google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Saturday, April 9th, 2011 Barry Silk

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Apr 9, 2011

Saturday, April 9th, 2011 Barry Silk

Theme: None

Total Words: 70

Total Blocks: 26

This is Barry Silk Saturday #2 - I figure C.C. knows this, and so I am here to "pinch hit".  Lots of sports and foreign words, but no French ( OK, we had MER, but I know that one ). Daunting at first, but a few "A-ha's", and I was able to do it in the usual "allotted" [personal choice] time.

And away we GO ~!

ACROSS:

1. Site of many a wet bar : BACHELOR PAD - I thought maybe Mr. Silk was shooting for some gym apparatus, like a BAG _ _ _, as I had GRASPED, not CLASPED - something with a sweat covered bar...

12. Long-eared critter : ASS

15. 1962 Brenda Lee hit : ALL ALONE AM I - not familiar with this.

16. __ Fáil: Irish coronation stone : LIA - Did not know this, either

17. Protected company asset : TRADE SECRET

18. Pres. Obama received an honorary one from Notre Dame : LLD - Doctorate of Legal Letters - I think Lemonade could say more.

19. Sine's reciprocal, in trig : COSECant - forgive me for not remembering who added the trig link about a week ago....

20. Petitions : SUES

21. Observed : SEEN - several Clechos;  23A. Look : MIEN;   53A. View : EYE

22. Egyptian hazards : ASPS - venomous snakes

24. 2003 Cy Young Award-winning reliever Eric : GAGNE - Me, I am hockey ( F@#$%g NY Rangers), but here is what I found

25. Flight formation : VEE

26. It holds the line : ROD - Uh, I would think it's the REEL, actually - fishing reference

27. Vacation souvenirs : T-SHIRTS - I like them as souvenirs

29. There are 300 feet between them : END ZONES - nice semi-mis-direction; football field, typically referred to as 100 yards, + 10yards per END ZONE

32. Bike power sources : PEDALS

33. Novelist, e.g. : WORDSMITH - good word

35. Nunavut native, formerly : ESKIMO - Most of northern Northern Canada

38. Spanish for "little cake" : TORTILLA - ugh, shoulda got this

42. Cockapoo pop, perhaps : SPANIEL - Cocker Spaniel and Poodle mix, Awww

44. Asian "path" : TAO

45. 39-Down article : EIN - ACH ~! It is German today ~!

46. Early transport : TRIKE - maybe an abbr.?....

47. Riskily off base : AWOL - and again~? - Absent Without Leave

49. Hindu "Destroyer" : SIVA -  I WAGed VEDA, not up on my Indian Gods/Goddesses

50. Like some breezes : EASY

51. Frost : HOAR - this, or RIME, and I had the latter to start, of course...

52. Wide zoot suit feature : LAPEL - had pants first, thought shoulders

54. Washington attraction : NATIONAL ZOO

56. Côte d'Azur view : MER - no comment....

57. Home of Spartan Stadium : EAST LANSING - Michigan

58. Old leftist gp. revived in 2006 : SDS - common in crosswords; here's the Wiki on it

59. Very long time : AGES AND AGES

DOWN:

1. It's under Wayne Manor : BATCAVE - nice, loved BATMAN BEGINS

2. 1953 A.L. MVP : AL ROSEN  - baseball #2 today; funny, but the clue is abbr., and the answer is not

3. Held tight : CLASPED - yeah, I had GRasped to start

4. It's guarded by the three-headed dog Cerberus : HADES - Just watched "Clash of the Titans", the re-release - not bad - I am a BACHELOR, and now a REDBOX junkie: here's Cerberus { also seen in Harry Potter as "Fluffy" }

5. Util. bill item : ELECtricity - out here, it's LIPA - the Long Island Power Authority

6. California's __ Gatos : LOS

7. Biased : ONE-SIDED

8. Give another memory jog to : RE-CUE

9. Rear : PARENT

10. Double agent Aldrich : AMES - Did not know this; very interesting

11. Code sound : DIT  and DAH, we had not long ago

12. Hay fever treatment brand : ALLEGRA

13. Chalk feature? : SILENT 'L' - I saw "TL" at the end, and stayed with it - well done, Mr Silk. L is silent in Chalk.

14. Gloom : SADNESS

21. Greeted, with "to" : SAID HI

23. Last president to wear a powdered wig : MONROE

24. Renewal target : GHETTO

26. College cohort : ROOMIE - just had this, too would this be a "doopzle"? That is, a duplicate puzzle answer in the same week?

