google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Saturday July 3, 2010 Will Nediger

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Jul 3, 2010

Saturday July 3, 2010 Will Nediger

Theme: None

Total words: 70

Total blocks: 36

One letter Q away from a pangram.

Will Nediger anchors his puzzle with a grid spanner MARRIED TO THE MOB (33A. 1988 Michelle Pfeiffer film) and stacks a couple of 11s & a 10 on the top/bottom. OVERANALYZE (52A. Figure to a fault) is my favorite entry today. Awesome.

Will is majoring in linguistics, so his fill/clue skew academics. He probably loves Shakespeare stuff, see the below clues:

1A. He played Brutus in "Julius Caesar" (1953) : JAMES MASON. Total stranger to me.

28A. "I kissed thee __ I killed thee": "Othello" : ERE

45D. "In __, you are to blame": "Othello" : SOOTH. In truth.

As the norm with Saturday puzzles, a few new words for me and plenty of V-8 moments.

Across:

11. Member of a notable foreign trio : AMO (I love). Amo, amas, amat. Latin trio.

14. Complex mirage : FATA MORGANA. New word to me. See the etymology. Italian name. Had some King Arthur root.

15. Go for the bronze? : TAN. Nailed it.

16. 1965 Peter and Gordon hit : I GO TO PIECES. The tune sounds familiar.

17. Enter the pool : BET. D'oh, betting pool. DIP did not work.

18. Crescent : LUNE. Rooted in Latin moon "Luna". Makes sense.

19. Wet-weather wear : GALOSH. Man, I never know there's a special term for this kind of waterproof overshoe.

21. Ski nautique site : LAC. French for "lake". I don't know the meaning of "Ski nautique". Nautique is just French for "Nautical".

22. Acolyte's area : ALTAR

27. Barista's preparation : LATTE

29. Shinto temple gateway : TORII. Like this. I always associate it with ex-Twin Torii Hunter.

30. House or lodge : STOW. Verb. I was in the noun direction.

31. Pelvis-patella connectors : FEMURS

32. The farther ones : THOSE

37. Large amount : OCEAN

38. Stockpile : GATHER

39. Add water to, perhaps : THIN. Can't jam in DILUTE.

40. Tribe member in many films : EXTRA. Extras who play the tribe members. I thought the answer is asking for a real Indian tribe who appears in film often.

41. New Jersey casino, with "The" : TAJ

44. Pen output : OINKS. Pig pen.

46. Sitting Bull, e.g. : SIOUX. Yes, this is the kind of tribe I was picturing for 40A.

47. Doc bloc : HMO. Rhyme.

48. Team that's played in the same home park since 1912 : RED SOX. Their Fenway Park is the oldest ball park in Major League.

50. Busiest : PEAK

51. "__ Got Bonnie": Rydell hit : I'VE. I guessed.

58. One in a zillion? : ZEE. One letter in the word "zillion". Clever clue.

59. Venerable : TIME-HONORED. Another awesome answer.

60. Transgress : ERR

61. Some countdowns : HIT PARADES. Countdowns of most popular songs.

Down:

1. Rain forest cat : JAGUAR. I drew a blank.

2. Without delay : AT ONCE

3. King's downfall, maybe : MATE. Chess ending.

4. Punk rock offshoot : EMO. Learned from doing Xword.

5. Payoff : SOP. Bribe.

6. Med. technique using contrast agents : MRI. What are "contrast agents"?

7. What candles may reveal : AGE. Wrinkles too.

8. Egg holder : SAC

9. A hundred sawbucks : ONE G. 1,000.

10. Like some vowels : NASAL. Like what? I only know nasal consonants.

11. Fundamentally : AT BOTTOM

12. Stately and dignified, in music : MAESTOSO. New word to me. So close to Maestro.

13. Generally Googleable : ON THE WEB. OK.

14. Dijon daughter : FILLE. "Daughter" in French. Alliteration.

20. 1993 Anne Rice novel : LASHER. See the book cover. Not in my radar.

