google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Sunday June 24, 2012 Joel D. Lafargue

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Jun 24, 2012

Sunday June 24, 2012 Joel D. Lafargue

Theme: "Novelties" - TT is inserted into common phrase.

23A. Not a waste of time carving? :
WORTH THE WHITTLE. Worth the while.

36A. Tinker Bell's blabbing? :
FAIRY TATTLES. Fairy tales.

60A. Municipal mascot? :
TOWN CRITTER. Town crier.

87A. Pane in an infested attic? :
BATTY WINDOW. Bay window.

108A. Lollipop for a dog? :
SETTER SUCKER. Seer sucker.

127A. Butterfly? :
FREQUENT FLITTER. Frequent flier.

15D. Duke's Droid? :
PATTY PHONE. Pay phone.

78D. Where smoking remnants are stored? :
BUTTS DEPOT. Bus depot.

This is our first encounter with Joel D. Lafargue. Google shows has quite a few puzzles in the Simon & Schuster series, apart from his NY Times in 1997.

This puzzle is a pangram, e.g., every letter is used at least once in the grid. It has a total 96 theme squares. Rich's minimum is 84. Gridding gets more challenging if you have over 100 theme squares. Very often you end up with way too many 3-letter words, hence more abbrs & undesirble fill. This grid has 24 3-letter words. Sometimes we get this many in a 15*15 grid.

Across:

1. Pay to see cards :
CALL

5. He played Senator Vinick on "The West Wing" :
ALDA (Alan)

9. "Ma! (He's Making Eyes __)": 1921 song :
AT ME. Easy to get. Don't know the song.

13. Urge forward :
IMPEL

18. B&O part :
OHIO

19. Mistake :
FAULT

21. Marina feature :
PIER

22. Mazda two-seater :
MIATA

26. Anti-apartheid author Alan :
PATON. No idea. He wrote this book: "Cry, the Beloved Country".

27. Art in a park :
STATUE

28. Noticed :
SEEN

29. Union chapter :
LOCAL

31. "Star Trek" spinoff, briefly :
TNG (The Next Generation)

32. Alway :
E'ER

33. Jupiter, to Saturn :
SON. Not the planets I was picturing.

34. Tendency toward disorder :
ENTROPY. We used to have a poster using this as his avatar name.

42. Screenplays :
SCRIPTS

45. "Not __ eye in ... " :
A DRY. 2D. "There'll be __ time ..." : A HOT. 37D. Like __ in the headlights : A DEER. 39. In __: miffed : A PET. 59D. __ the finish : IN AT. 5 partials. 1 more than Rich's Sunday limit.

46. Busy IRS mo. :
APR

47. __ Team :
DREAM

50. Frome of fiction :
ETHAN. Edith Wharton's "Ethan Frome".

51. Farm spread :
LEA

52. Type of daisy :
OXEYE

54. Be of use :
AVAIL

57. Name whose Japanese symbols mean "ocean child" :
YOKO. I mentioned this on the blog before.

58. Foul-smelling :
FETID

64. Revival prefix :
NEO

65. Political theorist Hannah :
ARENDT. Well, she does have the political look. Stranger to me.

67. First skipper? :
NOAH. Clever clue.

68. Run-down urban dwelling :
TENEMENT

70. Not quite closed :
AJAR

72. Blade :
KNIFE

75. Sushi bar soup :
MISO. A little Tofu, a few sprinkles of green onion. Simple & perfect.

76. Amount so far :
SUBTOTAL

80. Whom Cordelia called "As mad as the vex'd sea" :
LEAR. Cordelia is King Lear's youngest.

82. "Maybe later" :
NOT NOW

86. It has a Bklyn. campus :
LIU (Long Island University). Splynter knows. He attended RPI though. Same as Spitzboov.

91. 27-day pope of 1605 :
LEO XI. Such a short reign.

