google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Saturday October 18, 2008 Barry Silk

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Oct 18, 2008

Saturday October 18, 2008 Barry Silk

Theme: None

Total blocks: 26

ANNA NICOLE SMITH (39A: Playmate of the year) would have been very pleased with the attention she got from Barry Silk. Her named appeared on Barry's Sept 20 Saturday themeless as a run-through 8D answer.

Last time it's TELL HER NO, this time it's SUSPICIOUS MINDS (7D: Presley's hit). I think Barry was born in early 1950's.

Interesting to see ISHMAEL (27D: Abraham's eldest) and WHALER (44A: Queegueg, e.g.) in the same grid. I am curious to see Barry's original clue for ISHMAEL.

Across:

1A: Leader of the Huns: ATTILA. He is the "Scourge of God".

15A: Currency in Freetown: LEONES. I did not know where Freetown is. It's Sierra Leone's capital. Here is a 500 LEONES banknote.

16A: Like some runs: UNEARNED. I hope Tampa Bay can close the deal tonight. I sure don't want Red Sox repeat what they did in 2004.

17A: Grieve audibly: LAMENT

18A: Rousing to action: SPARKING

19A: Edwards or Andrews, e.g.: AFB (Air Force Base). This clue used to stump me. Not any more.

20A: Plains tribe: ARAPAHO. No idea. Wikipedia says they are "tribe of Native Americans historically living on the eastern plains of Colorado and Wyoming. They were close allies of the Cheyenne tribe and loosely aligned with the Sioux."

28A: Bandleader Shaw: ARTIE. He must be very good at double tonguing.

30A: Strangles: SCRAGS. New definition to me. Always thought SCRAG as scrawny.

32A: Drank to excess: BOOZED

45A: Flip do-over: RETOSS. Another RE word is RESEALED (64A: Mended leaks).

49A: Pipe-stem end: TENON. Our editor likes to clue TENON as "Mortise's partner".

52A: City on the Irtysh River: OMSK. I forgot. I can never remember this city. Here is the map again.

54A: Director Wertmuller: LINA. Foreign to me. Wikipedia says LINA Wertmuller is the first woman ever to be nominated for an Oscar for directing with "Seven Beauties".

55A: Outer: pref.: EXO

56A: Desktop publishing acronym: WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get). Big stumper. I've got no idea what it is.

60A: Falling pollution: ACID RAIN

62A: Bob Marley's genre: REGGAE. "Could You Be Loved". Wonderful song.

65A: Practical trainee: INTERN. I wish I were in the US when Monica Lewinsky scandal broke. I can't imagine how Chris Matthews covered the story in his "Hardball". He is my favorite TV HOST (35A: Website job).

66A: Dark horses: SLEEPERS

Down:

1D: Nehru's birthplace: ALLAHABAD. Here is the map. I've never heard of this place before.

2D: Song from Led Zeppelin's "Presence": TEA FOR ONE. Agonizingly slow. I've never heard of song.

3D: Wyatt Earp's town: TOMBSTONE

5D: Jetson's dog: ASTRO. I am convinced that our editor does not like Houston Astros.

10D: Polynesian wraparound: SARONG. I like this color.

24D: Founder of Lima: PIZARRO (Francisco). No idea. How sad, he was assasinated. What kind of hat is that?.

33D: Intervening space: abbr.: DIST. Are you OK with this clue?

36D: Well worker: OIL RIGGER

37D: Discount store chain: STEIN MART. Unknown to me. I don't believe they have a store in MN.

40D: More fussy: CHOOSIER

46D: Absorb completely: ENWRAP. New definition to me also. Food network has a very interesting program called "Unwrapped".

49D: Waterworks: TEARS. I guessed. I did not know that "Waterworks" is a slang for TEARS.

53D: ___ eleison (Lord, have mercy): KYRIE. Was it a gimme to you? Lord is not going to show me any mercy.

58D: Generation after boomers: GEN X. I am a GEN Xer.

63D: Verizon, once: GTE

C.C.

35 comments:

Martin said...

Acronym that describes my reaction to 56A: WTF???

My wife and I went downtown today so I picked up a newspaper and did the crossword on the bus. When I got home I used google to get TENON, DEE, WYSIWYG and KYRIE. ENWRAP was not a gimme for me: I assume it refers to how ameobae absorb their food. It could also, presumably, refer to a person being completely absorbed by a movie, ie enrapt, but I don't think the two words are related.

I had ALLAHABAD and PIZARRO wrong because I didn't know what venison was: I knew it was a kind of meet so I wrote BEEF instead of DEER.

