google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Friday March 6, 2009 Annabel Michaels

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Mar 6, 2009

Friday March 6, 2009 Annabel Michaels

Theme: Scrub Away

17A: Warmer on the table: CHAFING DISH

24A: Tall building: SKY SCRAPER

39A: Disease spread by kittens: CAT SCRATCH FEVER

51A: Graphics program tool: PAINT BRUSH

64A: Elastic substance: INDIA RUBBER

I am not a cat person. Have never heard of CAT SCRATCH FEVER. Not familiar with INDIAN RUBBER either.

I disliked the jarring inconsistency in today's theme entries. CHAFE, SCRAPE, SCRATCH, BRUSH and RUB would be an OK set.

Also hated all the "More" clues. Three ER is too much for a grid. Besides, I think the clues could be reworded to disguise the unpleasant repetitiveness "More".

42D: More intoxicated: HIGHER. Try "Kind of education".

48D: More coarse: CRUDER. Try "Less refined".

53D: More sickly: ILLER. I don't know. Maybe you can come up with a better clue. ILLER is such a made-up word. Nobody feels ILLER. One might feel worse, not ILLER.

I do love the clues for ISH (10D: Sort of ending?) and STU (32D: R-V hookup, RSTUV, alphabet). Very cute. Can't decide whether I like ARNIE (52D: Putter Palmer) or not. To me, "Putter" is just a putter, a golf club. I've never heard anyone being called a "Putter".

Across:

6A: Early adders: ABACI. I can't remember what kind of wood my primary school abacus was made of. But it was very heavy to carry around for a little girl.

14A: Billiard shot: CAROM. Sometimes the answer is MASSE. See 1:35, pretty cool.

19A: G.I. wear: ODS (Olive Drabs). Someone mentioned on the Comments section that you never call a Marine a soldier. So does "solider" apply only to Army grunt? Dictionary says "jarhead" is a disparaging slang for a Marine. I wonder why Navy picked up "squid" as their nickname. "Zoomies" for Air Force sounds quite appropriate. Hayrake said "wing nut" is for Navy aviator, what is the slang for a Marines pilot then? Does Army have a flying division as well?

20A: Noisemaker: RATTLE

22A: Large blob: GOUT. I only know GOUT is a kind of arthritic disease and those who have GOUT can't eat certain fish.

29A: Safe and sound: OKAY. And ACCEPT (28D: Answer affirmatively).

33A: Small harbor: COVE. It's for also small boats, correct? Or can you dock a big yacht there as well?

35A: Traveled by plane: FLOWN. I FLIED first. Dictionary.com seems to imply that there is a difference between FLIED and FLOWN.

44A: French eye: OEIL. Here is one more Julian Beever for you. He is really the Picasso in creating Trompe l'OEIL pavement art.

49A: Arch type: OGEE. Like this one.

55A: Balmy: DAFT. Had no idea that "Balmy" has a "eccentric" side.

60A: Self: pref.: AUT. I thought it's AUTO.

63A: Darkroom abbr. ENL. No waffling between ENL and NEG this time.

70A: Pound and Cornell: EZRAS. Did not know EZRA Cornell, founder of Cornell University. More used to seeing EZRAS clued as "Pound and Stone".

71A: Japanese fencing: KENDO. No idea. The kanji characters 剣道 mean "Way of the Sword" in English. Japanese DO is a corruption of Chinese TAO (Way). Judo is literally "Soft way".

Down:

1D: Ghana's capital: ACCRA. "Ghana's largest city" as well. Surprised to learn that 69% of the population in Ghana are Christians, compared with 16% of Muslims.

3D: Whitney's partner: PRATT. I can never remember this engine maker.

4D: Propelled in a high arc: LOFTED. Did not know LOFT is a verb as well. My answer was LOBBED, thinking of Phil Michelson's lob shot.

8D: Melodic passage: ARIOSO. Got it from the across fills. Here is Julian Lloyd Webber playing Bach's "ARIOSO". Weird. I thought ARIOSO is like ARIA, a song.

9D: "Serendipity" star John: CUSACK. Finally a move star I know and a movie I've seen.

12D: Embody with: ENDUE. Mine was ENDOW.

13D: Stomach: pref: GASTR. Similar to my AUTO/AUT experience earlier, I thought the prefix is GASTRO.

18D: Greek advisor at Troy: NESTOR. I blanked on his name again. Saw this clue before. He was the oldest and wisest men of the Greeks in Trojan War. But the Greek was still the loser of Trojan War. Maybe he was not really that wise.

22D: Singer Crystal: GAYLE. The long hair country singer. That's all I know about her.

25D: Polynesian beverage: KAVA. No idea. Looks like raw organic apple cider vinegar. Hard to imagine these roots can produce something intoxicating.

26D: Fund-raising event: RAFFLE

30D: Service winner: ACE. Tennis.

