google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Monday June 21, 2010 Gareth Bain

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Jun 21, 2010

Monday June 21, 2010 Gareth Bain

Theme: Should Have Used Cold Water - Three common phrases, the first word of which describes what can happen to clothes, and a unifier of when this happens.

17A. *Losing ground quickly: FADING FAST.

25A. *Seeking a municipal office: RUNNING FOR MAYOR.

46A. *Extreme introvert: SHRINKING VIOLET.

59A. When the accidents at the starts of the answers to starred clues are apt to occur: LAUNDRY DAY.

Argyle here with a Gareth Bain Monday.

Not bad. Two grid spanning entries, unusual for a Monday but easily attainable. A nice mix of old and new.

Across:

1A. Lost in a good book, say: RAPT.

5A. __ prof.: ASST..

9A. Attacker of seals: ORCA. Also, polar bear, up north.

13A. Length times width: AREA.

14A. In the freezer: ON ICE.

15A. Blockhead: FOOL.

16A. Jagger of the Stones: MICK.

19A. Farmer in a '40s-'50s film series: PA KETTLE. Rural comedy featuring 29D. Bumpkin: YOKEL.

21A. Golfer Els: ERNIE. He finished alone in third in the Open.

22A. Nabisco cookie: OREO.

23A. None: ZERO.

32A. Disney toon who traded her voice for legs: ARIEL. From Disney's "The Little Mermaid".

33A. Astronomical time span: EON.

34A. TV's kid explorer: DORA. Very big in product endorsements; "Dora the Explorer" everything!

35A. "The __ is up!": JIG.

36A. Southern Calif. daily: LA TIMES. Right there in the center (gotta help catch the editor's attention).

40A. The Sunflower St.: KAN..

41A. Poker "bullets": ACES.

43A. Hearty holiday quaff: NOG.

44A. Letter before iota: THETA. Greek to me.

50A. Color akin to aqua: TEAL.

51A. "Auld __ Syne": LANG.

52A. Knock out: FLOOR.

55A. Notified: SENT WORD.

62A. Atlas section: ASIA.

63A. __-skid brakes: ANTI.

64A. Whirlpool brand: AMANA.

65A. Dalmatian, e.g.: SLAV. Dalmatia, a region mainly in the southern part of modern Croatia. Map

66A. Gone by: PAST.

67A. Shaggy Tibetan beasts: YAKS. LOL Thought of Yeti first.

68A. Inedible doughnut part?: HOLE. So why can you buy them?

Down:

1D. Knievel prop: RAMP. For jumping his motorcycle.

2D. Diva's solo: ARIA.

3D. Chaste kiss: PECK.

4D. Offer from a flier distributor: "TAKE ONE".

5D. Like old television signals: ANALOG.

6D. Fries, e.g.: SIDE.

7D. __-fi: SCI.

8D. Hamilton is on it: TEN. Scott Hamilton is ON ICE.

9D. Designed for rough terrain: OFF ROAD.

10D. Palomino's stablemate, perhaps: ROAN. Two horses named for their coloring.

11D. Mozart's "__ fan tutte": COSI. Literally "Thus do all (women")." We had it on Sunday, June 6.

12D. Old, to Oskar: ALTE. German

14D. Time and again: OFTEN.

18D. Idea's start: GERM.

20D. Coloratura's vocal effect: TRILL. Wikipedia article. Probably the toughest entry today, for me at least.

23D. Camera function: ZOOM.

24D. Seaside flier: ERNE.

25D. Indian princes: RAJAS.

26D. Robert of "Spenser: For Hire": URICH. TV detective series set in Boston. Robert Urich He died in 2002.

27D. African river or country: NIGER. Map

28D. Pretend: FEIGN.

30D. Spout speeches: ORATE.

31D. Charged: RAN AT.

37D. "(You're) Having My Baby" songwriter: ANKA. Paul Anka, singer/songwriter.

38D. Hard work: TOIL.

39D. Time in the Army, e.g.: STINT.

42D. "Happy Days" catchphrase: "SIT ON IT!". The "Welcome Back, Kotter" catchphrase was...?

45D. Bunk: HOGWASH.

47D. Jock's antithesis: NERD.

48D. Learns bit by bit: GLEANS.

