google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Friday May 28, 2010 David Poole

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May 28, 2010

Friday May 28, 2010 David Poole

Theme: H(ead) Off - The H sound of the first word of a familiar phrase is dropped. The resulting phrases are gridded in their A, E, I, O, U vowel-starting order.

20A. Works in Satan's Museum?: ART OF DARKNESS. "Heart of Darkness". Joseph Conrad novel.

27A. "Tell Senator Bayh to take a number"?: EVAN CAN WAIT. "Heaven Can Wait". The Warren Beatty movie? Evan Bayh, Senator from Indiana.

38A. Egotism?: I ESTEEM. High Esteem. I was confused by the IE combination at first.

47A. Resistance quashers?: OHM WRECKERS. Home Wreckers. We often see OHM clued as "Resistance unit".

55A. Evidence of a love-hate relationship? UGHS AND KISSES. Hugs and Kisses. I don't get the UGHS here. Why? I love the other four question-marked clues. Very entertaining.

I like the orderly vowel progression in the H-off phrases. Neat! The sound-dropping scheme is very Dan Naddor-like. No single black square in this grid. Mostly 3-block clusters.

Several fun clues. My favorite "ones" are:

36A. One objecting to a called strike: SCAB. Of course I was picturing baseball players.

50D. One carrying a bag: CADDIE. Golf. I wanted PORTER.

Across:

1. Willy Loman's favorite son: BIFF. From Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman". Immediate stumper for me.

5. Clothes lines: SEAMS

10. Sweet Sixteen initials: NCAA. And UCLA (55D. The Bruins of the 10-Across).

14. Like some history: ORAL

15. Ballade's closing stanza: ENVOI. Or ENVOY. The poetic coda. We had this clue before.

16. Aloe, for one: BALM. Nice to see ALOE as a clue.

17. Fictional princess: XENA. Did you want AIDA also, Hahtool?

18. Pretense: GUISE

19. First Nations tribe: CREE

23. More felicitous: APTER

25. "Dies __": IRAE. Day of Wrath. We also have IRE (2D. More than annoyance). Same Latin root.

26. Hugh Capet, par exemple: ROI. Have never heard of this dude. He reigned France from 987 to 996.

34. List of chaps.: TOC. Man, it's Table of Contents. Who knows?

35. Amarone or Barolo: VINO

37. Where, to Brutus: UBI. Well, maybe Bob knows it. I've got no idea.

42. __ Friday's: restaurant: TGI

43. Tabula __ : RASA. Several Latin references today.

45. Cousin of hibiscus: OKRA. Really? One is flower, one is veggie, and they are cousins? Maybe Warren will find an article confirming this relationship.

46. Three-time NHL MVP: ORR (Bobby). The Bruins legend.

51. Beatty of "Network": NED. All the name clues today are Wednesday-ish. Rich always gives the one part of the name for actor/actress on Wednesdays.

52. Andean nation: Abbr.: ECUA. The answer for abbreviated "Andean nation" clue is often Ecuador.

53. Patella sites: KNEES

61. 1934 role for Claudette, briefly: CLEO. I only know Elizabeth Taylor's CLEO. Who is the guy on her right? Quite handsome.

62. Birth cert., e.g.: IDENT. Not familiar with this ID abbr.

63. Casualty of German reunification: WALL. Berlin Wall.

66. "Kinsey" star Neeson: LIAM

67. Olds Cutlass model: CIERA. I peeked at the answer sheet. Olds 1980s-'90s.

68. Syrup brand: EGGO

69. Cutting the mustard: ABLE. Just learned the idiom "cut the mustard" not long ago.

70. Moray catcher: EELER

71. Out of concern that: LEST

Down:

1. Place for letters: BOX. So simple in retrospect.

3. Santayana defines it as "redoubling your effort when you have forgotten your aim": FANATICISM. Was ignorant of this quote.

4. Common skirt feature: FLARE. Not my type.

5. Utah state flower: SEGO. Wanted LILY.

6. Adequate, slangily: ENUF

7. Gung-ho: AVID

8. Alhambra wall artwork: MOSAIC. Alhambra is literally "the red one" in Arabic. Kazie and her husband met there.

9. Saw-toothed ridge: SIERRA. Kept thinking of ARETE, Clear Ayes.

10. "The Chris Matthews Show" producer: NBC NEWS. MSNBC to be exact.

11. __ package: CARE. Thought of Gunghy & Jazzbumpa whose son/stepson is/will be in danger's way.

