35A LEO (Sign before Virgo)
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Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Puzzle by Timothy Powell, edited by Will Shortz
TIRESOMEWINDBAG (17A. BORE); TUSKEDWARTHOG (23A BOAR); CAPEAFRIKANER (48A BOER); DANISHPHYSICIST (57A BOHR) are this Tuesday’s tiresome inter-related entries.
SEZ (1A Speaks, informally) and UTTER (4A Speak) occupy the upper left and NONOS (66A Taboos) and HEY (67A Cry before “Get your hands off!”) in the lower right end it all.
Lots of negativity in between TOO (5D Also): NOOSE (15A End of a hangman’s rope); NOBIGDEAL (11D “Don’t worry about it”); RANSHORT (9D Didn’t have enough supplies); ADD (10D Problem in focusing, for short); BEGS (13D Panhandles); MOBSCENES (34D Sights at after-Christmas sales); PETNAME (40A Honeybunch or cutie pie); IMEAN (63A “Er… um…“); DOLTS (24D Knuckleheads); Have AHOLE in one’s head (20A); SNOOZE (28A Nap); RATTY (52D Wretched); WOES (25D Tribulations); and DRAT (12D “Phooey!”) add to the unpleasantness.
People: Meyerbeer’s “LES Huguenots” (43A); RANDB (9A Smokey Robinson’s music genre, for short); GRETA (62A Actress Garbo); ELIHU Yale, for whom Yale University is named (2D); TOM Sawyer (6D); OLIN (27D Lena or Ken of film); OTT (55A Baseballer Mel); “This ISME … Then” (Jennifer Lopez album) (30D); “Maria ELENA,“ Jimmy Dorsey #1 hit (56A); and a PRIEST (36A Person performing an exorcism).
Other clues: Across -- 16. Love to bits; 29. “Golden” song; 32. Ad-lib, musically; 37. Gives a stage cue; 41. Glowing remnants of a fire; 44. Painting surface; 45. Publisher of Cosmopolitan and Good Housekeeping; and 65. Stand for a portrait.
Downs -- 1. Have a chair by, as a table, 3. Six in 1,000,000; 4. Out of sight; 8. Fix the electrical connections of; 18. Club with a lodge; 32. Computer image file format; 33. French weapon; 36. Lab’s PETRI dish; 40. Brandy fruit; 45. Sticker through a lady’s headgear; 46. Coils of yarn; 50. Stable sound; and 51. Come afterward.
Short entries: AZO, ERE, ESE, ETH, ETES, HMO, ILE, INS, INT, ITE, ITS, LES, MESA, RARA, REF, RET, SAO, YEN, and LEO.
Ho-hum!
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For today's cartoon, go to The Crossword Puzzle Illustrated.
