google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Friday February 27, 2009 Jo Vita

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Feb 27, 2009

Friday February 27, 2009 Jo Vita

Theme: Go a-head

17A: Deceived: HOODWINKED

34A: Eat quickly: SCARF DOWN

45A: Hockey feats: HAT-TRICKS

66A: Collectible toy tot: BEANIE BABY

11D: North African city: FEZ, MOROCCO

29D: Financial investor: CAPITALIST

I am not hip into the hockey term HAT-TRICK. Is it equivalent to baseball's grand slam?

This puzzle held my interest. Great to see FEZ, MOROCCO in the grid. What a brilliant theme entry! Bonnet is missing. So is bowler hat. What else can you think of?

Why "Wild again" for FERAL (12D)? Isn't "Wild" sufficient? I would have clued SMEAR (72A: Smudge) as "Campaign tactic" due to my averseness to letter duplication. SLOTH (24D: Unau or ai) made me think of our constructor John Underwood. His old website is called SLOTH2toed. Our editor used to clue UNAU as "Two-toed sloth". AI is a just 3-toed sloth that lives in who knows where.

Across:

1A: Booty: SWAG. I forgot this slang. It's clued as "Thief's haul" last time.

15A: Artist Matisse: HENRI. Without Gertrude/Leo Stein, I doubt Matisse would have achieved what he later achieved.

19A: Stone or Pound: EZRA. In 10 years' time, EZRA probably will be clued as "Pundit Klein". He is the current liberal darling.

20A: Touchdown vessel: LANDER. Like LEM?

23A: Puppy barks: YIPS. Have yet to see YIPS clued as golf-related.

27A: NRC preceder: AEC. Existed from 1946 to 1975.

32A: Czech physicist Beckmann: PETR. Zowie! Look at the book he is holding, "The Health Hazards of Not Going Nuclear". I wonder if his theories have been challenged. Anyway, I forgot all about him. He also wrote "The History of Pi." I think his mom forgot to put an vowel at the end of his name.

38A: Corsican patriot: PAOLI. Had to get reacquainted with this fellow again. Could only think of Napoléon, as he was born in Corsica. Why is he considered a patriot?

41A: Natural starter?: SUPER. Supernatural. Good clue.

44A: Artless: NAIVE

50A: Explorer Johnson: OSA. Are those eggs? Her name escaped me once again. OSA, OSA, she-bear. Won't forget you next time.

51A: Andes tuber: OCA. Learned these tubers the way I learned about UGLI, from doing crossword.

56A: Ayres and Wallace: LEWS. I wanted ELIS again, confusing the "Ben-Hur" author LEW Wallace with ELI Wallach. Wikipedia says the actor LEW Ayres was married to Ginger Rogers from 1934 until 1940. And Jane Wyman fell in love with him while filing "Johnny Belinda" and left her husband Ronald Reagan for him, "albeit unsuccessfully".

61A: Kevin of "SNL": NEALON. I googled his name. Hard to find a perfect Granny Smith at this time of the year.

68A: Unless, in law: NISI. Decree NISI. Learned from doing crossword. You can't get married if you have received "Decree NISI" but not "Decree absolute". Maybe Paul McCartney has secretly married to her girlfriend, who received her "Decree absolute" from the court a while ago.

69A: Eccentric: OUTRE. I wrote down WEIRD first.

70A: Ends of small intestines: ILEA. Singular is ileum. (Note: Sorry about the mistake earlier. I mixed it up with the hipbones ILIA (singular Ilium).

71A: 1994 pact: GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trades). Gimme. GATT was mentioned so often in China around the time when I graduated from college. It was replaced by WTO in 1994. Tough entering process for China.

73A: DEA Operative: NARC. DEA is often clued as "Narc's agcy."

Down:

3D: Egyptian god: AMON. Or AMEN/AMUN. No AMIN, since there is no "I" in modern interpretation of those Egyptian heiroglyphs. See this AMON-Ra on relief.

4D: Lee of Rush: GEDDY. No idea. Not familiar with the Canadian rock band Rush or the lead singer Geddy Lee, the guy in the middle.

7D: Egyptian cross: ANKH. I tend to confuse this word with the Hindu SIKH.

18D: Chinese dynasty: WEI. There are two WEI Dynasties in Chinese history. Here is a great list of all major dynasties. Click on Three Kingdoms or Southern and Northern Dynasties, you will find detailed information on the two WEIs that you don't really need to know.

28D: S. Amer. nation: ECUA. Capital: Quito. Currency: Sucre. Sucre has nothing to do with sugar. It's named after a South American independence leader named Antonio Jose de Sucre.

33D: Hirsch sitcom: TAXI. Easy guess. I've never heard of the actor Judd Hirsch. He is the guy with big nose. I was thinking of Emile Hirsch, the actor in "Into the Wild". Are they somehow related?

