google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Saturday, Aug18th, 2012, Michael Dewey

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Aug 18, 2012

Saturday, Aug18th, 2012, Michael Dewey

Theme: None


Words: 70

Blocks: 32

WOW~! Fun puzzle for me today; Argyle handled Michael's LAT debut in April of this year, and he has been published in the NYT as well. Mr. Dewey seems to have a musical flair, with strong art and sports knowledge as well. Just short of the "Q" for a pangram, and we have one spanner, one climber in today's pinwheel;

32A. Football backfield formation named for its shape : WISHBONE OFFENSE - I am not a huge fan of any particular football team, but I do enjoy watching any chance I get - and for us New Yorkers, we have a pre-season Giants/Jets game today, which ought to be good



8D. Fruity desserts : RAZZLEBERRY PIES - the real deal


- lots of proper names, too, most of which I was familiar with - and that can go a L-O-N-G way in getting good with grueling grids~! Persevere my proud puzzling pals~!!!

On-Ward~!.!.!.

ACROSS:

1. "SNL" predator voiced by Chevy Chase : LANDSHARK - one of my favorite SNL skits

10. "Aladdin" villain : JAFAR - knew it, but haven't seen the movie

15. 363-mile project known as Clinton's Folly : ERIE CANAL - I remember this from watching "America, the Story of Us"

16. Genre of "Akira" : ANIME - sounded Japanese, so....

17. Tease : TANTALIZE

18. Worked on, as a surfboard : WAXED

19. Blacken : SMEAR - like someone's good name

20. Alcopop brand : ZIMA

22. Horace's art : ARS - perhaps a little too easy clue/ans for Saturday; we're already 2/3 of the way there....

23. Support beam : GIRT - I-bar?, GIRD? nope, GIRT

24. Gunstock wood : WALNUT - knew it from watching "How It's Made"; beautiful grain

26. Mannerism : TIC

27. WWII org. : OSS - Office of Strategic Services; precursor to the CIA

28. Cowboy directive? : RIDE 'EM - Loved this answer

29. Type unit : PICA

30. Seat usually in first class : ONE-B - I had "ONE_", so I just waited on the perps

31. Cacophonous : AROAR - crossing "A FEE", so a bit "Meh", but what can you do~? The rest of the grid is pretty tight

38. Los __: Bay Area city : ALTOS - map; one of the red SQUARES, not red SCARES (see 14D)

39. Former South Korean leader : RHEE - the Wiki for those who care to know more

40. Deli staple : SLAW

41. Sequence of notes : PHRASE - a musician would know this, especially one who plays the guitar; a "phrase" is usually a riff-like pattern of repetition found in a guitar solo; see the "outro" part here from Hotel California (@1:37)

43. Tyler of "Inventing the Abbotts" : LIV - Three letters and Tyler? Go with LIV~!

46. Sign of smooth operation : HUM - Purr didn't fit; my brother had to have his beloved cat 'Maddie' put down yesterday, but he had her cremated so he has something to remember her by; my fondest memory is seeing just her tail sticking straight up and cruising through the house; this is her likeness:



47. Boxer Patterson et al. : FLOYDs

48. Gospel singer Winans : CECE - Her website

49. Clairvoyance : ESP - Extra-sensory Perception

50. Air show highlight : LOOP - not "RACE"

51. Shadow : TRAIL - like a Private Eye

52. Mother of Aphrodite : DIONE

54. Tough to budge : PIGHEADED

57. Throat thing : UVULA - the thingy hanging at the back

58. Tangy strips : LEMON ZEST - we get our "Lemon" zest on Fridays

59. Brown ale brand : PETE'S - I no longer partake, but I do appreciate the "Tinbeni toast" at sunset, for many reasons

60. Class leaders : "A" STUDENTS

DOWN:

1. Frees : LETS GO

2. Literary character in an old candy bar logo : ARAMIS - Three Musketeers; I did not know this; even this version of the candy is before my time - and now it makes sense

3. Five-time Super Bowl champs : NINERS - Another Bay Area reference; the SF 49ers

4. Coup __ : D' ÉTAT - French, literally "strike against the state", or an illegal overthrow of the government - but who's going to 'convict' you???

