google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Saturday, May 11th, 2013, Barry C. Silk

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May 11, 2013

Saturday, May 11th, 2013, Barry C. Silk

Theme: Saturday Silkie

Words: 72 (missing G,J,Q,X)

Blocks: 30

  Some profoundly perplexing clues from Mr. Silk today, but I persevered, and got my "Ta-Da~!" at the end.  Let's hope you did as well~!  I think some of the answers were in my wheelhouse, which helped immensely, such as 36A - I consider myself to be on the 'fringe' of that group.  Triple 11's today, and a few answers of note:

17. Expanse seen from Point Barrow : ARCTIC OCEAN - I've circled it in red for you


36. Starfleet uniform wearers : TREKKIES - I don't have a Star Trek uniform, but I do have a metal Starfleet "communicator", made of brass



40. Actor honored with a memorial statue in Hong Kong : BRUCE LEE


62. Reason to make a stand? : REFRESHMENT - This is a classic Calvin & Hobbes

In-Word~!

ACROSS:

1. Jerk : KNUCKLEHEAD - OK, so which jerk are we talking about?  The person, or the motion?

12. Casting leader? : POD - Podcasting, a 'neologism'

15. 1925 musical based on the play "My Lady Friends" : NO NO, NANETTE

16. Stumble : ERR

18. Draw : TIE

19. Check out : VET - literal definition

20. Shatner's "__War" : TEK

21. Snickers : TE-HEES - the laughs, not the candy bars

23. Cole Porter and Rudy Vallée, e.g. : ELIs - Students at Yale; completely baffling Saturday clue for a normally easy 3-letter fill

25. Thing to do in style : DINE

28. Hurts, in a way : BURNS

29. Glare : SCOWL

31. Connecting line : SEAM - q.v.14D

33. Make an example of : CITE

34. Food found in rings : ONION

38. Twerpz and Strawz candy brand : TWIZZLERS

43. Heavyweight : TITAN - not BOXER

46. Bill's first Supreme Court appointee : RUTH

47. Pencil holders? : EARS - Carpenter's must-have (the pencil, that is)

49. __ Hall : SETON - TOWN, CITY, no a specific one - a campus just outside of NYC

51. Hitched behind : IN TOW

53. 1924 Darrow client : LOEB

55. Value : RATE - and true clecho - 52D. Value : WORTH

56. Pitman users : STENOS - learning moment for me; did not know there was a 'type' of shorthand

58. DOJ part : DEA - Dept of Justice, Drug Enforcement Agency

60. Rebuffs : NOs

61. White wine apéritif : KIR - Knew this from crosswords

66. Subj. for an au pair : ESL

67. 1993 movie co-written by Quentin Tarantino : TRUE ROMANCE - I like Quentin, but not Christian

68. Commandment word : THY

69. Back-to-the-land movement practitioner : HOMESTEADER

DOWN:

1. Jacks : KNAVES - cards

2. Razor handle? : NORELCO - Har-Har~!  Brand name of electric razors

3. Balm : UNCTION

4. Where a guest may rest : COT - ah, not "INN"

5. Loop together : KNIT - semi-clecho to follow

6. Tied together : LACED

7. Japanese mushrooms : ENOKIs

8. Lawman Ramsey of '70s TV : HEC 

9. Haitian season : ETE - They speak French there, I'm WAGing

10. Rat-__ : A-TAT

11. Brightest star in Cygnus : DENEB


12. 18th-century teenage Russian emperor : PETER II - I thought I was smart by going with "PETR---"

13. Region of eastern Ecuador : ORIENTE - map, but it just says "Eastern region"

14. Clothing store hangers : DRESSES - I found one that claims to be "NILE GREEN" (q.v.35D.)

22. Peddler : HUCKSTER

24. Activate, in a way : SWITCH ON

26. Los Angeles-based ISP : NET-ZERO

27. Hall of Fame running back Campbell : EARL - all perps for me

30. "The West Wing" Emmy nominee : LOWE - Rob, but I never watched the show

32. Fulfill : MEET - as obligations

35. Shade of green : NILE - JADE wouldn't work, with "J" being at the end of 34A.; then it was LIME, then it was -ILE....BILE?  No, that's yellow