35D: Dream in Rheims: REVE. French for "Dream". Got the answer. Had no idea where exactly Rheims is. No painting is more erotic and DF than Picasso's "Le REVE".

36D: Soft-drink brand: FRESCA. Only Pepsi products in our house.

39D: Bird's display area: LEKS. I forgot. Saw this clue before. It's basically bird's mating arena. LEK is also Albanian currency.

48D: Some sports cars: TURBOS. Don't know anything about sports cars.

52D: Compound in ceramics: CERIA. Completely unknown to me. Some kind of white powder to polish ceramics or glass.

54D: Lung: pref: PNEUM. This prefix stumps me all the time.

57D: Polio vaccine developer: SABIN. He developed oral, "live virus" vaccine. Salk developed "killed virus" injection vaccine.

62D: Los Angeles land?: LA-LA

63D: German head waiter: OBER. Alien to me. I only know Über, German for "over".

64D: Central park S. landmark: NYAC (New York Athletic Club). Blue murder! I can never remember this building or its abbreviation.

Is anyone going to attend the ACPT this weekend? Barry Silk will be there.

C.C.

63 comments:

Dennis said...

Good morning, C.C. and gang - well, finally a thinker. I had problems all over the place on this one; got all the spaces filled in with perp help, but there's a couple I still never heard of, including 'ceria', 'reve' and 'Geddy'. I agree with C.C. - why is 'feral' wild again? And isn't Kevin Nealon something like 10 years removed from SNL? All in all, though, a most enjoyable puzzle; it wasn't just filling in blanks.

Today is both Polar Bear Day and No-Brainer Day. On a day when we get a 'brainer'. Go figure.

Today's Words of Wisdom, and I love this one: "When a man asks himself what is meant by action, he proves he isn't a man of action. Action is a lack of balance. In order to act, you must be somewhat insane. A reasonably sensible man is satisfied with thinking." -- Statesman Georges Clemenceau

And today's Fun Fact: Canada has more lakes than the rest of the world combined. Canada is an Indian word meaning 'big village'.

Martin said...

A hat trick occurs when a single player scores three goals in a single hockey game. I don't know what a grand slam is.

I've been to Fez, Morocco quite a few times: for four months I taught at a university up in the mountains (in Ifrane) and the only department store was in Fez and you could only get there by walking to town and getting a taxi. It was very hard.

I wanted LOOT for SWAG (but I remebered SWAG when LOOT didn't fit), YAPS for YIPS (but I knew WEA wasn't a Chinese name), ELSA for ILSA, WEIRD for OUTRE and SALT for GATT (which I recognized only when I fuigured out ORANG). Words I didn't get until I "did" the online version were LEKS, CERIA (which repeats the CER in ceramics), OCA, NISI, NEALON, OBER, ILEA and PAOLI: I thought "Corsican Patriot" was asking for an Italian or French word meaning "patriot" rather than the name of a person. Oh and I also hadn't heard of SABIN: I was trying to fit SALK in there, thinking that maybe his name was spelt SALCH or SALKS. I gave up trying to fit SALK in there because I was pretty sure about BEANIE BABY and NARC.

I got TAXI but I had to first picture Judd Hirsh in my head and remember where I had seen him.

The prefix PNEUM is in Pneumonia.

I have to go because Michael wants the computer back so he can play games.

Martin

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

Dennis,
I like man in action. The DOER. Thinker is not my type. If Canada is a big village, then Minnesota is a small one. We have more than 10,000 lakes here. Natural lakes. You can be the big spoon that stirs the lake. I want to be the cherry at the tip of that spoon (Walker Arts Center).

Barry G,
How does PLINTH differ from pillar?

Argyle,
Grinch changes his heart in the end, doesn't he? He is still true to himself, a better self. Change men should! For the women they love.

Dennis said...

You can be the big spoon that stirs the lake.

I think I'd rather be a big fork...

Off to the gym.

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

Jchap18181,
I am confused. Are you the same as BobR?

Mitchell,
Thanks for the explanations on subset.

Lemonade,
See these sports team nicknames. What's so cool or uncool about Marshall Thundering Herb "Afraid to fly" one? I don't grok it.

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

Martin,
Glad you are back. I thought my comment last time turned you into a pillar of salt.

Dennis,
Fork? You don't want to be the spoon? No soup for you on this cold day then!

Kazie
what's the difference between thine and thy?

PromiseMe,
Re: Clue (8-letters): Good-hearted fire starter? No idea. Did you make up those clues yourself? I need clear rules to play.

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

I don't want anybody saying how easy this one was today, OK? I don't think my ego could take it... ^_^

I did manage to finish unassisted, but only with the help of a few semi-educated guesses here and there. Unknowns today were plentiful and included PETR, PAOLI, OSA, GATT, REVE, LEKS, CERIA, OBER and NYAC. You'll note that many of those words intersect in the grid, hence the guessing.

