The gentleman in the picture is Richard Silvestri, composer of the diabolically clever NYT cryptic crossword of a couple of weeks ago. Making mental note to replace the grumpy picture of him in that post with this much happier picture.

If the name Cathy Allis doesn’t ring a bell, it’s because she used to be Cathy Millhauser. That name did ring a bell for me, because she did a celebrity crossword with former President Bill Clinton, along with a number of other Sunday NYT crosswords.

Here are some alternate clues:

23 Across – Non-lying female paternal ancestor of King David
31 Across – The samovar on the left is to be eschewed
40 Across – I, I, I don’t have an alternate clue! But I saw a picture in my mind’s eye of toilets raining from the sky like polar bears rained from the sky in this video

65 Across – Tolkien’s stories of beers swiped from The Prancing Pony
84 Across – Where heretics with drive and ambition end up
99 Across – Yet another pathetic failed attempt to make the kids think we’re not lame (On a related note, I want “Pants on the Ground” to be the Vikings fight song for tomorrow’s game)
112 Across – The credo of the Metal Men?

19 Down – Proofreader’s crusade?
40 Down – I don’t have a alternate clue for this one either, but I’m recalling Salman Rushdie’s story of when he was a child…

In our house, whenever anyone dropped a book or let fall a chapati or a “slice,” which was our word for a triangle of buttered leavened bread, the fallen object was required not only to be picked up but also kissed, by way of apology for the act of clumsy disrespect. I was as careless and butter- fingered as any child and, accordingly, during my childhood years, I kissed a large number of “slices” and also my fair share of books.

Devout households in India often contained, and still contain, persons in the habit of kissing holy books. But we kissed everything. We kissed dictionaries and atlases. We kissed Enid Blyton novels and Superman comics. If I’d ever dropped the telephone directory I’d probably have kissed that, too.

All this happened before I had ever kissed a girl. In fact it would almost be true, true enough for a fiction writer, anyhow, to say that once I started kissing girls, my activities with regard to bread and books lost some of their special excitement. But one never forgets one’s first loves.

Bread and books: food for the body and food for the soul – what could be more worthy of our respect, and even love?

It was noted by a number of solvers that there was an Avatar reference in this puzzle. Grumble, grumble, grumble.

I was pleased with myself that I filled in Oort cloud without missing a beat.

Technorati: Cathy Allis, NYT Crossword

There was a crossword like this one in the NYT on November 17, where there were two word phrases that crossed in the centers of both words. Actually, the two word phrases in that puzzle were made up of one word (such as “Duran Duran” and “Bling Bling”), and this puzzle wasn’t like that. But the structure of word crosses was similar. Got that?

Here are my alternate clues:

26 Across – With 4-Down, a time-tested, guaranteed recipe for misery and poverty
29 Across – With 16-Down, something Billy Pilgrim found in a dead man’s coat in Slaughterhouse-Five
55 Across – With 45-Down, the time between two identical syzygies
67 Across – With 47-Down, where Canada’s cultured elites don’t live?
83 Across – With 70-Down, the character Tom Logan, played by Robert Redford
110 Across – With 91-Down, a soft gray alkaline earth metal football player?
114 Across – With 95-Down, what some people watch when there’s nothing good on TV?

I’m amused that Elantra and Elektra were part of the fill.

Yes, I bit on Harry instead of Peron for the 1946 President. They didn’t say which country. Actually, Harry Truman became President of the United States in April of 1945, so Harry was just plain wrong as an answer.

I have a beautiful dream to compose a crossword puzzle with as many three letter words as possible beginning and ending in the letter o. I’m saving Otoes for just such an occasion.

A nice anagram for Mel Rosen is “Solemner.” Should the n be pronounced in that word?

Technorati: Mel Rosen, NYT Crossword

Here are my alternate clues to the themed answers:

23 Across – She gets the better of philandering varlets?
33 Across – The subhead read “Funeral to be held at Joyous Garde” But what’s the headline?
51 Across – “Verily, Hank Morgan, you astound Arthur’s men of learning.”
64 Across – The knights noticed much refuse along the road in their sunny morning journey to Camelot
74 Across – Gawain selected among options for protecting the castle
86 Across – Galahad said, “My shoe feels a little loose underneath my armor.”
101 Across – This dog soundly thrashed the little dachshund in a number of races
117 Across – “I care not for the will of the entire division!”

