google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Sunday July 14, 2013 Matt Skoczen

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Jul 14, 2013

Sunday July 14, 2013 Matt Skoczen

Theme: "Border States" -State postal codes bookend each theme entry.

24A. Land on the Red Sea : ARABIAN PENINSULA

39A. Eponymous Italian educator : MARIA MONTESSORI

57A. Time Warner, to CNN : PARENT COMPANY. Still remember Jerry Levin?


104A. Rioter's weapon : MOLOTOV COCKTAIL

87A. Periodic "Top Chef" judge with a restaurant in Manhattan : WYLIE DUFRESNE. He looks familiar, but I don't recall his name. 


122A. Macro, e.g. : COMPUTER SHORTCUT. I never really understood what Macros are, TTP. By the way, belated Happy One-Year Anniversary! What a great asset you've been to our blog and myself.

3D. She voiced Princess Fiona in "Shrek" : CAMERON DIAZ

75D. Under-the-hood cleaner : WASHER FLUID

Oh I love this theme. Notice the two states in each theme entry do border each other and there are no repeats of state abbreviations?

With 48 states to work with, you can imagine the amount of work involved in getting the best set of answers.

Across:

1. Filled fast food : TACO. All alliterative.

5. Orange County city : ANAHEIM. Angels.

12. Picks, with "for" : OPTS

16. Improv piece : BIT

19. Algerian seaport : ORAN

20. Brand formerly marketed as Philishave outside the U.S. : NORELCO. Unaware of this trivia. Made by Philips.

21. __-mutuel : PARI

22. Fruity finish? : ADE. Lemonade, e,g.

23. Way off the highway : RAMP

27. Pick up the tab for : TREAT TO

29. Homeowner's burden : LIEN

30. They include skateboarding and snowboarding : X GAMES

31. "__ Angel": doo-wop classic : EARTH. Who made it famous?

32. __ about : ON OR

36. Genus subdivision : SPECIES

38. Mall unit : STORE

44. Yule quenchers : NOGS

46. Ben Gurion airline : EL AL

47. '60s activist gp. : SDS. I used to confuse this with SLA the '70s radical gp.

48. Fancy pitcher : EWER

49. Laura Bush's birth city : MIDLAND. I only know she was born somewhere in Texas.

52. Turow work about first-year law students : ONE L

54. About to come up : ON DECK

56. "I'd like to buy __" : AN I. "Wheel of Fortune".

62. Driller's deg. : DDS

63. Diagnostic test : SCAN

65. Sling spirits : GIN

66. Rise dramatically : SPROUT UP

68. Driver's license word, maybe : HAZEL. Mine is BLK.

70. "Horton Hears a Who!" villain : VLAD

73. "Don't change that" : STET. And 90D. 73-Across writer : EDITOR

74. New Zealand exports : KIWIS

78. Wrongly left the base : GONE AWOL. I was shocked to learn that there were about 50,000  military deserters during WWII.

81. Russian fighter : MIG

83. Rain block : TARP

84. MC's aid : MIC

91. Wee : SMA

92. Orbital extreme : APOGEE

94. Una y __ vez: time after time : OTRA. Once and again, right?

95. Grabbed the chance : MADE HAY

97. Golfer Aoki : ISAO

98. Yukon winter hrs. : PST

101. Smaller serving : SIDE

103. Learned : WISE

109. City on the Po : TURIN. Po River.

112. California city associated with the founding of Hells Angels : FONTANA. Another unknown trivia to me.

113. Normandy river : ORNE.  And 135. River in central Germany : EDER. So many European rivers have 4-letter words.

114. "Friend __?" : OR FOE

115. Not vulnerable (to) : IMMUNE

118. Score symbol : REST

120. Ford and others : GERALDs

127. Bedtime in Burgundy : NUIT. "Bonne nuit!".

128. Music-licensing org. : BMI

129. Affectedly quaint, in Colchester : TWEE

130. "Great show!" in headlines : IT'S A HIT

131. Theater : CINE. Shoudn't this have a French/Spanish hint in the clue?

132. Utmost : MAX

133. Word often written diagonally on signs : SOLD


134. Taboo : NOT DONE. And 6D. Bad news at the inn : NO ROOM

Down:

