Saturday, Sep 14th, 2013, Barry C. Silk

Theme: Saturday Silkie

Words: 72 (missing J,X,Z)

Blocks: 30

    Well it was about time I got beaten up by a Silkie ( or any ) puzzle, and it's no surprise that it comes on "Saturday, the 14th"; typically, I fare worse in "luck" today than on Friday, the 13th.  Mr. Silk got me with too many proper names; people places AND things.  One grid climber today:

7. Collective feeling of oppression : BUNKER MENTALITY

and two 11's crossing two 12's;

3D. Hunter with a distinctive cry : SCREECH OWL

 

22A. Special screening : SNEAK PREVIEW - I tried PREMIERE SHOW, which fit - it's what we called the viewing of the made-for-TV movie we did in 1997 for cast and crew only

46A. Where funnels are often seen : TORNADO ALLEY - Funny, but my brother tells me after hockey this past Wed. that he is planning on going as the Tin Man for Halloween - so I was thinking that a funnel would be 'seen' on the head

 

....anyway, this crossed another weather-related phrase;

28D. It may precede a cold front : SQUALL LINE - Thunderstorm, which is two letters too long, so I couldn't make it fit, but there's three "L"s in a line~! My friend Matt from high school wanted to be a weatherman since the day I met him, and he succeeded - clip

...and upward~! acrosswards and downwards~!

stop by the Corner to check on your answer(d)s

ACROSS:

1. __ shirt : MUSCLE - yeah, this took a while, since I don't own one

7. Catholic pilgrimage destination : BASILICA - was looking for a city with a proper name, like "VATICAN"

15. Written to last : ETCHED - A lot of people have been asking about the new UPS driving position, and all I have been able to say is "...so far, nothing is carved in stone" - I'm thinking about starting a blog when I do go - call it "Driving Brown"

16. Member of DC Comics' Legion of Super-Heroes : ULTRA BOY - yeah, um, didn't know about him - I had SUPERMAN, then SUPERBOY, and (ahem) ULT-imately, ULTRA BOY

17. Coliseum team, once : L.A. RAMS - 'round here, Coliseum means Nassau, and the NY Islanders hockey team - NHL training camps have begun~!

18. March Madness event : NCAA GAME - Basketball; interferes with my hockey viewing

19. What busy people are on? : THE GO - "always on the go..."

20. WBA decisions : TKOs - Technical Knock-outs

21. Dos' followers : REs - Musical scale

26. Trauma sufferer's goal : CLOSURE - good clue; took me a while

27. Yellowstone grazer : BISON

31. Comic who wrote jokes for Kennedy : SAHL - Nope, not a clue - BMT ( Before My Time )

33. Start of a response to a brainteaser : Hmm.... - what else is Mr. Silk going to get me with?

34. Language "jai alai" comes from : BASQUE - well, here's one that got me

35. Latin 101 word : AMO - Orthorunica amo - "I love crosswords"

36. Jersey Shore resort : CAPE MAY

38. Nautilus letters : U.S.S. - two weeks in a row with this answer

39. Show deference : KOWTOW - I spelled it wrong, went with a "C"; it must be late....

41. 7 and 11: Abbr. : NOs - numbers, deceptively simple

42. Stuffing material : BATT

43. Mullah's faith : ISLAM

44. Regular guest on "The O'Reilly Factor" : STOSSEL - John; I have not seen him since his days on Ch. 7 here in NYC

50. Spot at the bridge table : PIP - on the non-face cards; learning moment for me

53. Slick : OILY

54. Its capital is Valletta : MALTA - OK, OK, I cheated, and Googled this one

55. Big name in racing : ANDRETTI - I got this one

58. "Turn Me Loose" singer, 1959 : FABIAN - and then I was back to Google - BMT

59. Cut across : TRANSECT

60. Double-edged : IRONIC

61. 1980 hit with the line "I longed to speak but did not dare" : HE'S SO SHY - The Pointer Sisters, and this IS my time - I grew up with the video on MTV, when it was a video showing channel

62. Just : BARELY - I had LIE for FIB, so I thought EVENLY was good here - Bzzzt~!

DOWN:

1. Softens : MELTS

2. Pioneer Day celebrant : UTAHN - seen this before; one from UTAH

4. 1963-'64 painter of the Paris Opera ceiling : CHAGALL

5. 1937 title gangster Pépé : le MOKO - I bet Mr. Silk is glad there's names like this one out there for crossword construction

6. Life support syst.? : EDs - Editors of Life magazine

8. Recess : ALCOVE

9. East German secret police : STASI

10. Portfolio element : IRA - retirement portfolio

11. Fail to keep up : LAG

12. Structural beam : I-BAR

13. Canine order : COME - OK, I gotta link this - adult content~!

14. Some votes : AYES

20. Ranking suit : TRUMP

23. "Bah!" : "PSHAW~!"