34D: WWII arena: ETO. Often clued as "DDE arena".

37D: Unseld of the NBA: WES. Hall-of-Famer. Too bad. I've never heard of him.

47D: Guitar brand: IBANEZ. Nope. Is it a famous brand? Who are their competitors?

54D: New York city: UTICA. Interesting, the first Woolworth's was opened here in 1878, though it failed within a year. Target just opened its first store in Hawaii. Right now, Vermont is the only state in the US Target-less.

56D: Composer Berg: ALBAN. Why is his name so hard for me to remember? And I also confuse him with LABAN, "Rachel's father".

57D: Demon: FIEND. Devil is another 5-letter word.

64D: __- de-France: ILE. And "ILE locale" is MER.

C.C.

83 comments:

Dennis said...

Good morning, C.C. and gang - not a bad puzzle. I had a couple stumbling blocks, but got bailed out by the perps. Didn't know 'Ibanez' was a guitar brand, never heard of India Rubber, and I thought "Cat Scratch Fever" was strictly a song. And someone with a better memory than I, didn't we recently have 'Erle' and 'enl' in almost exactly the same position together? Didn't like seeing 'iller' for 'more sickly' again either; no one ever says that. Why not clue "A.J. on the Sopranos"?

Today is National Frozen Foods Day and National Dentist's Day. Don't defrost the former, and you'll need the latter.

Today's Words of Wisdom: "I don't know what I may seem to the world, but, as to myself, I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me." -- Isaac Newton

Earlier last year, Mensa had an invitational where they asked participants to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition. Here's the first three:

Cashtration: The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time.

Ignoranus: A person who is both stupid and an asshole.

Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.

Anybody wanna give it a try?

From last night, All gravy no grief, by all means, continue the Fun Facts. The more people contributing, the better.

Dennis said...

C.C., 'soldier' is a term applied to all Army personnel, not just grunts.

Off to the gym.

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

Dennis,
I've never watched "The Sopranos". Why "A. J. on the Sopranos" for ILLER? The only frozen food I like is frozen banana. And I only eat it in summer time, with 2 nectarines. Perfect breakfast! How about BLOVE? Blind love. I am confused about the nickname grunt. Whom does it refer to exactly?

Windover,
What is "lambing season"? What do you do to prepare for this season?

Frey,
Did you serve in Vietnam also? Marines?

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

NYTanonimo,
Excellent fission/fusion information. You are an outstanding researcher.

Shron,
I use ballpoint pen too. And Wite-out.

Valerie,
Why helmet as avatar? Football fan? What does the star stand for?

Wolfmom,
TMS puzzles are widely syndicated (second only to NY Times I think). There is no way Williams will lift any puzzle from other publication.

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

Mark in BA,
Re: "I snore, being older" (6 letters). I agree with Dennis. It's SENIOR. Does "I snore" indicate an anagram?

Old Sage in Virginia Beach & PromiseMe,
Did you serve in the Army/Navy?

Anonymous @ 2:09pm & NYTanonimo,
I had no idea that cottons are used in printing money.

Toby,
Great to see you!

Anonymous said...

CC

Valerie the helmet is for the Dallas Cowboys

www.dallascowboys.com

Anonymous said...

Dennis,

Robert Iler is the actor who portrayed Anthony Junior Soprano

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

Anonymous @ 6:21am,
Thank you. Are you Sam? Winfield? BC?

Democrat,
Re: ILLER & Iler. Ha ha, perfect example of Mensa adding one letter game. "Stupid", Dennis!

Anonymous said...

CAT SCRATCH FEVER

Ted Nugent song.

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

ALL GRAVY NO GRIEF

Dick said...

Good morning CC and all,...a nice challenging puzzle today, but doable although there were unknowns. I never heard of Ibanez guitars and my son in law is so into guitars. Dennis, I also noticed the position of Erle and enl and had a moment of dejavu.

I had a real brain fade early on when I saw Whitney's partner. All I could think of was Eli Whitney and I did not know of any partners he had. Finally, I had the big DUH and realized that my first job out of college was with Pratt and Whitney. Wow!

Also, in the SE corner I put devil in first which caused some delays in that area.

Hope you all have a great Friday and weekend.

Mainiac said...

Good Morning,

This one was trouble for me. Couldn't get India Rubber or Chafing Dish. I also thought Gastr and Aut were a letter short. I need help on Japanese fencing and/or Composer Berg.

It's a Monday on a Friday! We got a few inches of snow last night and to top it off a water main leak was just reported. Time to go get into the Muck!!

redsmitty said...

the Army has helicopters known as Helo's. Prior to the creation of the Air Force in 1950 the ARMY aviation division was known as the U.S ARMY Air Corps.


http://home.nps.gov/applications/parks/tuai/ppphotos/mvc-006f.jpg

See the HBO movie Tuskegee Airmen

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

I had a brother who was a MARINE. He called other MARINES jarheads or Gyrines. in WW 1 the Nazi's called them Teufel Hunden (Devil Dogs).

