google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Monday, May 12, 2008 Allan E. Parrish

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May 12, 2008

Monday, May 12, 2008 Allan E. Parrish

Theme: BANNING Rhymes (Famous people whose last names end with ANNING)

20A: "The Cat in the Hat" star: DAKOTA FANNING

37A: "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" singer: CAROL CHANNING

54A" Super Bowl XLI MVP: PEYTON MANNING

Happy Limerick Day everyone! I love today's puzzle, despite my ING phobia. Here are my reasons:

1) ANNING is Chinese for CALM, and CALM is clued as Tranquil (5A) in this puzzle.

2) I am happy to see NASDAQ & XANAX in one gird. Very scrabbly, though I've never heard of XANAX.

3) I like how COLONIAL intersects with CUP. Quite a few sports events are named as "COLONIAL CUP". I also like the intersections of URGENT and WHEN, NABS and BOOKED, TOGO and SOMALI.

4) The appearance of TETON and OGLER in one grid makes me laugh (TETON is a French slang for... hmm... "Milk Source").

There are also 2 computer abbreviations in today's puzzle: ISP and URL. And 2 rivals: RAGU (18A: Prega rival) and SAAB (59A: Volvo rival). And 2 racing related fills: 30D: ELLIOTT (30D: Auto racer Sadler) & LAP (31: Track circuit). And 2 Jamaica connections: KINGSTON (11D: Jamaica's largest city), ALLSPICE (38D: Jamaica pepper). Oh, by the way, MAXI Priest is of Jamaican descent too. That's how he got reggae talent in his blood I suppose. Don't you just love Bob Marley? "No woman no cry!"

ACROSS:

9A: Douglas and Ditka: MIKES. Know Douglas, not Ditka.

14A: Buck's tail: AROO. Buckaroo. Buck is always chased by AROO. For everything else, it's EROO (Switch, Smack, Smash, etc).

17A: Stirling man: SCOT. Stirling is in Central Scotland. I like this name Stir-ling.

19A: Alphrazolam brand name: XANAX. Completely unknown to me. Very intimidating clue, isn't it? I've never heard of alphrazolam. It's a drug for anxiety disorder. Why do they pick up XANAX for their trade name? This word is full of anxiety.

23A: Ms. Rogers St. Johns: ADELA. Got her today.

24A: Wings: Lat.: ALAE

28A: Proof letter: QED (Quod Erat Démōnstrandum). It was on yesterday's puzzle too.

29A: Soak flax: RET

35A: Pad: NOTEBOOK

40A: Early American style: COLONIAL. Sergio Garcia finally ended his drought yesterday at the Players' Championship. His first PGA win at COLONIAL (May 21, 2001) had a profound impact on my life. It's the first golf tournament I've ever watched.

45A: Actor Gulager: CLU. I don't know him. Pieced his name by the down clues.

60A: Entr'__: ACTE. You would not believe it, but I did fill in NOUS first. I boarded the train of Coupe de Foudre (Entre Nous) without looking carefully at the destination. What an INANE (10D: Really silly) mistake!

DOWN:

1D: Stock exchange: NASDAQ (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations). Shouldn't there be some words with the clue to indicate an abbreviated answer?

4D: Chihuahua drink: SOTOL. I've never heard of it. Here is a SOTOL plant. It's also called "Desert Spoon". Wikipedia says this plant "takes approximately 15 years to mature, and creates only one bottle of Sotol per plant".

5D: Irene of "Fame": CARA. Not familiar with her. I got her name from across clues.

6D: Bygone PLO Leader: ARAFAT (Yasser). What a historical opportunity he squandered at Camp David! This guy played double games all his life. Ridiculous!

8D: Hawaiian volcano: MAUNA LOA. Great to see its full name.

9D: "Close to You" singer Priest: MAXI. I don't like his "Close to you". I got an instant crush on his "That Girl" though.

21D: Florida fishes: TARPONS. Fishes? Not fish? Unknown to me. It's "a large, powerful game fish inhabiting the warmer waters of the Atlantic Ocean, having a compressed body and large, silvery scales." Here is a picture.

22D: Fastidious one: NEATNIK

26D: Syst. of instructions: PROG (Program). Is it an accepted abbreviation?

32D: Retiree's cash: PENSION. Goodbye Tension, Hello PENSION.

