google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Friday, June 22, 2012, Jeremy Horwitz and Tony Orbach

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Jun 22, 2012

Friday, June 22, 2012, Jeremy Horwitz and Tony Orbach

Theme: It sounds like RAIN. Each of the three theme answers replaces Rain in a common phrase with a homonym, creating a punny new phrase. Rain also appears in the unifier. This is our second offering from Mr. Horwitz, he did the interesting tribute to Peter O'Toole last year with a co-constructor. This time he teams up with Tony Orbach, a NY Times regular. Jeremy has had some solos published in the NYT. They have some nice long horizontal fill in this one. Let us decode where this math expert (cryptographer?) leads us.

17A. Beaver's motto? : REIN WATER. (RAIN WATER) Dam, this one was hard. It took a while and the perps to suss this out and then a moment to realize it referred to the water blocking tendencies of this suggestively named creature. Once you remember REIN comes from the same Latin stem from which we get restrain, it all makes sense.

31A. Device for measuring a king's performance? : REIGN GAUGE (RAIN GAUGE). Reign comes from the Latin REGNUM, rule, kingship.

48A. Jig performed by Wilson of "The Office"? : RAINN DANCE.(RAIN DANCE). This ACTOR. Not sure why he received the extra N. One was good enough for Richard Pryor.

66A. Postponement...or what was not performed in 17-, 31- and 48-Across? : RAIN CHECK. Well, not really, it is what you get when there is a postponement. Anyway, let us see how this duo clues....

Across:

1. Be positive : KNOW. I know you all got this to start us off.

5. Erases from the bases : TAGS. Like the rhyme this time, and baseball for C.C.

9. Ebb : ABATE. A happy A word.

14. John Ratzenberger voiced one in "Monsters, Inc." : YETI. Three cheers for this voice actor who will always be Cliff to me.


15. Puerto Rico, por ejemplo : ISLA. Spanish.

16. Edible mushroom : MOREL. The official fungus of the Corner! We are not the only ones who get excited about this suggestive shape. LINK.

19. Model : IDEAL. Do you have a favorite? Also, 52.A Supermodel Taylor : NIKI. She has had some bad times.

20. Uncertain : AT SEA.

21. Auburn, e.g.:Abbr. : UNIVersity. Located in Auburn, Alabama.

23. Rochester's love : EYRE. Jane, from the novel, not Jack Benny.

24. One queued up for petrol : BRIT. Hello to all of our Brits whereever they may be. Steve, NC? And 72A. Ozzy Osbourne duo? : ZEDS. More Brit speak, Z.

26. "So will I...make the net/ that shall enmesh them all" speaker : IAGO. It is like they know how much I love me some Shakespeare on my blog days, from Othello.

28. Sri Lankan king : RAJA.

36. Takes over : USURPS. Robert Baratheon, the Usurper.

38. "You must be looking for someone else" : NOT I. Please no more grammar.

39. Westernmost Rocky Mountain st. : NEVada.

40. USMC enforcers : MPS. United States Marine Corps. Military Police.

41. Doctor's threads? : LAB COAT. Am I the only one who thought of Rocky Horror?

43. One in Saint-Émilion : UNE. Francaise Une, zero, une.

44. U.N. Day month : OCTober. We all celebrate this day, right. $1.00 to anyone but Tinbeni who knows the date without looking.

45. Ghostly glow : AURA.

46. Antagonist in Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" : GASTON. You think he gets a bad RAP?

51. Future D.A.'s hurdle : LSAT. Law School Admission Test, obligatory law reference.

53. City with Ibsen quotes set into its sidewalks : OSLO. Jerome, have you been?

55. "Jaws" boat : ORCA.

57. Woodpile protector : TARPaulin. Usually we see this with baseball diamond.

60. Prefix with arthritis : OSTEO. From the Greek.

64. Show emotion, say : REACT. Oh no, oh no, oh yessss, yessss. See, I can act.

68. Sink : BASIN.

69. Seller of SOMMARVIND beach accessories : IKEA. I get this initialism often and I am not re-posting the words.

70. Logical lead-in : ERGO. Latin, Cogito ergo sum. Je pense, donc je suis. Descartes.

71. Pooped : SPENT. I am and I still have to do all the downs.

73. Eucharist wafer, e.g. : DISK.

Down:

1. Actress Sedgwick : KYRA. The CLOSER, married to Kevin Bacon. And, 65D. "The Closer" channel : TNT.

2. Old depilatory : NEET. NAIR NO HAIR?

3. Publisher Chandler : OTIS. A shout out to the LA Times for this last member of his FAMILY.

4. Place to enjoy the last blush of summer? : WINE BAR. Nice fill, nice pun on blush wine. And, 22D. 4-Down concerns : VINTAGES. From the French.

