google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Saturday, September 24, 2011, Gareth Bain

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Sep 24, 2011

Saturday, September 24, 2011, Gareth Bain

Well DOUBLE STUF me ~!!

Theme: O - R - E - O

Words: 72

Blocks: 38

It's a Saturday Puzzle with a "theme" - Gareth Bain 'treats' me to a grid with three across clues relating to the unifier and ubiquitous crossword cookie -

50D. Food associated with the starts of 16-, 36- and 56-Across : OREO

and the theme 'creme' fills;

16. Common closer : TWIST-TIE

36. Superficial, uncaring effort : LICK AND A PROMISE

56. Carnival game in which a suit is worn : DUNK TANK

Twist, lick and dunk, like they do here

I did think the grid looked less intimidating than our usual Saturdays, but definitely a tad more difficult than a Friday level; and imagine my surprise when I got to the SW corner ~!

Thanks Gareth ~!

Onward ~!

ACROSS:

1. Aleutian island : ATTU - switched to DOWN, came back later

5. Upheaval : ADO

8. "Superbad" co-screenwriter Seth : ROGEN - didn't see it, no desire to either

13. In a bind? : CORSETED - like her, oh baby ~!

15. Prison break? : PAROLE - nailed it; there's only a "break" if you violate, and go back to prison

17. "Yea, verily" : IT IS SO

18. Rash : SPATE - as in a rash of car thefts

19. Calms : REPOSES - sounds soothing

20. Nuttiness : LUNACY

23. Folkie DiFranco : ANI

24. Training gear? : BRA - Ah

26. Art able to : CANST - Cute clue/answer

28. Troopers' gps. : PDs - I believe this is Police Departments; here on Long Island, we have PDs, but the Troopers are State Police, and only patrol the Interstate, the L.I.E., US 495

31. Goalpost component : CROSSBAR - Yes in football, no in hockey - totally separate piece of iron - at least in my goalie mind....

34. Its state fish is the chinook salmon : OREGON - I had _R_G__, so....

38. City known for wool : ANKARA - Tried Merino first

39. "Go ahead" : FEEL FREE

40. Tiny part of a hard drive : MEG - We're into Gigs and Teras now

41. Pulitzer-winning poet Conrad __ : AIKEN

43. Aged : OLD

44. Wee hrs. : AMs - Like the 4am I have to get up for again next week....oh well

46. Name meaning "gift of Isis" : ISADOR - Tried Osiris first; more here

49. Verdict readers : FOREMEN - Just watched "The Juror" yesterday

52. Brewery equipment : OASTS

55. Give holy orders to : ORDAIN - I thought this meant "inducted" into the church; I guess that's the sense of "orders" here.

59. Tease : NEEDLE

60. Informal essay : CAUSERIE - new word for me; from French, 'coh - zuh - REE'

61. Gifted one? : DONEE - we just had this Friday

62. Spot checker? : VET - Nailed it, but it is a "WAG" clue, too - as in Spot the dog, his tail, and his doctor the Veterinarian

63. Forming strands : ROPY

DOWN:

1. Spiel, e.g. : ACT

2. Helps to water-ski : TOWS - well, uh, kinda hard to do it without this, really

3. "See you next fall!" elicitor : TRIP - I know this quaint little phrase, but I was looking for the actual person who elicits, like EYER...

4. WWII battlecruiser in the Pacific : U.S.S. ALASKA - Pictured here

5. Where unison countdowns usually begin : AT TEN...nine!, eight!, seven!...

6. Agnus __ : DEI - Opus DEI, Susan DEY, break of DAY

7. Lofty lines : ODE - Poetic praise

8. With "The," 1960s series set in the North African desert during WWII : RAT PATROL

9. Hunter killed by Artemis, in some accounts : ORION - If I have a son, this will be his name. Metallica instrumental

10. TV drama narrated by a teen blogger : GOSSIP GIRL - I had GOS_ to start, and knew of the show, but never watched

11. If not : ELSE

12. Revivalists : NEOS - WAG

14. Words indicating betrayal : ET TU -, Brute? Caesar, from the island of ATTU (right?)

15. Trivial Pursuit symbol : PIE - eh, more like player piece, really

19. Rembrandt van __ : RYN

21. Phillips, e.g.: Abbr. : ACAD.emy - Andover

22. Wine orders : CARAFES

24. Tuna preserver : BRINE

25. Common Zen temple feature : ROCK GARDEN - funny, I missed the word "feature" the first time through - what the heck is a 'common Zen temple' ???

