Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Title: International Film Festival
Author: Jerzy Whitmore
Theme: Best Picture winners whose title begins with a nationality

• 4d: Best Picture of 1996, with "The" (ENGLISH PATIENT). based on the novel by michael ondaatje, which i'm told is quite good.


• 7d: Best Picture of 1971, with "The" (FRENCH CONNECTION). the french lieutenant's woman wouldn't fit, it's from the wrong year, and it didn't win best picture.


• 19d: Best Picture of 1999 (AMERICAN BEAUTY). i've actually seen this one, which is saying something. (i don't normally watch movies.) not only that, i loved it. it's my second-favorite movie ever. so a big thumbs-up here.

a nice, tight, little theme. this is the second consecutive oscar-themed puzzle, and i read yesterday (on a crossword blog—where else would i have heard it?) that it's oscar week. does that mean we're in for a whole week of these? i hope not, but it's not nearly as depressing as the thought that we only have another week and a half's worth of sun puzzles at all.

it's also the second consecutive 15x16 puzzle, to accommodate the 16-letter FRENCH CONNECTION. but this one was symmetric.

Sunny Spots:

• 21d: Poles on the equator, maybe? (EXPATS). this clue made me smile. just brilliant! indeed, the equator does not pass through poland.

Sundries:

• 16a: Hollywood agent Emanuel whose brother Rahm is the White House chief of staff (ARI). somebody told me this factoid a few months ago. i can no longer remember who. but this might have beaten the ENC clue from last week for the "largest clue length/answer length ratio" record.


• 17a: Goes on a bender (BINGES). booze tag, i guess.


• 18a: One who makes fancy invitations, maybe (ENGRAVER). i wouldn't have minded an albrecht dürer clue here.


• 26a: Title for some dignitaries (EXCELLENCY). i think if you're good enough at whatever it is you do, you should get to be called "your EXCELLENCY." peter gordon, for instance, should have this title.


• 28a: "Exodus" novelist (URIS). neither this clue, nor 34d: Contemporary of Moses (KAREEM), has anything to do with the old testament.


• 31a: With 50-Across, investor's option (ROTH/IRA). nice to see the whole thing in here. it's almost always just IRA.


• 33a: Punches up, as punch (SPIKES). good clue. booze tag x2.


• 42a: Order from a bar regular, with "the" (USUAL). souse it up! i'm going to be three sheets to the wind by the time i'm done blogging this puzzle.


• 44a: "Hardcore troubadour" Steve (EARLE). learned this name from crosswords. he's some kind of country rocker. i prefer baseball hall-of-famer EARLE combs myself.


• 53a: Host of the 1980 Winter Olympics (LAKE PLACID). also some kind of 3rd-rate horror movie from the recent past, i think.


• 59a: Mathematical minima and maxima (EXTREMA). this was a very X-ful puzzle.


• 63a: Device for making grooves in wood (ROUTER). this clue is so last millennium.


• 70a: Hoover or Roosevelt, e.g. (DAM). i had DEM here for a second, even though i've seen this exact clue somewhere else in the past week.


• 2d: News agcy. owned by the Unification Church (UPI). i did not know that. is this common knowledge?


• 3d: Hall of Fame quarterback Dawson (LEN). i've been seeing this guy's name a lot recently, for no really good reason. he was the MVP of super bowl IV, just in case you ever find yourself doing this sporcle quiz.


• 5d: Copped thing (PLEA). i so wanted this to be FEEL.


• 8d: Strong-legged Armstrong (LANCE). okay, cute clue, though i bet his arms are also a lot stronger than mine.


• 24d: Fire up (AROUSE). such restraint shown in the cluing here. no sexual innuendo to be found.


• 40d: Snake-oil salesman's offering (ELIXIR). good word, fun clue.


• 46d: Sierra Nevada offering (PALE ALE). good grief. i'm cutting you off, mister!



• 48d: "10" star (BO DEREK). this was not a best picture winner.


• 54d: Viking rival (AMANA). apparently viking makes appliances. i was definitely looking for a football team here.


• 56d: Members of a firing squad? (AXMEN). i don't think i've heard this term used to describe wielders of metaphorical axes, only literal ones.

