google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Friday June 6, 2008 Robert H. Wolfe

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Jun 6, 2008

Friday June 6, 2008 Robert H. Wolfe

Theme: Animal Homophones

17A: Animal's cry: WHALE WAIL

25A: Beloved animal: DEAR DEER

36A: Animal that is pulled?: TOWED TOAD

57A: Unclothed animal?: BARE BEAR

59A: Golf-loving animal?: LINKS LYNX

Here (hear) are a few (phew) other animal clues (clews) for you to consider next time (thyme) Mr. Wolfe:

BEE (be); BOAR (Bore); FLEA (flee); FOWL (foul); GNU (new, knew); Gorilla (guerrilla); GRIZZLY(grisly); HARE (hair); HART (heart); Lamb (lam); Llama (Lama); Leach (leech); MITE (might); MOOSE (Mousse); MULE (mewl); MUSSEL (muscle); NIT (knit); RABBIT (rabbet); ROE (row); TAPIR (taper) and Tern (turn).

I(eye) like this puzzle. Great (Grate) theme entries, and the sheer (shear) amount of homophones in the clues/answers delights me. It does have a big attitude though, look: 68A: Nastily derogatory: SNIDE. And 13D: Look down upon: SNEER AT. 50D: Mimicked meanly: MOCKED. I guess you can also include 61D: Big fat mouth: YAP.

But (butt), I have high morals (morels), and I am in a good mood (mooed) this morning (mourning), so I am not going to whine (wine) too much. I enjoyed reading your yesterday's favorite books comments so much. Thank you all (awl) for sharing.

Here is the summary (summery):

ACROSS:

1A: Prohibit: BAR. If it were past tense "barred", we (wee) would (wood) have got "bard" for homophone.

9A: Parisian greenspace: PARCS. French for park. Love Monet's PARC Monceau.

16A: Briny deep: OCEAN. I am thinking of sea & see, seas & seize.

21A: Plains shelter: TEEPEE. Also spelled as TEPEE or TIPI.

22A: Singer Kathy: MATTEA. Did not know her. Here is her Goin' Gone.

28A: Hymn of praise: PAEAN. Here is the John Williams' Indiana Jones theme. A paean to Harrison Ford/Steven Spielberg/George Lucas' youth and their heroic deeds/dreams.

31A: Relished: ATE UP. ATE, eight

36A: Animal that's pulled: TOWED TOAD. And don't forget "toed".

39A: Rapid escape: LAM. LAM, Lamb.

42A: Singer Shore: DINAH. Or singer Washington.

47A: Sale-tag disclaimer: AS IS. Sale, sail. And of course, seller & cellar.

49A: King of Troy: PRIAM. I simply forgot. Like Brad Pitt's "Troy" a lot. PRIAM is "the father of Paris, Cassandra, Hector, Polyxena, and many others. He was killed during the capture of Troy". Tough intersection with AMEN-RA.

51A: Comic Rudner: RITA. I don't know (no) this RITA. RITA is the girl in Lou Bega's "Mambo No. 5". He wants Monika in his life, Erica by his side. He says that RITA is all he needs, Tina is what he sees. And he wants Sandra in the sun, Mary all night long, and "A little bit Jessica here I am, and a little bit of you makes me your man".

Boy (buoy), can you imagine a constructor makes a whole (hole) puzzle out of these girls' names in the song?

57A: Moliere play part: ACTE. Act in French. Hmm, Acts, ax.

58A: Approach quickly: RUN TO. TO, Two.

65A: Type of pole: TOTEM. Pole and Poll.

67A: Brings up: REARS.

DOWN:

1D: Present knot: BOW. Knot, not; BOW, beau; BOWED, bold; And presents, presence.

4D: Part: PIECE. PIECE, PEACE

5D: Get to the present?: UNWRAP. Wrap, rap. Wrapped, rapt, rapped.

7D: Hindu title of respect: SRI. I wonder how those people address their ELDER (54A: Church VIP) in ___Lanka.

9D: Model, often: POSER. PLANE for you Ray (thanks for the mail) and Dennis?

10D: Acquiesce: ACCEDE. Partly, CEDE, seed.

18D: Release: LET OUT

21D: Ballroom dance: TANGO. Is this somehow related to the theme?

22D: Kingston Trio hit: MTA. No idea, I've never heard of Kingston. What does MTA stand for?

24D: Equal score: TIE. TIE, Thai.

