Wednesday, February 11, 2009

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.

1 comment:

Joon said...

and if you needed a third reason, it's rickey henderson, not ricky.