google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Saturday, Apr 27th, 2013, Brad Wilber

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Apr 27, 2013

Saturday, Apr 27th, 2013, Brad Wilber

Theme: None

Words: 72 (missing J,Z)

Blocks: 29

  This one started out well enough, but the NE corner did me in - some answers were just not in my wheelhouse, so I had to switch to red-letter.  Oh well.  A little something for everyone today, myself included (see 19D.).  A rare grid pattern, nothing too intimidating, with just the triple 8's in two corners.  Worth mentioning:

7A. Dupe : CAT'S PAW - Now that I think about it, I vaguely remember something about this, but I didn't get this reference at first; it's also a 54A.


41A. City where the first koala sanctuary opened : BRISBANE


58. Underwater escape mechanism : SQUID INK - I just found out it's an ice cream flavor

O    n    w    a    r    d    ~    !

ACROSS:

1. Protocol : RUBRIC - First line from Blue Öyster Cult song

14. Where seals are their least graceful : ON LAND

15. Script used to transcribe foreign words into Japanese : KATAKANA - more here

16. Low-tech calculator : ABACUS

17. Modeling job? : EPOXYING - Loved making scale models when I was a kid; still have some kits waiting to be finished

18. Drop shots, in badminton : DINKS

19. Nearsighted one : MYOPE

20. Was into : DUG - My first thought, but it didn't sit well with me; then the "U" showed

21. Low : SAD

22. "Daniel Deronda" (1876) was her last novel : ELIOT - the Wiki

24. Regatta racer : SCULL - ARGH~!!  Second time in two weeks that my "YACHT" was wrong

26. Osiris' sis : ISIS - ssssssss....and they had a kid, Horus, together

28. Speculate : INFER

30. Choir section : APSE - DAR~!!!  I tried ALTO, BASS - no, the actual place

31. Wielding absolute power : DESPOTIC

33. Legal extremes? : ELs - LegaL - the two "L"s on the ends of the word; didn't fool me

35. He plays Andy Bernard on "The Office" : ED HELMS

36. Tool that's swung : CLEAVER - HAMMMER was too wrong

40. Letters in a prof's email address : EDU

42. Term paper abbr. : IBID

45. Wild outing : SPREE

47. 14-time A.L. All-Star : A-ROD - Alex Rodriguez - baseball for C.C.

48. Collection of plates : ARMOR - I like Knights and Castles; I dressed in chain mail for my now-defunct wedding  (From C.C.: Very cool, Splynter!)
 

50. Isn't industrious : LOAFS - not LAZES

52. Tag for some as-is mdse. : IRRegular

53. Legend site : MAP

54. Get one's goat, e.g. : IDIOM - Argh~!!! I had "IRKED", going with the figurative, not the literal English reference

56. It was once called Mission San Antonio de Valero : ALAMO - W.A.G.

60. Stories on stands : ALIBIS - Court of Law stands, that is

61. Enhances : AUGMENTS

62. Slim and trim : SVELTE - sounds sexy; I once knew a Russian girl named Svetlana; she was svelte

63. Ritual candelabrum : MENORAH

64. Cutie pies : HONEYS

DOWN:

1. Farm stand spot : ROADSIDE - Yep, the Cidiots will be arriving soon, with their "ooh, look, a farm stand~!" rubberneck driving skills

2. Neutral : UNBIASED

3. Flatter in a cajoling way : BLANDISH - straight up definition; new word for me, tho I did consider this "BLAND - ISH"

4. Pool convenience : RACK - No, Dennis, THIS kind of rack

5. Taken : IN USE

6. Some investments, briefly : CDs - Certificates of Deposit

7. Writer who said "All literature is gossip" : CAPOTE

8. Perched on : ATOP

9. Campaign hot button : TAXES - I had MONEY, since it worked with my YACHT

10. Word with jack or box : SKY - Skyjack, Skybox

11. Settled : PAID UP

12. Cancels : ANNULS - my wedding has not been "annulled" yet

13. Part of some golfers' pre-shot routines : WAGGLE - do any of our blog golfers "waggle?"  Do you address the ball~? "Hello, ball~!"