37. Songwriter Kristofferson : KRIS - I knew he was a composer/musician, but I know him better as the ruthless bad guy 'Bronson', in "Payback", with Mel Gibson

39. Fire : ZEAL - oh, that kind of 'fire'

40. Common entrée at 48-Down : BRISKET

41. Scrawny : RUNTISH

42. Altogether : UTTERLY - I had TOTALLY here, and when the grid was full and I did not get my fanfare, I went back and looked; um, yeah, no one named RUOH that I can think of (46A.)

44. Finished : AT AN END - Whoo, three-word phrase

45. Never : NOT ONCE - and a two-word phrase

48. Rituals including the Cup of Elijah : SEDERS

50. Bird, for one : NESTER - anyone else try "CELTIC" to start? - talkin' Larry Bird....

54. Inebriate : BESOT - This was self-inflicted, 100 months ago

57. Prefix with -tonin : SERO - Serotonin, found in tryptophan; I used to think it was in beer....

59. Words of lament : AH ME

63. Giant word : FUM - Fee Fi Fo Fum~!
                                  I smell the blood  of an Englishman 
                                  Be he live, or be he dead
                                  I grind his bones to make my bread~!

64. Lough __, second-largest lake on the River Shannon : REE - map, in the middle

65. Pasture plea : MAA - I had "BAA" to start

Check out THESE jammies~!!! (Note from C.C.:  I saw a few cheaters on that guy :-))

Splynter

37 comments:

Dudley said...

Hello Puzzlers -

Could not quite finish on my own. There was too much snow above the Arctic Ocean. Had to Google something to make a navigable passage, so I picked 15a. Once I learned No No Nanette, it was possible to make way over toward Peter II's realm and, well, conquer it.

Saturday Silkies can be tricky...

Yellowrocks said...

After pecking around for a while I was able to settle down and solve this bad boy in sections. I soon found Barry's wave length. I had an anchor in each section.
First ARCTIC OCEAN. ELIS didn't fool me this time. We've had it before.
Then DRESSES and ORIENTE.
I had ROD before POD. Having just read, Winter Palace, I knew PETER II.
SWITCH ON and IN TOW were key in the SW. I was looking for a specific Jewish dish, but then KIR gave me BRISKET.
I was surpirsed to see SETON HALL college which is near here.
WORTH and FUM gave me HOMESTEADER as anchors. My hold up in the SE was TITLE which I kept far too long. TITAN resolved 44 and 45 down and I was AT AN END.
Really challenging and fun. fast for a Silkie.

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

Struggled throughout today, but the NW and NE corners gave me the most trouble.

In the NW, I almost gave up completely until I finally allowed myself to consider that EYE might not be correct for 19A. Once I did that, I instantly got KNAVES for 1D and KNUCKLEHEAD for 1A (I had ___CK_EHEAD and just couldn't come up with anything). I already had ARCTIC OCEAN and NONONANETTE, so that was all I needed to finish that section.

In the NW, I wasn't quite as lucky. I really hate TEHEES (and TEPEES, for that matter), but grudgingly accepted it. And I eventually sussed out DRESSES (yucky clue) and ORIENTE (total guess but it was at least a Spanish word). But what else could a "casting leader" be but a ROD? After all I use my ROD to cast out my line every time I go fishing... It was only when I didn't get the *TADA* that I noticed how CETERII looked and started running the alphabet until I got the P (and the *TADA*).

[LLihLyt]

Dennis said...

Good morning, gang -- I'm sure glad to see that I wasn't the only one who fought this one. I actually got up and walked away from it twice, just to try and get a different perspective. Finally got through it, but it took significantly longer than even other Saturday Silkies.