92. __'acte :
ENTR

94. Range rover :
STRAY. Nice clue.

95. Blue shoe material of song :
SUEDE

97. Limo passenger, often :
VIP. We saw a beat-up limo in flea market last week.

98. Place and Kett :
ETTAs

100. Flight units :
STEPS

103. Moo goo __ pan :
GAI. Literally "Chicken" in Cantonese. Mandarin is "Ji". Quite different. "Ye Ji" means "wild chicken", slang for "hooker".

104. "Smooth Operator" singer :
SADE. So, Grumpy, what kind of music do you like?

105. Eponymous microbiologist Louis :
PASTEUR

111. Most cherished :
DEAREST

114. "Norma __" :
RAE

115. Previously :
AGO

116. "Color me surprised" :
GEE

118. Airbus A380, vis-à-vis most other planes :
WIDER

119. Bond foe :
DR NO

121. Clumsy mistakes :
BLOOPS

125. Breakfast cereal prefix :
ALPHA. Alpha-Bits.

130. Franny's title brother, in a Salinger novella :
ZOOEY."Franny and Zooey". Learning moment for me. I think it's time to put Zooey Deschanel on the clue map. She's everywhere now.


131. Support girder : I-BAR

132. Yes-Bob link :
SIREE

133. Italian peak :
ETNA. In Sicily.

134. Pre-deal round :
ANTES

135. Silent yeses :
NODS

136. Comes out with :
SAYS

137. Retinal cells :
RODS

Down:

1. Intimidates :
COWS

3. Old Sicilian coin :
LIRA

4. Hard-to-win game :
LOTTERY. Our neighbor Dwayne won $100K some time ago. Now he lost his house.

5. Like net income :
AFTER TAX

6. __-di-dah :
LAH

7. Club charges :
DUES

8. Angels' div. :
AL WEST. Pujols is heating up.

9. On-target :
APT

10. Best-seller list datum :
TITLE

11. Juicy gourd :
MELON. I love seedless mini watermelons. You? I wish I could grow them in MN.

12. Raises :
ERECTS

13. Plead with :
IMPLORE

14. "O patria __": "Aida" aria :
MIA

16. Thames school :
ETON

17. Kent's Smallville sweetie :
LANG (Lana)

20. It's periodically rung out :
THE OLD. [Deskpalm!]

24. "The Kingfish" Long of early 20th-century politics :
HUEY (Long). For Haltool. I thought his nickname is "The King" due to "All the King's Men".

