google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Sunday August 22, 2010 Pamela Amick Klawitter

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Aug 22, 2010

Sunday August 22, 2010 Pamela Amick Klawitter

Theme: An Earlier Flight - The bygone SST is hidden and spans across two words in each familiar phrase.

23A. Military overstock seller : ARMY SURPLUS STORE. We had one close to our home. My dad served in the Chinese army.

33A. 21-Across are taken on it : WITNESS STAND. And OATHS (21. Formal promises).

38A. Nickname at the Derby : BLUE GRASS STATE. Kentucky Derby.

65A. "No verdict yet" : THE JURY IS STILL OUT. Just an awesome entry.

92A. Applying to all : ACROSS THE BOARD. The only one with SS & T pattern. All the others are S & ST.

101A. Exerts influence : PULLS STRINGS. The only 2-word theme answer.

116A. 1952 Jane Russell film : THE LAS VEGAS STORY. Unknown film to me. Jane Russell is famous for her big boobs, right?

118D. Earlier flight hidden in the seven longest puzzle answers : SST

Very clever spin on our crossword staple SST. Nice long theme phrases. Great effort from Pamela Amick Klawitter, who seems to relish constructing Sunday puzzles.

A pangram. All 26 letters are used at least once. The special theme resulted in a total of 51 Ss, outnumbering any vowel (E/A, 48 each) count. Several clue echos also. Very John Lampkin like. I've highlighted them in green.

Today's clues (esp those with question marks) are just "outstanding", Dummy Dennis would say. Look at these "it" in Down section alone:

13D. It's elegant when turned : PHRASE. Idiom: a turn of phrase.

61D. You might have a hand in it : MITT

67D. It's over for Hans : UBER. "Over" in German.

70D. A choir may sing in it : UNISON

113D. It often precedes technicalities : MERE. Mere technicalities.

Across:

1. Ed of "Lou Grant" : ASNER. And EDIE (6. Lou Grant's ex). On "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" . Unknown to me.

10. Cuts the crop : REAPS

15. Even start? : EQUI. Prefix meaning "even", as in equilateral.

19. Dutch big wheel? : GOUDA. Say "Cheese".

20. Falana of "Golden Boy" : LOLA. No idea. I like her dress. Very figure hugging.

22. Arrivals at home, perhaps : RUNS. "Home" refers to the home plate in baseball. We also have NINTHS (44. Often critical innings).

26. "Sorry, can't" : NOPE

27. Stonewall Jackson et al. : REBS. Did not know who Stonewall Jackson was a Confederate commander during Civil War.

28. Sales chart metaphors : PIES

29. R&B singer __ Marie : TEENA. What's her most famous song?

30. Sean of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy : ASTIN

31. Jun. grads : SRS

32. Corp. moneymen : CFOS. Or the obscure TRS.

35. Yoo-__: beverage : HOO. What kind of beverage?

36. 50-Across wrong? : AIN'T. And ISN'T (50. 36-Across right?). I don't like cross-referenced clues when in fact nothing is given.

37. Deli array : MEAT

49. Turner on the screen : LANA

51. Pro foe : ANTI

53. New Balance competitor : AVIA. Latin for "fly".

54. All worked up : IN A LATHER. Solid phrase.

56. List of rounds : BAR TAB. And ALES (86. Draft choices). Of course I was thinking of sports draft.

58. Stock holder? : BARN. Farm stock. Windhover might nail this one.

59. Skins : PELTS

60. Chair designer Charles : EAMES. Can never remember his name, despite Hahtool's link(s).

62. Reason for a court replay : LET. Tennis court.

64. Born : NEE

71. "Ginger __": 1952 Newbery Medal-winning book : PYE. Nope. Not familiar with the book.

73. Big rig compartment : CAB

74. Pitch-related : TONAL

75. "A Paper Life" autobiographer : O'NEAL (Tatum). I suppose the paper refers to her movie "Paper Moon".

78. Spanish bread : EURO. "Bread" = Currency.

80. Places under siege : BESETS

83. San Bernardino suburb : LOMA LINDA. I peeked at the answer sheet.

87. A TV Maverick : BRET. Another unknown.

88. Notice : ESPY

89. Go off the deep end : SNAP

90. Play the siren : SEDUCE

97. Ray Stevens's "Ahab the __" : ARAB. Have never heard of the song.

99. Skin soother : ALOE

100. River to the Rhone : AIN. Too obscure for me.

106. Bribes, with "off" : PAYS

108. Pepper, e.g.: Abbr. : SGT. Beatle's Sgt Pepper. Could not jam in SPICE.

111. Novelist Nin : ANAIS

112. Engineer Nikola : TESLA. Eternal fame in Xword.

113. Ball role : MAME. Lucille Ball.

114. Restaurateur Toots : SHOR. His name escaped me also.

115. Devils' playground? : RINK. NHL's New Jersey Devils. Got me also.

119. Old Venetian elder : DOGE

120. Brings down the house? : RAZES. Nice play on the idiom "bring the house down".

121. Start of an Andy Capp toast : 'ERE'S. Here's. H is dropped in Cockney accent.

122. Backs up : SAVES

123. Tens neighbor : ONES. In Dennis' cash box.

124. Controversial explosion : A-TEST

125. Unschooled signers : X'ERS. Didn't come to me readily.

126. Lott of Mississippi : TRENT. Just mentioned his name yesterday on the STROM clue.

Down:

1. Ice cream thickeners : AGARS And EDY'S (4. Slow Churned ice cream brand).

2. More put out : SORER

3. Uses an icepack on : NUMBS

5. Dorm bosses, briefly : RAS. RA = Residential Adviser.

6. Ventura County town who name means "the river" : EL RIO. Makes sense.

7. Chowderheads : DOPES

8. Afflictions : ILLS

9. Mer filler : EAU

10. Nile home of an historic stone : ROSETTA. Hence Rosetta Stone.

11. Moth tail? : EATEN. Tail to the word "moth-eaten".

12. Satisfaction of a sort : ATONEMENT. Was thinking of vengeance, Sweeney Todd style.

14. Opposite of NNW : SSE

15. Arp contemporary : ERNST (Max)

16. Limit of a kind : QUOTA

17. Let down, as hair : UNPIN

18. "Children, Go Where __ Thee": spiritual : I SEND. No idea.

24. Raring to go : UP FOR IT. Had trouble parsing the answer.

25. Hitch : STINT. Two-year hitch/stint in the Army, e.g.

30. Italian wine city : ASTI

32. ___ railway : COG. Not familiar with the term.

33. Badger's st. : WIS. We had quite a few solvers from Wisconsin.

34. Florida resort island : SANIBEL. Have you been there?

35. A "4-H" H : HEALTH

36. Bad way to be led : ASTRAY. Led astray.

38. Radar signal : BLIP

39. Spot for a strike : LANE. Bowling lane, thanks, June!

40. The same as always : UNALTERED. The clue/answer does not click for me.

41. Reminder of an old flame? : ASH. I am just in awe of the clue, Pamela. Are you reading our blog?

42. Disdainful glance : SNEER

43. Road topper : TAR

45. Collar : NAB

46. Dish alternative : TV ANTENNA. Always have trouble spelling antenna.

47. Bring aboard : HIRE

48. Having no screws loose? : SANE. I'd have had all screws loose if I were Lois. What a brave gal! And so sweet.

52. Like a hard-to-fill order : TALL. Tall order.

55. "Hang on __" : A SEC

56. Córdoba kisses : BESOS. Spanish for "kisses'.

57. AAA part: Abbr. : ASSN

63. Shop item : TOOL

66. Goes on and on : JABBERS

68. "Unto the Sons" novelist : TALESE (Gay). More famous for his "Honor Thy Father".

69. Postgame recap? : I LOST. Great clue.

71. Pod fillers : PEAS

72. Time for carols : YULE. Bet it brought a smile to Carol.

76. Purim's month : ADAR

77. "Dragnet" gp. : LAPD

79. The Beavers of the Pac-10 : OSU (Oregon State University)

81. Boardwalk cooler : SEA BREEZE. Cool fill for Bill G.

82. More of the same, briefly : ETC. Etc, etc, etc.

84. NASCAR stat : MPH

85. Madagascan lemurs : AYEAYES. Stumped. Oh, dear, kind of scary looking.

91. Mama of pop : CASS

93. Didn't outrace anyone : RAN LAST

94. Gymnast Korbut et al. : OLGAS

95. "Mamma Mia" number : S.O.S.

96. Grafton's "__ for Burglar" : B IS

98. In addition : AT THAT

101. "SNL" announcer : PARDO (Don). Can you believe that I've never watched "SNL"?

102. Group for people in labor? : UNION. Labor Union.

103. "Tootsie" role winner : LANGE (Jessica)

104. eHarmony category : LIKES. Have never visited eHarmony. For eLove I suppose.

105. Archipelago units : ISLES

106. Sales rep's gadget : PAGER

107. Get a load of : AMASS. Read the clue as "Get a load off".

108. Sail, with "off" : SHOVE.

109. Bridge immortal : GOREN (Charles). No idea. He wrote "Winning Bridge Made Easy".

110. Risky rendezvous : TRYST

114. Bronze __ : STAR.

116. Part of a chorus line? : TRA. Tra la la.

117. Bug : VEX

Answer grid.

C.C.