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

The only nickname for Marine Aviators that I'm aware of is flying leathernecks.

Lemonade714 said...

Good morning:

CRYSTAL GAYLE is the little sister of Loretta Lynn, one of the country music super stars. She did "Don't it make my brown eyes blue." a very nice song.

IBANEZ is one of a few companies that try to compete with FENDER and GIBSON, the major guitar makers. Gibson and Fender have set the standard for many years for electric guitars. The basic structure and philosophy of these two companies, are the subject of much debate among guitarists. My youngest son plays both.

When I grew up in Connecticut, many people in my home town would get up at 4:00am to board buses to go to the PRATT and WHITNEY plant to work on jet engines.

Never heard of ENDUE, loved John CUSACK in "Serendipity" but Kate Beckinsale is a true millihelen machine in my universe.

Anonymous said...

Whitney's partner I wanted Bobby Brown

ALL GRAVY NO GRIEF

Lemonade714 said...

Crockett 1947:

Thanks for pointing to the link, link. I am too computer naive to understand, but thanks for trying. I guess it requires me to modify the URL with an HTML signal, or something....

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

This one was a bit of a struggle for me in spots, but not too bad and I did manage to finish unassisted. I've never heard of ODS before (are you sure it stands for Oliver Drabs and not Olive Drabs?) and didn't realize that GOUT could mean "large blob," but I was pretty certain about the perps and therefore left those in the grid.

The whole OVA/WES/ASA section was also a bit thorny. I wasn't sure whether 36D would be OVI or OVA, didn't know who WES Unseld was, and couldn't remember ASA Johnson at first. Fortunately, I did eventually remember ASA and that got me the rest.

Proof that I can learn from my mistakes is the fact that I actually remembered KAVA from a previous puzzle. I don't remember if it was here or in a NYT puzzle, but I do recall that it caused me to mess up because I couldn't decide whether it should be KAVE or KAVA and guessed incorrectly.

I did not know CAT SCRATCH FEVER, but it was easy enough to guess with the help of a few perps. IBANEZ was also a complete unknown, which I needed every single perp to get. I did, on the other hand, know INDIAN RUBBER (it may be a false association, but I always think of art school erasers when I hear the term). CHAFING DISH was also familiar to me from my days working my way through college as a banquet waiter at a local hotel.

Have a great day, everyone!

Anonymous said...

IBANEZ is cheaper guitar for those who can't afford a FENDER

IBANEZ guitar on average costs around $320 as to where a FENDER averages around $800

I bought a Chinese made guitar from a pawn shop for $79

ALL GRAVY NO GRIEF

Frey said...

I guessed at IBANEZ for the guitar answer... only knew FENDER. NIce puzzle.... got stuck in the NE for a while.. with the GOUT clue.

@ C.C. The Army did have fliers... but they became the Air Force.

@ DENNIS: I was Army for three years during the Vietnam War. I was a Special Agent in Military. Intelligence assigned to the Fort Meade Field Office. With this MOS it was 50/50 whether one went to Nam. I did not. I was very fortunate.... I was plain clothes and no one knew my rank, got a car, and had to live off base. A good gig to say the least. Thank you for doing the harder more dangerous job.

Argyle said...

Worms for you, Barry G.

It's OSA Johnson. We've gotten her several times lately. She and her husband, Martin, explored Africa.

That meant the egg prefix was OVO.

Cat Scratch Fever, by the Motor City Madman, Ted Nugent. video lyrics

Dick said...

Just as a heads up after seeing KAVA for 25D it reminded me that my friend's 16 year old daughter took large doses of Kava Kave to reduce her weight. This resulted in total failure of her liver requiring a transplant. The doctors pointed to the "Kava Kava as the source of the problem. Last I saw, several years ago, his medical bills were approaching one million dollars. Just a heads up.

Barry G. said...

Worms for you, Barry G.

It's OSA Johnson. We've gotten her several times lately. She and her husband, Martin, explored Africa.


OH NOOOOOOOZ!!!

^_^

I guess I'm doomed to never remembering that name...

Sea-She Sheila said...

'Morning, All-Pretty good puzzle for me, with a just a few unknowns. I got cat scratch fever right away, but also thought gastro should have been the proper word for 13D, then couldn't think of anything else to fit. I also tried to put in Fender for Ibanez. My son also plays guitar, but I've never heard of that brand. Never heard olive drabs called O.D.'s--I could only think of fatigues and knew of no abbreviation for that. I first thought rattle would not be a noisemaker, but rather the noise created by a noisemaker--then thought of baby rattle. Oh, and I also first put Bobby for 3D. And I've never heard of kendo, either. So thanks for your help, C.C.