27. Nursing a grudge : SORE

29. Gave two tablets to, say : DOSED

30. "The Mikado" weapon, briefly : SNEE - a knife used as a sword, a little here

31. Smackeroo : CLAM - Double meaning; right in the mouth, the clam, the smackeroo; and the slang for a dollars - clams and smackeroos

32. Hall & Oates's first Top 10 hit : SARA SMILE - if you get the chance, watch the "Behind the Music" on this duo - very interesting. My favorite from them was " I can't go for that ", which got sampled under this tune, which is pretty good, too

33. __ B'rith : BNAI

35. "Howards End" author : E.M. FORSTER - I had to know more; the Wiki

37. Transportation secretary under Clinton : PEÑA - Federico

42. Cousin, for one : KIN

45. Gettysburg general : MEADE - and the winner, too

47. Sweet ring : DONUT




48. Cork sources : OAKS

49. Attracted to, with "of" : FOND

51. Hydrocarbon suffix : ENE - double bond Carbons create PropENE, ButENE, octENE

53. South Seas staple : TARO

54. Tonsorial sound : SNIP - oh, the haircut, right

56. V x XI x XI : DCV - lazy, resorted to the desktop calculator to do the math; Roman 5 x 11 x 11 = 605

57. Country that incl. Sharjah : UAE - United Arab Emirates; map

58. Map feature : KEY - the window at the bottom for figuring out symbols, like this

Answer grid.

Splynter, down to two days of vacation - but it's been a rough week, so....

36 comments:

  1. Well, I just finished and KNEW the blog wouldn't be up yet but because I yam who I yam I checked anyway--SURPRISE! Thanks, Splynter, for the great post.

    Names, names, names! Thanks to lots of perps and the fact that I'm a history and mythology buff I didn't have to use Mr. Goog but it was a near thing.

    I did NOT like "Troopers" being grouped with "PDs" either and for the same reason; never heard of a Trooper who wasn't State. By this time in my life there aren't many words I haven't even SEEN before, but CAUSERIE is a new one on me.

    Even with a few gripes, I still enjoyed the puzzle. I really liked the "Spot checker" - VET combination!

    Never seen Gossip Girl but OD'd on Rat Patrol back in the day.

    Liked the way DUNK crossed DONUT.

    That's about it from here on the west coast (of Lake Michigan)... have a good weekend, everyone!

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  2. Hi folks!

    Much more fun than usual Saturday! Thanks Gareth. You too, Splynter! And a theme! Wow! Great to have early blog! Time for bed.

    Favorite answer, which I got right away and chuckled--VET. Didn't have to cheat until pretty well into this. What a rarity!

    Always thought it was RIJN! TRIP was annoying. Hand up for Osiris!

    Tomorrow I have to migrate current MacBook Pro to just-acquired model from 2010 (Apple sells refurbished models too--something they could have mentioned during many phone calls).

    Have really weird story to relate--will wait until later. I think everyone will be surprised.

    Cheers!

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  3. PS 11 squared is 121. 5 x 121 = 5 x (100 + 20 + 1) = 605.

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  4. Morning, all!

    Overall a pretty fun puzzle today, but there were some real thorny bits.

    The hardest spot by far was the SE corner. I had no idea that suits must be worn in a DUNK TANK, I've never heard of a CAUSERIE, I'm not familiar with Sharjah and also had no ida that cork came from OAK trees (I always assumed it came from Balsa trees). ISADOR wasn't exactly a gimme down there, either, and it took awhile to figure out DONUT. As I said, a real mess.

    Elsewhere in the puzzle, the hardest part was simply the fact that I've never heard the expression LICK AND A PROMISE before.

