google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Monday, Feb 25, 2008 Josiah Breward

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Feb 25, 2008

Monday, Feb 25, 2008 Josiah Breward

Theme: Common Phrases

17A: Repeatedly: Over and Over

28A: Alternative to cream: Half and Half

46A: Like a tight race: Neck and Neck

63A: Not specified: Such and Such

First of all, if you have not read this post, please have a quick look and let me know what newspaper puzzle you are doing.

Secondly, every comment here is forwarded into my email account, and I read every one of them. So if you are confused about certain clue or could not make any sense of the fill, please always feel free to ask me. If I am not able to answer you, I will post here on my blog.

I felt so happy last Friday when I got several replies regarding the "Span or Brace" clue that appeared on a puzzle 2 weeks ago. I got that question from Curt who was working on his Palm Beach Post crossword. I really like to build up a good community here where information is shared and question is answered.

Now back to puzzle. I struggled again, from the very start. I filled in ADOBE (1A: Homemade brick) and CONTRACTOR (Building Supervisor) easily, having just watched Sidney Poitier's "Lilies of the Field" certainly helped. But I could not get EPARCH for 5D: Eastern Orthodox bishop. Never heard of that word before.

I did not know 34A: Daytona 500 winner Waltrip (DARRELL), could not get ARETE for 31D: Mountain Ridge. Did not know who Lee of Rush (GEDDY) was. Had no idea who was Singer MacKenzie (GISELE). I would have nailed it if it's clued as Supermodel from Brazil, or Tom Brady's date.

My proudest moment today was filled in AZALEA (11D: Decorative bush) and ENGELS (47D: Marx colleague) with authority. I just read Anchee Min's Red Azalea several months ago, and gleaned some nuggets from her book.

I disagreed with the clue for 40D: Break fast? (EAT). Why the question mark? You eat when you break a fast. Unless you want to be cute and misleading, then you should just clue it as "breakfast?" with no space between "break" and "fast". What do you think?

Across entries:

1A: Homemade brick: ADOBE

6A: "___ of God": AGNES. Jane Fonda movie (1985). AGNES could also be clued as "Patron saint of young girls".

11A: Shortened bk.: ABR. Abridged.

14A: Enliven: PEP UP.

15A: Hoof beats on pavement: CLOPS

16A: 26th letter: ZEE

19A: 1/2 of a union merger: AFL (American Federation of Labor). Merged with CIO (Congress of Industry Organization) in 1955.

21A: Kirghiz mountains: ALAI. I filled in ALPS, which fit in perfectly at first, esp because it was a plural form mirroring the plural form of clue mountains nicely.

22A: Part of BS: SCI

23A: Singer MacKenzie: GISELE. Canadian singer. Wikipedia shows that she sang quite often on Jack Benny Program and Ed Sullivan show.

25A: Municipal grp.: DPW (Department of Public Works)

35A: Old Testament book: HOSEA

37A: Miss West: MAE. She is fame-hungry, coming up to crossword again and again.

38A: Conger catcher: EELER. I crave grilled unagi now.

42A: Customers: CLIENTS

45A: Solar period: YEAR

50A: Heaviness meas.: WTS (WEIGHTS)

51A: Harmonized: IN SYNC

55A: Digital data devices: LASERDISCS

62A: 5 scores: CEN (CENTURY).

64A: Wapiti: ELK

65A: Falco and Brickell: EDIES. Falco is in "The Sopranos". Brickell is Paul Simon's wife.

66A: Student at an ecole: ELEVE (French word for student).

67A: Retirement group: SSA (Social Security Agency)

68A: Lee of Rush: GEDDY. Rush is a Canadian rock band.

69A: Anatomical networks: RETIA (single form is Rete).

Down entries:

1D: End of time, brief: APOC (Apocalypse)

2D: "Whip it" group: DEVO. Never heard of this band. Read here for more information.

3D: Exposed: OPEN

4D: Bacharach and Lancaster: BURTS

5D: Eastern Orthodox bishop: EPARCH. Dictionary says it's "the prefect or governor of an eparchy.".

6D: Aussie rockers: AC/DC. A hard rock band from Australia.

7D: Language: suff: GLOT. According to the dictionary, glot is" a combining form with the meanings “having a tongue,” “speaking, writing, or written in a language” of the kind or number specified by the initial element: polyglot."

8D: Porto ___, Benin: NOVO. Here is the map for you. Very close to Gulf of Guinea.

9D: Big centerpiece: EPERGNE. Did not know. I always call a centerpiece a centerpiece.

11D: Decorative bush: AZALEA. Very pretty.

12D: Come to pass: BEFALL

13D: Government aid: RELIEF

18D: River nymph: NAIAD. Greek mythology. Wood nymph is Oread or Dryad.

21D: Welsh designer Laura: ASHLEY. Well, she died 23 years ago. Time for Ashley Judd & Ashley Olsen.

25D: Morse symbol: DAH. The spoken representation of a dash in radio and telegraph code.

26D: Niner or Buc: PRO. I put in NFL first. Niner refers to San Francisco 49ers, and Buc is the Tempa Bay Buccaneers.

29D: Hobbled: LAMED

30D: Mary of "Newhart": FRANN. Unknown to me.

31D: Mountain crest: ARETE. Paul of the Crosswordese will be very disappointed at me. ARETE was his Word of the Day a few weeks ago I think. And he attached a very nice picture of how arete looked like. I just forgot it completely. If you have not, please subscribe to his free daily word of day. He puts lots of effort and thoughts in his daily delivery.

33D: Sharp and Thatcher: BECKYS. Unknown to me. Becky Sharp is a "Vanity Fair" character, Becky Thatcher is from "Tom Sawyer".

