google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Saturday, Dec 17th, 2011 Barry C. Silk

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Dec 17, 2011

Saturday, Dec 17th, 2011 Barry C. Silk

(Please click here to solve the LA Times Daily Crossword in old format.)

Theme: Saturday Silk

Words: 72

Blocks: 28

Well I just smoked through this puzzle today ~! A Saturday Silkie, with some answers made specially for us here at the corner ~! A smattering of single blocks in the center of a pinwheel of triple 9's and 10's. No spanners or climbers, and not too many obscure clues, I thought....how did you fare ???

Yes, No, Maybe, Not ??

Onward ~!

ACROSS:

1. Cause of a run, perhaps : WILD PITCH - Let's just start with a baseball answer for our host, C.C. - not a baseball fan myself: scoring a run on a WILD PITCH usually means it got a long way from the catcher, and the man on third was able to cross the plate

10. Benjamin : C-SPOT - I had C-NOTE to start, C designating 100, with Ben's mug on it



15. Two-time Best Situation Comedy Emmy winner : I LOVE LUCY - I did not know how many awards it did win; honestly, not a big fan - but I grew up with Tom & Jerry cartoons, so go figure

16. Still in contention : ALIVE

17. Scorned : DISDAINED

18. Oysterquartz maker : ROLEX - a WAG - makes me think of this line, @ 1:23

19. Agitates, with "at" : EATS

20. Physicist Ampère : ANDRE - the info on this man, who gave us the electrical term defining a unit of current in a circuit

22. New York Giants ownership family name : MARA - ah, I knew it was an "M" at the beginning, but even being from LI, NY, I am not that big of a fan to remember the name

23. Drink suffix : ADE - funny, but I went out with "the guys" tonight, and I don't drink, but when I read this, I was thinking Martini, Mai Tai, etc., - oh, yeah, like LEMONADE - get well, Mr. Friday ~!

24. Obstructs : OPPOSES - started with IMPEDES, was real proud of myself - but SLO-MO had to be right

26. Dilutes : THINS - as a painter, this one came easy

30. Locking blocks : LEGOs - Love this toy - I STILL have my collection, mostly the high-end kits that had some 'working' part, like the steering of the Go-Kart, the rotors of the helicopter....

32. Work with a shuttle : TAT - Dah~! I had SEW to start

33. Order of the British Empire, e.g. : HONOUR - knew this was an 'award', a 'medal', but ah, the British spelling of Honor

35. Butter up, perhaps : BE NICE TO - who are you BEING NICE TO now that Christmas is a week away ~!?!?

37. Film feline : ELSA - Lion King, right? Never saw it. (Correction: It's "Born Free".)

38. Key color : EBONY 50/50, EBONY or IVORY

40. Region : AREA

41. Antifreeze compound : METHANOL - again, all proud of myself for having ETHYLENE here

43. Some runners : MILERS

45. Result preceder : AS A - Never cut my finger off with a circular saw; AS A result, I still have ten digits

46. Like some waste : TOXIC

48. Center : MIDST - I was in the MIDST of some booty dancers tonight....

49. Something to use on leftovers : TIN FOIL - not that it's TIN, but the common phrase for aluminum wrap

51. Old dance : HOP - I had TAP to start

53. Fixed stake : ANTE - yeah, I was thinking TENT, but this is the betting, better version

54. Emphasize to excess : RUB IN - funny, I was doing the blog, and thought "Hey, I don't remember seeing the NAME "Rubin" in the grid..."

56. Composed : CALM - not WROTE, PENNED, or MADE

60. Fluffy : DOWNY

62. It "isn't what it used to be": Peter De Vries : NOSTALGIA - Har, har

64. In reserve : ON ICE - I had ON TAP here, not at 52D - what's On Ice, Tinbeni ??

65. Horror movie staples : CREATURES - And here's one directly for our own CREATURE

66. Get Mad again : RE-NEW - Ah, very good, the magazine, not the emotion

67. "I need a hand!" : "HELP ME OUT!"

