Theme: Adobe Hacienda
21A: Overtaken and easily surpassed: LEFT IN THE DUST
38A: Classic 1924 novel by Ole Rolvaag: GIANTS IN THE EARTH
56A: Old fogy: STICK IN THE MUD
(Note from C.C.: A special 16*15 grid to accommodate the central theme entry GIANTS IN THE EARTH, which has 16 letters. We had a similar clay-themed puzzle by Norma Steinberg earlier in January. Her theme entries are: MUD SLINGING, EARTH MOTHER, DIRT CHEAP & DUST DEVIL. Today's theme answers are even better, all of them contain "IN THE". Very nice.)
Back to Argyle.
Quite hard for a Monday, I thought.
GIANTS IN THE EARTH was O. E. Rolvaag's most influential novel. It chronicles the story of a group of Norwegian pioneers who make the long trek from a fishing village in Norway through Canada to Spring Creek, in Dakota Territory. The novel details the triumphs, hardships, and ultimate tragedies of South Dakota farmers as they try to wrest a livelihood from a land that, while fertile, often proves actively hostile to human habitation.
Rølvaag was born in Norway. An uncle who had emigrated to America sent him a ticket in 1896, and he traveled to South Dakota to work as a farmhand working as a farmhand until 1898. He earned a bachelor's degree and a master's from St. Olaf College.
Giants in the Earth is part of a trilogy.
Across:
1A: Relaxing soak: BATH.
5A: Confined, with "up": PENT. As in, 'PENT UP' emotions (take a relaxing soak). Cousin to 'penned in', restricted or confined.
9A: Send back, as into custody: REMAND. Often followed by, "Bail will be set at...."
15A: Chat room "I'm just saying ...": IMHO. In My Humble Opinion.
16A: "It depends": I MAY.
17A: Fled to wed: ELOPED. Cute rhyme.
19A: Each: A POP.
20A: __ mignons: steaks: FILETS. I find it odd that the plural requires an S after both words.
24A: Wall St. trader: ARB. ARBitrageur, one who works different markets to profit from unequal prices of the same item.
25A: Like a tinkerer's kit, briefly: DIY. Do It Yourself.
26A: Try: ATTEMPT.
30A: Flips of hits: B SIDES. "Single Records" Although, sometimes the B side made it big, too.
34A: Frosty's button, e.g.: NOSE. Frosty the Snowman, "With a corn cob pipe and a buttoned nose and two eyes made out of coal..."
36A: "__ if I can help it!": NOT.
37A: Dental thread: FLOSS.
45A: "Total Request Live" airer: MTV. Music Television "I want my MTV".
46A: Arabian chief: EMIR.
47A: Low-cost home loan org.: FNMA. The Federal National Mortgage Association commonly known as Fannie Mae
52A: River mouth area: ESTUARY. They are located at the lower end of a river and are subject to tidal fluctuations, not necessarily just the delta area.
55A: Atmospheric pollution meas.: AQI. Air Quality Index
60A: Four pecks: BUSHEL. A Bushel and a Peck.
63A: Exude: EMIT.
64A: Caesar's 53: LIII.
65A: Orwell's "__ Farm": ANIMAL. British author George Orwell, pen name of Eric Arthur Blair, 1903-1950, wrote "Animal Farm" where the animals take over their farm but things become worse than they were before. He also wrote "Nineteen Eighty-Four".
66A: Au naturel: NUDE.
67A: Jose's hand: MANO. And 61D: Juan's one: UNO.
68A: Web surfing tools: MODEMS. Computer hardware.
69A: Letters on a phone's "0" button: OPER. OPERator
70A: Red sky, to sailors: OMEN. Red sky in the morning, sailor take warning. Red sky at night, sailor's delight.
Down:
1D: H.S. class with slides: BIO LAB. Biology class.
2D: Yellowish-brown colors: AMBERS.
3D: J. Edgar Hoover's org.: THE FBI.
4D: Country singer Axton: HOYT. Hoyt Axton. You might be surprised to learn he wrote "Joy to the World", the big Three Dog Night hit and "The Pusher". Steppenwolf's version was in the movie Easy Rider.
5D: Keyboard players: PIANISTS.
