google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Sunday, Feb 17, 2008 Michael T. Williams

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Feb 17, 2008

Sunday, Feb 17, 2008 Michael T. Williams

Theme: Chicago to Canton

(Chicago Bears Hall-of-Famer. NFL Hall of Fame is located in Canton, OH)


1A & 127A: Bear in Canton since 1993: Walter Payton

24A: Bear in Canton since 1963: Bronko Nagurski

70A: Bear in Canton since 1963: George Halas (Papa Bear)

115A: Bear in Canton since 1998: Mike Singletary

31D: Bear in Canton since 1977: Gale Sayers

41D: Bear in Canton since 1963: Red Grange

51D: Bear in Canton since 1988: Mike Ditka

55D: Bear in canton since 1979: Dick Butkus

No joy today in Mudville, mighty Casey has struck out! Brutal! I don't even know which Vikings are in the HOF. OK, Alan Page comes to my mind. He is our Supreme Court Justice now. Bud Grant? Yes.

By the way, I came across Chuck Foreman at flea market several times last year. He was selling his autographed photos/helmets/footballs, etc. This guy squandered all the money he made during his career I suppose. Twins Great Zoilo Versailles was the same. He had to wash airplanes for a living when he was old. That's just so sad.

Anyway, this puzzle was too much a workout for me. I was not in good shape football-wise, lots of panting, gasping for air, wild throw and cheating. But damned it, I finished it!

Across:

7A: Handle capably: WIELD

12A: Droop: WILT

16A: Ernie of the PGA: ELS. The Big Easy. I tried to copy his lazy swing, didn't work.

19A: Take for granted: ASSUME

20A: Nine: pref.: ENNEA

21A: Type of navigation system: INERTIAL

23A: Make additional cuts: RETRIM

26A: Host of a '70s variety series: FLIP WILSON. Sorry, I didn't know you.

28A: Brand name on cakes: SARA LEE

29A: Listening device: BUG. Have you ever seen an expert debug a phone, in person? Very fascinating.

32A: Inside:pref.: ENTO.

33A: Of bristles: SETAL

34A: Hermits: LONER

39A: Quickly: ASAP

38A: Long, thin fish: GARS. Often clued as long-snouted fish.

40A: Chicken caller: DARER. I like this clue.

42A: Vesicle: CYST

43A: Called (archaic): YCLEPT. Past participle of clepe. Ridiculous looking word!

45A: Extinct bird of New Zealand: MOA

47A: Any individual: SOMEONE

50A: __ Salt: EPSOM. Great for muscle pain relief. Trust me on this one.

52A: C & W fan's channel: CMT (Country Music TV). Country & Western (C & W)

54A: Soup scoop: LADLE

55A: When it's light out: DAY

58A: "The Thieving Magpie" composer: ROSSINI. Did not know him. The title looks interesting.

60A: Pink color: CORAL

62A: Wedge-shaped piece: GIB. I put Pie first.

63A: Non-network station: ITV (Independent TV network)

64A: Diarist Nin: ANAIS. I read 3 pages of her Delta of Venus. Wow, talk about graphic S scenes.

65A: Wailed: KEENED. I lifted this one out of dictionary.com. Keen, n/v, to wail in lamentation for the dead.

67A: End of a buck: AROO

68A: __ -Magnon: CRO. The Cave.

69A: Charles II's lover Nell: GWYN. Called "Pretty, witty Nell" by Samuel Pepys, another famous diarist.

73A: Go, in Glasgow: GAE. Scottish accent I suppose.

75A: Intervene: STEP IN

76A: Kind of cigar or sandwich: CUBAN

78A: Lilly or Wallah: ELI

79A: Main Street structure: STORE

80A: Small sphere: GLOBULE

82A: Deg. with teeth: DDS (Doctor of Dental Science)

83A: Taiwan Strait Islands: MATSU. I think our crossword editor is obsessed with this word, which has made at least 3 appearances since I started blogging.

86A: Israeli seaport: EILAT. Also spelled Elath. I only knew Haifa.

87A: Gambling: RISKING

89A: Grad. deg.: SCD (Scientiae Doctor, ie, Doctor of Science)

91A: Russian drinks: VODKA. Add Kahlua, you get your own Black Russian. Na zdorovje, Putin, for your power-grabbing prowess!

97A: Robert and Alan: ALDAS

99A: Yen: URGE

102A: Sports venues: ARENAS

105A: Flags: TIRES

107A: Jedi teacher: YODA

109A: Half of B.S.: SCI

110A: Mid-ocean: OPEN SEA

112A: Work by Horace: ARS POETICA (The Art of Poetry)

117A: Whole lot: TUBFUL

121A: Partly: IN A SENSE

122A: Roofing material: TERNE. I only knew "slate" for the roof.

123A: Cosmopolitan: URBANE

124A: Confirmed: SET

125A: Blue-green color: TEAL

126A: Mighty mount: STEED

Down:

1D: Simple card game: WAR

2D: Peer Gynt's mother: ASE. I forgot her name.

3D: D-Day craft: LST (Landing Ship Tank)

4D: Greensward: TURF (sorry about the mistake earlier)

5D: French writer Zola: EMILE

6D: "Bronco Buster" Sculptor: REMINGTON (Fredric). It looks majestic.

7D: Destructive caterpillar: WEB WORM

8D: Calvary inscription: INRI. I mixed it up with Cavalry. These two words are so close.

9D: Tautomeric compounds: ENOLS. Why in the world should I know this?

