google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Sunday December 14, 2008 Robert H. Wolfe

Advertisements

Dec 14, 2008

Sunday December 14, 2008 Robert H. Wolfe

Theme: Prefixed People

26A: More than one "Cape Fear" co-star?: POLYBERGEN (Polly Bergen)

28A: Wrong fictional detective?: MISMARPLE (Miss Marple)

48A: Small country singer?: MINIPEARL (Minnie Pearl)

69A: Driven director?: AUTOPREMINGER (Otto Preminger)

96A: 1/10 of a bandleader?: DECIARNAZ (Desi Arnaz)

110A: Around a fictional lawyer?: PERIMASON (Perry Mason)

115A: Dry Broadway star? XEROMOSTEL (Zero Mostel)

36D: Little fashion designer?: OLIGCASSINI (Oleg Cassini)

44D: Broadcast TV cop?: TELESAVALAS (Telly Savalas)

I was not aware that XERO is a prefix for "dry", as in xeroderma, "a disease in which the skin becomes dry, hard, and scaly."

I only knew OLIG from oligarchy, so I always thought OLIG means a few. "Little" made me think Cassini is short. Is he?

Normally I don't like actor/actresse - laden puzzles. But I enjoyed this one. Very creative theme.

Got a bit emotional when I filled in the Roman numeral XXXIV for 107D: "34, once." Thought of Twins great Kirby Puckett whose jersey number was 34. Kirby used to say "Don't take anything for granted, because tomorrow is not promised to any of us.

I dislike the clue for ILIA (52D: Pieces of pelvises). I know the constructor is having alliteration in his mind, but "Pieces" bring fractured bones to my mind.

Across:

1A: San Joaquin Valley tribe: YOKUTS. Literally "people" in their own language. Alien to me. I also did not know where San Joaquin Valley is. "San Joaquin" is Saint Joachim in Spanish.

12A: Mixed sandwich spread: EGG SALAD. So messy to eat.

20A: Dismount: ALIGHT. The past tense ALIT seems to make more appearances in crossword.

21A: In the work cited: OP. CIT. I tend to confuse this phrase with IBID.

22A: Type of gland: SALIVARY. I only knew SALIVA.

23A: "Robocop" co-star: WELLER (Peter). Googled his name. The title of this film does not sound interesting to me.

25A: In complete agreement: AS ONE MAN

30A: Matador's foe: TORO. "Matar" is "Kill" in Spanish.

40A: Potvin or Savard: DENIS. Both are former NHL players. Denis Potvin was with the New York Islanders, and DENIS Savard was with Chicago Blackhawks for a long time. I was not familiar with either of them. Why DENIS instead of DENNIS?

59A: International business conflict: TRADE WAR

62A: CBS hit: CSI

66A: Noble family of Ferrara: ESTE. Also, "East" in Spanish.

67A: Mouths: Lat.: ORA. Dictionary says ORA is a plural of Latin "os" (mouth). Unknown to me. I've only seen ORA clued as " __ pro nobis" before.

79A: Carpool-lane letters: HOV

85A: "The Bartered Bride" composer: SMETANA. I googled his name. Here is the overture of "The Bartered Bride".

94A: Virgil's Trojan hero: AENEAS. Ah, I remember him. Dido, the queen of Carthage, committed suicide because AENEAS could not be with her any more. How sad! But at least he loved her when they were together.

106A: Stock index: AMEX

121A: Rabble-rouser: AGITATOR

122A: Canonical hours: SEXTS. I obtained this answer from down fills. Sex, sexi, sext are all Latin prefixes for six.

125A: Number sheets: PAGINATE

127A: Sundial: GNOMON. I can never remember GNOMON. It's Greek for "indicator".

128A: Unit of radiation wavelengths: ANGSTROM. Named after the Swedish physicist Anders ANGSTROM. Unknown to me also. ANGST ROM, such an angry-looking name.

130A: Kennedy assassin: OSWALD. This issue of Life magazine with Lee Harvey OSWALD on the cover is very collectible.

Down:

1D: Bawl: YAWP. New word to me. I don't like the "aw" duplication in the clue and the answer.

2D: Butter's bro: OLEO. Why "bro" instead of "sis"?

5D: Neighbor of Luxor: THEBES. Neighbor? Really? I can only find Luxor on this map. Have only heard of the Greek city THEBES.

7D: "Marty" star: BORGNINE. How can I remember his name? BORG NINE. We just had ERNEST clued as "Actor Borgnine" last Tuesday.

10D: Third word of "America": 'TIS. I guessed. Not familiar with the lyrics.

14D: Takes by theft: GLOMS

15D: Old Blue Eyes: SINATRA. Do you know that "My Way" was written by Paul Anka?

19D: Unit of force: DYNE. Newton fraction. "Unit of work" is ERG, "Joule faction".

35D: Elite wheel: LIMO

37D: Plays around?: GOLFS. A round of GOLF. Nice play on "around".

