Saturday, Aug 4th, 2012, Joe DiPietro

(Note from C.C.: Cruciverb & some your local papers have the incorrect grid, hence the perplexing comments in Splynter's write-up. Here is the correct answer grid. Splynter's grid looks like this. A pair of symmetrically placed letters, the D in HOSTED (33A, clued as "Moderated") and the M in MAILED (37A, clued as "Sent") were accidentally blacked out. Two missing Down entries: EDU (31D, clued as "URL ending") & HMO (32D, clued as "Wellness gp."). Please click here for the correct Across Lite file.)

Theme: None

Words: 68

Blocks: 31

Ah, so this is what it feels like to get beaten up mentally....took me an extra 2 minutes beyond my 'personal' allotted time, and that was after switching over to red-letter after two passes, and all too pale. There was just too much vagueness and/or ambiguity in the clues for me. Plus, there's what I would call "orphaned" letters ( no perpendicular crossing clues ) in this puzzle, which I thought was a construction no-no, found in the 11-letter spanners;

30A. Does some wedding planning : SETS THE DATE - meh, I filled this in early, and it stayed, but doesn't really strike me as "some" wedding planning; more like THE wedding plan

36A. Where a collector may browse : ANTIQUE SHOP

So onward with what 35acrossed me....

ACROSS:

1. Letter in red and violet : SHORT E - dah~! filled this and still didn't get it, until the separation between the T & E came to me; rĕd and violĕt

7. Moves right for, say : LETS PASS - how annoying is it when someone is cruising at 55-60 in the fast lane? Please, please, move right, and let us pass ~!

15. One-dimensional : LINEAR - I overthought this; AutoCAD-wise, a line has a starting point, and a direction, hence more than 'one' dimension....

16. Even further evidence : EXHIBIT C - when your first two examples are just not enough

17. Ideal conditions : OPTIMA - filled it, didn't like it, had to keep it.

18. Sailor : SEAFARER

19. __ Mints : THIN - stuck on "breath" and "junior", but like Calvin said in the comic strip the other day, I had to write really small to get it to fit....

20. Came out with something : SAID IT - and I am not going to SAY IT....

22. Daisy __ : MAE

23. Friend, in slang : HOMIE

25. Reacts to errors, maybe : BOOS - sporting events; in hockey, it's usually a response to poor officiating

26. Only : MERE

27. Used : SPENT

28. Burma's first prime minister : U NU - this guy

29. 1956 title monster : RODAN - oh yeah, nailed it~!



31. Chilean island south of Tierra del Fuego : HOSTE - map

35. Suffered : AILED

40. Little sedative? : TRANQuilizer - ugh, I guess

41. Uppermost number, sometimes : XII - the last "I" was there, and so I switched to Roman numeral thinking, and then the clock fell off the wall and clocked me in the head; 12, at the top of the dial

42. Take out, in a way : EJECT - THROW out, yes; take out = EVICT, ERASE, EXTRACT....

47. Implores : BEGS

48. '70s TV co-host : CHER - with Sonny, so long ago

49. Court game using mallets : ROQUE - the Wiki; sounds like fun - I will have to build one in the big space in the backyard where the old shed once stood

50. Mirror : APE - new clue for an old fill

51. Bluish purples : MAUVES - in my part of the world, mauve is reddish purple, so this one was blank a very long time; according to the standard RGB numbers, there is more B than R

53. Repeated words from one who's been rebuffed : BUTS - but, but, but....

54. "Can't use it" : NOT FOR ME

56. Sign up : ENLIST - had ENROLL, screwed me up for a long time

58. Laura Innes's "ER" role : DR. WEAVER - didn't watch, couldn't begin to guess - but once I had D_WEAVER, the "R" was the only logical solution

59. Unification Church member : MOONIE - can you guess where the name came into play from this link?

60. Most thickset : STOUTEST - I mis-read this about 3 times before I saw thick SET - so I was trying DUMBEST, etc.

61. Aim : INTEND - the verb; I aim to please with my blogging.

Down:

1. Armadillo relatives : SLOTHS

2. Rap : HIP-HOP - meh, two different musical genres, if you ask me - then again, the Beastie Boys ain't "gangsta" rap; R.I.P. Adam Yauch

3. Prompt : ON TIME

4. Get to slow down : REIN IN

5. One may be worn with a kilt : TAM - hey, I got one, first pass ~!

6. Significant stretches : ERAS

7. Tissue problems : LESIONS

8. Removed : EXED OUT - and spelled out, this time

9. Rama IX subjects : THAIs - Mentally mired in Ramses, and therefore Egyptian thoughts kept popping up; also, isn't there a space program that has a name like this, too - Husker?