12. Pub quaffs: ALES

13. Central Iowa city: AMES

21. Rome's Fontana di __ : TREVI

22. Central U.S. state: KAN. I've been to only a few states in America. Kansas is not one of them.

23. Conductor Toscanini: ARTURO

24. Authority: POOBAH. Great entry.

28. Contest: VIE

29. Yvette's years: ANS. An is year in French.

30. Far from fine: NOT OK. I don't answers with NOT.

31. Be mature: ACT ONE'S AGE. Fantastic entry. Crossing two theme answers. There is a little girl in every grow-up women, longing to be spoiled.

32. "Hear, hear!": I AGREE. I agree with myself on the above comment.

33. Cars designed to compete with Corvettes: T-BIRDS. The answer emerged itself.

39. Scrape together, with "out": EKE

40. Stray: ERR

41. Hides: MASKS

44. "Totally rad!": AWESOME

48. "His Master's Voice" co.: RCA

49. Carol Burnett persona: EUNICE. I guessed.

54. Banister post: NEWEL

56. Like con artists: GLIB

57. Make sound: HEAL

58. Stem-to-stern part: KEEL. Sailing sounds exciting.

59. Memo words: IN RE

60. High light: STAR. Got me. Nice assonance.

64. Some HDTVs: LG'S

65. Developer's unit: LOT. Or acre.

Answer grid.

C.C.

36 comments:

Hahtoolah said...

Good Morning, CC and all. This was a good Friday puzzle. After getting ART OF DARKNESS, I knew we were looking for common phrases with the "H" missing. I missed the Vowel Progression, though.

CC, I had already filled in BOX for 1D, so AIDA didn't even enter my head for Fictional Princess.

There were some fun clues here. I especially liked:

Sweet Sixteen Letters = NCAA

Clothing Lines = SEAMS

Egotism = I ESTEEM

We saw Bannister Part = NEWEL recently, so I quickly got that fill.

I really wanted Porter instead of CADDIE for One Who Carries Bags.

Happy Friday!

QOD: The man who makes an appearance in the business world, the man who creates personal interest, is the man who gets ahead. Be liked and you will never want. ~ Arthur Miller, from Death of a Salesman

Tinbeni said...

C.C. Excellent write-up.

Friday level with 5 great themes.

ART OF DARKNESS & UGHS AND KISSES got me going. Yup, I worked this in a completely erratic manner.

SCABs benefit from a strike, how would they object?
NEWEL we just had, new then, gimmie today.
TOC, Table of Contents gave me a V8 head whack.
UBI was a wag.
NOT OK was perfect for 'far from fine' because the middle gave me fits.
Finally gave in to TREVI, figured it was the only Rome fountain that I can remember. Are there others in Rome with names I should learn?
For Stray I had Cur, minor fix to ERR.
SEGO & OKRA all via perps.
SIERRA & CIERA, nice homophones.
I ESTEEM, lightly bruised but I was ABLE to finish.

Much more of a challenge after the FUN but easy offerings this week.

fermatprime said...

Good day all. Nice work CC and JzB Wed.--your 3 hours were well spent! (I am a bit behind.)

Marc Antony was played by Henry Wilcoxon, according to IMDB. Quite a hunk.

Favorite clues: EGOTISM and AUTHORITY.

Am still reeling from wretched series endings to LOST and FLASH FORWARD. However, season ending of CHUCK was great, apart from Scott Bakula thing. (Now you know all my innermost secrets!)

Do not understand
Sweet Sixteen Letters = NCAA. Help!

Well, time to try to go to sleep again! Be well!

Martin said...

NCAA = National College Athletics Association. Sometimes clued as "Final Four letters".

Martin

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

Well, this was certainly a change of pace for me -- it took twice as long as any other puzzle so far this week.

I struggled initially in the NE corner when I confidently put LEIA instead of XENA for 17A, which made 1D and 3D impenetrable. It didn't help that I couldn't remember the name of Willy Loman's son at first, despite having read the play many years ago. I finally did remember it, though, which allowed me to unlock that corner.

