Wednesday, May 25, 2011 Don Gagliardo and C.C. Burnikel

Theme: A New Dimension in Crossword Entertainment ! - The theme entries all have the word SOUND surrounding the phrases front and back, with the unifier at 50A: Home theater feature, and a hint to the puzzle theme in 19-, 22-, 32-, 46-Across, and the first (sic) word of this answer : SURROUND SOUND. At first, I thought that was a typo, until I realized that it was a hint that the first word of the unifier also contains "sound" surrounding it...great stuff!

19A. "Afraid you can't have your money back" : SORRY NO REFUND. I wonder why they wouldn't take back the thong I bought last month?

22A. Progresso or Lipton : SOUP BRAND. Would you believe, I was looking for types of tea??

32A. Refuse to budge : STAND ONES GROUND. A grid-spanning anchor in the center of the Home Entertainment System!

46A. Home of Notre Dame : SOUTH BEND. Alma Mater.

You got me, C.C. !

Marti here, and she didn't tell me it was her puzzle when she asked me to fill in today. How great to blog one of our dynamic duo's puzzles!! (See notes from C.C. and Don at the end.)

Across:

1. Winter break? : THAW. We really needed one this past winter. Didn't happen until, oh, about three days ago...

5. Drink noisily : SLURP.

10. Agcy. that established rules for kite flying : FAA. Go fly a kite! (But not near the airport...)

13. Poet known for inventing words : NASH.

"Reflection on Babies"

A bit of talcum

Is always walcum.

14. Prairie home : TEPEE

15. "__ la Douce" : IRMA. Great 1963 flick with Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine.

16. The Dixie Chicks, e.g. : TRIO. Aww, do I have to? (link)

17. "__ of robins in her hair": Kilmer : A NEST. Help, Clear Ayes!

18. Strip light : NEON. Dennis, are there strip lights on South Beach?

24. Climber's toehold : LEDGE. Yes, and pitons, cables or anything else I could get my big toe into...

25. Fertile desert spot : OASIS

26. New Deal inits. : FDR. Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

27. Sch. with a Spokane campus : WSU. Washington State University. Top 10 in the country for using clean technology on campus.

28. Like the Parthenon : ANCIENT. No, like me.

38. Young in films : LORETTA. Is she ancient now?

39. Sushi topping : ROE. Roe, roe, roe your boat...Oh, oops - I did that last time... (This is really hard, guys!)

40. Lincoln or Ford : CAR. Ha Ha. You didn't fool me. I knew right away that "prez" wouldn't fit!

41. Rapids transit : CANOE. Great pun on Rapid Transit. But I confidently filled in "kayak".

43. Chinese, e.g. : ASIAN. Do you think of yourself as "Asian" or "Chinese", C.C.? I think of myself as "American", not "USA'an".

52. Cement piece : SLAB

53. Auto buyer's choice : SEDAN

54. Ages and ages : EONS. I just keep aging and aging...

57. Hgts. : ALTS. "Alps" would fit, but I don't think the Down would fit the "breakfast test"...

58. Rag� rival : PREGO

59. Hurry : RUSH. We all know Hurry Limbaugh, right?

60. Food additive : DYE. Ewwww, and we got a lesson the other day about what exactly is in those dyes.

61. Scatter : STREW

62. Hang around : STAY. I can't STAY. I have to go DOWN...

Down:

1. "We know drama" channel : TNT. Turner Network Television.

2. Guffaw syllable : HAR. Haw, haw, hee hee, ho ho!

3. Customarily : AS IS USUAL. Great phrase. As is usual, our constructors brought out their "A" game today!

4. Moderator of a panel including Joy, Elisabeth and Sherri : WHOOPI. Goldberg.

5. Best successor of 1962 : STARR. Pete Best, Ringo Starr. If this were Monday, they would never get away with this clue - great misdirection!

6. Actress Lotte : LENYA. OK, maybe you don't remember her. But do you remember "Mack the Knife", written for her by her husband Kurt Weill? Ok, so it's in German, and not the Louis Armstrong-famous version, but it is Lotte Lenya, which is probably why you don't remember her...

7. Wharton's sch. : UPENN. Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania.

8. Fix, as a green : RESOD. They need to RESOD the greens at my local course. Terrible shape! None of my putts would go in today...

