google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Sunday July 26, 2010 Nora Pearlstone

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Jul 25, 2010

Sunday July 26, 2010 Nora Pearlstone

Theme: Tee for Two - Letter T is added to the start of the second word of each two-word familiar phrase, which also has letter T as the end of its first word. The resulting phrase with two Ts spanning in the middle is then humorously clued.

23A. Monster affected by a moon phase? : CRESCENT TROLL. The base phrase is crescent roll.

37A. Levy on butchers? : MEAT TAX. Meat ax.

69A. Warren weeping? : RABBIT TEARS. Rabbit ears. Rabbits live in warrens. Bet it brought a smile to our Warren and his lovely wife Ruth.

76A. Japanese chicken snacks? : EAST TENDERS. Not familiar with the base phrase "EastEnders". Does it refer to the BBC show?

106A. Can for old smokes? : BUTT TIN. Butt in.

124A. Attacker's fruity treat? : ASSAULT TRIFLE. Assault rifle.

17D. Small pie à la Pollock? : ABSTRACT TART. Abstract art. Pollock's work is truly hard to understand.

41D. Stuff that sticks for years? : GREAT TAPE. Great ape.

49D. Taunting from the Miami bench? : HEAT TRASH. Heat rash. Miami Heats (NBA).

65A. Bakery supply for wrapping cake boxes? : DESSERT TWINE. Dessert wine.

Fun theme. Fun clues too. I liked that all the theme entries are two-word phrases, which give the theme a narrowed focus.

Some may not pay attention to those transformed second T* word, but none of them has the repeating pattern. Rich Norris (Nora Pearlstone is his alias name, anagram of "not a real person". ) covered a wide range of possible T starting words:

1) T with various vowels/vowel combination: short a, long a, ar, ea, e & i. I suppose Rich found no sparkly To or Ty phrases.

2) T with consonants: TW & TR(A/I/O). TH is missing. Thought it's a good combination to play around. No, Jerome/John?

Total 49 Ts in the grid, eclipsed only by the most used crossword vowel E (53).

My favorite clues today:

122A. Split payment? : ALIMONY

116D. Females with pig tails : SOWS. The clue made me laugh.

Across:

1. Get at : ACCESS

7. Like lambs : GENTLE. I wanted SILENT, thinking "The Silence of the Lambs". We also have TAME (118D. Easy to manage).

13. 1983 invasion site : GRENADA

20. President Ahmadinejad's capital : TEHRAN. Mad man.

21. Pioneer Day celebrant : UTAHAN. Not familiar with Utah's state holiday "Pioneer Day".

22. Dressed : ENROBED

25. Chips Ahoy! maker : NABISCO

26. Filet mignon, e.g. : ENTREE

27. Black Sea country : UKRAINE. Awesome entry.

29. Diglyceride, for one : ESTER. Know the answer, not the clue.

30. Performance rights org. : BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc)

31. Craving : URGE

33. Give a hand : ASSIST

35. Yeats's homeland : ERIN. Poetic name for Ireland.

36. Response to an e-mail wisecrack : LOL

40. "Here's the __ ..." : THING

42. Many a Monopoly sq. : AVE

43. Sole : ONLY

45. Abbot's address: Abbr. : RT. REV. Retired Reverend I suppose. (Correction: It stands for Right Reverend. Thanks, Lemonade.)

46. Spiffed (up) : SPRUCED

48. Illustrator N.C. : WYETH. No idea. He's the father of Andrew Wyeth, known for his "Christina's World".

50. The younger Saarinen : EERO. The older Saarinen is Eliel.

51. Boo follower : HOO. Boohoo.

54. Toon flapper Etta : KETT. Can never remember this old comic figure.

55. __ Plaines, Illinois : DES

57. 1980s South African pres. : P.W. BOTHA. Was confused by the PWB combination. Total stranger.

60. Starts the kitty : ANTES

63. Mouse site : PAD. Computer mouse.

66. College fund-raising targets : ALUMS

71. U.K. award : OBE (Order of the British Empire)

72. Newbie : TYRO

73. Everycowboy : TEX

74. Skip : OMIT

75. Hook (up) : RIG

79. Carrion eater : HYENA

80. Asian holiday : TET. Only in Vietnam.

81. '90s N.Y. Philharmonic conductor Kurt : MASUR. Another stranger.