25. __ tube :
INNER

30. Circle piece :
ARC

35. Sympathetic sorrow :
PITY

36. Farmer Al __: Paul Terry toon :
FALFA. Did you nail this, eddyB? I drew a blank.

38. Boiling :
IRATE

40. Check for fit :
TRY ON

41. Burn the surface of :
SEAR

43. Hoodwinked :
TAKEN

44. Schnozzola :
SNOOT

48. Prefix with fauna :
AVI

49. Quarterback Hasselbeck :
MATT. For the Titans.


52. Pin money source :
ODD JOB

53. Furry sci-fi creature :
EWOK. "Star Wars".

55. Gossip page pair :
ITEM

56. Colleague of Trotsky :
LENIN. "Colleague" struck me as funny. I guess I'm used to the "Comrade" address.

61. Turkic flatbread :
NAN

62. Hot dog topping :
CHILI. Recipe for disaster.

63. Do some cobbling on :
RESOLE

66. Cheerios :
TA TAS

69. Dust speck :
MOTE

71. Band with the 2010 album "Infestation" :
RATT. Very helpful clue.

73. Wetland :
FEN

74. St. Louis's __ Bridge :
EADS. Named after its designer Eads.

76. Catch some z's :
SLEEP

77. Utah's __ Mountains :
UINTA. I can never remember this name.

79. P.O. deliveries :
LTRS

81. Coloring cosmetic :
ROUGE

83. Evans's news partner :
NOVAK (Bob). Heavily involved in the Valerie Plame leak scandal.

84. Nitrous __ :
OXIDE

85. Drop remover :
WIPER

88. China's Sun __-sen :
YAT. Chiang Kai-shek succeeded him. They were brothers-in-laws.

89. Forks in the road :
WYES

90. Have on :
WEAR

93. Assess :
RATE

96. Neutralizes, as a bomb :
DISABLES

99. Shipping routes :
SEAWAYS

101. Hidden :
PERDU. I thought it's "Lost" due to English translation of Proust's "A la Recherche du temps perdu".

102. Rude looks :
STARES

104. Moped's cousin :
SCOOTER

106. Rhody the Ram's sch. :
URI (University of Rhode Island)

107. Brightly colored perch :
REDFIN. OK, makes sense.

109. Court activity :
TENNIS. Not judge's court.

110. Fruit with a wrinkly rind :
UGLI. Quite juicy and sweet.

112. __-Croatian :
SERBO

113. Traction aid
: TREAD

116. Mideast strip :
GAZA

117. Tar Heel State university :
ELON. I bet Jayce has a better & topical clue for ELON.

120. Another, in Ávila :
OTRA

122. Bart and Lisa's bus driver :
OTTO. "The Simpsons".

123. Await judgment :
PEND

124. Ladies in Mex. :
SRAS

126. Half a bray :
HEE. Hee-haw.

128. PT separators :
QRS. Man, alphabet. P Q R S T.

129. Enchanted :
FEY. JFK once described Jackie's style as "fey". That's how I learned this meaning.

Answer grid.

C.C.

28 comments:

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

I got the theme at TOWN CRITTERS and it helped immensely with the rest of the grid knowing that all the theme answers had double T's in them somewhere. Fun puzzle overall!

I almost crashed and burned at the crossing of ARENDT and ODD JOB. I had no idea about the former, and was thinking the latter was a place where pin money was stored and had ___JAR for awhile. For a bit I even had ODD JAR and was a little mystified...

Elsewhere, I wanted NYU at 86A, especially since I had SNORE for 76D. LIU was a complete unknown and just looked wrong to me when the perps finally revealed it.

I also learned that PERDU means "hidden" and not "lost." Sometimes, knowing a little Latin and/or Spanish works against you, since I knew that Perditus/Perdido means lost and assumed it was based on the same root.

Alan PATON was another complete unknown, but the perps made short work of him. Ditto for ZOOEY. I had no idea that RATT was still around.

Guessed FALFA just because it was so punny.

I really, really wanted DISARMS or DEFUSES for 96D. DISABLES just seems too generic for a bomb.

James said...

Here in Taiwan, Sun yat-san is known as "Sun Zhong Shan" and Chiang Kai-shek is known as "Chiang Zhong Zheng" and every city has a street named after either one.

I've been sitting on that all day! I get the puzzle in the Tapei Times. One of two English dailies here. While you are enjoying your evening, my day is just starting!

Love the blog!

Cheers.


James

Hahtoolah said...

Good Morning, C.C. and friends. Interesting puzzle. I liked the theme. I caught on to the TTs theme with Tinkerbell's Blabbing = FAIRY TATTLES.

I inherited my grandfather's Victrola and and all his records. Ma, He's Making Eyes AT ME is one of those Victrola songs I have.

I thought of Christina Crawford's book Mommy, DEAREST when I came to 111-Across.

HUEY Long was assassinated in the Capitol building. People still go there to see the bullet hole in the wall.

My sister graduated from URI, so Rhody the Ram was a gimme.

For some reason, I knew about Hannah ARENDT. She taught at the University of Chicago many years ago.

In honor of her, here is today's QOD: Forgiveness is the key to action and freedom. ~ Hannah Arendt

Argyle said...

So James, is this, Baroqing Bad(3:52), your own composition?

I turn to Eydie Gorme for Ma, (he's making eyes at me).(3:07)

Fly_Navy said...

