google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Tuesday, Feb 26, 2008 Michael T. Williams

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Feb 26, 2008

Tuesday, Feb 26, 2008 Michael T. Williams

(Hey guys, this is C. C. Lots of you come to this blog entry today (May 31, 2008). What newspaper are you doing? Please leave a comment here or write me an email. I am curious to know. Thank you.)


Theme: Advice from BF

17A: With 63A, quotable U.S. money man: Benjamin

63A: See 17A: Franklin

23A: Start of advice from 17A: A Penny Saved

41A: More of advice: Is a

54A: End of advice: A Penny Earned

I like this puzzle. I admire the constructural balance of the themes entries. It looks simple and elegant to my untrained eyes.

I also enjoyed this author's "baseball movie" puzzle on Feb 4 and "snickers/candy bars" on Feb 8. His Chicago Bears HOF puzzle on Feb 17 was too tough for me.

But I still struggled mightily. It all started with 26D: Planet-finding grp (SETI). I filled in NASA. I did not know 5D: Siberian dog (SAMOYED), and I forgot the 36A: Sot's Shakes (DTS). So I was not able to get that very important letter "Y" for 23A, thus failed to catch the advice theme earlier.

I lingered too long over the left lower corner. Actually, all my effort was focused on 62A: Minimum attendance required (QUOTUM). Well, if you were Senator Dick Durbin the Whip, this was a gimme for you. It was _ _ orum for me for over 10 minutes. I felt stupid failing to get SQFT for 57D: Surface meas. Of course not knowing 58D: Vilolinist Leopold (AUER) certainly did not help.

I guess my brain was not thinking clearly this morning, I even tanked the 29A: Fashion magazine (GLAMOUR).

Here are the across entries:

1A: Sprinkle after a shower: TALC

5A: Wood cutter: SAW

8A: Lives: DWELLS

15A: Coach Parseghian: ARA. The Notre Dame football coach from 1964-1974.

16A: Antenna: AERIAL

20A: One in Central America: UNO

21A: Grew gloomier: DARKENED

27A: Fellows: MEN

29A: Fashion magazine: GLAMOUR. Conde Nast publication. They give out Glamour Women of the Year award annually. The lovely Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine) was on their 2007's list.

34A: Roses' places: BEDS

36A: Sot's shakes: D.T.S (Delirium Tremens)

38A: Essential amino acid: LYSINE. Unknown to me.

39A: Lucas folk: EWOKS. Star Wars (George Lucas) character. I got it this time.

43A: Dish stewed in wine: SALMI. Here is the definition: a ragout of partially cooked game, as pheasant or woodcock, stewed in wine and butter. You could put a bit pineapple in I suppose.

46A: Brace amount: TWO. Nailed it this time. Have to thank reader Dennis and Joey again for the explanation.

48A: Fed. agent: TMAN (Treasury-Man)

49A: Harbor town: SEAPORT

51A: Tentacle: ARM

57A: California winter wind: SANTA ANA

61A: Actress Scala: GIA. I got her name from down clue. Never heard of her before. She died in 1972 of drug overdose.

62A: Minimum attendance required: QUORUM. OK, the wikipedia says that "when quorum is not met, a legislative body cannot hold a vote, and can not change the status quo.... If a significant number of voters choose not to be present for the vote, the vote will fail due to lack of quorum, and the status quo will remain".

If you want in-depth understanding of this term, I suggest you call Senator Robert Byrd (WV). Ha ha.

71A: Nervous vibration: TREMOR

72A: Latin lesson word: AMO. Amo (I love), Amas ( you love), Amat (she/he/it loves).

73A: Part of DOS: SYST. Disk Operating System.

Down entries:

2D: 100 square meters: ARE. Got it from across clue. Vaguely remembered this definition of "are".

3D: Writer Deighton: LEN

4D: Bayou cuisine: CAJUN. Emeril Lagasse. BAM! Kick it up a notch!

5D: Siberian dog: SAMOYED. Interesting name, past tense. Look at this one, isn't it cute?

6D: "Exodus" role: ARI. Never read any of Leon Uris' work.

7D: Sykes of "Clerks II": WANDA. I find her to be very overwhelmingly noisy.

8D: Waltrip of auto racing: DARRELL. He was in yesterday's puzzle.

10D: "Das lied von der __": ERDE. The Song of the Earth.

11D: Pride member: LION

12D: Narrow street: LANE

13D: Snow coaster: SLED

18D: Landers and Jillian: ANNS

22D: Part of GPA: AVG

23D: Fossil resins: AMBERS

24D: Dodger Reese: PEE WEE. Gimme gimme.

25D: Tabitha's TV grandmother: ENDORA. Unknown to me.

26D: Planet-finding grp.: SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.)

30D: Col.entrance exams: MSAT

31D: Wildcatter, e.g.: OILMAN. I did not know this before. So, Anna Nicole Smith's husband was a wildcatter.