5. Reminder of a sort : SCAR - could have been SCAb, too, but I was right the first time

6. Fictional supercomputer : HAL - 2001: A Space Odyssey

7. Game show buy : AN I - Wheel of Fortune - comes on after Jeopardy! here in NY, NY; good crossword-like concept; usually fill in "AN_" and wait....or guess; 1-in-5 chance....

9. Little word in a Mozart title? : KLEINE - Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, "a little serenade" - you'll recognize this

10. Chide : JAW AT

11. Bibliographical suffix : ANA

12. Hang-up : FIXATION

13. __ Cup : AMERICA'S - the award for a sailboat race, been going on since 1851 - here's the Wiki

14. McCarthy era paranoia : RED SCARE - Those pesky Russians....

21. Clammed up : MUM

24. Glutton of the grape : WINO - I was a glutton of the barley, you could say

25. Arabian Peninsula city in the crater of an extinct volcano : ADEN - Four-letter Arab location? Not OMAN? Try the 'other' one....although I did learn about the crater today

28. Sticks up : ROBS

29. Start to meditate? : PRE-meditate, like murder

31. Charge __ : A FEE

32. Done for : WASHED UP - nailed it

33. Misleading : ILLUSIVE - Looks 'misleading'; "E"lusive yes, but "ILL"usive...? Yep, same as Illusory, which does look right

34. Extinguish : STAMP OUT

35. Know-__ : HOW

36. "__ I Jubal's Lyre": Handel : O! HAD

37. Not conceal, with "up" : FESS - have to admit, I was stumped because originally, my 32A was "DEfense", which left me with E_SS - huh?

41. Abbas's gp. : PLO - not the "other" ABBA group

42. Ticker-tape parade, e.g. : HOOPLA

43. Tough to budge : LEADEN

44. Least hospitable : ICIEST

45. African grasslands : VELDTS - nailed it, and spelled it right, too~!

47. Canine problems : FLEAS - because CAVITIES wouldn't fit?

48. Flavor of the month, so to speak : CRAZE

51. Lean : TEND

53. Braves' div. : NLE - National League East; also the NY Mets division; not really a fan of these fills, like "ALer" and such, but it's part of our culture, so....but then again, I am a hockey guy - God help the NHL if they can't come to a contract agreement this year, right eddyB~???

55. Chronometric initials : GMT - I read this as "Chromosome", so I had DNA to start; this is chronometric, from chronometer, an "exceptional time piece" - Greenwich Mean Time

56. Astros, on scoreboards : HOUston

Answer grid.

The new church ramp is underway....Thanks for stopping in ~!!!

Splynter

30 comments:

TTP said...


Unfortunately, 2 days in a row where I had to turn on red letter help. This time at 45 minutes. Having 5D ACHE for "Reminder of a sort" froze the NW. Couldn't think of JAFAR, but perped it. And TILT instead of TEND stalled the Southeast. Turned red letter help back off after removing the offending characters and set my sights back on the northwest. Finally resolved to SCAR, and the area fell quickly. Down to the SE and confidently put in THIN for lean. That hosed me up for another 10 to 15 minutes. Eventually PIGHEADED appeared and I wasn't as resolute about keeping thin. Get it ? OK, so I'm no comic either.

Good morning all. I enjoyed this challenging puzzle. Disappointed that I didn't get A++. First fill was ERIE CANAL. Not a folly. An engineering feat. Second fill was WISHBONEOFFENSE. Just thought I would try typing it in and it fit, so I started to validate around it, and it stayed. Mom was a Longhorn fan. Dad was a Buckeye. I'm both. Mom was a Cowboys fan. Dad was a Steelers fan. I'm a Steelers fan. Sorry mom.

Great cluing. Long word puzzles don't usually intimidate. This had some great cluing and answers. ASTUDENTS. Ha ! 57A UVULA. Didn't we have that about a month ago ? A shout out to Lemonade ! Your write up yesterday was full of tangy strips.