My first thought with 'Jacks' was KNAVES, so I got a quick false sense of confidence. Quickly erased as I continued to try and find another foothold, first by putting INN for 4D and ETAKIS (WTF??) for 7D. Then, I know where Port Barrow is, and was trying to make something fit given the letters I had already. The 'T' in 'Arctic finally made me see COT, and then the NW finally opened up.

Then, after getting over to the NE, TEHEES led me to HAWKSTER for 22D (yeah, I know - I have no idea why I thought that was a good answer). TREKKIES even worked with that, so it took a while to clean up.

Anyway, you get the idea. LOVED the puzzle, but damn, I think another million or so brain cells are permanently damaged now. I thought these things were supposed to help cognitive skills...

Splynter, loved the write-up - I look forward to your take as much as I do Barry's great creations.

Hope it's a fun weekend for everyone. I'll be recovering from an interesting but exhausting multi-day bike trip.

desper-otto said...

Greetings, Saturday Soldiers!

In true Silkie fashion it looked impossible, improbable, maybe doable, done!

I never heard of Pitman shorthand. They still taught shorthand back in the ancient past when I was in school, but our school taught only the Gregg variety.

Splynter, I usually fall into the same traps as you, but not today. I immediately entered AT AN END, NOT ONCE, COT and EARL. I had to change my TREKKERS to TREKKIES. (grrrr!) Also thought the commandment word should be NOT instead of THY.

Kris Kristofferson was a really prolific songwriter until he wasn't anymore. He wrote songs like For The Good Times, Me and Bobby McGee, Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I'll Ever Do Again), Nobody Wins, Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down, Why Me, Lord -- you're bound to have heard at least one of 'em.

Before I forget, McAfee blocked your Jammies link as unsafe.

desper-otto said...

Oops! Forgot to list what may have been Kris's biggest hit, Help Me Make It Through The Night. Shame on me.

Anonymous said...

Why not forget the cot and just have one's guest "rest" in the street?

grams said...

Are you Timbeni, Anonymous?

Great write up. Alas, DNF for me! Happy Mother's Day, all.

Diane said...

MIsread JACKS for JERKS and so put in HOISTES! All downhill from there. Finally got most of it with help from my friend Google. My brain is tired.

HeartRx said...

Good morning Splynter, C.C. et al.

Like Dennis, I put in KNAVES, took it out, put it back, went to the kitchen for more coffee, looked at the puzzle again...and so on.

I felt like a real KNUCKLEHEAD (loved that entry!) at first. It is really frustrating to see swaths of white after the first pass, but so very rewarding to finish the puzzle after diligently reading every across and down clue to get a foothold.

Happy Mother's Day!

Lemonade714 said...

Splynter you do make Saturdays. NONONANETTE was very common fill a few years ago, FUM two days in a row, the hard ELIS and the dreaded (I agree BG) TEHEE all combined to make this an exercise.

As d-o says, from despair to done. Enjoy the weekend.

JJM said...

On Saturdays when I first look thru the puzzle, I think to myself," I'm never gonna get this". Then slowly but surely in about 30 in it's done. Happens almost every Saturday.

Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms/Grand-Moms out there! Enjoy your special day!

Sfingi said...

After breaking a record at 14 Googles, I gave up with a chunk of the South peppered, and came here. Had the first 3, saw the 4th - REFRESHMENT - went back to the puzzle and finished.
Don't know why I bothered to do a Saturday Silkie.

@Anon738 - I had inn before COT. I always tell people I don't cook and my house is dusty and littered with books. That usually does it, and they go to the "inn," Red Roof.

Husker Gary said...

What a tease is our Mr. Silk. Always showing just enough to keep you interested but not giving much away. Like Sally Rand?

Musings
-BARROW (2:31), Alaska is the northern most city in the US of A
-Like so much of Barry’s fabulous esoterica, who else is it going to be but BRUCE LEE?
-Remember that picture of my cute little granddaughter? She cleaned up on her REFRESHMENT stand at Joann’s garage sale. How ya gonna say NO?
-To ERR is human, to admit it is not
-We will DINE in style for Mother’s Day today
-I love ONION rings but am very picky about them. Keep your frozen ones.
-Our wonderful Hispanic families always seem to have many children IN TOW
-LOEB? I wracked my brain to get SCOPES and then it had too many letters so…
-I pulled the drawstring out of my sweatpants yesterday and had to LACE it back through
-DENEB is part of the summer triangle
-Those DRESSES could also be the hangees
-Have any of you seen the SEDERS on Curb Your Enthusiasm?
-Dost thou covet THY neighbor’s ass or are you happy with your donkey?

