Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Wednesday, December 19 - Victor Fleming

If I'm not mistaken, Judge Victor Fleming's last puzzle had no evidence of legal clues or answers. If that's the case, this makes two in a row.

The theme is revealed at 36A: What shall be first...or words that can precede 17-, 23-, 52- and 60-Across (THE LAST). When preceded by them, you have the name of a well-known book or movie...probably both.

17A: Guy ready to sing the national anthem? (MAN STANDING).

23A: Era ended by Vesuvius? (DAYS OF POMPEII). How many of you thought you had something wrong with II at the end?

52A: Belonging to a Hudson Valley tribe? (OF THE MOHICANS).

60A: Museum exhibit? (PICTURE SHOW). Here's a very young Cybill Shepherd as she appeared in the film...directed by a very young Peter Bogdanovich.

I struggled to stay awake to finish this. It was a nonstop day and I need to head to bed fairly soon.

Noteworthy answers include 14A: Massey of old movies (Ilona)...her third appearance in the last six weeks, 15A: Embassy figure (envoy), 20A: Meditation goal (oneness), 27A: Cold one, so to speak (beer), 33A: Kind of acid (oleic), 42A: Maker of the game Combat (Atari), 48A: Martini's partner (Rossi), 59A: Janis __, with the 1975 hit "At Seventeen" (Ian), 69A: Funny Fields (Totie), 3D: Unable to hit a pitch? (tone deaf), 6D: Bleep out (censor), 11D: Title brother in a 1973 Elton John hit (Daniel), 12D: Mr. Gorgeous (Adonis), 25D: Negri of silent films (Pola), 40D: Former Texas governor Richards (Ann) and 45D: Unidentified planes (bogies).

My favorite answer...39D: Less than wonderful (not so hot).

I loved the cross of 39A: Vote against (nay) with 41D: Vote for (yea).

That's it for tonight. Here's the grid...



...and I'll see you tomorrow.

Linda G

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

A fun puzzle for a Wednesday..the cluing was not bad but I did not care for BYGUM or the alternative spelling of MOHEGIANS...the last of threw me for a bit until I was able to figure it out from the down clues...Linda...hope that you got the needed rest and that today is not so hetic.
Bob

Anonymous said...

For some reason that one almost tripped me up. It took quite a while to get envoy. I had en_o_ and could not dig it out. Oleic acid was a problem for me too. I think this must be a dumb day...

cornbread hell said...

ENVOYs was in the syndicated puzzle, too.

the double i in pompei seemed odd to me, but not so odd to google or wikii.