google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Sunday April 18, 2010 Kathleen Fay O'Brien

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Apr 18, 2010

Sunday April 18, 2010 Kathleen Fay O'Brien

Theme: T for Two - Second letter T in each double T containing common phrase is dropped, changing mostly short vowel sound into long vowel sound.

23A. Outwitting a Plymouth parent?: MIND OVER MAT(T)ER. Mind Over Matter. Mater is British for "mother". Plymouth is a seaport in England. Short A to long A sound shift.

29A. Loony misanthrope?: MAD HAT(T)ER. Mad Hatter, the character from "Alice in Wonderland". Short A to long A.

44A. Japanese sleuth who always follows you around?: PERSONAL MOT(T)O. Personal Motto. Moto = Japanese sleuth. Short O to long O.

67A. Farm child of destiny?: FAT(T)ED CALF. Fatted Calf. Killing the fatted calf to celebrate something. Calf = Farm child. Short A to long A.

88A. Reservation about smoking?: CIGARETTE BUT(T). Cigarette Butt. No sound change.

103A. Like an Idaho farmer?: IN TAT(T)ERS. In Tatters. Taters = Idaho potatoes. Short A to long A.

113A. Recollections of an aggressive dog?: BIT(T)ER MEMORIES. Bitter Memories. Short I to long I.

37D. Bulletin board hardware blueprint?: PLAN OF A T(T)ACK. Plan of Attack. Tack = Bulletin board hardware. No sound change.

42D. Muppet monster quote about a more adorable snack?: COOKIE CUT(T)ER. Cookie Cutter. Have never seen "Sesame Street" and don't know Cookie Monster. Short U to long U.

No double T containing phrase with possible short E to long E sound shift, Al/Argyle?

I liked the title. Nice play on "Tea for Two". Neat theme concept too. Also liked the consecutive clues for ALIAS (71A. Perp's red herring) and ALIBIS (72A. Perps need good ones). Wish LATINA (95D. Selena, for one) is clued as "Sonia Sotomayor, for one". J.Lo played Selena in the movie.

Quite a challenging puzzle to me. So many unknown names. I definitely need a partner to solve a Sunday crossword. Anyone? Anyone?

Across:

1. Hides with evil intent: SKULKS. Nice string of consonants.

7. Take by force: HIJACK

13. "Grease" doo-wop group: SHA NA NA. Easy guess.

20. Surfing at one's desk: ON LINE

21. Singer Ray with the Glenn Miller Orchestra: EBERLE. Total stranger.

22. Eastern Mediterranean city: TEL AVIV. Must be an instinctive fill for Haltool.

25. Go in for: REPLACE

26. Pilot's announcement, briefly: ETA

27. Fuse: WELD

28. Boundary: Abbr.: LIM (Limit). Meh on the abbr.

30. Abbr. on a store door: HRS

31. Rots: GOES BAD

33. Farm crawler: ANT. Ant farm.

34. Pre-knotted tie: CLIP-ON

38. 19th Greek letter: TAU. Cross shaped. Greek has 24 letters.

39. "Do it, __ will!": OR I

40. Abalone products: NACRES

43. AA co-founder: BILL W. Bill Wilson. Got me again.

47. Lanchester of "Bride of Frankenstein": ELSA. Just the clue Lemonade wanted last time.

48. Source of "Once more unto the breach": HENRY V. Not familiar with the line. Only know "We few, we happy few, we band of brothers ...".

49. Relevant: ON TOPIC

53. Clancy hero: RYAN

54. Daisy lead-in: UPSY. Upsy-Daisy.

55. Man with a respected thumb: EBERT (Roger). Film critic.

59. Cub Scout leader: AKELA

60. Online "Jeepers!": OMG

62. Borneo sultanate: BRUNEI. I like this map. It's on the South China Sea.

63. Drink from a press: CIDER. Thought of JUICE first.

64. "Mazes and Monsters" novelist: JAFFE (Rona). No idea. See the book cover.