5. Andalusian aunt : TIA.

6. Sharp : ASTUTE. He was astute, an A student.

7. Small valley : GLEN. Not Campbell.

8. Bollywood wrap : SARI. I linked how to wrap one, you all recall?

9. "What __ to do?" : AM I? I must keep going still work to do.

10. Barrio market : BODEGA. This MARKET. We have many here in Hialeah and Miami.

11. "Don't be a fool!" : ARE YOU NUTS? Nice new fill.

12. Rip : TEAR. One of my favorite actors, not at his BEST.

13. Vogue rackmate : ELLE. Magazine rack, not Dennis' life work.

18. Major fight : WAR.

25. Taxing event, in more ways than one : IRS AUDIT. Taxing event, what form!

27. Mylanta target : AGITA. A good new jersey word.

28. Mill story? : RUMOR. The old rumor mill.

29. Toy-saving org. : ASPCA. Toy dogs. American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

30. As a precaution : JUST IN CASE. Who is this Justin case guy anyway?

32. Early Peruvian : INCAN. Or Prince Albert?

33. Gunk : GOO. Eyes, dolls?

34. City SSW of Milan : GENOA.

35. Happening : EVENT.

37. Pirate ship part : PLANK. Nice place for a walk?

42. Two-piece piece : BRA.

47. Stinko : SLOSHED. Blotto, smashed, etc.

49. Vitamin B3 : NIACIN.

50. Ripped from a CD : COPIED. ?

54. ___ cit.: footnote abbr. : LOC. We use Id. the abbreviation of Ibid. LINK.

55. Balls : ORBS. I grabbed by his orbs? No.

56. Gather : REAP. What you sow.

58. Where PHX airport is : ARIZ.

59. Fall tool : RAKE. I am going to leave this clue alone.

61. Actress Hatcher : TERI. One of my favorite guests on SEINFELD and a dangerous housewife..

62. ER readouts : ECGS. Not as well known as EKGS, but more accurate. ElectroCardioGrams.

63. "All right, already!" : OK OK. We are almost done.

67. ___ in November : N AS.

Answer grid.

Well my pretties, we have managed to rush through another week. It was fun. Thank you all for tuning in, so now it is time to say good night Chet.

Lemonade

58 comments:

Hungry Mother said...

Nice and easy this morning.

HeartRx said...

Good morning Lemonade, C.C. et al.

And a fine job this morning, Lemon! Really…racks and balls in one puzzle, along with BRA and our favorite mushroom, the MOREL? Too funny! I also stared at 17A for a while, before the V8 moment hit. I was not familiar with RAINN Wilson, since I have never seen “The Office”. So thank goodness for perps.

I liked how WINE BAR and VINTAGES were symmetrically placed in the grid. ARE YOU NUTS was really fun fill. And they even got a “J” in there for you, Lemon!!

TGIF – supposed to be another scorcher here, but maybe some rain will come and wash away the heat. Have a good one, everybody!

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

A little easier than yesterday's puzzle, but still plenty of crunch to satisfy.

I initially got really bogged down in the NW corner when I (a) couldn't remember if Ms Sedgwick was KIRA or KYRA, (b) couldn't decide if 2D was NEET or NAIR, (c) had no idea who Mr. Chandler was, (d) didn't remember the name of any of the characters from "Monsters, Inc" {and yes, I was mistakenly looking for the name of a character and not a type of monster) and (e) couldn't figure out what the clue was getting at for 4D.

I eventually just left that corner mostly blank. Once I figured out the theme, however, I was able to go back and put in the REIN of REIN WATER at 17A, which gave me NEET and everything else quickly fell into place.

Hahtoolah said...

Good Morning, Lemonade and friends. On my first pass, I was afraid this might be a DNF, but I persevered. I am a fan of The Office, so RAINN (Wilson) DANCE was my Rosetta Stone.