82. Westernmost of the Sunda Islands : SUMATRA

84. Mean at a univ. : GPA

86. South Dakota, to Pierre : ETAT. Pierre here refers to the typical French name instead of the capital city.

88. Word before and after "vs." in a Mad feature : SPY. Spy vs. Spy.

89. Italian vineyard region : ASTI. Do you like "Stealing Beauty"?

92. Culture: Pref. : ETHNO

96. Read : PERUSED

99. Scrawny : GAUNT

101. Good earth : LOAM. Nice play on "The Good Earth".

102. Co. that spun off the Baby Bells : AT&T

103. Wasteland : HEATH

108. Luau instrument : UKE

109. 19th Amendment proponent : CATT. Carrie Chapman Catt. Suffrage.

111. Tough spot : SCRAPE

113. Saltimbocca herb : SAGE. Was ignorant of the exact family sage belongs to.

114. Seat holder: Abbr. : SEN. Senate.

115. Flightless New Zealanders : KIWIS

117. Ruthless leaders : TYRANTS

120. Rubbed the wrong way : CHAFED

127. Time keeping action? : RENEWAL. Time magazine.

128. Treads heavily : STOMPS

129. List shortener : ET ALIA

130. Women's department array : DRESSES

131. Most balanced : SANEST

132. "Have patience" : NOT YET

Down:

1. LAX tower service : ATC. Air Traffic Control. I forgot.

2. What a stickler may stand on? : CEREMONY. Why? Don't get this clue.

3. Bedspread fabric : CHENILLE. Chenille fabric.

4. While opening : ERST. Erstwhile.

5. Pelvic bone : SACRUM

6. Scornful type : SNEERER

7. Like some instinctive reactions : GUT

8. Caesar's closer : ET TU. "Et tu, Brute?". Caesar's dying words.

9. Sussex stoolie : NARK. Did not know the Brits call informant "nark". Weird, it sounds the cop "narc" to me.

10. Chest : THORAX

11. Singers' refrains : LALAS. One more time for Lucia to think of her mother.

12. Join up : ENLIST

13. Beginning : GENESIS

14. Protein-building polymer : RNA. Only know it as "Genetic letters".

15. Kathryn of "Law & Order: C.I." : ERBE. Her name escaped me. We had this actress before.

16. Uproar : NOISE

18. Trick : DECEIVE

19. Decorated : ADORNED

24. Deny the truth of : NEGATE

28. Med. research org. : NIH (National Institutes of Health)

30. Lose, as a big lead : BLOW

32. To be, in Quebec : ETRE

34. I-90 in Mass., e.g. : TNPK (Turnpike)

38. U. of Maryland team : TERPS

39. Declare : AVOW

44. Financial report hdg. : YTD

47. __ Reader: alternative media anthology : UTNE. Named after its founder.

51. Sting, for instance : HOAX. Sting operation. Not singer Sting.

52. Tout's hangout, for short : OTB (Offtrack Betting)

53. "Yahoo!" : OH BOY

56. Roy Rogers's birth name : SLYE. His real name is Leonard Slye. Might be one of Dennis "Did you know...". I simply forgot.

58. Brittany seaport : BREST

59. Je t'__: French "I love you" : AIME

61. Historic canal : ERIE

62. U.S. Army E-6 : SSGT. Staff Sergeant.

63. Pope creation : POEM. English poet Alexander Pope.

64. Four-line rhyme scheme : ABAA

67. Coffee holders : URNS

68. __ vivendi: lifestyle : MODUS. I only know "joie de vivre".

70. Small bell sound : TING

73. Room service convenience : TRAY

77. Layered skirt : TUTU

78. Old Roman ldr. : EMP. ldr = leader. Meh!

79. Goes after : HAS AT

83. Product with "Robusto!" flavors : RAGU

85. View from Martha's Vineyard, Mass. : ATL. Atlantic ocean.

87. Golf shop bagful : TEES

90. "Tsk" relatives : TUTS

91. Whole : INTACT

93. Indoor buzzer? : HOUSEFLY. Superb clue/answer.

94. Blunt fiction : NAKED LIE. I like this answer too.

95. Rainbow, to some : OMEN

96. Early luxury auto : PACKARD

97. 24/7 business : ETAILER

98. Three-syllable feet : DACTYLS. How I wish dear Clear Ayes were here to give us an example!

100. Secure, in a way : TIGHTEN

104. Give it a go : TRY

105. Bother no end : HARASS

106. Former Mormon leader Ezra Taft __ : BENSON. Peeked at the answer sheet. He has a distinguished look.

107. Almost touching : NEAR TO

110. Airport postings : TIMES

112. Fusilli, e.g. : PASTA

119. Has dinner : SUPS. And EAT (126. Dinner exhortation). Dinner echos.

121. Royal decree : FIAT

123. Tam wearer's turndown : NAE. Scottish for "no".

125. D-Day craft : LST (Landing Ship Tank)

Answer grid.

