google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Thursday, July 17, 2014 C.C. Burnikel

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Jul 17, 2014

Thursday, July 17, 2014 C.C. Burnikel

Theme: Extra Terrestrials?

20. Protection from a bowler : CRICKET HELMET. I thought, "What does bowling have to do with cricket?" (Oh - the bowler is the one who throws the ball in cricket.)

41. Mozart and Brahms each wrote a notable one : CLARINET QUINTET. BAM!  Right off, I get a two-fer link! Mozart 34:37  Brahms 36:46

58. "Deny thy father and refuse thy name" speaker : JULIET CAPULET. Act II, Scene 2.

And the reveal:

73. Classical rebuke, and a homophonic hint to 20-, 41- and 58-Across : ET TU? "ET" x 2 ending each theme entry word. Funny, I did not notice the name of the constructor, but was speeding through and thought, "Wow, am I ever on this guy's wavelength!"  At the reveal, the thought flashed across my mind, "Wow, where do these guys come up with such great ideas?" Of course!  Our own C.C. nails it again.


Across

1. Short cuts : BOBS. Great misdirection. The short haircuts, not the the routes that your significant other always insists are "faster!"

5. Soup usually drunk directly from the bowl : MISO. I loved how this one crossed 7-Down. __ bar : SUSHI.

9. Key designation : MAJOR. Fill in the M**OR and wait for perps!

14. Common mirror shape : OVAL.

15. Load to bear : ONUS.

16. Grown : ADULT.

17. Ward with awards : SELA. You may have been surprised to see 69-Across. Hospital wing : WARD. in the same puzzle. C.C. is very careful about dupes, so I'm guessing the 17-A clue was edited by Rich.  I wonder if she originally cross-referenced them as "With 69-Across, 'Once and Again' Emmy winning actress."

18. They're hopeless : LOST CAUSES.

22. Floors in the ring : KOsKnock-outs.

23. Tax-deferred plan, for short : IRAIndividual Retirement Account.

24. Place of luxury? : LAP. Cute clue!

27. Chanced upon : MET.

30. Mike and __: candy : IKEJelly beans meet Good & Plenty.

32. Calder creation : MOBILE.  I think I have seen this one at the Tate Museum.


35. French bread : EURO. Nailed it!

37. Notion : IDEA.

40. Mooring area : BASIN.

44. Closing passages : CODAS. Gimme.

45. Ball or strike, e.g. : NOUN. Of course, we needed a baseball reference if this were to be a "true" C.C. puzzle!

46. Dancer Kelly : GENE.

47. Contract negotiators : AGENTS.

49. Get ready to fire : AIM.

51. ISP choice : DSLInternet Service Provider. Digital Subscriber Line (originally "loop.")

52. Isr. neighbor : SYR. Israel / Syria.

53. She played Fantine in "Les Misérables" (1998) : UMA. Thurman.

56. Sports bar array : TVs.

65. Honolulu Harbor beacon : ALOHA TOWER. WAG.

67. 12-time NFL Pro Bowler Junior : SEAU. I looked at "Bowler" and thought, "Huh?  He played football, not bowling!" (DUH - Pro Bowl choice!!!) (I was getting bowled over by this puzzle, I guess.)

68. False front? : PSEUD-. As in PSEUDonym, meaning "false name."

70. Scientific acad. : INST.itution.

71. Aggressive : PUSHY.

72. Mmes., in Cuba : SRAs. Madames and señoras. French and Spanish equivalents of "mistress." And also 9-Down. Polite address : MA'AM. Madam.

Down

1. Pear variety : BOSC.

2. CBer's "Back to you" : OVER.

3. Island near Java : BALI. Just a stone's throw away. Map.

4. Not taut : SLACK.

5. Fabric used in adhesive pads : MOLESKIN.

6. How ties may be broken, briefly : IN OTOvertime.

8. Cuisinart rival : OSTER.

10. Together, in music : A DUE.

11. New, in real estate ads : JUST LISTED.

12. World Cup shout : OLÉ.

13. They may be constitutional: Abbr. : RTs. Rights.

19. Symbol of happiness : CLAM. Lark also fit...

21. Ornamental fish : KOI.

25. "Men in Black" targets : ALIENS.

