google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Friday May 23, 2008 Robert H. Wolfe

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May 23, 2008

Friday May 23, 2008 Robert H. Wolfe

Theme: A MATTER OF CONCERN

17A: Brewer's concern?: BEER MARKET (BEAR MARKET)

27A: Cab driver's concern?: FARE SHARE (FAIR SHARE)

36A: Shipbuilder's concern?: SAILS PROMOTION (SALES PROMOTION)

43A: Fabulist's concern?: TALESPIN (TAILSPIN)

59A: Shoemaker's concern?: SOLE SAVING (SOUL SAVING)

Except BEER and BEAR, all the others are homophones, very interesting. Is 36A a solid clue to you? I don't really get it.

Quite a few new names/words for me in today's puzzle: Enrico FERMI, Nagy IMRE, ANSON Williams, Jared LETO, PABA, BIS, COPA and XENON. Most of them were inferable, but the M between FERMI & IMRE was impossible for me.

I like the way EDIT (34A) is structured at the heart of the grid. It befits the theme entries. And I am happy to see it intersects ADORN (28D: Beautify). There are also 3 SS's in the puzzle: ASSAULTED (20A: Attacked), ESSES, and MUSSES (18D: Disarranges). I am OK with that, as the total account for S's is well within my tolerance range. For your information, there are 69 letter A's on a March 2002 NYT Thursday puzzle.

ACROSS:

5A: Doofus: SCHMO. Isn't POOP (1A: Inside info.) also a fool? Nincompoop?

15A:Type of terrier: CAIRN. Here is Toto and Dorothy.

16A: PBS series: NOVA. Know it, but I've never watched it.

19A: Judah's son: ONAN. The only Judah's son that I know of.

21A: Tabs horn: BUGLE. Still waiting for its anagram BULGE to appear in a TMS puzzle.

22A: Dr. Leary's turn-on: LSD (Lysergic Acid Diethylamide). I like the clue. Dictionary says L. S. D. is also the abbreviation of "Pounds, Shilling & Pence". I wonder why pound is always abbreviated as lb, and why D for pence?

23A: Drag along: LUG 24A: And 24A: Drags forcibly: HAULS. Why drag twice, Mr. Editor?

35A: Again, in music: BIS. I don't know this word. Got it from down clues. Again is always "Encore" to me.

41A: Nagy of Hungary: IMRE. Nope, I've never heard of him. I only know its anagram EMIR.

42A: Absinthe flavoring: ANISE. Is it legal to sell absinthe in the US now?

48A: Furry TV alien: ALF. Got it this time. Also ALF Landon, the Republican guy who was defeated by FDR in 1936.

52A: Not another person: NO ONE ELSE. NO ONE ELSE comes close you, no one makes me feel the way you do...

61A: Acid type: AMINO. It's the protein unit.

64A: Inert gas: XENON. Came From Greek Xenos, hmm, foreign to me that's for sure. It's Element #54.

DOWN:

1D: Sunscreen ingredient: PABA (Para-AminoBenzoic Acid). Completely unknown to me. Here is the definition: "A crystalline para form of aminobenzoic acid that is part of the vitamin B complex, is required by many organisms for the formation of folic acids, and is widely used in sunscreens to absorb ultraviolet light. Also called vitamin Bx"

4D: One type of parking: PARALLEL

7D: QB's command: HIKE. The clue seems to be asking for an abbreviated answer, doesn't it?

8D: Sitcom equine: MR. ED. No problem this time.

10D: Stop, already: ENOUGH. Yes, everyone has a limit.

11D: Round instrument: GONG. Do you love GONG Li ? She starred in Memoirs of a Geisha. She is my favorite Chinese actress.

23D: Actor Jared: LETO. His face looks familiar to me. But I don't remember his name.

24D: Lacks: HASN'T

25D: Guam port, once: AGANA. Capital of Guam. Why "once" in the clue?

26D: One of the archangels: URIEL

27D: Nuclear physicist Enrico: FERMI. He won Nobel Physics in 1938. Not a familiar name to me.

