10.15.07 -- Monday Menagerie

Monday, October 15, 2007

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Puzzle by Andrea Carla Michaels, edited by Will Shortz

Four animal idioms, EATINGCROW (17A Taking back one's words in humiliation); TALKINGTURKEY (27A Negotiating in a no-nonsense way); PLAYING POSSUM (43A Pretending to be dead); and CRYINGWOLF (58A Raising a false alarm) are the inter-related entries of this Monday menagerie. As ugly as a TOAD (2D Relative of a frog) and jumping for JOEYS (32A Baby kangaroos) (groan) aren't here for idioms, but BAA (54A Ewe's call) is and a little too NEAR (6A Close) to WOLF for it's own well-being!

"Eating, talking, playing and crying?" -- there is plenty of fodder for fables and foibles in this crossword -- STOIC (1A Indifferent to pleasure or pain); URGE (15A Impulse); "These ARE the times that..." (35A); "Love ISIN the air" (39A); ISEE (19A "Oh, that's what you mean"); ONTO (3D Seeing through the deception of); Suite to ATEE (12D); ERR (7D Misplay, e.g.); AGOG (8D Slack-jawed); Give ARUN for one's money (23D); "GOT Milk?" (28D); WOW (60A "Man alive!"); and AMENS (42A Prayers ends).

SHEA (1D New York stadium) leads a pack of people for the purpose, including RENEE (24 Actress Zellweger); COEN (34A Joel who directed "Raising Arizona"); ERTE (36A One-named Art Deco designer); Roman statesman CATO the Elder (61A); NORMA Rae (Sally Field title role); IDI (4D Dictator Amin); RAYE (24A Comedic actress Martha); KASEM (29D Casey with a radio countdown); ANG (38D "Hulk" director Lee); IMUS (39D Don with a big mouth); TINA (41D One of the Sinatras); YARROW (44D Peter of Peter, Paul & Mary); SEAN (46D Actor Penn), with YMA (59D Singer Sumac) bringing up the rear.
There’s a COINER (10D Neologist) in the corner up right who might want to look into the meaning of the likes of REWRITES (9D Edits); CONDUCTS (37D Leads, as an orchestra); ASSIGNS (42D Hands out, as duties); CANCELS (5D Calls off); DEFRAUD (49A Rip off); ENCRYPT (25D Put into cipher); and the inclusion of both OATH of office (16A) and SWEAR (66A Say with one’s hand on the Bible) -- or it could all just be GUNK (18D Sticky matter)!
Quite a NUCLEI (6D Cell centers) of back-to-work word ORGIES (45D Unrestrained revelries) -- a cubicle CUL-de-sac (21A) of a puzzle as fun as a barrel of monkeys
IDIOMS?

Hey, it's Monday, back to work like a dog to keep the wolf from the door!

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For today's cartoon, go to The Crossword Puzzle Illustrated.

The New York Times Crossword Puzzle solution above is by the author of this blog and does not guarantee accuracy. If you find errors or omissions, you are more than welcome to make note of same in the Comments section of this post -- any corrections found necessary will be executed promptly upon verification.
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THE NEW YORK TIMES -- Crossword Puzzles and Games
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