google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Saturday, Mar 21st, 2015, Barry C. Silk

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Mar 21, 2015

Saturday, Mar 21st, 2015, Barry C. Silk

Theme: Saturday Silkie~!

Words: 72 (missing F,K,Q,Y)

Blocks: 29

  Well, I am feeling better about myself with regard to Saturday puzzles after this one - I needed a successful solve, otherwise, I'd be on a month-long 'fail'.  My first-pass guesses - and quite a few throughout - turned out to be great choices, as my crossings seemed to agree; that doesn't happen very often.  Still, I was stuck on the final bottom three letters, but got my "Ta-DA~!", and breathed a sigh of relief.  Triple 11-letter Across corners, and nearly triple 9s in the Downs:

17a. Factor in cold waves : POLAR VORTEX - ugh - one more time with the white stuff last night....


12d. Like churches, as a rule : TAX EXEMPT - answer #2 with "X".  The "X"s from 'xer' & 'axle' and didn't look promising, until I got to this clue

64a. Outlet worker : ELECTRICIAN - here I thought this first, then said "no, can't be"

Here's one for the DF - warning~!

31. Meaning : SEMANTICS - I like playing 'semantics' with people

ARD~! Snow~!

ACROSS:

1. City on the South Saskatchewan River : MEDICINE HAT - not a clue, but then with some spotty perps, I recalled this odd name - birthplace of hockey player Trevor Linden - now a president with the Vancouver Canucks, and one-time NY Islander

12. It's about 5 mL : TSP

15. Over : ONE MORE TIME - like a mulligan in golf

16. Cut (into) : ATE - think acids

18. Boomer's offspring : X-ER - Generation X - typically, people born in the 60s - 80s - that makes me one

19. Put in : ELECT - didn't have enough letters for INject, and it took a minute for this one to dawn on me

20. Senseless : NUMB

21. Jazz duo? : ZEES - jaZZ - clever

22. Answered back : SASSED

24. Drivetrain component, perhaps : REAR AXLE - complete W.A.G. - and wow, it was correct~!  Go figure

26. Southwestern language : ZUNI

28. Brawn : SINEW

29. Sign of shock : GASP

33. Diamond shape : PEAR - I never considered the "shape" of an engagement ring - is there some rule of thumb
(or finger, as it were)~?

 I like the nail polish color

35. Star movers : LIMOS

37. Runs through : PIERCES - think swords; especially sitting atop 41a.

39. Take time to answer : SLEEP ON - like the song "Paradise by the Dashboard Light"

41. Mail : ARMOR - this one always gets me - trying to think of synonyms for "send"

42. Save for later, in a way : TiVO

44. City southwest of Bayeux : St. LÔ

45. Woodstock performer before Sly : JANIS - For those who were too young to know, here's a list of the performers - there were three acts that I was unaware actually played the show

47. Ecua. rejoined it in 2007 : OPEC - sensible WAG, and an abbr to help

49. Hail Mary : LONG BOMB - I had LONG PASS - and that's 50%

51. Charges for rounds : BAR TAB

56. Newspaper section : ARTS - OK, I went with OPED

57. Goya's "La __ vestida" : MAJA - The "clothed" one; there was also the "La Maja Desnuda"


59. Washington portraitist : PEALE - more art I did not know - his Wiki

60. Star Wars letters : SDI - the "Strategic Defense Initiative", which, I have stated before, is an insult to Star Wars

61. December-to-May fruit : NAVEL ORANGE - I WAGed ALGAE at 54d., and that "G" was enough to get me the Orange part, but I had "TOO" instead of "NEW" at 61d., and that slowed me down

63. RBI producer, perhaps : SACrifice Fly - Baseball tactic

65. Stick-__ : ONS - I was thinking of this instead


66. 1623 Shakespeare work, with "The" : WINTERS TALE - if you don't know it, here's the "38d." on it

DOWN:

1. Blues : MOPES - if it helps, try "The" in front

2. "Waterworld" orphan girl : ENOLA - didn't see the movie; it was a dud.  All perps