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

I agree with DO. On the first pass, I think, "I'm never going to finish this puzzle." On the second pass, things start to fall into place. From thereon, it just takes lots of P & P (Patience and Perserverance) and, finally, you get the great TADA.

I love Silkie puzzles because of the sheer satisfaction of completing them w/o help. (Even if it takes forever!) So thanks, Barry, for another Saturday brain-buster and thanks, Splynter, for your neat expo.

The graduation party next door starts at noon so I'll have to get ready soon. So far, no rain but it's cloudy and breezy. Maybe we'll get lucky and the rain will hold off until much later.

Have a great Saturday and Happy Mother's Day to all the moms and grand moms.

MontanaHal said...

What is the difference between "googling" something and going to my favorite blog to look up an answer? Seems to me that Googling imparts on one the DNF brand. AS for me, Saturday's puzzles are to me as the Enola Gay was to Hiroshima.... Love the blog for answers, explanations and wonderful repartee!

Zhouqin (C.C.) Burnikel said...

D-Otto,
Can you open this one? It's the Saturday Stud himself.

Bill G,
Great Leno link. What a happy & talented couple.

Zhouqin (C.C.) Burnikel said...

Jayce,
I experimented with rice & century eggs earlier. Delicious. So creamy. But I think the egg should be cooked in the Zhou for less than 1 minute.

I also snacked on one straight out of the shell. I sliced it up, and sprinkled on fresh ginger and green onion, a few drops of balsamic vinegar and sesame oil. Hmmm...

desper-otto said...

CC, your link is fine. I still get blocked when trying the Jammies link on the main page.

alexscott said...

This was a good, tough Saturday puzzle. I had to get started in the middle and work my way up and then down. Once I got a few crosses for 15A, I recognized NO NO NANETTE as the name of an old musical but couldn't recall how I knew it. Until I remembered that Harry Frazee, owner of the Boston Red Sox, supposedly sold Babe Ruth to the NY Yankees in order to get the cash to be able to finance the play, "My Lady Friends," upon which the musical was based. So a fun puzzle if only for that.

Misty said...

Our first day without house painters here at 7 am sending the dogs into a frenzy. Aaaaah. Makes even a dreaded Saturday Silkie manageable. I even got about 3/4 of this one before I had to start cheating and enjoyed a lot of the misleading clues. My biggest frustration was the SE. I thought I had that HEAVYWEIGHT nailed with TITLE, which unfortunately made SETON not work. Had RATE but still felt stuck. Even so, I probably wouldn't have gotten those last three long items. But who cares, it was fun, and great to read Splynter's expo.

Now if this posts without going to the spam filter and giving C.C. and Argyle more headaches, this will turn out to be a terrific Saturday,

Have a good one, everybody!

61Rampy said...

Unlike some others, I managed to sail right through this Saturday Silkie- except for the NE. All I had was a big sea of white. Most of my problem came from having HawKSTER in stead of HUCKSTER. No wonder nothing else didnt fit! Also, wasnt sure if it was TREKKIES or TREKKerS.
I cant believe I got some of the answers from the way-back depths of my brain!

PK said...

Hi Y'all! Splynter's jammies came through to my house just fine. TEHEE! Too cute! Who gifted you with those?

Silkie's puzzle left me sitting here for three minutes before I entered anything. I had tried to put in NAVES & got a lovely red streak. Finally, remembered a "K" and was off with ZEAL. Red letters re-direction even the playing field for me. I have enough frustration in my life without Barry Silk's teasers without help. Sometimes it takes more than three tries to come up with the right word.

