Saturday, Feb 22nd, 2014, Barry C. Silk

Theme: Saturday Silkie

Words: 72 (missing Q,X)

Blocks: 28

   Considering the last two Saturday puzzles, I expected to take a beating today, and I was not all that surprised when it happened to be a Silkie - and a pinwheel of triple-10's at that~!  Yet despite my first pass looking like the front yard ( here on LI, we're still knee-deep in snow ), my second pass pretty much wrapped it up.  Have to admit, there were some s=t=r=e=t=c=h=e=s in the clues, but what else do you get on a Saturday?  Some of the longer fill today;
 

17a. What "c" might mean : LIGHT SPEED - E=mc²

12d. Response to a knock : WHO CAN IT BE - gotta have this musical link

28. Caspian Sea republic : AZERBAIJAN - Scrabbly fill~!

69a. Pronunciation aid : STRESS MARK - see 29d.

ON - the - WAshington - RoaD~!

ACROSS:

 1. Honolulu memorial : USS ARIZONA - I get this a lot in crosswords

11. Stroked : SWUM - oh, uh, that kind of stroked....

15. Approached : CLOSED IN ON

16. Quite : OH SO - ah, not "VERY"

18. Cold War capital : BONN

19. Befogged : AT SEA

20. Beginning for metric : BARO - BAROmetric

22. Hipster : CAT - I went with "KAT" first

23. Rat : SING - a slight meh, since I think it should be "rat OUT"

26. Do maintenance on, as a roof : RE-SLATE - I'd love a slate roof on my house - but the weight and cost is prohibitive

28. Inlet : ARM - meh #2; I get it, but, well....meh

31. Adopted great-nephew of Claudius : NERO

33. Self-titled 1991 debut album : ALANIS - Morisette; this was her 'dance-pop' album she recorded at the age of 17; 4 years later came the album everyone else knows, the 33million-copies-sold "Jagged Little Pill"

34. Fashionable '40s garb : ZOOT SUITS

37. Jumbles : OLIOs

38. Nervous : EDGY

39. Honored, in a way : FETED

41. 8 for O, e.g. : AT. No. - Atomic # 8, for Oxygen

42. Lively dances : REELS

44. Apple Store tech support station : GENIUS BAR - I'm PC - the genius is in ME

46. Cram : BONE UP

48. Cheer : ROOT

49. One wearing a "Y" shirt, perhaps : ELI - we had this yesterday; NOTE: if you punch in "Y shirt" on Google, and leave the ELI or YALE part out, you get much raunchier pictures~!

 

50. Formal talk : ADDRESS - Harrison's Inaugural Address was 8,445 words - see 35d.

52. Messenger molecules : RNAs

54. SS supplement : IRA - Social Security and Individual Retirement Account

55. "Deputy __": old toon : DAWG

57. "The King and I" group : HAREM - Gotta get me one of these

61. Nonsense : JIVE - "excuse me miss, I speak JIVE"

63. Don't bother : LEAVE ALONE

66. 2013 Zipcar acquirer : AVIS

67. Pinocchio, for one : MARIONETTE

68. Composer Rorem and others : NEDs

DOWN:

1. Pauley Pavilion team : UCLA

2. Fine cut : SLIT

3. Soaks, in British dialect : SOGS - My parents were born and raised in England, though I can't say I ever heard them say this

4. Fire proof : ASHES - Fire PROOF, not FIREproof

5. Hires to handle the case : RETAINS

6. Names : IDs

7. Letter number : ZIP - code; great clue for one of the numbers on a written letter

8. Spoiler of a perfect semester : ONE B - funny, because I got straight A's in my first semester at Island Drafting except for "one B"

9. Musical deficiency : NO EAR - because TIN EAR would not fit

10. Tenor Bocelli : ANDREA - that's a man, baby - and my ex-wife's name.  Awkward.

11. Sound of distress : SOB

13. Amer. citizen, e.g. : U.S. NATIONAL

14. Education innovator : MONTESSORI

21. __ Accords: 1993 agreement : OSLO

24. Huit follower : NEUF - 8 and 9, in Frawnche

25. Composer who incorporated Norwegian folk music into his work : GRIEG

27. Singing syllables : LALAs - Shout-out to Linda~!

29. Haute couture shopping area : RODEO DRIVE - because it's "haute couture", the pronunciation is rho-'DAY-o; everywhere else it's 'RO-dee-o; sort of like Marty Brodeur, goalie for the NJ Devils; when he makes a spectacular save, he becomes 'MAR-'TAN 'BRO-'DOOOR~!

