google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Monday, March 16, 2015 Amy Johnson

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Mar 16, 2015

Monday, March 16, 2015 Amy Johnson

Theme: Jocularities - Start Monday off with a smile.

20A. McDonald's freebies : HAPPY MEAL TOYS

27A. Multi-day event featuring rainbow flags : GAY PRIDE WEEK

43A. Ride with wooden horses : MERRY-GO-ROUND

51A. Fruit-flavored hard candies : JOLLY RANCHERS

Argyle glad to be here. Well done, Amy.

Across:

1. Ignore the teleprompter : AD LIB

6. Take for a ride, so to speak : SCAM

10. Pyramid, to Tut : TOMB. The Boy King. (Buried in his Jammies)

14A. Supermodel Klum : HEIDI. Half akimbo?
19A. Sedgwick of "The Closer" : KYRA. The other half?


 
15. "Look what I did!" : "TA-DA!"

16. Old-time knife : SNEE

17. "Full House" star Bob : SAGET. IMDb

18. Alphabetically first of the acting Baldwin brothers : ALEC

23. Contractor's approx. : EST. (estimate)

25. Word ending for enzymes : ASE

26. Outcome : RESULT

31. Alaskan native : ALEUT

32. Forever and a day : EONS

33. Opposite of NNE : SSW

36. Campus official : DEAN

37. Willy with a chocolate factory : WONKA

39. Indian spiced tea : CHAI

40. Kazakhstan, once: Abbr. : SSR. (Soviet Socialist Republic)

41. For the lady : HERS

42. Prankster's favorite month : APRIL. Really, no foolin'.

46. Scramble, as a secret message : ENCODE

49. Dawn goddess : EOS

50. Old AT&T rival : GTE. (formerly General Telephone & Electronics Corporation)

55. Part of Q.E.D. : ERAT

56. "You hurt?" reply, hopefully : "I'M OK"

57. Really bad turnout : NO ONE

60. Feel concern : CARE

61. Luigi's "Bye!" : "CIAO!"

62. Conclude : INFER

63. "Faster __ a speeding bullet ..." : THAN

64. Tailor's sewn folds : HEMS. Not enough room for pleats.

65. Sidewalk eateries : CAFÉs

Down:

1. Sighs of satisfaction : AHs

2. Agcy. with narcs : DEA. (Drug Enforcement Administration)

3. Astronomical distance : LIGHT YEAR

4. "I had no __!" : IDEA

5. Walk-on role : BIT PART

6. Hung around : STAYED

7. Not windy : CALM

8. "Zip-__-Doo-Dah" : A-DEE



9. '90s Los del Río dance hit : MACARENA. Link at your own risk.

10. "For shame!" : "TSK TSK!"

11. "Shame __!" : ON YOU

12. Two-time Best Actress Oscar winner Streep : MERYL

13. Beauty's beau : BEAST

21. Tire pressure abbr. : PSI. (pound per square inch)

22. Popular jeans : LEES

23. "Jeepers!" : "EGADS!"

24. Black Friday deals : SALES

28. Many a punch line : PUN

29. __-weensy : EENSY

30. Chinese cookware : WOK

33. Doesn't lose sleep over : SHRUGS OFF

34. New Orleans footballer : SAINT

35. Oscar who quipped, "True friends stab you in the front" : WILDE

37. Lottery winners' cry : "WE'RE RICH!"

38. Bobby of hockey : ORR

39. Naval noncom: Abbr. : CPO. (Chief Petty Officer)

41. Actress Lamarr : HEDY. Official Site



42. As, on the periodic table : ARSENIC

43. Like lava : MOLTEN

44. Colorful little lizards : GECKOs.


gecko setae

45. "Impressive!" : "OOH!". "Ahh!"

46. Cockpit panic button : EJECT

47. "Little Broken Hearts" singer Jones : NORAH

48. Civil War nurse Barton : CLARA

52. Parisian gal pal : AMIE

53. Linguist Chomsky : NOAM

54. Gossip columnist Barrett : RONA

58. Michelle Obama __ Robinson : NÉE

59. EMTs' destinations : ERs. (emergency room)


Argyle


58 comments:

  1. Morning, all!

    Well, except for a brief pause at ARSENIC and HERS, I couldn't enter the answers fast enough on this one. Total speed run. Didn't even have time to think about a theme until after I finished. All of which is to say this was the easiest Monday puzzle I remember doing in a long time.

    Not that that's a bad thing, mind you...

    ReplyDelete
  2. "The apeman said what about Amin?"

    "Me Tarzan... HE IDI"

    Pretty Klumsy, I know.

    Sorry, but it only gets worse-

    "Arrivederci, Tse-tung"

    "CIAO, En-lai"

    Well, off to check out some Apple products at the MAC ARENA.

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  3. A very uplifting theme and more excuse to link Mel Brooks what more could a Monday deliver.

