google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Saturday, May 16th, 2015, Gareth Bain

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May 16, 2015

Saturday, May 16th, 2015, Gareth Bain

Theme: None

Words: 72 (missing Q,X,Z)

Blocks: 32

  Oh, I was so close on this one - but I had to cheat, just once, and then I peeked at the red-letters to see where I was wrong - silly mistake on my part.  Great puzzle, had my brain going, and a decent mix of clues both obscure/vague and "oh, I know this".  This is Gareth's third Saturday offering!  We just had him on Thursday, May 7th with his anagram puzzle.  A climber crossing a spanner today, with clever pairings of 11-letter answers in the Down, and 9-letter ones in the Across, plus two 12-letter names rounding out our long fills;

19. "Let Sleeping Vets Lie" author : JAMES HERRIOT - this should have been a gimme, but instead I got the V-8 can; growing up, my mother always loved the PBS presentation of the "All Creatures Great an Small" TV show  Such a "feel good" theme song - I still love it


"Piano Parchment" - J Pearson

47. Subject of the biopic "I Saw the Light" : HANK WILLIAMS - biography clue #2 - I did not know this was a Hank Williams song


George Thorogood

Move it ON-oh-waRD~!

ACROSS:

1. Crowd in Berlin? : DREI - always good to start off with an "I know this~!" - German for three, as in "Three's a Crowd"

5. Baptizes, say : WETS

9. Ever so slightly : A TAD

13. "Handsomest of all the women," in an 1855 epic : MINNEHAHA - From this poem; there's a Minnehaha Blvd in one of my Southold trucks, off Hiawatha's Path - I always think "little laugh"; get it~?  Also a very popular name in MN

15. What a "B" may mean : BORON - didn't come to me immediately; was thinking "C Flat"

17. Modern mining targets : DATABASES

18. U Nu's country : BURMA - My one cheat.  Forgot about this man

 21. Like the ruins of Chichén Itzá : MAYAN


24. Back-to-back contests? : DUELS - har-har

25. Large vessel : VAT

26. Bibliography note : IDEM - Latin for "the same" in citation

27. 410-year-old Siberian city : TOMSK - um, OK.  perps.

28. Ever so : VERY - I went with MERE, then NARY.  Drat.

29. __ de canard: duck feathers used to tie fishing flies : CUL

30. Fertilization target : OVUM

31. "__ but known ... " : HAD I - this borders on 'fun sponge'

32. Ready signal : ALL SYSTEMS ARE GO

37. Level, e.g. : TOOL - I hesitated to put this in, but it was my first thought

38. Life-of-the-party type : RIOT

39. More than cool : RAD - ah.  Not ICY

40. Stitches : SEWS

41. 1990 film that featured "Unchained Melody" on its soundtrack : GHOST

43. Four times duo : OCTO

44. Genesis 6 creation : ARK - The boat Ark, not the Covenant one


45. Psalm 23 comforter : STAFF - I did not get this until I looked it up afterwards.  When I typed "psalm" into Google, it suggested "23" right away

46. __ ring : ONION

50. Autobiography whose first chapter is "Nut Bush" : I, TINA

51. Rent : TORE APART - I had a feeling this did not have to do with "leases"

55. Suit : BEFIT

56. Always prepared : EVER READY

57. Film crew locales : SETS

58. Edit menu option : REDO

59. Blackened surface : CHAR

DOWN:   

1. Drill user, briefly : DMD - ah, Doctor of Medical Dentistry, not DDS - Doctor of Dental Sciences

2. River inlet : RIA - knew this, but spelled it rYa first

3. Endoscope user, briefly : ENT - Ear, Nose, Throat

4. Stuck : IN A JAM

5. '80s pop duo with an exclamation point in its name : WHAM!