DOWN:

1. Sweeping : WIDE

2. Pelvic parts : ILIA

3. Drama that began with a plane crash : LOST - was great to start, but I just couldn't stay with it

4. TCM merchandise : DVDs

5. Shell game need : PEA

6. Epic featuring Agamemnon : ILIAD - and ILIA in the same grid

7. Dig : TUNNEL - moles tunnel under the lawn

8. Kept in the loop, briefly : CCed - a little host hint again

9. It's always number one : HYDROGEN - on the periodic chart - I love this version

10. Ride : CAR

11. NFL review technique : SLO-MO

12. Featuring built-in columns : PILASTERED - tired BALUSTERED first

13. Jenny Craig targets : OVER-EATERS

14. Southern side : TEXAS TOAST - yeah, it's a Northern one, as well - I usually have it with a pasta dish

21. Karl Benz or Henry Ford : EPONYM - the 10D's are named after their makers, Ford, and Benz.

23. Grand Canyon State sch. : ASU - the "S" was in place, figured it was Arizona _ University

25. Chi follower : PSI

26. 2005 Brosnan/Kinnear film with a bullfight scene : THE MATADOR - never saw it - more here

27. Aces : HOLES IN ONE - I know Husker is a Duffer; anyone ever get a hole in one? I had a friend of mine who played every day ( retired, of course ) and his hole in one came on a day that he played alone - I believed him

28. Lottery draw : INSTANT WIN - I think more of the scratch-offs when I think of instant wins and lottery

29. Genesis builder : NOAH - a man and his Ark; Ancient Alien theorists believe this is a parable to some storage device for the DNA of every living thing on Earth - I am fascinated by these kinds of things

31. Town in Salerno : EBOLI - Do you think American tourism is down due to E. Coli, or Ebola?

34. "The Bathers" artist : RENOIR - here it is; such frolicking

36. Avianca airlines destination : CALI - oh, Columbia, South America map

39. Construction site sight : BOX LUNCH - yeah, OK, I was thinking BOOM CRANE

42. Words on some initial volumes : A TO - - like Encyclopaedia, "A to Amer", e.g.

44. Rap sca lli on : IMP - 3-2/3 times the letters, 4 times the syllables

47. Cheat : CHISEL - as in "he chiseled me out of a fiver"

50. One handling hot things? : FENCE - stolen items are "hot" - the fence takes it off your hands, at a discount, and puts it back in/on the market - here's my favorite fence

52. Ready : ON-TAP

55. Yawn inducer : BORE

56. Footprint, e.g. : CLUE

57. Field: Pref. : AGRO

58. Stead : LIEU

59. Clipper part : MAST - thought maybe SAIL - here's a Clipper - so named because it moved at a "clip", sez Wiki; Spitzboov was a sailor at one time, right?

61. Fine-grained wood : YEW - alternate to "bow-making wood"

63. Short-term funding source : ATM - ah, got me - took the AT_ before I figured out we were talking about our old favorite, the Automatic Teller Machine

Answer grid.

Splynter

30 comments:

thehondohurricane said...

Good day folks,

Woke up in the early AM so I printed out the puzzle and took a shot. Walla! I finished a Silkie with no outside help. Now I know the weekend card shows will be good.

I enjoyed this a lot. I found it difficult but doable too. The sports fills .... wild pitch, holes in one, Mara, gave me a foothold. Overeaters and Texas toast next to each other are strange bedfellows. Rolex was a gimme after looking at the small print on my watch.

Gonna leave other thoughts and comments up to everyone else or I'll sure go over the lines limit.

CC.. What's the fans reaction regarding Cuddyer signing with the Rockies? I thought he would be a Twin for life.

Off to go business. Hope I can stay awake!

Argyle said...

Hi Splynter,

Your smoke got in my eyes and I saw red, and even then I had trouble. Spelling HELP as HLEP and not noticing could have been a factor.

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

This one nearly defeated me, so no smoking for me...

There were large chunks I did blow through, but three out of the four corners proved really thorny. Down in the SE, I had a mostly blank space until I finally decided on CALM/MAST which gave me the foothold I needed. Nothing particularly challenging in that spot, but it just took me awhile to get going there.

In the NW, I started out with EPIC instead of WIDE for 1D and ILII instead of ILIA for 2D, and those errors definitely kept me back for awhile. I was looking for a person instead of a show at 15A, so that didn't help. Getting HYDROGEN at 9D finally allowed the light to dawn.

