Wednesday November 20, 2013 Victor Barocas

Theme: BACK BUTTON (66A. Browser feature, or what the ends of
17-, 31-, 38- or 50-Across can have) - "Button" can follow the last word
of each 2-word theme entry.

7A. Series of "Got milk?" spots, e.g. : AD CAMPAIGN. Campaign button. Some of the rusty looking old JFK buttons at the flea markets are repros.

31A. Snowballing financial crisis : BANK PANIC. Panic button.

38A. It's used to break a habit : WILLPOWER. The only one-word theme answer. Power button.

50A. American bacon source : PORK BELLY. Belly button.

C.C.
here, pitch-hitting for Jazzbumpa, who still has no power due to the
big storm last weekend. He said "no home phone, TV, or internet... It's
taking me back to me early 'ute - the 40's."

Beautiful
grid from Victor. Normal word count, but only 34 black squares. Solid
7's in all four corners.  This type of design is often the result of a
9-letter theme entry in the middle row 8 & an adventurous spirit
from the constructor, as it's easier to break one edge into two 3's.

I met Victor a few times. He's extremely talented. Very unassuming.

Left to Right: George,  Victor,  Andrea, C.C. & DK

Across:

1. Food at a bar : SALAD

6. 54-Across vaccine developer : SALK (Jonas). And 54A. See 6-Across : POLIO. He chose not to patent his vaccine, while Oprah tried to patent her "Aha moment"!

10. "My stars!" : EGAD

14. Run off, in a way : ELOPE. 29. Ran off with : STOLE. Quite a few clue echos & cross references in this grid.

15. Help in solving : CLUE

16. Age-old stories : LORE

19. Suffragist Lucretia : MOTT. I must have googled her before. I recognize this face.

20. Emmy-winning Arthur : BEA

21. "__ Gang" : OUR

22. Tolstoy work subtitled "The Story of a Horse" : STRIDER. Never heard of it.

24. Queen's subjects : ANTS. Queen ants. I only know Queen bees.

26. Dismissive cry : BAH. My feeling when I clicked on that talk from Jayce's mean boss.

28. Kitchen attraction : AROMA

34. Mexican cover-up : SERAPE. SARAPE is a var.

36. JFK Library architect I.M. : PEI. He was born in Guangzhou.

37. Connecticut hrs. : EST

42. That girl : SHE

45. Garden pond fish : KOI

46. Weather map line : ISOBAR

55. Whirlpool subsidiary : AMANA

56. Sweet tuber : YAM. I just call it sweet potato.

58. MacDonald's home : FARM

59. Ristorante dish : RISOTTO. And 2D. Ristorante request : AL DENTE. 

 

62. Apprehend : NAB

64. Place for some me-time : SPA

65. Make a muffler, perhaps : KNIT

69. Clothing fluff : LINT

70. Actress Elisabeth : SHUE. I only notice now that her name is not Elizabeth.

71. French sweetie : CHERI. Mon chéri/ma chérie.

72. Tense : EDGY

73. Undiluted : PURE

74. Company with "counting sheep" ads : SERTA

Down:

1. Popular food fish : SEA BASS

3. The "L" in URL : LOCATOR. URL= Uniform Resource Locator.

4. Org. for shrinks : APA

5. Showroom model : DEMO

6. Sacred beetle : SCARAB

7. Sacha Baron Cohen's "Da __ G Show" : ALI.  Ali G, Borat & Brüno are 3 of Sacha Baron Cohen's characters.

8. Galoots : LUGS

9. Reporter known for ducking into phone booths : KENT (Clark)

10. New York city near the Pennsylvania border : ELMIRA. I can never remember this name. What's it famous for again?

11. "Well played!" : GOOD ONE!

