google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Wednesday, January 15, 2014 Gareth Bain

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Jan 15, 2014

Wednesday, January 15, 2014 Gareth Bain

Theme: Canine Connections - the four theme answers start with a variety of terrier as explained by the unifier.

18A. *Broadcaster of many TV games : FOX SPORTS

59A. *Seemingly unfitting name for Wrigley Field vines : BOSTON IVY. Famously-green home of the Chicago Cubs.



3D. *Like newly shaved legs, per some razor ads : SILKY SMOOTH

26D. *One checking crossings : BORDER GUARD. There's also a border collie - one demarcation line, two dogs! The collie gets my vote.


and the unifier:

39A. Dog breed, a type of which begins the answers to starred clues : TERRIER


Happy Wednesday everyone - Steve here with a nice midweek offering from Gareth Bain. It took me  a little while to get moving with this one - the theme helped once I saw the unifier. The Northwest was a problem, thankfully backed into the solve from filling the bottom up. Food, animals and all kinds of fun followed. Let's take a look!

Across:

1. Under siege : BESET

6. Raul Castro's country : CUBA. Is Fidel OK with this clue? I think he might be 10A!

10. Irate : SORE

14. Sheeplike : OVINE. Not to be confused with "bovine", a completely different animal.

15. A long way off : AFAR

16. Lily variety : ARUM. I think I knew this, but crosses to the rescue anyway.

17. Give birth to a baby elephant, say : CALVE. Cows and whales too. Any others?

20. Acting the quizmaster : ASKING

22. Mink kin : STOAT. Cute-looking, but ferocious for their size.


23. Like some simple questions : YES/NO

25. Dress like a king or for the ring : ENROBE. Boxers and other pugilists wear a robe going into a fight.

28. "I'd rather not" : PASS

30. Say convincingly : AVER

32. Brother : MONK

34. Higher limb : ARM

35. Vase-shaped jug : EWER. Not sheep-shaped?

36. "The Treasure of the __ Madre" : SIERRA. 1948 John Huston movie starring Humphrey Bogart. Huston won the Oscar for Best Director.

38. __ Balls: Hostess treats : SNO. Food! (Almost!) Did you know they make green ones for St. Patrick's Day and orange ones for Halloween?

41. Dawn to dusk : DAY

42. "Better luck next time!" : TOO BAD

44. Chooses : OPTS. I like you can opt in, out, for or against. Versatile little word for being three letters long.

45. It may be massive or massaged : EGO

46. __ sax : ALTO

47. Narrow strip : SLAT

48. Lode deposits : ORES

49. Greg's sitcom wife : DHARMA

52. Impersonating : DOING

54. Thin-layered rock : SHALE

56. Nancy Drew, e.g. : SLEUTH

63. British Columbia neighbor : IDAHO

64. Jim Davis pooch : ODIE. He of comic strip "Garfield" fame.

65. Optic layer : UVEA

66. Go along : AGREE

67. Make (one's way) : WEND

68. Automatic "P"? : PARK. One of the P-R-N-D-L car transmission selector positions.

69. Yields (to) : CEDES

Down:

1. __ Burger, veggie brand that originated in Florida : BOCA. Food! (kinda!). I've never had a veggie burger and I'm not sure I want to start now.

2. Perón and Gabor : EVAS

4. Wishes one had : ENVIES

5. Many "Glee" characters : TEENS

6. Half-__: coffee order : CAF. Hmmm - I've never heard this in any coffee shop I've ever been in, but I guess you can order half caffeinated and half decaf?

7. What weather balloons may be mistaken for : UFOS. Or vice-versa if you believe the conspiracy theorists.

8. Ron Burgundy's dog : BAXTER

9. Burning crime : ARSON

10. Príncipe's island partner : SÄO TOMÉ. Completely unknown to me - crosses all the way. Located off the west coast of Africa on the Equator. Who knew? Not me!

11. NHL great Bobby : ORR

12. Tough thing to be stuck in : RUT. I had "MUD" at first which slowed me down a little.

13. What mom has that dad doesn't? : EMS. Two of 'em.

19. Links goal : PAR. A pretty lofty goal in my case. I'm delighted if I make bogey every hole, let alone par.

21. Worked on, as a bone : GNAWED

24. In the past : OVER

27. Incense : ENRAGE

28. Ribbons on a plate : PASTA. Food! Fettuccine in this case. I once had fettuccine alfredo at the restaurant in Rome that introduced the dish to the world.


29. Turncoat Benedict : ARNOLD. He really hitched up to the wrong wagon on that one! Ummmmm - Revolutionary War - Great  Britain fighting on foreign soil against REALLY amped up people? Yeah, I'm going GB on this one. WRONG!

31. Flashy Flynn : ERROL.

33. Sends to the canvas : KAYOS. The second reference to boxing, the "noble art" today.

35. Greek vowel : ETA

36. Squabbles : SET-TOS

37. Recipient of many returns: Abbr. : I.R.S. Our beloved Internal Revenue Service.

40. Popular tablet : iPAD

43. Sang one's own praises : BOASTED. When I played Squash (kinda like Racketball) in England, a boast was a shot played over the head of your opponent that left him or her helpless. I like to think of the word in those terms.

