Tuesday, April 22 - Nancy Salomon

Nancy Salomon has co-authored a couple of puzzles in the past few months, but I haven't seen her name appear solo on a byline since June 7, 2007. [UPDATE: Thanks to JimH for letting me know that Nancy also authored the December 25 puzzle...I solved it but didn't blog it, so it didn't show up in my search.] Nancy's puzzles usually involve puns of some sort, and this Tuesday doesn't stray too far from her MO.

The theme answers are all investment terms...very appropriate in light of the stimulus payments that many of us will be receiving soon...with puns appearing as the very literal clues.

17A: Fishing trawler's haul? (net earnings).

28A: Seat of government's acquisitions? (capital gains).

44A: Publisher's windfall? (paper profits).

59A: Salary for selling insects as food? (gross income)...the funniest of them all.

It's always a pleasure to see fresh fill in an early week puzzle. Some of my favorites:

1A: What a gal has that a gent doesn't? (hard G)...I didn't get it immediately, but it wasn't too far off.

6A: Elephant of children's literature (Babar). How can you not love an elephant in a suit?

15A: Muscat resident (Omani).

25A: Lukas of "Witness" (Haas).

53A: Getting slick during winter (icing up). Did anyone else read that as "getting sick" at first?

64A: Ryder rival (U-Haul).

66A: Fakes out with fancy footwork (dekes). Okay, I checked this grid and it's right...but this word doesn't appear in my dictionary. It's a favorite because it still looks good in the grid...with the K and all.

67A: By itself (per se). According to this article, it's also a restaurant in New York City.

2D: Mideast pooh-bah (Ameer)...one of several ways to spell that. It's a good idea to know the others as well...Amir, Emir, Aamir.

6D: Dwarf tree (Bonsai). Bedtime for Bonsai...wasn't that a movie about a man who covered up his dwarf tree at night?

11D: Works out with weights (pumps iron). This is why squirrels don't pump iron.

26D: "American Idol" quest (stardom). Several of them have made it...for my money, though, Kelly Clarkson is the best.

34D: Throws in the trash (deep sixes)...I also like its cross at 58A: Jazz instrument (sax). Here's a fellow crossword fan who also plays the sax. If you haven't already seen Wordplay, he also makes an appearance in it...but he doesn't play the sax.

39D: Add some meat to the bones (fatten up). My goal for the spring and summer is to avoid doing that.

42D: Go off a diet big-time (splurge)...because I did that today. It's volunteer appreciation week, and someone brought in homemade chocolate chip pecan cookies for our staff and volunteers. I think I had seven or eight of them...but they were kind of small.

51D: Twin of Romulus (Remus). I always get this story confused with Uncle Remus. Not really. Romulus and Remus were twins who were left in a basket on the river. They were found by a she-wolf who nursed them. You can read the rest of the story here. It doesn't have a happy ending...but it's not believed to be a true story.

55D: "The other white meat" (pork). That deserves a mention...just because.

It's getting close to the witching hour (10:00...my bedtime), so that's it for tonight.

Here's the grid...



...and I'll see you tomorrow.

Linda G