Wait... Pizarro... isn't he a Superman villain?

Martin

Martin said...

Bizarro

Dick said...

Good morning Cc, DFs and DFettes...this was a tough one today. The SW corner was the worst although I also needed some help in other areas. I got off to a lousy start when I put Loonie for 15a. For some reason I assumed Freetown was in Canada.
For 36d I kept trying to insert some typ of "digger" but could not force it in. I had to see Mr G to get KYRIE.
Hop you all have a great week end. I am off to the mountain retreat to see the final days of the fall foliage. If the sun comes out it should be great.

Dick said...

Martin your sentiments for the acronym reflect mine as well. WTF?? LOL.

Chris in LA said...

Good morning CC etal:
Not bad today - only a few googles ("leones", "allahabad", "tea for one", and "suspicious minds" as I'm not a big Elvis fan). All others were known or presented on the perps.

CC: You're right, there are no Stein Marts in MN - too bad, inexpensive clothes & great shoes per my ex-wife & my girlfriend.

WYSIWYG (actually pronounced "wizz-ee-wig") in one of my favorite acronyms as I was once in the desk-top publishing business - it refers to "what you see on the screen is what is going to print". FYI (an ex-boss of mine once told me that stood for "f*ck you, idiot") my other favorite acronyms are SNAFU ("situation normal, all f**ked up"), NIMBY ("not in my back yard" - reference to people who support initiatives as long as they don't impact them personally - think cell-phone towers),and, as you know, SWAG ("scientific wild-a** guess).

Anybody else got favorite acronyms?

Hope all have a great Saturday - I need to cut the grass & keep my fingers crossed that my contractor comes out to finally (only a month later) finish fixing hurricane Gustav tree-on-my-house damage today.

Geaux Bucks!

Dennis said...

Good morning, c.c. and fellow miscreants - a most enjoyable puzzle today; lots of thought involved.
WYSIWYG was a gimme for me since I spent my career in the computing field. Never would've gotten 'kyrie' if not for the perps. I agree, I think 33d is a bit of a stretch.
I don't know why editors ever use region-specific clues either - I checked and Steinmarts are in only 30 of the 50 states. If you didn't live near one, you'd have no clue (sorry) what it was.

Hope everyone has an outstanding weekend; spectacular fall weather here in the NE.

KittyB said...

Good morning, C.C. and friends.

I managed to finish the puzzle without Googling, but I had some help from the on-line puzzle when I typed a wrong word.

Kyrie was a gimme to me. 'Kyrie eleison' is a response in the Christian worship service, and derives from earlier Greek worship. Students of music history are introduced to the Kyrie when they study music composed for Masses.

ANNA NICHOLE filled in quickly. SUSPICIOUS MINDS took a little longer. I really enjoyed seeing ISHMAEL crossing WHALER. Is there some relationship between TEA FOR ONE and BOOZER?

I found myself trying to make this puzzle harder than it was. I was running all the Asian condiments through my mind and never thought of SOY SAUCE. That would have been just too easy! lol Mr. Silk, your reputation precedes you!

I need to get my day started. I hope you all have a great weekend!

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

This was definitely a challenging puzzle, although fortunately not insurmountable. I did not know either of the song titles (TEA FOR ONE and SUSPICIOUS MINDS), and also did not know ALLAHABAD, STEIN MART, SCRAGS, or OMSK. Well, I knew OMSK, but didn't know that it was on the Irtysh River.

And GMT stands for Greenwich Mean Time (Greenwich, England, is the location of the Prime Meridian).

lois said...

Good morning CC & DF's: This was a hammer for me. Is Mr. Silk 'on patrol' or something? Felt like he was talkin' to me w/32A (boozed)for last night, 17A (lament)for this morning, and 53A (kyrie...church & repent) for tomorrow followed by 31D (anew). Nah, that'sarong! Better 'retoss' that idea. Well, the 'sleepers' are up. Time to be the 'host' and find the kitchen. Have a good wkend.

Clear Ayes said...

Good Morning All, No time for the puzzle this morning. I won't cheat and will wait to read the comments until I get done with yard-sale-ing this afternoon.

Emily Dickinson was a very reclusive person. She wrote almost 2,000 poems, but most of them weren't published until after her death in 1896. Even though she seldom left her house, she wrote many poems about nature

Nature 27 - Autumn

"The morns are meeker than they were,
The nuts are getting brown;
The berry's cheek is plumper,
The rose is out of town.

The maple wears a gayer scarf,
The field a scarlet gown.
Lest I should be old-fashioned,
I'll put a trinket on."

- Emily Dickinson

Have a wonderful day everyone.

