google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Saturday, Apr 26th, 2014, Brad Wilber

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Apr 26, 2014

Saturday, Apr 26th, 2014, Brad Wilber

Theme: Mini-theme Crossing in the Middle

Words: 70 (missing Q,X)

Blocks: 36

  The triple-packs in the corners today run in the Down direction, allowing shorter Across answers to start; that made this puzzle seem a little less intimidating - despite the crossing of two related 15-letter fills in the center of the grid.  I can think of someone here at the blog who is probably tired of the endless drain on time and money that house repairs can cost, but those two answers are right up my alley, and I am offically a 'house hunter' now....sorry, I was just daydreaming....anyway, just two other long answers, and what I believe is an even spread of proper names, literary references, math, science, biology, and history. 

Mini-theme:

32A. Reason for a loan : HOME IMPROVEMENT - the reason for my loan is just "HOME"

7D. You must keep it up throughout 32-Across : LOAD-BEARING WALL - the longer I looked for an image, the more ambiguous the results got


Other long entries:

25. "Something Wicked This Way Comes" novelist : RAY BRADBURY - love the title, but did not know anything about its author or plot

46. Deep-fried American Chinese dumpling dish : CRAB RANGOON


ardonwardonwardonw

ACROSS:

1. Sedona and others : KIAs - Automotive company, and I nailed it - had a good run to start

5. Wok bottom coats : OILS

9. Closed, for the most part : AJAR

13. Digging : INTO

14. Image on Maine's state flag : MOOSE - I thought it was a SNAKE, but that's this flag


16. Function : ROLE

17. "Yer __ tootin'!" : DURN - a bit meh, as I went with dArn, and figured it might be dErn, but dUrn~?

18. Bestow : AWARD

19. Liturgy : RITE

20. 18th/19th-century Neapolitan guerrilla __ Diavolo : FRA - "Brother Devil", Michele Pezza; the Wiki

21. Cameroon neighbor : CHAD



















22. Complained : WHINED

24. Hall of Fame quarterback Dawson : LEN - dredged up from somewhere in my brain's crossword archives

27. Does some 32-Across, perhaps : ADDS ON - That's what I plan to do when I find the right property; so far, I found a 500sf house, and it was perfect, but already in contract.  I am going to try and look at another today

29. Cap extensions : EARLAPS - the Princess Leia version


30. Unlikely to come unglued : STOIC - not STUCK; this is more "resolve" than "Elmer's"

31. Golfer's challenge : SAND

39. Word with check or date : RAIN

40. 1969 Tony nominee for Best Musical : ZORBA

41. Mideast rubber : ALADDIN - ah, now I get it; not looking for rubber, but magic lamp rub-ber

45. Acorn-bearer with shallow roots : PIN OAK

48. Astoria-to-Salem dir. : SSE

49. Gentle blow : ZEPHYR - I was thinking "LOVE TAP" kind of blow, not the wind

50. Remove : WIPE

51. Give-go link : IT A

52. "I Got You Babe" record label : ATCO

53. Heavy lifter : CRANE

55. Memorable anticipator of 39-Across : NOAH - my mother said this movie was great, which surprised me; I am keyed up for the new "Godzilla"

56. Surf phenomenon : ROAR

57. Having more yellow than usual : YOLKY - because Jaundiced was a tad too long

58. Crucifix inscription : INRI - Crossword staple

59. People who are tight : SOTs - 9yrs, 3months, 18 days in my past

60. Further : ELSE

61. Head-turner : "PSST~!"

DOWN:

1. One of DC Comics' Teen Titans : KID FLASH - all perps

2. No longer fazed by : INURED TO

3. Willy-nilly : AT RANDOM

4. Family address : SON

5. Fred Astaire, for one : OMAHAN - I W.A.G.ed "OHIOAN"

6. State in a "State Fair" song title : IOWAY - Rodgers & Hammerstein - Link

8. Moldavia, once: Abbr. : SSR

9. Speedy exhortation : ARRIBA - I tried "ANDALE~!"

10. Enlist : JOIN UP

11. Takes in or lets out : ALTERS

12. Not robust, vocally : REEDY - tried RASPY at first

15. Short-lived English king of 1483 : EDWARD V - murdered (?) in the Tower of London

21. Saffron-yielding blooms : CROCI

23. Blood test initials : HDL - Cholesterol number

26. Monopolized the conversation : RAN ON

28. Salzburg pronoun : SIE

31. NATO member since 1982 : SPAIN

33. Jane Austen's "most disagreeable man in the world" : MR. DARCY

34. You might subscribe to it via PayPal : EZINE

35. Many a fed. holiday : MONday - MLK, President's, Memorial, Labor, and Columbus DAYS

36. Canyon formers : EROSIONS - anyone try working with RIVER?

37. Jazz greats, maybe : NBA STARS - second time this week with this misdirection

38. Suffer financially : TAKE A HIT

41. Bit of schoolyard backtalk : "ARE TOO~!"

42. One getting strokes, in a good way : LAP CAT - uh-huh, that's just what I was thinking....

43. Can't tolerate : ABHORS

44. Uninspiring : DRY

45. Olive enthusiast : POPEYE

46. Moguls : CZARS - Tried HILLS, which could have worked

47. Farmyard chorus : OINKS

54. Ocean delicacy : ROE

55. Chill : NIP

Splynter

60 comments:

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

I'll say up front that I was really irked by EROSIONS, since it seems ludicrous to have it pluralized like that, and YOLKY just seems made up. I loved everything else about this one, however. Lots of challenging but fun cluing such as "Mideast rubber" for ALADDIN. And what's not to love about a puzzle with RAY BRADBURY in it?

ATCO and IOWAY were unknown to me, but the first was taken care of by the perps and the second was easy enough to infer with a little help.

Lemonade714 said...

I guess it is sleep in Saturday, I enjoyed this. I liked the RUBBER and GENTLE BLOW misdirection. I never heard of PIN OAK also liked seeing RAY BRADBURY.

Finally, ARRIBA brings to mind this secret being exposed IMAGE.

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Whew! Got 'er done. First time through I had only STEPHEN KING (Bzzzzt!), ALADDIN (nailed it!) and PIN OAK (we've got 'em in Texas).

INRI apparently wasn't 'IGGINS first name. And "Sedona and others" wasn't REDS.

I could visualize the color scheme of the Sonny and Cher label, but couldn't think of the name until something in the back of my mind whispered "Coasters." Aha, ATCO (Atlantic Company).

I knew DANCER wasn't going to work for Fred Astaire, but I looked long and hard at OGAHAN. D'oh! It was a MOOSE, not a GOOSE. And why would something with "Chinese" in its name be called RANGOON? Isn't that in Burma (formerly Myanmar, formerly Burma)?

Did you look at the other countries on Splynter's map? I've never heard of Guinea-Bissau nor Guinea-Conakry. Have you? You need a DURN scorecard to keep track of those African countries. I guess I'm just geographically challenged.

Yellowrocks said...

This is the only LAT puzzle I have ever totally given up on, even with look ups and red letters. Yesterday I was on Mr. Donaldson's wave length and sashayed right through. Today I was not on Brad's wave length at all and became so intimidated I had a brain freeze. I was sure that after a whole week of puzzles there were easy for me, today would be my Waterloo.
Not getting home improvement and load bearing wall made it difficult.
I was sure the state was Iowa, but could not add the Y.
I was pleased to suss Aladdin, but not much else.
I really did know of PIN OAK,but all I could recall was RED OAK, Duh!
Off to the gym

Avg Joe said...

Brutal!! Started out with a serious false sense of security when Kias, into and darn (sic) filled in. That didn't last long. Still had only about 60% at the 30 minute mark (with serious misgivings about some wags) and threw in the google towel to get Mr. Darcy. That broke that area open, changing tsars to czars and pet cat to lap cat..... finally proving the suspicion of Aladdin. But later still had to peek at the Maine flag to get moose near the top. Completely forgot that Fred was a homie.

Got it done, but have to take a DNF due to assistance.

Husker Gary said...

I sprained my arm patting myself on the back for taming this bad boy. Slow and steady won the day and only the NE (Maine?) part of the puzzle came easily.