36D: Alda or King: ALAN

39D: Hoad of tennis: LEW

40D: Break fast? EAT.

41D: B & O and others: RRS (Railroads). B & O refers to Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.

43D: Consist of: INCLUDE

44D: Disdain: SCORN

46D: Some kin: NIECES

47D: Marx colleague: ENGELS. Basically he financed most of Karl Marx's writing.

48D: Former Dolphin running-back: CSONKA (Larry). No memory of him.

49D: Actress Margot: KIDDER. She played Lois Lane in Superman movies in 1970s and 1980s.

53D: Strong thread: LISLE

56D: LSD, to users: ACID. Slang word for LSD.

57D: Molt: SHED

60D: Fifth of MXXX: CCVI (1/5 of 1030 is 206).

61D: New York stadium: SHEA

63D: Module: abbr. SEG (Segment).

Oh, one more thing, my predictions for Oscar at my yesterday's blog: I was right on Best movie and best director (Cohen brother's No Country for Old Men), Original Screen Play (Diablo Cody, Juno), and Ratatouille for animated feature. Wrong on all the others.

I could not believe they awarded best actress to the girl who played Edith Piaf on "La Vie en Rose". She lip-synced all the songs in the movie. Julie Christie was incredible in her role (Away from Her). I thought Cate Blanchett did a great job in "I am not there", much better than her portrayal of Katharine Hepburn in "the Aviator", which brought her an Oscar.

Have a good week everyone.

C. C.

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Detroit Free Press

Katherine said...

Detroit Free Press here too.

Crockett1947 said...

I don't think you finished your answer for 38A: EELER, not just EEL. THE OREGONIAN in Portland, OR, just Mon-Sat. They run the NYT on Sunday.

Zhouqin (C.C.) Burnikel said...

Crockett1947,

I've corrected both.

Cannot say enough thanks to you, really. You are always so kind.

C. C.

Anonymous said...

I do the crossward in the Oregonian from Portland, Oregon, of course. Sometimes I tear my hair. But I do know the old names, like Giesele McKenzie, cause she use to be on the Hit Parade. Dates me doesn't it.

Anonymous said...

The Crossword II puzzle in the Daily News in New York City is one of two featured in the paper and it's the one that is also in the Star Tribune . It's the tougher of the two puzzles.

Anonymous said...

33D: Sharp and Thatcher: BECKYS. Unknown to me.

Characters in old classic novels.
Becky Sharp - Vanity Fair
Becky Thatcher - Tom Sawyer

I admit I was trying to get Margaret or Maggie in there instead.

Anonymous said...

48D: Former Dolphin running-back: CSONKA (Larry). No memory of him.
Larry was the starting Fullback for the undefeated 1972 Dolphins. I believe he is in the Hall of Fame.

Orange said...

EPARCH is frightfully obscure! In the last decade, it's never been used in the NYT crossword, nor in the Sun, LA Times, Newsday, Wall Street Journal, CrosSynergy, or Washington Post.

EPERGNE has been in the NYT only twice in the last ten years, both times in Saturday puzzles (hardest day of the week for the NYT crossword).

BECKYS, BURTS, and EDIES is about two plural names too many!

Zhouqin (C.C.) Burnikel said...

Anonymous at 9:59am, I have to google to find what is a Hit Parade. Never heard of it before.

Anonymous at 11:07am, is the other puzzle in your paper NY Time's Syndication?

Anonymous at 11:12am, thanks for the information on the two Beckys. I've added it to my blog.

Anonymous at 12:30pm, you are right, he was indeed inducted in the hall of fame in 1987. Never knew that he was in Don Shula's 1972 team. Thank you for pointing it out.

C. C.

Anonymous said...

THANKS A BUNCH. DAYTON DAILY NEWS. NOW I CAN STOP OBSESSING AND GET SOME WORK DONE.

Anonymous said...

San Jose Mercury News. (California) Monday through Saturday.

Zhouqin (C.C.) Burnikel said...

Orange,

I guess "Eparch" can be inferred from the across clues.

But "Epergne" is giving lots of people trouble today. I suppose the across clue Singer MacKenzie stumped all of us (except Anonymous at 9:59am).

Thank you for providing the newspaper information every one.
I've updated the list.

I am very prone to spelling mistakes. So if you see any error, please let me know.

C. C.

Anonymous said...

Idaho statesman (Boise)
Thanks for your help, now I can get back to work!

lovelyritapita said...

I do this crossword in Orange County Register.

40 down Break Fast? What do you do when you break you Fasting, you eat!
I was stumped at first, had to look at it far to long for the answer to jump out at me.

Love your blog, comes in handy when I dont know the answer and neither does Google! ;-p

northberger said...

Thanks again for mentioning my site. My 'arete' posting was about a month ago:
http://snipurl.com/20eju

Paul (crosswordese.com)

Anonymous said...

RA SAID... SAVANNAH MORNING NEWS.SAV,GA. I KNEW LARRY CSONKA FROM THE 1972 DOLPHINS. THANKSFOR ALL THE OTHER HELP.

Anonymous said...

"Your Hit Parade" was a Saturday Night show on TV back in the 1950's. Each week four performers would sing the current top songs from the charts. Gisele MacKenzie was one of the performers. The only other one I can remember was a guy named Snookie Lanson. The show was live and Snookie forgot the words to "Oh Holy Night" on the Christmas special. When rock and roll came along in the late fifties, the show was cancelled.

This is Boomer.

gordon said...

thanks for all your opinions and answers---who can wait till the next day for answers?

I get my puzzle from the Post Star in Glens Falls, NY

Zhouqin (C.C.) Burnikel said...

Thanks Gordon, I've added your paper to the list.

C. C.