52 comments:

  1. Good morning, C.C. and gang - just a great puzzle, with several outstanding clues. The theme had me going until the third theme answer; I finally noticed the commonality of the bunched-up 'S's and saw the 'SST'. Nicely done. I hope Pamela checks in today, 'cause I'd like to know how this one came to be, given the rich theme answers.

    Gotta run to the gym; hopefully more later. Have a great Sunday.

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  2. Morning, all!

    Nice puzzle and a fun theme, although I didn't actually twig to it until the reveal at 118D.

    Overall, the puzzle was very smooth. There were a few minor sticking points, though, like the crossing of EDIE (who?) and ELRIO (than heavens I know Spanish and could translate the clue without actually knowing the county). Similarly, GOREN meant nothing to me, but I was finally able to figure out the "Pepper" in question and get the SGT crossing. I think the only other complete unknown was PYE at 71A, but the perps were very gettable.

    There was also some nice misdirection going on. The clue for AMASS really made me think twice, for example, and I really liked "Group for people in labor" for UNION.

    Have a great day!

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  3. Good Morning C.C. et al, This had a nice Wed. feel to it as C.C. mentioned a few weeks ago but the theme was not evident until the end and of no help.

    Yes, C.C., Jane Russell is not mostly remembered for here acting chops, she had two assets and rode them to success. She also was a strong Christian and sang Gospel music. Go figure. You gotta "dance with what brung 'ya!"

    My only unfilled cell was the common A in ADAR and ONEAL. I am not up on my Jewish months and there are too many ways to spell Oneal. I met a girl last week who was named TATUM and she says her parents were not influenced by Ryan's daughter's name. Didn't you love Paper Moon?

    Big Boy puzzles like the LA TImes really do make you widen your perspective on words - wheel/cheese, runs/baseball, alley/bowling I also liked the UNION clue. You can't be narrow (petty from yesterday) in your thinking!

    Being a physics teacher and old enough to have lived when A Bomb tests were being conducted, I must say I never heard of an ATEST but...

    Hands up if your first thought for Ball role was LUCY.

    BTW, my wife and I went to see the movie The Switch"" last night and I expected to hate it because it looked very "chicky" and was ostensibly a Jennifer Aniston movie who I never thought was "all that and a bag of chips". The movie turned out to be a vehicle for Jason Bateman and not the aforementioned Ms. Aniston and it was warm, smart, funny and engaging. The plot device wore well throughout the movie and we were very entertained in a packed theater at 5 pm.

    BTW2, why do all these people live in LA but film their movies in NYC?

    Have a good Sunday!

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  4. Good Sunday morning. Another muggy day in mid Michigan. Smooth sailing on this puzzle until the SE corner. Wanted Lucy for "Ball role". Didn't know the river Ain, don't know "ayeayes"--sounds more like the answer to a sailor clue. Finally figured it out. A fun Sunday puzzle.

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  5. Good Morning Sunday solvers.

    Not too difficult although the central east VEXed me and spawned a few OATHS; until I finally got TVANTENNA, d'uh. Liked the theme. Many easy or gimmes like TESLA, SHOR, GOREN, DOGE, and TRENT. I was in 4-H so head, heart hands, and HEALTH are hardwired into my brain. More California names than usual, but the perps helped trigger the answers. WAGS included SGT and GOUDA. Thought BARN was clever.

    'New Balance' is my sneaker of choice because their lasts are the best fit for me.

    Enjoy the day.

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  6. Good morning CC and all,

    I didn't even look at the puzzle ... I only came for the blog ... thats like saying you read Playboy for the articles and essays... and cartoons.

    My 2 bits worth:

    Equi is 'equal' ... equilateral means equal sides... I googled 'equi', 'just now' ... and came across 8 sites ... 7 said 'equal' ... and One said 'even' ... (yours ...).

    Charles Goren wrote atleast 5 books on 'Bridge' and some other card games. He is the 'ultimate' expert on rules on playing bridge ... other names are Tannah Hirsch .. and Omar Sharif ( yes, the handsome Egyptian actor, from ' Dr. Zhivago' & 'Funny Girl').

    Yoo-Hoo is a sweetened chocolate MILK drink ... you wouldn't want to drink it ... generally consumed by little kids, whose mothers think they should be drinking milk ...

    Agar, is the 'vegetarian' jello ...more commonly Agar-Agar ... used in Chinese and Japanese Jellies ( no milk required ...) and in microbiology labs for growing cultures ... like molds, spores, bacteria etc.

    In India, it is called 'China grass' ... and in China, the seaweed from which it is made is called 'Ceylon moss'. Since the consumers did not know where it came from ... they invented fanciful destinations ... it actually comes from Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan and the Phillipines.

    Have a nice Sunday.