    Fortunately, I did manage to get quite a lot of obscure proper nouns right off the bat today, including ATTU, ANKARA, MEADE, PENA and ROGEN. I'm still not a fan of puzzles that rely heavily on proper nouns, but at least this time I was able to get most of them unassisted.

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  5. Good Morning Splynter, C.C. et al.

    What a fun write-up, Splynter! Thanks for the hint about watching the Hall and Oates “Behind the Music” video. I found it on the net and it was very interesting – I never knew about the story behind “Sara, Smile” until now. Sad.

    Fermatprime, HaHa! That is exactly how I had to solve it (in my head).

    Barry, I think the “suit” referred to in the DUNK TANK clue is a “bathing” suit?

    I like the “mini” theme here as well, with USS ARIZONA and RAT PATROL, both references to WWII. Also wanted “merino” before ANKARA, and had ISAbel instead of ISADOR. Perps quickly straightened me out on those. Fun puzzle, and very interesting to have a theme on a Saturday. Thanks Gareth!

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  6. Interesting Sat. puzzle.Liked the write up. Will look at the links later when I have time.

    Had to Google Gossip Girl because I didn't know Rogen (thought maybe it could be Rosen)and I didn't get the P in PD. I agree the Police Dept doesn't have troopers.

    My mother often said, "Give it a lick and a promise." When I asked her what it meant she said that a cat licks her kitten and promises to do more later.

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  7. ORDAIN is to appoint someone officially as a priest or minister usually with a special ceremony. For Catholics ORDINATION is a sacrament.
    HOLY ORDERS
    the rite or sacrament of ordination.
    or the rank or status of an ordained Christian minister.
    or the major degrees or grades of the Christian ministry.

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  8. Barry, I think the “suit” referred to in the DUNK TANK clue is a “bathing” suit?

    That makes sense. The only time I have actually seen a dunk tank in person was at a company picnic where one of the big bosses was literally in a business suit. But I didn't think all dunk tank participants needed to be so formally dressed...

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  9. I have an English degree and taught it for 30 years and never once was assigned, assigned, or even heard of a CAUSERIE.

    The old saw "You learn something new...yadda yadda yadda" still holds true!

    (That whole block was a killer. I thought cork came from cork trees. Off to do research now.)

    My Nit to Pick is with LICK AND A PROMISE. Why is the initial article "A" left off, other than for construction convenience? The standard idiom is "A lick and a promise."

    You know, scratch that. It's impossible not to sound whiny when nitpicking. Have a great Saturday. More clouds and rain in NEO. What are we, Seattle?

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  10. I'm with Mr. Ed: Gimme a break!

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  11. Splynter: Great write-up & links.

    Took a chance, enjoyed 2-cups of java, and did a Saturday LAT for the first time in a while.

    Surprise! Surprise! It has a theme.

    I like how my DONUT crossed DUNK tank.

    Fermatprime: I also thought Rembrandt's name was van Rijn, not RYN.

    Messed up, I had isIdor for "gift of Iris."
    ADS for Spiel,e.g. before ACT came along and I did a CORSETED TWIST(TIE) which isn't easy. lol

    HeartRx: My grid had the USS ALASKA (all perps).
    Great looking ship. Think I'll wiki its history.

    WOD - CAUSERIE and a WTF !!!

    Cheers to all at Sunset !!!
    (I love Fall & Winter. Avatar time is earlier!!!)

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  12. Good morning! Great write up, Splynter. Thanks.

    For a change... NOT what Barry said, except for having never heard of CAUSERIE either. It perped, though.

    LICK AND A PROMISE is a phrase I've heard/used often. As soon as PROMISE emerged I filled the rest.

    I don't see the problem with PD's. Yes, troopers are state police, but it's still a department or division of the state. It is not the entire state so it's a PD. Remember, this is Saturday. The clues are supposed to rely on a more obscure meaning or interpretation of words.

    It took too long, but I managed to do it. Gareth Bain Saturdays have been known to force me to Google, so I feel pretty good on this one. Now I'll go to Cruciverb and try the Saturday Stumper.

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  13. What a nice black and white puzzle, Gareth, and a theme on a Saturday as well! I got OREO (what else could an O _ _ O food be?) and then flogged the three theme answers with it!

