google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Nathan Miller

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Showing posts with label Nathan Miller. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nathan Miller. Show all posts

May 27, 2010

Thursday May 27, 2010 Nathan Miller

Theme: Fish Tale - An extra syllable is added to the monosyllable first word of a common phrase to form a fish pun.

17A. Price decrease for a stout-bodied fish?: GROUPER DISCOUNT. Group Discount.

25A. Habitat for orange fish?: ROUGHY HOUSING. Roughhousing. The only theme entry whose base phrase is one word. I've never heard of roughy fish, What a strange orange color!

45A. Road for Minnesota's state fish?: WALLEYE STREET. Wall Street. Minnesota has the best walleye. Delicious!

57A. Verdict for a tropical fish?: SNAPPER JUDGMENT. Snap Judgment.

We also have a bit of a Greek myth undertone:

44A. Ship of Greek myth: ARGO. "Jason and the Argonauts".

38D. Greek sea god: POSEIDON. The guy with a trident. What's that stuff under his right foot? The Roman equivalent is Neptune. He'd probably eat up this fish puzzle.

44D. Huntress daughter of Zeus and Leto: ARTEMIS. The Greek goddess of the moon. Diana for the Romans.

Must be Nathan Miller's debut. I don't remember seeing his name before. Lovely theme. I liked the two 8-letter & six 7-letter non-theme entries too. Several outstanding clues. My favorite is NOUN (11D. Pencil, pen, or quill). Tricky!

Across:

1. Cooling units, briefly: BTUS

5. Center of Cleveland?: O'NEAL (Shaq). Cleveland Cavaliers' center. Got me. I only saw letter E in the very center of Cleveland.

10. Tolstoy's Karenina: ANNA

14. Musical with the song "Another Pyramid": AIDA. Well, four letter musical with "pyramid" as hint, what else could be?

15. Pat's partner: VANNA (White). "Wheel of Fortune".

16. Somber film genre: NOIR

20. Part of ESP: SENSORY

21. 2000 Olympics city: SYDNEY. Kazie should arrive there tomorrow.

22. A smoker may flick it off: ASH. Nice "it".

23. Black wood: EBONY

30. Skunk moniker: PEPE. Pepe Le Pew.

31. Manhattan's __ Station: PENN

32. Text receivers: CELLS

35. 1997 Smith/Jones film, briefly: MIB (Men in Black)

36. __ Lingus: AER

37. TomTom or Magellan unit, for short: GPS

39. ISP featuring CBS Radio stations: AOL

40. Oscar Madison et al.: SLOBS

42. Muffin topper: OLEO. Al will never put oleo on top of his muffin. Real butter!

48. "Enough!": CEASE

49. Put away the groceries?: EAT. Nice clue. We also have BAGS (1D. "Paper or plastic?" items).

50. CNBC weekday crawl: TICKER

53. Movie venues: CINEMAS

60. Boy leader? ATTA. Attaboy!

61. On account of: DUE TO

62. Minuscule bit: IOTA

63. Promising: ROSY

64. First name in humorous poetry: OGDEN (Nash)

65. Big gulp: SWIG. "Candy is dandy but liquor is quicker".

Down:

2. Spare for a change: TIRE. I just could not keep coin out of my mind.

3. Japanese noodle: UDON. Love seafood udon.

4. McMuffin meat, maybe: SAUSAGE. Oh, did not know this.

5. Promote to excess: OVERHYPE

6. Not any: NARY

7. Means justifier: END. The end justifies the means.

8. Feminist musician DiFranco: ANI. Learned her name from doing Xword.

9. Lariats: LASSOS

10. Pain reliever: ANODYNE. New word to me.

12. Whom "seven ate," in a joke: NINE. "Why is number six afraid of seven?" Because "Seven eight (ate) nine.

13. Like some museumgoers: ARTY

18. Luxurious: POSH

19. Disbelievers: CYNICS

23. About 525 trillion minutes, in astronomy: EON. Barry G/Jerome can confirm the exact minutes.

24. Jumper cable?: BUNGEE. Awesome clue.

25. 45 and 78, e.g.: Abbr.: RPMS

26. Versailles eye: OEIL. As in the art illusion "Trompe L'oeil", literally "fool the eye".

27. Violin stroke: UP-BOW. Guitar stroke also, Al/Jazzbumpa?

28. Medal recipients: HEROES. Dennis has a Purple Heart. Jeannie too, since she loves the Vikings.

29. Downside of sailing off into the sunset?: GLARE

33. Mezzanine cousin: LOGE. Mezzanine is another new word to me.

34. Coin collector?: SLOT. Can't fool me. Nailed it.

36. Zonked: ASLEEP

41. Past due wages: BACKPAY. With the B already in place, I carelessly penned in BONUSES.

43. Drano ingredient: LYE

46. Texas border city: LAREDO. The U.S./Mexico border city

47. Citrus drink used by NASA: TANG

50. Bygone ruler: TSAR

51. "__ the Woods": INTO. Sondheim's musical.

52. Broadway's second-longest-running show: CATS. And MEOW (54D. Call from 52-Down MEOW). A bit of musical undercurrent in this puzzle also.

53. Darling: CUTE

55. Opposition member: ANTI

56. All-male party: STAG. Is there a word for "All-female party"?

58. Hairpiece: RUG

59. Martin's role in "The West Wing": JED

Answer grid.

C.C.