49D. Chekhov title uncle: VANYA. "Uncle Vanya", a play (1897) by Anton Chekhov. " ... just life, played out over four acts..."

52D. Exercise, as wings: FLAP.

53D. Turner of "Ziegfeld Girl": LANA. A poster from the 1941 film.

54D. Exposes: OUTS.

55D. Pierre's home: Abbr.: S. DAK.. Pierre, capital of South Dakota.

56D. Norwegian capital: OSLO.

57D. Iranian capital: RIAL. First, two cities then money; did it fool anybody?

58D. "I'm sorry, __": "2001: A Space Odyssey" line: DAVE. Spoken by HAL 9000 (voiced by Douglas Rain), , the computer.

60D. Flat fish: RAY.

61D. Singer Sumac: YMA.

Answer grid.

Argyle

75 comments:

Dennis said...

Good morning, Argyle, C.C. and gang - I had a couple stumbles on this one, which is unusual for a Monday puzzle. Some clever clues, but the answer that I blanked on was 19A, after I had 'Pak.....'. Couldn't for the life of me separate 'Pa' and sat there trying to think of a farmer named 'Pak'-something. Even after I filled in the rest, I stared at 'Pakettle' for a while until the 55-gallon drum of V8 smacked me in the face. Stupid.

'Iranian capital' didn't get me this time. Perps got me 'Coloratura's vocal effect' and 'Chekhov title uncle'. Didn't have a clue as to the theme until the unifying answer; clever. And as Argyle said, a nice nod to the LA Times, right in the middle. Argyle, I had the same question about doughnut holes -- they're a pretty big seller for something that's 'inedible'.



Today, in addition to being the first day of summer, is National Skateboarding Day.

Did you know:

- In medieval Japan, dentists extracted teeth with their hands.

- Michael J. Fox's middle name is Andrew.

- Goldilocks was originally named Silver Hair.

eddyB said...

And a good morning to you.

Couldn't sleep so I was up rereading a Kathy Reichs novel. There on page 21 was a reference to Kiri Te Kanawa. Small world.

Nice little Monday puzzle. Loved seeing LA Times in the middle of the grid. The PA Kettle ans lead me to add those wonderful movies to the top of the Netflix queue.

Happy soltice. Please don't say it is the longest DAY of the year. I remember that we went through this
last year.

Now 3:40 and time for bed.

eddyB

Paolo said...

Hello Argyle, CC, and all,

Simple but enjoyable 20 minute, top to bottom solve.

First pass fills: AREA, ERNIE, ARIEL, ACES, LANG, HOLE, RAMP, PECK, SCI, TEN COSI, TRILL, OSLO, DAVE.

Favorites: RIAL, SDAK, LATIMES

Happy Monday!

Kotter Phrase: "Off my case, toilet face"??? (Not positive about this)

Spitzboov said...

Good morning Argyle and all. Nice write-up.

Not difficult but the SW dragged a little. Clever theme but I didn't get it until after all the starred clues were completed. Thought SDAK was clever. Got PA KETTLE right after 'pak'. Never quite thought of him as a 'farmer' but more of a YOKEL. Also liked the fills of FEIGN and HOGWASH. Good one to start the week.

Today at 0728 hrs, EDT, the Summer solstice occurs.

Be safe.

Mainiac said...

Good Morning Argyle, CC and All,

Pretty straight forward this morning with some typical screw ups which perps made me erase. Ran up instead of At and Ryal instead of Rial. LA Times brought things together in the middle and I read the Laundry Day clue as "Where" instead of "When" the first go round. I ran a Laundromat for a summer in High School.

Have a great Monday.

Dick said...

Good morning Argyle and All, a nice walk in the park this morning. However, like Dennis I stared at Pak for a long time before the fog rose and I saw Pa Kettle. Ma and Pa Kettle movies were some of my favorites when I was growing up. Favorite clues/answers were Pierre’s home/SDak. Iranian capital/rail (this one almost got me again)and bunk/hogwash.

LA Times got a nice boost this morning by landing in the middle of the puzzle.

Eddy it must be a bi**h when you cannot sleep.

Hope you all have a great day.

Hahtoolah said...

Favorite clues: Inedible doughnut part = HOLE and Pierre's Home = S. DAK.