10. Pan for gold, say : SIFT

11. Gp. found in alleys : PBA - well, I knew it referred to bowling, but that it wasn't ABA, or WBA - I'll bet Boomer know all about the Professional Bowler's Association

12. Reward for an ace : AIR MEDAL - ugh, really???

13. Hydrogenated oil : STEARATE - I had -----RATE, and WAGed from there

14. Checked (for) : SCREENED & clecho 46D. Checked (for) : TESTED

21. Sit next to : ABUT

24. And those that follow, in notes : ET SEQQ - for those who "ugh"ed at this one, we have seen it before on the blog; half way down this page

26. __ operandi : MODI - well, I know it's modUS, but guessed the Latin plural counts, too - method-S of operations.?.?.?

29. Grim character? : REAPER - I like the Family Guy version the best

31. Trilby circlets : HATBANDS - sort of a small Fedora



32. Not favorably written up : ON REPORT - meh, to me, "on report" means probation

33. Second leg : STAGE TWO

34. Cookie holders : TINS

37. Brings to light : EXHUMES

38. Radiation dose unit : SIEVERT - see here

39. Bring in : HIRE

43. Unit of assorted merchandise : JOB LOT

44. Mustang, for one : EQUINE - yeah, but I like the FORD CAR better



45. Interrupts on the floor : CUTS IN

48. Slice : CARVE

51. Zoo protection : MOAT

52. One of two decisive games : SEMI

55. Blaise's blaze : FEU - French for fire; we had one going tonight; and clecho #2 ↓

57. Blaise's brush-off : NON

Answer grid.

Splynter

Friday, August 3, 2012 Bruce Sutphin

Theme: The Leith Police dismisseth us.

A very cool theme today - three anagrams of the unifier, which itself alludes to the fact that the answers to the first three are "twisted", or anagrams!

19A. Novice chocolatier's lessons? : SWEET TUTORING

23A. Walks in the rain, vis-à-vis fair-day activities? : WETTER OUTINGS

44A. Vacations led by Twitter? : TWEETING TOURS

and the unifier:

50A. Speaker's challenge scrambled three times in this puzzle : TONGUE TWISTER

Happy Friday, everyone. Steve here on stand-in duty for Lemonade. I love anagrams, and I really liked these three and the clever reveal. The theme I chose is reputedly the most difficult tongue-twister in the English language. Give it a try and see how you do!

Now let's take a look at the rest (Red Buick, Blue Buick)

Across:

1. University of Georgia athlete, familiarly : DAWG. The Bulldogs in polite circles.

5. Scorned paper : RAG

8. Ticket holder with a conflict, maybe : NO-SHOW. This whole section was hard work for me, but I liked everything when it finally fell into place.

14. In opposition : AVERSELY

16. Self-loathing direction : INWARD

17. "Just curious" : NO REASON

18. Note sentiment : THANKS

21. Pres. between JAG and GC : CAA. Chester Alan Arthur, who came between James Abram Garfield and Grover Cleveland.

22. It might be closed due to flooding : ROAD

29. Med. land : ISR. Neither Israel nor Mediterranean are the easiest place names to reliably spell correctly.

31. "... __ he drove out of sight" : ERE. From "The night before Christmas" by Clement Moore.

32. Mena of "American Beauty" : SUVARI. Crosses all the way. I will NEVER remember this actress's name!

33. Endured : STOOD

36. Tar on a deck : GOB

38. Mantle's number : SEVEN. The Yankee's Hall of Fame Center Fielder had three nicknames - "The Mick", "The Commerce Comet" and simply "Muscles".

39. Hardly unexpected : NOT NEW

41. Threw one's hat in the ring : RAN

43. Head start? : EGG. Egghead.

48. Internet game site : POGO. Again, crosses for me. Never heard of this.

49. __ Balls: Hostess treats : SNO

56. Of an upper heart chamber : ATRIAL. This took a bit of digging out from the recesses of the brain. I kept coming up with AORTAL and knew it wasn't right.

58. Tab, for one : DIET COLA. I remembered this being clear, but I didn't remember it being low-calorie.

59. Eyre's creator : BRONTE. This was Charlotte's most famous novel. I think I might have mentioned before that I had to read this in English Literature class when I was 14, and it put me off 19th-century fiction for years.