3. Strikes out : DELES - this "struck out" my 'ENTER' for 19a.

4. Apple purchases : iMACS - did you hear Apple is coming out with a diet pill~?
It's designated the i8....

5. Mexico's Sea of __ : CORTEZ - nailed it

6. Journalist Kupcinet : IRV - perps

7. Krypton relative : NEON

8. Ancient Italian region : ETRURIA - dredged this up from the depths with '-RUR-' in place

9. Opposite of "stand" : "HIT ME~!" - Blackjack

10. They multiply by dividing : AMEBAS

11. Drive handle : TEX - cattle drive, that is.  Reminds me of this scene


13. Common abrasive : STEEL WOOL

14. Intrinsically : PER SE

21. The Marx Brothers, e.g. : ZANIES

23. Deceive : DUPE

25. Bug but good : RILE

27. Home in the woods : NEST - "home in the tree" would have been too easy for Saturday

29. Meas. of course performance : GPA - Grade Point Average.  Funny, but it was such a big deal when I was in high school - now it's meaningless - until I have kids of my own, I presume....

30. Brand with a Jumpman logo : AIR JORDAN - I knew this was Michael Jordan, but it took a moment; my OPED didn't help

32. Fine points : PRONGS - Har-Har~!

34. Letters sometimes seen before a phone no. : RSVP

36. Nestlé's __-Caps : SNO

38. Cheat : CRIB

40. 1924 co-defendant : LOEB - could not recall if it was loeW or loeB

43. Court complaint : "I OBJECT~!"

46. Horn of Africa native : SOMALI

48. Cousins of clam diggers : CAPRIs


49. Western ring : LASSO - ah, Western as in the movie genre

50. Expert : MAVEN

52. Jerk, say : REACT

53. Patty Hearst alias : TANIA

54. __ bloom: pond vegetation : ALGAL

55. __ Bag: eponymous '70s designer label : BEENE

 
58. Old, in Oldenburg : ALTE - not AULD; I knew that was wrong

61. Additional : NEW

62. Legend on ice : ORR - first clue, NHL; last clue, NHL....I like it, Mr. Silk~!

Splynter

41 comments:

Kent Mauk said...

2d "Waterworld" orphan girl? Really? I can't feel bad for not knowing that, I and hundreds of millions of Americans didn't see that movie ;) Having eXeRt for 19a and nuTS for 20a made the NW a disaster and needed red letters. Otherwise, great new fill!

George Barany said...

Fun Barry Silk puzzle and Splynter review. I sure hope we've seen the last POLAR_VORTEX of the season. New clue for ENOLA ... tough even though I not only saw "Waterworld" in the theater when it first came out, but had vacationed a year or two earlier in Hawaii, a short drive from the movie's set [the local gossip was that the filming was a disaster, and the end product was likely to be bomb.]

Today is the 330th birthday of a Well-Tempered Kapellmeister and my friends have put together a puzzle for the occasion. Hope you have fun with it, and then listen to some of the links on the puzzle's main page.

HowardW said...

Tough puzzle, but made steady progress until I had trouble in the SE corner. Like Splynter, I had TOO for 61D, which took a while to get rid of. But the last to fall was not the long ones, but BARTAB and PEALE. Didn't have enough perps to guess them.

"Diamond shape" stopped me for a while, as I went down the baseball path. But PEAR-shaped reminds me of this.

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

Tough all over today. got through most of it on my own eventually, but finally gave up and checked IMDB to get ENOLA. That gave me the foothold I needed to finish the NW, but it still wasn't a pleasant experience.

MEDICINE HAT, I've heard of, so that wasn't too bad. I can't quite figure out what ONE MORE TIME has to do with "over," despite Splynter's "mulligan" comment. Oh, wait... "Do it over" = "Do it one more time." Got it. ETRURIA was insane, and TEX was too cute by far (although, to be fair, I thought it might be TEX up front but resisted putting it in until POLAR VORTEX revealed itself).

