google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Monday, October 24, 2011 Michael Wiesenberg

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Oct 24, 2011

Monday, October 24, 2011 Michael Wiesenberg

Theme: Witty Ditties - Early rock-n-roll songs with rhyming, two-word titles.

18A. 1966 Tommy James and the Shondells hit : HANKY PANKY. Clip(2:53) Song Facts

26A. 1958 Connie Francis hit : STUPID CUPID. Clip(2:13) Wikipedia

44A. 1956 Little Richard hit : TUTTI FRUTTI. Clip(2:27) Song Facts

56A. 1965 Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs hit : WOOLY BULLY. Clip(2:21) Song Facts

Argyle here. A lot of you probably solved this faster than you could have listen to the songs. Michael Wiesenberg has only given us themeless puzzles before today's. Interview.

Across:

1. Use a rotary phone : DIAL

5. Common movie theater name meaning "jewel" : BIJOU

10. Cheat (out of) : BILK

14. Regarding : AS TO

15. Accustom (to) : ENURE. Variant spelling.

16. Cad : ROUE

17. Armstrong who took a "giant leap for mankind" : NEIL

20. Release : LET LOOSE

22. Comes up, as the sun : RISES

23. Not working : IDLE

24. Knock for a loop : STUN

30. Printer's widths : EMs

33. Is wearing : HAS ON

34. First application line to fill in : NAME

35. Sheep sound : BAA

36. "My turn to bat!" : "I'M UP!"

37. Untrue : FALSE

39. List of choices : MENU. 52A. Dinner alternative, on a 39-Across : À LA CARTE. Cousin to À LA MODE.

40. Fed. pollution monitor : EPA. Environmental Protection Agency.

41. Rani's wrap : SARI

42. Gave a hoot : CARED

43. Mineo of "Rebel Without a Cause" : SAL. Picture of Mineo, Dean and Wood.

47. Puts on : DONS

48. 1982 Disney sci-fi film : "TRON". TRON: Legacy (2010) was the follow-up.

49. Wedding site : ALTAR

59. Cat that roars : LION. Pop quiz: Non-roaring big cat is __?

60. Auditorium : HALL

61. Remark between actor and audience : ASIDE

62. Aware of : ON TO

63. Nothing but : ONLY

64. Do a lawn job : RESOD

65. Mellows, as wine : AGES

Down:

1. Pioneer Boone, folksily : DAN'L

2. "Understood" : "I SEE"

3. Working busily : AT IT

4. Sweet sucker : LOLLIPOP

5. "Look!" : "BEHOLD!"

6. "Right away!" : "IN A SEC". I guess "IN A SEC" is an answer to "Right away!" but hardly means the same thing.

7. Popular wedding month : JUNE

8. Comedic TV alien's planet : ORK. Mork from ORK, "Nanu Nanu!".

9. Turn you hang, in slang : UEY. Just one of the spellings.

10. Scarecrow's lack : BRAIN

11. Electrified particles : IONs

12. Gospel writer : LUKE

13. Islets : KEYS

19. Bluenose : PRUDE

21. Thor's father : ODIN

24. Luxury hotel bathroom features : SPAs

25. Clock readout : TIME

26. Acts skittish : SHIES

27. Florida city on its own bay : TAMPA

28. Pub order, with "the" : USUAL

29. Dark : UNLIT

30. Thumbs-up reviewer : EBERT. Roger.

31. "Olympia" painter Édouard : MANET. Painting.

32. Riyadh resident : SAUDI. Take a peek at some of the buildings, Google.

37. Goat-man of myth : FAUN. Like this old goat.

38. Painting and sculpture, e.g. : ARTS

39. Hawaiian volcano : MAUNA LOA

41. Building level : STORY

42. Swamp beast : CROC

45. "That's good enough" : "IT'LL DO"

46. On edge, as nerves : FRAYED

47. Dawdle : DALLY

49. Dr. Seuss's "Horton Hears __" : A WHO. "Boil that dust speck!"

50. Bank offer : LOAN

51. Bridge crossing charge : TOLL

52. Father-daughter boxers : ALIs. Laila and Mohammed.

53. Workplace for the 52-Down : RING

54. Handy bag : TOTE

55. Grandson of Adam who reputedly lived to 905 : ENOS

57. Place for a drink : BAR

58. Consume : USE


Argyle

59 comments:

Dudley said...