6D: Like a useless gas tank: EMPTY. I liked this one.
7D: Sodium hydroxide, to chemists: NaOH. Caustic soda solution, to laymen.
8D: Work at a keyboard: TYPE.
9D: Disprove: REFUTE.
10D: Online mailing tool: E-LIST. A direct mail list containing Internet addresses and used to distribute promotions messages over the Internet. Unknown to me.
11D: Volcanic output: MOLTEN LAVA.
14D: Cavity filler's deg.: DDS. Doctor of Dental Surgery.
22D: Imagine: IDEATE. If anybody finds this word out in the real world, let us know.
23D: Evil Vader: DARTH. Star Wars.
27D: Heath-covered wasteland: MOOR. Heath is evergreen shrubs such as common heather. A heath moor.
29D: Pianist John: TESH. Love him or hate him; he is good at what he does.
31D: "I'll finish it when finish it!": DON'T RUSH ME. And 58D: "Still in bed?" response: I'M UP. "Got teenagers?"
32D: Year in old Rome: ANNUM.
33D: Terra: COTTA.
37D: Magical object: FETISH. Synonyms: talisman, amulet.
38D: Cloud-nine feeling: GLEE.
39D: Pet food brand: IAMS. This is becoming a regular.
40D: Going __: squabbling: AT IT. See above.
41D: Where MoMA is: IN NYC. Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
42D: Rankle: EMBITTER.
47D: Bells and whistles: FRILLS.
49D: Green eggs and ham promoter: SAM I AM.
50D: Horse: EQUINE.
51D: "Play It As It Lays" author Joan: DIDION. The book is NOT about golf.
53D: Top-notch unit: A TEAM. "I pity the fool who didn't get this one" - AB
54D: Nastily derogatory: SNIDE. See above.
57D: Number-picker's game: KENO.
59D: Saint with a fire: ELMO.
60D: Emeril exclamation: BAM !
62D: Caesar of comedy: SID. 50's TV, "Your Show of Shows".
Answer grid.
Argyle
(Added later: Samantha Wine is another alias name of our editor Rich Norris. It's an anagram of "What's in a name". Thanks, Jerome.)
21A: Overtaken and easily surpassed: LEFT IN THE DUST
38A: Classic 1924 novel by Ole Rolvaag: GIANTS IN THE EARTH
56A: Old fogy: STICK IN THE MUD
(Note from C.C.: A special 16*15 grid to accommodate the central theme entry GIANTS IN THE EARTH, which has 16 letters. We had a similar clay-themed puzzle by Norma Steinberg earlier in January. Her theme entries are: MUD SLINGING, EARTH MOTHER, DIRT CHEAP & DUST DEVIL. Today's theme answers are even better, all of them contain "IN THE". Very nice.)
Back to Argyle.
Quite hard for a Monday, I thought.
GIANTS IN THE EARTH was O. E. Rolvaag's most influential novel. It chronicles the story of a group of Norwegian pioneers who make the long trek from a fishing village in Norway through Canada to Spring Creek, in Dakota Territory. The novel details the triumphs, hardships, and ultimate tragedies of South Dakota farmers as they try to wrest a livelihood from a land that, while fertile, often proves actively hostile to human habitation.
Rølvaag was born in Norway. An uncle who had emigrated to America sent him a ticket in 1896, and he traveled to South Dakota to work as a farmhand working as a farmhand until 1898. He earned a bachelor's degree and a master's from St. Olaf College.
Giants in the Earth is part of a trilogy.
Across:
1A: Relaxing soak: BATH.
5A: Confined, with "up": PENT. As in, 'PENT UP' emotions (take a relaxing soak). Cousin to 'penned in', restricted or confined.
9A: Send back, as into custody: REMAND. Often followed by, "Bail will be set at...."
15A: Chat room "I'm just saying ...": IMHO. In My Humble Opinion.
16A: "It depends": I MAY.
17A: Fled to wed: ELOPED. Cute rhyme.
19A: Each: A POP.
20A: __ mignons: steaks: FILETS. I find it odd that the plural requires an S after both words.
24A: Wall St. trader: ARB. ARBitrageur, one who works different markets to profit from unequal prices of the same item.
25A: Like a tinkerer's kit, briefly: DIY. Do It Yourself.
