Saturday August 22, 2009 Peter Wentz

Theme: None

Total blocks: 33

Total words: 72

Definitely an eased-up Saturday. I filled in so many blanks on the first pass. Loved the political flavor in this puzzle:

14A: Role in the film "W.": JEB BUSH. Very minor role. I don't like "W.", such a negative portrayal of Condi Rice.

45A: Leader with bouffant hairdo: KIM JONG-IL. Nailed it like it were OREO. He is grooming his son Kim Jong-un to be his successor.

59A: War on Poverty monogram: LBJ. I thought War on Poverty was one of FDR's New Deal programs.

2D: Front-page grabber: HEADLINE

34D: 1960 debate monogram: RMN. Did not know Nixon's middle initial: Richard Milhous Nixon.

45D: Post-Taliban president: KARZAI (Hamid). Wow, I always thought it's KARZIA.

58D: "Contract With America" first name: NEWT (Gingrich). A potential GOP 2012 presidential candidate.

I suppose you can add ABDULLAH (3D: Name meaning "servant of God") into the group too. The current king of Saudi Arabia is called ABDULLAH. I only knew ABDUL (as in Paula ABDUL) means "servant of".

Quite a scrabbly puzzle, with four J's, 1 Z & eight K's.

Across:

1A: "Bingo!": THAT'S IT. Nailed it with just letter H from the intersecting HEADLINE.

8A: Corn piece: COB

11A:. Links standard: PAR. Links & golf course are often used interchangeably, though links refers to a specific type.

15A: Griddle fare: HOECAKE. I've never had HOECAKE. Kind of like corn bread, isn't it?

17A: Went ape, like Bart Simpson: HAD A COW. No idea. "Don't have a cow, man!" showed up as a Bart Simpson quote when I googled.

18A: Not pointless: ON TOPIC

19A: Norfolk, Virginia, sch.: ODU (Old Dominion University). Unknown to me. Wikipedia says it derives its name from Virginia's official state nickname, "The Old Dominion", given to the state by King Charles II of England for remaining loyal to the crown during the English Civil War (1641-1651).

20A: Flair: KNACK. Jerome has a Flair/KNACK for anagram.

22A: Haunted castle sound: CLANK. CLANK from the chains of a prisoner once kept in the castle?

23A: It's a crock: OLLA. So true! But I was thinking of nonsense crock. Great clue.

25A: Contemporary of Agatha: ERLE

26A: Bookstore section: HOW-TO

27A: Firing places: KILNS

29A: "Cheers" actor: TED DANSON. Had trouble stringing his name together, though I've seen this picture at least 3 times.

31A: Perform on stage: ENACT

32A: Kicks: FUN

33A: Tries again, in court: REHEARS. Feels like the extra "in court" is just for me, since I could not understand the RETRY & "Hear again" connection last time.

36A: Make good on: PAY BACK

42A: Scrip spec: MED. Did not know scrip is short for prescription. I actually read the clue as "Script spec.".

44A: Act of insurance fraud, perhaps: ARSON. No "fire" play today.

51A: Legal search subject: TITLE

52A: Words after cut or close: A DEAL

53A: Vacationer's accumulation, perhaps: MAIL

57A: Title host of a talk show featuring dance routine: ELLEN. OK, here is Obama on ELLEN.

60A: Uses a MapQuest feature: ZOOMS IN

62A: Big name at the Peppermint Lounge: JOEY DEE. Big stumper. Have never heard of the Peppermint Lounge disco club, the home base of JOEY DEE and the Starliters, who recorded their #1 hit "Peppermint Twist" at the venue in the early 1960, according to Wikipedia.

64A: Down deep: AT HEART

65A: Impressive way to walk?: ON WATER. I actually knew the Biblical "walking ON WATER" story, but I was too dense to think outside of SWAGGER.

66A: Suffix with Marx.: ISM. Marxism, Leninism & Chairman Mao Thought, the stuff I grew up with.

67A: "The Royal Tenenbaums" director Anderson: WES. Gimme, though I've yet to see the movie.

68A: Do some strategic schmoozing: NETWORK. Great clue.

Down:

1D: '80s William Shatner cop series: T.J. HOOKER. Another stumper for me. Someone might have mentioned this TV series on the blog before.

4D: Sched. question mark: TBA

5D: What toadies do, with "up": SUCK

6D: "That __ for the record books": IS ONE

7D: Block: THWART. My first reaction is STYMIE.

8D: Emotionally overcome: CHOKED UP

9D: Suffix with ball: OON. Balloon.

10D: "You __!": "Certainly": BETCHA. Ah, Minnesota!

11D: Fruit also called "prairie bananas": PAPAWS. Same as papaya? I don't know. Papaya tastes so different from banana.

12D: Very much like: AKIN TO

13D: S'pose: RECKON. The clue seems to indicate an abbreviated answer.