47. Mouth moisture : SALIVA.  Eeeew?


48. Antsy : ON EDGE

50. Letter before sigma : RHO

51. Not wimp out : MAN UP

53. Sacro- ending : ILIAC

55. Continually : EVER

57. Quaker pronoun : THEE. "THOU" went in, then out. Finally.

58. Tilling tools : HOES

59. Hood's weapon : BOW. I was thinking "gangster" at first and confidently filled in "GAT" until it was apparent that I was on the wrong track. Robin Hood.

60. Laudatory poem : ODE

61. Reason for contrition : SIN

62. Shaggy ox : YAK. I think that the word "shaggy" was introduced for the yak. It's almost - "guys, we don't have a word for how those things look".






Enough already - heading to Kansas City today so trading a nice warm hike in 80F in LA yesterday  for a winter coat. As they say in Tibet - it's a Yak Wrap.

Steve




102 comments:

OwenKL said...

Ever wonder what angry dogs do
To insult a she-dog when they spew?
They can't call her a bitch,
She's a dog! So they switch,
And they'll curse at her, "You Woman you!"

DNF for me. SA_TOME×_RUM was a natik. Oh, I figured out my problem yesterday -- I'd turned off JavaScript.

Dudley said...

Hello Puzzlers -

Found this one easy for a Wednesday. Granted, Enrobe didn't leap to mind, and São Tomé was 100% perps, but still it was a fast solve.

Treasure of the Sierra Madre is the film that gave us "Badges? We don't need no stinking badges!", a line that has been spoofed six ways from Sunday.

thehondohurricane said...

From icy CT on hump day,

My day has already been distorted. Riley was due at the groomers like now, which will in turn make me late for my chiro appointment. No way I'm going out on the roads for a while, so we'll either be late or rescheduled.

Nice offering from Gareth today that took a bit to finish, but got it done.

59D Hood's Weapon/BOW nearly got me. The fox in FOX SPORTS took a while to appear. BAXTER didn't help because it was solved with all perps. 49A was all perps too.

I'm a dog person, but not too familiar with terrier breeds. FOX & BORDER I've heard of, SILKY a newbie and a BOSTON Terrier is a BU athlete.

Time to give the roads a try.

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

Running a bit late this morning....

Fun puzzle. I'm up on my terrier breeds, so that helped. Oddly enough, however, I've never heard of BOSTON IVY before. Go figure.

Got tripped up by lots of little missteps. Tried MATE and MACK before MONK, CALA before ARUM, APING before DOING, etc. Nothing major, but it did make things a wee bit bumpy.

Yes, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre gave us that famous line about badges. However, it's one of those famous lines that was never actually spoken in the movie (at least, not as usually quoted). Kind of like how nobody actually said "Play it again, Sam" in Casablanca and James Cagney never actually said, "You dirty rat, you killed my brother!"

The actual quote is "Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges. I don't have to show you any stinking badges."

Rev said...

Fairly easy today, though the clue for 10A seems a little questionable to me. Irate and sore are too far apart on the anger continuum to be paired this way. Yeah, I'm probably nit-picking, but that's how I see it. Maybe it's just me. Otherwise this was a fun puzzle.

Al Cyone said...

Pretty straightforward though I had POISON (?) before BOSTON and APING before DOING. I ended up stuck in the NE corner with IRIS before pulling ARUM out of some deep subconscious recess. SAOTOME was a complete unknown.

[8:51]

buckeye bob said...

Thank you Gareth Bain for a fun puzzle. Thank you Steve for a fine review.

Just a little bit harder than the usual Wednesday for me. I got stuck in the NW corner. Had 2 acrosses and 2 downs I couldn’t answer. I kept reading the clues and mentally running through the alphabet. Just when I was about to turn on red letter help, TEENS jumped out at me. Then the other 3 came easily. Ta-da!

Never heard of SILKY terrier or BORDER terrier, but got them easily from the clues. Didn’t know BAXTER or BOCA Burgers, but the perps got them. Nice shout-out to Dennis.

Had SEGA before ARUM and APING before DOING. Wanted GAT before BOW, but had the B-O so the perp helped.

Treasure of the Sierra Madre is one of my favorite movies, but I also mis-remembered that quote. I was so sure, I had to look it up when Barry pointed it out. Huh! Thanks, Barry!


TTP said...

ARG, I'LL never be a super solver SLEUTH like Argyle ! At just over 14 minutes, I was one letter shy.

Son of a gun. For lack of a T. Did not know STOAT and never heard of SAO TOME. I have heard of Marissa Tome and Mel Tome.

Oh well, that was fun stuff. Thank you Gareth. You got a fair amount of animal references in there. My favorite has to be ODIE. Love his attitude.

The BOSTON IVY clue reminded me that the Cubs have revealed a mascot. Google at your own risk. He has sad eyes and no pants.