24. Selling point? : eBAY and; 48D. Net biz : ETAIL

25. Ill. neighbor : WISconsin; I almost decided to take the train to go to the Will Shortz presentation this past Thursday, but my supervisor screwed me out of my vacation.  I had a hockey game on Wed., too, so....maybe I visit C.C. this winter?

29. Kick out : OUST

30. Emulate bees : NEST - meh, but I was not fooled with "BUZZ", as I had USS crossing earlier

31. "The Storyteller" storyteller : SAKI - another proper name, crossing SAHL, that did me in - some Wiki

32. Book by a prophet : AMOS - and another

34. Low man : BASSO - low vocal man

36. Interrogación word : COMO - I know ¿Cómo estás?, "How are you?", and depending on WHO is asking, I might consider it to be an interrogation....

37. Hardly chipper : MOODY

40. Use a shuttle : TAT - I was on this wavelength, and started with SEW; TAT, back-formed from Tatting, to make a kind of knotted lace of cotton or linen thread with a shuttle.

42. Over-explain : BELABOR

44. Rat : SNITCH

45. City on the Volga : SAMARA - another proper name that got me

47. Basic teaching techniques : ROTES - gritting my teeth on this one

49. '50s TV adventurer __ Derringer : YANCY

50. Way : PATH

51. Dictator's phrase : IN RE - Also Latin, "in the matter of"

52. Modern info holders : PDAs - I tried DVDs first.  I went for a test drive in the new Dodge Dart, and the CD player is in the center arm rest, along with the mp3 jack; I remember when an anti-theft pull-out cassette deck AM/FM radio was THE most advanced auto audio you could buy

56. BP checkers : RNs - Blood Pressure, and Registered Nurses

57. That, in Tijuana : ESO

58. Bit of fiction : FIB - ah, not LIE

 Splynter

 

Friday, September 13, 2013, Patti Varol

Theme:

It's Friday, time for a definition puzzle

Well here we go again, this time we have 5 theme answers to the same clue, including a grid spanner in the middle. This is also almost a pangram, just one letter short. (want to guess the letter?). It is the work of LAT editor, Rich Norris' assistant who was very upfront in talking with C.C. in an April INTERVIEW. This does not feel like a Friday for me with so many 3, 4 and 5 letter fill, but there was some nice stuff like ISUZUS, TOO TOO, MEG RYAN, SHIHTZU, AIRCRAFT,  BABUSHKA,  COLOGNES and  RED CROSS.

16A. Legs : CRAB MORSELS. (11). Crab legs are big business in So.Fla. I do not think of them as morsels. I guess they call them legs because King Crab chelipeds does not sound appetizing.

22A. Legs : STAYING POWER. (12). That rumor had legs.

36A. Legs : RELAY RACE STAGES.(15). Most relays have four.

47A. "Legs" : ZZ TOP CLASSIC.(12). The original VIDEO (4:56) for Splynter.

58A. Legs : VOYAGE PARTS. (11). The around the world cruise usually had 11.

nexxxxxxxxxxxxt,

Across:

1. Smooth to a fault : GLIB. I was still thinking of the legs; needed the down to get going.

5. Song on a CD : TRACK.

10. Have chills, perhaps : AIL.

13. Vidal's Breckinridge : MYRA. Born Myron, a book by Gore Vidal and a Movie.

Recognize the young man 43 years ago?

14. Oh so very : TOO TOO. This always makes me think about this SONG.(2:06).

15. Messenger __ : RNA.

18. Scrap : RAG.

19. Provide with necessities : EQUIP.

20. Great Lakes' __ Canals : SOO. All new to me.

21. Cold Stone Creamery buy : CONE. When they first opened in Florida, they had lines out the door, we do like our ice cream.

25. Fluffy toy : SHIH-TZU. A tricky clue, because toy dogs did not jump to mind; my ex has two of this BREED.

28. Turkic flatbread : NAN. My LESSON.

29. Ivory poacher's prize : TUSK.

30. Name on 2008 and 2012 campaign posters : BIDEN.

33. Thurman of "Gattaca" : UMA.

40. "__ on a Grecian Urn" : ODE.

41. Start of a child's rhyme : EENIE. Meenie.

42. The "kid" in "Here's looking at you, kid" : ILSA. Ingrid in Casablanca

43. Done to death : OLD.

44. "Serious Moonlight" actress : MEG RYAN. Speaking of old, did you see her as the hoarder on Web Therapy?