15. It has an all-white scale : KEY OF C - Great clue/ans.



19. They show a lot of leg : MINIs - another gratuitous Splynter link

23. Chem test paper? : LITMUS - The paper's color changes depending on pH level

25. Fruit named for a Turkish town : CASABA

27. Maker of small suits : SPEEDO - a link for the ladies~!

29. A pitcher may appear in it : RELIEF - Bet C.C. nailed this one, too

32. Unlike spring chickens : OLD - "that A-Rod, he ain't no spring chicken"

34. Porter's "__ Girls" : LES

36. Stationery shade : CREAM

37. Algebraic uncertainty : VARIABLE

38. Unfathomable size : ENORMITY - Cream - Variable - Enormity; sounds like, um, how many inches of snow we might be getting....

39. Wooer's buy : RED ROSES

41. Tolerates : BROOKS - I have heard this before, but it was the perps that filled it in for me

42. Penn movie with a Seussian title : I AM SAM - IMDb

43. Cubism pioneer Georges : BRAQUE - some of his work

44. Call into question : IMPUGN - love the spelling of this; "im-pyoon"

46. Statue base : PLINTH - because PEDESTAL was unfathomably sized

49. Straphanger : RIDER - Subways

51. 21-gun salute, e.g. : SALVO

55. Actress Merrill of "Operation Petticoat" : DINA

57. Bank security : LIEN

59. Bit of blogger shorthand : IMO - In My (sometimes Humble) Opinion

60. It may be tapped off : ASH - cigarette reference; I went with KEG

Splynter

49 comments:

  1. Thanks, Splynter, for the great explanations.
    What Thumper said about the puzzle for me, today.

    Montana

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  2. Happy Saturday everyone!

    Pretty stinkin’ tough, but then again, it’s Saturday….

    I see we have apse again. What’s the record for consecutive apses and / or naves?

    You’d best be Svelte to wear a Speedo, imHo….

    Hands up for Yacht, Bass….

    The Giants could use some effective Relief pitchers….

    Now, this is my idea of cleaver, as well as Brooks

    Finally, it’s a shame that Les Girls is best known these days as a nation-wide strip club chain….

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  3. Morning, all!

    This was... not an easy puzzle. Definitely a good day to know the word PLINTH, however.

    Looks like I'm not alone with my struggles in the NE. YACHT instead of SCULL and BASS (and then ALTO) instead of APSE. And then I semi-confidently put in KATAGAMA instead of KATAKANA and DID instead of DUG. KEYOFC looked so wrong that I refused to accept it even after getting it via the perps, so I took it out. Couldn't think of a single word that went with both "sky" and "box". And who knew that golfers WAGGLEd.

    I finally Googled "Daniel Deronda" to get ELIOT, and that confirmed KEYOFC (which I then understood), and that opened the floodgates to finish the puzzle.

    Elsewhere, I was briefly stymied by EDHELMS and BRASQUE, but the perps took care of them in short order.

    [urumne]

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  4. Good morning Splynter, C.C. et al.

    Great write-up and links, Splynter. Loved the SPEEEDO! Oh, and along with CREAM, VARIABLE and ENORMITY, we had RED ROSES, in case the lady was unwilling…

    HA!! For the third day in a row, we had the APSE/NAVE dilemma. However, today we were given the valuable hint including the word “choir.” Since the nave is where the parishoners sit, it has to be APSE, right? (…Or maybe it is supposed to be “alto”???) Thus went my second-guessing myself. Anyway, here is a cool interactive link that explains all the different sections of a church.

    ….TBC

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  5. I liked SQUID INK for the underwater escape mechanism. I had Melburne before BRISBANE (it would help if I knew how to spell my Australian cities – sorry, Kazie!) But SPREE seemed logical for 45-A, so MR**** didn’t look promising for “Tolerates.”

    In the end, I had one letter wrong. My WAGGLE was a WiGGLE because I had no clue about KATAKANA. I like the word, though and at least I learned something today.

    Although Georges BRAQUE is most famous for developing cubism with Picasso, he is also the first artist to be exhibited at the Louvre while he was alive. He was also commissioned to paint one of its
    ceilings in 1953.