25D: Silence while broadcasting: DEAD AIR

26D: Singer Kitt: EARTHA. Tough (tuff) for me. I had never heard of her name before, might have heard some of her songs though.

29D: Egyptian sun god: AMEN-RA. Another hard one (won) for me. I had no idea. Dictionary defined it as "a god in whom Amen and Ra were combined". Another homophone: sun, son.

38D: Rye grass: DARNEL. No, no, nope, completely unknown to me. Plural form "ryes" will give us "rise" though.

41D: Actress Richardson: MIRANDA. Or ___ Rights. MIRANDA Richardson played Ingrid (and was nominated for the Academy Award) in Louis Malle's "Damage". To answer some of your email questions regarding my favorite books yesterday, Josephine Hart's "Damage" is probably my favorite after Bob Woodward's "All the President's Men".

44D: Smits of NBA: RIK. Not a familiar name to me. Got it from the across clues.

48D: Irish dog: SETTER

53D: Ill-bred ones: BOORS. Bred, bread

54D: "Who's there" reply: IT'S ME. There, their.

57D: Against: ANTI. ANTI, Ante.

59D: Some NFL linemen: LTS (Left Tackles)

63D: Greek letters: XIS. XI, psi & sigh. "Sighs" will give us "size", right?

Finally, 14A: Sugar ending: OSE. Here is Sugar, Sugar for you. Click (clique) and Enjoy!

C.C.

40 comments:

Dennis said...

Good morning, fellow DFs - another enjoyable puzzle today, with a couple of snags for me. I knew Amen-Ra, but for some reason it didn't look right without the hyphen. 'Darnel' didn't come easy; needed the perps for that one. Perps also got me Kathy 'Mattea' and 'Miranda' Richardson.
C.C., great work with the homophones; you've outdone yourself. What's your question on 9D?
Running back down to Boca on Sunday for a week; I'll hopefully be able to do the online puzzle in the mornings.
Make it an outstanding weekend!

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

Dennis,
Remember yesterday's BALSA (11D: Model material)? I almost put PLANE for 9D today, after your PLANE Model education yesterday.

Jeanne said...

Morning all,
Another confidence builder. Can't wait for the weekend puzzles; but they will probably burst my happy bubble.
C.C., MTA may be Massachusetts Transit Authority but not sure.
Dennis, Is Boca your favorite FL area? Would love to resettle in FL at some point--have several friends in the Leesburg and Ocala area and a cousin in Palm Coast.
The heat is on this weekend in the Northeast. First of the 90's.

Katherine said...

Good morning everyone. I had a hard time with this one today, but I didn't have much time to try to figure it all out.
CC, you did a great job on your comments today. I enjoyed them. I loved the Monet picture. It's beautiful. I know Kathy Mattea, she is a country singer. I wanted 28A to be "psalm", but that wasn't working. Dinah Shore came to my mind on 42A. Loved the Mambo 5 tune. Eartha has been around for a long time. And finally, I wanted it to be "Natasia" Richardson, I never heard of Miranda.
Well, my air is out, and it is 90 today. Someone is supposed to come this morning. This is awful without the air.
Have a good day everyone.

Dennis said...

c.c., got it now.

jeanne - I believe the 'MTA' in the song at the time was 'Metropolitan Transit Authority' in Massachusetts.

Ft. Lauderdale/South Beach are my favorite Fl. areas, but my wife's been going to Boca on business, so I've been playing 'boy-toy' and tagging along. We'll definitely end up down there at some point.

Bill said...

C.C. and DF's. Here is the MTA.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VMSGrY-IlU

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

Katherine,
MIRANDA Richardson (Juliette Binoche as well) had some bold nude scene in "Damage". She was also in "The Crying Game", with today's 3D (REA): Actor Stephen. She was RITA (51A) Skeeter in a Harry Potter movie. Weird coincidence today.

Katherine said...

CC,I never saw any of those movies. I guess that's why I didn't know who they were.

Jeanne said...

Dennis, I'm old enough to remember the Kingston Trio-even though I was very, very young! Metropolitan makes sense. By the way, C.C. I loved hearing all the book choices from everyone.

Jeanne said...

Bill, thanks for the link-now I actually remember that song.

Superfrey said...

Nice puzzle... a two googler for me.... Paean and Priam... otherwise it was smooth sailing...
Jeanne.... You would enjoy FL year round.... I live in Naples.... summers are very tolerable due to the sea breezes.... they have never had a 100 degree day and for the first time this year recorded a tempurature below 32 degrees... for one hour however :-)

Anonymous said...