 1. Linzer treats : TORTES. Marti must have had Linzer tortes before.

2. Biblical landfall : ARARAT

4. Policing the area : ON PATROL

5. Future MD's course : ANAT

7. Altar constellation : ARA. Three letter constellation is always ARA.

8. N.T. epistle : HEB

9. Actor Wallach : ELI

10. Myth ending : ICAL. Mythical.

11. Philosophy espousing a single reality : MONISM

12. Like some auto leases : OPEN END

13. Kitchen cooker : PAN

14. Upstairs neighbor of Ralph and Alice : TRIXIE. "The Honeymooners".

15. Sears : SINGES

16. "Queen Zixi of Ix" author : BAUM. L. Frank Baum. He was also the author of 119D. Dog who reveals he can speak in "Tik-Tok of Oz" : TOTO. I don't remember Toto speaks in the movie at all.

17. Not going : IDLE

18. Brews for parties : TEAS. Amazed this did not come to me immediately. I guess I don't associate teas with parties.

25. Gourd fruits : PEPOS. New word to me. This is from the Free Dictionary:  PEPO refers to the fruit of any of various related plants, such as the cantaloupe, watermelon, cucumber, squash, pumpkin, and melon, having a hard or leathery rind, fleshy pulp, and numerous flattened seeds.

26. Got fresh with : SASSED

28. Thing to mind, on train platforms : THE GAP. Mind the gap.

33. Captain Kidd's negative : NAE

34. DuPont acrylic : ORLON

35. Cheerful : RIANT. No one uses this word in real life.

37. Amt. after a period : CTS

40. Smart ones? : ALECS. Smart alecs.

41. Due : OWED

42. Stamp on a packing list : RECD

43. Peeves : IRKS

45. Catch : SNAG

49. Sour __ : MASH

50. Worshipper of the sun god Inti : INCA

51. Hooey : DRIVEL

53. Hacks : LOPS

54. CN Tower prov. : ONT

55. Stooge chuckle : NYUK. "Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk!

58. Zhou of China : ENLAI. Zhou is Mandarin. Chou is Cantonese.

59. He played Clubber Lang in "Rocky III" : MR T



60. Vichy verse : POEME. French "poem".

61. Temple Grandin's disorder : AUTISM

64. Below zero: Abbr. : NEG

67. Stomach part? : PIT. Clever clue.

69. Actor Rob : LOWE

71. Bowl over : AWE

72. Lamebrain : DODO. Not ours.

76. Culinary author Rombauer : IRMA

77. Fix, as a pet : SPAY

79. TV's "Science Guy" : NYE (Bill)

80. Ukraine city : LUTSK. Learning moment for me. Lots of V's in their city names.



82. Eat away : GNAW

84. Seriously injure : MAIM

85. __ facto : IPSO

86. Stove fuel : COAL

88. It can be dipped in dip : FRITO

89. Meteorologist's tool : RADAR

93. Err : GOOF UP

96. Allstate online subsidiary : ESURANCE. Helpful clue.

98. Many a GI : PVT

99. Like Capone's face : SCARRED. Hence the nickname "Scarface".

100. Moderates, with "down" : TONES

102. A, in Augsburg : EIN

105. From soup __ : TO NUTS. 6-letter partial is allowed in LAT. But don't abuse. One is enough.

106. Punch combo : ONE TWO

107. Make bread from chips? : CASH IN. Nice clue.

108. "Earthsea" series author Ursula : LE GUIN. I forgot. We had URSULA clued as "Sci-fi author ___ K. Le Guin" a while ago.


