google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Saturday, Apr 12th, 2014, John Lieb

Advertisements

Apr 12, 2014

Saturday, Apr 12th, 2014, John Lieb

Theme: None

Words: 70 (missing F,Q,X)

Blocks: 27

     This would be a second LAT solo puzzle from Mr. Lieb, who had a Sunday back in 2012, right after C.C.'s B-day.  The last puzzle we saw from John was a duo with David Quarfoot this past Thanksgiving.  Today's offering got done only with a huge number of W.A.G.s on my part, and there was quite a few names dropped, and some 'strange' fill, too.  Triple 9's and 8's in the corners, with two 12-letter spanners;

39a. Emma Frost portrayer in "X-Men: First Class" : JANUARY JONES - and a proper name


31. One of the moveable feasts : EASTER SUNDAY - Timely - and we just had a moveable feasts puzzle

oooooonnnnnnwwwwwaaaarrrrrddd~~~~~!!!!

ACROSS:

1. Extremely lame, in slang : WEAK SAUCE - new phrase to me; my last fills in the grid were the "S" and "U" - starting off with a 'strange' fill....

10. "The Zoo Story" dramatist : ALBEE - and continuing with a proper name

15. One with breaking news : ANCHORMAN

16. Conger cousin : MORAY - Eels


17. African kingdom : SWAZILAND - Africa #1

18. Lite-__: classic Hasbro toy : BRITE - some of these Lite-Brite works of art are over the top; WARNING~!; some racy content

19. 3 part? : ARC - when you write the number '3', it has two arcs

20. Do followers : RE MI - musical D'oh~!, not a hair "do"

21. Ad lib : WING IT

22. Scott who played the lead in 1976's "Bugsy Malone" : BAIO - proper name

24. Maintain the status quo : SIT PAT

26. Cádiz cycle : ANO - one year, and a semi-clecho @ 60a. Month abroad : ENERO - technically, the second "January" in the puzzle

27. Old Colgate competitor : IPANA - 5 letters, and an old toothpaste? 

29. Spam producer : 'BOT - computer spam; Hormel makes the meat kind

30. "Splendor in the Grass" screenwriter : INGE - proper name

35. Mitty creator : THURBER - proper name

38. As you like it : TO TASTE
 
41. Backwoods possessive : HIS'N - and HERS'N~!!?!?

42. Letters before P, perhaps : V.S.O. - found on Cognac, Very Superior Old Pale

43. State tree of Texas : PECAN - leaming moment; nailed it, D-otto?

47. Sch. where chapel service attendance is mandatory : ORU - Oral Roberts Univeristy

48. Silk-spraying movie monster : MOTHRA - ah, used to love those Saturday afternoon monster movies

51. It only makes sense when it's broken : CODE - "It only makes cents when broken" is a dollar

52. Oil sources : OLIVES

54. Wine quality : NOSE

56. Collection to burn : CDs - Dah~!  Fooled me

57. High fliers : KITES

58. Traumatic expression : ACTING OUT

61. Klondike product with a shell : CHOCO-TACO


62. V-shaped fortification : REDAN - The Wiki; I should have known this; I am a huge castle lover - I get a calendar every year....

63. Postgame finger-pointer : SORE LOSER

DOWN:

1. Hot stuff : WASABI - The "I" from IPANA was in the odd, last position here, but then the light bulb shown brightly

2. Swaddle : ENWRAP

3. Mimosa family member : ACACIA

4. AM radio abbr. : kHz - the Frequency at which Amplitude Modulated radio broadcasts (as in your car) is between 535-1605 kilohertz

5. Liszt's "Harmonies du __" : SOIR

6. City on the Rhone : ARLES - anyone else try "ESSEN" first? ( I just checked; it's on the Ruhr )

7. One of the five basic taste sensations : UMAMI - another 'strange' one; the Wiki; from the Japanese, for "delicious taste"

8. "Am I seeing things?" : "CAN IT BE?"

