google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Thursday July 3, 2008 Alan P. Olschwang

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Jul 3, 2008

Thursday July 3, 2008 Alan P. Olschwang

Theme: Live and Learn (Evan Esar Quip)

17A: Start of a quip: IT'S NEVER TOO

24A: Part 2 of a quip: LATE TO LEARN

37A: Part 3 of quip: AND

46A: Part 4 of quip: IT'S NEVER TOO

57A: End of quip: EARLY EITHER

Sub-theme: Golf

1A: Monroe's successor: ADAMS. Nice looking ADAMS' golf bag. Is anyone playing with their Tom Watson wedge set?

20A: Heads, slangily: NOODLES. Maxfli NOODLE, Long & Soft.

36A: Best of the best: ELITE. Here is a box of Wilson Staff 's True Tour ELITE golf balls. Too much spin on Maxfli ELITE.

25D: Zero in golf: EVEN PAR. What??? Have you ever carded a "zero"? Ridiculous clue.

I did not know that every QUIP themed puzzle has its own specific title until I solved Alan P. Olschwang "Young Adults" QUIP last Sunday. Live and Learn, indeed.

Nothing scintillating about this puzzle. The clues/answers are way TOO (4 TOO's embedded in the grid) ordinary, there is no "extra", if any, flashes of brilliance to make it extraordinary. This constructor really needs to DEVIATE (41D: Go off course) from his annoying QUIP rut and create some quality puzzles for TMS solvers.

ACROSS:

6A: Timex rival: CASIO. And another watch brand is OMEGA (43A: Final Greek letter).

15A: Robbery: HEIST. Gene Hackman's HEIST is pretty good.

33A: Candler or Gray: ASA. And another palindromic word CIVIC (38A: Municipal).

53A: "Great" czar: PETER I (from 1682-1725).

54A: Jazz devotee: HIPSTER. Always thought HIPSTER refers someone who is hip. Had no idea that HIPSTER can also mean a jazz fan.

60A: Mexican Mrs.: SRA (Señora). And her top curve is TILDE (26D: Diacritical mark).

62A: French student: ELEVE. "Nice pupil"!

64A: Play tricks on: TEASE. "...The way you talk, the way you TEASE, right now I think you see, there Ain't Nothing 'Bout You that don't do something for me..."

DOWN:

1D: Nitrogen compound: AMINE. Learned this chemical compound word from doing Xword.

2D: Artoo's last name: DETOO. No idea. Got it from the perps. This is how R2-D2 looks like.

5D: Star-shaped: STELLATE. New word to me. Only know "Stellar".

7D: __ Lingus (Irish airline): AER. And another Irish reference is actor REA (58D: Stephen of "Fear Dot Com"). I've never seen "Fear Dot Com" (FeardotCom). Just saw his Prêt-à-Porter a few days ago.

9D: Some crustaceans: ISOPODS. Another new word to me. Dictionary defines ISOPODS as "Any of numerous crustaceans of the order Isopoda, characterized by a flattened body bearing seven pairs of legs and including the sow bugs and gribbles." How strange! Where can you find 7 in the word ISOPODS? Shouldn't it be HEPTAPOD, like "Four: prefix" TETRA (47D: Colorful tropical fish) in TETRAPOD?

10D: "The Stunt Man" star: O'TOOLE (Peter). I've never seen the movie, have you?

11D: Bara of the silents: THEDA. BARA was clued as Theda of the silents on a TMS puzzle before. Wikipedia says her name is an anagram of "Arab Death". She did not look wild to be Cleopatra, did she? So easy to confuse her with the IT girl CLARA Bow.

12A: Boring tool: AUGER. AUGER in action. I had no idea that this tool is called AUGER, which looks so similar to AUGUR.

13D: Irriatation: THORN

22D: Keanu in "The Matrix": NEO. I really like Keanu's role in "Something's Gotta Give", don't you? Which is your favorite Keanu movie?

32D: Measuring instrument: GAUGE

38D: Four-poster covers: CANOPIES

45D: Peau de __: SOIE (soft silk). Lime Peau de SOIE. SOIE is silk in French, peau is skin. "MAL (27A: __de Mer) dans sa peau" means "ILL as ease" (39D).

46D: "No bid": I PASS

49D: Soup herb: THYME. I never sprinkle THYME in my soup. I do like roasted asparagus with fresh THYME.