110. First-aid kit staple : IODINE

111. Empty __ : NESTER

115. SALT weapon : ICBM

116. NYC cultural center : MOMA

117. International Year of Astronomy year : MMIX. 2009. Non-clue for me.

121. Kitchen add-on? : ETTE. Kitchenette.

123. Sushi selection : EEL

124. What U can follow : RST. Alphabetically.

125. Mite : TAD

126. Sulu player John : CHO. Gimme! He was born in Seoul. More than a milllion people have surname CHO in Korea. It's spelled as CAO or CHAO (as in Elaine Chao, Bush's Secretary of Labor) in Chinese. Chinese has 4 tones, the name CAO has rising tone. CAO with the falling tone is the F word.




C.C.



51 comments:

  1. Good morning C.C. et al.

    I really must learn to look at the title on the Sunday puzzles. I realized that they were all state postal codes, but totally missed the fact that they were bordering states, bookending the theme entries. So what was to me a “meh” theme, became a stunner just by virtue of its title. Thank you C.C., for pointing it out!!

    Could not remember WYLIE DUFRESNE’s name, so the middle stayed unfinished for a long time. I also couldn’t think of what city could be spelled L**SK, and Spanish is not one of the languages I know. So OTRA was all perps in the end. The “T” was my last (WAG) fill. Whew!!

    Yes, Linzer TORTES are delicious. I like them even better than the (possibly more famous) Sacher Torte, because they don’t have any chocolate in them. The crust is a crumbly shortbread made with ground hazelnuts, and the filling is usually red currants or apricot - my favorite.

    Have a great day, everyone!

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  2. Happy Sunday everybody!

    Really enjoyed today’s puzzle. The border states CA and AZ were the first to fall; I’m waaaay too familiar with the long and boring I-10 drive on the way back from Spring Training. We’d usually schedule a REST stop at the “bustling metropolis” of Quartzsite on the state line….

    Ta-Da moment happened when I made a complete WAG of the “N” at the crossing of RIANT and ONEL, both unknowns to me….

    Do-overs: NTH for MAX, CABS for LOPS, MAORI for KIWIS, WENT for GONE (AWOL), CST for PST, AHI for EEL, and OAKLAND for FONTANA (must be that black hole at Raider games I was thinking of….)

    In Spanish a DODO would be a BOBO - es verdad Lucina…?

    My driver’s license lists HAZEL eyes – so, a gimme….

    A picture of the ARABIAN PENINSULA taken from the International Space Station is my current PC desktop photo – so, another gimme…. May have to change that desktop photo to an overhead shot somewhere close to ANAHEIM in October if my proposed new assignment comes to fruition…! Looking forward to a new LIEN…. NOT!

    Kings Play Chess On Fine Golden Silk is the mnemonic I was taught to remember Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species back in the day….

    Favorite answer = NYUK….

    Finally, how ‘bout that FANCY (?) PITCHER Tim Lincecum throwing a no-hitter yesterday! Of course it helped when Hunter Pence made a running, sprawling, sliding SNAG to end the 8th inning…. Go Giants!

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  3. Morning, all!

    Cute theme.

    Struggled a bit in the North after confidently entering MCAT at 5D. Finally fixed it when I realized there was no California city that started with MN.

    Sadly, I struggled a lot more int he center when I had WYL at the beginning of 87A and figured that couldn't be right, either. Not only do I not remember WYLIE DUFRESNE, I have never heard of him before. And crossing his name with LUTSK and FRITO nearly killed me. I mean, seriously -- who dips FRITOs? After much head scratching, though I did finally go with LUTSK and FRITO and got the *TADA*.

    FONTANA was another complete unknown, but the perps were totally solid down there.

    [implexh]

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  4. Good morning!

    Today I got my comeuppance after romping through the Saturday Silkie. As the Indian chief said in The Outlaw Josey Wales, "Hell has come to breakfast."