Everything She Wants

 6. Removed with finesse : EASED OUT - you mean, like a Splynter~?

7. Hippie phenomenon : THE SUMMER OF LOVE

This AIN'T The Summer of Love

8. Scouts' accessories : SASHES

9. Some dict. entries : ABBRs

10. Overseas vacation, perhaps : TOUR - clecho #1

11. Overseas farewell : ARRIVEDERCI - clecho #2

12. Overseas thanks : DOMO ARIGATO - clecho #3

14. South African-born Middle East diplomat : EBAN - perps

16. Smart : NATTY

20. __ crossing: Canadian sign warning : ELK

21. Mineral whose name is Latin for "crumb" : MICA

22. Doctors : ADULTERATES

23. Canadian territorial capital : YELLOWKNIFE - Northwest Territories, to be specific

27. Sports bar array : TVs - the NY Rangers edged out the Capitals and start the Eastern Conference Finals vs. the Tampa Bay Lightning today....anyone in Fla a fan~?  I know that half the Rangers from last year went to TB as free agents, including my guy Brian Boyle - should make for a cool series

28. Dict. spelling tag : VARiations

30. Thimble Theatre name : OYL

31. Job, metaphorically : HAT - I wear about three these days; pre-load at UPS, "property maintenance director" both at aMano and A Lure restaurants, and still doing side work

33. Desperate letters : S.O.S.

34. Didn't go off : MISFIRED

35. Barfly : SOT

36. Take to excess : O.D. ON

40. Indian title : SAHIB

41. Sporty Golf : GTI - Volkwagen, that is


42. Bikini option : HALTER - show me YOUR choice of pics; I prefer the "bottom half", if you know what I mean

43. How much freelance work is done : ON SPEC

45. Goes for flies : SWATS

46. Acting brother of Cuba Gooding Jr. : OMAR

48. Grow together : KNIT

49. Sol lead-in : AERO - Aerosol....D'oh~! I went with "mi fa", as in do re mi fa SOL la ti do

52. Patient remark? : AAH - Open wide, I have my endoscope

53. Nutritional stat. : RDA

54. One-handed Norse god : TYR

Splynter

Note from C.C.:

Happy 94th birthday to Jazzbumpa's mother!  Ron said that his mom and her twin sister are the only ones remaining from 9 siblings. Click here to read Ron's musing in 2013.


Mother's Day, 2013

47 comments:

HeartRx said...

Hello, hello? Test 2...3. Can you hear me now?

I thought this was a pretty easy puzzle for a Saturday, so many thanks to Gareth for giving me a break! Starting with DREI right off the bat helped brek into the NE corner. I slowly filled and spread out from there and was done before I knew it.

Loved the devious clueing even though it made me do some backtracking. I had wiTTY before NATTY, miNSK before TOMSK and hoOT before RIOT. So close on all of them!!

But it's all good. Have a great day everyone!

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

I got off to a strong start today by entering DREI without blinking an eye, but right after that things... got... realllllly... sloooooooooooooooow.....

I struggled with most of the rest of the puzzle, but did manage to to get through most of it via perp help and some lucky guesses. YELLOW KNIFE was completely unknown. As was OMAR and TONSK. HANK WILLIAMS was a guess (I know who he is, but not the biopic about him).

In the end, though, I failed to get the *TADA* Everything looked right to me, but I eventually tried changing IBAN (which I guessed at) to EBAN. Apparently, I don't know how to spell MINNEHAHA.

Ah, well. Close, but no cigar for me today...

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

This was a quick solve...at least for a Saturday. Funny, Marti, that you thought the NE was easy. That's where I stumbled the most. I figured out the ARRIVEDERCI and DOMO ARIGATO, but wasn't sure how to spell either of 'em. And for some reason, I thought that vet's name was HERRICK.

Nice long fill in this one. Not sure I've ever seen ADULTERATES in a cw before.

Splynter, you sounded downright lovelorn with your EASED OUT comment. Problem?

Earlier this week I rewatched the original first three Star Wars movies with Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher. I hadn't remembered just how bad those movies were. Last night I rewatched Star Man with Jeff Bridges and Karen Allen. I hadn't remembered just how good that movie was. Funny thing, memory.

inanehiker said...

Slowly got through this one, except the NE corner. Got Arrivederci early, but never heard of DOMO ARIGATO, and BURMA slowed me down from thinking Myanmar so long that I thought that must be a fictional country in a novel I didn't know...sigh.
High School graduation is here tomorrow, so today is a succession of open houses in honor of different graduates- I try and treat it like a progressive dinner- appetizers at one, main dish at another, dessert at another...
Thanks, Splynter and Gareth!