NYTAnonimo said...

Here and here and hereare lists of military slang and jargon that you might find helpful C.C.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

ski said...

My friend once said that a person who grew up in an LDS family but actually does not believe in God is an oxymormon.

Martin said...

Damn. I thought Whitney was Whitney Houston and her partner was BOBBY Brown.

Goodnight.

Martin

Sea-She Sheila said...

Clear Ayes--I really enjoyed your Dante poem yesterday. That phrase, "...nearly perlaceous in her coloring..." sticks in my mind. Now I find myself wanting to paint it. Raphael came the closest to perlaceous complexions, I think.
Sheila

papajim said...

Morning all,
I had a tough time with stomach and gout, otherwise it went pretty smooth.
Speaking of the Sopranos today and the Honeymooners (Jackie Gleason/Art Carney) yesterday: did you notice how many times during the entire Soprano run that dialog from the Honeymooners was incorporated into the show? I'm a honeymooners nut and I picked it up right away.
My daughter called about ten minutes ago, irregular pains and other things that may not go with your breakfast, but today just might be the day I get meet the little one.
I'll keep you advised,
JIm

one!!

Linda said...

Hi to CC and all:
Only one problem with clues..."od" hasn`t been THE color for GI`s since the first war under GWH Bush...I hardly ever see "od" fatigues anymore. A better clue might have been, "ingests copiously". (I love bigger words.)

Linda said...

oops, GHW Bush

Anonymous said...

mark - Buenos Aires

"Senior" - yes

Try - "being a fool I do it wrongly" (5 letters)

"Mugnificent" - a handsome face

My teachers called an eraser an "India rubber"

Lambing season is the time when lambs are born - January to April in Wales, when you can be sure that a large proportion of your workers will have a sickie.

maria said...

good morning, c.c. & co.
Today i read Dennis's blog first so i got "Ibanez" right off the bat and did quite well after that !
I cheated, mea culpa.
Still had a few empty spots and had to come here to finish.

Weird words were, Iller and Gastr , Geewhiz

Doseitinink, thanks, you saved me a trip

Dobylee, i always use the Paper=mate Erasermate and when it gets too light i get a new one

Cheers everyone , going for my hour walk now

Elissa said...

I had trouble with CAROM and ARIOSO. Wanted ENDOW for ENDUE, DEVIL for FIEND. Never heard of IBANEZ or that definition for GOUT. And although ALBAN Berg comes up a lot, it hides in a bad sector of my brain that I can't access. My "duh" moment was R-V/STU.

I remember INDIA RUBBER from the children's poem My Shadow by Robert Louis Stevenson - "For he sometimes shoots up taller like an india-rubber ball, And he sometimes gets so little, there is none of him at all."

Marines I know sometimes call themselves "jarheads" and I never think of it as derogatory. Sailors never call themselves "squid" and Marines never seem to be saying it with any kind of good feelings.

Dennis said...

Mark, Being a fool, I do it, wrongly = idiot

kazie said...

Morning all!
Today was a bit of a hammer for me, though one that worried a few of you was a gimme. A friend in Oz had cat scratch fever once and was hospitalized with it. All the lymph nodes were severely swollen.

I've also heard of India rubber before. But didn't know GOUT as anything but the foot ailment--I suppose there's a connection because of the swelling there.

I missed for unknown reasons AMPLE, ODS, and ACCRA, though have either seen or knew them before. PRATT I never would have got--have never heard of it, g'spotted EMIL and KENDO, also CHAFING DISH, though I knew the expression--have even used them before but couldn't think of the the word. I agree about AUTO and GASTRO too. Was thinking BALMY meant hot, but eventually got DAFT after guessing ALBAN. I also started with lobbed for LOFTED and spent the longest time with -M-L- for AMPLE, which was causing my other problems in that corner. I actually solved up from the bottom today, but with numerous blanks along the way.

c.c.,
Interesting billiard link, and those trompe l'oeil street paintings are incredible.

Did you mean flown and flew? Flew is the simple past tense and flown is the past participle--I flew to L.A., but have flown to Europe many times. I don't think flied exists, does it?

Lemonade714 said...

I actually never understood the STU answer until I read the coments, so my "DUH" moment was very slow in coming, though I appreciate being tricked by the constructor.

If you want to know who plays what guitars, a start is found in http://www.guitarprotege.com/famous-guitar-players.php

P.S. I tried an HTML tag and it would not allow it, obviously did something wrong....

Submaster said...

52D is a bad clue. Putter is a golf club, Arnold Palmer is a golfer, Arnie is his nicknname.

Clear Ayes said...

