google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Sunday February 2, 2014 Matt McKinley

Advertisements

Feb 2, 2014

Sunday February 2, 2014 Matt McKinley

Theme: "VW Showroom" - Each two-word theme entry starts with V & W.

23A. Sparkling French refreshment : VICHY WATER

29A. Pre-singing routine : VOCAL WARM-UP

45A. Lively European dance : VIENNESE WALTZ

 72A. Retiree's pursuit, perhaps : VOLUNTEER WORK

97A. "A Room of One's Own" author : VIRGINIA WOOLF

113A. Cellar prize : VINTAGE WINE

125A. Woman of letters : VANNA WHITE

38D. Competes against : VIES WITH

63D. "Okay" : VERY WELL

Simple theme. We've had this VM gimmick before, a more narrowly defined set of women's name only. Love Argyle's title there.

The theme entries 38D and 63D are shorter than a few non-theme entries. This does not happen often with LAT grids. We see longer non-theme answers when all theme entries are placed horizontally.  

I think the constructor chose this approach because he wanted theme intersection. Plus, the gimmick is quite self-evident that solvers won't have trouble locating theme entries.
 
Across:

1. Ottoman title : PASHA. Another Ottoman title we see in xwords is AGHA.

6. Orderly place?: Abbr. : HOSP. Nice clue.

10. Maleficent : BAD

13. __ of hands : A SHOW

18. Used for dinner : ATE ON

19. Within: Pref. : ENTO

20. Tarzan portrayer Ron et al. : ELYs

22. "Paint Your Wagon" composer : LOEWE (Frederick)

25. Small change : CENT

26. Seine tributary : MARNE. Needed crossing help. Quite a few 5-letter French rivers.

27. Dramatic words of accusation : ET TU

28. Thomas __ Edison : ALVA

31. Niagara ambience : MIST

33. Seriously impair : MAIM

35. "Something tells __ goofed" : ME I

36. Prefix meaning "bee" : API

37. Colorado NHL team, in headlines : AVS. Avalanche. Where does the S come from?

40. Unnamed degrees : NTHS

42. Snoopy persona : JOE COOL. Cool entry.

44. Required investment of a kind : ANTE

48. Key of Beethoven's Ninth : D MINOR

50. Word heard in the choosing process : EENY

51. Full of life : SPRY

52. Fading star : HAS-BEEN. Sad to see Justin Bieber in trouble again and again.

55. Maker of the Inspire Food Processor : OSTER

57. Draw a bead on : AIM AT

60. Letter before sigma : RHO

61. Barrel support : STAVE

65. Better informed : WISER

67. Formal promises : OATHS

69. Biased : ONE-SIDED.  And 88. King of hearts feature : TWO EYES

71. Tail fastener, in a party game : PIN. What game?

75. Arg. neighbor : URU

76. Lists : ITEMIZES

78. Migraine omens : AURAE

79. Onion roll : BIALY. How do you pluralize this word? Bialies or Bialys?



81. Daphnis' lover : CHLOE

82. It employs a movable mirror: Abbr. : SLR. Tough clue for me.

84. Buffalo hockey player : SABRE. I think Splynter roots for the Rangers. Or Islanders? I can't remember clearly.

86. Makes less tense : THAWS

91. Martin or swift : BIRD.  Another tricky clue. What came to your mind first?

93. Part of a staircase : STEP

94. "For shame!" : TSK TSK

101. Hurries : HIES

102. Homework shirker's lame excuse : I LOST IT

105. One might be in a pool : GENE. Gene pool.

106. Literary monogram : RLS. Robert Louis Stevenson. And ERB (70D). Tarzan creator's monogram).  Edgar Rice Burroughs. I think one monogram is enough for a grid.