The SW section almost got me as well, but I finally came up with JANIS, which got me PRONGS and SEMANTICS, which finally got me to see that "mail" was ARMOR and not a verb or anything related to letters. Thank you, Janis Joplin!

So, a fail for me today, but on the plus side I knew TANIA, PEALE, ZUNI, MAJA and The WINTER'S TALE. Never heard of ZANY being used as a noun before, however. Somebody can be ZANY, but would you really call somebody a ZANY? I guess you would, or ZANIES wouldn't be in the puzzle, but still...

Madame Defarge said...

Returning to the Corner after spotty puzzle work due to family time. Interesting that Saturday Silkies used to scare me, but after some of the crazy Saturdays to start this year. . . . Thanks, Barry.

Weirdly, the longer fills were easier for me today than usual. I did think ELECTRICIAN had to be wrong and went to retail outlet. I did have trouble with ONE MORE TIME, but it had to work given my perps. Thanks for the guided tour, Splynter.

A bit more snow on the way. I am hopeful it will all melt the next day. Hope SPRINGS eternal. Have a good weekend all!

Avg Joe said...

Tough sledding, as typical for a Silkie, but it all came out in the wash. LOTS of erasures. My sea started out as Juarez, which gave me Zuni, but it caused other problems. Finally remembered Cortez, which with just a few perps gave me Medicine Hat (thank you Guess Who.

Last to fall was Tale since I had Algae. But all's well that ends.

Off to see billions of Sandhill Cranes today. The migration is in full swing.

Big Easy said...

This one took some WAGS to complete. In the NW I had NEON and guessed NUMB, TEX and DELES. ENOLA, IRV, and ETRURIA- unknowns from PERPS. In the SW I initially put LONG PASS for BOMB and just guessed JANIS Joplin. I wanted SGL or SIN for SAC and AIR JORDAN finally came through.

I couldn't remember it Patty Hearst was SONIA or TANIA, put POOLE for PEALE,vaguely remembered Geoffrey BEENE, and had never heard (quit laughing) of WINTERS TALE- 100% perps.

Finished it off by replacing E for A in NAVEL ORANGE (I have two of those trees in my yard), got I OBJECT and changed ROACH to REACT, thinking that maybe ROACH was a new term for a jerk.

A nice Saturday morning workout.

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

It can't get much better than a Silkie Saturday! I really liked this one with all the "Aha, so that's what he meant" moments. I did go wrong thinking the "Western ring" was a POSSE which gave me Splynter's OPED. SEMANTICS showed me the error of my ways.

So far as PEAR-shaped is concerned, I thought of This Song. Listen at 0:42.

Now to go see if those "Steenking Badgers" managed to dispatch their opponents last night. It was too late for me to watch it live. And apparently too late for the Barnacle to report on it. Otherwise DW would have said something.

Montana said...

I failed miserably on this puzzle. I admire those of you who solve it, even with a little help.

I really enjoyed reading your explanations, Splynter. Thanks so much.

I live 4 hours from Medicine Hat and didn't even get that clue! When my family was young, we used to go there a couple times each summer. It was the closest place with a BIG waterslide park when they became popular. Also great camping nearby at Cypress Hills.
Our local high school exchanged football games against them for a number of years. Half Canadian rules; half American. Fun times. We also have a student exchange each spring.

Well, it's getting more springlike. Now we need rain!

Montana

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

This was one tough Silkie. I managed to finish w/o help but it took me 1 1/2 hours to do so. I got Medicine Hat fairly quickly and a few others but I boxed myself in for a while with peruses before pierces and MPH before GPA. Silliest error was Hail Mary=Ave Maria!

Thanks, Barry, for an end-of-the-week mental marathon and thanks, Splynter, for guiding us along.

Have a great day.

Yellowrocks said...

