Oofa, this one kicked my butt, mainly in the SE corner. I had DIRECTORS_H___ and SHOUT just didn’t occur to me. It took me forever to get a toehold in that corner, but when I did, the rest finally came fairly easily.
The four theme answers are:
20A, So-called “fox fires” – NORTHERNLIGHTS
35A, Recording device – VIDEOCAMERA
42A, Certain lawsuit – CLASSACTION
56A, What the ends of [the previous three] are, collectively – DIRECTORSSHOUT
Categories: Solving Time
Holy cow! Somehow I managed to mess up on both Saturday’s and Tuesday’s puzzle. I ended up seeing Saturday’s answers before I realized I hadn’t done it, and I did Tuesday without starting the timer.
Nothing to be done about it now, so on to Wednesday.
The theme for Wednesday is clues that use words that have two meanings, and they use the unexpected one.
16A, Meteor shower – PLANETARIUM (shower as in something that shows, not the watery thing in the bathroom)
22A, Country bowers – FIDDLEPLAYERS
46A, Farm towers – TEAMSOFHORSES (things that tow, not tall structures)
56A, South American flower – AMAZONRIVER (something that flows)
Categories: Solving Time
Theme hint is given by 55D, “Twirl…or a cryptic hint to 20-, 36-, and 51-Across” – SPIN. Or SP IN.
20A, Aerosol tanning? – SPRAYOFSUNSHINE
36A, Tiffany showroom? – SPACEOFDIAMONDS
51A, Babble incoherently? – SPUTTERNONSENSE
Hm. Rather close to Sunday’s theme.
Categories: Solving Time
Sorry for the delay, busy weekend. A bar mitzvah, my now-three-year-old’s birthday, visiting inlaws and mother, and a Joan Osborne concert, all excellent. It was the first time I’ve seen Joan Osborne live, by the way, and let me just say she is awesome in concert. Anyway on to the puzzle.
The title was “All Saints’ Day”, and it was a hard one. Despite my guessing that the letters ST figured in the answers, I still had a pretty tough time. And I got two squares wrong in the end. 100D, “Old Indian V.I.P.” was NAWAB. I thought it had to be RANEE or RAJAH, but the W in WHERE at 115A nixed that. I should have been able to figure that 99A, “Composer Dohnanyi” was ERNO, not ERRO, but I had no idea what the key of Bach’s best-known Mass was (125A, BMINOR). This all makes the Indian V.I.P. NAWAB. What? Never heard of it. Bah.
So, the theme answers:
23A, Switch in an orchestra section? – EXCHANGEOFSTRINGS
40A, Pilgrim? – HOLYSTROLLER
57A, Neolithic outlaws? – STONEARMEDBANDITS
77A, Invisible lost dogs? – ULTRAVIOLETSTRAYS
96A, Gets fat? – GOESALLSTOUT
115A, Go-go club? – WHERETHEBOYSSTARE
16D, Add new connections between floors? – PUTONSTAIRS
70D, Dieter? – STARCHENEMY
Categories: Solving Time
A hard themeless from Frederick J. Healy. 12 10-letter answers, the NE quadrant really slowed me down. I was stumped for a long time by three movie clues, usually my strong suit.
36A, Oscar winner after “Rocky” – ANNIEHALL (I had the A and the L, but I needed a couple more letters to get it)
12D, 1992 film directed by and starring Edward James Olmos – AMERICANME (an actor whose work I really enjoy)
13D, Warden player in “Birdman of Alcatraz” – KARLMALDEN (a movie I’ve seen, but long ago)
Assorted other answers are:
1A, Subject of the 1989 musical monologue, “Bon Appetit!” – JULIACHILD
27D, Sexy numbers – HOTTAMALES
67A, Thing to swing from – STRIKEZONE
Categories: Solving Time
I did Thursday’s puzzle, and I thought I blogged it, but I was about to blog Friday’s and saw it wasn’t there. So sorry, no time to post today. Thursday has an interesting theme. Or should I say anteresting? No? OK. A clue is given by 55D, “Marchers” through the answers to the five starred clues – ANTS. What does this mean? I’ll give those answers and it will become clear:
14A, *Settler in a pharmacy – ANTACID
21A, *”_______ Island” – FANTASY
37A, *B’way hit beginning in ‘88 – PHANTOM
48A, *Where Delta Air Lines is headquartered – ATLANTA
61A, *Cast a spell over – ENCHANT
Categories: Solving Time
A nice one from Gary J. Whitehead, and a really good Wednesday time for me. The theme answers all end with a 68A, 70A – BED, SIZE.
17A, Eng, for one – SIAMESETWIN (Cheng, for another)
33A, Bar request – MAKEMINEADOUBLE
42A, 1951 film named for a boat – THEAFRICANQUEEN
63A, “Circle of Life” musical – THELIONKING
Categories: Solving Time
A sort of word ladder theme is in today’s puzzle. Not my favorite puzzle, but nice construction.
17A, P – SIXTEENTHLETTER
22A, PO – RIVEROFLOMBARDY
38A, POL – CAPITOLHILLTYPE
46A, POLK – FORMERPRESIDENT
55A, POLKA – OKTOBERFESTTUNE
Categories: Solving Time
The four theme answers are indicated by 38A, “Take a new path … or a hint to [the four theme answers]” – CHANGEDIRECTION. Each one consists of a phrase consisting of a cardinal direction and an anagram of that direction:
20A, Prickle in Alaska? – NORTHTHORN
36A, Simmered dish in California? – WESTSTEW
41A, Chair in Maine? – EASTSEAT
57A, Scream in Alabama? – SOUTHSHOUT
Categories: Solving Time
The title of this puzzle is Perjury and it’s by Joe DiPietro. I confess I didn’t fully comprehend the theme until after I was done, and then I was gobsmacked when I finally realized what it was. It’s revealed by 112A, “Perjure oneself…or what can be found six times in this puzzle” – LIEUNDEROATH. I thought it was just repeated occurrences of the word LIE while I was doing the puzzle. But then I realized that for every place that LIE appeared, the squares directly over it contained the word OATH! How cool is that?
28A, Completely cover – LIEOVER (24A – CANTDOATHING)
30A, Contradict – BELIE (26A – MYTHROATHURTS)
61A, CONFINES – PURLIEU (what the?) (57A – SEMIPROATHLETES)
83A, Security agreements – LIENS (77A – THEROADTOATHENS)
114A, Batted the ball too high, perhaps – FLIEDOUT (108A – SHOWBOATHOTEL)
And that LIEUNDEROATH? 106A – OATHAYS
Categories: Solving Time