    Musings
    -Ain’t never heerd of CAUSERIE or GOSSIPGIRL or LICKANDAPROMISE and some of the proper nouns but hey, it’s Saturday so I’ll complain when I can do better!
    -I have never seen any of Mr. Rogen’s SPIELS which seem to appeal more to my middle school kids
    -A _ _ _ R A is not ANGORA wool and a Smackeroo ain’t a KISS?
    --I blew off the abbr. and just thought of Papa John Phillips being ACAD (at least) for obvious reasons!
    -We stood on Cemetery Ridge at Gettysburg looking west from where Pickett’s Charge emerged against MEADE and I told Joann that the Rebs marched into all the cannons next to us. My lovely bride looked at me and said simply, “Why?”
    -Splynter, you just reminded me I have a $4 off birthday coupon to get my haircut today! Later.

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  14. Barry: That was one of my granny`s favorite expressions ie" Don`t have time to really mop now so ...I`ll just give it a lick and a promise."
    She also said, "You could get those wrinkles out if you used a little more elbow grease on that iron!"
    Every once in a while, a local columnist will run a piece on "Old folks sayings." Great fun for us "younger" ones!

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  15. Took way too long, and required a couple of trips to the Googlery to confirm some WAGs.

    Back in the ought-60s when I was teaching beginning computer programming, one of my favorite assignments was to write a program to emulate a 4-function calculator (+,-,*,÷) for Roman numerals. (Extra credit for infix vs reverse Polish notation.)

    Really developed an appreciation for today's niceties like positional notation and our friend the zero.

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  16. Good puzzle & writeup,thanks. I think Mr.Bain is studying to be a vet,(got that answer right away). "See you next fall", wasn't that in Sybil? The movie with Sally Field, her mom pushed her down the stairs,thankful I had a great mom. Ferm, cant wait for the story!Have a good weekend,thanks again.rc

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  17. Sara Smile- This song is a classic, representing Hall & Oates' first top ten hit back in 1976. With its dreamy, romantic melody and passionate lyrics, I think "Sara Smile" might just be my favorite song by Hall & Oates. Daryl Hall wrote this song for his lover and songwriting partner, Sara Allen. Allen, who broke up with Hall after a 30 year relationship, was interviewed on Behind The Music. She said that this song means so much to her that she can't bear to listen to it anymore. If she hears it in a drugstore being piped in over the sound system, she has to leave the store.

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  18. Splynter,
    I finally had time to sit down and appreciate your witty blog and all the other bloggers' comments. I see you're a G&S fan, too.

    I thought of prison BREAK as a pun, Someone on parole gets a lucky break and doesn't have to stay in prison.

    After reading about causerie, I'll bet some of our blogs could be classified as such.

    We sibs sat down and thought of all the old time sayings we had heard from our Mom. One sister typed them up under "Momisms."

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  19. Good morning everyone. Thanks, Splynter, for your write-up.

    A good Saturday offering from Gareth; ultimately doable without lookups. 4-letter Aleutian Island had to be either ATTU or Adak. Nice to see a Navy ship mentioned; USS ALASKA. One other ship in the class was completed, USS Guam. Main armament was 12"/Cal 50 guns; most other heavy cruisers had 8" guns. Couldn't remember the correct name of the Desert WWII series, had the Desert Rats, then realized Desert could not be in the answer. RAT PATROL came from perps. Knew LICK AND A PROMISE but don't use it personally. Did not like CAUSERIE but IT IS SO a Saturday.

    Enjoy the day.

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  20. Re Rembrant: In Dutch language "ij" is pronounced as a long "i". My brother-in-law born in the Netherlands had the last name of Dijk which he Americanized to Dyk when he moved here. My sister had been in a lesbian relationship but became Mrs. Dyk. My husband thought this was hilarious.

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  21. Relative from CA was actually named "Dykes"...which was put on a vanity car plate...had to change it...caused too much rubber-necking!

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  22. Good Morning All, A Saturday with a theme...I couldn't resist. It was still a DNF, but I got the OREO connected phrases, which made me smile.

    24A, What the heck are young girls supposedly training their breasts to do? Maybe it is to properly be 13A)CORSETED. I'm pretty sure the guys are in favor and most of the women will just agree about being "in a bind"...OUCH!

