google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Thursday, April 17, 2008 Alan P. Olschwang

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Apr 17, 2008

Thursday, April 17, 2008 Alan P. Olschwang

Theme: QUIP

17A: Start of a quip: A MAN THAT MAKES NO

38A: Part 2 of quip: WILL MAKES

62A: end of quip: LAWYERS HIS HEIRS

The original quote is "A man who dies without a will has lawyers for his heirs." (Anonymous).

Almost had a bogey-free round today. Breezed through most of the holes without dunking my Top-Flite into the lake or getting trapped in the bunker. But, omigod, what a hellish Amen Corner the dogleg of ISLE/FEN was! And I did not have a prayer!

I did not know the meaning of "Cartographic" and I had no idea where Pau was. I filled in BOG for 47D: Marsh, then I decided TEAM B sounded good for 44A: Supporting group, but then ASTI would be wrong. I stared at "Avoirdupois unit" and saw lots of green peas on a plate. Avoir du pois? Have peas? Have peas unit? I guess I've heard of ASTRIDE before, but it's not a word I can fish out of my brain so early in the morning. I like how it parallels with FLOOR though (if my understanding of ASTRIDE is correct).

Across entries:

1A: Abstention periods: FASTS. No, I will not deny myself of any pleasure in life.

6A: Period on the job: SHIFT. Wanted STINT.

14A: Bandleader Shaw: ARTIE. Again? Needs to lock this name up and sends it exile with key thrown away. Let me see what other ARTIE is available... ARTIE Ziff of "The Simpsons". No, not familiar with him.

20A: Rugged ridges: ARETES. I like this word "Rugged", exhibitive of a craggy, harsh, rough, weather-beaten image.

21A: Ticket details: SEATS. I rather like last time's misleading "Pants part" clue. "By the seat of your pants".

23A: "Bellefleur" author: OATES. Joyce Carol Oats. A Mensa member also? Amazing. Hope she wins Nobel Literature next year then. Wonder why the book title is "Bellefleur" rather than "Belle Fleur"? Has anyone misread the clue as "Ball Four" author?

26A: Removed moisture: DRIED

30A: Strained: TAXED

32A: Paul Anka's "__ BESO": ESO. "ESO Beso", that kiss. Give me my back my heart!

35A: Dining option: A LA CARTE

41A: Ice cream option: ONE SCOOP. I like strawberry mochi ice cream, no scooper for me.

44A: Supporting group: STAFF

48A: Dolphin Marino: DAN. Speaking of Dan, where the heck is Dan Quayle?

49A: Honest!: NO LIE!

52A: Cartographic speck: ISLE. Alright, cart(e) means map.

53A: Big name in rap: DR. DRE. Like this one.

56A: Actress Berger: SENTA. No, have never heard of her. She looks stunning.

58A: Avoirdupois unit: TON. OK, avoir-de-pois, have the weight. But why pois, why not poids? You don't say "perdre du pois", do you? Whatever, a made-up word.

59A: Arledge of ABC sports: ROONE. Ugh, ABC, what a horrible gossipy gotcha nonsense debate last night! Stephanopoulos, are you auditioning for Hillary's Press Secretary job? Bill's "Stumping and Simmering" torture was not enough?

61A: Fidel of Cuba: CASTRO

67A: Shoshone: UTE

68A: Old newspaper sections: ROTOS (Rotogravure). Saw this word before, forgot what it was.

70A: Dropout's doc.: GED (General Equivalency Diploma).

71A: Missouri River feeder: OSAGE. Could not catch a good map out of the google ocean. Hope this one works for you.

72A: Luges: SLEDS

Down entries:

1D: CAB's successor: FAA (Federal Aviation Administration). CAB stands for "Civil Aeronautics Board". Name change occured in 1967.

2D: Fleet groups: ARMADAS

3D: Intense lookers: STARERS. This suffix "er" simply drove me nuts.

5D: Melee: SET-TO

6D: California peak: SHASTA. Got it this time, aren't you proud of me?

7D: __ up (excited): HET

8D: Descartes' conclusion: I AM. I think, therefore I am. Like this clue a lot. "Cogito, ergo sum".

9D: Italian monks: FRAS. Repeat offender.

10D: Clicked one's tongue: TSKED

11D: More irritable: TESTIER

12D: Hardest to penetrate: DENSEST. Physically yes.

13D: Winter ATV, _ -CAT: SNO

18: Warm up: HEAT. Not HEAT up? Shouldn't the clue be "Warm (up)".