26. Click-N-Go pen maker : PENTEL.

27. Tourist draws : MECCAS.

28. Memorial tribute : EULOGY.

29. Food chain whose employees wear Hawaiian shirts : TRADER JOES. Consumer Reports ranks them in the top three in the nation, along with Wegman's and Publix.

31. Perfect place : EDEN.

33. Sash often tied with a butterfly knot : OBI.

34. [Just like that!] : BANG.

36. Algerian seaport : ORAN. William Schneider is one of the thousands of soldiers who passed through ORAN on his way to the front in Italy during Operation Torch in WWII.  You can read the interview about his wartime experience here.

38. Zone for DDE : ETOEuropean Theater of Operations. This, of course, was north of where Schneider and his group landed.

39. Blue shade : AQUA.

42. Follower's suffix : IST. Are you a dedicated Crossword Corner-IST?

43. Acrobats' garments : UNITARDS.

48. Business outfit : SUIT.

50. A.L. or N.L. honoree : MVP. American League or National League Most Valuable Player.

54. Catty remarks : MEOWS. Love it! (Except when my cat starts in at 4:00 AM!)

55. Battling it out : AT WAR.

57. Sleepyhead in an Everly Brothers hit : SUSIE. Here's an earworm for you...2:11

59. "Not a chance!" : UH-UH.

60. Lord's partner : LADY.

61. "Juno" actor Michael : CERAHe co-starred with Ellen Page, who played Juno. Quirky, fun movie.

62. Advanced : LENT. Money, that is.

63. Sunup point : EAST.

64. Skirt in a Degas painting : TUTU.

65. iPad download : APP.

66. SEC school : LSU. CSO to Hahtoolah.

That's it from me for this week!

Marti


Note from C.C.:
 
Here is a sweet bonus puzzle from Marti. Rich could not use it because he had just scheduled one with similiar gimmick. Marti thought it's similar to last Friday's LAT. To me, the approaches are very different.

We could not provide Across Lite file because this grid has unnumbered squares. Please click here to solve on line. I hope the font and setup are clearer this time. Spitzboov had trouble with my last upload. Click here for a PDF copy (See Download on the upper right corner?). Click here for Answer Grid.

We hope you enjoy the puzzle and look forward to your feedback. 

54 comments:

OwenKL said...

