THURSDAY, February 4, 2010 — James Sajdak

Theme: Distraction — The theme is a witty quotation.

Theme answers:

• 17A: Start of a quote (DID YOU EVER).
• 23A: Quote, part 2 (STOP TO THINK).
• 51A: Quote, part 3 (AND FORGET TO).
• 60A: End of the quote (START AGAIN).
• 38A: Author of the quote (A. A. MILNE).

I know a lot of people hate quote puzzles. Other people love them. Okay, I've never actually heard anyone say they love them. But some people aren't bothered by them. I kinda like them once in a while. I think the quote puzzles I really like are the ones where I've never heard the quote before (so solving it is really satisfying) or when I know the quote really well (so I feel like I'm totally cool and in on the joke). The ones that aren't so great for me are they ones where I go, "Oh. Yeah. I've heard that before. But didn't really remember it. Because it wasn't all that funny." This is one of those quotes for me. But, ya know what? I liked the puzzle just fine anyway. I'm not really complaining — even though it might seem like I am — I'm just laying out my thought process for you. Probably in more detail than you really care about but, hey! It's my blog! I can do what I want!

Let's see what else I want to talk about:

• 5A: Grass surfaces (TURFS). Oh the turf wars my husband and his gang, Los Nortaños, are involved in. Things are rough here in the burbs.
• 16A: Like undecorated walls (BARE). Also like Old Mother Hubbard's cupboard. Not sure why I'm bringing that up except it's what popped into my mind.

• 30A: It's gnus to the lions (PREY). HAha! An animal pun!
• 44A: Curly poker? (MOE). I'm not much of a Stooge fan, but I understand they are very popular. See also 45D: Curly group? (STOOGES).
• 46A: Ragtime piece that became Vincent Lopez's theme (NOLA). Who the heck is Vincent Lopez? Hold on, I'll look it up. ... He was a big band leader in the 1920s.
• 59A: Cuernavaca crowd? (TRES). In Cuernavaca they speak Spanish. In Spanish, tres = three. And everyone knows that "three's a crowd."
• 67A: Doesn't put anything away for a while? (FASTS). It seems like I've been seeing this "put away" = "eat" riff a lot lately, so this one came to me no problem.

• 1D: Six-time Emmy winner Alan (ALDA). He also seems to be quite popular in puzzles these days.
• 10D: Good time for a beachcomber (EBB TIDE). Started out with low tide until the crosses fixed it.
• 11D: "Splish Splash" singer (DARIN). I honestly can't think of this song without picturing Potsy singing it. That's sad.
• 50D: "__ girl!" (ATTA). Yesterday was National Girls and Women in Sports Day. So "ATTA girl!" to all you female athletes out there!
• 53D: Up for __ (GRABS). I had "OH YAY!" for "OH BOY!" at [64A: "Whoopee!"], which gave me "Up for GRAYS" here. Took me a while to sort that out.

• 57D: Cautionary data entry acronym (GIGO). Garbage in, garbage out. Apparently GIGO is also the brand-name of a line of men's underwear. I found that out when I went looking for images to include. I'm not going to include any of those.
• 61D: Twaddle (ROT). The word twaddle sounds dirty to me.

Crosswordese 101: This is going to be a very short lesson. YEGG is another word for safecracker. I don't know where this word comes from or how it came to have the meaning it does. I just know that YEGG means safecracker. And that has been enough to help me out in a few puzzles!

Everything Else — 1A: Clip contents (AMMO); 10A: Whirlpool (EDDY); 14A: Wagered (LAID); 15A: Slanted (ATILT); 19A: Slammer at sea (BRIG); 20A: VIP roster (A-LIST); 21A: With no margin for error (EXACTING); 26A: Grifter's easy mark (LIVE ONE); 29A: Prohibition action (RAID); 31A: Prohibition __ (ERA); 33A: Pilgrim's destination (MECCA); 37A: Understood (GOT); 41A: Greet warmly (HUG); 42A: Photographer Adams (ANSEL); 45A: Geisha's cupful (SAKE); 49A: Hit, as flies (SWATTED); 54A: Quivering (AFLUTTER); 55A: Salad bar pair (TONGS); 63A: Raced (TORE); 65A: Logician's word (ERGO); 66A: Empire until 1991: Abbr. (USSR); 68A: Harbor hauler (SCOW); 2D: Send (MAIL); 3D: Skirt length (MIDI); 4D: Homeric inspiration for Joyce's "Ulysses" (ODYSSEY); 5D: Ancient cross shape (TAU); 6D: Beehive State native (UTE); 7D: Bit of bridge-building hardware (RIVET); 8D: Biceps, e.g. (FLEXOR); 9D: Sedimentary rock layers (STRATA); 12D: Manhattan, for one (DRINK); 13D: Safecracker (YEGG); 18D: Name of four Holy Roman emperors (OTTO); 22D: Doorbell sound (CHIME); 24D: Four-F's opposite, in the draft (ONE-A); 25D: Wave maker (PERM); 26D: Women's links gp. (LPGA); 27D: Pressing need? (IRON); 28D: Examiners of boxers (VETS); 32D: Objective (AIM); 34D: Make small talk (CHAT); 35D: Greek salad slice, briefly (CUKE); 36D: Like good bourbon (AGED); 38D: High, as a kite (ALOFT); 39D: Get rid of (LOSE); 40D: Ex-Speaker Gingrich (NEWT); 43D: Retail computer buyer, e.g. (END USER); 47D: Much (LOTS OF); 48D: First name in soul (ARETHA); 51D: Jackson 5 dos (AFROS); 52D: 'Stros, for example (NLERS); 54D: Alaskan island closer to Russia than to Alaska (ATTU); 56D: DEA raider (NARC); 58D: Winter blanket (SNOW); 62D: Baseball's Cobb and Cline (TYS).