ALTE Oskar must be an Alter Kocker. Two Alter Kockers were sitting in silence on their favorite park bench for hours, lost in thought. Finally, one gave a long "Ahhh!" The other replied, "If you're going to talk politics, I'm leaving."

Barry G. said...

Morning, folks!

Yep, a bit harder than usual for a Monday. Like others, I had PAK_____ for 19A and was trying to think of a last name starting with those letters. Also, the clue for 65A had me trying to think of something dog-related and the clue for 55D had me looking for something related to France.

Nothing wrong with that, of course, but a bit trickier than I was expecting for a Monday.

Anonymous said...

Re:25 D. Indian princes ... Rajas.

Technically, a Raja is a king, not a prince ( unless the clue refers to princes as a vassal to the King-Emperor ... as under the British Raj. )

A Maharaja means 'great king' ... what every other tinpot king under the Raj thought he was. The only Rajas then, were those with less than 40 acres... mere landlords.

A prince is a 'Rajputr' ... ('tr' as in 'trick')... literally 'king's son'.... also known as 'kuwar' or 'kunwar' ... particularly if an heir to the throne.

This should not be confused with 'Rajput' ... a martial community of the 'warrior' caste, originally and mostly resident in the state of Rajasthan (... 'land of the Rajas'), in NW India, abutting Pakistan. Few, if any, Rajputs pretend to have any claims to royal ancestry, but they are well represented in folklore in poems and ballads of heroic deeds in battle ( mostly on the losing side ... ). Still, even now, they are a formidable political and economic force in that state.

Lemonade714 said...

I worked harder than usual for a Monday, not because of PA KETTLE, but DALMATIAN really had me barking up the wrong tree.

LANA TURNER was a very pretty woman with a very interesting life, and was married to a friend of mine, who claims the daughter really killed Johnny Stompanato.

I find it interesting a pioneer company like AMANA gets swallowed up by WHIRLPOOL, and I love having ERNE and ERNIE next to each other and YOKEL in the same puzzle as PA KETTLE.

I hope you all had as great a father’s day as I did; I spent two days with my youngest and we talked often over SKYPE with my oldest in Italy. We got a chance to see his room and his dig site. Cool.

Paolo said...

Other Kotter phrase: "Up your nose with a rubber hose!"

Bob said...

Easy puzzle, which is typical for Monday. 10 minutes. Nothing really difficult in it.

Dennis said...

Paolo, that's the one I always associate with the show.

Tinbeni said...

Argyle, Great write-up of a typical
LA TIMES Monday offering.

SLAV for Dalmatian was a slam-dunk from my Zagreb, Croatia STINT a few years back. Beautiful AREA.

GLEANS and VANYA took a while to glean, both via the perps.

HOLE, Inedible donut part? Got a pretty good chuckle. As did that Jock's antithesis, NERD.

FEIGN made me think of the World Cup, when we see the players take a dive or feign injuries.

YMA Sumac makes me long for the days of UMA.

All-in-all a good one to start the week.

Splynter said...

Good morning all!

" I found a SHRINKING VIOLET /
I crushed it into the ground "

Just a little Monster Magnet reference

Fun Monday,
I liked the spanners today, and do I see helper squares?

Splynter

Dudley said...

Hello Puzzlers - Just getting awake, due to having been solving the puzzle at the same time as eddyB. Hrmph.

Hand up for PAK---. Never saw the Kettles, a tad before my time. Clueless about Dalmatian, and RIAL. I gather the latter has formerly appeared in CWs. Smiled at LATIMES right in the middle.

I've been to Croatia, I guess. Only then it was Yugoslavia. It was all part of a railroad journey from London to Istanbul. Things went awry in Zagreb, where a few coaches were disconnected from the rest of a train going elsewhere. In the absence of a locomotive, we few dozen travelers found ourselves left to bake in the coaches on a distant part of a railway yard, without food, water, or explanation. It was some hours before this was sorted out.

The fragmenting of Yugoslavia, and all that went with it, are bafling to me.

Warren said...

Hi Argyle, C.C. & gang, a tricky end to a Monday puzzle, I had no problem getting Pa Kettle - I can still remember watching Ma & Pa Kettle movies on TV while I was growing up in MN. They were still running them in the 60's & 70's.