A special pill was taken by Juliet
So Romeo wrote about what she et:
"It was enteric coated
To not make her bloated."
That was his Capulet caplet couplet!

~~~~~~~~~~~~

A Cryptic clue for a word in today's LAT puzzle:
Basic reaction to carbon-nitrogen exchange poured into sink (5)
For more Cryptic clues, try these nominally "easy" ones. But they use a lot of British-isms, so expect 2 or 3 words in each puzzle to be totally unsolvable for Americans.

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

Nice challenging Thursday puzzle from our fearless leader. Lots of misdirections which kept me on my toes but provided enjoyable *AHA* moments once I figured them out.

It took awhile to suss out CRICKET HELMET and JULIET CAPULET (the latter especially because I had SENT instead of LENT at 62A). ALOHA TOWER was a complete unknown, but easy enough to guess with some perp help. And, hey -- I finally remembered that Calder was the guy who invented MOBILEs!

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Wow, C.C. got a twofer this week! Congrats.

No overwrites in my grid this morning. I never heard of ALOHA TOWER, but I haven't been in Honolulu in over 40 years.

Anybody else have trouble parsing CRICKE THE LMET?

I was torn between S and Z in SUSIE, but my wag was correct. Whew!

Now to see what Marti's offered up for us this morning...

My captcha looks like a print ad -- it says very clearly Photo Sphere.
.

Mari said...

Good morning everybody.

Great puzzle today. I didn't realize it was a CC creation until I read the blog.

A lot of fun clues toda, including:

1A: Short cuts: BOBS
25A: French bread: EURO
45A: Ball or strike, e.g.: NOUN

I liked 6D: How ties may be broken, briefly. I PERPED this one and when I went back I read "INOT". INOT? did I mean KNOT? You tie knots, so it sort of fits the clue. ..... OH! IN O.T. (duh)

Have a grat day!

thehondohurricane said...

Howdy everyone,

Puzzle completed with my PENTEL and minor need of it's eraser. UNITARDS, CERA, & ALOHA TOWER all needed a lot of perp assistance, otherwise no major issues.

Really tired these days...New kitten and old cat going at it mostly at night. Plus Riley's been out of sorts. Him I'm worried about but the cats will figure it out.

Siesta time, talk to you later.

Anonymous said...

Great theme.

I was surprised by the double (W)ard today, and with 26D:
Click-N-Go pen maker : PENTEL.
Seems wrong to have pen in the clue & answer. Is there an actual rule about this?

6D also seems inaccurate:
How ties may be broken, briefly : IN OT. In overtime would be WHEN ties may be broken.

Aside from those sure-to-be-labeled snarky comments, enjoyable puzzle.

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-This puzzle was just tu, tu cool! Wow, what a concept!
-MAJOR not kappa, LAP not spa, BASIN not beach, JOES not vics
-I learned AVECO yesterday and MOLESKIN (Ew!) today.
-The only CRICKET movie I’ve seen this year ;-)
-I was given this spoon for my MISO. How occidental!
-Haven’t we all heard “As I was going to St. Ives I MET a man with seven wives…”
-Ball/strike – grandson’s league has too many of the former
-Debbie Reynolds’ painful memory of GENE KELLY
-Do you really need this many TV’s?
-Smithsonian Institute or Institution? I can never remember.
-Our neighbor’s house was JUST LISTED and the AGENTS sent all of us a postcard enlisting our help to “find a new neighbor”
-I gave three EUOLOGIES last year. Sigh.
-“Yeah, about this EDEN, the landlord is picky about what you can eat”
-ISR/SYR and AT WAR – can’t seem to have one without the other
-UH, UH. Not in my house.
-When are people “HAPPY AS A cow chewin’ on its cud”?
-Can’t wait to do Marti’s puzzle after I, well, you know…

Bluehen said...

HG,
I think that song has something to do with keeping time with wet dirt.

No-Vice worder said...

Got my first complete Thursday today and on my birthday no less! Lots of fun clues and a real challenge for me. Great stuff.

HeartRx said...

Happy birthday, No-Vice worder! I see you have been with the Corner since April - do you think your puzzling skills are improved by reading the explanations and comments here?

PK said...