    It is going to be a gorgeous weekend here, so I plan to be outdoors for most of it. Have a great day, everyone!

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  6. Oh my. I thought I was so clever when I wrote "trees" for stationary shade....the r in Brisbane confirmed it! Blandishments just makes me think of sword fighting. All in all had to give up. Too much to do today to fool around anymore. Beautiful sun...

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  7. Good morning, Saturday soldiers!

    I, too, noticed CLEAVER and BROOKS, but my BROOKS was "Our Miss". And my SKY started out as a CAR (Boxcar, Car jack). RUBRIC was a learning moment.

    The only parts of the church I'm familiar with go like so: "This is the church, and this is the steeple. Open the doors and see all the people."

    Splynter, I enjoyed the ENORMITY of your statement. And I enjoyed Brad's puzzle, even though I WIGGLEd my way to a DNF. For lack of a nail...

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  8. Aha! I see that Marti also found some WIGGLE room in this puzzle. At least I'm in good company.

    When he was growing up (probably in Melburne), his parents wanted him to become a baroque artist -- but they misspelled his name.

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  9. I found it hard to believe this was a Saturday puzzle. It seemed more like a Thursday to me.

    My first entry was KATAKANA. I was amazed to see it. The Japanese language uses 2 Kana syllabaries which are phonetic, Hiragana and Katakana, intermixed with more than 1000 Chinese characters or Kanji. It takes a long time to learn all the Kanji characters. I knew only a fraction of them. In the Chinese market I could understand the Chinese characters for pork, beef, chicken, etc, but the Chinese word is entirely different from the Japanese. In class we used the syllabaries in order to read and write those words for which we had not learned the Kanji.
    I have forgotten most of the Kanjis, but still can read the Hiragana and Katakana syllabaries. I need a translation dictionary more and more. My skill is fading fast.

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  10. I was on Brad’s wavelength from the start, although I skipped around. After KATAKANA I wagged BRISBANE from just the final E. I got BLANDISH from the BL and CATSPAW from just the first A. I knew PLINTH and was pleased that SPREE followed it. ALTO or BASS? The A seemed to ask for ALTO, but the S in ANNULS said no. Great fresh clue for APSE. ED HELMS and BRASQUE were all perps. SQUID INK was my last entry. Cute!

    I am enjoying this clear 60℉ weather, a nice respite from the winter cold and the summer heat.

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  11. I guess in the end it was all doable but I agree with Marti about the katakana waggle (think Jason Dufner) cross since most of us do not have YR' s expertise.

    Glad to see the weather better for all.

    Thanks Splynter and Brad

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  12. Wow, that was one difficult puzzle today. Funny, the top half took quite a while (had to Google parts of two words, RUBRIC & KATAKANA), and the bottom half was a piece of cake. Finally warm in Chicago.

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  13. Hi Everyone ~~

    I'm with those that Wiggled instead of WAGGLEd and thus my one wrong square. I was surprised that the two I thought might be wrong, were not: the crossing of BLANDISH and DINKS. I learned some new words!

    It seems that many of our Saturday Silkies are turning into Wilber Wonders. I struggled throughout, but really enjoyed the challenge. The NE corner was the last to fill. That particular CATSPAW was unknown to me =^.^= and EPOXYING took me way too long.

    ~ Write-overs: Enormous/ENORMITY, Bass/Alto/APSE.

    ~ I loved KEY OF C once I figured it out - I was thinking of white meat at Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) when I had the C and Y.

    ~ So many favorites - among them: 29D - A pitcher may appear in it/RELIEF, 48A - Collection of plates/ ARMOR, and 60A - Stories on stands/ ALIBI.

    ~ Loved the misdirection of 58A - Underwater escape mechanism/ SQUID INK.

    ~ I was about to say I'm really not a fan of the SPEEDO, but then I saw the link - never mind.

    ~ Splynter ~ what a great write-up - so informative and very entertaining. I had many chuckles / HAR HARS at your comments - esp. " Statue base : PLINTH - because PEDESTAL was unfathomably sized."

    Beautiful day here today ~ enjoy the weekend!

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  14. This sort of puzzle is what a call, "educational." In other words, I didn't know lots of stuff. Some of it was welcome: CASABA, ALAMO, BRISBANE and the info to go with it.