107. Suffix with morph- : EME

108. Convent dweller : NUN

109. Stargazer's focus? : IDOL. Loved the clue.

111. Las Cruces or Las Vegas : CITY

117. Org. that investigated Alger Hiss : HUAC. House Committee on Un-American Activities.

119. Presley's middle name : ARON

123. Intestinal : ILEAC

124. Big fishhook : GAFF. I don't think any fishing term will stump Barry G.

127. Wallop : PASTE

128. Thereabout : OR SO

129. This, to Juanita : ESTA

130. __ society : HONOR

131. Misses overseas: Abbr. : SRTAs. Spanish.

132. Palme __: movie prize : D'OR. French.

133. Leicester lockup : GAOL. British English.

134. Teamed, as oxen : YOKED

Down:

1. Do roadwork : PAVE

2. Bickering : AT IT

3. Split-off group : SECT

4. Blah : HO HUM

5. At least one : ANY

6. Place for refreshment : HEALTH SPA. We have 4 9-letter long Downs. The other three are SERIOUSLY (41D. "You're kidding"),  SHOWERING (53D. Post-game activity) & ERIE CANAL (85D. Waterway engineered by Clinton). DeWitt Clinton.

7. Airing in prime time, say : ON TV

8. Boiling sign : STEAM

9. "__ favor" : POR

10. Turneth into : BECOMETH

11. George Smiley portrayer Guinness : ALEC

12. Live wire : DYNAMO

13. __ mater : ALMA

14. Fly high : SOAR

15. Author Hesse : HERMANN

16. Admit : OWN UP TO

17. Crying more : WEEPIER

21. Florida University named for a pope : ST LEO

24. Fails to recycle : WASTES

29. Six-stringed instrument, usually : VIOL

30. Dorian Gray creator : WILDE

32. Vacation stopover : INN

34. Steely Dan album : AJA. This is Jeannie's favorite album.

37. Chevy subcompact since 2004 : AVEO

39. Watchdog : SENTINEL

43. Industry VIP : CZAR

44. "__ a stinker?": Bugs Bunny line : AIN'T I

46. Bill and Louis : NYES

47. "Johnny Belinda" Oscar winner : WYMAN (Jane). Got me. She was Reagan's first wife.


49. Soldier's set : MESS KIT

54. Pro __ : BONO

56. Entertainment section staples : REVIEWS

58. "__ girl!" : ATTA

59. NATO founding member : THE US

62. Big fan : ADULATOR

64. College URL ending : EDU

66. "Frasier" role : ROZ

68. Some body fluids : SERA

71. Little shot? : PIC. "Little" in the clue suggests a shortened answer.

73. __ majesty: high treason : LESE

74. Temple leader : RABBI

77. "Nutrition that starts with apples" sloganeer : MOTT'S

80. "I see," facetiously : AH SO

83. Short turns? : REVS. Ah so!

87. Tanning nos. : SPFs

89. Authorizing : OKING

90. Replace for now : SIT IN FOR

92. 2008 Indy Japan 300 winner __ Patrick : DANICA

94. 1963 Burton/Taylor film : THE VIPS. Did anyone see this film?


95. Alike : SIMILAR

96. Most zealous : KEENEST

98. Midway attraction : RIDE

99. Classic muscle car : GTO

100. Not just damp : WET

103. Later, to Luis : LUEGO. "Hasta luego."

104. "Let's keep moving!" : ONWARD! Splynter's trademark.

110. Himalayan capital : LHASA. I saw several Free Tibet activiests at the flea market last year. They're selling pretty bracelets to raise money. Of course, I did not buy any since I don't support their cause.

112. Search giant : YAHOO

114. "So long" : TA TA

115. Breezes through : ACES

116. Assumption-to-conclusion segue : IF SO

118. Passé preposition : UNTO

120. Place for checking or saving : RINK. Ha ha, Santa!

121. Early Nebraskan : OTOE

122. Uncool sort : NERD

125. Laze about, with "out" : VEG

126. Wondering word : WHY

C.C.

58 comments:

OwenKL said...

I haven't written any poems for the past 3 days, so here are 3 separate limericks on today's theme.

Vivian Went for a spin in her bug,
"Very Well," said her boyfriend, the lug.
"You know I won't fit,
So at home I will sit.
Vainly Wishing your 'dub wasn't snug!"

The people's car, the VW
Came out of the factory in a long queue.
It wasn't expensive,
Its use was extensive.
In my youth, yes I had one, did you?

The VW harks back the great Caesar,
Not generally known as a teaser.
His motto would be
"Veni, Vidi, Vici."
Initialized V VV for leisure!

