Theme: The Boxer Rebellion.
Bernice Gordon turned 98 in January of this year! She usually constructs early week puzzles, so it is a great honor to write up this Thursday offering. Four grid-spanning theme entries define the common word BOXER, and she gives us a pangram just for good measure. Impressive!
17A. BOXERS : FIGHTERS IN A RING. Pow!
26A. BOXERS : SHORTS WORN BY MEN. Wow!
43A. BOXERS : POWERFUL CANINES. Bow!
56A. BOXERS : SHIPPING WORKERS. Now?
Marti here for your Thursday dissection. Let's see what Ms. Gordon has to offer us.
Across:
1. Pilgrim to Mecca : HAJI. One who had completed the Hajj (pilgrimage) to Mecca is called a hajji (alternate spellings: haji, hadji).
5. Pop singer Miley : CYRUS. She gained fame as Miley Stewart / Hannah Montana on the Disney channel.
10. Window part : PANE. Damn you JazzBumpa! I automatically filled in "sill" without even looking at the downs!
14. Blackberry lily's family : IRIS
15. First lady before Michelle : LAURA. Bush. Michelle Obama.
16. Caddie's suggestion : IRON. My caddie's suggestion? "Take up tennis!"
20. They're seen on airport carousels : IDS. Identification tags on luggage.
21. Sculling tools : OARS
22. It gets into a lather : RAZOR. Fun clue, had me going for a minute.
23. Suggestion opener? : AUTO. Auto-suggestion, or the art of self-hypnosis.
24. Former Heathrow-based flier : BOAC. British Overseas Airway Company, merged with British European Airways in 1974 to form British Airways. And 59-Down - Merged Dutch airline : KLM. Can you say Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij N.V.? Now merged with Air-France.
33. Some coins : CENTS. Makes sense to me.
34. Holliday and a dwarf : DOCS. I love it when a plural proper noun can have such a fun clue.
35. Single : ONE. One hundred cents?
36. Join forces : ALLY
37. Corpulent : OBESE. That's just wrong...
39. Not perjured : TRUE
40. Padua possessive : MIO. Not Neapolitan? 3:22
41. One of the Marxes : KARL. I laughed out loud at this one - I went through all five Marx Brothers before I realized Ms. Gordon was pulling my leg!
42. Drawn weapon : SWORD. Did you read the article? She once got an editor fired writing a clue as "The ___ mightier than the sword..."
47. Extreme desire : LUST. What do you lust for?
48. Team that pulls together : OXEN
49. Bottom deck : ORLOP. Maybe Spitzboov can elucidate. Isn't that the deck where the crew usually sleeps?
52. Old Broadway title beau : ABIE. A Jewish fellow and an Irish Catholic gal marry, despite their family's objections. Hilarity ensues.
Bernice Gordon turned 98 in January of this year! She usually constructs early week puzzles, so it is a great honor to write up this Thursday offering. Four grid-spanning theme entries define the common word BOXER, and she gives us a pangram just for good measure. Impressive!
17A. BOXERS : FIGHTERS IN A RING. Pow!
26A. BOXERS : SHORTS WORN BY MEN. Wow!
43A. BOXERS : POWERFUL CANINES. Bow!
56A. BOXERS : SHIPPING WORKERS. Now?
Marti here for your Thursday dissection. Let's see what Ms. Gordon has to offer us.
Across:
1. Pilgrim to Mecca : HAJI. One who had completed the Hajj (pilgrimage) to Mecca is called a hajji (alternate spellings: haji, hadji).
5. Pop singer Miley : CYRUS. She gained fame as Miley Stewart / Hannah Montana on the Disney channel.
10. Window part : PANE. Damn you JazzBumpa! I automatically filled in "sill" without even looking at the downs!
14. Blackberry lily's family : IRIS
15. First lady before Michelle : LAURA. Bush. Michelle Obama.
16. Caddie's suggestion : IRON. My caddie's suggestion? "Take up tennis!"
20. They're seen on airport carousels : IDS. Identification tags on luggage.
21. Sculling tools : OARS
22. It gets into a lather : RAZOR. Fun clue, had me going for a minute.
23. Suggestion opener? : AUTO. Auto-suggestion, or the art of self-hypnosis.
24. Former Heathrow-based flier : BOAC. British Overseas Airway Company, merged with British European Airways in 1974 to form British Airways. And 59-Down - Merged Dutch airline : KLM. Can you say Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij N.V.? Now merged with Air-France.
33. Some coins : CENTS. Makes sense to me.
34. Holliday and a dwarf : DOCS. I love it when a plural proper noun can have such a fun clue.
35. Single : ONE. One hundred cents?
36. Join forces : ALLY
37. Corpulent : OBESE. That's just wrong...
39. Not perjured : TRUE
40. Padua possessive : MIO. Not Neapolitan? 3:22
41. One of the Marxes : KARL. I laughed out loud at this one - I went through all five Marx Brothers before I realized Ms. Gordon was pulling my leg!
