F R I D A Y September 10, 2010 Jack McInturff

Theme: Someone's gonna poke an EY out — Familiar phrases omit the letters EY, creating wacky new phrases clued wackily.


Theme answers:

• 20A: Faultfinding brother? (MONK ON ONE'S BACK).
• 29A: Debris in the hayloft? (BARN RUBBLE).
• 38A: Impervious to chutzpah? (GALLPROOF).
• 50A: What Michelle Kwan might do in a financial emergency? (HOCK SKATES).
• 59A: Haystack-hiding Ottoman? (TURK IN THE STRAW).

Today we're going straight to …

Bullets:

• 11A: Short nightwear? (PJ'S). It's not that the nightwear is short in length, it's that the word for nightwear we're looking for here is a shortened form. I.e., PJ'S for "pajamas."

• 17A: "Big Girl in the Middle" co-author Gabrielle (REECE). She's a professional beach volleyball player married to a professional surfer. I'm sure they both work really hard at their jobs, but I have to say it sounds a little bit like a charmed life.
• 23A: Spat end (-ULA). I entered "ter" at first. Besides being wrong, that's a terrible answer.
• 34A: Shivering causes (FEARS). All I could think of was temperature but couldn't find anything to fit. Had to get this one through crosses.
• 42A: Jordan was part of it: Abbr. (NBA). HAha! This one totally tricked me. Thought it was referring to the Kingdom of Jordan not His Airness, Michael Jordan.
• 55A: First daughter of the '60s (LUCI). That would be Luci Baines Johnson.
• 65A: MGM motto word (ARS). MGM's motto is "ARS Gratia Artis," Latin for "Art for art's sake." Personally, I prefer Ubu Productions' motto "Sit, Ubu, sit!"

• 68A: Blow without distinction? (JOE). As in the phrase "any old Joe Blow…." Good clue.
• 73A: Finishing stroke (SERIF). Mmmm … typography.
• 6D: Arizona's "Red Rocks Country" (SEDONA). Beautiful!
• 12D: Nocturnal scavengers (JACKALS). I know SethG wasn't thrilled about the first theme answer. He's not a fan of familiar phrases that are generally directed at "you" being changed to "one." You know what he does like, though? This.



• 13D: Friday was one: Abbr. (SGT.). Jack Webb's character Joe Friday from Dragnet, which I just learned right this moment was a radio show before it was on television.
• 26D: Stars of "Two and a Half Men," e.g. (HES). Just becuase you can pluralize any word, doesn't mean you should.
• 40D: Airport near Citi Field, briefly (LGA). LGA is the code for New York's LaGuardia Airport.

• 41D: Dandy (FOP). FOP is an awesome awesome word. I don't have enough FOPs in my life. Or cads. I need more FOPs and cads.
• 48D: Sharon, notably (ISRAELI). This an example of the old pronunciation trick. Ariel Sharon (pronounced like share-OWN) is a former Israeli Prime Minister.
• 49D: London classic, with "The" (SEA-WOLF). Okay, this is how dumb I am. I had No Idea what this meant until I was reading through the clues and answer in preparation for writing this post. I'm thinking it's the name of a famous ship that's docked in England? Maybe the nickname of a famous British sailor? No. It's the name of a book. A classic book — it even says that in the clue! — written by Jack London.
• 63D: Ohio State basketball coach Matta (THAD). I'm not really up on my college basketball coaches but this guy seems to have had an impressive career. Despite the fact that he started out playing for the Hoopeston-East Lynn High School Cornjerkers in Hoopeston, Illinois.

Crosswordese 101: ROCS are … 9D: Mythical birds. Ta-da! Big surprise, right? Okay, how else might you see ROC clued? How about "Arabian Nights" bird, Sinbad's transport, or mythical/fabled/legenday predator/flier. It has been clued twice this year in the New York Times as Jay-Z's hip-hop label ROC-A-Fella Records. So you might want to watch out for that clue as well.

Other crosswordese in the puzzle that we've already covered:

• 36A: Each (A POP).
• 8D: Wheelset component (AXLE).
• 22D: Tirana is its cap. (ALB.).
• 28D: Work unit (ERG).
• 51D: Cassis apéritif (KIR).

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Everything Else — 1A: Spread __ (EAGLE); 6A: Rises to great heights (SOARS); 14A: Series (ARRAY); 15A: Speedpass brand (EXXON); 16A: Space in time (LAG); 18A: Longtime DieHard rival (DELCO); 19A: Fake it (ACT); 24A: Carmelite, e.g. (NUN); 25A: Daughter of Laban (LEAH); 27A: Lighten up (FADE); 37A: WWII intelligence gp. (OSS); 45A: Dreamcast maker (SEGA); 46A: Dona __ pacem: grant us peace (NOBIS); 54A: Pretense (POSE); 56A: Boomer's kid (X'ER); 58A: Basso Berberian (ARA); 66A: D-Day beach (OMAHA); 67A: Wedding memento (VIDEO); 69A: Not fresh (BANAL); 70A: Green shampoo (PRELL); 71A: Balaam's beast (ASS); 72A: Radiate (EXUDE); 1D: Canal protector (EAR MUFF); 2D: Colorful rings (AREOLAE); 3D: Caribbean island nation (GRENADA); 4D: Dearth (LACK); 5D: "__ America Tour": 2006 CBS News event (EYE ON); 7D: Team members (OXEN); 10D: Arty type, maybe (SNOB); 11D: Controversial testing component (PLACEBO); 21D: Heart (NUB); 30D: Knock on (RAP AT); 31D: "Fresh Air" airer (NPR); 32D: Friend of Pooh (ROO); 33D: Knowledgeable about (UPON); 35D: Reason for grounding, perhaps (SASS); 39D: Coin in Tirana (LEK); 42D: Sabres' org. (NHL); 43D: Former U.N. secretary-general __-Ghali (BOUTROS); 44D: Charges (ACCUSES); 47D: One taken in (BOARDER); 52D: Yoga command (EXHALE); 53D: Date (SEE); 57D: Requested answers (RSVP'S); 60D: Eastern beef city (KOBE); 61D: It gives you the big picture (IMAX); 62D: Half a sitcom signoff (NANU); 64D: Flag (TIRE); 65D: Grammy-winning Steely Dan album (AJA).