google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Sunday July 10, 2011 Julian Lim

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Jul 10, 2011

Sunday July 10, 2011 Julian Lim

Theme: 4 x 4 - Each theme entry consists of 4 words, each word consisting of 4 letters.

23A. "We'll find out in due course" : ONLY TIME WILL TELL. This and its symmetrical partner are my favorite pair.

39A. Hotel ad phrase : HOME AWAY FROM HOME

53A. "Stay alert!" : KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN

72A. Act rashly : LEAD WITH ONE'S CHIN

88A. Cry to players in hiding : OLLY OLLY OXEN FREE

106A. Often skeptical words of encouragement : GOOD LUCK WITH THAT. Just excellent.

Again, very long answers, hence only 6 theme entries. It'd be awesome if every word in the theme entries has one syllable. Might be an impossible task. Already tough job for the constructor to ferret out the ones we have today.

Several great long non-theme Down entries:

4D. Swimming and diving, e.g. : OLYMPIC SPORTS. Very seldom do we see a 13-letter non-theme fill.

16D. Petrify : TURN TO STONE. 11s are rare too.

57D. Like hobnobbers : WELL-CONNECTED

63D. It was once described as an "odious column of bolted metal" : EIFFEL TOWER. Lovely.

Also several fill for Dennis:

60A. Brilliant bunch : MENSA. He's the cleverest Dummy I know of.

68A. Japanese canine : AKITA. He owned one.

41D. Watch for the wealthy : ROLEX. He's wearing one.

All in all, a solid grid. Quite a few names, but none obscure.

Across:

1. '50s pin curls style, e.g. : UPDO

5. Sean Combs, on stage : P. DIDDY. So flashy.

11. Things of beauty : GEMs

15. Ratatouille, e.g. : STEW

19. Stick-up stash : HAUL

20. Mumbai garments : SAREES. Or SARIS.

21. Stratford's river : AVON

22. "Reason is ... the slave of the passions" writer : HUME (David). Not familiar with this line.

26. Idle in show biz : ERIC. Eric Idle.

27. 2002 hit for Cam'ron : HEY MA. Well, Avg Joe might know this song. I've got no idea.

28. "Junebug" Oscar nominee Adams : AMY. She is very talented. Pretty too.

29. "That __ fair!" : ISN'T

30. Divine food : MANNA. I wonder what it tastes that.

31. Ramble on : PRATE

33. Thumper's pal : BAMBI. Thumper is a rabbit.

35. Near the end : LATTER.

36. One who harnesses the power of midi-chlorians : JEDI. "Star Wars".

42. Throws out : EVICTS

44. Senate passings : BILLs

45. Fancy moldings : OGEEs.

46. Sunshine __: old detergent : RINSO

47. Bug : GERM

48. Letter-shaped track : T-SLOT. No idea. Carpenter term, Splynter/Jerome?

50. Big initials in comedy syndication : TBS

57. It may be spun : WOOL. Not TALE/YARN.

58. "What a klutz I am!" : OOPS

59. Ricoh competitor : XEROX

61. Applies, as effort : EXERTS

64. Dummkopf : HALF-WIT. Dummkopf is a new word to me. Dumm = Dumb. Koph = Head.

67. Grade of beef : SELECT

69. Cruise, for one : CELEB. Tom Cruise. And SEA (87D. Cruise milieu).

70. "The Baroque Cycle" sci-fi author Stephenson : NEAL. Stranger to me. Has anyone read the clued book?

71. Linesmen's co-workers : REFs

79. Disturbing bank letters : NSF. Disturbing indeed.

80. Far from mega- : MICRO

81. Crafted, as a tale : WOVE

82. French wine valley : LOIRE

83. Town in a Carlo Levi title : EBOLI. "Christ Stopped at Eboli" .

85. "Had __ and couldn't ..." : A WIFE

87. Subject involving subjects : SYNTAX. Oh, sentence.

93. Starling's home : NEST

94. Ragtag : MOTLEY

95. Author Blyton et al. : ENIDs

96. Airbus product : PLANE

98. Treat as taboo : AVOID

99. City near Anaheim : BREA. Spanish for "tar".

100. You might give him the business : SON. Clever clue.

101. Ghana's capital : ACCRA

105. Cut down : HEWN

110. Downwind : ALEE

111. Not loose : SNUG

112. "The Ministry of Fear" author : GREENE (Graham). Here is the book cover. I bet it's a gimme for Lemonade.