The worst spot, however, was right smack-dab in the middle of the puzzle. I semi-confidently guessed TREVI for 21D and tentatively put in VINO for 35A, but things didn't get much further than that for awhile. I finally parsed the required part of speech for 28D and put in VIE, but that didn't help much. The first big problem was that ANS was completely unknown to me. It's ANOS in Spanish, so I figured the French version would also have a vowel as well (ANIS, ANES, etc.). Wrong! The second big problem is that I just didn't realize that 38A was a theme answer and therefore couldn't make sense of the initial IE. Once that finally dawned on me, though, I was able to quickly finish that section. I still wasn't convinced about ANS, but I got the final TADA!

Chris in LA said...

Good morning cc etal,

Great challenge today. UBI reminded me of my freshman high school Latin class - one of our favorite "latin-isms" was "Semper Ubi Sub Ubi" ("always where under where"). Ahh youth!

Hope all have a great day!

Barry G. said...

Oh, and my initial thought for 38A was IINTEAM. You know, because coaches always tell players, "There's no 'I' in team." So, for an egotistical player, there would be an "I" in team.

Hey -- it made sense at the time...

Spitzboov said...

Good Morning C.C. and all. Welcome aboard BK

A nice tough, but doable, Friday puzzle. Some clues like 'Hugh Capet' were somewhat arcane, but just enough to make the solve challenging. EVANCANWAIT wast the first theme fill to fall. After ARTOFDARKNESS and SEAMS finally fell, the top center was completed.
RASA was a WAG. Favorite clue: IESTEEM. Also liked ROI, SCAB, and HEAL. Did not know TOC and ENVOI.

Picked CREE because 'First Nations' is a Canadian term, and Cree are a prominent native group in northern Canada.

Ciao

Diane said...

Actually, to be correct, the clue for 33-D should have been 'vette. This is the abbreviated form of Corvette, as Tbird is of Thunderbird. Thanks for your help each day...I'm a bit of a novice and couldn't do without it. Diane G

Diane said...

Actually, the clue for 33-D should have been 'vette, the shortened form of Corvette. Tbird is the shortened form of Thunderbird. Husband is a car guy. Thanks for all your help. I'd go crazy without it. Diane G.

Argyle said...

I agree with clutchkz about 33D. There are several clues that felt "off". I don't like APTER either.

I do like this blog though. ;~)

Warren said...

Hi C.C. & gang, I think we only got 1/3 of today's puzzle done before my wife left for work. I finally got the missing H sound theme after getting (H)Ugh's and Kisses.

For C.C. Who knew that Okra is a flowering plant in the mallow family (along with such species as cotton, cocoa, and hibiscus)...?

Leave it to the power of Google I always say.

Lrc said...

Good morning - We had "aline" for dress feature not long ago so had that in for 4D instead of flare; took a while to figure it out. Thought 55A could be uglyairkisses but decided that was too weird. All in all, hard but fun.

fermatprime: The NCAA basketball tournament starts with 64 teams; after two rounds of play, 16 teams remain, thus "sweet sixteen"; after 2 more rounds, 4 teams remain-the "final four". Nothing special about the nicknames; they just sound good in TV promos.

Many years ago, my car broke down on interstate. A young man in a 57 T-Bird gave me a ride to the next town. You don't see many T-Birds around anymore.

Speaking of old cars, my cousin lived with me for a while. We would occasionally take his Chevelle SS 396 & cruise downtown; would even race from stoplight to stoplight. That was the thing to do back then. Now, the people who still have the old muscle cars just bring them to the monthly "crusin" night downtown and pop their hoods and show off their chrome. Saner & safer, I suppose, but still ...

Clear Ayes said...

Good Morning All, I am still waiting for 9D "Saw-tooth ridge" to be ARETE, but it was one letter short.

The left side of the puzzle gave me a few fits. If I hadn't known that the Capets were kings of France, I really would have been up a creek there. I had to do some paddling on that side anyway to get APTER, TOC, UBI and POOHBAH. I still didn't understand TOC until I came here. I'm not sure if that was a "D'oh", or an "Aha".

Clutchkz, welcome, Diane G. That was a very good point about the abbreviation of Corvette.

Fermatprime, the NCAA championship tournament teams play down to the "Sweet 16", "Elite 8", "Final 4" and championship game with the last two teams.

Ladies shopping and lunch this morning. Only three of us, so not too much clucking :o) Have a good day.

Clear Ayes said...

Lrc, sorry we overlapped on the "Sweet 16" info.

Jerome said...

A ton of fun this puzzle. UGHS AND KISSES, what a great entry.

NBC NEWS. Seven letters. One vowel. Neat.

FANATICISM. The best of a lot of stellar fill.