KittyB said...

I have a post with three links I'd like to share, but Blogger is telling me that it won't accept the "http://" in the addresses.

Would someone be willing to edit the links for me? I thought I knew how to create the links, but I'm not certain what is wrong with these.

Anonymous said...

Hey Chris,
re: Acronyms--I can't help remembering that we mentioned "Blazing Saddles" not long ago and in that movie was the first time I heard of the Fukowe "tribe".
Not to be confused with the one mentioned in 20 A. For my money it could be used in reference to 52A and 1D. Anyway, may we count it as an acronym?

Sandra

Chris in LA said...

@ Sandra:
Not sure - what do the letters in "fukowe" stand for?

Dennis said...

Sandra, I always thought it was the 'fugowe' tribe - as in "where the fugowe?"

Ken said...

Good morning, C.C. and clan. I had some real stinkers this morning. I had problems with many of the down clues. My Catholic background bailed me out on 53D. I must have said it 1000s of times. The accompanying phrase is "Christe Eleison."

Scrag was a new word to me, but Merriam-Webster is OK with it.
As a noun, it is either a scrawny person/animal or the lean end of a neck of mutton or veal. As a transitive verb, it means to strangle, choke or hang.

Word of the day. Clochard kloSHAR A tramp or vagrant. It sounds french to me with that silent D.

The cook told the clochard he'd give him a sandwich in the alley.

@Clear Ayes, I salute your endeavors with a yard sale; I've never had the patience to hold one.

@Cokato, I think it was you mentioned Autumn color yesterday. When I was a boy, we took the Northern Pacific Railroad trip to Taylor's Ferry on the St. Croix River. I was more interested in the train than the leaves, but my mother nearly swooned. The NP sold scads of excursion rides.
Taylor's Ferry is off I-35N on US 8.

A good weekend to all.

ALucidDreamUndreamt said...

Man this puzzle was hard for me.. maybe I got a little rusty during the semester I haven't really had time to complete any of the puzzles I have started. I am on fall break now... YAY. Pediatrics was fun and I changed a diaper for the first time in my life, the mom had a field day with that one. I start OB-GYN on monday... I think I fear pregnant women more than children.

Hope everyone has been well.

martin: I agree with your last example for ENWARP. Its like when you someone says "they were completely enwrapped in the lecture".

PIZARRO built the LIMA, where he was assassinated. Bizarro is the name of the villain in the superman comics.

WYSIWYG (wizzy wig) means that when you print something out, the text or image you see on the screen is the same text or image you will see when you print it.

chris in la: my favorite acronyms are the ones that people don't know are acronyms, like dinks (Double Income couples, No Kids), another name for yuppies, laser (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation), radar (Radio Detecting And Ranging), and scuba (Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus). I come from an instant message generation that commonly speak in acronyms but we call in speaking IM cause we sometimes talk the way people write in instant messengers. so I do literally say, OMG and LOL to people in a conversation, as well as idk, bff4ever, and gthoh (get the hell outta here). iIt's really fun actually.

Well, I am off to work on my ethical dilemma paper. I am writing about an interracial couple, both who are biracial themselves, who has a child that is dying because he needs tissue donation but because he has such a rare genetic and racial mixture, it is hard to find a match. The couple decides to go to genetic counseling so that they can have a child that is a genetic match to their child so they can use the baby for tissue donation. I have to argue for both sides why it is ethical and why it is unethical. If they don't have the baby their child will die, but is it ethical for them to have a baby for the sole reason of harvesting its umbilical cord cells or to harvest bone marrow. What do you guys think? Hope this isn't a loaded or touchy subject.

Anonymous said...

I totally agree with martin's first reaction to 56A. And I don't understand 16A.Like some runs. How does unearned connect?

Dennis said...

sallie, in baseball, when a run scores on an error, for example, it's considered an 'unearned run'.

carol said...

C.C.,DF's,ette's and all, WOW, this was my big hammer for the month!(so far). I had so much trouble and had to go to Mr.G so often, that it was embarrassing!
Words unknown are too numerous to mention. As Drdad is fond of saying, I think I'll go eat worms! :)

Martin at 6:17am, I agree with your acronym!

Dennis, this is why you are a member of Mensa, and I am not :)

Lois, is that you in the picture? Where was it taken? It is very blurry.

JD said...

Good morning C.C. and all,

For some reason there were more gimmes in this puzzle than usual, although I did have to G leones,scrags,allahbad,Omsk and Lina.Hearing the Mass said in Latin for so many yrs. gave me kyrie , and the Arapaho Indians were part of the 2nd or 3rd gr. curriculum waaayyyy back.Got Suspicious Minds quickly, but it took longer to think of soy sauce. We have no Stein Marts here and I agree with Martin and Dick about 56A, although it sounded logical when chrisinla explained it.

