google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Tuesday, December 2, 2014 Bernice Gordon

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Dec 2, 2014

Tuesday, December 2, 2014 Bernice Gordon

Theme: Sound Alikes - Except for the first letter, all four start with _UMBLE.

17A. Modest abode : HUMBLE HOME

53A. Windblown desert plant : TUMBLEWEED

11D. Folding feature of an old roadster : RUMBLE SEAT

28D. Hogwarts headmaster : DUMBLEDORE

Argyle here with Bernice Gordon, age 100, whose birthday is next month. Fun words, ten letters long, two across, two down. Each set has a compound word, one open, one closed. Good mix in the field, easier than Monday's.

Across:

1. Netherlands export : EDAM

5. "500" initials on Wall Street : S AND P. (Standard and Poor) Index of 500 top companies.

10. Important time periods : ERAs

14. Outfielder Crisp nicknamed for a cereal box character : COCO

15. Acting award : OSCAR

16. Night in Nantes : NUIT


19. Armory supply : AMMO

20. Galena or hematite : ORE

21. Currier's partner : IVES

22. One in a congregation : MEMBER

24. Winnebago owner, briefly : RVer. (recreational vehicle)

25. Defendant in a defamation case : LIBELEE. But no SLANDEREE in the dictionary.

26. More orderly : TIDIER

29. Weak : FEEBLE

30. Grads : ALUMS

31. Tusked porcine animals : BOARS

32. Spot for rest and relaxation : SPA

35. Gimlet fruit : LIME

36. Urge forward : DRIVE

37. Help to withdraw : WEAN

38. Neighbor of Isr. : LEB. (Lebanon)

39. Attorney general under Reagan : MEESE

40. Map out : CHART

41. Seize, as a chance : LEAP AT

43. Grab greedily : SNATCH

44. __ City: Oz locale : EMERALD

46. Tiny energy source : ATOM

47. Title for Bovary and Butterfly : MADAME. Say 39D. Respectful address : MA'AM

48. Landed : ALIT

49. ROTC school near D.C. : VMI. (Virginia Military Institute)

52. Good buds : BROs

56. To be, to Bizet : ÊTRE

57. Prop for Picasso : EASEL

58. Inland Asian sea : ARAL

59. Like Easter eggs : DYED

60. Gin berries : SLOES

61. Lock maker : YALE

Down:

1. Reverberate : ECHO

2. Sullen : DOUR

3. Top : ACME

4. Unruly group : MOB

5. In any way : SO EVER. Usually with "what". Update: Dictionaries prefer "SOEVER" but Google shows much more use of "SO EVER".

6. Peter of Peter and Gordon : ASHER. The red head.



7. Cpls. and sgts. : NCOs

8. Aswan or Hoover : DAM

9. Opening night showing : PREMIERE

10. Tooth cover : ENAMEL

12. Actress Anouk : AIMEE

13. Put away for the future : STORE

18. Exists : LIVES

23. Recedes to the sea : EBBS

24. Hoarfrost : RIME

25. Sailor's time off : LEAVE

26. Hard to believe, as a story : TALL

27. Nastase of tennis : ILIE

29. Force unfairly (on) : FOIST

31. Naan, for example : BREAD

33. Jardin du Luxembourg, par exemple : PARC. It is located in Paris.

34. Lit. collection : ANTH. (anthology)

36. Seriously reduces : DEPLETES

37. "Kapow!" cousin : "WHAM!"

40. 100 bucks : C NOTE

42. Wiped off the board : ERASED

43. Motion picture frames : STILLS

44. Fix firmly : EMBED

45. Title role that won Borgnine a 15-Across : "MARTY". Initial release: April 11, 1955 (New York City)



46. "Tiny Alice" dramatist Edward : ALBEE. Tiny Alice, a three act play, premiered on Broadway on December 29, 1964.

48. "Are not" retort : "AM SO"

49. Wang known for wedding gowns : VERA

50. Supper, e.g. : MEAL

51. Out of a job : IDLE

54. Delta rival: Abbr. : UAL. (United Airlines)

55. Method : WAY


Argyle


63 comments:

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

Nice to see Ms. Gordon still going strong.