Will read the write up and comments later.

desper-otto said...

Good morning, all!

I almost turfed this one. I could only think of HALVE for the baby elephant, but really didn't like it. Finished the rest of the puzzle (hand up for APING and GAT), and then came back to HALVE for an alphabet run. D'oh!

I think we've seen SAO TOME before.

I only recently learned that DHARMA's Greg is the same Leo G. Carrol-looking guy who plays Aaron Hotchner on Criminal Minds.

Periodontist visit yesterday wasn't to bad. Expensive, though. Gotta go back in a week for the yankage and bone grafting. Sure sounds like fun!

desper-otto said...

Too bad, he meant to say...

Mari said...

Good morning everybody,

Well this was a great puzzle for the Corner's dog lovers. I'm not familiar with some of the terrier breeds - never heard of a SILKY terrier. I have a friend who has a rat terrier though. Cute dog.

I had CALA for my 16A lily which threw off my two EMS in mom.

I liked the clue at 28D: Ribbons on a plate: PASTA.

I've been to Wrigley Field many times, but never knew I was looking at BOSTON IVY.

Have a great day. January is half over!

Mari said...

Desper-Otto @ 7:27 am: I didn't know Greg was Hotchner. Hotch is such a serious character. I always thought the actor would portray a good Abraham Lincoln.

Big Easy said...

Very easy for a Wednesday puzzle. The only two I did 't know immediately were 'Ron Burgandy's dog and Greg's sitcom wife', both solved by perps. As for 6D, I don't drink coffee but my wife drinks Folger's Half-Caf. I also play bogey holf with a 17 handicap.

Montana said...

Thanks Steve and Gareth.
I didn't know SAOTOME but perps solved it. I even got the theme today. No complaints.

Full Wolf moon tonight.

Montana

HeartRx said...

Good morning!

Thanks for the fun and informative write-up, Steve! I cracked up when I read your EWER comment. Oh, and hands up for blithely putting in "gat" where a BOW should have been.

I really wanted sego to be my lily. But ORR got me out of that RUT and I was able to see the EMS and ARUM.

Fun puzzle from Gareth - what other kind of theme would you expect from a vet? He even gave us a gratuitous ODIE to go with the other dogs!

Happy hump day everyone.

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-A just right Wednesday level puzzle with a helpful theme, Gareth
-Baseballs sometimes get lost in the BOSTON IVY of Wrigley
-Our golf club is considering a BORDER COLLIE to help with this nuisance
-Thousands of people want to escape the CUBAN paradise of the Castro brothers
-A YES/NO response will usually follow a PASS
-Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys mysteries were written by many people in the Stratemeyer Syndicate under the names Carolyn Keene and Franklin W. Dixon.
-As a “wordie”, I look at PRNDLR and see PeRpeNDicuLaR.
-Those UFO’S never seem to land near MIT or Cal Tech
-My fictional BAXTER refers to this man
-There’s a big difference between being in a RUT and a groove
-One man’s SIN is another’s recreation
-I’d be shocked if Hondo or someone else on this site didn’t know a famous Cardinal baseball player whose nickname was SLATS
-What blockbuster movie had a vicious MONK named Silas?

kjinkc said...

Steve..hope you're wearing your Parka as we're waking up to 16 degrees this AM with a balmy high expected to be 34. Welcome to our little city in the Midwest!

Didn't know Ron Burgundy's dog but perps helped. Other than that, a few head scratchers, and seemed like a typical mid-week solve.

Al Cyone said...

HG@9:03: "I look at PRNDLR and see PeRpeNDicuLaR"

And that last "R" stands for . . . ?

kjinkc said...

HG - would you be speaking of DaVinci?

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

Another fine puzzle from Gareth. Only wite-out was I had 'sable' before STOAT. Favorite fill was SILKY SMOOTH. SÂO TOMÉ was a gimme and helped anchor the NE. Overall, nice bright puzzle.

CALVE - Icebergs CALVE, too, as well as Holsteins.

Have a great day.

Husker Gary said...

I know this is an apolitical site and I am not advocating anything but I think you will find the following interesting: My best friend’s son is running for the U.S. Senate from Nebraska. He has a Harvard/Oxford/Yale pedigree and has been an undersecretary at HHS but he caught national attention for running this unique ad about him and Nebraska. It landed him on the cover of National Review and appearances on Fox In The Morning and MSNBC’s Morning Joe yesterday. I started calling him Senator Sasse when he was 13 years old.

CanadianEh! said...

I was rolling along smoothly and ready to BOAST about my easy Wed solve but the NW corner made me say TOO BAD=BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME.

Again we had some of our regular xword clues like EWER, ORR (good Canadian!), CEDES, AVER (not Avow!), SNO, OPTS. There was even one I haven't seen for awhile but remember - STOAT although I wanted SABLE at first.

Hand up for SEGO lily and not knowing SAO TOME or BAXTER. I was stuck in MUD not a RUT. Then when I thought I should be hearing the Tada, I had to fix FEND to WEND. I guess there is no weapon called a BOF. LOL!.