I got stuck trying to get the 15A FOOL, I had 'FO_ _' for the longest time, Finally did a Google look up for 'Mozart's fan tuttle' to get COSI.

BTW, check out today's Google's special logo for the longest day of the year, It toggled different images for me 3 or 4 times before going to the solstice page.

Re no holes in doughnuts? That may be technically true but here's some pictures of doughnut holes which are sold separately?

Janet said...

Today's puzzle seemed pretty difficult for a Monday. It was either that, or I'm just not improving the way I would like.

Except for ALTE, there weren't any words I didn't know, but the contexts were tricky. For example, I tried to think of a city in France for 55D. 48D GLEANS and 59D VANYA also made that area difficult for me.

Anonymous said...

Good morning everyone.

Nice write up, Argyle.

I chortled at Pierre in S.Dak. I kept trying my long-buried French for an answer.
It was fun being to chug right along with this, with a few pauses until the perps helped.

There is a sub-theme of opera: Aria, Cosi Fan Tutte, Yma Sumac, and coloratura Trills. The latter is not necessarily operatic, but is seldom heard or mentioned elsewhere. Therefore, I loved this puzzle! Also thought the theme was fun. And accessible.

Cheers

Clear Ayes said...

Good Morning All, A fine Monday puzzle with terrific theme phrases.

PA KETTLE was fine, but it was Marjorie Main as Ma KETTLE who stole all the scenes. She was even nominated for an Academy Award for her first Ma Kettle appearance in the movie "The Egg and I".

I liked (68A) "Inedible doughnut part?"/HOLE. It is funny that the empty (inedible) space in the middle of a doughnut is a HOLE and the piece of dough that is removed from the space and fried is called a HOLE too. Maybe it should be called a "Whole".

Lemonade, is there still some dispute that Cheryl Crane killed Johnny Stompanato? Lana Turner bio, you're right, she had an interesting life. We have a one out of seven chance of guessing which husband you were friends with.

Thanks Argyle for uniting the theme phrases with "Should Have Used Cold Water". Am I being sexist thinking that most men don't do the laundry? GAH does his own laundry, but my ex had no idea where the detergent was. My grandsons do their own laundry, but my daughter still washes S-I-L's clothes. How about the rest of the guys here?

erieruth said...

Nice to have an easy Monday!! It worked out well - but - I couldn't for the life of me remember how to spell *lang* of 51 across. Once I had enough caffeine to remember - the rest was fine. I didn't understand why SLAV was correct for Dalmatian until I read the explanation! I, of course, kept thinking of the dog or the movie.
Hope you all have a nice sunny day ... it's beautiful here in Monte Sereno, California!!!

Chickie said...

Dodo--From yesterday. I'm not quite sure about the mole question, maybe!

However, when I logged on today Lo and behold there was my name next to the Google Account ready and waiting. Go figure! This is the first time in ages that that has happened. I like it though.

I haven't done the puzzle yet today. More later.

eddyB said...

Hi.

Guess five hrs is enough for now.

Dick. Not really. I read or go on line to KDKA.com.

CA. Right about Marjorie. Her role
led to the whole series being filmed. Also liked Percy. Just love those 40 movies.

Took the LT into the garage to watch the end of the race and do my laundry. Great ending with TK
breaking a two year drought. The
F2000 race on Sat was also fun to watch. A 15 yo under contract to Andretti won.

Wonder if his parents will be critized for letting him do some thing dangerous ?

Have a great day. eddeyB

Dennis said...

CA, I had the same reaction when I read Lemonade's post -- I always thought it was a given that Cheryl Crane did it.

As to the laundry, I'm not sure how it works, but it has to be something otherworldly. I put my clothes in this sort of cabinet thing with a lid on top, and the next thing I know, I've got a pile of clean clothes on the bed. Just don't understand it.

Jerome said...

I've got this image in my head of Windhover lining up all his pigs for a HOGWASH on LAUNDRY DAY.

carol said...

Hi all -

I felt the same way looking at 19A and wondering who Pak was, LOL. I loved those old movies as kid, and have rented a few of the series just recently and still chuckled. The movie "The Egg and I" features Ma and Pa Kettle and their brood, and is one of my favorites.