19D: Musician's pride: EAR

24D: Case in point: EXAMPLE

27D: Buck lover: DOE. Thought of Pearl Buck and Olan first.

34D: As written: Lat.: SIC

36D: Pau pronoun: CES. These, or those. Too tough a clue. Pau is "a city in and the capital of Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, in SW France: winter resort. " Anyone been there before?

37D: Vino region: ASTI

39D: Nol of Cambodia: LON. Great palindromic name: LON NOL.

40D: Writer Anita: LOOS. "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" author. "But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes" also.

41D: Unmatched: ODD

42D: Tell the tail: NARRATE

43D: Funded: ENDOWED

45D: Spanning: ASTRIDE. Astraddle. Not fond of this contrived "a" word.

46D: Bowled over: FLOORED

50D: Cut into: INCISE

54D: Rogers of oaters: ROY. Totally agree with him, "The minute you read something you don't understand, you can almost be sure it was drawn up by lawyer."

55D: Lain American January: ENERO

60D: Aphrodite's child: EROS. Cupid in Roman.

62D: Renowned archer: TELL. Would be an OK clue if not for 42D: Tell the tale. Sin, Mr. Editor!

57D: Grate deposit: ASHES

63D: Loutish fellow: LUG. Not familiar with this slangy word.

64D: Amtrak stop: STA. Rework on your clue next time.

65D: Overeater: HOG. Great, FASTS & HOG in the same puzzle.

C.C.

35 comments:

  1. Good morning CC.........I got most of this one, but struggled with the bottom right corner a bit. I also wanted period on the job to be stint. That strawberry mochi looks absolutely yummy. I have never heard of it or seen it. I sure would like to try some of that. I don't think they have that in Michigan! haha. 52A was a good clue, but I didn't get that one at all. I knew of Senta Berger, but never saw a picture of her. She was very pretty, thanks for the pic. I never hr heard of avoirdupoios. The clue for 7D, HET?????? Where did they get that from? And finally, I did not know that Descartes was the one who coined that expression. Good puzzle today. Have a good day.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good morning, C.C. - again, perpendicular cousins bailed me out on a couple I couldn't come up with. Never heard of 'pau'. Katherine, 'het up' is another one of those archaic sayings that only us near-deads would know.
    Good Lord, now Senta Berger?!?! I may have to excuse myself...
    Hope it's an outstanding day for everyone.

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  3. Dennis, I am not near-dead, but I am 60. I thought the expression was "hep up" LOL

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  4. Hello everyone. Good puzzle today although I struggled a bit in the center area. I also had stint for 6A and 36D I did not know but it worked in. Cartographic spec clue for 52A was a good clue, I thought. Also, needed help on 23A Bellefleur author. The remainder was not so bad. Katherine HET is a term that was used in the 60s as I remember but it was never as common as some other terms. Just to let you know it is another beautiful day in the Berg and it will probably lead me to the golf course again.

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  5. Good morning CC, katherine and dennis,

    Not a bad one today. However, there were ones that I had no idea about so (as dennis appropriately states) the "perpendicular cousins bailed me out". Never heard of 56A, 58A, 7D and 36D. I thought I was making up a word w/7D. I've heard that strawberry mochi is quite delish - I'll never know because I can't eat ice cream. :o(

    Totally off topic but - go Pens! And does anyone here rollerblade? If so, is it hard to learn?

    Hope everyone has a great day!

    ReplyDelete
  6. mkat if you ever ice skated roller blading will be a snap. Just be sure to wear knee and elbow pads as the asphalt hurts more than ice.

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  7. Katherine, I think 'hep up' meant to pep up, whereas 'het up' meant all hot and bothered about something.
    Mkat, I used to be a part-time ski instructor back in the day, and I can tell you that my, uh, tail was not a pretty sight after several attempts at roller-blading. Hope you have better luck than I. Never could figure out how to stop other than the previously mentioned body part.
    And, Go FLYERS!

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  8. Seems like everyone was doing a stint with 6A. I was like several of you, didn't know 7D, 36D, 56A but they fell in from working the cross clues (almost needed some "hep" with them). Still, I didn't need to google as most of it was easy. Rotogravure is a printing process that uses engraved images on rotating cylinders. Coming from eastern Nebraska (on the Missouri River) I knew Osage right away.
    Have a great day!