Good Morning All, There were all kinds of stickers for me this morning. The only corner that didn't give me trouble was the SW. I know we've had both ACCRA and PRATT before, but they weren't in my brain today. GOUT AND GASTR held up the NE and ALBAN and KENDO slowed down the pesky SE. Lastly ARIOSO and IBANEZ were newbies for me. I did catch the theme early on. If I hadn't filled those in early, I would still be pondering the grid.

Elissa, I am a R.L. Stevenson fan and remembered My Shadow too. A.A. Milne also had a lovely Christmas poem, that featured an INDIA RUBBER ball. King John's Chrismas. It is rather long, so I'll just link it here. It is a family tradition to read it aloud before Christmas dinner.

BTW, for those who would like to link, I think it was Doesitinink who had a very nice simple "how-to" explanation a few months ago. Did you save it, Doesitinink?

Anonymous said...

Somehow, my post relative to Army and olive drab color ended up at the bottom of yesterday's comments.
Can you go back there to read it, or should I do it over again?
Computers are still a mystery to me.
Old Sage in Virginia Beach

ferd 77 said...

This is a ppoor ppuzzle today.Couldnt do most of it.Will bake cakes instead much more pproductive and satisfying gastrically speaking

g8rmomx2 said...

Hi c.c. and all,

Fairly easy puzzle today. Got all the "biggies" which helped out alot. Cat Scratch Fever was a gimme to me as my daughter had it in the 3rd grade. A neighbor's (outdoor) cat scratched her on her arm or leg I forget now. The Doctor picked up on it and treated her immediately for it! The same cat we found out scratched the owner on the neck and he was rushed to the emergency room and almost died because his throat swelled up. I agree about "iller" terrible clue. As for Arnie Palmer, I think they were trying to come up with something more clever, sorry it didn't work for me!

Off to the gym! Have a great day everyone..

Anonymous said...

I earned my Commission and gold bars as Second Lieutenant in USAR (United States Army Reserve) as opposed to RA (Regular Army) after 4 years of ROTC (Reserve Officers Training Corps) at North Carolina State University. My serial number started with USAR.

Olive drab is a color, the old ugly grayish green color of the "fatigue" (work or fighting) uniforms of the period. I think the term may have also applied to the color of all the tanks, trucks, and other army vehicles of that period.

Old Sage in Virginia Beach

carol said...

Good morning C.C.and everyone,
A few nasties in there today: GOUT, ILLER,LOFTED,KAVA,GASTER, etc. I couldn't finish without going to Mr.G, and even then had to turn to C.C. (thank goodness she is always there. I did enjoy it though - a good mind stretcher.

My cousin had cat scratch fever too...not a good thing, very difficult to recover from.

Dick (6:27a) Cute new picture, is that your cat? Very nice coloring and eyes.

Elissa and Clear ayes, My Shadow was a childhood favorite, my Dad read to me from the old Childcraft books. Does anyone have those? I kept all of them.

Beautiful (but chilly) day in Portland today, leaving for bike ride in 1/2 hour. Frost should be gone by then.

JD said...

Good morning CC and all,

Haven't read comments as of yet, but wanted to add this since it is Nat. Dentist Day.

Dentists have recommended that a toothbrush be kept at least 6 feet away from a toilet to avoid airborne particles resulting from the flush.

CC, I loved Julian Beever's sidewalk art. He does amazing work. I'd love to really see it.

Puzzle was fun, but I always have trouble with "words" like ods, aut, gast, and had not heard of arioso,ogee,kendo, and endue. I had warm for daft.Educe? I thought it was deduce. Same?And, of course, I never grok the theme while working so it doesn't help.

My neighbor got that cat scratching fever and she was iller than I'd ever seen her.LOL Moral? Don't give your cat a bath.

WM said...

Morning to all..

Thank you C.C. on the xword info...I'll stop asking dumb questions now.

This was a Holy Cow puzzle and I came very close to actually finishing it except for 19A ODS, GOUT...had GO and wanted to make it GOOP as GLOB didn't work. Had _M_LE and absolutely could not get my brain to fill in AMPLE. .

Argyle, I, like BarryG have to eat worms on OSA...also had ASA. A lot was filled in by just guessing today, and, even though mostly correct, this is why I use pencil...

C.C. A lot of papers are made out of cotton and linen. High quality watercolor papers are 100% "rag". It is necessary so the the paper doesn't dissolve with the often copious amounts of water needed.Plus you have to soak the paper first to "stretch" it on to a board(otherwise it gets all warped when wet). A very interesting show that aired years ago on PBS called CONNECTIONS, connected the use of recyled linen and cotton for paper-making to the Plague years in Europe. So many people were dieing and they couldn't re-use the clothing and so ways were found to break it down down by boiling and restructure it in to "paper".

Dennis...really like the WoW today, but my brain has not kicked in to play the Mensa game...though I have seen it before...always funny.

Dick...like your kitty(no DFness there)

Clear Ayes said...