OwenKL said...

I think I could have gotten todays offering even without red letters, but they did save me from a few frustrations.
- I see Malificent is soon to be a movie. Looks good.
- NTHS would have been better as "unknown fractions".
- If a WALTZ is a "lively" dance, I don't want to see a slow one!
- new word for me: BIALY,
- Interesting seeing Burton/Taylor on the same line as VIRGINIA WOOLF
- How come ERB is identified as Tarzan's creator, but Long John Silver's creator RLS is just clued as "literary monogram?" And shouldn't that be a trigram, not a monogram?
- I don't get what stargazer has to do with IDOL.
- Las Vegas and Las Cruces are both cities here in N.MEX (never mind that there's a larger one 2 states over).
- Checking account for hockey! Just like Argyle predicted on Friday!

George Barany said...

Very Well done, MM, CC, and OwenKL.

Yesterday, I promised one more puzzle, and are here it is. My friends and I hope you like it!

buckeye bob said...

Thank you for the puzzle, Matt. Thank you for the excellent review, C.C.

This was an easy, but long puzzle for me. It took me about the usual Sunday time just due to its size.

I found no misdirection, but I definitely had some unknowns, such as AVS, D MINOR, MORPHEME, and CHLOE. Fortunately, the perps solved them for me. Which literary monogram? I had the S, but the perps got me the RL. I had a mental block on Tarzan’s creator for some reason, but the perps gave me the ERB.

I had ENDO before ENTO, AURAS before AURAE.

All in all, a good Sunday exercise.

buckeye bob said...

@ C.C.

BIALY is a word I know only from doing crosswords. Apparently it is a short form of a Yiddish word. I checked 3 online dictionaries and all give the plural as "bialys".

fermatprime said...

Greetings!

Very nice offering, Matt! Swell expo, CC!

Liked the theme--easy to fill in answers.

NTH is more used to mean "indefinitely large" or such, not as a fraction.

Lucky, the cat, was rushed to an emergency vet rather far away tonight as houseguest mistakenly let Millie in the other part of the house, away from my room. Several phone calls later do not know the upshot--except that is costing me in the thousands.

I suppose that I should go to sleep, if possible.

Have a pleasant Sunday!

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

Pretty straightforward solve today. I grokked the theme at the outset, which helped me get started on VICHY WATER and VIENNESE WALTZ. Needed perp help in a few places, such as OSTER, BIALY and THEVIPS (vaguely knew the first two, never heard of the third). Everything else was pretty HOHUM, though... ^_^

One minor nit was AURAE. Why the Latin plural when there's a perfectly good English plural in common use? It's not a technical term in this context, is it? Wouldn't most people just say they see AURAs when they have migraines?

Yellowrocks said...

I caught on the VW theme quickly. No look ups or red letters. Fun.
Although the music is slow and dreamy, the waltz steps seem energetic enough for me.
http://www.bing.com/videos
Link Waltzing
At the Monday square dance I danced one set with some pain, Tuesday I danced two sets with more pain. Last night danced four sets with almost no pain. I'm getting there!
RLS is so common in crosswords, it seems to need less of a clue than ERB
AVS was all perps. It stands for the Avalances, also plural. Plural team names, like the Yankees, indicate the team players.
I liked ORDERLY PLACE/HOSP

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

I had to hunt around to find the puzzle online, since the Barnacle no longer carries the LAT on Sunday. I really dislike solving online, and only after I'd finished did I notice the "Print" option. D'oh!

C.C. said the "gimmick is quite self-evident." Not to me! Never saw it. I agree with Buckeye Bob that BIALY is plurable -- just add an S. I, too, thought of Splynter at ONWARD.

VOLUNTEER WORK came to me quickly. This Tuesday I begin my yearly stint as a volunteer tax preparer two mornings a week through April 15th.

AJA is the only Steely Dan album we own. I can't recall a single song that's on it.

Enjoy your groundhog day!

HeartRx said...

Good morning, and Happy Groundhog Day!

Hand up for thinking of Splynter at ONWARD, C.C.! And no, I never saw THE VIPS. No clue - it was all perps!