32D: Destroyed: UNMADE

33D: Checked (horses): REINED

35D: Beehive: SKEP. I got this from the across clue. I did not know skep.

45D: Visionary: DREAMER

47D: Aromatic herb: OREGANO

50D: SPIKE formerly: TNN

52D: Primary: MAIN

55D: US-Mex.-Can. union: NAFTA. Poor Hillary. Look at what a mess Bill created for you!

56D: Does yard work: RAKES

57D: Surface meas.: SQFT (Square Foot). The wicked Q.

58D: Violinist Leopold: AUER. He died long long time ago.

59D: Iditarod goal: NOME. Iditarod is an annual dogsled race in Alaska (from Anchorage to Nome)

60D: Trolley car: TRAM

64D: "Monster" group: R.E.M. I lucked it out on this one. I got it from across clues. I did not know that Monster is a R. E. M.'s album. It can also be clued as "sleeping stage" (REM, Rapid Eye Movement).

65D: Set down: LAY

66D: NASA outpost: ISS (International Space Station)

67D: Trawling device: NET

A few more things:

1) Yesterday's Newspaper Count: We have 1 from Thailand, 1 from Canada, and 32 different newspapers within the US.

2) On Sunday Feb 24, the answer for 117D: Cold, in Chile is FRIA. One reader replied that it means "head cold."

3) On last Monday Feb 18 Stanley B Whitten puzzle, the clue for 55D is Hannibal's "Waterloo" (ZAMA). I questioned the quotation mark, and got a very interesting response from reader Hugh Brown. See here. I decided to contact with Stephen Wilbers, who writes a weekly business writing column on Star Tribune. Here is his reply: I agree -- no quotes are needed. The practice of placing clichés in quotation marks is sometimes called "winking," as we must "do our best."

Enjoy your Tuesday everyone.

C. C.

13 comments:

  1. 62A = QUORUM -- consider when there are meetings and certain # of people must be present (quorum) for voted action to be valid.

    25D - Tabitha was the daughter on "Bewitched", Darrin and Samantha (a witch) were her parents. Endora was Samantha's mother who couldn't stand Darrin.

    And as for repeat offenders, 15A Coach Parseghian (Ara) and 36A Sot's shakes (DTs), 72A Latin lesson word (Amo - or some version of this).


    Have a great Tuesday!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hello Andy, thanks for stopping by.

    mkatesq: thanks for the further information on QUORUM and ENDORA. We always escape Bewitched and go directly for the Law and Order reruns on TNT.

    I've put Ara and Amo in the list, and just found out that this is the second time for DTS to appear.

    C. C.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I am a physician who took Latin and had no trouble with lysine, quorum, and amo! Even samoyed appeared from some remote corner of my brain. I am a former apiarist (surely beekeeper will appear as a clue someday!) and have never in my life heard of the word skep. Salmi and unmade. Impossible!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous at 8:23am,

    On Feb 3 Sunday puzzle, APIARY was clued as Beekeeper's mileu, which stumped many people.

    C. C.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I rather liked the fact that EWOKS crossed ENDOR(A).

    IIRC, the character Endora is named for the location where a biblical witch lived, which shares its name with the moon on which the Ewoks live.

    ReplyDelete
  6. rosebud,

    I've never seen Star War, so I had no idea where the EWOKS live. If they do live in Endor(a), then the crossing of ENDORA and EWOK does look lively.

    C. C.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I am so happy to find this site. Can't figure out 41a--More of Advice???

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous at 3:31pm,

    17A, 41A and 54A are together. A penny saved is a penny earned.

    C. C.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Does anyone else find that how well you solve the crossword at the beginning of the day correlates directly with how well the day goes?

    Case in point: today. I was so stupid by not getting some clues that I really ought to have got; QUORUM being one having done Company Law as part of my Law degree at college last year.. and LYSINE having studied biology in the past

    and from then on the whole day went downhill..

    Plus I'm sick today!! *cough*

    Was happy to remember EWOKS from a previous puzzle, and finally get ENDORA once realizing it was Tabitha from bewitched... I used to spend hours as a kid trying to do the nose thing haha!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Little lg,

    I smiled when I read "the nose thing".

    I thought quorum was a gimme for you, gleeful that you tanked it, ha ha.

    Hope you are feeling today better today.

    C. C.

    ReplyDelete
  11. In re: EWOKs, I was told just last week that they weren't even in the Star Wars books, but were created just for the movie (Return of the Jedi) to give the movie a hook. Does anyone know if there is truth to that?

    Little lj - had to laugh when I saw your comment about doing the nose thing! I tried as well. Never worked, though. :o(

    ReplyDelete
  12. RM says: i wait to google n reach ur site, u make it so easy.thks-Times of India -2nd July

    ReplyDelete
  13. RM,
    Thank you for leaving a comment. Such a long lag between your puzzle and ours.

    ReplyDelete

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