google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Friday January 16, 2009 Allan E. Parrish

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Jan 16, 2009

Friday January 16, 2009 Allan E. Parrish

Theme: STATION (41D: Word after 17A, 29A, 50A and 64A)

17A: Teacher a boxer where to go?: PAPER TRAIN

29A: Parallel universe?: DOUBLE SPACE

37A: Bluepoint hangout?: OYSTER BAR

50A: Abridge a drama?: SQUEEZE PLAY

64A: Teetolers' bash?: NATURAL GAS

Well, find me a SQUEEZE PLAY STATION then. I just can't stand this kind of inacuracy in cluing. STATION is after the word PLAY, not after the whole phrase SQUEEZE PLAY. The clue for STATION should be "It follows the last word of 17A, 29A, 50A and 64A).

Is GAS a slang for party? I don't understand the rationale in the last clue.

I've never seen five letter Z's in a TMS puzzle before. Mr. Parrish obviously has an affinity for Z, just like Barry Silk has for his Q.

Our local newspaper Star Tribune filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy yesterday. Very disconcerting.

Across:

6A: Woodstock performer Joan: BAEZ. They were lovers during this period, right?

14A: Pulitzer or Pritzker: PRIZE. Pritzker is "the Nobel PRIZE of Architecture". I was unaware of that. It's created in 1979.

21A: TV role for P. Silvers: SGT. BILKO. Stumper, though I did recognize the answer when it finally emerged. Was there an accompanying comic book for the TV show?

23A: Latin 101 verb: AMO. Now this "Latin" refers to Latin America Latin, not the old Caesar's Latin, right?

31A: 1,000 bucks: GEE. And ABES (61A: 5-dollar bills), which is an unfamiliar slang to me.

33A: 2002 A.L. Cy Young winner: ZITO. Gimme. Barry ZITO is very funny. He bought his own autographed baseball cards from Ebay because "They are authenticated". Authentication and grading are big deal in baseball card collection. ZITO played for the Oakland A's from 2000 to 2006, and now he is with the Giants.

44A: Intl. radio: VOA. They broadcast both in Chinese & Cantonese.

45A: Kodak rival: AGFA. Fuji does not fit. AGFA is based in Belgium. Annika Sorenstam's true rookie card has a AGFA logo on it, but I could not find it on the internet this morning.

71A: Boss Tweed's lampooner: NAST (Thomas). NAST is the "Father of American cartoon". See "The Brains", his caricature of Boss Tweed. Last time BOSSDOM is clued as "Scope of Tweed's influence?" which stumped me completely.

Down:

1D: Very softly, in music: PPP (Pianississimo). No idea. Why 3 P's when there is only one P in the word Pianississimo?

3D: Surfboard mishap: WIPEOUT. Fall from surfboard. New term to me.

4D: Weizman of Israel: EZER. President of Israel 1993-2000. I can never remember his name. Does it have any biblical meaning?

6D: Prickly husk: BUR. See this chestnut BUR. My brain just keeps BURping this word.

8D: Puzzling state: ENIGMA. This is so sensual. Do you like ENIGMA?

9D: Stomach acid inhibitor brand: ZANTAC. Do you know why most of the pills have scrabbly letter Z & X in their names?

10D: Spore sacs: ASCI. This is another word that I keep remembering and then keep forgetting. The singular is ascus.

12D: Follower of Jeremiah: EZEKIEL. Literally "God strengthens" in Hebrew language. Jeremiah is "God is high". I've never heard of these 2 Bible books. I was thinking of Obama's former pastor Jeremiah Wright.

22D: Netherlands city: BREDA. See BREDA? It's in southern Netherlands. Completely foreign to me. I wonder if it's on the road from Brussels to Amsterdam.

23D: Finishing tool: ADZ. And AXE (57A: Logger's tool). Tool is also a slang for male organ, right?

24D: Yves, to Yves: MOI. I like this clue.

39D: "Performance" director Nicolas: ROEG. Have never heard of "Performance". The poster does not look appealing to me.

40D: Street market: BAZAAR. I always confuse this word with bizarre.

47D: Elec. duplicate: FAX. Why "duplicate"?

62D: "The Time Machine" people: ELOI. Aramaic for "My god". They serve as the food for Morlocks. How awful.

65D: Amer. letters: USS. The navy carrier USS America. Can you come up with a better clue for USS? I understand his logic abbreviating "Amer.", but somehow it annoys me.

C.C.

70 comments:

Dennis said...

Good morning, C.C. and gang - by no means an easy puzzle for me today; I had several stumbling blocks. Initially had 'uglis' for 73A, 'fins' for 61A (Abes?? Anybody ever heard $5s called Abes?)