Suns of Bitches:

none, surprisingly. this was my fastest tuesday solve in quite some time.

overall, a nice puzzle and a very smooth grid. i don't recognize the constructor's name. if this is a debut, then congratulations to jerzy whitmore. (edited to add: it's not a debut. jerzy whitmore is actually experienced constructor jeremy horwitz in anagrammatic disguise. thanks to orange for the tip-off.)

see you next week.

joon

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Title: The Oys of Yiddish
Author: Ogden Porter (Peter Gordon)
Theme: Wordplay theme in which a word gets an initial S changed to SCH phonetically, sometimes with a spelling change

• 17a: Slovenly hitters? (BATTING SCHLUMPS). i don't think i'm familiar with the word SCHLUMP, although at least it looks like what it sounds like. no "toches" here.


• 35a: Set of ads for cream cheese? (SCHMEAR CAMPAIGN).


• 58a: Carried? (SCHLEPPED AROUND). that does it—i'm adding the sexual innuendo tag. its time has come.

okay, the theme was fine. with a wordplay puzzle with only three theme answers, you can often nitpick about consistency; why does the modified word come first in only two of the three answers? why is there a spelling change in only one answer? etc. but i won't. still, it did seem odd that SCHLEPPED AROUND seems like an actual phrase that somebody might say. in fact, it seems like something i've said.

Sunny Spots:

• 16a: Frisbee maker (WHAM-O). i miss college.


• 42a: "None for me, thanks" ("I'M GOOD"). oh, he's pretty good all right.


• 38d: It's big in a May-December relationship (AGE GAP). my first thought: SUMMER?

Sundries:

• 1a: Make sound (MEND). tough clue right off the bat. this puzzle wasn't as much of a killer as last tuesday's, but it still took me a good long while, slightly longer than most wednesdays. i like this clue, though. even after i had MEN_ i couldn't figure it out.


• 14a: ___ Fun Barbie (1997 doll) (OREO). okay, that's a new OREO clue for me. really? OREO fun barbie?


• 20a: Subsidiary of Hallmark (CRAYOLA). so that you can send greeting cards in crayon.


• 22a: Body of water enclosed by an atoll (LAGOON). this word always reminds me of the scene in a buffy episode from season 2 where willow compares a fish-like monster to the "creature from the blue lagoon." xander corrects her, pointing out, "black lagoon. the creature from the blue lagoon was brooke shields."


• 31a: Wide receiver Welker (WES). did somebody say scrappy?


• 68a: ___ Star (brand of beer) (LONE). i'm sure it is. luckily, LONE star is also lots of other things, including a big old state in the south.


• 3d: Make after expenses (NET). i find it clever that this is next to 4d: Online biz (DOT COM), even though peter gordon doesn't like to cross-reference clues if he can help it.


• 11d: Lincoln's first vice president (hannibal HAMLIN). this guy was just in a theme clue for last thursday's NYT puzzle. i think he hails from paris, maine.


• 34d: "My Two ___" (Paul Reiser sitcom) (DADS). would you believe i also know this from the NYT crossword puzzle? months ago, greg EVIGAN (the other DAD of the title) was the answer to a clue, i think in a tuesday puzzle.


• 40d: With 36-Down, source of great wealth (GOLD/MINE). i wanted this to be CASH/COW, but GOLD MINE is a nice expression too.


• 46d: Two-time Wimbledon winner Gibson (ALTHEA). first black woman to win wimbledon, i think. but she wasn't the addressee of richard lovelace's poem "to ALTHEA from prison," which contains the lines "Stone walls do not a prison make / Nor iron bars a cage."


• 57d: Score after six faults and four aces to start a match (AD IN). and also, the player returning serve is probably really bored by now. i bet ALTHEA gibson didn't serve like that.


• 59d: Two-fifteenths of CCCXC (LII). i did this one by estimation since i already had _II from crosses when i read the clue. one fifteenth of 300 is 20, so this one is somewhat more than 40. in this case, 2/15 of 390 is 52.

Suns of Bitches:

• 23d: Secret agent Leamas in "The Spy Who Came In From the Cold" (ALEC). ha. not happening.


• 60d: One million chiliads (EON). chiliads, you say? apparently this is an old (and fancy!) word for 1000 years. that's the thing about peter gordon—he's so obsessed with new clues for common words that you end up with obscurity like this in the same puzzle as clues such as 10d: Day after Wed. and 12d: ___ State Building (Manhattan skyscraper). i gotta say, it's a bit jarring.

other than the clue difficulty going all over the map, this was a pretty enjoyable puzzle. see you next time.

joon

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Title: Terminus
Author: Gary Steinmehl
Theme: Wordplay theme in which TER is removed from the end of two-word phrases

• 18a: Catapult barrage? (ROCK LOBS). i bet "rock lobster" means something by itself (a kind of lobster, i guess), but to me, it calls to mind only the following so-campy-it's-brilliant song:

• 20a: Short skirts from overseas? (FOREIGN MINIS). this was the first theme entry to fall for me, but i still didn't figure out what the theme was. (also, the first thing that comes to mind when i think of FOREIGN MINIS is smart cars.)