Musings
-Pesky zoning codes keep me from the only HOME IMPROVEMENT I want to do
-I was putting PAMS on my wok first. There’s nothing like PAM on your wok!
-My ROLE around here is maintaining technology and killing spiders. Otherwise, I’d be renting Marti’s house
-I can’t find Cameroon or CHAD on this map of Africa
-Churchill was the poster boy for STOIC in WWII. “We will nevah give in…”
-This idiot is really IN a SAND trap.
-PIN OAKS in Lincoln are ubiquitous and beautiful. Here in Fremont they are YOLKY like this
-PSST, hey buddy, wanna buy a Rolex for $50?
-Anyone else know Fred was a Husker at birth? I didn’t think so ;-)
-Harry Reid’s REEDY voice grates on me
-Joann’s HDL number is 140, her twin sister’s is 240
-TAKE A HIT has a whole ‘nother meaning in Colorado these days
-My second favorite way to GET STROKES is on the golf course
-WIPEout by the SURFaris - Most famous drum riff in rock and roll? (2:46). Musical caffeine!

TTP said...

Good morning all.

Thank you Brad Wilber and thank you Splynter.

Too tough for me this morning without finally resorting to Regular player. Doing so pointed to having eNURED. Changing to I made me realize KIAS. The other one that red letters found was that I had redOAK rather than PINOAK. That helped break the bottom open by getting POPEYE, then WIPE, and then finally OINKS.

What really helped on OINKS was that I quit reading farmyard chores.

Proud to say I nailed ZEPHYR with just the HY. Of course, didn't hesitate on the fill of LEN for HOF'er Dawson, and knew something was afoot for Jazz greats.

That clue for ALADDIN made me laugh.

I've put it off long enough. Time to get back to my HOME IMPROVEMENT project. Maybe another cup of coffee first and a couple more ibuprofen...

Spitzboov said...

Good Morning everyone.

Hard one for me. Some fun clues like were mentioned above, but I also needed some red-letter help. Had 'staid' before STOIC. Some bright spots, too, such as ZEPHYR and PIN OAK. Liked the SOTS and POPEYE clues. Overall, a tough solve.

Al Cyone said...

Well, this turned out a lot better than I at first expected. IOWAY came late as I was looking for a state with five letters. TEXAS was in there for a long time (and, as it happens, that's where the 1962 movie was filmed).

The northwest quadrant remained barren for a discouragingly long time but, if I recall correctly (and I probably don't!) AT RANDOM eventually broke it open. STOIC was the final fill (STUCK had been an early contender).

[18:29]

buckeye bob said...

Thank you for the puzzle, Brad. Thank you for the splendid review, Splynter.

This puzzle was a good challenge. After several passes, it was still a sea of white. I made a lot of WAGs, kept pecking away, and eventually got it done without red letter help. I made lots of missteps along the way, but perps saved me. Yay!

Hand up for DANCER before OMAHAN and DARN / DERN / DURN.

WBS about yolky.

I had SPAS before KIAS, TIDE before ROAR, ALSO before ELSE, CROCS before CROCI, and ABO before HDL.

I was thinking TEXAS before IOWAY, but the perps disagreed. Kept trying to put a 5-letter state name there. D'oh!

Splynter said...

Hi again~!

What's the project you can't do, Husker? What's the code that's getting in the way? I am curious to know....

Splynter

Bumppo said...

Re 46D: Why is it, in crossword puzzles, that when the clue is "Former tyrant" the answer always is spelled TSAR, but when it relates to business and governments other than Russian it is always CZAR? It's the same word.

desper-otto said...

Husker, are you sure those are HDL numbers you're citing? They sound more like total cholesterol numbers.

I did remember that State Fair was supposed to take place in Iowa. I lived there briefly, and some folks do pronounce it IOWAY.

Husker Gary said...

Musings 2
-Splynter, I would really like to make a larger bathroom and walk-in closet but that would put me too close to the lot line which is only 8 feet away right now.
-Durn you, Otto, ya got me again. ;-). I always thought that was an HDL number but taint so McGee!
-I only remember the 1945 Dick Haymes/Vivian Blaine State Fair movie about the Iowa State Fair and never saw the Bobby Darin/Ann Margaret version about the Texas State Fair. The latter being unsuccessful financially and artistically. How could anything with Ann Margaret be bad?
-It seems to quaint to see men men in suits and ties on a carnival midway

oc4beach said...

Good morning all. Twas a toughie today.

What Yellowrocks said: Just couldn't bring it together.