39D: Becloud: MIST UP. I like compound word answers.

41D: Bringer of bad news: ILL WIND. See the origin. I like the verse in the end: "... And the oboe it is clearly understood/Is an ill wind that no one blows good". Look at the line above the verse, "presumably as 'French horn' didn't scan". What does "scan" mean? Rhyme?

45D: What is left: ESTATE. I have problem understanding the grammar structure of the clue. "Stuff that's left" is easier for me to parse.

46D: Entrance gates: STILES

48D: "Simpsons" barkeep: MOE. Also the name of a Stooge.

55D: Grubs: CADGES. I toiled hard for this answer. Always associate "Grubs" with food.

58D: Play starter: ACT ONE

64D: Shoreline state: LOW TIDE. Why? What is "Shoreline state"?

68D: Lion, at times: ROARER

71D: Actress Loy: MYRNA. Another google. She played Nora in "The Thin Man".

80D: Hokkaido port: OTARU. I forgot. Here is the map again. Lot of AINU (The aboriginal Japanese) live there I suppose.

83D: "The __ Cometh": ICEMAN. An educated guess. Not familiar with this Eugene O'Neill play. That guy looks like Henry Fonda in "12 Angry Men", doesn't he?

84D: Beginning of the large intestine: CECUM. New word to me. Did you notice the three embedded ICE in this part of the grid?

86D: Frequency meas.: MHZ. The answer came to me after I cheated on the intersecting composer SMETANA.

87D: River to the Gulf of Finland: NEVA. See this map. Another new river to me.

88D: Arabian Sea port: ADEN. Belongs to Yemen.

95D: Sway-resistant: ADAMANT. Odd clue.

101D: 1539 Florida visitor: DE SOTO. No idea. I was thinking of De Leon, who tried to find the "Fountain of Youth" in Florida. I wonder if they knew each other.

109D: Insect stage: IMAGO. Larva, pupa and IMAGO.

111D: Richard of "A Summer Place": EGAN. I penned in GERE first. Not familiar with this actor or the movie. Nice theme song.

112D: Diana of "The Avengers": RIGG. I wrote down LANE first. I've never heard of her or "The Avengers".

113D: Suffix for diseases: ITIS. I would prefer a partial fill IT IS clue.

114D: Provo neighbor: OREM. Learned this city name from doing Xword.

116D: Kett of comics: ETTA. Sometimes ETTA is clued as "Singer James". Such a daring song title!

117D: Garbage barge: SCOW

118D: Author Janowitz: TAMA. One more google. She wrote "Slaves of New York". Wikipedia says TAMA Janowitz is one of the four original "brat pack" authors.

119D: Organic compound: ENOL. Is "carbon compound" also organic?

C.C.

17 comments:

NYTAnonimo said...

You are up early cc! I'm just finishing up yesterday's puzzle and checked in to see if others struggled with it like I did. Will tackle the NYT later. Hope you have an enjoyable Sunday.

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

NYTanonimo,
Good morning. Hope you have a fine time tackling Trip's NYT puzzle.

Dennis,
Have you tried "double-bagging" then? It sounds quite demeaning.

Is Martin correct about the TEX clue? He said " I think "Western moniker" refers to the fact that some cowboys are given the nickname TEX and doesn't refer to a specific person."

So the TEX clue is not about TEX Ritter?

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

Anonymous @10:20am,
No, I've tried, but I can't find an eraser pen here, not even in OfficeMax.

Anon @ 11:44am,
Thanks for the summary on "Moulin Rouge".

Clear Ayes,
No. I truly did not know that Webber is the man behind "Evita". Also, I did not understand the thread of your below comment:

"BTW why the "e.e.cummings" style of non-capitalization? Still can't understand why you decided to americanize the old French fur trapper family name."

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

Martin,
Why bra and thong are often in singular form? I agree with Atlmainiac on "Frog of/in the future". Thanks for the explanation on Tom Cruise's "inspired" comment. Hard Quark explanation though.

JD,
I love reading your "dumbness" comment, particularly the unexpected & lovely research you do on certain clues/answers.

Argyle,
Do you subscribe to "Newsweek"? Who is your favorite columnist?

Lois,
Your "Essence of a Man" comment made me think of the rose essence ATTAR. Drop by drop, word by word, precious.

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

Jimbo,
A belated "Happy Birthday". I am glad your rib is doing fine.

Calef,
When is yours? What puzzle do you solve on Sundays?

Embien,
I don't think the "CD Collection" quip puzzle is available on line.

NYTAnonimo said...

Links to Christmas music stations for those who haven't ODed yet! I'm enjoying this one. Good luck with the shopping!

Forgot to thank you for all the links yesterday cc. Didn't know ASPERA, BEYLE or OPHIDIAN. Also got WOMBAT but didn't know what they looked like.

Dennis said...

Morning, gang - just thought I'd check in with a couple comments for c.c.:

Denis is the French spelling of Dennis.