CERIA and GATT was probably the worst, since GATT was an acronym that could have been anything, but I took a chance with the intersecting "A". Thank heavens I remembered OCA and NISI at least, or that corner would have been totally impossible!

The SE corner was also rather nasty, with OBER and NYAC intersecting with ILEA. I'm not sure if you made a mistake or simply have a typo in your writeup, C. C., but I also wanted ILIA or ILII at first. OBIR just didn't look right (I actually know that OBER means "over" in German, although I didn't know it also meant "head waiter"), so I guessed ILEA instead.

Finally, there was the PAOLI/LEKS intersection. I don't believe I've ever seen LEKS before, but PAOLI rang enough of a vague bell that I made a guess there. Of course, I couldn't decide whether it was MOROCCO or MORROCO, but fortunately I guess correctly there as well.

So, yeah, I finished it correctly in the end. I don't feel particularly proud about myself for doing so, however, because of how much guessing I had to do.

--------

Barry G,
How does PLINTH differ from pillar?


The PLINTH is the base of the column or pillar.

Anonymous said...

Good Morning All,
I agree, much better puzzle today. I didn't know nisi, ceria, or Paoli, and had iles rather than ilia.
The second definition for feral in Websters is "having escaped domestication and become wild". I raise sheep, and feral dogs are much more of a problem than the natural predator, the coyote. I figure the coyote is making an honest living in the only way she knows, but around here the feral dog gets the .22 rifle
out. I understand feral cats are a threat to the songbird population. They get the same treatment.
The "afraid to fly" is, I believe, a somewhat cruel reference to a circa 1970 event in which the chartered plane of the Marshall football team crashed on approach
In Huntington, WV. , killing all aboard.
Also, there is a small city in S. Indiana called
Paoli.

NYTAnonimo said...

Could not finish this one without googling. I need to learn my geography-kept trying to fit in Malacca instead of Morocco-actually think I just need to wake up-I know where Morocco is even if I wasn't sure about Malacca! Many names I didn't know including PETR Beckmann, though I'd read and enjoyed The Life of Pi-ditto on PAOLI, NEALON, GEDDY, OSA. Didn't know NISI, CIRIA, LALA or LEKS either. Too many areas where they crossed to guess. AH ME!

C.C. my HAT (HOOD, SCARF, BEANIE, FEZ, CAP) is off to you for completing these blogs so quickly every morning, especially on days like today! You must be a quick typist as well as a quick thinker!

NYTAnonimo said...

Different head coverings-YARMULKEJewish head coverings 101 here, FEDORA, BANDANA, HEADBAND, SNOOD,Other Amish head coverings here, Muslim HIJAB here, TURBANS and other head coverings for those without hair here.

Barry G. said...

Ooooh -- and don't forget the venerable Keffiyeh, which is a traditional Arabic head covering (basically a cloth held in place by a rope belt).

Anonymous said...

Windhover and CC - The rest of the Marshall story is that one assistant coach named John Madden was scheduled to fly with them, but missed the plane. Since then, he has famously refused to fly and travels from city to city by motor home to do his fabulous color commentary of NFL games.

I didn't like today's puzzle. Too many obscure people, to much foreign language. I don't personally grow from those.

Lemonade714 said...

C.C.

Good morning; I, Lemonade714, am apparently also JCHAP18181, which is my screen name, but which I did not sign up as a Blog name; I cannot imagine how it was trnsposed last night, and now even I am confused as to who I am. Drat!

Dennis said...

Jim in Norfolk, I don't believe the Madden story is true. He had no affiliation with Marshall that I've ever seen. He doesn't fly because he's got severe claustrophobia.

Anonymous said...

C.C.
Thine = of thee = belongs to you
Thy = of thee = belongs to you
They are used differently in a sentence:
The blog is thine.
This is thy blog.

Calef.

Anonymous said...

Good morning C.C. I am much earlier than usual today. I usually do the crossword from the paper. I had lots of trouble and went online to finish, which helped some. Once again, there were clues that were different online than in the paper. Imagine that!

FYI, I just watched a PBS special on the polio epidemic, and Salk and Sabin were working on the vaccine at the same time. They had different approaches, and Salk invented the "killed virus", Sabin the "live virus". Salk's came out first, and he tested it on his family before trying it on the pubic. Sabin's came out later, and was easier to administer as you just consumed the vaccine vs. getting a shot. It was a very interesting documentary.

Have a good day. Lots of new snow here.

Karen

Frey said...

This puzzle was a struggle for me... I seem to remember that Jo Vita's puzzle are a challenge. That is good.