The NE, however, was the worst by far. Like Splynter, I had CNOTE to start. PILASTERED? MARA? Not in my wheelhouse. I know that TAT means to make lace, but I had no idea it involved using a loom (and hence a shuttle). I always thought it was done by hand with knitting needles or something. For awhile there I was staring at PILESNERED thinking it had something to do with pilsner beer or something... I finally started plugging in random letters until I got the A in MARA and the initial T in TAT, and voila!

Dudley said...

Hello Puzzlers -

Another workout today. Had to Goog MARA to finish the NE, since sports clues might as well be written in Sanskrit for all the good they do. Had SUCK UP TO for butter up, 'cause, well, it fit...

The NW was the last to fall. I LOVE LUCY did not spring to mind; I always thought it was junk, myself. Then there's WILD PITCH: another of those damned sports references.

Misread "Chi" as "Chai" and thus followed with TEA. Oops. Had to Goog Pierce Brosnan's résumé since I've seen little of his work.

Splynter: nice work, fella! ELSA is the lioness in Born Free, BTW.

G'Day, all!

Argyle said...

Tatting does use a shuttle but not a loom. It is done by hand, with fingers far more nimble than my nubbins. I watched it being done at one of those re-enactment events, French and Indian war, I believe.

Argyle said...

Tatting video.(2:18)

HeartRx said...

Good morning Splynter, C.C. et al.

Wonderful write-up Splynter. You had me chuckling and nodding my head all the way! Of course the puzzle was great, so you had a lot of good stuff to work with.

For 38A, I penned in “ivory” and immediately regretted it. Switched to EBONY and all was well with the world.

49A TIN FOIL might be something that prevents our sunset toaster from getting his drink…

Loved the clue “Southern side” for TEXAS TOAST, but only after I had figured out the answer. At first I couldn’t get DH out of my head, and was thinking along the lines of red-neck in-laws…

I also liked “Aces” for 27D HOLES IN ONE – great clue/ans. Yes, I have had a hole in one. It was on the day that the men’s league gathered, so I had a clubhouse full of people to buy drinks for!!

Have a splendid Saturday, everyone!

fermatprime said...

Hi all!

Doable puzzle in 30 min. with 3 googles! I am still trying to fall asleep! That's "voilá", Hondo with Rolex. Am so jealous (of money, not watch)!

Thanks for the video, Argyle! I sure was confused by TAT.

Why is a key EBONY? A PBK key is gold; so are several others that come to mind.

Have a great weekend!

desper-otto said...

This puzzle looked really daunting at first. I feared a DNF. But eventually my CNOTE grew spots, my IVORY turned black and my ASIDE was iced down. All together, it turned into a quick solve for a Saturday.

I should have known this was a Barry Silk puzzle, but the Barnacle doesn't print the author's name. Had to come here to learn that.

Splynter, thanx for explaining ATO. That was a total mystery to me. And I agree with you about INSTANTWIN -- that should be a SCRATCHOFF.

Dennis said...

fermatprime, think piano key.

Splynter, outstanding write-up - yours are always a fun read.

Tinbeni said...

Splynter: Wonderful write-up!

FINALLY, a Silky I could finish!

This was a strange solve (for me) since I had the NW (down to TOXIC) almost as fast as I could write.
ANDRE & RENOIR total wags.

Generally on a Silk, my first entry is probably somewhere in the SE. Go figure!

My reserves are NEVER "ON-ICE" (that would be blasphemy). But I also had 64-A as "on-tap" and then ON-TAP appeared at 52-D. So I cleaned up that AREA.

Cheers to all at Sunset.

PS Spitz: Enjoyed that Moose video you posted late on Friday.

SouthernBelle said...

Mornin' to all,

One good thing about working the cw on laptop....that red letter lets you know immediately you are Wrong. When I printed them out (& worked in pen) it was a very messy puzzle.

Lots of red letters today...but a fun puzzle. Thanks to Barry Silk, my brain had a good workout!

BOX LUNCH...hands up for a piece of construction equipment.

Yay, third xray shows toe is leaning & there is a small space, but healing. Maybe when the swelling goes down, it will straighten up.

Happy Saturday shopping!!

Spitzboov said...

Good morning all. Nice write-up, as usual, Splynter.