I was surprised to see both MA'AM and MADAME (essentially the same word, no?) in the same grid and needed perp help to get the unknown ASHER. Fortunately, I figured out SANDP so it could provide the perp help I needed for ASHER.

HeartRx said...

Good morning!

Once I had HUMBLE HOME and RUMBLE SEAT, the others filled in a flash. My only goof was spelling 45-Down as MARTi...hmmm, wonder why I would do that? I glanced at 59-A and DiED looked OK, but I never read the clue. So ACK! A FIW on a Tuesday. Bzzzt!

thehondohurricane said...

Good day to all,

Once the theme was revealed. kept expecting to find Bumble Bee. Ms Gordon is amazing, creating a fun and challenging puzzles at her age. Thanks for your fine effort MADAME.

Had some delays in the Central East, but eventually got thru it. Still wondering what a DUMBLEDORE is. Will dig out my Webster's later.

LIBLELEE new too. Thanks for the expo Argyle.

Nuff for today. Have a good one.

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

I saw all the UMBLEs, but said to myself, "Can that be a theme? [mumble, mumble]." SOIR turned into NUIT and everything filled OK. I wondered about wheter MADAME/MA'AM was allowed, same as Barry. Apparently it is.

With LEE in place i was looking for a proper name. Somebody who was involved in a libel case? On a Tuesday? Gimme a break! Oh, LIBELEE.

Doesn't Anouk sound like a name that should be followed by "of the north?" I rremember her from A Man And A Woman and La Dolce Vita.

UAL was a gimme -- I waited on one of those last night. Only ten minutes late, rather than the usual 3-4 hours.

desper-otto said...

Hondo, DUMBLEDORE was the last name of the Hogwarts schoolmaster in the Harry Potter books/movies.

Hahtoolah said...

Good Morning, Argyle and friends. I rather liked this offering from Ms. GORDON. I hope to be as spry as she is when I'm half her age.

Who knew Peter ASHER and Gordon Waller? I wasn't familiar with that duo.

I liked how MA'AM crossed with MADAME.

I was sure Neater was More Orderly that TIDIER.

QOD: Sundance is weird. The movies are weird ~ you actually have to think about them when you watch them. ~ Britney Spears (b. Dec. 2, 1981)

Lemonade714 said...

A wonderfully fun effort from the cayenne of crossword construction. Lots of varied knowledge and symmetry with 1,3 two words and 2,4 one word.
Lots of French which made this go quickly.

One nit, the LIBELEE is the person who was defamed so he/she would be the Plaintiff seeking damages.

Thanks Ms.Gordon and Argyle

Lemonade714 said...

Autocorrect! Doyenne!

Jerome said...

Oh, so he's the one who wrote "Tiny Alice". Well Albee darned!

Barry G. said...

Hmmm...

Just got a chance to check out the clip Argyle included for Peter and Gordon. Turns out it's for a song I've known seemingly all my life, but I guess I never knew who actually sang it. I'll have to look those guys up to see if they were one hit wonders or if they recorded other songs I know.

thehondohurricane said...


Thanks D-O- when it comes to Harry Potter, "I know nothing" in the words of Sgt. Schultz.

Montana said...

What Barry said about Peter and Gordon.

Montana

Qli said...

221Delightful puzzle from Ms Gordon this morning. I was thinking she must have a certain spice in her life when Lemony called her "cayenne", which doesn't sound like a bad way to be at any age.

DUMBLEDORE was the key to the theme for me. I love the Harry Potter books!

I enjoyed the crossing of MADAME and MA'AM.

TTP said...



Good morning all.

Ouch.

Had steady progress. SO EVER gave me pause, yet it had to be. Thanks for the leading 'what' Argyle. Never thought of it in that context. Don't think I ever seen it without it.

Got 33D PARC without knowing it.

Saw Hogwarts and knew it was -UMBLEsomething and had to do with Harry Potter. Also knew at that point I'd better have all the perps. Didn't.