    I spent the longest time trying to figure out what GO O_UP could be. (Cue the V-8 can.) But it was my non-existent Spanish and miniscule knowledge of Russian geography that did me in. I knew that some Russian names, like Omsk, end in MSK, so what shouldda been OTRA became OMRA. DNF.

    I notice SMA showed up for an encore. C.C., ANAHEIM makes you think of Angels; I think of Disneyland. WYLIE DUFRESNE's name was familiar, but I don't recognize the face.

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  5. Very clever, the way the states in each clue border each other. Until CC pointed it out I wondered where the border concept was.
    Like Barry I had trouble in the center. From just the L---K I finally wagged LUTSK, which gave me OT-- to wag OTRA( new to me) and then DUFRESNE and I was home free.
    My son dips FRITOs all the time. He likes the corn taste.
    RIANT seems to be one of those words used only in writing. Even there I see it to describe a cheerful place, rather than a cheerful or laughing person.
    RIANT adj. When said of place, landscape or view: having a pleasant appearance, looking bright or cheerful.
    Example: “Amongst the rest, he descried a city ordered after the fairest fashion in the midst of a verdant and riant land, rich in trees and streams, with gazelles pacing daintily over the plains.”
    From The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night (1885), subtitled A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights Entertainments, a celebrated English language translation of One Thousand and One Nights (the “Arabian Nights”) by the British explorer and Arabist Richard Francis Burton (1821–1890).
    So many of the crossword answers that solvers doubt because they have never heard them spoken are found mostly in writing.

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  6. Good morning, folks. Thank you, Matt Sloczen, for one tough puzzle. Thank you, C.C., for the fine review.

    Well, I got started confidently and filled in most of the puzzle. Really got stuck in the center.

    OTRA and LUTSK crossing was abummer.

    Never heard of WYLIE DUFRESNE. I had WYLIE DUQUESNE. FRITO shpould have fixed that, but I did not have FRITO due to OTRA.

    Had ORGAN for 68A, thinking of ORGAN donor. That whole area was messed up. Finally got HAZEL after I had to get help.

    Had WENT AWOL. GONE appeared after help.

    Had ABILENE for 49A. MIDLAND came after help. No idea who CAMERON DIAZ is. Had the CAMERON part with perps, but no DIAZ.

    Officially DNF for me. Got it with help, but that does not count in my book, for me.

    Happy one year TTP. It was certainly good to meet you this past spring (I think it was). We will have to do it again, with Mari.

    Will be catching up on my yard work after church today. Lots to do.

    See you tomorrow.

    Abejo

    (tivtsel)

    Got the theme after I had all the answers. Pretty clever of Matt.

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  7. Thank you Matt Skoczen and thank you CC. That was just so odd that I should happen to have looked last evening to see when my first post on the blog was, and that it was one year earlier.

    I would have to defer to Desper-otto on macros. He probably wrote tons of them through the years. I tend to think of them as everything from application utilities to operating system and application keyboard shortcuts.


    Had the hardest time in the area of the Ukraine city. Finally saw the SI in SIDE, and that gave me FRITO down. DU came to mind, and that gave me the second DO in DODO. I previously couldn't quit thinking of DOPE, DOLT, and DORK. At any rate, with O-RA and it being Spanish, guessed at a word I know OTRA. OTRA is other, but I don't understand the saying as it is "Once and other time" to me. Lucina, help !

    FONTANA sounds like a cheese to me. Hand up for never hearing of PEPOS and RIANT. I thought of Zhouqin at Zhou.

    In the end, it was the end that did me in. Could not get LUI part of WASHER FLUID, nor DIN in IODINE. LEGUIN was a total unknown and only needed the G, so should have guessed that, and I was thinking of automobile manufacturers, not of the US president's first name.

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  8. BTW, I seem to remember Banning, CA, as the birthplace of the Hell's Angels. I used to work there and learned that then. Maybe there were several towns.