50D: One Barrymore: ETHEL. Unknown to me. I only knew DREW Barrymore and LIONEL Barrymore, who was also a very talented painter. I am surprised that this Wikipedia bio did not mention any of his artwork.

C.C.

40 comments:

Dennis said...

Good morning, C.C. and DFs -

C.C., couldn't agree with you more about the inane quips; we need something different. Also thought 'even par' for 'zero in golf' was ridiculous.
The picture you posted of the Maxfli Noodles - that's Lois' definition of mixed emotions.

All in all, a relatively quick puzzle.

Hope everyone's going to have a great, long holiday weekend.

Chris in LA said...

Good morning CC etal,
Got the quip fairly quickly, which helped. Didn't like "peter 1" answer - felt like it was a stretch to fill the grid. "Hipster" as jazz devotee made no sense either.
I saw "Stunt Man" many moons ago - not a particularly great movie, but was set at The Hotel Del Coronado on Coronado Island off the coast of San Diego - fantastic hotel/resort - I had the pleasure of staying there once, also many moons ago. It's a beautiful old hotel that I would recommend to anyone who had to visit San Diego.
Hope all have a great day!

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

Dennis,
I have to be "De"QUIPPED soon. I feel like a bomb ready to explode.

Chris,
I thought the PETER I clue is pretty good.

Lois,
I did not feel any seismic disturbance yesterday. All is well in that front? Move safely today.

Katherine said...

Good morning CC and DFs......
I had some rough spots this morning, but got most of it. I didn't know crustaceans were isopods. I didn't know a jazz devotee was a "hipster" either. The clue for Peter the Great threw me off. I knew it was Peter, but couldn't get the "I". I figured it out from the down clue.
I liked the Brooks and Dunn video, and I never saw Stunt Man either.
My favorite Keanu movie is The Lake House. I loved that movie, but I guess it is more of a chick flick. Did you see it CC?
That was a beautiful picture of the the silk.
Carol, from yesterday, yes, I do remember the bubble gum songs and had a friend who actually LIKED those songs! LOL
It's raining here today, but better today than tomorrow.
Have a good day everone.

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

Katherine,
The Lake House: No. Will put it in my Netflix queue.

Dennis & Chris,
Is ISOPODS a gimme to you guys? The previous 2 deleted comments were from me. Made 2 silly spelling mistakes.

Dennis said...

C.C., I only got Isopods from the perps - didn't have a clue, so to speak.

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

Dennis et al,
Would you mind letting me known the unknown words/names to you when you comment on the puzzle from now on? I want to objectively GAUGE the difficulty of the clues/answers.

Dennis said...

C.C., I'll gladly do it, but it's gonna take up a lot of blog space...

Chris in LA said...

CC,
I also got isopods on the perps (was unknown to me).
Also unknown:
stellate
Theda (Bara)
mal (de mer)
Asa (Candler or Gray)
soie (peau de)
Ethel (Barrymore)
Rea (Stephen of Fear Dot Com)

Barry G. said...

Morning, folks!

1A and 1D generated an immediate 16A reaction from me (HUH?), but my confusion was momentary as I was able to get 1D from the perps and recognized 1A after filling in a couple of letters.

The only other sticky part of the puzzle was in the Mideast section when I initially put TEA instead of ASA for 33A (I was thinking "Earl Gray" tea and figured that Candler was some other type of tea I had never heard of) and followed it up by putting TIA for 33D (I was thinking of "Tia Maria" for some reason). 38A and 42A quickly set me back on the straight and narrow path, however.

The quip today was easily gettable, but not particularly exciting. I expect a bit more zip from an Evan Esar quip, to be honest (although I didn't realize he was the author of the quip until I read about it here).

One minor quibble, btw... 28A (VIDEO) was clued as "Part of DVD". However, my understanding is that DVD now actually stands for Digital Versatile Disk and not Digital Video Disk.

Oh -- an my paper clued 13D as "Irritation" instead of "Rose's guardian." How odd...

As for unknown words and names, the only ones I had to get from the perps were AMINE and SOIE. ISOPODS was actually a word I knew, although it didn't spring to mind immediately.

Bill said...

One and a half cups today. Could have been better. Everything was inferable from the other answers but when I have to put in one or two letters at a time it takes longer! And, yes, 25d was a dumb clue and answer. A better clue might have been " No +/- on the links".
Isopod: a word I've Heard but never knew the meaning of 'til now.
MAL de MER: If my one year of French serves correctly means Seasickness.
Everything else was pretty straight ahead.
CYA

Bill said...