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  9. dick and dennis,

    Thx for the input re: rollerblading. I have ice skated before, so hopefully it won't be too hard to pick up. I just thought it would be something fun to do w/the pup. :o)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Good morning CC, et al, I was disappointed in myself today. I didn't know Paul Anka's eso beso, but knew Dr. Dre! I also liked that cartographic speck, also missed it, but liked it. Almost threw up w/the answer "taxed" this soon after my 4/15 blood letting. I was beginning to think that the slide into sin was over, but then comes Senta Berger, Marilyn Monroe, and that sinfully delicious looking ice cream even w/a cherry! Wonder what Dennis is smokin' now!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Lois, at this rate, I'll be moving up to crack.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Took awhile because I was convinced EXACTLY was exactly right for 24D Case in point. Had to start over on a different computer (laptop left with my spouse) and it suddenly became clear this was not the Case in point needed. Also changed OZS for 58A Avoirdupois unit at that point and the rest fell into place.

    I misread a lot of things in the morning (and other times of the day) c.c. but Belle Fleur was not one of them today. Think I'll stick with the chocolate mocha ice cream.

    Did not know Arledge Roone. And have never seen Mt. Shasta but would like to. Did not know PAU or CES either. Thanks for the info.

    Enjoyed your write up as usual. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  13. This was an interesting and at times frustrating puzzle. I had a couple of googles to finish... I always hate to do that... but it allowed me to complete it. For a while I had the end of the quote as: "Lawyers Pusheirs" thinking it was a play on words :):):)
    I had 6A Stint for a while too. Also got stuck on the middle section with all of the names, Lon, Senta, Loos etc.
    Never heard of Het but learned something new which I will probably only use in puzzles. 21A bothered me as it says Ticket Details which is singular and it yielded a plural answer. I filled it in right away thinking that was it, but felt it was a stretch on the Worder's part. Anyone else agree?

    ReplyDelete
  14. Hi everyone.

    I was amused by the financial quote the day after tax day. IT even had TAXED in there as 30A. I guess I did my taxes early enough that the sting has worn off.

    Lots of perpendicular cousins made it possible for me to finish this one. Never heard of SENTA Berger(wow, she's pretty) or ROONE Arledge (not so pretty). 68A came from the down clues.

    C.C., I wasn't bothered by the ST repition for 64D. I was annoyed by the fact that there wasn't any indication they were looking for an abbreviation.

    ReplyDelete
  15. nytanonimo,
    Thanks for the Avoirdupois link. Wow, I did not realize that there is a Latin root in the word. That makes sense now.

    superfrey,
    Good point on the ticket details clue. I did not think of that.

    ellie,
    64D: Amtrak itself is a shortened form. So STA is a valid answer.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Quite disappointed in myself today. I did not get the quip and hence a lot of the puzzle was unsolved. Thanks C.C., I cheated with the help of your blog (the quip especially).

    ReplyDelete
  17. cc did you ever expect your blog to become this popular when you started it?

    ReplyDelete
  18. mkat,
    I only realized a few minutes ago that you are an attorney! Now I am sure glad I did not pick up some of outrageous quotes on lawyers for today's blog entry.

    I gather you are lactose or gluten intolerant. How about some Strawberry Mochi Cake. It has fresh persimmon in it. And some sweet rice flour.

    Dick,
    When I started this blog, I thought I was only doing a small local newspaper crossword. Did not realize that this is TMS syndication.

    So, no, I did not expect that so many solvers would come here every day. I am very flattered and so appreciative of all the help I've got from you guys. It's been fun. And I hope everyone is having fun and learning something new each day from this corner.

    ReplyDelete
  19. cc it sure makes the puzzles more interesting. Some of the comments are priceless and the links are alway informative. Hope you stay around for a long time.

    ReplyDelete
  20. No joy in Mudville today. Mr. Google helped on a few and then in the last inning I really cheated and came here!
    I'm not to familiar with authors and performers names or their works and some of the other off the wall names that appear so I do tend to struggle.
    I give myself a 75 on this one unlike yesterday when it was a 95.
    Maybe I can learn and REMEMBER!!!

    ReplyDelete
  21. CC,

    Yup - an attorney, but it's really just a j-o-b. I didn't go back to school to land a 6-figure job only to be a slave to that job. Did that already when I taught elementary school.

    Yes, unfortunately I am lactose intolerant and that started in my late 20s. If I am careful I can eat cheese here and there as I cannot give up cheese! :o(

    But some cake would be delicious!

    ReplyDelete
  22. Dennis et al,

    Is 36D: Pau pronoun (CES) a very solid clue? I mean, is Pau that well-known? Would you be able to get it without across clues? I want the clue to be tough, but fair!

    drdad,
    I am curious. How long have you been doing the TMS crossword puzzle?