I was thinking for a moment that “Fictional Doolittle” could be Dr. John Doolittle, or Eliza’s father Alfred, but neither of the other alternatives would fit.

Still patiently waiting for Eloi to be clued as “Morlock chow.” If I see it one more time, I will construct a puzzle with that clue.

Took could have been clued as “Peregrin’s family name” or “Pippin’s family”

I’m recalling the line from “Bored of the Rings,” “Are you the boggie with the bijou?”

I’m amused that the answers to 1 Across and 128 Across are almost anagrams of each other.

Technorati: Jeremy Newton, NYT Crossword

The other two gentlemen in the photo are Fred Piscop (left) and Brendan Emmett Quigley (right)

Wired magazine says the quote attributed to 100-Across (25-Across) is most likely apocryphal, but it’s still beautiful. Tony Long writes:

This much is true, though: He [25-Across] made an enormous contribution by developing the technique that finally produced a successful white wine from red wine grapes, something vintners had been trying to accomplish for years. That was a major step toward the development of modern champagne, probably the major step.

I am particularly amused by the Oscar Wilde zinger: “A poet can survive everything but a misprint.”

As I think of champagne, I recall this toast.

“Here’s champagne to our true friends, and true pain to our sham friends!”

Technorati: Elizabeth C. Gorski, NYT Crossword

Puzzability writes:

Mike Shenk is, to puzzle lovers, probably the greatest thing since the electric pencil sharpener. One of the most versatile puzzle constructors and editors in the country, he provided a stunning assortment of pencil puzzles for Games magazine and its offshoots for 16 years, even while constructing daily crosswords for a major newspaper syndicate. Today he is crossword editor of The Wall Street Journal. Mike also writes Java programs for Puzzability’s interactive solving, as well as computer programs that set crosswords and many other types of puzzles. Even we are not sure how he does this.

There are no themed answers in this puzzle, only answers in which words from a quotation are embedded. The quote is from a fellow who had a number of good ideas, Linus Pauling. He is one of only four individuals to have won multiple Nobel Prizes. He is one of only two people to have been awarded a Nobel Prize in two different fields (the Chemistry and Peace prizes), the other being Marie Curie (the Chemistry and Physics prizes), and the only person to have been awarded each of his prizes without sharing it with another recipient.

For example, the first word of the quote, “The,” is embedded in at heart. I had nothing when it came to who played Dr. Kildare. I so wanted a card up one’s sleeve to be an ace. I didn’t see The Year of Living Dangerously, so Linda Hunt, who played a male Chinese-Australian photographer in that movie, didn’t show up on my radar.

The title of the puzzle is the title of a book by Ken Kesey, who is much more famous for One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. Sometimes A Great Notion was also made into a movie, with Paul Newman and Henry Fonda. And no, I haven’t seen that movie either.

Technorati: Mike Shenk, NYT Crossword

Do you think it’s a coincidence that BEBOP is in the upper left corner of the picture? I think not!

Here are my alternate clues:

20 Across – People who don’t like how their horses look are doing this
25 Across – “Ah, yes, my dear, I got this while on the fencing team at Old Heidelburg U.”
33 Across – “Well, he did sock me in the jaw, but in his defense, he did ask for his salad dressing on the side.”
52 Across – Bogie told the young man from Bulgaria to make one of these
60 Across – General McChrystal and Afghanistan hawks
67 Across – Tasty treats cooked on a Bunsen burner and garnished with sauerkraut?
81 Across – “No, I didn’t like Karen!” “I didn’t like Richard either!” “And don’t get me started on the song ‘Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft!’ (Oops, too late.)”
93 Across – How Nic was turned into a superhero?
100 Across – Some of the generals were busted to colonel, but one of them was made a corporal

There were two Biblical references in this puzzle, Canaan and Rahab. Rahab was not only part of the genealogy of Jesus, but in the “Faith Hall of Fame” in the book of Hebrews.

I was amused that atonal, clued as “keyless,” and pianos, clued as “key holders,” crossed each other. It was as if the pianos were holding a spare key for atonal.

I never heard of Primo Carnera before, but here’s a picture of him with Jean Harlow

It wasn’t easy finding a picture of Will Nediger, but I found one at The JimH Crossword Blog, along with a very nice interview.

