google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Thursday, June25, 2015 Bruce Venzke and Gail Grabowski

Advertisements

Jun 25, 2015

Thursday, June25, 2015 Bruce Venzke and Gail Grabowski

Theme: Anagrams!

21. Patient care group : MEDICAL TEAM.

32. Political convention announcement : RUNNING MATE.

42. Casing filler : SAUSAGE MEAT.

55. Like much rock ... and like the last words of 21-, 32- and 42-Across? : "META"-MORPHIC.
Cute theme from Bruce and Gail today.  We have the prefix "META," morphing into other words.

Here's my bonus theme entry: PUDDING TAME ("What's your name?" "Pudding Tame. Ask me again, and I'll tell you the same!")

Across

1. The Olympic Australis and others : OPALS. Gimme. I have used this clue in one of my own puzzles!

6. Sound detectors : EARS. Haha.

10. Move lightly : FLIT.

14. Full range : GAMUT.

15. Produce on a farm : GROW. Verb form. Anyone else toy with things like "corn" or "beet" or "bean"?

16. Biked it : RODE.

17. Video game brother : LUIGI. Fraternal twin of Mario.

18. Hold 'em fee : ANTE.

19. "That makes sense" : I SEE.

20. 2002 British Open champion : ELS. Ernie, aka "The Big Easy."

24. Pay : DISBURSE.

26. "Frasier" role : ROZ. Last week I had Niles Crane, this week it's Roz.

27. "Arabian Nights" name : ALI.

28. Duties : TARIFFS.

37. Novelist Tolstoy : LEO.

38. Rep on the street : CRED.

39. Place for a small pet : LAP.

40. Jag, e.g. : AUTO.

41. Had-at link : A GO.

46. Picking up, in a way : SENSING.

48. Quaint preposition : ERE. And a semi-clecho at 61-Across. Quaint "not" : NARY.


49. Dennings of "2 Broke Girls" : KATThis lady.

50. The "it" in "I don't want to talk about it" : SORE SPOT.

59. Wild way to go : APE.

60. "Little Things Mean __": 1954 #1 hit : A LOT.

62. It's usually not more than a foot : TAP IN. I hope Gary is soon back at his favorite game.

64. Lead : CLUE. Did you have one?

65. Slush Puppie maker : ICEE.

66. Part of a meet : EVENT.

67. Enjoys a hero : EATS.

68. Agreeing words : AYES.

69. Takes chances : DARES.


Down

1. Looked like a wolf? : OGLED.

2. Eighth-century pope : PAUL I.  May 29, 757 to June 28, 767.

3. Not quite right : AMISS.

4. Haul : LUG.

5. Reaction causes : STIMULI.

6. "Holy moly!" : EGADS.

7. Golf nickname : ARNIE. Palmer.

8. Coll. drilling group : ROTC. Reserve Officers' Training Corps.

9. Curse : SWEAR AT.

10. Aunt in "Nancy" : FRITZI. Full name: FRITZI Ritz.

11. Come in too late? : LOSE.

12. Start of a solution : IDEA.

13. Abound (with) : TEEM.

22. "Happy Days" actress Moran : ERIN.

23. It's retold often : LORE.

25. Ratt or Poison : BAND. Total WAG.

28. Taberna snack : TAPA.

29. Drawing passage : FLUE. And 31-Down. 29-Down buildup : SOOT.

30. Crumbly salad topper : FETA.

32. Some HDTVs : RCAs.

33. Push for : URGE.

34. Reason for glowing letters : NEON.

35. Water cooler sound : GLUG.

36. Humanities degs. : MAs. Master of Arts.

40. City north of Des Moines : AMES.

42. Rama VII's kingdom : SIAM.

43. "Mary Queen of Scots" biographer Fraser : ANTONIA. I haven't read that one.

44. One of the Spice Girls : GERI.

45. Built : ERECTED.

47. Winter Olympics equipment : SKATES.

50. Self-gratifying outing : SPREE...because "ego trip" didn't fit.

51. "But of course!" : OH YES!

52. Supermarket option : PAPER.

53. Speak one's mind : OPINE.

54. Staked shelters : TENTS.

55. Nutmeg spice : MACE.

56. Scat legend, familiarly : ELLA.

57. Talk up : TOUT.

58. Suggestive : RACY.

63. Co-star of Richard in "The Night of the Iguana" : AVA. Richard Burton and AVA Gardner. I love Allan [sic] Sherman's song about it (to the tune of "Streets of Laredo"):
"They were down there to film The Night of the Iguana 
With a star-studded cast and a technical crew. 
They did things at night midst the flora and fauna
That no self-respecting iguana would do."


Iguana go now...
Marti


37 comments:

Lemonade714 said...