26A: Try: ATTEMPT.
30A: Flips of hits: B SIDES. "Single Records" Although, sometimes the B side made it big, too.
34A: Frosty's button, e.g.: NOSE. Frosty the Snowman, "With a corn cob pipe and a buttoned nose and two eyes made out of coal..."
36A: "__ if I can help it!": NOT.
37A: Dental thread: FLOSS.
45A: "Total Request Live" airer: MTV. Music Television "I want my MTV".
46A: Arabian chief: EMIR.
47A: Low-cost home loan org.: FNMA. The Federal National Mortgage Association commonly known as Fannie Mae
52A: River mouth area: ESTUARY. They are located at the lower end of a river and are subject to tidal fluctuations, not necessarily just the delta area.
55A: Atmospheric pollution meas.: AQI. Air Quality Index
60A: Four pecks: BUSHEL. A Bushel and a Peck.
63A: Exude: EMIT.
64A: Caesar's 53: LIII.
65A: Orwell's "__ Farm": ANIMAL. British author George Orwell, pen name of Eric Arthur Blair, 1903-1950, wrote "Animal Farm" where the animals take over their farm but things become worse than they were before. He also wrote "Nineteen Eighty-Four".
66A: Au naturel: NUDE.
67A: Jose's hand: MANO. And 61D: Juan's one: UNO.
68A: Web surfing tools: MODEMS. Computer hardware.
69A: Letters on a phone's "0" button: OPER. OPERator
70A: Red sky, to sailors: OMEN. Red sky in the morning, sailor take warning. Red sky at night, sailor's delight.
Down:
1D: H.S. class with slides: BIO LAB. Biology class.
2D: Yellowish-brown colors: AMBERS.
3D: J. Edgar Hoover's org.: THE FBI.
4D: Country singer Axton: HOYT. Hoyt Axton. You might be surprised to learn he wrote "Joy to the World", the big Three Dog Night hit and "The Pusher". Steppenwolf's version was in the movie Easy Rider.
5D: Keyboard players: PIANISTS.
6D: Like a useless gas tank: EMPTY. I liked this one.
7D: Sodium hydroxide, to chemists: NaOH. Caustic soda solution, to laymen.
8D: Work at a keyboard: TYPE.
9D: Disprove: REFUTE.
10D: Online mailing tool: E-LIST. A direct mail list containing Internet addresses and used to distribute promotions messages over the Internet. Unknown to me.
11D: Volcanic output: MOLTEN LAVA.
14D: Cavity filler's deg.: DDS. Doctor of Dental Surgery.
22D: Imagine: IDEATE. If anybody finds this word out in the real world, let us know.
23D: Evil Vader: DARTH. Star Wars.
27D: Heath-covered wasteland: MOOR. Heath is evergreen shrubs such as common heather. A heath moor.
29D: Pianist John: TESH. Love him or hate him; he is good at what he does.
31D: "I'll finish it when finish it!": DON'T RUSH ME. And 58D: "Still in bed?" response: I'M UP. "Got teenagers?"
32D: Year in old Rome: ANNUM.
33D: Terra: COTTA.
37D: Magical object: FETISH. Synonyms: talisman, amulet.
38D: Cloud-nine feeling: GLEE.
39D: Pet food brand: IAMS. This is becoming a regular.
40D: Going __: squabbling: AT IT. See above.
41D: Where MoMA is: IN NYC. Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
42D: Rankle: EMBITTER.
47D: Bells and whistles: FRILLS.
49D: Green eggs and ham promoter: SAM I AM.
50D: Horse: EQUINE.
51D: "Play It As It Lays" author Joan: DIDION. The book is NOT about golf.
53D: Top-notch unit: A TEAM. "I pity the fool who didn't get this one" - AB
54D: Nastily derogatory: SNIDE. See above.
57D: Number-picker's game: KENO.
59D: Saint with a fire: ELMO.
60D: Emeril exclamation: BAM !
62D: Caesar of comedy: SID. 50's TV, "Your Show of Shows".
Answer grid.
Argyle
(Added later: Samantha Wine is another alias name of our editor Rich Norris. It's an anagram of "What's in a name". Thanks, Jerome.)
