Monday, July 4, 2011 Peter A. Collins

Theme: Fourth of July - The date of the adoption of the declaration and, coincidentally, the date the author of the preamble and the author of the document itself passed away within hours of each other.

39A. Chief author (who died 7/4/1826) of 5- and 9-Down : THOMAS JEFFERSON

5D. With 9-Down, document signed 7/4/1776 : THE DECLARATION and 9D. OF INDEPENDENCE

7D. With 51-Down, chief congressional advocate (who died 7/4/1826) of 5- and 9-Down : JOHN 51D. ADAMS

Argyle here. Happy and safe holiday! Due to the constraints of the theme, the puzzle has MIRROR crossword symmetry. Good fill considering the length of the main theme entries.

Across:

1. Racecourse setting for a "My Fair Lady" scene : ASCOT

6. IHOP beverages : OJs. With or without pulp?

9. Unseats : OUSTS

14. Coach Bill whose 49ers won three Super Bowls : WALSH. 1981, '84 and '88 (XVI, XIX, XXIII).

15. Highchair user : TOT

16. Camera setting : F-STOP

17. Fill with joy : ELATE

18. "__ will be done ...": Lord's Prayer : THY

19. Prefix with -clast : ICONO. A person who attacks cherished beliefs, traditional institutions, etc., as being based on error or superstition.

20. UFO pilots, in theory : ETs

21. Speak dully and endlessly : DRONE ON

24. Actor Beatty : NED. He should not be confused with Warren Beatty.

25. Fate : KISMET. From Turk. qismet, from Ar. qismah, qismat "portion, lot, fate," from root of qasama "he divided."

27. Stick (to) : ADHERE

29. Sprinted : RACED

31. Starting squad : A-TEAM

32. Dote on : SPOIL

34. Bruin Bobby who wore #4 : ORR

36. Chopin's instrument : PIANO

42. NASA vehicle : LEM. lunar excursion module

43. Cheers for : ROOTS ON

44. Like Robitussin: Abbr. : OTC. Over-the-counter cough medicine'

45. GM navigation system : ON-STAR

47. Danish birthplace of Hans Christian Andersen : ODENSE. Map.

49. Drew, as a magnet : ATTRACTED

53. Video game pioneer : ATARI

56. Org. for drillers? : ADA. American Dental Association(Did it fool anyone?)

57. Innocent ones : NAIFs

61. "Bedtime for __": Reagan film : BONZO. 1951.

62. Used a chair : SAT

63. Nav. officers : CMDRs. Commanders.

64. Sir Arthur __ Doyle : CONAN. Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes.

65. HBO alternative : TMC. The Movie Channel (TMC) on Showtime.

66. Moray fisherman : EELER

67. Ollie's partner : STAN. Laurel and Hardy.

68. Bat wood : ASH

69. Matches, as a bet : SEES

Down:

1. See 38-Down : A WEEK. 38-Down. With 1-Down, every seven days : ONCE

2. 1972 U.S./Soviet missile agreement : SALT I

3. Pupils' places : CLASSROOMS

4. East, to Ernst : OST. German.

6. Director Preminger : OTTO. Austro�Hungarian-American but not German.

8. Eye malady : STYE

10. Pac-10 sch. : USC. University of Southern California.

11. Worker with rocks : STONE MASON

12. Copier filler : TONER

13. Fine china brand : SPODE. Spode is a Stoke-on-Trent based pottery company that was founded by Josiah Spode.

22. GPS suggestion : RTE

23. Feedbag grain : OAT

26. Injure badly : MAIM

28. What can't be parted after it's departed? : HAIR. Ha-ha, very funny.

30. School where belts are earned : DOJO. Japanese martial arts.

31. Sounds from pounds : ARFs

32. 1944 battle city : ST-L�

33. Withdrawn diet-drug combo Fen-__ : PHEN

35. Like a gen. who no longer has men : RET.

37. Have-__: the needy : NOTS

40. Put mail in boxes, say : SORT

41. Third of a yard : FOOT

46. "__ of the Apes" : TARZAN. I actually read the book and discovered the ending wasn't anything like what Hollywood had me believing.

