04.26.10 — Fire!


Fire photographed at 1/4000th of a second.

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Monday, April 26, 2010

Puzzle by Lynn Lempel, edited by Will Shortz

PLAYING WITH FIRE (37A. Doing something risky … or a hint to the last words of 18-, 24-, 49- and 58-Across), PACK LIGHT (18A. Common advice to travelers), DEAD HEAT (24A. Race that finishes in a tie), OLD FLAME (49A. Bygone love interest) and HOLY SMOKE (58A. “Omigosh!”) are the interrelated group of this hot little Monday crossword.

LYING AWAKE with PANDA BEARS (29D. Suffering from insomnia; 3D. Adorable zoo critters from China) are the other long entries followed by four of seven letters AT STAKE (44A. Being risked, as in a bet), HALF DAY (39D. 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., say, for a worker), MODEL T’S (28A. Early Fords that “put America on wheels”) and SWAHILI (14D. Widespread language of East Africa), which has a companion, the four-letter URDU (62A. Language of Pakistan).

Other mid-size — AMANA, ANISE, AUNTS, COAST (6A. Where a hurricane makes landfall), EXALT, FRINGE, HOSED, KNEED, LEEDS, MANES, ON KEY and ONSET, OVALS and OVINE, SEPIA, SINEW, SPADE (53A. Digging tool), SPELL, TIDY UP and YOKEL (64A. Hayseed).

Short stuff — ACES, ALDA, ASHE, AWL (35D. Hole-making tool), BAIT, BEST (67A. Crème de la crème), CAR, COED, DALY, END, EONS, FLAW, FUEL, HOPI, HOST, HUG (26A. Warm embrace), ICE and ILE and ILLS, KOOK, LEAP, LOGS, LOUD, MANE, MCS, MOB, MRIS, NET, NIKE, OARS, ODE, OGLE and OLEG, ONCE, PLAT, PORE, ROSA (16A. Parks who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom), SCOT, SHUL, SKYS, SPCA, SUES and TORT (31D. Takes to court; 30D. Wrong that’s adjudicated in court), WATT, WAX andYOU don’t say!”

Playing with fire?... TSK (8D. "For shame!")

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The location for the filming of "Gone With The Wind" was to be the Pathé lot in Culver City, not far from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. To clear this lot of some old standing sets in order to make way for the construction of the plantation mansions of Tara and Twelve Oaks and the Atlanta buildings and streets, the art director, William Cameron Menzies, proposed that the old sets be brought down in a monstrous nighttime conflagration which could be photographed to constitute the big scene of the burning of Atlanta, a climax in the film. Two stunt men were engaged to ride in an old wagon in front of the burning sets to represent in long shot the flight of Rhett and Scarlett.




Click on image to enlarge.

Puzzle available on the internet at

THE NEW YORK TIMES — Crossword Puzzles and Games.

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Remaining clues — ACROSS: 1. Navajo’s neighbor in Arizona; 5. Edinburgh native; 9. Defect; 13. Racetrack shapes; 15. Many millennia; 17. Tendon; 20. Terminus; 21. Seed with a licorice like flavor; 23. Beginning; 27. Worms, to a fisherman; 32. Say “C-A-T” or “D-O-G,” e.g.; 34. Boathouse gear; 41. Avis or Alamo offering; 42. Misfortunes; 43. Uncles’ mates; 47. Cassini of fashion; 48. Cubes from the freezer; 56. Weak-___ (easily intimidated), 57. Candlemaking supply; 60. Oven brand; 63. What Yale became in 1969; 65. Vault (over); 66. “The ___ the limit”. DOWN: 1. Cleaned with water, as a sidewalk; 2. Sheeplike; 4. Suffix with percent; 5. Tone of many old photos; 7. ___ in a blue moon; 8. “For shame!”; 10. Hearth contents; 11. U.S. tennis legend on a 37¢ stamp; 12. The “W” of kWh; 19. Earsplitting; 22. Ping-Pong table divider; 25. Tyne of “Cagney & Lacey”; 26. Party giver; 28. CT scan alternatives; 32. Org. for cat and dog lovers; 33. Builder’s map; 34. Look at lustfully; 38. Athletics brand with a swoosh; 40 Gasoline or peat; 45. Neaten; 46. Unreturned tennis serves; 47. Keats’s “___ to Psyche”; 49. Not sharp or flat; 50. Textile city of north-central England; 51. Grooms comb them; 52. Praise mightily; 53 Place for a bar mitzvah service; 54. Skin opening; 55. Alan of “M*A*S*H”; 56. Nutcase; 59. Introducers of a show’s acts, e.g.; 61. “The Godfather” crowd, with “the”.

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