9. Sykora of the NHL : PETR. Now playing in Russia, he played around with the Devils, Ducks, Rangers, Oilers, Penguins and Wild before finally saying sayonara to the USA. I bet Eddy B. and JD know him.

10. "The Ego and the Id" author : FREUD.

11. Included in : AMONG

12. "Dog the Bounty Hunter" airer : A AND E. Whew! This one threw me for a while. Finally parsed it.

15. Oven, so to speak : INFERNO. Does anyone remember the movie?

20. NFL ball carriers : RBS. National Football league, Running Backs.

21. Revered figure : ELDER. Oh, so I should be revered, right?

22. Plants : SOWS

23. Hops drier : OAST

26. Newton fruit : FIG. Not an apple?

28. Farm denizen : ANT

29. Bottom line : NET

30. Rebs' gp. : CSA. Confederate States of America.

31. Ended up : TURNED OUT. Turned out, I didn't have to worry about another blitch...so far, so good.

33. Feature of some extreme diets : NO CARBS

34. Pipe cleaner : DRANO. I wonder if Drano would take care of ear wax?

35. Atop, poetically : O'ER.

36. High time? : NOON. Already? I just got started...

37. Safe document : DEED. Nope, don't have one in my safe. Only a huge mortgage note from the bank. Oh, maybe they have the deed in their safe?

41. Obama's secretary of energy : CHU. Chattanooga Chu? (Sorry - it's Steven.)

42. Doubleday and Yokum : ABNERS

43. Syrian president : ASSAD. Bashar al-Assad wanted to be an opthamologist, until his older brother died in a car accident. So he became heir apparent and was elected president in 2000 when his father died.

44. Tarnish : SULLY

45. Steaming : IRATE. My veggies were really irate while I was cooking them tonight. (Well, wouldn't you be?)

46. H�gar's dog : SNERT. Love him in the comic strip!

47. More eccentric : ODDER

48. Linguist's concern : USAGE

49. Thus far : TO NOW. To now, I don't think I've made any boo-boos, have I?

51. Mail letters : USPS. United States Postal Service. Did you know? The USPS does not have a motto. The saying "Neither rain, nor sleet, etc." is simply an inscription on a Post Office in NYC.

55. Gp. whose insignia consists of a bald eagle holding a key : NSA. National Security Agency.

56. Bashful : SHY. Not elf? Oh, that's a dwarf...sorry, I'm getting Sleepy. Er, no, I'm not "getting" Sleepy tonight. At least, he hasn't called yet...

Answer grid.

Good night, Marti.

Note from C.C. & Don:

Don came up with this nifty idea while we were brain storming a "* AROUND" theme where the * bookends each theme entry. We tried to even it out with different SO* *UND pattern. SOUTHERLY WIND and SOUVENIR STAND ended up on the cutting room floor. Did you all notice that the unifier word SURROUND is also surrounded by SOUND?

Wenesday, May 18, 2011, Bill Thompson

Theme:  RIGHT AS RAIN.  The theme entries start with a word that can describe a kind of SHOWER.  OK - they aren't all the RAIN kind of SHOWER, or even the kind that get you wet, but I'm going to run with it.  It's a great expression meaning "all is well and things are as they should be," dating back to the time when an agrarian society depended on spring and summer rains to get good crop yields.  Then, all was right with the world.

17 A. 1958 Robert Mitchum drama : THUNDER ROAD The story of a Korean War vet who comes home to take over the family moonshine business.  A THUNDER SHOWER is a brief rain storm with a natural light show and sound effects.

26 A. Dorm room snack : COLD PIZZA.  I was a townie, not a dormie, so I never developed this awful-sounding culinary habit.  A COLD SHOWER is simply a self-inflicted deluge of cold water.  It is reported to have numerous health benefits.  You be the judge.

40. '70s-'80s Haitian president, familiarly : BABY  DOC DUVALIER.  Jean-Claude was the son (hence "B�b� Doc") of the previous president, Fran�ois "Papa Doc" DUVALIER.  He continued the family tradition of torture, tyranny and lavish personal life-style, while his subjects languished in bone-crushing poverty.   Odd, odd juxtaposition with BABY SHOWER, a joyful party where an expectant mother is SHOWERED with gifts by her friends.