C. C. The "Hat Trick" as mentioned by MARTIN occurs when one player on a hockey team scores three goals in one game.... For this "Trick" the fans throw their hats out onto the rink as a gesture of gratitude for his efforts... and just general craziness celebrating :-)

Anonymous said...

Dennis:
You are correct. At the time of the Marshall crash in 1970, Madden was the head coach of the Raiders. He was never part of the TH program.
Windhover

kazie said...

I found this to be quite challenging. I came here with CLICK for CLACK, SQUR-DOWN for 34A, since I can never remember the spelling of Ecuador,YAPS for YIPS, GETT for GATT, and ICES for ILEA, thinking of appendices.
Landmarks in NY or LA are a complete unknown to me. Aren't LA natives insulted byt the implications of LALA land?

I started with YAM for OCA, and only got 28D, 29D, 58A and 36D after seeing SCARF here.

I think feral referss to animals, normally domesticared, but returned to the wild, like feral cats. I remember some feral kids in my classes.

Dennis, loved the WOW and FF today, both were apt.

Salk was first in 1952, Sabin came after with the oral version of the vaccine in 1957.

c.c., Thanks to Calef, I know my guess on thy/thine is correct. Thy is the personal pronoun, possessive case (like French possessive adjectives, ton/ta/tes). Thine is the possessive pronoun meaning "yours" (French le tien, la tienne, les tiens, etc.)
This is thy book, that book is thine.

Hats? What about SKULLCAP, STOCKING CAP, FEDORA, BERET?

The German head waiter term is "HERR OBER", (= Mr. Upper) which used to be used to call the waiter over, whether he was the head one or not. Now it's better to just say "BITTE", meaning "PLEASE" to get attention in a restaurant.

Anonymous said...

mark - Buenos Aires

I also had "Yaps", Ive never heard of "Yips"

Also, "scarf down", In England we would say "Scoff down"

Ive heard of "Teenier", but more common is "Tinier"

regarding Petr´s mother forgetting the vowel, some say Roald Dahl´s mother could not spell Ronald

kazie said...

oops!
I think feral referss to animals, normally domesticared, but returned to the wild,

I meant to say:
I think feral refers to animals, normally domesticated, but returned to the wild,

Anonymous said...

A hat trick in Hocky is when a player scores three goals in a game. Term come from the tradition of passing a hat to collect money for the player that had just scored three goals.

Anonymous said...

Good morning,all. This one was a hammer for me. I refuse to google, so I was left with many empty spots.
I was going to reply to C.C.'s comment about feral, but I see many already have.
Am I alone in not liking ORANG? My spell check doesn't like it either. My online dictionary says it is short for ORANGUTAN, which I probably would have remembered. (But as orangutang.)
Happy TGIF for you working folks.

Lemonade714 said...

Good morning:

It is true that a number of the assistant coaches for Marshall were not on the flight and survived, but John Madden was not ever a Marshall coach.

It is ironic and weird, but before I began posting comments, I followed this blog using my screen name, and somehow subconsciously last night, when I was commenting on the idea that this Blog is pretentious (no it is not, though the inside jokes between the regulars can be a little confusing and make one think the blog is not for outsiders) I posted using that name instead of my 'fun' 1960's missspent youth name.

I liked today, a nice combination of stuff, learned UNAU, GATT and LEKS (not up to date on bird mating habits, how about LEK as Cardassian currency).

A rule NISI, or decree NISI is actually a pending order that will become final unless some action is done. In the old days of contested divorces, the Decree of Divorce NISI would be entered and the respondent would have time to show cause why it should not become final. This was to prevent rich husbands from going off and suing for divorce, and not allow the wife an opportunity to answer.

Geddy Lee of Rush is pretty entertaining, but it was the songwriting of their drummer Neil Peart that distinguished the band.

http://music.aol.com/video-hub/artist/rush/5323.

Slow Friday, enjoy.

Anonymous said...

Is anyone else tired of cluing "ELS" as golfer Ernie? Isn't there another way? Also, can someone give me the URL for the online puzzle. Thanks.

Clear Ayes said...

Good Morning All, As so often happens to me, the top third of the puzzle seemed pretty straightforward. I had no problems until I met 12A PETR. I'm not exactly familiar with Czech physicists. PAOLI, CERIA, UBER and NYAC, NISI and GATT were also troublesome. I agree with Sallie that ORANG is an abbreviation of orangutan and should have been clued with a v. Dennis is correct about Kevin NEALON. "SNL alumni Kevin" would have been a better clue.

Barry G. If any crossword constructor is looking in, sees and eventually uses "traditional Arabic head covering" for the answer KEFFIYEH, some of us here will have to find you and.....nah, I'm just kidding, but that would be a really diabolical clue/answer.

There is a pretty good 2006 movie called We Are Marshall. It depicts the events surrounding the 1970 plane crash and stars Matthew McConaughey, who keeps his shirt on and does a decent acting job.