Perps got me 'Roeg', 'PPP', 'Bur' and 'AGFA'. Thought 65D was weak.

Today is 'National Nothing Day' - might be a good day to practice that.

Today's Words of Wisdom: "Go out on a limb. That's where the fruit is." -- Jimmy Carter

Have a great weekend.

Chris in LA said...

Good morning CC etal,

Very smooth sailing this morning - no need to google as the unfamiliars (EZER, ASCI, & ROEG) all revealed on the perps.

CC: Play Station is a video game console manufactured by Sony - I think it's legit for the theme.

TGIF to all!

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

Dennis,
I've never heard of ABES before. I also thought USS clue was shaky. I don't quite grasp Jimmy Carter's quote. Does he encourage people to take risks? "National Nothing Day" reminds of Kundera's "The Unbearable Lightness of Being."

Chris,
Re: Rocks. Can you define this type of man for me? I agree with you on PLAY STATION. But the clue for STATION is simply inexact. Should be "It follows the last word of 50A..."

Kazie,
Thanks for CELLO/CELLI. I keep forgetting this.

Katze,
Did you lose your blue dot status?

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

Clear Ayes,
What kind of fruit salsa goes well with grilled salmon?

Wolfmom,
Congratulations on the mural work.

Crazyhorse,
Where did you get your horse?

Dick,
Have you checked your mail box? I emailed you Barry Silk's puzzle very early yesterday morning.

Bill said...

Dennis, I don't know about you, but I've spent a LOT of 5-dollar bills in my time, and I've NEVER heard them referred to as ABES!!
Only problems for me today were the crossing of ABES and ELOI; and AGFA.
I put AGFA in because it was thye only thing it could possibly be but didn't then and do not now recognize it.
-10 now and lake effect snow later to start the weekend. (Have I ever mentioned how much I don't like winter?) LOL
CY'All later

Dennis said...

C.C., I agree that the 'USS' clue was shaky, but probably correct.

Yes, Carter was advocating risk-taking. One of the few things that man ever said that I agree with.

Great Enigma link - thanks.

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

PromiseMe,
"The head which eats crackers ....?" See, that's why I could not comprehend the quip yesterday.

Martin,
Confucius would say "Martin, you've lost your MOREL compass".

Linda,
No. Martin's Confucius jokes are simply too DF.

Argyle,
I think if a man really loves me and finds me to be special, he will change for me.

Bill said...

CC, Jimmy Carter's quote is much like "Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained".
Before you can taste the fruit you must get out on the limb to pick it.
I guess that would be the "fruit of your labor"
But, if you never try, you can never fail (or taste the fruit)!

Chris in LA said...

CC:

I hear you on the "word following last word" suggestion - didn't present a problem for me as "word following" clues tend to trigger "last word" automatically, but I can see where it might be confusing. As an aside, do you think some clues get edited or changed due to space limitations? Barry's clues from yesterday were great, but were also substantially longer from a word-count standpoint than those which were used. I know the entire grid, including previous day answers and all clues must fit a specific size requirement in order to fit the space allocated by the newspapers that publish the puzzles. Just a thought.

As to "rock" question, IMHO, a man is considered a "rock" who is steadfast and unwavering, who provides a solid foundation for his family and is never unnerved during times of crisis.

PS - I agree on ABES criticism - I've heard of "fins" for $5 bills, but never "abes".

Hope you have a great day and are able to stay warm up there!

Anonymous said...

CC-

47D: Elec. duplicate: FAX. Why "duplicate"?

FAX is short for facsimile which is synonymous with duplicate.

Dennis said...

C.C. said:
Argyle,
I think if a man really loves me and finds me to be special, he will change for me.


C.C. you'd really want a man who would change who he is, for you? I wouldn't take him to be a man of strong character then. And would he be truly happy in his new 'self'? I'd never want a woman who had to change who she was to accommodate me. Compromise, yes, change, no.

Bill said...

Well, I just can't let the subject of married people expecting their partners to make dramatic changes pass without comment.
When Nancy and I finally got together (after two failures each),
we kinda threw it out there to each other that this is what we are, this is what we like/dislike and if we could accept each other that way we'd get along fine.
Marriage is an ever evolving partnership. Sometimes changes are made without any conscious knowledge. Sometimes for the better AND sometimes for the worst.
The only way to get through any relationship is to respect each other and a little love doesn't hurt, either!
And, Nancy has been MY rock for a very long time!

Superfrey said...

ABES .... never heard it... FINS yes...Did not know ROEG but got it throught the perps...This was not a great puzzle...but at least fairly easy. I nice quote by Jimmy Carter...surprising in that he was such a weak President. I used to think he was the worst President in my lifetime... but I have changed my mind in the last several years.