113. __ Indies : EAST

114. Some paparazzi gear, briefly : SLRs

115. Carry : TOTE

116. Sunshine cookie : HYDROX. Is it still on the market?

117. Time of reckoning : D-DAY

Down:

1. "Trouble's a-comin'!" : UH OH

2. Stained-glass piece : PANE

3. How some things are noted : DULY. Duly noted.

5. Penultimate Greek letter : PSI

6. 1980s-'90s New York senator : DAMATO (Alfonse)

7. Coming-back words : I REMEMBER. Oh, this coming-back.

8. Like a field at sunrise : DEWY

9. Opus __: "The Da Vinci Code" sect : DEI

10. Pricey handbag inits. : YSL

11. Carraway's Long Island neighbor, in classic fiction : GATSBY. The Great Gatsby.

12. Supposing : EVEN IF

13. Jump out of one's skin? : MOLT. Fun clue.

14. Show with '70s samurai sketches, briefly : SNL

15. Put away, as a dagger : SHEATHE

17. "Love the Way You Lie" rapper : EMINEM. Weird song name.

18. Words of support : WE CARE

24. Driveway option : TAR

25. Beans that are a good source of manganese : LIMAs. Boomer loves lima beans.

30. "Wag the Dog" co-screenwriter : MAMET (David). Drew a blank.

32. Wistful sounds : AHs

33. Mild : BALMY

34. Belt maker's tool : AWL

35. Start using Facebook, say : LOG ON

36. Weightlifting move : JERK

37. Songwriter Sands : EVIE. Stumped me last time.

38. Eat in style : DINE

40. Seamus Heaney's homeland : EIRE. Seamus Heaney won Nobel literature in 1995, a la Wiki.

43. Matrix automaker : TOYOTA

47. Grissom of NASA : GUS. And 89D. Apollo 13 astronaut : LOVELL (Jim)

48. Semicircular moldings : TORI. Plural of torus like this. Think donuts.

49. Concern for Lady Macbeth : SPOT

51. Pear from Europe : BOSC

52. Bedframe part : SLAT

54. Psy-__: military propaganda, etc. : OPs

55. Like Deep Throat : EX-FBI. I'm glad Deep Throat revealed himself in the end.

56. Work on seams : SEW

60. Pitifully small : MEASLY

61. Take home : EARN

62. Vintage Jags : XKEs

64. Get wind of : HEAR

65. Gucci of fashion : ALDO. Did names give you trouble today?

66. "Ben-Hur" author Wallace : LEW

67. Date : SEE

69. Director DeMille : CECIL

70. Richmond-to-D.C. dir. : NNE

72. Evangeline __, who played Kate on "Lost" : LILLY. Looks familiar.

73. Target Field team : TWINS. My poor Twins!

74. "The Tao of Pooh" author : HOFF (Benjamin). I forgot.

75. Prove too strong for : OVERPOWER

76. "Women and Love" author Shere : HITE

77. Income sources for some srs. : IRAs

78. Subsequent : NEXT

80. Acted bullish? : MOOED. You comment, Windhover!

84. Writing credits : BYLINEs

85. Like a saucer's symmetry : AXIAL

86. Tie the knot : WED

88. Nebraska tribe members : OMAHAS

90. Bad news from home? : YER OUT! My favorite clue today.

91. Skittish : ON EDGE

92. Monsoon-affecting phenomenon : EL NINO

97. "I'll pass" : NAH

99. U2's lead vocalist : BONO

100. RR station posting : SKED (Schedule)

102. Niger neighbor : CHAD

103. Tabula __ : RASA

104. Trial fig. : ATTY

106. Clock std. : GST. What does this mean? I wanted GMT.

107. "How icky!" : UGH

108. Break down : CRY

109. Where Odessa is: Abbr. : TEX. Not UKR.

Answer grid.