Avg Joe said...

I had a lot more trouble than most, evidently. Started out at a good clip in the NW, but it was slow after that. The SW ultimately came together once Mayan fell and gave me Yellowknife with just the Y and W.

But in the end, I had it all except the NW block, and HTG for Herriot. Couldn't break anything else loose. So, a DNF, but it was a worthy challenge.

Yellowrocks said...

Quickest Saturday solve in a long time. Starting with DREI, RIA, and ENT was encouraging, but I had to leave the rest of the NW until last. Finally, MINNEHAHA and JAMES HERRIOT were the key.
I loved the NE vacation trip. ARREVEDERCI, DOMO ARIGATO, TOUR and BURMA were all gimmes. GHOST, TOMSK and GTI were done with wags and perps.
MIFA before AERO.
I recited the psalm to find STAFF.
My mom used to say something about being BAPTIZED when she was splashed accidentally. I say, I already had my shower today.
ELK crossing and YELLOW KNIFE were shout outs to Canadian Eh. Hi, there.

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

Daunting at first, but perseverance paid off. Key to the solve was sussing the long downs with some perp help. Got YELLOWKNIFE and ARRIVADERCI quickly. Finally saw the ……gato and remembered ARIGATO. I guess the DOMO is an honorific?
45d - My paper's fonts render i's to look like l's, so I was reading 'goes for files'; not 'flies'. D'oh. Sorted it out and got SWATS.
31d - HAT. Very common military usage.

Nice breezy intro, Splynter.

Gareth's puzzles are always worth attempting.

Happy Birthday to JzB's Mom.

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

I liked this puzzle a lot even though it was difficult in spots. (Then again, I don't think I have ever disliked a GB offering.)

Trick cluing led to some miscues: mi fa/aero, Minsk/Tomsk, all signals/all systems, ocho/octo, etc. had some trouble with the foreign-words spelling, but it all finally fell into place. No help needed but it took me longer than usual to get the TADA!

Thanks, Gareth, for a satisfying Saturday stumper and thanks, Splynter for the edifying expo.

Have a great day.

Irish Miss said...

PS - Happy 94th Birthday to JzB's Mom!

Bluehen said...

One of my quickest Saturday solves in a long time, despite a plethora of proper names and foreign words. At least there weren't any Roman numerals. Thanks, Gareth. Great offering.

And thank you, Splynter for another educational and entertaining expo. I think that you can be forgiven for your one lookup. After all, U NU?

Husker Gary said...

A funny thing happened on my way to giving up on this puzzle – I solved the dang thing. The long fills were my salvation. BORON, DOMO ARIGATO, HERRIOT and NATTY (not SALTY) finished up the last corner!

Musings
-Getting DREI, RIA and ENT early gave me false hope
-ALL SYSTEMS ARE GO – NASA for “Let’s light this candle”
-I’ve used this LEVEL many times. Splynter?
-Gotta love this ARK cartoon
-I always ask the server if the ONION rings are fresh or frozen. Sometimes they don’t know but I don’t do frozen.
-Those guys with the SASHES are supposed to 56 Down
-My daughter and husband like to TOUR on their own. We like an organized TOUR
-I wonder how this became a street name in Lincoln
-I’m slowly giving up many of my HATS
-The most famous fly SWATter?
-Happy Birthday Ron’s mom!

Avg Joe said...

Gary, the subdivision that street is in is called Northern Lights. Not all streets follow the theme, but there is also Medicine Hat Rd, Dawson Creek Dr and some type of Bay (not half moon, but something similar.)

HowardW said...

I was surprised at the end that, like a few others, my time was on the low side for a Saturday. It seemed quite hard, with few gimme's any many guesses once a few letters showed up. Such as MINNEHAHA and YELLOWKNIFE. I was reluctant to put EVERREADY because "ready" was in a clue -- thought that was generally a no-no? Didn't know U Nu but remembered U Thant, which was enough to get the answer right. [Bluehen: Very funny!] And never heard of CUL de canard, although I can guess its meaning. Other unknowns were TYR and OMAR Gooding.