Hi Y'all! I thought the theme was very clever, C.C.! I was worried for a moment with the clue "Protection from a bowler", knowing Boomer is a bowler. But "restraining order" didn't fit. I tried CRICKET which didn't turn red, so I stopped being concerned. LOL!

Great one, Marti! I didn't "get" INOT after it was filled until I read your expo.

There were some chuckle-worthy moments in the puzzle: "symbol of happiness"= clam (if you listen, can you hear them laugh?). "Place of luxury" = LAP (probably belonging to a grandparent." Also the TUTU/ETTU cross.

Didn't know CERA (did see that movie) or SEAU.

Floors in the ring weren't "canvas" but KOS.

Marti, loved the Degas painting. I had one of this picture framed for my daughters' room. We lost it when we moved. I found it 31 years later when I moved again in the bottom of a box of dishes I had never completely unpacked.

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

I was happy as a CLAM this morning on opening the paper to the puzzle page and seeing it was by C.C.
After the 2nd long across, I saw the ET x 2 sequence, so wrote ET in at the end of the 3rd long across. Was pleased to see the ET TU unifier.
ALOHA was an easy WAG. Did not know that.
INOT was a head scratcher until I parsed it sufficiently to see IN O T.
Lots of fresh fill. Great job. BZ to C.C.

Lemonade714 said...

HBDTY No-vice. What a nice present from the puzzling world. Welcome also to the South Florida contingent, we have a few in DelRay.

Loved the puzzle and write yup, so much attention to detail and wit. Liked see OT and RT also in with all the ET. Was unaware of there being a cricket helmet but there is much I do not know. Thanks C.C. and marti, work and sneaking peaks at the Open.

Jazzbumpa said...

Hi gang -

Cricket, baseball, and even some music - a little something for everybody.

Great them, and lots of clever cluing.

I usually turn my nose up at affix clues, but "false front?" is a gem.

I wagged LSU over FSU for 66D, but erred on UNUH for UHUH and missed my ALOHA. So I haz a sad.

I'm also a little surprised by the WARD duality.

Anon @ 8:13

I think it's a convention rather than a rule. Also, I don't think your comment was snarky. A little too nit-picky, maybe, but I do that too.

Tiger baseball resumes tomorrow. Four weekend games in Cleveland, including a Saturday double-header.

Can't wait.

If you're in the Plymouth, MI area tonight stop by Kellogg Park for the free concert at 7:30. Arrive early. Parking is a challenge.

Cool regards!
JzB

No-Vice worder said...

Thanks for the birthday wishes HeartRX and Lemonade. I thought when I started the puzzle that it would be great if I could get my first Thursday solve on my Bday. It looked bleak at first but I stuck with it and when I put in the last letter (with hope in my heart)and heard the music, I was thrilled. I really enjoy doing the Times xwords and also reading the blog. Some pretty cool people around here. Thanks again guys.

VirginiaSycamore said...

Happy Thursday to all!
Thanks for the great puzzle CC and the write up Marty.

I wonder if Rich has been trying to make the crosswords easier. I would have had a much harder time with the split name clue to SELA WARD. I also only recall her from her role as House's ex-wife in the TV show of the same name.

I had to perp many of the other names, CERA, SEAU and ALOHA Tower.

I was guessed SYRIA at the start. I have just finished the biography of Robert Ames titled *The Good Spy* by Kai Bird. Ames was a CIA operative who cultivated Middle East contacts and was able to help the USA maintain a backdoor to the PLO leaders. All that ended when he died in the Beirut embassy bombing in 1983. Alas.

Husker Gary, does the song have the refrain, "It's a treat to beat your feet in the Mississippi mud?"

Loved your CAPULET couplet OwenKl

Spitzboov said...

Marti and C.C.

I just did the bonus puzzle. I would rate it a Wednesday level. Figured out the right angle theme about halfway through.
I did it on line and had no font trouble. No lookups were needed.

VirginiaSycamore said...

Oops! I meant OwenKL.

Anonymous T said...

Morning all

Yippie, a C.C.! But, there's a lot if ink in places.

WEES re: great c/a pairs. I also liked Lord's partner - Taylor didn't fit.

Alas, a DNF. I finally had to lookup Juliet's last name to get the C at 61d.

Thanks Marti for the writeup. Cheers, -T