Hello Puzzlers - What Argyle said. This was a pretty speedy solve.

Never noticed how many rhyming song titles there were in the pop songbook.

Hahtoolah said...

Good morning, Argyle and friends. Well, unlike Argyle and Dudley, I did not find this a speed run. I was not familiar with the first two songs, but did catch on that they were rhyming titles.

Dan'l Boone was a man. It was a catchy theme song, although I have no memory of the actual TV show.

Mainaic probably remembers that the Bluenose was a passenger ferry that went from Bar Harbor to Nova Scotia.

Nice shour-out to Tinbini with 27-Down!

Pop Quiz Answer: Cheetah!

QOD: Defending the truth is not something one does out of a sense of duty or to allay guilt complexes, but is a reward in itself. ~ Simone de Beauvoir

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

Not quite a speed run for me, although still pretty fast. I think the only thing that really slowed me down at all were the theme answers, most of which I had to wait for some perps to get. I'm familiar with the phrase HANKY PANKY, for example, but didn't know it was a song. And I've never heard of STUPID CUPID before. In fact, the only one I knew right off the bat was TUTTI FRUTTI.

Oh -- and I also had no idea what 52 was going to be until I had almost all the perps. I know what A LA CARTE means, but it just didn't come to mind while reading the clue.

thehondohurricane said...

Good day folks,

Clever puzzle today and, in my opinion, with a higher difficulty factor then a normal Monday. The theme clues were 50/50 for me. Stupid Cupid & Tutti Frutti I remembered, but can't honestly say I ever heard of Hanky Panky or Wooly Bully. Needed perp assistance for all four answers though.

Never know if it's ems or ens. The Manet fill took care of that dilemma. The W for AWHO & Wolly Bully was a swag. Never was a fan of the Doctor.

The rest of the puzzle went pretty smooth with only one or two hiccups.

Enjoy your Monday.

SouthernBelle said...

Good Morning to all! I've been gone a long time; am still caregiver, but just moved in with daughter & family after a lot of arm twisting!!
Working on a laptop instead of printing it out and remembered someone telling how to speed up getting to where you wanted to go....does that sentence make sense? NO. What I mean, how do you get from one square to the other easily...surely not by using the mouse as I had to do this morning!

What should have taken a few minutes, took at least 15 minutes!

Hope some kind soul, such as Argyle, might help me.

Great being back.

Anonymous said...

Enjoyed the puzzle and write-up. A little silliness is fun. I thought "Hanky Panky" was recorded earlier, because I have a memory of a group of young teen girls singing "Hanky Panky I'll Spanky" before we knew what the heck HP was. Then we convulsed into giggles.

One super blooper on 30 across, then wondered who Nanet was. Duh!

-PK

Abejo said...

Good Morning, folks. Thanks Michael, for the Monday puzzle. Thank you, Argyle, for the write-up and great links.

This was not a speed run, but easily done. All the theme answers were familiar to me from my youth.

Thought BILK was a good answer. Not one that has been seen a lot, if ever. Reminds me of Sgt Bilko, Phil Silvers.

Interesting photos of Riyadh, Argyle. We pretty much built the whole thing with our oil purchases.

Had a problem with 9D Turn you hang, in slang/UEY. Got it with perps.

See you tomorrow.

Abejo

desper-otto said...

Unfortunately, I'm old enough to remember all of those songs as well as Sal Mineo. Anonymous, the Hanky Panky was a dance -- at least in the Tommy James & Shondells version. Definitely a speed run today.

Barry G. said...

SouthernBelle: Welcome back!