70. "Steppenwolf" writer: HESSE (Hermann)

73. Present mo.: DEC. I wanted APR, our current "present" month, not the gift "present".

74. Fountain treats: MALTS

75. Made higher: UPPED. As an ante.

76. Pre-1917 Russian ruler: TSAR

79. Native Americans with a Sundance ceremony: UTES. I thought many Native Indian tribes have this ceremony.

83. Pick a lock, say: BREAK IN

85. "Does no one else think this way?": IS IT ME

87. Anklebones: TALI. Plural of talus. We also have ULNA (3D. Forearm bone).

92. H.S. health class: SEX ED

93. Chat with: TALK TO

96. Hard lumber: ASH

97. Son of, in Arabic names: IBN. Like Scottish Mac or Mc.

98. Flourish: THRIVE

99. Transfer __: RNA

100. Menu listing: OPTIONS. Computer menu.

102. Detective's cry: AHA

107. Bounced check letters: NSF (Not Sufficient Funds)

108. Gazed at: EYED

109. Electronic surveillance gp.: NSA (National Security Agency)

112. Lands: ALIGHTS

116. Having teeth: DENTATE. New word to me.

117. Spotted wildcat: OCELOT. Hi, there!

118. "Dallas" dynasty: EWINGS

119. Mussel eater: SEA STAR

120. Crystal-lined stones: GEODES

121. Magnate: TYCOON

Down:

2. Sweater choice: KNIT

4. Flipped top?: LID. Oh, flipped coffee top.

5. Expertise: KNOW-HOW

6. Shropshire's river: SEVERN. Got from crosses.

7. Roundup group: HERD

8. Apple alternative: IBM. Not MAC?

9. "All the fun you think they had": Erica Jong: JEALOUSY. No idea. I bet Lois was thinking of something else. What does "Jealousy is all the fun you think they had" mean?

10. Clarinetist Shaw: ARTIE

11. South Carolina university: CLEMSON

12. Plunk opener: KER. Kerplunk.

13. Pricey strings: STRAD. AMATI too.

14. Listen to: HEED

15. Coleridge's "sacred river": ALPH. Barry just clued it as "River of Xanadu" yesterday.
.
16. Simba's mate: NALA. In "The Lion King".

17. Rama, to Vishnu: AVATAR. Hindu incarnation.

18. __ Creed: NICENE

19. Wards off: AVERTS

24. Ernie of the PGA: ELS

29. Post office sackful: MAIL. Mostly ad now.

31. Comic Shandling: GARRY. First encounter with this guy.

32. Victoria's Secret buy: BRA. What's your favorite bra color?

34. Trucker with a handle: CB'ER

35. Flower with a pad: LILY. And SEGO (110. Type of 35-Down).

36. "You used to be a much better liar, Sam" speaker: ILSA. In "Casablanca".

38. Addition column: TENS

40. Start to stop?: NON. Nonstop.

41. Diplomatic specialist: ATTACHE. My ex-boss the Marine worked in American Embassy in Taiwan for some time.

44. Energy: PEP

45. Went too far: OVER DID IT

46. Central theme: MOTIF

48. Show of affection: HUG

50. Brand of women's socks: PEDS. Have never heard of this brand.

51. Guadeloupe has cinq: ILES. Guadeloupe is an island in the eastern portion of the West Indies; an overseas territory of France. Cinq = Five in French.

52. Give a hoot: CARE

56. Florida pros: BUCS. Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

57. Bambi's aunt: ENA

58. Cath. or Luth.: REL (Religion)

61. Portable utensils set: MESS KIT. Military utensils.

62. Loyal Nixon friend Rebozo: BEBE. Gimme for Melissa.

64. Door feature: JAMB

65. Banned fruit spray: ALAR

66. Manicurist's need: FILE

67. Flora's partner: FAUNA. Flora and Fauna.

68. Mont Blanc, e.g.: ALP. Did you think of PEN also?

69. Helpful hint: TIP

73. Rap's Dr. __: DRE

76. 1970 Poitier title role: TIBBS (Virgil). From "In the Heat of the Night". My favorite Poitier movie.