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  7. Vidwan re: Goren. From Wikipedia <<Goren's longest partnership was with Helen Sobel, but he also famously partnered actor Omar Sharif. Sharif also wrote introductions to or co-authored several of Goren's bridge books, and was also co-author of Goren's newspaper column, eventually taking it over in collaboration with Tannah Hirsch.>>

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  8. Good Morning, CC and all. I am not able to do the puzzle today, but read the comments. I'll get you to remember Charles and Ray Eames one of these day, CC!

    I have been to Sanibel several times. It's a beautiful spot on Florida's gulf coast.

    QOD: Nothing is improbable until it moves into the past tense. - George Ade.

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  9. Hi there~!

    Not too difficult, just some silly mistakes and typos that got me. I wanted to add a link Link text for the clue "COG" railway - according to Wikipedia, the grade on this line is 37%. Note the angle of the boiler.

    Splynter

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  10. Good Morning C.C. et al,
    Finished the puzzle with only one lookup in the NE corner for "Arp contemporary". Cn never remember Sean's last name either, so that corner stayed unfinished till last.

    Loved the misleading clues - helps to clear the cobwebs on a Sunday morning. C.C. listed just about all of them in her "it" section. Wonderful link to "Ayeayes", C.C. The dare indeed scary, but from the looks of them, I think they should be called "EYE-EYES" !

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  11. Hello Puzzlers - That's more like it! Well done, Pamela, that was a good Sunday project. Hope you'll craft some more!

    Splynter - Glad you linked the Mt. Washington Cog Railway. It's a fascinating old thing. C.C. - In case it isn't clear from that site, a cog rail system overcomes the problem of wheel slip. Normal railroads are built at very shallow slopes, partly because steel locomotive wheels get little traction on shiny steel rails. Steepness makes it much worse. To go up a mountainside, a special third rail is added, one with "teeth" of the right size & shape to mesh with a driven gear or "cog" under the locomotive. Thus the loco pushes against something solid, and wheel traction is of no importance.

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  12. Good morning, this puzzle was so rich and textured from the beginning, which also had EDYS and EDIE in the corner, and MAMA OF POP and MAMMA MIA song in concert. It also features a real mix of people, from show business and life.

    LOLA FALANA was a very busy, multi-talented discovery of Sammy Davis, Jr., who was stricken with Multiple sclerosis at the height of her career.


    The death of STONEWALL JACKSON in 1863, where he was mortally wounded by his own men shooting in the dark, was one of the major factors in the failure of the South in the Civil War. No era has more wonderful movies made, and if you have lots of time watch Gettysberg and the sequel, G-ds and Generals or any of the other GREAT MOVIES

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  13. Listen to TEENA MARIE and see if you think she is a little white girl.

    GO WHERE I SEND YOU is a traditional African American holiday song, and therefore echoes 72. Time for carols : YULE. The song reminds me of my childhood and TENNESSE ERNIE FORD. He is most famous for his SIXTEEN TONS.

    Reminder of an old flame? : ASH is another of the great clues for this simple answer. My previous favorite being Camel Droppings: ASH.

    Must work, see you all later

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  14. Take one of the most overused answer's ever, SST, and hide it in the themes. Works for me!

    Always great to see our new 'best friend' Nikola TESLA.

    SANIBEL and Captiva Islands, here on the W.Coast of Florida is considered the 3rd BEST place to go 'shelling' in the world.
    I've been a regular visitor there for over 55 years. Yup, started as a tyke of 3yo.
    Very laid back, beautiful beaches (like my Pinellas beaches, NO OIL during this whole mess).
    Perfect place to get away and re-charge the soul.
    Excellent spot for a sunset Toast!
    Florida at it's best!

    Husker Gary: I only know Jewish months from xwords. ADAR seems to be the one used most often and is now a gimmie.
    ATEST for the A-Bomb thingy also falls into my 'only know this term from xwords' category.

    AIN River, I think this is the first time I have seen it here. Hey that makes it a Sunday learning moment! (Always a plus but rare for the "day-of-the-week").

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  15. I enjoyed this puzzle a lot. I did it online and I noticed it was the same as the Sunday calendar puzzle which is usually Sylvia Bursztyn or Merl Reagle. Has there been a change?

    Hands up for Lucy. My grandson has a toy train and track with the same cog system for climbing hills. The angled boiler on Splynter's link looked like a very clever idea.

    A minor point of grammar. Down clue 10 read "Nile home of an historic stone." Most online sources agree that it should be "a historic" because the 'H' is pronounced.

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  16. Hi gang -

    Heart's cobwebs found a new home between my ears. Can't get untracked this A.M. - and nothing to blame it on, either -- alas.

    S0 - all sorts of trouble with this one. Must be one of the DOPES, since I couldn't get 7D.

    In a TONAL (but not ATONEMENT) sense, NINTHS are octave expansions of seconds.

    The other Sean in LOTR is BEAN.

    Check this survey to see how Jane Russell stacks up.

    I wanted some sort of ARMS DEALER for ARMY SURPLUS. No go, though.