HG: I liked the Surfaris Wipeout also. It may be one of the greatest riffs, but I think you should check out some of Sandy Nelson's works like Let There Be Drums and Teen Beat and others. He was one of the few drummers who actually sold drum records back in the good old days of Rock and Roll. He had a large portfolio of music.

I hope everyone enjoys the day.

Avg Joe said...

Surf music is still alive, just not as prominent as it was in the 60's:

Jr. Brown

Dudley said...

Hello Puzzlers -

Had a slow start, but enough scattered letters filled in to make Ray Bradbury recognizable, and from there it was off to the races.

The drum riff from Wipeout is certainly memorable. It's not technically demanding, but I like it for its emphasis on the Tom-Tom rather than snare drum. You can hear Gene Krupa's influence. My vote for the catchiest, toe-tappingest drum beat: Benny Goodman's Sing, Sing, Sing with Krupa at the set. I dare you to try and sit still while that's playing!

C6D6 Peg said...

This was a very tough. Could only get the NE and SE corners, and only a few fills in the other areas, not enough toeholds to finish.

It was challenging, so thank you Brad, and Splynter for your expo.

CrossEyedDave said...

The last time I tried home improvement...

Load bearing wall? (wall bearing load?.. bearing wall load... Oh forget it....)


Lap cats. (it's so true...)

LaLaLinda said...

Hi Everyone ~~

I had a tough time getting started on this. I filled in very little and then left it for a couple of hours. I finally was able to finish after getting TAKE A HIT in the SE corner. For some reason that gave me what I needed to get things going.

I was perp-dependent in many spots and needed a few good guesses here and there. Last to fill was KIAS and KID FLASH. Unlike Splynter, I didn't nail it!

Also slow to fill was Remove / WIPE - seemed like 'out' was needed after WIPE.

I thought I was clever when I filled in 'Neck' for head turner - Nope!

I really liked 44D - Olive enthusiast / POPEYE ~ that one I DID nail.

Great info and comments as always, Splynter.

A belated Happy Birthday to you, Kazie ~ I hope you enjoyed your special time yesterday!

desper-otto said...

One-time humor columnist Dave Barry wrote a piece about home improvement. He described the results as not unlike walking through the house firing his shotgun into the walls. When I lived in Houston I once had a load-bearing bedroom door -- Olshan to the rescue with "Cable-Lock." Northerners can't appreciate the problems that arise with slab homes built on unstable soil. And unfortunately, the soil around Houston is mostly unstable "gumbo".

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

This was a toughie but I persevered and finally finished sans help but no TADA! Not knowing car models nor comic book heroes, I went astray with rias/Kias and RodFlash/KidFlash,so a FIW. Yolky was a stretch but Aladdin made up for it.

Good job, Brad, and great expo, Splynter.

Rainy and gloomy today. But,the trees are starting to show some greenery, finally.

Have a relaxing Saturday.

Bill G. said...

It's no secret that I don't usually enjoy Saturday puzzles but this was an exception. I could do most of it and liked it! Yeah Brad and Splynter!

Dern seemed right to me.

I didn't know CRAB RANGOON or EAR LAPS. Zorba the Greek was a favorite movie. Parts of it are so emotional and sad...

A cold front passed through last night and the wind was howling.

Magilla Go-Rilla said...

I don't know why I bother on Saturday. The clues come from twisted minds

Misty said...

Ironically I got HOME IMPROVEMENT early, as well as AT RANDOM, MR DARCY, and POPEYE. But that was about it. The rest was all cheating. But there were some fun clues, including the ones for ALADDIN and NOAH. I've just learned to accept that Saturday is not my day, and I just have to hobble through as best I can.

A last question--don't know why, but I still don't get what Jazz has to do with NBA STARS?

Anyway, have a great weekend, everybody!

Husker Gary said...

-Drum riffs – I have seen the Gene Krupa number before and love it. I am also very familiar with Sandy Nelson’s Let There Be Drums as my brother played it constantly and I have linked it here before. But I have never sat at a bar and have anyone spontaneously break into those rhythms. However, I have been in many groups where someone did break into the Wipeout cadence for one reason or another. I was not going for technical excellence or duration, just a short, memorable piece of percussion.
-HOME IMPROVEMENT – one of my combo-rat friends had a wife who was nagging, uh, make that persistently reminding him, that she wanted a wall knocked out to make her living room bigger. After many lacks of responses, she simply took a sledgehammer and started in on the wall when he wasn’t home so he would have to do something. There were two results: 1) It was a LOAD BEARING WALL, which made the ceiling sag, and 2) they were divorced within a year.