52 A. Early spring shout : "APRIL FOOL."  The origin of APRIL FOOLERY is lost in the mists of time, but is believed to have started with the change to the Gregorian Calendar, around 1582.  News traveled slowly in those days, so some people didn't catch up with the change and didn't know the proper date.  Others resisted the change.  Both became the butt of practical jokes.  It's believable, I guess.  APRIL SHOWERS are springtime episodes of rain that bring May flowers, and kids cooped up in the house for hours.

Plus the unifier:  65 A. Bath fixtures, and a hint to the starts of 17-, 26-, 40- and 52-Across : SHOWER HEADS.  This is a device that sprays you with water (of any desired temperature.)  And HEAD indicates that the beginning theme words can precede SHOWER.  Pretty clever.

Hi gang, JazzBumpa here.  In this tidy theme we have two meteorological events, get all cleaned up, and have a party.  Let's join the fun

Across

1. Frequently change positions : JOB HOP.  Previous generations worked one or two jobs in a life time.  Now, JOB HOPPING is the norm.  Still, I was thinking about tossing and turning.

7. Jury member : PEER.  The Constitution guarantees a trial with a jury of one's peers.  These are people of equal standing, who should be well equipped to render a fair verdict.

11. Patty Hearst's kidnappers: Abbr. : SLA.  The Symbionese Liberation Army.  According to founder Donald DeFreeze, "The name 'symbionese' is taken from the word 'symbiosis' and we define its meaning as a body of dissimilar bodies and organisms living in deep and loving harmony and partnership in the best interest of all within the body."   Sure.  That explains why they engaged in bank robbing, murder and, most famously, kidnapping.

14. Frosted pastry : ECLAIR.  Yum!

15. "The Raven" opener : ONCE upon a midnight dreary / As I pondered, weak and weary / Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore . . 

16. Faddish '90s disc : POG.  I have no idea. 

19. GM had one in Nov. 2010 : IPO.  Initial Public Offering, an issue of new stock

20. Low digits : TOES.  Of course.  Cute.

21. Buddhist sect : ZEN. From Wikipedia:  The word Zen is from the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word Ch�n (?), which in turn is derived from the Sanskrit word dhyana, which can be approximately translated as "meditation" or "meditative state".    But you all knew that.

22. Roofing support : RAFTER.  For some reason I needed a lot of perp help to get this.

24. __ au vin : COQ.   "Rooster in wine" is a French braise of chicken cooked with wine, lardons, mushrooms, and optionally garlic.  (Garlic is an option?!?)  Jeannie . . .

28. Musical with the song "Midway Chase" : BARNUM.  Phineas T. I presume.  Never heard of it, and there is no YouTube vid.

31. Like many eBay items : USED

32. Disco, for one : ERA.  An ERA is "A long and distinct period of history with a particular feature or characteristic."  The disco ERA wasn't really long.  It only seemed that way.

33. Photographer Adams : ANSEL.  Famous for his usually panoramic black and white landscape and nature shots.  Here is a gallery full.

36. Self-titled 1969 jazz album : ELLA.   Can't find any songs from that album on YouTube, so you'll have to settle for Hammerstein-Kern.

44. Film lioness : ELSA.  She was Born Free.

45. Sports : HAS ON.  SPORT as a verb, meaning "wear."  Sport we now our gay apparel.

46. Sup : EAT

47. Clothes line? : SEAM.  Nice misdirection.  Did you find any SEAMS in the SPORTS-wear?

50. Prepare for online publication : WEBIFY.  This is an actual word, correctly used.  News to me.

57. Beat the house : WIN.  Casino games favor the house, e.g. the gambling establishment, without the need for cheating.  It's all about probability.  Gambling is a fool's game in any month, but sometimes a lucky person takes home some spare cash

58. Offshore eyesore, to some : OIL RIG.  Eye of the beholder, I guess.

59. Email forwarder's intro : FYI.  For Your Information.

61. Idiot : TWIT. We all know one or two.

64. Certain artery: Abbr. : RTE.  Route, a transportation artery.

68. Profs' aides : TAS.  Teaching Assistants.

 69. __-kiri : HARA.  Well, this is unpleasant.  HARA kiri is another name for sepukku, a ritual suicide performed by Samurai as punishment for disgrace, or to avoid capture and abasement.  Check Wikipedia if you want more detail.