Good morning CC & DF's: CC, great,
outstanding job on the comments and with the links ( as always). Cute theme w/animals but wanted psalm not paean. Not as easy as usual, but who ya gonna 'run to' when the bare bear rears it's head? I'll go to 3D, hoping to score inure teepee! I'm on the lam again.

Enjoy this gorgeous HOT day. Good luck Katherine.

NYTAnonimo said...

Clever comments cc! I had BAN instead of BAR-and I've heard of Stephen REA in puzzles before-no excuse for messing that up. Interesting aside-did you know he was a Protestant republican married to former IRA bomber Dolours Price? Did not know Kathy MATTEA or MTA until today. Had ACTI instead of ACTE. Enjoying Robert Wolfe's puzzles-reminded me of the last one with LAYLA in the middle. He had one in the NYT last week too. Have you started writing puzzles yet cc? Hope you all have a great weekend.

Anonymous said...

MTA, probably Metropolitan Transit Authority

to, two, too and tutu

Dennis said...

Lois, you're right about 'hot' - we're supposed to have a run of 90+ days starting today. This'll be the first time I've gone to Florida to cool off...

Boomer said...

Believe it or not, I sang the "M.T.A." as a solo in the High School Glee Club in 1964. "Fight the fare increase, vote for George O'Brien, get poor Charlie off the M.T.A."
I imagine that if C.C. were on a cruise this morning she could see sea. But to get there faster, just take a plain plane. Especially if you're going to Loss Vegas.

NYTAnonimo said...

Did you mean Lost Wages?

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

Overlal a great puzzle, although I had a few rough spots. Put PSALM instead of PAEAN for 28A, which mucked things up for awhile until I realized my mistake. Also, I had no idea what 30A was and therefore couldn't decide between CAREENS and CAREERS for 12D. Sad to say, I eventually guessed wrong. :( Loved the theme clues, though!

As for M.T.A., I grew up in the Boston area and my folks were big fans of The Kingston Trio, so from an early age I had the entire song memorized.

Let me tell you of a story
About a man name Charlie
On a tragic and fateful day
He put ten cents in his pocket
Kissed his wife and family
Went to ride on the MTA...


In fact, I used to sing this to my son as a lullaby when he was a baby, believe it or not.

Dr.G said...

CC, Barry et al,

Go to the link for the complete "MTA." http://dnc2004.tripod.com/id23.html

MH said...

Yes, I admit I was a big Kingston Trio fan. That was a gimme and so were most of the others. I breezed through it and everything was fine until I started reading CC's homonyms and then my head started hurting ;-) I liked the theme a lot. Another day in paradise out here in CA. Miami on Monday. Eat at the Versailles I'm told.

dons_mind said...

good puzzle today. i think 17A should have "whale wail" instead of "whale wale"...i had/have no idea who Stephen Rea (3d) is...and wasn't familiar with "paean" (28a) either...but enjoyed the animal homophones....

Anonymous said...

Since you had SRI correctly, why did you think it was whale wale? Good fun on this one. Also had BAN, and so was wrong on Actor Stephen.
And Naples is the place to be; I've lived here for 20 years after the miserable weather of Evergreen, CO.
Sallie

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

NYTanonimo,
Yes, I do know that Stephen REA was married to Dolours Price. I am very interested in IRA & IRA related movies. "The Crying Game" is probably my favorite. You overestimated my ability. I could not even finish solving today's puzzle unassisted.

Mh,
Homonyms? Not homophones?

Dons_mind & Sallie,
I've corrected my mistake. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

JRF SAYS: The intro to MTA says "These are the times that try men's souls. In the course of our nation's history the people of Boston have rallied bravely whenever the rights of men have been threatened. Today a new crisis has arisen. The Metropolitan transit Authority -- better known as they MTA -- is attempting to levy a burdensome tax on the population in the form of a subway fare increase. Citizens, hear me out! this could happen to you!"

Anonymous said...

mark, Buenos aires

I, as others had trouble with paean and priam

also mta and mattea are unknown.

shouldnt parcs be greenspaceS?

also toad is not an animal.

I put natasha at first but finally figured it out after realising the "funny" (for me) spelling of labourer

but good fun, regards to all.

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

Mark,
PARCS: Good point. It should be either "Greenspaces" or reclued as "Paris Greenery". What is a toad if it's not an animal? Sorry you have to labour with this American puzzle.

carol said...