I have a question: Does Nora Pearlstone sound like a porn star name to you? We continue to get quite a few Japanese porn spams on last Nora "PMS" themed Sunday puzzle, even after we deleted all the possible links in the main write-up and the Comments section. Darling Santa has to delete them nearly every day.

C.C.

30 comments:

Dennis said...

Good morning, C.C. and gang - got an early-morning bike ride, so this'll be quick. To echo C.C., a fun puzzle, fun theme, some great cluing and a most enjoyable solve this morning.

'Teheran' got me a foothold in the NW, as did 'Grenada' and 'Nabisco' in the NE, and it went pretty steadily from there on. Absolutely loved the different theme answers.

Had a few unknowns/forgottens such as Kathryn Erbe, Ezra Benson and Kurt Masur. Favorite clues were 'Warren weeping' (was trying to get 'Beatty' in there somehow), 'Split payment?', and 'Timekeeping action?'. And is it me, or are we seeing Vietnam-based clues a lot?

Today is Culinarians' Day and National Parents' Day.

Did You Know:

- The albatross can glide on air currents for several days and can even sleep while in flight.

- The average person speaks about 31,500 words per day.

- The word lethologica describes the state of not remembering the word you want to say.

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

Nice, smooth and fun puzzle today. No real tricky spots, but I definitely paused once I got the first two letters of PWBOTHA and wondered where I had gone wrong. BENSON was a big fat gimme due to my family background/upbringing. And my vote for Trickiest Clue of the Day definitely goes to "Time keeping action" for RENEWAL.

Who knew that Roy Roger's first name was actually SLYE? Is that even a real name? Oh, the things you learn doing crossword puzzles...

Hahtoolah said...

Good Morning, CC and all. Boy, was this a killer puzzle for me! Although after I finally slogged through it, I wondered why I thought it was so hard.

There were so many other responses that I really wanted and was reluctant to let go of. For starters, I thought Chest should be Bureau instead of THORAX. I really wanted DoorBell instead of HOUSE FLY for Indoor Buzzer.

My favorite theme clue was Warren Weeping = RABBIT TEARS.

At least Bonnie died down before hitting Louisiana, but I am glad to be OOT for a few days.

Yes, CC. When I saw that this was a Nora Pearlstone, I immediately wondered if I would continue to get this Japanese porn for another year. It was almost exactly a year ago (July 26, my mom's birthday) when we last saw Nora Pearlstone!

QOD: A day wasted on others is not wasted on one's self. ~ Charles Dickens

Hahtoolah said...

Barry G. Slye was Roy Roger's surname. His given name was Leonard Franklin Slye.

Lemonade714 said...

Happy Sunday all,

I wonder how many of our new solvers hang in for the extra work =doing a Sunday puzzle. This was a very fun effort with very cute theme fill. In addition to a all the witty theme words created by adding the second T, we have a boatload of words with two Ts, most of which are 3 or 4 letters: KETT, TET, ETAT, ATT,CATT, ETTU, TUTU, TUTS, the effort to do this is most impressive.
I will not go too far with the juxtaposition of BREST and JE T’AIME, but I do not perceive NORA as a porn star name.
RT REV is actually the abbreviation of RIGHT REVEREND used to address Bishops like my favorite BLAKIE RYAN though hid recent promotion to Archbishop, makes it MOST REVEREND.

I agree, and send my best to CA, and in her honor, Dactylic POETRY .

windhover said...

Good Sunday Morning, bloggers and blogettes,
How about a little history lesson this morning? Not nearly as entertaining as a Buckeye offering (say hi to Miss Clitoria), and more than a little sad.

A large problem in the post-WWII era of industrialization was that all those farm boys, contrary to the song lyrics, actually go back down on the farm even after seeing gay Paree, so there was a shortage of factory labor, which as we all know (or believe) leads to higher wages. So Mr. Ezra Taft Benson, in a speech to a national farm organization, opined that "farmers need to feel the sharp spur of insecurity" during a time most of them were actually mostly self-sufficient on their farms. The phrase referred to his desire to do away with price supports for farm commodities. One may assume that the assembled audience, thinking he was referring to some group besides themselves, applauded Mr. Benson politely. Needless to say, his wish has come true, in spades, and not just for farmers.
Our lesson for today? Listen to what the bastards say.