Dick said...

Good morning CC and all; I did not particularly like today's puzzle. The upper half was a snap but the lower half taxed my sleepy brain. I agree with the others that "Abes" was a poor answer for 61A and an expression that I have never heard. 45A was a gimme as AGFA was owned by Bayer (The aspirin maker) and I worked for Bayer for 26 years.

I didn't have any problems getting station for the word after the 17A, 29A etc clues. However, I must agree, the way it is phrased, it is not entirely accurate.

I wanted to put tease for 31D which held me up for a while. I could not figure out how SOA was Intl. radio and then that wonderful DUH moment.

HIgh of +7 degrees here today. I will go to the gym, come back to the warm den and stay there today. Hope you all have a great Friday and a better week end.

CC my bad on Barry's puzzle. It was in my mail box. Thanks.

Martin said...

Hi. I'm on vacation starting yesterday and I had an errand to run today so I did the puzzle from the newspaper and did it while I ate lunch and it took me 35 minutes. My puzzle solving is getting better: what slows me down is searching the grid for those little numbers after I read the clue. :)

Anuway, PPP makes no sense to me: I eventually got it from the perps. PAWED was what held me up: the question mark told me that "boxer" was a dog, not a "pugilist". Meanwhile, the clue "impersonator" for APER is OVERUSEd.

ASCI and CLEM were unknowsn to me: to remember ASCI, think of
ASCII
which stands for "American Standard Code for Information Exchange". It's what I'm using to type this message.

AMO was a guess for me. I know the French aimer and amour so I'm assuming AMO means "to love", right? I knew 25A was AMP, not OHM, because the clue had an abreviation. I wanted ADH for ADZ (I was probaly thinking about ETH which appeared in a puzzle recently) and HITO (which would have been Japanese) for ZITO (no idea).

Everything else was pretty much a gimme. I wanted BBC for VOA, EIGHTEENTH (hole) for NATURAL GAS (because I thought "Teetotaler's bash" was a play on golf "tee") and TRANCE for ENIGMA ("Puzzling state"). I was trying to think of FUJI and got AGFA from the perps.

47D: Elec. duplicate: FAX. Why "duplicate"?

Because FAX is short for "facsimile" which means "duplicate". The FAX machine is a glorified photocopier that sends the copy over the phone line to be printed out in another office.

I'll do the puzzle online tomorrow and then on Monday I'm off to Manila for two weeks with Imelda and Ian. In case I forget, C.C., "Xinnian kuaile! Gongxi facai!" Sorry but I'm too lazy to type it properly in Chinese.

Martin

Martin said...

Perps got me 'Roeg'

Ah, yes, Dennis, I missed that: I usually go the across fills first and then the downs so I don't sweat the down unknowns as much.

Confucius would say "Martin, you've lost your MOREL compass".

Ah so there's no MOREL dilemma, in principle, with making a joke about Confucius: that's what I was worried about after Argyle's post. That that particular play on words (which I won't repeat) would offend you surprises me after the lengthy exchange about "a bird in the bush" being "priceless" a few days ago.

I think if a man really loves me and finds me to be special, he will change for me.

Now you're just making me feel guilty. I like myself the way I am and I think I've won Imelda over to accepting me as I am. I think if I were to smoke, drink or play poker then those would have been things that she would have found completely unacceptable and -as Dennis rightly pointed out- we probably wouldn't have gotten married in the first place.

Oh! I almost forgot! What is a BAR station?! I googled it just now and I found out that it is the name of a bar in Montreal and the name of a train station somewhere else!

Martin

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

A bit short on time this morning, so I apologize if I answer something that's already been answered by somebody else...

Decent puzzle today. A bit on the challenging side, but not too bad. Unknowns for me were ZITO, EZER, ASCI, BREDA and ROEG. I actually screwed up in the end because I put KLEM instead of CLEM for 19A and therefore had ASKI instead of ASCI for 10D. Didn't realize my mistake until I got here. Ooops.

Two of the theme clues/answers confused me a bit. I've never heard of a BAR Station before (maybe because I don't hang out in bars?) and I can't quite figure out what "Teetotalers' bash" has to do with NATURAL GAS. I suppose GAS can mean a party (although I've never heard it used that way), but what does NATURAL have to do with abstaining from alcohol?

Oh -- and I've never heard a 5-dollar bill called an ABE before, but at least it makes sense.

And now, for the answer to some of C. C.'s questions:

Why 3 P's when there is only one P in the word Pianississimo?

It's because piano (soft) is represented by "p" and pianissimo (very soft) is represented by "pp".

Latin 101 verb: AMO. Now this "Latin" refers to Latin America Latin, not the old Caesar's Latin, right?