12. Sister of Apollo : ARTEMIS. Twins.

13. Take away (from) : DETRACT

18. Watering hole : PUB

23. See 68-Down : RAP. And 68. With 23-Down, what an accused thug may beat : THE

25. Fries alternative : SLAW

27. Antepenultimate fairy tale word : HAPPILY.  Antepenultimate is quite a mouthful. Third to last

30. Prefix with center : EPI

32. Not paleo- : NEO

33. New Zealander : KIWI

35. Actress Sommer : ELKE. Learned her name from doing xwords. Very pretty.

39. Typed chuckle : LOL

40. Seer's claim : ESP

41. Sleigh's parking spot : ROOF. Hi there Santa!

42. Vivacity : SPARKLE. Marti! So full of life and love.

43. Neanderthal, for one : HOMINID

44. Frequent schoolroom activity : ERASING

47. Weapon for Han Solo : BLASTER

48. Touchdown site : AIRPORT. Nice clue.

49. Bucharest's country : ROMANIA

51. Difficult : KNOTTY

52. Club on the diamond : BAT. And YANKEE (53. Mariano Rivera, e.g.). He's not going to save the Yankees any more.

57. Fairy queen of English legend : MAB

60. 1/16 of a cup: Abbr. : TBSP

61. Site of the Ko'olau range : OAHU. Easy guess.

63. Tampa NFLers : BUCs

67. Lowlife : CUR

Informal survey: Do you have an Old Country Buffet in your area? Do you like the place?

C.C.

Wednesday, November 13, 2013 Mary Lou Guizzo

Theme: Start your Elements! Each of the theme answers starts with an element, and as the reveal explains they are all metals.

17A. Ford Model T, colloquially : TIN LIZZIE. Appropriately for 61A if you say this with a Dublin accent you get these chaps

21A. Speed demon : LEADFOOT.  Because you're heavy on the gas pedal.

36A. Mature male gorilla : SILVERBACK. Beautiful animals.

43A. One only in it for the money : GOLD DIGGER. Here's the classic opening song from "Gold Diggers of 1933" sung by Ginger Rogers.

52A. Japanese cooking show : IRON CHEF. Food! I'm pretty sure I've seen every episode of this show AND the American spin-off. I believe Bobby Flay was the first non-Japanese chef to win a battle (against Masaharu Morimoto).

61A. Certain rock music fan, and what 17-, 21-, 36-, 43- and 52-Across each has : METALHEAD. I was a bit of a metalhead in my youth - the first album I bought was "Machine Head" by Deep Purple.

Good morning everyone - Steve here and a Wednesday puzzle that I found pretty challenging. The theme certainly helped me figure out LEADFOOT as I had a lot of empty space in that region. I confess to the final letter fill being a complete WAG - I was Natick'ed with ALEK and LEAR.

With the Z's, the Q and the K emerging early I was looking for a pangram; we were just missing the Y at the conclusion

I can't find Mary Lou's name in the blog history, so I think this is her L.A. Times debut - congratulations if that's the case.

Let's see what else caught my eye:

Across:

    

1. Tucked-in part of a dress shirt : HEM.  I wanted to cram TAIL in here.

4. Cocoon contents : LARVA

9. Glaringly vivid : LURID

14. "__ you kidding me?" : ARE

15. Words after make or close : A DEAL

16. Carne __: roasted Mexican dish : ASADA. Food! This is my kind of puzzle.

19. Siesta taker : DOZER

20. Eight-armed cephalopod : SQUID. I'm getting hungry!

23. Open-__ shoes : TOED

26. TV producer Norman : LEAR. Complete unknown to me, and as I mentioned at the top a personal Natick for me crossing ALEK.

27. Online "Yikes!" : OMG! Oh My Goodness!

30. Chinese leader : PREMIER. I was thinking along the Mao, Deng and Kai-Shek lines and then the penny dropped.

33. Bus depot: Abbr. : STA

38. Purim observers : JEWS

39. Essayist de Botton : ALAIN

40. Match for a pocket handkerchief : TIE

41. West Pointer : CADET

42. Mideast strip : GAZA

45. Baton Rouge-to-Montgomery dir. : E.N-E

46. Twisting force : TORSION

47. WWII venue : E.T.O. European Theater of Operations under the command of General Eisenhower.

48. Latin god : DEUS

50. "__ a lift?" : NEED

56. Schemer Charles : PONZI. It's quite some feat to have an entire genre of crime named for you. He looks quite cheerful in his mugshot!

60. Gallivants : ROVES. "Gallivants" is such an awesome word. I resolve either to use this word today or go gallivanting myself.