HeartRx said...

Good Morning C.C. <<129a.>>
I was so happy to see that clue in a puzzle, as I use it every day to address this group.

I see that Lemonade714 already "addressed" your question about "rtrev", so I'll try to tackle the one about 2d. "Ceremony". This is an old english phrase. A Stickler is a person who insists on a certain quality of level of behavior. To "Stand on ceremony" would be to insist that a formal procedure is carried out according to traditional actions.

Dennis - I had a lot of lethologica while doing the puzzle today, and that is ONE word I will surely remember ;-D

Have a relaxing Sunday all, and stay cool!

Spitzboov said...

Good Morning Everyone. Quite an offering by "not a real person". A real opus.

This was a fun puzzle with bright clever theming. Favorites were MEAT_AX and DESERT_WINE. Knew the Sundas were in Indonesia and guessed at SUMATRA because of the clue length. Thought ALIMONY, ERST, LOAM, and especially ÉTAT were cleverly clued. CATT was an unknown; gotten from the perps. Needed red letter help for EMP.

Re: 62D - US Army E-6. The official DOD web site abbreviates the Army rank to SSG; the Marine Corps rank to SSGT. FWIW.

Have a good Sunday.

Lucina said...

Good morning, Sunday solvers!

Thank you, C.C. and yes, anytime I see Lala, my mother comes to mind. She was a woman who loved life. And actually, PACKARD today reminded me of my dad; we have a photo of him standing next to his from the 1920s

Fun puzzle today and it occurred to me that it might be from Rich.

Even the unkowns, such as SUMATRA could be teased out nicely. The theme clue was a big help. My big owie was PWBOTHA, since I had no idea, and my fills gave me OWPORHA, as I did not know Tout either. I'm glad for your explanations, C.C.

My faves, too:
split payment, ALIMONY
Time keeping action: RENEWAL

All the theme answers were clever especially CRESCENT_Roll and RABBIT_EARS. Great job, Rich!

Not too long ago there was a discussion about Roy Rogers' real name so SLYE rolled out of my memory fairly quickly.

And since I listen mostly to classical music, Kurt MASUR was easy as well.

Our family is gathering today for a midsummer reunion of sorts; we'll be splashing in the pool, playing scrabble and, of course, eating.

Thank you, Lemonade, for your insight into the Ts.

Have a terrific Sunday, everyone!

Scotty said...

I believe 45A RTREV stands for Right Reverend - a level of office in the hierarchy of the church.

Fun puzzle today, but it took some time. I was pleased with myself that I knew Kurt Masur.

Grumpy 1 said...

This was fun!! There were enough clues that were obvious (to me) to get traction in all corners and enough that I thought were obvious that lead me astray. I had MANDELA instead of PWBOTHA and MOSQUITO instead of HOUSEFLY. Fortunately, there were enough easy crosses in those areas to show me the error of my ways.

It's been many a year since I saw an issue of MAD Magazine and the monthly Spy vs Spy feature... In the immortal words of Alfred E Neuman, "What, Me Worry?"

Al said...

I'm probably in a slim minority here who appreciated the clue for RNA (Ribo Nucleic Acid)... I mean, it's just fill, is somewhat technical, and it's an abbreviation at that. But it was one of the first answers I could fill in without hesitation as the clue for it was completely specific.

Most of the time you see it clued as a genetic cell substance and you have to wait for the perp to reveal whether it starts with "D" or "N" so it doesn't usually provide a lot of help in being a perp; in other words, most of the time it is a liability because it is a three letter ambiguous answer.

Not this time though. DNA (Deoxyribo instead of just Ribo) stays in the cell nucleus only and is an entire chain which is part of your genetic code and cell replication process. Of the two, only RNA is allowed to leave the nucleus. It is actually only partial "chunks" that are mirrored replications of portions of the full DNA strand.

It is also called a "messenger" because provides a "magnetic" (for lack of a better term) template to collect individual amino acids and combine them into protein chains. Of the two possibilities, DNA vs RNA, only RNA builds proteins, so the clue was completely unambiguous, which is what I liked about it. Feel free to disagree, I already know I have somewhat odd tastes.

daffy dill said...