29D: Singer LeAnn: RIMES. "And tell me now, how do I live without you?"

30D: Seething: ABOIL. And 39D: Hotly: IN FEVER

32D: Middle of messes?: ESSES?

37D: Corncob or briar: PIPE. Are you familiar with "Meerchaum Pipe"?

38D: Initial data sheet: TABLE A. What is it?

44D: List of printing mistakes: ERRATA

48D: Williams of "Happy Days": ANSON. Ugh, I just hate TV sitcom characters. Could not never remember their names. I wonder how much this Cap ANSON Old Judge card costs. He is Baseball HOF.

49D: Nightclub in Manilow song: COPA. Nope, I am not familiar with COPACABANA.

52D: Town on the Seward Peninsula: NOME. Often clued as "iditarod terminus".

54D: Prefix for wine: OENO. Also Greek Goddess of wine according to Wikipedia.

57D: Breastplate of Zeus: EGIS. Or AEGIS. It's "the shield or breastplate of Zeus or Athena, bearing at its center the head of the Gorgon". Here is a picture of Medusa's head.

59D: Jazzy instrument: SAX. Why "jazzy" instead of "jazz"?

C.C.

50 comments:

Dennis said...

Happy Holiday weekend, fellow DFs - smooth sailing again today, other than trying to force 'beeps' for 'taps horn'. Thought 'table A' was weak for 'initial data sheet'. I also think 17A should have been clued 'nudist's concern' and the answer 'bare market', to be in keeping with the other homophoned theme clues.
What's everybody doing for this long weekend? The weather here in the Philly area is supposed to be nothing short of spectacular. I hope it's an outstanding one for everybody.

ndw said...

Not too bad this morning - did have a problem with 59A I thought it was Sole String (working on a "Shoe String"). I did have to look to M r. Google for a few answers but I am getting better.

ndw said...

Happy Holiday to you too and everyone else out there. The only thing Bill & I are doing for the holiday weekend is that we are going out on the town for our Anniversary. Which happensd to fall on Saturday. We don't usually get to go anyplace!
Have Great Weekend!
Later

Dennis said...

Good morning, C.C. - I don't think poop is an abbreviation for nincompoop.
That Cap Anson card would be worth around $1000 in that condition.
And thank you for the photo of Gong Li's necklace.

Katherine said...

Good morning everyone.
I did think 36A was a good clue even though I didn't get it! I didn't know Toto was a cairn terrier. If 21D is BIS wouldn't that make 23A Lig???? Or did I miss something? I am listening to the Eagles "Long Road Out Of Eden" right now, so I'll have to wait till later to watch the Back Street Boys clip. Gong Li is beautiful and it was a good movie too, I liked it. I love LeAnn Rimes How Do I Live Without You........and finally, , Happy Anniversary to Nancyd.
Have a good weekend everyone.

Dennis said...

Katherine, 35A is 'bis', not 21D.

Katherine said...

Thanks Dennis, I was looking at it wrong. I got up WAY too early this morning.

Anonymous said...

Good morning CC and company,

Pretty smooth today, though I agree that "table a" wasn't exactly the strongest of clues. And I had never heard of "poop" as inside info before. I did like the play on words theme, though. Fun.

Finally the rain is letting up here and the sun is shining! Not many plans for the weekend - watch the first Stanley Cup game tomorrow, but I think friends want to go out to dinner. Tough decision. And given the weather, hoping to have the pup outside a lot.

Hope you all have a great holiday weekend!

Dick said...

Hello everyone. Looks like this is going to be a great weekend. This will give me a chance to catch up on all the mowing that I need to do. Not too much trouble today although I did struggle with 59A and needed lots of help with the down clues to fill this section in. I wasn't real crazy about the cluing/answer of 24D. Hope you all have a great weekend and I will see you on Monday. Got to rush as I have a tee time at 8:30.