    ReplyDelete
  23. The avoirdupois (IPA: /ˌævərdəˈpɔɪz/; French IPA: [avwɑrdypwɑ]) system is a system of weights (or, properly, mass) based on a pound of sixteen ounces. It is the everyday system of weight used in the United States

    ReplyDelete
  24. As a chemist/scientist, I must comment to "anonymous." The avoirdupois system is a system of weight which is force times acceleration due to gravity. It has nothing to do with mass. On the moon, a person's weight will change due to lesser gravity but the person's mass does not change (compared to the weight and mass on earth). The system that measures mass is the kilogram, gram, milligram (i.e., metric) system. In short, weight and mass are not the same and thus are not measured the same.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Not my favorite puzzle. I didn't like the quip and, in fact, didn't get it at first because I had "pig" instead of "hog" which made the quip "...lawyers pis heirs" which didn't make sense at all. I kept trying to make it ..."lawyer split heirs" but there weren't enough letters. Other problems ensued in the lower right since I did't know Senta. I never like the Greek letter clues since they can be anything. You have to get at least one letter before you can guess. Anyway, I ended up getting it but had to look a few things up.

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  26. Good morning and thank you all. I'm home recuperating from surgery and love this blog-you are all hysterical. Thanks for keeping me off major antipsychotics!!!

    ReplyDelete
  27. Found you yesterday google-ing a clue. Happened again today.
    Nice to meet you. You can call me Seven. (a nick-name stemming from getting hit in the mouth with a 7-iron as a kid.)

    Thanks for the help, but I will still try to avoid the site until I am done on my own. lol

    Seven

    ReplyDelete
  28. Ack, my whole comment got deleted.

    I found you yesterday google-ing a clue and it happened again today.

    You can call me 7 (a nick-name that came out of being hit in the mouth with a 7-iron as a kid)

    I will try to avoid your site until I complete the puzzle so I don't feel like I'm cheating. lol

    --7

    ReplyDelete
  29. oh, I did post. the page had to be refreshed for me to see it. that's weird. anyway......
    Nice to meet you all.

    --7

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  30. Nothing really positive or negative about this one.

    I wasn't thrilled with "Ticket details" as a clue for "seats". I would expect to see "tickets" pluralized. Every time I get a ticket, there is one seat per ticket.

    "Buck lover" for "doe" is quite inaccurate. I don't think anyone would describe the realtionship between a doe and a buck as "love".

    I remember Senta Berger from the 1960s. She made quite an impression, even though I wasn't even 10 years old yet!

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  31. Welcome aboard Robin and Michael, I mean 7...I'm sure glad you clarified that nickname. The first thing that popped into my mind was the 7 deadly sins and with that I thought our mild slide to sin had just been fast tracked and had just taken on a whole new meaning. My second thought then was "What in the world is Dennis going to do now? He's going to be really "het up". Holy Halucinogens!

    Robin, do you really think this site will keep you FROM the antipsychotics? Hope you heal quickly.

    ReplyDelete
  32. c.c.
    I visit your site every day. It helps me unwind after a long day in the lockshop. I have alot of fun reading the comments and learn alot from the explanations. I wonder how many people visit your site and don't leave comments? Must be lots. Keep up the good work! Everyone is a joy to be associated with Hello to all that post. Oh, and one thing? todays puzzle was a grrrrr for me t/c everyone
    The Whoo

    ReplyDelete
  33. drdad,
    Your explanations on various clues are always appreciated. Thank you.

    Can you email me regarding my question for you at 9:46am?

    Robin & Michael (7),
    Thank you for leaving comments. Hope to see you guys regularly from now on.

    Johnboy,
    That's why my first reaction is Pearl Buck and her The Good Earth,thinking of Olan and her husband.

    Lois,
    Thanks for checking in regularly. I appreciate it.

    The whoo,
    Good to see you again. This blog has about 3,000 visitors every day in the past week. So roughly 1% leaves a comment.

    ReplyDelete
  34. mon dieu! 3000 visiteurs! Pau was easy for me--a beautiful little sheep crossing-cum-artistic colony in the Pyrenees. Not sure if Descartes made his famous pronouncement there: "Je pense, donc je suis," but he may have increased his avoirdupois by feasting on the lovely fromages to be found there. Het up was familiar to me--that's what those darn santa anas do to me! Finally, Bellefleur is a nom de famille in French so that's why it's not two separate words. Allez--are we all ready for vendredi, er Friday? Salut!

    ReplyDelete
  35. Thomas,
    I believe "Cogito ergo sum" came after "Je pense, donc je suis".

    Thanks for the "Bellefleur" explanation. I did not know that.

    ReplyDelete

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