    I liked the BEAUTY BEAU clue/fill, keeping Oscar Wilde alive in puzzles

    Have a great week, thanks Amy and Argyle

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  4. Good Morning, Argyle and friends. A speed run today, but I didn't get the theme until I had totally completed the puzzle and looked over my answers.

    Hedy Lemarr appeared recently. Remember, she is not just an actress, but an inventor as well.

    Technically, King TUT is not buried in a pyramid, but in a hidden TOMB in the Valley of the Kings. The Pyramids are located further north in Egypt, although the pyramids were build before King Tut's time.

    QOD:

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  5. Good morning!

    Nice speed run to start off the week. I guess JOLLY RANCHERS were either before or after my time. But the perps were solid, so I'm a happy camper.

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  6. Hahtoolah, interesting about Tut's burial. Clue is still good though. It didn't ask where Tut was buried, but what he how he would think of a pyramid. He'd think of it as a tomb.

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  7. Good Morning:

    Fun, easy-peasy start to the week. DO, I'm with you on Jolly Ranchers.

    Thanks Amy and Argyle for making us "Happy."

    Have a great day.

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  8. Hi All!

    A bit of othoganal thought needed for a Monday, I had to get the little grey cells in motion. Thanks Amy! Thanks too to Argyle for the fun writeup - I think this is where you were going on the TOMB for Tut.* A JOLLY good time this morning.

    Cheers, -T
    *no, I will not link MACARENA

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  9. orthogonal... What happened to spell check on IOS 8.2? -T

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  10. Even on Monday learning occurs. Didn't know JOLLYRANCHERS nor NOAM (altho it's almost crosswordese nowadays).
    LIGHTYEAR made me think back to my third grade schooldays when learning the multiplication tables, I decided I needed to know how many miles there were in a light year. I quickly found that regular tablet paper wasn't enough so I got out a paper grocery sack... along with a pencil re-sharpened a few times. Hmm? Oh, about six trillion miles. Nowadays you can't even compute it on a calculator unless you know some higher math "power" or tricks. And you have to have already discovered the speed of light. Ask Siri. She should know. :O)
    Oh, yesterday I heard Sirius pronounced Ser-EYE-us. Think they were referring to satellite radio?

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  11. Easy run this morning, but I wasn't sure if it was HEDI or HEDY and JOLLI or JOLLY. Made the wrong choice, so it was a DNF officially.

    Not a fun day ahead. I have to go with my Sister-in-law to make funeral arrangements for her husband who passed away this weekend.

    Have a good day everyone.

    One of the regulars, but no name today.

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  12. Am I the only one to have a broken link for the right hand pic next to Kyra Sedgewick?

    JOLLY RANCHERS re big down here in paradise.

    You trying to add a new term to the Corner lexicon AnonT - orthogonal indeed!

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  13. The right hand pic was Heidi with the other hand on her hip. I'll see if I can find a replacement.

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  14. Anyone else have the same problem?

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  15. Argyle, I had the same problem. Didn't know what it was, just a frame with a small something in the middle.

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  16. Zippa-dee-do-dah. Done. Interesting how the 2nd theme answer took on the controversial nature of the term head on without being unPC. A fun little romp just right for a Monday.

    Argyle, I'm not seeing the 2nd Heidi either. Thanks for the expo.

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  17. Even I can't find the original now!

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  18. NIce easy puzzle with a even nicer blog - thanks Argyle. What could be sweeter.

    I was just thinking that Oscar Wilde lost his entire life and fortune because there was not enough 'Gay Pride' and because of it. Its surprising to see the names together.

    Also, Hahtoolah, could you please let us know what a blank QOD means ? Are we supposed to think of Kafka or imagine Nietzsche ? Or both ? ..... I can't stand the suspense ....

    Finally, is the one woman on the left hand side, Klum and the other Kyra ? ... or the other way around ? ( - not that it matters, anyway ). So long as you get the names right, I guess.

    Have a nice day all, and treat life a little more lightly.

    I make spelling misteakes - ergo, I am not a robot. Q.E.D.

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  19. She's b-a-a-a-a-c-k! Thanx, Argyle.

    Hahtoolah's QOD is one of the shortest I've seen. Here's today's quote from AWAD:

    I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the rights of the people by the gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations. -James Madison, fourth US president (16 Mar 1751-1836)

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  20. Sorry, but we had to put Julia Roberts on the left hand side.

    ( before the lip-o-suction )

    If you want the reel thing, do your own d --- googling.

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  21. Hello, puzzlers!

    What a cheerful puzzle today and a speed run though I had to wait for ARSENIC to emerge. In high school chem class we memorized the periodic table but it is now buried deeper than Tut's TOMB.

    I've seen IOS and EOS for the dawn goddess.