I messed up by entering MARni for Borgnine's OSCAR winning role, which made the French fill impossible to suss. Guess an R which blindly gave me DUMBLEDORE.

So I ended up with EnRE instead of ETRE. I might have got the TADA if I had actually looked at the clue for 59A. With DIED in place, I never looked. D'OH !

Thank you Bernice Gordon, and thank you Argyle.

Dudley said...

Hello Puzzlers -

Bernice must be simply amazing! Smooth sailing today, even though I have no awareness of Ernest Borgnine beyond McHale's Navy (well, he was also a ghost on the movie about Flight 409). Peter and Gordon are even less familiar, so WBS.

J. K. Rowling certainly came up with great character names in the Harry Potter series. Did you notice that the male faculty names ended in "us" - such as Remus Lupin, Albus Dumbledore, even Argus Filch? Similarly, the female names ended in "a", same as in the TV show Bewitched - Minerva McGonagle for example. As to Dumbledore, I once read that it's an old-fashioned name for a bumblebee, and that the author adopted it for the headmaster who she pictured flitting around the school humming to himself - not unlike a bumblebee.

kazie said...

Congrats to Bernice, both for her upcoming birthday and a very enjoyable puzzle!

It was nice for once to find perps that helped right away for the few things I didn't know. No nits, no naticks for me. Well, like Lemonade, I was a little confused at LIBELEE rather than LIBELER, but I can forgive that in a centenarian!

I even remembered Peter and Gordon, but not their surnames, although ASHER did seem familiar when it appeared via perps.

Lucina said...

Hello, friends!

What a treat from Bernice Gordon! I first wanted BULB but ECHO forced EDAM and of course sports COCO is unknown to me but it perped itself.

I don't know if people in the rural areas of our state still decorate TUMBLEWEEDs for Christmas. Haven't heard much about that lately.

Since I've never read or seen Harry Potter, I guessed DUMBLEDORF but DYED soon corrected that.

Thank you, Bernice and Argyle.

Wishing you all a lovely Tuesday!

Gramma Jean said...

I love this corner though seldom blog. just read it with joy! thanks, CC and all! I' m curious - how old is Ms. Gordon?

TTP said...

Marti,

I see we both end up with DiED rather than DYED.

MARni made sense to me, and I thought I'd seen the movie, but didn't recall Ernest Borgnine in it. So I searched. No wonder. Sean Connery and Tippi Hedren.

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

What Argyle said. Easy, but fun to work on. Elegant in its fill. Paused briefly at SO EVER, but it seemed apt. No strikethroughs or searches were needed.
PARC - Nice picture for the clue, Argyle. Thanks.

Hope those of you in Sick Bay get out soon.

Have a great day.

desper-otto said...

Gramma Jean, she'll turn 101 next month.

HeartRx said...

Barry G., you might remember "Lady Godiva" or "Woman" by P&G. Both were big hits int he '60s.

TTP, yep, that corner was my downfall.

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

Caught the theme early on which made the solve easy and quick. A couple of miscues which perps corrected quickly: soir/nuit, neater/tidier, Dumbledorf/Dumbledore.
Liked echo/Coco cross.

Nice job, Ms. Gordon, you are a wonder! Thanks, Argyle, you ain't too shabby, either!

Have a great day.

Lucina said...

Now that I've heard Peter and Gordon, I ECHO Barry & Montana! It's a familiar song, but didn't know the performers.

Ergo said...


Had the theme okay, but curse that SW corner! Too young to know MARTY, too old to know DUMBLEDORE.

Thanks Ms. Gordon and Argyle.

Unknown said...

Correct. The defendant in this case would be the one who libeled.

Abejo said...

Good morning, folks. Thank you, Bernice Gordon, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Argyle, for a fine review.

Well, I went down in flames on this one. The East was my downfall. I wrote in BLAM (instead of WHAM) for 37D. That gave me CLASS (instead of CHART) for 40A. Of course I could think of nothing for the AN of WEAN, which I did not have. I guess I should have reexamined the BLAM and CLASS.