48. Mingo portrayer on "Daniel Boone" : ED AMES. Oh boy, a chance to link one of my favorite clips.

50. Certain Jamaican believer : RASTA

52. Hidden problem : CATCH

53. Preschool basics : ABC'S

54. Honk : TOOT

55. Kournikova of tennis : ANNA. What? She plays tennis, too? Cowgirl.

58. Not doing anything : IDLE

59. Gratis : FREE

60. Lith. and Ukr., once : SSRs. Soviet Socialist Republic.

Answer grid.

Argyle

Saturday, June 18, 2011 Peter A. Collins

Theme: None

Words: 70

Blocks: 28

A tough offering from one of our regular constructors - I went with the Downs first, and so I didn't nail the first grid spanner right away-

17A. Top 10 single on the 1970 album "Abraxas" : BLACK MAGIC WOMAN - Santana

...had me a grid that was predominately blank for most of the time, until I hit on

29A. They're not near the action : CHEAP SEATS

... which broke it open for me; before that, I was considering throwing in the "red-letter" towel; and the other spanner,

54A. Didn't just go : ASKED PERMISSION - a simple, yet thoughtful fill

Splynter, here with another Saturday offering for your perusal

Across:

1. Old Eurasian letters : USSR - did anyone else start with CCCP, the Cyrillic version?

5. Bean counter : NUMBERS GUY - stared at "_u_bers guy" for a long time...

15. Home of H. Rousseau's "The Sleeping Gypsy" : MOMA - TATE? had to be a museum or art gallery, I figured

16. How travelers' bags are screened : ONE AT A TIME - I have not traveled by air for 8 years, was thinking "IN AN XRAY _ _"

19. Old-style street show : RAREE - I have heard of this

20. Tub contents : BATH - I had oleo to start

21. Depend : REST - I had RELY to start

22. Affected : ARTSY

23. A, B or C, perhaps: Abbr. : ANS - thought KEY, GRADE, etc.

24. Like an alias : FALSE - I usually hear "FALSE ALIBI", not FALSE ALIAS

25. Writ word : HABEAS - we have legal experts on the blog who can step in here

27. Wane : SAG - I had EBB to start

28. 1992 gold medal-winning Dream Team coach Chuck : DALY - I don't do basketball - personally, a waste of time and good hardwood....

35. Some six-pack contents : ALE - Felt good about my "ABS" here

36. Six-pack alternative? : BEER GUT - great answer, I had BEER KEG

37. It's best if it's well-seasoned : WOK - cast iron pans, too

38. Party stipulation : NO CHILDREN - I agree

40. Gentle way to go : EASY

41. Picker-upper's concern: Abbr. : ETA - Did anyone else think "Bounty", the paper towel?

42. Shuts out, in slang : SKUNKS - Both the Bruins and Canucks got shut out twice in the Stanley Cup finals; Vancouver in game 7, at home - they just plain "STUNK" in the series.  My brother drove up to Boston for the parade

44. Takes it slow : LOLLS

47. Eastern way : TAO - getting to be a crossword standard

49. '70s toothpaste with "green sparkles" : GLEEM

51. Call, in a way : HAIL - as a cab

52. Pot user : CHEF - uh, not my first thought....

53. Language that gives us "shampoo" : HINDI

57. Very loud : STENTORIAN - A STRAIGHT UP ADJECTIVE I HAVE NEVER HEARD BEFORE - BUT TYPING IN CAPITALS TENDS TO IMPLY SHOUTING; DOES IT BOTHER YOU ????