You can use the arrow keys to jump from one letter to the next and hit the Tab key to jump from one word to the next. You can also hit the Space bar to switch from vertical to horizontal (and vice versa).

fermatprime said...

Hi everyone!

Woke up after 1.5 hours sleep. So decided to work puzzle now rather than late at night!

Fun puzzle, Michael; great write-up, Argyle!

Not a speed run. Know nothing of these songs. Wondered at JUST A SEC.

Hope to get to Home Depot today for some large, flat, ceramic pots for my echeverrias that are falling out of their pots; also new shoots to root. Friend Harvey hurt his back again so I will have to go very late to insure that they have wheeled carts available (I am a terror in these big things).

Happy week, all!

HeartRx said...

Good morning Argyle, C.C. et al.

Thanks for the write-up and link to Michael's interview, Argyle. What a talented constructor!

I didn't have any problems with the puzzle, but some of the entries/clues did seem more like later in the week entries, like BIJOU, A LA CARTE, MAUNA LOA, TRON.

The phrases didn't pop into mind immediately: IN A SEC, I'M UP, I SEE, IT'LL DO. So those slowed down my typical Monday solve time a tad.

I did love the theme songs, and they were all easily gettable with perps.

Have a nice day everyone!

Yellowrocks said...

Argyle, as you said, it was a speed run. I didn't remember any of the songs, but didn't need to. With HANKY, the immediate thought was PANKY.. AHA, rhymes!! Because I do across and down together, I had partials for each theme as I got to it, so guessed all the themes in seconds. This puzzle worked better by not doing all the acrosses at first pass and then all the downs.

Spitzboov said...

Good morning Argyle and all

Boogey Woogie - Easy Peasy. While I don't try to do a speed run, because I like to savor the puzzle, this one went pretty fast. No strikethroughs, no lookups. I always get Monet and MANET confused but BAA took care of that. Seemed to be more than usual compound? fills - ITLL DO, LET LOOSE, IN A SEC, etc. But its Monday and I enjoyed it.

Have a great start to the week.

Husker Gary said...

Michael, What a lovely paen to the songs of my youth! It was a fun activity as I get ready to hit the links! Speaking of links, you had some great ones Argyle!

Musings
-Pat Boone had to cover Tutti Frutti and some other hits of the 50’s to make them palatable to white audiences - Aint’ That A Shame, Blue Suede Shoes (pre Elvis), et al. How sad!
-Some of us can remember the dial phone as a technological leap
-In our small hometown with a 2 block main street, UIE’s were very common as you listened to the songs in this puzzle!
-A lot of gospels didn’t make the cut at the Council of Nicea
-The swamps of Louisiana have gators and not many crocs and the History Channel’s Swamp People makes for great TV and cultural insight.
-We had a nice FRAYED joke last week, didn’t we?
-Muana Kea/Muana Loa? And the winner is…
-Fore!

Sfingi said...

My Boy Lollipop - You make my heart go giddyup; another early novelty rock-n-roll, but not rhyming or reduplicative.

@Desperotto - never be ashamed! It was a great time to be around.

Thanx for SAL photo. A distant cousin of Hubster, Sicilian, of course.

kazie said...

Easy but not so easy as I expect on Monday. The top slowed me down a bit, as I'd never heard "turn you hang" quite that way before and only now, as I'm typing my rant, do I realize the reference. I always say "chuck" a uey (and have never seen uey written out before so didn't recognize what it was either), and "hang" a right or a left.

The songs were all only vaguely familiar, and I never took notice of the artists' names back then, so that didn't help at all. Not being so familiar with Seuss, I had to guess the W of wooly.

I thought of shark for bluenose.

Fermatprime,
You always amaze me with what you are able to get done, or contemplate doing from a wheelchair!

No other problems. have a good Monday all of you!

desper-otto said...

Abejo, BILK reminds me of ACKER. Back in '62, I think it was, Acker Bilk had a big instrumental hit with "Stranger On The Shore." I don't suppose ACKER would have been considered a fair crossword clue, though.

Grumpy 1 said...