I knew I had two choices for the Sedgwick actress, and of course, I initially chose Edie instead of KYRA.

I didn't think of Rocky Horror when the LAB COAT was revealed, but there sure is a lot of RAIN in that movie.

Auburn UNIV has been in the new a lot recently because some crazy Alabama fan Poisoned trees on the campus following a 'Bama football loss against Auburn.

QOD: I'd worship the ground you walked on if only you walked in a better neighborhood. ~ Billy Wilder

Anonymous said...

"well...my pretties..." you must have been reading "Dustin" this past week!

Husker Gary said...

With apologies to Mr. Handel, I’m not omnipotent but I reigneth over this lovely puzzle! It took the second theme answer to get the first as the fill of REIN WATER is “out there”, but all in all a fun solve! My golf course had 2.5” in the gauge yesterday morning. These have quit running for awhile.


Musings
-Rookie TV weather people around here bemoan forecasts of RAIN and celebrate its ending or failure to appear. Not a good idea in this farming state! “ARE YOU NUTS?”
-I never saw the two n’s in RAINN
-If the throw beats the runner to the base, he’ll probably be called out even if he avoids the TAG
-I thought of Eddie Robinson’s Rochester first as well
-Four letter name for someone that sounds “Shakespearean”? Piece (IAG)’O cake!
-Are comfort and IKEA mutually exclusive? In my daughter’s house - yes.
-The only GLEN I have ever known was the one who told me there was not Santa Claus
-Have you seen anyone PLANKing
-Joann loves locust trees because there are no leaves to RAKE

Husker Gary said...

BTW, to extend this water theme, our little town of Fremont has been judged to have the best tap water in America. Marti, I could send you a magnum of Chateau d’Gary if you promise to imbibe in moderation! Tin, I ain’t even offering you any! I don’t want to dilute your Pinch ;-).

Mari said...

KYRA Sedgwick and The Closer (TNT)? Somebody likes their TV. Speaking of, I always hear the term BODEGA on Law & Order. In Chicago we just call them mini-marts.

A lot of nice clues today. I liked:
- 68A: Sink - BASIN (I was thinking of sink as a verb)
- 28D Mill Story? RUMOR
- 29D - Toy-Saving Org? ASPCA (yay for the animals!)

I didn't get REIN WATER until I came here. Thanks for the clarification.

We don't need a rain gauge here. It's been a hot and dry summer.

I hope everybody has a beautiful day and a spectacular weekend!

Abejo said...

Good morning, folks. Thank you, Jeremy and Tony, for a good puzzle. Thank you, Lemonade, for the swell write-up.

Well, I slogged through this. It was tough. Got it all except the SE corner. Too many tough ones all in one spot for me.

Wags and Perps helped. Got EYRE for 23A. I was thinking of Rochester on the Jack Benny show. Perps to the rescue.

Got the three theme answers fairly easily. However, RAIN CHECK eluded me. I tried RAIN DELAY and RAIN TODAY. No cigar.

On that I will get going for the rest of my day. Looks like I am heading to Virginia for my cousin's wife's funeral.

See you tomorrow from somewhere.

Abejo

desper-otto said...

TGIF, all!

Fun puzzle today, and a fairly quick solve to boot. The RAIN DELAY slowed me down for a bit until I CHECKed it. Otherwise it was a straight-forward dive to the bottom of the grid.

Tomorrow I leave for D.C. to help relocate FIL to an assisted living facility. No CW Blog for a week or so. I'll miss it.

kazie said...

I too thought this was fairly simple for a Friday, albeit with many WAGS and some I couldn't quite parse until here (NAS).

I think it's cute that RAINN's wife has REIN in her name.

Last fill was ZEDS, which came to me as I was clearing the breakfast table--I didn't even go back to look at it again. It just struck me.

Have a great Friday and weekend if I don't "see" you again until Monday.

HeartRx said...

Husker G @ 8:13, "Which VINTAGE???"

Ohioan said...

Husker: I thought you lived in Nebraska. St. Henry, Ohio was recently deemed to have the best municipal water in the US.

Husker Gary said...

Marti, how about something in a cheeky 2012, delivered in a Mason jar for a hydorphile such as yourself? Very wet and works well on your flowers too!

Irish Miss said...

Good morning:

Congrats Jeremy and Tony for a tough but fair Friday offering and to Lemon for a nice expo.