28. Nice pass : SPIRAL - football again

30. Customizable online avatar : ZWINKY - here's where you can make your OWN ~! ( might be harmful to your computer)

31. Bygone flier : SST  Supersonic Transport

34. Droid maker : MOTOROLA - Droid, the cellular phone, which is associated with "Droid", the word George Lucas is credited with for "robot" - short for ANDROID

35. Treasures : ESTEEMS

36. Dealt with bugs, in a way : SPRAYED - this seemed to "EASY"

37. German leaders : KAISERS - Der German achgain

39. Home of the Bach-Archiv : LEIPZIG - drei German [ dont know 'third' ]

40. Con man's dream : LIVE ONE - sarcasm for a 'mark', the person about to be "taken"

41. Parallels : ANALOGS

43. Philosopher associated with 44-Across : LAO-TSE

48. Serves, with "on" : WAITS

49. Lively Cuban dance : SALSA

51. Den __, Nederland : HAAG - ich bi German achgain ( meh, Dutch?, same thing )

52. Touch down : LAND

54. PBS supporter : NEA not sure if this is the Nat'l endowment for the arts, or the education association....maybe both

55. Asian flatbread : NAN


Thanks to all ~!

Enjoy

Splynter

47 comments:

thehondohurricane said...

Good day folks,

Well, my gloom and doom of last evening may not bear fruit if the success I had with Mr Silks offering today is any indication. I nailed the NW corner right out of the gate. The number of sports or sports related clues throughout gave me a solid start in the other sectors.

Splynter, AL MVP, although abbreviated, is common lingo for baseball fans.

My biggest hang up was the NE, but when I remembered Obama received an LLD, not a PHD, from the Irish and Allegra popped up in my memory bank, that finished the puzzle for me.

Wife is an exhibitor in an Art show today in Brattleboro, VT so my day has been ordained. Champagne brunch being offered and I'll have to pass on the good stuff seeing I'm the driver.

Enjoy your weekend.

fermatprime said...

HELLO FOLKS!

Just worked Mon.-n Sat. puzzles with reds on.

12 large-letter Excel sheets went to tax man. Do not expect to break even as I have not succeeded in having taxes taken out of Soc. Sec. Really must try harder. Dealing with government agencies always very frustrating.

Comments on puzzles. Hands up for Grasped! Last Monday I was happy to see TUSSIE MUSSIE as if it had come a year later, I would not have known it! I learned about these in a recent mystery book that I read that was written by that superb plant and herbal specialist Susan Wittig Albert.

It was very hot here for a while and now it is very cold. Fear a frost. Will be a disaster for happy plants. Not fair, folks!

Loved the English-themed puzzle. Also, the Disney puzzle.

Have a good weekend!

PS. Wouldn't have worked them all, but was waiting for this blog to show up!

creature said...

Good Morning C.C., Splynter and all,

Splynter, you did an excellent job on the write-up. Thanks.

The puzzle was slow for me, but mostly ferreted out the answers.
Had to Look-up 16A,LIA and 24A,GAGNE, but everything else fell; 49A,SIVA was perped and SILENT L caught me off guard; I thought I pronounced the 'L' as in 'walk' or 'talk'. Oh well, if you say so, I won't balk.

Great puzzle, Barry. Thanks for the fun.

CA,I'm right there-in your new avatar- love it and the sentiment about your mother.

Have a nice day everyone.

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

A challenging, yet enjoyable Saturday effort. I got past the tricky cluing (SILENT L, I'm looking at you!) with no problem and even managed to guess my way through most of the obscurities (AL ROSEN, ZWINKY) in short order.