• 39a: Vehicle to Invesco Field? (BRONCO BUS). being a football fan definitely helped here, although i still don't like the name invesco field. bring back mile high!


• 60a: Poser's backache? (PORTRAIT PAIN).


• 65a: Jam ingredient of the South? (DIXIE CAR). i'm sure i'm supposed to know who or what dixie carter is or was. somebody will clue me in, right?

a very nice wordplay theme, cleanly executed and with a very clever cryptic title (TER/minus). by the way, what's with the puzzle titles being in all caps this week? it wasn't like that before, was it? bring back lowercase!

Sunny Spots:

• 44d: Duplicates (XEROXES). gotta love anything beginning with an X (my favorite letter) and especially anything containing multiple Xs. especially this verb, which despite the protestations of xerox corp of america, is a common uncapitalized english word. i'm of the opinion that there's no such thing as a proper verb: if it can be used as a verb, then it can't be proprietary. (not that i'm a rigid adherent to capitalization rules ...)


• 5d: Grass alternative (ASTROTURF). ASTROTURF is almost extinct by now at the professional level (replaced by fieldturf), but it still looks great in the grid. this also goes nicely with 42d: Groundskeeper's purchase (SOD).

Sundries:

• 1a: "Goodness!" (OH DEAR). a perfect clue, equaling the answer in quaintness.


• 10a: Gilda Radner character Baba (WAWA). this was only about 20% familiar to me.


• 17a: One side in a casual football game (SHIRTS). the other side is skins--but not the redskins, my hometown team, who competed hard but didn't have quite enough to beat the cowboys on sunday night.


• 22a: Grass (POT). there's our obligatory drug reference. we actually hadn't had one in a while, at least not on a tuesday. this is not related to ASTROTURF or SOD.


• 25a: Quattros, e.g. (AUDIS). i wanted SCHICKS, but it wouldn't fit. i guess my first instinct should be AUDI when possible.


• 24a: Giants manager of the 1940s (mel OTT). this guy definitely should be your first instinct any time "giants" are mentioned. or really, any time it's sports and the answer is three letters, although hockey's bobby ORR and golf's ernie ELS will also figure in.


• 36a: Cerveza ingredient (AGUA). i think cerveza is spanish for beer, no? so... beer tag?


• 38a: Drops on crops (DEW). i'm not a fan of cutesy rhyming for the sake of cutesy rhyming, but this is a great clue.


• 42a: Boxcars half (SIX). this clue, along with 50a: Snake eyes pair (ONES), is a good use of craps slang ("boxcars" = double sixes = a roll of 12 on a pair of dice, and "snake eyes" = double ones = a roll of 2). together, they combine with 55a: Game with a board whose center is 5'8" off the floor (DARTS) for a very gaming-centric california region of the grid.


• 45a: Stocking stuffer (FOOT). nice misdirection there.


• 54a: They're green (TYROS). metaphorically green. and not eco-, either, just inexperienced.


• 59a: Get behind (OWE). i guess this works if you think of the clue intransitively. but you couldn't use it to replace most uses of OWE, which are transitive: you OWE money or you OWE creditors.


• 69a: Current sci. (ELEC.). is ELECtricity really a science? ELECtritude? ELECtricology?


• 70a: Handy thing? (ARM). okay, not bad.


• 72a: Branch headquarters? (NEST). that's good. are we on a roll?


• 73a: Losers' hangout? (SPA). no, i guess not. this one fell flat.


• 74a: President of Egypt before Sadat (NASSER). this guy has an incredibly crosswordy name when you consider it's six letters, contains only two vowels, and neither of those comes at the beginning or the end. i feel like i see him in the grid all the time, and it just shouldn't be that common.


• 1d: Saturn's wife (OPS). i couldn't decide if this one belonged in sunny spots (mythology) or suns of bitches (uh, mythology i don't really know), so i split the difference. OPS was in last friday's chronicle of higher education puzzle with the clue [Roman goddess of plenty], and i had never heard of her at the time. (i know, i know. i'm better on greek than roman.) she's the roman equivalent of rhea. by the way, is the world ready for a baseball stat geek clue for OPS? i say yes.