Happy Birthday to my Lao Shi Don "Hard G"!

C.C.

49 comments:

fermatprime said...

What a nifty puzzle! Caught on to the 4 word phrases after a while! Thanks, Julian. Several WAGs. Went over and over until I managed to finish without "cheating." (Was truly amazed.)

Favorites: MOLT, EIFFELTOWER, MOOED.

CA--So sorry to hear about latest news. Wishing you the very best! You will be in my thoughts!

Amusing anecdote #?: As I mentioned, I am fixing my old MacBook Pro up for my friend Harvey. Got his sbcglobal email finally working. Evidently he has never followed my directions about filtering spam. He has over 15,000 emails on the web! Since his email is frequently not working, these just have accumulated! I understand that his daughter removed a bunch, piecemeal fashion! Big deal. The whole monster has to go! I will buy Spam Sieve for him. Will tell him tomorrow. (He will probably grouse.)

Wishing you all a great Sunday!

Argyle said...

Just a quick pic of a T-slot: curtain rod.

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

Pretty straightforward puzzle today. I kept waiting for the gimmick to reveal itself, but it never did, and it never occurred to me that the theme referred to the number of words/letters in each theme answer.

Unknowns today included TSLOT, TORI (nasty crossing of those two, btw), EVIE, LEW, ALDO and HOFF.

I really could have done without SKED.

As for GST, I always thought it stood for Greenwich Standard Time, but that can't possibly be right since that would clash with the "std." in the clue, right? Let's see... OK, according to Wikipedia, it can stand for Gulf Standard Time, but more likely it stands for Greenwich Sidereal Time (a variant of Greenwich Mean Time used in astronomy). Who knew?

Splynter said...

Hi There ~!

I, too, was looking for an alternative theme, but I had OLLY spelled wrong at first - once I filled the whole answer in, I was on my way.

Perfect pick for a T-slot, Argyle.

Only Time Will Tell - ASIA.

Thanks for the compliments, yesterday, gang.

Best of all to you, CA.

RED STATE - thanks for Jason Newsted - never given the credit and time he deserved in Metallica, and I think Lars is a pu55-.

See you all in the week ~!

Splynter

Dick said...

Good morning CC and all, today’s puzzle was not a fun run for me. There were lots of unknowns and some of the perp crossings were pure guesses. Somehow I managed to complete the c/w, but it took two hours and a lot of work.

I guess CA would do very well with this puzzle as she seems to read a lot and sees a lot of movies.

I’ve got to run as my DW and I are going to watch the streaking Pittsburgh Pirates paly the Chicago Cubs this afternoon. Finally after 17 years with a losing season they are playing decent baseball. We better enjoy this while we can.

Hope you have a great Sunday.

Anonymous said...

Meh. Bland theme.

Argyle said...

If you are much older than I, you might remember this.

Jacel said...

Good Morning All!

Julian--nice Sunday puzzle. C.C.--I did have trouble with all the names and I had to Google some.

I can't believe that I could not remember TORI. We had it at least 2 other times this year. From my years in education I learned that the average learner has to hear or see something 7 times in order to remember. The top learners have to hear or see it 3 times to remember. I hope I only need this third time and now I will remember it.

I really, really liked the theme answers today, even though I forgot to try to figure out the theme.

Good Luck CA. My son finished the prescribed rounds of chemo and now we have to wait for a comparison Pet Scan. I pray all is negative.

Lemonade714 said...

I saw the 4X4 theme after ONLY TIME WILL TELL, I think as a product of blogging and thinking themes. Anyway, despite many obscure proper names, this was one of the easier Sunday puzzles for me.

We have had TORI and TORUS, doughnut shape before, and discussed in relation to TORII the Shinto temple gateway, but even as a constant reader, I was unfamiliar with Mr. Stephenson, who appears to be more of an historical novelist than a Sci-Fi writer, but then again Science Fiction has changed so much this century, I seldom read it anymore

part 1

Lemonade714 said...