22. Ordered pizza, perhaps : ATE IN

23. Capital of Togo : LOME. Uh-uh, nope. No idea. God will be resigned by my unwillingness to learn those capitals in faraway countries.

24. Walks with effort : TRUDGES

25. Chartered carrier : AIR TAXI. The answer just would not come to me.

26. Ristorante dish : RISOTTO. OK, ristorante is Italian for "restaurant" then.

31. Dogs : FRANKS. Hot dogs.

32. Walking papers : THE AX. Walking papers: slang for dismissal.

33. Make easier to use, in a way : MOTORIZE. Didn't jump to me immediately.

34. One who gets things done : ACHIEVER. This word seems to always come with "over" or "under".

35. Cupid, for one : REINDEER. Santa's Cupid. Not Roman love god.

36. Via, informally : THRU

41. "__ here!" : THEY'RE. Does this refer to the tagline for "Poltergeist"?

42. Floors : AMAZES. Verb.

43. Caused a breakup? : JOKED. Convulsed with laughter "breakup".

49. Louis __: son of Marie Antoinette : XVII. Makes senses. Her husband is Louis XVI.

50. Lumber : PLOD. I confused "Lumber" with "Slumber".

53. First to arrive, often: Abbr. : EMT. True!

54. Good standing, for short : REP (Reputation)

55. "Got it!" : AHA

56. Easter preceder? : NOR. Nor'easter. Strong rain storm in east coast. So named because the winds come from the northeast.

57. Santa __ : ANA

Answer grid.

Tomorrow we are going to have a special 4th of July tribute puzzle by John Lampkin. The theme involves circles, which are unsupported by LA Times website software. If you don't use Across Lite, please come to the blog on Sunday morning for the pdf version.

C.C.

40 comments:

Argyle said...

Hello? Testing, 1, 2, 3. Is this thing on?

Anonymous said...

Hey all "Ski nautique" is to water ski.

Argyle said...

Have a safe and sane holiday, everybody.

As for the puzzle, I didn't care for it. How many eggs in a sac? I PLODded and TRUDGEd thru it all, picking up little black flags along the way. I'm still not sure about AT BOTTOM (11Down).

Oh well, someone will say it was a breeze. It's a TIME HONORED tradition.

Anonymous said...

Good morning C.C. and everyone.
Tough but engaging puzzle. I like those long fills. Nice to see 11A clued differently and a good one too. did better than yesterday, time wise.

C.C., contrast agents are used to improve/enhance the visibility of internal organs during radiologic procedures. They could be given intravenously, orally or rectally. The most commonly used contrast agents, also known as dyes, are iodine and barium compounds.

Have a good day everyone.

August

Al said...

For me, this was one of, if not the toughest Saturday puzzle I've done in awhile. The misdirections and unknowns got to me, even the short answers needed a starting letter to guess at: For Cupid, I had GREEKGOD (even though he was the Roman one) instead of REINDEER. For King's downfall, I was on the right track, trying ROOK at first, then changed it to PAWN when the MOON perp seemed to fit instead of LUNE, one bad answer reinforcing another. The center was the only part I filled in for the longest time, mostly because I remembered the TORII discussion we had here, but even so, I didn't want to commit to the E in LOME, because I just didn't know that capital.

Wiki: A nasal consonant (also called nasal stop or nasal continuant) is produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. The oral cavity still acts as a resonance chamber for the sound, but the air does not escape through the mouth as it is blocked by the lips or tongue, for example "m" or "n".

Argyle said...

I vaguely remember this(51A), now that I'VE heard it. (I've Got) Bonnie, Bobby Rydell's top-20 hit from 1962.

Clear Ayes said...

Good Morning All, We are almost out the door, but I want take a few minutes for today's puzzle.

I really loved the the longer fill. FATA MORGANA was a jaw dropper, even though I suffered over it for a long time. Both I GO TO PIECES and MARRIED TO THE MOB were terrific and HIT PARADES was a real "Aha" moment when it finally appeared.

I thought you had to be there in 1953 to get 1A JAMES MASON. I was only eleven years old, but I did see it and remembered it....weird! How did young Will Nediger come up with that? BTW, C.C. James Mason played Humbert Humbert in the 1962 movie version of puzzle stalwart Nabokov's "Lolita".

