Monday, August 31, 2009 Norma Steinberg

Theme: Abracadabra

17A: Magician's deception: SMOKE AND MIRRORS

35A: Magician's deception: SLEIGHT OF HAND

52A: Magician's deception: OPTICAL ILLUSION

Also, a couple bonus words which are symmetrically placed in the grid. Perfect!

27D: "Pick a __, any ...": CARD.

35D: Magic act, for one: SHOW.

The cross-referenced fill END (28D: See 38-Down) and THE (38D: With 28-Down, novel conclusion) are also symmetrically gridded. Excellently done.

Argyle here.

A very nice start to the week. A lot of three letter entries that are words and not abbreviations. A minimum of foreign words. And so many songs I could link! (This is not for everybody. Hocus Pocus Dutch insanity.)

Across:

1A: Joplin piano piece: RAG. Scott Joplin, died 1917, was an African-American dubbed the "King of Ragtime." Ragtime is an original American musical genre whose main characteristic trait is its syncopated, or "ragged", rhythm. Maple Leaf Rag.

9A: Like a disreputable hotel: SEEDY.

14A: www address: URL. Uniform Resource Locator: a protocol for specifying addresses on the Internet.

15A: Pic: PHOTO.

16A: Knight's protection: ARMOR.

20A: Kept in reserve: SAVED.

21A: Dewy: MOIST.

23A: Really smart people: BRAINS.

29A: Old salt: TAR. Sailor

30A: Investigation: PROBE.

32A: Southern breakfast side: GRITS. Either you like 'em or you don't; nothing in between.

33A: Concurrence: ACCORD.

38A: Very brief briefs: THONGS. I don't know what to say. Images.

39A: Take in or let out: ALTER. No, not the cats.

40A: Improve, as skills: HONE.

42A: __ room: play area: REC. Should this have an indication that it's a shortened version of RECreation ?

45A: Lamb's mom: EWE.

46A: Like the person in a diet ad "after" picture: LEANER.

48A: Equipment: GEAR.

49A: "Grrr!" is one: SNARL.

51A: It's enough for Luigi: BASTA. Italian for Stop! Enough! ASSEZ in French.

57A: Finish second, in a race: PLACE. Usually in a horse race: First, WIN; second, PLACE; and third, SHOW.

58A: Inventor Howe: ELIAS. He patented the first American-made sewing machine.

59A: Payable: DUE.

60A: Natives of Ankara: TURKS. The capital of Turkey.

61A: Like oboe music: REEDY. Oh, okay.

62A: Little green men, briefly: ETS. ExtraTerrestrial being, originating outside the limits of the earth.

Down:

1D: Many an Idaho potato: RUSSET.

2D: Spanish fleet: ARMADA.

3D: Danny of "Lethal Weapon" films: GLOVER. Sergeant Roger Murtaugh.

4D: Floored it: SPED.

5D: "I have the answer!": AHA.

6D: Chaney of film: LON.

7D: Takeoff approx.: ETD. Estimated Time of Departure.

8D: Christina Crawford's "__ Dearest": MOMMIE. The story of growing up with Joan Crawford for a mother. Book and Film.

9D: Wrapped garments seen in Agra culture: SARIS. Agra District is one of the districts of Uttar Pradesh state of India, and home of the Taj Mahal. Aishwarya Rai (the World's Most Beautiful Woman) in red SARI, beautiful!

10D: Says "2x2= 5," say: ERRS.

11D: :-), e.g.: EMOTICON.

12D: Palme __: Cannes film prize: D'OR. "Golden Palm Leaf", awarded for the best film. Here are three pretty women at 2004 Cannes Film Festival: the most influentical Chinese actress Gong Li, again, Aishwarya Rai and French supermodel Laeticia Casta.

19D: Cyclotron bit: ION.

23D: Naval jails: BRIGS.

24D: __IRA: ROTH.

25D: Choose not to vote: ABSTAIN.

30D: Holier-than-thou type: PRIG. Synonyms: prude, puritan, bluenose.

32D: Wilder or Hackman: GENE.

33D: Subsequent to: AFTER.

34D: "Moonstruck" Oscar winner: CHER.

36D: Texas symbol: LONE STAR.

37D: Ye __ Tea Shoppe: OLDE.

41D: Square dance leader: CALLER. Bugs Bunny, Square Dance Caller.

42D: Live (at): RESIDE.

43D: Take the family to a restaurant: EAT OUT.

44D: Building site giants: CRANES.

46D: Shoestrings: LACES.

47D: The Gay Nineties, e.g.: ERA.

48D: "Fill 'er up" filler: GAS.

50D: Just in the __ of time: NICK.

51D: Occupied: BUSY.