77. Wow: STUN

78. Qty.: AMT

80. Shout to a driver: TAXI

81. Contour map no.: ELEV (Elevation)

82. Potato salad, say: SIDE

84. "__ Crazy": Paul Davis hit: I GO

86. Self-named sitcom: SEINFELD

89. Chats: RAPS

90. Body shop fig.: EST

91. Precarious place, metaphorically: THIN ICE. Nice entry.

92. Like late-afternoon castings: SHADOWY

93. Basic chords: TRIADS

94. Mother of the Shakers: ANN LEE

98. Lincoln Center landmark: THE MET

100. Skater Brian: ORSER. His name escape me again.

101. Bony prefix: OSTEO

102. Sailor's okay: AYE. Aye, Aye, Sir.

104. FBI personnel: AGT

106. James of jazz: ETTA. Etta James.

108. CPR pros: EMTS

109. Bolivian boy: NINO. Alliteration.

111. Part of AMA: Abbr.: ASSN

113. Cranberry source: BOG. Nice play on "Cranberry sauce".

114. Shad delicacy: ROE

115. Rocker Ocasek: RIC

Answer grid.

C.C.

24 comments:

Hahtoolah said...

Good Morning, CC and all. I probably should have liked this puzzled, but unfortunately, I didn't. In the first pass, I figured out BITER MEMORIES, so realized the theme meant a "T" was left out of a word. I didn't catch the change is vowel sound nuances, however.

There were some good clues, however. I especially liked Round Up Group = HERD. (went well with FATED CALF).

I also liked seeing ALIAS next to ALIBIS.

I fell for the APR / DEC trap. When I read "Present Mo." I immediately thought of APR, but also thought that this was a puzzle that could not be done next month.

I knew the pre-knotted tie. A family member had a patent on the clip-on.

CC, a Mac is an Apple computer.

QOD: The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page. ~ St. Augustine

windhover said...

CC:
Were it not for the 900+ miles between me and thee I would love to be your partner in Sunday solving.

Dennis said...

Good morning, C.C. and gang - I actually did this one at oh-dark-thirty after watching my buddy's hockey team, the LA Kings, pull out an overtime win in the Stanley Cup playoffs. I thought this was a most enjoyable solve; loved the theme, and even after figuring it out after the first theme answer, the remaining ones still weren't gimmes.

To me, the only discordant note in an otherwise well-clued puzzle was 'lim' for 'Boundary: Abbr.' Never, ever saw that abbreviation before. Needed perps for 'alph', 'Kaffe'. Nice to see 'upsy-daisy' instead of the previous 'upsa-daisy'. C.C., the only reason I didn't fall for 'present mo.' is because of the time involved between approval and publication. Great clue, though. As with Hahtool, I liked the juxtaposition of 'alias' and 'alibi'.

Busy day - hope it's a great one where you are.

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

Not too bad for me today. I got the theme almost right away, which helped quite a bit. I say "almost" because the first theme answer actually through me for a loop. I thought that MATER was Latin for mother, not British, and couldn't figure out what "Plymouth" had to do with anything.

Anyway, the rest of the puzzle was pretty smooth, except for the extreme SW corner (again). I had THIRDS instead of TRIADS (it mostly fit), which hid RNA from sight. I've heard of messenger RNA, but don't recall ever seeing transfer RNA before. Then again, biology classes were a looooong time ago. I also couldn't remember ANNLEE to save my life.

One thing that did help in that corner was the fact that, while at the aquarium last week with my son, we actually saw a sea star (a.k.a. starfish) eat a mussel. Before that, I had no clue what sea stars eat.

Barry G. said...

Oh, and Annette:

Didn't see your question yesterday. We are supposed to be flying out this coming Friday, but it's looking less and less likely. Even if the wind shifts so that the airspace is clear, as long as the volcano is still erupting I don't think we'd go for fear of getting stuck there if the wind shifts back.

Stupid volcano...

Spitzboov said...

Good Morning all. A challenging solve. Favorite clue was for PLAN OF A TACK. Got 1a, SKULKS, right off the bat so thought that was good omen. BRUNEI, BEBE, and TEL AVIV helped anchor much of the early solve. Many good, clever clues today. Much of the puzzle found myself on Ms. O'brien's wave length. Found the theme after FATED CALF. UTES and IN TATERS were WAGS.

SEVERN - a river in SW England known for its Tidal Bore of up to 2 meters ht. The Qiantang River in China experiences a bore of 30 ft.