64. Last Olds off the line : ALERO. I wonder who bought the last one, and if they knew it was the last?

65. Mental picture : IMAGE

66. NBC skit show : S.N.L. The UK version of this was called Friday Night Live - because it aired on Sunday. No, wait ..

67. Zac of "The Lorax" : EFRON. Who he? Thank you, crosses.

68. Glove material : LATEX

69. Game gadget, or the area where it's used : TEE. I think "gadget" is a bit of an overblown description for a piece of wood.

Down:

1. Boaters and bowlers : HATS

2. Actor La Salle : ERIQ. I've finally got Mr. La Salle in my memory banks. It's only taken umpteen years.

3. It may drop down or pop up : MENU. The ones on your computer. If you're interested, the pop-up types are also context-sensitive. I've got my geek on today!

4. Made vulnerable : LAID OPEN

5. Axlike shaping tool : ADZ. I'm finally getting used to the alternative spellings for both AXE and ADZE.

6. Tribal land, informally, with "the" : REZ. I've never heard this expression, but it wasn't difficult to guess when I had the Z in place.

7. Colorado resort : VAIL.  Pretty place.

8. Out of the wind : ALEE

9. Fire truck feature : LADDER

10. Lady Liberty's land, familiarly : US OF A

11. Somerset Maugham novel, with "The" : RAZOR'S EDGE. I'd never heard of this novel, but I find there are two movie adaptations of it, one made in 1946 and one in 1984.

12. Prefix with logical : IDEO

13. Pub missile : DART

18. On fire : LIT

22. South Sudanese supermodel Wek : ALEK. I'll surely remember her from now on.

24. Goof : ERR

25. Short person? : DEBTOR. I think this was my favorite clue of the day. Marvelous.

27. Missouri river : OSAGE

28. La Scala's city : MILAN. Tough crowd at La Scala - they've been known to boo tenors off the stage.

29. Like eyes showing boredom : GLAZED OVER

31. Drops in a slot : MAILS

32. Stranded at 7-Down, perhaps : ICED IN

34. Chirp : TWEET

35. Jetson dog : ASTRO. Ruh-Roh!

37. By way of : VIA

38. Spree : JAG. Gallivant! Looks of sprees today.

41. Multi-screen theater : CINEPLEX

43. "Gee whiz" : GOSH

44. It goes for a buck : DOE. Not fooled for a moment with this one! Nice clue though.

46. Second-most populous Arizona city : TUCSON.

49. Warm Argentina month : ENERO. Midsummer in the Southern Hemisphere.

51. "Stupid me!" : D'OH!

52. "Dies __" : IRAE. Mozart borrowed the name of the original Gregorian chant for his Requiem. Stirring stuff.

53. Massage deeply : ROLF. I'd never heard of this. Apparently it is a massage technique from the '70s - is it still practiced?

54. Actor Jannings : EMIL. More crosses - I need to read IMDB for a while and get up to speed with my actors.

55. Earthquake response gp. : F.E.M.A. The Federal Emergency Management Agency uses the "open" status of the Waffle House chain of restaurants to help gauge the severity of storms passing through the eastern seaboard. Who knew?

57. Cozy home : NEST

58. Writer Grey : ZANE. I read this as "Winter Grey" first which had me totally baffled.

59. Inactive : IDLE

62. Art on the reality show "Ink Master" : TAT. I'm guessing "tat" is not considered an abbreviation any more?

63. Single-malt datum : AGE. The longer a whisky ages in the vat, the more of the spirit evaporates. The Scots charmingly call this "the angel's share".

That's about it. This was a fun puzzle, it took me around 18 minutes which is long for me for a Wednesday so a nice challenge. That's all from me - as Eminem would say - that's a (w)rap!



 Steve

 

Wednesday, November 6th 2013 Gareth Bain

Theme: Record Numbers! The theme entries all start with the name of a classic music label

18A. Madonna : VIRGIN MARY. Richard Branson's first money-maker. 'Tubular Bells' launched his business on the Virgin label. If you've never heard Mike Oldfield's seminal album I really encourage you to listen - here's the first three minutes.

23A. Ivy League professional school : COLUMBIA LAW. Just don't go to their website. Confusing as heck. After an hour or so, we get it. Sousa marches and One Direction. Mmmmm K.

37A. Fruity dessert with sweetened crumbs : APPLE BROWN BETTY. Wow.