Jazzbumpa said...

Owen @ last night.

Thanks for the technical assistance. I had the method worked out and the Answer right in front of me, but still couldn't pull it together. The synonym is TOO loose, IMHO. And "she" is just too vague to point to any given name.

Yours today seems just right

N C -

Am I being to nit-picky?

Turns out de-bra for topless was a strange coincidence and a total red herring. Is this correct?

Actress in hospital (4) should work.

Some easy ones -

Roman water color (4)

A fellow's reps (6)

Burden over you and me (4)

Cheers!
JzB

Chairman Moe said...

Got home too late last night to respond so I hope you won't mind a late post. Has to do with the answer to 55A from yesterday - DOVER. Back some 25 years ago or so the "contest" of several of us "limerickists" (?) was to come up with a limerick using the word DOVER as the last word. We all submitted to one another; here was the winner (not mine, but it fits from yesterdays thread):

A horny British sailor named Grover,
Seven celibate years a sea rover;
When he spied England's coast,
Started flogging his post,
And repainted the White Cliffs of DOVER!

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

What a treat to see CC as the constructor. And, as always, she gave us another gem. Clever theme and cluing, fresh fill, and a fun solve. Only write-over was Seay/Seau but tutu corrected that. Oh, I just misspoke: I had salad/sushi and pain/Euro. (I think pain is French for edible bread?)

Congrats, CC, on a terrific Thursday offering and thanks, Marti, for your always witty and wonderful write-up. Meow!

Happy Birthday, No Vice worder. Don't be such a stranger.

Have a great day.

Chairman Moe said...

I started the puzzle today in the NW corner and followed the "steps" diagonally to the SE corner, and then reversed it (NE to SW). Just needed a different tactic to keep things interesting! I liked the puzzle theme; (having gotten ETTU in the SW Corner made the longer clues easier). Loved 66D Geaux Tigers! (daughter was an LSU grad - School of Music); a few corrections but overall a pretty easy solve - great work C.C.

Today's limerick - line 4 had so many possibilities!! My mind is in the gutter today; I don't "know" y'all very well so I kept this clean . . .

She said, "I don't mean to be PUSHY,
But why can't we go out for SUSHI?"
"I mean, cut me some SLACK,
You eat SPAM as a snack,
And you think that raw fish is yucky??!!"

Bill G. said...

Hi everybody! I enjoyed the puzzle from late last night. Lots of clever stuff. WEES. Good job CC and Marti.

Mozart's Clarinet Quintet has become one of my favorite pieces of classical music. I don't think I'd ever heard of it before the end of Mash. Major Winchester was trying to get a Mish Mash of Korean soldiers to play it just as the war was over. Very poignant.

A friend of mine mentioned The Bridge and I heard about it from a couple of you. So I recorded it and watched the first episode of this season. I think that will be enough for me. Somebody's ear gets cut off. Very violent and ugly. Plus it seems to be the kind of show that just keeps going on and on, like Lost, rather than a show with a satisfactory conclusion each week.

Misty said...

C.C., you're amazing! What a great puzzle--challenging and delightful at the same time. A total treat! And then Marti's expo as a bonus. It doesn't get any better than this on a Thursday morning.

My toughest problem was caused by TRADER JOE'S. We shop there all the time, but I never noticed the folks there wearing Hawaiian shirts. So I put in TRADER VIC's (isn't there a restaurant chain called that?). As a result I had trouble getting Juliet (Hey, I'm a Joyce scholar not a Shakespeare scholar). But, thank goodness I figured it out at the end. And I'll try to be a little more observant the next time I go to TJ's.

Irish Miss, I started out with PAIN instead of EURO too. And I'm glad I'm not the only person who had trouble figuring out what INOT was all about. And I couldn't remember UNITARD although I knew it wasn't going to be UNIFORM (acrobats in uniform? I don't think so).

Happy birthday, No-Vice. Sounds like you're a good guy.

Have a great Thursday, everybody!





PK said...

Happy birthday, No-vice W.! How will you celebrate?