The rest of the puzzle was fine. Did not know DUMBLEDORE, but with 10 perps I could not miss.

Lemonade: OK, you said all the french made it easy? I beg to differ. If I could have figured out PARC I might have finished this one.

When I got LIBELEE, I thought it was the wrong word. The EE denotes the recipient of the LIBEL, I think, not the doer of the LIBEL. A defendant is the one who commits the act. Would not that be the LIBELER? The one one who LIBELS someone else? What do you think, Lemonade?

Great puzzle from a great lady.

See you tomorrow.

Abejo

(2555)





Yellowrocks said...

Fun puzzle, quickly solved. Ernest Borgnine is well known for his comic acting. His star performance in a drama was a pleasant surprise. I really enjoy "Marty" and have seen it quite often. With reruns and Netflix, etc. acclaimed films never die and upcoming generations can appreciate them, too. I often rescreen oldies.

I am learning Hogwarts and Bart Simpson characters in self defense, just for crosswords. I couldn't care less, otherwise.

CrossEyedDave said...

Fun puzzle, but alas...

I was proud of myself at the crossing of VMI & Vera because I WAGged a "V" out of a possible H,K,M,N,P,S,or T???

Unfortunately the blog pointed out that WEEN is spelled/spelt with an "A". (Parc/Perc, how would I know?)

FIW (Bzzzt!)

Did you know?

Hmm, I wonder if this book is still available?

Only in Texas...

My fav Peter & Gordon song.

Runner up...

CrossEyedDave said...

Oh bother, A Summer Song was Chad & Jeremy... No wonder it gets confusing...

kazie said...

Around political ad times I always wish we had the strong libel laws that Australia has. Then most of the ads that we are besieged with from both sides would never make the cut!

Anonymous said...

I am always amazed when I see a Bernice Gordon puzzle. She is an amazing person to be able to construct puzzles at her age. I would be happy to just solve them!

CrossEyedDave said...

Peters sister Jane Asher dated Paul McCartney

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-On my 100th birthday, I’ll just be a memory. What a lovely puzzle by Bernice today!
-Called at 7:35 to sub at 7:45 at an Omaha school a half hour from home. I didn’t have an 88 mph DeLorean and so I got here at 8:25.
-A theme word in the title of my favorite western song with Leonard Slye, et al.
-NUIT is arriving tout de suite these days
-I am a MEMBER of one congregation that wishes services were more engaging
-Could you “rough it” in this RV?
-Some FEEBLE attempts at humor can be a bad decision
-Of whom did Alice Roosevelt Longworth say, “He looks as though he’s been WEANED on a pickle?”
-EMERALD cities – Wichita, KS, Eugene, OR, Greenwood, SC, Seattle, WA
-Admitting women to VMI
-If Bill lived in Paris, he might have written, “Etre ou ne pas être”
-Sometimes it’s hard to separate protestors from the MOB
-Two story houses usually have less STOR(E)age room
-Bigger than a C-NOTE
-Who are they – “They swam and they swam all over the DAM”?
-Back to the Spanish video I’m showing

Jazzbumpa said...

Hi gang -

Gary - 3 little fishes.

I'm having a bad brain day and didn't suss S AND P. Oh my.

Theme totally escaped me, as well.

LIBELEE is counter-intuitive and certainly looks wrong, but if you look it up, it's correct.

Hat's off to Bernice.

I feel about 100 today, and my mom's only 93.

That's all I got.

Cool regards!
JzB

Misty said...


Congratulations, Bernice! You are simply amazing! I turn 70 this month and have trouble solving the Friday and Saturday puzzles, and here you are creating them at the end of a century! Wow! And on top of that, this puzzle was a lot of fun with all those RUMBLE, HUMBLE, DUMBLE, TUMBLE answers.

Woke up with only 5 hours of sleep and felt very grumpy until I did the puzzle and solved it without a hitch. So my day is off to a good start after all.

Have a great Tuesday, everybody!

GarlicGal said...