I love working Barry's puzzles and this one was mostly fun and doable except for the NE. Had Balustered before PILASTERED, and finally resorted to red-letter help for ROLEX and C-SPOT. Figured Benjamin had something to do with the $100 note but just could not suss cspot; or SLO MO either. 10d, CAR was fair but obscure which didn't help. TAT was well clued.

Splynter: Our ship (see avatar) had a MAST, too, but no sails. We steamed with 4 boilers, 600 psi, 850º superheat, delivering 60,000HP if needed, enabling 36 knots speed.

Glad some of you liked the moose video posted near the end of yesterday. The one calf seemed to really like the sprinkler and the mother seemed proud of the little buggers.

Husker Gary said...

Spending a Saturday morning with a Silkie and Splynter is pretty cool!

Musings
-Temporary missteps that fit – Run Cause/NYLONSNAG, Waste type/SOLID, Not what it used to be/THEFUTURE, Salerno town/EBOLA, Cheat/WEASEL, Wood/ASH or OAK, Clipper/SAIL
-Every sitcom plot today seems to be a variation of an I Love Lucy episode. Seeing them again makes me NOSTALGIC for the times not the shows.
-My kids built many levers, wheel and axles, pulleys, etc from LEGO physics kits
-Tin foil has not been common for years but it part of the lexicon
-Mad magazine much better than TV show
-Splynter, I’ve had some tap ins for 2 but no HOLESINONE. It’s 50 today and tomorrow and the snow is gone, so FORE! Marti, I’ll mail you a drink when I get one.
-It’s hard to get away from “Yawn Inducers” and I try not to be one

Husker Gary said...

p.s. We went to see The Descendants yesterday and it is a wonderful movie made by Omahan Alexander Payne who also made About Schmidt, Sideways and Election. The Hawaiian scenery alone is worth the price of admission and it is rated R only because the kids swear like they were raised by longshoremen. We went at 1:30 on a weekday and the theater was 80% full and most looked like us – card carrying AARP members who got in for $4.00 apiece at the matinee. It’s great to have options.

Dr. Johnson said...

I don't know who this Benjamin character is, but the C-SPOT is located just north of the G-spot, somewhat between the ILIA.
Definitely money, though!

xtulmkr said...

Puzzle was a total failure. Had shovel for 7d, cnote for 10a and was looking for Emmy writer instead of winner.

Also saw "The Descendants" . Thought if this was, as some critics claimed, the best picture of the year, I am glad that I didn't see the others.

LaLaLinda said...

Hi All ~~

I loved this puzzle! Barry Silk always taxes the brain, but in a good way ... simple one-word clues that involve some thinking. I managed to finish with no look-ups but relied on perps and more than a few good guesses! It was enjoyable to have it all come together on a Saturday Silkie.

~~ I really liked 'One who handles hot things' - FENCE, although the crossing of FENCE and DOWNY was my last to fill.

~~ Nice shout out to CREATURE ... CC and Tin were in there, too!

~~ Splynter ~ what a great write-up! I chuckled at your "...all proud of myself..." comment about your first thoughts for an answer. I do that so often and I hate to have to give up my great ideas. :-)

Off to do Christmas-y stuff ~ ~ Enjoy the day!

Anonymous said...

"walla" is actually voilá

Anonymous said...

Elsa is from "Born Free" not lion king. Thank you for always making the puzzle make sense to me.

Anonymous said...

Hi all,

Thanks, Splynter, can't do a Silkie without you!

RENOIR was my first confident fill since I knew this picture. Years ago I did art appreciation talks to fifth and sixth grade rooms once a month. The large prints we showed were sent out by our college extension dept. Our box of prints one year included "The Bathers". We had a lot of laughs about the idea of speaking on this picture before that age group. We didn't take it, of course.

-PK

eddyB said...

Hello.

The Gulf Oil Antifreeze that I worked with had ethylene glycol.
Methanol is a fuel that is used
on the 1/4 mile drag strip.

My hole-in-one score card is signed by the players who waved me up. Have it laminated.

Time to pay some bills and spend some more.

Cruiser would do about 32 knots.
Slept above the port screw.

eddy

Spitzboov said...

Anon @ 10:56 - If you're going to pick at walla, at least keep your voilas straight. It's voilà, not voilá.

Misty said...