Lucina said...

Greetings, puzzlers all! What a bonus today, C.C. and Marti, too! OLE, OLE, I say.

Happy birthday, NVW, and welcome.

My pencil quite flew on this with only a few write overs, SPA/LAP, and I confuse OMAN with ORAN but then recalled Casablanca where ORAN plays a part. Also JUST OPENED before JUST LISTED.

I had no IDEA UMA had played in Les Mis but there she was. And as Marti mentioned, the crossing of MISO/SUSHI was appropriate.

I don't know how you do it, C.C. but kudos to you! I'll try Marti's later.

May you all be happy as a CLAM today!

Tinbeni said...

C.C. Thank you for a FUN Thursday puzzle.
Marti: Nice write-up & links. (Though I passed on the Mozart & Brahms ones).

My "Mooring area" was a berth before BASIN appeared off the 'I' in ALIENS.

Fave today was the LAP of luxury.

Happy Birthday No-Vice worder ... nice Avatar for a male. lol

A "toast" to ALL at Sunset.
Cheers!!!

Ol' Man Keith said...

A wonderful pzl from C.C. today! Nice indirections, the kind that make little sense until they click into place with the right answer.

My favorite--natch!--was JULIET CAPULET simply because we're not used to seeing her whole name spelled out, and for those who know the speech, the particular quote used as a clue leads directly to her surname in the next line.

C.C.'s wit hit my wavelength too. As tricky as this was in places, it is probably the fastest I've done a Thursday pzl in quite a while.

Anonymous said...

72A wouldn't Mmes. be SRT (señorita)?Madame/Señora Madamoiselle/Señorita

HeartRx said...

Anon @ 2:02
Mademoiselles = mlles
Madames = mmes
Senoritas = srtas
Senoras = sras

Chairman Moe said...

Just did Marti's "bonus" puzzle - took me 17-1/2 minutes to finish. Saw no red marks and a box popped up saying, "congratulations, you've solved the puzzle" (or something to that effect). Nice puzzle Marti. Good clues, and I like the non-numbered / non-clued spaces, too. Do these puzzles pop up every now and then?

Jerome said...

Marti- If it makes you feel any better, how 'bout this- In the last five or six weeks I've had four puzzles rejected because they were similar to themes in the pipeline, or already published. That's a bit out of the ordinary to say the least.
The first theme I ever developed that I thought might be accepted I sent to Nancy Salomon for an opinion. She had just sent out a puzzle with the exact same theme! The next theme I created was an anagram puzzle- OPTS, STOP, POTS, TOPS, and POST. At some point I decided it was too simple. Two weeks later there it is in the New York Times! Seriously, I would rather have an editor say, "Your puzzle stinks" than to learn a puzzle might have been accepted but for me being late in sending it out.

Lemonade714 said...

Moe there are other puzzles listed at the Corner under the curious conundrum heading of unpublished works of our creative people. C.C. also will create a custon puzzle for you.

CrossEyedDave said...

DNF CC! (rats!)

Figured out the theme easy enough, & even managed to ink pentel over parker, but 11D I inked just letted??? (I never thought of listed, too easy?) (I had "to let" stuck in my head..?)

just like that = bang?
Mobile creators?
Basin?

OUch!

I just hope I don't take my frustrations out on my salad tonite....

I never understood the phrase happy as a clam.

Happy Birthday No-Vice Worder, judging by your avatar I thought you would like this birthday cake...

Lemonade714 said...

I would stab Caesar dressing that was pink myself...ugh.

Anonymous T said...

ETTU Brute, er, LEM? C, -T

Chairman Moe said...

thanks @Lemonade - I'll check 'em out

CrossEyedDave said...

Just did the Marti puzzle!

(Thought I had a Typo'd puzzle for the longest time...)

I hope I am not giving anything away
(possible spoiler...)
but the last thing I filled in was 32D, & I had a "D" at the end end due to an earlier incorrect WAG. At the same time, not being familiar with this puzzle program foramt (or just blind) I kept reading the clue next to it by mistake...

32D Good to go = I dead?

Waaa?

Anonymous said...

This weeks' puzzles have been fairly easy and fun. Interesting themes. My thanks to the constructors and bloggers for your work and efforts.

I totally missed the theme today. I got the answers but didn't catch the connection. Someday.