52A. "The Lord of the Rings" genre : EPIC FANTASY. Wow squared!

Wow! Steve here with an amazing Wednesday problem - maybe I'm getting old or out of practice but Gareth really made me work at this one! What did you all think?

Across:

1. Lies as a whole? : PACK. First What?. (A pack of lies).

5. King who raged to Edgar on the heath : LEAR. Thanks! One I know :)

9. Turbaned Punjabis : SIKHS.  Spelling challenge.

14. Matty or Felipe of baseball : ALOU

15. Puffs additive : ALOE. Crosses. All the way!

16. Pistons great Thomas : ISIAH

17. Hog product : LARD. Tail? Squeak? Trotter? Butt? Darn - my old Dad said "The only part of the pig you can't eat is the squeak".

20. Leave open-mouthed : AMAZE

22. Gets under control : TAMES

26. PC brain : CPU. The Central Processing Unit of a Personal Computer. It all seems so normal now but 15 years ago here was the Pentium Chip from Intel - an amazing leap in technology.

29. Skier's challenge : ESS

30. Tuna holder : CAN

31. Sci-fi hybrid : CYBORG

33. Running or jumping : GERUND. Oh - let me remember this! It ends in 'ing! It's a  noun! I'm done after this. Please don't ask me about the gerundive.

36. Mideast flier : EL AL

42. Wrath, in a hymn : IRAE. "Dies irae".

43. Writes to, nowadays : EMAILS

44. Green stuff : DO-RE-MI. Officially clue-less here. Hoping Rich will help out? Or C.C.? (C.C.: Just slang for money. )

47. Transfer __ : RNA. Maybe I'm Jet-lagged, but crosses all the way/ No idea, sorry.

48. Orchestra site : PIT

51. Say more : ADD

56. Liszt or Schubert : FRANZ

57. Plaque honoree : DONOR

63. Avatar of Vishnu: RAMA



64. Congo critter with striped legs: OKAPI



65. Golden St. campus: UCLA



66. Grace ender: AMEN



67. Concise: TERSE



68. Use FedEx, say: SHIP



69. Male deer: HART



(Sorry for missing a few fill earlier)

Down:

1. Versailles attraction : PALACE. Versailles is the Palace - looking for "Garden" or "Jardin" first - amazing

2. Los __: Manhattan Project site : ALAMOS

3. Pink shades : CORALS

4. Invasive vine : KUDZU. Crosses - Thanks! I hope I don't have any? Doesn't seem as pretty as the Palace de Versailles :)

5. WC : LAV

6. Actor Roth : ELI

7. Arterial trunk : AORTA

8. Kingly : REGAL

9. Like the village blacksmith's hands : SINEWY. Hmmmmm.

10. Philosophies : ISMS. Hmmmmmmmm

11. Rio automaker : KIA

12. Laugh syllable : HAR. I had HAA and AHA and .... HAH! Didn't help.

13. Shunning the spotlight, maybe : SHY

19. Computer that may use Snow Leopard : iMAC

21. Toastmaster : EMCEE

24. Caustic comeback : BARB

25. Accustom (to) : INURE

26. Firearms pioneer : COLT

27. Backside : PRAT

28. Hard to look at : UGLY

32. Nectar collectors : BEES

33. High spirits : GLEE

34. Pierre, e.g. : NOM

35. Friend of Snow White : DWARF

37. Verdi opera with pyramids : AIDA

38. Nudge : PROD

39. Tex's bud : PARD

40. NPR correspondent Totenberg : NINA

41. Short on taste : BLAND

45. "__ Melodies": Warner Bros. shorts : MERRIE

46. Tablet debut of 2010 : iPAD

48. Land on an isthmus : PANAMA

49. Chemical relative : ISOMER

50. Oppressive ruler : TYRANT

53. River near Karachi : INDUS. Wow!

54. Austerlitz native : CZECH. Wow! Wednesday?

55. Holy ark contents : TORAH

56. Dandies : FOPS

58. Decompose : ROT

59. __ out a living : EKE

60. One may be hired : CAR

61. Onetime ring king : ALI

62. Track circuit : LAP

That's me done! I spent a lot of Wednesday on this one - thanks for the workout, Gareth!

Steve