30. Hexagram on the Israeli flag : MOGEN DAVID - Because Star O' David seemed too Irish to me; I did not know about this 'speculative' astronomical idea

32. River player : OTTER - ah, not a Texas Hold 'em reference

35. Harrison's successor : TYLER - US Presidents; the former for 30days, 12hours, 30minutes

36. Toledo title : SEÑOR

40. "I Wonder Why" lead singer : DION - someone else's turn

43. Took to court : SUED

45. St. George residents : UTAHANS

47. Job follow-up? : PSALMS - ah, Bible reference

51. Part of Churchill's offer : SWEAT - Winston Churchill - more here

53. Capital on the Willamette : SALEM

56. "Mr. Mom" actress : GARR

58. Personnel list : ROTA

59. Start of an intermission? : ENTR'acte, Frawnche for "between the acts"

60. Yielding : MEEK - ah, not "WEAK"

62. Winding path : ESS

64. Contend : VIE

65. Aurora, to the Greeks : EOS

Splynter

Saturday, Feb 15th, 2014, Brad Wilber

Theme: BW

Words: 70  (missing Q,X,Z)

Blocks: 33

  Either I am getting very comfortable with Saturday puzzles, or this one comes in at about a Friday, maybe even earlier level.  Brad is flying solo this week, as did his partner "DP" two weeks ago, and has what I would call a 'get out of jail free' offering today.  A not-so-intimidating grid, with non-chunky corners and two grid-spanners;

17. Norwegian offerings : PLEASURE CRUISES - sort of a mini-theme going, with 31a and 45a, too - I won't go near any type of cruise like this

56. Fails to intervene : SITS ON ONE'S HANDS

ONWARD, wandor, norwad, wordan, donwar, rondaw, etc.

ACROSS:

1. "A Different World" actress : LISA BONET - spin-off from "The Cosby Show", she was once married to Lenny Kravitz and has changed her name - some interesting ones, here

10. More than ready to do : UP FOR

15. Halley's field : ASTRONOMY - as in Halley's comet - a gimme here; you too, Husker?

16. Veronese white : SOAVE - drew a blank until I had S--VE, then the light bulb came on

19. Most like a beachcomber : TANNEST - any one else think "HOMELESS" ?

20. "__ Mutual Friend": Dickens' last completed novel : OUR

21. Royal letters : HRH - His/Her Royal Highness(ness) - as in 35a.

22. Texting gasp : OMG - Oh, My, Gawd~!

23. Profile listing : HOBBY

25. "Yes!" : "I DO" - I did, but I stopped

26. St. Peter's Basilica attraction : PIETA - Michelangelo's marble statue

29. Many roomies : SIBS - Siblings; my brother and I shared a room for 12 years

30. Match : BOUT

31. The first one open on Majorca in 1950 : CLUB MED - I think the clue should be openED; I recall the TV commercials

33. Lake Geneva river : RHONE

35. Princess with a Wookieepedia entry : LEIA - Star Wars

36. "I Lost It at the Movies" author : KAEL - Pauline, never heard of her

37. Narrow vents : SLITS

39. Teaching method based on set theory : NEW MATH

42. Gent : CHAP

43. Moselle tributary : SAAR

45. "The Love Boat" bartender : ISAAC - click for Earworm~!

47. Hit the __ : HAY

48. "Precisely!" : "BINGO~!"