16D: Time punctuation: COLON. So simple in retrospect. 5:30, the middle two dots.

21D: Score symbol: CLEF

24D: Suffix with govern: ANCE. Governance. MENT won't fit.

28D: London's Victoria, e.g.: Abbr.: STA. No idea. Victoria Station is the second busiest railway terminus after Waterloo.

30D: ___ sequencing: DNA

35D: Parts: SEGMENTS

37D: China's Sun __-sen: YAT. He dethroned the last emperor of China. Brother-in-law of Chiang Kai-shek.

38D: Boater feature: BRIM. The boater hat, not the one who boats.

39D: Words on some autobiographies: AS TOLD TO. Mine was A MEMOIR(E). Wrong spelling to boot.

40D: Stadium vendor's cry: COLD BEER. Great answer.

41D: Unthinking: KNEE-JERK. I penned in HEEDLESS. Obviously I was unthinking.

43D: Regulating gadget: DIAL. For radio I suppose.

46D: Fools: IDIOTS

47D: Large unit of resistance: MEGOHM. Guessed. OHM is often clued as "unit of resistance".

48D: "The Bionic Woman" __ Sommers: JAIME. Have never heard of "The Bionic Woman". J'AIME ce nom, lovely.

49D: Familiar adage: OLD SAW

50D: "Crunk Juice" rapper: LIL JON. Nope. Looks so noisy.

54D: West African currency: LEONE. Currency for Sierra LEONE. Got me.

61D: Face reddener: IRE

63D: Deviate: YAW. As a ship/aircraft. Pitch, roll & YAW. I can never remember which line is for which.

Answer grid.

Picture of the Day: Here is another great photo of our fellow solvers visiting the Spruce Goose. From left to right: Dick's wife Irene, Dick, Carol and Carol's husband Joe.

C.C.

Friday August 21, 2009 Dan Naddor

Theme: 'N Sync (N is replaced by NN)

17A: "Cimarron" actress Irene's carriage?: DUN(N)E BUGGY. Knew Irene DUNNE. Not familiar with DUNE BUGGY ("The Other Woman" sounds sweet). It's used on sand dunes/beaches.

23A: Makers of knockoff artillery?: CAN(N)ON COPIERS. Had never heard of Ricoh until I came to the US. Xerox and CANON were the popular copier brands in China.

32A: Nordic winter wear?: FIN(NI)SH COAT. Nokia is all I know about Finland.

40A: Airer of fashion infomercials?: COCO CHAN(N)EL. Had lots of trouble obtaining this entry, despite seeing Clear Ayes' CHANNEL for CASSINI ("In My Own Fashion" autobiographer") mistake last Sunday. CHANEL once said "Simplicity is the keynote of all true elegance." So true.

50A: Film festival city guidebook for pedestrians?: WALKING CAN(N)ES. CANNES Film Festival.

59A: Cruise down the Rhine, perhaps?: BON(N) VOYAGE. BONN is former capital of Western Germany. On the Rhine River.

Another special 15*16 grid. One extra row to accommodate the overlapped theme answers FINNISH COAT and COCO CHANNEL.

Dan mentioned that he always shoots for at least 20 entries of 6-letter or more in his puzzle. I counted a total of 24 in today's grid.

Bumpy ride. As planned yesterday, I dived into the lower right corner immediately and got BONN VOYAGE in no time. Found no unifying answer there, then returned north and got DUNNE BUGGY. Then I noticed the extra N pattern. Unfortunately it did not help me with the other 4 theme answers at all.

Quite a few obscure words/abbreviations for me in the grid.

Across:

1A: Dear columnist? ABBY. Dear ABBY.

5A: Neighborhood near TriBeCa?: SOHO. TriBeCa stands for Triangle Below Canal Street.

9A: Alternative to Hires: DAD'S. Root beer brands.

13A: SST nose feature: DROOP. Wikipedia says DROOP nose was a distinctive feature of Concorde. And pilot would lower the nose to improve visibility of the runway and taxiway. When in flight, the nose would be raised. New term to me.

15A: À tout __: at all costs: PRIX. Simply "price" in French, as in PRIX fixe.

16A: Aunt with a "Cope Book": ERMA. From ERMA Bombeck.

19A: Worker's end-of-week cry: TGIF. Proper for a Friday puzzle.

20A: Abbr. in some Canadian place names: STE. In Québec or other French speaking places.

21A: 2002 Best New Artist Grammy winner Jones: NORAH. Very nice "Are You Lonesome Tonight?". NORAH Jones is the daughter of Ravi Shankar, the sitarist.

26A: Masters partner: JOHNSON. Stumped. The Masters and JOHNSON was a research team (William Masters & Virginia E. JOHNSON). They pioneered research into the nature of human sexual response and the diagnosis and treatment of sexual disorders and dysfunctions from 1957 until the 1990s, a la Wikipedia.