Not so stellar-
OOP DREAMS- Flick about Alley's nightmares?
ITCH HIKE- Trek through poison ivy?

C.C. The actor is Henry Wilcoxon portraying Marc Antony.

Warren said...

The talk of old cars cruising on the streets reminded me of this

groovin' song somehow, it's a blast from the past at any rate.

Anonymous said...

Good afternoon everyone.

Otis, thanks for your late night tip on finding stuff on the blog. I am not very good at that, and C.C. has put in a way to do it. I have a Mac, and the control f didn't work.

I got some of these today, missed many. Still don't like what I guess is "Hi esteem." Or "apter". Ugly.

Did like "Evan can wait" and the fact that I got almost all of the west side.

Cheers

Lucina said...

Hello, C.C. and puzzle folk.

Great puzzle today even though it sent me on some wild goose chases. First, Chip for Willy Loman's son, soon realized the error, knew it was an odd name buried somewhere in my cortex. Ire made me erase it and go elsewhere.

The NE corner fell quickly; NCAA, balm and Cree simply flushed out. i think all your wave lengths traveled west.

I wanted quo for Brutes's "where," then recalled the song, "Ubi Caritas", where there is love.

Table of contents was easy, but my first fill was TBL; that definitely did not work.

Very clever theme answers though at first I thought we were looking for movie titles, so got sidetracked, but it all fell into place.

Liked that "ughs" is an anagram of hugs, hugs and kisses, ughs and kisses.

C.C."
I believe "ughs" refers to the love/hate aspect of the clue.

Jerome:
It looks to me like you have overcome your writer's block. LOL

An awesome puzzle. A good Friday workout.

I hope you are having a phenomenal Friday!

Spitzboov said...

Sallie: On a Mac use Command F. It works great just like Otis said.

Jazzbumpa said...

Hi gang -

Lot's of highs and lows in today's puzzle.

Lo's first. Though clever, OHM WRECKER is nonsense. UBI, or not UBI? IDENT for ID - I've never seen that before. APTER seems inepter.

Knowing nothing about French, I assumed Yvette's years would be ANI, so I had IEISTEEM, (i.e., I's teem?) which was just baffling.

Though I knew ARTURO, every one of his perps was a Wednesday-Thursday-Friday, initially speaking. I misspelled RASA as ROSA, so never got POOBAH. As has been mentioned, T-BIRD requires that the clue include 'Vette.

Highs - Mostly great theme, though I, too, didn't suss IEISTEEM as part of it.

The long down fill was AWESOME.

A few gimmies like ORR, TGI, and LIAM are welcome footholds in a tough puzzzle.

To fill out NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) - "sweet sixteen" is a reference to the annual NCAA basketball tournament, which starts with 65 teams.

It's an elimination tournament, so the number of survivors decreases by half each round, leading to the sweet 16, great 8, and final 4. The last 2 standing play the championship game.

Another busy day. If I'd realized retirement would be so busy, I might have stayed working and gotten some rest.

Cheers!
JzB actually APTER retired

Anonymous said...

Jazz
It is Elite Eight, no biggie,

Jerome
OOP DREAMS, HIGH ITCH, I know you like anagrams but WTF?

Anonymous said...

You idiot. Jerome is making up two more theme answers.

HOOP DREAMS
HITCH HIKE

Bob said...

Fun Friday puzzle. 23 minutes. Don't have time to add much today. Last week of classes. With my background in electronics, I had to wince at OHMWRECKERS.

Dudley said...

Hello Puzzlers - A Friday effort for me, lots of stuff I plum didn't know. Sparse toe-holds here and there eventually led to a fill. Didn't know the Capets (never got invited to dinner at their house), so up CA's creek there. Liked the homonym theme concept, and can thus forgive OHM WRECKER and I ESTEEM. The NW was a loss for quite a while - never heard of BIFF outside of The Preppy Handbook.

Happy (TGI) Friday, everybody! We're planning a bonfire and hotdog roast beer party for Memorial Day, holler if you can stop by (and bring a dessert).

Jerome said...

I've been thinking about this theme and the more I think about it the more I realize it's much more than just clever. It's remarkable.

Take away the H-sound of some common words that begin a common phrase and from that create a new, wacky phrase. At the same time, each new phrase starts with a vowel and is placed in a symmetrical pattern in the grid. A, E, I, O, U. How the heck did David discover this could happen. This is not the kind of theme that simply pops into one's head.

Tinbeni said...