49. Lucy of "Elementary" : LIU - I liked her in the Mel Gibson movie "Payback"

50. Time to look forward : EVE

51. Trot : JOG

52. Aids : SUCCORS

59. Spud : TATER

60. Europe's tallest ferris wheel : LONDON EYE

61. Underhanded type : SNEAK

62. Mississippi has four : AREA CODES - nice bit of ambiguity

DOWN:
1. Telecommuter's tool : LAPTOP

2. Like about 1.5 billion people : ISLAMIC

3. His was the first number retired by the Mets : STENGEL - Casey; I am a Mets fan, but maybe C.C. has more to offer

4. Ireland's __ Islands : ARAN

5. Audio giant : BOSE - ah, not SONY - had the "O" first

6. Cross to bear : ONUS

7. View from The Hague : NORTH SEA

8. Graph- ending : EME - Grapheme, the smallest semantically distinguishing unit in a written language

9. Cooperstown charter member : TY COBB - Not a baseball guy; I went with "C. Young" to start - can you tell I had the "Y" first~?!?


10. There's a lot of interest in it : USURY - I have one credit card that is 19.99% - getting close to my definition of usury

11. Food cooked in an imu : POI - Hawaiian cooking - more here

12. Method : FASHION

13. Accruing fines, maybe : OVERDUE

14. Did a double take? : RE-SHOT - as in photography

18. Chafes : RUBS RAW

24. Kin of -ish : OID - Roundish object = spheroid

27. Spring bloom : TULIP

28. Distract the security guard, say : ABET

30. Pampas weapons : BOLAS

32. Assignment : MISSION - "Your mission, should you choose to accept it...."

34. Half: Pref. : HEMI - Like Dodge advertises, their "HEMI" engine just means the cylinder shape is half round at the top

36. Fuel that built the Rockefeller fortune : KEROSENE - Learned this from watching "The Men Who Built America" from History channel

37. Adjective for "Pygmalion" or "Major Barbara" : SHAVIAN - of, pertaining to, or characteristic of George Bernard Shaw or his works: Shavian humor.

38. Shower paraphernalia : LAYETTE - Baby shower, that is; an outfit of clothing or bedding

39. Hound : NAG - ah, not DOG - the verb, not the noun

40. Like owls : TALONED

41. Lock-changing tool? : HAIR DYE - nice

42. See 57-Down : CHESTS, 57. With 42-Down, spots for sailors' gear : SEA

44. Luanda's land : ANGOLA

46. Triggers a bleep, maybe : CUSSES - @$#%X~!!!

48. Icelandic singer : BJORK - I had -J-RK to start, and it worked~!

53. Org. that rejects bad eggs : USDA - literally

54. Van. alternative : CHOColate - I saw the "." after Van(illa) and so I wondered if it might be referring to Van(couver), which happens to be in the same area as....

55. Recent Yankee star named for Jackie Robinson : CANO - Robinson Cano is now with the Seattle Mariners, 10yrs, $240mil.  Yeah.

58. Scand. kingdom : NORway - not q u i t e ...a duplication of the name in 17a.

Splynter

Saturday, Feb 8th, 2014, David Steinberg

Theme: None

Words: 73 (pangram~!)*

Blocks: 36

   I have seen David's name before, but this may be his Saturday LAT debut; he collaborated on this SALMON puzzle that gave us fits, and a Friday puzzle with WATER "falling" in the clues.  I "LIKEN" (13d.) this one at about a Wednesday level - done in about half the time I normally allow myself to do a Saturday crossword; but as we've discussed here before, when you have triple- and quad-stacks, it tends to make the perp answers shorter, and therefore, easier.  There were two ten-letter words in the across, plus four nines 'perping' the quad-stack - impressive~!:

31. Women seen standing at tables : DINER WAITRESSES

40. Walmart advantage : ONE-STOP SHOPPING

41. Attempts to best : COMPETES AGAINST

42. Stretched, in a way : STOOD ON ONE'S TOES

on WA rd~!  ( to Seattle in the fall....)