CA - You are right, Marjorie Main was so good in the role of Ma Kettle..I loved the way she 'kept house'.

I stupidly thought of dogs when reading 65A and wondered if the breed was Slavic in origination..DOH, hand me my V-8 can again!

I put LAUNDROMAT in for 59A thinking I was so smart to figure that out...then I looked at 55D and wished I could remember the French word for 'home'...alas, it took a few minutes to undo my goofs.

All in all, a fun puzzle, and just slightly more difficult than our usual Monday fare.

ARBAON said...

Funny how, once you see "Dalmatian", you can think of nothing but dog or breed...fairly tricky for a Monday...
Now that I`ve written "Ariel", I can`t get her musical "trill" out of my mind...

hahtool: Seems I remember reading that Ariel is another name for Zion or Jerusalem. Correct? (It`s also the name of a Shakespearean character from some work, if I remember correctly.)

The blog port keeps telling me that my password is wrong...still can`t post blue.

Tinbeni said...

CA
I've always done my laundry.
Or as Dennis pointed out, the square thingy with the lid does the actual work.
Never could figure out why people act like putting in the clothes, adding the detergent and walking away for a while was such hard work.
Oh, and before you ask, I like to vacuum, wash the dishes, clean my bathroom, wash the car ... damn, I'm nearly Felix Unger.

Argyle, this was on the othr side:
Italian Soccer Practice:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ukFUEI5qz8

Apparently they do practice this stuff for the World Cup.

eddyB said...

Dudley. Did the puzzle at 7:30 Sun
night. Noticed that the LT turned itself on at 3:00 AM to install
upgrades and then it shut itself
off. Had to reenter all the user codes and paswords so, I just stuck
around. Usually keep it in the sleep mode. Had to reenter the password to post the comment this morning.

eddy

ARBAON said...

About laundry...if I sort, the one I drive for can do laundry...but there was once a complaint about "too many creases" in pants legs...(when it was actually the way they rehung on the hanger) so, if it gets ironed, it`s not by me.

Dennis: No one puts your skivvies in the box thingy for you? How mis-treated you are...

Dennis said...

ARBAON, yeah, I've got it pretty rough. Should be some sort of automatic lid opener so I can just throw them.

Actually, as with Tinbeni, I enjoy a lot of the household chores, and it's probably 60-40 in our house, with me being the 60. And I love ironing, which I know is strange for a guy, but I like seeing the finished product.

Clear Ayes said...

Dennis, you must be performing an equally valuable and otherworldly service in exchange for the clean laundry.

Here's a cute little "chore" poem by Charles Ray. It's true for both boys and girls.

Once upon a sultry summer day
I set out to do naught but play.

But just as I had settled in
There started out an awful din.

My mother said "I'm calling you,
There's so many things you have to do."

"Rake the yard and clean your room",
She said as she handed me the broom.

The best laid plans of men and mice
Can be shattered in a trice.

It's not my duties that I shirk.
I just happen to hate to work.

JD said...

Good morning all,

new grandson, Cameron Joseph, just arrived this morning at 6:30..was a long night. He's a cutie; looks just like his dad.

Did puzzle , but need a nap!

Hahtoolah said...

ARBAON: you are correct. Ariel is sometimes used as a poetic name for Jerusalem in the Hebrew Bible. See Isaiah Chapter 29, which was written during a time of exile.

The name Ariel means "lion of G-d". Ari is Hebrew for "lion" and "el" is a reference to G-d.

Hahtoolah said...

Congratulations on the new grandbaby,JD! You are so lucky to be able to enjoy them.

Dennis said...

JD, congrats!

Jayce said...

Hi everybody. I also wondered whose name starts with PAK, and like Dennis I stared at PAKETTLE for a long time before I finally parsed it. I remember those Ma and Pa Kettle movies.

T'was a fun puzzle today. Enjoyed it. Very cool that LATIMES is right in the center.

Before I went off to college to live on my own, my mom made sure I knew how to do laundry, make a bed, and iron my clothes. I already knew how to cook, having been interested in cooking for years before that. Since getting married and teaching my new bride how to do laundry (and to cook), she has chosen to do it all herself. I've gotten very rusty at it, but I suppose, like riding a bicycle, it would come back to me easily were I to do it myself again.