The two words I didn't care for were ILLUSIVE and AROAR.

My Coup de Grace was the crossing C in CECE and ICIEST. How in the world can you have I_IEST and not see ICIEST ?

TTP said...

Splynter, thank you for the write up ! Listened to Eine Kleine Nachtmusik in it's entirety. As well, Hotel california, one of my all time fav's. Thank you Michael Dewey. Great Puzzle.

Remember the other day Hatoolah referenced Tommy James ? This morning feels like "I think We're Alone Now". Hope somebody says something quick. I feel like I'm the only one on the conference call again.

desper-otto said...

Good morning, Saturday soldiers!

I thought the Gulf Coast was going to swamp my boat today. HOOHAH and THIN made PIG HEADED and LEMON ZEST slow to appear. The A STUDENTS finally showed me the way. I finished ahead of my self-imposed Saturday time limit, so life is good.

GIRT? Really? And does lemon zest come in strips? I thought it was just scrapings of lemon peel -- more like sawdust.

It was the ERIE CANAL that assisted my great-grands in relocating from the Mohawk Valley to the newly minted state of Wisconsin back in the mid-1800's.

CrossEyedDave said...

Sorry 4 being early, i am still on yest. posts.

In my local paper today, a Newark company (to remain unnamed, lest this become political) fined $82,500 for formaldehyde exposure! It turns out this company makes adhesives, & other products from "cashew shell liquids."

I wonder what else is made from Cashews?

P.S. How can i get a fancy profile like Bumppo's (8/17 1:34)

Irish Miss said...

Good morning:

Kudos, Michael, for a very challenging Sarurday offering. I finished but needed help. Never heard of Land Shark or Razzleberry Pie. Erie Canal was a gimme; one of my nephews is Head Lock Master at the Waterford lock, just north of Troy. Nice expo, Splynter.

Happy Sarurday all.

Husker Gary said...

Clever with a nice level of difficulty, Michael! Getting LAND SHARK and ERIE CANAL right off the bat portended an easier puzzle than it was.

Musings
- Oklahoma perfected the WISHBONE with its stable of thoroughbreds. They used it against Nebraska in what is called the “Game of the Century” in 1971 where Nebraska eked (hey, there’s that word) out a victory in Norman. It also contained this most iconic play in Nebraska football history
-What TANTALIZES more than the smell of popcorn when you enter a theater? Oh yeah, that too.
-A friend has 500 WALNUT trees planted on an acre of ground as an investment for his kids.
-TIC and ANA are back, KFC has great SLAW, RAZZLEBERRY?
-Our only fonts in HS were PICA and elite. Typewriter? What’s a typewriter Papa?
-GIRT sounds like someone who might serve you a PETES
- FLOYD Patterson refused to call Muhammad Ali by that name and instead called him Cassius Clay. Ali therefore mocked and humiliated him in their bout.
-A PIGHEADED person never LETS GO
-Gluttonous barley consumption cost me a dad when I could have used one
-I got a free oil change and car wash the other day on my new car and the man said my tires were due for rotation thinking that this “free” thing was in effect. Uh, no, it was for A $16 FEE.
-Despite all of the HOOPLA around MacArthur, Truman was right.
-I can hear the HUM of Splynter’s circular saw!

Anonymous said...

The write-up suggests "Horace's art: ARS" is “perhaps a little too easy...for Saturday,” so can someone please help this perhaps a little-too-stupid person by explaining the clue/answer?

Thanks in advance. I'll check back later after wiping the drool from my chin.

Dennis said...

Not a stupid question at all - 'ars' is Latin for 'art'.

CrossEyedDave said...

When i saw "landshark," i thought i might have a chance today. & when jafar, anime & waxed popped up, i thought, yay! i am on this constructors wavelength!

Well, that's about it! crash & burn!

I thought 28A, cowboy directive was "gidyup!"

3D, i had N----S, but when the 2nd letter "Y" came up red, i lost all resolve... (*&%&^&* Jets)!!!

Splynter! great link on the Hotel California Outro! I intend to inspect it in detail, but my old PC doesn't want to match up the the sound & video, maybe i will try on my daughters laptop!