    Couldn't think of KATAKANA, though we used it in early programming sets. Remembered Pinyin as a method working another way - writing Chinese phonetically using the rules of Italian pronunciation. Maybe we'll see that soon.

    "Educators" like the word RUBRIC for methods. Wish they wouldn't.

    I have to say, Strunk & White recommends against using ENORMITY to mean large size. It is, according to them, criminal.

    Had special problems with sports, naturally. This word, DINK, when Googled, points only towards crossword puzzles, and not the badminton sites. Googling "14-time American League All-star" produces nothing usable. Guess you either know it or don't.

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  15. Good morning all.

    D Doc said "Pretty stinkin’ tough". I agree. But I did get PLINTH and IMPUGN. Needed red letter help in the NE. Clever clues for EPOXYING, APSE, ALIBIS and some others. For 15d, all-white scale, wanted C Major or some such before MYOPE and ELIOT showed it to be KEY of C.

    51d - SALVO. Merriam-Webster gives one definition as "a series of shots by an artillery battery with each gun firing one round in turn after a prescribed interval".

    In the Navy, salutes are fired at 5 second intervals and always in odd-numbers. The 21 gun salute is fired on Washington's Birthday, Memorial Day, the 4th of July and to honor Heads of State. The Secretary of the Navy would receive a 19 gun salute, a 4-star Admiral 17 guns.

    Welcome aboard to Helenwheels.

    Nice weekend forecast here.

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  16. I took awhile to parse 58-A correctly. I wondered what SQUI DINKS were. The DINKS I know stand for Double Income, No Kids.

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  17. RUBRIC was another cubist. His parents also got the spelling wrong.

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  18. Cat's paw?

    Plinth?

    Katakana?

    Thanks for the headache.

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  19. Hi again~!

    D-otto, that's funny; I grew up with that cubist craze.

    Splynter

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  20. A DINK in badminton is more commonly called a drop shot. In tennis, badminton, etc. a drop shot is a ball or shuttlecock so softly hit that it falls to the playing surface just after clearing the net. Most lists of tennis and volleyball terminology include DINK. Most lists of badminton terminology do not. I was interested so I looked it up.
    Sfingi, I was waiting for an educator to pick up on RUBRIC. We had scoring RUBRICS to assess student projects and essays. There are also RUBRICS for assessing teachers. Sometimes in teacher assessment these are called PROTOCOLS. I call them PIAs.
    I have heard PROTOCL used in discussing computer issues, diplomacy, treaties, and many other subjects.
    Liturgies have RUBRICS prescribing how the liturgy shall be performed. Rubrics are often printed in red, thus their name, red like a ruby.

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  21. I didn't even get my foot in the door. My puzzle was so white you could go skiing on it... Probably because instead of Brisbane, I inked in Adelaide. & instead of dink, I WAGged dunk. Splynter, nice try on 36A, tool that;s swung = hammmer. You did better than me, I had "axxxxxe!" But in trying to salvage something from this humiliating experience, I did learn a lot. Rubric

    HeartRx, Thank you so much for that church layout diagram for 30A. I was horrified that the little voice was going to add " Arrr, Ya scurvy choir section!"

    Hmm,,, I wonder if I can use 14A seals not being graceful on land as a segue for this otter clip.

    Finally, 13D waggle. @ 0:50 & 4:18 you can observe a fine example of a golfers "waggle."

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  22. Hello, Word Warriors! Great analysis, Splynter and I loved the SPEEDO link!

    Loved this puzzle, too, though it was challenging and drove me to Google in the end. 90% was quite doable for me. It started slowly, one cell at a time but then little by little filled nicely.

    ABACUS, MYOPE, DESPOTIC, ELIOT etc., gave me a foothold to spread out from them. Coincidentally, the exact wording of the clue for ALAMO was used in Jeopardy! recently.

    Ditto, on 10D for CAR before SKY after looking up KATAKANA and ALTO before APSE.

    As for I AM SAN, I was sure that it was SAM I AM and so that slowed me for a long time in the SW until I search for Georges BRAQUE whom I didn't recall from art history eons ago.