    JOLLY RANCHER candies are very much still in existence. The watermelon flavored are exceptionally good.

    Argyle, thank you for always spelling out PSI. It doesn't stay with me.

    Thank you, Amy Johnson, for a quick, easy and fun puzzle.

    Have a lovely day, everyone!

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  22. Had a good night's sleep for the first time in two weeks and so was totally ready for the HAPPY, GAY, MERRY, JOLLY theme of this puzzle. Many thanks, Amy, and great pics, Argyle. HEIDI Klum looks great--we love seeing her on "America's Got Talent." Looking forward to "Dancing with the Stars" tonight.

    Have a great week, everybody!

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  23. I was going to be excited to report quick success with this puzzle for me but I can see that was no big deal. I don't normally keep track of time 'cause I want solving to be relaxing and fun, not a stressful competition with myself. Anyway, I accidentally noticed my time was under 10 minutes. That's good for me though a lot of the time is wasted navigating the online grid. I'm sure it would be faster with paper and pencil but it's not important to me.

    I'm down in the dumps today what with dentist worries, lots of little stressful stuff plus of course the recent tragedy with my son. It's hard to stay positive. An easy Monday puzzle helps a little.

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  24. vidwan: good to see you back. I have missed you. I got a bit distracted this morning and forgot to complete my QOD. Hubby, still recovering from his surgery, called and needed my help.

    Here is the QOD: Acting is a way of living out one's insanity. - Isabelle Huppert (b. 1953)

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  25. Speaking of King Tut... One of the stars of Charlie's Angels took a course in ancient Egyptian plumbing. She was a Pharaoh Faucet Major.

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  26. Thank you Amy and Argyle.

    Glad to be back at a Monday level after getting totally powdered by both weekend grids.

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  27. A very good Monday to all.

    Very easy speed run today. ARSENIC, NOAM..waited for perps. Everything else just flew in faster than my pen could write.

    JOLLY RANCHERS have been around since 1949.To be honest, IMO, they taste artifical and when it's hot, they get sticky. Watermelon and green apple are very popular flavors. Too much sugar and bad for your teeth.

    Now I can't get that MACARENA song out of my head. Thanks!

    That's enough out of me today. Stay HAPPY, GAY, MERRY and JOLLY whenever possible.

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  28. Someone please explain orthogonal in reference to thinking. Right angle? Don't get the correlation.

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  29. Oh wait..ORTHOGONAL also has something to do with unrelated, independent or having no correlation. Guess that means the clues were random and all over the spectrum. Am I right?

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  30. I won't hyde it; today's pleasant puzzle made me jeckyl out loud.

    James Madison was very wise. So much of what he warned about has come to pass. Sad.

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  31. I am still trying to digest Sundays masterpiece, but the NE corner still has me looking for Tums...

    Todays puzzle by comparison was way too fast.

    Happy?

    Silly links for Gay and Merry will have to wait, as I found some disturbing news under Jolly...

    (Are you sure the theme for this puzzle isn't Willy & the 4 dwarves?)

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  32. Hahtoolah's amanuensis (look up the word - )March 16, 2015 at 12:38 PM


    In a great degree of dedicated hacking and decoding of some complex algorithms, we have discovered through Hahtoolah's eponymous blog of the QOD, what would have been todays mystery QOD....

    Whaaa ... its already there ?

    never mind.

    Hahtoolah, Best Wishes to your hubby for a speedy recovery.

    Bill G., sorry and condolences on your recent tragedy. Love.

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  33. CrossEyedDave

    I want that cat.

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  34. "puzzling thoughts"

    Totally easy speed run today but clever cluing and solves. Thanks Amy and Argyle for the puzzle and write-up, respectively

    in lieu of OwenKL here is today's limerick:

    Said the bride to her husband, the groom,
    Since I'm pregnant, we'll need a new room
    For when the baby arrives;
    And let's insure both our lives,
    With a plan: from the womb to the TOMB!

    Actually that last line is taken from an old joke about three insurance salesmen who were soliciting for a new couple's needs. The first rep said that he would offer a plan that protects both mother and child "from the basket to the casket". The second offered mom and baby coverage "from the womb to the tomb". But the one who got their business was the one who was able to write a policy that protected them "from the Erection to the Resurrection ... Hallelujah!!"

    ;^)

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  35. AnonT:
    I saw the link you posted last night and found it fascinating! I plan to forward it to my sister, Christina's (the cancer patient)mother.

    My niece has outlasted the original prognosis by six years; one year was the prediction. Most of her treatments have been trial tests. A marathon race originated a few years ago on behalf of her and other women with breast cancer and has since raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to fund experimental procedures.

    Thank you for that information AnonT.

    C.C.
    That's quite funny about Boomer.

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  36. I don't want to be remembered. I want the nice words when I can hear them.

