google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Thursday, Feb 21 2008 Alan P. Olschwang

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Feb 21, 2008

Thursday, Feb 21 2008 Alan P. Olschwang

Hey, this is C.C., I noticed that lots of you come to this puzzle today (May 14, 2008 Wednesday), which paper are you doing? Pls leave a comment here or send me a private email. I am curious know why there is such a long time lap between your paper and mine. Thanks.

(Updates: Sorry for my mistake earlier, this is a legitimate quip from Samuel Butler.)


Theme: Quip

17A: Start of quip: It's better to have

20A: Part 2 of quip: Loved

35A: Part 3 of quip: And lost than

53A: Part 4 of quip: Never

54A: End of quip: To have lost at all

Well, this is not how I remember, the original line is "It's better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all". OK, here is the original from Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem In Memoriam:

I hold it true, whate'er befall;
I feel it, when I sorrow most;
'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.
When interviewed by E! or some other media on JFK Jr. and his wife's tragic death, Daryl Hannah, who dated JFK Jr. for a few years, quoted this exact line. And I remember I was very moved.

I do not like this puzzle at all. I hate it when the quote/quip does not make any sense. Stared at the lower middle corner forever, trying to force LOVE into the LOST spot - of course grammatically it's impossible, as "have" demands a past participle. Did not know who the hell was 51D: Actor Romero (CESAR). Did not know Latin Law is LEX.

Struggled mightily with the 51A: Gigantic statues (COLOSSI), wanted the last letter to be S or U to fit in the 44D: Upstate NY school (RPI, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute). Never heard of this RPI. And of course, some sloths (43D), AIS. This constructor love his sloths, On his Feb 7 Thursday's puzzle, he clued UNAU as 2-toed sloth.

Enough said, here are the across entries:

1A: Endangered Afri. mammal: RHINO (Rhinocero). Also British slang for money.

6A: Abraham's son: ISAAC

11A: AARP group: SRS. AARP stands for American Association with Retired Person.

14A: Noble title: BARON

15A: "Jurassic Park" star Sam: NEILL. He is currently starring in The Tutors.

16A: Tiger's peg: TEE. I like Tiger's caddy Steve Williams.

21A: Morse unit: DIT

22A: Weapons stockpile: ARSENAL

23A: Rainy day racetrack favorites: MUDDERS. Kentucky Derby 1920 winner Paul Jones was a mudder.

29A: Considered: DEEMED

30A: Anderson of "WKRP..": LONI. Burt Reynold's wife.

31A: Bodybuilder Ferrigno: LOU. The Incredible Hulk.

33A: Short skirts: MINIS

34A: Charged articles: IONS

45A: Zodia cat: LEO

47A: Grapevine transmission: GOSSIP

49A: Swaps: BARTERS

50A: Gigantic statues: COLOSSI, plural form of colossus, adj is colossal.

61A: Onassis, to pals: ARI

62A: Barcelata's "Maria __": ELENA. Never heard of this song.

63A: Lukewarm: TEPID

64A: Kind of rally or talk: PEP. Our Gophers' football coach Tim Brewster is very good at this. Many fans hated him (1-11 record last season). But I like him. I once wrote him a letter to show my support, he responded very quickly with a handwritten note. I was so smitten with his handwriting on the envelope.

65A: Philly pro: SIXER. NBA 76ers.

66A: Utopias: EDENS

Down entries:

1D: Slugger's stat: RBI. If you like my blog, please vote for Justin Morneau for All-Star this year.

2D: Occupation indicator: HAT. Does this refer to Chef's hat or what?

3D: April 15 addressee: IRS. $1200 is coming!

4D: Aristocrats: NOBLEMEN

5D: Certain tie score: ONE ONE

6D: Chip maker: INTEL. I feel sorry for you if you owe INTEL's stock in the past 4 years.

7D: Ranked player: SEED

8D: Expose to public scrutiny: AIR

9D: PC key: ALT

10D: Klutzy: CLODDISH. Lots of points for Klutzy in Scrabble.

11D: Grandeur: STATELINESS

12D: Gun it in neutral: REV

13D: Get it?: SEE?

18D: Boob tube spot: TV AD

19D: Covered up: HID

22D: Put two and two together: ADD

23D: Old Olds' auto: REO

24D: Office of a legislator: SENATORSHIP. I never heard of this usage. It's either the Office of Senator McCain or the Office of Congressman Ron Paul.

26D: One condo: UNIT

27D: Kanga's kid: ROO. Winnie-the Pooh character.

28D: Daystar: SUN. Watched part of the Lunar Eclipse last night. Too cold (-3F) for me to stand outside.

30D: Itemized accounts: LISTS

33D: Sahl and Drucker: MORTS

36D: Warrants: DESERVES

37D: Cougar's den: LAIR

38D: Miscellaneous: ASSORTED

39D: Clerical vestment: ALB

40D: Veggie sphere: PEA

43D: Some sloths: AIS. 3-toes sloth, OK, this one is not as ugly as the two toed UNAU. Show us more sloths Mr. Olschwang!

44D: Upsate NY school: RPI. I went to their alumni Hall-of-Fame website, and found nobody that I have heard of.

47D: Political syst.: GOVT (Government)

48D: Soap ingredient: OLEATE. I blogged about this word before.

49D: Barcelona aunt: TIA

51D: Actor Romero: CESAR. Never heard of him. Never watched Batman.

54D: Spigot: TAP

57D: Latin law: LEX. Attention: the plural form of lex is leges.