Lemonade714, Thank goodness you came forward as Jchap18181. I thought I was experiencing a case of jamais vu.

Anonymous said...

Martin,

In the sport of baseball, a grand slam is a home run hit with all the bases occupied by baserunners, thereby scoring 4 runs - the most possible on a single play. According to The Dickson Baseball Dictionary.

NY Yankee 1st baseman Lou Gehrig (1923-1939)hit 23 career grand slam home runs, the most by any player in Major League Baseball history. also Yankee 1st baseman Don Mattingly (1982-1995)set the single-season record with 6 grand slams in 1987 - remarkably, the only 6 of his entire 14-year career.

Denny's restaurant also has a sampling of breakfast foods called the Grand Slam breakfast.

Col_Gopinath said...

Good evening from India,
Oh boy lot of unknowns today had to do a lot of googling to complete the CW.
Hat trick as a lot of people have explained is basically a sequence of three, it is there in many games including baseball as per wikipedia. In India where Cricket is very popular a hat trick for a bowler is when he takes three wickets with three consecutive balls. A hat trick of wins can also mean winning the same event or game thrice in a row.

Anonymous said...

Yes Dennis,

Kevin Nealon was a cast member of SNL for 174 episodes (1986-1999)

ALL GRAVY NO GRIEF

WM said...

Morning all...

This was a very interesting puzzle. I did very well on the top and I can pretty much ditto BarryG. I wanted AGNT for NARC, but cleared that out quickly and put in LALA for 62D, took it out, put it back in. And, for Kazie...I think that those in LA are too LALA to even pay attention. The SF Bay Area has a reputation for being yoga-doing, crystal-wearing, tree-hugging, left-wing foodies...so, LALA isn't all that bad.

I couldn't get past Jonas Salk and thought I was misspelling his name.I got all the theme answers which I always feel good about.
Anyway...I think there were quite a few "new" words to file away for later. Glad Dennis finally had a bit of a challenge today...thanks for WoW and I really like the new FF section!

Off to take mom to hospital for surgery today.

Elissa@10:26 ELS can also be clued as overhead railway(elevated)

Windhover...do you raise sheep for wool, food, or milk them for cheesemaking(or any combination of?) I think that farming is the true backbone of this country and that we have to do more to keep people on their farms and not beholding to agri-businsess, but remember also, I am a left-wing, tree-hugging SF Bay Area native, so I want people to be able to get away from mono culture and back to healthier bio-diversity. 'nuff said.

DoesItinInk said...

This was certainly not the breeze we have had on all the other puzzles this week. I did not have the time to putz around with the unknowns but decided instead to come here to get PAOLI, NEALON and ILEA. In total I had 6 blank squares. Apart from these two names, the puzzle was not all that difficult. And the theme was cute!

@Barry G…It is ‘über’, not OBER that means ‘over’ in German.

IMBO…I am driving to Albion, MI today. My oldest daughter is in the chorus of Sweet Charity at her school, and I said I would come to see her. Being unemployed has some advantages, eh?

Anonymous said...

regarding hats: how about a watch cap?

Crockett1947 said...

Good morning, everyone. This one required some effort and some G. Did not know PETR, NEALON, GATT, NYAC, LEKS, etc. Should the clue for 71A indicate that the pact ended in 1994? That's what I read from wiki.

@elissa There is a link at the top on the right for the online version. But the URL is: http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/outdoors/chi-sa-crossword-htmlpage,0,250019.htmlpage

Have a great Friday, all!

redsmitty said...

Jim in Norfolk,

Madden is well-known for his fear of flying. Two different theories have developed as to the cause. One theory relates to the October 29, 1960 Cal Poly football team plane crash that claimed the lives of sixteen players, the team’s student manager, and a football booster. Having graduated from Cal Poly only two years previous, Madden lost many friends in the accident. However, it is known that Madden flew up until 1979, when he had a panic attack on a flight originating in Tampa. Madden, however, stated once in an interview that his fears were not about turbulence, flying, or heights, but primarily claustrophobia. He also once noted that when he did fly, traveling all over the United States did not allow him to see anything.

Anonymous said...

48D: Some sports cars: TURBOS. Don't know anything about sports car.

This German Sports car is an example of a turbo called Porsche.

http://stb.msn.com/i/D9/B1F630786281A0E45C2B9FED2FD58D.jpg

ALL GRAVY NO GRIEF

Lemonade714 said...

When I was a very little boy, my uncle who was a medical doctor and the medical officer for the county we lived in, was asked to find volunteers for the testing of the SALK polio vaccine. He gladly volunteered my two older brothers, and rewarded their participation by giving them each a bic pen and some candy when they went for their regular shots. Well, this selfish little boy pitched a fit, demanding to be part of the trial group. He let me, and then, and only then, did I learn it involved painful inoculations. I was like a cartoon character trying to talk my way out of the study, but it was too late. I have hated bic pens ever since. Finally, when the experiment was done, we learned of SABIN and his oral version, and I was even more upset. Coincidentally, my grandfather had contracted polio in Poland (good alliteration) as a child. The treatment was for him to have the effected leg buried in the earth. It did not work.

kazie said...