35D: Org. of Flames: NHL (National Hockey League). Good clue. And we are all WILD here in MN.

36D: Marceau character: BIP. No idea. Have never heard of "BIP the clown".

39D: Real cars: CABOOSES

47D: Foreigner hit: URGENT. I've heard of the band, not the song.

49D: Grand __ National Park: TETON. Have never been there before. But what a great name to lure visitors!

C.C.

67 comments:

Dennis said...

Good morning, C.C. and gang -
No problems this morning, the ones I wasn't sure of, the perps helped. Pretty quick this morning, in the 5 minute range.
Hope you all have better weather than the nor'easter we're having; gray, windy with monsoon rains.

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

Dennis,
Where have you been? Which words were you not sure of?

Dennis said...

C.C., I didn't know 'Toso' or 'Bip'.
We have house guests - good friends who now live on the left coast. He was a star with the Philadelphia Flyers for many years, now assistant GM with the Kings. Haven't had much free time; I did the Saturday puzzle yesterday.

Anonymous said...

Good morning CC, Dennis, et al, Welcome back, Dennis. Thought we lost you back at Helena. Bill's still missing. I didn't make 'dennis time' today, but got it pretty much between stop lights. Some of my favorite people in this today.'Clu, P.Manning,and I love Carol ...and diamonds! Good puzzle. Weather is still tornadoes here....I'm going 'to go' 'calm' down and find a 'lap' to sit on..sans 'notebook'. Prefer Xanex today.

Bill said...

Went to Montana but the Helena there wasn't nearly as appealing as the one here, so I returned !!
Not too bad today. Never saw the words OLICHE os ACTE till today. Needed some help on those. Have never listerned to Foreigner but URGENT just seemed like a good fit.
OK, maybe PROG isn't a very good word, but if you ask me neither is the clue--SYST. The answer came with the cross clues but still no sense to it.
CYA later.

Bill said...

Well, Well Well....If I read C.C.'s comments a little closer I would have found CLICHE to be far better than what I wrote !!!
The problem was that my memory failed me and I forgot GULAGER's name from the previous weeks.
Maybe I should start wearing my glasses ALL the time!!!!!!

Dick said...

Hello everyone. Not too bad today but a little problem in the NW corner as I did not know 4D SOTOL. 50 A gave me some trouble until I figured out 44D Samali. The two repeats I saw were 38D Allspice and 28A QED. Like Lois and Dennis the weather here in the Berg is lousy today with no chance of improvement until mid week.

Dick said...

cc I would like to add that if you ever get the opportunity to go to the Grand Tetons do not pass it up as they are really beautiful

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

Did pretty well on this one. A few words I had never heard of (Sotol?), but I was able to get them from the cross clues. Or so I thought. It wasn't until I checked the solution that I realized that I had mistakenly entered "Adele" instead of "Adela" for 23A and thus ended up with "Terpons" instead of "Tarpons". Since I've never heard of that fish, how was I to know I had misspelled it? :^)

Oh, and Dennis -- there is no word "Toso". It's actually "Togo", since the answer for 51D ("Knot") is "gnarl" and not "snarl". I made the same mistake at first until I realized that there was no such country a Toso...

As for the Grand Tetons, I spent some time in Idaho and was told by numerous folks there that the mountain ranges were so named by French explorers because they resembled, er, the French word they were named after.

Dr. Dad said...

Happy International Awareness Day for Chronic Immunological and Neurological Diseases. It's also International Nurses Day.

Not a bad puzzle again today. Another 9-minute solved. Had snarl for 50A but that became no good for 51D (this is why Dennis never heard of Toso because I'll bet he did the same thing. Mike Ditka - coach of the Chicago Bears. What a tema in 1986!
Technically a group of fish of the same species are called fish while two or more species are called fishes. There are two species in a single genus Megalops in the family Megalopidae, one native to the Atlantic, and the other to the Indo-Pacific oceans. Since the clue only talks about Florida, , and thus only one of the species (the Atlantic native) the correct term would be fish, not fishes.

C.C. - you have "Peyton" misspelled.

Didn't know this but Clu Gulager's first cousin is Will Rogers.

Have a good day!

Bill said...

Thanks, Barry. Now 50a makes sense. I wondered what or where TOSO was.
And I haven't seen Gnarl in years but it does fit.