ACROSS:

1. They're used in British puzzles : ZEDS - nailed it, but I figure most of you did, too

5. Peter Pan rival : JIF - and I was onto this clue, too - the Peanut Butter, not the character

8. "The X Factor" judge : COWELL - my only mistake; I did not get my "Ta-DA~!" because I put in "P"owell first; no wonder "PAF" made no sense....

14. Picked locks : AFRO - nice misdirection; hair, not doorknobs

15. Classified letters : EOE - Equal Opportunity Employer

16. God in a temple : ADONAI - a little Wiki for you

17. Lesson __ : PLAN

18. Double shot, say : STIFF DRINK - today marks 9yrs, 1month

20. Many an Urdu speaker : PAKISTANI

22. Appropriate : TAKE - the verb -  "uh pro pri ATE", not "uh PRO pri ate"

23. Rankled : ATE AT

24. Common desktop icon : TRASH CAN - mine's the PC recycle bin

27. QB's stat : ATTempts - there will be no more of these in the 2013-14 NFL season

30. Math group : SET

43. Italian article : UNA

44. MDCLIII ÷ III : DLI - Roman math; 1653/3 = 551

45. Stock problem : STAMPEDE - I had a feeling this was "live" stock, and not Wall Street stock

50. Georgia retreat : DACHA - ah, that Georgia

55. Ending suggesting wealth : AIRE - MillionAIRE, BillionAIRE

56. State treasury : EXCHEQUER - nice fill; gets the 8pts for the "X" and 10 for the "Q"

59. It's used in dashes : GARLIC SALT

62. 51-Down resident : ARAB

63. Old-fashioned "Neat!" : GROOVY

64. Starting to burn : LIT

65. Quail collection : BEVY

66. Looked bored : YAWNED

67. Spinner : TOP

68. Drinks from a stand : ADES

DOWN:

1. Posthumous 1995 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee : ZAPPA - brilliant musician, but I could never get into his music

2. Key of Shostakovich's "First of May" : E FLAT - guess what~! I HAD the "E" to start - so I did NOT have to wait~!

3. Pond swimmer : DRAKE - not to be redundant, since it's followed by;

4. The duck in Disney's "Peter and the Wolf" : SONIA

5. Bon mot : JEST - Frawnch

6. Jot : IOTA - I have heard this before - the smallest Greek letter, thus something miniscule; technically, the word "JOT" is IN IOTA, since there's no "J" in Latin

7. Artful action : FEINT

8. Stimulating substance, briefly : CAF - Caffeine, as in your coffee this A.M.

9*. "That's weird" : ODD - *it's ODD that I have an ODD number of words in a Saturday grid*

10. Net __ : WORTH - my net worth is not within an iota of anything like "-AIRE"

11. Giant with 17,468 vacuum tubes : ENIAC - The computer; short for Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer

12. Sri __ : LANKA

13. Make an analogy : LIKEN

19. From the horse's mouth : FIRST HAND

21. Turned on : STARTED UP

25. Skylight insulation material, perhaps : AEROGEL - Never heard of this stuff being used in skylights, but it is highly effective in reducing thermal transmission

26. Words from one about to take over : STEP ASIDE

28. Black and blue, say : TWO-TONE - more deception, since "BRUISED" fit, too

29. Provençal spreads : TAPENADES - M-W online says: a seasoned spread made chiefly with mashed black olives, capers, and anchovies - I'll pass....

31. JAMA readers : DOCs - I went to the DPM this week - the Doctor of Podiatric Medicine, who diagnosed my heel pain as "Plantar Fasciitis"; it started bothering me in my first week of UPS driving, and I finally had to have something done.  Now I have a foot brace I wear at night, and orthotics coming in two weeks - I can't wait to walk properly again~!