58. Wood fastener : T-NUT - this do-dad

59. Certain tax determinant : ASSESSMENT

60. They may be first class: Abbr. : SGTS

Down:

1. Sunspot center : UMBRA - Latin for shadow; in this case, it's actually a "cool" spot on the sun's surface, relatively speaking

2. Phenomenon caused by ice crystals between the Earth and sun : SOLAR HALO - I don't think I have witnessed this; I have seen something similar, at night with the moon, so I thought "LUNAR" at first - I did have the HALO part....and two Astrological clues in a row....

3. One making cracks : SMART ALEC

4. Happens quickly : RACES BY

5. Camus, for one : NOM - see 43D - Albert Camus was "French", hence his "name" in French

6. Brazen : UNABASHED

7. Kid-lit Judy Moody series author McDonald : MEGAN - new movie coming out based on this popular character when I was a kid - but I was a boy, I didn't read about 'girls', with their cooties....

8. Entices : BAITS

9. Permanently mark : ETCH

10. Word with deal or nerves : RAW - First fill for me

11. Possible reason for folding : STORAGE

12. Letter on a dreidel : GIMEL  - I am not up on my Hebrew alphabet

13. Sch. with a Lowell campus : UMASS - so here's a map, just because there isn't much to link today

14. "Fiddler on the Roof" matchmaker : YENTE - Did consider YENTA to start

18. __ Luke of Charlie Chan films : KEYE

24. Ritual abstinence : FAST

26. Rapid Northeast train : ACELA - AMTRAK

27. Moxie : SPUNK

28. Castellaneta who voices Homer Simpson : DAN - the man who improvised "D'oh", which is now in the dictionary

30. Transpose digits, say : ERR

31. Golden, Silver, Bronze and Iron, to Ovid : AGES OF MAN - tried "precious" here

32. One may be rude : AWAKENING

33. Ejected : TOSSED OUT

34. Diving milieu : SKY - had SEA first

36. Smithereens : BITS

39. Athens native : HELLENE - Tried GRECIAN early on

40. Volunteers : ENLISTS

43. Disgusted chorus : UGHs - like seeing French in my crosswords....

44. High capital : LHASA - DENV'R didn't fit

45. Hops driers : OASTS

46. Fancies : LIKES

47. 100,000 BTU : THERM - Learning moment for me

48. John Denver album with an eagle's silhouette on the cover : AERIE - I am a HUGE fan, but this one I did not know - came out when I was 9 months old....nice alternative to "high nest"

50. Cashier's counter bowlful : MINTS - the progress was PENNY, COINS, CENTS, MINTS

52. Naval noncoms : CPOs - Chief Petty Officer

55. AA issue : DTs - Delirium Tremens, more of a medical issue - THEN they suggest you start going to meetings....trust me, I have been there, and I am still there - see "Leaving Las Vegas" for a good example

56. QB's miscue : INT-erception, that is, passing it to the other team

Answer grid. 

Splynter

Thursday, May 19, 2011, Peter A. Collins

Theme:  Connect the dots. Click here. The circled letters A through J (the tiny bubbles from 57A) make the outline of (a little fishy from 38A) if you trace a line to each one in alphabetical order after completing the puzzle. (Note, the circles do not appear on the LA Times applet, you can see them if you do the Across Lite version on Cruciverb.com).

19A. Vast expanse (and a fitting setting for this puzzle): DEEP BLUE SEA. 

38A. Somewhat suspect (and a hint to what can be found by connecting the circled letters in alphabetical order): A LITTLE BIT FISHY.

57A. Don Ho hit (and what the O's in this grid represent): TINY BUBBLES.

This was kind of different, I don't remember doing any other connect the dots puzzles, but I'll bet it didn't help anyone very much in solving.  However, this seemed more like a Monday or Tuesday to me today anyway, less than 10 minutes to complete it.