And my memory isn't too bad. I just looked it up and it is seasickness.
Could have looked it up first but that would have been too easy.
C.C., What are you trying too do? Poor Lois will have all kinds of ideas about your 20a comment!!!

Jeanne said...

Morning all, Zero in golf=terrible clue. Zero implies you skipped the hole which I would like to do sometimes. Amine and stellate escaped me. Isopods was not readily available to my thinking. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

flyingears said...

I liked this puzzle even though I had to google peau de soie. Never heard of that...

Other nitrogen base compounds are amide, amino (acids). There are lots of nitrogen base compds. as in protein stuff.

c.c., you got the theme right on: GOLF!!! I just could not get it at all. Kenny Perry is really playing very good. Woody Austin USUALLY gets the yips in the last few holes on Sundays. I really like 'em both. I also like to follow Tommy Armour III.

NYTAnonimo said...

I did not know ISOPOD either but it was easy enough to figure out. Same for EVENPAR and SOIE, the last to fall. Hope you all have a great 4th!

Bill said...

OK all,
New rule for golfers. If you find a hole on the links that is a THORN in your side, COAST right on by by saying IPASS, take a ZERO thereby boosting your EGO and STEAM ahead to the next. Do not DEVIATE from your chosen path and maybe you can DUPE the officials into giving you the MEREST chance of joining the ELITE inSTEAD of the the less STELLATE of your group!!!

I guess you can tell I don't have much to do today!!!

lois said...

Good morning CC & DF's: Pretty easy one.Not much trouble anywhere that the perps didn't solve. Not a golfer but the zero in golf didn't ring true...However, the Noodles link was great, CC. And Dennis, you make me laugh so hard. Mixed emotions indeed! 7 yards longer? That Maxfli golfer has quite the equipment and quite the bag of balls! I want to be his caddy! I'm sure I could help him score a hole in one but we'd have to work on the stiffness of the swing.

CC: Thanks for asking, CC. I'll be staying in OK a few more days. My mom is going into an assisted living center, so big changes are upon us. The sheep here are sooo relieved that I'm staying.

Enjoy this gorgeous day!

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

Barry,
DVD can also be "Digital Videodisc". "THORN" is clued as "Rose's guardian" online. What an "Irritation"! I would say almost all the unattributed quips we get here are from Evan Esar.

Bill,
RE: EVEN PAR: "Neither under or Over", as simple as that. Yes, "MAL de mer " is seasickness. I borrowed the MAL from the phrase to make "MAL dans sa peau" to point out "ILL as ease"(39D). I like to make (reasonably) wild connections. Lois would probably like Top Flite XL5000 (Super Long, Super Straight & Super Soft). I like your 7:43am comment, more please!!!

Jeanne,
The 25D clue might not be the constructor's original submission.

Flyingears,
Kenny Perry always surprises me.

Lois,
Oh, I thought you were leaving OK today. I've noticed that those PGA golfers tend to have very pronounced stiffness on their left-arm on the downswing.

ndw said...

Good morning All - haven't had time to reply to many of these lately - work just gets in the way!!!
This one had some very DUMB clues but I manasged with the help of google and of course Bill even though he doesn't know it yet!!! hehe...
I too knew "mal de mer" one of my favorite French statements is "je mal a la tete" the other is "je ner sais pas" does anyone else remember those two phrases?

ndw said...

oops - some typos in previous posting - was supposed to be MANAGED for first error
the other was was supposed to be je ne sais pas!

Have a Great Day
Nancy

Anonymous said...

I also thoght the 'V' of DVD meant "Versatile".

Wikipedia says that the original developers never said what DVD actually stands for, and that both meanings are used.

"How Stuff Works" says it stands for "versatile".

"Video" would be incomplete, at best. We receive software shipped on DVD that has no video at all. Thus, "versatile" is a much better definition.

"Zero in golf" is not something I've ever seen. When scores are posted, scores under par are shown as -1, -2, etc. Scores over par are shown as +1, +2, etc.

Scores at even par are usually shown as 'E'.

flyingears said...

ZERO in golf is just to clue one into thinking about shooting par (even par or level par as it's used by Brits).

Argyle said...

Good morning, c.c. and DFs,

First off, thank you to nytanonimo for the great music link.