    Abejo

    (visuip)

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  9. Proud of myself today this was a speed run for me. Did not notice the theme until I read the write up; Also I did not need to know the theme to help me answer the clues. One 112A I knew the city started with an F so I went through the F California cities Fresno, Folsom eventually worked my way to Fontana. great write up CC and hats off to Matt for a delightful Sunday Puzzle.

    (elirong)

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  10. Abejo, that's what I've been thinking as well. We should get together soon. With Mari too !

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  11. Good Morning, C.C., and friends. Fun Sunday puzzle that I was able to finish in record time.

    I thought Wrongly Left Base = GONE AWOL would initially be a baseball reference.

    I think I read recently that the Tube system in London was no longer telling people to MIND THE GAP. Maybe Steve can confirm.

    Back to the beach before rain begins again.

    In honor of what would have been 120-Across's 100th birthday, here is today's QOD: Tell the truth, work hard, and come to dinner on time. ~ Gerald R. Ford (July 14, 1913 ~ Dec. 26, 2000)

    [oquaues]

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  12. Hello Puzzlers -

    Exactly what Marti said about the title and its clarification of the theme. I didn't make the connection. Where we differ is with the Linzer torte: while delicious, its main problem is that it has no chocolate. :-)

    Had trouble around Lutsk and Otra. Riant and Pepos weren't obvious either.

    I too have Hazel on my driver's license. Fact is, all my life I've thought I have good-looking eyes, but not once has anyone complimented them, ever. Perhaps I'm just wrong.

    Morning, C.C.! Do you mean your eye color is given as black? I'm not familiar with that usage. No doubt that is how your hair color is given; I reckon that Carrot Tops do not occur in China. :-)

    Cheers All!

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  13. Hi there~!

    Loved the theme, got it right away, and didn't even know there were circles involved. Totally done in by the mid-south, FRITO, LUTSK, OTRA, ORNE, and the chef. Oh well.

    Best clue - make bread from chips = CASH IN; I had GAMBLE

    There are still issues involving "The Gap" and the LIRR, but it has improved.

    Splynter

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  14. "Wee: SMA"

    Weak.


    "Theater: CINE"

    Weak.


    "Cheerful : RIANT"

    Pull-eeze.


    "It can be dipped in dip: FRITO"

    If you have baby-fingers.

    Thanks for the headache.

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  15. Good Morning:

    Woe is me-another DNF due to Lutsk/Otra. Otherwise, pretty straightforward. Didn't realize the states actually border one another until reading CC's excellent expo. Thanks, CC, and thanks, Matt S., for a Sunday treat.

    Graduation party was very nice and, except for a brief shower, the weather was quite pleasant. Today begins the dreaded dog days of July.

    For the "Suits" fans, season premiere is Tuesday, 10:00, on USA.

    Have a relaxing Sunday.

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  16. My recent travels to New York required me to ride the Metro North railroad from New Haven to Grand Central. The rail cars were all equipped with moving LED signs and recorded voice announcements reminding us to "Watch the gap between the car and platform as you exit" or something like that. It's just not as much fun as London's ubiquitous Mind the Gap.

    On an early trip to London I was so much amused by Mind the Gap that I bought a keepsake coffee mug with the phrase on it. For years afterward, my coffee-drinking coworkers would signal me it was time for a coffee break by sending "Mind the Gap" over the company email. Still makes me smile!

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  17. Dudley great story. Really impressive theme execution. Thanks for the words C. C. but how difficult is it to not be made fun of if your name is CAO? Wow.

    Comment at 9:312

    Very weak

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  18. Didn't like PARI.

    I normally wouldn't mind but with PA and RI already in the puzzle it just jumped out at me.

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  19. @ CC 31A:

    The Penguins in 1954.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Angel

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  20. No clue on OTRA, LUTSK and DAFRESNE so I’ll take 2 bad cells and move on. Hey I got RIANT.