9. Intention : END - Dah~! Not AIM

10. Extent : AMBIT

11. Bereft, old-style : LORN

12. Outlaws : BRIGANDs

13. Causing agita : EATING AT

14. Good way of seeing : EYE-TO-EYE

21. Nicklaus rival : WATSON - Jack and Tom, two respected golfers - and proper names

23. Kind of lead a closer often has to protect : ONE RUN - so baseball has arrived for 2014; I am keyed up for the Stanley Cup playoffs in hockey now

25. __-Novo: Benin's capital : PORTO - Africa #2


28. "Rubáiyát" rhyme scheme : A A B A - more 'strange'

30. "Soon" : "IN A SEC~!"

32. Electronic control mechanisms, briefly : SERVOS

33. Tabloid scoop : TRYST

34. Sun Bowl Stadium coll. team : UTEP - More Texas; University at El Paso

35. '80s Shatner cop show : T. J. HOOKER - never watched it; still think he's "Captain Kirk"

36. Mr. Clean's lack : HAIRLINE - well, I knew it was HAIR something, or something HAIR

37. Not appropriate : UNSUITED

40. He played Harold in "Harold & Kumar" films : JOHN CHO - proper name

44. Winter warmers : COCOAs

45. Cite as proof : ADDUCE

46. Counselor at Troy : NESTOR - proper name

48. Elementary particle : MESON - too complicated when I checked the Wiki

49. Centrifuge component : ROTOR

50. "Cold __": 1977 hit for Foreigner : AS ICE - Run, Tin, Run~!

53. First name in fashion : VERA - Wang, proper name

55. Hydroxyl compound : ENOL

58. Short coolers? : ACs - Air Conditioners; around here, it's mostly "A/C", but I have heard some people call it "AirCon"

59. Pontiac co-designed by John DeLorean : GTO

Splynter


52 comments:

OwenKL said...

It's Saturday, it's a red-letter day;
To solve the puzzle, it's my only way.
I like to blab
Of my great vocab,
But for Saturday, I don't blab -- I bray!

Red-letter help may be all that I need
To get my solving up to speed.
I want help to be frugal
So I lay off of Google,
And Wikipedia I abjure like a weed!

But the red-letter option, ah, that I allow,
It just saves me from missteps I'd erase anyhow.
It encourages WAGs
As my mind zigs and zags --
But alphabet runs I steadfast disavow!

George Barany said...

I would love to share “ Breaking Water … and News!“ with C.C.'s readers. The aforementioned puzzle provides a most unusual welcome to someone you are unlikely to know. The puzzle is fair, though, and don’t try to put one over on its honoree who, after all, was not born yesterday.

And if you have any puzzling energy left, please have a look at “Three Days of Nerdvana,” by my friend Tom Williams. Some of you may prefer to go straight to the puzzle's “midrash.”

Have a great weekend!

OwenKL said...

☻ WEAK SAUCE is an extremely lame entry, alright.
☻ Thanks for explaining ARC, Splynter. I was befuddled by that one.
☻ How many times have we seen IPANA recently? And SOIR? I think Rich gets in a rut with some words.
☻ TO TASTE started out as YOUR WAY.
☻ AABA I had to recite the only verse I know by heart from the Ruby-yacht: A book of verse beneath the bough...
☻ COCOA is its own plural, no such animal as COCOAS.
☻ Splynter noticed names and strange. I noticed a lot of taste and food: UMAMI, TO TASTE, EASTER clued as a feast, SAUCE, PACAN, OLIVES, CHOCO-TACO, COCOA, WASABI.

☻ BTW, too late for yesterday's discussion: an origami tablet, sort of.

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

Brutal puzzle for me today. Not so much the trickiness of the clues, but so many obscurities (well, obscure to me, at least)! I didn't know WATSON and with W__SON in place I went with WILSON. Big mistake that cost me dearly.

I did guess correctly on UMAMI, but couldn't get anything else to work in the NE. Had AIM instead of END, which kept me from seeing most of the answers up there. It was only when I finally stuck in END that I finally got some traction. Still wasn't easy, though, what with SOIR, ARLES and ACACIA.

Elsewhere, I didn't know ADDUCE, REDAN, NESTOR, PORTO or ASICE (although I was able to guess the last two with the help of some perps, and this time I guessed correctly).