    Good puzzle, quite clever, but I have some quibbles.

    What makes PAGER a sales reps gadget, more so than anyone else's?
    AGAR does not really lend itself to pluralization. AGAR is AGAR.
    Very much dislike the type of cross-referenced clues where two clues give zero information. This should be banned. Forever.
    SORER is a real word, but, would you ever say it ALOUD?
    Cockney spellings are lame.

    OTOH, it seems to me that back in the day, when newklear proliferation was in the news, we did hear about A-TESTS, but never N-TESTS.

    EDIE echos twice, with ASNER and EDYS.

    Vidwan -
    I actually did read Playboy for the cartoons - Gahan Wilson's especially.

    Some seasonal retail help is a YULE HIRE.

    That's all I got.

    Cheers!
    JzB

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  17. There were a few hangups and WAGS for me, but for the most part, I felt I was on the constructor's wavelength today.

    I never heard of LOMA LINDA. I was stuck on pepper as a spice and never went The Beatles route. I like some of their songs, but was never that much into them, or SNL for that matter...

    PAGERS: They're probably referring to the little GADGET that comes with the projectors which display the contents of your computer on a screen. The GADGET has a buttons that let you PAGE through your presentation remotely, without having to go over to the computer each time. Often, if you're not SELLING a product, a presentation is at least being given to SELL an idea.

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  18. Vidwan827
    "thats like saying you read Playboy for the articles and essays... and cartoons.'

    What else can you *READ* in Playboy?
    (Oh, yeah, I do look at the photo's!).

    Jazzbumpa
    The link for the Jane Russell "stack-up" was "interesting and creepy" (with TMI) at the same time.
    Thanks!

    AGAR is another "only know from xwords".

    Makes me wonder ...
    I read somewhere that the average person uses only approx. 500 different words per day to communicate.

    Think how many we know "only from crossword puzzles"?
    Probably thousands and thousands.

    Well if the avg.person uses only 500.
    I wouldn't be surprised (if "they" did a study) that people who do crosswords used 2 or 3 thousand diff. words per day.

    We are a group that love precision.

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  19. Good morning, C.C.

    Not too hard for a Sunday. The theme answers were all easy except for THELASVEGASSTORY, which was a look-up for me. Also, a typo (cob instead of COG) gave me an "oops" of BLUE BRASS STATE! I knew most of the names such as TESLA, EAMES, GOREN, SHOR, TRENT, ASNER, and EDIE. One I didn't know was TEENA, which came with perps, although I did look it up to be sure. I have said SORER out loud, as in "I'm sorer than I was yesterday."

    BarryG, Lou Grant and his wife EDIE divorced on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." She was not a major character. I didn't watch "Lou Grant" so I don't know if they remarried. Don't know who played her, either.

    I wanted something to do with childbirth on 102D until perps disabused me of that. And, yes, I wanted Lucy at 113A.

    I'm going to go watch Texas Rangers' baseball (@ Baltimore.) Bless their hearts, they just haven't been able to get it together the last couple of weeks, especially on this road trip. If they don't kick it up, they are going to lose their AL West lead.

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  20. Tinbeni, and you only look at the pictures to READ the tattoos, right?

    I forgot to raise my hand for LUCY before MAME, too.

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  21. Vidwan827: Those "in the know' can correct me if I`m wrong...but your first post of the day, CC asks that it be about the puzzle...might want to read the rules posted...

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  22. Good Morning All, A fun Sunday puzzle. The perps were nice enough to take care of most of the proper name fill, so the folks who don't like proper names shouldn't be too annoyed.

    The only name that gave me trouble was (109D) GOREN. I know nothing about the game of bridge.

    GAH and I have been to SANIBEL while visiting my sister and her husband. They live in Sarasota now.

    Fun to see (6D) EL RIO. It is a small town just north of our old home of Oxnard CA. GAH used to golf not too far from EL RIO.

    As a youthful resident (long time ago) of the area, I had no problem with (83A) LOMA LINDA. It is home to the renown Loma Linda Medical Center and the prestigious medical university. Interesting that, because of its association with the 7th Day Adventist Church, most of Loma Linda's restaurants have more vegetarian menu items than is usual. Hmmm, is it a coincidence that "Loma Linda was featured by National Geographic Magazine as one of the three places in the world with the highest longevity rate."?

    I was also pleased to see (85D) AYE-AYE, a distant relative of the Clear Ayes family. They are classified as belonging to order Primates, but the Wikipedia article states there had been some uncertainty about where the little critter belonged.

    Favorite today was (58A) "Stock holder?" for BARN.

    Lemonade, some interesting choices on the Greatest Civil War Movies list. Some of them I liked, and others...not so much. I think a big omission is "Friendly Persuasion", 1956 movie starring Gary Cooper and Dorothy McGuire.