Here are my alternate clues to the puzzle

22 Across – Baby’s possible response to a game of “Peekaboo?”
36 Across – “I wish I had left that to you.” “You will, Oscar, you will.”
68 Across – Peter Fonda was so not this in the movie
94 Across – Making apprehensions?
113 Across – Good old-fashioned naughtiness?
4 Down – What David felt toward the lion and the bear?
50 Down – David’s encounter with Goliath?

Ali Khameni could just as easily been clued “Muhammad ___” or better yet “Laila ___.” If it had been clued as “Nuclear-weapon seeking tyrant ___ Khameni” it would have been ok with me. It seems to be ok for communists and other tyrants to invade crossword puzzles, as long as they aren’t Nazis.

Why do I remember Dan Aykroyd’s impression of Tom Snyder more than I remember Tom Snyder?

I wanted idea man to be ideator. I recalled this IBM commercial.

The poet Riley is James Whitcomb Riley, and yes, I will do a separate post on the poem in question.

People seemed to like my recluing of the themed answers in last week’s puzzle, so I will continue along that line.

23 Across – What to do when the spy’s parking meter runs out?
28 Across – In West Side Story, she said “This boy don’t need a job, he needs a year in the pen!”
38 Across – Intense, relentless, determined teacher?
58 Across – Davidian administrator?
82 Across – Owner of a new GM?
103 Across – Selling Scorsese?
111 Across – Vinyl archivist?
119 Across – Ingenious, imaginative, innovative scribe?

While Martin Ritt had a long and successful career as a film director, he is also famous for having been blacklisted in the 1950. Out of all the movies Hollywood has made over the years, how many of them have Communists as bad guys? When Hollywood cares more about the 100 million people killed by Communism, then the Hollywood 10 who were blacklisted, I’ll take movies seriously again. I’ve never heard of cire before today, but here’s a dress made out of it…

Will is so going to get letters about the cluing of Kenobi as “Skywalker’s cohort.” Mentor would be much better.

I’ve had various ideas for alternate clues, and I thought it might be a good idea to reclue the themed answers, instead of giving the themed answers.

21 Across – Numeral asssigned to infant?
26 Across – Yoda would say “Hmf! Anger in her there is!”
67 Across – What NASA scientists hoped to discover through natural satellite bombing?
108 Across – Kalashnikovs?
3 Down – Exclamation of optical excellence?
11 Down – Pleasure trip
46 Down – “Oh, oh, 1 word, two syllables!”
48 Down – A face in the misty night
59 Down – Dorothy’s aunt, possibly
90 Down – AMC model from 1971 to 1978

I love Byronic as fill. Ormolu (from French or moulu, signifying gold ground or pounded) is an 18th-century English term for applying finely ground, high-karat gold in a mercury amalgam to an object of bronze. The mercury is driven off in a kiln. The French refer to this technique as bronze doré, in English gilt bronze. That was new to me. Here’s an instance of ormolu:

I would have clued plantain dealer as “A bug in a Cleveland newspaper?”

I also might have clued “Madam, I’m adamant” as “Miss, I’m desperate but not serious!”

The first time I heard of Federico Garcia Lorca was in the winter of 1982, when I heard this quote: “The day that hunger is eradicated from the earth there will be the greatest spiritual explosion the world has ever known. Humanity cannot imagine the joy that will burst into the world.” There are multiple volumes of Lorca poetry at my local bookstore, but somehow I’ve never gotten around to reading any of it. We shall have to remedy that, shan’t we?

The Poe poem “Lenore” is another poem of loss and death, but with a touch of redemption near the end. I assume this Lenore is the same Lenore being mourned in “The Raven.” I will make a separate post for this poem. I don’t think this was planned, but there was another drop of Poe in this puzzle with usher as part of the fill.

UPDATE: Upon further review, I grasp the Lenore in the poem “Lenore” is a different Lenore than the Lenore in “The Raven,” as a fiancee for the late, lamented Lenore is mentioned in “Lenore,” while no name is given for the narrator in “The Raven.” Got that?

I enjoyed zebu and nerdiest as fill, but I’m still waiting for someone to clue Eloi as “Morlock chow” or “Morlock dinner guests.” Maybe that’s up to me…