Zcarguy said...

Misty ,

Utah Jazz basketball team

Misty said...

Thanks, Zcarguy. Good to know its my basketball smarts and not my music smarts that are woeful here.

Unknown said...

Thank you Brad Wilber and Splynter. I really liked this puzzle. It took me a while to fill in the lower half, but the solve was actually faster than it is with most Saturday puzzles.

KIDFLASH and ATCO were all perps. I had Ohioan before Omahan and darn before durn. My favorite clue was for Popeye.

CEDave, really liked your lap cat link. That is so true.

Jayce said...

Hello everybody. Wow, I liked this puzzle a lot! I don't know why. It was hard, and I had to erase many wrong answers (such as DANCER for Fred Astaire), but it was a fun journey. Several of the clues made me laugh. Very very clever and fresh and challenging.

I have to post a shameless plug for our
our granddaughter, who is performing in the Phoenix (Arizona) Theater production of Les Misérables for the next 4 weeks. LW and I are definitely going to go see it. (She is the one in the center of the screen at 0:12 in the video. Again at 0:17, she's on the left.)

Best wishes to you all.

Lucina said...

Greetings, Super Solvers! Hi-yo, Splynter. Thanks for the insights INTO Brad Wilber's masterpiece.

As is usual for Saturday I glanced around the grid filling in a few 3pers here and there until I saw 33D and being an avid Jane Austin devotee immediately knew MR. DARCY.

That started me in the south with YOLKY and CRANE and thought ELSE was a stretch but, oh well.

Proceeding to the left in the SW, ZEPHYR is long ago crosswordese which gave me TZAR and I never looked back. Since TRABRANGOON seemed plausible I didn't change it, Chinese, you know.

On to the SE where EROSIONS not rivers made canyons, eventually got ZORBA and EZINE. PIN OAK slinked out from the depths of my brain.

And so it went but the NW flummoxed me mightily because SEDONA is a town in AZ and I couldn't reconcile it with anything else so the K was the last to fall. In the center, hand up for DANCER before OMAHAN though the only other star I've heard of from there is Marlon Brando. Must be something in the water there that produces great talent.

Anyway I thought Maine's flag would have a MAPLE on it and that messed up the top. DNF and so close!

I hope you're having a terrific Saturday, everyone! Rain expected, yea!

Lucina said...

Jayce:
How exciting for you! I'll just have to go see it, too, and I believe my daughter and granddaughter will want to as well. Do you know when you'll be here?

Lucina said...

C.C.
I'm sorry about the Chinese remark in my post. I meant it in jest and because I know nada in Chinese.

Ol' Man Keith said...

A good 'un from Mr Wilbur and appropriately tough for a Saturday. I missed it by one letter, and so that was actually two, and therefore I'm at 98% today.
My screwup was putting HBC instead of HDL. Both are true blood tests, but that left me with EAR CAPS and some writer guy named BRABBURY. Shoulda known better, as Mr. BRADBURY used to eat at a nearby restaurant we favored too.
Shame on me for not triple checking.

Going to see our final season show at South Coast Rep today. Hope it's a good 'un too.

Ol' Man Keith said...

Jayce @ 12:55,
Thanks for posting the video of yr granddaughter's production of Les Miz. A neat promo! Good luck to her and to the whole company!
In bocca al lupo!!

CanadianEh! said...

Tough work today and required red letter help to finish. I did not understand the ALADDIN clue until I came here. Thanks Splynter! I smiled when I got it!

Hand up for SOLID before STOIC, DANCER for Fred Astaire, redOAK and DARN. I also waited for a long time for the last later on IOWAy TO FILL IN.

Never heard of EARLAPS - we call them earFlaps! ARRIBA was unknown as well although we have a restaurant by that name at the Rogers Centre in Toronto. You can eat and watch the Blue Jays play.