Another "how would he know that?" is 51A I'VE (Got Bonnie). It wasn't a big Bobby Rydell hit, like "Wild One" or "Swingin' School". Speaking of Bobby Rydell, I wasn't that crazy about his singing, but he definitely had perfect hair.

My favorite was 35D REINDEER for "Cupid, for one". "D'oh!" Very clever, Will Nediger, the last thing we are thinking about right now is Christmas.

Learning something new... I guess if you can have two galoshes, you can have one 19A GALOSH. 18A LUNE was a new definition of "Crescent", as was 5D SOP for "Payoff"

I didn't care for 32A "The farther ones" for THOSE. Same question as yesterday for HER. Why? The clue could just as well have been the same as yesterday, "Word spoken while pointing, perhaps".

I didn't much like 41D "____here!" for THEY'RE either. I guess if you saw the movie "Poltergeist" and got the creeps from the little girl saying, " They're heeeerrre", you might associate THEY'RE with "here", but otherwise ??? Maybe, I didn't like it because the perp 41A clue wasn't any help for TAJ. We west coasters know Las Vegas, but New Jersey casinos are foreign territory.

That's all for now. Have a good day everyone.

Al said...

Sorry, I meant to clarify that nasal vowels are the ones adjacent to the nasal consonants.

Dudley said...

Hello Puzzlers - DNF.

Could not have gotten THRU this puzzle without red letters and Goog. Impressive grid, though!

Michelle Pfeiffer, mmmmmmm.

Bob said...

Another difficult but doable puzzle. Took 42 minutes. Didn't know 4D (EMO)or 21A (LAC), but no problem figuring them out.

The title, Louis XVII, was honorific only. He died in prison at the age of 10 during the French Revolution (June 1795) and never ruled France or officially held that title. By the time of his death, his father and mother had both been executed, Louis XVI in January of 1793 and Marie Antoinette in October of the same year. He was ultimately succeeded by his two uncles, Louis XVIII (1815-1824) and Charles X (1824-1830).

xtulmkr said...

DNF. This was the toughest puzzle I have encountered for some time.
1A: Being only 6 years-old in 1953 I missed this movie.
14A: New term to me.
16A: Remembered the group(duo?), couldn't recall their songs.
33A: Saw her other 1988 releases, "Dangerous Liaisons" and "Tequila Sunrise." Never saw "Married to the Mob".
12D: Another new term for me.
After about 80% fill, I gave up and resorted to google(cheating).

Tinbeni said...

Argyle, It was a breeze.
I tore thru this just like Argentina verses Germany this morning.

Lemonade714 said...

Happy Saturday C.C. and the hard corrs:

A challenging puzzle and a learning experience, as I did not know Stately and dignified, in music : MAESTOSO; Capital of Togo : LOME; and while I know MORGAN LE FEY, never heard of FATA MORGANA. I thought it was very clever to include Good standing, for short : REP (Reputation) in a puzzle which had Shakespeare references, as it was one of Will’s favorite themes. I know we have seen it before, but I never seen a reference in writing to Payoff : SOP, though I do recall it used as a concession, bribe, etc., given to placate or mollify a sop to one's feelings. Obviously loved Cupid, for one : REINDEER which was so easy and hard and do adore The Fabulous Baker Boys and MICHELLE PFEIFFER .

JD said...

Good morning C.C. and all,

the theme for me today:
complex mirage a....a....a....a

What a doozy that was! Had to use Google 7X and my thesaurus a few times, and still left the SW corner incomplete.Filled Married..., Red Sox(DH's fav. team) and I've.Couldn't see franks, reindeer.achiever or motorize. Yikes, maybe I need another latte!

new: maestoso, torii( I took a picture of that too a few yrs ago)

annoying: emo, sop, and any other 3 letter abbreviation!

proud gimme: over analyze

favorite: go for the bronze=tan

So, thanks again C.C. for all the help. I know I could fill them in on line, but I much rather come here to read what you say, and others.Today the blog will be more fun than this xwd me thinks.