Agreed on how the act of closing my browser (Internet Explorer) or turning off my computer logs me off and I have to type in my username and password again. It's always been like that for me, so I assumed that is the norm. But then again I've only been blue for a couple of weeks.

So pitiful that Kaka (weird name!) got two yellow cards and had to leave the field just because the other player feigned fake injury to his face. My wife always screams "Get up of the ground, you phony!" when a player rolls around and around in fake agony. Not funny when someone really gets hurt, though.

Best wishes to you all, and no rubber hoses up anybody's noses, please.

Anonymous said...

ARBAON, try to sign with you email address instead of your avatar name ARBAON.

Carlos del Oeste said...

Hello Argyle, CC and Y'all,

Thought this was a bit tougher than the usual Monday x-word, but fun. Minor correction: 23D, zoom is a function of a zoom lens, not a camera.

C. Ayes, I do most of the washing and folding around here, as my wife works all day in town. And, I have done all my ironing since high school. I am the official vacuumer around here, as well.

We just finished putting in 35 plants in our front yard, no mean feat considering this hard adobe we call the ground here in New Mexico.

Have a nice Summer.

C del O

Lucina said...

Good day, puzzlers. Argyle, as always, wonderful blogging.

ARBAON:
Ariel is a charactger in THE TEMPEST by Shakespeare.

What a nice sprint this was; I was RAPT the entire time and loved seeing PAKETTLE which took a minute to register. Those were fun movies.

Yes, Ma Kettle, Marjorie Main, was great, but they had such good chemistry together.

I laughed with OSLO, and RIAL, two capitals, but different meanings.

Hand up for not knowing that dalmatian was a SLAV but WAGGED it since it made sense.

You all have a lovely Monday; it's been summer here for almost a month. Off to yoga.

Lucina said...

JD:
Congratulations! I know you will post pictures soon.

Chickie said...

Hello All--First hearty congratulations to JD on the new grandson. Next, we need a picture.

A great Monday puzzle with some fun clues. I especially liked Pierre's home and Iranian capital. I almost fell into the trap on the last one, but I didn't have to look up anything today.

Uncle Vanya came from way back in my mind. We saw Chekhov plays back in the 60's at our local theater.

Pa and Ma Kettle were some of the movies we would see on a Saturday at the local theater. I can still see the house and the passel of kids.

Ariel was a gimme as I took a granddaughter to see this film ages ago. It is one of the few animated movies I've seen.

Argyle, if we buy doughnut holes are we buying nothing?

Jerome, I got my laugh for the day with your image of Windhover's clean pigs all lined up in a row.

Argyle said...

My take on HOGWASH, is WASH, in this sense, would be "swill", or "liquid or partly liquid food refuse from the kitchen". Before a proper cleaning, plates and utensils would be rinsed off in water bucket to remove any loose particles. Other refuse would be added and the resulting "wash" fed to the hogs.

Here is an actual hogwash.

eddyB said...

Notes:
For you longest DAY people, Grove City (W PA) will have 26 more minutes of daylight today vs San
Jose. Same 24 hr day.
Flagstaff, AZ people have their own disaster to worry about.
Let's congratulate the sil or dil also. (Keep your mouth shut Ed)
The World Cup people benched the guy who cost the US a win.
Time for a nap. Then load the canoe back onto the truck. Ran aground on a muddy bank last time out. Low Tide.

eddyB

eddyB said...

Notes:
For you longest DAY people, Grove City (W PA) will have 26 more minutes of daylight today vs San
Jose. Same 24 hr day.
Flagstaff, AZ people have their own disaster to worry about.
Let's congratulate the sil or dil also. (Keep your mouth shut Ed)
The World Cup people benched the guy who cost the US a win.
Time for a nap. Then load the canoe back onto the truck. Ran aground on a muddy bank last time out. Low Tide.

eddyB

Jerome said...

I know there's a French language whiz in the group. I'm working on the fill for a puzzle grid. I would have sworn AMOI or A MOI was a French word... "myself", or some such. No?

Paolo said...

Jerome,

It's two words: a moi and it means "to me". It's often used in the expression "C'est a moi" which means "It's mine". (Sorry: the "a" is supposed to have an accent mark over it, however, I'm not sure how to produce it).