    Improvisations: Light And Snow: 05

    When I was a boy, and saw bright rows of icicles
    In many lengths along a wall
    I was dissappointed to find
    That I could not play music upon them:
    I ran my hand lightly across them
    And they fell, tinkling.
    I tell you this, young man, so that your expectations of life
    Will not be too great.

    - Conrad Potter AIKEN (41A)

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  23. More on the Dutch IJ digraph.. While it nominally sounds like a long I, when I have heard it spoken by Dutch speakers, the tongue seems to be placed farther forward with the lower jaw slightly extended. We have had Rembrandt van RIJN before.

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  24. Have you heard that the American Tall Persons Associated have joined forces with the Gay Liberation movement to file a class action lawsuit against the Army Corps of Engineers?

    Seems they blew up a 50' dike. :-)

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  25. Hello.

    Have also stood on the Ridge. In
    my mind's eye have seen the Charge
    and heard the cannon and musket fire. Very moving. What a waste
    of men (boys).

    Still going through the notes. Have
    gotten the little yellow light when I press FN and F11.

    Time to pull the plug on HAL II?
    He didn't want to start last night.

    eddy

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  26. Hey, I'm not going to complain about anything when I found a mini-theme on Saturday. Yeah!

    However, I do agree that troopers seem a little off with PDs and TOWS do more than help with water skiing. I loved LICK AND A PROMISE even without the A. Speaking of E. M. Forster, I came across Room with a View on cable and am watching it.

    I have discovered that thin crust pizza does much better being reheated in the over rather than in a microwave. The crust isn't soggy. Maybe I should write a book...

    I wonder if anyone got to see the spectacular display of the satellite falling back to earth?

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  27. Fascinating. Learned a lot, both from looking things up for the purpose of solving the puzzle and from reading and doing follow-up research on your comments. Thanks to everyone.

    Fermatprime, I wanna read your story!

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  28. Hello Puzzlers - Tough slog today. Had to look up so much stuff that I'd have to call it a Technical DNF. Thanks to Splynter for Saturday Sorting.

    Had DESERT RAT for RAT PATROL, that didn't work out so well. LICK AND A PROMISE is foreign to me. Cork can be gotten from oaks? Who knew? I thought it was just the inner bark of cork trees in Portugal. Hafta read up.

    Oh, and CAUSERIE is all new. Roman numerals are ok, but for the life of me I can't keep the L and D straight.

    Thanks for the workout, Gareth, and for the salute to the tasty Oreo!

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  29. Oh, I get it now...there's a specific variety called the Cork Oak, according to Wiki.

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  30. Had DESERT FOX instead of RAT PATROL. Wasn't there a movie by that title about Rommel with what's his name...Mason?

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  31. Dudley, yeah, I looked it up, too. Cork Oak, whaddya know.

    I can never keep L and D straight either. Nor has any mnemonic ever helped me to.

    I just had a nice phone call with my friend Loren Van Dijk. Yes, he still spells it that way. Everybody calls him van dick, which of course is mean and cruel, but he says he's used to it and has no plans to become "just another Van Dyke."

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  32. Nance- Good question about dropping the "A" in front of LICK AND A PROMISE. If "A", "THE", etc. is an integral and official part of the idiom it must be included. That's why we often see a clue that says "..., with "the". This not only applies to idioms, but also to quips, quotes, movie, song, book titles, and so forth. However, if you look up LICK AND A PROMISE it often has no A in front. Merriam-Websters, for example, omits it.

    It's bad form constructionwise to put "A" in front of a word or phrase when not absolutely required.

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  33. Tin, The USS ALASKA was another bugaoo in this one. I thought the salmon might be the state fish of Alaska (not OREGON). Then when I saw USS A>..appearing, I thought, "Oh, that must be the USS ARIZON....hmmmm, that won't work, will it???". Scratch-scratch-scratch....

    I did end up with the right ship and state, finally! But as you can see, as soon as I closed the puzzle, it all drained right out of my brain...

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  34. @Spitzboov, don't forget ATKA in your inventory of Aleutian islands.

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