google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Sunday, Jan 27, 2008 Josiah Breward

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Jan 27, 2008

Sunday, Jan 27, 2008 Josiah Breward

Theme: People Persons

23A: Dean: College Officer
37A: Don: Oxford Fellow
97A: Mark or patsy: Swindler's Sap
116A: Dick: Hotel Detective
17D: Earl: British Nobleman
44D: Victor: Successful Rival

I worked my tail off (as Ron Gardenhire often says), still could not figure the upper right and lower left.

Now I need your help.

14A: Eleventh Greek Letter: LAMBDA.
22A: Common mushroom: AGARIC
25A: Poughkeepsie: MARINT. Is it right? VASSAR is the only one I know. (Updates: This college should be MARIST)
19D: Moss Hart's autobiography: ACT ONE

Here is the problem with 40A: Swiss city on the Rhine: Basee? What happens to BASEL? (Update: The correct answer should be BASLE, Swiss variant on Basel)

Lower left corner:

107A: Extremely scanty: EXIGUOUS
115A: Experts: MAVENS (Updates: the correct answer should be MAVIN, alt spelling for Maven)
120A: Old French card game: ECA_TE (ECARTE is the correct answer)
123A: Timothy who was James Bond: DALTON
96D: Mexican tourist destination: OAXACA

What is 108D: Encircle: GE_T (Correct answer should be GIRT, another spelling of GIRD)

Updates later:

I zipped through the upper left corner (The clues down made it easy) and felt very smart, for about half a minute, then my old self came back.

Here are some summaries:

6A: William Shatner series: Star Trek. No idea. Never watched Star War or Star Trek.

14A: Eleventh Greek Letter: LAMBDA, impossible for me. Had to cheat to find it out. The spelling is so weird.

22A: Common Mushroom: AGARIC. The only common mushroom is the white button mushroom sold at Rainbow. Morel is another mushroom that appeared in the Star Tribune crossword last week.

25A: Poughkeepsie college: MARIST.

33A: Guitarist Flatt: LESTER. Don't know this guy.

40A: Swiss City on the Rhine: BASLE.

42A: "Les Preludes" composer: LISZT

45A: Scuffle: TUSSLE

48A: Burden of proof: ONUS. This word and ONEROUS keep making appearances.

49A: Never existed: WASNT. Boomer helped me with this one. I left lots of space empty in the middle part of the puzzle.

53A: Pampas plain: LLANOS. I was not sure of the plural S initially. But decided that 55D: Went up and down has to be SEESAWED, like Dow last Wednesday, 625 points of swing.

56A: Fed. transport agcy: ICC. for what?

62A: Sensed by touch: TACTUAL. I knew Tactile.

64A: Cure starter?: EPI. I could only think of manicure and pedicure.

67A: Correct text: EMEND. Put Amend first.

68A: Feign: DISSEMBLE

72A: Psychologist Havelock: ELLIS. I remember googling his name before, then I forgot quickly. I will probably forget again. Is he very famous?

75A: President's financial grp.: CEA (Counsel of Economic Adviser). Ben Bernanke used to be Bush's CEA head.

76A: Panamanian dictator: NORIEGA. He is still alive.

78A: Hosp. intake locations: ERS. I put in ICO hastily in the beginning. Did not pay attention to the plural form.

84A: Beam supporting a pitched roof: RAFTER

94A: Like Rattan furniture: CANED. Had to check the dictionary to see what's the meaning of Rattan. Kind of Malay palm used for wickerwork and cane. Yesterday it's NIPA for Malay Thatch. Must be the climate there, conducive to all kinds of palms.

95A: Chan's Portrayer: TOLER. Sidney Toler.

97A: Mark or Patsy: Swindler's Sap. Learned something new today.

107A: Extremely scanty: EXIGUOUS. Never heard anyone using this word before.

120A: Old French card game: ECA_TE. What is it?

121A: Sort of: In a Sense

122A: God of east wind: EURUS. And God of west wind is Zephyrus. God of north wind is Bureas, God of south wind Notus. And God of winds is AEOLUS. If you want more information on their Roman equivalent, Here is more information.

123A: Timothy who was James Bond: DALTON. I like the current Bond: Craig, Daniel Craig.

124A: Zero option: No Escape.

Down Clues:

8D: _-Romeo: ALFA

11D: AAA in the UK: RAC. What does that stand for?

13D: Horny: pref: KERATO. I want it to be rhino something.

18D: Of the back of a tooth: DISTAL.

29D: Whimper: MEWL.

38D: Stupid ones: DUNCES. Next time I will remember.

43D: Judges chambers: In Camera. Heard "In Chambers" often on Law & Order.

49D: Depression agcy: WPA (Works Project Admin)

52D: Sora: RAIL. Bird. Note for myself: The Italian word for evening is Sera.

60D: Actress Vaccro: BRENDA. Doesn't ring a bell.

70D: Servile: MENIAL.

71D: No-good-nik: BADDIE.

80D: Spruce stuff: RESIN. Not the stuff to spruce you up.

94D: Medical insignias: CADUCEI. Almost impossible for me to infer. According to Greek Mythology, Cadueus is "A winged staff with two serpents twined around it, carried by Hermes." according to Greek Mythology. Now it's "a representation of this staff used as an emblem of the medical profession and as the insignia of the U.S. Army Medical Corps."

96D: Mexican tourist destination: Oaxaca. Never heard of it. Anyone been there before?

99D: Hindu ritual suicide: Suttee. The clue scared me. Hindu & suicide, a ritual? The dictionary explains Suttee as "The now illegal act or practice of a Hindu widow's cremating herself on her husband's funeral pyre in order to fulfill her true role as wife.". Good! It is also spelled as Satis. Maybe the clue should reflect this past practice.

102D: Al of Indians: ROSEN. My husband knows almost everything about baseball.

112D: Writer Buchanan: EDNA. A crime fiction writer. I don't read crime fiction.

118D: Menlo Park initials: ALVA. I can never remember Edison's middle name.

That's all.

C. C.

3 comments:

  1. I solved the puzzle today and agree with all of your entries. However you misspelled the Poughkeepsie college - mariSt.

    120A: The card game is Ecarte - a two player game similar to Euchre.

    108D: Ecarte forms this clue as 'gert' which I have yet to find any reference to. Any help?

    ReplyDelete
  2. 40A: I used BASLE as a Swiss variant on Basel. It fits the down clues of DISTAL and ACTONE.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I got it, I got it. Thanks for the help, both of you. After reading your comments, I went to Dictionary.com, and found out that 115A Experts can be MAVIN (another spelling of Maven). And 108D Encircle should be GIRT (var spelling of Gird).

    C. C.

    ReplyDelete

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