Surprisingly, I did manage to finish unassisted, but it took a lot longer than normal.

HeartRx said...

Good morning Splynter, C.C. et al.

I thought I was struggling with this one until I was surprised by the "ta-da" in about half my typical Saturday time.

FIrst pass didn't get me much, but I did manage to throw down some toeholds in each section. I put HAIRLINE in the SW, figuring it would be changed, but it ended up being correct.

For "AM radio abbr." I was thinking along the lines of GMA (Good Morning America), but that's TV, not radio. KHZ finally emerged, giving me SWAZILAND and pretty much opened the flood gates in that area.

EYE TO EYE and CHOCO TACO were the other anchors that really helped fill in the rest of the puzzle.

So today's new hell? A hole in the plumbing for the kitchen sink drain opened up yesterday. UGH!!! At least it is in the basement, so I don't have to open up another ceiling...

Al Cyone said...

WEAK SAUCE? Really? In what universe?

This was a near-total WAGfest though, considering it was looking like a DNF for the first, oh, twenty-five minutes, I guess I'll take it.

[25:30]

Yellowrocks said...

So many names, so many wags, so many look ups, so much time. But I enjoyed the challenge. I finished with lotsa help.
I never heard of WEAKSAUCE, but here is a page devoted to it.
Link weak sauce
ARC was so tricky.
COCOAS is diner vernacular. As a waitress I would serve 2 coffees and 3 cocoas. IMHO if we allow slang here, we should allow the vernacular, too.

Argyle said...

I hate to be a sore loser but the whole thing was weak sauce to me. Left whatever is the opposite to umami in my mouth.

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

I got it -- but don't ask me how. I tried my best to go wrong whenever an opportunity presented itself: NAOH/ENOL, WILSON/WATSON, WRAP UP/ENWRAP, ONE/ARC, MNO/VSO. My grid is a mess, but it's correct.

Splynter, yes I nailed both PECAN and UTEP. And in these here parts it'd be HER'N rather than HERS'N.

I can thank America's Test Kitchen for teaching me UMAMI. I don't remember when Lite-BRITE was popular; maybe I was sick that day.

Speaking of origami, did you hear about the dyslexic woman who called her husband Origami? She thought he was a fold art.

CrossEyedDave said...

Weak Sauce?

Not In

My House!

Anonymous said...

Nothing fun or reedeming about this, "weaksauce" puzzle.

LaLaLinda said...

Hi All ~~

I finished with three wrong cells ~ really surprised there weren't more. As is usually the case, Splynter pointed out the same problems I had - mainly, too many proper names! I enjoy having to think through interpretations of a clue, but there's no fun in the "ya know it or ya don't" type of answers. Perps did help in some cases, but I just didn't find this enjoyable. I'm with Argyle, I guess - a SORE LOSER.

Thanks for explaining it all, Splynter, especially 3 part / ARC - I had no idea! MESON? SERVOS? etc., etc., Yikes!

Husker Gary said...

I came, I saw, I learned. I’ll take only 5 blank “ain’t no way” cells and move on.

Musings
-I spend time with 10-yr-olds to senior citizens and read constantly and have never heard WEAK SAUCE spoken or written but what else was it going to be? UMAMI, SERVOS and AMB IT new also.
-Is there more JANUARY or fabric showing in this “going commando” dress?
-Do WOPS? RSVP, ASAP, MNOP? STAND PAT? WRAP UP? PALMER or PLAYER? Nah!
-Our town is the home of edible SPAM
-Breaking CODES were key to US victory in WWII
-I had the right Klondike but never heard of that TACO
-How did we all grow up without AC?
-Gotta run.

Lou said...

Today's puzzle requires a Rhodes scholar.

Thomas said...

When I was in high school biology, one of our labs was meant to determine this map. Now they are telling us this map is true. I'm not buying it. "Evenly distributed throughout the tongue"?? WEAKSAUCE!! Remember this tastebud map?

I like to compare basic tastes to primary colors. So, to me, UMAMI is purple.

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

I almost threw in the towel but I slogged along and finally finished w/o help but needed a very lucky WAG to complete the meson/redan cross. Never heard or saw weak sauce and sit pat is clumsy: stand pat or sit tight are the common phrases.