Thanks for the puzzle, Mr. Bain, and for the write-up, Splynter.

#1 son is being awarded his Master's degree, so I'm in Pittsburgh today. Enjoyable drive from MA...Pennsylvania has wonderful countryside.

Alexscott68 said...

I'd never heard DMD before or seen it in a CW, so just entered DDS for 1D without thinking twice. Got most of the rest of the puzzle no problem but compounded the NW issue by putting ANAN where EBAN belonged. DINNAHAHA sounded kind of familiar, though I knew it must be wrong. Couldn't come up with MINNEHAHA or get DATABASES from SATANASES. Ugh. I'll have to remember DMD for future reference. Otherwise a really enjoyable puzzle with lots of good fill and crossing grid spanners (this was a great week for fans of grid spanners like me). Really liked the run of 10, 11, & 12D, too.

Bluehen said...

HowardW: well, someone had to say it.

C6D6 Peg said...

Yes, it was quicker and easier than a normal Saturday, but still a DNF for the crossing of HERRIOT and DOMO (had an A instead of the O). Also didn't get AERO as TORNAPART looked good.

Thanks, Gareth for a nice offering.

Splynter - thanks for the write-up.

JJM said...

There were so many misdirections in some of the clue. Wow! I had to suss a lot of the answers, but they all seems to fit. I do admit to 2 red letters in order to finish. Good puzzle.

coneyro said...

Glad it was "quicker and easier" for most of you. This puzzle was honestly out of my reach.

JAMES HERRIOT is a name I am not familiar with, although something tells me I should. I will bio him. I know who HANK WILLIAMS is , but honestly cannot name any of his songs. Country music is NOT my thing.

GHOST, however IS certainly in my wheelhouse. This sleeper hit is in my top 3. I can't even count how many times I've rewatched it, and I usually don't see a film several times. I remember the entire movie house was in tears. Patrick was a beautiful, talented actor. Another gone too soon. UNCHAINED MELODY as sung by the Righteous Brothers, was played to me every night via phone by my husband while he was away on business. To this day, the tears still fall everytime I hear it.

That being said, today was ATAD too much for me. Though I was ATTHEREADY, I was VERY TORNAPART because HADI but known that there was no GHOST of a chance to finish, I probably would have said DOMOARRIGATO, but ARRIVERDERCI, nonetheless.

Until next time. Una feliz Sabado...

Dudley said...

Hello Puzzlers -

Today's was the sort of solve that benefitted from a big answer going in early. I didn't know the Let Sleeping Vets Lie title, but Herriot was an obvious guess. With that many letters filled, it was pretty much off to the races.

We loved the All Creatures Great and Small series when aired by PBS. The story lines were often recognizable from the books, but just as often there would be new material. The real veterinarian, Alf Wight, was from Scotland; I wondered how different the series might have been with the main character having a Scottish accent.

Bronx Boy said...

Seems like this should have been the video embedded in the write-up instead of a different song by a different band. Or would that have been too predictable.

Warren said...

Hi gang, it's been quite awhile but I noticed no one posted a link to this classic Styx song, Mr Roboto

It has an add first but it's a classic video and a great old song IMO...

--Warren.

Anonymous said...

DDS. Doctor of dental surgery

Anonymous said...

Remember NATTY Bumppo? If he were still lurking, he may have appeared to call foul on 48d. To me 'Grow together' suggests a natural progression whereas KNIT has a more forced occurrence.

Btw, around here NATTY is an awful beer that college students consume because it only cost $15.00 for a 30-pack.

coneyro said...

Not familiar with the term "clecho" What does this mean in crossword lingo?

Yellowrocks said...

When the ends of a broken bone grow together they KNIT.

Off to the circus.

Bronx Boy said...

Clecho

Ol' Man Keith said...

Thanks for the writeup and the confession, Splynter. The latter made me feel better about my two lookups.
As with my colleagues, I got a false sense of security with DREI right at 1A --never suspecting that this was Mr Bain's trap, luring us to plug in DDS at 1D as equally easy.
I really got a kick out of the cluing tricks, especially "Rent" for TORE APART. But even when I "got" that, I had it wrong. Because of the duplicitous nature of English irregular tenses I entered TORN instead of TORE. (I just assumed there was some obscure meaning for "ANROsol" for the perp at 49D.)