    LaLaLinda, I love your coinage of "Wilber Wonders." I really DUG this one. Thank you, Brad.

    stories on stands, ALIBIS, was my favorite clue today.

    WBS, "definitely a good day to know the word PLINTH."

    Have a superb Saturday, everyone!

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  23. YR:
    RUBRIC became a buzz word in educational circles in the 1990s when Whole English came into being and an entirely new focus was introduced. Workshops were scheduled weekly, even on Saturdays, to be trained in the ill-advised method which in the end proved itself to be disastrous and a whole generation of children failed to learn properly. My opinion, of course.

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  24. Thank you, Brad Wilbur!

    Our Thursday and Friday puzzle were too easy this week. I've been waiting for a challenge like today's. This was a happy one-- tough, with a couple of near misses (I almost let EPOXYING go as EPONYING, whatever that could have meant), but ultimately do-able.

    Let's see. I couldn't get a toe-hold until ED HELMS, that fine comic actor, appeared. Then each corner had its own difficulties. BLANDISH is a word I must use more often. I was happy to realize (finally!) that I knew what a CATS PAW was. SQUID INK isn't the first thing that pops into my head in response to "escape mechanism." And SVELTE! That's one of those words that makes you question yourself once you see two unusual letters together--the "SV" in this case.

    The same uneasiness hit me with my favorite answer today--on the "FC" at the end of KEY OF C.

    All in all, a fine crossword for Saturday!

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  25. My brain hurts now. Like so many others, had ALTO for APSE, ENORMOUS for ENORMITY. However, I impressed myself by getting RUBRIC, MYOPE,SCULL,BRISBANE, and KEY OF C right away. Still, had lots of lookups to finish this, but at least it is correct! (no TADA with pen & paper)

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  26. I agree that you leafrn a lot about stuff you didn't or didn't remember.

    Splynter, you explanation of CATSPAW showed me, "Don't make me take your chestnuts out of the fire."

    I din't see DINK when I Wipipediad
    Badminton shots although I understand the derivation.

    PLINTH, as I learned from all the international business travel I did, is what the English call a base like a machinery pad.

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  27. Oops. That should be "Whole Language" not Whole English.

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  28. Lucina @12:35 I agree about the Whole Language fiasco, but I think RUBRICS for assessment of students and teachers has not disappeared. With the latest round of debunking tenure and evaluating teachers, I think RUBRICS are going strong.

    My favorite MYOPE is Mr. Magoo.

    WAGGLE, not wiggle,is actually used in golf discussions. I have heard of it. A golfer will WAGGLE his club (not his backside like Donald Duck LOL) when addressing the ball.
    Link text

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  29. First really enjoyable LAT CW in quite a while, IMhO. Especially EPOXYING's X and SQUIDINK's Q.
    Thnx, Splynter, for the link to KATAKANA. Despite a definite feeling of TMI, there was, for me anyway, one glaring omission. KATAKANA is almost always the first written Japanese that kids learn in school, both in language studies and in calligraphy. Probably because its "angles" are easier for small hands to control compared to the graceful curves of hiragana. by the time they finish 6th grade, they are expected (strongly so) to have mastered 880 Kanji as well as both sets of kana.

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  30. A big fat DNF today. Well okay, more of a svelte DNF, due to my filling ENORMOUS and not being able to let it go, thus unable to solve the SE corner until coming here.
    I wouldn't have been able to solve the SW corner either if I hadn't looked up Georges BRAQUE, whom I had never heard of, and also looked up the name of the Sean Penn movie, which I thought was SAM I AM.
    By the way, do not google SQUIDING.
    The NE corner was also difficult except for KATAKANA, which was a gimme for me, as I bet it was for Yellowrocks also.
    Overall, I just couldn't get excited over this puzzle. It was more work than fun.

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  31. Hi Everyone:

    Late to the dance because I just got back home from my visit with Hondo. Spent a delightful hour and a half chatting with this interesting, soft-spoken gentleman. Now I have met two fellow bloggers in person, Argyle being the first. It's nice to put a face with the name.