    Musings
    -Oh, the cleaner is under the hood, it doesn’t clean under the hood
    -Now that our family is so large we don’t TREAT everyone TO dinners
    -Hondo and Doha know Willie Mays was ON DECK when the “shot heard round the world” was hit
    -I had a claustrophobic SCAN to see if my bad hearing was caused by damage inside my ear. The x-ray of my head showed nothing. Wait a minute…
    -Certain birdseed is verboten around here if they contain seeds that SPROUT UP when they fall to the ground
    -Halley’s Comet’s APOGEE is just beyond Neptune and it takes 38 years to get there after circling the Sun
    -GERALD Ford was born in Omaha100 years ago this month but only lived there a few weeks
    -No one said “IT’S A HIT” about The Lone Ranger and it may lose $150M
    -Is this the resting place of the ark on ARARAT
    -We had an old car that sent the temp gauge way up if we IDLEd long at a stoplight
    -Our neighbor just became an EMPTY NESTER and cried all the way home from taking her 6’6”, 220 lb little boy off to college to play football
    -A musical FONTANA

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  21. Good morning everyone.

    I start Sunday thinking I'm going to skip the cw today, (due to its length), but then like a moth drawn to a flame, I usually sit down and do it anyway.

    Fairly easy today - no searches needed. Agree with C.C. about RIANT, but got it easily knowing the French infinitive 'rire' - 'to laugh'. I think riant is used in heraldry.
    The Earth was at its APOGEE from the sun last July 5.
    Kind of neat how the state postal abbreviations bookended each of the theme phrases.

    Have a great day.

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  22. Hi Y'all! Lots of unknowns in this (WEES) but I did figure out the theme after I was done and studied it. I thought the puzzle was fun and less frustrating than yesterday with no large white areas. Thanks, Matt. Good one. Thanks, C.C. for everything.

    I still don't understand "N.T. Epistle" = HEB?

    Has anyone actually read "The Wizard of Oz" or any other L. Frank Baum book? Or is all our knowledge from an old movie?

    Shucky darn, the book quoted by YR is not on my night stand. She is right about many cross words only being in literature. I'll add to that, "and being books few people read."

    The article about soldiers going AWOL was interesting. A guy I dated a few years ago marched across Europe in WWII at age 17 "scared spitless" all the way. (His words) I read once that Washington's troops would just go home and do farm work or something and maybe come back. Amazing they managed to defeat the British.

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  23. HEBrews is a book in the New Testament, perhaps this LINK will helps. The N.T. abbreviation tells you the book is abbreviated.

    Happy Bastille Day to our French readers; it also is the 8 year anniversary of my mother's death. Love you.

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  24. P.K. - I read the original Wizard of Oz book long ago. Wiki says it was published in 1900. As far as I recall, it was better than the movie, longer and more detailed. It ends differently as well.

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  25. The Internet features dozens of Frito dip recipes. You can see in the picture that Fritos are large enough to dip.
    Link Frito dips
    ANON @ 9:31, in your situation, most regular solvers on the Corner, even the featured blogger of the day, will say, “Not in my wheelhouse,” “New to me,” or “I learned something,” instead of blaming the puzzle or the constructor.
    PA and RI were used as state abbreviations and have nothing to do with Pari-mutuel, so PARI is fine by me .
    I believe on behalf of=FOR, prison division=WARD and at the front of=FORWARD could all be used in the same puzzle, but I could be mistaken. Constructors?
    What makes late week crosswords interesting to me is that the answers are not on the tips of our tongues or on our nightstands. If they were, we would learn nothing. I personally have read RIANT in several books which I cannot find right now. Many times when an answer is panned, I come across it in my reading during the next several days or weeks.

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  26. YR, I agree it is amazing how many time an answer which seems very obscure shows up in my reading as well.

    I read a few of Baum's books and they were a slog for me.

    What did everyone here think about the movie TED ?