Dick said...

mkat I don't know if I will be able to get the Pens game as it is being carried on Versus and I am not sure if my satellite provider carries that station. Go Pens!!

Dr. Dad said...

Good Morning To All!! Happy Friday!!!!
PABA - para-aminobenzoic acid, amino acid, xenon, lysergic acid diethyl amide, and Enrico Fermi in the same puzzle? What a great thing for scientists!!
Alf from Melmac. I hated that little furball.
Anson Williams/Potsie - Oh Happy Days!! He was kind of a schmo along with Ralph Malph.
Apparently, this guy has had success being able to sell absinthe. I thought it was still illegal but maybe not any more.
Leto - I think of Duke Leto Atreides of Frank Herbert's "Dune" stories.
I like Dennis' idea for "bare market."
35A is Bis. 21D is Bus that makes 23A Lug.
I have heard of giving someone the whole poop meaning the entire story which could be inside info.
Finally, "Happy Lucky Penny Day!!"

Anonymous said...

CC: answer to your questions re: 42A, yes - absinthe is now legal again in the US and re: 24D Agana is now called Hagatna. I agree with all that table a is the result of a particularly lame clue

Anonymous said...

dick: well then I will have to root extra loud to make up for your possible absence. Hope they are well rested and ready to play. I think this series will be incredibly tough!

Kim said...

Good morning everyone! Am I the only one that just couldn't get in this puzzles groove today? I got through most, but the southeast corner gave me a headache.

Happy Anniversary Nancy! We had our 8th 2 weeks ago. Dennis, hope your weather doesn't change. I know my mom used to say about Baltimore is wait a minute and it will change! Hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable weekend!

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

This puzzle almost got off to a rough start as I considered putting ALOE for 1D. I couldn't think of anything that would fit for 1A that began with an A, however, and then I simultaneously thought of both PABA and POOP. Both terms were well known to me, and after that the puzzle pretty much breezed by.

No objection to 36A, although I agree that 17A is a bit out of place for not being a homophone. I guess the theme is more punny than homophonic.

I actually thought TABLE A was a clever answer for 38 D. Maybe that's just because I work as a technical writer.

Oh -- I almost mucked things up when I put TUG instead of LUG for 23A. The problem with proper names of unknown actors is that there's no way to tell if the name you come up with based solely on cross-clues is real or not. Fortunately, at the end of the puzzle I suddenly remembered reading about somebody named Jared LETO and managed to fix my mistake before it was too late. Other than that, the rest of the pop culture references were easy peasy for me (although I had to get 41A via cross-clues).

Overall, not a bad puzzle. I like punny clues that are not too obvious but can actually be figured out without needing to get every single cross-clue.

lois said...

Good morning CC et al, I struggled.
A blow to the 'ego'. Feel
'assaulted' with some of the clues, but smiled seeing Barry's 'pipe'. Cute theme though and I agree that 17A should be 'bare' to fit in. I hear the 'bugle' playing taps on this one for me. Enjoyed it anyway, esp. the great links. Thank you, CC.

Happy Anniversary Nancy & Bill.

I'm going to VaBeach and check out the 'sails promotions'... as in parasailing. I won't forget my 'paba'. Have a great holiday!

Rae said...

Isn't 23 A "lug" not "tug?"

Superfrey said...

Struggled with the Southeast corner.... I had 36D as tablet instead of Table A, which made 59A shoestring instead of solesaving... that was a goofy clue... GRRRRR Have a nice weekend everyone...

Barry G. said...

Rae said...

Isn't 23 A "lug" not "tug?"


Yep! Looks like C.C. made the same mistake I initially made, but she must have corrected it in order to get Jared LETO...

Bill said...

Dennis, I like "nudists concern" Kinda fits well with the Dysfunctionals, don't ya think?
NECKLACE ?? There was a necklace? I'll have to look again!!

Did pretty well until I spelled "PARALLEL" wrong. Made "HAUL" hard to get. That's what I get for letting my pen move faster than my brain. And I also used "TUG" and since I had no idea of the actor mentioned, it stayed till I got here.
Thanks to all for the anniversary wishes. Dinner and maybe a visit to a club featuring our favorits blues musician.
CYA Later

Dr. Dad said...