    Jerry Lewis (3/16/1926- )

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  37. This was a fast, fun puzzle. Just right or the beginning of a new week. Thanks, Amy and Argyle, for your work.

    BillG: I hope the good days are more numerous than the down-in-the-dumps days.

    Anon@9:31- my sympathy for the passing of a family member.

    I live at the end of a cul-de-sac so all the snow gets piled in my front yard. It's 70* and sunny so maybe what's left will melt today.

    Have a good week, everyone.

    Pat

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  38. Coneyro: To me the puzzle was, at 1st, a mind bender. ADLIB instead of ADhoc x-ing LIGHT YEARS (fav!); everything went 90 degrees to the left at Albuquerque.

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  39. Hola Everyone, I agree with Barry that this was a fast puzzle today. My one error was putting in Levi instead of Lees, but the perps took care of that pretty fast.

    The theme was Fun. It's always nice to be Happy on a Monday.

    Some standard crossword fill today with Erat, Aleut, and SSR. Always nice to see some familiar answers.

    I've never eaten a Jolly Rancher. They must be popular, because my grandkids like them.

    I don't have Jury Duty today, but will be back in the swing of things tomorrow. Today the sheetrock man is here repairing the downstairs ceiling. I can't wait to have all of this repair work over and done.

    Jerome, You keep us all laughing on this Merry Monday Moring.

    Have a Great Day Everyone!

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  40. Chickie, I don't understand the CA jury system. Here in TX we have the one-day/one-trial system. You show up for jury duty and if you get picked for a jury, you serve for the duration of that trial. Otherwise your jury duty is complete.

    A few weeks back we had a brief discussion about whether buzzards migrated. We're now at the peak of the migration season. On our morning walk we passed one house which had 15 buzzards perched on the roof. Downright Hitchcockian!

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  41. Good afternoon Argyle and all,

    Thanks Amy for a fun romp, very enjoyable. Fun links, Argyle, especially hearing "Zipadeedoodah".

    Noam was my only real unknown, but was surprised when arsenic showed up.

    Not a hard candy fan, but if given a choice I'd take a watermelon Jolly Rancher.

    I would have liked to have been at King Tut's tomb site when Howard Carter opened it up. What a find that was!

    Enjoy your week.

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  42. Chickie:
    Here in AZ we can opt out of the jury system at age 75. I'm curious about CA laws. Do you have that option?

    Anonymous@9:31
    Please accept my sympathy for your loss. It's never easy. I hope better days lie ahead for you and your family.

    BillG:
    You bring so much cheer to us with your fun links and jokes, is there anything we can do to cheer you? Know that we are here for you.

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  43. Greetings from Room 4216 at Lakeside Hospital in Omaha. I had a relapse on Friday and am back in after much confusion and fever. I hope to be home by Wednesday. Amy’s puzzle was an uplifting experience.

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  44. I'm very sorry to hear of your relapse Gary. Get better soon. You're in my thoughts.

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  45. Husker, I'm very sorry to hear of your difficulties. We're pullin' for ya. Thanks for checking in, and please let us know how things are going.

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  46. pje & lucina: Thank you for your kind words and thoughts.

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  47. Greetings!

    Many thanks, Amy and Santa!

    Never heard of JOLLY RANCHERS. Easy to perp, though.

    Gary: Feel better soon!

    Anon: So sorry.

    I still get summons after turning 76. Used to be different in CA.

    Moe: cute limerick!

    Hahtoolah: Best wishes to hubby!

    Cheers!




    ReplyDelete
  48. Circles tomorrow. Let's try this:

    Third row; cells 4,5,6,7
    Fifth row; cells 7,8,9
    Eleventh row; cells 7,8,9,10,11
    Thirteenth row; cells 11,12

    Hope this helps.

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  49. Gary, sorry to hear of your relapse. Get back home and get well soon!

    Anon @ 9:31' condolences.

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  50. HG: sorry to hear of your relapse. I hope you recover quickly and go home Wednesday!

    Pat

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  51. HGary:
    I'm so sorry about your relapse and hope soon all will be well. Keep us posted.

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  52. Gary, I know that must be worrisome. I'm hopeful for good news from you soon. Good luck!

    I was jury foreman years ago on a 2nd degree murder trial. Very interesting and rewarding. I don't want to do it again these days because of various old-age issues. You can apply for a medical excuse in CA after age 70 without a doctor's input.

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  53. PJE, Lucina et al, thanks for the warm thoughts. Here's a little video Barbara found. She's a BIG Elvis fan. This is a little girl who is also a big Elvis fan.

    Little Elvis fan

    What do we want?
    Moderation.
    When do we want it?
    As soon as reasonably convenient.

    ReplyDelete
  54. That's a cute video, Bill. Thank you.

    It reached 90 degrees today. No problem drying my clothes outside.

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  55. Oh, no, Gary, I hope you can be back home tomorrow. Keep us posted.

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