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  23. anon @1:00, Vidwan827's post is all about the puzzle, There's not a thing wrong with it.

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  24. What a hoot!

    If you skipped Lemonade714's @10:24AM link to TENNESSE ERNIE FORD, go back. It is a riot!

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  25. Happy sunday everyone,

    I liked thisd puzzle and hope to see more of this constructor's offerings. She definitely can pull off some surprises, but is not brutal.

    Hands up for 'Lucy' and many other similar problems, that eventually got rectified.

    I feel so dense asking this, but what is the connection between
    'ayeayes' and Madagascan lemurs?
    I draw a blank and am tired of thinking about it.

    Dodo- Our sunday puzzle has shrunk so much,that besides sitting inches under a lamp,I have upped my lens strength just for Sundays.
    You mentioned that you copy an enlargement off the iternet; I would like to know the site you are copying,if that is'nt too complicated.Thanks.

    Have a good afternoon.

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  26. Who would have thought that you can't trust the internet to furnish accurate information? (Yeah, right!)

    Yesterday I said that the poem "Pied Beauty" had been written by TED Hughes. After all, it was right there on a poetry site I have used lots of times. But as soon as I heard from a good friend (Hi, WH!), who reminded me "Pied Beauty" was written by Gerald Manley Hopkins, I knew I had ERRed (a good crossword fill). Both Hughes and Hopkins wrote very descriptive and evocative poetry, but their subject matter was very different. ("Thistles" is definitely a Ted Hughes poem.) I shoulda caught it and yes, I did email the poetry site and told them about their incorrect attribution.

    Creature@2:04, AYE-AYEs are lemurs from Madagascar. Click the Wikipedia link @ 1:12 to see more about them.

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  27. Thankd,CA for the answer...I should have looked up, but was too shortsighted to do that.

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  28. Charles Goren made great contributions to bridge and most especially its popularity, from the 30's through the 60's. The first Bermuda Bowl in 1950 was a World Championship won by the American team of John Crawford, Charles Goren, George Rapee, Howard Schenken, Sidney Silodor, and Samuel Stayman.

    Stayman gets credit for the convention of responding 2 Clubs to partner's opening in search of a 4-4 major suit fit, but it had been in prior use in the U.K. for decades.

    Goren was born in 1901, and lived to be 90. Modern bridge has left many of his theoretical contributions behind, but he is and will remain a revered historical figure.

    Cheers!
    JzB who is quite a poor bridge player

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  29. I grew up in northern Virginia. Some of the Civil War heroes I often heard about were Stonewall Jackson, JEB Stuart, Mosby, etc. The confederacy were the overmatched underdog good guys and the Yankees were the bad guys. It wasn't until I went away to college at Cornell that I was exposed to a different way of thinking.

    I knew a fellow from elementary school who used to go with his father out to the battlefields around Manassas and collect musket balls, belt buckles and lots of other memorabilia.

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  30. Hi everyone!

    This was my first attempt at a LAT Sunday puzzle, and I must say I loved it! There were 5 or 6 answers that in the end I couldn't even take a WAG at and came here to get. I, too, thought of LUCY, but thought oh, that's too easy. I caught onto SST mid-puzzle and it helped. I had 61D as TILL for awhile because I liked the "i", but it eventually changed. Also had Bart Maverick in there at first because I thought Bret was spelled Brett. And I had BUYS off instead of PAYS off which screwed me up.

    All in all, lots of fun! (Still looking forward to an easy Monday, though.)

    TTFN!

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  31. Lemonade & Argyle
    The Tennessee Ernie Ford clip was a hoot!!!
    Reminded my why I never regret having children.
    I know, Iknow, they're great and all that ... but in my world they're too short.

    daffy dill
    It's all a matter of perspective.
    Folks aroung here in Tampa Bay think your Ranger's were *wonderful* on their visit here.

    Annette
    Tattoos?
    I don't read no stinkin' tattoos ...


    Anon 1:00
    Correct me if I'm wrong (I'm NOT!)... but since you were the "first Anon" to comment today ...
    Where was your comment about the puzzle?

    Hmmm, something about those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.


    Dennis
    These Anonymousy's crack me up.
    They're not even witty enough to click the "Name/URL" button and enter a funny 'made-up' name.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Good afternoon, C.C., and all.

    What a delightful, enjoyable puzzle. Pamela Klawitter has become one of my favorite constructors. She often employs deviously clever cluing, yet is able to create crosswords of variable difficulty. Cheers, M's Klawitter, for today's puzzle!

    A few favorites today:
    Arrivals at home, perhaps/RUNS
    List of rounds/BARTAB
    Devils' playground/RINK

    Lemonade-Hilarious link to T.E. Ford's song! Thanks for sharing.