Lemonade - LM Assiette O. Good story.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Lemonade714 said...

Good morning all, and SB I am glad you liked my story from my childhood.

Sundays are such time eaters even when they are well done, and this was a very nicely and heavily themed effort. I enjoy the deception like Present mo.: DEC, love the old fashioned references like Shakespeare’s Henry V , he was pretty good with his use of words; I always am learning new things for me, though I expect our scientists will understand TRANSFER RNA but the clue left me wanting. I knew the Kipling character AKELA but they never let me in as a cub scout; I did try to join the girl scouts, but that was strictly scientific curiosity at the time.
I appreciate using fill that fits together like EBERLE . EBERT; and we have discussed how Jews and Arabs are all first cousins, so it is not surprising where Son of, in Arabic names: IBN, in the Hebrew world it is BEN which means son of. Finally, C.C. said, “PEDS. Have never heard of this brand” which perhaps explains my joke a week ago about not understanding why everyone was talking about what kind of socks Tiger Woods was wearing fell on deaf ears (The comments in the news were not about PEDS but about Performance Enhancing DrugS, but referenced PEDS, so I did my version of Emily Litella, oh well, Never Mind!)
Too many things to get done, and I have to start to get any done, later

Al said...

@BarryG and anyone else inconvenienced by the volcano, this graphic of CO2 emission savings is likely to be of small comfort, but it's kind of interesting...

koufaxmaravich said...

Hi everyone.

I liked the theme. Good fills and clues though the SW absolutely stumped me. "GMEN" for FBI personnel did me no good.

I also had APR initially for present mo. -- clever clue.

My preference for 27A would be "Tuesday actress". I toyed with "meld" for a while.

Until coming here, I was trying to understand the special significance of the number elev(en) to contour maps. Doh.

Favorites today were plan of a tack and like late afternoon castings = shadowy.

CC, on soft e to hard e, the best I can think of would be fetters (chains) to feters (celebrants).

Have a wonderful day.

Spitzboov said...

Some more on the Qiantang tidal bore.

C.C. Would the theme words here be the "seeds"?

Anonymous said...

Good day everyone.

As usual, I got only 18 on this one.
But I object to STRAD for pricey strings. That it's an abbreviation should be noted, IMHO.

I blush that the theme didn't hit me, in that I've taught for many years that one consonant before the vowel makes is a long vowel and that two consonants make it a short vowel. A few more examples:
plater, platter; biding, bidding; dimed, dimmed; doted, dotted; and maned, manned.

Cheers

Lucina said...

Good morning, C.C. and all.

I enjoyed this xwd and its theme which helped immensely and really liked the change in vowel sound. I'm a language teacher, after all.

The entire center fell nicely and quickly but since I didn't recheck, had some bad errors. Larry instead of Garry Shandling, even though I know this. Shafana instead of Shanana, can't believe I did that. Did not know Ann Lee and transfer RNA completely threw me.

During the Nixon years one often heard the name "Bebe Rebozo" in the news.

Very nice cluing especially "present month" on which I checked the perps first as i suspected a trap, and guess I've heard of Dr. Dre enough to know about him. Same with "Mont Blanc", thought of pen but it was suspect.

Liked jamb crossing break in for some reason.

And any xwd with a reference to Casablanca, Ilsa, and Sydney Poitier, "They call me, Mr. Tibbs" is just great.

23A I took to mean a university in Plymouth, MA, as alma mater. In fact there are several including Quincy, Plymouth and others.

Lemonade, a hilarious way to learn the pronunciation of plate in French.

I hope today you create "sweet" memories. Have a lovely Sunday.

JD said...

Good morning CC and all,

This was a very doable c/w for me today. Finished (?)in 45 min. while watching elephants and giraffes being transferred from RSA to Mozambique where most wildlife has been killed off. On the same continent, Ernie Els has a fabulous winery there which we visited. You can go on a virtual tour.

The SW stumped me also. I had to get the T (dentate/agts)from here, and finish annlee.I always make a list of words that I think are new to me. Sometimes, like today, when writing them down, the light bulb comes on:themet and ontopic, and then I laugh at myself. Nacres is still on my list.