70. Speedy Gonzales cry : ARRIBA.  Racially insensitive, a bit DF, and catch the last three words.

71. Intractable beast : ASS. 

72. Ex-Yankee Pettitte : ANDY.  Where is he now?

73. Empty __ : NESTER. A parent whose children have grown and moved away.

 Down

1. Rocker Joan : JETT.  She loves Rock 'n' Roll.

2. Cinco y tres : OCHO.  Can you add in Spanish?  Arriba! 5 + 3 = 8.  Numeros de Fibonacci.

3. Chesapeake Bay delicacies : BLUE CRABS.  Callinectes sapidus.  Beautiful swimmer that tastes good.  I am not making this up.

4. "MMMBop" band : HANSON.  Beats me.

5. Meteor tail? : OID.  Meteoroid  - and the infamous "tail" suffix clue.

6. Chief exec : PREZ.  Abbrv for President.

7. Dirty fare : PORNO.  Nothing I can add.

8. Ambient music pioneer : ENO.  Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno.  I think I get him every time.

9. Hallmark.com offerings : E-CARDS.  For the sophisticated and discerning card giver.

10. Orangutan : RED APE. 

11. Norwegian Elkhound, for one : SPITZ

12. "J to tha L-O!" artist : LOPEZ.  "J to tha L-O!" is a remix of Jennifer Lopez's second album J-LO.  I'm learning a lot of stuff that I'm not going to remember.

13. Ancient market : AGORA.  Ancient Greek.

18. __ room : REC.  Home to many a big screen TV.

23. Brother of Ra�l : FIDEL.  Somehow, I never think of FIDEL Castro as Ra�l's hermano.

25. Campus hangout : QUAD.  A typical campus feature is a QUADrangle.  Literally, this is a building that surrounds a courtyard.  More casually, an open area surrounded by four buildings, often dorms.

27. Beauts : LULUS.  Slang terms for some rip-snortin' knockout who is a real doozy, or just the bee's knees.

28. Nixon confidant Rebozo : BEBE.  Charles, our second B�b� of the day, was the youngest son of Cuban immigrants, who moved up from the laundromat business to banking, and somehow made a lot of money along the way.

29. Sea damaged by Soviet irrigation projects : ARAL.  It's drying up and turning into a salt flat.

30. Letters below DEF : MNO.  On your push-button telephone.

34. Jerk : SCHMO.  From Yiddish.   I didn't realize that this is an anatomical reference.

35. Author LeShan : EDA.  She wrote about parent-child issues.

37. Prepare to ambush : LIE IN WAIT.  Because if you tell the truth, it's hard to ambush anyone.

38. Page (through) : LEAF. 

39. Pretentiously showy : ARTY

41. Arafat of the PLO : YASIR.  Rumor has that when he was born, his mother sang this song.

42. Pledge : VOW

43. From the top : ANEW.  Start over, so to speak.

48. Cuthbert of "24" : ELISHA.  Kinda looks like Debby Harry.

49. Knitting project : AFGHAN.  A blanket, wrap or shawl of colored yarn.

51. Black flies, notably : BITERS.  Nasty critters.

52. Major artery : AORTA.  A clecho!  The AORTA is the main blood line from the left ventricle, which supplies oxygenated blood to the entire body.  Crabs must not have one.

53. Deli pockets : PITAS.  Flat bread pockets.  Got any bread in your pocket?

54. Like May through August, in a way : R-LESS.  Refers to their spelling.  Traditionally these are the months when you should avoid eating oysters.  Back in the day, before refrigeration, they would spoil quickly in the warm months.  They also spawn in these months, making them fatty, watery, soft and less flavorful.

55. Right __ : OF WAY.  This has two quite distinct legal meanings.  In property law it is an easement or right to travel over another's property.  In traffic law it is the priority to proceed ahead of other vehicles or pedestrians.

56. Caustic solution : LYE.  Sodium hydroxide, and that's the truth.

60. Ahmadinejad's land : IRAN.  No comment.

62. "__ safe and warm if ...": "California Dreamin'" lyric : I'D BE.  Ah, those Mamas and Papas.

63. Winter Palace resident : TSAR.  Russian Royalty.

66. Old California fort : ORD.  Established in 1917, closed in 1994, for many years home to the 7th Infantry Division.

67. Charlemagne's realm: Abbr. : HRE.  Charles the Great was crowne King of the Franks in 768, and Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in 800.  Following his death in 814, things went into a bit of a decline.

Answer grid.

Well, there you have it.  A well constructed puzzle with lots of information , a bite of sea food, and a few eeewww moments for spice.  Hope you enjoyed it.

Jazzbumpa