I used a few red letters to tell me my first choice was in error, but I always succeeded on the second choice. I turned to Mr.G. for AIR JORDAN. Doing the puzzle on line presents too much temptation to cheat. Interesting expo and links, Splynter.
Even for a Saturday, I think it should have been DO OVER, instead of just OVER.
Often I have heard ZANY used for a clownish performer, and even more often for a wildly eccentric person, a screwball.
Word origin: From Middle French zani, zanni, from Italian zanni (a kind of masked clown character), itself (when capitalized) a dialectal form of Giovanni.

Anonymous said...

1D Thanks, anyway – it doesn't help.

9D "I'm good" is the opposite of "HIT ME," not "stand."

Tinbeni said...

Splynter: Enjoyed your write-up explaining my Ink Blot fest.

Can't remember when a Barry Silk puzzle didn't end up being a D N F.

Fave today, of course, was BAR TAB (though I seldom have one).
I like to "pay-as-I-go" so I can leave-when-I-want-to.

Stuck here with "Perfect" weather.
A "toast to ALL" at Sunset.
Cheers!

Chairman Moe said...

"puzzling thoughts":

Was able to complete this Silkie with a minimal number of ink blots and NO CRIBS or googles! First time that's happened in awhile.

I finished the "north" pretty quickly; TAX EXEMPT, STEEL WOOL, REAR AXLE, POLAR VORTEX, MEDICINE HAT came easily and helped with any perps I needed (ETRURIA, e.g.)

I thought "charges for rounds" = BAR TAB was clever, as was "cousins of clam diggers = CAPRIS

The SW was the last to fall, but once I WAG'd JANIS, and got GPA for 29d, the "ta dah" was uttered. Thanks to Splynter for the great write-up; checked all of my answers and was "spot on"!

OK, no Owen as yet, so here goes a limerick:

There's got to be some kind of rule,
That we learned, back in grammar school;
That explains why STEEL WOOL
Sounds like "bull" or like "full",
And not like cool, fool, pool or tool!

Anonymous said...

Don't understand long bomb 49a for Hail Mary? Great

Puzzle. Favorite clue Jazz duo! Have a good weekend!

Chairman Moe said...

anonymous @ 10:26:

The term "Hail Mary" is this puzzle = LONG BOMB, comes from football. The play usually occurs at the end of the game, when the quarterback throws a desperation pass from outside of his 50 yard line. LONG BOMB is not as widely used as HAIL MARY, but it applies

Hope this helps!

Dudley said...

Hello Puzzlers -

This was the toughest Saturday Silkie in a while for me. I began in the pre-coffee period, and had to park it until after a mug full. That NW section was slow to emerge, but eventually it did.

Resisted Bar Tab for a long time because of the plural nature of the clue. Janis was barely remembered; I was 9 when Woodstock took place. My older brother and some friends piled into a pickup at the last minute and started toward Woodstock, but I think they didn't even get to New York before scrapping the whole "plan".

Morning, Splynter, sure was windy in Ronkonkoma! Day-um!

Ray - O - Sunshine said...

NEED NEW GLASSES! Thought 30D said BAND not brand with jumpman logo. Put in AIRSUPPLY and pulled my hair out when nothing else made sense in the SW corner!

Argyle said...

Just because I haven't heard them in awhile . . . Air Supply.

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-Dang vowels! I changed ALGAE to ALGAL but persisted with TANYA. I’ll take one bad and one missing cell
-Famous atheist Madalyn Murray O’Hair fought the TAX EXEMPT status of churches for decades
-Joann hated the semester when I took SEMANTICS
-I can’t believe the people in __ keep ELECTING __ ;-)
-Runs through is not PERUSES
-We’ve made two car purchases that we should have SLEPT ON first
- A 31 minute drive as it turns out
-Getting beat by a LONG BOMB is a killer!
-We get missiles, they get missiles, we get SDI to shoot down their missiles, they get…
-It had to be ORANGE but I thought of this 5-letter inedible one first
-PERUSIA preceded ETRURIA first
-What’s your obligation to a “surprise-show up” who didn’t RSVP
-Klinger wrote CRIB notes all over his body for Soldier Of The Month test
-Too frequent occurrence here at our State Lakes

Anonymous said...

