SUNDAY, Mar. 29, 2009 - E Gorski ("Bertha" composer / Gunwale pin / Pester for payment / Hook-shaped parts of brains)
Relative difficulty: Medium
THEME: "Architectural Drawing" - Let's see ... a rebus puzzle where the letters "ET" are crammed into nine different squares throughout the grid; those letters are the initials of EIFFEL TOWER, which the rebus squares are arranged to look like (if you connect them together with a pen/pencil after you're done); "ET" also stands for the French word "AND," which is technically a "conjunction" but is referred to here as a FRENCH CONNECTION, which is a movie that has very little to do with France, but whatever; another movie, "AN AMERICAN IN PARIS," provides the subject for the rest of the theme answers - we are supposed to imagine this hypothetical American (not the "American" of the movie proper) wandering around Paris consuming distinctly French things from the various wine, coffee, and pastry shops. There's a big MINT PATTY in the middle of all this, but I don't think that has anything to do with the theme. The end.
- 60D: Pester for payment (dun) - to me, "DUN" is a color. Learned this verbal meaning from xwords.
- 87A: Gunwale pin (thole) - I barely know what "gunwale" is. To me, THOLE is Thomething a Thinner might want to Thave. And yet the word was in my brain somewhere. Perhaps in the UNCI, which I didn't know I had until today (125A: Hook-shaped parts of brains).
- 107A: Geographically named S.U.V. (Tahoe) - Is "Lakeily" a word? If so, I would have preferred that to the more general "geographically"
- 113A: Philosopher Zeno of _____ (Elea) - always, always botch this. I know it's EL... something. And then ELOI and ELAL and ELON get in there and clog up the works.
- 127A: Cousins of zithers (lyres) - I have a student who is a professional zither player. Her name is Cindy. I saw her at the mall last night. And thus concludes today's "Window on My World"
- 5D: Soviet comrade (tovarich) - ?!?!?! Never seen or heard it. Thought it was someone named Tova Rich.
- 15D: "Bertha" composer (Ned Rorem) - normally a puzzle double-threat (you might see either his last or first name in your grid on any day of the week), here we get both barrels.
- 16D: Knitter's stash (skeins) - "stash" - unless you're getting high off the SKEINS, this word seems slightly inapt. [actually, knitters are telling me this is a technical term - perfectly apt]
- 31D: Small drum of India (tabla) - pretty uncommon, though I've seen it before.
- 38D: Andy Capp's wife, and others (Flos) - the only thing I love more than one FLO is multiple FLOS.
- 69D: Comment from over the shoulder, maybe (hint) - I was imagining someone saying something over his own shoulder, at someone he was leaving. If anyone tried to over-the-shoulder HINT me, I would go totally Christina Applegate on them.
- 82D: Verizon forerunner (GTE) - knew this. Don't know why.
- 102D: Fictional elephant (Horton) - nice change of pace from the more common BABAR (though, as a French elephant, BABAR is probably feeling pretty snubbed right now).