Thursday, December 4, 2008

Title: Themeless Thursday

Author: Martin Ashwood-Smith
Theme: None

A nice not-too hard themeless Thursday, just what we need when we're all logy from the tryptophan in out leftover turkey. Only one answer gave me any trouble and it didn;t give me much.

1a: "Evan Almighty" role for Morgan Freeman (GOD). He played the same role in "Bruce Almighty."

4a: Punk pioneer Smith (PATTI). Her album "Horses" changed my life or at least my musical horizons. "Free Money" is still on my Ipod.

9a: Graceful bend (PLIE).

13a: Fascist of note (BENITOMUSSOLINI). When I saw this I thought we might have a sub-theme like last week's "Guys whose names end in vowels" but no, Benito was the only one.

16a: Shpilkes (ANTSINONESPANTS). Yiddish, and not easy to pronounce.

17a: Pickle (STICKYSITUATION).

18a: Finger food of Hawaii (POI).

19a: Navigation dir. (SSE).

20a: Feminizing suffix (ENNE). I had E__E and didn't know if it was ENNE or ETTE.

21a: Braille bits (DOTS).

23a: Cracker topper (BRIE).

25a: "Lester's Luck" author (ALGER). Horatio Alger wrote a couple hundred of these "Hard-working poor boy makes good" type novels -- like "Jed, the Poor House Boy" and "Ned Newton, or The Fortunes of a New York Bootblack". They're sometimes referred to "rags to riches" stories but more properly they should be called "Rags to respectability" since none of his protagonists became wealthy; they just got to where they had a job and could take care of themselves.

26a: Sweater letter (RHO).

27a: Frontline target (FLEA).

28a: "¿Por ___?" ("Why?" in Spanish) (QUE).

29a: Brown dog alias (JOECOOL). I had this one all the way filled in before I figured out that the clue referred to Charlie Brown, I guess because although I know that Charlie Brown feeds Snoopy it's never seemed as if Snoopy belonged to anybody.

31a: Dock (CURTAIL).

35a: Mason's profession (LAW). Perry Mason, of course.

36a: Pet name? (CHIA). Actually now that the fad is past, chia is gaining a whole new life as a superfood. It's rich in Omega-3's, antioxidants, fiber and phosphurus.

37a: Dust jacket write-up (BIO).

38a: Son of Henry (EDSEL).

41a: Illustrator for Charles Dickens (PHIZ). His real anme was Hablot Knight Browne, but he adopted the nickname Phiz to go with Dickens's pseudonym Boz.

42a: Grand finale? (PRIX).

43a: Mlle. relative (SRTA).

44a: Itinerary word (VIA).

45a: "Summer Moved On" band (AHA). Usually if it's a three letter band it's ELO. Sometimes it's REM. On rare occasions it's AHA.

46a: Response to an offer (COUNTERPROPOSAL).

52a: Very rare (ONCEINALIFETIME).

53a: Party places (RECREATIONROOMS).

54a: General ___ chicken (TSOS). There was a real General Tso during the Qing Dynasty but he never tasted the chicken that bears his name as it's an American invention.

55a: How to play a dirge (LENTO).

56a: Cold-weather commercial prefix (SNO). as in "Sno-cone."

1d: Mannerly guy (GENT).

2d: Stealthily (ONTIPTOE). I had ON THE SLY

3d: They usually have big balls (DISCOS). The requisite sexual-reference

4d: Express mail carrier? (PONY).

5d: Hosea contemporary (AMOS).

6d: Neighbor of Libya (TUNISIA).

7d: Nagana carrier (TSETSE).

8d: Time unit (ISSUE). The magazine, of course

9d: Blood component (PLATELET).

10d: Jacket part (LINING).

11d: Cantillate (INTONE).

12d: Exec who ran a company that had the same internal letters as his last name (EISNER). Wow, that's an interesting clue. Michael eISNEr did run dISNEy.

13d: Some degs. (BAS).

14d: Former Giants teammate of Plaxico (TIKI). Tiki Barber, now a sportscaster and correspondent for NBC's Today Show. And an author. Tiki's a nickname by the way. His real name is Attiim Kiambu, which means “Fiery-Tempered King.”

15d: ___-Locka (suburb of Miami) (OPA).

21d: Hoops legend, familiarly (DRJ).

22d: Cry of discovery (OHO).

23d: Coke (BLOW).

24d: Electrical unit (REL).

25d: Mystique (AURA). Apropos of nothing, but I am reminded of Curt Schilling's comment before the 2001 World Series. When asked if his Arizona Diamondbacks were intimidated going up against the aura and mystique of the New York Yankees, Schilling said, "Mystique and Aura? Those are dancers at a nightclub." The Diamondbacks won it in 7, by the way, in one of the most exciting World Series ever. My daughter will never forget it because I woke her up with all my hollering and hooraying.

27d: Young zebra (FOAL). I was on the right track with COLT

28d: "___ Show" (1994 Best Picture nominee) (QUIZ).

30d: Business with pressing concerns? (CLEANERS).

31d: X lookalike (CHI).

32d: Scrape (ABRASION).

33d: Number on a sundial (III). You know it has to be III, VII or XII. So even if you have no crossing letters you can fill in the II.

34d: Common serving at a Yom Kippur break fast (LOX).

36d: 1992 film in which Dan Aykroyd played Mack Sennett (CHAPLIN). Sennett, the great slapstick director also discovered W.C. Fields, the Keystone Kops as well as Bing Crosby and Gloria Swanson

38d: Attendant (ESCORT).

39d: Humming sounds (DRONES).

40d: Wall treatment (STUCCO).

41d: Illegally reproduce, as software (PIRATE).

42d: Pix (PHOTOS).

44d: Mercenary (VENAL).

45d: Monkey, at times (APER). If a monkey apes a babboon, what kind of primate is he?

47d: Formal requirement (TIE).

48d: Cause of a lockdown (RIOT).

49d: ___ concern (unimportant) (OFNO).

50d: Bandoleer contents (AMMO).

51d: ___ Eyzies, France (LES).

See you next Thursday,
Norrin2