I caught on to the theme with the first entry (for once, I actually read the title before I started.) But a few entries had me skipping around to find a toehold. The central area with AIM AT, OATHS. AURAE (WBS about just adding "s") and SABRE were simple, but gave me fits for some reason. Big V8 moment when they filled in.

TIme to go get ready for Super Bowl XLVIII !

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

Happy Ground Hog Day.

Straightforward solve today. Didn't think about the theme until I was done. No matter.
61a STAVE - To me the basic support of a barrel would be the hoops. I can see where the staves are mutually supportive because they are held in compression. If one is removed the others collapse. What say you, anyone versed in cooperage?
63d. VERY WELL- In the Navy, the usual response by an officer when receiving a verbal report from a
subordinate. It may or may not be 'OK' but acknowledges the information in the report. (This is not a nit.)

"No matter how much you push the envelope, it'll still be stationery. "

Have a good day.

Al Cyone said...

A technical DNF. The last fill was the "A" in AVS and AVEO. Didn't know the former but the latter looked right. Hearing no "TaDa!" (to which I've become Pavlovianly (?) conditioned), I went on a typo [sic] hunt. At one point I changed ROS to ROZ to no effect. That's because, in desperation, I had already changed ILEAC to ILIAC (without noticing its perverse affect on the vertical word).

Still, a fun puzzle with lots of good clues (too many to mention) and a helpful theme.

Anonymous said...

As for 71 across, the game is "PIN the donkey".

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

Theme was evident very early, so the solve was pretty easy. A few hiccups but nothing serious.

Nice work, Matt, and great expo, CC.

Marti, you must be having a Super Bowl Party if you have to start getting ready at 9:30 am!

Have a great Ground Hog Day and enjoy the Big Game. I'm rooting for Peyton and company.

Irish Miss said...

Actually, Marti's post was 8:33 EST!

KentuckyKate said...

Good morning,
I'd amend Anon's note at 8:48 to be "The game is "Pin the Tail on the Donkey". It's a classic children's (s'?) game where, in turn, each child is blindfolded, handed a paper tail with a tack (or "pin") in the top, spun around a couple of times, ending up pointed in the right direction, and then tries to pin the tail in the proper place on a picture of a donkey that has been posted on a wall or easel. After every child has a turn, the one who was closest wins a prize.

Nice puzzle. Got to finish without research, after changing a few letters: "The UN, not US" "Two-eyes, not eyed". Once I assumed Ileac, VIPS fell into place. Quite a cast! Might have to check it out.

Cheers, from a rainy morning,

Splynter said...

Hi there~!

Loved the shout-out to my trademark "onward"~!

C.C., I am a Ranger fan at heart, but I will also root for the Islanders - when they don't play the Rangers.

YR, it's The Avalanche - no plural, that's why "AVs" is a bit awkward - I'm surprisd that it's not in your dictionary....

61a. - Stave = support? Then what is a barrel "made of"?

Favorite clue? Checking and Saving - not at the bank, at the rink~!

Splynter

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-Straight forward and helpful theme that was in the my paper’s title – VW Showroom
-My pre-singing routine involves lemon juice and honey
-Liz and Dick were vicious in Who’s Afraid of VIRGINIA WOOLF?. Never saw that other film.
-VANNA will be 57 on 2/18/14. You go girl!
-“A SHOW OF HANDS” result can be way different than a secret ballot
-We ATE ON (off) a ham for 4 meals last week
-I remember the MARNE from WWI reading
-Niagara MIST vehicle on my bucket list
-Good luck on this quiz on naming South and Central American Countries
-I’ve seen a lotta worthless homework that shoulda been lost
-My daughter admires the NUNS with whom she works but not their vocation
-Changing water to STEAM by lowering air pressure (1:44)
-SOAR t-shirt
-Some very successful movies get bad REVIEWS
-What TV character hoarded his imported VICHY water during a drought?
-Name the musical with this lyric, “You need someone older and WISER. Telling you what to do”

Big Easy said...