Finished w/o help but had a few write- overs.

Will be somewhat cooler today and more pleasant by Sunday.

Happy Friday!

Jazzbumpa said...

Hi gang -

Quite a slog today with all the TV unKNOWns. Get it all right? NOT I. Close, though. Missed ECGS, though Nate gets one every year or two.

RAINN?

GENOA (Gen-OH-uh) should be clued as village SE of Toledo.

How did I KNOW we would REACT to MOREL?

Opposite of a RAIN DELAY -- With weather uncertain, we started the concert 10 minutes early. Got most of it in, then had to quit, alas. MI weather - The RAIN did ABATE before I had my horn back in it's bag. Then there was a magnificent rainbow.

Nate has a tournament game this afternoon. See yawl next week.

Cool regards!
JzB

desper-otto said...

Wow I just figured out that I can get here with my Kindle. Maybe I wont have to go cold turkey after all.

CrossEyedDave said...

Strapped for time today, so i did it online. I don't know if it's the lack of ink & paper, or i was just on the constructors wavelengths, but i wagged my way thru the whole puzzle rather quickly. Surprising for a Friday! As usual, i did get crossed up with the sink clue, & came to the Blog to find out what a ba-sin is? (amazing that i could not see b"a"sin).

Marti, thanks for the Goddess info yesterday. After you explained it, i realized we had this before, & i knew the story, but not the name.

The Sears Tech. came yesterday to look at my tractor. He could not figure out what was wrong with it, or how to fix it, & suggested i return it. (right now i am using a crayon as a spacer to stop the blades from hitting the discharge chute, & the Tranny gets stuck in neutral.)

Bumppo said...

39-A The westernmost Rocky Mountain state is not Nevada, nor California, nor Oregon nor Washington. It's Alaska. Look it up.

62-D "ECG" may be "more accurate" than "EKG," but it's wrong. The accepted shorthand for electrocardiogram is EKG. You can look it up.

Anonymous said...

HuskerG: To save shipping costs, just send along some dehydrated water with instructions upon receipt to just add water.

*David* said...

Odd week for me, other then Tuesday being super easy this whole week felt similar as far as difficulty. I was surprised how easy this one fell, there was no spot that I really got stuck. Only real write over was putting in DELAY for CHECK on the bottom.

Anonymous said...

It's six of one and a half dozen of the other. Dr. Ben Wedro says,"The electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG) is a diagnostic tool that measures and records the electrical activity of the heart in exquisite detail." Many other sites concur that ECG is also acceptable.

Lucina said...

Hello, my friends. Greetings, Lemonade and many thanks for your enlightenment.

Aha! More RAIN in this puzzle than a year in ARIZ! I sashayed rather cautiously and while the fill was easy enough, the misdirection slowed me and I was AT SEA for awhile but not on the ORCA.

The east emerged more quickly and having seen Beauty and the Beast more times than I care to count, GASTON reared his ugly head (until he was transformed by love, that is).

Never heard of NIKI Taylor and consulted the dreaded Google; didn't KNOW RAINN either as I don't watch House but KYRA and TNT are dear to my heart. Can't wait for the upcoming new episodes.

ZEDS didn't fool me! Neither did IAGO or EYRE though I started with JANE.

ORBS, BRA, MOREL seemingly point to a mini theme, eh?

Nice one, Jeremy Horwitz and Tony Orbach. Thank you.

Have a superb Friday, everyone!

Nick said...

Yahoo! A Friday I can solve myself! (Granted, I did have to redletter the SE, having put RAINEVENT [name a more redundant expression!])

Didn't know NIKI, and had to "type to get the ta-da" because I couldn't guess PLANK.

I heard Pixar's making a prequel to Monsters Inc. where Mike and Sully are at university. Maybe a teaser will be before BRAVE.

I haven't seen "The Office" either, but I know RAINN Wilson from Juno, The Rocker, and Transformers 2. (DON'T JUDGE!!!)

Ron Worden said...

Good morning and happy Friday to all. Thanks Lemon and to Jeremy and Tony.I agree not as hard as yesterday,but still a good Fri. workout. No french today YEAH! A little spanish which I don't mind. Rain theme was good as we have been getting quite a bit here in Fla. and more is expected this weekend. Heading to Kissimmee tomorrow for oldest daughter's baby shower. Have a great day to all.RJW

Anonymous said...