60. "Enough already" : OKAY OKAY

61. Luxury accommodations : SUITES

62. Charles River sch. : M.I.T. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology sits on the north bank of the Charles River, Harvard on the south. I always imagined the students sitting on the river banks insulting each other with calculus problems and rhetoric.

63. Ocean current sources? : EELS. Great clue!

Down:

1. Dapper dressers? : DANS. My aptly-named friend Dan is very dapper, so this was a gimme.

2. Say it is so : AVOW

3. "__ off!" : WE'RE. Schoolboy sniggering here for a four-letter word that would fit. The gentleman in seat 4A on the 8:45PM United flight from Salt Lake City to LAX tonight was probably wondering what on earth was wrong with me.

4. Where Olympus rises : GREECE

5. Make clearer, hopefully : RESTATE

6. Baseball's Jesus : ALOU. Any relation to Moses? I assume so, but ...

7. Ibsen title character : GYNT. Henrick's protagonist Peer. Check out the libretto to Grieg's "Hall of the Mountain King" from his operatic interpretation of the play, although it will probably ruin your breakfast.

8. Dentistry number, familiarly : NITROUS. I didn't quite understand this clue/answer. I know Nitrous Oxide is Laughing Gas and was used as an anesthetic back in the (my) day, but ...(From C.C.: numb-er here, it numbs.)

9. Taking a break : ON HIATUS. All the shows recorded at the studios close to where I live go on hiatus around May, and return about now. The hiatus weeks are notable for the pleasingly quieter restaurants, bars and traffic!

10. Graceful plunge : SWAN DIVE

11. Wait around : HANG

12. Sitcom world : ORK. "Nanu Nanu! Mork, from the planet Ork." The incomparable Robin Williams in Mork and Mindy.

13. OED listing : WDS. I need help with this one. Oxford English Dictionary I get. WDS I think is an abbreviation for "Words"? But that's plural, and the clue is "listing" singular? I know I'm missing something here.

15. Occupied, as a desk : SAT AT

20. Los Juegos Olímpicos prize : ORO. Did you see the Mexican synchronized diving pair? They didn't win Gold at the London Olympics, but wow, they were amazing!

23. Penned : WROTE. Usually, it's a she, and that's all she does.

24. Physics unit : ERG

25. Corp. change : RE-ORG. Right after a corporation does this, you can bet your bottom dollar there's going to be some downsizing, or rightsizing, or whatever is the latest euphemism.

26. Pew areas : NAVES.

27. Oldest Brady Bunch kid : GREG. Another "thank goodness for crosses" example for me today

28. Rat : SING

29. Kid's comeback : ISN'T. "IS TO" held me back for a little while before I RESTATED my answer.

30. Get into a hold : STOW. Really nice clue, had me puzzled for a good while.

34. Tight game difference : ONE POINT. I was trying to think of a sport when a one-point difference wasn't going to be close - the best I could come up with was duelling with pistols, on the assumption that you're not going to come back from a one-point deficit. (I think duelling is next week in the Olympics, right?)

35. Blow up : DETONATE

37. Step to the plate : BAT. Now this really bothers me for such an innocuous part of the fill, but - GO INTO BAT, or STEP UP TO BAT or ... but just BAT?

40. Wavy lines : WIGGLES

42. "Consider it done" : NO SWEAT

45. __-turn : NO U. Conversely, for such an innocuous piece of the fill, I loved this.

46. Show of strength : UNITY

47. 1977 Australian Open champ Tanner : ROSCOE. Golly, but he had a serve! He could crush that ball with a wooden racquet! I swear he'd give any player today a run for their money if they had to play with his equipment.

50. "Star Trek: T.N.G." role : TROI. Attaboy crosses!

51. Kingdom south of Moab : EDOM. Yay crosses!

52. Torch type : TIKI

53. Tip for a dealer : TOKE. A new meaning of the word "toke" for me. Enough said.

54. Mideast flier : EL AL

55. Beams : RAYS

56. They may be sculpted : ABS. Interestingly, I don't think you can sculpt one Ab, you have to work on them collectively.

57. 1989-'90 Broadway biodrama : TRU. Not the most critically-acclaimed of Broadway shows. Truman Capote was a complex character, and the play - well, today you'd Facebook or Tweet "Fail" and move on.

Answer grid.

And (Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Pepper) - that's all HE wrote. Have a great day, everyone! (The sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick).

Steve

Note from C.C.:

Happy Birthday to the beautiful Melissa Bee, who continues to delight us with her lovely & fun write-up despite all the technical difficulties. I also love this photo very much. So ethereal and fey.