RUNTISH? He made that one up. Oh, TREKKIES, not "monkkies". I was thinking "Planet of the Apes".

My Mom had sheet music from NO NO Nanette in our piano bench. A few perps clued that.

Heavyweight: not TITle, not TITty (well some fit the description), but TITAN.

I studied GREGG shorthand. Had forgotten most of it when I needed to take notes as a journalist.

Balm: not UNguent but UNCTION. He's kidding?

67a Wanted melaTONIN not SERO-

23A Cole & Rudy went to Yale and remained creative? Remarkable! Well, I guess Bill & Hillary have been pretty creative about some things.

PK said...

Only UNCTION I ever heard of was "extreme UNCTION". Isn't that the last rites for the dying in the Catholic Church? Would that be considered a "balm"? I was present for this for my Irish grandfather.

Ol' Man Keith said...

Yeah, I had BAA to start too.

This looked like a monster at first, but it just took the usual scratching away. Without a theme (Star Trek doesn't resonate with me) it lacked unity and felt like things were just slow trial, error, & re-try until they came out right. I took a stab at BRUCE LEE (what other international Asian actor do I know?). From some dim recess of my mind came LOEB and STENO, and the rest were the result of cross clues leading me on.

The NW corner was the holdout for me. I wanted the Pacific for the Barrow clue, but it wouldn't fit. Then I remembered where Pt. Barrow actually is from our Alaska trip (we got up to the Arctic Circle, though not to the sea itself), and that unlocked the three top long answers.

Ta-dah!

Montana said...

I usually enjoy Saturday Silkies, even though I have never completed one. He almost always seems to have lots of clues I know and makes me feel good about the solving.

I have McAfee and I had no trouble with the ‘jammies’ link.

My next door neighbor spends the school year in Barrow, AK, and his summers in MT. He says the pay makes it worth it. And his retirement will also be great.

I own my grandfather’s homestead farm that he proved up on, in 1910.

Supposed to be 90° for the next two days here. Last night it was 28°, but is supposed to stay above freezing now. I am going to take a chance and start setting plants out.

Have a good weekend,

Montana

Jayce said...

Hello everybody. Whew, a tough puzzle today! I had to look several things up to finish it, or even get a foothold in places. Had to look up NO NO NANETTE, TRUE ROMANCE, and TWIZZLERS. Immediately filled in SETON Hall, then took it out and put it back in as I realized 43A was TITAN, not TITLE (hi, Yellowrocks.) One of my professors at Yale was a Seton Hall graduate.

KNUCKLEHEAD is a favorite term of endearment used by the Click and Clack Car Talk brothers, Tom and Ray Magliozzi.

For some reason I immediately thought of ONION, but held off on pencilling it in because I couldn't think of a shade of green beginning with N. Also, over-confidently entering RIGEL instead of DENEB was a self-inflicted obstacle. Also wanting FLY instead of POD.

And so it went. Overall a pleasurable workout.

Ron Worden said...

Happy Saturday to all, haven,t commented in a while due to hectic schedule of college courses, but still do the puzzle and read the blog daily.
Enjoyed this Sat. Silkie as it was on my wave length.
Speaking of Leno, our paper publishes a late night joke everyday and today's I thought was good for the Moms.
Hooters is giving away free wings to moms tomorrow this is for guys who never get tired of hearing, look at me when I'm talking to you.. Happy Mother's Day to all that our. RJW

Bill G. said...

I always find Saturday puzzles hard and less enjoyable. This one fit into that pattern for me. I thought KNUCKLEHEAD and HUCKSTER were fun and RUNTISH seemed like something Mr. Silk needed to make that corner work OK. Good writeup as usual Mr. Splynter.

Barbara wants to go to one of the Thai restaurants near here. She always likes the coconut-based seafood soup so we'll get that and one or two other things. She's going in for knee replacement surgery next week. I don't know how nervous she is but I am not looking forward to it.

CC, I'm glad you liked the Leno link. I agree, those two are really special. They're good singers and their personality just sparkles through. What fun it would be to hang out with them for a while. I wonder if they are going to show up on some other TV shows?