Good morning Argyle and all ye Monday peeps. Thanks for the trip down memory lane, Argyle.

My only hangup was putting in hulLY BULLY, which gave me A hoO and several indecipherable words in that corner. A generous application of Liquid Paper and solving the downs solved the problem.

I didn't know that BIJOU meant jewel, but JUNE was so obvious that there wasn't anything else to consider.

Nice easy start to the week.

Anony-Mouse said...

Nice puzzle Mr. Wiesenberg - does it rhyme with Heisenberg ? (last week, Uncertainty principle ). Some clues were tricky, but I managed to get them. Argyle thanks for the nice write -up. I wasn't familiar with 'Bijou' - that was my last fill and of course, I'd never heard of UEY. I had 'LOEWS' instead of 'Bijou'.

The song names seemed vaguely familiar - though I'd never heard any of them.

I was tempted to write 'Fees' for 'Loan' for 'Bank offer'. Thanks to the restrictive rules by the Congress, the banks have to really resort to 'innovative practices' to keep up their 'bottom line'. One bank charges a $ 1 to just say, 'Hi' or 'Good morning' to the teller....

Alt QOD:- I have a little tip that can take five strokes off anyone's golf game. It's called an eraser. ~ Arnold Palmer.

eddyB said...

Hello.

No speed run because I G'ed all of the songs as I came across them.
Sweet memories.
Lollipop was a 1958 song covered by the Chordettes. Even have a copy of Pat Boone doing Tutti
Frutti.

Have copies of the 'Lost Gospels'.
Kinda tell a different story especially The Book Of Judas.

Water will be shut off while more trenches are dug across the road.
Going to be tricky getting out of the driveway.

Take care. eddy

Argyle said...

Grumpy 1, did you mix it up with Hully Gully?

Tinbeni said...

Argyle: You're right, it took about as long as listening to your song links.
But I needed the perps to get each theme song started. (Esp.with that LOLLIPOP song rolling around my BRAIN).

TAMPA Bay was a gimmie. I wonder why.
(Damn, Dunedin Bay wouldn't fit).

Here, in DF-land, in the NW ... I-SEE, A-TIT.

I'll have my USUAL, from the BAR, when I "toast" y'all at Sunset.

thehondohurricane said...

Speaking of rhyming song titles. I was just out doing my morning business... bank, PO, etc. and the radio station played Jeepers Creepers. It's been eons since I heard that tune played.

DBinDover said...

I do the puzzle in our daily newspaper every morning before going to work. I found your site about a year ago.. and I check in with all of you daily. It is satisfying to know that my brain processes are not so strange.. and then again... Love the Crossword Corner.. and thanks!

Grumpy 1 said...

@Argyle, YUP! Looking back over the grid I see that I also had to change a G to a B. With the last four letters being the same in the two words of each of the previous entries, 'Hully Gully' would have been a better fit. Working backward from the SE corner led me to that trap.

Argyle said...

LOLLIPOPS in time for Halloween:

By the Chordettes - Lollipop.

By Millie Small - My Boy Lollipop.
(It took awhile to find a clip where she wasn't lip syncing. She is terrible at it.)

Jazzbumpa said...

Hi gang -

I also thought this was a little harder than the USUAL Monday. NE was last to fill. STUPID CUPID was my first theme answer, so then the lightbulb went on for HANKY PANKY.

"Is wearing" led me to erosion - DOH! UEY flummoxed me.

EMS/ENS, MANET/MONET, BAA/MAA - and all in a cluster.

LETLOOSE crossing ATIT reminded me of the old days when these songs were popular and bras were burned.

Overall, a fun puzzle to BEHOLD.

Had dinner at a nice Hungarian Restaurant with some of my T-town relatives yesterday, and got my aunt Helen's Chicken Paprikas recipe. It starts: First you steal a chicken . . .

Cheers!
JzB didn't sleep well but I'M UP

Argyle said...

Lavender Blue, just because I like it!

Anonymous said...

where's jeannie?