Another classic Bruce and Gail puzzle with a really fun reveal and a marvelous marti write up.
Other than the Pope it was very straight forward with 3 golf references.

Will we have Triple Crown winner and a grand slam golfer in the same year?

Enjoy all and get all better Gary

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

Definitely a Thursday-level effort for me today. Had to guess at FRITZI and ANTONIA, and I thought the overall cluing was ramped up a bit ("Drawing passage" for FLUE really held me up until I got the cross-references SOOT). No complaints whatsoever, though, since it was a fun, fair puzzle and just challenging enough to be interesting.

Good thing I knew KAT, AVA, GERI, ERIN, ELLA and ROZ, though, or things might have gotten ugly. Not to mention ARNIE and PAUL I. Man, that's a lot of names crammed into one little puzzle, isn't it?

Hahtoolah said...

Good Morning, Marti and friends. I thought this was a tad easier than our usual Thursday fare. The theme answers immediately popped into my head on the first pass.

My only errors were to initially try a Leo for the Pope, since a Leo makes such frequent guest appearances in the puzzles, but LEO Tolstoy set me on the path to PAUL I.

I also tested out Risks in lieu of DARES for Takes Chances.

Reason for Glowing Letters = NEON was my favorite clue of the puzzle, although Sound Detectors = EARS was a close second.

QOD: Big Brother is watching you. ~ George Orwell (June 25, 1903 ~ Jan. 21, 1950)

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

NARY a write-over on this one, but thought the bottom was much tougher than the top. I got hung up on SKI___. What, SKITES? D'oh!

I remembered what FRITZI looked like, but it took every single perp to remember her name. I also remembered that 1954 hit song by Kitty Kallen -- it showed up week after week on Your Hit Parade. Remember that show?

Yellowrocks said...

The top 2/3 was a walk in the park and the bottom section was just slightly more of a challenge. Fun write-up,as usual, Marti.
I liked FLUE and SOOT, needing just a little suggestion via perps.
I had the reveal and saw the anagrams for META, but it took me a while to get my attention off ROCK music and into geology. I was thinking,"What kind of music is metamorphic rock?" I even looked it up.
Inre: QOD In our newspaper today there was a picture of a sweet 18 month old girl who was flagged by an airline for being on the do not fly list, although her parents were not on it. Some of the "big brother" decisions at airports are ludicrous. On one trip mostly seniors, me included, were set aside to have our carry-ons pawed through. It seems seniors are the biggest terrorist threats???

Anonymous said...

ICEE is not a Slush Puppie maker; it is an alternative to the Slush Puppie (different brand names for essentially the same thing).

Yellowrocks said...

From Wiki: "ICEE also produces other frozen beverages and Italian ice pops under both the ICEE and Slush Puppie brands." The ICEE company produces both the ICEE brand and the SLUSH PUPPIE brand.

CanadianEh! said...

Just a few roadblocks today. Like Hahtoolah, I wanted Leo and Risks. Like YR, I was thinking of rock music and was trying to fit Metalic . . . Into the grid. It didn't help that the first theme answer had the L! But finally I smiled and said OH YES, I SEE!

Thanks Bruce and Gail, and Marti.

I pmust remember that Olympic Australis OPAL. I was looking for a sport, and Winter Olympics equipment threw me off even further.
No SKATES here now. We have Pan Am games coming with rowing, kayaking, soccer in this area.,

kazie said...

I agree that this was easier than most Thursdays. However, I also had trouble with many of the names, most of which were total unknowns. I haven't seen a Nancy comic since I was about 10 years old and then I remembered it as "Nancy and Sluggo", with no mention of FRITZI.
The theme helped me get METAMORPHIC, since the anagram made that obvious. Metamorphic rocks are formed under great pressure, as opposed to volcanic from lava, or sedimentary rocks from layers of sand or silt deposited in bedding planes under water. See, I do remember some of my two years of high school geology!

kazie said...

I never even knew that ICEE and SLUSH PUPPIE were brand names. I have only seen that kind of thing at our local snack bar near the open air swimming pool and have never stopped to buy anything there. Kids stop to get them there on their way home from the pool in summer. I thought it was just a terminology thing like "bubbler" and "water fountain".

Madame Defarge said...

Good Morning.

Thanks Bruce and Gail for a nice Thursday. I'm with YR on the rock music!! When I don't get something like Ratt or Poison, I just assume it's a band. Sooo, I didn't move away from music for the reveal clue until I thought about it longer. A LOT of throwbacks to my teaching career. I didn't think ICEEs were sold anywhere but schools. I now know Park Dept. sites also. A LOT is always two words, not one--a hard lesson for students. Also, humorously, I didn't hesitate to place "recs" in for NEON's "glowing letters." I wrote hundreds of them for high school seniors. I also liked EARS.