32. How some NBA games are resolved : IN OT - also in the NHL; the Rangers went INto Over Time last night, then on to the shoot-out, and beat Pittsburgh 4-3

33. Fictional captain : NEMO - of the Nautilus, in Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

34. Hockey Hall of Fame nickname : ESPO - Phil Esposito, one-time Boston Bruin and NY Ranger who helped start up the NHL's Tampa Bay Lightning

35. Short retort : "IS SO~!"

36. Rain in scattered drops : SPIT

37. __-Indian War : SINO

38. Bay State motto starter : ENSE - Here's some interesting facts about Massachusetts

39. Friday et al.: Abbr. : SGTs - Sergeant Joe Friday of Dragnet

45. Needing a lift, maybe : SAGGY - boy, it's a good thing this wasn't followed by 48d.~!

46. Papal headgear : TIARA - I thought it was called a MITRE; I did not know about this piece of adornment

47. Common keyboard symbol : ARROW - we just had this discussion on keyboards last week

48. Winter __ : MELON - I like these winter melons - not SAGGY~!  How come THIS isn't in the Olympics?

49. Glorify : EXALT

51. Jordanian city : AQABA

52. Back to normal : CURED

53. Start of a nautical order : HEAVE - Spitzboov could share more

54. Chain with roast beef Mighty Minis : ARBY'S

57. Muse of history : CLIO

58. Start of many addresses : HTTP - the HyperText Transfer Protocol of website addresses

60. "__ had it!" : I'VE

61. Dancer Charisse : CYD

Splynter

Saturday, February 1st, 2014, Doug Peterson

Theme: DP

Words: 72 (missing F,J,Q)

Blocks: 30

  Mr. Peterson is flying solo this Saturday, and while this was a challenging and solvable puzzle, there were too many proper nouns crossing people and places, which takes the enjoyment out of it, at least for me.  Heavy corners today with triple 7's, and triple 6's on the walls.  In the middle we have two 12-letter and 2 9-letter spanners;

19a. Sub : HERO SANDWICH - slightly redundant in my neck of the woods; if I said I was "going for a hero sandwich", my friend's would ask me if I was OK. 

34a. "Arrow-maker's daughter" in a Longfellow poem : MINNEHAHA - I had no clue, but once I had MINNE----, I recalled hearing this name somewhere.  According to Wiki, she's 'another' popular individual in MN

44. Subject of weekly ratings : TV PROGRAM

55. Where Superman made his debut : ACTION COMICS - well, I started with MARVEL COMICS, and I am sure aficionados would cringe at the thought - Action was originally published under Detective Comics; it's how we come to have DC Comics today

onward~!

ACROSS:

1. Sign with a sting? : SCORPIO - I gave this one a moment, considered "road" signs, then decided to move on - and just as I clicked to the next clue, the astrology meaning popped into my head, and the V-8 can flew

8. Anatomical blade : SCAPULA - I gave no moment to this one - had to wait on perps; oddly, there were quite a few answers that eluded me this week, and looking back, I am ashamed to admit it. 

15. Key keys for many secretaries : HOME ROW - A,S,D,F <-> J,K,L,; - my typing skills have come from AutoCAD, and keeping a daily journal on the computer for the last 9 years; on my laptop, there's literally an indent on the left end of my space bar, the "A" has worn off its key, and I still have trouble hitting comma, period, colons and quotes

16. "Guess again!" : NO SIREE~! - well then, I'll choose HOSIERY~!

17. Stacked : IN A PILE

18. Free-spirited locale? : OPEN BAR - free = open, spirits = alcohol; the local locale of the blog is Villa Incognito

21. Yahoo! rival : MSN - Microsoft Network - Internet and Email providers; yep, I went with AOL to start.

22. Bar order : RYE - Dah~! Went with ALE first

23. Certain tributes : ODES

27. Fitness brand : AVIA - my first instinct was this fill, but I had AOL in already; this meant "AA" for 4d., and that looked wrong

30. Big name in Tinseltown tittle-tattle : TMZ - Again, this was my first fill instinct; I call it  'hype' news; I can't stand the commercials, never mind the show.  Learning moment; TMZ stands for Thirty-Mile Zone, the 'studio zone' of Hollywood. 

32. Soften : RELENT - neatly followed by:

37. Score directive : LENTO - If the next word was ENTOMB, that'd be really cool.  Well....

38. __ Arizona : USS - I stared at this way too long; it took the middle "S" before the "Duh" hit me

39. Three-time McDonald's LPGA Championship winner : SE-RI PAK - Crossing Iolanthe, Dr. Zhivago and Elko is just brutal, period. 