Finished the puzzle in 35 minutes but only by using perps. MORPH-EME, THE VIPS, BIALY, ILEAC (iliac)- never heard of before. The puzzle was easy to solve but had way too many abbreviations, suffixes, prefixes, and foreign words. EME,HOSP, ENTO, AVS, RLS SLR URU API SPF NTH VEG EDU ERB HUAC SRTA GTO
PIC

D'OR GAOL ESTA ET TU SRTA (again) POR

Not a very challenging puzzle. My only guesses were GAFF or BARB, AH SO or OH SO, AURAE or AURAS, ENTO or INDO. I loved HAS BEEN. These guys work the casino entertainment circuit. But I guess most of us are has beens or VINTAGE WINE even VANNA WHITE. Volunteering to vocally warm up while drinking Vichy Water vying with Sajak to be a character in a Virginia Woolf story. I've had my say, very well.

desper-otto said...

Husker, sounds like music to me. Maybe Sixteen Going On Seventeen?

OwenKL said...

It's annoying that people are taking CC's comment on PIN as a serious question. I guess she should have phrased it "AH SO, what game?"

Yellowrocks said...

Spitz, you are correct. Something like the Heat and the Jazz. I wouldn't use a dictionary as a reference for this, but I just now looked at their website. It is a team I don't know.
Also I know my waltz link doesn't work. I tried it again and that one broke, too. Maybe later.

Anonymous said...

Bill Nye The Science Guy is in Kentucky to participate in a Evolution vs Creationism debate (KY is home to the Creationism Museum where cavemen are shown riding dinosaurs) and, despite all the evidence, he will undoubtedly lose.

Bill G. said...

I liked the puzzle. There were a few rough spots including the aforementioned AVS. I didn't get the clue for PIC at first but I do now. Thanks Matt and CC.

I guess I'm slow but it sure sounded like a question about Pin the Tail on the Donkey to me. I can't imagine why a Chinese person would know about that game. I hardly remember playing it; maybe once or twice at most.

Here's a photo I really enjoyed. Great scenery; both earthly and celestial. Double click for a bigger and clearer image. Orion and buttes

Spitzboov said...

Husker Gary @ 1028 linked MIST to his bucket list. One slide showed 600000 gals. of water falling. No rate is given. Let's be more precise here.
The minimum Summer daylight flow over the Falls is 100000 cfs or 748000 gallons per second. At other times the minimum flow is half that. The rest of the river flow is shared equally by the 2 countries for hydroelectric power production and bypasses the Falls. In context, the long term average flow of the Niagara River is ~205000 cfs.

C.C. asked our 1st reaction to 91a - re: martin or swift. Mine was actually BIRD. We've been trying to attract purple martins to our back yard but I quess we don't have open water to their liking; perhaps too crowded with trees and shrubs.

Spitzboov said...

YR @ 1130 - I believe your attribution goes to Splynter. AVS was a little mysterious to me, too.

Dudley said...

Hello Puzzlers -

Not a difficult puzzle, but it did come down to a guess where ERB crossed Bialy. I have only a vague idea what a Bialy is; is it a New York deli kind of thing?

Virginia Woolf the movie was kind of a big deal near my house back in 1965. A lot of scenes were shot at Smith College (where I went skating Friday) and the roadhouse scene was shot at a bar near my house. Our little dairy town didn't have much happening in those days, so having Taylor and Burton show up was huge. As for the movie, I saw part of it long ago and concluded it was boring. Maybe I should give it another try...

I forgot who posted the Baumgartner video yesterday - was that Husker? Anyway it was sensational. I'd love to look out at the planet from 128,000 feet, but then NOT jump off the step!

River Doc said...

Happy Sunday everybody!

Knew the theme involved Vs and Ws from the title, but decided to try and get as much of the answers without "cheating" as possible. Ended up entering just a few Vs and Ws....

Sad to admit I was mentally stuck on a certain Scarlet Lettered woman of letters at first, since I had the answer ending in W H _ _ E....

Unknowns today included LESE, BIALY, and HUAC. So now I guess I am more the WISER....

Favorite clue = Turneth into....

How's about A SHOW of hands for those who had BANK for RINK...?

Nice to see that HGs bucket list vehicle is not a STAVEd barrel...!

The ONWARD shout out to Splynter was awesome...!

Finally, Joe Montana, my favorite football player, was also nicknamed Joe Cool. Speaking of that big game to be played later today, Montana (Joe, not our Montana) is the only player to be named Super Bowl MVP 3 times....