Thanks, Splynter, for your excellent expo, as usual. BTW, do you follow college hockey? Union College is playing Minnesota for the National Championship tonight.

Sunny and mild again today but the chilly temps are coming back next week. Sooner or later, nice weather will arrive and stay for a while.

Have a super Saturday.

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

Some of the clues seemed WEAK SAUCE to me. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.
Very tough today. Didn't help that I don't know Japanese sauces. Had case before CODE and kept wanting to put in Palmer for WATSON.
But I did get SERVOS and liked the clue for VSO.
ARC - not so much; but it was fair.

Have a great day

C6D6 Peg said...

DNF due to UMAMI. Never heard of it. Got started quickly with the Texas clues. Okay challenge, but didn't like WEAKSAUCE or UMAMI.

Splynter, you're too crazy to keep up with these Saturday puzzles. Don't know how you do it, but great job!

buckeye bob said...

I put this puzzle down and came back to it twice.

At about 40 minutes, I was out of WAGs, out of ideas, out of patience, and still had a lot of white showing. I turned on red letter help, and found the NW corner was a sea of red and white.

I kept pecking away, and finally got it done at about an hour. No look-ups, but a lot of red letter help for wrong WAGs.

What everyone else said, too many proper names and obscure clues / answers. I did know Thurber, and that DeLorean helped design the GTO, though.

I’m ready for a Saturday Silkie!

Bill G. said...

I knew THURBER, GTO, JANUARY JONES. Didn't know, WEAK SAUCE, AMBIT, NESTOR, CHOCOTACO, JOHN CHO, UMAMI. As a result, it wasn't much fun. I would never have come close to finishing had I been doing this one on paper with no red letters.

The first time I ever knew of January Jones, she had a small but memorable part in one of my favorite movies, Love Actually. She was one of the American bar girls the young British lad met on his first evening in the U.S. Great scene!

I hope you all have a nice Saturday.

tiptoethru said...

My poor newspaper is bleeding, but I'm done! Crossed my fingers and wagged like crazy, and then came here to check. Too many names I didn't know, but like all the others I've never heard of weak sauce? I always enjoy the explanations and then can do the "forehead slap" and "now I remember" when I come here. Thanks. On to wishing for spring.

Tinbeni said...

Splynter: Thank you for a very informative write-up & links!!!

WEAK SAUCE ... IS "Extremely lame" if used "in slang"!

I would have sworn that 1977 Foreigner hit was "Cold BITCH" ...
The puzzles answer would never have been filled in by me ... just sayin'.

So a DNF and a break until Monday.
Cheers!!!

john28man said...

I feel that a lot of obscurely clued names make it alright to Google the person. That said, I finished on paper and felt flabbergasted that I did that. It is a first for me on a Saturday.

The clue about Jack Nicklaus led me to look up a list of the greatest golfers and I found this:

http://athlonsports.com/golf/greatest-golfers-all-time

Bumppo said...

DNF and call me a SORE LOSER, but, aside from WEAK SAUCE and UMAMI:

24A Where did SIT PAT come from? You STAND pat, and you sit TIGHT.

29A It doesn't take a BOT to make spam (you can do it yourself).

54A NOSE is a quality of the oenophile, not of the wine (yeh, yeh, I know, people who can't handle two-syllable French words use it as a synonym for bouquet). . . .

Lucina said...

Hello, stalwart worders! Splynter, you amaze me and I'm grateful for your explanations.

WEES. This was definitely a practice in obscurities. Ironically, WATSON was one of my first fill as he is from Scottsdale. Another connection is JANUARY JONES. My son-in-law went to high school with her in Sioux Falls, SD. And there it ENDs.

I so much more enjoy those puzzles where I can suss a definite meaning to a word; that's where I most get aha moments but MOTHRA, JOHN CHO, and BAIO are just not in my wheelhouse though I'm sure I've seen them somewhere.

My granddaughter spent many hours with LiteBrite and I believe it's still in a closet here. Fourth graders liked it, too.

Instead of ACTING OUT I'll just say thank you, John Lieb, and better luck for me next time.