I'm anxiously awaiting for our Liquid Ambers to transform into gold, red and orange.Where ever you are, have a lovely day.

g8rmomx2 said...

Hi c.c. and all,

Well this was a hard one for me! I kept trying to find a common theme. I googled a bunch: Allahabad, WYSIWYG, scrags, Pizarro, Shu, Leones. WHEW! Those of you who got this one unaided, great job!

clear ayes: Good luck on your yard sale!

Martin: My sentiments exactly!

Dick: I also had digger at first, but with the O from "host" and only 3 letters it had to be Oil so I finally changed it to rigger.

Kittyb: I can never get the links to work, they never come up blue for me.

Have a great Saturday everyone!

KittyB said...

Oh, C.C.....

I don't doubt that Artie Shaw could double tongue, but you should know that he was a clarinetist.

I'm not an expert on this, but I can think of three clarinetists who were also bandleaders: Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman, and Woody Herman.

Here's a clip of Artie.

And one of Benny.

And one of Woody.

Barb B said...

Whoa, that was kinda hard, even online. Lots of guesses for me, but the only serious snag was the cross GMT and Steinmart. I had forgotten what GMT stands for (Thanks Barry) There are no Steinmarts in Oregon, and I’ve never heard of them. Didn’t this happen once before? Was that Barry Silk? Was it the same store? Seems a bit unfair. If the idea is to make it impossible for a lot of puzzle solvers, you could use Fred Meyer stores for the same clue; East Coast people couldn’t possibly solve it without googling.

Kyrie and wysiwyg were gimmes for me, since they are both part of my culture (computers and worship.) Interesting to have Lina and Lena.

Words new to me; Allahabad, Leones, tenon, scrags.

C. C..
“Lord is not going to show me any mercy.” I'm laughing, because I'm thinking that’s a DF joke.

In the event that it isn’t, then it might be worthwhile to make a search for a different (merciful) God. (smile)

Barry G. said...

If the idea is to make it impossible for a lot of puzzle solvers, you could use Fred Meyer stores for the same clue; East Coast people couldn’t possibly solve it without googling.

Well, except for East Coast people who went to college out west like me... ^_^

KittyB said...

From Friday night's posts...

Argyle, I enjoyed the link to "I Dig Rock and Roll Music," and the explanation of "laying it between the lines."

Clear ayes, I have a great nephew who will enjoy "Sister for Sale" in about a year. He's going on five and his little sister is seven months old. I know that he already feels her tug on Gramma's time, which had been his alone until her birth. My sister will get a chuckle out of it, too.

It was fun to relive "Stuff" with George Carlin. "supply lines are getting harder to maintain." The last line, spewed out in Gatling gun style, always makes me laugh.

Melissa bee, how was "A Bronx Tale?"

Kelly, Dear Husband and I were on our way to bed as you posted. When you get up at 4:30 or 5:00 in the morning, it's difficult to be a night owl. I may not be around to continue the play at night, but I do try to check in to see what I missed. Keep posting. People will reply the next day.

embien said...

25:58 today. Wow, what a workout! I think this is the longest time ever for me on a TMS puzzle, but it was enjoyable all the way through. I really like Barry Silk's puzzles.

The last fill for me was the crossing of previously unknown LEONES and ALLAHABAD. At least LEONES was inferable since I knew where Freetown was, but it was still a slog getting there, and ALLAHABAD was completely unknown to me despite playing numerous games of India Rails.

ARK (via this clue, at least) and CENSE were also unknown to me. I did have an image in my mind as to what a thurible is (turns out I was right.)

I'm disappointed in myself that SUSPICIOUS MINDS was so slow in coming since that song is one of the few Elvis songs I really like. I just couldn't think of it for the longest time (plus having some mistakes in the crosses at first).

53d: KYRIE eleison was a gimme, thanks to that great song by Mister Mister

A nice Saturday puzzle. Thanks again Mr. Silk!

kazie said...

Hi all!
I did not have an easy time with this one. It would be true to say about three quarters of it were either guesses or g spots. I agree about the regional store names--totally unfair, also foreign sounding religious references unknown to non catholics. But I guess that's why we have google.

Ken, yes, clochard is french for hobo.

Barb B said...

Barry,
Point taken. Many clues will be obscure to some people. WYSIWYG was easy for me but a stumper for others. I came here to learn, and it’s working. Next time I’m in California, I’ll look for a Steinmart store.