Not too hard, a few smiles for the punny parts. Shouldn't 101D have been something like "Hidden in Lyons"? After all, we often see things like "House in Madrid" for such commonly known Spanish words as "casa". "Perdu" is surely less commonly used in English than "casa".

James said...

Argyle - yes, it is. I hope you didn't wince too hard :p Along with my sad attempt at video editing. The other two are mine as well. I think they are better, more refined. My wife thinks otherwise.

Middletown Bomber said...

Not that it helped me but I caught the theme at worth the whittle. Still a little sleepy took me time and perps to figure out the other common phrases for the theme answers. I knew 86a had to be LIU (long island University) as there are very few multi campused schools in NY with a campus in Brooklyn and have 3 letter initials. well time to make the coffee its going to be a long day.

Abejo said...

Good morning, folks. Thank you, Joel LaFargue, for a great puzzle. Thank you, as well, C.C., for a great review.

Sitting in a hotel in Lynchburg, VA, working the puzzle in the breakfast area. Two of my sisters and my oldest daughter wanted to do it as well, so I had the desk print three for them from the Chicago Trib site. We all jumped in together. I won.

Got started in the NE with CALL, OHIO, LIRA, LOTTERY, etc.

Theme appeared with WORTH THE WHITTLE. Very clever. That really helped with the rest of the puzzle.

SERBO-Croatian was easy. Our former Governor from Illinois just went to prison, and he was Croatian. Milorod Blagoyevich.

Did not know NOVAK for 83D. Perps to the rescue.

7D was easy. DUES. I pay more Dues than Carter has Liver Pills.

Meanwhile, off to the funeral in a couple hours.

Heading home tomorrow morning, early.

See you tomorrow.

Abejo

Husker Gary said...

Sundays take a while but are a real event! Wonderful puzzle Joel, in its cleverness and escape hatches for tough answers. Using the theme and the Farmer answer, I thought of - Alfalfa fight – HAYBATTLE. I know, keep my day job!

Musings
-Duke isn’t royalty or a Blue Devil, perch is not a roost, Jupiter is not a planet, an EWOK is not an ELOI, my billfold seems to be PERDU this morning
-Our Italian tour had a Greek gentleman whose BO had nothing to do with Ohio.
-I’m still working on mistake/FAULT (an error and the blame for it? BTW, here it’s always my FAULT).
-My mid life crisis was a MIATA. Not practical or worth it. In the end, they’re all just tin and rubber.
-Statue posing myth
-This is how I was taught ENTROPY
-Every APR I always wonder, “Is sending more money to D.C. the answer?”
-No song with the word FETID (2:45) in it? Not so fast, my friend. The word is at 1:20.
-Carl Perkins wrote and recorded Blue Suede Shoes before Elvis but…
-Milk from COWS in the pasture must be PASTEURized.
-Somebody might mention there were melons and tatas in the puzzle. But not me!
-I’ve never asked for Nitrous Oxide in the dentist’s chair but I’m thinkin’ about it.
-James can actually say, “Maybe I’ll see you yesterday!”

Husker Gary said...

Hahtoolah, re QOD, I heard a memorable sermon once about the prodigal son. Its message was that asking forgiveness is hard but granting it is harder. It is so wrong and counterproductive to carry righteous indignation forever. We are all flawed human beings.

Joann had an uncle who felt wronged on the equal distribution of assets after his parents died because he had taken care of mom and dad in their declining years. He held that grudge for 25 years and only tearfully recanted and made things right in the last months of his own life. He felt “freedom” after that “action”.

Nick said...

Solving this seems faint, but my dad didn't know UINTA either (remember, I'm 2 weeks in the future on Sundays), among other things. I stupidly had FEW for 129D, as in "enchanted few", which made that part a struggle.

Interestingly enough, 36A doesn't need the double T, if you parse it as FAIRY TALES(lies). And I say 89D could jolly well be WOES.

Update to Friday's post: I have seen Brave, which is FANTTASTTIC, and Monsters University will be enrolling summer 2013.