Thanks, Marti, for the write up and the reminder that when my grandkids learned of Pudding Tame, they asked it of me every other minute! So funny!

Have a good day, everyone! Gary, continue to hall walk you way back to good health!!

Spitzboov said...

Good Morning everyone.

Agree with D-O on the bottom; especially the center. Liked the theme after finally sussing METAMORPHIC. Did not know ICEE. Lots of affirmatives in the S with AYES and OH YES.
NARY - Merriam defines it as 'not one', not 'not'. It does not offer the quaint usage. Sigh.
Overall, I agree it seemed a little on the easy side for a Thursday.

Big Easy said...

I had a couple of slowdowns, thinking YES couldn't be in it twice, especially intersecting. AH-YES & A-YES as I didn't know either KAT or ANTONIA and then had a V-8 moment- AYE meaning yes.

I just learned LUIGI last week so the NW fell easily. After MEDICAL TEAM & RUNNING MATE, the theme was easy to guess. GLUG- is that a real word?

I found this a good Thursday challenge with PAUL I (easily guessable ), KAT, ANTONIA being the only unknowns. If only we could have a puzzle with NANCY, FRITZI, SLUGGO, and ROLLO.

Anonymous said...

What program do they use to make puzzle?

Jazzbumpa said...

Hi gang -

Nice puzzle. Bottom middle did me in. Like a few others, was stuck on rock music. Got the anagram and even had META, but couldn't pull it together.

Was stuck on TUG for 4 D, so OPAL eluded me.

Sorry to hear about Gary's travails. Get well soon, Husker!

I have never been this tired. I have never even imagined being this tired. Buried my mom on Tuesday. She had a stroke on June 2, and rapidly went down hill from there. I think her age was a big negative. She and her twin sister turned 94 last month. My aunt is really taking this hard.

Cool regards!
JzB

Irish Miss said...

Hi Everyone:

Finished the puzzle ages ago but then got side-tracked making necessary phone calls. Bruce and Gail never disappoint and today's offering was just right all the way around. Saw the theme word after the second theme answer and the reveal explained it very nicely. Teem seems to be showing up often.

Thanks B and G for a Thursday treat and thanks, Marti, for the jazzy expo.

We have a beautiful summer day: sunny, high 70's/low 80's, low humidity and best of all, no ill winds!

Best wishes to Gary and Joann.

Have a great day.

Lucina said...

Hello, friends!

WEES about this puzzle being easy for a Thursday. Thanks, Gail and Bruce. Clever theme, too.

EARS was cute. Lady ANTONIA Fraser is recognized as a principal biographer of her royal ancestors. She has written several of which Mary, Queen of Scots is only one.

I remember Aunt FRITZI!

JazzB:
It's good to see you back. I hope you can rest now.

Gary:
Keep on walking!

Have a fantastic Thursday, everyone!

CrossEyedDave said...

It takes an igneous person to find a use for metamorphic rock...

coneyro said...

I found the top part quick and easy, but the bottom half got me.

I, too, was in a "rock music" frame of mind. The anagram was evident, had MEGA, but geology never entered my mind.

Don't like ICEE drinks. They give me brain freeze, and a headache.

Video games have come a long way since I played Mario Bros.themed games with my son. They used to be fun and innocent. Now there is so much violence. It's disturbing. Even my son, at thirty eight,
relinquished his controls to the trash. Sometimes advancements aren't a step forward.

Imagine Oprah as a RUNNING MATE forTrump. Gifts???? for everyone?

NARY a thought left to share. I've run the GAMUT of IDEAS.

Coneyro out...

Anonymous T said...

Hi All!

WBS - lots of names today; some stumped me and some (LUIGI & ELLA) saved those corners. Thanks Bruce & Gail. And thanks Marti for the writeup, it was E'ER so swell.

I too was stuck on music @55a and kept wondering what type of rock is METAMORPHIC? ELO maybe?

W/os - cROp b/f GROW, GAMit -> U, and TOoT (my horn) b/f TOUT.

Fav - ALI; that's 3 of 4 days this week and today's isn't the boxer.

OH, YES - TAP IN did make me think of HG. How you feeling?

'till tonight. Cheers, -T

HowardW said...

"what type of rock is METAMORPHIC? ELO maybe?"
Well, ELO did write "Turn to Stone"...

Best wishes for your recovery, Gary. Keep on walking! Hope it does the trick. Far better than surgery.

VirginiaSycamore said...