New words for me:
amine
isopods
stellate
peau de soie
and actor, Stephen Rea

Online differences:
63A Depressed for Downcast
13D Rose gaurdian for irritation
45D online doesn't have
(soft silk)
mind you, having the (soft silk) wouldn't have helpped me know "peau de soie".

Argyle said...

Nancy D,

The two phrases I used most in class? "je ne sais pas" and "je ne comprend pas"

Danielle said...

Yuck. Not fun. I had to look up a bunch of stuff and the quip wasn't even especially clever.

carol said...

Hi all, couldn't say I breezed through this by any means, but I did manage to get it all without any help! Unknowns are:
Isopod
Amine
Tilde
Soie
Stellate
(I got those from perps and"hors")

Katherine, yesterday I said Gary Lewis & the Playboys did Red Rubber Ball but it was Bobby Vee..just to set the "record" straight:)

Dennis, loved your comment about the Maxfli...long and soft, that is disturbing to picture. Odd name for a golf ball mfg company, huh?

Lois, we missed you yesterday! Hope your Mom is ok.

Superfrey said...

I agree with most that some of the clues had obscure answers. I am tired of these Esar quotes... The constructor must have a book of them and use them every Thursday.... GRRRR Show more imagination.
The "Zero in golf" clue was ok to me.... one is not over or under par but even.
Have a great 4th of July everyone :-)

Anonymous said...

Sorry to be late to the comments. Under the modified Stableford scoring system in golf
Albatross(Double Eagle) +8
Eagle +5
Birdie +2
Par 0
Bogey -1
Worse Than Bogey -3

Highest score wins!! PGA has one tourney a year under this format (I think)

Pat

lois said...

CC: That is hilarious! I've noticed the very same thing with some of the cowboys out here. It's the stiffness in the driving downswing that needs to be focused on or is it the driving stiffness of the downswing. Either way, a hole in one is the goal.

I have extended my stay to help my mom. She is insisting on going to an assisted living facility. Thank you, Carol. It's a ginormous change, but she's a wise woman and knows when change is necessary. Amazing woman!

carol said...

Lois, please be thankful for your Mom and the fact that she knows what she wants...she should be thankful for your caring concern too. My Mom had Altzhiemers (sp) and couldn't understand when we had to put her in an assisted facility..was so sad, but finally she seemed happy there.

Anonymous said...

Stephen Rea is probably most famous (infamous?) for his role as Fergus in 1992's The Crying Game. The Crying Game was the first movie that I saw with Forrest Whitaker. He has such a good accent that I thought he was English. Stephen Rea, on the other hand, is Irish and has acted in lots of movies where he had an American accent. You just can't tell by accents where people are from.

Dennis said...

anonymous @4:35, an excellent point. I recently saw an interview with the woman who plays the mother on "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" (a very hot momma, by the way), and she has a very pronounced British accent. Not a trace on the show. I don't know how they do it.

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

Pat @ 1:17pm,
Yes, PGA International used to have that exciting score system.

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

Nancy D & Argyle,
I learned "Je t'aime" & "ma petite chou" long before I learned "Je ne sais pas" and "Je ne comprends pas". I just hated so much the "chou chou", so silly!

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

Dennis,
I could not believe what I was hearing when Sacha Baron Cohen was being interviewed on "Fresh Air". I was stunned by his British accent.

KittyB said...

Three others who have accents in real life which don't appear in reel life are Russell Crowe, Hugh Jackman and Hugh Laurie.

Words which came through perps or crosses:

Amine
Asa
Rea
Eleve
Reeve
O'Toole and
St. Lo

And, I suppose the stupid "zero in golf" clue.

Have a great weekend, all!

Crockett1947 said...

Hello everyone! A long volunteer day today, so I'm really late in posting. C.C., I always thought the top curve on a senora was called something else. I just can't believe someone would say, "Check out the tilde on that one!" Have a great 4th everybody!!

embien said...

I like some of the Eban Esar quotes. This one, not so much.

I had a bit of a problem in the SE because I put in ERRED in the space for 51d instead of where it should have been (52d). Silly mistake that made for much fun getting things straightened out (not!).

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

Crockett1947,
You made me laugh, thank you.

Embien,
Some of Esar's quips are very clever. But I think I've had enough.

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

KittyB,
Jude Law seems to have some trouble hiding his accent, doesn't he?