• 3d: Vagabond (DRIFTER). for once, it's neither HOBO nor NOMAD.


• 4d: Italian bread (EURO). just to be sure we're not on a roll, here's my vote for the stalest clue in crossworld. well, i won't hold it against them.


• 7d: Helgenberger of "CSI" (MARG). i think she pronounces it "marge," but this weird spelling means she'll be in crosswords forever.


• 8d: Wheat pasta in Japanese cuisine (UDON). yum...


• 9d: DLXXX x V (MMCM). 580 x 5 = 2900. because this one crossed two theme answers, i actually stopped to work it out. usually i don't bother, even though i'm pretty fast at mental arithmetic, because it's quicker to get it from crosses.


• 11d: Kept from happening (AVOIDED). i lucked out here: i had _V___ED and plugged in AVOIDED even though AVERTED is a better answer. probably saved me 15-30 seconds, not that anyone cares. what's less interesting to others, talking about your crossword solving times or talking about your fantasy sports teams?


• 12d: Requirement for e-tailing (WEBSITE). somehow i was expecting a more specific answer.


• 13d: Ding-a-ling (ASS). what, again? do we need a ding-a-ling tag?


• 19d: Car company headquartered in Seoul (KIA). the korean economy is notable for having a small number of megaconglomerations (samsung, LG) which manufacture pretty much everything from electronics to kitchenware. but KIA and hyundai still seem to make only cars.


• 23d: ___ Brite (laundry product) (OXO). this is also a valid scrabble word meaning "oxygen-containing."


• 26d: Be in a bee (SEW). SPELL and QUILT wouldn't fit.


• 28d: Morrow of "Numb3rs" (ROB). i've heard of this guy, but i guessed ELI here with no crosses. i think the odds were on my side--not only are there a zillion other ROBs, but ROB is also a common verb, whereas ELI has to be clued as a proper name. (okay, the odds aren't so much on my side if you take into account the fact that his name's ROB, not ELI.)


• 30d: Prickly pears, for example (CACTI).


• 31d: "... ___ in a galaxy far, far away ..." (AGO). if you think about it, one of the weirdest things about the star wars series is that it is supposedly set in the distant past (and i don't mean the late '70s). how come they went to all that trouble to make it look futuristic?


• 37d: Indonesia is part of it in the game Risk (AUSTRALIA). risk sighting! woot! now we need to get YAKUTSK and/or KAMCHATKA into the grid.


• 40d: Partner of then or again (NOW). this one came to mind instantly. i'm not sure why i wasn't distracted by thinking about the phrase "then again," which is what usually happens.


• 51d: Like a schoolmarm (STRICT). since i learned the word "schoolmarm" from crosswords, i'll have to take their word for it.


• 58d: 1997 John Leguizamo film (SPAWN). based on the todd mcfarlane comic. i was aware of this movie, but forgot that john leguizamo was in it, actually.

Suns of Bitches:

• 63d: "My Friend ___" (1949 Marie Wilson film) (IRMA). the parenthetical "1949 marie wilson film" part of the clue didn't make it any easier for me, but it made me feel better for having absolutely no idea about the answer. i've never even heard of marie wilson, but apparently the team of dean martin and jerry lewis debuted in this film, and i have heard of them.

a fine tuesday puzzle. very good theme, nice fill, no major complaints. see you next time.

joon

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Title: Alter Natives
Author: Jack McInturff
Theme: Wordplay theme in which O is changed to E in various phrases

• 17a: Where execs' benefits are stored? (PERK BARREL).


• 22a: Felt nostalgic about one's former patrol? (MISSED THE BEAT). i've MISSED THE BEAT before while conducting a choir. definitely to be avoided. (i got better.)


• 34a: Battle between Coors and Budweiser? (BEER WAR). "beer" tag? hmm...


• 36a: Where a rowing team goes drinking? (CREW BAR). "booze" tag?


• 48a: Pail filled with boxing prizes? (BUCKET OF BELTS). probably my favorite of the bunch. i can imagine mike tyson's basement having one of these.


• 55a: Ingenious bit of foliage? (CLEVER LEAF).


• 66a: Oklahoma Indian (and a three-word description of this puzzle's theme) (OTOE). or "O to E." a fine example of thematic repurposing of crosswordese.

a fine theme, deftly executed. six theme entries is a lot, and i liked all six of 'em. there weren't any fill compromises that resulted, either. and it's always nice when you can toss in a "hey, i explain the theme" entry in the SE corner. finally, the title is outstanding. it has the theme (sufficiently encrypted so as to be non-obvious) and is also a nice play on the word "alternatives."