Lucina said...

Hello, Saturday super solvers and Splynter, our super stud.

Yowza! WEES. I, also, felt like a KNUCKLEHEAD (hi, YR and Jayce) as so much of the fill was misdirection and I went the other way.

Hand way up for TITLE/TITAN, SERA/SERO and so it progressed. Little by very little the SW flowed in starting with BRUCE LEE (also the only Asian star I know)RUTH, KIR (I love that stuff) and of course, ESL. Also had NOT before THY.

My granddaughter loves TWIZZLERS so that at least was an easy fill as well as KRIS. I love his music.

Finally at about 80% done I decided to go to the store as today is my daughter's birthday and they will be here for dinner.

On returning I just went to Google for the names I didn't know, EARL, REE, got rid of TITLE that allowed AT AN END and NOT ONCE to make an entrance. Whew!

Happy Mothers' Day to all who are (mothers, grandmothers, step-mothers, etc.)

Hoping your Saturday is stupendous, everyone!

PK said...

BillG: I liked the Leno link too. That pump cam is usually funny, but that was a winner. But now "Livin' On A Prayer" is stuck in my head. That's okay, I like BonJovi. Story of my life: LOAP!

Anonymous said...

BESOT? REFRESHMENT? KNUCKLEHEAD?

Cheers to all at sunset!

Bill G. said...

Growing up in Virginia, I experienced the 17-year cicadas once as a youngster. For about two weeks, they were everywhere and really noisy. Apparently, they don't exist around here in southern California but I guess they're re-emerging back east now. I found online an article about eating them like other arthropods.

They’ll be ripe for your feasting says Isa Betancourt, an entomologist from the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University.

“It’s a delicacy that’s rare,” says Betancourt, who’s known to dine on a few bugs from time to time. She calls cicadas "the shrimp of the land.”

“They are arthropods, which means they have an exoskeleton,” she said. “We regularly eat the arthropods of the sea and those are the shrimp, lobsters and crabs. And so cicadas are arthropods too.”

“Have you ever eaten an oyster or a clam out of the bay? It lives on the bottom of the bay and filters, you know what (feces),” he said. “You’d eat this thing, but would not eat this delectable insect that’s been sucking on plant fat for 17 years? I think it’s weird.”

Betancourt is more pragmatic, offering this piece of advice for the cicada-eating virgins: “Close your eyes when you’re taking the bite.”

Jayce said...

Good night, all. Lookin' f'ard to seeing y'all here tomorrow after doin' two Sunday marnin' puzzies.

Cicadas sound yummy. We just need to learn how to catch 'em and cook 'em. as a kid I used to catch and eat box-elder bugs. Did some really really weird and stupid things as a yute. Never ate pidan right outta the box, though.

So call her maybe?



fermatprime said...

Hi, all!

Swell job with what proved to be an intractable puzzle, Splynter! Of course, I became impatient after 17 minutes. Several red letters.

Hotter than heck here, even at 8:30 PM PDT!

Happy Mother's Day to everyone!

Blue Iris said...

I'm so proud of myself when I get Silkie long answers. I was able to get 6 long fills today. Quite the cue.
TRUE ROMANCE-Avoid Quentin Tarantino movies whenever possible
PETERII- We had Treasures of the Czars Museum come to Topeka quite a few years ago. Has anyone else here seen this exhibit? Amazing opulence!
Had trouble with POD, UNCTION,HEC, and DENEB.
Liked FUM, EARS, and TITAN.
Finally bought hanging plants today. Hope to return Monday for nursery flat sale.

Happy Mother's Day to all the great ladies here!

Tony Michaels said...

Why is, when you just can't get a corner (and in this case the upper left hand corner just mystified me) and you put it down for a day, it all makes perfect sense when you look at it with "new eyes" the next time? I will admit that misremembering "Hek" Ramsey with a "k" instead of a "c" on the end really had me scratching my head in total frustration...

Thanks for the entertainment and the feeling of total satisfaction as all the letters finally fall into place.