CrabCake nee Hot Brown said...

Okay so I pretty much gave everybody the Kentucky Derby on a silver platter. My good friend Gary (Stevens) told me what would happen before the race and it played out exactly like he said it would. Now before I give you my picks I’m going to say the same thing I said before the Derby. Clearly Pharoah is the horse to beat. So if betting on 4/5 shots get your rocks off knock yourself out. I don’t. I need to live. Therefore I needed to look elsewhere.

I think Firing Line is an overlay at 4-1 considering the differing post positions so if you want to bet on him I won’t talk you out of it. I think he could easily win. But Mr. Z and his 20-1 morning line has captured my attention. This is a horse who lost a 3 way photo to Firing Line and Dortmund and showed no back down on that day. He set the pace and ran his guts out in defeat. Here it is.

After that he got absolutely squashed by Pharoah in the Alabama. Then he got demolished in the Kentucky Derby but he had a horrible trip. It may be a stretch but I’m going to throw both those races out. My close personal friend D Wayne (Lukas) has said he’s got Mr. Z as primed as he’s ever been. He even forced the horse to be sold to Calumet Farms from Zayad stables just so he could run him in the Preakness. Corey Nakatani is back aboard who rode him in the Los Al race. I just think Mr. Z gets the lead and battles all the way to the end again today. At 20-1 that’s all you can really ask for. So I’ll play Mr. Z across the board and in all my exotics with Pharaoh and Firing Line.

john28man said...

I lost a lot of time trying to fir OBRIGATO, Thank You in Portuguese, into 12D. Isn't there something about a little knowledge....

Anonymous said...

I thought this was a tough but fair puzzle, especially for a Saturday. I was a bit dismayed with all the white space after the first pass but perseverance paid off - after a while. No easy solve for me, I was happy I finished.

Anonymous T said...

AAH... So those are the answers says...

Gareth is hard enough for me on a Thurs., Saturday is way out. But I tried anyway. I had 3 lookups which showed me the errors of my way. Splynter finished my last 50% out for me. Thanks to both of you for clues and ans (ABBR). Total DNF.

7d was not THE age of Aquarius nor was 16d wiTTY. I even had youngest help w/ 13a (she gave me RAD - duh, dad). We also get an ARK, not an Ass (though 2 were clearly there herded by Noah w/ a STAFF, I'm sure).

As a scout, I was EVERY READY, my SASH(es) had enough badges (I SEW(s) them on myself), but alas, I was a work-project short of Eagle b/f leaving for Basic - my only true regret in life. I'm not doing too bad though.

Warren - I was going to use the Styx link :-)

D-O - from yesterday; congrats on the CHE puzzle!

Off to CHAR some food on the grill...

Cheers, -T

CrossEyedDave said...

Jzb's Moms birthday,,,

I guess I can't go wrong with this...

Jzb, you better make your Mom that cake! (or at least take her out to dinner...)

OwenKL said...

Bronx Boy: Thanks for the link to the glossary. I'm sure I read it long ago when I started here, but reading it over now that I've been around for a while, it seems to need expanding. Before I add any comment there, let me vet the ones I can think of offhand.

ESP: Every Single Perp.
LW: Little Woman, same as DW.
Natick: crossing point where both across and down words are unsolvable.
Reveal: entry that gives or hints at the theme gimmick. Sunday puzzles have a title as the reveal, Saturdays are themeless.
Thumper: "If you can't say something nice, don't say nothing at all."

Also some general texting abbreviations that we use, that are sometimes showing up in puzzles --
FWIW: For What It's Worth
HBD or HBTY: Happy Birth Day To You.
IMHO: In My Humble Opinion
IMO: In My Opinion
OMG: Oh My Gosh!
OTOH: On The Other Hand

I don't want to add "ute" for youth. That one grates on me.

Bill G. said...

Son (Tim), daughter (Bonnie), grandson (Jordan) and Bonnie's boyfriend and his son; they all came over for crepes for breakfast. I was stuffed.

The dishes are loaded in the dishwasher, my contribution.