I almost gave up in the NE corner, however. After getting the aforementioned SILENT L, I picked up ALLEGRA and guessed GAGNE as a reasonable-sounding name. But I couldn't guess LIA, didn't know LLD and just couldn't think of a synonym for "gloom" that had the letters S__NESS. I finally went through the alphabet for both missing letters and eventually got the "aha" moment I was looking for. I still don't think the clue and answer are a particularly good fit, but at least it was recognizable once I got it.

Argyle said...

All Alone Am I(2:46)

HeartRx said...

Good Morning Splynter, C.C. et al.

Thanks for the fun write-up, Splynter! I also had “grasped” instead of CLASPED at first, but that was the only answer I had to correct in this wonderfully smooth Saturday Silkie.

I thought it was ironic that BACHELOR PAD paralleled ALL ALONE AM I. And SILENT L above TORTILLA. (Are those “silent”, too?) I wonder how ALLEGRA would be pronounced in Tijuana?

We are in for a string of glorious spring days, so I am going to take full advantage of them. Have a great day, everyone!

Dudley said...

Hello Puzzlers - This one followed the pattern typical of harder puzzles: it was begun last night at bedtime, filled maybe halfway with lots of errors, then resumed in the light of a fresh day. They get easier in sunlight, you see...

Hand up for GRASPED. Had to look up GAGNE and ALONE AM I. Brenda Lee is a tad before my time, and not my style anyhow.

This is the first weekend hereabouts without high wind, and at last I can burn brush without fear of setting the landscape on fire. Don't ask about me about the Narrow Escape of 2008...

Spitzboov said...

Good morning all. Good job Splynter.

Agree with most of the earlier comments. Had trouble in the NE what with ALLEGRA, SILENTL, GAGNE, LIA and LLD. Also had grasped for CLASPED. Rest of it went well enough. Liked clue for TRADE SECRET.

Den HAAG - Is Nederlands (Dutch) for The Hague. It is a shortened form of 's-Gravenhaag (The count's hedgerow or wood). The Hague is the seat of the Dutch parliament, government and Royal Court.

Splynter: Dritte is German for 'third'.

Have a good weekend.

Grumpy 1 said...

Good morning all, and great blog Splynter.

This was a fairly smooth Silkie, but a few snags in the fabric to slow me down. I saw the TL on the end of a word and ZW at the beginning of one and thought something must be wrong. Knowing Barry Silk's puzzles, though,I left those alone and gradually worked it out.

In the midwest we always included the L in the pronunciation of chalk, just like balk, walk and talk. I realize that in the northeast all of those words have silent L's, though.

I learned about the Spanish LL pronounciation the hard way, years ago. We were working in Laredo, Texas and I needed to have a part repaired at a local machine shop. My Mexican crane operator told me to go about a mile down the road and turn right on Marcia Dr. I went back and forth past Marcilla Dr three times before it suddenly dawned on me that Marcilla could be pronounced with the same ending as Tortilla.

Grumpy 1 said...

Learning moment was MIEN. I just don't recall ever running across that one before. It filled via solid perps so it stayed, but I wasn't absolutely convinced I had it right.

ALL ALONE AM I didn't come to mind right away. Brenda Lee's "I'm sorry" is the one song of hers that I remember.

cherylptts said...

Got very lost in my google for Brenda Lee. Loved her, but do not remember that song.
Used google for sports references and was very proud of myself for figuring out "end posts". Whoops.
Really liked "wordsmith."
Know what you mean about the weather, firmatprime. We have a perfect, warm spring day here, then the next, thunder, lightning and hail coming down to break my new baby plants. Maybe need to wait till May to plant. Sunny today, so at least I will weed.
Have a great weekend, all. Promised hubby strawberry pancakes.

Bill G. said...

Saturday puzzles aren't my favorites but I got through this one OK with red letters turned on.

19A Sine's reciprocal/COSEC doesn't seem right to me. Sine is the full name but COSEC is an abbreviation or shortened symbol for Cosecant. The abbreviation for Sine is Sin which would have been more consistent I think. Was this a slip up or was there a logical reason for the inconsistency?

Anonymous said...

You all are way too anal. Were you able to figure out the answer? Fill it in and move on. Just enjoy the puzzle.

xtulmkr said...