Carol, I remember the Childcraft books, but didn't keep any I might have had. You are lucky to have hung onto yours.

JD, Carol and others, I had no idea that CAT SCRATCH FEVER was such a serious sickness. Why, a person could get ILLER and ILLER.

JD, thanks for the info about tooth brush placement. The bathroom off our bedroom has the toilet in a closed-door cubicle. Phew!! Thank goodness for that!

Sea-She Sheila, "nearly perlaceous in her coloring" was the phrase that stuck with me too. The first image I had was Botticelli's Venus.

I have seen some of Raphael's paintings, but I had to refamiliarize myself a little. You're right about his perlaceous complexions, although it is too bad that Elisabetta Gonzaga didn't have a teeny enigmatic smile for this portrait. If she had, she too might have a place of prominence in the Louvre. :o)

Anonymous said...

C.C.
In 1944 I was drafted into the U.S.ArmyAirCorps. I was a "grunt" for a while; At that time and place being a grunt meant you were a new and untrained Private. Grunts generally did the low level jobs, hence they "grunted" as they went about it. Since I had been in ROTC in high school I was able to advance quickly to Private First Class.
I am still grateful that I received all the educational benefits that followed the end of the war.
Calef.

JD said...

Trying to find trivia that has something to do with our c/w,sooo

Cats urine glows under a black light.Cats purr at about 26 cycles per second, the same frequency as an idling diesel engine.Cats have better memories than dogs. A dog's memory may last no longer than 5 min.; a cat's can last as long as 16 hrs, better than a monkey or orangutan.and lastly,in Ancient Egypt, entire families would shave their eyebrows as a sign of mourning when the family cat died.

Linda, great OD clue.
Clear ayes, loved the poem, and Venus is definitely perlaceous!

Carol, I have 1955 copies of Grosset and Dunlap's Ilustrated Treasury of Children's Lit and Illus. Treasury of Children's Poetry.I had forgotten all about them.

Argyle said...

kazie said... I don't think flied exists, does it?

It does in baseball, "He flied out to center field."

When I looked up gout, I remembered where I had heard it in context. The scene in Macbeth in which he imagines the bloody knife.

Is this a dagger which I see before me(line 41)...And on thy blade and dudgeon, gouts of blood(line 54)

(

WM said...

JD...the cat stuff is funny. That black light thing may explain the odor. We are definitely cat people but you can't have an ego problem if you own cats.

Carol...We still have all the Childcraft set, it is still at my mom's. I think I used either #7 or #9 the most because it had all this cool astronomy info. I also have some old books called The BookHouse that were my mom's as a child and a really old R.L. Stevenson Treasure Island illustrated by N.C. Wyeth, and my old Winnie the Pooh/ A.A. Milne set.

Books have a way of sticking around at our house...they are like old friends and get shared through the generations.

ClearAyes...very interesting Botticelli painting...have never seen that one...don't you wonder if her face was really that long?

Thomas said...

Hello C.C. and all!
Slow but steady solve today, like Dennis, what I didn't know for certain, came with the "perps". No help, happy to say. Had to stare awfully hard at gout. I too, had lobbed for lofted, but chafing came to me like Barry, from the old formal dining room waiter days, and ratble just wouldn't fly. Good puzzle, made me think. I'm also in the needs an "o" crowd.

C.C. Phil hits his lob shot with a lofted club.

I'm in the pen and paper crowd. I think pen makes you think before filling, and I like to think to solve a puzzle.

Have a good day.. Semper Fi.. Fair winds and following seas..

TJ in Osseo

Anonymous said...

Hi, C.C.,

Got tired of lurking and got me a Google account. This is a trial run to see if it works.

Enjoyed today's puzzle while sitting in the doctor's office waiting for my wife. Had trouble with only two or three clues, but thought it mostly easy.

Frank

WM said...

Dennis...how about: Teccentric: some who is entirely focused on new electonic devices.

Also I just realized as I typed the word astronomy("study" of the stars) that if you add the letter G...Gastronomy...you get the "study" of food I am using "study" loosely here.

carol said...

Wolfmom, I know what you mean by books being old friends! I still have one that Dad used to read to me and later I read as a bedtime book. It is called Make and Make-Believe. (The Work-Play Books) by Gates and Huber. Date: 1930. It still has a sticker inside the front cover that says it is from the Coos County,Oregon School Dist.49. Since my Dad was born in 1915, he would have been 15 years old in 1930 so it was not 'his' book but I sure enjoyed all the wonderful stories in it.

Anonymous said...

More stuff to "grunt" about.
American sailors were called "swabbies" because when they were not fighting a battle, they were kept busy cleaning the ships' decks with a swab (yarn mop) and special mop bucket.
An English (British) sailor was called a "limey" because after their sailors suffered from scurvy for many years due to vitamin deficiency, a doctor discovered that providing limes to the sailors to suck on or eat provided them with a good source of vitamin C (ascorbic acid) thus preventing the scurvy.
Old Sage in Virginia Beach

kazie said...