Well, after a great puzzle week got sort of defeated on this one. The SW filled in pretty easily and quickly--thanks to HONOUR and ELSA. Guessed THE MATADOR, thank goodness, correctly. But had to cheat after that. Kept thinking something to do with "youngest son" for Benjamin--duh. I guess I'm better on my Bible than my money, which I do spend, like everyone, but never look at. Never saw a Rolex, or never noticed one, I don't think. It took getting EPONYM to finally have the middle fall in place. But I have to say, I do LOVE LUCY, and am looking forward to "The Descendants" having enjoyed two lovely trips to Kauai in the years before my husband's stroke.

Christmas party with 40 people at our house tomorrow, so have to run and scramble. Have a good weekend, everybody!

Steve said...

I like "Walla"! I'm going to start a campaign to get it into the dictionary by 2014.

Lovely puzzle, great write-up, Splynter. Fell asleep reading one of our early commenters but woke myself up when my forehead smacked onto my keyboard.

Loved HONOUR, of course.

Toodle-pip!

Jayce said...

Hello everybody. Well, yesterday's puzzle defeated me and today's almost did. Sometimes I just fill in total nonsense and then wonder why it makes no sense. For example, today I put in TEXAS COAST (the southern side of that state) and couldn't figure out what the heck TAC had to do with anything. I thought maybe Tac Transport, who runs a shuttle service, is what made the clue fit the fill.

Hands up for wanting IMPEDES.

Spelling DISDAINED as distained didn't help me understand what DVTS are or who TCM is.

And I couldn't think of anything other than BLACK or WHITE for key color. Doh. Brain not in gear these past coupla days, I guess, or too occupied thinking of other things.

Best wishes to you all.

Sfingi said...

@Barry - tatting uses what looks like a tiny shuttle which is passed by fingers in the proper directions.

I didn't care for ASU, since state was part of the clue.

Had SEurat instead of RENOIR - there are many pretty good paintings called Bathers.

Had SetH instead of NOAH. He is the ancestor of NOAH, both, thus, fathers of us all; and he built some columns.

Had sOlId instead of TOXIC.

In any case, I never finish a Barry Silk, and sometimes don't bother starting. When I do, I look up everything I don't know up front.

Learned something about ROLEX, though.

Abejo said...

Good Evening, folks. Thank you, Barry Silk, for a good work out today. Thank you, Splynter, for a great write-up.

Bounced around this puzzle a lot. Got a word here and there. Finally got the entire SW side. Slowly headed east with TOXIC and BOXLUNCH. Then the SE with those three long answers. They all came easily once I had MAST, LIEU, and CLUE.

My last answers to get were HYDROGEN and CCED in the NW. I had USED for CCED and that goofed me up for quite a while.

I started this this morning in Chicago and almost finished. Finally got the last few words tonight. Rand bell for the Salvation Army this afternoon. Our Lodge does this each year.

See you tomorrow.

Abejo

Chickie said...

Hola Everyone, I didn't quite finish this Silkie, but felt good about what I did get done. I just had a few answers in the SE corner unfinished.

I thought the box lunch answer to Construction site sight was clever. I had an aha moment when Cced came up for keeping one in the loop. A nice shout out to our C.C. I also loved the clue for Cali, where we lived in Colombia. Avianca airlines was a small plane company and we didn't have a jet airport when we lived in Cali. Times have really changed!

I had Texas coast at first for Southern side, but that gave me tac which I knew was incorrect. I have watched an aunt tat. I'm using the lace she used to make on several handkerchiefs. Her fingers used to just fly.

Great writeup Splynter. Thanks for helping to fill in the SE corner.

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

Lucina said...

Well, this party's over but I shall post anyway. I started the puzzle early, had to leave, then worked on Christmas cards. Took a break, worked on the puzzle some more then my granddaughters came to spend the night.

Finally finished the NE corner where I had CSPOT but CAB at 10D so finally looked up oysterquartz maker, ROLEX to finish it.

Oh, what a silken web our Barry weaves! Each quadrant filled very slowly, one cell at a time.

Nice shout outs to CREATURE, CC AND TIN!

Splynter, thank you for your always enjoyable blogging.

Everyone, I hope your Saturday was fulfilling and fruitful at this busy time.