    A toughie today but with time and effort, I finally finished w/o help but no TADA because I wiggled instead of waggled. WEES about alto/apse. I also had Sam I Am for a while. Oh well, thanks to Brad for the mental workout and thanks to Splynter for the super expo.

    Hope everyone is enjoying a beautiful day such as ours.

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  32. Hello folks! I've had a busy week, although I've been keeping up with the puzzles. Thanks for the informative write-up as always, Splynter!

    It was a flying start for me in the SE and NW corners, but then I slowed down and stared at "??YO?C" for a while until I made sense of KEY OF C. The SW took a while too, since I needed perps for BRAQUE and RIDER. I needed perps also for ED HELMS. My favorite clues are "collection of plates" for ARMOR and "Chem test paper?" for LITMUS, the latter clue I nailed.

    I finished in relatively quick time (42:40), but I finished it wrong by one letter. Like HeartRx and others, I also had KATAKANI and WIGGLE. And I actually heard of KATAKANA, and I can't believe I didn't get that. Oh well.... I still had a lot of fun with this puzzle. Thanks for the fun puzzle, Brad!

    Have a good day, everybody! I'll try to catch up on the comments from this week.

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  33. I participated in a short term Japanese government sponsored all-expense paid fellowship in Japan to study Japanese schooling. We visited schools at all levels and talked with many education officials. We learned that children learn both Hiragana and Katakana in their first year, as well as some Kanji characters. The following article echoes my experiences there.
    Link text
    My Japanese/American grandson studied JSL (Japanese as a second language) in NJ and was taught hiragana right away. He soon was studying Katakana and Kanji, as well. He has become good at Japanese conversation through his mother and his Japanese friends. He has taken little interest in becoming fluent in reading and writing Japanese. I found that my Chinese/American students had similar experiences. Although they were fluent in Chinese, they didn’t want to study reading and writing

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  34. I AM SAM caused me to wonder...

    Are only the eggs green or is the ham also green?

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  35. Hi Y'all! I was relieved to see Brad Wilbur not Silkie today. After doing the puzzle I wondered why? Merrily Merrily red-letters all the way! After ROADSIDE most of the answers were not my first WAG or 2nd or 3rd.

    Great expo, Splynter! My favorite clue was for SPEEDO although I wondered who made suits for dwarfs for a while. Why on earth would anyone put a zipper in a SPEEDO. Looks like an owie waiting to happen. Hard to fit an enormity in a SPEEDO.

    I wrote in DINK confidently and wondered how I knew it. I played badminton one time at about age 10. Can't remember anything about it. They must have yelled, "DINK" at my every turn.

    I saw "I AM SAM". Got it. Also got WAGGLE. Dufner definitely WAGGLEs his backside. Been to ALAMO

    The CAPOTE quote was familiar to me, but I thought Maugham said it.

    A "sloop" was in my regatta. Thot protocol was only what to do when you meet the Queen or other high officials. Don't lie to me--RUBRIC is just a cube.

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  36. YR: Interesting to hear that your students were fluent in the language but didn't want to read or write it. Not surprising though, as difficult as it looks to be. I'm very impressed with your thirst for knowledge.

    I had a high school principal who said he could read German but couldn't converse in it. I always thought this was very odd.

    I was kidding about anyone lying about RUBRIC. Never heard of it in conjunction with teaching.

    The most disastrous educational theory during my kids' years in elementary school was "team teaching": 60-70 kids in one huge room with 3 teachers talking at the same time. Major distractions. After several years, irate parents stormed the school board begging for walls and separation. I just sent my youngest kid to Catholic school. We weren't Catholic.

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  37. YR:
    RUBRICS as a term for evaluation or assessment doesn't bother me. It's just that on hearing or seeing it, I immediately link it to Whole Language.

    I've been retired from elementary school teaching for 19 years now so am not up on current usage.

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  38. This was a tale of two puzzles for me. For some reason, the NW quadrant (where I usually start) got filled in fairly readily. The rest of the puzzle went much slower.

    CED, I really enjoyed the otter video.

    Sfingi, I agree with you and Strunk and White about ENORMITY. I think it's sloppy usage to use it to mean bigness.