Is there a more obtuse Nursery Rhyme than:

Peter Peter pumpkin eater,
Had a wife and couldn't keep her!
He put her in a pumpkin shell,
And there he kept her very well!

I loved Might give him the business: SON, because it is so true on both levels.

Ms. Lilly is pretty woman with nice eyes and crooked chin, anybody missing LOST ? Watch Super 8 ?

We are with your son and CA, Jacel.

To work, thanks C.C. and Julian

Jacel said...

Lemonade714

Thank-you for clearing up 85A--A Wife.

Grumpy 1 said...

Good morning, C.C. and the gang. For once, I paid attention to the title and it helped. ONLY TIME WILL TELL fell first and I noticed the four words, four letters each. That let me break up the other theme entries into blocs of four and led to some obvious fill from partials.

MOLT? Great clue! I wanted jolt, then bolt, which gave me debs for the things of beauty. Fortunately, GATSBY straightened out that mess.

Manna? It probably tastes like chicken...

I jumped the gun on 60d and put in MEager from the ME_. That messed me up in that area for a little bit, but finally saw MEASLY and the rest fell into place.

Thanks, Julian. Great puzzle.

CA, our thoughts and prayers are with you.

Avg Joe said...

Good morning C.C. and all.

I'm kinda in the middle with this one. Certainly no speed run, but just a slow methodical solve. Caught the significance of the 4X4 theme with the first fill, so that made it a bit easier. Sorry I don't know "Hey Ma", C.C. I don't do rap.

GMT has been an antiquated term for a decade or two. I always thought that the S in GST did denote Standard, but it looks like it doesn't. At any rate, Greenwich is still the place where the worlds time is theoretically kept, but they are no longer Mean about it. :-)

Alternate QOD: Dogs have owners. Cats have servants.

Dudley said...

Hello Puzzlers - I didn't play Hide and Seek much as a kid, but when I did, it was no doubt according to the rules laid out by the only available authority - my older sister. Slight distortions were to be expected, I guess. We always said "olly olly umfree" or something like that. A distant family of kids said "olly olly in come free". Nobody ever said anything about oxen.

Tons of unknowns in this puzzle, mostly proper nouns. Didn't know that leading with one's chin had meaning, only knew the similar title of Jay Leno's book. Not sure what TORI have to do with moldings, but whatever.

Happy Sunday all!

Hahtoolah said...

Dudley: We, too, used to say Ollie, Ollie, In Come Free.

creature said...

Good Morning C.C. and all,

Thanks for a good write-up, CC. ‘Yer out’ was my fav too; and I knew it right away. Imagine that.
Yes, my downfall was a name: Mamet. Had log in not LOG ON and tslit, not TSLOT. Oh well. I definitely enjoyed this puzzle and of course, got the theme right after first entry. Thanks, Julian. My fav theme entry is OLLY OLLY OXEN FREE. Great memories. Words a little different, but it’ll do.

Happy Birthday, Hard G and many more.

Argyle, remembered the song’s tune and refrain.. Nothing else, I swear!

I’m praying with you, Jacel.

Have a nice day everyone.

creature said...

From last night's comments

RSD, funny facts! Enjoyed guitar link

Anon, Yeah, thanks! I started to name the nightclub, but didn't want to get into it. Thanks for the link; it certainly covers a lot.

Bill Brown said...

T-Slot race tracks were a hobby shop item of the 60s. You bought or built a car (replica stock car or formula 1) and would race against others at the hobby shop. The cars, 6-8" in length were DC electric. A swivel bushing in the shape of a "T" extended downward underneath the engine compartmet of the car. On the underneath sides of the crossmember of the "T" were copper wire brushes. The track was usually two lanes with a T-slot in the center of each lane with a copper strip adjacent to each side of the slot. You placed your car on th track centering the t-bushing of the car in the t-slot of the tracks. Brushes contacted the copper strips on the track and you got power. Each lane had a separate controller. You paid to race for a certain amount of time, and to rent a car if you didn't own your own.