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  27. Lemon, I had to laugh about not "getting" the NT=HEB. When I was about 11, I won a Bible for being the only one in my group able to name all the books in there. I should have guessed from the word "Epistle" since I only have heard the word used for those Bible books.

    I've also noticed seeing a new word or new name which then turns up several places. "Riant" I'm not really expecting to see, but one never knows. This week I've had "etui" 3 times in puzzles from other sources. But that's not a new word for me.

    Fritos a gimmee since I live within aroma distance of Frito-lay plant. I used to be very fond of Fritos & spicy bean dip. Now I buy corn chips with less fat.

    The GAP filled itself in. Since we don't have such a thing out here, I was interested in the article and Dudley's trip. No better than my legs work, I think I'd better cross riding the subway & LIRR off my bucket list.

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  28. Matt Skoczen did a wonderful job on this one. I didn't get the theme until C.C. explained it, but after that I was amazed! Good work.

    That being said, it was too tricky for me today. Fun but tricky. Filling in KEGS for 18 D really got me off on the wrong foot in the NE corner. Brought back some good college memories, though!

    RIANT and PEPOS were new to me, but remembered SMA from a while back.

    Doc, I learned King Philip Came Over From Greece and Spain as mnemonic for the classifications. I like yours better.

    MADE HAY made me think of my mother. She always said we had to "make hay while the sun shines". She also used the term 'SOUP TO NUTS', which I haven't heard for quite awhile. Those made me smile. and tear up.

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  29. Aaargh! I was 95% of the way through working the puzzle on line (because it's not printed in our local paper on Sundays), struggling through that middle section, when zoop slip I clicked the little X on my browser tab and the whole page duly disappeared from my screen. Cao ni ma niega beeeeeee!

    Good to read all your comments and explanations anyway.

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  30. Hello, C.C., and all.

    I almost missed the party today. I awoke very early to take my sister to the airport and actually started the puzzle before we left. Afterward I was just too tired and sleepy, so went to bed.

    Although it didn't particularly help me, the theme was brilliant! Mostly I sashayed right through this. Except for WYLIE DUFRESNE the theme answers came readily. I don't watch many cooking shows.

    My mother used to say that my eyes are HAZEL but I just use brown on the license.

    MARIA MONTESSORI was well known to me because my granddaughter went there for preschool.

    DohaDoc:
    Yes, lamebrain would be BOBO or any number of other words with that meaning.

    TTP:
    Una y otra vez literally means "once and again." Ironically I missed that because I filled TODA instead, "una y toda vez" which I should know isn't in agreement, it would be "una y cada vez." In any case I erred.

    YR:
    When I saw RIANT I knew there would be comments about it and agree with you, it is often used in literature though I disagree with PK. It isn't just in rarely read books, but in ordinary novels. The more rhythmic in expression an author is, the more he/she will use those kinds of words.

    Have a great, relaxing Sunday, everyone!

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  31. One of my sons loved the L. Frank Baum Oz books and read them all at least once. The movie was taken mostly the first book, "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz". But there were 14 in all.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Oz_books
    I enjoyed this puzzle, got the theme of states "bordering" the long answers right away, but took a bit to realize that they also border each other. My first ones were CA/AZ and MA/RI, so I thought they might also all be on the border of the US, but the next AR/LA eliminated that layer.

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  32. eripsymJayce, I hereby declare above all truths that you have officially completed the puzzle in its entirety, and that you may feel satisfied about it.

    { I am trying to put your painful experience out of my memory. Please start printing it and feel free to use pen or pencil.}

    I had just fixed my daily wine spritzer and settled down to read the blog in a pain free manner, when your awful situation presented itself.

    Now let's have no more of that.

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  33. Creature, I want to take you with me to the next ACPT contest, so that you can declare that I "officially completed the puzzle in its entirety." HA - Let's see Will Shortz argue with that when they come to figure out who the winner is....