53D: Like "mice" and "men": Abbr.: PLU. Plural. Nice play on John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men".

54D: Land in the Seine: ILE. Islands in a French river.

56D: Young guy: LAD

Argyle

Answer grid.

Picture of the Day: Here is great photo of our fellow LAT solver Jimbo and his family. He said: "Left to right, my son, his granddaughter, his son and "yours truly".

Sunday August 30, 2009 Dan Naddor

Theme: Organ Transplant - The organ is each organ-embedded common phrase is transplanted to another non-organ containing common phrase.

24A: Pool hall "Better luck next time"?: (HEART)FELT CONDOLENCES

30A: Sound of a breakup?: (EAR)SPLITTING NOISE

43A: Columbus college funds?: OHIO STATE BUCK(EYE)S

52A: Temper tantrum? (BRAIN)STORMING SESSION

73A: Steinway's idea for a large piano?: GRAND (BRAIN)CHILD

80A: Minimum for a Maybeline ad shoot?: FORTY (EYE)LASHES

91A: Place-marking lessons for readers? DOG(EAR) TRAINING

102A: Sorrows behind bars?: JAIL (HEART)BREAKS

Each of the organ is successfully transplanted to its grid symmetrical partner. Excellent!

I have never heard of base phrase FORTY LASHES, so I had a bit of trouble understanding 80A. Kidney is probably the most common type of organ plant. Steve Jobs (Apple CEO) has sparked a heated debate over his rather quick liver transplant.

There are quite a few nice long Down answers in this puzzle. I especially loved the below two-word entries:

16D: It's pressed in distress: PANIC BUTTON

61D: Segment of the western Pacific: CHINA SEAS

62D: Picnic side: POTATO SALAD

75D: "Twister" actress: HELEN HUNT

The answer just popped up to me with one or two letters filled in.

I really hope Dan will not change his style just to avoid annoying solvers with one or two obscure fills. Heavy themage, lots of non-theme fills of 6 or more letters (Dan Naddor Index) and low word count are his hallmarks.

It's like the predominance of yellow color in van Gogh's painting. It's just van Gogh. It's his style.

Across:

1A: "Satisfied?": HAPPY. Yes!

6A: Controversial initiation practice: HAZING

12A: Concert dancing areas: MOSH PITS. New phrases to me.

20A: What Mexican Olympians go for: EL ORO. "The gold" in Spanish.

21A: "Kick it up a notch!": EMERIL. "Bam"!

22A: Internal company info-sharing system: INTRANET

23A: Rockies music festival site: ASPEN. No idea. I always associate ASPEN with the ski resort and the ASPEN trees.

26A: Garish: LOUD

28A: Rock outcroppings: CRAGS

29A: Golfer Woosnam: IAN. Ha ha, I just mentioned the "hot-tempered Welsh golfer IAN" yesterday. But I misremembered his surname as Woosman.

33A: Elmer, to Bugs: DOC

35A: Squirreled-away item: ACORN

37A: Fighters' home: AIRBASE

41A: Body language?: TATTOO. Excellent clue.

48A: Colombian city: CALI. I have this image of CALI awash in drug dealing and kidnapping activities.

50A: Managed care gps: HMOS. Hopefully they will pay for your organ transplant.

57A: N.J. town on the Hudson: FT. LEE. Obtained the answer from Down fills.

58A: Junior: SON

59A: Itty-bitty bit: IOTA. And A TON (37D: Hardly hardly).

60A: They may be girded before battle: LOINS. Gird one's LOINS.

61A: Zagreb native: CROAT. Zagreb is the capital of Croatia.

62A: Furthermore: PLUS

65A: MP quarries: AWOLS. MP = Military Police.

67A: Text alternative: PHONE

68A: Romulus, e.g.: TWIN. Romulus & Remus are twins.

69A: AT&T rival, once: MCI. Acquired by Verizon in 2006.

76A: China setting: ASIA. "Japan setting" is better due to CHINA SEAS.

77A: Play a mean sax, say: WAIL. New definition to me.

78A: Stretching discipline: YOGA. Sanskrit for "union".

85A: Surgical solution: SALINE. Probably is needed for organ transplant.

87A: Back: ENDORSE. Don't you think Tiger Woods should ENDORSE Buick for free now?

90A: Concorde, e.g.: SST

99A: "24" superagent: BAUER. Jack BAUER. Played by Kiefer Sutherland.

100A: Markers: IOUS. I did not know "marker" is a slang for IOU.

106A: Cuban dance: RUMBA

107A: Taxpayer's headache: IRS AUDIT. Loved the answer.

108A: Go off on: RANT AT

109A: Diarist Nin: ANAIS

110A: Distribution slips?: MISDEALS. Poker I suppose.