Sheldon Cooper knows his slushee drinks. This clip from the Big Bang Theory explains.
Keep watching as the topic comes up at the beginning and at 1 minute into video.
Sheldon refuses Slurpee Substitution

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-A just right Thursday with a very clever device.
-SAUSAGE MEAT and its first cousin
-Choosing RUNNING MATES can follow the process above as well
-A very famous TV Meat product
-FLIT? Have you ever run a study hall?
-Many TV shows have a “sadder but wiser girl” like ROZ
-LEO’s original title? (1:25)
-Me too, Marti! Thanks!
-I have found this addicting BBC series on Netflix. Talk about yer CLUE finder
-How great to see Aunt FRITZI again!
-FETA is not our, uh, cuppa cheese
-Do I know fewer Spice Girls or Kardashians? Oh yeah, don’t care!
-Who boasted, “NARY a man can say a word agin me!”

Husker Gary said...

-This is a picture of me at the “Healing Pond” at the hospital on one of my walks today with Joann. Notice I have more tubes in me than a 1953 Philco TV. I feel good but it is taking time to find where the crimp in my colon is. My main doctor is nationally famous and has confidence we are on the right track.

Irish Miss said...

HG - I believe that would be H A double R I, G A N, that's me!

Glad to see your "musings" still going strong. Hope you're able to go home soon.

Boo LuQuette AKA Boudreaux in Eunice, La. said...

I see a lot of people on here are not familiar with ICEE. Just about every store has a ICEE machine with the traditional Coke flavor and another they switch out from time to time. In the 60s and early 70s they had points on the cups that you cut out and saved for goodies, It was almost like saving Green Stamps. Back then the cashier in the store served you an ICEE. Nowadays it's self serve next to soft drink fountains.

Yellowrocks said...

My grandson, now 17, has been an ICEE fan ever since he was little. He also likes Slurpies and Slushies. He can spot vendors a mile away.
I used to enjoy teaching about all the different types of rocks and their formation. I can't believe I misinterpreted META-MORPHIC rock as a type of music. Maybe it was the hyphen.
HG. you certainly are all trussed up. Just think how much that wiring is doing to keep you healthy.
Keep on truckin'. I admire your grit.

Bill G. said...

It's great to see you back musing again. The very best of good luck wishes for this non-surgical approach.

Qli said...

Done in by METAMORPHIC. I thinking of a rock band....metal something. But it was a fun puzzle!

fermatprime said...

Greetings!

Thanks, B and G! Thanks, Marti! Great work all!

Swell theme!

Gary: keep at it! Went through all of your pics.

Am using a Quell for pain. Seems to work rather well!

Cheers!

Anonymous T said...

Howard W - Nice! re: ELO / Turn to Stone. Sweet METAMORPHosis you did there.

HG - My 1st breadboard from long AGO had less wires than you do tubes. Stay strong - I'm still looking forward to a soda at JSC w/ you.

I discovered ICEEs when I moved south. Growing up in the midwest we had Slurpies & Slush Puppies... I liked the frozen Coke ICEE the best and I recall them at every Circle-K and 7-11.

Re: ROTC - As a junior & senior in HS I was in ROTC. That got me one stripe in basic while the others were slick-sleaved. I was made platoon leader the 1st day and an example of the 3rd day after one of my "men" (we were mostly 18yro kids - I was 17) didn't fall-in correctly. We had 4 "leaders" in the first 8 days...

Ya' know? I'm SENSING this puzzle does not TEEM with IDEAs for a RACY links SPREE... CED - Got a CLUE / any STIMULI? OH, YES - don't goOGLE SIAMese twin (er, conjoined) girls... :-) *

Cheers, -T
*Just kidding - there's a nice article at The Daily Mail about Abigail and Brittany.

Blue Iris said...

The rock clue reminded me of the beautiful geode I just bought on ESPY for a fan pull.

Anon T, My daughter was Abigail and Brittany's tutor at Bethel University. She said they were very nice girls.

Nice Thursday puzzle. Thank you, Steve. I didn't get the theme til coming here.

Gary, your color looks good. With the tubes and NASA shirt you could pass for a space experiment. Maybe not!

Jazzb, Were your mom and her sister identical twins? I can't imagine my fraternal twins losing the other one. Hope you can lean on each other.

Blue Iris said...

Cherry-Coke ICEE's are delicious but contain my daily allowance of calories.

Anonymous T said...

Blue Iris - Wow! I recall seeing the twins once way back when DW was watching Oprah but that you daughter was their tutor?... Small world this Internet creates... Cheers, -T // 3rd post a charm?

Anonymous T said...

HG - since no one WAG'd "NARY a man..." Yosemite Sam? The rootin' est tooten'd est... C, -T

Argyle said...

AnonT, you must have missed our Irish Miss response. " H A double R I, G A N" George M. Cohan wrote it as "Never" and Irish patois uses "Divil or Divvil". I wouldn't be surprised that some versions used "Nary" though.

Argyle said...

I think Wiki led me astray. In ALL the recordings I've listened to, "Divil" is the word that's used. Example