Dr. Dad said...

"TEMA!!!???" The '86 Bears were a great TEAM!! And I pointed out C.C.'s misspelling of "Peyton" ??!! Don't I feel like an idiot.

Dennis said...

Thanks for the correction, guys, that's exactly what I did. See what happens when you leave the blog for a couple days?
And the Grand Tetons will never look quite the same to me now.

Dr. Dad said...

Barry - I couldn't resist and looked up "Teton and French" and found the definition you refer to. If Lois finds that definition, we'll lose her for the rest of the day. Maybe Dennis and Dick as well.

Anonymous said...

Barry: that's funny! Harkens back to the discussion of teats and tits...add tetons now. Maybe there's a camp site named after Dolly Pardon. There is a Mt Teewinot in this mt range. I learn so much from you all.

Dr. Dad said...

Lois - does this mean goodbye for the rest of the day?

NYTAnonimo said...

Teton National Park is right next to Yellowstone National Park and is the only national park with an airport in its borders at Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Have not been there but would love to go some day.

I did not know SOTOL either and put ADELE instead of ADELA too even though I knew TEWPON wasn't right my mind could just not drag up TARPON.

You were very astute to pick up on all those connections c.c.. I thought for sure you would not like the puzzle because of all the ING's. Have not been able to use Google or comment on the blog for awhile until we finally figured out the whole system had to be rebooted. Strange how it was selectively keeping us out of google related stuff though and not other websites. Think it was the Friday puzzle that I noticed was one letter (Q) short of a pangram.

Thanks for the write up c.c.

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

Dennis, Drdad, Lois, et al
What? What? You mean you did not get my #4 reason earlier? Add TETA to Milk Source clue too.

Dick said...

drday while visiting the Grand Tetons I did see some very large tetons at the campground.

Dr. Dad said...

And we're off!! See what C.C. and Barry started!!! LOL. Dick, that is so funny!!

Dick said...

cc tarpons are a great game fish to catch but we always release them. When caught we remove one of the large scales from the fish and this is our souvenir.

Dick said...

One last comment for the day Go Pens beat the Flyers

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

Lois,
What's so cute about CLU? I don't get it.

Bill,
I saw SYST often, but seldom PROG. I only learned this morning that PROG itself is a word (British slang for food).

Dick,
I bet GRAND TETONS are beautiful. What a striking name. Grand!

Barry,
French seins: I think I hear lolos more often than tétons though.

NYTanonimo,
I could not find letters K and Q on Friday morning, so I thought it was 2 letters away. After reading your comment, I found letter K! Thank you! I am still waiting for our first pangram.

Dick said...

cc Do you know what has happened to mkkaseq as I have not seen her here lately.

Dennis said...

dick, I think she's basking in the Pens' two wins.

Anonymous said...

drdad: I will be gone for a while, but I think I'll go fishing for 'tarpons'. That pic was very interesting. The fish wasn't bad either. However, where there's tetons like that, there's got to be a rich supply of hard lookers, so I'll be gone a looong time. You all enrich my life so much.

Katherine said...

Good morning everyone! My power was out this morning. It about scared me to death when it came back on, my alarm went off. Yikes!
I had some trouble with the NW corner. I did not know Dakota Fanning or Sotol. I did know Clu Gluager.I have never heard of Maxi Priest, and hope I don't hear him again! LOL, no offense CC. Lois, how awful about the tornado's. I hope you are safe. That Xanax will come in real handy today.
Have a good one...........

Dick said...

By jove Dennis I bet you are right. Never thought of that. She is probably skating on thin ice in Philadelphia today.

Anonymous said...

Katherine: so far, so good. There were 3 on the ground last evening, damage, power outage,and injuries in the area. I and mine are fine. Thanks for asking. Why was your power out?

Dennis: are you having tornadic activity?

Katherine said...

Lois, I have no idea why the power went out. It was raining, but not storming. I had just turned the computer on, and checked somethings and was going to get the paper to do the puzzle and it went off. I am glad it didn't take too long. I am glad you are safe. It's so horrible about the tornado's. We don't get those here where I live...in a suburb of Detroit, Mi.

MH said...