58D: Bonzo or Clyde: APE. Bonzo is the chimpanzee from Bedtime for Bonzo (Ronald Reagan 1951 film). Clyde is the chimpanzee from the Biniki Beach (1964) or Every Which Way But Loose (Clint Eastwood 1978 movie).

59D: "Little Red Book" compiler Biao: LIN. This is a gimme for me. He died in a plane crash in 1971, trying to escape to Mongolia. He was the second-command to Mao Ze-Dong during China's Cultural Revolution.

60D: Mormon letters: LDS (Latter Day Saints)

If you have time, please have a look at my yesterday's Tribune Media Repeat Offenders' post. I found SIR, PEA, LAIR, ION, TEE, RBI, IRS, AIR, REO, ORE, APT, LEO, and ELI to be guilty.

Thank you for stopping by this morning and have a good day.

C. C.

21 comments:

  1. 27D reads Kanga's kid. Maybe a misprint in your paper?
    Also I take it you must be young to not know who Cesar Romero is. LOL
    I didn't know 57D, Latin Law, either and had to look it up.
    I love being able to check mine with yours same day and happy I stumbled (literally) across your blogs.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Robbie,

    I made a mistake in typing, it should be Kanga's kid, but I still don't get it.

    Why a ROO is Kanga's kid? Kanga is not a word. Am I missing something here?

    C.C.

    ReplyDelete
  3. 27D: It's the Winnie the Pooh character. Kanga the kangaroo's joey was named Roo.

    http://www.pooh75.com/characters/roo.html

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you Anonymous at 8:55am,

    That solves my problem. I've updated the post.

    C.C.

    ReplyDelete
  5. You are to young to swoon over Cesar Romero. He was in the original Oceans 11.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous at 10:19am,

    That's an amazing cast for the original Ocean's 11, with all the Rack Packs.

    Never watched it. I love the new Clooney/Pitt/Damon Oceans 11 & 13.
    12 is horrible.

    C.C.

    ReplyDelete
  7. actually had a great friend go to RPI, very similar to MIT. Incedently, my High school mascot was the gopher (in Maryland) b/c one of the first principals went to University of Minnisota.

    ReplyDelete
  8. actually had a great friend go to RPI, very similar to MIT. Incedently, my High school mascot was the gopher (in Maryland) b/c one of the first principals went to University of Minnisota.

    ReplyDelete
  9. actually had a great friend go to RPI, very similar to MIT. Incedently, my High school mascot was the gopher (in Maryland) b/c one of the first principals went to University of Minnisota.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous at 11:37am,

    Does your mascot gopher looks like our Goldy Gopher?

    C.C.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Love your blog! My friend Chris does the crossword every morning and I am getting hooked! We ran into your blog a few days ago as we were googles a clue once we were stompted.
    Chris has all this great information and I am amazed that he can do almost all the puzzles day in day out. As the youngin in our coffee crew, I am learning lots from him, the puzzles and you blog!
    Thanks, Tony
    in Madison, wisc.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Thanks Tony. I am happy that you like my blog.

    C.C.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I was just googling to find what the hell Latin Law was, and your site was 2nd in the tier! This is great. And I thought I needed to be on the downlow since I google to do puzzles.

    I'll be a frequenter since I'm also addicted to the daily crossword. I do the one in the Philly Inquirer. Leslie

    ReplyDelete
  14. Tyler Hinman, the 23-year-old guy who won the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament the last three years, is a recent RPI grad. We'll see if he wins again on March 2!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Per your quest to finish a complete crossword -- I've been trying too, and today was two letters away. Gave up too soon and came here. Had "LOVEATALL" at the end of 54A. Knew it wasn't right but couldn't see it -- LOST never occured to me. Dang.
    Will report success.

    Windswept Nebraska.

    ReplyDelete
  16. i've never heard of that quip either, i prefer the original quote!

    fairly easy puzzle today, didn't have to google anything which i love when that happens! love checking out if i was right in your blog afterwards!

    the only bit i had trouble with was i had DOT originally for 21A (dot dot dash morse code??? no?) and have never heard of MUDDERS (25A), but figured 19D had to be HI- instead of HO- as the only word I could think of to fit with the clue was HID. Turns out I was right, I love it when guesswork comes together!

    By the way, out of curiosity, where did you hear that rhino was slang for money in britain? I've never heard that, but don't take my word for it!

    keep up the great blog!!

    ReplyDelete
  17. It's Rat Pack, not Rack Pack!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Flexing and Lesley, thanks for the comments.

    Jason, please, this is a crossword blog.

    Orange,thanks for the Tyler information. I never knew that.

    I laughed out so hard at your "If it's acceptable to clue half of it as an entity, what's stopping the editor from trying TSET for "two thirds of a fly"?

    Anonymous In Nebraska, you are only 2-letter away? Is it a par for Thursday puzzle for you?

    Littlelj, I got it from dictionary.com. If you have never heard of it, then it must be archaic. I echoed your thinking on Dot/Dit for Morse unit. "Hid" solved that delimma nicely.

    Anonynmous at 10:35pm. You are right. It's Rat Pack. I don't know what I was thinking when I typed in Rack Pat.

    C. C.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Its in the May 27th edition of the Times of India, in Bangalore, India

    ReplyDelete
  20. Col_gopinath,
    Thank you for the information, Wow, that's a long lag. Do you get Monday to Saturday puzzles only or you get Sunday as well?

    ReplyDelete

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