CanadianEh! said...

Some BORDERGUARDS are friendlier than others. Some seem to be full of their own self-importance!

Canadians can travel to CUBA but not Americans. Some good resort deals can be obtained from here.

I smiled at AUTOMATIC P=PARK but thought IMPERSONATING=DOING was a weak clue.

But overall, a fun solve today
(I was too wordy today for a single post)

CanadianEh! said...

Actually it was the NE corner that was my problem. Maybe I'm dyslexic today.

Husker Gary said...

-Steve, it got up to 55 here yesterday but unfortunately that was the wind speed! It was so windy, hens were laying the same egg over and over!
-Al, I’m starting to feel like the Where’s Waldo of this site as in “Can you find Gary’s mistake today?” I’ve got to up my caffeine intake. An editor would wear out his DELE stamp and not his STET stamp on me ;-)
-kjinkc, you’re right. Silas was an insane MONK driven to monstrous deeds in the name of what he thought was true belief
-It was the NE for me too, Canadian

Bart said...

The inner teenage boy in me chuckled when I filled in IDAHO. Then he roared when I completed the the perp HOES.

Speaking of df, did you see how this sportscast in D.C. picked the modified rendering of the cub's new mascot? Please don't be offended its just some fuzzy humor.

Magilla Go-Rilla said...

13D was a loaded question. Steve added to the humor by saying "Two of 'em".
:-)

Abejo said...

Good morning, folks. Thank you, Gareth Bain, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Steve, for the fine write-up.

Well, I am a pint low this morning. Do it every eight weeks.

H.G.: The only SLATS I can think of is SLATS GROBNIK of Mike Royko fame. I read Royko's articles daily. No one has ever equalled him, IMHO.

I had a hard time getting started in the NW, but eventually got it. EVAS and OVINE were the easy ones.

Liked the theme. I have heard of all those dog types.

Did not know BAXTER, but FOX SPORTS helped.

DHARMA was easy. That was a pretty good show years ago.

I agree that DOING and the clue were iffy.

I have to get going. Cooking for 20 people this afternoon.

See you tomorrow.

Abejo

(29586523 193)

Whitey said...

I gotta think Ron Burgandy's dog's name was inspired by Ted Baxter, who I am sure was an inspiration for Ron Burgandy.

Lemonade714 said...

I loved this effort from our resident South African Veterinarian.

Along with the dogs in the theme, we have both ODIE, a cartoon dog, BAXTER, a movie dog, a STOAT, a YAK and OVINE, CALVE and GNAWED.

We also have the African reference SAO TOME, which in various incarnations has appeared in the LAT often; I do recall Gary Steinmehl had it in his last puzzle, published after his death.

I love having the constructor use his knowledge base. Write what you know!

Nick said...

The real dilemma is that "Badges? We don't need no stinking badges!" IS the line in Blazing Saddles D:

Anonymous said...

Well, one certainly cannot write with what he doesn't know. It'd be blank!

Avg Joe said...

In Nebraska in the fall that line morphs into

"Badgers? We don't need no sinking Badgers!!"

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

Thanks, Gareth, for a fun but challenging Wednesday offering. Had a few miscues: jam/rut, soya/boca, rod/bow, etc. Needed perps for Sao Tome, a complete unknown. I loved the theme, but I'll bet there was some cat-erwauling at CED's house! Nice expo, Steve.

I, too, am more familiar with the Border Collie. In fact, I believe that breed was rated as the smartest of all dogs.

Have a great day.

Tinbeni said...

Steve: Excellent write-up. Knew you'd enjoy the 'food'!

Gareth: Thank you for a FUN Wednesday puzzle.

Never heard of the BOCA Burger ... but I've only lived in Florida for 59 of my 61 years.
Hmmm, made with veggies ... I think I'll take a PASS.

Husker: Enjoyed the Sasse political ad. Since it makes sense, it has 'no-chance' ...

Major "V-8 can-smack" at Hood's weapon being a BOW.
I didn't start with GAT ... off the 'O' in ODIE, I had ROD. Easy fix.

Nothin' to drink, but I can remedy that situation.
Cheers!!!

Bill G. said...

Good morning! To change from my usual input, I decided to write this before reading the writeup and everybody else's posts.

To me, this puzzle seemed to be interestingly inconsistent; some of the clues being Wednesday-like and straightforward while other clues/answers seemed very tricky and difficult, much more like a Friday/Saturday puzzle. I got stuck right at the beginning with BESET, CALVE and BOCA. Then ENROBE. Then EMS and SAO TOME, all hard for me. Normally, Rich's puzzles seem much more consistent in their level of difficulty. Now I'll see what Steve and you all had to say. (I too had MUD and GAT.)

BTW, I got awakened by an earthquake at 1:35 last night. It wasn't bad since the epicenter was about 50 miles away but I certainly felt it.

Anonymous said...