In scientific writing, Table A may be the first table that contains data (followed by B, C, etc.) but I wouldn't call it the "initial data sheet" because that sounds like a "preliminary" which could be amended later to become "Table A." Therefore, I agree that it is a lame clue.

Bill said...

I hate it when the keyboard swaps keys during the night !! FAVORITE
Takes me all morning to put them in order!

Dr. Dad said...

Bill - I heartily agree. That necklace is hard to see. Dennis has good vision if he saw it right away.

Boomer said...

Almost got it. There were soooo many double letters in this puzzle that I was sure the bird sound was cheep. Later I got chirp, but still was confounded by the SE corner. I had tablet instead of table A, and I got the fever, so I wanted the long word to be shoestving, like ve used to call laces in de old country, dontcha know.

Dennis said...

drdad, what I didn't realize was that there was a face in the picture too.

Anonymous said...

Easy for me today. Anise oil is available in specialty stores. Going off to work at the Worlds Greatest Brat Fest today. Check it out. WWW.bratfest.com.

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

Dennis,
I like your BARE MARKET clue and the idea behind it. What's so special about GONG Li's necklace? Only 1K for the card? I thought Old Judge cards are worth a lot,and ANSON is a HOFer.

Drdad,
Here is Degas' L'Absinthe, though that glass of absinthe looks a bit yellow rather than green. Thanks for the TABLE A explanation.

Anonymous @6:32am,
Thanks for the 25D explanation. Now I understand why it's clued as "once". But who are you? I am so intrigued by your comments in the past several days.

Barry,
Which are the "punny clues" in today's puzzle? No objection to 32D? Don't you think it should be "MiddleS of MESSES" or the "End of MESSES? The "Middle of MESSES" is ESSE!

Lois,
"Barry's 'pipe'". Impressive! I am in awe of you!

Happy Anniversary Bill & Nancy.

Bill said...

C.C. since there are 2 s's in the middle doesen't that make it plural....ESSES?

Barry G. said...

Barry,
Which are the "punny clues" in today's puzzle? No objection to 32D? Don't you think it should be "MiddleS of MESSES" or the "End of MESSES? The "Middle of MESSES" is ESSE!


All the theme clues are punny, meaning they are plays on words. Beer Market instead of Bear market, Fare Share instead of Fare Share, etc.

As for 32D, the middle part of the word "messes" is "ss". That's two of the letter S. When you write the name of the letter S, it's "ess". Two of them, therefore, would be "esses". Works for me!

Barry G. said...

Or, what Bill said... ^_^

Bill said...

Judi, That Bratfest sounds great. I love brats and it looks like some bluegrass bands will be there. That's my kind of shindig!!

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

Barry,
I still think it should be "middleS" of messes. There are 2 S's after all.

I think Boomer has a good observation on the double letter words. We have POOP, OONA, AGREE, NOONE ELSE, ESSE, MUSSE, ASSULT, PARALLEL & BEER, no wonder he wants his bird to CHEEP.

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

Dennis, Drdad et al,
Please let me have your opinion on 32D as well.

Lois,
What's your answer to my last comment on yesterday's blog entry?

Dennis said...

c.c., it has more to do with the location of the necklace pendant.

The old judge card would be worth significantly more if it were not in such bad shape.

And I also think 'middle of messes' is ok.

Barry G. said...

Barry,
I still think it should be "middleS" of messes. There are 2 S's after all.


Well, except for the fact that something can only have one middle, so it would wouldn't really make any sense to say "middles". Besides, since "messes" has six letters, the true "middle" would need to consist of two letters.

And I'm afraid I don't get the reference to my pipe...

Dr. Dad said...

C.C. - I see your point on Middle of Messes but I went right for the two "letter esses" not even thinking that "esses" was the end of the word. I didn't have a problem with the clue. Now that I think about it, a word other than messes should have been used so as not to cause such confusion.