Doesn't TURBO have something to do with the mode of fuel injection? Where are our engineers?

kazie said...

Here is Wiki's take on turbo

Clear Ayes said...

Fear of flying, not the Erica Jong kind, but actual aerophobia is one of the most common fears. In January 2002, a CBS News poll figures showed that two in every ten Americans are still 'afraid' to fly and another three are 'bothered slightly'. That isn't surprising. Most of us understand (vaguely) the science behind the air flow, the "lift" under the wings, etc. We know that flying is a jillion times safer than driving, but there is still that irrational feeling of "how the heck can this huge object get off the ground?"...and more importantly,"how can it possibly stay up there?"

I'm one of those "slightly bothered" three out of ten. I do fly,have done so many times in the past and will fly in the future. But I still have to take a big breath when the plane lifts off. After that I relax and figure I am in the hands of the pilots and fate, which is odd because even though I do believe there are pilots behind that up-front door, I do not believe in fate.

Of course, on the few occasions when I have had an upgrade to business class, I have actually enjoyed the experience. Maybe I fear the misery of the tourist cabin, rather than the actual flying.

I did a little checking and other than John Madden and Whoopie Goldberg who both refuse to fly, Jennifer Anniston, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Cher and Colin Ferrell are fearful fliers.

Are there other reticent fliers here?

Argyle said...

Re: Hat Trick in hockey.

After scoring his third goal, the player would skate by the opposing team and tell them,..."PUT THAT IN YOUR HAT AND SMOKE IT!"

jk ;~)

Lemonade714 said...

Random thoughts while I wait for people to return my telephone calls:

The English word "reverie" is derived from the French REVE.

In the FLORIDA PANTHER games, instead of hats, the fans throw plastic rats on the ice when a Panther player scores three goals. The DETROIT RED WINGS fans throw octopi on the ice, but for different reasons.

I am not a great flier, but it beats taking forever to get places.

kazie said...

I just counted, and at the same time yesterday there were 32 comments. Today we have 41 as I'm writing this. 32 is 78% of 41, so having the greater challenge is making a difference to the amount of discussion, even without all the comments about why and what is happening that we were having yesterday.

I've been flying since I was 18 months old, and I still say a prayer each time I go up. I can't say I'm really fearful at all, but I do know there isn't much chance in most crashes, so I'm mindful at least of the possibility of having one.

I think it's partly that we feel helpless putting ourselves in the pilot's hands, whereas in our cars, we feel in control, and the rsult of a crash isn't always certain death, especially since we control our speed.

Anonymous said...

Wolfmom:
We raise sheep primarily for meat, which we direct market
as lamb (defined broadly as meat from sheep less than one year old). We do shear them, but wool has virtually no value these days. You wouldn't think so, if you've bought a wool garment lately, but it costs more to shear them than the price of the wool. Our breed of sheep is Cheviot. I am not computer literate enough
To create a link for you, but if you G the word you are likely to find some very cute pictures. We keep Toggenburg goats for milk and cheese, although I love Pecorino Romano, made from sheep milk.
Right on to the left wing tree-hugging. It turns out (see: last eight years) we were right all along. BTW, thanks for asking.
Windhover

Dennis said...

I think Kazie nailed it - I love flying, in anything, but it's a much less comfortable feeling when you don't have control.

kazie said...

Windhover,
Here you go!
cheviot

toggenburg

Auntie Naomi said...

Good Afternoon C.C. and Co.,

I got a late start today because I had to meet with the woman who owns the shop where my sports car is being repaired. While it is pretty fast, it is not TURBO-charged.

Today's XW was kind of tough for me. I knew things were not going well when I couldn't get PETR. I totally borked the SE corner. I could not think of ILEA and I opted for INES, as in 'ends of small intestINES'.

There is a variant of the HAT TRICK called a 'Gordie Howe Hat Trick'. Rather than three goals, it consists of a goal, an assist and a fight. It is named for one of the all-time great hockey players.
The Panthers sent the Rangers' fans home crying again last night :)

Paoli headed a Corsican independence movement. That must be the reason he is called a patriot.

Kevin NEALON is a very funny guy (WARNING: Mature Content).

I hate flying, but it has nothing to do with fear. It is the airports and airlines that I hate. I have nothing good to say about any airlines that I have ever flown on with the single exception of Singapore Airlines. I flew in Singapore's business class on my trip to Indonesia last spring and it was quite pleasant.
These guys have no fear of flying.