10D: Filmed, slangily: LENSED

11D: Badlands states: DAKOTAS

13D: Claire and Balins: INAS

14D: Authorized by law: LEGAL

15D: Cornwall town: TRURO. It's in the UK.

16D: Anthony of "Hawaiian Eye": EISLEY. Never heard of him.

17D: NBA team: LAKERS

18D: Crafty to the max: SLIEST

22D: Hypnotic state: TRANCE

25D: Streaking: ON A ROLL

29D: Hound sound: BAY

30D: Trojans of sports: USC

34D: "Champagne Tony" of golf: LEMA. 12 PGA wins. Pretty impressive. On the Eve of his first win, He joked to the press that would serve champagne if he won the next day. Hence the nickname. I want K. J. Choi to win Masters this year.

37D: Stomach enzyme: PEPSIN

39D: Mia Hamm's game: SOCCER

44D: Greek letters: PSIS

46D: In the company of: AMONGST

48D: Medleys: OLIOS

49D: Moses's mount: NEBO

53D: Christmas star's place: TREE TOP

56D: Of an entrance court: ATRIAL

57D: Actress de Carlo: YVONNE

58D: Tattered: RAGGED

59D: Ahead: ONWARD

61D: Sticks: ADHERES

66D: Dawn goddess: EOS. Just for your information: Io is a moon of Jupiter, also from Greek Mythology.

71D: Quick impression: APERCU. It also means short summary.

72D: Daybreak song: AUBADE. Pronounced as Oh Bad. Sung at dawn to compliment someone.

74D: Actress Moore: DEMI Surprised that her marriage with Ashton Kucher is still solid.

76D: Neighbor of N. Mex.: COLO.

79D: Daytime timepiece: SUNDIAL

81D: Was extravagant: LIVED IT UP

84D: Riverbed deposit: SILT

87D: French city in Bretagne: RENNES. Never been there. Did not know it.

88D: Attics: GARRETS

90D: Tearless: DRY-EYED

92D: Circle segment: ARC

93D: __ disant (so called): SOI

94D: Judd and Campbell: NAOMIS. Naomi Campbell knows how to throw a blackberry tantrum.

95D: Sempervivum: ORPINE. Unknown to me, both the clue and the answer.

96D: Sneak a look: PEEK AT

98D: Part of a sonnet: SESTET

103D: Selling point: ASSET

104D: Cast net: SEINE. Can you seine in Seine?

106D: Let live: SPARE

108D: Legend automaker: ACURA. I love the clue.

111D: Latin handle: ANSA. It's a looped handle. Ansa is the Latin word for handle (Thank you Hugh Brown). By the way, Asian apricot is ANSU, so similar to ANSA.

113D: Caen's river: ORNE

114D: "Dear" columnist: ABBY

116D: Solidify: GEL

118D: Love-handles content: FAT

119D: One in Toledo: UNO

120D: Sportscaster Berman: LEN. Did not know him. Probably will forget him again. Love Joe Buck though.

Alright, now I am going to devour my high-carb breakfast.

C.C.

(Added later: Please let me know if you see any mistake or have any question. You can either Comment or Send me an email. Thank you.)

10 comments:

  1. 4D: Greensward: TUFT

    should read TURF

    ReplyDelete
  2. For:
    93D: __ distant (so called)
    I think you mean disant.

    http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/soi-disant

    ReplyDelete
  3. 111D: Latin handle: ANSA. It's a looped handle. But why "Latin"? Does anyone know?

    Well, it's a Latin word and means handle.

    http://www.tranexp.com:2000/InterTran?url=http%3A%2F%2F&type=text&text=ansa&from=ltt&to=eng

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you a lot for the help Hugh Brown.

    I have corrected the the "__disant" mistake and made changes to the Latin handle clue.

    I always thought it's soi distant. If you did not point it out, I would forever make this error.

    C. C.

    ReplyDelete
  5. C.C., when I'm training for the crossword tournament, I end up doing a lot of older puzzles in book collections. They're not as good as today's better puzzles, and many of the puzzles contain one to three words I've never seen before (despite doing crosswords for 30 years and doing about five puzzles a day, every day). This puzzle you just blogged about has five words I have never seen. Five!

    It seems like laziness, to publish a crossword with so many oddball obscurities. There are almost always other options for the fill that would eliminate such problems.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Orange,

    Today's puzzle (Jan 18 Monday)is very difficult too. They have Hadj rather than Hajj for the Mecca pilgrimage, then Janet Gutherie for first female Indy entrant, Babe Zaharias for Ms. Didrikson, Annika Sorenstam. Zaharias was very tough as the down clues could not help much.

    Wrote to Kristin Tillotson earlier.

    C.C.

    ReplyDelete
  7. So glad I found your blog, this puzzle was driving me crazy. As a woman I didn't think it was fair to include impossible clues as well as all those sports hall of famers. I wanted to light it on fire!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous at 12:50pm,

    You made me laugh.

    I don't mind baseball Hall of Famers. My husband has a huge collection of those baseball cards.

    But I am really not into football at all. I don't even watch the game when the Packers come to town, not to mention the Bears.

    Yeah, as Orange said, some of the clues were too obscure. She is one of this country's top crossword solvers and has an expert's view on this clueing stuff.

    Just keep plugging away, it's always good to learn something new every day.

    C.C.

    ReplyDelete
  9. 95d Orpine is a plant from Europe also called a Live-Forever. In latin, Semper=always, vive = life

    PS. thanks for this blog, we never would have finished without it as we lost the following week's paper

    ReplyDelete

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