(Note from C.C.: D. Scott Nichols is Argyle, who guides us through all Monday & Tuesday puzzles.)
Theme: There U go again! The letter "U" is repeated in the second word of each of the theme entries:
17A. Mischievous girl in classic comics : LITTLE LULU. Lulu Moppet's nickname. Of course I knew that.
31A. Jack LaLanne, for one : FITNESS GURU. The predecessor to such luminaries as Richard Simmons and Jane Fonda in legwarmers. I'm not at all sure that's a good thing!
47A. 1984 South African Peace Nobelist : DESMOND TUTU. I had to think for a while about Desmond - I'd always thought of this activist as Archbishop Tutu.
64A. "Star Trek" role for George Takei : HIKARU SULU. I needed all the crosses here - I'd only heard "Mr. Sulu" from Captain Kirk.
Steve here, Happy Monday everyone, and I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving break. I'm just back from a week in the UK and happy to be home in sunny California after a week of typically British November weather.
I'm not sure if it's because I just got off the plane, or if C.C. and her new (?) collaborator D. Scott Nichols have served up a tougher than usual Monday. It certainly wasn't a speed run for me, I needed a lot of crosses and a couple of laps around the track before I completed this one. I enjoyed the theme and some nice long downs in the fill. Let's check out the highlights:
Across:
1. Ed of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" : ASNER
6. "Mystery solved!" : AHA! Usually followed by "Mr. Clancy! It was you all along!" and "Grrr - I'd have gotten away with it if it wasn't for you pesky kids".
9. Spear : STAB
13. Picked : CHOSE
14. Artist's studio site : LOFT
16. "Arsenic and Old __" : LACE. A wonderful old Cary Grant movie - check it out if you've never seen it. "Madness doesn't just run in my family, it practically gallops".
19. Fairy tale menace : OGRE
20. Display for the first time, as a product : UNVEIL
21. Rajah's spouse : RANI
23. Until this time : YET
24. Grilled fish in Japanese unadon : EELS Food! I like that if you have more than one eel you have eels, but if you describe two kinds of eel, they're eel. Yet another example of why English is such a tough language to learn.
26. "Exodus" actor Sal : MINEO. I always associate him with his role in "Rebel Without a Cause", but he also received an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Dov Landau in Exodus.
28. Florida NBA team, on scoreboards : ORL. The Orlando Magic of the National Basketball Association.
35. Tries to make it alone : GOES SOLO A risky move when playing the card game Euchre, and when I declare that I'm going alone, it usually causes my partner to leave the table in disgust and come back when I've lost the four points.
37. Funereal stacks : PYRES
38. Unaccompanied : LONE
39. Baggage handler, e.g. : TOTER
42. Actress Amanda : PEET I always wait for crosses here, as I have a mental block over PEET, PETE or PEAT
43. Put the kibosh on : ENDED
45. Idle : INACTIVE
50. Williams with a .344 lifetime batting average : TED
51. High-altitude nest : AERIE
52. Lavish bash : FETE
54. Slap-on-the-forehead cry : D'OH Did this word exist before Homer Simpson?
56. The "height" part of a height phobia : ACRO
58. Dress to the nines : DOLL UP
62. __ hygiene : ORAL
66. Late-night Jay : LENO
67. Genesis garden site : EDEN
68. Scrabble pieces : TILES
69. Bustle : TO DO
70. Big name in ice cream: EDY'S - Quibble alert: Edy's is the name that pops into my mind, as borne out by the packaging.
71. Monica of tennis : SELES. Victim of a bizarre spectator-stabbing assault that put her career into a tailspin.
Down:
1. Rights protection gp. : A.C.L.U. and a nice logo to boot:
2. Knee-to-ankle bone : SHIN in English, or the Latin "Tibia" which is more commonly found in crosswords, if not in conversation.
3. Misbehaving child's punishment : NO TV. More likely to be No iPhone or No xBox today?
4. Makeup maven Lauder : ESTEE
5. Raised sculptures : RELIEFS
6. Musketeer motto word : ALL ".. for one, and one for all!"
7. Time of day : HOUR
8. On fire : AFLAME
9. __-mo replay : SLO. The slow-motion replay was captivating when it was first introduced in the 1950's with the advent of videotape rather than film.
10. Cry that starts a kid's game : TAG! YOU'RE IT!
11. Ranch division : ACRE
12. Borscht ingredient : BEET
15. North African capital for which its country is named : TUNIS, capital of Tunisia.
18. Mama Cass's surname : ELLIOT. She lived a short distance from me on Laurel Canyon where this was written.
22. Clouseau's title: Abbr. : INSP. I love Inspector Clouseau in the Pink Panther movies.
25. D-Day city : ST LÔ As 34D shows the correct diacriticals I thought I'd better follow suit with the official spelling of this French cité.
27. Nile Valley country : EGYPT
28. Eyed lewdly : OGLED
29. TV sports pioneer Arledge : ROONE. Ground-breaking luminary in the development of both news and sports coverage for ABC.
30. Pitches in : LENDS A HAND
32. Cry that conflicts with 10-Down : NOT IT
33. Christopher of "Superman" : REEVE
34. "¿Cómo está __?" : USTED
36. Boss's "We need to talk" : SEE ME
40. Sufficient, in slang : ENUF. I like this! I want to campaign for the replacement of "enough" with all it's supernumerary vowels and consonants.
41. Too violent for a PG-13 : RATED "R"
44. Nickelodeon explorer : DORA
46. Figures made with scissors : CUTOUTS
48. Ornamental wall recess : NICHE
49. Put down : DERIDE
53. Cow on a carton : ELSIE Borden's trademark mascot. It's a little morbid that her "husband" Elmer was the mascot for Elmer's glue.
54. Birdbrain : DOLT
55. After-school cookie : OREO
57. Gave the green light : OK'ED
59. Quiet spell : LULL
60. Beekeeper played by Peter Fonda : ULEE. From the 1997 movie "Ulee's Gold".
61. Kisser : PUSS This was new to me and I needed the crosses. Some Googling reveals that "puss" is a Swedish word for "kiss".
63. Lav of London : LOO I saw one of these this very morning!
65. "__ questions?" : ANY
That's about it from me. See you next time!
Steve
Steve
Notes from C.C. & Argyle (Scott):
This theme came to me while reading one of Argyle's emails. He commented "Bad juju" to a question I had asked him earlier. It's not a familiar slang to me, but I thought a simple ?U?U will make a nice Monday puzzle. Argyle & I tried both key words in front and in the back approaches. We finally settled down on the current set both of us were happy with.
This theme came to me while reading one of Argyle's emails. He commented "Bad juju" to a question I had asked him earlier. It's not a familiar slang to me, but I thought a simple ?U?U will make a nice Monday puzzle. Argyle & I tried both key words in front and in the back approaches. We finally settled down on the current set both of us were happy with.