"All right, already: OKOK"

Crap.

"Erases from the bases: TAGS"

Crap.

Misty said...

Not easy, for sure, but a lot of fun--so thanks, Jeremy and Tony. And Lemonade, your Prince Albert cracked me up. So did the clue "Toy-saving org." I actually spent some precious time wondering if it was really worthwhile bothering to save toys in this economy before my V-8 moment. In the end I goofed only on a single letter: had HUMOR instead of RUMOR because I figured "Mill" was probably some comedian I've never heard of, and HAJA sounded perfectly plausible as a Sri Lankan king to me. But it's fun to be mislead if it turns into a hoot!

Have a good Friday, everybody!

Tinbeni said...

Let it Rain ... Ron: I'm workin' on my ark.

Lemon: Thanks for the REIN WATER explanation.
UN Day is October 24th ... but I had to look it up.

Husker: I thought we had the best aqua. After all, Clearwater is just down the street.

Cheers to all at (what will probably be) a very wet Sunset.

Lemonade714 said...

Perhaps because she was born in Fort Lauderdale, and went to high school in Cooper City where my boys had many friends, the life of NIKI TAYLOR has always been followed closely here. The death of her baby sister, Krissy, also a model, followed by the terrible car accident Niki was in, emphasized life is never simple or easy.

I do love the diversity of this blog, with people from all over the globe sharing their perspective; and now, we have WATER WARS between Nebraska and Ohio. What could be more appropriate for a puzzle collected from RAIN! I think it is like Miss USA and Miss America, or Golden Globes and Oscars, there are lots of awards out there. We in Florida are not in the running.

Lemonade714 said...

I was going to use this link for BRA but decided to see if anyone had an alternative; I guess not. So read 'em and weep.

Anon, 7:39, i have not heard of "Dustin" but checked it put and will give it a shot.

Anonymous said...

Re: "Dustin"...Last week a child was applying logic to many of the illogical things which happened in OZ.

Use your back button to review last week

Sfingi said...

Was hard for this oldster, since never heard of KYRA, RAINN, TERI or SOMMARVIND. I once bought an IKEA lamp and couldn't put it together. I'll stick with antiques.

Did not know the JAWS boat had a name, ORCA. The worst movie I ever saw was JAWS 4. Hope they never have a prequel.

Is NEET no longer manufactured?

GASTON is a family (Am. Rev.) name, so glad to see.

Do no agree that a bra is a 2-piece; rather, it's a complex 1-piece.

It was so hot and humid here in Upstate NY on W-Th that my squirrels stretched out on the slates looking sillier than usual. They don't seem interested in WATER.

ettubutte said...

Whoa, whoa ,whoa. Wait a minute here, huh?

40. Across: USMC enforcers

And the answer is MPs?

Is this something new? I always thought that the Navy had it's own seperate name, distinct from the Army, for it's police force. The Army had it's MPs, and the Navy had the SPs(Shore Patrol). Since the Marines are part of the Navy Department, Marine police were called SPs, not MPs. Is this a new terminology, or have I had it wrong all these years? I know if you learn something wrong the first time, it's hard to re-learn it correctly. Probably the case with me here again, huh?

fermatprime said...

Greetings!

Amusing puzzle and write-up. Nice theme. Thanks!

No cheats. Favorites: ASPCA, RUMOR. Knew of RAINN from 6' Under.

Just passing by on way back to sleep, I hope.

Cheers!

Hahtoolah said...

Sfingi: a BRA is one piece of a 2-piece bathing suit. That clue gave me pause for a moment, too.

Mountain Man said...

I looked up where the Rockies start and it is in British Columbia it never even gets to the Yukon Territory. The flip side is that Nevada doesn't have the Rockies in them but is part of what is called the mountain states.

Army Brat said...

Each division of the military has its own name and maintains their own MPs. As a whole regardless of division they are known under the general heading of military police.

Jayce said...

Hello everybody. Interesting that Kyra Sedgwick and Edie Sedgwick both have the same middle name: Minturn. Could they be related?

Thanks to perps and lots of alternating between downs and acrosses, I solved 'er today. Some answers made me go "huh?" and some made me go "aha!" Didn't get NAS in November until coming here. (It was one of the "huh?"s.)