A bientot! (again, minus accents)

Paolo

Spitzboov said...

Jerome: ''De toi à moi'. (From you to me)

Jerome said...

Paolo, Spitz- So I could clue A MOI as "To me", in Marseille. Correct?

Spitzboov said...

Paolo: re à

On a Mac, type Option + ` (space grays over) then type a Voilà à

In 'Windows' use the character set.

Or you could just cheat and find such a letter or word in google and do an edit-paste.

Paolo said...

Spitzboov,

Thanks, I'll experiment with your suggestions. à (that was a cut/paste from your post).

Jerome,

Yes, your clue would work.


Or you could really throw a curve ball and clue it as "Gigi's mine" which would cause most people to go with the French word "mien" which literally means "mine" and is also 4 letters long!

Spitzboov said...

Jerome: Yes you could. I found this in C.C.'s search engine:

L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Monday July 13, 2009 James Sajdak
Jul 13, 2009
I found A MOI a bit confusing because it literally means "to me" and not "Mine" (which would be MIEN, IIRC) but then I thought of somebody playing baseball in the field and shouting "MINE!" I also hesitated when I got MERC from the ...
http://crosswordcorner.blogspot.com/

FWIW

carol said...

JD - My congratulations (again - LOL) on the new baby, hope Shelby is doing well too. So nice you there is another boy in the mix, they will be such buddies in the future. Next batch can be girls :)

Argyle - re HOGWASH link, had to laugh when I looked at the girl's expression as she hosed down the piggies. She didn't seem to be enjoying it so much.

Chickie said...

Argyle, The real Hogwash was a memory jogger. I think I've said before that I've spent a lot of time in the livestock barn at our county fairs over the years.

4-Her's in our club had steers, hogs, and lambs. they all needed washing, drying, then grooming in anticipation of their big debut before the judges. We had to clean up the 4Her's too, clean whites and dry shoes!

Jerome said...

Thanks guys. I wanted to be positive I had A MOI right. If this puzzle makes the cut I didn't want any grumbling about incorrect clueing. As it is, at least two people will post that they hate foreign words in a grid. :)

john28man said...

Good Afternoon, puzzlers - My problem with the NW corner was that I had -AKETTLE and put in M. That made 1D RAMM. How dumb and I met him in a bar at a hotel in London many years ago.

I thought this puzzle while it was interesting was a little more of a challenge than a "normal" Monday.

Maybe it was the wine last night.

dodo said...

Kotter phrase: Up your nose with a rubber hose!

Annette said...

JD, congratulations on your new grandson!!!

Iranian capital definitely had me for a while… I googled it, figuring I must be confused about it being Tehran, and even paused to check the spelling of capital for my search. Finally got the V-8 much later!

Ma & PA KETTLE show up on AMC once in a while. I watched one not long ago – I think it was their final movie together. Cute, fun movies. Ma reminds me a little of my grandmother.

Erieruth: I had the same experience doing another puzzle last night. I knew the answer was SAKS 5th Avenue, but for the life of me, couldn’t figure out how to spell SAKS! It was a total blank for me. No wonder Clear Ayes doesn’t care for the short words…

Hmmm, I thought Dennis was talking about a clothes hamper.

dodo said...

Chickie, Lucky you......things are still the same for me, I'm still undercover! OOPS! I have to take it back, seems I'm back again.

Jerome, I'm still howling about the mental pic of Windhover's pigs!

Argyle, We alway called it 'slops'. The actual chore was "slopping the pigs"! Anyway, I love 'hogwash', can't wait for an op to use it. My 20-something grandson uses 'rubbish' a lot, which I consider more or less passe, since my grandparents used it. He never knew them, of course, so I have no idea where he picked it up.Does anybody know if it's used commonly these days?

Really good Monday puzzle; slid right through it. It's the first time I've really timed myself and WOW..only 9 minutes! Most of the time it takes my whole morning what with interruptions, erasures as I realized I've goofed, phone calls, etc. Not so today. Whoopee.

I thought Pakettle looked pretty odd, too, but just for a sec. I can just barely remember 'The Egg and I'. I remember reading the book and enjoying both book and movie. Marjorie Main was a keeper.

