesop fable.
81A: Reformer Jacob: RIIS. Reformer of what?
83A: Drones, e.g.: MALES. Male bees. I was thinking of airplanes.
84A: Result of an egg-toss miss: SPLAT
86A: Dots on la carte: ILES. Carte is French for "map".
90A: Clementi work: SONATINA. A short sonata. I was stumped. Wikipedia says the Italian musician Muzio Clementi is famous for his piano sonatas and SONATINAS.
92A: "Nature's soft nurse" to Shakespeare: SLEEP. No idea.
93A: Conductor's aid: SCORE
99A: Little Dipper star: POLARIS. The North Star.
102A: Charles II's royal architect: WREN (Christopher). I forgot. Googled him before. Wikipedia says he designed 55 of 87 London churches after the Great fire of London in 1666, including St. Paul's Cathedral in 1710.
103A: Golden age, e.g.: ERA. Why "age" is not capitalized?
104A: H.S. dropout's goals: GED
105A: '40s-'50s Marshall Islands trials: A-TESTS. I thought they were conducted at Bikini Atoll.
107D: Domed hall: ROTUNDA
110A: VW predecessors?: STU. Alphabet STUVW.
116A: Peewee: TOT
117A: Hoity-toity: LA-DI-DA
118A: Milk a scene: EMOTE
119A: Row in a bowl: TIER. Bowl game.
120A: Lenten symbol: ASH
121A: Be a big brother to: ASSIST
122A: Rib shots: POKES. Had trouble understanding the clue.
123A: On the main: ASEA
Down:
2D: D-backs, on scoreboards: ARI. Arizona Diamondbacks. They won World Series the first year I came to the US (2001).
3D: 1978 Village People hit: MACHO MAN. Not a familiar song to me.
4D: "My Way" songwriter: ANKA (Paul)
5D: Competes to buy: BIDS ON. As on Ebay.
6D: Ghostwriters' noms de plume, say: ALLONYMS. New word to me. How is it different from pseudonym?
7D: Like a big loser?: SLIM. Lose weight. Nice clue.
8D: Ticket sellers: Abbr.: AGTS. Had trouble with this answer also.
10D: Home shopping network?: THE WEB
11D: Site of a 1976 anti-apartheid uprising: SOWETO. Have never heard of SOWETO Uprising. Thought it's in Johannesburg.
12D: School since 1440: ETON. This has become a gimme.
13D: Angus' topper: TAM. Angus county in Scotland. I was thinking of the beef.
14A: Tuscan hill town: SIENA. So close to the "Earthy color" SIENNA. One less letter N.
15D: Che, really: ERNESTO. Che Guervara.
17D: Relevant, in law: AD REM. Escaped my mind also.
18D: Tony-winning Manhattan restaurateur: SARDI. I don't get this clue. I know the award name Tony was coined in the Sardi's. Did Vincent SARDI win a Tony Award also?
24D: Finish by: END AT
31D: Satchmo's singing style: SCAT
32D: Southwestern pottery maker: HOPI. Beautiful olla.
34D: Back: Pref.: DORSI. Forgot. It appeared in our puzzle several months ago.
35D: Arrive en masse: STREAM IN
37D: Go ahead of: PRECEDE
38D: Former frosh: SOPHS. Why the clue is singular?
39D: Georgetown player: HOYA
45D: Switch positions: ONS. ON/Off.
46D: Raw recruit: ROOKIE
47D: Lighter on one's foot: SPRYER. I like this clue.
49D: "L'___, c'est moi": Louis XIV: ETAT. Oh boy, where did I get "Le roi, c'est moi" quote?
51D: Pledging site: FRAT
54D: Accessory for an old-time flying ace: SCARF. How come?
57D: City on the Ruhr: ESSEN
59D: Suzanne of "Step by Step": SOMERS. Know Suzanne SOMERS. Have never heard of the TV series "Step by Step".
60D: Ab __: from the beginning: INITIO. Hope I can remember it next time.
62D: Money-saving carpeting choices: REMNANTS. Ha ha, I did not know there is a special term for those carpets.
65D: Big name in beachwear: NAUTICA. Nope. Not a beach person. I like her shirt.
67D: Actress Soleil Moon __: FRYE. New name to me also. Great name, Soleil Moon.
68D: Yodeler's range: ALPS. Mountain range.
70D: At __: nevertheless: THAT. At THAT is a new idiom to me.
73D: Zhou of China: ENLAI. Our first premier.
74D: Wouldn't hurt __: A FLEA. I thought it's "Wouldn't hurt a fly".
77D: Bordeaux buddy: AMI. Alliteration again.
78D: "Hold Me" Grammy winner: OSLIN. Here is the song.
79D: Cartel acronym: OPEC
82D: Casa areas: SALAS
85D: Desire: APPETITE. Oh, desire for food.
87D: Four-time Olympic diving gold medalist: LOUGANIS. No idea. Wikipedia says Greg LOUGANIS won two gold in 1984 and two in 1988.
88D: Gaelic tongue: ERSE
89D: Tourney ranking: SEED
91D: Largest of the British Virgin Islands: TORTOLA. See this map. Completely foreign to me.
92D: Hägar's dog: SNERT. Learned from doing Xword. I don't read the comic strips.
93D: Subject for Eric Partridge: SLANG. I did not know who Eric Partridge is. Wikipedia says he was a noted New Zealand/British lexicographer of the English language, particularly of its SLANG.
96D: Suit fabrics: TWEEDS. SERGE is "Suit fabric" too.
97D: Landfall for Noah: ARARAT
98D: Lops and tops: PRUNES. Nice rhymes.
99D: Elbows, maybe: PASTA. Elbow pasta. I was fooled.
100D: Four Holy Roman emperors: OTTOS
101D: __ Malvinas: the Falklands: ISLAS. Got it from Across fills. I don't know where ISLAS Malvinas is. Oh, I see, different name origins, hence Spanish Malvinas and English Falklands.
106D: Half of MXIV: DVII. Half of 1,014=507.
107D: San __, Italy: REMO
108D: "All right, already!": OK OK
109D: Base material?: DATA. Why?
113D: In the know: HEP. Wrote down HIP first.
114D: Mark to improve: DEE. Was thinking of a verb.
Answer grid.
C.C.