GarlicGal said...

Longest hour of my life! Whew. I did get 1 across right off the bat - many hours of watching TCM and amo, but it was down hill from there. I eventually had fatam_rgana, but STILL didn't know the missing letter so I had to pull out the M-W Dict. Never heard "sop". The oops...femurs, then tibias, back to femurs; 31D-follow, trails, back to follow, finally gave in to just the f. Franks..oh THOSE kind of dogs. AMA for HMO, Browns for Redsox...the list goes on and on! Diabolical, but fun.

We are expecting low 90's today, should be an all-around, all-American weekend here in Garlicland. Be sure to put out your flag and Happy 4th to Everyone!

MR ED said...

good afternoon all.
CC- James Mason was one of Hollywood's leading actors for a time. He played the older man in 'Lolita', and played Erwin Rommel in the movie 'Rommel', to name a few.
By the way, what do you think of this puzzle?

MR ED said...

I'm glad Nediger puzzles are few and far between. They would cause me to find another daily with an x-word puzzle. The clues are terrible and the answers worse. Who ever heard of sop used for payoff, and fata morgana is so obscure, and who is 'peter and gordon'? did they sing "I go to pieces" or write it.

Jayce said...

Nuh-uh, didn't like it.

Al said...

Here's another take on Michelle Pfeiffer as the villainess in Stardust. A great movie from a great book by Neil Gaiman.

It appears that blogger is indeed keeping a cookie for your sign in, but it just chooses not to use it unless you specifically click sign in or go directly to the blogger.com page first, before visiting any of the other blogs, including your own (if you have one). So, here's what I do in the Firefox browser:

Along with my own homepage, (which I have set to go to my webmail address), I have a second tab start automatically to go to blogger.com whenever I start the browser.

The way you do that in Firefox is by going to:
Tools -> Options -> General on the dropdown menu near the very top. Then in the "Homepage:" box, directly after your primary homepage URL, type in the "pipe" character "|" (the vertical bar above the backslash) and then enter this URL immediately after the pipe:

http://blogger.com/

Then click OK.

Now, every time you start Firefox, it will open two tabs, your original homepage and a second tab with blogger on it.

The very first time you visit blogger.com directly, or any other time afterward, if you ever clear out all your cookies, you will need to put in your email address and password that you used to sign up with, and also check the "remember me" box before clicking the "sign in" link. From there you can go to Crossword Corner your usual way using bookmarks or typing it in the URL bar and you will already be "Blue".

And, every time you close down and restart Firefox after that, it will automatically open the blogger page in the second (or third or however many you have set up) tab, and automatically sign you in, so you can go to crossword corner from your bookmarks and you will still be "Blue" without having to sign in again.

You should only have to re-save your blogger id and password if you do clean ups that clear out your cookies.

Questions?

dodo said...

Morning, all. Ditto Jayce@12;41. DNF!

Didn't like good standing=rep. Rep can BAD, as well, so I skipped 'rep'.

JimmyB said...

Is it just me or are the end-of-week puzzles getting harder lately? I'm not complaining, mind you; I kind of like the extra challenge.

Today's NHOBs for me were FATA MORGANA, MAESTOSO, and TORII. Had to Google the songs, films, and Ann Rice novel in order to make any headway at all. I just made up NHOB: "Never Heard Of Before". I seem to be using it a lot lately.

Jayce said...

I have been thinking about this puzzle and why I didn't like it (and other puzzles too).

Looking BACK after the puzzle has been solved, one can see cleverness in the clues, the misdirection, the ambiguities, and so on. Looking forward, at a blank grid, as a solver, the overwhelming feeling is "Huh? That can be anything!"

For example, looking back at, say, OCEAN, I can see that the clue "Large amount" makes a certain amount (not a large amount) of sense. Looking at the clue and a five-letter blank space, however, I can only think, "Well shoot, that can be anything."