Irish Miss said...

Good morning:

Great puzzle, Joel, and nice expo, CC. Could not for the life of me get 17D. Wanted Lane, or Lana, or Lani. But everything else fell into place.

Have a great Sunday.

Anonymous said...

,,,still my most favorite Zooey role: the homeless store clerk in "Elf". (duet with Farrell on "Baby it`s cold outside.")

Lucina said...

Hello, C.C. and all cyber friends.

Sashayed then strutted through this one today. All those three LTR abbreviations make me crazy! Some I know, some I don't and others simply emerge. I had many FAULTS today, ALAN not ALDA and therefore no DUES and of course no idea about AL WEST.

Also, like Irish Miss, played with the L words, settled on LANA because TNG was unknown.

Pope LEO XI was a Medici, the corrupt family that hijacked the papacy in the Middle Ages. He was 70 when elected.

WORTH THE WHITTLE sitting over STATUE!

My FREQUENT FLI(TT)ER miles have afforded me numerous trips and I am sorry to see American Airlines now in trouble because they have been so good to me.

Thank you, C.C. for explaining PERDU. French still makes me stumble.

My granddaughters are still aSLEEP so it's quiet at the moment.

Fav clue today, farm spread, LEA, That's a new one.

Have a wonderful Sunday, everyone!

Argyle said...

"Pain Perdu", French for French toast. LOL

Jayce said...

Well slap me upside the head, but I swear I pencilled in COCKERSUCKER for 108A before I realized it had to have a double T in it.

Hooray for ELON Musk, that daring, entrepreneurial, founder of Tesla Motors! That guy is busier than a one-legged man in a butt-kicking contest.

Now I'll read your comments.

Jayce said...

Hello everybody. Fun puzzle! I liked the double T gimmick, and the first one I solved was FAIRYTATTLES. What Barry G said about DISABLES. James, I remember the name 蔣中正 in huge characters on the side of a mountain just outside Taipei. This was way back in the early 60's when "retake the mainland" (fangong dalu) was the often-spoken motto among mainlanders in Taiwan. I imagine things are very very different now.

I just cannot not say that the whole Valerie Plame outing thing was despicable and disgusting. Revealing the identity of an undercover CIA operative is a serious crime, and everybody who was involved in it is, in my mind, a despicable and cowardly criminal.

I'll be good now.

Lemonade714 said...

I do not know if it is week ends or advancing age, but I keep losing comments on Sunday.

An enjoyable solve, though I struggled with WORTH THE WHITTLE, as I know WORT WHILE, WORTH YOUR WHILE but not the one used.

A attorney friend who died recently went to college in ELON, and I do think of him every time.

James, interesting music and videos.

IRISH MISS, when the clue is a last name, then the answer will be as well.

The PGA tournament is in Cromwell
Connecticut on TV now.

Ciao

Jayce said...

My "Natick" in this puzzle was the letter I crossing LIU and UINTA. I totally WAGged it and got lucky; otherwise it would have been a DNF.

Argyle, LOL about pain perdu indeed!

Yanno, I wonder how long it will be before, say, Arabic words and expressions become commonplace in crossword puzzles. I know I know, much French, Spanish, and German have been incorporated into English for hundreds of years, and therefore are, I suppose, fair game. Even so, sometimes I can't help buy say "Jeeez" to myself when some of the lesser-known ones show up.

Husker Gary, I loved your musings today more than usual. Thank you for them.

Best wishes to you all this fine Sunday.

Husker Gary said...

Musings 2

-Thanks for the kind words, Jayce!
-Abejo, Illinois seems to have more crooks feeding at the public trough than “Carter has (liver) pills”. Haven’t heard that phrase since mom died.
-Huey Long would have fit right in
-Lucina, grandkids sleeping until 11 a.m.? They get up at 6:30 am here at Papa’s house expecting food and fun.
-The Medici’s bought and sold the papacy for a long time. The wearer of the “ring of the fisherman” is still just an old man selected by other old men.
-Tin, it looks like you are going to need NOAH down there! Put two of every type of scotch on the ark?