I love seeing a Bernice Gordon puzzle. I'm kind of surprised COCO was clued as Crisp and not Chanel. Looking at photos of Ms. Gordon she has a certain New York, Coco Chanel style. I hope she checks into the Corner today!

Liked the clue Gimlet fruit. You don't hear them being ordered to often these days. (Except when my daughter comes home...maybe it's making a comeback?)

Another rainy day session in NorCal. We are loving it! Seems like a good day to drag out the Christmas stuff.

Over and out.

HeartRx said...

JazzB @ 10:56, thanks for sending me off to do a search on LIBELEE. Here is what I found:

-Someone who LIBELs another person is a LIBELER.
-If they are brought to court for their actions, they become the LIBELEE (defendant) in the case.

I found it on the internet (...so it must be true!) Besides, I trust Rich to check the facts and get them right.

GrannyAnny said...

Would one of you experienced bloggers please provide the link to that excellent article about Bernice Gordon that appeared earlier this year?

It's well worth reading.

Thanks

Lucina said...

That would be Nanook of the North, right? I don't know where AIMEE Anouk is from.

YR:
My sentiments exactly. Though I know many people who really love the Harry Potter series.

Argyle:
That's a lovely Currier and Ives picture. It reminds of my trip to NY in February. Driving along the highway I felt that I was inside such a picture, with the bare trees and snow on the ground. The only things missing were the sleighs.

Michael B said...

Hello to all at CC

Figured if Ms Gordon can construct at 100, I can take the time to post.
It became a chore for me a while back after I tried to change my screen name. Google, unknown to me, created a new account! And I can't always log on to it.
But I shall try again from my little home here in Burbank, CA.
Very clean Tuesday puzzle, smooth solve, even though I had a DNF!
Put AAL for 54D, (they're long gone, eh?) and that gave me TAM_LEWEED. TAMALEWEED? Ah, the aging brain in the AM.
No knowledge of Tiny Alice, so anything looked right at 46D.
Again, bravo to Ms. Gordon.

Lime Rickey said...

GrannyAnny

"
At 95, Bernice Gordon is still master of the crossword puzzle
"

Bruce Sanford said...

I see ol' lemony is showing off his 'lawyering' skills again.

Maverick said...

Well this puzzle certainly made for a learning moment. I, too, was confused by LIBELEE.

A libel is a written defamation against another. A libel is also a written declaration of allegations made by the plaintiff in a lawsuit.

So someone commits a libel (written defamation) against another. Then the injured party files a libel (written allegation) in a lawsuit. So the libeled becomes the libelant, and the libeler becomes the libelee.

I even looked it up in a couple of hard-copy dictionaries (... so it must be true!)

Is there another actual word for the injured party in a libel (written defamation)? We need a lawyer for the Word Court.

CanadianEh! said...

Many thanks to Bernice Gordon for a terrific Tuesday puzzle. I loved all the UMBLEs (and even the ALUMs)

Hand up for Neater before TIDIER and Bulb before EDAM. I haven't read the Harry Potter books and relied on perps for DUMBLEDORE.

WEES about LIBELEE. I had LIBELER until STORE forced the final E.

Husker Gary@10:39 - my kids loved the Sharon, Lois & Bram version of that song!
3LittleFishies

I love Currier and IVES Christmas cards. Which reminds me, I must sign off and get sending my cards.

Hope you all are having a great day.

Lemonade714 said...

marti, you had me confused there with the Libel[l]ee, as the EE ending in the law refers to the recipient.

Then using an old brain and my Black's Law dictionary and I located:
Definition of LIBELEE: A party against whom a libel has been filed In an ecclesiastical court or In admiralty.

A libel in that context mean a complaint. Before divorce was common or accepted by the Church, you began an action to end a marriage by filing a libel.

So the clue is correct, but some very archaic usage.

Poblano said...

I think the confusion centers on what a "libel" is. Black's Law Dictionary calls libel, "The initiatory pleading the part of the plaintiff or complainant in an admiralty or ecclesiastical cause, corresponding to the declaration, bill, or complaint." (4th ed, p. 1060). The actual harm is the defamation, malicious publication, etc.. But I can see where it throws people for a loop.