WEALSAUCE? Really? I'll have to ask my granddaughter about that.

New word learned, UMAMI, so all is not lost. Never heard of COCOTACO, either.

Enjoy your Saturday, everyone!

Lucina said...

oops! Should be WEAKSAUCE not wealsauce.

Splynter said...

Hi there~!

I, too, was a bit "meh" about STAND pat, and sit TIGHT, but I figured it might be regional.

HeartRx - my sewage pump "crapped" out in the sump this AM - just a puddle, not a flood, but boy, did it smell when I had to swap out the unit~!
I just wanted the weekend off....

Thanks for the comments~!

Splynter

PK said...

Hi Y'all! This puzzle was way out of my ballpark. I got almost no hits the first time through. I had to resort to red-letter runs to even get a chance at a WAG in places. I kept saying, "Huh?" both before and after correct fills.

Thank you, Splynter, our hero! Three years between John Lieb puzzles? Hope we get three more before the next one.

I knew what "agita" was, I thought. Even after reading the internet definition, EATING AT seems off base to me.

PECAN was one gimmee since I once lived in a Texas PECAN grove. Huge tall trees.

Hand up for WEES. Never heard of CHOCO TACO but now my sweet tooth is clamoring for one.

Benin: Try as I might to remember, Africa remains the Dark Continent in my brain.

My girls had a LITE BRITE. I threw it away reluctantly when I moved. Most of the tiny plug-in bulbs were missing.

In re, stabbing in the news: My DIL once tuned into some suspicious whispering among boys in her middle school math class. She then took six knives away from six little monsters who were planning a "rumble" at noon. Who knows what her vigilance diverted?

GarlicGal said...

PK: "Benin: Try as I might to remember, Africa remains the Dark Continent in my brain." EXACTLY my feelings.

Umami - never heard of it and I watch many of the cooking shows. MESON - had that a while back. Didn't know it then. Didn't remember it today.

Otherwise....hey it's Saturday!

Hasta La Bye-Bye

Yellowrocks said...

Isn't it funny how we each had some different stumbling blocks and some in common with various others.I didn't know WATSON, JANUARY JONES, CHOCOTACO, SERVOS, BAIO, WEAK SAUCE, JOHN CHO,and had forgotten TJHOOKER. I wrote ARC, but didn't "get" it.
I was confident of REDAN, AMBIT, MESON,NESTOR, UMAMI and NOSE. Being an oenophile, I know that NOSE of a wine refers to its aroma .
From WIKI:
"Pausing to experience a wine's bouquet aids the wine taster in anticipating the wine's flavors. The "nose" of a wine - its bouquet or aroma - is the major determinate of perceived flavor in the mouth."

RSV(P) before VSO(P). WRAP UP before ENWRAP.

An occasional puzzle like this, maybe every six weeks or so, stretches the mind and develops skills for later on, even if it seems too difficult at the time.

When buying ice cream in the supermarket today I came across CHOCOTACO. Not for me.

Unknown said...

This was a really tough one for me. It was so frustrating that I did something I never do: I used red letter help. Hopefully, Sunday's puzzle will be a little easier.

Avg Joe said...

It's hard to set an accurate difficulty standard on these Saturday challenges, but this one stands apart from most others I can recall. It had plenty to not like, but it ultimately had enough answers that could be wagged or sussed to result in a finished product. Probably as hard as the one from two weeks ago, but not nearly as frustrating...at least for me.

Didn't know umami, weak sauce, adduce or Chocotaco, and had to struggle with TJ Hooker, ambit and most of the proper names. Had the grid full, but expected a BZZZT when I checked here. Surprised to find it was all correct. Can't say it was fun, but it was a far cry from some of the worst we've seen. I'd rate it a B....maybe a B-. And as a few have mentioned, bring on a Silkie.

Ol' Man Keith said...

Thank you, Splynter, for explaining the nearly unexplainable. This was indeed a worthy Saturday-strength pzl. Even though I scored only 92%--needing search help for ARLES, UMAMI, WATSON & JOHN CHO and re-writes on AABA (from ABBA) and VSO (from ASA), I enjoyed it immensely.