C.C., Yes I made up the clues.
Clue (8-letters): Good-hearted fire starter?
Answer: Kindling

embien said...

13:01 today. HOODWINKED was my last fill, as I didn't know the WEI dynasty (please don't shoot me, c.c.). CERIA was a complete unknown gotten via the crosses.

I hope that if anyone goes to the ACPT in Brooklyn this weekend that they will blog about it here. As I understand it there are events for all skill levels (and it's primarily a social event for all but a handful of elite solvers anyway). Too far away for someone like me in Oregon to contemplate...

WM said...

PromiseMe...nice car!

Thanks for the links on the sheep and goats...I am actually goofy enough that once, when in England, I actually bought a poster with all the major sheep breeds(still have it) and am actually familiar with Cheviots.(also a range of hills in UK).
Windhover, that is very cool that you have milking goats for cheese...I absolutely love fresh chevre. Actually, I pretty much like all cheese. I have a friend who owns Redwood Hill Farms in N.CA where they raise Nubians, Saanens, Alpines and LaManchas. They are the only Certified Humane goat dairy in the U.S. and their cheese is amazing! I also prefer American lamb over New Zealand and I am one those who tries to buy local and support area farmers as much as possible.

I will just toss in that I am avid flyer...take-offs are my favorite part. My uncle was a Military pilot and used to take us up when we were younger(several times in one of the two planes that he built from the ground up-so to speak). Airplanes to me are the means to go anywhere and I just love the roamnce of it. Our daughters and their husbands are all the same...hubby is a little more iffy about it, but will do it when needed.

Just a question on the ORANG clue...shouldn't that have had something indicating an abbreviation...like "Borneo ape, for short"? I kept trying to find a complete name to fit in there then finally gave up and stuck in ORANG...just asking.

Auntie Naomi said...

wolfmom, Thanks. She was a real beauty back when I took that picture but, like Tawny Kitaen, she has seen better days. She will be pretty again by summer (my car, that is, I don't know about Tawny, perhaps she's having some work done, too), but by then my wallet won't be looking as good.

"I absolutely love fresh chevre. I also prefer American lamb over New Zealand"
I love good chevré, too. My favorite sheep's milk cheese, however, is genuine Feta. I have taken to purchasing my lamb at BJ's wholesale club because they sell American lamb at a price that is competitive to the New Zealand or Australian.

Clue (13-letters): keen

kazie said...

I've never understood why lamb is so hard to find in stores and so unpopular with so many people here. In Oz I grew up eating more lamb than beef. The animals have a longer growing season to graze there and still be under a year old. Here in Wisconsin any American lamb chops seem too small to bother with--more bone than meat.

Promiseme,
That car certainly is a beauty! I imagine you baby it quite a bit.

WM said...

Kazie/PromiseMe...interesting on the lamb as the American lamb cuts are usually a bit larger. Lamb is, I think under appreciated in this country partly because Americans were raised to eat the more subsidized Beef and Chicken. Lamb is and extremely flavorful and versatile meat. I am always looking for new recipes...PMT I am planning on making that Lamb shepard's pie this weekend.
My absolutely most favorite sheep's milk cheese is Abbeye de Belloc...like eating hazelnuts. Of course, when I was in my cheesemonger days, when someone asked what my favorite cheese was...I always answered " what I just cut".

Don't mean to get going on food. I am starting the Amy Reynaldo book this evening and will see how it goes. The NYTimes Puzzle Omnibus is very intimidating, and will probably keep me busy for years to come.

Barry G. said...

Doesn't TURBO have something to do with the mode of fuel injection? Where are our engineers?

I used to drive a turbo-charged sport(y) car, and now drive a supercharged family sedan. Both have to do with getting more air into the engine chamber. The more air you can force into the chamber, the more fuel you can burn at once, and that means more power.

A turbocharger relies on the exhaust of the car to turn a fan which, in turns, pulls the air into the engine. A supercharger, on the other hand, has a fan connected by a belt directly to the engine.

Each way has its advantages and disadvantages. Because a turbocharger is a "passive" system, it doesn't sap any of the power of the engine to turn the fan, which is good. However, it doesn't kick in until enough exhaust pressure has built up, which causes "turbo lag" (basically, you don't get full power for a second or two). Conversely, a supercharger makes all it's power available immediately, but saps a bit of the engine's power and therefore may not be as fast as a turbocharger.

At last, that's how I understand it all. I suppose I should just go read that article you linked to... ^_^

Clear Ayes said...

PromiseMeThis, As far as I'm concerned, a business class ticket makes just about any airline acceptable. Most of the time my flying has been in the germ factory tourist cabin. (I call it the germ factory because there doesn't seem to be any way to avoid the coughing, runny-nosed two-year-old across the aisle.) We do try to make our travel time pretty adaptable, so if a free upgrade offer or a buy-off comes up we can take it and not ruin our plans. We've taken advantage of three business upgrades in the past 10 years or so. We'd travel more if we could be sure of an upgrade.