Fun Wednesday run, enhanced by Steve's commentary.
Didn't realize the Boca name came from its origin in Florida. It was easy for me, because I used to listen to the npr program "Whad'ya know?" with Michael Feldman (that broadcast out of Madison, WI where I used to live) and Bocaburger was one of their main sponsors for many years.
They taste pretty much like a beef hamburgers, come in patties you can grill.

Anonymous said...

From the Free Dictionary:
Alternate meanings of DO.
a. To produce, especially by creative effort: do a play on Broadway.
b. To play the part or role of in a creative production: did Elizabeth I in the film.
c. To mimic: "doing the Southern voice, improvising it inventively as he goes along" (William H. Pritchard).

Google Images said...

FOX terrier

BORDER terrier

BOSTON terrier

SILKY terrier

Anonymous said...

To Anon. Brother, as above,

The meaning of the word, DO ..

What does it mean in this sentence .

Didja do her ?

Lucina said...

Good day, puzzlers! You make me laugh, Steve, especially the EWER line. Thanks.

A fine sashay today with a quirky dog theme. Like others, I hadn't heard of a SILKY terrier but am familiar with the rest.

CALVE reminded me of all the PBS documentaries we've watched over the years and I learned about elephants CALVing.

Hand up for wanting SEGO lily but ARUM appeared with ORR. And my brother was MALE first, then MONK.

Many years ago, crossing into Belarus, the BORDER GUARDs detained us because someone "PINGED" each time the line passed. Finally, after several times going through the radar, 48 in the group,someone recalled he took radiation medication. After they examined his prescription, they finally allowed us into the country!

Have a delightful Wednesday, everyone! We're going to see Saving Mr. Banks.

Jazzbumpa said...

Hi gang -

Ron Burgundy is based on long time, and now long retired local Detroit anchorman Mort Crim.

In the industry, that gear selector lever is known phonetically as the Prindel.

Gareth never disappoints. Fairly challenging Wed. SAO TOME - ARUM was my natick. TOO BAD.

Vertical TERRIERS were new to me.

When an ice berg breaks off of a glacier, that is also called CALVING.

KAYOS looks weird spelt out.

"Badges?!? We don't need no stinking badges!" is the Blazing Saddles version.

Cool regards!
JzB

desper-otto said...

Joe, if I was the partisan type, I'd say them was fightin' words!

TTP, Mel had an "R" in his last name.

JzB, I remember Mort Crim from the late 70's in Chicago. The CBS station, I think.

desper-otto said...

And Marisa had an "I" in her last name.

Misty said...

Yay! Not a total speed run but an utterly delightful success! Many thanks, Gareth--I didn't know you were a veterinarian! My doxies said to say "Hi!" (well, ARF) to you. Also liked seeing ODIE, and becoming acquainted with BAXTER for the first time.

What fun! Got the reveal early and so was waiting for SKYE and JACK RUSSELL (one L or two?), and was surprised by how many other terriers there are. My husband used to walk our doxies in the park twice a day before his stroke, and became friends with a couple who had a JACK RUSSELL TERRIER. Their bumper sticker said "Don't tussle with my Jack Russell."

My toughest moment: BROTHER. Since I didn't know SAO TOME this took forever, until MONK finally occurred to me. And I even went to Catholic school!

Better stop or I'll go on all day. Thanks for the expo, Steve, and have a great Wednesday, everybody!

Anonymous said...

I don't like "Kayo" because it is really "K.O." which is an abbreviation for knock-out. I have a similar dislike for "artoo detoo" which is really "R2D2." I'm not trying to pick on Mr. Bain, because he is clearly not the only one, but it always irks me in the crossword puzzles.

Argyle said...

Baxter

PK said...

Hi Y'all! Really fun puzzle, Gareth, as usual. Great one, Steve.

SILKY & BORDER terriers were new to me. Had to Google them to believe it. My daughter has two Cairn terriers who look like the Silky's with shorter hair and big personalities. They hate squirrels in the worst way.

My DiL had FOX TERRIERS who were real characters. I let one in the house once when I was baby sitting and petted him good while watching TV. She never forgot it and only tried to come in the house when I was there. They didn't let her in.

I have been watching a lot of FOX SPORTS channel lately because they are the only place I can watch my currently favorite Thunder basketball team, who aren't doing too hot with their star point guard recuperating from surgery..

Steve, Moose & elks also CALVE. But who knew about elephants?

Gary, I once did a fun story with a bunch of Wildlife and Parks guys who had transported a bunch of Canadian Geese to our lake from a Denver golf course. Loved seeing and touching the birds up close. The dog is probably an easy remedy if he does his job. A little dog droppings or a lot of goose juice -- whichever is easier to get off balls and golf shoes. However, the geese may make a game of flying over and bombing the dog. Geese love to eat that beautiful green grass or wheat.

PK said...

That was supposed to read "I petted HER". I have gender trouble when talking about dogs & cats. Dogs seem male and cats seem female to me.

Bill G. said...