Embien
Thanks for the links. I never heard of India Rails, and Mister Mister is new to me too. What a voice! I knew about thurible, but I suppose that’s a Steinmart-like clue for some people.

MelissaBee,
Yeah! How was A Bronx Tale?

ALucidDreamUndremt
Welcome back, I’ve missed you.
I have no answers for your research, but would be interested in your findings. Jodi Piccoult wrote a novel about genetic planning, ‘My Sister’s Keeper’. Dave Frohnmayer, the retired president of U of O and his wife have struggled with the issue. All three of their daughters suffer(ed) from Fanconi anemia. They hoped that the third daughter could be a donor, but she was diagnosed with the disease just after birth.

kazie said...

ALucidDreamUndremt
I think in this situation, the couple would be willing to try anything out of desperation. If the second child was healthy, then they end up with two healthy children, assuming the transplant works. If as in the example Barb b quoted, they have anothe child with the same problem, they've doubled their woes. Perhaps there'd be a way to test in the womb and abort if this happened, but then you get into a whole other dilemma. However, would the transplant really be the only reason to conceive another child? I think you could argue that also they want to try for a healthy child, either way.

Embien, I enjoyed the Mr. Mister too, and had never heard of them before. Thank you!

JD said...

barb b, I've never seen a Stein mart store here in CA, but maybe they are in So.CA.I've never been in a Wallmart either, but I know they are scattered about.

I so enjoyed Jodi Piccolt's novel.As a parent I think I would do anything to keep my child alive, only IF that child's life would not be full of continual pain.Yet, who knows what we would really do until faced with that decision?In My Sister's Keeper, the younger sister felt like she was being used, but she loved her sister and parents so much, she did not know how to say no each time they needed her.Seeing it from her point of view was interesting.
clear ayes, how did that garage sale go? I'm sure your weather was beautiful.Loved your poems.

DoesItinInk said...

When I started today's puzzle, I had a sinking feeling that I would be unable to complete even half of it. I knew 4D LENA and 6D ASTRO. I misspelled 1A as Atilla instead of ATTILA. But Nehru’s birthplace? Currency in Freetown? The founder of Peru? And worse the 1993 Playmate of the Year??? Oh, then I saw 28A ARTIE and 42A DEER. Plugging away letter by painful letter I completed the upper, right section. The lower, left was next, though I had to guess on the T where TENON and TEARS crossed. WYSIWYG was filled in near the end. It is a term with which I am quite familiar, but I do not understand how it relates to desktop publishing! It was the upper, right section though that caused me the most problems and ultimately my one red square, the R where ON PATROL and SCRAGS cross. When I tentatively filled in my last letter, I was relieved that I had finished without help, and I felt surely that most of it was correct!

I went to see the movie Rachel Getting Married yesterday by myself on the way home from work. This evening I took my youngest daughter to see The Secret Lives of Bees. I had been given the book to read by someone who knew of my interest in raising bees, and my daughter had read the book in school at the beginning of the year, so we had a common interest in the movie.

Argyle said...

Stein Mart Stores

263 freestanding neighborhood stores in 30 states + the District of Columbia.

Alabama (10) Illinois (5) Michigan (1) North Carolina (22) Utah (2)
Arizona (8) Indiana (7) Mississippi (5) Ohio (12) Virginia (11)
Arkansas (2) Iowa (1) Missouri (4) Oklahoma (5) Washington D.C. (1)
California (20) Kansas (2) Nevada (4) Pennsylvania (4) Wisconsin (1)
Colorado (2) Kentucky (2) Nebraska (1) South Carolina (13)
Florida (49) Louisiana (9) New Jersey (5) Tennessee (13)
Georgia (16) Massachusetts (1) New York (4) Texas (44)

DoesItinInk said...

Chris in LA: In addition to FUBAR (F**ked up beyond all recognition), a favorite acronym of mine when is RTFM (Read the f**king manual).

cc: Am I to understand you live in MN? My middle daughter attends St Mary’s University in Winona, MN.

kittyb: When you gave the link to Woody, I thought you meant this this Woody. LOL

KittyB said...

Doesitinink, I think of Woody Allen as a clarinetist who jams, rather than a band director.

I'm sure there are other band leaders I've overlooked.

Thanks for the link!

Anonymous said...

WYSIWYG, what you see is what you get. We pronounced it wizzy-wig.

Early word processor programs did not show you what you'd get as you typed. Instead, one would compose with a line editor (think of Windows's Notepad), and insert tags that specified what font, what size, bold, etc. That was run through a formatting program that printed the result, and only then could you see what you'd gotten.