41. Like the vb. "have" : IRRegular - that's strange; I use the word "have" pretty regularly

42. Loser's metaphor : SHIRT - "lost my shirt when the market crashed"

46. Make lovable : ENDEAR

48. Bolted down : ATE

49. Well-sinewed : ROPY - I went with WIRY to start

50. Face-to-face contest : DUEL - meh, not really - they're about 20 paces apart, at least using pistols.  I can see getting in close using swords, but my mind was stuck on boxing, and even chess

51. Cousin of com : ORG - DAH~!  I put in EDU, since NET wasn't going to work, nor BIZ, but for some reason, ORG completely eluded me.
When I first read the clue, I thought it said c o r n , not com

53. Bud abroad : AMI - Frawnch

61. Red wood, perhaps : HOT COAL - I can walk on hot coals - of course, my shoes are ON

64. Asana accessory : YOGA MAT - I had --AT at the end, was thinking "asada", or grilled "meat", so this one took a while to appear

65. Martha's Vineyard paper since 1846 : GAZETTE

66. Train : EDUCATE

67. Like some Thanksgiving turkeys : TRUSSED - ah, not STUFFED

68. Old-fashioned messages : TELEXES

DOWN:

1. With 63-Down, toy from Tibet : SHIH ; 63. See 1-Down : TZU - First and last; paired clues for bookends

2. Froyo holder : CONE - we have a Frozen Yogurt place in town, but in my head, I see it as "Fro-Yo" ; froyo looks like the Spanish word for a kitchen accessory

3. Old Persian poet : OMAR

4. Pro with a tow truck : REPO MAN

5. Uptight type : PRISS - D'oh, I went with PRUDE, slowed me down

6. Gilbert and Sullivan operetta that satirizes Parliament : IOLANTHE - Never heard of this, so after I filled it in using perps, I went to Wiki

7. "Children of Men" star Clive : OWEN

8. White : SNOWY - This was just a downright awesome one-word Saturday clue/answer

9. Staples staple : COPIER - TONER, PAPER, PENCILS didn't fit, and I was AT Staples today - again, the obvious did not occur to me

10. "Hold on __!" : A SEC

11. Source of a slow leak, perhaps : PINHOLE

12. Sub finisher? : URB - SubURB - I went with ARU first -  SubARU

13. Bucolic spot : LEA

14. __ Arann: Irish carrier : AER - Again, seems obvious now that I am done

20. Physician married to Tonya Gromeko : DR. ZHIVAGO

24. "A Bronx Tale" director : DE NIRO

25. Lead on : ENTRAP

26. Dark 'n' __ (rum and ginger beer cocktail) : STORMY

27. Kept occupied : AMUSED

28. Four-armed deity : VISHNU

29. Favorable track position : INSIDE - I'm on the inside track to being recalled to drive for UPS; I've been back on the pre-load side since Jan 10th.

31. Outlet : MART

33. Nevada city : ELKO

35. Verb in first-year Spanish : ESTA

36. Patient request: Abbr. : APPT

40. Trio preceding an exchange : AREA CODE

43. Tightens, as a corset : RELACES

45. Sign of displeasure : GRIMACE - I put GRUMBLE in first; 57% correct

47. Take a turn : ROTATE

52. Beside oneself : RILED

54. Heavy hitter : MOGUL

56. Storable sacks : COTS - ah, that kind of sack

57. It may be heard in Orel arguments : NYET - Russia, that is; I was stuck on the OrAl we had Wednesday, and thought it was a biblical reference

58. Theater giant? : IMAX

59. " The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" co-star Blanchett : CATE

60. Some Fr. martyrs : STEs

61. Lic. number : HGT - I started with D.O.B., which didn't help. The abbr in the clue told me it couldn't be AGE, then a-ha~! either WGT or HGT

62. Shell mover : OAR - dah~! that kind of shell

Splynter(ed), from Wednesday's 11d.