Another example is the clue "A hundred sawbucks." Okay, not too bad, since I think a sawbuck means a 10-dollar bill and hundred of them = $1000. Okay, I know two expressions that are euphemisms for $1000, namely "grand" and "large". But nope, the grid only has space for four letters. What is a 4-letter euphemism or slang expression for $1000? Nope, nope, nope. Never in a zillion years would I guess ONE G. Looking back at it, however, I can appreciate, sort of, the clue.

Allow me to present a final example. "Walking papers" ... five letters ... hmmmm ... could be any doggone thing. THE AX????? Jeeeez.

So that's why, I think, a puzzle can appear really clever and tricky after it's been solved, but only appears overwhelmingly impossible before it's solved.

One final thought, which comes from the observation that the only way I could hope to solve this puzzle was to simply look certain facts up. For example, the song by Peter and Gordon ... hmmm, yawn, look it up, oh okay, moving on ... looking up the Othello quotes .. yeah okay, yawn ... that filled in a few more spaces. The capital of Togo? Yeah right. Sigh, look it up. Chalk up one more. That kind of slogging, or trudging, just isn't fun from my point of view. About as much fun as a mid-term exam.

Anyway, that's my attempt to explain why I didn't like this puzzle.

Best wishes to you all.

Jayce said...

Sorry I had to make two deletions. For some reason my comment got entered three times, so I deleted two of them.

Anonymous said...

couldn't hardly get started...3-letter words shouldn't all be tooth pulls

john28man said...

I wholeheartedly agree with Jayce.

Anonymous said...

Agree with Tinbeni. Tore thru this cw and like Germany/Argentina.

PS. The new season of the Closer begins July 12th

Bill G. said...

Hi everybody!

As is my pattern lately, I skip the Saturday puzzles because they are too hard for me to enjoy. I manage Thursday and Friday OK. I can see from the blog that many of you had a hard time, didn't finish and didn't enjoy it too much. I know many of you have different habits from me but I think doing the hardest puzzles (Thursday and Friday usually) online in the Normal mode (with red-letter help turned on) makes the hard puzzles doable and I find that much more satisfying than not finishing or having to look at the answers. If you haven't tried doing the hard puzzles online, you might give it a try once to see how you like it. I prefer doing them on the LA Times website but Across Lite is good too.

I hope everybody has an enjoyable 4th.

I remember, as a kid, one 4th when I ended up in the ER when I tried to light a cherry bomb in my brother's sparkler. I couldn't see the fuse because of the sparkler and it went off in my hand. I couldn't see because of the flash, my ears were ringing and my hand was numb. I felt down my arm with my other hand to see if I still had any fingers. When I got to the ER with my father, I was sitting across from a man with his hand wrapped up like mine was. Turns out a roman candle had exploded in his hand. Stay safe!

Jerome said...

Lemonade- Asante, the plural of Ashanti. Obscure to the max. Usance too. But that's not the problem. If you took out the 'helper' and put in ASANTE none of the crossing words work. You end up having to replace a quarter of the fill in the whole puzzle. Don't forget that that helper square has a symmetrical partner. Now you've got to change all that fill as well. From the get go the constructor may have tried and found that nothing would work but crappy, obscure enties. In the end, the helpers probably had to be there.

Lucina said...

Good afternoon puzzlers.

Yowza! This was a gigantic puzzle!

First, may I borrow a case of V8 cans? But in defense I will say I'm tired because I had company all afternoon yesterday and had to rise early today.

So when I did start this monster I settled in the center where AIRTAXI and RISOTTO settled in comfortably, then EXTRA and SIOUX until the entire section was filled. LOME was pure guesswork.

Ater that it was bits and pieces, XVII gave me OVERANALYZE, however I had TROTH instead of SOOTH, but soon corrected that. That X also led me to REDSOX and the rest of the SW corner.

So little by little it came together and since Spanish and Italian are so similar, I guessed at MAESTOSO. Rainwear is no where near my vocabulary, so galosh was a painful workout which nearly wore out my eraser.

Finally, I Ggled (sigh)for JAMESMASON and IGOTOPIECES. I should have known FATAMORGANA as I have read so much about King Arthur and Morgan LeFay.


i cannot accurately recall the punk rock offshoot, so I had ELO first, then ENO.