Like Lucina, I had to change Jane to EYRE. Shoulda known from the "Rochester."

I want to thank you, Bill G, for the links to the juggler and ventriloquist videos last night.

Jayce said...

In the Air Force they are Air Police, APs, or, colloquially, "Apes."

Dennis said...

ettubutte, the Marines do indeed have their own Military Police (MP) MOS (Military Occupational Specialty).
Not exactly a fun-loving group...

Bill G. said...

Jayce, Lucina, PK, etc.: I'm glad you enjoyed the juggler and ventriloquist videos. Without the Internet, we would never had heard of those talented people.

With regard to grammar and usage yesterday, I'm of two minds. If I know the preferred usage, I try to stick to it, especially in writing. I still cringe when I hear something like, "Will you go out to dinner with my wife and I" on TV shows where it's gotten by the writers, the editors, the director the actors and others. When I learn about loan/lend, less/fewer, just deserts/desserts, imply/infer, I try to stick to the original correct usage. Hopefully, I try not to use "hopefully" in a sentence like that. But I don't worry too much about like/as or It is me vs. I. I try not to feel badly about those things if I can help it.

Lemonade714 said...

Thank you Dennis, I was hoping our resident jarhead would help us out on MPs. Semper Fi.

CrossEyedDave said...

Raincheck certificate

Funny rain pics:

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

There are many more...

eddyB said...

Just seemed to be assigned to SP duty when we tied up in Naples,It. Nothing like a whack across the shin to get someone's attention

Back from ophthalmogy. Need laser surgery to remove scar tissue building up from left eye implant and some spot welding on right eye retina

Iowa Corn 250 tomorrow if it doesn't rain.

eddy

dodo said...

Hello, group,

Good to see you all again. Thanks for the great (as usual) write-up, Lemonade. Haven't read the comments yet but I enjoyed your puzzle, Jeremy and Tony.

I've aced every xword this week until today. Not surprising, since it's Friday. I was doing just fine today, too, until I gotto 28A where I drew a blank. I couldn't get any help from the surrounding clues, so I worked all around that spot and then went back to try again. Long stort short, I finally had to throw in the towel and even then I had a very bad time finding Sri Lankan King. 30D finally got me straightened out! Duh! I need a V8 can or two! I still had to figure out Raja myself and ended up with SPs for
40A,

Hope you are all well and enjoying nice weather. Temps here dropped from 88 to 76 last night!

ksquare said...

My Cardiologist says the EKG was developed in Germany where cardio is spelled with a K. Hence the original designation, but now ECG is acceptable here.

Yellowrocks said...

I'm late to the dance today. I enjoyed this puzzle, Lemon's write up and all your posts, especially the ventriloquist. ROTFL.

In NJ and in metropolitan NY a BODEGA is a particular type of mini-mart. It is very ethnic, Latino/Hispanic/Spanish, usually owned by Latinos, patronized by Latinos, and carrying Latino/Hispanic/Spanish groceries. Our NE news outlets always call them BODEGAS.

In re Bill G.@1:40 For the past two years I having been reading up on changing grammatical usage. Even the more open minded linguists talk of standards for the "educated speaker" and/or writer. These standards are changing and a little fuzzy, but definitely do not allow for "anything goes." There are still many constructions that the educated speaker is told to avoid. As a teacher, I had standards, too, but modernized ones.

Compare and contrast the use of the English language in Chaucer, Shakespeare, N. Hawthorne, Dickens, and present day authors’ works.. Standards change, but there are still standards.

Bumppo said...

One reason "EKG" is preferred over "ECG" in "ER"s (hospital emergency rooms), aside from the Germanic derivation, is that it is clearer. "ECG" could stand for either "electrocardiogram" or "electroencephalogram" ("EEG" in standard medical shorthand), which is the reading from a brain scan. You do not want such confusion in an "ER."

You don't need to look that one up. Ask a nurse.

"BTW," cf. the K in 24K gold: It stands for carat (yes, yes, we know; karat is an acceptable alternate spelling; deriv. Greek, not German).

placematfan said...

I thought this was a pretty good puzzle. Imo, low theme-letter count like this demands a compensatory minimum of three-letter words, an unsectioned grid, and good longfill; so for me this puzzle delivered. REINWATER made me smile.

Once again, I had OKAY before OKOK. Gets me every time, but I always forgive it just because it anagrams into “kook” and “Koko”.