TinoTechie said...

Could not get on the constructor's wave length today, so harder than usual Monday for me.

Could not parse the meaning of 9D "Turn you hang, in slang" so only perps filled it in.

15A ENURE and 16A ROUE are new to me.

I am discovering that being a poor speller is a hinderance to doing crosswords. Maybe I doing these will help improve my spelling.

Thanks to all for the witty comments and insight.

Argyle said...

Thank you, DBinDover. Stop in any time.

Grumpy 1 said...

I'm not sure where/when it started, but some of the guys on my construction crews would use the phrases "Hang a Uey" for U-turn, "Hang a Louie" for left turn and "Hang a Ralph" for right turn. Figuring out that the clue was referring to a U-turn was easy. Deciding on the spelling, UEY, Uie or some other variant was harder. Is that one of those clues where you hold your nose and say "Eewwee!"?

desper-otto said...

Argyle, when I think of Lavender Blue, I think of the Sammy Kaye version -- but I guess that was about a decade earlier than Solomon Burke. Over the years lots of folks have taken their shot at that song.

eddyB said...

Love yesterday's 9 Chickweed Lane cartoon. Anons come to mind.

Clear Ayes said...

Good Morning All, I had the same problem as Kazie and Tino-Techie with parsing 9D) "Turn you hang, in slang"/UEY. I've flipped a UEY and hung a LUEY, but it wasn't until the perps filled it in that the V-8 can connected.

I loved the rhyming theme songs. They brought back a lot of sock-hop memories and mmmm..mmm.... summer night lake-side dancing at Lake Arrowhead Pavilion.

The only problem I had was with WOOLY BULLY. I had Alley Oop going through my mind. That's all good. It was another great dancing song.

Argyle, thanks for The Chordettes' "Lollipop" link. Then another progression to their Mr. Sandman. The last half of the 50's were very good years!

Sphinxter said...

Hey eddy!
It was today's strip, not yesterday's. Get it right!

Argyle said...

Now that I've seen the comic, here's the original post.


Sphinxter said...

Hey eddy!
It was today's strip, not yesterday's. Get it right, you fat gasbag!



Posted by Sphinxter to L.A.Times Crossword Corner at October 24, 2011 12:34 PM

Avg Joe said...

On the comics thread, today's Non Sequitur ties in nicely with yesterday's conversation about multilingualism.

Lucina said...

Hello, Argyle, C.C. and all.

You said it, Argyle.This was faster than you can say, nanu, nanu or almost. DIAL immediately set the stage for a nostalgic trip to the 50s and 60s.

Wasn't BIJOU the theater where Archie, Veronica, Betty and Jughead went to the movies?

My only erasure was at WOOLY until Horton Heard the WHO (The who, that's another lovely group from the golden age of rock and roll).

Oh, yes, INURE before ENURE and we have seen UEY before though in variant spellings as Argyle mentioned.

Amazing photos of Riyadh. Thanks.

Have a beautiful Monday, everyone!

dodo1925 said...

Howdy pardners,
What Dudly only not as speedy. Fast for me, though.
No hangups or hitches. Thanks Michael and Argyle.

JD said...

Good morning Argyle, C.C. et al,

Very speedee (spelling variation) one today, and loved all the music links.Simple words, and then enure, roue, ems were thrown in. Know prude and shies, but those 2 took a letter to shake my brain..as did most of Hanky Panky...not familiar with that one.

Welcome back Southern Belle!
Barry G.-that was helpful info; should slice time off for me too.

Let Loose...anyone see Footloose,? I enjoyed it, but missed the old sound tract.

dodo1925 said...

Sorry; I left out the 'said'. and Misspelled Dudley. thats what speedy does!

Jayce said...

Hello everybody. I got a lot of pleasure out of today's enjoyable puzzle. Like Spitzboov, I like to savor the puzzles, so I didn't try to hurry through it.

Great rhyming song titles. We've boogied to Wooly Bully at many a party.

Thanks to you all for interesting comments and links. Hours of entertainment :)

Best wishes.