Silent L in CHALK? Not in these parts of the woods. There is an audible L in chalk but we don't put motah earl in our cahs.

A few years ago, a friend made a trip to the Minnesota Boundary Waters and was arranging his schedule with his guide. The guide told him, "Meet me at boat 7 tomorrow morning." My friend replied, "Okay, just two questions. What time and where is boat seven?" After receiving an incredulous look from the guide, he realized there was no boat and that he was to meet ABOUT 7 am.

Our common language is sometimes not.

Zcarguy said...

Hi all,
Is RENEWAL some kind of brand name ??
If so what is GHETTO ??

Lucina said...

Good day, puzzlers! Lovely blogging, Splynter. Thanks.

Today I awoke to rain at 9:40 and this is one of the easiest Saturday puzzles ever except for the NE which gave me fits. Had ASS and SADNESS but stuck on LIA, LLD , and ALLEGRA, did not notice the SILENTL until the blog. Hate to Ggle but did.

Smooth, Barry, very smooth.

I was on Barry's wave length through most of this starting with BATCAVE, CLASPED, ELEC, LOS, etc. so BACHELOR PAD and ALLALONEAMI just emerged. I love Brenda Lee. She was popular when I was in 8th grade and I would do my chores listening to her, Jo Stafford and others.

I've never heard the L pronounced in walk, talk, or chalk. In Spanish the LL sounds like Y so TORILLA would be torti-ya.

Thanks, Barry, for a nice ride.

Have a wonderful Saturday, everyone!

Lucina said...

zcarguyy:
Urban renewal is usually a project that involves redeveloping and renewing the ghetto or slum areas of a city.

Clear Ayes said...

Good Morning All, I got 9D Rear/PARENT via the perps, but the light bulb didn't go on until I looked up the definition and realized it was a verb, as in "to PARENT".

13D "Chalk feature?" had me thinking of CALCIUM or some other actual ingredient.

The "science guys" have to take care of 19A COSEC for me. I didn't know ZWINKY or about 34D Droid/MOTOROLA either.

I knew ALLEGRA because I've used it. Marti, just a guess as a long time Californian, but how about "Aye-egg-ra"?

Gunghy, yesterday's comment @ 2:07. LOL..it went zipping right over my head at the time.

Anon@11:38, Anal? If you say so. But, if we didn't discuss our puzzle "ups and downs" there wouldn't be any point to the blog comments. There would be three possible entries: "I enjoyed the puzzle. Moving on now", "I didn't enjoy the puzzle. Moving on now", and "Have a nice day."

eddyB said...

Hi.
Waited for the post at 10PM. Then
moved on.
This one was way TOO easy for a
Saturday and Barry Silk. Didn't need half of the clues.
Have a nice day! Moving on.

Jayce said...

Hello everybody. Thanks for an informative and interesting writeup, Splynter.

I had many of the same experiences, thoughts, and feelings about the puzzle today as many of you did. It was easier than I expected it to be, even though it took far too long to figure out what GHET TO was.

I also pronounce chalk as rhyming with walk and talk, though I suppose some people might pronounce it like "chock." Even so, I appreciated the SILENT L fill.

Never heard of a ZWINKY, and after looking at the link I never want to.

The NE corner was by far the hardest for me, and I had to look up who Eric _A__E is.

The sports arena at San Jose State University in California is also called Spartan Stadium, so of course I tried to squeeze that in there until LANS emerged.

eddyB said...

Also nice seeing Lorrie again.
Have missed you.

Lucina said...

MIEN is a work I learned through xwds and I'm sorry about misspelling tortilla which I love and try not to eat too many. Jerome, where are you?

Anon@11:38. Discussing the puzzle is half the fun after solving it. Fun being the operative word here.

Book club today. Ta Ta.

creature said...

Thanks to Grumpy and Xtulmkr. I knew I pronounced the 'L' in chalk, walk,talk,balk etc;sounds like 'wall[k],tall[k],chall[k].

I've heard Southerners say;Chawk,wawk,tawk,bawk; sounds like awkward.

I'm guessing Barry Silk says 'chock,wock,bock'.

Annette said...