Jerome
That is why this week has been so magical.

Not a clunker in the bunch.

I even liked that Monday puzzle by some complete unknown. LOL

After tonights Sunset Toast I can go back to the Pinch.
Cheers!!!

Gunghy said...

Every party needs a pooper and I guess it must be me. Just couldn't get enthused about much of anything. In addition to Heavan Can Wait, Heart of Darkness is a movie; as is Home Wreckers, (although straight to video).
Hugs and Kisses is not, unless you count this obscure Swedish film. High Esteem? Nope, just High Anxiety. I saw the drop, just never caught on that it was always an H, too wrapped up in where the originals came from, I guess.

Then, I thought there was way too much crosswordese: EELER, AMES, IDENT, APTER, TOC, RASA, etc.

In addition to the 'vette error, sierra is a range, not a ridge. At least in a sailboat, the keel is the specialized part that sticks down and very rarely runs far along the bottom. Yes, in a motorized boat [Shudder] the bottom beam that the hull is built onto is called a keel, but I really wanted HULL.

I could continue whining, but the parents of my future S-I-L just arrived. Probably will see you all on Tuesday.

Oh, Sallie, it's Apple-f if it's an old mac without a command key.

Bill G. said...

I came across the Pixar film, 'Up', on cable and I recorded it a few nights ago. It's amazing the stories that Disney has been able to tell with animation. First, hand-drawn feature movies and later, computer-generated animation. Wonderful stuff. The inanimate pictures can convey such humor and emotions. Early favorites were Bambi, Snow White, Cinderella, etc. Later on, Lady and the Tramp. Then there was a dry period I didn't enjoy so much. Finally, Pixar produces wonderful movies like Toy Story, Wall-E, Ratatouille and now Up. I'm not quite half-way through it but I'm certainly enjoying it so far.

~ Bill

Clear Ayes said...

Had a great time this morning. Attn. (women) shoppers, Cold Water Creek stores are having a ten day 50% off sale. Their window banner says the sale is at selected stores, so if you are a CWC fan, now is the time to check it out. OK, enough of that.

Looks to me like Gunghy was right about SIERRA being a range of (craggy, or saw-tooth) mountains, as in Sierra Nevada, or Sierra Madre. The clue should have read "Saw-tooth ridges". BTW it is also a word in spanish that means "saw", as in:

"1.Sierra de mano - a panel-saw or hand-saw
2.Sierra para metales - hacksaw
3.Sierra mecánica - power saw"

The clue wouldn't have made any sense if that is what was being asked for.

xtulmkr said...

"It's funny because the squirrel dies." ...Doug

Hahtoolah said...

Thanks for the heads-up on CWC, Clear Ayes!

Chickie said...

Hello All--A slog of a puzzle for me today. I had a real picket fence fill the first run through and had spent way too much time trying to fill more in.

I put the puzzle aside and went back to it late this afternoon. Miracle of miracles, I started to fill in almost everything except the Western middle area. I had put in Abler for Apter, Tab for Toc, and didn't know the Capet's.
I had to come here to finish off everything.

There were some very clever theme answers and I eventually managed to get them all but the vowel progression escaped me.

I really liked seams for clothing line, and One carrying a bag (after I erased porter and started to fill in the C and d's.).

Thank you C.C. for a great write up. We can always depend on you to help us find our way.

Have a great evening everyone.

Anonymous said...

Good night all.

Otis and Spitzboov: thank you for your Command F tips. You're right. It does work, even on a Mac.

Cheers

Anonymous said...

P.S. Gunghy: You caught it. I wasn't able to get the command F because I didn't use the apple F. Used Control F.
Do you mean newer Macs have "command" rather than apple squiggle? I've been using Macs for many years, and never cottoned on to "command".
Thanks guys.

Good night.

Otis said...

OOPS - originally left comment on wrong page...

I made many of the false starts mentioned earlier here (leia, rosa, alero/a, and a-line), plus a few more. I tried "act your age" for 31D, and all I could think of for Sweet Sixteen was ANBK (and never been kissed). I knew it had to be the wrong path, but when "ales" landed, I stayed with the idea and tried SWAK. It worked out in the end (except for central west), and I learned some new stuff. Glad to learn more sports info, as that is one of my big weaknesses.

Sallie - glad you got the search function to work! It saves me a lot of time. As to the apple=command=control, I think that's how it works, but the computer pros here will know best. Its been a while since I've used a Mac.

Otis