Sunny Spots:

• 6d: Like Loki (NORSE). (i couldn't resist.) that's loki in the picture, chained to a rock, while venom from that serpent drips onto him. not a pleasant way to live out your days. normally his devoted wife sigyn holds a bowl over his face to catch the venom, but every now and then she has to go off and empty the bowl, and that's when loki thrashes in agony, causing earthquakes. moral of the story: don't mess with baldur.


• 7d: Oktoberfest dresses (DIRNDLS). check out all those consonants piled up in there! it looks like an automatic transmission.

Sundries:

• 1a: Città del Vaticano leader (PAPA). cluing this common word as the italian for "pope" seems perverse.


• 5a: "Alive" range (ANDES). i believe that's the one where they eat each other.


• 15a: Like cigars in a humidor (MOIST). or anything else in a humidor, really. the only thing i know of that gets stored in a humidor is the baseballs they use at coors field in denver.


• 19a: Monteggia fracture location (ULNA). never heard of a monteggia fracture, but crosses quickly pointed the way.


• 29a: Roosevelt's Blue Eagle org. (NRA). i didn't see this clue while solving. i'm guessing it refers to the national recovery act, and not guns. at least it wasn't the dreaded [New Deal org.]. i hate that clue.


• 40a: James Bond portrayer Dalton (TIMOTHY). am i weird because this guy was my favorite bond? i say "was" because now brosnan is my favorite bond. although the new guy, daniel craig, seems promising too. i'm slowly acclimating to the notion of blond bond, and casino royale was quite good. i will maintain, however, that quantum of solace is a dumb name for a movie. or for anything else.


• 46a: Actress Headey of "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" (LENA). i watched the pilot of this show, which is rare for me since i don't see much TV. it wasn't bad, and i'm a very big fan of the movies (T2 is, for my money, the best action movie ever), but i just never made it a point to keep viewing. anyway, she seems to be stealing some of the crossword appearances of LENA olin.


• 47a: With appropriateness (APTLY). the answer is fine, but the clue makes it seem awkward somehow.


• 52a: Ding-a-lings (BOZOS). get your mind out of the gutter!


• 54a: Good-looking person? (EYER). why "good"? to me, this clue doesn't make enough sense to justify the fact that EYER is ugly fill.


• 61a: Arizona city on the Colorado River (YUMA). i hear the 3:10 goes that way.


• 65a: Birthplace of the Renaissance (ITALY). that seems debatable, but i guess most people would agree.


• 1d: Cheerleader's need (PEP). one of the many reasons i would be a horrible cheerleader.


• 8d: Cousin of -ish (-ESE). hmm. distant cousins, maybe. "hey, don't i know you?" "yeah, we're both suffixes."


• 11d: Dour (SULLEN). i'm fond of both of these words. SULLEN reminds me of a great short poem by dylan thomas:

In my craft or sullen art
Exercised in the still night
When only the moon rages
And the lovers lie abed
With all their griefs in their arms,
I labor by singing light
Not for ambition or bread
Or the strut and trade of charms
On the ivory stages
But for the common wages
Of their most secret heart.

Not for the proud man apart
From the raging moon I write
On these spindrift pages
Nor for the towering dead
With their nightingales and psalms
But for the lovers, their arms
Round the griefs of the ages,
Who pay no praise or wages
Nor heed my craft or art.



• 12d: Music class liability (TIN EAR). a nice expression, but i feel like i see it more in crosswords than outside of crosswords.


• 18d: Brand of ale (BASS). yeah, okay, i'll give it the "beer" tag.


• 22d: Cornfield creation (MAZE). this was especially easy because the clue reminds you of MAIZE, which is very close (although the way i say it, MAÏZE, it's not homophonic).


• 25d: Difficult to deal with (HAIRY). good clue.


• 31d: Screenwriter of "The Verdict" (david MAMET). i don't know this one, but then, i'm more familiar with his stage works than his movies.


• 32d: Maine college town (ORONO). some day, the answer will be BRUNSWICK.


• 33d: Won every game of (SWEPT). not much sports in this puzzle, is there? this one didn't need to be, but it's a fine clue.


• 35d: Cunning stratagems (WILES). i don't think i've ever seen this word in the singular, whereas "stratagem" seems more natural than "stratagems." this isn't a criticism; i'm just thinking out loud.


• 41d: Lustrous fabric (TAFFETA).


• 44d: Hearten (BUOY UP). okay, that's redundant.