I haven't read through the posts yet, but upon opening this page one line of thehondohurrican's jumped out at me, which I mis-read as "Wife is an exhibitionist..."

I thought it was going to be the start of another fun DF day on the blog! :)

I've got a few errands to run, then out to dinner with family, so will have to come back and read more later.

Zcarguy said...

Lucina,, thank you for the explanation .

Anonymous said...

Good afternoon everyone.
I cannot compliment Splynter because I started late after a nice luncheon with AAUW members, and could get only four answers.

The Spanish speaking woman who cleans my house was here and couldn't tell me what Spanish for little cake is. She's from Guatemala. So I was most surprised to see the dictionary said tortilla is Spanish for little cake. It surely isn't used like that around here. It is like a bread, not a cake. Interesting bit
to learn today. But if one thinks of torte and add illa for little, it does make sense.

Cheers

Anonymous said...

I do say "chalk" with the ell sound. I think that is the norm in the old south vernacular. Totally confused me!!

Lucina said...

Sallie:
What is even more interesting is that in Spain a tortilla is an omelet. Tortillas as we know them are found only in the western hemisphere although many cultures have similar kinds of round, flat bread such as NAN.

I should research that word's history. Maybe tonight after the Book Club meeting.

thehondohurricane said...

Annette,

That's why I married her. It will soon be 50 yrs ago! However these days she simply exhibits her art work. But I still love her .... very much.

dodo said...

Hello everyone,

Well I didn't think it was all THAT easy! In face, I started out abour like you, Sallie, but I kept at it and pretty soon I got lots of help from perps. Also I'm getting pretty good at visualizing long words when there are 3 or 4 letters already there. But that's perps, Iguess. I did have to look up 'lia', 'Ames',BrendaLee, 'cosec',and of course, 'AL MVP! I consider the lookups a learning experience. I had 'clasp', not 'grasp'. I don't think they're synonyms.

Hondo, what a lovely thing to say about your wife after almost 50 years! Touching.

Now I must sign my 1099 and get it in the mail!

Splynter said...

Hi again ~!

I didn't think twice about the pronunciation of "CHALK", 'cos down here on Long Island, it's CHAWK, TAWK, WAWK, etc. - but go upstate, and it's CHOK, TOK, and WOK (we have DAWGS, they have DOGS, too). Either way, the "L" for me is silent.

Thanks for the comments ~!

Splynter

Abejo said...

Good Evening, folks. Thanks Barry Silk for a swell Saturday puzzle. Thank you Splynter for the write-up and, of course, C.C. for being the chief.

I just got back from Chicago, where I have been all day. Also going back tomorrow for dinner at the Berghoff. Worked the puzzle on the trains today between meetings. It was a good one. Tough, too!

Got the NW corner quite easily. Remember Brenda Lee. She was quite a singer. Maybe still is?

Got COSEC (short for Cosecant). However, "trig" was a shortened word. So, I figured COSEC could be shortened as well. That is how I rationalized it.

ENDZONES came easily. That was a great clue/answer.

I struggled with TRIKE, but did eventually get it. ANALOGS seemed to be the logical answer, with perps. But, I could not get it in my head what that had to do with parallels. I will check my Webster after a while, circa 1956.

NAN brought back memories. I ate it for three years while living in Iran. It was great with feta cheese. 6 rials for a sheet that was about two feet long and a foot wide.

AL ROSEN brought back memories. Al "Flip" Rosen of the Indians. When I was kid that was my team, growing up 100 miles from Cleveland.

I struggled with the NE corner. I had PHD instead of LLD for Obama. That goofed me up on several words.

Lucina: What book are you reading in your book club? I am an avid reader and book club member.

In summary. Thank you Barry Silk, Splynter, and C.C. This capped off my day. Now for a brewski.

Abejo

Unknown said...

This one was part fun and part crazy for me. Batcave made me chuckle because one of our grandsons thinks that he is Batman! He has the cape to prove it.
We are pooped after a day of being grandparents- stuck- indside-on-a-rainy-Saturday-kind of people. The Childrens' Museum was a great way to entertain the little one this morning, but storms this afternoon after nap time kept us inside.
The x-word helped me unwind tonight! Thanks for the blog, Splynter.
Here's hoping for good weather for everyone tomorrow!