Yes, this was a definite challenge especially for someone who finds it painful to go for outside help.

Ah, well, luckily it doesn't happen very often.

So my fellow solvers, I feel your pain and Will Nediger, you win.

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone.

Anonymous said...

James Mason was one of the finest actors to come out of England in the 1940s--rent "Odd Man Out" and you'll see why. Came to Hollywood and made lesser fare such as "A Song is Born" with Judy Garland.

Splynter said...

Hello,

Well, I did it, and had to use a little red-letter cheating to get there. Have to agree with some others here at the blog, too much of a s-t-r-e-t-c-h for SOP, EMO, LUNE, STOW. Where I am, no one "BETs" in a pool - you pitch some money in and get a random number; again, a bit of a stretch for me. I did like some of the longer clues, REINDEER got me good, I did like OVER ANALYZE, ON THE WEB and TIME HONORED.

I still enjoy the challenge of a Sat. puzzle, and so I will be back for more next week.

I also think the "appearance" of this empty puzzle looked 'choppy' and unpleasant to stare at to start - sort of 'ugly' in nature, but then I guess that's how the puzzle filled in, too - ugly.

Every one have a safe 4th

Splynter

Marge said...

Wasn't going to blog today but have two comments.

All eggs have sacs. Have you ever seen a spider web with a sac in the middle before the babies appear? Every egg(ova)is in a sac, in a woman it is the ovary.
Can I use that word?

As for the song"I go to Pieces", the only one I am familiar with is the song by Patsy Cline. That's my favorite of hers.

Have a good 4th all!
Marge

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

Al,
I tried your double tab | gimmick, very cool! Thanks for the detailed instructions.

MJ said...

Good afternoon, folks!

I thought this was a great puzzle, with deviously clever cluing. It also knocked me on my patootie.

I had the center solidly filled (except for the final letter in TOME), thanks to remember a discussion and photos from a few months back about TORII. Was confident of JAGUAR in the NW, so plugged in "EAU" for 21A. Had AMAZED in the SE, after confidently filling in "AMA" for 47A. Had REDSOX only because I knew 49D was a Roman numeral. Had a couple of others, but not confidently. Then came to a grinding halt. So I went online with red letter help, and typed in what I had so far. Most of the little I had was correct, but when the first letter in 21A was not "E", I tried LAC which worked. Same with "A" for 47A, tried HMO which also worked.

Went back to filling in on paper, and only had to turn to red letters a couple more times. Last letter to fill was the "m" in AMO. Just couldn't get my mind away from thinking of The Three Tenors, which was obviously wrong, but I could think of nothing else. So mentally went through the alphabet, got to "M" and gave the V-8 can one final crunch.

Bill G, as the mother of three sons, your fireworks story made me smile. Boys will be boys.

Happy 4th to all! Be safe.

Argyle said...

Ok, Marge, every cell has a membrane and that could be considered a sac I suppose. Not all egg holders are sacs and not all sacs are egg holders.

The Patsy Cline song is "I Fall to Pieces"

Lucina said...

Thanks, Al. I'm testing this per your instructions.

MJ said...

Dear C.C.
A special shout out to you, as you celebrate tomorrow as a new citizen of the United States. You are an incredible woman! I am proud to "know" you. I hope you and Boomer find ways to make this Fourth of July a day never to forget!
Hugs from me!
MJ

Bill G. said...

Yes C.C., have a happy July 4th, your first as a citizen! And stay away from those dangerous Chinese firecrackers. :>)

Annette said...

C.C., I loved your comment on 23D!!! I'm perfectly okay with the fact that there are some things I just don't know. But I'm still working on not feeling guilty for not WANTING to know some of them!

When I saw 41D, I thought of "They're here!" as beloved family members having arrived for a visit!

My last stay in Atlantic City was at The Taj, so it came to me readily. I also came home from that trip $1800 richer! What a way to start the New Year...

Bill G. said...

MJ said: As the mother of three sons, your fireworks story made me smile. Boys will be boys.

Yes, and it's amazing that any of us grew up into adults!