Splynter's map of Africa must be older than 2011 because it does not have South Sudan on it. It became independent from Sudan in 2011 and already has had civil unrest in the last 5 months. Son and family just got out in time. Sad how these countries have so many issues in governance.

Jayce said...

Lucina, we don't yet know when we'll be coming to Phx. Coordinating various people's schedules.

Jayce said...

I confess I have never heard of Crab Rangoon.

HeartRx said...

Late to the party (again) – I’ll splain later. I really enjoyed this puzzle. Brad’s usually are challenging but doable for me. When I saw the two center crosses, I groaned.

Favorite clues today:
“Speedy exchortation” for ARRIBA
“Jazz greats, perhaps” for NBA STARS
“Mideast rubber” for ALADDIN
“People who are tight” for SOTS

Mis-steps:
I was thinking of Sedona, AZ at 1-A, so “reds” (red rocks??) seemed right…for about a minute.
Although I wanted DURN at first, I also decided to go with DaRN. (The “Yer” should have clued me in!)
I had Tommy instead of ZORBA for the 1969 musical. But EZINE showed me the error of my ways.
And for some inexplicable reason, ZitHeR before ZEPHYR!!

All got straightened out in the end. Happy Saturday everyone!

HeartRx said...

Splynter, you would be proud of me. The DR emergency renovation is totally complete as of 11:30 AM today, and came out even better than it was when I redecorated 2 years ago. Sorry, but finishing it took priority over the Corner, so that's why I'm so late today!

In the process, I learned how to install a Shark Bite joint in a leaky copper pipe, fix a Fernco coupling on a sewer pipe (you have to file down the ridge on the old cast iron pipe so the coupling has a relatively smooth surface to enclose), glue together ABS joints, and how to (safely) use a drywall lift.

We were so close to the end yesterday, when I came up with the idea of installing a ceiling medallion over the chandelier…but, I will save that story for another day!

HeartRx said...

Ah yes, "Wipeout" - classic! And Dudley, as soon as I read your comment, I had to go find that link for “Sing, Sing, Sing” and play it again. I agree – it is impossible to sit still!

Lucina, when I read your comment about TRABRANGOON I chuckled and thought - "Well, that's the same way I am with Spanish!"

HeartRx said...

Oh, Jayce. I forgot to congratulate your granddaughter on landing a role in Les Mis - I'm guessing you'll be seeing the whole thing through a camcorder, right??? There's nothing better than having a proud Grampa at one of your performances!

HeartRx said...

OK, I'll shut up now. (...I think I RAN ON too much!!!!)

miss Beckley said...

TwoHusker, I think it was Pat Boone, not Bobby Darin.And where is Keith? And his poetry?

Okay, it's taken me four tries to read that stupid robot thing.

Dudley said...

Marti, that was a first-class version of Sing Sing Sing! As usual, Gene Krupa was the engine that drove that bus.

I recall a section in Ken Burns' "Jazz" series (I think) in which a refined Carnegie Hall audience just couldn't sit still when listening, even when decorum obligated them to do so. Freed by the power of percussion!

Husker Gary said...

Bobby and Pat

PK said...

Hi Y'all! This was easier for me than Wed. Fun, Brad! Thanks, Splynter! Hope you find your home.

I was out today looking at a beautiful show home in a woodsy setting with enough room to house three families without crowding. I told my daughter I'd help her buy it and we'd all move in. She thought I was serious and NUTS! I wasn't either. Too much upkeep.

I had LOAD and tried BEARING WALL. Surprise! It was right. So when V_ME_T showed up I just filled in the rest and was off and running.

The JAZZ clue got this NBA watcher again! Took awhile to fill that but I got POPEYE right away.

YOLKY? OINK! DURN it! Also kEN before LEN.

Anyone else been to Astoria, Oregon where the mighty Columbia River flows into the Pacific? Beautiful place.

PIN OAKS are popular here and turn red in fall. They have a narrower more pointy leaf than some oaks.

Don said...

I don't agree that Pin Oaks are shallow rooted. Here in Pennsylvania we have four on our property and about ten on our church property. The roots run mostly straight down, and never break the surface like Maples or Sweetgums do. Nice trees.
To me, the clue was misleading in that way.

Anonymous said...

Don, the clue was fine:
" The woody root system has numerous lateral roots that are shallow and spreading…"
(From http://www.illinoiswildflowers.info)

Yellowrocks said...