Good puzzle. I like the way CC dissected it. I had to use Google to get Dakota Fanning (actually just D***TA) - doh! Also never heard of Adela or sotol but managed to piece them together. Otherwise this was fun for a Monday AM. Big heat wave coming to N.Calif. Should be in the 90's by Thursday. I've skied in the Grand Tetons and when you see the profile of the mountain range from the valley you know why the French trappers named them the Grand Tetons.

jimhllrn said...

I think it was Bob Hope, who when asked "Where would you find the Grand Tetons?" quizzically replied, "Jane Russel? ?"

Crockett1947 said...

Good morning everyone. C.C., thanks for the shout out yesterday. Read the blog even though we don't get the Sunday puzzle here. A slow start but got everything with no help today. SOTOL and XANAX were new to me. Grand Teton lives up to its name. A definite visit if you go to Yellowstone. Two GN words in the puzzle -- that's unusual, I think. MH, we're supposed to get the heat up here in the NW as well. Upper 90s by next weekend! Jinhllrn, that sounds like something Hope would say -- thanks for sharing.

jimhllrn said...

OK - - I've looked and looked and cannot find a reason or make sense of 47D. Foreigner hit? Is this the spelling of a foreign word? I am stumped but good and need help. I know that's the correct answer - but WHY???
thanks - -
jim

Barry G. said...

Jim,

It helps to think of the rock group named "Foreigner"...

Dr. Dad said...

Tornadoes!!! Don't miss them since moving to Rhode Island from Nebraska (part of tornado alley). Glad you're ok, Lois.
Jimhllrn - Foreigner is a rock band formed in New York City in 1976 by veteran musicians Mick Jones and ex-King Crimson member Ian McDonald, along with then-unknown vocalist Lou Gramm (Louis Grammatico). One of their hit songs was "Urgent."

Anonymous said...

Hey CC and all,

And I return . . . work has been terribly busy and I've been feeling under the weather. I got an email from CC asking where I'd been, so I thought I'd pop in real quick.

dennis and dick: yes, I am thrilled to pieces that the Pens have taken the opening two. Just need them to hang on while here in Philly. Hopefully I won't get my butt kicked here @ work.

Hope everyone is doing well! :o)

jimhllrn said...

Thank all. To explain, I've got 5 kids with gray hair so you can see why I didn't get that one. (47D)
But I know that Bob Hope made that comment re. the Grand Tetons back in the 40s and none of my kids would know that.
TTFN

Dennis said...

mkat, I don't think you have anything to worry about - Flyers are now without their two top defensemen. Not gonna cut it against that team.
Lois, I assume you're talking about weather? No, nothing like that - just 40-50mph winds, heavy rain. Glad you survived the mess down there.

Dennis said...

Wow, Jim, if you've got 5 kids with gray hair, you've gotta be really old.

Ba da boom.

Anonymous said...

dennis:

I know. I just heard about the 50+ stitches. Eek.

Although, some of the calls against PHI last night were ridiculous. Ah well, go PENS! :o)

Superfrey said...

I was late to the plate today.... though the Twins did eke it out over the Red Sox.... phew... Nice puzzle.... never heard of Sotol but had it filled in... Also to all snarled and gnarled up around Toso/Togo.... but finally got it. I had 47D but only do to the perps... My NJ roots came out... I was thinking of a different kind of hit for Foreigner hit...

Have a great day all...

jimhllrn said...

Dennis,
I'm 4C years old. You do the math.

Mr. Corcoran said...

the -ing words were a breeze but got stuck on some of the others: sotol was a new one--not so common as tequila...only figgered out bucks tail after I had filled it in through the crosses--miss my old SAAB (stands for Svenska Aeroplan AB (aktiebolaget) or Swedish Airplane Corp.)--with beatniks came neatniks, not to mention nogoodniks (ah, the joys of Russian Yiddish!)..tarpon was a new one for me (I'm no fisher)...and a little French twist with cliche and let's not forget those sexy tetons although the old saw always applies: Mejor chiquito y jugueton que grande y tonton

Anonymous said...

Jim: you must be at high tide in the gene pool! Do you like mushrooms?

Dennis: This storm was the same deadly storm from the West and it's still moving East. I hope the only funnel you see pertains to your drink.

Anonymous said...

that anonymous was me...hit the wrong key.

Anonymous said...

We were thinking of canning this puzzle but decided that it was worth scanning. And now we're going out tanning!! We're going to take the Sob!!

Xanax for all!!!

Der Katze said...

