Friday, October 12, 2007

Saturday, October 13 - Barry Silk

A Saturday puzzle by Barry Silk with eight 10-letter answers, stacks of 8-letter answers in the northwest and the southeast, and some hot fill. Unless I'm missing something, he's one letter (X) short of a pangram, but that's a small price to pay for a puzzle this good.

The 10-letter answers:

1A: Classic sports lineup (T formation).

15A: Antipathy (repugnance).

17A: "I hear ya!" (Amen to that).

56A: Enterprise (initiative).

59A: Decision maker (determiner). Not the best answer in the puzzle, but the crossing entries more than make up for it.

61A: Big name in foot care (Odor Eaters).

11D: Some dance honorees (prom queens).

26D: 1959 #1 hit for Lloyd Price (Stagger Lee). I always loved the name, but I wouldn't have guessed it without some of the crosses in place.

Stacking up in the northwest:

1D: Dietary danger (trans fat). Stay away from that stuff...it'll clog your arteries.

2D: Like some charms (feminine).

3D: Range, e.g. (open area)...as in Home, home on the.

And in the southeast:

35D: It's found in eggs (Vitamin E). That's an answer I don't remember seeing in a puzzle, but I like it. A lot.

36D: Like some streams in winter (iced over). One of only a few gimmes in the puzzle.

37D: "Isn't anyone interested?" (no takers). That's one of my favorite answers. Just something about it that I like.

Repeated clues appear at 14D: Cold response? (sneeze) and at 28D (brr). Gives me the chills just thinking about it. [Update: Anonymous just pointed out an error in the grid. I have sleeve, rather than sneeze...making the ridiculous cross of quiv, rather than quiz.] Actually, it feels as though I might be coming down with something, and I have a long day ahead of me. Our annual fundraiser is tomorrow, so I'd better put that thought aside. But I'd also better put myself into bed...soon.

Quickly (and briefly), some of my favorite clues and/or answers:

16A: Not be fair? (rain). Had it but didn't quite get it.

23A: Fortune 500 company founded in 1995 (eBay). We've had that before, and I was happy to remember it.

28A: Birthplace of Evel Knievel and Martha Raye (Butte). I had the B but couldn't think of a five-letter name for the life of me. One of those places where I relied on crosses.

30A: "Follow the Fleet" co-star, 1936 (Astaire). One of these days, I'll learn all the movies he was in. This one was new to me.

34A: Winner of four Oscars for musical scores (Previn). A total guess.

42A: One-named singer with the 1960s Velvet Underground (Nico). We've had her before, but all I could remember was that her name was four letters. Not helpful.

49A: "I'll Be Doggone" singer, 1965 (Gaye). A gimme. I was into music at an early age.

12D: Cousin of goulash (ragout). I'd guess that the name of spaghetti sauce in jars (my grandmother would be horrified if I identified it) was a take-off on that. Both the clue and the answer are great words.

40D: Greet (say hi to). I won't call that a gimme...more like a good guess.

41D: Producer of some beads (sweater). Gross, but good.

43D: It can give people flight reservations (jetlag). Excellent cluing. It took a week, but I think I'm over mine.

45D: It's open for discussion (dialog). That spelling just looks wrong.

49D: "Life is Beautiful" hero (Guido)...just because I love the name.

It's getting close to midnight, and I don't see anything that inspires a Word of the Day.

Here's the grid...



...and I'll see you tomorrow. Maybe I'll revise this to add a WOTD.

Linda G

11 comments:

dann walsh said...

linda

was UNHAT too repugnant to merit a mention? i GUESS SO.

dann

Anonymous said...

Linda...was away for three days and did not have access to the NYT ...amazing what a 3 day layoff from puzzles can do to my addled brain...Without your blog I would nerver have completed this puzzle
Bob

Anonymous said...

I went back to see your prevous posts...the picture of you and Don was great!!!....thanks for sharing
Bob

Anonymous said...

What is WOTD??????

cornbread hell said...

how'd the fund raiser go, linda? curious fan(s) want to know.

interesting bit o' trivia about stagger lee: dick clark made mr. price change the lyrics for an american bandstand appearance. the fascinating story is here - http://bobshannon.com/stories/Stagger.html

i'm off to read your blog from the past...phew!!
at least these 2 sat puzzles were easier than yesterdays' friday ones.

could the WOTD be ETUI? (i just hate it when FIRS is the answer for etui's clue.)

Linda G said...

Anonymous 10:07, sorry for the confusion. A couple days ago I instituted a Word of the Day (WOTD) after a comment made by cornbread. It will be a word that's similar in spelling to an answer in the puzzle but which has a very different meaning. I wasn't able to come up with one late last night...may not today.

The fundraiser, Empty Bowls, was a huge success. Local potters donated about 800 handmade bowls, area restaurants donated 5-10 gallons of soup, Great Harvest bread donated thousands of rolls, and cookies came in from everywhere. Since everything's donated, the $22 ticket price is all profit. This is the only fundraiser we do...the rest of our money comes from individual and corporate donors, charitable foundations and grants. You're all invited next year ; )

Unhat...not my favorite, but I let it pass because the rest of it was so darn good.

Welcome back, Bob. I know what you mean about three days away. I didn't do them the first week I was gone and it was tough to get back into the swing of things.

Anonymous said...

"Un-hat" Bleck and double-double bleck bleck! But still I loved this puzzle.

I got the entire right half+ part of the left hand side AND part of the middle with NO outside help at all.

The NW and SW killed me -- had to google to get traction. Still proud I got as much as I did!

Loved "amen to that!" And " Guessso" Very clever cluing.

Hated jetlag.....doesn't make sense to me given the clue. If I have flight "reservations" it's due to weather or that I'm flying out of an airport that typically has long delays or loses my bags etc..Phht! Not good there.

But the rest of the puzzle rocked IMO.

Anonymous said...

mar is sea in Spanish, thus aqua.

Anonymous said...

Sorry... agua

Anonymous said...

I believe 14 Down was 'sneeze', not 'sleeve'. Anyone else get that?

Linda G said...

anonymous, you're right. I just pulled the puzzle out of my file, and I had corrected it on my copy. I must have done that after I scanned and posted. My bad!