Wiki agrees.
"It (the pin oak)is naturally a wetland tree, and develops a shallow, fibrous root system, unlike many oaks, which have a strong, deep taproot when young."
Today we had yummy navy bean and ham soup. I simmer it until the beans impart just the right thickness to the broth.
We took our month old new Sentra for a spin today, 65 miles. Lovely afternoon. I thought of Montana's driving distances. This was just a drop in the bucket for her.

Argyle said...

I still like my answer.

47-Down. Farmyard chorus : EIEIO

Ol' Man Keith said...

The inclusion of CRAB RANGOON inspired me, so that after our show today (a good new play by Rachel Bonds, btw) I searched for it on the menu at our after-play eatery. Had to settle for pot-sticker dumplings, but they were very good.

Lucina said...

Argyle:
LOL. I like your farmyard chorus, too.

Being curious, I researched who else was born in Omaha and learned a whole lot of famous people were born there including Nick Nolte besides those already mentioned, Fred and Marlon.

PK said...

I love crab rangoon which is served on Chinese buffets here. However, I had trouble with the clue because I didn't consider it a dumpling since it is crispy and deep fried. It has something like a cream cheese filling and is shaped like a 4-armed star. I have never identified crab in the make-up unless it is the armed shape.

Bill G. said...

Argyle, that (EIEIO) was my first answer too. Didn't work...

I'm just watching an old show with Huell Howser about Mt. Wilson and all the old scientific aura around it. I love the old telescopes and the machinery that made them all work, circa 1910. His enthusiasm is both infectious and annoying. He is all, "Oh boy!" and "Louie, look at that!" and "Wow!" about once a minute. Still, I enjoy his old shows and Mike Rowe's old shows, sometimes more than the newer stuff.

I've never even heard of crab rangoon but it sounds like something I would like.

fermatprime said...

Greetings!

Thanks Brad and Splynter!

Had the usual Saturday problems and eventually used red letters. Too bad, because I got such a good start with RAY BRADBURY, a gimme for this Sci fi fan. POPEYE was immediate, also. I always think basketball when I see JAZZ, after all of these years. There was no possibility that Astaire was a Dancer in a weekend puzzle.

BillG: Huell Howser died Jan., 2013.

Happy Sunday all!

Lucina said...

Bill:
I love old shows, too, but possibly a different genre. I just finished watching "Murder on the Home Front" which I had recorded from PBS last year. It takes place in the 1940s during WWI.

Lucina said...

Oops. That should be WWII. It's really good on so many levels as is most of PBS drama.

Anonymous T said...

A tip o' the hat to all that could do this puzzle... One day I will get a Sat. POPEYE & PINOAK were easy, as was AJAR - a few others showed up after lots of noodling. Thanks Splynter for filling in the rest of the gaps.

Jayce - Congrats on you grand in Les Miz!

I'm late to the party yet again haven been dragged to a fundraiser gala. I got a baseball though; autographed by Lance Berkman. Turns out I paid more than 2x the market value. Oh well, it goes to scholarships at DW's college.

Here's something that brother-in-law sent me about dyslexia. I have it, and work crosswords to reinforce letter patterns. What I found fascinating is that most people don't have near 90 degree peripheral vision - I thought it was normal. I did some experiments, my daughter with dyslexia can also seen at about 87 degrees, my wife's (excellent speller) vision is about 60 degrees. Wow - Is my green really your green?

Have a great rest o' the weekend.

Cheers, -T

Abejo said...

Good Sunday morning, folks. Thank you Brad Wilber, for a good, but tough, puzzle. Thank you Splynter, for the fine review.

Well, it os Sunday morning. I finished this last night real late and hit the hay.

I had to get help to finish. Too tough for me.

Liked I.N.R.I. Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudeorum

No problem with yolky. I easily got that one.

ARRIBA came slowly, then it hit me. Good one.

ZORBA was easy with four perps and a Z.

Was thinking of some kind of skiing hills for 46D. Then CZARS became obvious.

NOAH and RAIN were good.

Anyhow, I am now going to start the Sunday puzzle. See you later today, I hope. Going to an Afghan restaurant tonight in Skokie. I will let you know how it works out.

Abejo

(altuek positive)