ACROSS:

1. Ones minding their peas in queues?: PODS. Pea pods hold their seeds all in a row. There are many stories about the origin of the phrase this plays on, but investigations by the Oxford English Dictionary in 2007 when revising the entry turned up early examples of the use of Ps and Qs to mean learning the alphabet. The first is in a poem by Charles Churchill, published in 1763: �On all occasions next the chair / He stands for service of the Mayor, / And to instruct him how to use / His A�s and B�s, and P�s and Q�s.� It is more likely to be that than any of the more fanciful explanations.

5. __ band: PEP. Student sports boosters.

8. Where the music stops?: HARD C. The last letter of the word music has a "k" sound.

13. Uprising: RIOT.

14. Consider judicially: HEAR.

15. End of __: AN ERA. An overused trite phrase.

16. Bony beginning: OSTE. From the Greek word for bone: osteon.

17. Scots Gaelic: ERSE. Early Scottish variant of Old English Irisc or Old Norse Irskr "Irish"; applied by Lowland Scots to the Gaelic speech of the Highlanders (which originally is from Ireland)

18. They might be executed by a judge: STAYS. Original meaning is to stand (related to editor's "stet"), to come to a halt.

22. York's title: Abbr.: SGT. Alvin York, a Tennessee sharpshooter who was deeply religious/pacifist early on, and a conscientious objector to the war. He took out a German machine gun nest by killing 28 soldiers, but he saved 132 others, so he was fighting to save lives.

23. __ Lanka: SRI. Honorific for "beautiful".

24. Fourth-cen. monastic: ST. BASIL. Of Caesarea, (now Turkey) known for his care of the poor and underprivileged.

26. a.m. beverages: OJS. Skip the juice, which has been pasteurized and is concentrated sugar, eat an orange instead...

29. Citric __: ACID. A weak acid found naturally occurring in citrus fruits, it is added to soft drinks to make them sour. The commercial production technique is cultures of A. niger are fed on a sucrose or glucose-containing medium to produce citric acid. The source of sugar is corn steep liquor, molasses, hydrolyzed corn starch or other inexpensive sugary solutions. After the mold is filtered out of the resulting solution, citric acid is isolated by precipitating it with lime (calcium hydroxide) to yield calcium citrate salt, from which citric acid is regenerated by treatment with sulfuric acid. Yummy! Eat an orange instead...

32. Finesse shampoo maker __ Curtis: HELENE.

33. Shows inattention at a lecture, maybe: NAPS.

35. Shrinking sea: ARAL.

37. Chicago commuter carriers: ELS. Elevated trains.

43. Folksy negative: NAW.

44. Identical: SAME.

45. Very wide shoe: EEEE.

46. Lessens: ABATES. From O.Fr. abattre "beat down, cast down." Related to batter, to fell or slaughter found in abattoir.

49. "Voila!" cousin: TADA. Japanese: Yatta!

51. ENTs, e.g.: DRS. Ear, Nose, and Throat doctors.

52. Bonding capacity measure: VALENCE. Chemistry bonds between atoms to make molecules.

54. Actor Wallach: ELI.

56. Ideal conclusion?: IST. Suffix clue. The most charitable definition of idealist is one who pursues high or noble purposes or goals, such as justice, charity, altruism, equality, fairness, etc. As Terry Pratchett's character "Death" says: "You have to believe in things that aren't true, else how can they become so?"

63. Gaming pioneer: ATARI. The word "atari" in Japanese is a term in the board game of GO for one or more stones that are one move away from being surrounded and thus captured.

65. Judge: DEEM. To pass judgement, to form an opinion. Related to doom, which also meant judgement, condemnation.

66. "Please allow me": MAY I. Or, with "mother" a children's game similar to Simon Says.

67. Old dwelling for 68-Across: TEPEE. From Dakota (Siouan) thipi "dwelling, house."

68. Western natives: UTES. (Utah) from Spanish yuta, name of the indigenous Uto-Aztecan people of the Great Basin, perhaps from Western Apache (Athabaskan) yudah "high" (in reference to living in the mountains).

