Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Title: Showing Some Muscle
Author: Tom Heilman
Theme: Adding short names of muscles to phrases.

• Geologic + LAT = GELATO LOGIC (18a: Reason for having a preference for Italian ice cream?).



• Boondocks + AB = BABOON DOCKS (24a: Primate piers?).


• Moats + DELT = MODEL TATS (36a: Display body art?).


• Restroom + PEC = RESPECT ROOM (54a: Where dissing isn't allowed?).


• Warrant + QUAD = WAR QUADRANT (59a: Combat division?).

This is kind of a cool Wednesday theme. Gelato Logic reminds me of the old Steely Dan album, "Pretzel Logic". And no, I'm not sure what that means either.

Sunny Spots:

Kudos for the nice variety of food references with scrabbly letters:

• 12d: Street vendor snacks (KNISHES).


• 25d: Pasta that resembles rice (ORZO).


• 45d: Butter pear (AVOCADO).

Sundries:

• 15a: Color also called meadowlark (ACORN). I never really thought of ACORN as a color. They are actually several colors throughout their life, ranging from green to brown to black.


• 29a: Where Tigrinya is spoken (ERITREA). Find a country name that fits. Once it ends in _EA, there aren't a lot of options.


• 30a: Spray of paint, e.g. (SPATTER).



• 32a: Interrobang part (DOT). I knew that a "bang" was an exclamation point, so it wasn't hard to figure that this was some other punctuation mark. Albeit, one I've never seen nor heard of.


• 33a: Part of ZPG (ZERO). Zero population growth.


• 47a: Sister of Iphigenia (ELECTRA). Daughters of Agamemnon in Greek legend/history.


• 51a: Mothball (RESERVE).


• 53a: Accessory for a lepidopterist (NET). Butterfly collector.


• 56a: Member of the first family (EVE). You'll see this clue again, so keep it in mind.


• 66a: Volatile solvent (ETHER). My favorite ETHER clue is "Number of people?"


• 67a: Close of an engagement? (I DO).


• 68a: Outfielder Ricky who won two World Series rings with the Yankees (LEDEE). HENDERSON didn't fit. And he won his rings with Oakland and Toronto.


• 69a: Questionable (SHADY). I had SHAKY to start, but NEK didn't sound much like a name to me.



• 2d: Plant on the back of Arizona's state quarter (SAGUARO).


• 9d: Eponym of Gdansk's airport (WALESA). Pretty easy guess once I had the W.


• 11d: Cowes Week event (REGATTA).


• 19d: Slicing spuds, perhaps (ON KP).


• 36d: Casual slip-on (MOC). Short for moccasin.


• 37d: Went like mad (TORE). Tried SPED first, which didn't help me any.


• 39d: Battery component (TEST). As in a battery of tests, not part of a Duracell.


• 44d: It's called Hrvatska by natives (CROATIA).


• 46d: Prescription pain reliever (DEMEROL). Drug reference tag? Nah, not for legal prescriptions...


• 55d: "The Fair Maid of ___" (Sir Walter Scott novel) (PERTH).


• 60d: The St. Lawrence R. flows through it (QUE). Quebec.


• 61d: Clicking sound? (AHA). Cute clue.

Suns of Bitches:

As always, first names are my bane.

• 6d: Gretchen of "Rounders" (MOL).


• 38d: "Vertigo" co-screenwriter Coppel (ALEC).


• 62d: Main character in "Pushing Daisies" (NED).

All in all, a fine Wednesday, with none of the SOBs crossing anything particularly difficult.

Thanks for listening.

- Pete M.