Actually, it does refer to the old Caesar's Latin. In beginning Latin classes (at least, according to crossword puzzles), you are taught Latin conjugation via AMO, AMAS, AMAT (I love, you love, he she or it loves). Since Spanish derives from latin, AMO means "I love" in both languages.

Elec. duplicate: FAX. Why "duplicate"?

FAX is short for "facsimile", which means "exact copy or duplicate". You don't send the original when you send a fax; you just transmit a copy.

And that's it for me! Try to stay warm, everybody... ^_^

Anonymous said...

'morning all - guess I'm not the only one that had trouble with USS, seemed it should be USA..sure could have been a better clue_____Arizona, for example to indicate a naval vessel. Also will someone please explain "natural gas" for teetotalers' bash??? Seems as though "natural gas" and beer are more compatible.

Chris in LA said...

@ Martin,

From the 5 years of Latin drilled into my brain:

Amo - I love
Amas - You (singular) love
Amat - He, she or it, loves
Amamus - We love
Amatis - You (plural) love
Amant - They love

Also - a bar station is that section of the bar where the waitresses place their table orders with the bartender, typically segregated from the rest of the bar by curved rails - it's a major "faux-pas" to sit within that space.

Dr. Dad said...

Happy Friday!

I had fins as well. Never heard them called "Abes."


Martin answered the "anonymous" question on "duplicate" and fax but it seems to me that "anonymous" answered his/her own question.

Not much else to comment on as most have been made by others. I think I'll go and see who I can say was married but really wasn't so I can make myself look like an idiot again today.

Besides "Nothing Day" it is also Appreciate a Dragon Day, Bald Eagle Appreciation Day, and Religious Freedom Day.

On this day in 1969, Apollo 11 lifted off on its historic journey to the moon.

Bill said...

If y'all will look closley at the clue for 41d, it makes no mention of the clue 37a.
It wants STATION after 17a, 29a, 50a, and 64a. Ergo, no BAR STATION.

Bill said...

Closely. The cold has frozen the spelling part of my brain.

Jim"Gives" said...

AMO IS Caesar's Latin: Amo, amas, amat (to love)

ABE's are Abraham Lincolns, of course. (His pic on the bill).

That STATION following thing comes from the TV program, "Wheel of Fortune," where they have clues "finishing words" exactly like that. I agree he should have used the "after last word" idea, though.

Jim McGivern
"JimGives" on Twitter and Facebook
See the comments on the U.S. Air ditching at: jimgiveslots.wordpress.com

kazie said...

Good morning all, and welcome to Jim Gives and any other newbies!

Wind chill in the minus 50's today Brr!

I had to google BREDA and ROEG in addition to lots of creative guessing today. But ended up getting through it more easily than expected.

Several of you have ably handled the Latin question.

AGFA was gimme for me since I used it exclusively for the 18 months I was in Europe in 70-71. We traveled for 6 months using youth hostels and would get our film developed and have it sent ahead to the American Express office we thought we'd be safely near at the right time.

I believe Dylan and Baez were lovers at that time. He looks so young and clean-cut in that link.

I am also unfamiliar with both GEE and ABE, but got gee from perps and abe was a guess, after fin didn't work.

Nast was actually a German immigrant like so many famous Americans.

Stay warm!

Linda said...

CC:I must have missed something (not unusual, at all) but is the meaning of "DF" too "DF" to "splain" to me?
(kinda, sorta think it`s what I mean when I say "too blue", as in worthy of George Carlin.) If so...good for you! Gotta draw the line somewhere on your own blog!

Clear Ayes said...

Good Morning All, Phew, Thanks to Bill@7:32 for catching that OYSTER BAR is not part of the theme. I had been wracking my brain to figure out how BAR went with STATION.

Never heard of ABES used as the name for $5 bills. I suppose a future puzzle will clue a $1 bill as a "George".

There was a little more "hunt and peck" than usual for this puzzle, but the perps came to the rescue again. I added PPP and BUR to my crossword list for future reference.

I was surprised that, until later in the evening, there wasn't much comment yesterday on "changing who you are" after marriage Sure, my husband and I have changed some of the things we do, but not who we are. Some behaviors are deal breakers, but as second time around people we talked about those things beforehand. If any of those behaviors had been a real concern, we wouldn't have gotten married.

Thea said...

c.c. here is a little tune from my generation by the Ventures called Wipeout, also a link to see what a wipeout is like. Hope this works my first time trying to post a link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkYSDYDc8mE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qj_Ybf2APY

I don't think it is working but you might be able to copy and paste to see them.

winfield said...