Dudley said...

Speaking of Baumgartner and the Red Bull Stratos jump: I haven't looked into it yet, but I'm not clear on the concept of "breaking the sound barrier" in a free fall. At the start of his jump, the air is so rarified that he would accelerate very fast, while at the same time the speed of sound is very slow (because it varies with density). Therefore, I assume he shot right through 1 Mach in thin air, and later on slowed down (because of increasing density and greater drag) in a part of the atmosphere where 1 Mach is a higher value.

Further, I'm guessing that the reported maximum speed of about 1.25 Mach was calculated taking into account the air density at the altitude where that speed was noted. Anybody know about this?

Anonymous said...

They say they happen in threes.

RIP

Phillip Seymour Hoffman
Terry Bradshaw's father
Woody Allen's reputation

buckeye bob said...

I agree that getting from Avalanche to AVS seems clunky, but apparently the Denver Post uses it. Maybe it is a journalistic shorthand or print-space saver. So it seems the “S” indicates plural, for the team, but does not correspond well to the full team name Avalanche.

Take a look at this Denver Post screen – Avs News, All Things Avs, blogs.denverpost.com/avs, Avs Mailbag, etc.

AVS Denver Post

CanadianEh! said...

Fun Sunday romp today with a few inkblots and one DNF since I was working in the newspaper and not online (thus without red letters of Google). I did not know the Tarzan creator and have never heard of BIALY.

I also learn from C.C. that I missed seeing the two theme entries that were Down but that did not spoil anything.

The chemist in me wanted MORPHINE not MORPHEME, and I wanted BANK not RINK but I was positive about Presley's middle name (learned that long ago from doing crosswords). I smiled at the hockey theme.
I had to wait to see if the MISSES OVERSEAS were SRTAS or MMSES. Hand up for ENDO before ENTO.

Of course my favourite clue of the day was NIAGARA MIST! With our cold winter, the mist has been turning everything to ice.
Niagara Falls

Also, Husker Gary, the iconic Maid of the MIST will only sail on the American side starting this summer. The Canadian contract was awarded to Hornblower who will operate the ride as "Voyage to the Falls". Hopefully it will be just as great!

Lemonade714 said...

The death of another successful performer underscores how wonderful it is to be who we are.

RIP Mr. Hoffman.

Pin the Tail on the Donkey has a special place in my heart.

Hahtoolah, you okay?

PK said...

Hi Y'all! I read the title then was so engrossed in solving I forgot the theme until I was done. Enjoyed this one, but found it difficult. Thanks, Matt!

Thanks, C.C. for the blog. Did your hints mean that Matt McKinley is our very own Argyle?

LUEGO and BIALY were new to me but perped well. I tried SENTries before SENTINEL.

I didn't seen "THE VIPS" but in 1963 I did see Taylor & Burton's "Cleopatra" which fit if I left off the "RA" but didn't work in the puzzle. Alas!

Fermatprime, are you saying that Millie MAIMed Lucky? How heartbreaking. Good luck on the cat's recovery.

BillG, love the beautiful picture. It's sorta like Vincent Van Gogh does starry starry night in New Mexico.

Husker Gary said...

Musings 2
-My favorite Phillip Seymour Hoffman scene. So sad to lose another genius to drugs at such a young age.
-Otto, yes that lyric was from The Sound of Music where the 17-year-old Nazi delivery boy was telling 16-year-old Liesl he was “older and WISER”. Yeah, right!
-Dudley, as far as the posting of the Baumgartner video yesterday, I would have to refer to the balladeer from Hibbing, Minnesota who wrote and sang, “It Ain’t Me Babe. That posting was done by CED (Cat Enthusiast Dave ;-)) and it was spectacular/crazy.
-Wanna stay SPRY? My 91-year-old MIL mows her own yard for physical spryness and is open to 21st century technology for mental spryness!
-Joann has a cold and se we are settled in for Super Bowl game and commercials. She still made 7 different kinds of snacks.

Al Cyone said...

Speaking of "Pin the Tail on the Donkey", at one of my childhood "theme" birthday parties we played "Pin the Hat on Pinky Lee". I see that the party pack sold on eBay last year for $68.