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  34. Creature, good idea to print the puzzle out. I like doing it with pencil on paper anyway, so all the better. I hope you are enjoying your wine spritzer and having a relaxing, pain-free, and riant day.

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  35. I'm gonna pick a nit. Nits are there to be picked.

    The theme was very interesting and was multi layered with all the paired states abutting, but it would have been SO cool if they had also been arrayed such that the pairs were cartographicaly arranged. IOW, Arkansas is not west of Louisiana, Maine is not west of Rhode Island and Colorado Is not west of Utah. To give credit, Wyoming is west of Nebraska and Missouri is west of Illinois, but those are the only ones that fit that pattern. Otherwise, it was a lot of fun.

    Loved the absolution, Creature. Take it and run Jayce.

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  36. Sitzboov @ 11:02 AM. At first I, too, thought RIANT might be a heraldry term, but soon realized I must have been thinking of rampant, used of an animal standing on its hind legs.
    Link rampant lion
    I find heraldry interesting and since it often appears in x-words I try to keep up with it.
    Jayce, I felt so sorry for you. I print my puzzle almost every day before I get the paper. I can print a larger version and I get a jump start on the day.
    Avg,Joe, have mercy. As we used to say, "What do you want, eggs ion your beer?" What a strange saying!

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  37. Happy Sunday afternoon or evening, depending. WEES. I made every mistake and fell into every trap that everybody else did and then I found a few more on my own. Even after I was finished I couldn't suss out the theme. There's no doubt about it, I'm getting stupider.

    "Seriously, who dips Fritos?" I do and so does everybody else at a friend's July 4th party when my wife brings bean dip.

    So we had Wylie Dufresne in the puzzle. I didn't know of him. I do know another Dufresne, maybe a bit more well-known, at least to me. Do you know who? He was a friend of Red.

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  38. Is that what rampant means? I always thought something else was standing up.

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  39. Avg Joe
    Your argument is compelling-"nits are there to be picked". So, of course, Matt Skoczen will be delighted to note your critical remarks, as he can only attain the highest achievement- cool-if he can rely on a true nit-picker to help him towards that ultimate goal!

    Loved 'Absolution'

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  40. Avg Joe, a nit of your very own ;-)

    MA is Massachusetts, not Maine, ME.

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  41. Another Nit PickerJuly 14, 2013 at 6:12 PM

    What about the North - South theme answers? They don't count?

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  42. OK, guilty.

    But!! MA is still not west of RI. Unless you really want to push it. It's north.

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  43. Another anon. Yes they count. They also don't meet the nit.

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  44. Does THIS count as putting PA west of NY?

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  45. Spitz-

    Great link! 'laugh-out-loud'!

    Stick LOL!

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  46. Zpitz ROTFL, oh my goodness, I can't stop. SNORT SNORT

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  47. Spitz:
    That video is just hilarious. I was in danger of my water breaking!

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  48. Spitz, great video! It makes me want to go bungee jumping all of a sudden. (JK. I wouldn't do that if you paid me.)

    When Barbara and I first went to England about 20 years ago, we traded houses with another couple (teachers). The next morning after our arrival, we headed off to the local train station. Speaking of 'Mind the Gap', I was standing at the edge of the ramp with my back to the track when the Intercity 125 came through. It's the express that only stops at the big stations and is so named because it can go 125 mph. It whizzes through without stopping. It was traveling so fast that it roared by me before I had really was aware of it approaching. It scared the crap out of me! Riding trains there and in France was a very good experience once I got used to them. I enjoyed pretty much everything about England and Scotland and most everything about France.

    I came across "Ted" accidentally on cable last night. I started to watch it but it didn't grab my interest right away. Did I miss something good? I look forward to the return of "Suits". Their initial hook about a guy who is so clever that he gets away acting like a lawyer though he never went to law school; that hook has pretty much run its course and has mostly been forgotten. Now it succeeds on the strength of its characters and stories. I really like Rachel.

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