111A: Ore appraisals: ASSAYS. Always thought ASSAY is a verb only.

113A: Old lab heaters: ETNAS

Down:

1D: Gets better: HEALS. Hope our fellow LAT solver Doreen is getting better now.

2D: 1940-'70s journalist Stewart: ALSOP. No idea. I do know his brother Joseph ALSOP though, from reading all those JFK books.

3D: Resident count: POPULATION

4D: Meteorologist, at time: PREDICTOR. Hmm, WM, add your comments here.

6D: "Battle Cry" actor Van: HEFLIN. Nope. Stranger to me. Wikipedia says he was also in "Shane".

8D: Woody Allen mockumentary: ZELIG. Simply forgot. Googled this film before. Woody Allen was dogged by the Soon-Yi distraction at Terry Gross's last "Fresh Air" interview.

9D: NYC subway line: IRT (Interborough Rapid Transit)

10D: Composer Paganini: NICCOLO. No idea. Bet this is a gimme for Crockett. He always nails those composer clues, including yesterday SUK (Czech composer Josef).

11D: Morning __: flowers: GLORIES. Mine have not bloomed yet.

12D: Gnatlike insect: MIDGE

14D: N.L. Central team: STL. St. Louis Cardinals. Albert Pujols is now a US citizen.

15D: Charlemagne's realm: Abbr.: HRE. OTTO I is the first HRE emperor.

17D:Machu Picchu builder: INCA

25D: "If I Ruled the Word" rapper: NAS. His original given name is NASIR.

27D: Just plain awful: ATROCIOUS

34D: Sun or Moon: ORB. Poetically.

38D: Amtrak's "bullet train": ACELA. The name is meant to be evocative of acceleration & excellence.

39D: It's similar to sporting clays: SKEET

40D: Salinger heroine: ESME. From his "For ESME – with Love and Squalor".

42D: Chorus line: ALTO. Nice play on "A Chorus Line".

44D: Old what's-__-name: HIS. I guessed. It's either HIS or HER. Don't understand the clue though. Why "Old"?

46D: Half of an old radio duo: AMOS. The other half is Andy. AMOS 'n' Andy.

49D: Farm workers? ANTS. Ant farm.

53D:__Bornes: card game: MILLE. Unknown to me. MILLE is just a thousand in French. Bornes is "boundary".

54D: John of England: ELTON. ELTON John. I was thinking of the toilet john.

56D: Cassette half: SIDE B

57D: Swiss capital: FRANC. "Capital" here refers to its money, not the capital city BERN. Switzland is not an EU memeber, so no EURO.

63D: Will: SHALL. Gosh, I can't believe the clue is this simple.

65D: Illegal firing?: ARSON. Barry Silk used this identical clue a while ago.

67D: __-dieu: PRIE. The prayer bench.

69D: Revolutionary soldier: MILITIAMAN

70D: The Kennedys, e.g.: CLANS. Timely clue.

71D: Loaf at work: IDLE. And RYE (74D: Loaf in a deli). Nice "loaf" echos.

73D: "Let's Get it On" singer: GAYE (Marvin). Here is the clip.

77D: Wild place?: WEST. Wild, Wild WEST. I thought Dan was talking about Minnesota Wild, our NHL hockey team.

81D: Jr. and sr.: YRS

82D: Subject with many unknowns: ALGEBRA. Stumped me.

83D: Milieu for John Muir, with "the": SIERRAS. John Muir founded the Sierra Club.

84D: "Isn't __ bit like you and me?": Beatles lyrics: HE A. No idea. It's from their "Nowhere Man".

86D: Request to Sajak: AN I. Wheel of Fortune. Vowels. AN A/E/I/O/U.

89D: Estate lawyer's specialty: TRUSTS. Because he knows how to set up trust fund?

91D: Dashes: DARTS

92D: In the open: OUT

93D: Rodeo rope: RIATA. Sometimes it's REATA.

94D: Wine mentioned in Hungary's national anthem: TOKAY. Oh, I was unaware of this fact. Have never heard of TOKAY wine either.

95D: Egypt-Sudan region: NUBIA. Verdi's Aida is set in NUBIA.

96D: Calm water metaphor: GLASS

98D: Catcall: HISS

99D: Leave quickly, in slang: BAIL. No idea. I wanted SCAT.

102D: Dandy dude?: JIM. JIM-dandy is new to me. Dictionary defines it as "one that is very pleasing or excellent of its kind".

104D: Author LeShan: EDA. This has become a gimme.

105D: USNA grad: ENS (Ensign)

106D: English singer Corinne Bailey __: RAE. Got her name from Across fills. She looks exotic.

Answer grid.

C.C.