Spitzboov said...

Good morning C.C. and all.

Moderately easy puzzle for a Sunday. Liked the 4X4 theme which lent itself to partial fills as Grumpy stated. Did not know many of the authors but the perps were quite helpful. The long downs were fun but quite getable. I knew one Odessa was in the Ukraine, But when the 'T' fell, it had to be TEXas. ACCRA was easy and became a firm anchor in the SE. I agree with Barry about GMT. but SNUG, the cross was easy enough. No searches needed.

Today was was the annual Boilermaker 15K race in our town. 13000 runners. Finish line at the Saranac - Matt Brewing Company, a co-sponsor. Free beer if you finished.

LaurieRo said...

What I thought we were saying as kids was "Ollie Ollie ox in free." I think it was actually "all of you who are out are in free."

creature said...

Hey Laurie, Welcome.

You have helped me to recall:
"all-ie all-ie in free" and it did mean every one out could come in free.

This was 'kick the can'.

Hahtool, your avatar is adorable. A pretty little girl.

MR ED said...

The slogan I remember for Rinso was 'Rinso white', never heard if sunshine rinso.

CC, with all due respect for your heritage, English only please.

Yellowrocks said...

Definitely a DF puzzle with all those four letter words. lol
Bill Brown, like you, I immediately thought of the T-slot cars and tracks.

windhover said...

Mr. Ed,
Please tell us you're kidding. If you're not, then just as a science project, what do you see when your head is that far up your ass?

JD said...

Good morning all,

I had a lot of pesky little holes in this one. Only filled Hume and Eric because of "turn to stone", my favorite today.Loved all of the X's.Haven't read a Graham Greene novel in years.
Loved wool being next to keep your eyes open.

Jacel, have seen that learning curve; I need to see things 7X's to remember, so when someone says, "Oh, we've seen that before" I know we have, but can't recall the word. Ogees is an example, but with 1 or 2 letters, I can usually jog my brain.

Jacel, hoping for a clean PET scan for your son.

Jayce said...

Hello everybody. Interesting that I didn't enjoy yesterday's puzzle and did enjoy today's. Figured out the four 4-letter word idea somewhat quickly, and I think it is pretty neat-o. There are even a few entries for which I never read the clues because they got filled in from the perps, such as PSI, GST, and REFS. Thus, I didn't give any thought to what GST refers to until coming here.

The famous opera singer Beverly Sills used to sing the "Rinso White, Rinso White, happy little washtime song" jingle before she got famous.

If I recall correctly, we called out something like "all-ee all-ee all in free" in our hide'n'seek games. No oxen involved.

Some fun clues today, which have already been mentioned.

Even though there were several proper names I didn't know, the perps enabled me to fill them all without having to look any up.

It is awfully nice of you to do that for your friend, fermatprime.

Best wishes to you all.

Grumpy 1 said...

I recall some discussions in my childhood with different groups of kids about the proper phrase. We lived in four different communities in those years and every one had slight variations on the "rules" for the games we played. OLLY OLLY OXEN FREE was one version of the phrase we used. Another was OLLY (or All Ye) OLLY Outs In FREE, which is the phrase that made sense to me and could easily be corrupted to oxen.

The slot cars were my first thought when T-SLOT emerged, although I've seen track lighting with T-SLOT connections and other T-SLOT track applications in industrial uses.

Anonymous said...

Splynter they never accepted him a as full member of the band Jason took 12 years of abuse and he finally said enough. They treat Robert as a full member and gave him a $100,000 signing bonus.

This was easier or I knew more than I thought. I only struggled in the South East and Northwest corners.

Fun Facts by Dave Letterman

Alan Shepard was the 5th astronaut to walk on the moon, but the 1st to leave his wallet there.

Astronaut Deke Slayton was taken ill and had to be replaced on Apollo 8 because of bad Tang.

Have a restful Sunday Afternoon.

Jayce said...