River Doc said...

Lots of scrabble points in today's puzzle!

Could've used the clue "Bond foe" for 52 down as well as 119 across.

Took a while to associate Patty with Duke, she's been out of the limelight for a while now.

Melons? Ta Tas? Ye Ji hookers? Cocker Sucker? TGIS....

Lucina said...

HG@1:49
Remember that your 11:00 A.M. is our 9:00 A.M

They stayed up quite late last night, indulgent Nana that I am.

Yellowrocks said...

Punny puzzle, informative write up. My head has a V8 can dent. I muffed this quick and easy puzzle with one wrong letter which I “shoulda” known. Dang nab it.

I saw Kent and Smallville and thought of old fashioned Lois LANE. That produced TNE for the Star Trek spinoff, which I figured I didn't know. TNG, The Next Generation. I knew that! ARRGH!

I knew MIATA, a dream car I fantasize about, but which is totally impractical. If I were rich, I would have one as my vanity car.

From 9A onward, "Ma, He's Making Eyes at Me" played in my head for hours. Thanks for the Edye Gorme link.

PERDU is often spelled PERDUE and is an adjective referring to a hidden military assault corps. I nailed that one.

Ko in Japanese is a common diminutive ending for a girl’s name, similar to –ette, Annette, Yvette.

The theme answers were very clever.

Anonymous said...

Yellowrocks: Trying to enlarge your avatar, I noticed where you said you liked historical novels. If you can get past the definite Christianity bent, Gilbert Morris writes detailed Civil War and other period fiction. He has/had access to personal diaries and letters which gave great insight to the great generals and battles of the war...while writing compelling stories. I`m reading the last of the triology "The Last Cavaliers"...but I keep the cover hidden. It`s called "Surrender" and has a winsome beauty on the cover. Looks like a "bodice ripper" and I don`t care for such.
Here is a partial list of his works

PK said...

Fun puzzle, great commentary.

Got all the theme answers today except two:
108a where I put muTTERSUCKER. I still don't like WYES for that clue. How in the heck are flight units "STEPS". Didn't help that I put in RATz.

Also hung up on 78D where I got the BUTTSD. Never would I have come up with ALPHA, especially since I put in GiZA, although I knew better.

I should google it but didn't PERDU have something to do with harems and coverings for Muslim women? That's what I thought of when the word appeared.

Went to the movie about Dr.NO on my honeymoon.

Al FALFA was a given for a farmer.

PK said...

Fun day yesterday! No puzzle. Went to a reunion of my parents' descendants. 39 out a possible 48, including spouses. My brother has a beautiful flower bedecked yard with a nice sized pool and lovely home equipped for entertaining.

All 16 of the youngest generation, ranging from 14 years to 21 months, splashed in that pool until the place was very humid from all the cannonballs and belly flops. Hot, but bearable. It was the first time that many of the youngest generation was present.

My niece's family who are economic missionaries to India were there. Very interesting saintly people. Hadn't seen them for five years.

My niece said she gathered a group of native women to work in the textiles craft shop she started. She passed a paper and asked them all to write their names on it. She was absolutely floored when none of them could write. Little white girl from an affluent U.S.A. neighborhood had a major culture shock. But she has persisted and they now have an income for people who had none.

fermatprime said...

Greetings!

Very nice puzzle, Joel; fine expo, CC.

Favorite answer: NOAH. Maybe because it was obvious and very funny.

I have been suffering from scary tingling sensation all over the place. Anyone have that problem?

Was reading Mary Daheim's latest Emma Lord mystery, The Alpine Winter. Very difficult to put down. The best yet? I hope the series does not end with "W."

Cheers!

Yellowrocks said...

Anonymous @ 4:35 Thanks for suggesting Gilbert Morris. Civil War historical novels are one of my favorite genera.