CC. If you ever get the chance to visit Grand Teton National Park, take it. The Teton mountains above Jackson Hole (valley) isone of my favorite places on earth.
There are twin peaks in southern Colorado which the Indians called
"Wahatoya", or "Breasts of the Earth". Then the explorers came and renamed them the Spanish Peaks. Pretty but don't compare to GTNP.

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

Anonymous @ 11:08am,
That's a great plANNING. But please leave your name next time. I love your comment.

JIMBO said...

Hi C.C. and all

Well I'm not surprised that most of you cruised through this one, 'cause I did it in about 30 minutes with very little help.
Got 4d from across clues. never heard of "sotol". Also had to check out "Togo" for 50a to see if 51d was "gnarl" of "snarl".
I was in "Jackson Hole" many years ago, when it just started booming. Beautiful country there.
As usual, enjoyed reading all the comments. God bless all of you.

Dennis said...

"There are twin peaks in southern Colorado which the Indians called
"Wahatoya", or "Breasts of the Earth". Then the explorers came"

I'll bet they did...

Anonymous said...

OMG, Dennis! I fell off my chair laughing! You are soooo funny!

Dr. Dad said...

OMG, Dennis! It's getting time to go and kiss the Blarney Stone.

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

Katherine,
I find MAXI Priest's voice to be very seductive. But you don't need to like him. As long as you still love OMEGA & Birkin Purse & this blog, we can be great AMIES.

Mh,
Forget about DAKOTA FANNING, Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine) is the real deal.

Crockett1947,
Yesterday's QED reminded me of you too. Wish your paper carried the Sunday TMS puzzle.

Jim,
I like the Jane Russel line! What a park!

Mkat,
You definitely need some mushroom to build up your immune system! And hot ginger tea.

Superfrey,
Do you have Joe Nathan's bobblehead?

Thomas,
I like the dichos you quoted, so true!

Der katze,
Thank you for the pictures. Breathtaking. I like the hanging flower basket the most. I want to sit there for picnic too. Stunning Grand TETONS.

Jimbo,
I finished around 30 minutes also. That's about my average.

Dennis,
Wrong order, isn't it? They saw, then they came!

Anonymous said...

spare a thought for us anglos in Argentina!
so much american culture - but most we can figure out - but why is sold out "sro" and what sort of forename is "clu" - still this is the only crossword we have in Buenos Aires and a must pre lunch with a beer on the balcony

Dr. Dad said...

Lois - no I never heard it called "Fall Flat" but I drank enough of them that it describes what I did. Or do you mean that's what the taste quickly did after you opened it?

Dr. Dad said...

anonymous @ 12:41 p.m.
SRO is standing room only so the show is "sold out" as far as seats go. Here is information on Clu Gulager

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

Drdad,
"Kiss the Blarney Stone" & the Irish Crowning Stone (LIA Fail). This is the place where Lois the DIAMOND was spotted out of the rough, and this is place where we started our "dysfunctional" odyssey.

Anonymous said...

drdad: You got it...refers pretty much to behavior after drinking a few. Good Irish kids get stoned, fall flat, and kiss Blarney. Learned a lot at that school!

Anon in Buenos Aires: "a must pre lunch with a beer on the balcony"!!! You're living MY dream! Take that to the Grand Tetons and you'd be living most of the guys' dreams!

Mr. Corcoran said...

enjoying the comments--hope none of you have been affected by the earthquake (some close friends will be adopting a daughter from that area and had planned to travel next week)or the tumultuous weather of the midwest and elsewhere. 7-letter word for weather relief?

Dr. Dad said...

C.C. - our dysfunctional (but fun) odyssey was what I was referring to.

lois said...

Thomas: ew! ew! I know! "shelter"? (fully stocked)

Mr. Corcoran said...

good idea lois--i was thinking antecendently to shelter as in respite...

Bill said...

Thomas, I was thinking ALCOHOL!
That's 7 letters isn't it??

lois said...

Bill, you win!!!! I'm going with you!!!

Anonymous said...

jimhllrn: I remember the comment Bob Hope made about Jane Russell, as well. I miss the old guy. He was great.

Dennis, you are such a naughty boy.

Enjoyed this one. 13 minutes and only needed help from c.c. on one clue. Good day all.

lois said...

Anon: All I can say is "Thank God for naughty boys!"