    Regarding whole language, I think education seems to be easily influenced by fads; Whole Language, New Math, rubrics, etc. I had a principal who tended to jump on every new bandwagon where as I tended to prefer the old tried-and-true methods but would add good new ideas that came along.

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  39. Bill G, well said about education being influenced by fads. Getting a degree in "Education" does not make you an educator any more than getting a degree in Political Science makes you a politician or getting a degree in English or American Literature makes you a writer. It seems to me it is the degreed administrators who love to jump on bandwagons and play with fads that do nothing to improve how we educate our children. It's all a bunch of pop psychological hokum.

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  40. Jayce, it would have been great if you could have been at my school and we could have whispered back and forth during teachers' meetings with our principal. She was a good principal and a smart one but had a tendency to jump on every new bandwagon and use every new catch phrase like rubric, collegiality, benchmark, etc.

    I enjoyed going to math conferences and getting new ideas to incorporate into what I was already doing. My biggest use of 'new technology' was writing on a glass overhead projector screen instead of a chalkboard. I learned to use Problems of the Week where the students needed to figure out some interesting and unusual problem (they could work together if they wanted to) and then write up an explanation of the problem, their approach and their solution.

    I thought that reflected my experience as an engineer (before I became a teacher) when I would have to solve some technical problem and write a memo explaining what I had done.

    The Lakers appear to be overmatched and done. Oh well... At least the Dodgers seem to be starting to get it together. CC, is that your team they're playing now?

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  41. I was surprised to read that schools are now considering eliminating teaching children how to write with a (gasp!) pen. Since (most all?) children now use texts or emails to communicate, I guess it won't be long before the art of actually handwriting a thank-you note or letter will be considered as archaic as hieroglyphs on papyrus....

    Even if a signature is needed on a contract or document, I imagine they can use an electronic thumbprint, instead. 'Twould be harder to forge, at least.

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  42. HeartRX:
    Marti, I learned from my Mexican ESL students that they are taught only to print but are also taught to develop a distinct signature. We could learn from that.

    I hadn't heard that pens were not being used, just that cursive is no longer taught.

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  43. Good afternoon, folks. Thank you, Brad Wilber, for one tough puzzle. Thank you, Splynter, for the swell review.

    Well, this was a tough puzzle for me. KATAKANA?

    Liked SQUID INK. Excellent.

    I worked it off and on traveling back to Chicago from Alto Pass, IL. Had to get a little help to finish.

    We only got one speeding ticket on the trip. My pal got it. 81 in a 65.

    Almost home and looking forward to Sunday's paper.

    See you tomorrow.

    Abejo

    (swithie)

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  44. Hi all. Haven't seen Warren post lately, but I do remember that this is the weekend of the big Pottery Sale he and his wife are involved in. I hope I can make it by tomorrow. Chickie? JD? Were you able to go?

    Fav today - KeyOfC. Brilliant! Lots of interesting and unusual fills - menorah, plinth, Katakana, squid ink. Sheesh, a real work out.

    Going to a fund raising dinner tonight for the local Sister Cities organization. I'm going to see how many times I can work plinth and Katakana into the pre-dinner cocktail hour...LOL.

    Peace out

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  45. Did any of you catch the Kennedy Center show last night featuring the music of Carousel? I really enjoy old time show music much better than the recent stuff.

    Here's a video that might provide a little bit of mindless entertainment. Watermelon slicing.

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  46. I learned that technique from watching the Food Network a few years back. It works great. Of course it takes me more like 20 minutes!

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  47. Good Evening all - A big DNF today. I got most of the NW and most of the SE, but the rest was very sparse. A real toughie, but after all, it IS a Saturday and usually a hard one for me. Thanks Brad for a great puzzle and Splynter for a great write-up - and your speedo link :). PK - had a chuckle over your zipper comment.
    Some new clever clues - a new one (for me anyway) for APSE - and I did get that one as I wanted PAIDUP right away.. Lots to try and remember for future puzzles.
    Only worked on it for a bit this morning, then had lunch and shopping with a good friend from high school who is visiting the area. Had to get the puzzle from the Chicago Trib website as the LAT only had yesterday's puzzle.

    Have a pleasant Sunday everyone!

    bardedi

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  48. Moni ? splynter is single. ? Cool

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