69. Ready for use: PREP.  Used as the verb form here, to get ready.  PREP is apparently one of those words, like "rhino" that we use without considering it an abbreviation.

70. 20% of seventy-six?: ESSES. There are 10 letters in "seventy-six", two of which are the letter "s", so 2 is 20% of 10.

71. Gambling area: PIT.  We just recently had pit boss.

72. Bad lads: CADS. Shortening of Cadet, "a jumped-up member of the lower classes who was guilty of behaving as if he didn't know that his lowly origin made him unfit for having sexual relationships with well-bred women." [Anthony West, "H.G. Wells: Aspects of a Life," 1984]

DOWN:

1. Urge: PROD.

2. Seine feeder: OISE. French rivers.

3. Heap affection (on): DOTE. Or what a mairzy eats.

4. Self-help segments: STEPS.  A 12 step program is a set of guiding principles outlining a course of action for recovery from addiction, compulsion, or other behavioral problems.

6. Lessen: EASE.

7. Basketball ploy: PRESS.  Short for pressure. Often called a full-court press, this is an attacking defense employed in the backcourt before the ball crosses center court, where the objective is to force a turnover.

8. Argues (with): HAS A BEEF.

9. Tiny crawler: ANT. Also formerly called an EMMET from *ai- "off, away" + *mai- "cut," (maim).  Thus, its name means "the biter off".

10. Like much real estate, annually: REASSESSED. Originally meant to fix the amount of tax on, so to place a value on.

11. Bombay product: DRY GIN. Bombay is a brand name of  gin distributed by Bacardi.

12. Way to relocate a king: CASTLE. A chess maneuver which protects the king and frees up the rook.

14. Like rotini: HELICAL. Pasta.

20. Support in a dresser drawer: BRA.

21. Sudan neighbor: Abbr.: ETH.iopia.  Today's geography lesson.

25. Kate's sitcom pal: ALLIE. 80's sitcom starring Susan St. James and Jane Curtin.

26. "Leaving __ Jet Plane": ON A. We've had lots of Peter Paul and Mary lately, so here's the guy that wrote the song.

27. Flier to Tokyo: JAL. Japan Airlines.

28. Lumbar punctures: SPINAL TAPS.  Cerebro-spinal fluid analysis can be used to diagnose certain neurologic disorders, particularly infections (such as meningitis) and brain or spinal cord damage.

30. Inflames: IRES.

31. Pat: DAB AT.

34. Declare: STATE.

36. 5-Down's capital: LIMA. along with 5D. See 36-Down: PERU.

39. ATM output: TWENTIES.

40. Latin hymns: TE DEUMS. Literal translation: "Thee, O God, we praise".  According to the Devil's Dictionary (Ambrose Bierce) on the similar sounding word tedium:  Many fanciful derivations of the word have been affirmed, but so high an authority as Father Jape says that it comes from a very obvious source -- the first words of the ancient Latin hymn Te Deum Laudamus. In this apparently natural derivation there is something that saddens.

41. Slip floater, to its owner: HER. Boats referred to with feminine gender.

42. "Absolutely!": YES.

46. Fly: AVIATE. Latin "avis", bird.

47. Moistens with drippings: BASTES.

48. Acoustics, e.g.: Abbr.: SCI. One of the sciences.

50. Priestly garb: ALB.

53. Turn out to be: END UP.

55. High-tech debut of 1981: IBM PC.

58. "__ do fear thy nature": Lady Macbeth: YET I.  "It is too full o' th' milk of human kindness." She is expressing doubt that he has the backbone for the ruthless action it will require to take and retain the kingship.

59. Epitome of redness: BEET.

60. Pasternak heroine: LARA. Dr. Zhivago...

61. Scrutinized: EYED.

62. Uses a straw: SIPS.

64. R&B artist Des'__: REE.  You gotta be.

Answer Grid 

Al