Thomas Nast drew many of the iconic symbols we know today. He drew the classic Santa in 1863 for Harper's Weekly. http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2224/2131714990_2da6385010_o.jpg)
Before then, most depictions of Santa Claus showed a tall, thin man. Nast drew him as the bearded, plump man known today. He also drew the Republican Party elephant & Democratic Party donkey. He is also credited with The Tammany Hall tiger, a symbol of Boss Tweed's political machine& Columbia, a graceful image of the Americas as a woman, usually in flowing gown and tiara, carrying a sword to defend the downtrodden and Uncle Sam, a lanky image of the United States.

winfield said...

About money..I have heard of Benjamins used for 100 dollar bill, fin for $5 bill a sawbuck for $10 bill & 2 bits for a quarter but never an Abe

kazie said...

Thea,
To post a link to come up blue and underlined like the others, go to links
and print it out--that's what I did months ago when I started on here too. After referring to it a few times, you'll be linking like a pro. But if you get it wrong, you are told and you can fix it before proceeding.

Chris O said...

Natural Gas: Having a good time without drugs or alcohol. Haven't you heard the expression, "it was a gas"? We used this the same as "having a blast" meaining a really fun time. Maybe I'm just old(er) but we used this when I was a kid.

Clear Ayes said...

It appears there is an Appreciation Day for just about everything. This Dragon Appreciation Day poem is also a nod to LOTR. I know Dr. Dad is a LOTR fan. I'm sure there are others. I hope you enjoy.

Here Be Dragons

Serpentine, the spinal cord from mountains in the north
on an unrolled scroll curled at the corners,
crags drawn like a blade across the throat, headwaters
decapitated by the top of the map. In the lower left
a polder, portals walled from the world—
afraid of fabricated borderlines, elders chart
bloodstreams along the dots in order,
farmers versus berserkers with reptilian
scale armor. Compass points tattooed on skin outgrown
nightly at the tavern as travelers warn
of worm caverns and ruins in the parchment desert.
The lone road in the entire empire slithers its lies
underfoot, its grid of brick twisted through treemen,
rooted and grumbling, who walked as children,
through keyholes without tower doors,
through legends without wings. Only room for one
quarter of a continent in this cartography—urchin, unearth
each territory on the periphery to sketch unnamed
distant geography and flames outside the frame.

- Steven D. Schroeder

Vern said...

"Abes" was really weak. I'm 76 and in my entire life I have never heard "Abes" for 5-dollar bills. Always been "fins." A better clue would have been "Abraham & Fortes".

Clear Ayes said...

Thea, They worked fine. Here are your links to Wipeout by the Ventures and wipeout. Kazie's right, linking isn't difficult, it just takes a little practice. Give it a try.

Kazie, In 1978, on my first trip to Europe I brought home about 30 roll of film. I thought I might never get another change to travel like that, so I took photos of everything and babied the film through 34 days of Eurail. At home I brought the film to a local place to have it developed. I didn't know at the time that they didn't process on the premises, but sent it out to a large outside firm. Yes, you guessed it. The bigger firm lost all but 4 rolls. "Sorry, we'll refund the cost of the film". That was it, the film was never located. Luckily, my sister who was my traveling companion had all her film and gave me copies. I was still heartbroken at the time. I have been back to Europe and taken more photos, but the time and the place were gone.... I wonder what happened to those drunken Norwegian sailors we met at Tivoli? Thank goodness for modern digital cameras.

kazie said...

clear ayes,
Yes, using film was always a risk. I was extremely lucky that in all that time, our calculations of when we'd be in a certain city always meant the Amex office still had or soon had our mail and film while we were there as we'd hoped, and I got them all.

Before the days of cheap phone calls and email of course, I think in the 18 months I only called home about three times: my parents' birthdays and one of mine. In those days, AGFA would process slide film without frames so it was cheaper. So in the school year after the traveling, while I was in Montpellier, France as English assistant, I had plenty of time to cut, frame and label them all with the empty frames bought at Herties in Germany.

melissa bee said...

good morning c.c. and all,

bit of a struggle for me, this one. i agree, c.c., that 'last word' would be more accurate .. not just for SQUEEZE PLAY, but for all the theme clues. we see this alot though, so it's easy enough to figure out. i wonder why sometimes this sort of theme is clued accurately and sometimes not.

loved the clue for PAPER TRAIN. misread bluepoint as bluepRint, which caused me some problems. after seeing BLUE and OYSTER i'll be humming this all day. yes, i do like enigma .. oft heard in my treatment room.

PPP? no idea. didn't notice all the Z's until i read your post, gotta be a record. would rather have seen a reference to USS constitution - old ironsides, for 65D.

startlingly beautiful for us left-coasters this week, must've hit 70 yesterday. guess i'll go out on a limb and .. do nothing.

carol said...