This Man On Wire is not only not afraid of flying, he doesn't seem to be afraid of dying either. We went to see this Oscar winning movie this afternoon. Philippe Petit's 1974 wire walk between the World Trade Center Towers was mind-boggling. He could be the poster boy for Dennis' man of action. Well, he is more than somewhat insane and he certainly doesn't lack balance, at least of the physical kind.

Lemonade714 said...

PMT:

I think you have a little Tawny Kitaen obsession going on; to see that picture twice is too much. Do you also like Nick Nolte's booking pictures?

As I was driving home, the sports talk discussion was Tom Brady marrying Giselle Bunchen, and could it be said Tom, or any man could be considered both pretty and rugged. Any thoughts?

Anonymous said...

A hat trick is not the same as a home run in baseball. It is when a hockey player scores 3 goals in one game.

Auntie Naomi said...

wolfmom, I have never tried Abbaye de Belloc. I will keep an eye out for it. I do have another Pyrenees region sheep's milk cheese in my refrigerator at the moment, though, Idiazabal.

Lemonade714, I promise, that is the last time I post Ms. Kitaen's mugshot. The poor woman has taken enough abuse from me. In all fairness, for a mugshot, it's really not that bad. She just doesn't look like the sexpot she was back in the Whitesnake video days. I vaguely recall Nolte's mugshot.

"could it be said Tom, or any man could be considered both pretty and rugged."
That works for me. It's a damn shame he didn't do the Calvin Kline campaign.

Anonymous said...

I was just using Porsche as an example of a car that has a turbo.

I would like to add however that a character Johnny Carson used to portray was named Floyd R Turbo.


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

ALL GRAVY AND NO GRIEF

JD said...

Good evening to all,

mmmm, late as usual; most has been said. I too came here to fill in the missing squares.Busy day baby sitting 18 mo old grandson.I stopped at the SE corner. I also had yaps. A yip sound is when the dog is hurt.A yap is when you want to call your neighbor because you've heard that LITTLE dog long enough. I had prune for natural starter.:)I had scoff down and I could not understand how Morocco was a city. I kept thinking it had to have north or west or something added to it.Never been there, but I love to fly. If we're over land I marvel at the landscape. Over sea or clouds, I read.Danielle Steele was in one of those Fear of Flying classes with a teacher friend of mine in SF.
The Sharks have not had a "Hat Trick" this year, although Ryane Clowe had one of those Gordie Howe hat tricks. Last year Cheechoo had one. There is still time.

Embien,I learned a new word after looking at the ACPT link: enigmatologist- someone who studies and writes mathematical word or logic puzzles. Of course, that is Will Shortz.

I heard that tomorrow is Tooth Fairy Day. I sure hope she doesn't visit me!!!

WM said...

JD...Loved Prunes for "natural starter" LOL!!!

PromiseMe...Idiazabal is a lovely cheese...The shepherds would make on a daily basis and supposedly age in the chimneys of their huts, the smoke from the fires would flavor and preserve the cheese. There are some really good importers of Spanish products and we can get some terrific cheese in this country now along with some very good pork products. I particulary like Jamon Serrano. Spanish sheep's milk cheeses are lovely. Neal's Yard Dairy also has a few Brit ones that are incredible...a bit harder to find unless you have a really good cheesemonger nearby.

If anyone manages to get a Barry Silk puzzle from the ACPT can you post it somewhere for us to work?

Today's puzzle gives us hope that there can be improvement on what is on offer.

BTW C.C. I really liked the spoon sculpture from ealier today.

Been a very long day today waiting to hear from my mom's surgeon...dropped her off at 11 am and finally heard back about 7 this evening...all is terrific.

Lemonade714 said...

wolfmom: that is great news about your mother.

BobR said...

CC - As you figured out... I am not jchap18181 or Lemonade. Just a guy who doesn't get around to the puzzles until the end of a busy day. For all I know, we might be neighbors. I live near Edina ( I've seen it clued as Minneapolis suburb).

Crockett - Thanks for the football team link for the Stanford Cardinal which led to all the discussion around Marshall U and fear of flying.
I've flown about 20 times a year for past 10 years and I still say a prayer on take off.

Very hard puzzle for me... but I'm learning more from this site every day. I thought touchdown vessel was a very hard clue for LANDER.

Goodnight

Crockett1947 said...

@wolfmom Glad the news is terrific!

WM said...

Crockett and Lemonade...Thank you.

BobR...We are all levels of puzzlers...I am not that good yet and have learned so much here...please continue to join us, even if it is late. The more people there are, the more we learn. Us Westcoasters often check in late to see what has been added at the end of the day.