I loved learning about UMAMI, and its Wiki description as a "furriness" on the tongue. Bla-argh!
WEAK SAUCE struck me as odd, too. My guess is it comes from the same British coiners who gave us "Tough Cheese!"

Jayce said...

Hello everybody. Wow, this puzzle was exceptionally hard for me. So many "I haven't the foggiest idea" answers. Had to do a lot of googling. Some times even after filling more than half an answer I still didn't know what it was. For example, having never heard of Lite-Brite, and not knowing the word AMBIT, I had everything filled but the B, but still had to take a wag at it. BRITE seemed the best of several possible alternatives.
Hard, hard, hard, but I learned a few things, some of which I will most likely not remember more than a week.
Best wishes to you all.

Blue Iris said...

I experienced great difficulty with proper names and perps that did not help fill-in names.

I was frustrated that lite-BRITE did not occur to me as I still have one that all my kids played with growing up. I have picked up extra light pieces at garage sales.

We worked with the Pokot tribe in Kenya(E.Africa). They still wore skins in the 70s and 80s, but I notice recent you-tube video of Pokot shows them wearing clothing now.
Kenya is a beautiful country with resources that could rival the U.S.
Kenya's founding and early leadership did not set them up for the success that we are so blessed to have been born into.

My parent had a foreign exchange student from Ghani (W. Africa). He is a doctor in the Tennessee now, but keeps a clinic that he keeps supplied and return a couple time yearly. Customs and dress very widely from East Africa.

BTW, noticed weak sauce and wasabi perped each other. I got song "cold As ICE" right after I solved ACS.

Maci45 said...

I got Lite BRITE.
Umami Burger here in L.A. Used to have a bit on their website about the 5 basic taste sensations. Their food is awesome as well.
Waiting for Monday.....

Bill G. said...

Nancy and others; I see no need to apologize for using red letters. I think they are far preferable to the unpleasant alternative (for me) of just leaving a puzzle unfinished. If I didn't have access to a computer, I would probably resort to asking for advice or hints from the nearest smart person. Otherwise, I would just skip Saturday puzzles entirely.

Like Mary, I'm waiting for Monday. But wait! While I'm waiting I will enjoy the Sunday puzzle. They take me a long time because of the sheer size but their difficulty level is usually right up my alley. Challenging but not too..

Lucina said...

BillG:
As intelligent a person as you, I believe, would be able to solve puzzles on paper, especially the early week ones. And you might really enjoy the challenge of solving later ones as well.

It's very satisfying to fill a few cells and then be able to connect them together on paper. You should try it sometime by printing the LAT from one of the available sources.

Ol' Man Keith said...

UMAMI, eh?
Is it a case of The Emperor's New Taste? Or will it go the way of Pluto? Where do we find UMAMI on this chart of the Tasters of the Tongue?
I get a kick out of reading the various ways of describing this "meaty" and "furry" sensation. Some charts indicate a region covering the sweet and salty areas, while others say it is EVERYWHERE, just all over the tongue.

Ol' Man Keith said...

Further research tells me that the familiar map of the tongue is a misconception. The notion that different areas of the tongue are exclusively able to pick up such tastes as sweet and bitter (see my link to Tasters of the Tongue) is apparently false. It is a mis-reading of research that only shows that some areas are a little more sensitive to certain flavors, while in fact ALL taste buds can detect all flavors-- to varying degrees.
Combine this information with the lack of specificity of the verbiage used to describe each flavor, and one really seems to get a picture that is overly general and incomplete.
Should we take it all with a grain of salt?

Yellowrocks said...

Lucina @ 5:59. I agree. When solving with paper and pen, even on the most difficult puzzle we do not have to end with an incomplete. If we are facing a fail, we can Google our doubtful answers to see whether they are correct. We are already registering a "completed with help," so nothing is lost. Then if I am still lost I Google the topic. I will not look at the Google for the "crossword answer," which is too simple and teaches me nothing. I read and read which fixes the clue and answer in my mind for future reference and provides oodles of new interesting info to add to my store of knowledge. This habit has proven to be the greatest learning experience I gain from crosswords, that and looking up comments that strike me as somewhat "off." Red lettering does not add to my store of knowledge and sometimes suckers me into make foolish random guesses, the easy way out. So I am a confirmed paper and pen solver.