Good morning C.C. and all,
Toughie again - I did get all but 2 and had to go to C.C.'s post to find out why the heck I couldn't figure out 64A!(Teetotalers' bash)...turns out, I couldn't spell Glasgow. (I had Glascow)
You would think having all but one letter, it would have been clear but NOOOO. I just kept wondering what a "Natural cas" was. :) Maybe this is because I would not be attending at "teetotlers' bash" in the first place, and probably had consumed mass quantities leading me to slur 'gas' into 'cas' and ask people if they wanted to join in a little "squeeze play" with my a--! See ya all at the 'oyster bar'!!

I never heard of five dollar bills being referred to as "Abes" or $1000. as Gee.(I thought gee was a command to a horse, or an expression of wonder)

Missed 45A, Kodak rival completely, never heard of "Agfa". (didn't get 47D either, as I was thinking of electricity)

Oh well, there is always tomorrow (I hope).

melissa bee said...

@carol: 'gee,' as in Grand, slang for a thousand.

save me a spot at the oyster bar .. tgif!

bethann said...

Natural Gas is like a natural "high" no alcohol required! I'm not sure if I liked today's xw or not because of some of the clues.
I know I have changed since I've been married, but I think it's for the good. Hopefully my husband thinks so too, but sometimes I wonder. My husband hasn't really changed maybe mellowed a bit, but he thinks change is a bad thing so for him changing isn't an option.
Try staying warm today and have a wonderful weekend:)

Anonymous said...

15:03 for me today. Later than usual for me. With it being so cold I just felt like sleeping. I like the cold but down around zero or below is too cold for me. Stay warm everybody!



I wasn't able to find Annika's Agfa rookie card but I did find one on ebay.




http://cgi.ebay.com/1997-ALFACARD-ANNIKA-SORENSTAM-AUTO-TRUE-RC-%231882%2F2000_W0QQitemZ370137579648QQcmdZViewItemQQimsxZ20081231?IMSfp=TL081231159007r34695

Thanks to Martin for his explanation of ASCII. I have always wondered what that meant.

Like Melissa Bee I also misread the bluepoint hangout and thought it said blueprint.

44A: Intl. radio: VOA. What do the letters VOA mean?



When I saw Zito I thought of a derby winning horse trainer named Nick Zito.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Zito

A great Enigma song
Principles of Lust

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erbGGBvVQXc

WM said...

Hi C.C. and all...Everyone has pretty much covered all the questions, not too difficult today, but as always, I am my own worst enemy. Had CEO so couldn't figure out what dangerous was...UNS?EE. Never heard of ABE'S either. I think there could be any number of better clues for NATURAL GAS...remember the line from the Stone's song Jumpin Jack Flash...is a gas, gas, gas. There was also a guitar piece called Classical Gas, so I really think the Tea Party thing doesn't work.

Trivia...Joan Baez graduated from Palo Alto High School here in the Bay Area. My father, who was a music teacher here, heard her sing at a school function and came home and said that he thought she would really "go somewhere" and had an amzing voice.

Also...thank you C.C.

Anonymous said...

Found this blog while googling answer to puzzle.

40D: Street market: BAZAAR I wanted Agoras.


Pete Ford

Auntie Naomi said...

Good Afternoon C.C. and All,

Thanks for the Barry Silk puzzle, C.C.

I thought I did today's puzzle in 15:59 until I realized that I had left out one letter, the 'F' in FAX and AGFA. I got hung up on AGFA. I thought 47D had to be FAX, but AGFA made no sense to me. When I saw C.C.'s answer I WIKI'd it. Upon discovering that it was a Dutch company, I got to wondering if it was the one an old acquaintance of mine, Jacob Gelt Dekker, created. It was not. He did, however, sell 120 one-hour photo shops in Europe to Kodak for an undisclosed sum. According to Wikipedia, he reportedly controls assets worth 200 million Euros. I had no idea that he was so wealthy when we met. A pretty impressive guy from the sounds of it.

Martin, you said:
"to remember ASCI, think of ASCII which stands for "American Standard Code for Information Exchange". It's what I'm using to type this message." This is what immediately comes to mind for me, as well.

How about USN property for 65D, C.C.?

As for Dragon Appreciation Day, I guess I will appreciate myself and celebrate with a clip from DDO (Dungeons and Dragons Online). The videos from DDO that are on YouTube do not really do the game justice. The graphics quality, at least for me, is far superior than the clips suggest. It looks more like this picture of my Level 10 Wizard, Debra Kadabra.