52. Frontier lawman : EARP. Wyatt et al.

53. Strike with force : RAM.

54. Expensive outing, probably : SPREE.

57. CCCV ÷ V : LXI.

61. Veggies go-with, perhaps : DIP.

62. Rodeos, e.g. : ISUZUS. Another one that took some thought, but she must like car model with 1D. Canyon or Sierra : GMC.

63. "Works for me" : FINE.

64. Biblical mount : ASS. We have seen this often.

65. Vail alternative : ASPEN. Assssssssssspen?

66. Dairy farmer's fistful : TEAT. Dennis? Is that like a handful?

Down:

2. Harp relative : LYRE.

3. Where the Tigris meets the Euphrates : IRAQ. The old fertile crescent; they sometimes venture out to get some Turkey.

4. Russian head scarf : BABUSHKA. The Russian Jewish women shave their heads, but apparently many others just gave up their teeth.

5. Only Canadian MLB team : TOR. Blue Jays, who spent a fortune on free agents to finish last.

6. Martini's partner : ROSSI.  I was thinking of people smoking.

7. Used for dinner : ATE ON.

8. Cosmetics counter array : COLOGNES. PERFUMES?

9. Flattens : KOS.

10. Turn lane signal : ARROW.

11. Fatuous : INANE. Nero Wolfe like the word fatuous.

12. Yuengling offering : LAGER. A great BEER Story.

14. Utah's state gem : TOPAZ.

17. Kitchen protector : MITT. Not to be confused with the mittens of Michigan and Wisconsin.

21. Cell user : CON. Every Friday.

23. Kraft coffee brand : YUBAN.

24. Gasp : PANT

.25. A.L. West player, informally : STRO. Houston Astro

26. Shaded : HUED.

27. Vacation site : ISLE.

31. Here, in Le Havre : ICI.

32. Regards : DEEMS. A popular legal word, "as the Court Deems just."

33. Hardly fair? : UGLY. Step-sisters?

34. Rise in the West : MESA.

35. Wise-owl link : AS AN.

37. [You stepped on my paw!] : YELP.

38. 1864 Geneva Convention creation : RED CROSS. Clara Barton and the HISTORY..

39. Blimps, e.g. : AIRCRAFT.

43. "Alley __" : OOP. The cartoon.

45. They're common in Mississippi : ESSES.

46. Reagan's role in "Knute Rockne, All American" : GIPP. Win one for Dutch! This poor SOUL.(1:06).

47. "Save Me the Waltz" author Fitzgerald : ZELDA. F. Scott's main squeeze. Her only NOVEL.

48. 3-D graph line : Z-AXIS. You have X and Y on all graphs only the 3-D need the zed..4 Zs and not one J!

49. Sends sprawling : TRIPS. Remember sticking your leg out when Michael Morris was going to the blackboard? Oh that was me.

50. Many a fast-break result : LAY-UP. Basketball.

51. Outstrip expectations : AMAZE.

55. Buffalo's lake : ERIE. My son, his wife and baby are back.

56. Sicilian tourist attraction : ETNA. Let's go watch a Volcano, Joe.

58. By means of : VIA. We get there by boat.

59. Rev : GUN. Sp turn up the speed, so we make it to the

60. Filming site : SET. before the curtain falls on another episode of Lemon's Friday frolic.

Well another one done, a day where a tree fell and knocked out the power so I am very late and must run until next time. Thank you Ms. Varol and for those fasting, may it be an easy one.

L714 out.

Notes from C.C.:

Over 600 people showed up for the "An Evening with the Puzzle Master" presentation last night. Will Shortz was not as intimidating as I imagined. He was very unassuming & easy-going. 

He talked about the history of crossword (It'll turn 100 years old this Dec); his amazing crossword collection (click here); his all-time favorite crossword Clinton/Bob Dole (click here); his favorite word (Ucalegon, meaning "a neighbor whose house is on fire"); how he edits NYT crosswords (on average, 50% of the clues are his, and clue accuracy is of the most importance to him); what kind of fill he likes (Everyday phrases, not words like ESNE). The Q & A session was particularly lively and the word game was very entertaining and engaging. 

Together with a few other Twin City constructors (George Barany, who made the fun puzzle for the night, Victor Barocas, Tom Pepper, Jay Kaskel, etc),  Boomer and I were invited to a private reception with Will Shortz before the speech. Mr. Shortz asked Boomer if he had ever bowled a 300 game, you can imagine how lit-up Boomer was.