Here are several back-to-back Animal Tracks slide shows. Enjoy!
Animal Tracks

I have a leather-bound, four volume set of The Best of Crossword Corner on my bookshelf, spines out, in order with Volume I on my left and Volume IV on my right. The thickness of the total pages in each volume is 5 cm and each cover is 5 mm or 0.5 cm thick. Unfortunately for me, a bookworm started eating at page one of volume I and ate right through to the last page of volume IV. What distance did he/she cover?

buckeye bob said...

Bill G 1:48 p.m. -

23 cm.

Spitzboov said...

Bill G @ 1348

50mm.

OwenKL said...

Bill G.: Is that an African bookworm or a European bookworm? And what do you have between pages 146 and 147 of volume III?

Anonymous said...

13 cm

Al Cyone said...

Buckeye Bob has the correct answer. Somehow the worm skipped the front cover of Vol. I and stopped before the back cover of Vol. IV.

buckeye bob said...

@ HG 9:03 a.m. --

SLATS: Marty Marion

LaurieRo said...

13 cm

fermatprime said...

Greetings!

Great puzzle, Gareth! Swell expo, Steve!

No cheats. First had mUd. Really liked the theme! A good friend had a really cute SILKY terrier.

The persistent winds here can really get one down.

Cheers!

Ol' Man Keith said...

A solid workaday pzl. I had SABLE before STOAT, DECKS before KAYOS, and GNU before YAK, but otherwise my progress was steady.

desper-otto said...

13 CM sounds right to me, too. The worm has to go through two complete volumes plus two covers. Bill would you copy those volumes for me? I'd love to have a complete set of Crossword Corner.

CrossEyedDave said...

Stoat/SaoTome got me, I had Stoal (thinking Stole) but really wanted a different "S" word I could not bring to mind. (Thanks CanadianEh@9:30, the word was Sable!)

Impersonating=doing did not make sense to me, & then when I saw it in writing on the write up, I made perfect sense. (praise be the Blog.) Then I wanted to link Jim Nabors doing impressions on the Andy Griffith show, but I couldn't find it. Here's what i did find:

1st time Gomer sings.

& Gomer sings with Carol Burnett.

I also really liked these pics:

Fox Terrier

Boston Terrier

Border Terrier

& Silky Terrier...

Ol' Man Keith said...

And the TERRIER photo looks a lot like our Yorkie, Louie. (Always hard to tell Silkys and Yorkies apart.)

"Treasure of the Sierra Madre" had a terrific artistic team, including a happy matching of father and son, with John Huston really spreading his directorial wings in company with his dad, Walter, as the cagey codger, Howard.

HeartRx said...

Ooh, Ooh - I got it!! 13 cm.

Great Animal Tracks, BTW.

Husker Gary said...

-Bill, Worm|.5 cover|.5 cover|5 cm pages|.5 cover|.5 cover|5 cm pages|.5 cover|.5 cover| = 13 cm
-Yeah, Al it was Marty SLATS Marion. Maybe CC will use this clue for Slats: Nickname for Cardinal Marion
-Want a textbook portrayal of paranoid? Watch Bogie in The Of Treasure Of The Sierra Madre.
-On the dog front, my neighbor with the 125 lb. St. Bernard/Pyrenees mix female now has a 125 lb Doberman male at his house and will adopt it as well if the two dogs get along, the previous owners kept Tonka in a large outdoor kennel. My neighbors live in a $350,000 house but they both love dogs. God pity the unsuspecting burglar!
-There’s a lotta impersonators who DO Elvis, but please…

Anonymous said...

Did anyone else feel that "sore" was misclued? Being sore seems a little too mild too be described as irate. I really struggled with the northeast corner.

Anonymous said...

I'm on a roll: 3 easy puzzles in a row! I'm sure it comes to a screeching halt tomorrow. Thanks, Gareth, for the dog theme. I love terriers. Would have liked to see my favorite, the Scottish Terrier. Great expo, Steve.

Confidently put in Sego instead of ARUM. Perps corrected me.

Had never heard of Sao Tome so perps filled in that side.

We're getting the big, fat, fluffy snow flakes that make the outdoors look like a snow globe. No accumulation expected. Yeah.

Happy Hump Day!

Pat

Misty said...

My goodness, that little BAXTER is sweet, Argyle. I had a crush on a kid named BAXTER when I was in seventh grade. Maybe cuteness just goes with the name.

Tinbeni said...

Bill G. you should have already congratulated Buckeye Bob.

5.0 cm - pages in Vol.I
0.5 cm - back cover of Vol.I
0.5 cm - front cover of Vol.II
5.0 cm - pages in Vol.II
0.5 cm - back cover of Vol.II
0.5 cm - front cover of Vol.III
5.0 cm - pages in Vol.III
0.5 cm - back cover of Vol.III
0.5 cm - front cover of Vol.IV
5.0 cm - pages in Vol.IV

23 cm -- Total distance eaten by worm

Almost Sunset, time for some SILKY SMOOTH Dimple Pinch, NEAT!
Cheers!

manac said...

I got 13 cm.

The question posed said spine out.
Page one is on the right of vol. one
The last page of vol. 4 is on the left

Tinbeni said...

manac, good point ... but how do I know the books weren't published in hebrew?