Hi C.C.and gang!
C.C. great comments today, as usual. You should consider constructing your own puzzle...you are very clever!
I agree that this one had a certain "dark" side (68A,13D,50D).
Could someone explain 14A? I know the word "sucrose" means sugar, but had not heard of "sugarose" (ending: ose)
this must be a "chemical" term and I know nothing about chemistry.

I was (still am) a great fan of The Kingston Trio"..funny how one can remember the lyrics from so long ago. I also love classis rockabilly and, of course, 50's rock and roll. My husband had a huge collection of the orignial 45's (he sold them a few years ago for some surprisingly large amounts)..he has all the sound on the computer. He said he could live without the actual vinyl, but had to save all the sound. It was quite a job as there were thousands of songs. Sorry to babble.
Enjoy your nice weather and send some of it to Portland, Or.

melissa bee said...

good morning c.c. and all,

resorted to oneacross to get the R crossing of amenra and priam, and mistook resumes in 11D as in job resumes so took me a while to sort that out.

@c.c., holy hotwick haka homophones! loved your post today.

i saw the kingston trio with my mom in about 1980 when i was in high school in tulsa. memories. (hi mom)

does the middle of the puzzle, 'to wed toad' make anyone else think of the this song?

Crockett1947 said...

Good morning, everyone. C.C., loved your homophone intro. That's quite an impressive list that you came up with! One of the middle school bands in the Rose Festival Kids Parade on Wednesday played the Indiana Jones theme -- pretty impressive for such a young group. The Kingston Trio hit "MTA" was about Charlie who didn't have the fare to exit the Metropolitan Transit Authority subway in Boston, so he had to "ride forever beneath the streets of Boston." Had some problems, but was able to fix them all thanks to Mr. G. Had BAN for BAR, PSALM for PAEAN, ACCEPT for ACCEDE, ACT I for ACTE, and BORES for BOORS. 22A and 38D were new to me also. Mark, a toad certainly looks like an animal to me!

Dennis said...

Mark, a toad, an amphibian, is certainly an animal. Its scientific classification is "Animalia"

Dennis said...

Carol, the sugar 'ending' refers to the suffix applied to sugar-related items, such as dextrose, sucrose, etc.

Linda J said...

I thought it was a great puzzle with the exception of one clue. 66 across asked for Jackie's Ex. I beg to differ with the creator of this puzzle, but Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy Onassis was never divorced from Aristotle Onassis. He died while they were still married, as such the clue should have been stated "Jackie's second" i.e. Otherwise very enjoyable.

carol said...

Dennis, thanks so much for the explanation on the "sugar" :) Makes sense now.

Argyle said...

Greetings one and all,
I agree with Linda on 66A.

The first concert I ever went to was the Kingston Trio perfoming at RPI in the late 50's. Back then, they were singing about drinking and whaling and going to Mexico. As they became more politically correct, they shied away from the old songs.

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

Linda J,
You are absolutely right about ARI Clue (66A: Jackie's ex). Should be "Jackie's second". With the current "What Happened" Scott McClellan news, you would think our editor could bring ARI Fleischer back.

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

Melissa,
I've never heard of that Bob Dylan song before, but I found your take on "To Wed Toad" interesting.

Lois,
"but who ya gonna 'run to' when the bare bear rears it's head? I'll go to 3D", why?

Mark,
I need to correct my 11:54am response to you, it should be "Paris Greeneries" (plural form).

Crockett1947,
Favorite books?

Drdad,
Have a safe trip back home!

Crockett1947 said...

C.C., you are such a nag, LOL! I don't have any real favorite single book. I like to read murder mysteries, especially if they have cats in them. Have the entire set of Lilian Jackson Braun "The Cat Who.." series except for the last one. If she is still alive, her quality of work has certainly tanked. I read Phil Margolin for local murder/chess plots. I read the Theone historical/early Christian fiction as well as their other series (not the sci-fi stuff, though). I read Pat McManus for humor. I like to read the Newberry award winners to keep up on what our teens are reading. I'm just an eclectic reader, I believe. Rarely do I not finish a book I pick up.

There you go.

Dot said...

This is my first time to comment but no one has commented on 11d. I have 'reopets' to go with Etna. but that doesn't make sense. Dot
P.S. I've been enjoying the comments for a couple of weeks.

carol said...

Dot, welcome to our crazy world!
11D "resume business" /answer is reopens..as is opens it's doors again. 30A is "enna". Hope this helps.

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

Carol,
Thanks for jumping in for Dot.

Crockett1947,
Now I am happy.