    Clear Ayes and Lois-You are two incredibly strong, positive women, who have been dealt more than your share of adversity lately. Please know that my thoughts and well wishes are with you.

    Enjoy the evening!

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  33. Good five o'clock (here) everyone.

    This puzzle was fun, but, as usual, I didn't get all of any of the long ones. Got the SST, but the clue about earlier flight confused me. What's earlier?
    And while someone is cluing me in, what does at that have to do with in addition?
    My bad spelling ruined 44A. I thought nineth was necessary. But I see my spell check doesn't like it either.

    Remember not to feed ...

    Cheers

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  34. I got my hand firmly ensconced in the till (61D) and the devil's playground was my mind (115A) as I refused to let go of either misdirection.

    Other setbacks included:
    Never heard of Loma Linda.
    Equated Pepper with seasoning.
    It had to be Lucy.
    I was only 6 years old in 1952 and couldn't get admission to Jane Russell movies.

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  35. Sallie -

    You have a point. I think "in addition" for AT THAT is very poor cluing, indeed.

    AT THAT, (see what I mean) "earlier flight" for SST indicates that they are no longer flying.

    AT THAT, I don't know why they are no longer flying.

    Cheers! (#3)
    JzB who is about to grill some salmon

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  36. JazzBumpa:

    I too read, my first, borrowed copy of Playboy .. and the only thing I remember was a limerick:...


    There was a midget from Benares.
    Who caught a nudist colony unawares,

    he made members weep,
    'coz he just couldn't keep,

    His nose out of private affairs.



    ** Benares, a 'holy' city in central india, on the banks of the Ganges, ( now called Varanasi ) ... where truly 'holy' pilgrims, go to die (!) ... is pronounced B-nah-russ.

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  37. daffy dill
    It's all a matter of perspective.
    Folks aroung here in Tampa Bay think your Ranger's were *wonderful* on their visit here.


    I'll bet they did!

    ReplyDelete
  38. Hello everybody. Wonderful puzzle today! (By which I mean I liked it:) Clever cluing but not brutal, and enough "gimmes" mixed in to give one traction.

    Oddly enough, I got GOUDA right away; didn't even have to think about it. Maybe it's 'cause I love cheese.

    Ginger PYE was and is a total unknown to me, but I'll probably remember it from now on, at least for the next three hours anyway.

    Some of my favorites, which made me either laugh, smile, waggle my eyebrows, go "Aha", or slap my forehead, include RINK, ASTRAY, BARN, and UNION.

    Like JzB, I didn't like AT LAST. In Addition, I have never heard Teena Marie, though I have heard OF her.

    Yes, Jane Russel was onown mostly for her big boobs and general sexiness. JzB, your "stacks up" link is, um, fascinating. Seriously, I never knew B size was so prevalent, as I had always thought that C represented the "Average." According to that chart, C size is actually big!

    I have fond memories of taking the Cog Train up Pikes Peak in Colorado many years ago. I have a photograph (somewhere, not at hand) of my brother and I "ape hanging" off the end of the track, with hundreds of feet of nothing but air undeneath us. My mom was really freaking out. I wonder if that cog train is still there.

    Amazing some of us are even alive today considering the foolish and dangerous activities we engaged in as insouciant youths.

    My mom was an avid and skilled bridge player, so GOREN is no stranger to me, at least as a name on a book cover.

    Clear Ayes, thanks for the Thistles poem yesterday; it has really beautiful language and imagery. I'm usually not much on poetry, my preference being more along the line of such works as The Cremation of Sam McGee, but Thistles really spoke to me. Thank you.

    Best wishes to you all.

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  39. Jayce-Pike's Peak Cog Railway is still very much in existence. We inherited a video about it and its creation from my MIL, very interesting and informative. I have driven to the top of Pike's Peak twice (never taken the cog).
    And I had to laugh at your comment about your mother's reaction to you and your brother "ape hanging" off the car. I always enjoy "boys will be boys" stories, having raised three squirrels (boys) myself.

    Enjoy!

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  40. Ha ha, MJ, your three sons, eh? I'm sure Pike's Peak must have a colorful history; I'll look it up on the web. I imagine "Pike" was a colorful old west character. Then again, maybe he was a governor or something, which would ruin the wild-west images I am conjuring up in my imagination.

    Seriously though, my wife and I are planning a road trip which will include a leg southward from Denver through Colorado Springs, etc, all the way to Taos and Santa Fe. If we get to Santa Fe during opera season we'll very likely take one in. Then it'll be a boring drive back to Calif from there, but that's the nature of road trips.

    Best wishes.

    ReplyDelete
  41. Our paper only gets this Crossword on Sunday, but I usually check here then, which I find interesting and helpful. As a Brit I just wanted you to know that Andy Capp is in fact a Geordie from Newcastle upon Tyne, not a Cockney. He'd give you a "right earful" for suggesting he was one of "em soft southerners. Newcastle is my alma mater.