Al Cyone said...

"Spine out" is the way books are usually placed on shelves. Nothing tricky about that. The tricky part is to exclude the first and last covers. Buckeye Bob's answer and Tinbeni's analysis are correct.

Manac said...

Yes,
That was really me.
I wasn't signed in. Sorry.

The burning question is " What the hell is a cm ?!! This is America! We don't do cm's or mm's. Inches, Feet, Yards and Miles I understand:)

Tin,
AHH... But then wouldn't the books be placed Right to Left?

Time for me to have a pinch and consider this.

Tinbeni said...

Al, manac made a good point,
Page one of Vol.I is on the right.
The last page of Vol.IV is on the left.

Therefore ...
unknown thickness of the 1st page of Vol.I
0.5 cm - back cover of Vol.I
0.5 cm - front cover of Vol.II
5.0 cm - pages in Vol.II
0.5 cm - back cover of Vol.II
0.5 cm - front cover of Vol.III
5.0 cm - pages in Vol.III
0.5 cm - back cover of Vol.III
0.5 cm - front cover of Vol.IV
unknown thickness of the Last page if Vol.IV
13 cm Total PLUS the thickness of the 1st page of Vol.I and last page of Vol.IV

Manac: Bill G. set the way they were placed, Vol.1 on the left, Vol.IV on the right.

I agree about the metric WTF???

yummmmm, SILKY SMOOTH Dimple Pinch, NEAT!!!

Spitzboov said...

I was reading mm for some of the cms. 23 cm is correct.

Anonymous said...



What moms have that dads do not gave ?



PMS.

buckeye bob said...

OK, I am ready to admit I was wrong. I now agree with the 13 cm answer.

I was looking for a trick in the question, and thought I had it when I eliminated the 2 outside covers. I didn't think through that I also had to eliminate the pages of the 2 outside books.

HG has a good analysis at 3:27.

Well, I tried, but going away red-faced now...

Jayce said...

It's 13 cm.

Tinbeni said...

buckeye bob
Bill G.'s question @1:48 also pointed out:
"a bookworm started eating at page one of volume I and ate right through to the last page of volume IV"

Therefore the thickness of these two pages must also be added in (to the solution).
13 cm ++ as stated at 5:23 lol

Al Cyone said...

Buckeye Bob and Tinbeni were right the first time. And Spitzboov is right the second time. HG's 3:27 analysis is missing the pages in Volumes II and III (i.e. 10 cm). There is no way (and no need) to guess at the thickness of one page.

Ol' Man Keith said...

I enjoyed following the brains who worked out that book-eating worm's distance. Now, that's the kind of puzzler that's guaranteed to stump some and delight many!
For a while, I was in the dark, too, and almost ready to sign on in support of the 23cm gang. But something warned me (NOT the right answer) that I'd make an ass of myself unless I read through all the responses. The light didn't dawn on me until Manac's 4:48 posting, and I thank him for it.
At my age, it still amazes me how we can overlook the obvious. In a way it is why I've spent my life doing theater. The very notion of a dramatic "reversal" (Aristotle's "peripeteia") emphasizes how the human brain is hard wired to reach false conclusions. Drama (theater, film, TV, etc etc) exists to reveal that to us, over and over again.

thehondohurricane said...

CED

Many thanks for the Jim Nabors bits. He had one helluva voice.

Husker Gary said...

-Al, I thought it was clear that |5 cm pages| was shorthand for 5 cm OF pages in Vol. 2 and 3 not a single page there. Where else would I get 5 cm? I stand by my post, as do the others who got 13 cm via the same thought process.

Manac said...

Hey! Does my first post count if I wasn't signed in? I got so many things to bust CED's chops about with this puzzle...

Tin, Page one is on the worms left so it does'nt have to eat through it. Then its through TO the last page.



Oh Crap! Another post wasted.

Steve said...

kjinkc (my iPad wants to autocorrect that to "kinky") and Husker G - I did pack a coat so hopefully hypothermia averted.

Anon 5:31 - What's the difference between Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) and PMS? Nothing :)

Anonymous said...

Every news outlet out there has been talking about the 5 Year Anniversary of Captain Sully’s Miracle On The Hudson. I couldn’t let the day go by without mentioning it. Obviously one of the most boss moments of all time. Straight out of an action movie, Captain Sully did some real life Last Action Hero shit. The potential for disaster was fing INSANE in this scenario. At the very least 155 people could have died. Worst case scenario that plane goes down over the island of Manhattan where the casualties could have been 10 times worse. Instead Captain Sully just eased that baby down in the Hudson, everyone threw on a life jacket and went home safely. With a terrifying fear of planes and/or water, but safe nonetheless. Its one of the cooler events that everyone just kinda remembers here and there whenever its brought up, but if things ended in tragedy its an event nobody would ever forget.

Captain Sully now campaigns for patient safety in hospitals across America. He’s the kind of guy whos a real man who makes you feel like a complete dork for doing so little with your life.

Argyle said...

Bernice Gordon turned 100 last Saturday and has a puzzle in the NY Times today. Wordplay

Any solvers here?