Yellowrocks said...

It was a difficult, but enjoyable puzzle today with tough to budge answers for me. It took me longer than my normal Saturday time, but I got it without look ups and with many wing and a prayer WAGS. When I find no crosses to confirm my guesses, I just have to write them down anyway with a mental note not to be PIG HEADED about them and be open to change. Once I reconciled myself to that, I made slow but steady progress.

I thought of Bill Clinton first. The Erie Canal was called Clinton's Folly when it was proposed because it seemd impossible to some observers.

It took me awhile to think of the ABBAS in the PLO, instead of the musical group.

I thought South American, instead of African grassland for a while and so PIGHEADEDly was sure of PAMPAS. Oh! African,so VELDT, of course. V 8 can, please.

Here is a picture of strips of lemon zest. This is what my zesting effort looks like, too, rather than little bits.
Link text

Sfingi said...

Same as CrossEyedDave, and DNF.

Many things I never heard of. WISHBONE OFFENSE, RAZZLEBERRY PIES, DIONE. Not so sure Aphrodite had a mother. Wasn't she created from the foam from when Uranus' cajones were thrown into the sea by his own sons? I know I didn't dream this.

Had one funny (to me) mistake. Instead of FLOYDS crosses FLEAS, had "BasilS" crosses "barkS." Different Patterson - father of our prev. NY Gov.

Nice cat photo. Looked up this photographer, a woman named Helmi Flick. I now have a folder of her cat beauties.

Yellowrocks said...

My zesting link came out wrong. Sorry. Let's try again.
Link Picture lemon zest strips

TTP said...

Husker Gary

That was a great play. Bob Devaney (IMO) put Big Red on the map. Then came Tom Osborne. Great man. Great coach. Great role model. I followed and pulled for Big Red all of those years, except when they were playing the Buckeyes of course. UT / Nebr games were a conflict, but those clashes between Big Red and the Sooners were like the OSU / Michigan games. Well maybe not the exposiveness... With Woody, it was always three yards and a cloud of dust. Off tackle and off guard. Then Archie came. Neither Archie nor Johnny had stellar pro careers, but they were something to behold on Saturday afternoons.

Yellowrocks said...

Sfingi, I thought the same as you did about Aphrodite's origin. Wikipedia gives 2 versions.

1. According to Hesiod's Theogony, she was born when Cronus cut off Uranus' genitals and threw them into the sea, and from the sea foam (aphros) arose Aphrodite. Thus Aphrodite is of an older generation than Zeus.

2. In another version of her origin she was considered a daughter of Zeus and Dione, the mother goddess whose oracle was at Dodona. Aphrodite herself was sometimes also referred to as "Dione." "Dione" seems to be a feminine form of "Dios",

Another version?
There once was a sculptor named Phideous
Whose sculptures by most were thought hideous
He carved Aphrodite
Without even a nightie
Which shocked all the fussy fastidious.

Irish Miss said...

Re 57A-Uvula. Sheldon explains it all. link

eddyB said...

Splynter. Nobody wants a lockout but Fehr said that there is a "meaningful gulf" between owners and players. Stay tuned for news.
First game is scheduled for 9/23 -MTL vs OTT. They should be in training camp NOW.

eddy

Sfingi said...

@Yellowrocks - Thanx! And, I should have called them what Hubster does, his "gentles."

john28man said...

I didn't finish this one without help but, by counting the spaces, I got 75% before using red letters.

Jayce said...

Hello everybody. Well this one was pretty doggone hard, all right. Thanks for 'splaining stuff, Splynter. I got off to a rougher start than several of you did, and was intimidated from the get-go. I got my ARS kicked. Although there were a couple of gimmes, such as KLEINE, RHEE, and, of course, LIV, I had to look several things up, but little by little, with lots of erasing, solved 'er. It was a fun process. Interesting to see TIC.

Yellowrocks, cool limerick, thanks!

So, if we add "vula" to the end of our sentences, does "I love you" become "I love uvula?" (Thanks and full credit to Rolf Harris for that.)

Best wishes to you all.