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  42. So here is the conundrum.

    I'm in an area that reminds me of that clue from yesterday:
    50d, "Noah's concern" ... RAIN.
    Love the way it rains here but I swear, it's coming down (almost horizontal) in buckets.

    Soooooo, is it still OK for me to say I'm going to 'Toast' the Florida Sunset?


    daffy dill, Ranger's did have a nice 6-4 win today over Baltimore.

    ReplyDelete
  43. As NY'ers, we use an expression like "Get a load of that guy over there" meaning something like "take a look at that guy doing something weird over there."

    That clue this week really threw me for a loop!

    ReplyDelete
  44. Tenbenni; How do you know I hadn`t already posted?

    Dennis: My bad.

    ReplyDelete
  45. Argyle,

    Thanks for plugging one of my links; I do try to entertain. Lots of various memories triggered by Ms. Klawitter.

    ReplyDelete
  46. Hello All: Re: Bridge Games ... and consequences ...

    Its quite late, now,... but for all you night-owls , I remember reading in the society pages, in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, about 6 years ago, about Mr. and Mrs. Van Houten, who were partners in a duplicate Bridge tournament ... at the Union Club, no less... and Mrs. Van Houten, got dealt the 13 cards, all clubs ... all of them ... and proceeded to bid '6 No trump'.

    Apparently Mr. Van Houten, got so mad, he threw an ashtray at her ... to be fair, it was clean ( no smoking at the club, Ohio State rules ...)....

    The couple have since filed for divorce...

    ReplyDelete
  47. Jazz: thanks for the feedback. I appreciate it.

    ReplyDelete
  48. Or maybe Vidwan's story is nothing more than an apocryphal fun story. The probability of getting a hand with 13 clubs is something like one out of 40 billion. Still...

    ReplyDelete
  49. MJ@3:49, Thanks for the compliment. It is always high praise to be included with Lois!

    Jayce, I'm glad you liked the poem "Thistles". I really liked the imagery in that one too.

    Have a good evening everyone.

    ReplyDelete
  50. Anon 8:33 (1:00 also ???)
    You spelled Tinbeni's name wrong.
    No other Anon's posted.
    The "BLUE's" here don't post as Anonymousy's ...
    You have no sense of humor or code of honor.

    ReplyDelete
  51. Hi folk,

    C.C., wonderful write up and some some magnificent breast links! Wearing those low cut, slinky dresses featured, would be so cool to wear! It would make a girl feel quite desirable to 90. Play the siren: SEDUCE

    36. 50-Across wrong? : AIN'T. And ISN'T (50. 36-Across right?). C.C., these no-clue cross references are annoying to me, too.!

    That said I enjoyed every other thing about this puzzle and look forward to solve a puzzle constructed by Pamela Amick Klawitter again. Have we had her constructions in the past?

    60. Chair designer Charles : EAMES is a brilliant designer. What I would do to own an original!

    15. Art contemporary : ERNST (Max) a real visionary, how amazing going through life, seeing things through his eyes...

    7. Chowderheads : DOPES...I wouldn't go around Boston and thereabouts loosely saying 'dopes.'

    A note about my ancestry You may find it interesting and please don't feel obligated to read. It won't hurt my feelings.

    59. Skins : PELTS

    My maternal grandfather was a hunter and would go out for months at a time collecting PELTS to trade for money.This was in Saskatchewan, Canada.

    My grandmother got fed up with being alone in a cabin, taking care of her children in less than ideal conditions. Wash water froze in the air when she threw the it out the door. Once she had to shoot a bear.

    She made a deal with the mail man. When he passed on his way back three weeks later, she and her children would go with him as far as the distant train station. They made it back to New England, where her relatives lived.

    My grandfather got in his canoe and came down across the border from Canada to the United States. True love conquers all, at least in this case.

    He became a barber and had a shop in Worcester, MA.

    Recently, when we visited my mother, she was telling Annie about family.

    My mother, now 86 yrs. of age, said, "My father was a wetback." Annie said, "Oh, mémère, wetbacks come from Mexico. Who taught her this, I don't know! My mother insisted and Annie was pretty amazed there was more than one way to enter our country undocumented. I guess it shows my daughter is a product of her environment. She has been born and bred in Scottsdale, AZ.

    I'm out.

    ReplyDelete
  52. Hello gang.

    Creature, you'll find the LAT Sunday xword at Cruciverb.com. Go to 'archives' and you'll see LATimes. Click it and there will be a calander; just click on the date. Some of the bloggers get that the evening before date. Depending on where you are the time that it appears will vary. Here on the west coast we can get it some time after 7:30 p.m. Check with one of the other bloggers who live in your area to find out when you can get it.

    ReplyDelete

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