Anonymous said...

Good night all.

Lucina, thanks for the comment about tortilla.

Spitzboov said...

Abejo

I thought the Berghoff had gone out of business. Glad to hear it is still there. Last ate there in the mid nineties. Always one of my favorites.

Lucina said...

Abejo:
Today our book club discussed The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. It was of particular interest to us because some of it happened here in Phoenix.

The next book we'll read is Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese.

Sallie:
You're welcome. I checked on the origin of tortilla and found that it is based on torte, cake so the diminutive suffix -illa makes it "small cake."

dodo said...

Coming from the far north, I say chawk, tawk,walk, balk. How about folks? Surely it isn't pronounced in that word. OTH, I do pronounce it in golf. Strange? Lots of folks say goff.

dodo said...

Oops, I meant the 1040!

Annette said...

Hondo, how sweet! It sounds like she's a very lucky lady.

WikWak said...

Interesting "chalk talk" here... I grew up in west central IL and now live in the Chicago suburbs and don't think I have ever heard these words pronounced without the "L" sound.

This was undoubtedly the easiest Barry Silk I have ever done. Started in the NW, worked CCW, made it to the NE, and never really had any major stumbles. Hand up for Grasped, though, at first, but it resolved with perps pretty quickly.

One son went to Michigan State, so East Lansing was a gimme!

Have a great weekend, all (what's left of it)!

Otis said...

Greetings.

Enjoyed the puzzle a lot. Silkies (like Hard-G's) are hit or miss. This was a challenging. No way I could finish without the G-spot, but it was worth it to return to puzzle repeatedly throughout day before hitting the intertubes way post-midnight. Problems include a refusal to accept TL, forcing Rama for Siva because thought Rama, Shiva, and Vishnu were the options. (Zcg/Vdw/etc. - does Siva=Shiva?)

Re: blog commenter comments: Fermataprime: I hear the garden pain. Planted spinach, lettuces, and a host of root veggies that will likely not sprout due to ma natures fickleness. Abejo: Think of analogy in terms of conjugations (analogy, analogical).

Next post is paragraph too large to abide by new Corner rules, so it stands alone.

Peace out.
O

Otis said...

Well, hot darn. Requires TWO more posts. For what it is worth:

Re: blog author comments: 1. Al is abbr. for Alfred. 2. I hate sports clues other than shea, pele, ott, orr and similar "Oh, I can remember this" refs. Perpetual whining is futile. Guess what? We know you don't like for'n languages. No need to belabor the point. Learn a few words. It isn't that hard. 3. If you are blogging a Sat. puzzle (i.e., "pinch hitting" for CC), please refrain from being deliberately obtuse. From my meager cranial recesses, I dredged that EA = Endowment for the Arts (as opposed to AE = Association of Educators [or some such thing]). Perhaps, a member of the latter (of which there might be one or two around the CCorner with whom you can consult) could try to help you understand the silent L conundrum. Personally, I pronounce the "a" in "flak" differently than I do the "a" in "chalk". Seems to me to be kinda like the CHAWK/CHOK example you offer. I think this might be due to my perception of the (non-silent) L. But, as so often in life and crosswords, this is regional. And, as such, OK for a Saturday puzzle.

Otis said...

Oopsadaisy. Went a line or two (or four) over in the last post. Apologies.

4. Also dredged from the haze of the past are memories of casting a ROD into a stream or lake. On my kit, both the reel and LINE were "held" (suspended) on the rod via some metal thingymabobs. The line traversed the length of the rod; the reel was attached to the end that I GRASPED. Both the reel and the rod HELD the line. (As did the fish I usually eventually caught).

Otis said...

OMG. There is a fourth. Abejo, replace first "analogy" with analog. (Other errors are obvious.)

Anonymous said...

May I ask you, Otis, where can you find free quality service like this forum?

Anonymous said...

Otis, way, way, WAY out of line. Very surprising from you.

Splynter said...

Hi Again ~!

Oh, Otis, relax ~! - we're all having fun up here, so go have another drink - wait, maybe you shouldn't - I have friends that can help you with that...

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