Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Title: Where Have All the Vowels Gone?
Author: Scott Atkinson
Theme: Names a phrases with seven consecutive consonants.

• 17a: Basketball Hall of Fame coach known as "Big Bear" (BRANCH MCCRACKEN). Heard the name before.


• 23a: Rainn Wilson's role on "The Office" (DWIGHT SCHRUTE). Don't watch the show, but that's my own fault.



• 40a: "Li'l Abner" character Joe who has a rain cloud over his head (BTFSPLK). WTFSTHSSHT?


• 50a: Subject of a Pee Wee Hunt rag (TWELFTH STREET). Nice clue, great song.


• 62a: What can be found consecutively in 17-, 23-, 40-, and 50-Across (SEVEN CONSONANTS).

Not much to say about this one. It is what is it. I suppose Joe BTFSPLK is like Mr. Mxyzptlk -- you either know it or you don't. I didn't, but the crossings were all fair, so I don't mind all that much.

I'm in a hurry, so I'm going to breeze through the rest.

The Rest:

• 9a: Vietnam Veterans Memorial inscriptions (NAMES). My eldest son spent yesterday standing amongst the throngs on the Mall in Washington D.C., watching Obama's inauguration. It's a great place to visit in the summer, with the Vietnam wall being especially moving.


• 27a: Figure skater Midori (ITO).


• 36a: Brand in the lyrics of "Kodachrome" (NIKON).




• 43a: With 68-Across, Sri Lanka exports (PEKOE / TEA).


• 46a: Limp Bizkit drummer John ___ (OTTO). I wouldn't have known this, but I never saw the clue.


• 58a: "___ Baby" ("Hair" song) (ABIE). Know it from puzzles.


• 59a: Reacted to reveille (AROSE). The morning bugle call. Here it here.


• 69a: Nobody may go in front of it (ELSE'S). Umm... okay.


• 70a: Partiality (BIAS).


• 71a: Accordingly (ERGO). Therefore...


• 4d: "Told ya!" (I KNEW IT).


• 6d: Energy (OOMPH). Oomph is a great word.



• 10d: Portion of a lemniscate (ARC). A lemniscate is a figure-eight-shaped curve, like the infinity symbol.


• 11d: Beauty aid (MAKE UP KIT). Nice fill.


• 12d: Navratilova rival (Chris EVERT).


• 18d: Lit ___ (college course, informally) (CRIT).


• 25d: Amount of hair (HANK).


• 30d: "Miracle at St. Anna" director (LEE). If it's a director in three letters, it's probably Lee (Ang or Spike). This one's the latter.


• 31d: Cluster on military awards (OAK LEAVES).



• 49d: Actor Astin (SEAN), who played Sam in "The Lord of the Rings" films.


• 51d: Big cheese, in more ways than one (WHEEL).


• 52d: One-third of XXX? (TAC). Tic-tac-toe.


• 61d: Station identification, once (ESSO). I wasn't fooled by this clue even for a second. Don't know why.

Outside of the theme, I thought the puzzle was easier than normal for a Wednesday. There were 29a: Truckloads (ALOT) of Monday-ish clues here.

Thanks for listening.

- Pete M.