OwenKL said...

But no one has answered my question. I'm sure 90% of you could tell an unladen African bookworm from an unladen European bookworm, but what was between pages 147 and 148 of volume III?

ghost writer said...

There is a nice puzzle story:


LAT: This was a deliberate nod to a lady named Barbara Wack, a music teacher from Minnesota, who has been sending me nice emails about my puzzles since before I was published! She had two spunky Bostons named Milton & Foster, but only Milton is still with her sadly. My mother produced the funniest wrong answer I have ever come across when she solved 13D [What mom has that dad doesn't?] : confronted with ?MS she confidently filled in a P!!!

Funny!!

Tinbeni said...

Argyle:
I solved it, thought it had a great theme.
I did check-out the review at Rex Parker.
He was nice in his write-up and wished her a Happy Birthday.

At 100 Bernice Gordon is still sharp as a tack.

In fact, my "first Sunset toast" was to her.

Bill G. said...

Marti, I'm glad you liked the Animal Tracks slide shows. Congratulations to you, Gary, D-O, Manac, Jayce and others who got 13 cm. Here was my analysis from my column where this first appeared:

This puzzle confuses people because of the orientation of the pages when viewed from the spine (back side) of the book. Page one of Volume I is on the right side when viewed from the back side of the books on the shelf. So the bookworm eats through the front cover of Volume I, both covers and all the pages of volumes II and III, and the back cover (left side) of Volume IV. I get 13 cm or 130 mm.

I chose centimeters because the dimensions seemed easier to express than fractional parts of an inch.

Lucina, I went to several stores before I found Cotswold cheese at a specialty grocery store. It was flavored with minced chives and onions. Is that typical? Very tasty for sure. Thanks for the recommendation.

Anonymous said...

See??? Cheesey is easy.
Happy Puzzling Bernice!!

TTP said...

Good late evening all. Back from a long day in the salt mines.

Great write up Steve! I had mud for a few seconds as well.

Desper-otto, when I said, " I have heard of Marissa Tome and Mel Tome" it was intentional. It was an attempt at humor. D'OH !

That STOAT sure looks like a weasel !

Anonymous said...

Ermine

Al Cyone said...

Bill G@8:11: "Page one of Volume I is on the right side when viewed from the back side of the books on the shelf.

Well, I think there's enough egg on my face to feed an army.

Good puzzle.

Spitzboov said...

Since BillG didn't say, my books were upside-down. there was no way to tell from the question that they were right-side-up.

Lucina said...

BillG@8:11:
Good! I'm glad you found Cotswold cheese and liked it. Yes, onions and chives are typical. What kind of crackers did you use?

Saving Mr. Banks is a wonderful movie. My sisters and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Highly recommend it.

Bill G. said...

The weather here would be more typical for Lucina; hot and dry. Plus gusty winds in some areas causing brush fire concerns (not where I live).

I hope you enjoyed the bookworm puzzle. I think it's a fun one to work on. I appreciated all of your efforts and thought Keith's comments were especially apt.

Upside down books! :>)

Lucina, up to now I haven't used any crackers. I just soaked up the pure cheese goodness. Typically, I would use Triscuits maybe.

Nobody has answered my question about whether it's possible to download puzzles from Cruciverb in Across Lite format as I used to be able to do. If I can't do that, I should probably avail myself of the New York Times puzzles. I know some of you do them as well as the LAT puzzles. Where do I sign up? Can I do them online? Can I download the puzzles in some format where I can do them later on my computer?

Jeannie said...

I hit my number!

Misty said...

CBS news did pay a tribute to Captain Sully and to the other rescuers of the downed Hudson plane. It was an awesome and inspiring feat that Sully accomplished, wasn't it?

Anonymous said...

Answer to OwenKL: Pages 147 & 148 occupy the same leaf of the book.

Anonymous T said...

Hi all:

Long day at the office and then geometry lessons with my daughter. Finally, the puzzle and blog.

It's TOOBAD that I got a DNF on Gareth's fun puzzle. It was the NE (not W) that messed me up big time. W/ SAOTOME unknow, I had wags in three spots - all wrong. I PASSed, but it wasn't an A+. Steve, thanks for fixing it for me.

HOES is my favorite because of this story: A snake was in my FIL's bedroom (he was bedridden at the time) and MIL came it to kill it with an un-sharpened HOE. MIL related the story to DW. It was everything DW could do to keep a straight face as MIL complained about that dull-HOE. DW goaded with, "yeah, nobody likes a dull - Ho." This went on for about 2 min before I broke out laughing.

Abejo - I loved Royko. I read him after throwing my route (and the comics) in my ute.

Anon @ 10:46 beat me to odd-even are on the same leaf. Learned that from Encyclopidia Brown.

Have a good DAY (er, night)!

Cheers, -T

kjinkc said...

steve- sorry about the autocorrect. I thought maybe it would correct to jinx or such. Since I don't consider myself ever to have been what you were given, I'll have to rethink and come up with something that's a little more modest.