Have fun today,
Ciao :)

Anonymous said...

carol
I assumed that GEE meaning $1,000 derived from $1,000 being refered to as "a Grand", the GEE standing for the G of Grand. I think that is sort of far-fetched if that was the idea.
Calef.

Linda said...

PPP; very,very softly.The original name for the instrument was "piano-forte" meaning "soft-loud". Hence the pedals for same.

embien said...

9:22 today. No real problems, but I didn't see the theme for the longest time (I was solving doing the acrosses and the "theme" clue was a down).

@clear ayes: Never heard of ABES used as the name for $5 bills. I suppose a future puzzle will clue a $1 bill as a "George".

Clear ayes, you may want to take a look at the following website if you've never heard a dollar bill being called a "George": Where's George

@DemocratInARedState: 44A: Intl. radio: VOA. What do the letters VOA mean?
VOA stands for Voice of America, a government sponsored broadcast service. You can read more about it here: Voice of America

@c.c., if you get the NY Times syndicated puzzle (the one from Dec 12 is in today's syndication), there is a clue 33a: Capital of Shaanxi province. Thanks to you, that was a gimmee!

Speaking of China, I see from Wikipedia's main page that China has surpassed Germany and is now the world's third largest economy. Wikipedia

Anonymous said...

that mick jagger movie is weird and crazy, but sincerely entertaining... the stones song "memo from turner" which is on the soundtrack is totally amazing.

Buckeye said...

Guday all. Got today's X/W with the same problems most of you had. Took a while.

Demo- VOA is Voice Of America. It was a radio station which broadcasted America's attitudes (propaganda?) across the world. Their towers were many and huge, and located just outside Mason, Ohio. I think they're still there. Mason is only a driver and a three wood from where I live.

DrDad. Don't feel badly about Carol Lawrence and Steve Lawrence being married. I checked my "book" and I'll try to clarify things. Carol and Steve were not married, but Carol Lawrence and Carol Burnett WERE sisters. Their mother and father were Carol Channing and Carrol O'Connor. Carrol O'Connor's father was Leo G. Carroll, who starred as "Topper" on T.V. and his Grandfather was Lewis Carroll, who wrote "Alice In Wonderland". I hope this clears things up. (My "book" is "Who's Who, or Shoulda' Been, And General Motorcycle Maintenance" by Larry Funk and Leroy Wagnel. Get it at Amazon and if you order today, you can get Hardan Young's (my 60's rock name), "Inflation In The 14th And 15th Centuries; Why The 100 Years War Lasted 106 Years", absolutely free).

I must be off

Buckeye said...

Sorry Embian. Our comments (VOA) crossed.

IMBO

WM said...

Ya just gotta love Buckeye! Always makes my day.

There is a blogspot...http://cakewrecks/
blogspot.com (where professional cakes go horribly and hilariously wrong) that could use a few of your comments.

Anonymous said...

Dr. Dad (7:21AM):

Are you saying in addition to having the first crew to walk on the moon, that Apollo 11 also had time warp capabilities (given that the Eagle landed on July 20th, 1969). LOL

A.R.E.

Linda said...

Buckeye:
Lewis Caroll also had a daughter named "Christmas" who was a Las Vegas show girl! His son was named "Study" and waited tables at Shari Lewis` restaurant called "Lamb Chops R Us!"

Clear Ayes said...

Embien....Good Gravy! Is there nothing that doesn't turn up on the internet? I'd heard of "Where In the World Is Carmen Sandiego?", "Where's Elmo?", "Where's Waldo?" and even "Where in the World is Matt Lauer?". I would have bet an ABE or even an Alexander that nobody called a $1 bill a George. All this living and learning is stressing me out!

Buckeye, Carol Lawrence or Vicki Lawrence? I believe Carol Lawrence was married to Robert Goulet, who was Prime Minister of Canada in the 70's....look it up in your "Who's Who & G.M.M"....I'm sure it's there.

Wolfmom, I love your doughnut painting, very mouthwatery. I've seen the cakewreck site before. It's a blast, or maybe the cakes just look that way.

Anonymous said...

Oh no! Another newspaper is in trouble. It's a good thing we are all computer literate so we will still have a place to go for our daily news.

I did not like today's puzzle. Too many inaccurate and misleading clues.

As you know, Enigma was also the name of the notorious World War II German encryption machine. It is also the designation given to present-day covert transmissions (such as the Cuban and Isralei number stations). These can be heard regularly on the shortwave radio bands trasmitting to field operatives.

Seattle John

Kay said...

I loved the Dutch city although it took me a while to get it. Velazquez
recorded "The Surrender of Breda" in one of his gigantic paintings. Spain,at one time, controlled that part of Europe. I really didn't think of it as a real city since that is the only context that I know it. Fun to see it used in crossword puzzle.