I'm sure Lemonade714 meant to type this but auto-correct made it seem like he doesn't know what he is talking about.

Lemonade714 said...

The point being that "libel" is an archaic word for a complaint and one served with a complaint would be a libelee; this has nothing to do with defamation suits, but with complaints.

Anonymous said...

lemony typed:

"One nit, the LIBELEE is the person who was defamed so he/she would be the Plaintiff seeking damages."

Bzzzzt.

River Doc said...

So, to sum up. Libel is committed against Lemon at least once a week (on Fridays)....

Anonymous said...

Libel:a published false statement that is damaging to a person's reputation

Sorry River Doc.....bzzzzt to you too.

Statements about lemony's past are NOT false. Simply factual statements based on governmental records.

Bill G. said...

HI everyone! I'm not being humble. I had nary a stumble or fumble on this jumble of words today. Thanks Bernice and Argyle. WEES. Today's puzzle seemed consistently appropriate for a Tuesday whereas yesterday's puzzle seemed (to me) to have lots of easier parts and some definitely harder parts.

It's really raining nicely around here; not enough to solve the long-term drought worries but enough to put an end to the brush fire concerns for a while. The local doppler radar map is almost solid green. I hope folks will be able to avoid flooding and mudslides. We're lucky in that we live on one of the highest parts of this area with no worries about flooding, mudslides, brush fires, etc. Of course, there's the occasional earthquake but ...

PK said...



Hoover Dam was actually called Boulder Dam when it was completed in 1935. This was because one of the locations proposed for the dam was Boulder Canyon. Although the dam was eventually built in Black Canyon, the name of Boulder Dam stuck. Twelve years later Congress decided to rename the dam Hoover Dam after the then President. It cost the government close to a million dollars to change all the name plates and written materials referencing the dam to Hoover. It has been pointed out that for twenty five dollars Herbert Hoover could have simply changed his name to Boulder :-)

Lemonade714 said...

PK, that is dam funny

CrossEyedDave said...

The downside...

The upside...

fermatprime said...

Greetings!

Great puzzle, Bernice! Swell expo, Santa!

Loved the theme. Read all of the Potter books.

No cheats.

Still sick.

Cheers!

Clerk at Dept of Home Sec said...



Pk wrote, .... for twenty five dollars Herbert Hoover could have simply changed his name ....

Sir/Madam, for the record, the cost to change your name at present is $ 2800 cold hard ones, in your local Federal district court, and twice that if the name ( previously) had any Islamic connotations. Opinion 2001-182-94 from the DHS advisory bulletin.

This is to prevent any alleged, supposed Al Queda's from taking advantage of the loophole.

Although some may opine that I am both the libeler and a possible libelee, blog opinions are protected by the First Amendment of the U S Constitution.

Thanks to us, you all can now have a good night.

Lucina said...

In the 1950s two of my relatives changed their names, one was Sr. the other Jr. of their shared but to them, undesirable names. They each paid $50 for the change.

Anony-Meister said...

PK-Impersonator @ 3:27p:

I can see why you would choose PK as your Anony-menclature, since she is, by far, the most intelligent of the black irregulars - but the post rings hollow without her standard "Hi Y'all!". Please keep this in mind for future deceptions.

On the other hand, I love that Know-It-All Lemony totally bit!

Oh - and I'm definitely using 'Herb Boulder' in my next porno film...

fermatprime said...

Thanks for well-wishes yesterday!

Yellowrocks said...

Did they think about Islamic connotations and Al Queda in Herbert Hoover's day?

Bill G. said...

Here's a fun video of cats beating up on dogs. Tough cats

Kent Mauk said...

"A party against whom a libel has been filed In an ecclesiastical court or In admiralty." Really?? Seems a bit gruesome for a Tuesday.

I persisted with "libeleR" until the perps made it impossible, and grudgingly accepted "libeleE".

Otherwise, an enjoyable romp by a great lady!