Lucina said...

Hello. Splynter, I wish I could be as enthusiastic as you about this puzzle but too many unknowns and sports references left me cold.

Like Jayce, LAND SHARK was unfamiliar as I was not an SNL fan back in then; too exhausted from teaching.

RAZZLEBERRIES? Really? Never heard of them.

WISHBONE OFFENSE? I had OFFENSE but finally had to look up the rest.

Actually the east and south filled fairly quickly but HOU escaped me.

The SW finally fell in place but of course PETES simply emerged.

Time to go to the nail salon. HG, any mani-pedi, yet?

Have a spectacular Saturday, everyone!

Husker Gary said...

Musings 2-

-We have had the AC off for two days and it is currently rainy and 59° F here in the heartland. After so many days above normal temps, we are way below.

-TTP, The Huskers had experienced very few high points before Devaney got to Lincoln although they did beat Notre Dame’s famed Four Horseman twice. Devaney took some decent players, made them believe in themselves and won a big game with blind luck and built on that. Tom Osborne was a role model coach and only made 3 bad decisions in 25 years. NU/OU battles were epic!

-YR, maybe that was what Lorena Bobbitt was trying to do.

-Lucina, I need to clip my toenails now but stupid male pride is keeping me from a professional.

-Liv Tyler (look for her quickly in this clip) had a small role in this wonderful little Tom Hanks movie (3:24). EAR WORM ALERT!

-Off to the Y!

Yellowrocks said...

HG Not long ago we were speaking of fitting last names. That always brings Lorena to my mind. I am sure when BOBBITT gave her his last name, he never thought that was exactly what she would do.

Anonymous said...

Bumppo is a drive-by commenter.

He shows up, spews his opinion, then disappears into his holler.

Both of his comments are about his strict usage parameters.

Note to Natty: puzzles are for fun, they are not a dissertation.

Relax Natty Bumppo. Your profile suggests you know how.

That being said, I'd love to have a beer with you someday!

Abejo said...

Good afternoon, folks. Thank you, Michael Dewey, for a very good, but tough, puzzle. Thank you, Splynter, for the swell review.

This was a monster. I had more blanks than I like to think about. Slowly got through, but I did have to go for a little help. I just did not have the time to slug it out (nor the brains).

Got the AZZLEBERRYPIES OK. Did not know the "R." When I finally got LAND SHARK, I had the "R." That's how this whole puzzle went.

I had PAMPAS for 45D for the longest time. No wonder I could get nothing in the SE.

RIDE EM was a good one. I even got that quite easily.

Thought ONE B was good for 30A. I walk by those seats all the time when I am heading to 31D at the back of the plane.

WISHBONE OFFENSE was quite easy. Took a little while to get the first four letters, but I did.

UVULA was tricky. I was thinking of something you wear around your throat. Once I got the three long Downs, I had it.

Beautiful weather in NE Illinois today. About time.

See you tomorrow.

Abejo

PK said...

I googled RAZZLEBERRRY and came up with some yucky-looking stuff which was also identified as medicinal canabis!!! I've heard of canabis brownies but never PIE. Never tried any of it, although it grew wild on the creek where I lived.

I've been running a fever off and on for two days and nights. I picked up the puzzle this morning, read down through the clues, whimpered a while, then went back to bed. Monday will be soon.

HeartRx said...

I'm in Saratoga NY ...bet on Lemon Drop...lost my shirt!!

Jayce said...

HeartRx, yikes! Cover up!

Bill G. said...

Marti, sorry to hear about you and Lemon Drop. I hope it wasn't an expensive shirt.

I've never been a big horse racing fan, except for watching Silky Sullivan come from way behind years ago on TV.

Once Barbara and I went to Santa Anita years ago. I bet on all the favorites and lost every bet. When we left, I got out into the HUGE parking lot and couldn't find my car. I finally realized we had come out the wrong side of the race track. I asked at the exit but they wouldn't let me back in. So we had to walk all the way around the outside. About 45 minutes later, we finally found our car.

Anonymous said...

D'OH!!

Anonymous said...

Actually its D'oh!