May I add my two cents worth? Or, since we no longer have any sense, my nickels worth.

MEDICINE HAT is translated from 'Saamis', the Blackfoot word for the eagle tail feather headdress worn by medicine men – or 'Medicine Hat'. Several legends are associated with the naming of the valley depending on which tribal elders you are listening to.

Also, what no JANIS? I know its not Woodstock but, IMHO, the Monterey Pop Festival was the more important of the two in regards to the late sixties' counterculture and likely kicked off the 'summer of love'. Woodstock just ripped off the idea later to much more commercial(read: decadent) success. A quote from Rusty DeSoto - "…Monterey Pop was a seminal event... featuring debut performances of bands that would shape the history of rock and affect popular culture from that day forward." To back up my claim, you may read Wiki-Monterey Pop festival.

Thank you for your time.

Lou from Langley

HowardW said...

D-otto, thanks for the link to the Emmy-Lou Harris version of "Diamonds are a girl's best friend." Hadn't heard that before.

Here's a new verse for that song:
When you're slim
You can count on him
But a waistline gets hard to defend.
Then they start to hunger
For one who is younger
Diamonds are a girl's best friend.

[I hear this in Marilyn's voice, not Emmy-Lou's.]

JJM said...

Typical Silkie. As usual, not much the first coupe passes. Then, all of a sudden a breakthrough and everything comes into place. Good puzzle, took me a little longer than usual.
I can't believe I didn't get AIR JORDAN immediately.

JJM said...

Most famous Hail Mary Pass:
I'd say BC's Doug Flutie's last second game winning 48 yard bomb to Phelan in 1984 v. UM.

(Catholics v. Convicts game)

Barry G. said...

I'd say that all Hail Mary passes are LONG BOMBS, but not all LONG BOMBS are Hail Mary Passes. To me, a Hail Mary pass requires last second desperation when the QB tosses the ball as far as he can in the hope that somebody on his team can somehow manage to catch it. A LONG BOMB, on the other hand, is simply a very long pass that can occur at any time in the game and can be perfectly planned and executed with no desperation involved.

And yes, I remember watch Doug Flutie's game winning Hail Mary pass. He went to high school with my older brother and lived down the street from us, so it made the game extra sweet to watch. Sadly, I was a freshman in college at the time, far away from Massachusetts, and none of my dorm mates cared at all about it.

Anonymous said...

Contrast today's Silkie with yesterday's puzzle. Both extremely difficult, but Mr. Silkie clues such that you have a chance.

A minor quibble: Hail Mary - I had long pass, then long toss, and finally long bomb. But a bomb in football is by definition a long pass, so long bomb really makes no sense. Anyone ever seen a QB throw a short bomb?

As I said, a minor quibble. Most enjoyable overall.

Jayce said...

Yep, typical Silkie. Yep, doing the puzzle on-line is fraught with the temptation to cheat. Yep, I cheated. I also said "Oh so that's it!" many times.

Jayce said...

George Barany, thank you for the fun puzzle.

Anonymous T said...

Even after reading the writeup before the paper dropped said...

36d, 60a, 62d is all I would have on my own and I still didn't finish - perhaps I should read the answers ONE MORE TIME. Thanks Splynter!

Y'all have a great Saturday.

Cheers, -T

Bill G. said...

"Zorba the Greek" has always been one of my favorite movies. Dunno why. I'm not Greek. Here's a Greek street dance to that music. It's so emotional that it brings tears to my eyes. Zorba the Greek dance

Spitzboov said...

Good afternoon everyone.

What JJM and others said. First two passes; essentially bupkis, then a slow coverage like an ALGAL bloom emerged. Wanted Sonia for a long time before TANIA was restored in my data base. Resorted to red letter help at TIVO and JANIS.
ALTE - Wanted ALT for old. Alt is inflected for number, gender, and case of the modified noun, so (e) or other endings could occur. Barry needed an e so he could cross with WINTER'S TALE.
ALTE itself can be a noun used with der; der Alte and means 'the old man' - Such as the captain of a ship, or referring to Konrad Adenauer or Albert Einstein.