Bronx Boy said...

Little Woman? It's 2015.

Anonymous T said...

OwenKL - Didn't Tin coin ESP? Anyone know? I thought I stole it from him.

JzB - HBTY'r mom! Honour the woman who carried you 9 long months! 94yro wow!

CED - last link - LMAO.

C, -T

Modern Millie said...

Tin did coin ESP.

LW is Loving Wife. This is indeed the 21st century.

Chairman Moe said...

"Puzzling thoughts":

This one kicked my butt; HTC several times so I technically DNF

But there was a solve that Splynter (nice write-up, BTW) neglected to link so I will step in and "take one for the team"!! So here is a link to 42 down, although I think she is closer to 34 ... rated PG-13

Happy weekend all

Avg Joe said...

Can't let the answer "Summer of Love" go without posting the appropriate anthem for same:

San Francisco

Bluehen said...

Chairman, thanks for that link. However that one shot from behind (hee hee) makes me uncomfortable. I have spent my entire life trying to keep my underwear out of there.

PK said...

Hi Y'all! Good ol' Gareth came through with a great puzzle again. Hard, but doable. Perped & WAG'd it through. Thanks, Splynter!

Didn't recognize the books in the three clues, but having read all the other Herriot books, I tried him first. Will see if Kindle has this book.

Harking back to my days of 'ute when I glued myself to the radio to hear Sgt. Preston of the RCMP, I thought I knew the capital. Put in YELLOW and stalled when "horse" turned red. I thought it was Yukon Territory so looked that up and found "White Horse" the capital there. Oh phooey, its YELLOW KNIFE for NWT. I'll know it next time.

Used to sing in a trio that sang "I Saw the Light" for a church thing. Wasn't a country western fan then so didn't know it was HANK's song. However, when perps gave me WILLIAMS, who else could it be.

Strange coincidence: I was watching dark storm clouds gather in the south out my window on my left. I was also trying to watch the Preakness and saw the dark clouds boiling up over the stands on the left of the TV screen. Just as the torrential rains began on TV, the heavens let loose outside my window. Spooky! I felt like I was in Maryland at the race. I stayed dry however. Yay, American Pharoah!

Chickie said...

Hola Everyone, My attempt to finish the puzzle on my own was a lost cause. I had too much trouble with the trick clueing and some of the contemporary music clues.

I like to try on Saturdays and once in a while I luck out--not today.

I' haven't been on the blog for most of the week. My hubby and I took a three day trip to Monterey. Some of our very favorite places to visit are in that area of hiway 1 in California. It follows the coast and the scenery is spectacular.

My week and next week, too, had or has an event every single day. That is what happens when you are involved with a University and it is the end of the school year.

As President-elect of our College of Education Alumni Board I had the opportunity to give three outstanding Master's project awards to grads at their annual colloquium. I was so impressed with the projects carried out in their classrooms as well as their enthusiasm, professionalism and energy. We need young teachers of this caliber in our educational system to give our children the education that they deserve.

I'm off my soap box for today, anyway. Have a great evening every one.

fermatprime said...

Greetings!

Thanks, Gareth, Splynter!

It is rare that I finish a Saturday LAT puzzle w/o cheats! So I am very happy!

Had HOOT, DDS first. Have Japanese hair dresser, so DOMO ARIGATO was free. YELLOWKNIFE was perps and a WAG.

YR: I, too, recited the Psalm to get the answer!

JzB: Hope your mom had a swell day!

Cheers!

Anonymous said...

Sorry, I have a nit to pick; endoscopes are seldom, if ever, used by ENTs. They commonly use otoscopes to examine ears, noses and throats, but not endoscopes. Endoscopes are typically used by internists.

Trip said...

CrabCake, has Mr.Z crossed the finish line yet?

Yellowrocks said...

This ENT refers to enterlogist.

Anonymous T said...

endo / otho / heck even exo - a 3-letter doctor w/ a (non-micro) scope is not PhD.

Here's a vowel friendly c/a for our constructors - Capitol of Burundi a: Bujumbura. The NYT reports an attempted coup there last week. I had to check Google maps to find out where that is. If you already knew that, I tip my cap.

Cheers, -T