Hahtool, loved you li'l joke! Is 'kocker' something like 'geezer?' German or Yiddish?

I liked 'Pierre's home' and 'bunk'.
Mention of either Dakota always warms my heart. When I was growing up I always felt nobody knew where they were, as though we weren't really states at all!

dodo said...

Oh, JD, I forgot to offer my congrats! A little cousin for Truman? You're getting heavy on boys. Shall we all pray for a girl next?

BTW, I hope you didn't find my littl offering on your email offensive. I thought it was histyrical!

Anonymous said...

This just in....

... from the Cleveland (Ohio) Plain Dealer ... a 26 yr old music student Corey Rubin, member of the Clev Orch chorus, had his crossword publ in the New York Times, on Thursday June 17, 2010... made in honor of Beethoven's Ninth ... for all you music lovers.

This puzzle is special because it is what is known as a rebus in which six of the squares contain three letters instead of the usual one.

In each case, the three letters spell out j-o-y as in bundleofjoy, joyluckclub and almondjoy. ( tying to Orch's symphony's current chorus preparations ...to ode-to-joy)

I just thought some the members may want to try it out.

Enjoy and be happy.

Lucina said...

Guess what, on Who Wants to be a Millionaire, there was a question about Occam's Razor.

Synchrinocity?

Dot said...

Congratulations, JD on the new grandson. Grandsons - and granddaughters - are wonderful. One of my grandsons preached his first sermon Sunday. I thought his mother would have a nervous breakdown but he did not appear at all nervous & did a great job.

I must have been really slow today. I did not understand SDAK or Pakettle even though I had them. Stared and stared at them & finally came here & then came the big d'oh.

A fun puzzle.

Dot

Bill G. said...

Today might be National Skateboarding Day but it doesn't make me change my opinion about skateboarders. Let me preface this little rant by saying that I'm sure there are plenty of nice, polite skateboarders around. However, those aren't the ones I regularly run into while going on bike rides along the Pacific. They are groups of egocentric boys doing tricks, ruining property with their tricks and ignoring the safety of those around them. One of them tried some trick on the bike path and he and his skateboard almost knocked me to the ground. When I looked at him like I was expecting an apology, he just got rude. Probably, if I met him under other circumstances, he might seem perfectly nice but not when skateboarding with his buddies.

ARBAON said...

According to my Yiddish "expert",
alter kocker can be either old man or old woman.

Who ever gave me directions for getting back to blue, thank you!

MJ said...

JD, Congratulations on your newest grandson! That makes the count: Boys: 3, Girls: 0, right?

Dot, How wonderful that your grandson could stand before a group of people and give a sermon. I'm sure it took courage.

Night all!

Jerome said...

Bill G- Take a deep breath, count to ten and release. They are you, in one way or another, forty years ago. The young will be young, and thank god we were. No harm done here.

Lemonade714 said...

BTW, great job with a tricky puzzle Argyle.

Anonymous said...

Anybody know the definition of 'curmudgeon'? Oh, never mind.

Seldom Seen said...

re: anon @ 12:40:
anybody know the definiton of irony? ...an anon giving advice on how to go blue.

p.s. arbaon, anon may be right...i made this mistake also. i lost my auto sign-in and forgot how to sign in properly. after i figured it out the only problem i have now is similar to dodo's. and i just chalk that up to another blitch.

Seldom Seen said...

arbaon: just saw you went blue at 839p. i should read the ENTIRE blog before i start to comment!

Lemonade714 said...

JD

Congratulations, we do look forward to pictures; I am updating my profile with a picture from this father's day week end with one of grands.

How come Jerome, my pun expert, noone bit on my bark reference with Dalmatians? I thought with all the wags we have on this blog, I was sure raise some hackles.

Pourquoi parlez-vous français? Paolo n'est pas un nom français.

dodo said...

hysterical? that's better!

Well, I'm resigned to being anon forever unless I type in my ID,etc!

Lucina said...

LEMONADE714:
I did notice your pun, barking up the wrong tree on dalmation, but by the time I finish reading all the comments, I have forgotten such details.

Very funny. I chuckled at the time.

Paolo said...

Lemonade,

C’est vrai. Paolo n'est pas un nom français.. Je devrais parler italien. Alors, je l’ai oublié!