Loved jeepers=omg, and jealousy, as I had no idea what Kathleen was asking for.Besides alias and alibi, I also liked the bookends,Jaffe & Hesse.

Sallie, when I was teaching my class the rules for adding suffixes, I always used hop and hope as my root words so they could hear and see the difference:hoping/hopping.

Barry, so sorry about your vacation. Have you made other plans?

Lois, I talked to God about Brook last night while taking a shower.I hope he's listening.

Warren said...

Hi C.C. & gang, a very challenging puzzle again, we did it our way teaming up with the answers on the back... The T for Two theme helped a lot this time.

For Jeannie, Ruth made your Turkey Tetrazzini recipe yesterday and everyone at the pot luck (way too much food as usual) thought it was excellent.

However she did make a few changes, we used a 16 oz package of Vermicelli (angel hair) pasta as suggested by one of our friends.
For the milk and cream part we substituted 2 cups of half & half.
We used 1.25 lb of Turkey that Ruth pounded flat to cook quickly.
She also used ~ 2/3 cups of shredded Swiss cheese.
In the direction section she added some EVOO (an abbreviation coined by Rachel Ray for Extra Virgin Olive Oil) added to the 1/4 cup of butter to fry the mushrooms and onions.

We're having it for lunch today too!

Barry G. said...

Barry, so sorry about your vacation. Have you made other plans?

Nope, too depressed to even think about it. Going to London has long been a dream of ours, and it's really the whole reason we were taking the time off. We'll probably just stay local and take day trips to the zoo, museums, etc. Maybe treat ourselves to a fancy restaurant on the 26th, since that's our anniversary and one of the main reasons we chose this particular time to go.

Stupid volcano!

Hahtoolah said...

Barry, I am so sorry that you will have to put your European trip on hold. I know how much you must have been anticipating the visit. Would it have been your first? I hope you will be able to get away to travel there at the first opportunity.

The Icelandic language does not use the letter "C" (or so I am told by my Icelandic friends). The running joke in Iceland is that the country is getting back at Europe for not helping out of its financial difficulties. Europe wanted CASH, but without a "C" in the language, the best Iceland could give was ASH.

Gunghy said...

A strange mixture of 'that was easy' and OMG. Lots of names came easily (a rarity), but I was totally dead on TV shows. Maybe I ought to watch it once in a while??

T_L_V_V: could I buy a vowel, please?

Who is J. E. Alousy? I seriously did not get that one until C.C. wrote it horizontally for me.

NACRES - Mother of pearl. I've got about 10 shells lying around, but don't know how to embed, so I can't share.

In addition to BEN and IBN, the Armenians end a name in IAN to mean son of. Lots of them in the Fresno area, so that was my first fill.

When a cell makes a protein, a strand of RNA is formed to carry the information from the DNA to the ribosome. This is called the transfer RNA. Still didn't like the clue.

CC, I like to sleep late and then solve the puzzle in bed. Does that work for you?

Barry, I hope you make it over soon. Nature can be cruel.

Jerome said...

"Jealousy is all the fun you think they had"

And as you were jealous of their life because you believed it to be so fun and wonderful,if only you could have known just how unfun and boring their life was. The grass is rarely greener on the other side.

Warren said...

For Barry G, I heard on KGO 810 that tomorrow they may start flying over Europe again at least on a limited schedule.

Lucina said...

BarryG:
Join my sympathies for the loss of your vacation plans; but there may be hope yet.

JD:
I'm joinging my prayers for Brook as well.

More words from the ESL file;
wine, winning
sine, sinning
dine, dinner
write, written

and some with diferent roots:
kite, kitten
mite, mitten
site, sitting

Anonymous said...

i said

Anonymous said...

76 (Down AND Across): It's not a "title role" if the title makes no reference to the character.... and I've always spelled czar C-Z-a-r (although I have seen it t-s). I didn't care for the "Plymouth" clue either, but got it right away.

Anonymous said...

Previous post was in error. "They Call Me Mister Tibbs" was 1970 as in clue. I was thinking "In The Heat of the Night" (from 1967) as you originally mentioned.

Lucina said...

I meant to comment earlier that "mater" is Latin for mother; both mater and pater have been used in Britain but I don't know if they still are. Mum is brit mother.