42. Drawn weapon : SWORD. Did you read the article? She once got an editor fired writing a clue as "The ___ mightier than the sword..."
47. Extreme desire : LUST. What do you lust for?
48. Team that pulls together : OXEN
49. Bottom deck : ORLOP. Maybe Spitzboov can elucidate. Isn't that the deck where the crew usually sleeps?
52. Old Broadway title beau : ABIE. A Jewish fellow and an Irish Catholic gal marry, despite their family's objections. Hilarity ensues.
53. Canada's largest prov. in area : QUE.bec. Map, so you can see for yourself.
60. Hoard, say : SAVE. Anyone watch "Hoarders"?
61. "Air Music" Pulitzer winner, 1976 : ROREM. Ned.
62. Screened fuzz : LINT. Oh, great clue! Who just mentioned the other day, that they thought lint was composed of missing socks? C'mon...you know who you are!
63. Copied : APED
64. Q-tips : SWABS. We all know where not to put them!
65. ___ en scene: stage setting : MISE. From the French "to place".
Down:
1. Music maker : HI-FI. I filled in "Harp" from the "h" off HAJI. grr...
2. Nothing like swampland : ARID.
3. Lively dances : JIGS
4. Suffix suggesting degree : -ISH. Ish thish how I shpeak when I have had a great degree to drink?
5. Some athletic shoes : CLEATS. Do any of you other golfers still have metal cleats? Our course banned them long ago. I don't miss them at all.
6. Plant with feathery leaves : YARROW. I have some in my garden. Lovely!
7. It spans nine time zones: Abbr. : RUSS.ia. Here's the map. (Can't find 9? Check out the little teal-colored blip on the left side.)
8. Ocean State sch. : URI. University of Rhode Island. Gimme.
9. Leader of Jose and Juan? : SAN. Fun clue for a crossword staple. San Jose and San Juan.
10. Maritime crime : PIRACY. Don't sail off the coast of Somalia!
11. St. that turned 100 in February : ARIZ.ona. Oh! I was thinking of St. Valentine!
12. Forbidden thing : NO-NO
13. One working on the RR : ENGR. Abbr. for "Engineer". Working on the railroad.
18. Tipsters : TOUTS. One who "touts" his skill at predicting the outcome of races, and sells those tips to desperate bettors.
19. Most Lebanese : ARABS
23. Superficially cultured : ARTY
24. Family business abbr. : BROS. Brothers.
25. Start of a story : ONCE. upon a time...
26. Troublemaker : SCAMP
27. Sun: Pref. : HELIO
28. Keeping food warm, as an oven : ON LOW
29. Children's author Scott : O'DELL. Don't know him. I was more into Nancy Drew mysteries...
30. Dimwit : MORON. And 37-Down: Bozos : OAFS.
31. Habituate : ENURE
32. They can't be ignored : NEEDS. What do you need?
38. Cologne first launched by Faberge : BRUT
39. Baseballer named for two cities : TWIN. Minneapolis and St. Paul are the Twin Cities.
41. Essen industrial family name : KRUPP. 400-year old German dynasty of manufacturers. Not to be confused with the Krups coffee maker - that's a different family.
42. Look of scorn : SNEER. JazzBumpa, you explained "leer" and "ogle" so well yesterday!
44. Fled to Gretna Green, say : ELOPED. Gretna Green is the Las Vegas of Scotland.
45. Finespun trap : COBWEB
46. Self-evident truths : AXIOMS
49. Greek mount : OSSA. Mount Ossa. Beautiful!
50. Gershwin wrote one "in Blue":Abbr. : RHAP. I never knew Gershwin was into rhap music. 7:03
51. Risky, TV show-wise : LIVE. Other than the news, are any shows still "live"?
52. Indian city on the banks of the Yamuna : AGRA. India - city - four letters: agra.
53. Cunard flagship for 35 yrs. : QEII. Queen Elizabeth II. She was re-fitted to help the troops in The Falklands. Then she was revamped again and sailed until she was retired in 2008.
54. Samovars : URNS.
55. Tivoli's Villa d'___ : ESTE. This place. You can see why it is a UNESCO world heritage site.
57. Taxing org. : IRS. Thank goodness that's over for me this year. Anyone file an extension?
58. The present : NOW. This instant! (Sorry - gotta go!)
Answer grid.
Hugs,
Marti
Note from C.C.:
Here is a lovely picture outside Dummy Dennis' condo. He has his breakfast in the deck every morning. Heavenly!