Anonymous said...

Schmo doubt about it, we were stuck but we worked inafever like nooneelse!

So happy hot dogs and have your fareshare from the beermarket.

God bless America! And God bless our veterans!!

Kemo in a Talespin in CT

lois said...

CC: I answered you on yesterday's blog.

Barry: the 'pipe' today was an answer you wanted to use a while back, but it was wrong then...it's right today. It just stuck w/me. I have no idea why, except that it was a pipe I'd never smoked.

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

Dennis, Drdad and Barry,
OK, I rest my case with ESSES. I sure love this "SenSeleSS Quartet?" clue.

Barry,
You mentioned "meerschaum" pipe in your comment one day. And I asked (see my 37D comment) if anyone was familiar with this pipe. And Lois replied immediately that she "smiled seeing Barry's pipe'". I was so impressed that she remembered this. This lady is something!!!

Barry G. said...

Ah, now I remember my pipe comment, thanks!

jimhllrn said...

Enough already on 'middle' vs 'middles.' Ole Wolfe asked for 'A' middle - not two middles. It don't matter how many are in one middle. Middles may be a word, but not the way we read it here.
So there too - - -

carol said...

Hi everyone: Not a hard one today..I have a feeling we are "in for it" tomorrow!
Bill, Necklace?? you missed the necklace?? Hard to imagine!!
Boomer, you crack me up! I did the very same thing with "tablet" making a mess of 59A. I never did figure it out until I read C.C.'s post.
Happy Anniversary Bill and Nancy!!
Hope all of you have a good Holiday weekend.

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

Jim,
Are you aware of the fire here yesterday?

Carol,
I think 38D (TABLE A) is too technical a fill for us. Barry is probably the only one who thinks it's clever. See also Drdad's comment @ 7:25am.

Lois,
Who is Mrs. Berkowitz? Is it a real person?

carol said...

C.C.,thanks :) I did read drdad's 7:25 comment so that helped explain it..you were correct, it is too technical for me!!

melissa bee said...

morning c.c. and all,

dennis, love your 'bare' market thought - especially since it's right above ASSaulted .. which makes talespins more intersting also.

i stuttered by putting 'has no' instead of hasnt .. and did not know imre or fermi. table a also gave me some grief, and the two drags were a drag.

i liked the middle of messes clue .. it made me think someone is reading this blog since crocket suggested that for gossip pair a while back. i liked it then, and i like it now.

lois i am not surprised that you smiled when you saw barry's pipe. perhaps he won after all.

happy anniversary bill and nancy. who is your favorite blues musician?

lois said...

Melissa: you are hilarious!

CC: Mrs. Berkowitz was my 10th grade Latin II teacher...also a neighbor. She was really a good teacher. The flaw certainly wasn't with her.

Bill said...

MelissaBee,
Just a local fella.He goes by Midnight Mike. His group has opened for BB King in the past.
His real name is Mike Grimadi and his website is www.midnitemike.com.
Really super guy and I've had the privilege of jamming with him from time to time.

melissa bee said...

bill - thanks for the link, liked the clip there. the annual santa cruz blues festival is this weekend. thought it might be cancelled due to the fire in the santa cruz mountains, i can smell the smoke in san jose, but so far it's still a go. bonnie raitt and the subdudes both playing.

my favorite subdudes tune echoes my philosophy about crossword puzzles (and other things).

i've got all the time in the world.

ndw said...

Thank-You all for the Anniversary wishes.
Judi I wish the Bratfest were closer to us in NY we would go there for our Anniversary. We both Love BRATS (of course I am limited due to medical reasons) but I had to go back to the store to get prescriptions so I bought some Johnsonville Brats for dinner tonight instead of the planned Salmon loaf and Salmon Gravy with potatoes. Yummy.
Thanks Agins
Nancy & Bill

Argyle said...

Some of you might find this amusing; I had 36A sealspromotions instead of sailspromotions