Thanks Argyle, but what is flying in baseball, or would it be flieing?

In your Macbeth quote, "gout" is probably also related to the French word "goutte" meaning a "drop". French "goût" is "taste.

Argyle said...

kazie, it would be hitting a fly ball.

Linda said...

Philharmanic: Leonard Bernstein on lithium.

Dennis said...

Damn, you guys are topping the Mensa ones. Nice work.

embien said...

9:48 today.

I have to say that I really, really, hate those made-up prefixes like AUT and GASTR. If you're going to put a prefix in the puzzle, make it the real prefix (AUTO and GASTRO in this case), not some arbitrary, made-up string of letters. (end of rant)

I play the guitar and had never before heard of IBANEZ, I'm more familiar with brands like Gibson, Fender, and Martin. Some of those old guitars are worth a lot of money (Fender Stratocaster, etc.)

I bought my Martin Classical in 1965 for $180 (quite a bit in those days), and I guess it's worth nearly $1000 now, despite being abused in many, many parties back in college days. Martin Classical Guitar

JD said...

Carol and Wolfmom, I agree with you both about books being like old friends. I cannot part with many of the books that were my parents and grandfather's, even though I may never read them.My dad worked for Doubleday Books when I was a kid and they had these great books called Play-a Bed books( not the DF kind, Dennis). They were great when we were sick.

Linda said...

Dennis @ 2:24; Perhaps some of us are "closet" Mensa members...

Dennis said...

Linda, some of us are already out...

carol said...

Sinductor: leading one into temptation

Dick said...

@Carol and Wolfmom, yes that is my cat and she is strange. She mews and trills a lot. For this reason my wife decided to call her Lemieux. Appropriate I thought!
We got her from the pound and who knows what would have happened to her otherwise.

Anonymous said...

So now comes the old tail dragger. All this talk of military things rattles my memories and impels me to put my old swabbie bones to work.

CC - "what is the nickname for Marine pilots"? Someone mentioned the nickname they prefer: 'Flying Leathernecks' (redsmitty). The Marine pilots are among the best and in my book can be called anything that is complementary. As we all know, the Marine Corps is a subsidiary of the Navy. So - Marine pilots go through the same pilot training at the same facilities that Naval Aviators do. They have to be good.

'Does the Army have a flying division?' Yes. They primarily fly helicopters - the 'whirly birds'. I think those things are very difficult to fly. It is said that a helicopter pilot has been in a crash or is going to. I have never gotten near them. Army pilots also fly a twin turboprop airplane called the Mohawk - an airplane designed for observation and surviellance missions. These pilots are highly skilled and trained at Ft. Rucker in Alabama.

Pratt - An aircraft engine doesn't get more brutal treatment than when it is flown in combat. I flew more than 100 combat hours sitting behind a Pratt Whitney R-2800 18 cylinder 2150 h.p. engine. My engine did that and never missed a beat. I loved that thing. Sometimes I can still hear the deep roar of it in my sleep, much like a man dreams of his best girl.

@ Old Sage in Va. Beach - neophyte sailors are also called 'grunts' but your 'swabbie' is much more fitting for them, for the reasons you gave. I never knew the origin of "Limie" for Brit sailors.
Very good, sir. Thank you for that.

Have a happy weekend y'all.

Hayrake

Anonymous said...

Carol, I still have my 1949 edition of Childcraft which I bought when I started
teaching. It served me well through several years in the classroom; raising four children and entertaining 10 grandchildren. I've been missing volume six ever since my oldest son was a pre-schooler. The 'egg lady' came one day & I invited her to have a cup of coffee. Her son and mine sat and looked at the Childcrafts. A few days later, I discovered the book was missing. I didn't fault the boy, because young children don't under- stand ownership, but I did not appreciate the fact that the mother denied that he had taken it. Since no one else had been there, and since it never showed up in any of our many moves over the years, I still think that is what happened to it. Later editions had some changes in them but I prefer the original.
Dot

carol said...

Dot, my set is dated 1939...I wasn't born yet but my parents were both the youngest of large families and these books were probably handed down to them.
I am so sorry to hear of the loss of one of your books...hard to believe some parents are so blinded to their children's faults..the old "My little Johnny Would Never Do That!" school of though. The little heathen probably set fire to the waste baskets in the boys bathrooms too.

Elissa said...

My sister has the complete set of My Bookhouse books we grew up on. I remember them as being beautifully illustrated. My favorite story was about the mermaid who comes to live on land (which was a Dutch fairytale)and I can just picture her in her Rembrandt-esque attire.