There is a theory that manna was actually the fuzzy edible material sluffed off of the breadfruit trees and blowing around in the breeze, so I suspect it probably tasted like white bread. Or cotton balls.

Yeah, a dummkopf is a dumb head and a shwarzkopf is a black head :) Can you think of any other kinds of kopfs?

Avg Joe said...

Turn your head to the right and kopf?

Spitzboov said...

Jayce - Kopf words:

Dickkopf - an obstinate or mulish person. (Dick means 'thick' here)

Dööskopp - (Low German) A 'drip' (idiot or moron in a clumsy sense)

Anonymous said...

CC,

Have you ever watched the reruns of Hogans Heroes on TV land? The Germans always called each other Dummkopf.


Hogans Heroes

Anonymous said...

For The Marine

Al said...

Remembering that kindergarten is German for "child's garden", have a look at this translation.

Bill G. said...

I haven't read the blog comments yet so I'll blunder ahead on my own. I liked this theme. As is sometimes the case, knowing the theme results had four four-letter words gave me a good hint as to some of the theme answers. I liked it!

Like Boomer, I like lima beans. Sometimes mixed with corn too.

We often see awl clued as something like a belt-makers tool. I don't think that's correct. You need a leather punch which is significantly different. An awl just pushes through the leather. A leather punch actually removes a small circle of leather. Much neater. (That's my nit for the day.)

I just watched the very exciting women's World Cup soccer match. My DVR ran out just as the US scored the tying goal. I see from MSNBC that they won on penalty kicks.

Argyle said...

Lima beans and corn!

Yellowrocks said...

For the Pennsylvania Germans among whom I was raised, Schwarzkopf is a nickname for a dark haired person, our brunette from yesterday. Weisskopf is a nickname for a grey or light haired person. With the passing of years Scwarzkopf becomes Weisskopf.

Did you see the Wikipedia article on "olly olly oxen free?" Interesting.

Anonymous said...

Wasn't there a character in Catch-22 named something-kopf?

dodo said...

Evening good friends,

It being Sunday I worked today's puzzle online, which I've mentioned before that as soon as I've finished solving and try to print it, it disappears. Yet I know that it's possible to save, because when I start, it asks if I want to save it. Sooooo today I clicked to have it saved. After losing the puzzle once and starting over from acratch, I went on to finish and was stuck in the mid-south section. So I decided I'd cheat. I clicked the minus button so I could get to google and "whoof" it disappeared again. This time I did not go back and just decided to come here.
Just now finished C.C.'s writeup and the comments and went back to get my 'solved'puzzle! They saved it allright but it was completely blank! I am not happy!

dodo said...

I too had GMT but got the red 'M' so it was blank along with the mid south.

Unknown said...

This is the first sunday puzzle that I've finished in a long while!
Great job on the blog.
Many thanks!

Anonymous said...

succotash recipe

mpk said...

Windhover - Cheers for your Science Project comment
to Mr. Ed. I can stop grinding my teeth now.

fermatprime said...

My best wishes for your son's clear pet scan, Jacel.

Dodo: you have to create a new document in your browser before moving to google. You save your puzzle only after you are finished with it, also, or, perhaps I misunderstand you. You should have no trouble printing at any time w/o saving or anything else.

Lemonade714 said...

Average Joe, can you lend Mr. Ed your currently unused avatar?

Anonymous said...

Mr ED is right. It WAS 'Rinso White'.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, if he had just stopped there.

Anonymous said...

Sunday's 62D clue "vintage Jags" is answered "XKEs". This is an esoteric answer. Jaguar made an XK model until 1960 when they droped completely the XK and produced an E-Type. Jaguar never made a car called the XKE. American teens combined the names of the two models and called the new car the XKE (like Camero-Nova or Galaxy-Fairlane). No 60's or 70's Jaguar bore that designation. I loved my 'E-Type. C. Sagan might have said 'You can have your own 'usage' put you can't have your own facts'.

Anonymous said...

anon @ 2:13 PM

The Jaguar E-Type (UK) or XK-E (US) is a British automobile legend, manufactured by Jaguar between 1961 and 1975.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xke