29A: Film director Petri: ELIO. Big stumper. Have never heard of this Italian film director. He died in 1982, the year TV entered my world.

30A: D'backs and Cards: NLERS. Diamondbacks & Cardinals: National Leaguers.

39A: "Bambi" character: ENA: Bambi's aunt.

42A: Promotes: SELLS. OK, Obama promotes/SELLS his heath care plan. I had problem understanding the connection.

43A: Prefix meaning height: ACRO. As in acrobat/acrophobia.

44A: "No kidding!": THAT SO. Can you give me an example of how these two are synonymous? I've never heard of THAT SO.

47A: With sophistication: SUAVELY

53A: "80's Ladies" country singer K. T.: OSLIN. Knew her name, not the song.

54A: Eager, in dialect: RARIN'. RARIN' to go.

58A: Fish's last meal?: BAIT. Great clue. Got me.

61A: "__ the picture!": I GET

62A: Car with a four-ring logo: AUDI. Very straightforward clue.

63A: Greek New Ager: YANNI. Enya & YANNI, the only two New Agers I know. YANNI attended University of Minnesota.

64A: Deep-six: TOSS. Origin for deep-six (discard): a burial at sea (where the body is weighted to force it to the bottom) requires a minimum of six fathoms of water.

65A: Column-lined pedestrian way: STOA. Alright, here is the STOA of Attalos in Athens. Of Doric order.

66A: Spunkmeyer of cookie fame: OTIS. Total stranger to me.

Down:

2D: Moët et Chandon label word: BRUT. Literally "very dry".

3D: Elegant tableware: BONE CHINA

4D: Over there, old-style: YON. Hither and YON.

5D: Encourage: SPUR ON

6D: Heart, e.g.: ORGAN. And UNIV (48D:: Harvard, e.g.: Abbr.). Same style of cluing.

7D: Impressive note: HIGH C. Wikipedia says it's also called Soprano C.

8D: Moronic intro?: OXY. Oxymoronic.

9D: Holds for questioning: DETAINS

11D: Composer Shostakovich: DMITRI. Got his name with Across help.

12D: Like AAA-rated bonds, as bonds go: SAFEST

14D: Actor Sean et al: PENNS. The only non-theme NN answer in the grid. (Update: YANNI too).

18D: Activist Chaz: BONO. D'oh. Chastity BONO. Sonny & Cher's daughter. LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) activist. She is going to have a gender swap surgery and officially become a "he".

22D: Peloponnesian War victor: SPARTA. Easy guess. Not familiar with that ancient Greek war. It's fought between SPARTA and the Athens.

24D: Author. unknown: ANON

25D: Belief involving sorcery: OBEAH (OH-bee-uh). New word to me. Dictionary says it's practiced in some parts of the West Indies, Jamaica, and nearby tropical America. Kind of like Voodoo, isn't it?

26D: Boss, in Spanish: JEFE. Also new to me. It's pronounced like HE-fe.

27D: "thirtysomething" actor Ken: OLIN. Nope. Have never heard of this guy or TV series "thirtysomething".

30D: Some PX patrons: NCOS. PX is Post Exchange.

31D: __ cit.: footnote abbr.: LOC

33D: Strands at a chalet, perhaps: ICES IN

34D: Athenian reformer: SOLON. No idea. Wikipedia outlines a bunch of constitutional, economic, moral reforms he conducted but failed.

35D: Acid in gastric juice, chemically: HCL (Hydrocholoric). Absolutely no idea.

36D: Nonstop: INCESSANT

37D: Jazzman Saunders: MERL. Obtained his name with Across fills. What's the model of his car?

41D: Church area: NAVE

42D: Leeward Island north of Nevis: ST. KITTS. I am going to eat worms if I forget this name again.

44D: Small-time: TWO-BIT. Both the clue and answers are new to me. Only know "Big time". TWO-BITS is also a slang for a quarter. (Thanks, Bryan.)

45D: Tries one's hand (at): HAS A GO. Alas, multiple-word problem again.

46D: Unites (with): ALLIES

47D: Lake Huron port in Canada: SARNIA. I forgot. It's clued as "Largest city on Lake Huron" last time. See this map. Northeast of Detroit.

51D: Tiler's need: GROUT. Thin, coarse mortar. New to me.

52D: Positive-thinking: CAN-DO. Like Dennis's attitude.

56D: Lambs: Lat.: AGNI. Did not know the plural of Agnus is AGNI. Agnus Dei (Lamb of God).

57D: Floral rings: LEIS

59D: Box score figs.: BAS. BA stands for Batting Average in baseball or "Blocks Against" in basketball. (Thanks, Dennis & Argyle).

60D: Shanghai-born NBAer: YAO. His surname. Chinese put surname first.

Answer grid.

Picture of the Day: Here is a great wedding photo of our fellow solver Linda. In her own words: "L to R: Brides Parents, bride and groom (our youngest son,) moi and hubby."

C.C.