And in the world of strange coincidences, when I got back to the book I'm currently reading - a memoir "The Man in the white Sharkskin Suit" - the author is recalling her mysterious childhood illness. It turned out to be Cat Scratch Fever. I swear I never heard of it before the puzzle this morning and there it is! Weird!

Linda said...

Densa: Mensa wannabe`s.
Liberade: A cocktail that will set you free.
Stripture: Salome`s dance.
Femetery: Women only
Hemetery: You guessed it!

JIMBO said...

If you were in West Texas in the early 60's, I may have sold you a set of "Childcraft" from "World Book". I did this for a short time as a second job.

Still have a set of "World Book Encyclopedias" from that era and still refer to them now and then.

DoesItinInk said...

@Clear Ayes...and all who want to include links in their postings:

I cannot type the actual html command here or it will appear as a link. So I will use GT for > and LT for <, meaning that wherever I have GT, you type >, etc. So the html instruction for a link is:

LTa href=xxxxxGTdddddLT/aGT

where xxxxx is the actual link including the http: portion, and ddddd is any descriptive text of your choice. This descriptive text is what will appear on the blog.

Here is a link to some common html commands.

I hope this helps.

DoesItinInk said...

To make it a little clearer, here is the command again with the GT and LT for which the > and < substitutions must be made in bold font:

LTa href=xxxxxGTdddddLT/aGT

Crockett1947 said...

Remember that only some HTML links can be used in the comments section. It would be nice if there was a listing of the ones that are permissible.

DoesItinInk said...

Today’s puzzle was a bit more challenging than yesterday’s, but then yesterday’s puzzle was as easy as they come, eh? I worked this puzzle in dribs and drabs, mostly while driving to my nieces’ school musical today, and not just at stop lights. So I will use traffic distractions as my excuse for having three incorrect squares! Caron instead of CAROM, ods instead of OBS, and asa instead of OSA! Like Barry G, I was proud that I remembered Asa Johnson, only to be shot down by Argyle. Ah, well! I share everyone’s irritation with ILLER! And Embien was right on with his comments about AUT and GASTR.

@All Gravy No Grief at 6:13 am…thank you for the CAT SCRATCH FEVER reference. I had never heard of it…or Ted Nugent for that matter, but after listening to the song on Youtube, I realize why! I am much more of a Cat Stevens type of person.

@ski…what is an LDS family? If Latter Day Saints, then I do not understand your comment. Can you explain?

@Elissa…how do you like The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit? It looked interesting when I found it on Amazon, but it has been sitting on my bookshelf for months, unopened.

Dennis said...

Linda, outstanding! Nice job.

Anonymous said...

Arnold Palmer was know for his putting ability but never heard him called "Putter."

JD said...

Linda, AMAZING word play!!

Jimbo, I still have an old set of World Books and I use them all of the time.

I didn't say anything, but it was an eat worm day for me because I did not remember Osa. I'm eating worms less 'n less though.

Dick, your cat's a beauty.

WM said...

Doesltinlk: It is a play on the word oxymoron...oxyMORMAN...

Dick: I love your kitty's name...We have 1 remaining kitty who is about 16 1/2 and she really likes being an only cat now...My husband rescued her from OR. She is exceedingly chatty and makes the same chirupping sounds.

Linda...seriously impressed with the word play...I think you get the blue ribbon AND the gold star for today.

PMT is conspicuously absent today...is he pulling a Buckeye on us?

Lots of really interesting military info...my husband was a Navy brat and lived all around the country growing up...I always go to him for those answers.

Anonymous said...

CC:
Your question has already been answered, so I'll just fill in some blanks. Some breeds of sheep, including my Cheviots, are seasonal breeders. That is, the ewes (females) only cycle when day length is beginning to shorten in late summer or fall. Gestation is 5 months, so as the previous answerer said, lambing season is roughly January-April. We further narrow it by withholding the rams (males) until October, so our lambing season begins March 1, and continues about six weeks. It's a busy time, because ewes sometimes need birthing assistance, and lambs need care for a few days. And since they give birth at all hours , we get up during the night to check on them. It's a hectic but rewarding time.
Windhover

Thomas said...

Has anyone else ever heard USN officers [or anyone else] refer to the enlisted sailors as "bluejackets"? I seem to recall that term in some books I've read.

TJ in Osseo

ArtLvr said...

re: "Putter" Palmer -- an especially apt Pun for a Chicago-based crossword, in that the doyenne of Chicago society in the Golden Age was Mrs. Potter Palmer.. connection with the posh Palmer House hotel? I didn't check it out...You natives should remember it the way Texans all know of their historic super-wealthy philanthropist Miss Ima Hogg. Picture an expensive potted palm tree.....

Linda said...

Wofemom@9:56 Friday: "Aw, pshawl! (a garment worn to cover your embarrassment at such high praise.)

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