Have a great day.

john28man said...

Cross Eyed Dave,

The Salt Cellar is in Scottsdale. We have a winter home in Chandler, AZ.

I was very lucky going there last night. I didn't stop before making a right turn and a cop stopped me but because we had Colorado plates and when he asked where we were going and I said to my birthday diner her let me go.

john28man said...

that's "let me go"

john28man said...

I'll get it yet its "dinner he let me go".

Ol' Man Keith said...

My Saturday morning would have been SO much easier if 17A had been LOW PRESSURE. I mean, it fit! In a perfect Xwd world, the first answer to fit should be the right one.

But not so with a Silkie. No, he has to see things from HIS end, not mine. A good thing that POLAR VORTEX has been in the news of late, so we all had a fighting chance at least.

Still, I had to look up two or three answers just to keep the fun alive. In all honesty, I prefer those Saturdays when I have nothing to do and can take the time to complete my labor without cheating. But we have a 2:00 matinee to see today, so I blame time pressure (a sort of LOW PRESSURE) for making a dishonest man-- a fraudulent cruciverbalist-- of me.

Lucina said...

Hello, friends!

So late to the party. First, I finished the Eastern Hemisphere in good time but didn't quite understand PERSE. Oh, PER SE. Thank you, Splynter.

Then took some jabs at the north, saw MEDICINE, added BOW, no that's in the U.S. Webster told me, so MEDICINE HAT. Had to stop to work on a project for this afternoon. My patio cover is leaking and needs patching so got the materials ready.

Finally, I tackled the SW and needed help from G with AIR JORDAN which then gave me ARMOR, PRONGS, etc. LONG BOMB which I'd never heard of just emerged though I do know Hail Mary is a desperation pass.

Well done, as usual, Barry Silk. Thank you.

John28man:
If you check, you'll see that the Salt Cellar is actually in Tempe. Roosevelt Street is the demarcation between Scottsdale and Tempe and the restaurant is south of that.

I hope you're all having a great Saturday! Spring weather here.

Chickie said...

Hola Everyone, Waterworld? We saw that movie because we were on a business trip and it was the only movie in the sole theater where we had to spend a weekend. It was probably the worst movie of all time!! We walked out about half way through. I much prefer the clue for "Enola" Gay, even though we see it quite often in cw's.

I had a DNF, but tried to do this on my own. Got stuck, used Google and Splynter's excellent writeup to find the error of my ways.

I've read the blog, but haven't done all the puzzles this week due to long days on the jury. We did turn in a verdict yesterday, so today, I feel like a student who has finished her last final and is on spring break!!

Off to get my taxes done.
Have a great rest of the day, everyone.

Mikey said...

Another quibble: Shakespeare died in 1616, so I'd say there aren't any "1623 Shakespeare works". Had the clue been "first published in 1623" OK, maybe. [The] Winters Tale was written in 1611, but first published in The First Folio in 1623.

Bill G. said...

I need to watch Waterworld again. We saw it years ago and it didn't seem THAT bad. Of course, part of its appeal at the time was a glimpse of Jeanne Tripplehorn's bare tush...

We haven't been out to lunch for a while so we remedied that today. We went to a little local Italian restaurant where we split: Garlic shrimp with black and white pasta, chicken piccata with cream sauce including lemon and capers, white bean soup, caprese salad and creme brulee. Everything was great except the caprese which suffered from typical low-quality tomatoes. We have lots left over for dinner tonight. I wish some of you guys could have joined us...

Anonymous T said...

Chickie - Jury duty to taxes; And that feels like a break? You have my sympathy :-) Cheers, -T

fermatprime said...

Greetings!

Not a good Silkie for me. Tried and tried. Thanks for review, Splynter.

Must start taxes.

Cheers!