Anonymous said...

Speaking of Niagra Falls, how many of you guys have admired the view from Prospect Point? It was the best vantage point of them all.

Don


Dudley said...

Husker 1:50 - Yowza, that was a realistic scene! I never saw the film, but now it's going on my list at Netflix. I've had enough idiot bosses in my life that I just love office revenge scenarios.

CED - thanks for that updated Stratos video. Good watching, that.

Anonymous said...

To view the reason for the past tense in describing Prospect Point, Google "The Fall of Prospect Point"

CanadianEh! said...

Anonymous @2:05
With all due respect, the best view of Niagara Falls is on the Canadian side at Table Rock.

Horseshoe Falls from Table Rock

Avg Joe said...

I'm saddened to hear of the death of Philip Seymour Hoffman. He was an incredible actor that had a lot of quirky roles. One of his least famous, but best, IMO, was in Doubt A very good movie that no one ever saw.

HeartRx said...

Irish Miss, before I can sit down to watch the Super Bowl, I had to paint half of a 20' x 12' living room. (Turned out beautifully!!) So yeah, it took me a while to get ready! Just DH and me with the snacks and TV. Oh, BTW, DH made all the snacks.

Anonymous said...

Which sounds better ??

The AVs win in overtime
or
The AV win in overtime

Nuff said ??

Argyle said...

Depends.
Do you say it as two letters, A V's or The Avalanches?

"The Avalanche win in overtime" sounds fine.

Avg Joe said...

Heading to a gathering for the game.

GO DONKEYS!!!!

PK said...

RIP Omar Shariff also. He was a crush of mine in younger days for Dr. Zhivago. Coincidence that we had that clue this week?

Sorry, but I won't be joining the Super Bowl Parties. Call me a spoil sport, but watching men bang into each other is too painful for me. I might go for the snacks though.

Irish Miss said...

Avg Joe @ 3:07 - I saw Doubt and agree that Mr. Hoffman was outstanding. It was a powerful movie, with an excellent cast.

HeartRx @ 3:43 - After working so hard, you deserve to relax and watch the game while enjoying those hubby-prepared snacks!

Lara said...

PK: Omar Sharif's death is a Hoax. Unfortunately, Phillip Seymour Hoffman's death was real.

Bill G. said...

During the Super Bowl, just before the half-time show, at the two-minute warning, was a nice Coke advertisement. It featured a number of pretty scenes around the US. Early on, there was a beach scene that included the iconic Manhattan Beach Pier in the background. Cool!

Dudley said...

All right! We opened a nice bottle of wine, set out some healthy snacks, lit a cozy fire, and warmed up the TV - we're all set for Downton Abbey. Huzzah!

PK said...

I went back to the local source reporting Omar's death. Same picture now identified as Maximillian Schell with different obit. Hmmm!

Abejo said...

Good evening, folks. Thank you, Matt McKinley, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, C.C., for the fine review.

Getting here late.

This was tough, but easy puzzle.

The theme was easy.

I had no problem with AV'S. Sounds logical.

LOEWE again?

Anyhow, I am hitting te sack. See you tomorrow.

Abejo

(28 452389

Bill G. said...

The big Superbowl winners are always the hype spinners.

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

Owen,
As Bill G mentioned, it's a real question. I came to the US at age 30, so some simple things (esp kid stuff) stump me.

KentuckyKate et al,
Thanks for the answer.

PK,
Argyle floated "It may include a checking account" for HOCKEY last Friday, hence my 120D comment.

OwenKL said...

CC: Amazing! I knew you were an immigrant, but I thought surely someone assimilated enough into our culture to create crossword puzzles would be familiar with something as basic as pin the tail on the donkey! My sincere apology for making an assumption, based on, IMHO, the utterly child-like wording of the clue.

Anonymous said...

The correct answer to clue 119 across, Presley's middle name, is Aaron, not Aron.

Memphis Girl

TheOM said...

85D Dewitt Clinton was the Governor of NY, who advocated for and funded the Erie Canal "Clinton's Ditch". But he did not engineer it.

Argyle said...

True, he didn't engineer it in the literal sense but he did in the political sense.