Monday, December 29, 2008

Monday, December 29, 2008

Title: Foodies
Author: Ogden Porter (Peter Gordon)
Theme: Types of people named for food
  • 17a: Tall, thin person (STRINGBEAN).


  • 25a: Insignificant person (PEANUT). I thought a peanut was someone small in physical stature, not significance.

  • 45a: Show-offy person (HOTDOG).

  • 58a: Chubby person (BUTTERBALL).

  • 11d: Crazy person (FRUITCAKE).

  • 33d: Weak person (CREAMPUFF).


Nice easy Monday theme with four six entries spread vertically and horizontally, which tends to allow a less constrained fill than four horizontal theme entries. Let's see if that plays out today.

Patrick Jordan points out that there are six theme entries, not four. I missed PEANUT and HOTDOG the first time around, as they are shorter than some of the non-theme fill. Still, I should have noticed. 25 bonus points for Patrick, and an extra kudos to Peter Gordon for a clean fill with six theme entries.


Sunny Spots:
    Well, there's definitely a good scrabbly center:
  • 24a: Charmingly old-fashioned (QUAINT).

  • 37a: Hose spouts (NOZZLES).

  • 24d: Sandwich shop chain (QUIZNOS). Love the name. Not crazy about their subs, though.

  • 3d: "Zack and Miri Make a ___" (PORNO). I haven't seen this yet, but I will. Props for putting PORNO into the puzzle.

  • 43d: Farming industry, informally (AGRIBIZ). Nice fill.


Sundries:

  • 5a: 1924 Edna Ferber novel (SO BIG). This sounds vaguely familiar.

  • 15a: Papas of "The Trojan Women" (IRENE).


  • 16a: Mötley ___ (CRÜE). Not my musical preference, but certainly well-known to me.

  • 20a: Common form of bowling (TENPINS). Around here, where people actually play candlepin, it's called ten-pin. No plural.

  • 21a: Ad answer to "How do you spell relief?" (ROLAIDS).

  • 23a: Tennis score effectively the same as 30–40 (AD OUT).

  • 28a: Hajj destination (MECCA).

  • 40a: Newborn's wear (ONESIE).

  • 42a: Miss-named? (NEE). Cute.


  • 43a: "___ Flux" (2005 sci-fi film) (AEON). I'm pretty sure I saw this, but it didn't leave much of an impression and I couldn't tell you much about the plot at all. In fact, I think I might have it confused with "Ultraviolet".

  • 53a: Like some odes (SAPPHIC).

  • 55a: Former percussionist with Prince (SHEILA E).

  • 64a: Grating (RASPY). As a voice.


  • 1d: Jai alai player's basket (CESTA). I know this only from crosswords.

  • 8d: Doing the same thing over and over (IN A RUT).

  • 22d: Mojito garnishes (LIMES). I've never had one, but I've seen the commercials. Warrants the booze tag anyway.

  • 37d: Pitcher's spot in the batting order, usually (NINTH). In the AL, the answer would be NEVER.

  • 45d: Paris's mother (HECUBA). This name was slow in coming, but it was in there somewhere.

  • 55d: Ladder part (STEP). Guessed RUNG at first.

  • 56d: Lamarr of "Algiers" (HEDY). The only Lamarr I know.


Suns of Bitches:
None.


Decent Monday, with nothing horrendous, which is fine by me. For four six theme entries and some scrabbly letters, it was quite the clean fill.

Thanks for listening.

- Pete M.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Actually, there were *six* theme entries, not four. Take another look at 25-A and 45-A.

Pete M said...

Good catch! 25 bonus points.

Joon said...

whoa, bonus points. it's been a while since we saw one of those.

i didn't even notice PORNO when i first solved it. i mean, i noticed it, but it didn't occur to me that it was unusual in any way. now, though, i think it's pretty funny. i doubt peter would have done that if he were still with the NYS, but i could be wrong.

mellocat said...

PORNO has been in the Sun before, at least 4 times. It's also been in the NY Times, the LA Times, CrosSynergy, and WSJ. I don't see it (nor PORN) in the USA Today, Universal Press, nor Tribune puzzles, but I also have a few years less history of those than the others so I'm not sure if those editors disallow it or it just hasn't shown up since I've been collecting those puzzles.