Sun., 7/26 Melanie Miller

[magus]

THEME:   ET added to phrases can make odd ones
   
GOOD ONES:     
Title: Close Encounters   
Cross between a hound and zebra?   STRIPED BASSET [striped bass okay, but I'd hate to see a striped basset hound]]   
Dealer's offer   LEASE [car dealer, not drugs or gambling as I thought]   
Thing to rally over  NET [physical, as in tennis]   
Japanese closer   OBI [belt, not relief pitcher as I thought]   
Doctor's specialty   SPIN [politics, not medicine]   
   
BTW:   
It may be full of ash   WOOD BIN [my wood bin contains unburned wood; hence, no ash --- ash bins contain ash]   
It occurred to me that ash may be the wood (as in Northern white ash), and so the wood bin could be filled only with ash.  Guess I was too r-ash in my criticism.   And why did none of you, especially rbe, jump on me for this failure?  I should have said I was "just testing you."
   
RATING:   
Three grins = Loved it; Two grins = Enjoyed it; One grin = A bit bland for my taste; One teardrop = Not much fun   

[Thomps2525]

EDS and ETTA frequently appear in crosswords. EDS usually refers to editors and ETTA is always a reference to 1960s r&b singer Etta James (whose real name was Jamesetta Haewkins). Merl Reagle came up with different clues for those words in today's puzzle: EDS was "Harris and Helms" and ETTA was "Henri add-on."

The theme: "The Constancy Of Consonants." Reagle pointed out that in a headline reading "Fiend Found," the two words share the consonants but the vowels are different. So.....

Lotto fever? MONEYMANIA
Disneyland keepsake? PLUTO PLATE
NRA issue facing voters? BULLETBALLOT
Group that looks out for lost sea birds? PETRELPATROL
Extreme reaction to certain cars? HOTRODHATRED
Like flooded roads? POSSIBLYPASSABLE
Irish store that specializes in gag gifts? PATRICKSPETROCKS

And a triple answer:

Slogan for a cat food commercial? TROUTTREATTRYIT

The crossword included the foreign words OLLA, PLAYA, RARA (as in rara avis) and SAIS (as in Je ne sais quoi) and our all-too-common friends ALI, APT, ARENA, EAT, ELS, ENE, IDO, OAT, ODE, OREO and RTE. One answer which, until today, I had not seen in a puzzle was ONAHILL ("First words of The Old Rugged Cross"---That was one of the first songs I learned as a child).