Nevada, the westernmost Rocky Mountain state? Really?

Rainn Wilson also played in “Juno” with Ellen Page. And both of them also starred in the sleeper “Super”, an average-guy-turns-superhero flick that was eclipsed by a film of the same subgenre released earlier the same year, “Kick-Ass”. I found both movies to be great dark comedies, sweet and profound at times despite the controversial levels of violence. Nicolas Cage’s death scene in “Kick-Ass” is one of the most powerful few minutes of film I’ve ever watched.

Belated thanks to whoever posted the "Staying Alive" video the other day. Omg that was cool. Somebody put a lot of time into that, and it was such a great expose of that film era and that dance era and the inimitable Rita Hayworth. And I thought the anachronistic merger of the music and the video really brought out the timelessness of that particular art: dancing on film in that age, I guess. Also, I think it was just a great example of the potential gravitas of a YouTube video.

So is this one.

placematfan said...

Long live Cliff Claven! "Cheers" mastered the cold run, the opening sketch in each show. This one’s my favorite, where Cliff’s returning from a trip and nobody even knew he left, and he starts waxing poetic about his newfound serenity while Coach tinkers with a very loud blender. Cliff’s defeated head-in-hand posture while Coach raves about his own joke makes for a great fade. Priceless. Might have posted this before.

Yesterday’s discourse had me lingering in the halls of a particular website, so for anyone interested, here's some linguistic hot topics handled by Grammar Girl:
--ending sentences with prepositions
--“a historic“ vs. “an historic“
--i.e. and e.g.
--Kansas' vs. Kansas's
--who vs. whom
--good vs. well
--when to spell out numbers
--"Hyphenate compound modifiers when they come before a noun, and don't hyphenate them when they come after a noun"
--dash vs. colon, em and en dashes
--split infinitives

LA CW Addict said...

Hello Everyone:

Well, this would have been a 5 for 5 except for Tuesday's SLOSH, which ironically, helped me finish today's puzzle with SLOSHED -- a term I am all too familiar with.

Moving on-- in the beginning, I really thought this would be a DNF, but I perservered. The NW nearly had me. I wanted Taxi instead of YETI for some reason. Did not know KYRA or OTIS, but knew NEET and WINEBAR & VINTAGES came to my rescue as well. 1A, KNOW, did not come as easily as one might have expected.

Favorite answers were USURPS and REIGNGAUGE. Thought the latter was clever. Also enjoyed ARE YOU NUTS? and JUST IN CASE. Jacques Pepin is always trying the wine he puts in the food "just in case" and I get a big kick out of that.

Have taken up enough of everybody's time and space. Have a great weekend!

Anonymous said...

Good evening everyone.
Thanks for a nice write up, Lemonade.

Can't help myself: C.C. if our esteemed editor won't allow "It is I", how come "NOT I" is OK?
Just asking.

Rain all day today, which is unusual for here. Found my umbrella which lives in the car is holey and most difficult to open. (Because it's used to seldom.)

Cheers, and have a happy night.

Dudley said...

Hello Puzzlers -

Struggled a bit with this one, but I'll offer up jet lag as my excuse. I'm spending a few days in Ireland at a family affair.

Full disclosure: Guinness is also a factor.

Avg Joe said...

Well then Dudley. Try some Smithwicks.

Blue Iris said...

Enjoyed the theme & freshly clued answers such as ORCA, REACT, BASIN, SPENT, EYRE, USURPS, OSLO, & OTIS. Found CW to be easier than yesterday.

Bill G., Shared both videos of juggler & ventr(sp?) with DH this evening. Thanks


Fermatprime, I meant to tell you earlier that I have one Blue Willow plate. I collect blue & white dishes. Many are displayed above my kitchen cabinets. Hope you got some sleep today.

Goodnight, all!

Bill G. said...

Placematfan, I enjoyed all of the links.

Blue Iris, I'm glad you and DH liked those two videos. They were especially clever I thought.

fermatprime said...

Anyone here read Monsieur Pamplemousse mysteries? They are fun!

One does not "feel badly" about something...

Bill G. said...

I agree...one does not feel badly about things...which is what I said. In hindsight, it may have been a bad idea to try to make a subtle little joke about 'feeling badly' which could easily be misconstrued. Sorry.