Kay said...

Yes, as Jim says, AMO, AMAS, etc. is Caesar's Latin. First conjugation, don't you remember that? , but for the Spanish speakers it fits as well.
=ar verb. etc/

Anonymous said...

C.C., what is cantonese?

Martin said...

ASCII which stands for "American Standard Code for Information INTERchange". That makes more sense. :)

Martin

Buckeye said...

Clear Ayes - No. I meant Carol Lawrence. Vicki Lawrence was married to Lawrence of Arabia, who wrote "The Arabian Knights". (The Islam version of "Knights Of The Round Table").

Re: Enigma encryption machine. Originally known as "Ultra" it was very sophisticated and it's history can be learned in a book that was touted as "The Single Most Important Book Of World War II". The book is "Bodyguard Of Lies" by Anthony Cave Brown - Harper & Row, November 1975. You will believe you are reading a novel, but it's all true. GREAT READ!!!

IMBO

Anonymous said...

C.C. You asked if "Ezer" is a Biblical name. It is & it means "help". there were several men by that name. In addition, it is used in combination with other words to indicate that the person or object is a help. (i.e. Ebenezer - stone of help.)

Other people have made all the comments that I would have made regarding this puzzle. I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought some clues were weak!

Dot

Martin said...

How about Lincoln and Bigota for ABES?

Luxor, Cantonese is the language they speak in Hong Kong. It's _a_ Chinese language as opposed to _the_ Chinese language, which is essentially the language of Beijing. According to the Wikipedia entry "Chinese language", "There are between six and twelve main regional groups of Chinese (depending on classification scheme), of which the most spoken, by far, is Mandarin (about 850 million), followed by Wu (90 million), Min (70 million) and Cantonese (70 million). Most of these groups are mutually unintelligible" which means that a speaker of Wu won't understand a speaker of Min and vice versa. (The four languages differ about as much as French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese: it's realtively easy, therefore, for a speaker of Min to learn Wu or viceversa). Shanghaiese is a dialect of Wu and Taiwanese is a dialect of Min. When C.C. says "Chinese" she is refering to Mandarin. Sometimes Mandarin, Wu, Min and Cantonese (and others) are refered collectively as "Chinese" but this doesn't take into account that speakers of the different "dialects" can't easily understand each other.

Martin

Auntie Naomi said...

Martin,
Looks like I didn't read that too closely. Ah, the hidden dangers of Cut'nPaste.

Wolfmom,
I couldn't agree with you more about Buckeye. What a character!

Buckeye,
Someone may have already discovered this, but when searching for Hardan Young (something I've done myself a time or two) on Amazon, the single result is: ADHD in Adults: A Psychological Guide to Practice
Funny, I didn't know you needed to practice ADHD.

WM said...

Clear Eyes...Thank you. I check Cake Wrecks every morning for a good laugh.

Buckeye: Thank you for the book recommendation. BBC or Thames TV did a movie about the the ENIGMA solvers in Britain...starring Derek Jacobi...very interesting.

Dennis:I tried to do as much nothing as possible today, but didn't quite manage it. Then we had a visit from our daughter and our 11 mo. old granddaughter, so we spent the afternoon playing...does that count?

WM said...

PromiseMeThis...so...if you study ADHD do you get better at it? Shorter attention span? You're pretty humorous yourself, but that's why this is such a great group of people.

kazie said...

Martin,
Your explanation of the unintelligability of one type of Chinese for those who speak another reminded me of English speakers from Lancashire, Leicestershire, Yorkshire and others. All the same language, but they have difficulty understanding each other.

Buckeye,
I find myself having a hard time believing anything you say--I can't tell when you're serious any more.

Buckeye said...

Promismethis. Of course, with ADHD, the more you practice it, the better...Oh, look!! A cookie!! As I was saying, Kazie can't tell when I'm being truthful or when...I better turn on my electric blanket.

Better scoot. Here comes Nurse Ratchet. I'll bet she thinks I'm...where did you get that green parrot?

IMBO

WM said...

kazie...with Buckeye, place tongue firmly in cheek...and that's it.

Anonymous said...

p, pp, and ppp are musical notations above the bar to aid in the musical dynamics. They are obviously musical appreviations much as ll. and pp. are abbreviations in literary footnotes even though there is only one "l" in lines and one "p" in pages. It's a matter of degree.
Doreen

Auntie Naomi said...

"Oh, look!! A cookie!!"

No dear, that's a doughnut. Now, just take your pill and everything will be alright. Trust me ;)

Argyle said...

Argyle,
I think if a man really loves me and finds me to be special, he will change for me.


CC,
I think if a woman really loves a man and finds him to be special, she would not want him to change.