Friday, August 1, 2014

Saturday, Aug 2nd, 2014, Barry C. Silk

Theme: Saturday Silkie~!

Words: 70 (missing F,Q,V,X)

Blocks: 26

  YES~!  This week's offering from Mr. Silk was probably one of the toughest puzzles he's given us in a long time - IMHO.  The low block count, triple 11- and 10-letter corners and  inner pinwheel stacks left little wiggle room.  Not to mention the utter vagueness of the clues and the clever misdirections - oh, wait, I just did.... There were two breakthrough answers (*) that got me to the finish - but with a mere 57 seconds left on the clock of my personal time limit.  Some of the longer fill:

15a. Riverbend Festival city : CHATTANOOGA - that's odd; Boston in Tennessee?






55a. Egyptian expanse : SINAI DESERT - SAHARA was a tad too long

25. African Union Commission headquarters : ADDIS ABABA - Africa is popular today


14. Part of Larry King's legacy : SUSPENDERS
 

On(e more week) ward~!!!

ACROSS:

1. Travelocity offering : PACKAGE DEAL* - 11-letter start, and I'm thinking HOTEL---, PLANE---, etc., and it wasn't until the third or fourth pass, with a smattering of letters in place that I finally realized this was a 'general' term

12. Bit of texting tact : PLS - ah, so the "new" language is making its way into crosswordese; PLeaSe

16. Note : I.O.U. - the vagueness; no 'debt' reference

17. Private collectibles? : TOY SOLDIERS - I had the second "O" in place, and PHOTO--- was looking promising, as in Private Detective....

18. Sporty cars : GTs - dah~! Not MGs

19. Mac OS part: Abbr. : SYStem - I'm PC.  'nuf  said.

20. Ghostly sound : MOAN

21. Relax : EASE UP

23. Tabloid fodder : DIRT - not ITEM

24. "__ Place" : MELROSE - ARCHIE'S, MILLER'S....strange - Miller Place is right next to Mount Sinai here on Long Island (55a.)











25. Torrid : ABLAZE - Dah~!  The "Z" was in place, so I considered SLEAZY - the "Y" led me to PLENTY at 6d., and that just messed up the NW

28. It may be fit for a king : BED LINEN - Har-har~! king-sized bed, that is

29. Mideast monotheistic sect : DRUZE - the Wiki

30. Ramble on : PRATE

31. Taken : HAD - "I've been ___~!"

32. Monopoly needs : DICE - Ugh, really, Mr. Silk~??? The plural vagueness got me

33. "Cool!" : "NEATO~!"

34. Thoughtless procedure? : ROTE - Clever

35. Gross remark? : ICK - not UGH, not ACK ( my last correction before time expired )

36. Difficult : MESSY - like, say, d-i-v-o-r-c-e

37. More sound : HALER - not sAnER - that's 60%, D-Otto~!

38. Vietnam War attack aircraft : SKYHAWKS











40. They're history : GONERS

41. Ed O'Neill sitcom role : AL BUNDY - "Married, with Children" - could only watch so much of it

42. Bottled (up) : PENT

43. Cultural icon making her debut in 1959 : BARBIE - I only saw this upon doing the review; she looks good for 55....

44. Prefix with nautical : AERO - aeronautical

45. Poke : JAB

48. Call for passage : AYE

49. Each of the two longest ones lasted 15 innings : ALL-STAR GAME - they take it way too seriously, then

52. Emmy winner Arthur : BEA

53. Split personality? : CHEERLEADER* - ah, that kind of split

54. Vessel measured in cubits : ARK - three-letter vessel? All I could think of was URN - DAH~!! THAT kind of vessel

DOWN:

1. Election figs. : PCTs - Percentages

2. Gob stopper? : AHOY - Gob being a term for a sailor in this instance

3. Small islands : CAYS - not KEYS, AITS....

4. Board jumpers: Abbr. : KTs - Knights, on Chess boards - the only piece that can 'jump'; makes this today's uber-vagueness winner~!


5. Reduce to mist : ATOMIZE - one of my very few first pass answers

6. In abundance : GALORE

7. Proceed until : END AT

8. "Whatcha __?" : "DOIN'?"

9. Job listing letters : EOE

10. Accepted : AGREED TO

11. The Explorers of the Atlantic 10 Conf. : LaSALLE

12. Catalog : PIGEONHOLE

13. Mythological daydreamer : LOTUS EATER - more here

22. Indian honorific : SRI

23. Floor : DAZE - the verb, not the noun

24. Substantive : MEATY

26. Construction worker : BRICKLAYER - got a new wood working project to do at a restaurant on the east end of L.I. called "A Lure", so this wash-out weekend will be spent doing CAD work; the Rook Table is on hold

27. Sore loser's comment : LUCKY BREAK

28. Source of many orders : BRASS - I threw in "SARGE" - that's 0%, D-Otto

30. Irksome : PESKY

33. One of the Nehru Planetarium cities : NEW DELHI

34. Carry on : RANT

36. More than just zealots : MANIACS - fanatics was one too many

37. Award winner : HONOREE

39. Where some routes meet : HUB - ALL of Suffolk County's Eastern UPS routes meet at our HUB, which is more of a TERMINAL, actually

40. Predecessor of Nelson : GERALD - Vice Presidents, Gerald Ford, Nelson Rockefeller

42. __ dish : PETRI - Hey~! I got one~!

44. Perplexed : ASEA

45. Alaska's state gem : JADE

46. From Hawaii, say: Abbr. : AMERican - argh~!!! Yes, anything from Hawaii is STILL American

47. Hall of Fame pitcher Blyleven : BERT - I'll have to dig out my old baseball sticker albums - I actually KNEW this one, C.C.~!

50. Novelist Deighton : LEN

51. Energy : GAS

Splynter

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