Lemonade714 said...

Hey all, busy monday but BILK always reminds me of this CHARACTER .

Them were the days; welcome DB, everyone got the Monday blues?

eddyB said...

Hello.

Hey, yourself. Yahoo/comics said it was Sunday's. Still funny.
Thanks for the link.

And to Argyle for the link to Lollipop. Still play my 45s once in awhile.

Won't need to buy a ticket for
Dec 1st. Brian said it would be an early BD present. Will still be at Paddy's.

See ya. eddy

Bill G. said...

I headed off to the beach for my usual bike ride. I happened to see an old teacher acquaintance of mine. We chatted a bit. She started to head off for a walk and I mentioned she had neglected to put any money in the parking meter. She said she didn't have to since she had a handicapped parking placard due to a hip replacement. Is that really the case? If you have a handicapped sticker, you don't have to feed the meter...?

With a subject of favorite old songs being brought up in the puzzle, it reminded my of this song by three of my favorite singers. Mr. Sandman

Steve said...

Learned that "storey" has an alternate spelling here in the US of "story" - another one for the list of stuff that this transplant from the UK needs to remember.

Otherwise, pretty quick - needed a lot of crosses for the song titles, the only one I knew was TUTTI FRUTTI but the theme and the crosses helped out just fine.

someone said...

Bill G, yes in California and a few other states handicapped people are exempt from paying into meters. In our town, they did away with all meters as a favor for doing business. Nice!!

Frank said...

Uno, dos, one, two, tres, quatro...

Hahtool - I just watched "Paris, je t'aime" last night, and one of stories mixes up Simone de Beauvoir with Simon Bolivar (intentionally, I assumed). Weird seeing your QOD today.

eddyB - Looks like Sphinxter was just playing along with the spirit of the comic. I'm sure it was nothing against you personally. I thought it was pretty funny, actually, and somewhat ironic that Argyle removed that first post.

Also ironic to see it's not all anons who are trolls...

Watch it now!

KeaauRich said...

Aloha all from the Big Island, home of 39D and four other future volcano clues...

Since my morning is everyone else's midafternoon, i'm always behind the curve in posting comments, but here's my two cents... Today was a breeze once i surrendered to Mr. Wiesenberg and allowed 20A to be let loose not let leave...

And "Monet" reminded me of a friend who once said his trip to the singles bar was a bust because the crowd there were all Monets. Say what? "They looked great from a distance, but up close they were a mess..."

We can all take solice that on the internet no one knows you're a Monet...

Jerome said...

So, anyway, as i solved the puzle I was humming this.

Don't know why. I just did. Husband wasn't home

eddyB said...

Bill G. I can also get a handicap
placard in PA for rentals since I have handicap plates in CA.

eddy

Get Rid Of Slimy Snarks said...

Admin, after G.R.O.S.S. earlier rude comments to Hahtool and others, why allow her/his? later comment to stand without any apologies? This person is obviously out to make trouble on the blog. Go ahead and delete this, but maybe a few people will see and understand.

Jerome said...

I apologize to Hahtool, sincerely.

Jerome said...

So, anyway, for my fifth trick, I will perform an amazing feat.

Wishful thinking said...

Disappear?

Nacho momma said...

Wishful thinking, you must be in Mensa.

Chickie said...

Hola Everyone, So late to the blog tonight, that everything has been said. I did enjoy Argyle's links. Any one else have the problem of Neal, Neil? This always hangs me up. Perps are a lifesaver in this case.

I wanted to welcome Southern Belle back to the blog. It has been a long time and we missed you.

The World Series is exciting again tonight. Fun to watch, especially since I haven't a favorite team this year. Just enjoying the games without having to hold my breath every inning.

Have a great evening everyone.

Unknown said...

I am back!
Easy one today. Many thanks to Argyle for his blogging.
Another Memphis reference today. Did you catch it? Sam the Sham of "wooly Bully" was a Memphis guy.
Off to bed now.
Sleep tight all!