Misty said...

My husband and I eat dinner at a little restaurant called UMAMI on days we go grocery shopping, because it is right next door. Now I finally know what the name means! And yes, their burgers are delicious.

PK said...

I don't know why anyone cares what method anyone else uses to solve puzzles. I learn a lot by getting a correct answer using red-letters. I'm not in competition with anyone else about anything. I only try to improve myself. That's enough of an uphill climb.

Jayce said...

I understood the "tongue tastes" to be tastes that the tongue alone, without the olfactory sense, could sense on its own. As I understand it (and indeed my knowledge could be way out of date) experiements were done by plugging the nosses of subjects and then trying different substances on the tongue to see if the subjects could taste them, the operative word being "taste" as distinct from the tactile feel of the substance. Only salty, sweet, bitter, and sour were found to be sensible directly by the tongue's taste buds. I have not researched umami very much, but the impression I got was that it describes more of a tactile feel than a triggering of taste-bud response. Anyway, I don't buy it as a fifth "taste" until I do more research.

Anonymous said...

Being a Kentucky native, I feel qualified to comment on backwoods diction. The female equivalent of "His'n" (e.g. His one) would be "Her'n" (her one)' although I've heard the former often and really don't recall hearing the latter. But I think I'm on pretty firm ground.

Oh, yeah... I agree with most of the comments. Puzzle was tough with too many proper names sand some weak sauce cluing (sit pat)

CanadianEh! said...

Tough one today. I was doing puzzle on paper and like YR, I had a great learning experience with Google.

Daughter had LITE BRITE and I'm sure the box is in the basement.

New granddaughter sleeps well while SWADDLEd.

Interesting and funny use of UMAMI by the Bare Naked Ladies (Canadian rock group)

Food Party

Beautiful day here. DH and I got out the patio furniture!!

Yellowrocks said...

PK. I, too, am not in competition with anyone, except maybe myself.
I have an intense curiosity, an insatiable desire to learn all I can. Also, I love research. Both traits extend beyond this day's puzzle and put money (knowledge) in the bank for future puzzles. Curiosity allows us to greatly overachieve well beyond the incurious.

Argyle said...

I don't think that was the real PK.

Bill G. said...

Lucina and YR, OK, I will print out Monday's puzzle and solve it with pencil, maybe pen. I'm sure I will enjoy it just as much, maybe more than solving online. I feel sure it will be quicker for me without having to navigate the grid electronically. Nevertheless, how many times have you seen someone write that they gave up, had a DNF or came to the Corner to finish the puzzle? For a hard puzzle, giving up strikes me as being less satisfying than turning on red letters and finishing online. I'm guess that most weeks, I will be able to get through Wednesday, maybe Thursday and Friday without needing help. I'll see how next week goes.

Lucina said...

BillG:
As a teacher. you know that look a student gets when he or she "gets" what you are trying to explain? Well, that's what it feels like when you hit upon an answer that you've been trying to ferret out of the clues and perps around it. It's like a "high."

As for research, that is also one of my passions though maybe not as deeply as Yellowrocks. After a short time I just move on to other things but I do love learning about unfamiliar subjects relevant to what appears on puzzles. It does help to store it for future use but as the old joke goes, my once photographic mind is slowly running out of film.

David R said...

This is the definition of a good Saturday puzzle nice mix of just about everything. My fave of the year for Saturday LAT even with the compromise filler to keep it all together. This is the future of crosswords and where most constructors are going so get used to it.

kjinkc said...

I know it's late a few will read, but I have to say that "choco taco" is my favorite ice cream treat.

Also, Tom Watson was a gimme since he's from my neck of the woods. There's even an street named Tom Watson Parkway about 10 miles from me and golf courses designed by him in this area.

Scott Baio was a heartthrob for some of my teen girls many years ago and granddaughter had a Lite Brite.

For the rest of the puzzle, it almost did me in. Nuff said. Sooo, off to try Sunday.