Well, @#$%^%$#@!!! Pounding my head on the desk. I was working the puzzle online and had about 60% of it when it was over-ridden by a black page from L.A. Times. I tried and tried to get back to the puzzle page, but never did.

I had even "sort of" sussed out the theme. Rats, gosh darn, gee whiz!!! I didn't want to redo what I had already done, so I didn't try again.

Great puzzle, though. I liked what I saw of it.

Hope you all have a nice day.

GDS Husker said...

Appreciated early "gimme's" too!

When I saw Warren, I wanted to get Buffet in there. We have many warrens of rabbits eating our bushes every winter and even tears won't stop them.

Masur,Kett and Eero? No way.

Fun Puzzle!

Bill G. said...

I thought this was one of the harder Sunday puzzles we have had in a while. I didn't know at first who the constructor was but I was impressed and frustrated by some of the clever and misleading clues.

DD, I can imagine your frustration. I usually use the SAVE command at the top of the puzzle a couple of times during the solving process, especially for the longer puzzles.

If you want to try something different, Sylvia Bursztyn's Sunday Calender puzzle is especially good today with a clever theme.

HeartRx said...

Al,
Well imagine that - someone else out there liked "RNA" as a fill ! We distribute products from Origene Technologies into Austria and Germany - one of their product lines is the "Vantage RNA purification kit". Like you, most of the time it's a WAG whether to put DNA or RNA into the three word answer, but today was a "gimmee".

And I continue to marvel at the things that Pop Out to some people, but completely mystify others:
My father was from Finland, so the guy who designed THIS was always a source of national pride.

But "UTNE" for 47d. had me completely baffled. Go figure.

Bill G. said...

Have you been up in the St. Louis arch? It's a beautiful thing, built in the shape of a catenary. In a little theater under the arch, they have a movie about its construction. It was built from both sides. On the final day, the two halves were pried slightly farther apart and the final middle piece was put in place with a crane. There's an elevator car to take you up to the top. As it ascends, it tilts because of the curvature of the arch. As the tilt gets to be more than a few degrees, it's ratcheted back again.

Jerome said...

Sorry, C.C., I'm not sure I understand the question. My fault no doubt.

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

Jerome,
In consonant combination, Rich has TW & TR, but no TH. I am thinking of heft, hug. Adding an extra T and make theft & thug. But I can't think of a good base phrase that meet the theme requirements.

kazie said...

I haven't attempted today's puzzle, having had to completely give up on the last two days. Yesterday we were gone visiting d-i-l too, so no time then. But I did want to stop in and say what a delight it was to see C.A.'s cute photo with her granddaughter. Looked like they were having fun. I sincerely hope she's doing OK.

Jerome said...

I don't think there are any TH's that would work. There's no doubt that Rich discovered that. There's a few that would be fun, but as you said, an in the language base phrase just isn't there.

? THORN
? THUG
? THEFT
? THICK
? THANKS, etc.


What he ended up with is great. The puzzle is clever, amusing, and entertaining. Just about all you could wish for.

Oddly enough, my favorite was one of the short ones- BUTT TIN.

Seldom Seen said...

no, cc, Nora Pearlstone does not sound like a porn star name. now if the name was Nora Poundstone...

there is an old game to find your inner porn star name. you take your middle name and add the street you grew up on and you have your porn star moniker.

mine...Michael Beechwood.

not too bad!

Argyle said...

Trumpet horn comes to mind. Found on boats, cars and trucks. Probably part of a brass instument, also.

Warren said...

Hi C.C. & gang,

I saw 'Warren Weeping' and it took me awhile to that a 'warren' is also known as a Rabbit Warren

I got Rabbit, Ruth got Tears.

Busy Sunday got to go!

;-)

Anonymous said...

Jerome, you have sharp mind and quick wit.

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

Jerome,
Thanks for the quick feedback.

Argyle & Haltool,
Al the Genius helped me disable any further comment on that specific Nora Japanese porn post.

Jerome said...

Argyle- Not very common. But since we're there...

TRUMPET THORN- Cause of Al Hirt's fat lip?

Crockett1947 said...

Jerome, how about "Cause of Hirt's hurt lip?"

Hahtoolah said...

Thanks, CC and Al.

Lemonade714 said...

Forrest Gump actor expresses gtstitude: TOM THANKS.

Kodiak bully: BEAR THUG

Jerome, how about a puzzle where you add W to HEN< HERE< OW < HAT and HY? ( I left out HO for obvious reasons; past my bed time