• 45d: Dermatological diagnosis (ECZEMA). sam had this when he was very young. he just turned 1, and now his skin is doing pretty well, but he's had a runny nose for about three weeks now that he just can't shake.


• 50d: Cut on a slant (BEVEL). i sometimes confuse this with BEZEL, which means something very similar.


• 55d: First year of the fifth century (CDI). for once, the clue does not require us to do any heavy computation.

Suns of Bitches:

• 42a: Friend of Tess in "Camp Rock" (ELLA). right. by the way, what's "camp rock" and why should i know the character names from it?


• 10d: Young pigeon (SQUAB). that's a cool-looking word. i'm glad to learn it.


• 57d: Electric guitar pioneer Fender (LEO). everyone knows fender guitars, of course, but i had no idea what fender's first name was.

a nice puzzle, although i felt that most of the good stuff was in the theme. it certainly wasn't going to be able to match last tuesday's puzzle, but that's hardly a fair comparison.

see you next time.

-joon

Monday, October 20, 2008

Title: Water World
Author: Caleb Madison
Theme: Movies with a type of body of water in their title

• 17a: 1999 Bill Pullman movie (LAKE PLACID).


• 25a: 2003 Sean Penn movie (MYSTIC RIVER).


• 35a: 1992 Harvey Keitel movie (RESERVOIR DOGS).


• 48a: 2001 Ben Affleck movie (PEARL HARBOR).


• 58a: 2003 Tobey Maguire movie (SEABISCUIT).

Nice Monday theme, aptly titled via the reference to another water movie starring Kevin Costner. My only tiny quibble might be that "Lake Placid" isn't really in the same league as the others in terms of film quality, but that would be judgemental wouldn't it? Okay you got me, "Pearl Harbor" was pretty bad too.

Let's make this quick so I can watch the Red Sox:

• 5a: Cardio-boxing regimen developed by Billy Blanks (TAE BO). You had me at cardio boxing, though I do recognize the name Billy Blanks -- it shows up in puzzle clues all the time.
  
• 10a: Occasion for many senior moments? (PROM). Hmm... subtle sexual innuendo? What "moments" are we talking about here?


• 20a: Canada-based merger partner of Coors (MOLSON). Mmmm... beer.


• 21a: "I Fall to Pieces" singer Patsy (Patsy CLINE).




• 22a: "The Bronx ___" (1979 Sparky Lyle book about the Yankees) (ZOO). I just saw the fill-in-the-blank; didn't even read the whole clue.


• 30a: Franz Liebkind is a retired one in "The Producers" (NAZI). Even if you've never seen this play, which I haven't, you need to know it's about Nazis.


• 43a: Spicy Filipino dishes (ADOBOS).


• 47a: He announced Biden as his running mate with a text message (OBAMA). As a puzzle constructor, I have to laugh at those who think that the fact that OBAMA shows up in puzzles more than MCCAIN is some left-wing plot to give OBAMA more publicity. It's about the vowels people! OBAMAs and ALITOs will always outnumber MCCAINs and KENNEDYs. Get over it.


• 55a: Farming machine (REAPER). Don't fear it.


• 63a: Like Atahualpa's subjects (INCAN).



• 64a: Rainbow Man had a colorful one (AFRO).


• 66a: 1984 skiing gold medalist Phil (MAHRE).


• 7d: Future World setting (EPCOT). I'll be there next week. Can't wait.


• 8d: Shrovetide pancakes (BLINI).


• 13d: Influential folks (MOVERS). Shakers, too, I guess.


• 18d: Pear, e.g. (POME).


• 23d: Baseballer Vizquel who holds the record for most games played at shortstop (OMAR). That's a piece of trivia that I didn't know, but I didn't read that part of the clue anyway. ___ Vizquel would have been enough.


• 36d: Virus in "The Hot Zone" (EBOLA). Ick.


• 38d: Pashmina source (GOAT). It's a fabric made from goat wool.


• 39d: "___ Guys Have All the Luck" (Rod Stewart hit) (SOME).




• 43d: Army attack helicopter (APACHE).


• 46d: Big name in armored cars (BRINKS).



• 51d: Elephant in Jean de Brunhoff books (BABAR).


• 60d: Kaplan of Yo La Tengo (IRA). I've listened to Yo La Tengo, but I couldn't have named any members. Luckily, it's a common first name. Here's a taste.

Nice, easy puzzle. That's all I've got to say.

Go Sox!!

Thanks for listening.

- Pete M.