Re 'shoreline state' - low tide is a state of the ocean as is neap tide, etc. Those 'states' would occur along any shoreline.

And no, I never tried the double-bagging option. I guess I liked to live dangerously...

Have a great Sunday.

Anonymous said...

C.C.
My day of birth is 10 May 1925. I do not do a puzzle on Sunday, although I do read your comment posts that day.
Calef.

Dick said...

Good morning CC and all. Finally back from my seven day hunting trip to my camp. Not too much contact with the outside world last week but my wife did save the puzzles. I will work on them next week.

I liked today's puzzle although I do not like movie/actress/actor type themes. I was able to get most of the theme answers. Cc I have seen Oleg Cassini clued many times in xwords so this was a gimme for me.

Guess I will be glued to the TV today as the Steelers are playing the Ravens. If the Steelers win they will have the division title.

Anonymous said...

Darn! Darn! Darm! I hate it when I can not start the puzzle with a fill in for the the top left. I just could not find the indian tribe. CC thnaks for the information. Once I had that word, then the rest of the top left worked fine. Did not know what a "gnomon", "HOV" or "angstrom" were, but was able to work around the problem.

question: have any of you every prepared a large crosswork puzzle. I did it one time in my Sunday School class. the theme was the lesson for the day. But nobody got the clue. I prepared mine by working backward from the main clue. It was interesting.

abogato from alabama

Dick said...

abogato, HOV is High Occupancy Vehicle. That is a vehicle which has enough passengers in it to go on the express lanes of a highway.

Clear Ayes said...

C.C. I truly did not know that Webber is the man behind "Evita". I am surprised because "Evita" seems to show up regularly as a clue or answer.

In addition to Cats and Evita, Andrew Lloyd Webber is the composer for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar, The Phantom of the Opera, Starlight Express and a dozen or so other musicals. BTW, starting with his father William Lloyd Webber, the family name is Lloyd Webber, not just Webber. Both Andrew and his brother, cellist Julian, use the last name Lloyd Webber.

why the "e.e.cummings" style of non-capitalization? Still can't understand why you decided to americanize the old French fur trapper family name."

In the past Buckeye and I have kidded about being long lost brother and sister. In the post mentioned above, I was making a little joke about the similarities of our on-line names. If Clear Ayes and Buckeye were our real names, "Ayes" would be my last name and "eye" would be his. e.e. cummings is a poet who didn't use capitalization for his name and neither does Buck "eye" for his last name. I just picked "French fur trapper" as a common family origin because I had mentioned them earlier in my post when I referred to Minnesota settlers. If I had been sharper, I should have said "Scottish family name", since "Ayes" has more of a Scottish connotation.

It was just a silly play on words and a means to let Buckeye know I was thinking of him. I still am and this morning, simply say, "Hi, friend."

Clear Ayes said...

C.C., Here is an e.e. cummings poem. The only reason I am doing this is so you will have a reference. Most of his poems are avant-garde, modernist and difficult (at least for me) to understand. Maybe I just haven't run into many cummings poem I can relate to. I do like this short one.

if you like my poems let them

if you like my poems let them
walk in the evening,a little behind you

then people will say
"Along this road i saw a princess pass
on her way to meet her lover(it was
toward nightfall)with tall and ignorant servants."

Anonymous said...

CC

You need a an erasermate pen made by papermate you can them at Staples Office supply store.

$7 a dozen

http://www.staples.com/office/supplies/p4_Paper-Mate-Erasermate-Pens_10936_Business_Supplies_0_10051_SC1:CG11:CL110001

1-800-378-2753

Argyle said...

C. C. said @ 6:40 AM
Argyle, do you subscribe to "Newsweek"? Who is your favorite columnist?

Yes, I do subscribe but don't pay much attention to the columnists. The guest essays, at My Turn, are often interesting, but, just like the Sunday paper, I go to the comics(Perspectives)first.

Argyle said...

The wrong keys keep jumping under my fingers BUT I will try to give you the theme answers to our Sunday puzzle from a week ago.

Glens Falls Post-Star Dec.7, 2008
21*21 Tribune Media Services
Edited by Linda and Charles Preston

Theme: Grasp It
23A)Cautious consumers' modus operandi - takes on approval
109A) Gets out of Dodge - takes it on the lam
67A) All aboard, with Duke Ellington - take the "A" train
18D) Adopt - take for oneself
50D) Listen to my advice - take a tip from me

Argyle said...

I did not know that
The clip I linked is a Soundies. I never heard the term before.

"Sure MTV may not show many music videos these days, but before they even knew what a music video was, there were Soundies. These early versions of music videos were created in the 1940's and were shown on coin-operated juke boxes in clubs and restaurants. They were especially popular for spreading performances of African-American artists (who were blocked from performing in other public formats). (Wikipedia)"
blog.podbop.org

It also has the words to "Take the "A" train" and I've never heard them before.