Happy Birthday, No-vice worder! Congrats on finishing a Thursday on such a special day.

JzB- I didn't think about your concerts until last night when it was too late to change my schedule. I'm not going to Michigan until tomorrow. Sorry that I'll miss the concert.

Have a wonderful evening.

Pat

Unknown said...

We had out-of-town guests for the last couple of days, so I just got around to doing yesterday's and today's puzzles. On yesterday's, I had one write-over: jug before JAR, and the C in AVOCET was a WAG. I liked the crossing of MISO and SUSHI.

Today's puzzle went better. No write-overs or WAGs. I liked the GARDEN theme.

I haven't read the comments for either day yet.

OwenKL said...

First off, the solution to my clue from this morning, the wordplay is a more unusual one, but something you'll see every once in a while in Cryptic crossword puzzles:

Basic | reaction to carbon-nitrogen exchange | poured into | sink (5)
[BASIC] [with C changed to N] [=] [BASIN]

And the clues by Nice Cuppa and Jazzbumpa yesterday, that I haven't see the answers posted to yet:

She | returns, | spiteful | but topless (5)
[DEBRA] = [backwards] [bARBED] [without first letter]

Only remaining | shoemaker's tool (4)
[LAST] = [LAST]

Jayce said...

Man, I liked this puzzle a lot. Some terrific clues. Sure enough, I penciled in PAIN for French bread before EULOGY changed my mind. Also, PADDEDBRA wouldn't fit for False front.
I'll air my one nit. DSL is not an ISP; it is merely the connection to an ISP. In our case, our ISP is AT&T, who provides the DSL link between our house and their switching office. Not exactly the LAP of luxury, but it serves us well enough.
MOLESKIN is cool stuff.
UNITARDS always makes me think of retards. Bad Jayce!
Best wishes to you all.

OwenKL said...

Jazz: in Cuppa's defense, that genderless entity may be taking advantage of the limited pool of available answers in just using vague pronouns for OLGA and DEBRA, although just a pronoun for a common name does occur in Cryptics. And British crosswords are a lot looser with words than American ones. De-bra = topless, red herring or coincidence? I don't know, Cuppa will have to answer that.

It's been 6 hours, so guess I can reveal yours today.

Actress | in hospital (4)
[{Sela, Maitland, Rachel, Susan, Gemma, Megan, Sophie, Jessie, etc.} WARD] = [{hospital} WARD] is legal but vague. In fact, I first thought it was [PITA] = [hidden in] [hosPITAl].

Roman water | color (4)
[AQUA] = [AQUA] caused me a slight difficulty at first only because I mis-read it as "Roman water cooler". It's okay, but with double definitions the words should be more distinctively unrelated, with different roots, as your LAST one was.

A | fellow's | reps (6)
[A] [GENT'S] = [AGENTS] is good.

Burden | over | you and me (4)
[ONUS] = [ON] [US] is good.

Jayce said...

I just finished Marti's puzzle and liked it.

Anonymous said...

craptic clue
[crap]=[crap]

Anonymous T said...

Jayce:

DSL is an ISP choice. As are dial-up, cable, fiber, and Avian Carriers.

Cheers, -T

fermatprime said...

Greetings!

Fell asleep after reading blog earlier! Then went swimming and had my breakfast while playing THREES.

So here I am in the very late zone again!

Excellent puzzle and write-up, CC and Marti!

SEAU was all perps.

Anyone watching Extant?

Cheers!

Unknown said...

Just read Lucina's post of July 16 at 12:54 a.m. Amen.

Bill G. said...

I enjoyed Marti's bonus puzzle. Very clever as expected. I had a little trouble with the new format but I got 'er done. Thanks.

Husker Gary said...

Wow, Marti, what a fun puzzle with a very clever device!
It took a while to figure out while I couldn't get the arrow to move. Duh!

Josef said...

Euclid Rules:

You are very observant!

This blog officially obstructivacated a couple of days ago, when the pachyderm plodded through the parlor. And you have the players on point! Those two west coasters really try to keep the conversation going with that eager midwesterner.

And when the cloying cavalry came coming, I almost puked.

Lucina said...

I finally had a chance to solve Marti's puzzle as I had to TABLE it for a while but really enjoyed it especially after I caught the gimmick. Nice one, Marti!

Anonymous said...

Thanks!